I realize I have an old Kindle (it’s the first version of the Paperwhite) but would it really be so hard for Amazon to auto-sync the time on the device like every other network connected device in the modern age? 🤣

My various UPS’s (uninterrupted power supply) weren’t cheap, especially the giant one powering my server rack, but every time my street has an outage, I’m very happy I have them. 🔋🔌😁

Random Thought: Does anyone know how fast new books will show up in Bookshelves feature of Micro.Blog after they’re added into Open Library? 📚

I very much enjoyed the September 2023 Photo-blogging Challenge at Micro.blog, it gave me a lovely opportunity to look back at all the photos I’ve taken over the years; as I’ve been taking photos since December of 2004, it’s a lot of media to look through (at the time of this post, I have 422 videos and 76,313 photos). While you can go look at the individual posts if you like, I thought it would be fun to post them here and add a bit more details about each photo.

Note: Each day matches the corresponding day of the month of September.

Day 1: Abstract

Decided it would be fun to use DiffusionBee, used the following for the prompt: “random collection of splashes of colors, focusing on shades of blue and silver, Jackson Pollock, HD” #mbsept

I really didn’t have anything in my photo library that I could call abstract and thus, I tried out the whole “using AI to generate images” approach.

Day 2: Build-Up

The inverse of “buildup” is “tear down” and in my case, devouring breakfast while catching up with an old friend. 🍽️ #mbsept

I almost always take photos of my food when I eat out, for a couple of reasons…the chief of them being my leaky memory. Usually these sorts of things end up in Day One but I ended up posting it, which greatly amused my breakfast companion.

Day 3: Precious

Sadly, our little puppy-rabbit crossed the rainbow bridge back in February but this little fur-ball is still with us, eating us out of house and home, puking all his food up, and wailing plaintively to go outside. 😸 #mbsept

Just one of the more recent photos of Alex the fat/annoying/adorable/crazy cat. Since Russell’s passing, he’s become much more social with us, and thus, the crazy is more on display. 🤣

Day 4: Orange

Every time my partner and I visit Quebec City, we have a dinner at a local crepêrie and inevitably get cider with the meal. This time, there was cinnamon on the glass and an orange slice. 🍎🍊 #mbsept

My Partner is a French teacher and as a result, we end up in Canada a lot, with a particular focus on the Province of Quebec. We alway end up going to the same crepêrie when we visit Quebec City and more often than not, end up getting cider with dinner. 😋

Day 5: Forest

The view from some random trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a couple years back. 🌳 #mbsept

The view from one of the hikes me, my Partner, and a few friends went on when we rented a cabin in Tennessee a few years ago. It was the first vacation with friends we ever went on…and was a smashing success.

Day 6: Well

Closest thing I could find in my photo library, this is a “well” of alcohol at a Holiday party back at University. 🎄🍾🥳 #mbsept

I don’t really remember much about this night… 🍺😁

Day 7: Panorama

A panorama view of Montmorency Falls, just outside of Ville de Québec (Quebec City) in Canada, as it tumbles down into the basin and flows into the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence River), on a sunny day in August. #mbsept

I absolutely love visiting this waterfall right outside of Quebec City, every time we head north, we visit.

Day 8: Yonder

Another one from photo library, this view into the yonder was taken near the Four Corners monument in the South West of the States in 2019. 🌵⛰️ #mbsept

Another photo from the not so distant past, we were heading home from Arizona.

Day 9: Language

Given this photo was taken around ten years ago, I’m not sure why I took it but this was the view of an arrival/departure board at a train station in Paris. 🚄🇫🇷 Now if only I’d learned French… 😢 #mbsept

I always marvel at people who can speak more than one language…and my Partner speaks French; he was the perfect tour guide around France when we visited some time ago. I would never have made it around the countryside without him. 🤣🇫🇷

Day 10: Cycle

Winter in Québec has a tendency to cover everything and clearly, some people should have brought their bikes inside. 😆❄️🇨🇦🚲 #mbsept

This photo was taken right outside our hotel. 🥶

Day 11: Retrospect

It’s been a little more than ten years since I was in Paris and I have to wonder what became of the couples who symbolized their relationships with these locks. 🤔🇫🇷🔐 #mbsept

All over Paris, on bridges, you find these locks. Couples will place them on bridges, as a sign of their love. 💕

Day 12: Panic

Per the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” one should never panic, hence the security system. 🚨 #mbsept

A photo of the dongle to arm / disarm the house, from our old security system.

