We know the easily predictable course that the US and the UK have chosen, but it will be interesting to see how the European countries will react, now that the ICC and ICJ have put the world in a moral bind, and provided a chance to save face by ceasing to support the alleged war crimes or genocide and their perpetrators.
I don't think Israelis actually realize the seriousness of the situation and what it could mean for the country if western countries actually come to regard Israel as a liability and begin break off ties. It wouldn't be so hard to do. Israel would stand to lose a lot more from this than would others. In fact, almost everything they have managed to create over years of hard effort.
I don't remember a time when there has been such a gap between what people believe and their governments believe should happen. But it's also true that that it's really hard to gauge how people of all countries "think" (if they think at all) and how they come to their opinions, in an era of massive media manipulation.
If we could all (including Israelis) just break away from the manipulation of those who are pulling the strings / pushing our buttons for a while and consider the situation and the choices before us, I think our decisions might be more humane, rational, and conducive to a better world order.
Ukraine is possibly an even harder conundrum, but we are only in the "pre-war" situation that Donald Tusk spoke about because of gradually building up a situation that probably no one really wants (again if we only stop to think about it) . Surely it would be possible to slowly take slow steps in tandem down from that dangerous situation? Why do we not hear more discussion of that possibility?
---
Relevant: As the ICC seeks arrests, I ask those who facilitated the Gaza slaughter: what were you thinking? by Owen Jones
I don't think Israelis actually realize the seriousness of the situation and what it could mean for the country if western countries actually come to regard Israel as a liability and begin break off ties. It wouldn't be so hard to do. Israel would stand to lose a lot more from this than would others. In fact, almost everything they have managed to create over years of hard effort.
I don't remember a time when there has been such a gap between what people believe and their governments believe should happen. But it's also true that that it's really hard to gauge how people of all countries "think" (if they think at all) and how they come to their opinions, in an era of massive media manipulation.
If we could all (including Israelis) just break away from the manipulation of those who are pulling the strings / pushing our buttons for a while and consider the situation and the choices before us, I think our decisions might be more humane, rational, and conducive to a better world order.
Ukraine is possibly an even harder conundrum, but we are only in the "pre-war" situation that Donald Tusk spoke about because of gradually building up a situation that probably no one really wants (again if we only stop to think about it) . Surely it would be possible to slowly take slow steps in tandem down from that dangerous situation? Why do we not hear more discussion of that possibility?
---
Relevant: As the ICC seeks arrests, I ask those who facilitated the Gaza slaughter: what were you thinking? by Owen Jones
Watching "Until the end of the World" again helped to clear some of the pessimism I have been feeling over the last few months. The four-and-three-quarter hour director's cut fills out the story in a good way, and perhaps makes it clearer what Wenders is trying to say in the movie; why it was important for him. I think in those years he was contemplating cinematography and the hundred-year legacy of the Lumiere brothers.
The film seems to reflect upon the central place of images in our society and the importance of weaving these into a cinematic story. Absorbing these images hurt the retina so much that Sam Farber, one of the characters, almost goes blind. Towards the end of the film, the characters are so wrapped-up in the images from their individual dreams that they become morosely alienated from one-another. This almost destroys them, as in the Narcissus myth. Perhaps we too, bombarded by a proliferation of images from the news, our phones and social media, struggle to process our reality in a coherent, or meaningful way.
Eventually, the only medicine that can heal Claire from her narcissistic addiction to her own dream imagery is the common story woven by the narrator, Eugene. Other than the aboriginals, he is the one character with a feeling for the common thread that holds together all the disparate elements of the tale: its wild romp across many countries and it's strange cast of obsessive individualists.
It is not at all arbitrary that the film makes its way to Australia, and to the aboriginal people whose entire sense of themselves is deeply bound up with the common dream and cultural myths that are preserved through the custodianship of individuals:
Claire: [of an elder aboriginal sharing their truck] What's he singing?
Sam: He's singing the country. The country is like their Bible. It's like that tree is Jonah. That rock is the whale. Everything is part of the story. He's the custodian of this stretch of the country, of this part of the story. If he doesn't keep it alive by telling it, it'll die. And so will he.
Eugene [narrating]: It was then, as we ran before the fatal winds that might bring about the actual end of the world, that I realized that the loss of my novel had freed me. Freed me to write it anew. Not dwelling on the past as I had done, but looking out into the future.
