vanderwal.net

Musee d’Orsay and the Three Mixed-media Arabs

I swear I have written about this before, well I have, but just in my notes going way back.

It took James asking about Museum memories for this IndieWeb Carnival March 2026 to get this out. James asked about museum memories and I have many (I may link a list of them which I may write on) and there were at least four that throw me and get me lost in a good way. One of these is this…

Musee d’Orsay and Three Travelers

In 1987 I had my first trip to Paris and was told by many I needed to go to the Musée d’Orsay and many had suggestions of what I must see. The expanse of the museum in an amazing spacious former train station is a gem of a work in and of itself. The stone and light play wonderfully in the space. As we started out for the museum we had to work around Le Tour de Francethat was racing into Paris that morning, it was great to see it. But, arriving in the museum I couldn’t remember what I “should see”.

Toward the end of the main room there were three sculpture busts that called me over. It was three mixed media pieces by Charles Henri Joseph Cordier that were listed together as The Three Arabs (Algerians). Each was a bronze face with alabaster hats and clothing that were moved by the North African breezes. But, one of the three really caused me to pause, consider, and think. It was the Arabe d’El Aghouat en burnous - Charles Henri Joseph Cordier | Musée d’Orsay who had an alabaster robe with hood that went around his bronze face and head.

Part of what struck me was the movement of the alabaster cloth. But, with the cloaked sculpture and a hood, I couldn’t sort out how the hood, face, and head worked. Each angle and time I’d look I was see another detail of the sculpture that drew me in and distracted me from the static mechanics of how it was done. Whomever I’m with often nudges me onward, but my mind is stuck and enrapt with the hooded in hard alabaster bronze face that seems to have the alabaster moving freely like cloth captured and frozen in an instance (yet crafted over much time).

The Returns

I have been back to the Musee d’Orsay three to five times since. With each visit I wander around a little, usually making sure to also see the sub-set of Monet’s studies of light of the West Facade of the Cathedral of Rouen up on the fifth floor. But, I first make sure the three alabaster and bronze sculptures are still there. Early in the visit I will make my way to the three sculptures and take them in anew again. Then I get drawn into the how the hood, head, and face work. The head looks full or mostly full.

This minor mystery to me will still be with me for years between visits. I run into people who are fans of Musee d’Orsay (but, who isn’t) and want to talk about the three Arabs, but nobody I’ve met seems to know they exist. I am so grateful to the museum to have these sculptures on their site, but also Google Maps has them in the 3D exploration of the museum. When others have said they did not see or didn’t notice these sculptures I have to go and check it wasn’t some personal mirage of my own, and it isn’t. But, the mystery of the hood is still real to me. My inspection of the mystery also has me (and sometimes my museum companion for the trip) a little concerned that a guard has flagged me for the close inspection from all angles with fear I am prepping to steal it.

When I am there and taking in the three pieces I am usually the only one around it looking at them for anything more than a few seconds or passing glance. It feels like they are hidden in plain sight.

The Others

The other two pieces are also really well done and I do feel like I have neglected them each visit. Homme du Soudan en costume algérien - Charles Henri Joseph Cordier | Musée d’Orsay is one that the museum site has a decent back story about the work and the artist. He has a strong pose and looks quite determined.

The other is Femme des colonies - Charles Henri Joseph Cordier | Musée d’Orsay and the bronze has more details with an under garment under the alabaster robe, and also has a piece of sturdy jewelry on her upper arm. Her hair stands out with is braiding and spikes. Her stance is mostly strong and confident, with a serious dose of “I’m over it” and taking a break.

These two pieces and the hooded one all do great justice capturing humanity and a moment in time, with more than an essence of being. In these works the museum as brought in everything but the breath of humanity in its glory.

Time to Notice

These pieces stand out to me and I wish others would see them too and be struck by them in the same, or similar, manner. But, I know they are actually there and amazing to someone as others walk by not giving much notice of any kind.

