Bonus points if you recognize what cartoon this is from
Very slightly more seriously, Jetpack offered me these stats for the past month:
320 visitors 375 views
Sure, it may not seem like a lot, but it’s 100% organic! Just like the ingredients in the imaginary beer I’m offering.
Jetpack shows I’ve barely hit double digits this week, though:
That’s actually better than what the site has done historically, where it’s usually been in the single digits. The only thing I can think is a couple of LLMs are now scraping the site and hoping I don’t sue them like Twitter did.
If none of this makes sense in the future, welcome to the world of 2023.
UPDATE: I have turned radical and am now using the serif typeface Bitter for headings. Anarchy!
I’ve been thinking about my blog redesign, as I do periodically, and have read several articles arguing in favour of using serif fonts for body text on websites. The old belief was that text on screen evolved to be mainly sans serif because low resolution screens made serifs harder to read, as they couldn’t be rendered well. Now with fancy™ screen technology and higher resolutions, that’s not a problem, so it’s time to return to serifs for body text, following the lead of virtually all novels and most books in general.
And yet I cannot find a serif I like. They all look too thin or too fat, or too fancy. Part of it is laziness, because the theme I use, the excellent GeneratePress, offers a list of dozens of Google fonts, but it isn’t trivially easy to deviate from the list. And I am lazy, so trivially easy is important. But I will keep poking at it.
For now, I am using Heebo for body text again, because it’s a clean-looking sans serif font, plus the name is adorable.
Also, I’ve tried going through some “best fonts” lists and as you might imagine, a lot of them are SEO-driven junk. But there’s a few out there! I will expand on this post later.
(And yes, I know the difference between a typeface and font, but that battle is long since lost for the pedants.)
Earlier this year, I gave myself permission to post whatever I wanted to this blog–no more filters, no more forbidden topics. If I wanted to say it, I’d say it.
I’ve noticed lately that a lot of what I’ve been writing seems kind of cranky, and I don’t want to come across as a cranky person. I have had a terrible flu bug recently, and am still getting past the last bits of it and this has certainly soured my overall mood, but I just seem to be taking on lots of negative stuff–mostly on the web–then spewing bile here because of it. Some of the targets are pretty easy, admittedly. And I really believe grocery stores are gouging customers and that makes me angry, because food isn’t optional, and it rankles me that these people will get away with it because our federal government is ultimately too spineless to do anything about it.
But see, there I go again! Cranky! Angry!
I will still feel the way I feel, but there’s no need to project it to the Large Language Models scraping this site to help some future 14-yewar-old write their book report.
This is my way of saying I am going to try to focus on more creative, whimsical and/or entertaining stuff to post. And kittens, of course.
But first, a nice shot I took today of Burnaby Lake (it’s there under all the lily pads):
I started this blog in February 2005, which means it’s 18 years old. In Canada, that means my blog can drive, vote in federal elections and join the army. It has to wait a bit longer before it can gamble.
But I don’t have to wait, and gamble I did!
Since WordPress has no easy way to work in a staged environment, when you want to make changes, you either have to go through the rigmarole of setting up a local server, or just make changes on your live site and hope for the best.
Which is what I’ve been doing the last few days.
What I have learned:
After 18 years, my site has accumulated a lot of legacy cruft
This cruft can do interesting and/or alarming things when you poke at it
Different parts connect in unexpected ways. Imagine if your elbows connected to your knees, it’s kind of like that.
Things that should work logically will often defy logic
Sometimes it turns out to be user error
More than a few times, really
But not always!
Planning ahead is a good thing to do
I should have planned ahead, which I did not do
But even just starting on this journey, I have cleaned up a lot of that cruft:
Old, inactive widgets have been purged
Outdated links and thingies have been removed
Legacy stuff has been converted over to blocks where possible
I’ve backed up all the weird CSS changes that are in Simple CSS
I’ve documented every weird thing I’m likely to forget
I’ve experimented with colours, but right now it’s just a sedate green/grey combo
I will actually need to figure out what I want to show up front and what will be tucked away
Currently, the site looks a lot more green. I added some nice rounded corners on the individual posts because round corners are the new hot thing. But it’s otherwise pretty stripped down and ready for more serious remodelling. This stuff takes a lot of time, so I’m not sure how quickly it will happen, but at least I’ve started.
