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Joshua Whiting

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Your art is more important than your audience

[Last Updated: 2022.02.19]
[Originally Posted: 2021.11.25]

Your art is more important than your audience - screenshot of my horoscope

Your art is more important than your audience.

– so says my A.I. / algorithmically generated horoscope today, the notification popping up while I was mid-contemplating just how to curate collections and microthoughts such as these on this website, and whether to continue to do it just for myself or reconnect somehow with a social media network for the possible benefit or irritation of unknown others.

Your art is more important than your audience - screenshot of my horoscope

Your art is more important than your audience.

– so says my A.I. / algorithmically generated horoscope today, the notification popping up while I was mid-contemplating just how to curate collections and microthoughts such as these on this website, and whether to continue to do it just for myself or reconnect somehow with a social media network for the possible benefit or irritation of unknown others.

I still haven’t decided.

Standalone post link: Your art is more important than your audience
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Accumulation

[Last Updated: 2022.02.19]
[Originally Posted: 2021.12.04]

The things you don’t say accumulate - screenshot of my horoscope iOS notification

The things you don’t say accumulate.

The things you don’t say accumulate - screenshot of my horoscope iOS notification

The things you don’t say accumulate.

The things you don’t buy don’t accumulate.

Standalone post link: Accumulation
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Daily Picture- Nothing Inbox

[Last Updated: 2022.02.19]
[Originally Posted: 2021.12.13]

I really did that.

I really did that.

Somehow it became super important for me to clear out over 20 months' worth of emails from my personal email account this weekend. I did it, though, by letting myself let go of some things (like all the poem-a-days that I had never read.) Weird trip back through the history of the pandemic as portrayed mainly through brand and organizational emails.

Standalone post link: Daily Picture- Nothing Inbox
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Listening: Mesita - Empty Island

[Last Updated: 2021.11.21]
[Originally Posted: 2021.11.09]

THINGS I DIDN’T POST DURING THE PANDEMIC - 01

mesita - empty island - cover image

Back in the spring of 2020 Mesita was writing, recording, and releasing the music of the pandemic in realtime, but I didn’t post anything about it at the time because I wasn’t really posting things, and I feel bad about that.

THINGS I DIDN’T POST DURING THE PANDEMIC - 01

mesita - empty island - cover image

Back in the spring of 2020 Mesita was writing, recording, and releasing the music of the pandemic in realtime, but I didn’t post anything about it at the time because I wasn’t really posting things, and I feel bad about that.

Because after that he kind of went into a thing where he tried to get away from the Internet and from music, and he still is kind of into that thing, and I’m kind of into a thing like that, too, and so I wish him the best in whatever he decides to do, but a downside of that thing, besides the fact that maybe he’s not going to make music anymore, is that he deleted all his youtube videos of individual songs that I would have posted and that were easy to share. He did later gather all those springtime pandemic songs in this album Empty Island, though, and it is still around on Bandcamp and the streaming services- at least for now.

And it turns out that it is actually quite easy to share or embed stuff from Bandcamp in any number of ways, and youtube is actually kind of awful even though it is so easy and ubiquitous.

Album: Empty Island Artist: Mesita (Brooklyn, New York by way of Littleton, Colorado) Release Year: 2020 Label: Self-Released

Standalone post link: Listening: Mesita - Empty Island
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Book Review - The Last Cuentista

[Last Updated: 2021.11.15]
[Originally Posted: 2021.11.16]

I wrote and had published on Granite Media a review of The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. Might as well reshare it here for a record.

I wrote and had published on Granite Media a review of The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. Might as well reshare it here for a record.

Full review text from https://www.granitemedia.org/2021/11/the-last-cuentista/ :

It’s literally the end of the world: a solar flare has knocked Haley’s Comet into a catastrophic collision course with Earth. But for almost-13-year-old Petra and her family there is an opportunity in the midst of this tragedy: they must leave their grandmother and their home in the New Mexico desert to secretly board an interstellar ship on a mission to colonize a new planet. Petra’s family is chosen as part of the mission because her parents are expert scientists with knowledge needed for exploring and terraforming the new planet. They will be put into stasis for the nearly 400 year space journey, and along the way Petra will receive a cognitive learning implant that will make her an expert in botany and geology when she arrives and is brought out of stasis. More than that, though, she also carries within her the Mexican folklore her grandmother shared with her, and the desire to be a storyteller, and preserve the stories of humanity. When she is brought out of stasis, not to her parents but to a future far different and more precarious than what was planned, her stories and Earth memories might be the only hope for saving what is left of humanity.

This book launches with a seemingly typical near-future sci-fi premise, but is unique as a middle-grade novel centering the story around a young person’s perspective. The author expertly interweaves Petra’s present predicament with flashbacks to her life on earth before the journey, as well as folklore and tales she learned from her Grandmother, which turn out to be absolutely prescient to her current situation light years from Earth. The book has positive echoes of middle-grade classics like The Giver and the Wrinkle in Time books, but with a contemporary flair, a fresh Mexican American perspective, and perhaps higher stakes for the characters. Beyond being a gripping science fiction adventure, it is filled with topics and situations for tween readers to discuss and think about, which would make it great for a book club or classroom study.