More…

I have more than 30 notes on memories of museums that I’ve been fleshing out a little. I may post the full list and sketch more out with words over time. There are three more museum piece I hope to write in the near future. There is also a piece about cities as museums I really want to finish framing and wrap up its writing.

Weeknote - 15 March 2026

I thought this week was going to fully turn the corner on a cycle of sinus tears, light infection, better, and then start it over again. It has been messing with sleep and having a clear head. I’m hoping thing are sorted.

Am I back posting weeknotes regularly? I love reading other people’s weeknotes and have a handful of favorites. I also miss getting things of interest shared out somewhat regularly.

Watched

Mission Impossible is Sort of Wachable

The tail end of last week I watched what I thought was the last (latest) installment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One - Wikipedia. I started watching late and I hadn’t looked at the length before I started. It was decent and enjoyable. I found it to be one of the better of the Mission Impossible series. I really liked the first movie and some along the way I have found to be decent, but some are a slog. I enjoy the travel and some of the film production, but the scripts are think and acting meh (I really am not a fan of Tom Cruise). But this 7th in the series was decent entertainment. As it ended I realized there was the actual “final” installment and given I thought the 7th was enjoyable there may be hope. I was not right, it was a slog with story segments far too long and with that there were logical gaps.

Seven Dials is Rewachable

Later in the week there was a quiet evening and I needed a break and opted for Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials - Wikipedia on Watch Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials | Netflix Official Site. I wasn’t expecting much as one of the Agatha Christie shows that Netflix had done in the last few years was not really watchable. Seven Dials was more than watchable, I found it to be quite good and a good interpretation. The Seven Dials is a Agatha Christie mystery that leans into a serious nod to P. G. Wodehouse, which I found to be well done (as well is something I was in need of). The main characters were really enjoyable.

Work

Search Me

I did a little tweaking around blog search for here, but not fully pulled it into this blog. It is sitting the Search from the Lab for vanderwal.net. I updated the database engine and switched to InnoDB to get search for 3 letter words and larger working.

I then had the issue of old blog entries where I didn’t have a title and the title is what I make linkable from search. I thought I only had a few handfuls of posts that lacked titles, but it was a few hundred. While adding titles is a good background repetitive task, I moved to adding a permalink under the body of the post snippet in the search results, but also added the post ID as a proxy header to give some consistency.

Category Tweaking

Through searching my posts across 25 years I would click to read a post and go to click a category that I believed would take me to other related content, I found I had categories missing. I added in about 5 or 6 categories and went back and searched and added the categories to posts.

Personal InfoCloud Posts

I have a few posts for the Personal InfoCloud site brewing. There are many things I have thought I have posted there over the years that are just written out in my notes and not edited nor posted. I have one I’m reworking a little.

I have also been going back through many Model of Attraction focussed posts and ones around the InfoClouds (Personal, Local, Global, and External) and sorting out what is posted and not. Related is sorting out what posts I have relate to the roughly 100 Complexity Lenses (at the top level - has also used Social Lenses as its main label in the past, but there is so much more in there than social) and the more than 1,500 nodes in all.

I also have a few posts around software development and product development around subjects that people, teams, and organizations seem to be continually missing or tripped up by.

General Posts

I posted the other day about Adding a Museum Category - Off the Top - vanderwal.net in relation to the IndieWeb Carnival - IndieWeb that James is running this month on museum memories - IndieWeb Carnival March 2026: Museum memories | James’ Coffee Blog. When James mentioned this a while back I was thinking I had a couple or small few museum memories I could post, but started a short list. That list turned into more than 30. There may be more than one post for sure. It may be a series or collection (hence added the category). But, I also have some broader theme posts that are growing on the subject.

My blogfodder list is rather long. But, modifications I’ve made to my workflow and blog management process in Obsidian
(I’ve been using it to sit over my nearly 30 years of text and markdown notes for the last 6 years and finding it really valuable) are making it better to get notes moved to blogfodder, and honed enough to post.

