blogmonster
The low-carb healthy alternative
What is this?
After spending some time getting used to Obsidian and the Zettelkasten/slip-box method, I realized just how much mental energy I end up wasting on ideas and processes that are quickly forgotten about, after their intrigue or usefulness fades or becomes irrelevant. This site is a repository of the results of some of that energy, or rather at least what I’ve remembered to write down.
What’s here?
I separate the content here into blog posts and Zettelkasten-style notes. The blog posts are long-form and properly edited, while the notes are pulled from my personal Obsidian vault. The notes may be presented either in traditional Zettelkasten style or in a format more similar to microblogging. I include them either as supporting documents for the main articles, or just because I thought them interesting, and as such they won’t be as polished as the rest of the content. If a note proves to be interesting enough, I may update and publish it as a blog post.
This site and its contents are fluid, and I may add, update, or remove pages as I see fit. Additionally, the information provided is not guaranteed to be correct or inoffensive—I can only speak my own observations and experiences. But if you have any suggestions, or find an error, feel free to let me know.
How do I navigate this place?
If you would like to browse the blog posts, I recommend using the directory index to look under the posts directory, as there are not many of them, and their titles are descriptive; however, the notes should best be browsed via the tags index. I order my tags using a very specific scheme, you can read about it here. The original publish date and latest edit date of the blog posts are added as tags, so you can also browse by date from the tag index. Notes do not have publish or edit dates as the content is less volatile or important to keep track of. I might add an edit date to a note if there is a major revision that I feel is significant enough to record.
Here are some topics that I have delved into detail with:
| Tag | Usage |
|---|---|
| #topic/software/colleague | As I have worked at multiple universities utilizing Ellucian products, I am extensively familiar with Ellucian Colleague |
| #topic/software/windows/server | As a systems administrator, I have spent a lot of time working in Windows and Active Directory environments |
| #topic/shell/powershell | Windows and Windows Server is PowerShell, so of course I have notes on it |
And here are some frequently used purpose tags to use as a jumping-off point:
| Tag | Usage |
|---|---|
| #purpose/documentation | Description on what something is/does, intended to spread knowledge; usually with supporting art |
| #purpose/process | Finding a solution to a problem by following a process, usually programmatically (such as with a script) |
| #purpose/list | Informational shortlist, probably of things I wanted to keep straight or have quick access to |
You may also be interested in these broad context tags:
| Tag | Usage |
|---|---|
| #context/ideas | Writing ideas for the vault, or possibly other projects I haven’t expanded into their own ecosystem |
| #context/todo | Things that aren’t done around here |
Why a blog when social media exists?
Social media is equivalent to the rotting of society’s collective brain. No thanks. And if the plan is to write to and for myself, with no other expectations of an audience, why would I use an inferior, cloud-hosted, privacy-invasive tool, owned by one of many multinational billion dollar megacorporations? I may expound on this later. context/ideas/blog
Why a self-hosted site and not a cloud provider like Blogger, Medium, or even Obsidian Publish?
I believe self-proprietorship is an important thing to express, especially in today’s minefield of data breaches and information brokerage. context/ideas/blog
Also, I’m cheap. context/ideas/blog
Also, I like being in control. context/ideas/blog
Also, I just think software is cool. context/ideas/blog
How did you set this site up?
I wrote about my setup here.
Yes, it is that simple.
ObsidianHtml is honestly not that well put together a project, and I think it has many faults (I even addressed a few) but for what it is, it is incredibly earnest and straightforward. I’m happy it exists and happy to use and contribute to it. Maybe I’ll fork it some day and fix the issues I have with it. Especially now that primary development is on hiatus.
That background is cool, can I have it?
Absolutely. I use Unsplash as an image source, and images there are all available under the mostly permissible Unsplash license.
I have long respected Michael Cho and the Unsplash team, though their controversial (and potentially illegal) switch to the Unsplash license from CC0 and their sale to Getty Images were certainly reason for worry. Still, I am just a consumer and not a photographer, and see Unsplash as a relaxed platform to enjoy visual creativity. As long as that continues, I don’t have any tangible complaints. That is to say, I don’t have a dog in that fight.
I have a script running every hour to query the API (no source.unsplash.com here) and update image links. You can find attribution on my homepage. You could, in theory, use my CSS with this HTML fragment if you didn’t want to write something yourself, but I think that might be against the API terms. And if it’s not, I bet they wouldn’t like it. Go read them yourself if you’re curious.