I was curious about the shape of my blog over the
years, excluding Emacs News and my link-heavy
weekly/monthly reviews. It started off with lots
of little posts like the way other weblogs were
also quick links and notes. As weblogs morphed
into blogs with more text, I also settled down
into fewer, longer posts with lots of code
(analyzed by looking for <pre> blocks). I wrote
much less after A+ was born. Interestingly, I've
been shifting towards longer posts with more
images.
Blog posts exclude permalinks that match emacs-news|review|week-ending, which casts a bit of a wide net but should give me the general shape of things.
Total words per year and average words per post both exclude code snippets.
Here's how I got those numbers:
(append
'(("Year""Posts""Total words""Words per post""Posts with pre""Posts with images")
hline)
(cl-loop for i from 2001 to 2024
collect
(let* ((default-directory (expand-file-name (number-to-string i) "~/proj/static-blog/blog"))
(exclude (shell-quote-argument "emacs-news|review|week-ending"))
(files (format "find . -name '*.html' | grep -v -e '%s' | " exclude))
(posts (string-to-number
(string-trim
(shell-command-to-string (concat files "wc -l")))))
(words (string-to-number
(replace-regexp-in-string
"TOTAL: """
(shell-command-to-string
(concat files "xargs ~/bin/count-words | grep TOTAL")))))
(posts-with-images
(string-to-number
(string-trim
(shell-command-to-string (concat files "xargs grep -l '<img' | wc -l")))))
(posts-with-pre
(string-to-number
(string-trim
(shell-command-to-string (concat files "xargs grep -l '<pre' | wc -l"))))))
(list i
posts
words
(/ words posts)
posts-with-images
posts-with-pre))))
Year
Posts
Total words
Words per post
Posts with pre
Posts with images
2001
3
438
146
0
0
2002
31
4336
139
0
0
2003
863
64953
75
0
59
2004
967
125789
130
2
98
2005
679
135334
199
4
40
2006
869
171042
196
19
42
2007
489
107011
218
33
32
2008
380
121158
318
85
57
2009
400
175692
439
81
20
2010
335
160289
478
93
19
2011
324
163274
503
93
28
2012
286
124300
434
111
12
2013
273
173021
633
172
11
2014
272
186788
686
138
30
2015
173
133682
772
82
36
2016
25
11560
462
13
6
2017
37
24063
650
6
2
2018
66
46827
709
7
8
2019
18
13054
725
3
6
2020
13
6791
522
4
5
2021
31
17389
560
8
16
2022
21
11264
536
4
9
2023
68
47188
693
26
52
2024
74
58439
789
27
40
And here's how I plotted the charts:
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df= pd.DataFrame(data[1:], columns=data[0])
# Create a figure with subplots
fig, (ax1, ax4, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(4, 1, figsize=(10, 12))
fig.suptitle('Blog Statistics by Year', fontsize=16)
# Plot Posts
ax1.bar(df['Year'], df['Posts'], color='lightblue', label='Other posts')
ax1.bar(df['Year'], df['Posts with pre'] , color='darkblue', label='With preformatted blocks')
ax1.set_title('Number of posts per year')
ax1.set_ylabel('Posts')
ax1.legend()
# Plot Posts
ax4.bar(df['Year'], df['Posts'], color='lightblue', label='Other posts')
ax4.bar(df['Year'], df['Posts with images'] , color='darkgreen', label='With images')
ax4.set_title('Number of posts per year')
ax4.set_ylabel('Posts')
ax4.legend()
# Plot Total Words
ax2.bar(df['Year'], df['Total words'], color='lightblue')
ax2.set_title('Total words per year')
ax2.set_ylabel('Total words')
# Plot Words per Post
ax3.bar(df['Year'], df['Words per post'], color='lightblue')
ax3.set_title('Average words per post')
ax3.set_ylabel('Words per post')
ax3.set_xlabel('Year')
# Adjust layout and display
plt.savefig(f)
I want to write more, and I want to enjoy going
through my archive. Some posts are long,
especially those that come from transcripts. If I
sat with the ideas for longer, I might be able to
make them more concise or break them up into more
atomic notes; but I also want to get things out
faster in order to learn from potential
conversations. So I'm thinking about text
structure and margins, since I want to re-read my
blog more and I sometimes glaze over when there's
lots of text.