The characters in the film have no idea at this point if the world at large still exists, as they have lost connection with it. For all they know, they could be the sole survivors of a nuclear cataclysm that has wiped out the rest of civilization. But Eugene sees his role to be like that of the aboriginal elder:
Winter: I can't see the point of all this strutting and fretting - we're all as good as dead.
Eugene: Not in my book we're not. I'm not dead in here and neither are you. I'm saving your ass, Winter.
Winter: Writing won't help. Your stories won't help me.
Eugene: Winter, the future is always a fiction.
Winter: I'm more worried about reality than fiction. I'm worried about the present, Mr. Fitzpatrick!
Eugene: The present will look after itself. But it's our duty to realize the future, with our imagination.
I couldn't help but think about our own condition here. The last few months have seemed to be the end of the world for our dream of a better future for this country. I decided that, as in the film, the present, however bleak, "will look after itself".
Our responsibility, for example the role of a peace village, is to collectively preserve, and be the custodians of, the dream for a better future, no matter how heavily the odds are stacked up against it. Otherwise, this future may die.
Pessimism comes naturally when a genocide is taking place. But even the Nazis, who were so much more efficient at mass killing, were unable to realize their final solution for Jews (or gypsies or homosexuals). Berlin has become again the coolest place for Jews to live, within only a generation or two since the Holocaust; topping the destinations bucket-list of many young Israelis.
It will be the same for Israel/Palestine. Neither people will be able to eliminate the other completely. Both Palestinians and Jews are buoyed up by their distinct mythologies and cultural identities.
Our role must be to preserve the dream of a future in which Jews and Palestinians can live - together or separately - as good neighbours, rather than as rivals and enemies. The two-state solution conceived by the European countries and sometimes locally, may never emerge. It may well be that Israel, with its ever more extreme right wing governments, will eventually annex the West Bank or even Gaza. But this does not mean the end of the dream that we are struggling to implement already today in the village: of an equal shared society for the two peoples.
Actually, I am not sure that I even wish to be part of this particular dream. As an outsider that belongs to neither cultural identity, I do not align so well with it.
My own vision is of a future in which nations are simply there as a convenient framework of support for their citizens; where our association with government will consist in a social contract for mutual benefit. The state will be agnostic and indifferent with regard to our individual or group identities. It will support our endeavours, as long as these are not harmful to others. It will offer protection against exploitation, will safeguard the environment and exist as a responsible member of the family of nations or regions. That's the vision I cherish, though not all the details are worked out.
In Hubzilla's Cards system I've assembled some links to Digital Gardening.
I think the Cards system itself, which can be used to compile links and place these in categories, is a powerful, probably neglected, feature of Hubzilla that illustrates its distinct advantage over a simple chronological system (although admittedly, the items themselves end up being placed chronologically rather than one I might choose).
One of the articles bookmarked, which is apparently considered to be ground-breaking and formative in the history of digital gardens, is The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral by Mike Caulfield. He makes there a powerful argument for the digital gardening style of web publishing instead of the reverse-chronological form that has dominated the web since blogging and micro-blogging platforms took over much of it, as a means to assemble and broaden knowledge.
Intrinsic to the metaphor is the idea that rather than present "finished pieces" in the manner of published works, digital gardening aims to gradually improve upon what one has written, in response to further thought, new knowledge, or the integration of valid criticism. An article that speaks of this is Digital Garden Terms of Service (by Shawn Wang).
In a post by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, various tools are mentioned for the creation of digital gardens: for non-technical people: Obsidian Publish, Public Roam Database, Notion, Tiddlywiki, Mental Nodes. For more technical people, Jeykyll, Eleventy, Gatsby and static site builders are suggested.
Although it is never mentioned among the sites that I've found, Hubzilla too places at our disposal various tools that can facilitate digital gardening. As I have often said on Hubzilla, these are quite adequate. Yet they deserve to be further developed, alongside the "stream" model (which even Mike Caulfield admits has its place).
One of Hubzilla's still under-used advantages is that it could harness its community base to establish shared wikis. Till now, my still fledgling Hubzilla wikis have been publicly readable, but written only by me. Responsibility for these could be shared and it would be great to see further community efforts.
I think the Cards system itself, which can be used to compile links and place these in categories, is a powerful, probably neglected, feature of Hubzilla that illustrates its distinct advantage over a simple chronological system (although admittedly, the items themselves end up being placed chronologically rather than one I might choose).