Productivity

Going Back to Bartender for Menu Bar Management for a Bit

I’ve been using Ice for my menu bar management on my MacBook Pro M4 since Bartender was sold and became questionable. Ice has not been updated since macOS 26 has been out (I don’t want anything Liquid Glass added) and with many apps getting a bit unstable on macOS 26 (particularly if they convert to Liquid Glass) and I’m trying to get things sorted.

I saw Bartender 6 had some recent updates and listing of changes and are now being more transparent. I also saw a quite reasonable upgrade price so went for a test of it and did the upgrade. It has been good and not all that different from Ice, but it doesn’t have the small bugs Ice had with the hidden menu bar displaying in odd locations under the menu bar.

Grammar Checking

Trying Harper for Grammar Checking

I stumbled onto and have tried Harper: The Private Grammar Checker, a medium capability grammar checker for English. It has an [[Obsidian plug-in]], which I tried. I realized running a grammar checker on my rough notes isn’t a great match for that part of my workflow. It is easy to flip on an off in Obsidian and often notes turn into something more and that is where Harper may provide assistance. Harper is OpenSource and available on GitHub as well, which means I can run it through DeepWiki to get a decent overview of Harper - Automattic/harper - DeepWiki.

Often my writing and planning starts as rough notes in Obsidian. Since everything is in markdown and markdown is great example of Small Apps Loosely Joined where the file can be picked up in various different applications and use the apps to their best. I pick up the note and initial rough pass in iA Writer to flesh things out more. iA Writer has some light grammar checking and in prep sharing the writing out I use Marked 2, which also has some grammar checking. I’ve been looking for something with a little more assistance. I’m going to try Harper in some other of its options.

In grad school I and for long after I used Grammatik as part of WordPerfect and I really liked both and miss both. Grammarly has never fully been a fit for me and with its recent issues it still isn’t going to be part of my consideration. I’m not a fan of AI involved in my writing process.

I Have Webmentions Working

I have had a partial setup for Webmentions for a few years. I have had getting it properly sorted on my to do list for a few years. In the last week ArtLung ~ Joe Crawford was on a call and started asking questions about it and two or three questions and adding one element to my headers completed the cycle. I now have webmentions enabled, but I receive them in my RSS feeds and am not (likely may not) exposing them.

I Have Webmentions Out Going working with Omnibear

A month or two back I joined a call to look at updates and testing for Omnibear, mostly to learn more about it. But, in about an hour i was running Omnibear as an extension in Firefox and I’m authenticating through my Micro.blog account and site as the foundation for sending replies to others through Webmetions. I really like Omnibear as it shows if a site has enabled to receive a webmention and allows comments, bookmarks, and favorites. Having this in the sidebar (well sidebar in my Zen browser where I use it most) is really nice.

B Cawses

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caw caw

Second Person Bird Carnival

Sophia took on the September 2025 IndieWeb Carnival with the topic second person birds. I had some different takes, but settled into one…

Growing up on the US West Coast there were two birds I knew of birds that I had never seen, thanks to sports teams. Cardinals and Orioles are the two that stood out. We had robins, scrub jays, woodpeckers, and a multitude of other birds, but there were no orioles nor cardinals.

Moving east for grad school I saw my first oriole, which I found was more rare than I figured. But, cardinals are more abundant.

A few years back I found the Merlin Bird ID app and its ability to recognize bird songs. I hear many different bird calls and songs regularly. During the pandemic lockdown there became even more birds signing and calling out. Merlin helped me find out what my favorite discernible songs were. One I regularly heard and enjoyed, particularly in the morning on walks is the cardinal.

As we started coming out of lockdown I took my son to a workout with his trainer. The training sessions were outside and to fit in to the outside environment he asked, not what music, but what bird song he should play on the speakers. My son didn’t have any idea and he looked to me and I knew exactly what I would want another (second person) to play, the cardinal bird song (go ahead and go listen).

