Skip to main content

Posts

A weblog, or “blog”. Usually longer-form writing.

  1. Suit wears the man
    On clothing, costume, and inhibition.
    Jul 3, 2026 02:47 PM
  2. The vibes are off.
    A post about “A.I.” and boundaries.
    Jun 28, 2026 08:44 PM
  3. Zelda
    In loving memory of a dear canine companion.
    Jun 17, 2026 01:15 AM
  4. A People’s History of New York Baseball
    The Leftist case for the Mets.
    May 9, 2026 06:59 PM
  5. When the Sun Explodes in Albuquerque
    A few snapshots from a memorable night at Launchpad.
    Apr 6, 2026 08:42 PM
  6. Lost in the Met
    What a visit to a landmark museum meant to a seventh grader in 2000.
    Mar 10, 2026 09:59 PM
  7. The Timeless Way of Building (a book club)
    Join me in reading this architectural tome by Christopher Alexander this March.
    Feb 28, 2026 09:13 PM
  8. Reading ‘Capital’... in this economy?
    Attempting to read Volume One of Marx’s magnum opus in the calendar year.
    Jan 24, 2026 07:22 PM
  9. What I listened to in 2025
    The musical year in quantitative, qualitative, and other observations.
    Jan 2, 2026 09:34 AM
  10. Books finished in 2025
    In 2025, I read nine books and 2,106 pages.
    Dec 31, 2025 09:01 AM
  11. A ‘Ghost World’ in two and three dimensions
    Watching the 2001 film for the IndieWeb Movie Club.
    Dec 15, 2025 10:36 PM
  12. scriptorium@christdesert
    A solar-powered web design service run by Benedictine monks in remote New Mexico in the 1990s.
    Nov 12, 2025 03:33 AM
  13. New media, visual communication, and “Understanding Comics”
    Revisiting a classic by Scott McCloud.
    Nov 9, 2025 09:56 PM
  14. Hack the Planet!
    Watching Hackers for the first time, on its 30th anniversary.
    Oct 27, 2025 04:43 PM
  15. Second Person Birds
    A poem made from little fragments.
    Sep 26, 2025 06:29 AM
  16. Meet Dinger
    Introducing a new face for this website.
    Sep 22, 2025 03:38 PM
  17. Playing the hits
    Mirroring a daily playlist to my website.
    Sep 4, 2025 08:01 PM
  18. How I omg.lol
    A year+ with a really fun web service.
    Aug 31, 2025 07:05 PM
  19. American fantasy
    I'm not sure what else to call it at this point.
    Aug 28, 2025 08:56 PM
  20. Hex codes of my life
    There are many ways to express color, but the humble hex code is my favorite.
    Aug 15, 2025 05:39 PM
  21. Volley
    I’ve long believed design and development can work together like a friendly game of table tennis.
    Aug 14, 2025 08:56 PM
  22. IndieWeb is Metal
    Tee shirts and stuff you can actually buy.
    Aug 10, 2025 07:51 PM
  23. Desktop Totems
    Things I keep near me while I am working.
    Jul 31, 2025 07:07 PM
  24. Springfield, U.S.A.
    In which the author realizes every place he’s lived was featured prominently on “The Simpsons”.
    Jul 12, 2025 01:08 AM
  25. Just a tool
    A poem about your favorite LLM.
    Jul 7, 2025 09:39 PM
  26. Take Two: Roundup
    Looking back at June’s IndieWeb Carnival.
    Jul 1, 2025 04:37 PM
  27. IndieWeb Carnival: Take Two
    An invitation to revisit the past, revise an old blog post, or give yourself a second chance.
    Jun 1, 2025 04:13 AM
  28. The Hudson Square Wonder
    A poem about New York, parenting, and hidden labor.
    May 13, 2025 02:15 AM
  29. Slow renewal
    If a RSS feed goes a month without updates, or a social feed goes quiet for a week without warning, do you assume the worst about its creator? Or can you assume the best?
    Apr 21, 2025 10:24 PM
  30. Ye Olde Blogging Questions Challenge
    Literally everyone else was doing this. So I joined in, too.
    Feb 22, 2025 03:12 PM
  31. Version Six
    Welcome back to my website.
    Feb 14, 2025 10:22 PM
  32. Creative corners
    A few prompts on creative activities, environment, and inspiration.
