So here's what I'm trying to do, in general:

• Learn enough about web development to make sense of the stack, the frameworks available, which technology would best suit a project, etc.
• Understand the new workflow of web development -- coding, testing, source control with git, etc. that's so drastically different that what I was used to back when I was a nerdy teenager
• Learn a new programming language, since it's been forever since I've done that. Well, actually I might learn a couple: JavaScript and something else (right now, I'm thinking Ruby)
• Be able to whip together a prototype of a new feature or enhancement for testing and feedback in my day job
• Have enough programming know-how to attend a local language user group (like pghrb) and follow the discussion
• Be able to hold my own in case asked me to solve a coding question on a whiteboard

A few specific examples:

• I want to rebuild the memorial site I've built for my mother in something new, with OAuth for the comments to keep the spambots away
• I've benefited a ton from open source software. I'd like to try to give back somehow, and my first plan for doing that is to modernize and rebuild a WordPress theme I've developed in the past and release it to the growing Ghost community
• I'd like to sketch out a new personal homepage and build it with the front-end development skills I'd presumably acquire through those efforts
• I'd like to dust off that Arduino kit I bought and do something with it that's a little more impressive than blinking LEDs (though that was plenty impressive to me).

And for this site?

It's an excuse to play around with GitHub and Jekyll. And, as I foray back into programming I might use this space to reminisce and share my coding experiences of old. They're not going to impress anyone, but I had some good times.