August IndieWeb Movie Club Intro for Local Hero

I volunteered for the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb August 2025 slot as it was open with months following booked. I selected the 1983 film Local Hero (1983) — The Movie Database (TMDB) (PG–13), which has an ensemble cast of American actors and British and Scottish actors. It an interesting cross cultural set piece where a mid-tier executive from an American oil company gets sent to a small rural coastal town in Scotland.

There are some well known actors of the time and currently (with Peter Capaldi, who played one of the regenerations of Dr. Who). The film being more than 40 years old has held up relatively well with its humor, coziness, and charm. There are an abundance of themes to sink into, which also adds to the entertainment of watching and discussing the film.

Personally I’ve watched this movie a lot (between 15 to 20 times) and most watchings I’m still seeing something new that adds to the humor or understanding of the film. There are few wasted lines that don’t have a pay off later, either directly or subtilely. But, on a first watching it can hold its own just fine, even though it has been a long time since my first watching.

How to Participate in the IndieWeb Movie Club

To participate in the Movie Club, write a post about your thoughts on Local Hero and post it on your site by the end of the August 2025. Once you have it posted you may give me the link to your post in a few different ways: Send a note in the IndieWeb chat, or mention me (vanderwal) on mastodon.social or Bluesky.

I will take the IndieWeb inputs and provide a round-up at the end of August.

On the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb you can see past Movie Club monthly movies and the introductions and round-ups.

Local Related Resources

• Local Hero (1983) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
• Local Hero (film) - Wikipedia
• Local Hero (1983) - IMDb
• Local Hero - TheTVDB.com

Where to Watch

In the US Local Hero is listed on Tubi - Watch Local Hero (1983) - Free Movies | Tubi.

There are other options to watch for free, rent, or purchase:
- Local Hero - Just Watch

I hope you choose to participate and I look forward to your posts about Local Hero

IndieWeb Carnival - Totems

This is following the prompt - IndieWeb Carnival July 2025: Totems | Maxwell’s Realm, as set by Maxwell Joslyn. All interpretations of totems have come to mind from things I’ve kept in my pockets, a Swatch watch on my belt loop from high school through much of college, my dad’s watch, to a regular cap. But, growing up in the Pacific Northwest the idea that comes to mind when someone says “totem” are the native tribes of the Pacific Northwest’s totem poles and art.

As a young child living in the Seattle area and Portland there were not only totem poles around, but a lot of Totem poles - (Wikipedia) around and I enjoyed them and if we were traveling and there were totem poles around, we needed to go see them. I picked up a couple replicas for my book shelves as a kid and had them for a long time (I swore I still had them). But, it was not just the poles, it was Northwest Coast art - (Wikipedia) that also drew me in.

We would take regular trips each year to Vancouver, British Columbia, which meant even more totem poles and art. Stanley Park had is large totem pole, which we needed to visit, but as I found or more we needed to go see those as well. I could stand and look at them for a long time, but my parents didn’t have the same interest in staring at them and walking around them.

Once my family moved to Portland, Oregon the opportunities weren’t as prevalent to see the totem poles, but the art was all around. In my perspective the best thing about Portland was being close to Lelooska Foundation & Cultural Center – Living History Museum. Going to see Chief Lelooska and the Cultural Center for school trip and cub scout trips, and any other opportunity, was a perfect time in my book. Going to the long house celebrations with the stories and dancing, which came with explanations were fantastic.

This art and gathering called out the local salmon, ravens, hawks, orcas, and more in celebration and made each of them seem even more special. The sometimes world around you that can get overlooked by the day to day (even for kids) gets pulled into pure focus.