    Jan 29, 2025 12:20 PM
  33. Choose inclusion
    A few words on indie social web community.
    Jan 22, 2025 10:50 PM
  34. Self Made Man
    A great song by John Hartford, reworked by Rachel Baiman.
    Jan 20, 2025 04:47 PM
  35. The last web designer on earth
    Following a “generalist” path for the foreseeable future.
    Jan 15, 2025 09:57 PM
  36. Friction and resistance
    In praise of jagged edges.
    Jan 8, 2025 10:22 PM
  37. Intention economy
    Ways to live in 2025.
    Jan 1, 2025 11:44 AM
  38. Books finished in 2024
    In 2024, I read sixteen books and 4,791 pages.
    Jan 1, 2025 01:33 AM
  39. Winter Writing Workshop
    Embarking on another journey of blogging, together.
    Dec 22, 2024 08:41 PM
  40. Notes from a week off
    A holiday vacation, some gratitude, plus a decade of publishing.
    Dec 3, 2024 10:42 PM
  41. A song that made me cry
    A song by Tommy Womack just hits hard for me right now.
    Nov 15, 2024 04:54 PM
  42. The Mets are a good team
    Tipping my cap to everyone who made this an unforgettable year in baseball.
    Oct 21, 2024 11:13 AM
  43. The future of this website
    These are loosely held thoughts, not final decisions. I thought I’d just share these [possible breaking changes] if it helps anyone out there.
    Sep 28, 2024 06:21 PM
  44. Rubber stamped
    I’m not sure everyone needs a personal monogram, or logo. But everyone should have a custom rubber stamp.
    Sep 3, 2024 05:04 PM
  45. The origin of “nsmsn”
    I don’t think I’ve ever documented the “why” behind my dumb 5 character username, so here we go…
    Aug 1, 2024 09:44 PM
  46. The promise of social interoperability
    It is really refreshing to be able to read, post and interact with others on a single timeline.
    Jul 25, 2024 01:50 AM
  47. Comfort watch ⚾
    I used to find it interesting and entertaining to follow politics. Then… it kind of stopped being fun. Now I follow baseball.
    Jul 21, 2024 10:38 AM
  48. My current Webmention setup
    I thought it may be helpful to share my configuration settings and demonstrate how I’m using both the Webmention plugin and IndieBlocks on the same site.
    Jul 18, 2024 03:25 PM
  49. Fifteen books
    Many of these books are ones I read in my teens and twenties, and are still helping me make sense of the world as I plummet into middle age.
    Jul 14, 2024 04:03 PM
  50. Tool U Want
    Reflecting on what I know now from 25 years of trying to put stuff on the web, here’s what I’m looking for in a web publishing tool these days.
    Jul 12, 2024 09:38 PM
  51. The most powerful design tool for the Web
    The best artists are deeply knowledgeable of the material they work with. Their tools may not be much more sophisticated that what you have in your home or garage.
    Jun 28, 2024 04:23 PM
  52. Short ramble on blog names, identity, and professionalism (whatever that means)
    The tiny branding consultant that lives rent-free in my head nags at me that the blog name should match the URL in some way.
    Jun 24, 2024 09:17 PM
  53. Burberry and brass knuckles
    Rachel Monroe’s latest for the New Yorker reports on gang violence in the upscale Phoenix suburbs.
    Jun 22, 2024 08:33 PM
  54. Pueblo League baseball teams
    It was interesting to see the gloves, bats, jerseys, and the tournament schedules from the various Pueblo teams, historical and contemporary.
    Jun 20, 2024 08:13 PM
  55. We’re an American band
    Yo La Tengo’s wholesomeness may be the secret to their decades of longevity.
    May 18, 2024 09:42 PM
  56. Gifted at losing
    You rarely see the words "Mets fan" without the adjective "long-suffering" preceding it.
    May 17, 2024 01:42 PM
  57. Words matter
    Names are hard and language can be such a tricky thing to get right. I hate seeing people fall in the same pitfalls.
    Apr 11, 2024 09:11 PM
  58. Revisiting my accessibility statement
    Rather than being a performative gesture, an accessibility statement can be a useful thing to feature on a personal website.
    Mar 16, 2024 09:36 PM
  59. “Enhanced Distribution”
    This whole ordeal has me rethinking Jetpack and Automattic.
