For the past two months, I have been reevaluating myself and how I present myself, personally and professionally. My websites, blogs, and social media needed a little house cleaning.

One thing I realized was my personal site at amberhewitt.com was a mess. Oh, it looks fine, but it was duplicating my business site (graphicgoo.com). Why do twice the work? I only need one place for my portfolio. And my blog… my poor, neglected personal blog.

I started this blog back in 2010 on Posterous (R.I.P.). It was a fun way to share photos and thoughts quickly, even though I only had a meager following. I mirrored the content on my Squarespace site (amberhewitt.com) as well. In 2011, I moved amberhewitt.com to a self-hosted WordPress blog.

The writing was on the wall when it was announced that Posterous was acquired by Twitter. I exported my data with a sad heart, but thought, “Hey, I’ll just keep blogging on my personal site!”

Well… that’s where social media took over.

Why have a personal blog when no one reads it. Go to where the people are! I stopped blogging and started sharing.

For the last couple of years, I’ve Twittered, Facebooked, and Instagrammed to my friends and followers. I even Google Plussed for a while.

Someone made an analogy that describes social networks very well. Facebook is your neighborhood, Twitter is your local bar, and your blog is your home. (I guess Instagram is the cafe? “Look what I’m eating!”)

This made me realized I’m neglecting my home. My posts and photos are spread out on different networks and there is no centralized hub. I need one place people can go to and find everything related to me.

Having a blog at amberhewitt.com doesn’t make sense anymore. It should be a separate thing all by itself. I want a place to post about anything, whether it’s food, politics, or movies. I don’t want to confuse readers expecting to read about web design on my personal site. If I blog about web design, it will be on my business blog.

Another reason for the change is that I’ve been inspired by the recent trend of short-form blogging. Gina Trapini and Andy Baio are two examples of the revival of the personal blog. I want to write what I feel like and not be constrained by 140 characters (Twitter) nor a 5-page essay (Medium).

So, welcome to the new home of my old personal blog – Wasabi Lips. Why that name? Well… that’s a post for another day.