Saturday, 30th December, 2023
I got sucked into OpenBSD via Derek Sivers VPS installer (via Jack). It reminds me of my underlying desire to be rid of gmail and host things myself. However it comes with a burden of maintaining and relying on the VPS for everything. Then made me wonder about installing OpenBSD on a laptop as well.
Not sure I want to learn another OS though. If I wanted to run CalDAV and etc. then I can just run them on my existing VPS.
Still got the decision of blog updates swimming around. This plus new VPS/servers means I’m just doing nothing on the computer but wasting time not doing anything.
I’ve always liked Dokuwiki, and one of the OpenBSD blogs I found was running on it and then I spent a while looking at Dokuwiki (again).
Really the objective would be to get something that makes me write more, but what is that? Maybe I’ll setup dokuwiki again to satisfy that urge.
I did upgrade my VPS to the latest Debian 12. I few things broke until I remembered it would also update php to 8.2 vs 7.4 that was running previously. Given I know how things are setup I could fix it. Would I be able to do the same on OpenBSD, where “you don’t search for solutions, you read the manual”. I think in this instance it would’ve been fine as it was a nginx config file setting which is nothing to do with the OS.
I setup Dokuwiki on my VPS. It’s nice and easy to do. I started poking about with it but quickly realised it’s not what I want. Not sure exactly why it’s not what I want, I mean, it’s super easy to add content, move it around, link things, etc. even images too. It’s all plain text in the background. I even have my old versions on my server that I can just look at with a text editor. It doesn’t use markdown by default (I suspect it predates markdown considerably) but its format is predictable and readable. There are loads of plugins which are all super easy to install, it’s actively maintained and developed, so too are the plugins. It is more suited towards a wiki than a blog/personal site, although that doesn’t stop many people from using it as one. I think the main issue is that I find customising the look of it tricky. Truthfully, I’ve not even looked into it, but I suspect it’s harder than starting with a blank site and making a blog.
This is dumb, but I do want a unique looking site. It doesn’t need to be 100% individual, just uncommon in style. A bit like this site. It’s fun and quirky. Perhaps it helps make up for the content 😅. However, a regular blog (and my current one) aren’t really that. It’s more traditional. Which there’s nothing wrong with and it makes a nice readable site.
Just to remind myself of how readable, I actually visited my blog and poked around. It’s quite nice…maybe I’ll just leave it for now. Perhaps even try writing a post for it…
I still want to try Kirby as it does look and sound good. But maybe I should spend more time thinking about what’s to go in the site, vs. how it gets made. I’d like to combine daily notes and main blog posts but I don’t think I will. I had thought about main blog plus micro blog posts (and this site) where micro blog posts are links to interesting things, matters of somewhat interest and not just idle thoughts. E.g. upgraded VPS to Debian 12, don’t forget your php-fpm version. Stuff I might put on mastodon or twitter or wherever, if I were to use them. Or perhaps a picture from the day or something.
Found an interesting blog today, https://マリウス.com/, via OpenBSD things, but lots of other interesting content. Especially the post about his domain. I quite like his layout at the top, with the different sections of his site, although it’s not obvious if the page has loaded as you might not be able to see below the menu section. Guess that’s why he has that little flashing “scroll down” text at the top.
Found our shower is leaking, appears to be on the outside of the tiles, so it just runs down and into the drain. Saturday, 30th December, is not a great time to call out a plumber, so I guess we’ll leave it until the new year.
Every time I get the Kinopio newsletter, I swoon over the site thinking how unique and quirky it is. I have no use for it.
I should finalise my 2024 “plans” but probably I won’t change, so what’s the point!
Was looking at a new domain today. Didn’t buy it but got close. I’d like to consolidate domains, not buy more. Looking for a more general one for the family that everyone could use. I do actually have my surname as a domain, but via a long story, my dad uses it on his iCloud account for his email, so I can’t use it…not without shifting his email again and once in the past 10 years is enough for me. It’s only £15 or so a year and if I don’t like it or use it I can just not renew next year. It’s a shortened version of my surname, which I think rolls off the tongue, and would make for a really short email address. I could even make use of the MX Route mail hosting I’ve paid for for the past 6 years and have never used. Or just add it to iCloud…
Trying to form a new habit, whereby I sit at the bureau with a cup of tea and iPad and write DayOne and then this site. I’m now up to 12 days streak on DayOne and I realised that come two days time, I should order my next book! I did use the DayOne web version the other night on the Windows PC, and it’s pretty good. But I still enjoy sitting on my iPad and typing. I think I’d enjoy sitting on a MacBook and doing the same, however, I worry I’d not do any typing and end up doing a bunch of other stuff instead.
For about 3 years I’ve wanted to learn Javascript. Seems like it would be useful to make a little app or something in it that can go on the internet. But I’ve not done so, and whilst I’m thinking about it for next year, I’m not sure I really have any uses for it.