    Mar 10, 2024 03:41 AM
  60. The friends we made along the way
    I really don’t know how else to close out the last day of a month-long daily writing and publishing challenge.
    Feb 29, 2024 10:35 PM
  61. Short ramble on book typography
    For years I tuned my eye to carefully recognize the shapes that make an Optima or a Bodoni and now I’m afraid I can’t read like a normal person anymore.
    Feb 28, 2024 10:20 PM
  62. A font is a personal thing
    Plus limitations on a personal project about typography.
    Feb 27, 2024 09:40 PM
  63. Z is for Zapf Dingbats
    Really? This is how he chose to end it?
    Feb 26, 2024 03:51 PM
  64. Y is for Yrsa (and Rasa)
    If you are looking for a robust type family supporting many languages, these are good fonts to keep on your list.
    Feb 25, 2024 07:28 PM
  65. X is for x-height
    A typeface’s x-height refers to the height of its lowercase x. That’s pretty much it.
    Feb 24, 2024 04:55 PM
  66. W is for Wood Type
    Where did wood type come from? Who’s using it now? And how to get the look digitally?
    Feb 23, 2024 11:00 PM
  67. V is for Vocal Type
    Vocal Type was born out of a study of the dismal demographics of the design profession in the U.S.
    Feb 22, 2024 09:35 PM
  68. U is for Upright Italics
    Italics with no slant? Yes, they are a thing.
    Feb 22, 2024 06:16 PM
  69. T is for Transitional
    Transitional typefaces were pioneered in the late 18th century and remain popular today for newspaper and book printing.
    Feb 21, 2024 05:50 PM
  70. S is for Script
    A variety of typographic expression awaits you with this type classification.
    Feb 20, 2024 08:34 PM
  71. R is for Recursive
    Today we’re digging into variable fonts with an ambitious project with five variable axes.
    Feb 18, 2024 10:15 PM
  72. Q is for Questa
    Celebrating 10 years since the historic Majoor × Buivenga collab.
    Feb 18, 2024 04:21 AM
  73. P is for Pairs
    Combining type is notoriously tricky. It’s worth doing well, though, and not outsourcing to something like AI.
    Feb 17, 2024 02:35 AM
  74. O is for Old Style
    Not talking about a beer label today, but a type classification for fonts like Garamond.
    Feb 15, 2024 10:46 PM
  75. N is for Neo-Grotesque
    “In fonts austere, their love does thrive, Neo-Grotesque, where clean lines strive…”
    Feb 14, 2024 10:23 PM
  76. M is for Monospaced
    We’re halfway through the alphabet and only now getting to coding fonts.
    Feb 13, 2024 09:36 PM
  77. L is for Licensing
    After researching this topic and reading a dozen or so EULAs, I completely understand why so many organizations large and small default to using Google Fonts.
    Feb 12, 2024 05:34 PM
  78. K is for Karla
    Yet another quirky open-source grotesque.
    Feb 11, 2024 07:38 PM
  79. J is for Journal
    There’s something beautiful about a new thing born out of the technological limitations of its time.
    Feb 10, 2024 08:46 PM
  80. I is for Ink traps
    Here was the phone book font, teaching me all about ink traps.
    Feb 9, 2024 09:31 PM
  81. H is for Halyard
    The Halyard family comes in three optical sizes, which look great at every size. Hal, yes!
    Feb 8, 2024 08:15 PM
  82. G is for Geometric
    But isn’t all typeface design geometric?
    Feb 7, 2024 06:11 PM
  83. F is for Franklin
    Sometimes, a classic can’t be beat. But it can be perfected.
    Feb 6, 2024 05:18 PM
  84. E is for Epilogue
    A high-quality, versatile, unique, and free(!) typeface by Ty Finck.
    Feb 5, 2024 05:49 PM
  85. D is for Drop Caps
    If someone wants you to make a paragraph “pop”—give them a drop cap!
    Feb 4, 2024 09:11 PM
  86. Call me a Luddite
    Finished reading Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant. (ISBN: 9780316487733)
    Feb 4, 2024 04:09 AM
  87. C is for Chaparral
    The rare slab-serif that doesn’t venture into ‘Wanted’ poster territory.
