2025-12-28 00:07:00
I got an email with a question about my choice of blogging platforms. The reader asks:
I saw you’re on Bear Blog now. Do I remember correctly that you were on Micro.blog before? Can you tell me a little bit about where you see the pros and cons, and why you chose Bear now?
The short answer: I’m on both.
This blog, robertbirming.com, is hosted on Bear. I use it for longer posts and tinkering. Mostly for my public theme, Bearming.
My other blog, birming.com, is hosted on Micro.blog. I use that one for shorter, title-less posts, photos, book tracking, and similar things. It’s a bit like a social media account, but with much more control over the content.
I really like this current setup. To me, it’s the best of two worlds.
There’s been a lot of back and forth between platforms to land here. Plenty of testing, a few “Heureka!” moments, and a bunch of doubts. Small doubts still pop up every now and then, but I think that’s something almost every blogger feels from time to time.
Personally, my creativity comes in waves. Same thing when it comes to being social online. Using both platforms fits my personality in that sense.
I like Bear for its simplicity when it comes to design and tweaking things. I like Micro.blog for its flexibility, and for the way it lets you follow people without turning it into a follower-count contest. Both platforms have great communities and are my number one go-tos for discovering new content.
Another thing I like about my current setup is that it’s possible to integrate the two. Bear is wonderful for publishing blog posts, but not as practical when it comes to shorter status updates or photo albums. With this setup, I can display my notes and photos from Micro.blog directly on my Bear blog, seamlessly.
Those are some of the main reasons I prefer this solution. What works for you, only you know.
It’s easy to read about other people’s pros and cons and try to decide based on that. I’ve done that many times. In reality, it rarely works. Blogging is too personal for a one-fits-all manual.
If I were to name one single reason for picking the “right” platform, it would be this:
Blogging should feel fun and easy.
2025-12-27 18:03:00
—is mourning them in advance, even when nothing is wrong. Sometimes it's fear: growing up and around it, living every day and knowing it's still part of me.
It will always be a part of me, that fear, for as long as we are both alive, the same blood cycling back and forth in our tired veins.
Sometimes loving you is very easy, and sometimes it's automatically converting to your time zone, and wondering what you're doing, and waiting like a dog for you to wake up. Sometimes it's crying a little at 3 a.m. over something that happened more than half a decade ago.
Sometimes I talk to myself in our chat like if I could talk enough, I could talk myself into a house in California. Half the world away. It would be sunny, and the sky would be a different shade of blue, and I wouldn't have to wonder anymore.
2025-12-27 07:06:00
Heya!
It's been a while!
I've been busy with quite a lot of stuff these past few weeks - which is what this post will be about!
First of all, there's obviously christmas, and the gazette calendar leading up to it. I've only just now really gotten the time to actually read most of the posts lol - I'll probably be going through them all either today or tomorrow, we'll see.
There's also the gazette book club... I have yet to finish the book we're reading xd.
I'm cutting it a tad close here I'll admit, but I'm still fairly confident i can get that done this month. If not, maybe I'll submit a day or two late. Who knows.
Anyways! Onto some more positive news! I've actually been working on a guestbook website that'll get released... Sometime soon, hopefully? Depends on when I'm done with the thing, but I am making good progress. The idea is to just have something self-hostable that doesn't have as many of the trust issues ava and Archaeopteryx brought up in their respective blogposts. So, easy account deletion, a privacy policy, multiple fast ways to export your data, decent moderation tools and captcha support, decent privacy, and a way to self-host it, in case you don't trust me being in charge of your data. In general, I'm just trying to make it something I would be comfortable using. As I said, I'm still very much in the weeds of development, and once I gotta get back to my job, progress will slow down quite dramatically. I'm hoping to get it done before then? But, no promises obviously. We'll see. Maybe I'll do a few devlog style posts on here or something, who knows.
