Advent of Bloggers 2021: Day 12

I am writing a blog post every day from December 1st to December 24th, 2021, about a blogger whose writing or site I follow. My aim for this series is to help you discover new blogs and to help get the word out about content creators whose blogs I appreciate. You can read more about this series in the inaugural Day 1 post.

@martymcgui.re

Every few days, I look in my RSS reader and see a short video featuring a cat or two. The video goes on loop, expressing a moment in time with Marty McGuire's cats. Marty refers to this series as "eternal caturday," a name that recognises the extent to which time has been distorted and warped during the ongoing pandemic.

Although I have cats at home, Marty's posts always bring a little bit of joy into my day. Cats are unpredictable and no matter how much time I spend with them, I am continually surprised by the odd thing that they do. Cat videos are, ironically, well established as a part of the web. Marty's site makes cat videos personal, focusing on the day-to-day instead of extraordinary moments. His posts resonate with me having spent my life with cats nearby.

Aside from the cat posts, Marty shares events he is planning to go to and other social interactions. These interactions are powered yb IndieWeb protocols such as Micropub. If you're curious about what Micropub allows in terms of posting content, Marty's site is a great example of what you can do.

All of Marty's posts are available in his "latest post" feed, the one to which I am subscribed. At the time of writing, this feed contains lots of cat videos. But, there are also blog posts to read. Every so often, Marty writes about various topics including the IndieWeb and his experiences building his website.

In this series, I have usually listed a few articles to read. For this post, I would encourage you to explore on your own. Start on Marty's home page and click around to see what you can find. If you want to jump straight to Marty's IndieWeb posts, you can find a lot of them tagged under the "#site-update" category.

Wrapping Up

This post marks the half-way point of the series. One of my biggest takeaways in writing this series is just how different personal websites are. Indeed, sites are a method of expression. The content published is up to the owner. In Marty's case, you will find the intersection of IndieWeb posts, cats, and some improvised comedy RSVPs. In my case, you'll find coffee and web development. Every site is unique in its content, architecture, and philosophies.

If you have a personal website that you would like to share, please feel free to email me at readers@jamesg.blog with your domain name. I am always on the hunt for new sites to subscribe to. I will see you tomorrow for the thirteenth post in this series.