@brennan.day@rss-parrot.net
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Brennan Kenneth Brown is a Queer MĂ©tis writer and web developer exploring Indigenous identity, digital culture, and creativity. Personal essays on technology, craft, and human experience from Calgary, Alberta (Treaty 7).
Site URL: brennan.day
Feed URL: brennan.day/feed.xml
Posts: 276
Followers: 1
I Want to be Unremarkable
https://brennan.day/i-want-to-be-unremarkable/
Published: September 3, 2026 02:00
A meditation on the contradiction of writing publicly while wanting to remain unremarkable, drawing on Daoist uselessness, Epicurean lathe biōsas, state legibility, and Deleuzian imperceptibility—and why the only peaceful path is to keep writing and…
Normalized Fascism in Open Source: $12 Million Given to DHH
https://brennan.day/normalized-fascism-in-open-source-12-million-given-to-dhh/
Published: September 2, 2026 02:00
Open source has become a safe harbor for far-right politics, from David Heinemeier Hansson's white-nationalist rhetoric and the Omarchy Foundation's $12 million in patron funding to so-called apolitical projects that treat marginalized contributors as…
100 Questions for Webmasters
https://brennan.day/100-questions-for-webmasters/
Published: September 1, 2026 02:00
A hundred-question chain meme making the rounds about how and why we make websites. I answer my way through questions on workflow, editors, CSS confidence, webrings, Neocities and Nekoweb, domain names, accessibility, genAI ethics, Gruvbox, and everything…
SAD MACHINE
https://brennan.day/sad-machine/
Published: August 31, 2026 02:00
Debian's recent vote to permit genAI contributions, alongside the questions raised by the IndieWeb is Punk manifesto, leads me to reflect on the harm-reduction case, the deskilling of creators, the NFT-like grift of genAI output, and the Potemkin village…
A Few Small Things
https://brennan.day/a-few-small-things/
Published: August 30, 2026 02:00
Reflecting on the mental fatigue of posting every day during Blaugust, I share a few small things that cheered me up: a new keyword filter on Bubbles.town, Jan Miksovsky's Origami Projector, and the ongoing, hand-made goodness of the independent web.
Creating an Open-source Blogging Studies Syllabus
https://brennan.day/creating-an-open-source-blogging-studies-syllabus/
Published: August 29, 2026 02:00
Announcing a new open-source, asynchronous Blogging Studies syllabus that blends writing craft and independent web publishing, built on Codeberg. I trace the decline of free MOOCs, outline my curriculum's anti-capitalist and community-driven pedagogy, and…
Notice: Bandwidth Exceeded
https://brennan.day/notice-bandwidth-exceeded/
Published: August 28, 2026 02:00
After exceeding my free Netlify bandwidth for the first time and wiring up a homelab to run this site, I reflect on how my life has narrowed around writing and code, the friendships that did not survive that focus, and the loneliness of a devotion without…
Being a Toolshed of Optimism
https://brennan.day/being-a-toolshed-of-optimism/
Published: August 27, 2026 02:00
Reflecting on a reader's description of me as 'nice' and the responsibility of having an audience, I commit to becoming a 'toolshed of hope and stubborn optimism' in my writing. Drawing on solutions journalism, restorative narrative, and thinkers like…
Bubbles.town: Four Months Later
https://brennan.day/bubbles-town-four-months-later/
Published: August 26, 2026 02:00
After several months of using Bubbles.town, I share my long-term review of the IndieWeb aggregator. The good: discovering diverse blogs across niche topics. The issues: glacial pace of content changes, popularity contest dynamics, categorization problems,…
A 450-year History of Blogging
https://brennan.day/a-450-year-history-of-blogging/
Published: August 25, 2026 02:00
A four-century etymological journey from wooden ship logs and logboards to the modern web log, tracing how the word 'blog' emerged from centuries of record-keeping, computing, and online publishing. On Peter Merholz's coinage of 'blog,' Jorn Barger's…
I'm Looking for Love
https://brennan.day/i-m-looking-for-love/
Published: August 24, 2026 02:00
Responding to anonymous blogger Unstory's claim that love is a fake story and does not exist, I argue that love is a real, measurable, and physical fact of human connection. On fMRI studies of spouses, Harvard's 87-year Study of Adult Development, oxytocin…
Le Flâneur, et Autres Mots Intraduisible
https://brennan.day/le-flaneur-et-autres-mots-intraduisible/
Published: August 23, 2026 02:00
Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur les mots et expressions français qui n'ont pas de traduction directe vers l'anglais, comme déjà vu, jamais vu, presque vu, dépaysement, retrouvailles, l'esprit de…
