Travis Southard Blog

After some good work this summer, I have finally migrated my site from a Wordpress site to a Django site that has all the same features.

tl;dr: This is a long-winded ask that you become a recurring monthly donor to Code for Philly, an all-volunteer non-profit building tech to improve the lives of Philadelphians.

It was a very chill Sunday.

This month (January 2026) marks my second anniversary at Community Legal Services and, weirdly, many other anniversaries as well!

My boot camp loan is fully paid as of today. 5 years ago, I finished a software engineering immersive and began volunteering with Code for Philly while job searching and closing down Cycles PHL.

I am consistently impressed by ribo.zone's website, but this entry is downright marvelous.

It seems like it's calmed down now, but I had two weird spam interactions this past weekend on my personal site.

This was my talk for the HOPE_16 conference: Planning a Project with No Budget Travis Southard (he/him) For HOPE_16 Notes: Hello!

Had a fantastic time at #hope_16 this weekend!

Currently reading Karen Hao's Empire of AI while also needing to advise more at work about responsible use and data safety around AI.

Votes for the Tiny Awards are open!

I am delighted to be speaking at the Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE_16) conference in Queens in a few weeks!

I'm old enough to remember when it was both illegal and inappropriate that the President of the United States would forgive $10,000 of federal student debt for borrowers and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

Andrew Dana Hudson looks back on "On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk" after 10 years.

I saw a post come through my RSS about an IndieWeb Movie Club. dead.garden chose Mary Poppins as the movie for June 2025.

Phenomenal essay from Molly White.

Look at these charming little guys

The SOLARPUNKS blog published a short little post about an IGA grocery store in Montreal that has a 25,000 sq ft (over half an acre) garden on the roof!

We have just installed the window units for the summer before it gets too hot to do it without being frustrated (Though our second floor is warm already)

If you feel like you have to put "Reader Caution Advised: This post was written by AI and has a bunch of errors" on a blog post, just...

Nominations are open for the Tiny Awards, "[celebrating] the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web".

https://goodinternetmagazine.com/ Enjoying reading through.

All set up and ready!

Photo by Jessi Melcer Last week was Philly Tech Week and I was asked to appear "on stage" at two events.

I have been maintaining this website for over ten years now.

Ruby asked me to help her get her vision for a new website for her business up and running.

I started a new role at CLS at the beginning of the year.

Last week, I was listening to Spotify for the last time.

It's fun to make tangible things.

A 48x48 pixel image I made as the favicon for insteadofai.site.

> A webpage that lists resources to use instead of Generative AI.

I have made a blogroll!

Very excited to watch Over the Garden Wall again with some friends!

I've been reading the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

After reading a blog post from Andrew Dana Hudson about thermochauvinism, I have begun referring to July as "Hot Winter," a time of year when I spend most of my time indoors because it is uncomfortable and even dangerous to be outside.

Maintenance and repair are essential to a more sustainable, and frankly pleasant world.

Recently returned from a ten day vacation in Lisbon, Portugal to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday.

Over the past few years, I have been taking in a lot of Solarpunk influences.

No one gets seconds til everybody gets a home.

I have been sketching lately.

Despite a very full schedule leading up to the Social Justice Hackathon, I have been really enjoying springtime this year.

Coming through feeling sick and just in time for day light savings, which snuck up on me this year.

Excited to see that the sunlight is just starting to stick around after 6pm lately.

The website for the Philadelphia Social Justice Hackathon.

After a few weeks working at my new job and settling into new habits, there's a part of me that feels like I'm waking up from something.

New year.

Earlier this year I built a project that came from a personal need.

Autumn is in full show here in Philadelphia, at least up in the Northwest of Philly where I now live.

Over the past few weeks I have released a tutorial to make the classic video game, Minesweeper, from scratch using native web tools (being HTML, CSS, and Javascript).

n How to make Minesweeper part 3 This is the final part of this 3-part series!