Yesterday, at the headquarters of Internet Archive Europe, I hosted the second Amsterdam edition of HTML Day! The first edition was hosted last year by Braxton Hall, who I was pleased joined us yesterday for HTML fun.

I figured three or four people show up, and I would host it at a park somewhere. Instead, Holly Zijderveld reached out to suggest we use the IAE venue right in the centre of Amsterdam. It was a very sunny day, and still 13 people gathered to work on HTML pages, talk about independent web publishing, and everything else that came floating by.

HTML Day is an annual celebration of HTML during which we gather in-person to write HTML, learn with and from each other, and enjoy the beautiful fusion of the real world and the independent web. HTML energy is all around us. Let’s celebrate it! Beginners are very, very welcome.

Details

• Date: August 8, 2026
• Time: 14:00
• Location: Internet Archive Europe on Oudeschans 16, Amsterdam

What to bring

• Something to write HTML on (a laptop, tablet, smartphone or paper)
• A snack and drink for yourself

What we’ll do

• Talk about websites
• Write HTML
• Share what we’ve made

How to join

Sign up on Luma!

Three wins

1. Gave a successful presentation during a company-wide meeting, and it prompted the responses and follow-ups I had aimed for
2. Took my first walk to the nearby park with friends who returned from a month-long holiday
3. Went to Sunday’s church service without crutches for the first time since the accident

Browsing around for my favorite blog post for Fabruary, I just ran into Lou Plummer’s What Were Your First Seven Jobs? I say “browsing” but I was really just going through only his archive. I knew when I decided to participate in Robert Birming’s Fabruary that the post I would submit as my favorite would be something written by Lou.

I dreamed I added my profile picture to an IndieWeb directory. Upon visiting the website in question, I noticed how my initial difficulty to correctly operate my phone’s photo library had resulted in two pictures. The first one showed my face, and the second did, too. Scrolling down, though, any viewer would immediately be met with my bare chest. I panicked, and thought about people who fall victim to revenge porn. “Would my pictures be eligible for removal”, I wondered, “even if I was the one who committed the act?” I spent the rest of the saga stressed and horrified. Moments later, I wake up to Valentine’s Day, fully clothed.

As we approach the end of 2024 (wow, already?!) I’m pleased to do something I have been anticipating for months: host the December 2024 edition of the IndieWeb Carnival ( What is that?).

The theme is belief

It’s an open theme, one that I hope will inspire you to share whatever pops into your head when you think about it. A few prompts to merely inspire you:

• What is something you can’t know, but that you believe?
• What’s something you wish you could unbelieve?
• How do you relate to the word “belief”?

Guidelines

1. Submit in English or any language open to online translation tools
2. Submit in any medium as long as it produces a single URL
3. Send it to me on or before December 31, 2024
4. Use the email address zinzy {at} pm {.} me and the subject “IndieWeb Carnival on Belief”

As always, I need some time to digest this theme myself. A link to my post will appear on this page. I’ll publish a round-up post of submissions on January 1, 2025. I was able to quickly jot down some thoughts of my own while compiling the list of submissions right before I went in for a week-long hospital stay.

Introduction

For years, years I tell ya, I’ve been telling myself I need to write better week notes. “Better” refers to their frequency and to a lesser extent to their content. I never seemed to have found the pace to spend my Sunday afternoons sipping tea and reflecting on the week gone by.

I just noticed in my RSS feed that Rach Smith is adopting a new habit of writing Dave Rupert-inspired month notes. I thought about my week notes, and immediately heard the voice of my wise mother-in-law saying “why suffer?” And why suffer indeed? Today, I’m writing my very first Vibe Check.