Yesterday’s site shenanigans have now been resolved, and it made me realize I had way too many unused plugins hanging around, doing nothing except potentially causing problems (which one did, yesterday).
I’ve deleted a bunch and will delete a bunch more before I’m done. This will also help with the site redesign, so I will later claim it was part of the plan all along, somehow.
On February 2, 2005 I wrote my first post on this blog. You can read it here (it’s a mere single paragraph): Bloggity blog blog
In fact, why even make you click? Here it is, in its entirely:
I was the last one to get bell bottom jeans in grade 5 and now I’m the last person on the Internet to have a blog. Hooray for me! As you may have guessed, I am using WordPress for my blogging needs. An apparent feature of WordPress is relentless self-promotion, as witnessed by the three separate links for the software on this very page. I’ll be culling a few soon and adding some other links that might prove interesting or not.
Me, February 2, 2005
Not exactly a fascinating debut, but actual interesting writing eventually made its way to the site.
Eventually.
Here are some 2005 fun facts:
Facebook didn’t exist
Twitter didn’t exist
Netflix existed but only rented out DVDs
Blockbuster still existed
The current version of Windows was Windows XP
I had hair (I would keep it for six more years)
I was 40 years old, which seems almost kind of young now (scary)
Today, I came across a story about an even older blog–https://kottke.org/. He has a billion more posts than me, has had an actual impact on the web (he created the permalink!) and has been on TV. It made me wonder what sort of impact my blog and its 4280 posts has had on the world, and whether that matters.
I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as the blog entertains me, or serves some kind of useful function for me (I think it does). But I do sometimes ponder about starting up another blog with a tighter focus (reworking this site would seem to almost go against the chaotic randomness of it). But the problem with going with a tighter focus is…my brain tends to wander all over the place. Imagine it with legs and a cute little suitcase. I write, I draw, I take photos, I run, I ponder, I make lists, I post things I find amusing or stupid. I complain (I have long-struggled to minimize the latter).
And in the end, I never do make that other more focused site, because I am not a focused person. At least not yet. Let’s see if I am for the 25th anniversary of this blog. Only seven years to go!
Actually, it’s probably more than I can’t focus long enough to sit down and write something. In any case, I intend to start cranking up the old writing machine in the next few days, seeing if I can hit a goal of an average of two posts per day for the month (62 total). As of right now, I am 10 posts behind. That’s a lot of McTopics. I need to get cracking.
Here’s a haiku to start. I even wrote it myself instead of outsourcing it to ChatGPT!
Time to Write
Time to get writing
Put fingers on the keyboard
Magic gushes out
Yeah, it’s not spring yet, but I feel like my brain could use a good spring cleaning. Lately, I’ve been coming up empty for writing and drawing. Is it the time of year? Is it lack of sleep? Is it some other unpleasant thing in my life, like mismatched socks?
I love stock photos. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
I asked ChatGPT to generate ten exciting blog topics because I didn’t even write anything yesterday and felt bad. It came up with a list that’s way too ambitious compared to the kind of mindless frippery I usually post here. So I’m just going to paste its list instead and call this a success.
10 Exciting Blog Topics
“Exploring the Future of Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Society”
“The Rise of Remote Work and its Effect on Productivity”
“Sustainability in the Fashion Industry: How Brands are Making a Difference”
“The Science of Sleep: Understanding the Importance of a Good Night’s Rest”
“The Evolution of Virtual Reality: How it is Changing the Way We Experience the World”
“The Future of Transportation: Electric Cars, Hyperloops, and More”
“The Mental Health Benefits of Gardening and How to Get Started”
“The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare”
“The Future of Food: How Technology is Changing the Way We Grow and Eat”
“Exploring the Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation and How to Get Started”