Day 13: Glowing

Nothing like a glowing sunset on one of the Great Lakes. 🌤️🛥️ Took this on my summer vacation. #mbsept

Photo from vacation over the summer, my Partner and I went up to Wisconsin with some friends.

Day 14: Statue

While wandering around Montréal back in 2014, my partner and I stumbled upon the Tai Chi Single Whip statue in Victoria Square. 🗿🇨🇦🇫🇷 #mbsept

Took this photo so long ago that I can’t remember taking it. 😂

Day 15: Red

Taken back in 2020, we got in / out of Québec right before the Pandemic lock-downs in March of that year. Whilst visiting the Great White North, we stopped for a drink in the Ice Hotel and had some Caribou. 😋🥶🇨🇦🇫🇷 #mbsept

Drinking in an ice hotel was a lot of fun but I couldn’t feel my fingers by the end of it. 😆🥶 Still, it was a pretty good time and how many people can say they’ve had drinks in a bar made out of ice?

Day 16: Oof!

All I can say is that falling into a glowing fire-pit would result in far more than saying “oof!". 🔥 #mbsept

Another photo from our summer vacation, took this as the fire was dying down on the 4th of July. 🎇

Day 17: Intense!

It was rather intense watching my friend pose for this photo, I was panicking the entire time but he really wanted that photo while we were hiking in the Smoky Mountains. ⛰😱 #mbsept

I was in a panic the entire time my friend was posing for the photo but he wanted to send it to the guy he’d just started seeing. 🤪

Day 18: Fabric!

Taken during the first summer of the Pandemic, when we were all having backyard gatherings, the friend who was bringing over their projection screen couldn’t make it so we used a sheet instead. 📺😷 #mbsept

The “Pandemic” was just…awful… One of the ways we were able to be someone normal was to have friends over in the backkyard, to watch tv / movies with a projector. 🎥

Day 19: Edge!

Any time I fly, I always feel like I’m at the edge of the world, especially when going over large bodies of water. This is the sunrise from my first trip to Europe, ten-ish years ago, flying into Amsterdam. 🌥️✈️🌊 #mbsept

Sunrise over the Atlantic, on my first trip to Europe. You never forget your first time, even if it’s with the family that drives you insane. 😱😆 It was a crazy but fun trip.

Day 20: Disruption!

It’s always good to stop when see a sign, unless you want to cause a dangerous disruption. 🛑 Bonus points when the intersection contains your last name… 🤣 #mbsept

I could go into the backstory of why there is a street with my last name but that would just ruin the mystry of my Family line. 😝

Day 21: Fall!

There is nothing like the crunch of leaves underfoot as you’re strolling around a local park during the Autumn / Fall season. 🌳🍂 The only thing missing is a pumpkin-spice flavored drink. 😆☕️ #mbsept

Winter used to be my favorite time of the year but as I age, I’m starting to favor Autumn a little bit more.

Day 22: Road

Just a piece of rubbish lying next to the road. 🧱🛴 #mbsept

My partner and I were actually in Nashville for this photo, we were passing through on our way to Georgia, and stopped at a Britsh pub we’ve eatten at a few years prior. On our way back to the carpark, we stumbled on this piece of trash (yes, I say trash because these things are still cluttering up city streets).

Day 23: “A Day In the Life”

Breakfast this morning; we’re visiting my Partner’s cousin’s family and as they took us to dinner last night, we showed up with tons of sugary carbs. 🍩 #mbsept

Who doesn’t love a ton of complex carbs early in the morning?! 🍩🤮

Day 24: Belt

Wanted to make sure my new iPhone made it home safely, so of course I used a belt in the car. 🚗📱 #mbsept

As we were out of town, I had my new iPhone delivered to the ‘rents house (parent’s house).