IndieWeb Ethos and Pagecord
https://brennan.day/indieweb-ethos-and-pagecord/
Published: August 22, 2026 02:00
Responding to Eetu and Pagecord creator Olly's reactions to my article on accessible IndieWeb approaches, I examine the tension between platform convenience and digital sovereignty. Using Olly's recent controversy as a case study, I discuss why being aware…
Writing By Accident & Surrendering On Purpose
https://brennan.day/writing-by-accident-and-surrendering-on-purpose/
Published: August 21, 2026 02:00
Reflecting on three weeks of consecutive writing for Blaugust, I explore the tension between writing by accident versus on purpose. Through correspondence with Unstory and the IndieWeb carnival theme of purpose, I contemplate the accidental nature of my…
In Defence of Vent Posting
https://brennan.day/in-defence-of-vent-posting/
Published: August 20, 2026 02:00
Drawing on my decade of experience as a 7cups Listener and research on emotional sharing, I argue in defense of vent posting. Venting is a natural human need for connection and validation, not a character flaw. Community support and empathy are essential…
A Guide to Becoming a Rogue Scholar
https://brennan.day/a-guide-to-becoming-a-rogue-scholar/
Published: August 19, 2026 02:00
I've been weighing grad school against continuing my own open-access publication, so I wrote a guide to becoming a 'Rogue Scholar' using ORCID, citation metadata, issue numbers, print CSS, and Wayback Machine archiving to try to make my static Eleventy…
Outjerked by the Trickster
https://brennan.day/outjerked-by-the-trickster/
Published: August 18, 2026 02:00
I've been satirized by circlejerk.blog, and I reflect on the history of online circlejerking, Indigenous trickster traditions like Coyote and Chi-Jean, and the concept of survivance. A call for more humour and satire in online spaces, and how trickster…
WEBMASTER@ a manifesto for everyone
https://brennan.day/webmaster-a-manifesto-for-everyone/
Published: August 17, 2026 02:00
I'm reclaiming the title of 'webmaster' as the multidisciplinary creator who designs, develops, writes, and advocates for their own corner of the web and will save the world. Tracing the history from 1993 to the present, I argue that anyone can become a…
Advanced Webweaving: Auditing Against Specification.Website
https://brennan.day/advanced-webweaving-auditing-against-specification-website/
Published: August 16, 2026 02:00
I ran brennan.day against The Website Specification's 140-item checklist covering foundations, SEO, accessibility, security, performance, privacy, and resilience. Notes on a broken web manifest I'd never noticed, why I don't have cookie consent banners,…
Confessions of a Maladaptive Daydreamer
https://brennan.day/confessions-of-a-maladaptive-daydreamer/
Published: August 15, 2026 02:00
A personal tale living with maladaptive daydreaming—intense, immersive daydreams that replace rather than accompany real life. On Eli Somer's research, the difference between paracosms and maladaptive daydreaming, trauma connections, and how this coping…
A Story of the Origins of Religion
https://brennan.day/a-story-of-the-origins-of-religion/
Published: August 14, 2026 02:00
On Friedrich Max Müller's theory of naturism and how early religion began with humanity's direct sensory perception of natural forces. From the terrifying awe of lightning and thunder to Ancient Egypt's animal deities that protected against mortal dangers…
Suspect Happiness in Pursuit: An Anti-Interview with Unstory
https://brennan.day/suspect-happiness-in-pursuit-an-anti-interview-with-unstory/
Published: August 13, 2026 02:00
On the 50/10/40 split of happiness research, the Declaration of Independence's 'pursuit of happiness,' and an exchange with anonymous blogger Unstory about free will, determinism, and whether we can choose joy. A diptych of opposing worldviews: humanist…
The Weight of Words
https://brennan.day/the-weight-of-words/
Published: August 12, 2026 02:00
On the weight and responsibility of words in public discourse. Drawing from John Rawls's reasonable pluralism and Paulo Freire's philosophy that dialogue requires love, I argue for extending grace even to those we disagree with. A reflection on…
Our Skies Contain Sprites, Elves, Trolls, Pixies, Ghosts, and Gnomes
https://brennan.day/our-skies-contain-sprites-elves-trolls-pixies-ghosts-and-gnomes/
Published: August 11, 2026 02:00
Yes, really. Exploring the magical world of transient luminous events in the upper atmosphere: sprites, elves, blue jets, trolls, pixies, ghosts, and gnomes. How scientists named these barely-witnessed electrical phenomena after folklore, and why…
I Would Have Written a Shorter Blog Post, But I Didn’t Have the Time: Creating a WriterDeck
Published: August 10, 2026 02:00
