Restarting Theme Development

This post is a bit of a ramble and more for documenting my thinking.

Things have been kind of hectic in my personal life and I’ve been taking a step away from creating and interacting. In the time that I’ve been away, there have been changes to Hugo and the Micro.blog. In some ways, it’s been a relief that Micro.blog is using v0.117. Other than the changes in v0.132 (The introduction of alerts although v0.140 and v0.142 has some significant fixes to this), I haven’t really seen anything catches my interest.

Still, I have seen some interesting things being done with blogs and want to be able to take advantage of the newer versions of Hugo when Manton and crew make it available.

I thought I would document what steps I went through. I’ve begun writing this on September 24th and worked on it in my spare time until clicking the publish button.

Environmental Setup

At the beginning of this process, I had Hugo v0.146.3 installed on my MacBook Air running Tahoe 26.1. I want to be able to test in different versions of Hugo so did a search and found several article pointing to hvm (Hugo Version Manager). The tool was created by Joe Mooring who is very active on the Hugo Forums and you can go to the GitHub repository to review the code.

The first thing I did was use Kostas’ instructions for using brew to get a certain version of running a specific version of Hugo and then I downloaded the v.117 hugo ruby installer.

That didn’t work.

So, I downloaded the homebrew-core from the GitHub repository and then changing to the commit that has the version I want.

git checkout e243fd4

That didn’t work for me as well and I grew tired of trying to find the right combinations of brew commands.

So, I followed the directions and ran the next step to see an error

mandaris@skylite ~ % hvm gen alias --help
zsh: command not found: hvm

That’s when I realized that my system is almost a clean install other than the installation of the command line tools and brew, I didn’t have things like /usr/local/bin or anything else that I had taken from granted in my previous setup.

I set up oh-my-zsh and kept the defaults. I forgot why I use this but not how. I added the following to my .zshrc

export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Then new shell instances will be able to find the executables from GO.

➜  ~ which hvm
/Users/mandaris/go/bin/hvm

When I ran it the first time, I didn’t see my option and asked on the forums before I went through the associated documents to see that I could add the specific version to a .hvm file that I can put in the root of the folder I’m working with.

➜  local-hugo hvm status
The current directory is configured to use Hugo v0.117.0.
Cached versions of the Hugo executable:

v0.151.0
v0.117.0

Now I’m able to switch between the versions easily.

The only problem is that some of the plugins that I use locally are not compatible with that version. For example, the stoot plugin to embed mastodon post.

Hashtag Goals

Other than the work to keep the theme ready for newer versions of Hugo, I’ve identified a couple other things that I want to work on.

  1. Increase the performance of the site
    I don’t want to remove styling or minimize the file because I feel that it will help others learn and I’m too afraid to kill my darlings.
  2. Move the About me to the bottom
    I feel having it on the side on larger screens draws focus away from the writing on page.

In addition, I have to figure out why @view-transition doesn’t work on the server but works on my local copy of the site.

The goal is to get this all finished before Thanksgiving break. So if you’re reading this please feel free to bug me about it as my self imposed deadline draws near.

Take Care!

I Am a Firm Believer in Costumes | Notes and Ramblings

I've heard the phrase The Clothes make the Man and I really liked this example that David wrote about discussing how his costume helps him.

I think the correct costume helps make the task β€œsucceed” - lowers the friction point of the task at hand.

I’ve heard people talking about using certain kinds of music or sections of their home to get in the best headspace for different things.

Crucial Track for October 10, 2025

"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers

Listen on Apple Music

A song from the 1970s that you like or means something to you.

I like this song because my wife likes it when I sing it to her.

She deserves every love song and more.

View Mandaris Moore's Crucial Tracks profile

Part of me is wondering … | Leon Mika

My friend Leon was writing about separating the content he makes into different blogs because of amount of certain topics.

And I feel like they’re overwealming this blog in a way.

I’ve been thinking about doing something similar with my Crucial Track entries. In some ways, it makes a lot of sense because those are generated on a music focused site and then Micro.blog puts it on the blog and distributes it to mastodon and bluesky.

But, I’ve decided not to for two main reasons.

  1. I don’t want to introduce more complexity. Having another blog would mean that I would more places to maintain and make decisions on.

  2. I want place for all things Mandaris. The site has 80-90% of all the things that I create in one location. I don’t know who or what follows me or what they like. I do have different categories of posts and I might add something to the theme to make it easier to follow those specifically.

For now, I think I’ll keep everything here.

Kudos to those who are able to have multiple blogs!

Crucial Track for October 9, 2025

"Limbo Rock" by Chubby Checker

Listen on Apple Music

A song from the 1960s that you like or means something to you.

This is the song that my local skating rink would play when it was time to do limbo. Everyone who wanted to participate would get into a line to have a turn to try and skate under the limbo bar.

I keep remembering lines like Don't move that Limbo Bar and How low can you go?

I never won, but it was always fun to try new styles to get under the bar.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that other people limbo without skates.

View Mandaris Moore's Crucial Tracks profile

Sinners, 2025 - β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

I have this down as my movie of the year. I like it because of how it makes us feel about these characters as they move into a night that none of them will be able to forget.

Crucial Track for October 8, 2025

"Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets

Listen on Apple Music

A song from the 1950s that you like or means something to you.

This song means a lot to me because it was used repeatedly when I was learning how to swing dance. I had no rhythm so I had to learn the anticipate the beats in the music. For someone learning, having a regular beat is very, very important.

Even now, I do not actually hear the words when this song plays. I hear 1 and 2, 3 and 4.

View Mandaris Moore's Crucial Tracks profile

Crucial Track for October 7, 2025

"Theme from "Greatest American Hero" (Believe It or Not)" by Joey Scarbury

Listen on Apple Music

A song from a TV show that you like.

I think this song has outlived the tv show and I think it's wonderful in how it expresses joy.

Believe it or not, I'm walking on air I never thought I could feel so free Flying away on a wing and a prayer Who could it be? Believe it or not, it's just me

I should set a reminder to listen to this song on a regular basis so that I can think about the things that I'm grateful for.

View Mandaris Moore's Crucial Tracks profile

Crucial Track for August 30, 2025

"Boogie Wonderland (with The Emotions)" by Earth, Wind & Fire

Listen on Apple Music

Share a song that makes you want to dance every time.

I don't think I'm the only one who gets the feeling of toe tapping when I hear this song. The very first verse of the song is literally telling you to dance!

Dance, boogie wonderland, hah, hah Dance, boogie wonderland

The hah is the sound of your heart filling with joy as it gets ready to do it's thing.

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Crucial Track for October 6, 2025

"Hotline Bling" by Drake

Listen on Apple Music

What is a song by an artist you don't usually like?

I'm not saying I didn't like Drake before we all knew that he was not like us. I am saying that there was just something about the music that he was associated with that didn't appeal to me.

Still, there is something about this song. Maybe it's the story of how a Good Guy perceives not ending up with the girl or how people can get caught up in living the fast life.

View Mandaris Moore's Crucial Tracks profile