One of the articles bookmarked, which is apparently considered to be ground-breaking and formative in the history of digital gardens, is The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral by Mike Caulfield. He makes there a powerful argument for the digital gardening style of web publishing instead of the reverse-chronological form that has dominated the web since blogging and micro-blogging platforms took over much of it, as a means to assemble and broaden knowledge.
Intrinsic to the metaphor is the idea that rather than present "finished pieces" in the manner of published works, digital gardening aims to gradually improve upon what one has written, in response to further thought, new knowledge, or the integration of valid criticism. An article that speaks of this is Digital Garden Terms of Service (by Shawn Wang).
In a post by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, various tools are mentioned for the creation of digital gardens: for non-technical people: Obsidian Publish, Public Roam Database, Notion, Tiddlywiki, Mental Nodes. For more technical people, Jeykyll, Eleventy, Gatsby and static site builders are suggested.
Although it is never mentioned among the sites that I've found, Hubzilla too places at our disposal various tools that can facilitate digital gardening. As I have often said on Hubzilla, these are quite adequate. Yet they deserve to be further developed, alongside the "stream" model (which even Mike Caulfield admits has its place).
One of Hubzilla's still under-used advantages is that it could harness its community base to establish shared wikis. Till now, my still fledgling Hubzilla wikis have been publicly readable, but written only by me. Responsibility for these could be shared and it would be great to see further community efforts.
![20240118_153614[1].webp](https://labonneheure.ch/photo/17d91478-4231-415c-9889-fe4f988bf591-2.webp "20240118_153614[1].webp")
Settled for the present in Tiruvannamalai, beneath the silent eminence of Arunachala. It's been a week.
I have a lot of respect for the pilgrims making their way to what is for them a sacred place, and for the desire their pilgrimage expresses to get beyond the vicissitudes of existence in the material plane.
I myself am not entranced by the spiritual promise offered by the place and the sages, like Ramana Maharshi, that have made it their home. But in such places my mind gravitates more naturally towards the spiritual dimension. I feel more at peace here. I find myself singing to myself the bhajans that I learned 45 years ago and which have never left me.
I am not seeking to become absorbed in some spiritual plane and forget the material one. As I have said elsewhere, I have greater issue with the tendency of the mind to perceive the world with a fragmentary, divisive vision. Or alternately, to disregard the material plane completely, though this is much more rare. Either way, the problem is with perception, and the divisions we make between ourselves as subject and the world as object. A key to breaking through this tendency and to understanding it in more than an intellectual way can be devotion; reverence for everyone and everything because all equally express the reality of unity in diversity / diversity in unity.
Reading "Jerusalem", I love Alan Moore's often flamboyant prose:
"She walked now with the water on her right and the broad swathe of Beckett's Park beyond, its old pavilion tinted lime by moss, its benches, bushes and its public lavs, trees scorched by autumn starting to catch fire. The river's mirror-ribbon ran below the dark reach of the overhanging boughs, reflecting shattered umber, cloudy sage, torn scraps of sky in peacock blue beneath the medalled shimmer of its rippled breast."
But he employs many styles that are sometimes descriptive of the way ghosts, prostitutes, medieval monks and others might see the world. The world that is "the boroughs" of Northampton.
"She walked now with the water on her right and the broad swathe of Beckett's Park beyond, its old pavilion tinted lime by moss, its benches, bushes and its public lavs, trees scorched by autumn starting to catch fire. The river's mirror-ribbon ran below the dark reach of the overhanging boughs, reflecting shattered umber, cloudy sage, torn scraps of sky in peacock blue beneath the medalled shimmer of its rippled breast."
But he employs many styles that are sometimes descriptive of the way ghosts, prostitutes, medieval monks and others might see the world. The world that is "the boroughs" of Northampton.
I am here in Tiruvannamalai, site of the ashram of Ramana Maharshi, who said that freedom came to him and can come to others by focusing one's complete attention on the question, "Who am I?". The intention is to reach an integrated understanding that body, mind, and all that has been appropriated by the ego in defence of an individual that differentiates itself from the whole, will dissipate to reveal that the self is the supreme, all inclusive reality that in Hinduism is called "Brahman".
Because I have not as yet found it workable to follow the recommended practice, my tendency has been to approach the matter from a different aspect, by observing how we view reality as conditioned by our perception, which, in the vast majority of humans, dictates that we observe it through a lens of differentiation: first dividing it into subject and object: "I see the universe", and then finding it fragmented into millions of separate entities: "I see the table, the chairs, various people sitting at the table." There may be rare persons or sages who rather perceive the universe (including themselves) as a unified whole, who, in fact, do not admit the existence of any physical universe at all but find the one self everywhere, without differentiation. This is admirable, but risks an inability to function in the same world that most of us inhabit.