The Triplets of Bellville for IndieWeb Movie Club

This month’s IndieWeb Movie Club selection is The Triplets of Bellville that kicked off with Mark Sutherland’s introduction - IndieWeb Movie Club July 2025 - Triplets of Bellville - Mark Sutherland. For background:

• Letterboxd: (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-triplets-of-belleville/)
• IMDB: (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/)
• TMDB: The Triplets of Belleville (2003) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
• TVDB: (https://www.thetvdb.com/movies/the-triplets-of-belleville)
• Wikipedia: (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triplets_of_Belleville)

A First Take of Triplets

I knew very little about The Triplets of Belleville going into the movie. I had watched the trailer and rented it. I knew it was a French animation movie with a connection to cycling and the Tour de France, but that is all I had going in.

A very short review would be: This is a modern French animation silent-ish movie that has a storyline akin to a fever dream. It was like watching Brazil with a different storyline, genre, and milieu, but French animation.

A Second Take of Triplets

As I was watching the first 10 to 15 minutes I would think I has a foundation for, “Oh, this is what the film is going to be”, but there seemed to be five or six potential paths. Throughout, what really stood out was the animation in a semi-sketch and water color with sepia tones and grays. Some animated films lean toward clean comfortable aesthetics with a illustrated tilt at reality, but not Triplets as its leans more to the surreal and exaggerated caricatures that would be quite believably done by the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Honoré Daumier. The somewhat rough environmental sketches set the atmospherics for a story of a boy and his grandmother in just above squalid conditions. This is clearly not a Disney movie, but the dog (a main character) would fit nicely in a draft quality of Aristocats (but, oh Triplets is not going anywhere near Disney type conventions as a movie and that is incredibly clear in the opening moments).

The film starts with us watching the screen that the character is watching, but that isn’t fully clear at first. But, this theme of looking in through eyes watching something created to be watched reoccurs and has layers. There are solid threads of commentary on “watching cultures” that are heavily invested in entertainment, no mater the human cost. The animated time transitions are sometimes rough and like many other twists and jags of plots and themes. But, the absurdity and unexpected twists are a part of charm and fun. Everything has quirks that could be annoying in reality, but are endearing in this framing.

To say this is a cycling film, which is what Triplets seems to start out as, is like saying Die Hard is a work place drama. The young man on a bike and his grandmother training him from trike with a pulsating whistle, along with very rudimentary and Rube Goldberg contraption devices for training and recovery, with cycling posters, and hints at Le Tour de France around their home would set the stage for a quaint rags to riches American cycling heroics movie. But, this isn’t American, it is French (you know the country with Sartre, surrealism, and existentialism) and this film leans into the surreal and the absurd in interesting (you know, the good kind of interesting) ways.

The rags to riches cycling animated film at Le Tour, takes a strong zig with a sinister plot, that comes to fruition, around a kidnapping of cyclists. The young man is taken by the mob / mafia along with two others. This is now a absurdist crime thriller. But, the creators of Triplets are playing with a deck of cards with six or seven suits and each suit as different cards from the other suits. This is all done wonderfully.

The grandmother and her dog go chasing the amazingly surreal ship to a different and unknown land with a city. It takes a while for this to settle and sort out what has happened to her grandson. They are so near, and yet so far. It is about halfway through before the Triplets themselves become apparent. But, how all of this fits together or comes together isn’t clear. There are more zigs, zags, and jags that are all perfectly enjoyable in unusual ways.

One of the Triplets goes frog fishing with grenades, because, of course. But, beyond this it starts getting into odd spoilers. With no words we watch as the grandmother is taken in by the Triplets with her dog and run through a myriad of odd house rules.

There is an ending to this film that is rather reminiscent of Brazil, which may be a nod, or strongly pointing. But, there is a layering of screens and being watched and observed that echoes in Triplets. What is real and perceived or watched is a lingering theme. A map to Hollywood and tour guide that is uncovered a long the way are more than a hint that this is one of the social commentary threads to hold onto.

The dark characters of the mob / mafia are comically draw and large boxy figures, that adhere to each other and things. There are many characters and animations that are purely comical and absurd in wonderful ways. Most of the prominent eyes are behind glasses, other than the cyclists (it may take a rewatch to sort this out, but it started to be noticeable).