Day 25: Flare

Nothing like a little flare to brighten the night sky on the 4th of July. 🎆 #mbsept

This is one of the first photos I ever took with my first mirrorless camera. Looking back at all those photos, taken over ten years ago, they still look amazing. 📸

Day 26: Beverage

I was never sure if Russell was after the cheese or the mulled wine but I know he was hoping we’d walk away at some point; he made a habit of stealing unguarded food. 🍷🧀🐶🤣 #mbsept

During the Pandemic, we’d frequently have wine / cheese time on Friday afternoon, after work was done for the week…and watch travel vidoes, dreaming of going anywhere. 🍷🧀

Day 27: Embrace

He didn’t want to wake up,
so he was hiding his face,
in a sweet little self-embrace.
😸💤 #mbsept

He’s such a lazy cat… 🐱💤

Day 28: Workout

One of my overarching goals for this year was to work on my health, with a large emphasis on fitness. My bestie has work pushing me into lifting weights, for my regular workout. 🏋🏼 #mbsept

There really isn’t much to this photo, I was at the gym and remember I’d forgotten to post.

Day 29: Contrast

A view from the Terrasse Dufferin during February; I always love Quebec in winter…the contrast of light and dark, ice and life…it’s lovely. ❄️💡 #mbsept

Quebec in winter is glorious, I can’t wait to go back. This is a photo from February of 2020, we got in / out of Canada right before the Pandemic hit the States.

Day 30: Treasure

Playing for pennies during a friendly family (in-law) poker game. I wouldn’t call them treasure but I did win a few rounds…and as I’d never played before…that was good enough for me. ♠️🃏🪙 #mbsept

Sadly, I didn’t have any photos of gold bars or cash bonds in my library (oh, how I wish I was wealthy), so I ended up settling for some coins. This photos is from a poker night with the in-laws, they usually play for snacks / candy but as this was taken during the Pandemic, we opted for something less likely to pass along unwanted germs (foolish to believe but we were grasping at straws back then).

All in all, it was a lot of fun hunting through my photos over the last month (I started writing this post in October but then my life sort of fell apart, so…here we are). 😊

Slowly starting the process of moving my domains away from Google. 🤞🏻

⌚️ Apple Watch Update: After it crashed at breakfast, I just got a “you’re almost out of battery” notification…and it’s only been three hours since I put it on. 🤬🪫 I’m still paying for this piece of junk… 😱😖

Another day, another issue with watchOS 10.1 on the Apple Watch Ultra v1. I have never been this disappointed in an Apple product before. ⌚️😱 Two hardware resets and the issues still persist.

So I did a thing: I wrote my first Micro.Blog plugin. 🥳 It’s nothing fancy, just another image generator but, as I was in the process of migrating the content from my old blog to here, I realized I had already created one in my Hugo instance…all I needed to do was port it over to GitHub and get it in the right format (also, documentation, mustn’t forget the documentation 🤢). Yes, I could have just changed out the Shortcode for proper HTML as part of the migration but I wanted to keep the same format I was already using…and when does a developer ever take the easy road…? 🤣

Once the repo was in place, it was a pretty easy process to move my photos to Micro.Blog (thank you MarsEdit) and the markdown code…and there you have it, easy-peasy.

If you’re interested in the Plugin (and really, you shouldn’t be), it can be found on GitHub. If you want to use the plugin, documentation exists on GitHub or you can continue reading. 😂

Note: In the code examples below, curry brackets have been replaced with straight ones so that Micro.Blog’s Hugo instance doesn’t crash / fail / give-up.

Image Only

The only required parameter for the shortcode / plugin is src.

[[< simple-image src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" >]]

Result:

<figure>
    <img src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg">
</figure>

Clickable Image

Including the link parameter will allow the image to be clickable.

[[< simple-image src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" link="https://lostinhaste.com/2023/09/29/september-microblog-photo.html" >]]

Results:

<figure>
    <a href="https://lostinhaste.com/2023/09/29/september-microblog-photo.html">
        <img src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg">
    </a>
</figure>

Image with Caption / Alt

Adding text in the alt parameter will result in the generation of an image with alternative text. If the caption parameter is used, additional text will be rendered near the image, within the figure html tag.