Reviewed by Joshua Whiting, Library Media Program, Granite Educational Technology Department Review shared in October 2021 Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 stars) Interest Level: Grades 5 and Up

Author Website: dbhiguera.com

Title: The Last Cuentista Author: Donna Barba Higuera Publisher: Levine Querido Release Date: October 12, 2021 A review copy was not provided by the publisher.

Standalone post link: Book Review - The Last Cuentista
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Search Results

[Last Updated: 2021.11.07]
[Originally Posted: 0001.01.01]

This file exists solely to respond to /search URL with the related search layout template. No content shown here is rendered, all content is based in the template layouts/page/search.html Setting a very low sitemap priority will tell search engines this is not important content. This implementation uses Fusejs, jquery and mark.js Initial setup Search depends on additional output content type of JSON in config.toml ``` [outputs] home = [“HTML”, “JSON”] ```

This file exists solely to respond to /search URL with the related search layout template.

No content shown here is rendered, all content is based in the template layouts/page/search.html

Setting a very low sitemap priority will tell search engines this is not important content.

This implementation uses Fusejs, jquery and mark.js

Initial setup

Search depends on additional output content type of JSON in config.toml ``` [outputs] home = [“HTML”, “JSON”] ```

Searching additional fields

To search additional fields defined in front matter, you must add it in 2 places.

Edit layouts/_default/index.JSON

This exposes the values in /index.json i.e. add category ``` … “contents”:{{ .Content | plainify | jsonify }} {{ if .Params.tags }}, “tags”:{{ .Params.tags | jsonify }}{{end}}, “categories” : {{ .Params.categories | jsonify }}, … ```

static/js/search.js ``` keys: [ “title”, “contents”, “tags”, “categories” ] ```

Standalone post link: Search Results
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''AASL21updatday2maybe''

[Last Updated: 2021.11.07]
[Originally Posted: 2021.10.22]

Update on AASL, after day two: maybe I should start playing the edu/library twitter game again. Maybe I should try practicing a bit of the synchronous lifestyle again.

Update on AASL, after day two: maybe I should start playing the edu/library twitter game again. Maybe I should try practicing a bit of the synchronous lifestyle again.

My private AASL lunch break spot at a picnic table between the Salt Palace and UMOCOA

Standalone post link: ''AASL21updatday2maybe''
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Now (October 18, 2021)

[Last Updated: 2021.10.18]
[Originally Posted: 2021.10.18]

Here are some of the things I’m working on and thinking about now…

Here are some of the things I’m working on and thinking about now…

  • I’ll be attending the AASL21 conference here in Salt Lake City later this week. (AASL = American Association of School Librarians)

  • I’m deleting my Facebook. Might be deleting Instagram and some other platforms, too, but I’m starting with just Facebook.

  • I’m posting random notes on this site every day now, or nearly every day. (I think it’s kind of like nicorrette for social media.) The notes show some of the things I’m reading, listening to, taking pictures of, etc.

This page was last updated on October 18, 2021. See my prior ‘now’ updates here.


Credit for the ‘now’ page concept goes to Derek Sivers. I had envisioned a page of this sort for my new website, but my concept was vague and I didn’t have a clear way forward until I happened upon someone with a ‘now’ page and followed the trail back to the source. I think you should make one too.

Standalone post link: Now (October 18, 2021)
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''slimyfacebook''

[Last Updated: 2021.10.12]
[Originally Posted: 2021.10.13]

This is how slimy they are.

I have to stay clean for 30 days to actually make this happen.

This is how slimy they are.

I have to stay clean for 30 days to actually make this happen.

Standalone post link: ''slimyfacebook''
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CLAU/Beehive Update 2019.02.18

[Last Updated: 2021.02.20]
[Originally Posted: 2019.02.23]

I’m chairing the Children’s Fiction Committee for the Beehive Book Awards. Our committee recently finalized the list of nominees for the 2020 awards, and I’m preparing to announce and booktalk those nominees, along with some of my colleagues from the Children’s Literature Association of Utah, during a breakout session of the Utah Educational Library Media Association Conference on March 8.

I’m chairing the Children’s Fiction Committee for the Beehive Book Awards. Our committee recently finalized the list of nominees for the 2020 awards, and I’m preparing to announce and booktalk those nominees, along with some of my colleagues from the Children’s Literature Association of Utah, during a breakout session of the Utah Educational Library Media Association Conference on March 8.

(I also just remembered I probably need to let the authors know their books made it on the list.) During the 2019-2020 school year kids and teens throughout Utah will vote for their favorites from the nominee list.

Standalone post link: CLAU/Beehive Update 2019.02.18
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