What I Worked On
- Evaluated several options for a public work log (not a full blog), including Substack, GitHub Pages, and Quartz.
- Decided to use Markdown as the source of truth.
- Installed Quartz and worked through several Windows-specific setup issues.
- Built the first version of the site locally.
- Created a “Now” page to track current priorities.
- Deployed the site to GitHub Pages using Github Actions.
- Configured lab.thoughtgarden.com.
- Bumped to Node 24 support for Github Actions. Who knows if that would have died gracefully.
What I Learned
- OpenClaw and n8n are down. Something is killing the Linux VM regularly. Might be Hyper-V networking.
- Markdown files are a good long-term source format because they can be reused by future tools.
- Quartz is more complex than expected but appears to be flexible once configured.
- A daily log is probably enough structure to start.
Ideas
- Generate LinkedIn posts from daily logs. Likely weekly not to annoy.
- Generate X posts from daily logs.
- Have OpenClaw summarize weekly activity automatically.
- Build project pages automatically from daily notes.
- Use the site as a public engineering notebook.
- Write deeper “how to” articles off of this structure.
Next
- Fix the Linux box
- Create a better homepage.
- Add a second daily log tomorrow.