Base64 is not encryption
While setting up a new server, I found an API key in a nameless TextMate buffer and a base64-only password in an env file. This is how that happens, and what I changed.
Frontend dev writing about CSS, Make.com, biohacking, and building in public
The pattern · 16 steps · 16 weeks
- Logging Food by Talking to Claude
- I checked who reads my llms.txt. Almost nobody, and most of "GPTBot" wasn't GPTBot
- Sovereign AI on a Synology NAS for a Small Agency
- When a client asks for SEO and needs GEO
- Schema.org markup and entity recognition in 2026
- When a ChatGPT sync bug made my Mac the source of truth
- From hobby banknote app to an enterprise AI pitch
- Why Littlebird Sits At The Center Of My AI Stack
- Letting AI refactor one legacy stylesheet
- A tiny script that adds my internal links
- Three things I delete from almost every AI draft
- A CSS Hover-Reveal Pattern for Technical Specs
- Letting AI refactor one legacy stylesheet
- Content breakpoints for a single hero component
- Designing a theme around a writer who doesn’t exist
- Deriving a Ghost theme palette from one accent color
- I started a studio for Ghost themes
- Upgrading three Tailwind projects to v4 in one sprint
- The grid decision that rewrote my lightbox logic
- A CSS Hover-Reveal Pattern for Technical Specs
- ABM landing pages for maritime cybersecurity
- From hobby banknote app to an enterprise AI pitch
- The layout bug that vanished when I changed the copy
- Content breakpoints for a single hero component
- Archiving Todoist projects so I can see my week again
- Scheduling 38 volunteer umpires with one spreadsheet
- Two Macs, One SSD, and the Sync I Stopped Trusting
- The 6:40 AM Morning Kickstart protocol
- Running a baseball weekend with Heja, iScore, and WhatsApp
- Why I finally deleted NotePlan
- Gamifying Cardiac Rehab with Habitica
- The Make automation that was slower than manual
- A tiny script that adds my internal links
- Logging Food by Talking to Claude
- Three months after the jump rope protocol
- Gamifying Cardiac Rehab with Habitica
- A 4‑Week Jump Rope Protocol for Cardiac Conditioning
- Base64 is not encryption
- I checked who reads my llms.txt. Almost nobody, and most of "GPTBot" wasn't GPTBot
- Two Macs, One SSD, and the Sync I Stopped Trusting
- How I Split Social Posts Between Buffer and Manual Updates
- Sovereign AI on a Synology NAS for a Small Agency
- Running a baseball weekend with Heja, iScore, and WhatsApp
- When a ChatGPT sync bug made my Mac the source of truth
- Why Littlebird Sits At The Center Of My AI Stack
- Replacing Three Client Dashboards With One Local n8n
- Designing a theme around a writer who doesn’t exist
- Using the Ghost forum to earn trust before selling themes
- Pricing Northline and Azimuth as a new Ghost studio
- I started a studio for Ghost themes
- How I Split Social Posts Between Buffer and Manual Updates
- Base64 is not encryption
- Using the Ghost forum to earn trust before selling themes
- I started a studio for Ghost themes
- A late start on collecting polymer banknotes
- Scheduling 38 volunteer umpires with one spreadsheet
- What I Hand Over To Next Year’s U12 Coach
- When a client asks for SEO and needs GEO
- Three things I delete from almost every AI draft
Latest
154 postsDesigning a theme around a writer who doesn’t exist
For a newsletter-focused Ghost theme, I wrote a full fake publication with a fake author. That fictional writer broke the grid and forced more honest design decisions.
Deriving a Ghost theme palette from one accent color
Ghost gives themes a single accent color, but you can still get a full palette out of it using CSS color-mix() and oklch for hover, border and background states.
Using the Ghost forum to earn trust before selling themes
Using the Ghost forum as groundwork for a theme studio: picking your questions, avoiding self-promotion, and living with the tension between helping and selling.
Pricing Northline and Azimuth as a new Ghost studio
How I priced Northline and Azimuth for Aftertype’s launch as an unknown Ghost theme studio, and why copying established makers’ prices felt wrong.
I started a studio for Ghost themes
On 2 September I registered a company. On 6 September, four days later, the first product went on sale. The company is called Aftertype, it is a one-person studio in Maastricht, and it makes premium themes for Ghost.
Archiving Todoist projects so I can see my week again
I archived three Todoist projects, moved everything into one, and set a weekly five-task limit so I can see my week again without deleting anything.
A late start on collecting polymer banknotes
A gifted 50 dobras polymer note at a coin fair nudged a late starter toward banknote collecting, with a few guardrails to keep it curiosity, not compulsion.
Scheduling 38 volunteer umpires with one spreadsheet
Scheduling 38 volunteer umpires is a constraint puzzle, not a software problem. A simple spreadsheet and a few hard rules often beat a fancy app.
Logging Food by Talking to Claude
Cronometer sits behind a local Claude chat on my Mac Studio so I can log food by describing meals. Staples got faster to track, but quiet errors still need a human check.
I checked who reads my llms.txt. Almost nobody, and most of "GPTBot" wasn't GPTBot
15 days of Nginx logs: llms.txt was fetched 31 times, twice by an AI agent. And 4,334 of 4,565 "GPTBot" requests came from somewhere other than OpenAI.
Two Macs, One SSD, and the Sync I Stopped Trusting
I juggle a Mac Studio, a MacBook Air, and a T9 SSD by giving each type of file a single source of truth instead of trusting sync to do everything.
How I Split Social Posts Between Buffer and Manual Updates
How I use Buffer to handle predictable updates for my one-person theme studio, what I still post by hand, and where I draw the line so social does not become a second job.
Upgrading three Tailwind projects to v4 in one sprint
I upgraded three client sites to Tailwind v4 in one week. Most utilities survived quietly. The custom gradient border plugin did not.
Three months after the jump rope protocol
Three months after the August YaoYao jump rope protocol, the strict plan is gone but the rope and the heart rate ceiling stayed. This is what held up.
What I Hand Over To Next Year’s U12 Coach
At the end of a U12 season, not everything should follow the team into next year. This is what survives a season change, and what belongs to this group only.
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Frontend dev writing about CSS, Make.com, biohacking, and building in public