9bladed.com

What It Is

9bladed.com is the website for Aesthetics of the Absurd, the personal site of John Kehayias. According to the site, the author was formerly a postdoctoral researcher in theoretical physics and is currently a Critical Writing lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, while also working as a freelance writer, photographer, and data science consultant. The site mainly hosts blog posts, essays, photo essays, a personal profile, and links to external work. It is closer to a personal media site/portfolio than a commercial SaaS product or news portal.

Core Features

The site is organized into sections such as Blog, Essays, Photo Essays, and About. The homepage highlights recent articles, including pieces on creation and consumption, leaving academia, free photography software, and a photo essay on Paris. The About page provides the author’s bio, contact information, recent publications, Newsletter, Podcast, Flickr, Instagram, GitHub, CV, and Resume links. Technically, it is built with the Hugo static site generator using the Newsroom theme, supports dark mode, and uses Disqus for comments.

Pricing

There is no paywall, membership plan, course, product, or service package mentioned in the site’s main content, so the publicly available content appears to be free to access. The author notes that he is available for hire as a freelance writer, photographer, and data science consultant, but no rates or collaboration process are disclosed, so it should not be considered a standardized paid product.

Pros and Cons

The strengths are that the author’s identity is transparent, with fairly complete links to external publications, CV, GitHub, and photography platforms, which gives the site a good level of personal credibility. The content spans academic career transitions, open source/Linux, photography, and cultural commentary, offering a distinctive personal perspective. The drawbacks are that updates appear relatively infrequent, the articles cover a wide range of years, and the topics are somewhat scattered. The site is primarily a static showcase, so it is not ideal for users expecting frequent news updates, structured courses, or community interaction.

Who It’s For

It is suitable for readers interested in academic career transitions, personal essays in English, photography and travel journals, open source/Linux, and discussions around gaming culture. It may also be useful for potential clients who want to review samples of the author’s writing, photography, or technical consulting work. If you are looking for inspiration for a lightweight Hugo-powered personal website, it also has some reference value.

Access from China

As a static personal website, the main site may generally be directly accessible. However, the pages reference Disqus comments, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and some external media or social links, which may be restricted or unstable from mainland China. Overall, it should be considered partially restricted.