I migrated my website from Google to Hugo on Cloudflare.

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From:

• Google Sites (WYSIWYG website creation) - Basic info
• Google Blogger (WYSIWYG blog publishing) - Blog
• Google Docs - Drafting blog posts
• Google Domains - Registrar + DNS

To:

• Hugo, a static site generator
  • Able to combine the site and blog together with Hugo’s flexibility
  • Using the Poison theme for Hugo
  • Used https://pypi.org/project/blogger-to-hugo/ and https://github.com/palaniraja/blog2md to migrate the content from Blogger to Hugo
• vim and git
  • Used locally to draft content
• Cloudflare free tier
  • Using DNS, Registrar, Pages, Redirects
  • Using Pages Wrangler to upload hugo-generated content to Cloudflare from Terminal

This is one more step towards reducing my reliance on Google. Earlier steps include

• Email to Proton
• Calendar to Proton
• Browser to DuckDuckGo (Phone & Mac)
• Chromebook to MacBook Air
• Some of Docs/Keep to Logseq and Remarkable

I have a long-term dream to get off of Google because a) of their management of AI Ethics, including Timnit and Meg, bothered me and b) I want them to have less of my information.

Anywho, the site is moved and I’m pleased with the new setup. And, I’d love to chat with people on reducing usage of “big tech” and Digital Public Infrastructure, so feel free to reach out.

Appendix

Life isn’t so cut and dry as a blog post. How did I make decisions to get here? What open questions and tradeoffs are on my mind?

• I have a long way to go since I’m using a Google Phone on Google Fi storing GBs in Google Photos with a Nest in the house and Google Maps on my phone and in my Tesla, and of course Mar and I use Google Drive/Sheets/Docs, etc :) But, some steps are worth the effort!
• It’s definitely not all sunshine and butterflies moving away from the Google products - I am sacrificing years and years of features & tight in-suite integrations. And, sometimes there are just plain show-stoppers, like when Proton Calendar’s export feature wouldn’t update recurring calendar events and we couldn’t trust my calendar when viewing it from Mar’s Google Calendar. Though, so far, the main additional cost with the Hugo & Cloudflare setup is that it’s a bit more technical.
• Am I moving away from other “big tech” like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple? Some yes, some no. I’ve stopped paying for Audible, and prefer library rentals or buying books directly from the author or publisher or local book store. But, some library e-books are delivered to my Kindle :) I still buy a lot from Amazon – ooooh the convenience! And I am still using Goodreads. I still have a LinkedIn account, though I’ve thought about deleting it. Etc.
• Do I judge people who use or work at/with “big tech”? Nope - I am me. You are you.
• Even if I can stop using “big tech” directly, it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to stop indirectly. For example, Remarkable’s storage system is on a public cloud. Or for example, an open source tool that I utilize is developed in part using “big tech”. Will I not go to a friends house that has a Ring doorbell or a Nest? LOL not something I’m worrying about right now. Which “big tech” uses or non-uses are worth the cost? I’m taking that one step at a time.
• Why not Medium or Substack or Ghost? They use Google or Amazon :)
• Why Cloudflare? While I wish it happened earlier, I was glad when they finally blocked a dangerous site from their platform, even though it was an uncomfortable precedent for them. I’m ok with Cloudflare using my website or DNS query data for their innovation, given their track record.
• Albert Wegner talks about Getting Over Privacy in his book The World After Capital where he highlights a tradeoff between innovation and privacy. Should I abandon caring about how “big tech” handle information in favor of their innovation? I can’t. Though, I’d love to talk more about this with more people!
• Isn’t a public blog kinda the opposite of privacy? For sure! But, the content that gets published on the blog or website is intentionally published; whereas I don’t want to share all of my email, calendar, photos, etc.
• Oh shit, I just realized I can use my scrollpad to change lines in vim really quickly on my MacBook Air. Isn’t technology great?

This extra section may appear in future blog posts. My life, my writing, and my interpretation of reality is influenced by my environment. So, here is some of what was happening recently that might be influencing this writing.

• I left Indeed to spend more time with family, friends, and outside
• I’ve climbed a lot
• My 5-year old was home for the summer from daycare before kindergarten
• Even though I stopped working, I still found myself wanting to improve and change things around me (bed times, meal times) - at times, a little too much too quickly for the family (me included)
• I started soccer again! And got a foot injury :(
• I am reading or finished recently
  • Self-Coached Climber - climbing science, skills & training
  • Make or Break by Dave MacLeod - climbing injuries
  • The last 2 books of Will Wight’s 12-book Cradle Series - fantasy
  • Rest is Resistance - grind culture, “Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.”
  • Goodinside.com - parenting community