On the KISS principle and Pascal's apology for long letters, the cultural shift away from minimalism, and the growing trend of writer decks. A technical guide to creating a distraction-free writing environment by removing the desktop environment entirely…
A Social Guide to Being Vegan in a Meat Eaters' World
https://calgaryvegansociety.com/2026/08/07/a-social-guide-to-being-vegan-in-a-meat-eaters-world/
Published: August 8, 2026 06:00
A guest post I wrote for The Sprout, the Calgary Vegan Society's blog, about navigating social eating situations as a vegan. From private vs. social eating to practical strategies for restaurants, family dinners, and travel, this guide covers how to…
Free Speech and the IndieWeb
https://brennan.day/free-speech-and-the-indieweb/
Published: August 8, 2026 02:00
After rescinding a recommendation for BlueDwarf, I explore the spectrum of harm across platforms from X to Substack, and argue that not all harm is equal. On free speech absolutism, cognitive dissonance in platform choices, and where we draw lines in the…
What Remains? My AuguStory
https://brennan.day/what-remains-my-augustory/
Published: August 7, 2026 02:00
On the shutdown of EchoFeed and the ephemeral nature of services, why I blog (legacy, existentialism, making a mark), participating in AuguStory, academic studies on blogging benefits, and the paradox of 'nobody cares' as both a source of freedom and as a…
Five Interesting Indie Platforms You Might Not Have Heard Of
https://brennan.day/five-interesting-indie-platforms-you-might-not-have-heard-of/
Published: August 6, 2026 02:00
After deleting my corporate social media accounts, I've discovered four interesting indie platforms and online communities you might not have heard of: Special Fish, Ctrl + Shift + 3, web1.0 Hosting, and Pillowfort. A look at what makes each unique, from…
REVIEW: Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell, Ten Years Later
https://brennan.day/review-sufjan-stevens-carrie-and-lowell-ten-years-later/
Published: August 5, 2026 02:00
Ten years after its release, I revisit Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell, an album about his late mother's mental illness, abandonment, and grief, that's held up a clear, honest mirror to my own life. I trace how Stevens' songwriting about Carrie evolved…
The Itch
Published: August 4, 2026 02:00
Trying to figure out what 'the itch' is—my drive to create and contribute to the digital commons. A review of past projects, current interests in Indigenous data sovereignty and self-hosting, and the search for what comes next.
SBSK is The Most Important Channel on YouTube
https://brennan.day/sbsk-is-the-most-important-channel-on-youtube/
Published: August 3, 2026 02:00
Special Books by Special Kids is the most important channel on YouTube. Chris Ulmer and Alyssa Porter's decade-long project interviewing neurodiverse individuals and people with disabilities has created a more inclusive world through radical equality,…
Phoneblogging
https://brennan.day/phoneblogging/
Published: August 2, 2026 02:00
Around 2 billion people access the internet exclusively via smartphones, yet the IndieWeb community largely neglects mobile-first design and phoneblogging UX. A casual survey of writers reveals three approaches to mobile publishing: no phoneblogging,…
You Don't Have to Blog
https://brennan.day/you-dont-have-to-blog/
Published: August 1, 2026 02:00
Responding to Dan Q's post on blogging expectations, I argue that you don't need to blog at all to participate in the IndieWeb. Your website can be shrines, art, or anything else. A retrospective on the poisonous gamification and commodification of…
Wow, I Love the 'Puter!
https://brennan.day/wow-i-love-the-puter/
Published: July 30, 2026 02:00
The desktop computer is a miracle of human ingenuity, from the microscopic precision of Intel's Core Duo processor to the vast possibilities of offline and online computing. On the tragic decline of desktop towers, the IndieWeb and open-source software as…
Playing the Games We Have
https://brennan.day/playing-the-games-we-have/
Published: July 29, 2026 02:00
The video game industry is in a cynical, exploitative state with unfinished AAA releases, microtransactions, rising hardware costs, and studio closures. But there's an alternative I'd like to talk about: indie art games, the growing retro handheld scene,…
Knitting the Web: We Need Interlinkers!
https://brennan.day/knitting-the-web-we-need-interlinkers/
Published: July 28, 2026 02:00
Responding to Coyote's critique of Bubbles.town and feed aggregators, I argue that the IndieWeb needs more interlinkers—bloggers who meaningfully synthesize and weave together the writing of others. On the garden/stream/campfire metaphors for the web, the…
L'IndieWeb en français québécois?
