That which has been learned is not easily forgotten

The next step after switching over to Hashnode was to fix the links on the old portfolio / blog site. Thinking about what that would require me to do gave me that feeling of, "I don't want to have to deal with all of that. Maybe I can just not do it at all..."

But after sorting out the issues with the custom domain to use here with the Hashnode blog, I figured it would be foolish not to clear out the old links (By the way, the ability to stick a custom domain on a blog here is one of the main reasons that I ended up chosing Hashnode over Dev.to).

This all connects back to the title simply because I was able to make all of the necessary changes to the code in my repository without having to Google everything or ask AI.

It felt good to understand my files and the Flask templates and know what needed to be adjusted, and even though I had not ever created a subdomain before, I was able to log into to my hosting provider, create the subdomain, and then add a CNAME record for hashnode.network without any major issues.

The hardest part of all that ended up being the wait for my SSL certificate. At first it seemed there was some sort of conflict between the certificate provided by Hashnode and the one I had set up for my domain, but in the end all that was needed was time.

It was also a good feeling to be opening up NeoVim again after a month long hiatus and get back to navigating through my files and committing changes to git.

My favorite part of all that was that I did not have to constantly Google and ask AI how to do all of the things that I wanted to do. That said, there is a remaining issue of dealing with my backups of old posts on the old blog, and digging through the SQLite database. For that, I am going to need to do some searching and learning.

That is something I am looking forward to, however, especially because every time I go up the stairs in my house I see this book on my bookshelf: Practical SQL, by Anthony DeBarros.

I am aware that I don't have the knowledge and skills to just rip through the SQL and grab the old posts that I want, but my hope is that I can learn and then remember. I would like to be able to get to a point where SQL is not a fuzzy language that I am only sort of familiar, and where I don't have to rely on help from AI to be successful with it.

And that's my goal overall.

Yes, I know that AI can help me and I can definitely be utilizing it in many ways, but the funnest part of all this messing about with computers that I do, is that I get to use my brain. I like the challenge and I like that it makes me think.

I do have a day job that helps pay the bills, and I'm not trying to rush a product out the door, so for me, the slow burn of learning and soaking up as much as I can is generally what I'll be after as I continue to move forward.

Without a doubt there will be AI involved, but part of my hope is that by taking time to frequently reflect and write about what I have done or learned as I move forward, I will be able to gain a more complete understanding of topics and concepts, and then when I loop around to work on similar issues in the future, I'll be better suited to handle them.

At times I will read books or documentation to learn, and at other times I'll employ the help of AI. I'll also use the trusted old "Google it for answers" approach.

Overall though, I'll read, learn, reflect, record, and put to use as much as I can, and bit by bit I will continue inching my way forward toward more Cybersecurity expertise.

As a final closing note, I can't help but feel good about my two green pips on Github for yesterday and today. Yesterday I earned the commits by adjusting the URLs for my blog to point them here, and today I earned the pip by creating a bug report for Project HARDN.

I will for sure share more about Project HARDN in the future, but today is all about enjoying the small wins of having done some learning in the past that helped me make some quick updates, as well as a thorough bug report. It feels good to be familiar with things so that progress in the present can go smooth and steady.

Have you done anything recently that you felt good about, particularly in the sense that you just knew exactly what to do and how to make a fix or edit, and didn't have to search the web or ask AI?