---
date: "2020-02-01T00:00:00-08:00"
tags:
- blog
title: Hello, world! - 2020 Edition
---

Welcome!  I am iiogama and this is my slice of the internet, a digital home where I can play, explore, and express myself with almost complete control.  I'll explain the "almost" part shortly, let's start with more of the myself part of "About Me".  I have an academic interest in sociology, an active interest in various outdoor activities, and a growing spiritual interest in eastern philosophies, while being passionate about computing technology and audible art.  My intent for this blog is to document and share what I have learned regarding these interests and passions, while also encouraging me to write more.

As an introduction to my technical background, I'll explain the server that is running this website and my current (as of 2020.02.01) setup for managing the server and updating this blog.  The current setup is entirely subject to change, due to my tinkering/exploring ways (honestly, I have techno-FOMO).  This site is hosted on a VPS provided by Vultr, which I recently switched from Linode, which was switched from Digital Ocean (hence the previously mentioned techno-FOMO).  As much as I would like to have my own server in my home with complete control and reducing my reliance on external services, I do not have the resources to acquire that hardware.  I selected Vultr because they offer OpenBSD as an OS option and I have recently been exploring what OpenBSD offers over Linux, which is what I primarily have ran on my personal computers and servers.  I have used almost every major distro, starting with Ubuntu 7.04 and moving to CrunchBang, Debian, Arch, Manjaro, Debian, Fedora, and again, back to Debian.  I've played a bit with Solus, Parabola, Deepin, and quite possibly many others that I cannot remember at this time.  I have extensively used OS X/MacOS and Windows for personal and professional use-cases, but have always preferred the FOSS OS options.  Details on the why and how to my OpenBSD switch will come in a future blog post.

My current setup for writing is an iPad Pro running iSH, Blink.sh, and iVim, which is still being tuned.  The iPad Pro absolutely sounds antithetical to my previously stated preference to FOSS OS options, but it came at a time where my old laptop friend broke, both physically and digitally.  The case around the screen hinge broke around the same time that I lost almost all of my data on a Debian install.  I was down a personal computer and decided that I needed something that my digital tinkering couldn't break.  The iPad offers an interesting environment with obstacles to overcome for writing and music creation.  One day, I hope to get a Macbook Pro to install OpenBSD on, but until that day, I will be using an iPad Pro.

Moving past my technical background and into my creative side, I enjoy DJing and producing electronic music.  At the time of writing, I have been DJing as a hobbyist for about 10 years and broadcasting a live mix show on anonradio.net for one year.  I enjoy DJing a wide range of electronic styles, from deep house to drum &amp; bass; hardcore to psydub; trance to chillhop, though my anonradio show focuses on deeper sounds of house and techno.  I started with a Numark Total Control midi controller and Traktor Pro and ventured into controllerism by midi-mapping a Novation Launchpad to controlling Traktor Pro, and then moved to CDJs and ended up using DVS with Traktor Pro 3.  A recent update to Mac OS Catalina has broken my ability to connect my Allen &amp; Heath Xone:DB2 to the Macbook (I know, I know, I never mentioned the Macbook in the technical background paragraph, we can get to that later), so I've been using the iPad Pro to DJ, while broadcasting with my phone.  It's not an ideal DJ setup, but totally works for now.

As previously stated, I also like to produce electronic music, though I don't spend as much time on that as I do computing and DJing.  I have played with Ableton Live, but currently use two Novation Circuits as drum machines and controllers for various synth apps on the iPad Pro.  It's an incredibly fun live production setup that allows me to play and discover my own "sound".   I plan to start taking some ideas I've come up with and start releasing songs with this setup.

In conclusion, another welcome to my site.  As you can see in this rambly post, there is quite a bit that makes up "me" that I am willing and wanting to share.  I keep the homepage updated more than this blog with all of the ways that you can interact with me online.  If you have any comments about this or future posts, reach out to me with those methods :)
