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7 August 2025 (Thursday)

Lincoln, wondering why the water stopped coming out. (Olympus Stylus Epic)

I just noticed that the tag searches don't work here, for some reason. I don't feel like debugging, so this fits with the theme this week, I guess. Oh wait, the search works, but not at the individual Note level. Sigh, I forgot this used to be for both posts and journal entries, but I gutted it when making it just for the journal bits. Why do I do this to myself?

Still conflicted about blogging approach and platforms

I continue to overthink everything related to my blog(s). I want specific things for specific posts, depending on my mood that day. It’s exhausting. The dream of course is to have One Blog. I have 4 active sites right now. That’s more than one, for those who are counting.

The new baty.photo blog I’ve set up for posts about photography feels like the right move. That one stays. I like using Ghost for that.

It’s the daily.baty.net thing that has me conflicted. I like how both the Tinderbox and (currently) Kirby versions work. They’re good for showing a rolling set of random stuff, separated by day. baty.net, running Hugo, is less suited for it. It’s a combination of long posts, short posts, and these daily notes. The daily notes don’t feel like they belong there, which is why I keep trying to move them elsewhere. Except I don’t much feel like maintaining two places. Both the Kirby and Tinderbox versions are custom and fairly complex to use and maintain. Do I really need more of that?

Thing is, none of this matters. Most folks visit via RSS anyway. And those who do actually come here, well, they don’t really care how it works. They just want to read the latest stuff (for some reason).

OK, it just happened again. I’m reading this and realizing it doesn’t belong in a daily note. It should be a separate post. In Hugo that means moving a file on disk and renaming it and modifying the front matter. Ugh, right? Using Kirby, I just toggle “Show title” and it does the right thing. Now what? Kirby isn’t static. It’s not difficult to host, but it’s not simple, either.

See how I am? Like I said, it’s exhausting.

(Originally posted on baty.net)

6 August 2025 (Wednesday)

Today I'm visiting a local park with my daughter and grandson. Can't wait. After that it's mostly yard work in anticipation of in-laws visiting this weekend.

There's a broken image in the header here and I don't know why it's not working. Must be a Kirby thing, but I don't feel like fixing it just yet.

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I wrote How much more is there to say? this morning, because I haven't felt like writing blog posts. I'm more inclined to jot things here and not worry about structure or length or the appropriateness of topics. It's all I have the energy for, right now.
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Spent the morning hanging out with my daughter and grandson at a local park. Good times had by all. I knew the park was there, but I had no idea it was so nice. The beach is huge, and super clean. There's a trio of awesome playgrounds and a water "splash pad". So cool.
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I really like this photo from today. Taken with the little Olympus Stylus Epic.

5 August 2025 (Tuesday)

I can't believe this Kirby CMS thing still works. You're soaking in it.

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daily.baty.net has been a static website, rendered using Tinderbox, for a while now. I love Tinderbox, but it's not really a blogging tool. It can do it, but there's work involved. Anyway, I had a hankering to tinker with Kirby CMS again, so I dug out my old Kirby version of this site, upgraded to Kirby 5, and installed it on my VPS running FreeBSD. It didn't work at first, but after installing some missing PHP packages, things seem to be running well. If you're reading this, it worked.
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After half the morning spent dusting off the Kirby version of daily.baty.net, I had to head out and get some chores done. Upon returning a few hours later, I wondered what the hell I did and why. Kirby?! Again?! I'm impossible.

3 May 2025 (Saturday)

First self-portrait (1982). Canon AE-1 Program.

I am flirting with the idea of splitting off the daily notes again.

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I assume it's possible, because most people who blog do it, but I struggle to get comfortable posting to a personal blog using a CMS (e.g. Ghost). I can't seem to get over knowing that it's all "out there". It's probably irrational, but still makes me twitchy. My blog is like a journal. I don't like the idea of my journal being at all fragile. Anything other than local-first static HTML feels fragile.

4 April 2025 (Friday)

You know what I need? Fewer dependencies. Less infrastructure. This blog, for example, shouldn't be necessary.

3 April 2025 (Thursday)

Black and white photo of hallway leading to restrooms at a local restaurant

5:12 am. The weather has been interesting. This week so far it's been clear and 30°, or raining and 60°. We've had snow, lightning, and we've had 80MPH wind gusts. Today is mild, 50° and quite windy.

Oh good, I have a dentist appointment today.

2 April 2025 (Wednesday)

Black and white film photo of cutting board with various items on it

Spent time this morning organizing photos from last month's Capture One session and various folders of film scans. I thought I'd like using Capture One sessions during the month, then importing them into a master catalog. It was tedious and error prone, so now I'm having second thoughts. If I was just using Lightroom this would have been done as I went along.

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I can't tell you how many new blogs are springing up recently, but it's starting to feel like a lot of new blogs. And the more feeds I add to my reader, the more new blogs I discover. It's feeling exponential and I love it.

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Jack Baty Daily

Daily notes from Jack about everything