Excursions

Since my niece was born on this day three years ago today, the new year celebrations have been quite unfamiliar for us. The whole world celebrates along with us as she grows a year old, every year. Or so we have convinced her and her parents. This year is no different, albeit a tad muted. But still, the folks all-around plan to celebrate.

Knowing how all my plans for 2020 were mercilessly crushed by the pandemic, I had no expectations from 2021. I knew it was going to be more of the same dreadful cycle of panic, despair, and hope. At the same time, I also wished I and all my dear ones sail through, see the end of the year.

As I sit here today, looking at the year gone by, all I can do is smile. It began with a phase as dark as my family had ever seen. But it brought us all close, gave us the courage to stay strong. We got back on our feet, stronger. We learned to live with the virus, masked whenever outside. Vaccinating ourselves. Slowly, gradually, we wandered, unhesitant, outside our homes. Each one of us established our own new rules, routines, and traditions around travel.

We met our friends, got nostalgic for the days that we had left behind. We got hungry, got drunk and laughed our hearts out. I witness my office welcome my colleagues, the floors, and pantries reverberating with grumbles again.

I am fortunate I could do all of that. And a lot more. That I watch my crazy friends share their plans for celebrations with booze and snacks. That I would watch the skies light up with fireworks one more time. I am fortunate that I am about to get ready and join my family to celebrate my niece growing older by another year.

And if you are reading this, know that, in one way or the other, you are too. Just look back and find out why.

Resilience. And kismet. The two words I would remember 2021 by. Wish you a happy new year, you all!

Artwork by David Wirzba on Unsplash

It has been the third day in a row today that I decided to sleep early, get back to routine and failed. I just can’t stop myself from doing what I am doing at my system. Until last week, I used to lay down onto my bed with my Kindle and was sound sleep at the same time every time. That hasn’t been the case for this part few days.

I know what I need to do. I can’t make myself do it. Sure, I have my reasons why I am going late to bed. Nonetheless, I don’t like that a bit.

Sleep routine is a flaky thing — disturb it ever so slightly, and it absolutely falls apart. And takes down the whole next day with it.

I decided against replacing my theme with something entirely new. I have too many custom components baked in currently that I don’t have time to replicate afresh. Plus, all the feedback from folks helped me convince myself that what I have is good enough.

But, I have refreshed a few aspects in the existing theme. As advised by Khalid, I started with a typeface and replaced it with a serif one. It looks a lot bolder to me. A few clean-ups around accent colours. And a lot of moving stuff around.

What I have, thus, is something that looks different, yet is the same. The journey is incomplete yet, there are many ugly corners that need clean-up. But I will get to those as time permits.

An inner monologue around my site’s theme to follow. I have grown bored by looking at my current theme. Not that I don’t like it, it just needs a reset. This has been how the site looks for a couple of years now. It looks so bland. Not playful. Not personal. There is no character.

Over the year, I have added so much stuff to the theme. It does not, at all, resemble what I started with. It feels hacky all around. I have realised I can’t create anything polished, so I prefer not to build something totally custom. I prefer anything that comes ready-made. But that’s tricky as these are still early days for theming with Micro.blog. I like a couple, but neither is perfect. Shall I start with one and personalise in limit? Do I want to take the project up?

I know, I know. “It is the words that matter and not what’s around.” & “Make the content beautiful, not the container” & blah blah.

I get it. That’s the writer in me speaking. But the developer in me is craving for change. Can I hold him back?

Oh, I have a profile on omg.lol. To be frank, that’s neither OMG, nor LOL. I did manage to not subscribe during all the giveaways. But I like the fun element. Always. So I had to. Also, I blame @maique 🙃

A minor upgrade to the Posts Stats plug-in – the numbers are displayed with commas now, grouped on thousands. Without this, the larger numbers were annoying to watch. Anyway, that’s that. PS: I still haven’t found out a way to include config for disabling menu item.

I didn’t realize that the repository for Micro.Threads was private till now. No idea why I kept it so. Well, I made it public today. You can check out the code on GitHub, if interested.

This small utility continues to help me every day to discover new conversations and users.

I tried to watch Red Notice today. I couldn’t beyond an hour or so - it’s such a terrible movie.

I like to remind myself about the number of words that I’ve written on my blog. Well, now I do, through my Archive page. It’s auto-generated, refreshed every time I publish. And if you host with Micro.blog, you can achieve the same with this plugin. It’s basic, but works.

Remember that you’ve been doing research your whole life, merely by existing. You are the only expert in your own experience. Embrace this as your supreme qualification.

Source: How To Write by Elizabeth Gilbert