https://brennan.day/l-indieweb-en-francais-quebecois/
Published: July 26, 2026 02:00
Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur la traduction des termes de l'IndieWeb en français québécois, l'état actuel des ressources francophones (wiki IndieWeb, Vincent Breton, Radio-Canada), la tradition…
Creating a Digital Garden in 11ty: Tracking My Daily Word Count with URLminder
https://brennan.day/creating-a-digital-garden-in-11ty-tracking-my-daily-word-count-with-urlminder/
Published: July 24, 2026 11:00
I decided to build brennan.click, a wiki-linked digital commonplace book in Eleventy, with auto-generated stubs created with eleventy-plugin-interlinker, pure-CSS hover transclusion and footnotes with no JavaScript, and a plain-text /urlminder.txt feed…
Beeminder: Getting Back on the Horse
https://brennan.day/beeminder-getting-back-on-the-horse/
Published: July 24, 2026 02:00
After deleting corporate social media, I'm returning to Beeminder, a commitment tool that charges you money for failing to complete tasks, to reclaim my productivity. I explain how Beeminder works through externalizing willpower, share my current 17 goals…
It Was Always a Love Story, Actually
https://brennan.day/it-was-always-a-love-story-actually/
Published: July 23, 2026 02:00
What could a prestige antihero legal drama and a shonen apocalypse epic have in common? As it turns out, love. An analysis and comparison of Attack on Titan and Better Call Saul. Beyond the violent carnage, there's a tender love and labour which these two…
Adding Thousands of Lines to Your Codebase Isn't Impressive. It's Actually Bad.
https://brennan.day/adding-thousands-of-lines-to-your-codebase-isnt-impressive-its-actually-bad/
Published: July 22, 2026 02:00
Vibe coders brag about adding thousands of lines of code with AI, but measuring productivity by lines of code is like measuring aircraft progress by weight. Research shows AI-generated code has higher duplication, lower reuse, and can run up to 446x…
Mea Culpa, When Somebody Writes Your Wrongs
https://brennan.day/mea-culpa-when-somebody-writes-your-wrongs/
Published: July 21, 2026 02:00
Yesterday, Unattributed posted a thorough dissection of my article on note-taking PKMs, analyzing my lack of intellectual rigour, nebulous wording, and poor research. I use this as an opportunity to discuss the milkshake duck phenomenon, my experience with…
Softcore First, Hardcore Eventually: A Ladder for the IndieWeb
https://brennan.day/softcore-first-hardcore-eventually-a-ladder-for-the-indieweb/
Published: July 20, 2026 02:00
Responding to Adam Newbold's 'Hardcore IndieWeb' guide, I argue for a ladder approach to joining the IndieWeb. Rather than choosing between easy platforms and full technical independence, people should climb rungs progressively. Start with BearBlog or…
People and Blogs Interview: Brennan Kenneth Brown
https://zacharykai.net/notes/pb/brennan
Published: July 18, 2026 06:00
I was interviewed in Zachary Kai's People and Blogs series, founded by Manuel Moreale. I share about my background, the evolution of my blog, creative and technical workflows, philosophy on monetization, and advocacy for the IndieWeb.
What have note-taking PKMs accomplished, really?
https://brennan.day/what-have-note-taking-pkms-accomplished-really/
Published: July 18, 2026 02:00
As somebody who writes a lot, I've always been interested in personal knowledge management systems and note-taking apps. But what do these frameworks and methodologies actually give to researchers and the broader world? Has there been a meaningful increase…
The True, Unglamorous Life of a Writer
https://brennan.day/the-true-unglamorous-life-of-a-writer/
Published: July 17, 2026 02:00
Let me be unglamorous and honest about the actual furniture of a writing life. What do my private, invisible days look like? What does it cost and what does it pay? A look at the 4 a.m. writing routine, the physical setting, and what I hope my writing will…
300 Minutes a Month: Cutting My Eleventy Netlify Build Time in Half
https://brennan.day/300-minutes-a-month-cutting-my-eleventy-netlify-build-time-in-half/
Published: July 16, 2026 02:00
A sequel to my Eleventy build post: this time the bottleneck wasn't the build tool, it was the hosting bill. Notes on caching webmentions and guestbook fetches, killing a dead Discord webhook, nearly breaking my JSON feed, and a git error I still don't…
CLOWN BURNOUT
https://brennan.day/clown-burnout/
Published: July 14, 2026 06:00
Clown white doesn't come off in one pass. A personal story about how I can never take myself seriously no matter how hard I try. Notes on the history of whiteface and Auguste, the clown egg registry, the Indigenous medicine of laughter, the tyranny of…
A Full Guide to Properly Delete Corporate Social Media Accounts
https://brennan.day/a-full-guide-to-properly-delete-corporate-social-media-accounts/
Published: July 12, 2026 18:00
Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, X, Reddit, Discord. Eight platforms, eight different deletion policies. A full technical walkthrough of what 'delete' actually means on each one, the prep work nobody tells you to do first, and the…
Why Does Conor McGregor Get a Comeback?
