Self-host author avatars and core social/share assets

[jacobra19]

Summary

The site still depends on third-party-hosted assets for author avatars and some social/share images.

Evidence

• blog/authors.yml points the author image at GitHub
• Several posts use externally hosted image URLs in frontmatter for social metadata

Why This Matters

• Third-party asset dependencies add fragility, redirects, and external cache behavior you do not control
• Self-hosted assets are better for stability, performance consistency, and long-term portability
• This is especially important for social cards and author identity on a personal website

Suggested Direction

• Self-host the author avatar and canonical post share images
• Keep external credits in the content, but serve the actual assets from the site

Acceptance Criteria

• Author/profile images used by the site are self-hosted
• Post social card images are self-hosted or intentionally mirrored
• Core previews do not depend on GitHub / Pexels / Unsplash availability