The Third Take of Triplets is a Wrap

The Triplets of Belleville has the feeling of a film with a lot of layers, like one of my favorites to rewatch, Local Hero where the first watching or two you realize there are a lot of layers and things going on to watch for. I have a feeling I may watch this again, at least once, and discover more.

This was a gem of a movie and one heck of a fever dream. I’m thankful Mark Sutherland selected it for the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb watch for July.

My Writing Process with Obsidian

A few times lately my writing process has come up as it relies heavily on markdown for portability, longevity access, flexibility, and using the Shift Happened – Part 2: Small Apps Loosely Joined – Personal InfoCloud. The Small Apps Loosely Joined concept is something I use heavily for many things, but for writing the use of markdown I use the concept quite heavily.

Recently in a IndieWeb gathering, James who runs and writes James’ Coffee Blog shared his process and workflow for writing through to posting on his site, which was similar to my own process, but uses different tools along the way. He had something in his process he was looking to improve upon so I walked through my process.

My Process has Morphed Over the Years

My current writing process is an extension and evolution from my initial processes that trace back to college. But, it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s that my current process formed iterated upon. My early writing for blog posts and articles all start in markdown, which years back was well structured text and sometimes HTML for the structure.

My notes prior to formal blogging (started at the tail end of 2000) that I posted to my site were all hand coded HTML (or raw coding). If a note was going to turn into a blog post it quickly was marked up, and often as I was making the note or post.

Automate Early

One of the core elements I learned in the 1990s was to automate early for anything you can automate, use the tools you have at hand to help yourself be more productive. Most of my writing up through around 2010 was text and then quickly turned into HTML markup, as it is simple to do. But, the tough part is connecting related content, which is why I created my personal content management system (CMS) to run this vanderwal.net blog in 2000 and fully put it to use in 2001 (I used Blogger for a bit early on). Taking rote patterns and automating them was a great addition to help my process in 2000 to now.

In 2010 I shifted all of my note taking to markdown as moving across apps and devices made using other note making methods difficult to access and use. This shift to full markdown for notes, helped my writing move from notes to posts and articles much easier.

Markdown Workflow Process

Today and the last 5 years my notes start most often in Obsidian (and on mobile in Drafts, which is great for the good practice of get it out of your head and then sort out what to do with it). I have many notes flagged as “blogfodder” and track those through the writing process and moving them from a stub of an idea, to draft, not posted but ready, and posted (which includes a link to where it was posted). I’ll have another post about my new blogfodder process, which I’m really liking.

The writing starts as a note and gets fleshed out, if it is needed. If it is a short item I may stay in Obsidian and then grab and drag the markdown file in the Finder to the next step (I will get to this shortly).

Quite often I will leave Obsidian and from it click to open the Finder with the markdown file highlighted and then open that file in iA Writer - iA Writer, which is a nice focussed writing app for markdown, with additional capabilities. I often use the old journalism marker for needs attention (tk!) or “to correct” for things that need links, fact checks, or reference notes. Once I’m happy with the writing and structure in iA Writer (or Obsidian) I move to the next step.

Move to Prep for Posting

In years past I would take the markdown and quickly take the markdown structure and convert it to HTML markup by hand. Around 2013 or so I started scripting this transition, but the script was fussy. I’m not sure when, but it wasn’t long after this, I ran across Marked 2 - Marked 2. I think I started using Marked to convert markdown to PDFs and Word documents (for things that need to be sent out for formal article transformation in publications from Word). But, I realized Marked 2 had really good markdown to HTML conversion that was as good as my script, but not fussy. As I moved to Obsidian with properties in front matter and a footer with blogfodder tracking, it can remove all of that with ease, translate external links very nicely, and remove all backlink notation.

