Richard Rathe's Reflections

× Under Construction, Not Everything Is Working, There Are Still Some Rough Edges!
Where I've been and what I've learned along the way… id photo

Welcome! You've reached the online journal of Richard Rathe. I started posting to the web in 2004! This is probably the fifth reincarnation. In this iteration I'm trying a few new ideas: minimal markup, working with mostly plain text, and moving beyond the timeline. Some refer to this as a Digital Garden. I call it BLIS (BLog It Simple).

The only unfungible, unreplicable value in the new economy will be people's presence, time, and attention. — Esther Dyson

The Wave & Coyote Buttes North

The Wave Panorama

We got to the trailhead about 8:30 and signed the register. Frosty morning! The first third of the trail was easy, with marker posts along the way. From there the trail became more diffuse and we had to rely on visual landmarks. We climbed one last sandy slope out of an arroyo and we were there!

2024
Gallery Photography Southwest_2024 Travel Video
arizona coyote_buttes fantastic_stone_shapes the_wave vermilion_cliffs
edited: Jan 27 2025

BLIS (BLog It Simple)

Syncing with FTP

BLIS is an alternative to Wordpress and other database-dependent online publishing systems. One obvious problem with such systems is portability. They generally store text in a database, while media such as images are stored in nested directories by date. It can be daunting to put all these scattered parts back together again outside the original site. (I'm working on this now. It may take several months!)

2024
Projects
database ftp images plain_text sync wordpress
edited: Feb 16 2025

Okefenokee Canoe Trip 2024

Starting Out at Kingfisher Landing

After doing the Green Trail to Bluff Lake and Round Top three years ago—this year we set out to retrace My First Trip in 2004 on the Red Trail and cut back via Floyds Island. My old friend Peter from Minnesota and youngest brother Bruce from Wisconsin joined me.

2024
Camping Gallery Hammocks History Panoramas Photography Travel Video
chickee floyds_island kingfisher_landing suwannee_canal suwannee_river windy
edited: Feb 16 2025

KIST/BLIS Integration Notes

HTML files generated by KIST are compatible with the BLIS Static Web Journaling & Blogging System system.

2024
Kist_Markup Programming Projects
edited: Feb 16 2025

KIST to Wordpress Conversion Notes (Depreciated)

The kist.pl program (App) can render text into HTML fragments tagged for use by Wordpress. For text only the -w switch is all that is required. You can also specify the full path for images after uploading them to a WP server.

2024
Kist_Markup Projects
edited: Feb 16 2025

Keep It Simple Text Markup (KIST)

KIST Banner

KIST combines the best elements of various markup formats I've worked with over the past forty years. The original purpose of these tools was to quickly generate valid HTML. The plain text source files are nearly universal and reusable!

2024
Audio Gallery Kist_Markup Programming Projects Video
ascii fail_gracefully hashtag least_ink_principle multi_word_phrases open_standards plain_text social_media utf8 word_boundary
edited: Feb 16 2025

Everglades Kayak Trip 2025

Entering the Park

Just back from my 29th (!) wilderness trip in the Everglades! This year I went with my younger brother who is a veteran of a similar canoe trip in 2009. We made a tour of the four single chickees in the southern part of the park with an option to boomerang out to the Gulf of Mexico on the tides. The trip pretty much came off without a hitch. Only downside was the nightime temps were in the upper 60s with little or no wind… so we had bugs!

2025
Camping Everglades Gallery Hammocks Photography Travel
american_crocodile chickee coot_bay gulf_of_mexico hammocks hells_bay lane_bay lane_river manatee mosquitos no_see_ums north_river rogers_river shark_river the_labyrinth tides watson_river whitewater_bay
edited: Feb 14 2025

Electrical Vehicles (1916)

From the Bookhouse…

It is evident that the short coming in each case can be overcome only by combining the gas engine with a dynamo connected to a storage battery… Wow! 1916 and they already had hybrids!!

1916
Bookhouse Books History Reviews
typography
edited: Feb 14 2025