    Feb 3, 2024 07:25 PM
  88. B is for Besley*
    A Clarendon revival for the 21st Century.
    Feb 2, 2024 03:22 PM
  89. A is for Atkinson Hyperlegible
    Taking a closer look at an award-winning sans serif.
    Feb 1, 2024 02:53 PM
  90. My ActivityPub settings
    A peek behind the curtain at my website’s ActivityPub settings.
    Jan 26, 2024 02:46 AM
  91. I broke ActivityPub on my site.
    I don’t know how all this is supposed to work, but I got some help from my host and the plugin support forum. Hopefully things are working again now.
    Jan 25, 2024 05:49 PM
  92. Short ramble on categories and tags
    My website is my worry stone, but its something a person with a library science degree might recoil in horror at.
    Jan 20, 2024 02:37 PM
  93. A MLK Day memory
    Of all days, why was King’s birthday a holiday for the office workers, but not the sanitation workers?
    Jan 15, 2024 02:12 PM
  94. Blogs, replies, and federation
    I’m an open web enthusiast, but not absolutist.
    Jan 14, 2024 08:43 PM
  95. Without arbitrary rules aren’t we just people sitting in chairs?
    Finished reading Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford
    Jan 13, 2024 03:14 PM
  96. Books finished in 2023
    In 2023 I read 17 books and 5,983 pages.
    Jan 1, 2024 02:04 PM
  97. That happened in 2023
    I wasn’t planning to write a year in review post, but having blogged all year long, it is actually quite easy to put one together.
    Dec 27, 2023 10:02 PM
  98. Two nights in DC
    Had a quick trip to Washington, DC this week...
    Dec 15, 2023 04:36 PM
  99. December
    Winter will be here soon in the Northern Hemisphere. I can see snow on the Sandia Mountains outside my office window.
    Dec 2, 2023 09:35 PM
  100. Aztec Ruins
    On Friday we stopped at Aztec Ruins National Monument, near Aztec, NM.
    Nov 26, 2023 01:19 PM
  101. Plugin Inventory, 2023
    All the plugins I’m running with WordPress (it’s a lot), and the functionality I get.
    Nov 15, 2023 10:00 PM
  102. Doubles and shadow lands
    Finished reading: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein.
    Nov 6, 2023 05:50 PM
  103. A Vexillological Moment
    It seems like an exciting time to be a flag designer in North America.
    Nov 4, 2023 08:56 PM
  104. Finding the Covid-19 vaccine for someone under 3 is tough right now.
    One pharmacy in a county of 680,00 people.
    Oct 25, 2023 01:32 AM
  105. Re: Books I’m reading at the moment
    An invitation to reply to Pablo Morales’ reading list.
    Oct 7, 2023 12:48 AM
  106. Mapping blog posts
    I’d like to travel more, write a bit more, and display those geolocated blog posts on an interactive map.
    Oct 4, 2023 08:30 PM
  107. Hello WordPress, my old friend.
    Proudly powered by WordPress.
    Sep 24, 2023 09:19 PM
  108. Thank you, Knoxville
    Saying farewell to the Scruffy Little City.
    Jun 15, 2023 10:27 PM
  109. Simple sites and HTML energy
    Start something small and let it grow.
    Mar 18, 2023 01:02 PM
  110. NewwwYear Itches
    A few things I’d like to do with my site in 2023.
    Jan 11, 2023 04:40 PM
  111. Books finished in 2022
    I finished 4,310 pages and 15 books.
    Jan 1, 2023 02:20 PM
  112. Giving Tuesday
    This holiday season, be generous. Radically.
    Nov 29, 2022 11:26 AM
  113. Working from gnome
    Day two at my new (fully remote!) job.
    Oct 26, 2022 02:56 AM
  114. Never
    Never say never. These are some things I have not done.
    Sep 25, 2022 02:50 PM
  115. Earth tones
    A new color scheme and a little CSS refactor spurred on by using dark mode.
    Aug 9, 2022 11:37 PM
  116. These webfonts do not track you
    Self-hosting web typography for privacy and performance enhancements.
    Jul 3, 2022 01:08 AM
  117. Adding an accessibility statement
    An important new feature to this site.
    May 30, 2022 11:23 AM
  118. Ditch Twitter. And Instagram. And Goodreads.
    Making social media work for me (not the billionaires).
