Resources

You’ve landed in a deliberately small corner of the web. Everything here is used, read, or checked by an actual person — not collected by an algorithm. Treat it like a bookshelf, not a search engine.

Toolbox

• Catbox – A dead-simple file and image hosting service. I use this primarily for hosting Webp files that I link to on old WordPress posts that I am slowly importing into BearBlog. They have otherwise been a resource for years.
• Bypass Paywalls Clean – I use this when an article is clearly worth reading but locked behind a paywall. It’s not about dodging payment; it’s about cutting through friction for legitimate research and curiosity.

Tools Utilized to Migrate from WordPress to BearBlog

• wordpress-export-to-markdown – Converts a WordPress export XML file into Markdown files. It is what I used to convert 15+ years of WordPress posts to usable Markdown files for putting back up on Bear Blog.
• Beautiful Soup – a library that makes it easy to scrape information from web pages.
• markdownifty – Converts HTML to Markdown.
• wp2bear – A plugin for WordPress. The link for it's download is broken, but I leave this link here in case it returns someday. It seemed like the best option but wasn't available at the time.
• Local – Despite having used WordPress for over twenty years, I had no idea this existed as a way to install it easily locally without all the legwork required for a normal server-side manual installation. As the site says: "An effortless way to develop WordPress sites locally" which is true because I installed this to basically rework an old WordPress export/backup.
• WP Export – Converts WordPress Posts to JSON and CSV files. Their GitHub.

Icons & Design

• Lucide – A crisp, open-source icon library forked from Feather Icons. I reach for this when I want clean, customizable SVG icons without the bloat.
• ⭐️ Logo.dev – Every company logo, one simple API.
• Iconify – Another vast home of thousands of open source icons.

Network & Admin Utilities

• MxToolbox – The "Swiss Army Knife" for email and domain health. I use this to make sure my mail server hasn't ended up on a blacklist.
• WhatsMyDNS – Global DNS propagation. This is my go-to for that "did the site update yet?" anxiety.

Security, Search & Retrieval

• Passkeys Directory – A live index of which services actually support passkeys. I check this when deciding whether I can finally ditch passwords for a site.
• CachedView – A quick way to see cached versions of pages across multiple services. I use this when something disappears or changes and I want to know what it used to say.

RSS Feeds

These are feeds and sites I subscribe to but are specific, technical or mostly release-notes. They're worth linking to in their own right and that is why they are listed here.

• SmugMug Release Notes – They host my photos.
• OpenAI News – Official announcements and releases.
• Pocket Casts Blog – Product updates and platform direction.
• Telegram Blog – Platform announcements and feature updates. There is always something exciting in each update. The way other platforms copy and redux their features, sometimes years later, is almost laughable.
• Ludeon Studios Blog – Updates from the creators of RimWorld.

Indie Web

• 🌟 powRSS – A public RSS feed aggregator with a mission to support the open, independent web. Bookmark this URL right now and thank me later: https://powrss.com/random.
• ooh.directory – A collection of 2,370 blogs about every topic.
• BUKMARK.CLUB – A collection of websites from across the Internet. To be eligible for a listing in this directory, a website must have a curated collection of bookmarks and/or links to other websites.
• Discovery Feed for BearBlog – The spot to discover new Bear Blogs.
• Ye Olde Blogroll Because blogs are the soul of the web. A humanly curated list of 1110 fine personal & independent blogs and sites that are updated regularly. No algorithms ever!

Minimalist Blogging Platforms

• pico.sh / prose – A minimalist publishing tool that feels closer to writing than “running a site” — good for small, durable prose without infrastructure overhead.
• (ARTICLE) Blog Platforms – Manuel Moreale – A comparative overview of mostly all minor and major blogging platforms out there on the web today by Manuel Moreale.

Bear Blog

Bear Blog gets it's own section because it's our primary and most beloved platform.

• Bear Blog – The blogging platform I actually use. It stays out of the way and lets writing be the whole point.
• Documentation › Bear – Clear, human documentation. I come here when I want to understand what’s possible without digging through abstractions.
• Roadmap › Bear – A glimpse into where the platform is heading. Useful for trusting long-term stability rather than chasing features.
• Neat Bear Features – A quiet list of thoughtful details that explain why Bear Blog feels so calm to use.
• GitHub » Bear Blog – The official repository for Bear on GitHub.

