(this video contains strong language and questionable themes. Regrettably or unregretfully, the video is also a large part of my teenage zeitgeist. Further regrettably or unregretfully, it inspired the name of this site)
If I’m being completely honest I set up this site to explore the WordPress REST API, which looks promising for all sorts of reasons. You can find any developments at https://new.urawizard.com
However, emergent behaviours can surface with this type of project.
For a variety of long and tedious reasons, I’ve realised that writing software is one of the few things that:
a) Calms me down
b) Keeps me out of trouble
c) Allows me to be at least modestly useful
Therefore, this site acts primarily as a log of interesting things that have happened in projects I’ve worked on, both active and closed out. I’m finding that some people want to know the story of a project and instead of only telling it, I can both tell it and point them here.
Its secondary purpose is to satisfy a yearning to attempt to understand philosophy, both in and out of software development. By way of a disclaimer, it’s entirely likely that any thoughts here will not be entirely my own. They certainly can’t be original. This is as it should be.Why is it called urawizard.com? It was a funny domain and it came with hosting that costs £1.20 a month from 1&1 Ionos.
This blog was originally found at urawizard.com and, as stated above, was priced very close to the ‘no brainer’ end of the VPS / email / domain scale. That was in 2018 and now, in 2025, it’s time for a change. For similar pricing reasons, we’re still on Ionos.
Now you know where this is hosted, come at me, haxxors.
So, the question begs, why is it called ‘dryark.uk’? There are already a few posts on here that talk around Dry Ark. These were written at a strange time in my life where Dry Ark seemed like the most important thing in the universe. Thankfully, this strength of feeling has waned. All the same though, I think the Dry Ark image is a powerful one: a fully prepared vessel ready to shoulder the storm. It is at once a laboratory, testing out ideas for a flood that might never flow and simultaneously a lifetime if that ‘might never’ turns into ‘will’. Schopenhauer, eat your heart out.