https://brennan.day/why-does-conor-mcgregor-get-a-comeback/
Published: July 11, 2026 07:00
Conor McGregor returns to headline UFC 329 tonight after being found liable for rape in civil court, a comeback made possible by the UFC's right-wing politicization and the broader 'Epstein class' culture of impunity for powerful men. On the normalization…
REVIEW: Missing 'Missing Richard Simmons'
https://brennan.day/review-missing-missing-richard-simmons/
Published: July 10, 2026 07:00
Nearly a decade after Dan Taberski's Missing Richard Simmons first asked the world where its brightest fitness star had gone, a review of the podcast that helped invent true-crime infotainment—and of the public's complicity in turning a man's right to…
Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?
https://brennan.day/is-the-juice-worth-the-squeeze/
Published: July 9, 2026 07:00
A laminated poster with an unsourced quote changed the trajectory of my entire life when I was a teenager. On the immutable transaction of trading days for how we spend them, the urgency of risk-taking in a world that needs it, and what it means to give…
To My Readers: What Do You Want To See More Of?
https://brennan.day/to-my-readers-what-do-you-want-to-see-more-of/
Published: July 8, 2026 07:00
I finally curated my blog posts into collections, revealing what I write about most: the IndieWeb, the craft of writing, community, technical tutorials, politics, culture, and more. A call to my readers to tell me what they want to see more of, and a…
There Are People Who Would Give Anything For Your Ability to Read and Write
https://brennan.day/there-are-people-who-would-give-anything-for-your-ability-to-read-and-write/
Published: July 7, 2026 07:00
In our current year, there is a global literacy crisis. As a result, there's a privilege in being able to read and write. Notes on Frederick Douglass, the problems you don't think about, and why the ability to write is something to be grateful for and use…
Publishing My Eleventy Blog to the ATmosphere with Standard.site
https://brennan.day/publishing-my-eleventy-blog-to-the-atmosphere-with-standard-site/
Published: July 6, 2026 07:00
A walkthrough of how I wired up Standard.site AT Protocol lexicons into this 11ty blog: from writing a custom publish script to migrating to Sequoia, with code for the link tags, and handle verification.
A Case for the Ethical Treatment of Generative AI
https://brennan.day/a-case-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-generative-ai/
Published: July 5, 2026 18:00
Are there ethical implications of generative AI consciousness? From von Neumann's self-replicating machines to modern LLMs, we must inventory the problem of other minds, the possibility of AI consciousness, and why we ought to consider the welfare of…
Blogging with Magic Unicode: Simple Doesn't Have to Mean Boring!
https://brennan.day/blogging-with-magic-unicode-simple-doesnt-have-to-mean-boring/
Published: July 3, 2026 18:00
You don't need bloat. You can use CSS variables and Unicode symbols to add visual personality to your personal website while keeping it minimal, accessible, and fast-loading. Includes a reference of symbol sets (celestial, elemental, occult, card suits,…
Fixing Work Imports from Other OTW-based Archives
https://brennan.day/fixing-work-imports-from-other-otw-based-archives/
Published: July 2, 2026 18:00
By default, the OTWArchive codebase blocks all imports from AO3, a problem for every fork. My fix includes removing AO3 from PERMITTED_HOSTS, writing a custom Ruby story parser that extracts only the story content from AO3 work pages, and extending the…
Shake Off the Dust!
https://brennan.day/shake-off-the-dust/
Published: July 1, 2026 18:00
Completing #100DaysToOffload twice in under two years, and somewhere along the way the wet clay hardened at the edges. Invisible ruts form inside the habits you love, and there's a difference between a window and a mirror in writing. The hermit crab…
Wonders of Webweaving Podcast Ep. #8: Brennan
https://web-weaving.jamesg.blog/8
Published: June 30, 2026 06:00
I was a guest on Episode 8 of Wonders of Web Weaving with James G. We talk about writing routines, building community in the indie web, 'start here' pages, Maple Syrup Heists, and more!