Intuitively, and according to many scientists the world, which seems outwardly differentiated, is inwardly unified. Every element has a nameable outward form, but a core of indivisible, unchanging being, or unitary consciousness. This substratum is shared by every element in the universe. It is a common integrating thread that runs through all elements and creates harmony between what would be disparate and fragmented. It is the lack of appreciation for this integration that leads us astray, into a battle of egos, into wars, into depredation of the planet. The seemingly distinct forms that we see all issue from the same clay. Even more importantly, they are not in their essence separate from our own, so that when we draw an artificial separation, we create disharmony in the entire biosphere, which depends upon a network of harmonious interactions between its constituent beings.
The more that we understand ecology, the more established becomes our respect for the substratum of inter-being that is the binding link between us and the whole. To be capable of modifying our actual interaction with the world, we need knowledge, intellectual understanding but also reverence. In order properly to understand the matter of integration between subject and object, between diversity and unity, we need an integrated approach to it.
The universe, in its infinite variety, is deserving of our reverence, of our love. The objects that we see are an outgrowth of the substratum of consciousness that is at the heart of their being. Failing to admit this is to be aware of only their outward form, which means that our perception is in error, and that we base our interaction with them upon this same error.
Because I have not as yet found it workable to follow the recommended practice, my tendency has been to approach the matter from a different aspect, by observing how we view reality as conditioned by our perception, which, in the vast majority of humans, dictates that we observe it through a lens of differentiation: first dividing it into subject and object: "I see the universe", and then finding it fragmented into millions of separate entities: "I see the table, the chairs, various people sitting at the table." There may be rare persons or sages who rather perceive the universe (including themselves) as a unified whole, who, in fact, do not admit the existence of any physical universe at all but find the one self everywhere, without differentiation. This is admirable, but risks an inability to function in the same world that most of us inhabit.
Intuitively, and according to many scientists the world, which seems outwardly differentiated, is inwardly unified. Every element has a nameable outward form, but a core of indivisible, unchanging being, or unitary consciousness. This substratum is shared by every element in the universe. It is a common integrating thread that runs through all elements and creates harmony between what would be disparate and fragmented. It is the lack of appreciation for this integration that leads us astray, into a battle of egos, into wars, into depredation of the planet. The seemingly distinct forms that we see all issue from the same clay. Even more importantly, they are not in their essence separate from our own, so that when we draw an artificial separation, we create disharmony in the entire biosphere, which depends upon a network of harmonious interactions between its constituent beings.
The more that we understand ecology, the more established becomes our respect for the substratum of inter-being that is the binding link between us and the whole. To be capable of modifying our actual interaction with the world, we need knowledge, intellectual understanding but also reverence. In order properly to understand the matter of integration between subject and object, between diversity and unity, we need an integrated approach to it.
The universe, in its infinite variety, is deserving of our reverence, of our love. The objects that we see are an outgrowth of the substratum of consciousness that is at the heart of their being. Failing to admit this is to be aware of only their outward form, which means that our perception is in error, and that we base our interaction with them upon this same error.
Yesterday I bought an e-bike from a woman here who was selling hers. There are a couple of things that needed fixing, but in general it is in good shape. Today I took it for a ride into town, which was a little nerve-racking, given the rush-hour traffic, though the experience was similar to being on a TVS, and, in some situations, less stressful. You just glide along quietly.
It can go in full electric mode, assisted or manual and is manufactured by Hero, an Indian make.
In the morning I walked around the mountain, taking it slowly. Along the way I stopped at the Shirdi Sai Baba temple and sat for a while.
It can go in full electric mode, assisted or manual and is manufactured by Hero, an Indian make.
In the morning I walked around the mountain, taking it slowly. Along the way I stopped at the Shirdi Sai Baba temple and sat for a while.
Walking around Tiruvannamalai, there is a generosity of spirit, and such a paucity of means. Life hangs on a thread for many (others are well-fed). And how this rich and poor nation conducts its business in such a haphazard way; burning piles of rubbish lining the streets, monkeys scrounging through food containers. Beggars, pilgrims, tourists from the new age. Gurus, charlatans, get-rich-quick businessmen whizzing by banana vendors. Washed-out dirty would-be saddhus smoking beedies, women street sweepers spitting over shoulders in the muck. Strutting peacocks calling from walls.
