![[Pasted image 20230525125604.png|Newborn sleep patterns]]
## Welcome to my digital garden
I've long lamented the inactivity of my website - but not for lack of trying. In the old website, I had 10 drafts sitting in the inbox queue, but could never bring myself to hit publish because they weren't exactly as polished as the other posts from almost a decade ago.
Also, the whole publishing process as quite laborious - I didn't have an easy way to just go from my internal [[Notion]] ideas to the [[Quarto]] website that I [[New Python Libraries, Quarto, and Viruses|set up last year]] - I had to be at my laptop, completely focused, to publish anything, which is a rare occurrence now that [[On Newborn Parenting|we are of child]].
I _think_ I've found a good solution, by creating a [[digital garden]]:
- This lowers the barrier to entry and publishing of ideas, I can keep them knocking around in the digital garden and make sense of all the information before I publish them into the writing section of my website, and
- I've integrated all my thinking into one tool (my [[Building a Second Brain|second brain]] for both thinking and publishing in [[Obsidian]] and its [[Obsidian Publish]] service. If you [go to my site](https://tjpalanca.com) now, you'll see that it's changed to that form. I'll write more at length about this setup in the future.
So, that's inspired a fresh new attempt to revive my regular newsletter habit.
## Privacy-friendly Google Analytics?
I wrote about [[Nerfing Google Analytics to be more privacy-friendly]]. As I revamped the website, I thought I'd turn to free tools, as opposed to my [[Plausible Analytics]] self-hosted setup.
But it's no longer as simple as slapping Google Analytics on the website and calling it a day due to changes in privacy regulation. This post writes down how I've managed to lock down all the unnecessary ad tracking and data sharing agreements to keep my [[Privacy Policy|privacy policy]] as simple as "I collect anonymized analytics on pageviews so I can make the site better, and nothing else."
**See also**: [[How GDPR Is Failing]]
## Newborn parenting
I write [[On Newborn Parenting]] and the various adjustments we've had to make as a result of now having a beautiful daughter in our home.
**See also:** [[Parenting FAQs]]
## Reading highlights
#### [[Sources/Articles/10 Thoughts From the Fourth Trimester.md|10 Thoughts From the Fourth Trimester]] <br>↳ [[Cards/People/Tim Urban.md|Tim Urban]] · [Highlights](https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01h15cmy616rn8cza5jz8dmdxc) · [Original](https://waitbutwhy.com/2023/05/baby.html)
This was a hilarious point of view of [[Parenting]] from [[Tim Urban]] of [[Wait But Why]] fame. My favorite points were:
- The [[labor experience]] for couples and how they are wonderfully mundane compared to what we see in the movies.
- How [[newborns]] are basically fetuses outside the womb and they aren't cute at all until they're actually babies at 3 months.
- How there is no regulation at all around parenting despite being completely in control of a child's life
#### [[Sources/Articles/A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden.md|A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden]] <br>↳ [[Maggie Appleton|Maggie Appleton]] · [Highlights](https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01gzvcae29wsj70a42phc00m5a) · [Original](https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history)
As I got deeper and deeper into building a second brain, I've turned my focus to my website and how it's gotten so stale. A [[digital garden]] is all about lowering the barriers to publishing my moving away from "articles" and "essays" where everything must be perfect, to publishing field notes or other unfinished work for continual refinement in public. [[Maggie Appleton]] describes this style of publishing excellently and with amazing pictures.
#### [[Sources/Articles/As Filipinos Crave More for Local Java, Philippine Coffee Farms Brew a Plan.md|As Filipinos Crave More for Local Java, Philippine Coffee Farms Brew a Plan]] <br>↳ [[Isabel Martinez|Isabel Martinez]] · [Highlights](https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01h188wz4xcv2txfnhg8grjnt2) · [Original](https://the-ken.com/story/as-filipinos-crave-more-for-local-java-philippine-coffee-farms-brew-a-plan/)
[[Philippine Agriculture]] has always been about rice - not even increasing yield or reducing distribution costs - just about import tariffs and trade controls. It's great to see that despite great odds the coffee industry in the Philippines has started to see green shoots, thanks to increasing domestic (read: robust and less recession-sensitive) demand for artisanal, high value coffee, and an increase in coffee productvity.