## The Ridge Podcast

I would like to announce [The Ridge Podcast](https://theridgepodcast.com "The Ridge Podcast"). As many of you may know, I own and co-host a podcast where my co-host, Jeffrey Luke Watson, and I interview local people and ask them questions. We have interviewed veterans, business owners, elected officials, candidates, teachers, and others. We started it as a way to get to know prominent figures in our community, and as a way to learn more about different professions.

At the time of writing this, we have recorded 15 episodes and published 13 of them. We have released one episode per week since starting, and we have no plans of slowing down. Over the summer it may be difficult for us to continue releasing episodes at this rate but we will do our best to hold ourselves to this standard.

Below I will explain the different aspects of the podcast.

## Technical/Content Creation Aspects

I handle all technical/content creation aspects of the podcast, including but not limited to: recording, editing, hosting, writing, publishing, advertising, and scheduling. I have learned many valuable lessons as I work on the podcast.

### Web Hosting

I have provisioned Wordpress on top of Docker Swarm to handle all of our Web Hosting needs. At the time of writing, it performs well enough for our needs. Our network connection is the biggest limiter, however, as I am unable to afford expensive hosting solutions with lots of bandwidth. I elected to use Seriously Simple Podcasting to handle all of the backend podcasting settings for Wordpress.

### Microphones

I place RØDE Wireless Microphones on me and Luke. The guest gets their own dedicated studio microphone on an arm.

### Editing

I use Audacity, which is FLOSS and aligns with my ethics. I find Audacity to work very well and I enjoy using it.

### Social Media

I primarily utilize Instagram for social media advertising. I upload photos and videos, usually audiograms, to Instagram to try to give listeners a sneak-peak into the latest episode and encourage them to listen to it.

### Networking/Scheduling

Email. I use email. Also sometimes text messaging. I have found email to work best with others. Email. There are worse things.

## Our Audience

I am not going to share any hard numbers, because I do not fully believe our Spotify and Apple Podcast metrics, but our audience is pretty evenly split between adults in their early 30s to late 50s and teenagers around 15-18 years old. I think this is accurate enough. It takes into account all of the listeners from school and all of the adult listeners that we have gained around the community.

## Take a look!

That is basically it for this blog post. I would like to post here more often, especially as I would like to resume doing reviews/technical writing, but only time will tell if that will actually happen. Feel free to take a listen to the podcast and send us feedback! Thanks.


The Ridge Podcast

## Cubing

I used to [Cube](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cubing) literally all the time. I had one everywhere I went, and I even had the privilege of competing in CubingUSA Nationals. But when COVID-19 hit and all the competitions were canceled, I mostly stopped practicing, and my cubes retreated to my desk drawer.

But recently, my interest in cubing has returned. On the day of my PSAT test, I brought a megaminx with me to the testing location, as a way to calm my nerves before the test. This is similar to what I did when I played basketball. I always brought a few cubes to tournaments with me and I would fidget with them in between games, once again, as a way to keep my nerves at bay.

Ever since then, and much to my teachers' dismay, I have been bringing a cube to school. The cube gives me an outlet for frequent boredom, distracts me enough to keep any stress or anxiety from negatively impacting me too much, and is a GREAT conversation starter. The cube has started more conversations than anything else I can do or wear at school, there is something about a popular little puzzle that captures the attention of many. I usually do not talk in some of my classes, but the cube has allowed me connect with and talk to other people that I normally would not have had the chance to.

This is all great, until you break a cube. I was walking down the hall with my favorite cube, a 4x4, and I dropped it, and one of it's corner pieces exploded into pieces. I was absolutely heart-broken. Thankfully, no pieces were stepped on, and no magnets were lost, but the plastic is discolored and it bulges out. The cube also remains completely functional, but has an ugly scar. I am still very sad about this scar.

This really discourages me from bringing another cube to school. But I also realize how beneficial bringing them has been for me and my well-being. I will continue bringing them for the next few weeks and see how things go, but I worry the anxiety of me dropping another cube and it exploding, or the anxiety of the cube getting crushed in my bag is a grandiose deterrent.

## Spanish

I am bilingual! I am fluent in English and Spanish, English being my Native Language (NL) and Spanish being my Second Language (L2). It is also important to note that being fluent does not mean I speak perfect Spanish or that it does not need improvement. I do not have the comprehension or fluidity that most native-speakers, and some second-language speakers have.

At the beginning of the year, one of my main goals was to improve my Spanish to the level of a native-speaker, obviously a naive goal. Nevertheless, it was one that I was striving for, and I believe it is important to set high goals, because even if you do not hit them, you'll probably hit something. I think Norman Vincent Peale brilliantly encapsulates this idea in a simple saying: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.". I digress.