Bear Themes & Tweaks

• ⭐️ BearBlog CSS Playground – test your new themes out here, as it is a bit more of a streamlined experience instead of testing on your live-site. You can tell it your BearBlog URL so you can see the changes over your own content. A top-tier Bear Blog link.
• Letterbird – A quiet, email-first publishing tool. I see this as writing meant to land gently in someone’s inbox, not compete for attention in a feed.
• listography: writ. – a farily extensive list of BearBlog tools
• Sylvia's Bear Blog insights - loads of Bear Blog gems and nuggets of information worth taking in.
• Sylvia's Bearblog resources – Bear Blog resources curated by Sylvia, which works well in tandem with the previous link.
• Hiding Upvote Counters on Bearblog – Avoid metric chasing. Just blog!

Bearming

• Bearming Theme – The theme I gravitate toward when I want my site to feel finished without feeling styled.
• Changelog › Bearming
• Palettes › Bearming – A restrained set of color options that don’t fight the words.
• Add-ons › Bearming – Optional enhancements I treat like seasoning, not requirements.
• Bearming bulletin no. 2

Fediverse

• Mastodon.help – a good 101 page for those completely new to the idea of Mastodon.

Rabbit Holes

• The Public Domain Review – Essays and artifacts pulled from the public domain. I open this when I want to fall sideways into history, art, and forgotten ideas.
• Longform – A curated index of long reads from around the web. I use this when I want to read something substantial and don’t care where the time goes.

Time Capsules

• Internet Archive / Wayback Machine – The closest thing the web has to memory. I use this to see what sites looked like years ago or to recover pages that no longer exist.
• Space Jam (1996) – A perfectly frozen slice of mid-90s web design that somehow still exists. I come here to remind myself how weird and earnest the early web was.
• Berkshire Hathaway – Famously unchanged for decades. I revisit this as a reminder that usefulness doesn’t require polish or reinvention.
• Places to Telnet – A list of fun destinations for telnet.

Photography

Specific Topics

• about Focal Length - A newbie guide explaining focal length - about Posing People - You gotta start somewhere
• on Shooting Weddings - They cover things you didn't think of.

Photographers

• Sean Tucker Photography - Sean Tucker's philosophical insights are worth every moment of your time.

Platforms

Where pissing contests happen.

• Glass
• Flickr Used to be an internet darling, now just a hollow shell of its former self. I'm not really sure what happened, but I am sure there is a reddit thread out there somewhere that can explain it.

Photography Blogs/Hubs

• PetaPixel.com - The "Slashdot of Photography"
• PhotographyLife.com - Very strong stance against AI
• SmugMug - A portfolio and photo hosting platform for photographers seeking that professional look. They also currently own Flickr. See also [[SmugMug]].

Post-Production Software

• Darktable - Unofficially the gold standard of post-production on Linux.
• RawTherapee ​They seek to dethrone Darktable. Comprehensive introduction (YouTube)
• Rapid Photo Downloader - A Linux application designed for photographers to efficiently import photos and videos from various devices, offering customizable file naming and backup options.
• Entangle - A Linux-based tethered shooting software providing a graphical interface to control digital cameras from a computer, including features like live preview and camera setting adjustments.

Photography Tools

• The Photographer's Ephemeris | App - A web app for planning outdoor photography shoots using natural light.

Specific Articles

• Best Linux Photo Editors - A roundup of top photo editors available for Linux users. If you don't feel like wasting your time reading an article riddled with ads:
  • GIMP, Pinta, Inkscape, Darktable, UFRaw, RawTherapee, Fotoxx, LightZone, DigiKam, AfterShot Pro, and Phototivo
• GIMP Plugins aimed at Photographers - A list of useful plugins to enhance GIMP for photography workflows.

Videos

• Learn Photography (Full Course) – by Australian Geographic Photographer Chris Bray. This is quite possible the single-best video resource on YouTube if you are just starting out. If this kind of video was created nowadays, it would be behind a ginormous paywall.

Cats

• Tiki Cat – Wet cat food with simple ingredients and a strong protein focus. I use this as a reference point when evaluating cat food quality.
• Your Cat Backpack – The Fat Cat Backpack – A structured cat backpack designed for larger cats. I keep this bookmarked for safe transport and outdoor adventures.