Category Archives: Blogging

Podcast Episode: Return

Pip: Blender Fox has moved the blog again — and honestly, the only constant in blogging is the platform you're leaving.

Mara: This episode covers the move back to WordPress and what prompted it. Let's start with the return itself.

Return

Pip: The question here is simple: why does a blogger pick up and move, and what does the destination say about what they actually need from a writing tool?

Mara: The post is brief and direct — here's what it says: "I've moved everything back to WordPress as micro.blog's writing interface was absolutely horrendous."

Pip: That word — horrendous — is doing a lot of work. When the interface itself becomes the obstacle, the writing stops, and at that point the platform has failed its one job.

Mara: The post is titled simply "Return," which frames this less as a technical migration and more as coming back to something familiar. WordPress isn't presented as a destination so much as a retreat to ground that already works.

Pip: There's something quietly telling about that framing. You don't title a post "Return" if you feel triumphant — you title it that when you've been away long enough to remember why you left, and then long enough again to remember why you came back.

Mara: The post also flags that this isn't necessarily permanent. The closing line is: "I'll keep it here while I look at other options." So WordPress is a stable base for now, not a final answer.

Pip: Which is a reasonable position. Settling on a platform while still keeping an eye open is how most long-term bloggers operate — you stop when something works well enough, not when something works perfectly.

Mara: What the post doesn't detail is what "other options" might look like, but the dissatisfaction with micro.blog's writing interface is the explicit driver here. The functionality may have been fine; the experience of actually sitting down and writing was the problem.

Pip: And that distinction matters more than it sounds. A platform can check every technical box and still make you not want to open it.

Mara: Right — usability at the moment of writing is the thing that either gets out of the way or doesn't.

Pip: A blog that moves platforms is still a blog that's running — and that counts for something.

Mara: The search for the right writing environment continues. Worth watching where it lands next.

Return

You might have noticed the blog change again. I’ve moved everything back to WordPress as micro.blog’s writing interface was absolutely horrendous.

I’ll keep it here while I look at other options

I’ve now connected micro.blog to this domain and most of my content from WordPress is sitting here. I might post occasionally. Nowhere as often as I used to previously, but better than nothing, I guess.

WP Drama

You may already be aware of the mess that is happening with WordPress/Automattic and WP Engine.

This mess has enforced the need for me to disconnect my blog domain from here as quickly as possible, but I still haven’t found any good options.

ClassicPress is one, but trying to find an appropriate host is tricky since it’s not a widely used.

Ghost is another I have considered and am still considering.

Tumblr…. just, nope…

WordPress Goodbye on the Horizon

I’ve finally had a notification from WordPress that my plan is coming up for expiry.

I won’t be renewing it.

If you still want to view my posts after I kill the blog domain, it’ll be at https://blenderkitsune.wordpress.com (this currently redirects to https://blenderfox.com as the domain and hosting is still active)

WordPress, Automattic and AI

It has come to my attention that Automattic is going to be selling of the data of its users for training AI.

This is unacceptable and I’m sure violates at least some data protection rules.

While I can’t stop them using my past data, since they already have it and likely already HAVE trained their models on it, I can stop them using more of my WordPress data…. by not giving them any more of my data.

As such, when my WordPress plan here expires, I will not be renewing it. When the domain comes up for renewal, I’ll transfer it off WordPress entirely.

As for my blog? At the moment I’m looking at other options, including Medium, Blogger, and Ghost, and also self-hosted options.

Updates

It’s been a long time since I posted on here — my last post (before today’s posts) was July 17 when I had to self isolate. A lot has happened since then, so this post will be a bit of an update list

I had to take my dad into hospital for a prostrate operation (this was planned before I had to self-isolate) — he already had a PCR test and was cleared. My LFT was also clear, but I still had to self isolate. This was before the self-isolation changes happened. The operation was successful, but he needed to be held a few more days to see an ENT specialist due to them finding lumps in his throat. The concern was that they might be cancerous, but turns out it was just irritation so they gave him some Gaviscon to take after means and soothe the throat. Both my dad and I are prone to post-meal throat irritation so it might mean I might be subject to the same thing later in life.

I got a ticket after driving my dad to the hospital for taking a left turn when I was not supposed do, due to badly signposted roads. My appeal was rejected on the grounds I had paid the ticket. This is how the council screws you over — if you pay the fine to avoid the 100% charge, they will claim that admits guilt. If you don’t, they delay the response until after the 2-week window so you then have to pay the 100% charge.

I finally decided to upgrade my phone and went for a OnePlus 9 Pro. The phone is classed as a “Phablet” and much bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S5 I have been using for years:

The case on the left is for the OnePlus, the case on the right for my S5

I had problems activating the new SIM and eventually Three had to send me a new one, and soon after I got that new one, I got a message saying Three were going to be doing works on the mast in my area and ever since then I have had horrendously bad speeds at home. By bad, I mean speeds of < 1Mbps and even down to 0.2Mbps. Using 3G band sometimes helps, but only marginally.

I’ve taken my complaint up to the Ombudsman but Three are still refusing to do anything about it — even charging me to leave contract early.

I’ve been with Three many years but I will not be recommending them going forward. I will be checking other providers when my contract expires.

We’ve started to go back to the office. My team is doing three days a week in the office, and you pick which three days as long as there are a max of 8 people in the office (due to some office reorganisation, we only have 8 seats for the entire team).

Surprisingly many people have left jobs during and post lockdown (some might have been nudged due to the lockdown, and not just in my office, but generally.)

I won a Twitter completion by Curve for a swag bag. Just had to tweet them three images of their different adverts — all of which showed up on the same station, so that wasn’t too difficult.

Then we had the annoying as heck “Panic at the Pumps” causing shortages.

Driving past Alperton Sainsbury’s

This video from my dashcam shows the queue of traffic. This is the queue leading into the Alperton Sainsbury’s. I was there at around 5am and it took me 30 minutes to clear the queue even with less people in the queue. This queue will probably take 90 minutes to clear, assuming the fuel was not gone by the time they got to the front of the queue

Driving past Whetstone Esso

This video, also from my dashcam shows the queues that built up outside the petrol stations — this Esso I actually went into at 4:30am that morning and they were not open, even though there were staff in the shop (so maybe they were waiting for delivery?)

You’ll get people tooting impatiently and even people cutting the queue and then blocking the lane for the people behind (they must be luxury car drivers)

My house purchase has progressed and we have moved on and are now ready to exchange. However, one of the two sellers is unable to complete his purchase (he’s part of a chain and needs to complete his purchase before he can complete the sale on the current house).

Finally, I got a letter from Principia Law who are the ones trying to claim money back from the drunk driver who wrecked my previous car.

They want me to release my bank records for the period of time I had the hire car. But everyone I have discussed this with seems confused as to why this is required since the accident is a “no-fault” claim on my part, so they should not even need my bank details.

I asked them to call me today to discuss this. I may also speak to the office legal team for their thoughts.

IFTTT

My connection to IFTTT suddenly messed up so I had to delete my blog connection and recreate it, and create a new application password…

Very weird why this suddenly happened.

WordPress and Twitter

I wondered why I didn’t enable auto-sharing to Twitter from WordPress,

Then I remembered, that method only puts the title of your blog entry, plus an embedded link. Unless you have a really informative blog title, I don’t think it works.

Instead, I use IFTTT, but have to remember to either add a picture somewhere in the post or manually shre it through force checking the IFTTT applets.