Love and Romance in the Times of Our Apocalypse
https://brennan.day/love-and-romance-in-the-times-of-our-apocalypse/
Published: June 29, 2026 18:00
86% of American adults aged 18-24 are currently unpartnered; 78% of dating app users feel exhausted by online dating. How are people supposed to fall in love while the Doomsday Clock ticks at 85 seconds to midnight? On the yearning microgenre that overtook…
Vagueblogging and Subtweeting Are Awful
https://brennan.day/vagueblogging-and-subtweeting-are-awful/
Published: June 28, 2026 18:00
Vagueblogging and subtweeting are the most toxic modes of online communication, yet research shows people prefer them to direct confrontation anyway. On the psychology of strategic ambiguity, insecure attachment, context collapse, and the online…
Farming is Why Humanity is Fucked
https://brennan.day/farming-is-why-humanity-is-fucked/
Published: June 27, 2026 18:00
A mind-shattering concept from a first-year university class that upended how I think about humanity. Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy argues that totalitarian agriculture is why civilization is in peril. On the Law of Limited Competition, the Food Race, and…
On n'a pas la langue dans notre poche!
https://brennan.day/on-n-a-pas-la-langue-dans-notre-poche/
Published: June 26, 2026 18:00
Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur les différences entre le français québécois et le français européen, l'histoire linguistique du Québec depuis 1763, les sacres québécois comme acte de rébellion contre…
Every Commit A Sentence: Git Commit Messages for Bloggers
https://brennan.day/every-commit-a-sentence-git-commit-messages-for-bloggers/
Published: June 25, 2026 18:00
I had 448 `feat:` commits and 417 `fix:` commits. Nearly the same count, for wildly different kinds of work. Here's why conventional commits were never designed for a writer's blog, and the eleven-type system I built to replace them.
You Must, You Must, You Must
https://brennan.day/you-must-you-must-you-must/
Published: June 24, 2026 18:00
I've been sitting with a single word change. 'Will' versus 'must' in the Latin phrase Memento Mori, and it's shifted everything for me. A meditation on mortality as obligation rather than fate, and what it means to truly reckon with the fact that we must…
An Open Letter to Compassionate, Left-leaning, AI-hating, Animal-loving Meat Eaters
Published: June 23, 2026 18:00
Brace yourself. I'm writing this to people who care about the world's suffering and love animals, but haven't yet extended that same compassion to the animals on their plate. Any environmental argument you can make against generative AI you can make more…
COMPULSION: The Writers Who Wrote The Most in History
https://brennan.day/compulsion-the-writers-who-wrote-the-most-in-history/
Published: June 22, 2026 18:00
I've been writing publicly every day for seven months, and I wanted to know what that looked like for other compulsive writers. From Chesterton dictating past midnight, to Chinese web fiction authors racing through 10,000 words daily. What does their…
How Webmentions Work on brennan.day
https://brennan.day/how-webmentions-work-on-brennan-day/
Published: June 20, 2026 18:00
A tutorial and walkthrough of how I implemented webmentions on my site, from setup to display, including webmention.io integration, Eleventy filters, CSS styling, and Bridgy for sending.
Choosing Friction and Clear Skies: I’m No Longer Using Cloudflare
https://brennan.day/choosing-friction-and-clear-skies-i-m-no-longer-using-cloudflare/
Published: June 18, 2026 18:00
I'm pausing my folk.zone project to completely replace Cloudflare in my stack with more ethical choices after a conversation with Adam Newbold of omg.lol, the site that inspired the project in the first place. For in practice, there is no such thing as…
Blogging Saved My Life
https://brennan.day/blogging-saved-my-life/
Published: June 17, 2026 18:00
Writing publicly and frequently for the past seven months has saved my life. Six ways consistent public writing transformed me: cultivating curiosity, building connections, investigating rabbit holes, starting new projects, creating accountability, and…
Announcing folk.zone: An attempt to build the IndieWeb commons myself.
https://brennan.day/announcing-folk-zone-an-attempt-to-build-the-indieweb-commons-myself/
Published: June 15, 2026 20:00
Announcing folk.zone, a collection of free, community-run internet services I'm building as an IndieWeb commons. Including Mastodon, WriteFreely, Forgejo, Pixelfed, Lemmy, and more. All self-hosted on hardware in my living space. This is infrastructure for…
A New IndieWeb Publication? or: I Want to Start Something and Be Bad at It
https://brennan.day/a-new-indieweb-publication-or-i-want-to-start-something-and-be-bad-at-it/
Published: June 13, 2026 20:00
Inspired by Good Internet Magazine, I'm starting a new volunteer-run IndieWeb publication tentatively called Long Horizon. Exploring my readiness to launch a digital and physical magazine focused on creative non-fiction and lyric essays, and seeking…
Yes, Buy Them a Coffee: Support and Mutual Aid on the IndieWeb
https://brennan.day/yes-buy-them-a-coffee-support-and-mutual-aid-on-the-indieweb/
Published: June 11, 2026 20:00
Responding to criticism of 'buy me a coffee' links on blogs, I argue that asking for support isn't commodification—it's mutual aid! Exploring the economic pressures on creators, the history of mutual aid, and why the IndieWeb needs community support…
Why Make Your Website Accessible, Anyways?
https://brennan.day/why-make-your-website-accessible-anyways/
Published: June 10, 2026 20:00
Web accessibility isn't compliance theatre or checking off a list. It's about designing for everyone. Exploring the curb cut effect, why disability is more common than we think, and practical steps to make your website usable by as many people as possible.
