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Excursions

A morning walk skipped for a relaxing cup of tea with my wife. Basking in the morning sunlight. A deal that I will take any day. Day 27 of #30day 🖼️

I have released a new version of the Paper theme (v1.0.3) today to display category list on the archive page – this can be disabled via plug-in settings. The theme now also supports Reply by email and Conversation on M.b plug-ins by @sod. So if any of the plug-in is already installed, the appropriate link will be displayed under the posts. The upgrade also brings support to include Buy Me a Coffee profile in the social icons list.

I appreciate all the feedback I have received until now. With all the improvements, Paper has become my default theme for my blog (what you see here).

I had to work late into the evening in the office today. What it means is I am left with a tired body and drained mind. I have to push all the tasks big and small, planned and unplanned to tomorrow now. Exhausted! 🥱

I was back looking at the skies from a familiar spot again. Each time the sun has coloured it uniquely different. This time it itself flared like crazy! Day 25 of #30day 🖼️

Sometimes it’s the shadows that lead the way, act as a landmark for you to point yourself towards and move ahead. That’s life. Day 24 of #30day 🖼️

I’m spending too much time passively reading through the timelines, especially Micro.blog as it’s both my blog host and the social platform I enjoy hanging out at. With it recently becoming the center for my side projects too, it’s been difficult to keep the interests separate.

I have settled onto an easy workflow for publishing newsletters with Micro.blog. Another issue for Excursions Weekly went out today and the editing process was the most frictionless till date. I do wish though that there was an archive of the issues that I could share with the subscribers so that they know what they are signing up for.

Also, unfortunately the issue with the replies bouncing back has still not been fixed. Without that, I have no way to connect with the readers.

The way things stand, the support for newsletter in Micro.blog is extremely bare today. But the workflow remains one that I am most comfortable with. I just wish a few things were different and better.

I have been busy tinkering with many things these last few days. I don’t like when this happens because I halt everything else. I don’t read — that invariably leads to me writing less. My routine is completely messed up. No early to bed and early to rise. I stay awake unnecessarily, and when I eventually sleep, it is with a mind full of thoughts, working on stuff yet undone. No surprise, the sleep is not peaceful.

I cozy up to all the bad habits. No control on eating or control on my smartphone usage. Every good habit that was picked up is forgotten again. Yikes!

I find it curious that being productive mars my health more often. I need to learn to shut myself down on time. Learn to say no to additional work, notwithstanding the fun I am having.

The sky was oddly clear today, was so after so many days of scattered clouds. I pause, looked up through the trees and the shades looked soothing to me. Day 23 of #30day 🖼️

This tree is at a pretty central location around where I live. I love how peculiar it looks, but I don’t like this shot I took today. It’s too busy. But I still want to upload it. I will get it right one day, look back to this one and smile. Day 22 of #30day 🖼️

After working for a week to finish a few coding projects that were pending for some time, it’s good to be back to a blank slate. I’m happy I managed the off times well. So finally, nothing I use or have build pinches my eyes. At least, for now. Now, I can get back to writing.

A spot that I have walked by so many times. So many memories. A happening, busy corner of our gated community. Where friends young and old gathered. Laughed. Played. It was painful to see it wear an abandoned look. Day 20 of #30day 🖼️

I have released a new version 1.1 of Posts Stats plug-in today. It adds the support to display a chart for the posts by year, displays categories as a cloud and introduces a new stat to show the longest post published. I am pleased with this version - demo here. 😊

On the morning walk today. The skies were laden with clouds. The sun busy attempting to peek through. The chirpy birds, restless, yet enjoying the flight. A breeze so cold that the walk was nothing but a relaxing stroll. Day 18 of #30day 🖼️

I have released a new version 1.0.2 of the Paper theme today, which addresses the reported issues and suggestions since the first release yesterday. Here are the changes, in brief.

  • Added support to include replies on individual posts
  • Added the configuration of social icons as plug-in setting
  • Updated the styling to display categories along with posts
  • Updated documentation to include installation steps
  • Fixed styling of images on smaller screens

You can go to the Plug-ins section in Micro.blog and click “Upgrade” once the option is available. You will have to reconfigure (for the last time, hopefully) the social IDs in the settings of the plug-in. No need to modify the config.json, anymore. This also means the configurations will not be lost during the future upgrades.

I am thrilled with all the feedback that I have received. Paper is a beautifully designed theme, something I can take no credit for. At the same time, I am glad I could make it simpler for others to adopt it.

The skies from the morning walk. I love how the shot came out, though, I can’t put finger to exact what makes me do. I feel it’s the colors and the look of the structure rising into the sky. Day 17 of #30day 🖼️

Paper – A Clean Theme for Micro.blog

After playing around briefly to understand how to bring a theme made for Hugo to Micro.blog, I have finally ported one that I love. Today, I am ready to share it with the Micro.blog community. The theme is called Paper and goes with a tagline “simple, clean, flexible”. You can check for yourself in the screenshot below, or see it live at my test blog.

I am a big fan of clean themes that are minimal, yet impressive. Paper is one such theme — I had used it earlier when I was hosting this blog with Hugo. Although it looks minimal, it isn’t so in the way it works. It has a simple, yet signature header, a built-in dark mode support with a beautiful toggle and a clean black & white look.

I have added the first version of this theme to the plug-ins directory so that you can install it directly as a plugin. It works with both Hugo versions that Micro.blog supports (0.54 and 0.91) [Update]: An issue was reported while using the theme with Hugo version 0.54. So, until further update, the theme supports only version 0.91 of Hugo. However, here are a few points to remember before you install the theme.

Uninstall any theme that you have installed as a plugin. Set you current theme to blank and Hugo Version to 0.91 in the design section of your blog. Make sure there are no other conflicting custom CSS configured for the previous theme. Then install the Paper theme from the plugin directory. Once the theme is successfully installed, you can configure the social icons displayed in the header by modifying the available options in config.json.

There’s already a brilliant selection of themes available for Micro.blog and I am excited to see the support grow further with every passing day. I hope you like this and a few folks benefit from it. If you do, I would love to hear from you.

On the morning walk today. With the sun burning through the clouds, with the wind mills cheering, being the perfect spectators. Day 16 of #30day 🖼️

A half way into the challenge today. When I began, I had no idea I would be doing and enjoying this for so long. Anyway, another shot from the evening walk. Day 15 of #30day 🖼️