Julio María Meca Hansen
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Update #1: english version, new entries, and more ;)

Comments, ideas, projects... ¡a bit of everything!

It's been two weeks since I launched juliomeca.es, and I have to admit I'm still a bit nervous. Between the excitement, double-checking everything before launching, releasing the website while you frantically pound the keyboard with one hand and cross your fingers with the other, realizing (of course, after the launch...) that there were a few defects and errors that, maybe (with a little luck), you didn't notice, it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks for me.

Defects?

A few, what can I say at this point :P

The first one is that, because I had placed the cache files in the same directory structure as the templates, the main page and the index of any category were reading the cached version of the template, and that's why the dark-light mode wasn't working properly. What I did to fix it was move all the cache files to their own folder, and that solved the problem.

The second one is that if the power goes out, the server doesn't reconnect to Cloudflare, and that's because my Internet connection renews the IP address as soon as the router restarts. To fix this, I had to get creative and write a little Python script that gets my public IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6) and updates my DNS records on Cloudflare. And it does this every sixty seconds. If it detects any changes it updates the records; otherwise, it doesn't. With that, even if the power goes out, at least I know the server will be back up by itself without me having to rush home and change anything manually. Problems? Solutions ;)

The third (and last) is that the website wasn't very responsive. I mean, it doesn't fully adapt to different devices and resolutions. The website is built using Bootstrap, but the breakpoints (i.e., the definition of different screen resolutions in which Bootstrap shows a different layout) were designed only for the mobile version and the desktop version. I've expanded the definitions, and while it's possible that some specific devices might still see menu links a bit smaller than they should be, now the experience should (hopefully) be much better for everyone :)

Errors?

I made two or three pretty big mistakes (although I hope they haven't had too much impact, considering the site's short lifespan).

The first one is that the link to my GoFundMe campaign was wrong. I had the link to an earlier draft of the campaign that I had deleted, so... you were being directed to a campaign that didn't exist.

And to top it off, the second one... dominated by nerves and haste, the link to my campaign on Facebook and X was showing the main GoFundMe page, not my campaign. They say haste makes waste... and I can attest that it's absolutely true, having felt it firsthand.

Do you know what happened? Everything I launched depended on other things. The campaign has a YouTube video linked. This one, to be precise :)

This video contains links to my website and to the GoFundMe campaign, and my website, in turn, contains links to the campaign and the video. Basically, each element depends on the others... which can be a huge mess.

How do you solve it? Actually, it's easy... if you don't do it like I did. The first step is to publish the video on YouTube (which I did), the second step is to publish the crowdfunding campaign (which I also did), then update the YouTube video description and change the campaign link to point to the correct one (which I did not do at first but did later), and finally, publish the website with the correct links (which I also did), and with that... you can finally go to social media to post the correct links.

And since I'm me... well, you can guess what happened. I had to make public corrections on both Facebook and X. I don't think my video or campaign got any real reach or impact (let's not kid ourselves...), so I shouldn't be too worried, but honestly, I've felt like an idiot thinking about it all. Anyway... lesson (for now) learned :)

The blunder of the week

I just realized that, as I'm writing these lines, my website has just made today's entries visible. This is correct, except that one of the entries (related to archery) shouldn't be up today but should be in the next two weeks. I probably updated the website content on the server and carried those changes over.

The issue is that the content isn't ready yet. In it, I want to show you a design I'm particularly proud of: parametric nocks for your arrows. And apart from the lack of a demo video, I've left a template video from the illustrious Gervids Valerian Ivanovich, Associate Professor at the prestigious Moscow Institute of Physics Engineering, whose videos help me practice my (currently very basic) Russian skills :P

This wouldn't have happened if, instead of working directly on the main branch in GitHub, I had worked on a secondary branch and then merged it into main before publishing. A small mistake, but... a mistake nonetheless. I'll have it fixed for the next release. жених :P

Alright, alright... I didn't bring you here to self-flagellate. Let's talk about everything I've brought you :)

Eh... What's up, doc Julio?

Using the Bugs Bunny catchphrase, I'll tell you that one of the goals I had was to offer juliomeca.es in English to bring its content and my campaign to more people in different countries. And, as the French say, Et voilà. Now you can read the content I offer both in Spanish and English. So... mission accomplished!

On the other hand, I'm bringing you some new entries. My intention is to post new entries (and therefore, publish) every two weeks, though it's complicated because, on one hand, there are the website entries, but I also want to start posting consistently on YouTube, and from February 1st (which is tomorrow), I'll be doubling my efforts with my aviation studies and other things I have in the pipeline, so I'll need to organize myself differently. In any case, I'll keep you informed :)

Ideas and a few projects

There are so many things I have in the works (and believe me, it's overflowing) that I'd like to bring to life in some way, and for this, I'd like your help. For upcoming entries, I have a lot of options:

Apart from that, I'd like (as I mentioned in my second entry) to share with you my journey to become (if all goes well) an airline pilot, and even though there are many things I need to consult (some conceptually, others legally), I'd like to create a series of entries to teach you everything I learn along the way and share other ideas I want to bring to the aviation world in general, which I hope will also be useful to you.

So... I'd like for you to drop me a line and let me know what you'd like to see first or what excites you the most, and I'll try to focus on what most people decide within a reasonable time frame (for example, one of the biweekly entries could cover that topic), and in this way, the experience of juliomeca.es will not just be mine, but... also yours :)

And that's all for now. See you in the next release!

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