THE LANTERNFLY.
https://brennan.day/the-lanternfly/
Published: June 7, 2026 20:00
The spotted lanternfly is beautiful and terrible, an invasive species that illuminates even as it destroys. AI-generated content is flooding the Internet, and authenticity is becoming a premium commodity. We must refuse the premise that human writing is a…
A Ship in Harbour is Safe
https://brennan.day/a-ship-in-harbour-is-safe/
Published: June 5, 2026 20:00
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's concept of 'skin in the game' is the idea that true learning only happens when you have something to lose. And I look at IndieWeb principles of using what you make to publishing under your real name. Having risk and real stakes is…
I Need To Stop Making Promises I Can't Keep
https://brennan.day/i-need-to-stop-making-promises-i-cant-keep/
Published: June 4, 2026 20:00
Building fanfiction.lol taught me that some promises are impossible to keep. I wanted canonical tags for everything and 'write whatever you want' as a tagline, but Canadian obscenity laws and the philosophical complexity of tag wrangling forced me to…
Be a Lover: Make Sure the Quiet Wheel Gets the Grease
https://brennan.day/be-a-lover-make-sure-the-quiet-wheel-gets-the-grease/
Published: June 3, 2026 20:00
The world isn't full of critics, it's full of quiet kind people who don't get nearly enough time or attention from us because we're born with a negativity bias. We need to proactively choose to be lovers and proactively grease the quiet wheels.
The Internet Needs More Cross-Pollinators
https://brennan.day/the-internet-needs-more-cross-pollinators/
Published: June 2, 2026 20:00
So, my silly little fanfic project blew up like crazy and received some really negative feedback. And I think I understand why. Exploring the concept of boundary spanning and cross-pollination in online communities. Drawing on organizational theory and the…
Announcing Fanfiction.lol: A Manifesto on Human Creativity and AO3
https://brennan.day/announcing-fanfiction-lol-a-manifesto-on-human-creativity-and-ao3/
Published: May 30, 2026 20:00
I deployed my own AO3 fork called fanfiction.lol, an independent fanfiction archive with no invite queue, fandom-agnostic moderation, and expanded content warnings. A manifesto on why fan communities deserve free infrastructure, the history of…
Homelab For the Beginner: You Can Self-host Your Own Server on $50 Hardware
https://brennan.day/homelab-for-the-beginner-you-can-self-host-your-own-server-on-50-hardware/
Published: May 28, 2026 20:00
A beginner-friendly guide to building your own homelab on inexpensive hardware. Covers finding old computers, setting up Linux, SSH, Docker, and self-hosting services like password managers, RSS readers, and your own Fediverse instance. Digital sovereignty…
Gemini, Gophers, and Fingers. Oh My! Alternative Internets Beyond HTTPS
https://brennan.day/gemini-gophers-and-fingers-oh-my-alternative-internets-beyond-https/
Published: May 26, 2026 18:00
Finger from 1971, Gopher from 1991, and Gemini from 2019. These protocols offer decentralized, terminal-based alternatives to the modern web. The small web's is in a renaissance. On the solarpunk philosophy of intentional technology, and how these…
Introducing writer-cli: a bash tool I built from scratch to blog in the terminal!
https://brennan.day/introducing-writer-cli-a-bash-tool-i-built-from-scratch-to-blog-in-the-terminal/
Published: May 24, 2026 18:00
After finding the tildeverse and the Tilde.town feels engine, I decided to build my own simple command-line tool for blogging that handles the full lifecycle of a blog post (creation, editing, building, and git push). A walkthrough of the design decisions,…
Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day, and Variations on a Theme
https://brennan.day/groundhog-day-groundhog-day-and-variations-on-a-theme/
Published: May 23, 2026 20:00
I love time loops in media—from Groundhog Day to...hey, wait a minute. Does anybody else feel a weird sense of déjà vu? It can't just be me. Do you ever get up in the morning and feel as though you've already lived the same day?
Groundhog Day, Savescumming, and Our Endless Numbered Days
https://brennan.day/groundhog-day-savescumming-and-our-endless-numbered-days/
Published: May 22, 2026 20:00
I love time loops in media—from Groundhog Day to Haruhi's Endless Eight. What do they reveal about mortality, memory, and the human desire to escape consequence through Nietzsche's eternal recurrence?