    May 1, 2022 08:18 PM
  119. Lullabies
    I’m a dad!
    Mar 13, 2022 04:12 PM
  120. Books finished in 2021
    I finished 7,449 pages and 20 books.
    Jan 1, 2022 01:54 PM
  121. Boone
    Goodbye, Dad.
    Nov 10, 2021 06:31 AM
  122. Now with dark mode
    Adding a new feature to this site’s design.
    Oct 10, 2021 07:22 PM
  123. What it's like to be the target of a COVID conspiracy
    I get disgusted knowing that some anonymous people are making money by deceiving others.
    Sep 25, 2021 11:08 PM
  124. You’re not so terrific and that’s OK
    Kenny Shopsin and the disappeared New York.
    Sep 20, 2021 01:45 AM
  125. Different realities
    How to be there for a loved one who has escaped reality?
    Sep 7, 2021 02:40 AM
  126. The Ordinary Things
    This was a fun one to work on. And it went relatively quick.
    Sep 5, 2021 12:40 PM
  127. Commonplace books, gardens, and streams
    An antique concept gets a digital upgrade.
    Sep 4, 2021 10:22 PM
  128. My six favorite utility classes
    Bits of CSS I re-use in almost every project.
    Aug 7, 2021 10:41 PM
  129. Gridlessness and modern CSS
    There’s never been a better time to learn (or re-learn) CSS.
    Jul 22, 2021 01:55 AM
  130. Learn JavaScript with Morten Rand-Hendriksen
    Learn the web’s scripting language in 10 chapters.
    Feb 21, 2021 08:56 PM
  131. An engine, a building, a garden
    Thoughts on personal websites, including this one.
    Feb 18, 2021 03:17 AM
  132. Accessibility and Performance
    A few handy code snippets and more.
    Feb 7, 2021 05:55 PM
  133. Design Justice Principles
    Thinking about co-creation as a force for good.
    Jan 30, 2021 03:19 PM
  134. Cedric Johnson on Public Goods and Inequality
    Beyond slogans and cynicism. Identifying complexity and contradiction.
    Jan 17, 2021 06:14 PM
  135. Books finished in 2020
    I finished 12,237 pages and 39 books.
    Jan 1, 2021 06:59 AM
  136. Scaffolding
    Setting up a structure for the cascade.
    Dec 31, 2020 04:39 AM
  137. Web fonts and base HTML
    My rationale for these new fonts, plus a poor man’s style guide.
    Dec 19, 2020 06:18 PM
  138. Learn HTML with Jen Simmons
    In less time than an “Avengers” movie, you can learn the fundamental language of the web.
    Dec 19, 2020 02:34 AM
  139. Ready for a Newww Year
    Thinking and planning an open redesign.
    Dec 17, 2020 03:28 AM
  140. MMXX
    Surviving, not thriving in the plague year.
    Dec 16, 2020 05:20 AM
  141. Books finished in 2019
    I finished 7,122 pages and 22 books.
    Jan 1, 2020 01:56 PM
  142. Books finished in 2018
    I finished 14,345 pages and 44 books.
    Jan 1, 2019 02:17 PM
  143. Books finished in 2017
    I finished 12,457 pages and 39 books.
    Jan 1, 2018 11:30 PM
  144. Books finished in 2016
    I finished 5,323 pages and 17 books.
    Jan 2, 2017 07:14 PM
  145. JavaScript is not your interface.
    My review of Adaptive Web Design by Aaron Gustafson.
    Sep 10, 2016 04:47 PM
  146. Many best practices
    There’s more than one way to skin a website.
    Jun 11, 2016 06:19 PM
  147. Becoming an everyday developer
    What to learn, how to learn it, and what to learn next.
    Sep 8, 2015 12:18 AM
  148. Everyday developers
    On specialization, generalization, and being no stranger to change.
    Sep 1, 2015 04:17 AM
  149. Reading is hazardous
    Mary Ruefle’s writing is a blow to the skull and a balm to the soul.
    May 17, 2015 07:34 PM
  150. Collaborating on the new Tumbleweeds site
    Communication, prototyping, and tools to build a simple, beautiful site that works everywhere.
    Mar 7, 2015 06:18 PM
  151. Deploy
    An obligatory first blog post.
    Nov 29, 2014 07:00 PM