And I'm back...

Howdy! Welcome to this iteration of my blog, <CONTENT /> v.10. Yes, that's an empty content tag. Get it? No content here. It's an old XML joke, because XML is funny. The v.10 part once referred to actual iterations of the blog as I switched platforms, themes, etc. Now it's just for fun.

I'm not sure what I'm going to post here, but I intend to keep it light. Hobbies, vacations, travels, good food, bourbon, and more. I may occasionally drift into some pieces on edtech, AI, and even legal education. Those articles may not be so light but screeds will be minimal.

Speaking of vacations, we spent a few days at Universal Orlando last week as it transitioned from summer to Halloween Horror Nights. HHN isn't my cup of tea but the season change brings some interesting menu changes and Dufftoberfest beer arrives in Springfield. I do enjoy Dufftoberfest!

Adding Images to Markdown

Of course every blog needs images. After all a picture is worth a 1,000 words. I'm giving this a shot hosting the images in the GitHub repo. That will work for now.

With any luck there is a nice picture right above this line.

I discovered I needed to add the images directory under assets so that it gets picked up correctly and the path to /assets/images must be absolute.

Fun With YAML Front Matter

Here's what my local AI told me about YAML front matter:

You can include almost any piece of metadata that helps define, categorize, or guide how your content should be displayed or processed by the system reading it (like a static site generator).

Since the function of the front matter is to act as structured data *about* the content rather than the content itself, you can think of it as adding YAML key-value pairs for anything non-narrative.

Here is a comprehensive list of common things you might include:

### 1. Publishing & Timing
These control when and how often the content appears chronologically.

*   **`date:`**: The original creation or publication date (most common).
*   **`pubdate:` / `published:`**: A specific date intended for public viewing, which might be different from the file's actual modification date.
*   **`last_modified:`**: When the content was last substantially edited.

### 2. Categorization & Indexing
These help navigation and filtering on your site.

*   **`tags:`**: A list of keywords (e.g., `["python", "api", "testing"]`).
*   **`categories:`**: Broader groupings, often mutually exclusive to tags (e.g., `"Programming"`).
*   **`series:`**: To link posts that belong to a multi-part tutorial or series.

### 3. SEO & Display Control (For Web Presentation)
These guide search engines and the site's rendering logic.

*   **`slug:`**: A clean, URL-friendly version of the title, often mandatory for creating permalinks (e.g., `my-awesome-post`).
*   **`excerpt:` / `summary:`**: A short summary that should be displayed on an index page without reading the whole article.
*   **`featured_image:`**: To specify a path to an image that should represent the post on index pages.
*   **`canonical:`**: Used for SEO to point search engines to the primary version of a page if multiple URLs exist.

### 4. Per-System Directives (Site Generator Specific)
Some generators have proprietary keys you *must* use to make specific features work:

*   **`layout:`**: Tells the site generator which template file to use for rendering this specific post (e.g., `layout: "video_post"`).
*   **`draft:`**: A boolean flag (`true`/`false`) used to keep posts private until they are ready to go live.
*   **`math_engine:`**: Specific directives needed by LaTeX/MathJax implementations if you embed math equations using specific syntax.

By adding these kinds of structured keys, you turn a simple Markdown file into a self-contained data object that your website software can read and use to build out a complex, functional website.

Mostly I'm interested in getting the dates right so I can add tehm to the posts.