More headings are a good start. Org Mode makes it
easy enough to add them: M-RET calls
org-insert-heading.
I'm experimenting with sticky tables of contents
on large screens: one for "on this page" on the
left, and one for long posts on the right.
Figure 1: Screenshot of my blog with tables of content on both sides
On the individual post page, it'll just be the
table of contents for the post, like this one.
Figure 2: Screenshot of individual post
It feels a little busy. If I write some
Javascript, I might be able to use
IntersectionObservers to highlight where we are.
Maybe I can even squeeze the article's TOC into
the "on this page" TOC if there is one, which
means it can stay on one side.
I want to do other things with the margins.
Doodles for fun? My cargo bike post started with
the doodles pulled all the way into the margins,
and then I moved them back into the text so that I
don't have to worry about bumping into the table
of contents.
Figure 3: Screenshot of doodles in the margins
Sometimes I use a sketchnote to help me think
through or summarize a topic. It might be fun to
use the sketchnote as a table of contents or
overview, maybe even highlighting different
sections of it as I scroll. handwritten.blog uses
mix-blend-mode for hyperlinks. If the SVG isn't
too big, maybe I can use the same kind of
technique I used in animating SVG topic maps with
Inkscape. Alternatively, I could put extracted
regions from the sketchnote in the margins for
context and visual variety.
Sidenotes? I like how A Scripter's Notes has both
an active, expanding TOC on the right as well as
side notes on the left.
Maybe keywords, like the Cornell method of note-taking? Kind of like sidenotes, but more
structural, for skimming. I'm having a hard time
finding a blog example, though. If I figure out
side nodes, I could probably just use a different
style to indicate those Cornell-style cues.
Nudged by Thierry Stoehr's toot about my 23rd
blogiversary, I've been thinking about how much
I've learned thanks to blogging, and how I can get
even better at learning out loud. I'm curious
about what this could become over the next twenty
years, when I'm in my sixties.
The first part of the text from the sketch is
duplicated and expanded in the list below. There
are a lot of different aspects I want to get
better at, so I'm not going to try to work on all
of them in one go, but it's fun mapping out so
much room for growth.
Besides, maybe one of these aspects will resonate
with you as either something you're learning or
something you've figured out something about, and
then you'll get in touch, and then we'll both
learn more. Wouldn't that be cool?
I'm experimenting with getting stuff out in
smaller chunks, so this is part 1 of 4: Starting.
Noticing
I think of this as seeing the opportunity for
learning, which I sometimes miss out on because I
take things for granted or I don't connect the
dots. I can get better at this by slowing down and
by borrowing other people's questions. I've been
giving myself more time to write and draw these
days. It feels a little weird ignoring the other
tasks on my TODO lists that are more clearly
defined or that are related to other people's
requests, but I like the way this feels.
Imagining
It's easy for me to come up with all sorts of
ideas for things I want to tweak about Emacs. I
can get better at this by reading more about what
other people are doing and what other capabilities
are there.
I can also get better at exploring ideas for
non-Emacs topics, like ways to respond to
parenting situations and things I can do support
the causes I care about. I can expand my toolbox
by reading books and blog posts, and depending on
the topic, I can also listen to podcasts and
videos.
Bumping into things
It's useful to bump into things I might not think
of looking for. One way to do that would be to
save various manuals on my e-ink notebook and
phone so that I can read them during quiet
moments.
I've added some randomness to shuffle old blog
posts and tasks, although browsing through this
tends to be low-priority. (I never get to the
bottom of my reading/thinking list!)
"On this day" might be interesting too. This is
more for fun and serendipity. I used to have it on
my blog, and it should be pretty easy to
reimplement using 11ty.
Learning from others
I'd like to spend more time thinking about and
building on other people's ideas, maybe starting
with Emacs and then branching out to other topics.