So, yeah. I've been doing kind of a ton of stuff! Between that, this blog, and like... Actual real-life obligations, that'll probably mean some less frequent posts on here. Oh well, such is life. I've already made well over a 100 blogposts, so personally I'm fine with things slowing down a little bit, even though i do wish i had more time to properly do everything that i want to.
Welp, that's that.
Cya next post!
Oh, right, I'm also still learning japanese on the side, so there's that too. Forgot to mention that. I have too much stuff going on lol.
2025-12-27 02:07:38
I’ve been a little quiet on here (and honestly across most of my socials), because I’ve been attempting to focus more on myself offline. It’s no secret that I’ve been having a hard time the past few months. Even with all my posts about not letting the loss of my job define my worth, I still managed to lose myself somewhere along the way. That part isn’t new though, so I won’t focus on that right now.
Lately I’ve been starting my mornings with a cup of coffee and my journal. There’s just something therapeutic about writing my thoughts out with (my favorite fountain) pen and paper. At times, it just feels like some sort of one sided conversation with myself. Sometimes I even respond in the way I imagine someone who cares about me would (if I’m feeling positive and not cynical that day). Other times, I’m ok with just leting a thought exist, perfectly content with no response at all.
I actually took a few months off from journaling over the summer, and it wasn’t until I picked it back up that I realized how much I missed it. That pause made it clear that the 288 page Hobonichi notebook I started last year was the right choice for me after all. I would’ve definitely failed with having dailies.
Anyways...
I fell into the world of fountain pens, Tomoe River paper, and Hobonichi in late 2024. It began with my first fountain pen, followed by the realization that Moleskine paper no longer worked for me. From there, it was a quick descent down the rabbit hole. I wasn’t ready to commit to an expensive planner (aka Hobonichi Cousin) just yet, so I landed on what felt like the next best thing: a Hobonichi grid notebook. Given my less than stellar history of finishing journals in a reasonable amount of time (my last one took three years) I made myself a deal. If I could finish this notebook by the end of 2025, I would finally allow myself to finally get the Hobonichi Cousin for 2026.
Now that we’re nearing the end of 2025, I’m happy to say I’m down to my last few pages. Although I had those few months skipped, I still somehow made it. I’ve already started my photo a day for this month in my new Hobonichi Cousin (the monthlies started in December), though I still have to wait until January 1st for the dailies.
I tend to decorate my journals as the year unfolds, theming it based on how my year is going. That’s why this new one is completely plain at the moment. Check back at the end of 2026 to see how it turns out. I already can’t wait to see it chonk up.
For now, we’ll just focus on the almost finished 2025 journal.
👈 Left is my current journal, 👉 right is my 2026 journal.
The cover of my November 2024-December 2025 Hobonichi Grid Notebook, and my currently undecorated 2026 Hobonici cousin
I recently just finalized the stickers on the back of my 2025 journal, and already thinking of ways I can make my new one more me.
The side view of my beloved journal, and my soon to be loved journal.
∞ Related: My Moleskine to Hobonichi Notebook Switch
2025-12-27 01:53:00
I released the updated Bearming theme for Bear on December 14, and a lot of things have happened since then. Here’s a small summary of what’s been going on behind the scenes.
The latest theme version, which was just released, is Bearming 3.3. The biggest change is that you now have several new “knobs” to easily personalize the theme to your liking. You can effortlessly change fonts, sizes, add borders, and much more.
Since the release, I’ve also added four new color palettes and 15 new add-ons, and fixed a lot of boring things in the background to make everything play nicely together and add less weight. If you’re curious, you can find all the updates in the changelog.
This is my current setup:
Apart from that, I’ve also played around with the look a bit, adding a header border and tweaking the spacing. I’ll probably keep tinkering, maybe add a footer border too. And yes, I’m fully aware I’m biased, but I really like these new possibilities.
I have a million more ideas for what I want to do, but just like you, I’m limited by this tiny little thing called time. 😊
Maybe you have ideas too? Please let me know. No promises I’ll add them, but I’m open to all suggestions.
Happy blogging, no matter what platform or theme you’re using.