Dealing with various technical issues; thoughts about blogging systems
The chief advantage of Wordpress.com is that this is a place that one's blog can live virtually forever, rent-free. Even after one is dead (I actually did once set up an in memoriam site for someone there (something someone once asked, as a favor). And it's all well-managed, so there is less of a worry about hacking. The disadvantage is that, more and more, Wordpress is corporate-packaged. Just now, they are phasing out their Android Wordpress app in favour of JetPack, for example. I took a look at that and instantly hated it.
Wordpress constitutes such a large target that it is vulnerable to hacking - in fact like all php and mysql based systems. So what this means for me is that it is better that the system will be managed by professionals. (This is the same for Hubzilla).
A disadvantage for Wordpress is also the inability to fine-tune permissions (unlike, say, Hubzilla). Posts can be "public", password protected, or marked as private.
A disadvantage of org-static blog is that it depends on the use of a computer, with the program configured. So it is impossible to compose, for example, on an Android phone. This limits the usability of the blog while traveling.
While it is easy to write, adding photos to a post is fraught with problems, and many opportunities to get things wrong. I never remember the syntax, so have to look back at my Cherry Tree notes each time (I know, I should be using org-mode for those notes.)
I did not find a programmatic way of importing all of my old posts from Wordpress into Org-static-blog.
But with Hubzilla there are various problems too - foremost among them that it cannot import my old blog, and, when I do import articles, the time sequence is all wrong. Hubzilla's hosting of photos is very flexible with regard to permissions. however it doesn't shine as a purveyor of online photo galleries, in the way that, say, a program like Piwigo does. What it does offer is the ability to post photos to a specific gallery, and have some of these depend on a guest-token, so that, for example in the case of a travel gallery, for example, one could provide to family members a link that would include besides photos of places visited, also photos of the family from the trip too.
Improving internet connection speed
Spent the last couple of days sorting out various technical issues. The first was finding a way of improving the internet connection speed. We have a 1 Gb fiber mesh network, but my old Thinkpad, placed a little far away from the mesh repeater (if that's what it's called), doesn't achieve much more than 100 Mb speed; whereas my phone, in the same place, gets 300 Mb. The solution was to move the mesh repeater to a place where I could attach an ethernet cable to it. After that, by cable connection, the computer gets about 450 Mb. Very happy about that; just that it can receive only a fraction of that when connecting through Mullvad VPN. Mullvad seems also to have stopped renting a server in Israel.Getting static blog working again
The second task was getting my static blog to work again; it hasn't since I upgraded MX Linux a few months ago (now I need to upgrade it yet again). The static blog is org-static-blog, developed by Bastian Bechtold. It is powered by emacs - it's a very lightweight program employing emacs orgmode. I am not sure whether I will continue using it, because there are advantages to using Hubzilla for blogging (see below), but want to at least have the opportunity.Resolving queue problem in hubzilla clone
The third task was to try to fix the queue issue I had with the hubzilla instance to which this channel is cloned. The instance is run on a VPN. I followed the suggestion given by RockyIII (the only one who showed any real interest, following numerous questions on the Hubzilla forum and in my stream). I may have succeeded, but time will tell. Right now, it appears to me that the queue is growing again.Changing desktop environment
The fourth task was to install on my laptop the XFCE desktop environment, in place of the KDE Plasma environment I have been using for the last few months. Plasma is great, but there were a couple of things that bothered me, mainly issues about speed. I think XFCE (which I have used quite a lot previously) will be lighter and better for me - though it's not as pretty.Where to post blog and photos
I am still in a quandary about where to write blog posts and post photos. The repository where the great majority of my posts exists is WordPress.com. I have gravitated several times between self-hosted WordPress.org instances and WordPress.com. I have also used various static blogs, of which Org-static-blog has proved to be the best. I have used Hubzilla's channel stream and the Articles add on. I have also tried blogging on Epicyon and even in simple HTML. There are various things - actually quite serious disadvantages - that bother me about all of these methods. Probably I will continue to be unhappy and in a quandary, well into old-age.Wordpress.com
The chief advantage of Wordpress.com is that this is a place that one's blog can live virtually forever, rent-free. Even after one is dead (I actually did once set up an in memoriam site for someone there (something someone once asked, as a favor). And it's all well-managed, so there is less of a worry about hacking. The disadvantage is that, more and more, Wordpress is corporate-packaged. Just now, they are phasing out their Android Wordpress app in favour of JetPack, for example. I took a look at that and instantly hated it.