I also want to get back to reading people's blogs
through an RSS reader so that I can get a slightly
wider view of people's interests and learn more
about non-Emacs things. I've added Feeder to my
phone.
Taking notes
I capture a lot of snippets in my Org Mode inbox.
I'd like to get better at adding some more context
and quick thoughts when I create a note so that
it's easier to pick up the idea later on. I do
most of this capturing on my phone, so I'm getting
the hang of slowing down and adding some more
notes.
I also want to get better at actually reviewing
and refining those notes. My inbox tends to grow
and grow, especially when I get interrupted by an
interesting idea. I have some writing/editing time
while I keep A+ company during virtual school, so
it'll be fun revisiting the notes I stashed.
Collecting
This is about putting a bunch of related notes
together, which I usually do by refiling them.
It's probably also related to clustering, which
I'll get to in the next post about thinking.
I do most of this collecting on my computer, so I
can write a few Emacs functions to make it easier.
For example, I have some code to do the opposite
of refiling so that while I'm looking at a topic,
I can pull in a subtree from somewhere else.
Some buckets collect thoughts for blog posts, some
for projects, some just for areas I'm interested
in. I feel like I tend to lose track of the
buckets that I'm collecting thoughts into–the
list of slightly-less-active thoughts, as the
active thoughts are easily findable. Maybe this is
okay.
Expanding
I want to get better at going from a microblog
post/toot or a quick index-card-type
sketch to a longer blog post or sketchnote.
Actually, since my current workflow focuses mostly
on blog posts, I think this part is more about
contracting: picking out a small thought that I
can share right now instead of waiting until I
write the rest of it. This idea might also include
picking a medium-sized chunk and making it the
first post in a series, and the current post is an
experiment in doing so. I'm a little hesitant to
do so because my brain tends to wander off towards
the end of a series, but it might be worth an
experiment.
I'll also need some code to make it easier to add
links between things in a series, which could be
manual (handy for other non-series links too) or
possibly something handled on the 11ty side (like
How to build a blog series with 11ty/Eleventy).
I can also experiment with spreading posts out by
scheduling them as Org tasks. I've theoretically
added support for holding back future-dated posts
in my 11ty config, but I think managing that on
the Org side might be easier for now.
Boosting
This is linked to learning from others. Boosting
what other people have said or thought can be a
quick and easy way of learning out loud and
enlarging the conversation. I can do more of that
through Mastodon toots, rolling them up into my
blog. I often add snippets to my config based on
the things I come across in Emacs News.
I also like the commentary on blogs like Irreal
and would like to grow into things like that.
Next up: thinking, making, and sharing
Over the next little while, I'm looking forward to fleshing out the next sections. Let's see if breaking things up into posts works…
The book goes into detail about Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten or slipbox system. Lots of people have written about Zettelkasten and various implementations. There's even a whole micro-industry around Notion templates. So I won't spend a lot of time right now describing what it is or what the key aspects are. I can focus instead on what that means to me and what I want to do with it.
Writing
By doing everything with the clear purpose of writing about it, you will do what you do deliberately.
I like chapter 5's focus on keeping writing in mind. I want to push most things towards writing and drawing (posts, code, whatever; public as much as possible) because it's a good way for me to remember and to learn from others. It's a reminder to not try speeding through my to-do list; it's good to slow down and write about stuff.
Following the work
I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.
I always work on different manuscripts at the same time. With this method, to work on different things simultaneously, I never encounter any mental blockages.
During my discretionary time, I usually follow the
butterflies of my interest: working on what I feel
like working on, moving on to something else when
I get stuck. Sometimes I will work on something I
have to do because it's got to be done, but those
moments are rarer. Amidst all those productivity
books that exhort you to focus on a limited number
of things, it was nice to know that Luhmann also
jumped from interest to interest, that the process
of accumulating these notes builds things up into
clusters with critical mass, and that these good
habits build themselves up through positive
feedback loops.
Different types of notes
I do all right capturing fleeting notes on my
phone, but I want to get better at turning my
fleeting notes into literature notes and permanent
notes. I'd like to review them more frequently and
spend some more time fleshing them out, with the
goal of eventually turning more of those things
into blog posts and code that I can share as I
learn out loud.