2025-12-25 21:22:00
I haven’t put much thought into Christmas since I moved out of my parents’ home, aside from selfmade Advent calendars.
I’m not a big fan of visiting Christmas markets, as the trinkets there seem useless and overpriced, and most of the (expensive!) food is not something I’ll eat. All the crowds and risks make me uneasy.
I also think Christmas decorations can be quite gaudy and ugly. Dealing with a real tree can be expensive, annoying and wasteful, but the fake tree I have is a pain to set up and leaves an oily film on my hands. Wrapping paper for the gifts seemed wasteful as well, so we often left it in the original cardboard box, or wrapped it in muslin sheets.
This year takes the cake though in how little preparation Christmas got. No tree, no decorations, one or two gifts wrapped, the rest weren’t. The only thing we had going was the calendar, Christmas music, a fancy dinner, and baking cookies.
I thought celebrating such a minimized version of Christmas would be enough and not something that bothers me, but instead it showed me that I need to put in more effort in the years to come.
I needed this experience to realize that I actually like Christmas a little and that an opportunity for joy and whimsy is missing if I don’t participate in some way at least. It’s not that Christmas is a hassle or per se not fun, but instead, there are things I can do and other viewpoints to take that could make it more fun for me. I finally seem to get the point of Christmas aside from gift giving; the point of everything around the actual Christmas Eve.
I used to think “Why put up decorations for a few weeks just to put them away? Why can’t everything just stay the same all year round? What a useless hassle!” but with the years passing and living in the same home, I understand now that you need a bit of change around to not get sick of it all. It also feels better to mark time passing with certain home decor and other changes than to feel it run through your hands while nothing around you really changes. It’s eerie.
I can now appreciate the different year-round festive markers as ways to celebrate and accept time moving forward as the year goes on, instead of living the same way all those months and suddenly feeling surprised that another year ended. The rituals and visual reminders throughout the months help going consciously through the year and savoring the time. Putting the decorations away or rearranging things is like a little conscious goodbye that another piece of the year is over.
I’ve never seen it that way before, and simply thought older people were a little too stuck in traditions and optics in front of neighbors to question the effort they put into decorating for the different seasons, easter, Halloween, Christmas and more. But they were right, and it feels warm and welcoming.
Growing up, all the holiday spirit feels like it materializes around you by itself, but that’s not true. It’s not a natural disaster, it’s people coming together to make it happen and make it special for others.
It’s your family making an effort to decorate the home, to give you an Advent calendar, to fill your Nikolaus boot, take you to a Christmas market and more. It’s your school that decorates and your teachers to bring candy or make crafts for the holidays or other holiday-themed exercises. Your hobby group will likely do some end-of-the-year type celebrations too. The people who buy the craft stuff and decorations, the people who stand in the cold for 10 hours at the market do it so others can just feel like this magically happens and don’t have to think about the logistics.
I somehow missed the point where I realized that it all depended on people giving a damn and putting in the effort to make it happen, and that once you exit all these groups that make an effort and age out of it, you’ll have to go put in the effort yourself.
That’s why Christmas “doesn’t feel as special as it used to”. Because as an adult, it won’t just materialize around you anymore. You have to be the one to motivate yourself to put up the decorations, not just help or admire them; you choose the days to bake, the recipes, the tree. You fill your own Nikolaus boot or sock, so to speak. Christmas gettogethers aren’t just thrust upon you anymore, you either show an interest to attend, or you host and plan accordingly.
A big part of this is also not having guests over that would care, or children to urge you to do all of this. I’m sure if I had a child, I’d go above and beyond to make Christmas special for them year after year, because they’re witnessing it for the first time and deserve happy Christmas childhood memories. And if we hosted a big friend Christmas gettogether, I’m sure I’d feel similarly.
Without that reason, I have to learn to take it seriously by myself and do it for my wife and me, even if it feels unnecessary initially. And I hope once we move closer to friends, maybe we can host some festivities.
I’ll definitely do better next year!
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