ldstephens weblog
ldstephens weblog
ldstephens
A weblog by ldstephens. This is my little corner of the web where I share whatever’s on my mind: stories, random thoughts, and the occasional rant.
Latest Posts
July 7, 2025 I don’t know who reads this. I don’t know how they find it. I don’t know if they’ll ever come back. I don’t know a damned thing. And that’s by design. I value my privacy and by extension, I value others’. That’s exactly why...
July 2, 2025 Fifteen years ago yesterday, I was 65 and lying on an operating table at UCLA Medical Center, about to have open heart surgery. Just a few months earlier, in April 2010, I'd been diagnosed with severe mitral valve...
June 30, 2025 Since I've started adding some running sections to my morning walks with Trix (our dog), I decided to start recording them in Strava yesterday. I've had a Strava account for years, from back in my bike racing days, so it...
June 28, 2025 John Gruber Having an ignorant conspiracy nut lead the Department of Health and Human Services is angering and worrisome, to say the least. But it’s also incredibly frustrating, because Donald Trump himself isn’t an...
June 4, 2025 I’ve used BBEdit on and off over the years. Remember TextWrangler? It’s never been my primary Markdown writing app, though I’ve always wanted it to be. I was accustomed to apps like iA Writer, Typora, MarkEdit, and...
May 31, 2025 Hey friends, when I'm looking for an answer or doing research, I rarely use Google anymore. I've been using ChatGPT instead. Depending on what I'm after, it can take forever to dig through Google results to find what I need....
May 17, 2025 I've always done Time Machine backups every Friday, which is fine for most things. But when it comes to the 11ty project for this blog, I wanted something more frequent. I make changes throughout the week, and if I break...
April 28, 2025 Patrick Rhone But your body, once it’s done, it’s done. So, it’s even more important to use and maintain it as well as you can, for as long as you can. Because it’s irreplaceable. So, put the best fuel (food) in it you...
April 26, 2025 Some advice if you’re starting a blog for the first time (or it’s been awhile): Share your thoughts on whatever. You’re a blogger, not an opinion columnist in the washington post. Change your mind! Write about why you...
April 26, 2025 My old chair was plastic, and the left support piece that connects the back to the seat broke. I lived with it for a couple of months because I was too lazy to look for a new one. On Friday, I finally decided to get off my...
April 21, 2025 Some quick thoughts on the future of the iPad. Since the iPad launched in 2010, it's been the go-to device for kids. It's safe, simple, great for games, learning, and videos. These iPad kids have grown up with it as their...
April 21, 2025 After realizing that I don’t need a code editor to process a new blog post in 11ty I have a new workflow: Write the post in Markdown with front matter using Drafts. Save as file to the Desktop, naming it with the post...
April 20, 2025 Hey friends, I’m still learning how to use 11ty, and every now and then something clicks. I've come to the realization that I don't need to write blog posts in a code editor like VS Code. If I'm just writing a post, a...
April 19, 2025 I’m tinkering with editors to write blog posts that integrate with my 11ty site. Posts need front matter and must be in Markdown, so the editor has to load my 11ty project and let me drop new posts into the right folder....
April 18, 2025 Hey friends, I want to share a lesson I learned today about properly managing my 11ty site repository. For a while now, I've been noticing something strange whenever I committed changes to GitHub. When I'd make edits with...