I also don't really have a good way of putting
topics "near" other topics yet. Categories are a
little coarse, but maybe topic maps are a good
starting point. It would be nice to have a quick
way to put something before/after something else,
though.
Different types of tasks
Writing a paper involves much more than just typing on the keyboard. It also means reading, understanding, reflecting, getting ideas, making connections, distinguishing terms, finding the right words, structuring, organizing, editing, correcting and rewriting.
I wonder if making these distinctions between the subtasks of writing will make it easier for me to break writing down into tiny tasks that can be completed and gotten out of my brain.
Thinking about connections, thinking about what's missing
I want to get better at connecting ideas to other
things I've thought about by linking to blog posts
or notes. That might also help me build up
thoughts out of smaller chunks, which would be
helpful when it comes to working with fragmented
thoughts.
Thinking about what's not in the picture is hard,
and that kind of critical thinking is something I
want to practise more. I can pay attention to the
follow-up questions I have so that I can get a
sense of where to look for more insights or what
to experiment with. Questioning the way something
is framed is also good and something I don't do often enough.
For example, I wanted to dig into this quote:
Luhmann’s only real help was a housekeeper who cooked for him and his children during the week, not that extraordinary considering he had to raise three children on his own after his wife died early.
I ended up doing a tiny bit of research on my phone and putting it into Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten and life with kids (the kids were in their teens at the time, so they were probably a lot more independent than A+ is at the moment).
I want to start building up more thoughts as
chunks and relating them more logically instead of
just chronologically. I've been using categories
to organize my posts into buckets, but within a
category, it's still chronological. I also have a
large outline that includes posts from 2017
to 2024. I'd like to break it up into smaller
topic pages so that they're easier to link to,
although it's a little more challenging to search.
I also modified org-html-toc to not include the
Table of Contents header and to tweak the HTML
attributes assigned to it.
New table of contents code
(defunmy-org-html-toc (depth info &optional scope)
"Build a table of contents.DEPTH is an integer specifying the depth of the table. INFO isa plist used as a communication channel. Optional argument SCOPEis an element defining the scope of the table. Return the tableof contents as a string, or nil if it is empty."
(let ((toc-entries
(mapcar (lambda (headline)
(cons (org-html--format-toc-headline headline info)
(org-export-get-relative-level headline info)))
(org-export-collect-headlines info depth scope))))
(when toc-entries
(let* ((toc-id-counter (plist-get info :org-html--toc-counter))
(toc (concat (format "<div class=\"text-table-of-contents toc-id%s\" role=\"doc-toc\">"
(if toc-id-counter (format "-%d" toc-id-counter) ""))
(org-html--toc-text toc-entries)
"</div>\n")))
(plist-put info :org-html--toc-counter (1+ (or toc-id-counter 0)))
(if scope toc
(let ((outer-tag (if (org-html--html5-fancy-p info)
"nav""div")))
(concat (format "<%s class=\"table-of-contents toc-id%s\" role=\"doc-toc\">\n"
outer-tag
(if toc-id-counter (format "-%d" toc-id-counter) ""))
;; (let ((top-level (plist-get info :html-toplevel-hlevel)));; (format "<h%d>%s</h%d>\n";; top-level;; (org-html--translate "Table of Contents" info);; top-level))
toc
(format "</%s>\n" outer-tag))))))))
(with-eval-after-load'org
(defalias'org-html-toc#'my-org-html-toc))
I customized my visual book notes - all view to show the thumbnails of the images, and I added
You can get to it by going to the visual-book-notes category from a post and then choosing "All".
I like the new "View slideshow" and "Shuffle slideshow" buttons I added.
Figure 1: Screenshot of my visual book notes gallery
I also fixed some of the broken images in older
posts, so there should be 43 posts with images
now.
Someday I want to add a way to go from the sketch
in the slideshow to the post, but it might require
upgrading the version of Photoswipe I have. I'm
currently on 4.x, which hasn't been updated in
years.
