This is a super simple static site blog based on:

https://docs.github.com/en/pages/quickstart

https://jekyllrb.com

This site uses Jekyll and GitHub Pages.

• Ruby 3.3.4 (install via your preferred version manager)
• Bundler

cd to directroy root: cd /Users/mattsly/Sites/GitHub/mattsly.github.io

bundle

bundle exec jekyll serve

it will starting running at http://127.0.0.1:4000

On deploy, it will automatically publish to https://mattsly.github.io/mattsly.com/

Domain configuration is in the repo settings on GitHub

For now, I'm just committing everything to main. Once it's pushed to GitHub it will automatically deploy. namecheap.com is where the domain is registered and the DNS is set up (previously mattsly.com was hosted on S3)

To override a Jekyll theme default, copy the related file from the gem to the corresponding directory (this is what I've done for layouts/home and includes/footer)

To find the defaults run bundle info --path minima

...and then open in Finder and copy to the same path in this repo

1. Verify domain here: https://github.com/settings/pages
2. Need to use https://github.com/mattsly/mattsly.github.io - which is set up at the root of mattsly.github.io (originally I created a new project for mattsly.com which was serving at mattsly.github.io/mattsly.com - i.e. repo name...)

• All external links automatically open in a new tab thanks to the jekyll-target-blank plugin
• To add new posts, create markdown files in the _posts directory following the naming convention YYYY-MM-DD-title.md
• Drafts live in _drafts (no date prefix) and can be previewed locally with bundle exec jekyll serve --drafts
• Images should be placed in the /assets/ directory

The site has two content sections with different visibility rules:

/writing — shows all posts except those in _posts/monthly/. Exclusion is based purely on directory path, no frontmatter needed.

/monthly — shows only posts from _posts/monthly/, excluding any with status: draft in their frontmatter. Use status: draft for in-progress monthly posts you want to preview via direct URL but not yet list publicly (e.g. the current month). All monthly posts are technically public at their permalink — they're just unlinked until ready.

Install the Paste Image extension by mushanshitiancai in VS Code.

Usage: With the cursor placed where you want the image in your markdown file, press Cmd+Option+V. The extension will:

1. Save the clipboard image to assets/ named after the current file (e.g., editing 2024-01-01-cancer-essay.md produces assets/2024-01-01-cancer-essay-2024-01-01-10-30-00.png)
2. Insert the correct markdown reference at the cursor: ![](/assets/filename.png)

The .vscode/settings.json in this repo is already configured — no extra setup needed beyond installing the extension.

https://www.markdownguide.org/cheat-sheet/

bold text

italicized text

blockquote

title

• First item
• Second item
• Third item

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

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