Blog: 2024

One Year of Me Joining the IndieWeb

2024-03-23 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Hooray!! I joined the IndieWeb a year ago! I'm really excited and happy that I joined this community. By joining the IndieWeb, I've increased my presence on the internet and have slowly been retreating from using centralized media. It's just a good time. I'll keep my excitement short!

Things I've done or participated:

  • Met so many amazing people
  • Hosted an IndieWeb Carnival
  • Attend Homebrew Website Club
  • Started Blogging again.
  • Started more development

What is the IndieWeb?

The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the “corporate web”.

It is a community of independent and personal websites connected by open standards and based on the principles of: owning your domain and using it as your primary online identity, publishing on your own site first (optionally elsewhere), and owning your content.

Displaying Webmentions Extension for Datenstrom Yellow

2024-03-18 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Screenshot

A screenshot of webmentions being displayed using the webmention extension for Datenstrom Yellow

The other night I was helping my friend Mani setup webmentions on his website since he is building his website and I was hoping to build something while I was helping him. He got me thinking, "I should really do something on your website with webmentions!" I also said to myself, "I will do something about it!" As cheesy as that sounds, it was a good motivational moment to get something done.

I guess that was the night to start back something I had the skeleton started, well at least partially. Sometime last year I started the skeleton.

Well I did it!

I built a extension displaying webmentions on my website. This is something I had started sometime last year and I finally got around to do it again. I actually had a repository for it on Github. Since I didn't touch it for so long, I had also noticed that Robert had make an issue on the repository asking if I had made the webmention extension working. Robert also uses Datenstrom Yellow He wrote this back in January.

I would like the IndieWeb, indieauth, webmentions, micropub, etc. to be more present in the Datenstrom community. I am hopeful that more people down the road will use Datenstrom and me more inclined to create more plugins for it..

The extension is made for the flat-file CMS (content management system) call Datenstrom Yellow or simply Datenstrom. This is the CMS of choise my personal website. For the longest time I had hard-coded (I'm phasing this out) the displaying of webmentions on my website since I wanted to have some implemention of displaying webmentions. Creating this extension may not be a big deal to others but I feel it's a big leap for me as I get more comfortable getting back into modifying the tools I use daily. I would like to help contribute more the the communities I participate in such as the Datenstrom Community. Creating this extension will help me give back and tippy toe back into the developmental world.

With that being said new to building extensions for a CMS. Having lingered this idea for some time, I took a look at the API. As I started to build this extension, Datenstrom provides good documentation overall. There are plenty examples to utiilize the API used to interact with the CMS. You would think that me using this CMS for so long I would be doing more with it? I guess I finally go the itch. I'm still learning the ins and outs of it as I get into the more advanced features.

The main files that make the extension work (GitHub Repo). So here is how it works!

  • extension.ini - tells Datenstrom what to do with the files and adds extension config paramenters to yellow-system.ini (config file for Datenstrom).
  • icon.css - A CSS file for Material Icons from Google Fonts.
  • webmention.css - A CSS file to style the webmention extension.
  • webmention.js- A javascript file to parse webmentions from webmention.io into HTML and it pulls the webmentions for the specific page you are on.
  • webmention.php - This tells Datenstrom how to interact with the API and how to activate the extension.

This extension is still a work in progress. There is so much to do still. Please bear with me as I make the code, especially the javascript, more readable and more optimized. I also know I repeat myself. It at least functions to get started. I'll be updating this code throughout the next few days and as needed down the road.

If you are interested in collaborating, I'd love to connect or simply create a pull request on the Github repository. Do you or someone use Datenstrom as the CMS of choice? I'd love to know!

To learn more about Datenstrom visit their website or the GitHub repository.

Also posted on IndieNews.

Saying Goodbye to Friends

2024-03-12 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

robot saying goodbye

Yesterday was a bitter sweet day for me. This has been a day that has been coming. It doesn't really hit you until all their things are packed up ready to be loaded in the moving truck. I look around at my friends almost empty apartment with nothing on empty walls. The sad feeling the emotions take place. Maybe, it's the allergies. These friends are very special to me as they are one of the first friends I made in California. These friends made me feel right at home as I moved a place unfamiliar to me. It all started just by saying "hello!" as I was moving into the unit I was moving into. We hit it off right off the bat. We would go cruising on our boards. We did disc golfing (which I'm not good at). Go on adventures throughout California. We would go over to each other's place. They threw a welcome back party after returning from South Korea after being gone for a month. They help me experience new things that definitely got me out of my comfort zone. My friends helped me grow as a person. Most importantly, they taught me how to be more fun.

I'm happy they are off to a new adventure. I want them to be happy and do what is best for them. I am grateful to have made friends with them. I know that this is goodbye for now. We'll be in touch. I'll send post cards. We'll see each other along the way. I wish you all the best. See you all soon.

Thank you for all the memories,
Pablo

Lights - Ellie Goulding

2024-03-08 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Lights by Ellie Goulding cover

I'm excited for this weekend. I'm catching up with some friends and simply hanging out. I'm really excited for Saturday. I'm singing with the Sacramento Pop Choir along with fellow students of mine at the Sacramento Pop Choir. I'll sing along with other baritones/tenors to the song, Lights by Ellie Goulding. I forgot how much I enjoy this song. It's been a while since I've formally studied music. The music teacher at school got me going again! Kudos to her!

Singing makes me happy. I am not that good but I can sight read and understand how sheet music works. I have done for many years. Over the last few months, I've started to practice music formally again. There is something so magical about reading music and interpreting it. I'm also supporting my students who want to learn more. They are so talented. Wish me luck or I'll say to myself, "Break a leg!"

[Verse 1]

I had a way then
Losing it all on my own
I had a heart then
But the queen has been overthrown
And I'm not sleeping now
The dark is too hard to beat
And I'm not keeping now
The strength I need to push me

I Voted in the California Primary

2024-03-05 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Today is March 5th, 2024. I voted in the California Primary for the first time since moving here. I guess I do officially live here. I love how easy it is to vote in person here in Sacramento. The original plan was to submit my mail-in-ballot but I accidentally got my primary ballot soaked when I was carrying my water bottle. Of course, I forgot to request a new one and days went on without thinking about it. Then it dawned on me that today was voting day. I had in my navigation to a specific voting location and on the way there, I saw another polling location. I canceled the navigation and pulled into the polling places I had just driven by. I was so excited because, why go out of my way when I can do it right then and there!

Checking in was easy. I gave my basic information for them to print off the ballot. There was an option to do it electronically but I chose paper instead. I was briefed on where the ballot drop-box was located to place the ballot after I have completed filling it out. My ballot was placed in a secrecy vanilla folder to provide discretion in carrying it between the voting official station and the voting cubicle. After receiving the ballot, I went to a voting station cubicle and filled in my ballot. I voted for those I felt would do good in their current or future positions. I had done some research on the candidates. If you don't, you really should see what each candidate stands for and look at the finer details. Then, once I was satisfied with myself filling in all the ovals, I placed the ballot in the secrecy vanilla folder to prepare to turn it in. I walked across the room to place the ballot in the ballot drop-box.

Finally, I got a sticker to show off that I voted. This time I chose a sticker that says, "Yo Voté" which is Spanish for, "I Voted".

It was that easy! It seemed very seamless. This really motivates me to pay attention in local elections that help shape the future of the city I am living in. Voting is important and a fundamental right which I am happy to exercise. I'm happy I participated in doing my civic duty to vote. We all have a voice. We are the voice for those who can't.