It is often in Marked 2 that I find markdown problems or the tk! marks. Marked 2 also includes some light grammar checking, which I appreciate and I’ll work through those suggestions. Then I flip to the HTML markup view and make edits, if needed, there.

Open My Blog Entry Form

Once I’m happy enough with the post I open my blog entry for for vanderwal.net or Personal InfoCloud and paste the HMTL into the form for the body of the post. On vanderwal.net I add in the title, location, type of post (these days everything is a weblog, but in the past it was more diverse), then select the related categories and submit it. Then I just to look at the post and review it again. If it needs an edit (up until July 5th) I would go into the database and make edits to the post there, but now have an edit process in my CMS (after 25 years, I figured it was about time). Once that is done, I go click to generate the RSS feed for the site, and send out alerts to services that share out links and summaries farther.

Wrap-up of the Workflow

This workflow is now done, except for seeing spelling errors or things not right and needing tweaks.

The process that starts in a markdown note, then progresses through to a more formal writing process and flow. I replaced a lot of manual steps that I didn’t think were difficult nor took a lot of time and automated the steps that do exactly what I had been doing with the same level of care, but saving time and reducing errors.

I don’t use AI in any of this writing process. I run across too much AI written content that is lifeless and doesn’t sound like the writer any longer. I’ve stopped reading many colleagues who used to have great ideas and a great personal voice, but are now just bland slop through the use of AI that tilts at, but doesn’t achieve mediocrity.

I have my own quirks and writing patterns, which I am fine with. I don’t write to impress, but to get honest ideas and understandings out. I blog and write to find connection with others of like or similar minds.

2025 Vanderwal.net Backend Modernization is Done

A couple years ago I thought I would update the backend code from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7 and initial progress on it was hindered by time available.

Planning the Modernization Work

A few weeks back I started looking at it again and mapped it out properly like a project. I realized PHP 7 was deprecated and I should really head to PHP 8, so that target was set. I was planning on keeping things relatively simple using a database connection quite similar to what I had used, but digging through PHP 8 books and resources on O’Reilly Learning Platform everything was using a newer more flexible method. After digging further I took the route that would take a bit more work modifying existing code (some going back to 2000 and 2001). But, as I dug into the work I realized I was only needing to modify and modernize about 20% to 30% of code on the pages and templates.

In doing this I also realized my old method of security around the system management backend was no longer working, so it had to be rewritten as well. That meant rebuilding the backend screens. Those updates went live two days ago on the 19th.

With that done it was back to the last third or so of the pages and templates that are public facing. I had already reworked the category output pages and adding pagination to them. No longer will all 121 Folksonomy categorized posts show up on one screen, only 15 at a time will. The “Personal” category has 369 posts (it is a blog so it is about me, you see, but just not all of it).

The RSS feed received a very minor update to RSS 0.92 to keep in line with many of the OG methods that remain.

The Actual Homepage has been Restructured

The homepage for vanderwal.net has been restructured to make it easier to find information that isn’t directly in the blog and I get emails and DMs about somewhat regularly. Moving it to two columns helped this. I do need to modify this to flex or grid CSS model as tweaking the layout was rather tedious.

This Modernization was like Changing the Plumbing and Wiring in a Building

This modernization was like bringing the plumbing and wiring of a building up to new building code. The walls and structure are all pretty much the same. The top layer stays the same for now.

This modernization does allow me to hopefully finish setting up webmentions, which I’ve had partly wired since around 2021 or so. I just need the last piece to that to work. There are also other IndieWeb related updates I’m planning on making and have been waiting to get this code updated before modifying and adding them into place. By the way, if you are running your own site and/or blog, the IndieWeb community has a gem. There are a lot of resources in their wiki and pages helping anybody with their own site.

The pagination for the blog is likely going to change from a date with month focussed pagination to a page model with the oldest selection being page 1. The archive page will get a long over due update so it doesn’t stop at 2003 (looks at calendar, yep it is out of date). I’m hoping to have an archive page that shows activity, but also addresses the different post types (essay, journal, and weblog) that only lasted the first few years, but also around the 2014 code update and site move the entry type template went missing.