In this pursuit of fluency and ability akin to that of a native speaker, I got burnt out. That is okay. Burning out has happened to me a LOT, in a LOT of my hobbies. And if we're being honest, it has happened to me in every hobby, sport, and endeavor that I've embarked on. I was convinced for the longest time that getting burnt out was not okay, and it showed weakness on my part. I still fight this feeling whenever I think about my old hobbies or something I did not achieve. When I went to Nationals for Cubing I did not do as well as I wanted, and I felt immense guilt about it. That guilt drove me to stop Cubing.

A lot can be said about that. You certainly do not have to be a psychologist or therapist to realize that this repeated behavior was unhealthy. I am now realizing that. Slowly, but surely. Realizing failure and not achieving every goal you set is not a bad thing, but room and opportunity for growth.

Anyways, as I was improving my Spanish, my results started to become stagnant, and I was getting bored. I lost most of my motivation. I stopped reading books and watching shows. I really stopped interacting with the language, and began to resent it somewhat. Which is silly.

But recently, I have been able to use my Spanish to help another person, I'm not doing anything extraordinary, I'm simply talking to them in Spanish. I'm being purposefully vague, out of respect for this persons privacy and my own. Regardless, it has made me feel really good. And has inspired me to get back into the swing of things when it comes to improving my Spanish.

## Running

I have a bad habit. I take hobbies I enjoy, push them to their extreme, and then start to hate them. Running has been the single most repeatedly resented hobby of mine. Partly due to the Cross Country and Track seasons. I like to think that I am naturally decent at running, and it is something that I enjoy and that I can enjoy running just for the sake of running, not having any external goals. But when I am in the middle of a sports season, running becomes my world, and everything about my life will revolve around it. This year, I have had a few difficulties with my season, and it has really upset me and negatively impacted many parts of my life. I have been faced with a few situations that I have never encountered before, and it has been the single biggest source of my anxiety this year. And although I do not have a magical solution to this problem, I am starting to see the pattern, and hopefully I can rekindle my love for running after all this is over.

## So what?

These 3 hobbies have been some of the most influential in my life, and they have all taught me many valuable lessons and guided me as a person more than I ever would have imagined when I started them. But somehow, at some point, I stopped loving them, I began to resent them, I began to feel guilt and remorse for what I did or did not do. I think I am learning to let it go. I was really hesitant to post this, worried about what if a classmate or future employer sees this. But through writing this and through a lot of self reflection. I think I may be starting to realize that it is okay, just to be okay. Not to be the best or perfect at something, just to enjoy doing something for the sake of doing it. Which is honestly something I struggle to understand. I do not often do things that do not have tangible, feasible results or benefits. But perhaps there is a certain beauty in doing things that have no purpose or benefits or results, just to do them.

\- Ethan Carter Edwards


Getting back into hobbies by facing the facts.

Failure, guilt, and lessons learned along the way.

## Hello World! How does this site work?

This is my blog, which features some pretty cool stuff. For example, code highlighting, quote changers, and an about page.

Code highlighting!
<SyntaxHighlighter language="javascript">
{`
const doStuff = () => {
	return console.log('hey');
}
`}
</SyntaxHighlighter>

It is built on NextJS, React, and Express (although not much express is used.). I also use some pretty cool smaller libraries for various different functionalities.

Blog posts are written in MDX.

Additionally, the cool quote changer on the main page is powered by an [API](https://github.com/ethancedwards8/ethancedwards-quotes/) that I wrote! Powered by Python and Flask.

Although at the time of writing, the site may not be the prettiest, I am confident that it will look good in enough time.

You can view the site source code on [GitHub](https://github.com/ethancedwards8/ethancedwards.com), feel free to submit pull requests if you see anything you can improve on!

## A bit about me

Right now, I am a full time student, working concurrently on both my high school and college degrees. Despite being a student, I do work as consulting and engineering for various small businesses around me. I also write for [StorageReview](https://storagereview.com) occasionally. I have been using Linux full time since 7th grade, and my current distro of choice is [Arch Linux](https://archlinux.org) with LVM on LUKS. My daily driver is a FrameWork laptop, and I have a desktop computer with a Ryzen 2600X alongside 16G of RAM. These machines however are dwarfed in power by my homelab, which consists of a cluster of Raspberry Pis ;). My homelab is currently hosting my site, but it may move locations in the future, but that's for another post.

I also have hobbies outside of tech. I am a cuber, reader, language learner, and mathematics lover. I am teaching myself Spanish through [Refold](https://refold.la), of which I am a huge proponent. This topic also deserves its own post. I plan on writing here a lot, although, everyone says that.

I am also super excited to talk about the books I am reading. I mostly read fiction, primarily Sci-Fi and Fantasy. But I also read lots of non-fiction, ranging from the history of an obscure religion to how electronics work. I love learning and I will read anything that you put in front of me.

## Bye!

This is the end of my first blog post, I hope you enjoyed reading it.


"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so so far as society is free to use the results."

- Richard Stallman

Recent Blog Posts:

The Ridge Podcast

Failure, guilt, and lessons learned along the way.

First Post