Wordpress.org
Wordpress.com sites, if they are free and one is not paying for business or enterprise versions, are inflexible in that they do not permit plugins. Wordpress.org sites, on the other hand, have so many plugins that one can do almost anything with a Wordpress.org site, without needing programming skills. One plugin I discovered recently, for example, permits a complete overhaul of Wordpress's media management system, allowing assignment of directories to galleries, and providing a complete solution for photo management.Wordpress constitutes such a large target that it is vulnerable to hacking - in fact like all php and mysql based systems. So what this means for me is that it is better that the system will be managed by professionals. (This is the same for Hubzilla).
A disadvantage for Wordpress is also the inability to fine-tune permissions (unlike, say, Hubzilla). Posts can be "public", password protected, or marked as private.
Org-Static blog
Org-static-blog has many advantages. Being a data-base free blog makes it lightweight and virtually unhackable (files coexistence on one's own computer). It's possible to program the blog fairly easily, with minimum programming skills. It's easy to write, edit and post articles. I still have a learning curve with emacs, though, in order to improve the presentation. For example, the archive lists only titles. Tags (and tag-based discovery of similar articles, are findable only if one clicks on them at the end of an article.A disadvantage of org-static blog is that it depends on the use of a computer, with the program configured. So it is impossible to compose, for example, on an Android phone. This limits the usability of the blog while traveling.
While it is easy to write, adding photos to a post is fraught with problems, and many opportunities to get things wrong. I never remember the syntax, so have to look back at my Cherry Tree notes each time (I know, I should be using org-mode for those notes.)
I did not find a programmatic way of importing all of my old posts from Wordpress into Org-static-blog.
Hubzilla
Right now, the Hubzilla Articles add on seems to have the right balance that I am seeking of visibility and lack of visibility. In addition, the PWA features means that I don't need to be at a computer to write.But with Hubzilla there are various problems too - foremost among them that it cannot import my old blog, and, when I do import articles, the time sequence is all wrong. Hubzilla's hosting of photos is very flexible with regard to permissions. however it doesn't shine as a purveyor of online photo galleries, in the way that, say, a program like Piwigo does. What it does offer is the ability to post photos to a specific gallery, and have some of these depend on a guest-token, so that, for example in the case of a travel gallery, for example, one could provide to family members a link that would include besides photos of places visited, also photos of the family from the trip too.
Nova Gallery
As mentioned, all of these PHP and databased programs are vulnerable to hacking, whereas the rsync-based photo gallery manager I use, Nova Gallery, is great, because there is no database, simply syncing with one's offline photos. But that too has some deficiencies, such as the inability to post descriptions or metadata.Wiki|Docs
Completing the suite of "small web" programs is Wiki|Docs, a database-less repository for wikis and documents. Since I have such a complete solution, cobbled together from these various parts, perhaps I should be using it. But, on a day to day basis, Hubzilla is easier.
HTMLY
I began to think about replacing my org-static-blog software with blogging software that has the ability to edit in the browser. I thought the first place to look for a flat-file static blog style software could be to see what Bob Mottram has in Libreserver (an easy-to-implement server similar to YunoHost). (I briefly tried Libreserver before.)I discovered that he still has the same two blogging systems, HTMLY and the ominously named Bludit. HTMLY seemed the simplest, so I installed it on my VPS. But I had forgotten to check if it is still maintained; and it ain't. This means that, since it is implemented in PHP, that it is not supported in the current version 8.2. Besides the 501 or 502 error screen I ended up with (which may or may not be related), this is no good. I quickly got rid of it. Someone has made a fork that supports up to PHP 8.1, partially, but there's just one developer on that, and he doesn't seem totally committed to the project either. So there's Bludit, which is actively maintained. But that's also on PHP, and I had already grown weary from the previous failure. I don't want to use software that is in danger of breaking with software updates, and PHP seems almost notorious for breaking implementations in previous versions - it happened here with Hubzilla.
I did look for some flat blogging systems written in Python and other languages, but it seems like most of them are similar to what I've got, i.e. write offline and then publish online. For that, Org-static-blog is actually fine.
But I think I will just give up and leave everything on Hubzilla. I'm going to be traveling and away from home a lot, and I don't want to spend time maintaining things. I might not even have a computer with me. My Hubzilla system is on K&T Host, and they seem to be doing a fine job of maintaining it, and it isn't too expensive, so that's fine for me. In any case, I'm not such a serious blogger, these days.