SPICE: Our Antifragile Biology
https://brennan.day/spice-our-antifragile-biology/
Published: May 21, 2026 20:00
Spicy food and capsaicin demonstrate hormesis and antifragility in human biology. The science of pain, TRPV1 receptors, and how controlled exposure to stressors makes our bodies stronger rather than weaker.
Manifestation, the Law of Attraction, Cancer and Abuse
https://brennan.day/manifestation-the-law-of-attraction-cancer-and-abuse/
Published: May 19, 2026 20:00
Examining the dark side of manifestation and Law of Attraction movement: its New Thought origins, cultural appropriation of Eastern and Indigenous practices, gender dynamics, and the hidden cruelty of victim blaming cancer survivors and abuse victims.
/r/SlopcoreCirclejerk and the Men who are pro-AI
https://brennan.day/r-slopcorecirclejerk-and-the-men-who-are-pro-ai/
Published: May 18, 2026 20:00
With the AI bubble finally deflating, what can we learn from the gender gap in genAI enthusiasm? Looking at /r/SlopcoreCirclejerk's culture of contempt, historical Luddite parallels, crypto bro demographics, and why men are drawn to extractive…
A Love Letter to Everything
https://brennan.day/a-love-letter-to-everything/
Published: May 17, 2026 20:00
My first IndieWeb Carnival entry—the theme is love letters, and I couldn't pick just one thing. A letter to the infrastructure that holds my corner of the internet together, to the strangers who maintain the open-source tools I depend on every day, and to…
Cleaning House: Refactoring My Eleventy Config Into Modules
https://brennan.day/cleaning-house-refactoring-my-eleventy-config-into-modules/
Published: May 15, 2026 20:00
How I decomposed an 866-line .eleventy.js monolith into four focused modules, fixed some lurking bugs, and eliminated dead CSS and dead dependencies along the way
On Being a River
https://brennan.day/on-being-a-river/
Published: May 14, 2026 07:00
Sixty thousand miles of blood vessels run inside each of us, more than twice around the Earth. 330 billion cells are replaced every single day. Humanity has always built civilization beside rivers because we are rivers. Always in motion, never stepping…
What We Lose with Cultural Extinction: The Red Thread Cut
https://brennan.day/what-we-lose-with-cultural-extinction-the-red-thread-cut/
Published: May 12, 2026 07:00
In 1995, China abducted six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima—the recognized 11th Panchen Lama—severing the chain of mutual recognition at the heart of Tibetan Buddhist succession. Meanwhile, Michif, a language born from Cree verbs and French nouns that…
I Made My Eleventy Build 5Ă— Faster with Five Changes
https://brennan.day/i-made-my-eleventy-build-5-faster-with-five-changes/
Published: May 11, 2026 07:00
A walkthrough of how I audited my 11ty build benchmarks and cut cold-start time from 14 seconds down to 2.6 seconds by caching two custom filters and swapping out a bare network fetch.
Last Online 620 Weeks Ago: Why I'm Loyal to the IndieWeb
https://brennan.day/last-online-620-weeks-ago-why-i-m-loyal-to-the-indieweb/
Published: May 10, 2026 07:00
You visit your parent's house and find your white Xbox 360 in your childhood bedroom. A friends list full of gamertags that haven't booted up their own console in hundreds of weeks. On the heartbreak of digital disappearance, and why I'm committed to…
The Hondius Pneumonia (Low Risk Assessment)
https://brennan.day/the-hondius-pneumonia-low-risk-assessment/
Published: May 8, 2026 07:00
A hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius in the South Atlantic has sent thirty passengers home across twenty-three countries before a single test was run. What does the WHO's 'low risk' framing mean? The institutional failure of January 2020, and what…
Where is the Indigenous Cultural Revolution?
https://brennan.day/where-is-the-indigenous-cultural-revolution/
Published: May 7, 2026 07:00
Fred Moten and Stefano Harney's 'The Undercommons' describes a space of collective refusal beneath the institutions of the master. On why Black American cultural revolution was possible, why Indigenous cultural revolution is structurally different, and…
PATTERN RECOGNITION
https://brennan.day/pattern-recognition/
Published: May 5, 2026 07:00
Scientists working in classified American aerospace and nuclear research have died and disappeared. The story has migrated from UFO forums to the White House briefing room. A conspiracy requires a conspirator. On grief, and the brain's furious,…
Announcing My New Radio Show (a Love Letter to Public Access Television)
https://brennan.day/announcing-my-new-radio-show-a-love-letter-to-public-access-television/
Published: May 3, 2026 07:00
From Shaw Community Television on Channel 10 to Paper Tiger Television and the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, public access was original community media. Anybody, any channel, no notes from the network. In that spirit, I'm starting a self-hosted radio…
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