I spent time this weekend migrating my 2011 blog posts from the old site design to the new static design. Despite it being monotonous work it was a fun stroll down memory lane. I wrote about a bunch of different topics that year and after the break, I discuss a few of the posts that were particularly interesting and impactful.

Most popular blog posts

Two of my most read blog posts ever come from 2011. I wrote two “super guides” which discussed how to install and configure the ColdFusion application server on Ubuntu and CentOS Linux. As I often do, I wrote those blog posts explaining everything you needed to do to get up and running with ColdFusion on Linux. From the basic installation process to tweaking JVM memory settings, to securing things server-side. I’ve been fairly successful with this approach and those two posts are shining examples. All told, they amassed just over 400,000 views.

Mountain biking

Mountain biking (often abbreviated MTB) is an activity I’ve enjoyed for years. I got fairly serious about it in 2010 and in 2011 I started looking for a full-suspension bike. I blogged about my experience riding the latest models from Trek as well as trying out a new pair of MTB specific shoes. I wound up purchasing the Trek Superfly 100 AL bike and surprisingly I’m still riding it to this day. I do have the itch to try an eMTB bike and will likely pursue that seriously later this year. Those Five Ten shoes from 2011? They lasted a long time and finally died in 2019. They worked so well for me I replaced them with the 2019 version.

Photography

Photography is something I’ve enjoyed for as long as I can remember. I started with film SLR cameras and even took a black and white photography class in college. I know it’s antiquated today, but it was a tremendous amount of fun taking pictures (full manual mode), developing the film in the darkroom, and printing in the darkroom. Nowadays, I use my smartphone exclusively. In 2011 I had some fun commemorating the last shuttle mission with LEGO and even attended the Nashville LEGO competition with my family. LEGO is still a huge part of my life. My 10 year old can often be found adding onto his massive LEGO city and my oldest son and I are building a just-released Porsche 911. I’ll post some photos when we finish; he’s a teenager so it’s tough to get his time.