[[< simple-image src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" alt="View of the St. Lawrence River, with ice chunks occupying most of the surface, at night, with houses covered in snow and streets with lights at the bottom of the picture. On the upper part of the picture, across the river, lights can be seen up and down a bluff, with a few well-light buildings prominent in the cloudy night sky." caption="An icy view of lower Old Town Quebec during winter." >]]

Result:

<figure>
    <img src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" alt="View of the St. Lawrence River, with ice chunks occupying most of the surface, at night, with houses covered in snow and streets with lights at the bottom of the picture. On the upper part of the picture, across the river, lights can be seen up and down a bluff, with a few well-light buildings prominent in the cloudy night sky.">
    <figcaption>
        <p>
            An icy view of lower Old Town Quebec during winter.
        </p> 
    </figcaption>
</figure>

Image with Title / Caption

Adding the title parameter will generate an h4 html tag within the greater figure html tag.

[[< simple-image src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" title="Winter in Quebec" caption="An icy view of lower Old Town Quebec during winter." >]]

Result:

<figure>
    <img src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" alt="An icy view of lower Old Town Quebec during winter.">
    <figcaption>
        <h4>Winter in Quebec</h4>
        <p>
            An icy view of lower Old Town Quebec during winter.
        </p> 
    </figcaption>
</figure>

Image with Link

Including the attr and attrlink parameters will allow for the creation of a hyperlink within the figure html tag element.

[[< simple-image src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg" attr="Original Post" attrlink="https://lostinhaste.com/2023/09/29/september-microblog-photo.html" >]]

Results:

<figure>
    <img src="https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8317/2023/winter-ice-and-light.jpg">
    <figcaption>
        <p>
            <a href="https://lostinhaste.com/2023/09/29/september-microblog-photo.html"> 
                Original Post
            </a> 
        </p> 
    </figcaption>
</figure>

🎵 Yes, I know it’s too early for holiday music but it’s been a rough year…and it’s Cher, so the rules don’t apply. 🏳️‍🌈

Bring on the holiday music! 🎄

I’ve been splitting my time between my own site (pictured below) and my Micro.Blog instance for…a while now. At first, I tried to keep long-form posts on my site (created using Hugo, hosted at Cloud Flare) and micro / random thoughts to Micro.Blog but the other day, I thought it would be cool /fun to run both with the same theme and matching links at the top.

…obviously, that didn’t work out…

However, working on that put an idea in my head: maintain two places online?

My site, I created that randomly, with no clear goal. It was really just random luck I ran into Hugo as my email provider allows static site hosting. Now that I’m using Micro.Blog, I don’t really need the old site…I mean, it’s pretty awesome the way it works (Hugo site committed to GitHub and then CloudFlare takes those commits and builds the site and hosts it)…but with Micro.Blog, I can easily post with my phone and there isn’t much to maintain (minus some plugins I have a feeling I’m going to be creating / using).

So…I’m moving / migrating.

Things I have to worry about:

• The main site is at the base domain where as Micro.Blog is pointed to a subdomain
• I want to keep my old posts and pictures from my main site, so I’ll have to port them over into Micro.Blog
• I would like to maintain links, both to the original main site and to the current version of Micro.Blog

He really does look rather regal here but I think he’s trying to lure me into a false sense of security; I still think Alex is upset about the continuing construction in the house. 😼🐈📷

📷 Going on a walk during the lunch break always helps clear my head. 🙃

🍿 As it’s Halloween, of course we’re watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. 🎃
★★★★☆

I suspect I’m going to start decorating for Christmas tomorrow; it’s been a rough year and I could use the extra “holiday” time. 🎄

This has to be the buggiest version of WatchOS I’ve ever used. 😭 Even after an erase / reset, the battery is draining too fast. The heart rate complication doesn’t work anymore. Now I can’t get into the widgets, which means a restart. What is going on at Apple?! 😱

Took three weeks but the burial is over, the slide show is done, and everyone cried; I feel like I can finally start grieving now. 💔 On the plus side, I did get to hang out with my cousins today, which was lovely, along with some aunts and other family. 😁

Goodbye Grandma, I’ll miss you always. ❤️