The category listings pages will also likely get an update and the category page may likely get some ease of moving through the posts over time, beyond general pagination.

Assistance with the Update

This being 2025 the question pops up if and how I was using generative AI as part of this. I was using Claude.ai from Anthropic with some initial questions, then I’d head to O’Reilly’s resources to validate them and learn what I needed to know (it had been about 10 years since I was knee deep into PHP). When coding and modernizing the pages and templates I’d and hit defects I’d run those past Claude to sort out what the issue may be (sometimes missing “;”, others the new query wrapper and parsing method caused me to miss something, or I had deprecated code I hadn’t converted). Claude would point out my errors and instruct me how to correct it. Sometimes it would offer a few options for approaches (some were not quite right and others were good and I needed to select a path - after verifying and learning about them further). It also would crank out code. I gave Claude instructions not to bother with large chunks of my pages and code, which it left alone.

I use Claude stand alone and used is Project function to keep things focussed. I fed it the outlines and high level task areas I have in GitHub and Obsidian and it was keeping track of what was accomplished and how the work met the goals. The most impressive thing, compared to other generative AI options is it was very strict with identifying things not viable in PHP 8 (and its iterative versions) as nothing else did this well. Claude also had the code of pages and templates I had worked on and would point out I was using a structure and method in other page and ask if I shouldn’t use that practice on the page I just fed it to sort out some defect I was working through. My code has had four or more iterations over the 25 years and my early coding wasn’t so hot and still remained. Claude helped my code get more consistent, not by it fixing it, but pointing out I had something good and modern and I should keep consistent with that. By the last couple of templates I didn’t need to have Claude check them as they worked with my own editing, but I still fed them in as it seems to help improve suggestions and catching lack of consistency of my own doing.

A year ago I tried this with OpenAI and its ChatGPT and it was a hot mess. It couldn’t keep PHP versions correct. I try it with every update and I find it really problematic and what it outputs (code and other attempts) as nothing better than mediocre and often not correct.

IDE Use

In the last 10 to 15 years the IDE I’ve used to code and work on vanderwal.net has been from Panic and either Coda or now Nova, which have worked well. I have kept a good firewall between AI assistance and the IDE. I don’t mind type ahead suggestions. But, finding deprecated code to address was something I was going to need. Some friends suggested I try PhpStorm by JetBrains, which seemed good as I’ve used PyCharm a few times in the past and really enjoyed it. I knew I didn’t want VS Code near this, as I’ve pretty much had it with VS Code (I mostly use it with Python for data analytics) due to plug-in issues and lack of ease keeping projects separated.

I picked-up a trial of PHPStorm and after a day or so I had the hang of a good portion of what I needed to do. My favorite part is the setting the exact version of PHP you are working with. It highlights where there are errors and problems. In the last couple of days as I finally was getting the hang of PHP 8 and the methods I was regularly using PHPStorm was helping with type ahead suggestions (there were a few times where I accidentally triggered them when I didn’t want them and nearly turned of that functionality - control Z is your friend). PHPStorm also can make use of GitHub CoPilot, which I don’t find helpful with OpenAI connected to it, but is better with Claude Sonnet. The downside with CoPilot is it doesn’t have access to the Project space in Claude I’ve been working with and therefore its suggestions are less on target - CoPilot with Claude is light years better for PHP than OpenAI offerings). Essentially I didn’t use the incorporated genAI functionality and I was very happy with that setup.

Posting Ease

One of the things I’m looking forward to are slightly better methods for posting to this site and managing posts. Many of the steps beyond creating and posting are manual steps, like kicking off creation of the RSS feed (I do that after a quick review of the created post as it is live, I kick the RSS feed after that review). The alerting the media, or the alerts beyond basic RSS, is also a manual step done after that review. I may automate the combination of those two kicks after a review.