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Joshua Whiting

joshuaw.xyz

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Digital Gardening

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.18]

This is the first seed I’m planting in my digital garden: notes, links, and ideas about digital gardening itself.

This is the first seed I’m planting in my digital garden: notes, links, and ideas about digital gardening itself.

My Current Digital Garden Setup

For now I’m taking a cue from Tom Critchlow’s “wiki” (built into his existing Jekyll-to-GitHub Pages website setup.)

I have decided to plant my digital garden in a new folder structure within my existing website (my website runs on Hugo-to-Netlify, analogous to his setup.) So it will all be folders with markdown files, and I’ll eventually build some special templates in my Hugo theme to pull it all together on my site.

I’m trialing the Working Copy iOS app to be able to edit my website files (housed in a GitHub repository) directly on my phone. Being able to work on my digital garden from my phone was a prerequisite, and a main reason that initially I didn’t consider putting my garden straight into Hugo. I’ve used forestry.io a bit to update my website via my phone - it has been helpful in a pinch but always messes up my timestamps and other frontmatter, won’t let me organize the folder structure, etc. It’s not something I wanted to rely on further.

Tools and Technical Options for Digital Gardening

There are a lot of different setups I explored for keeping and publishing a digital garden.

Maggie Appleton curates a bunch of tools and resources for Digital Gardening in this GitHub repository: https://github.com/MaggieAppleton/digital-gardeners

Among these, the tool I went farthest down the line of exploring but didn’t adopt was Stroll, which is a flavor of TiddlyWiki with some bi-directional linking and what are described as other “Roam-like” features. (I haven’t tried Roam - I wanted to avoid building into a silo or paid service for this.)

I kind of lurk around the indieweb without actually involving myself, and I’d been seeing links and ideas around digital gardening popping up for a while, and I was really curious. Started bookmarking them and finally took a deep dive into reading about some of this in May of 2022.

My readings at first consisted mainly in going through Maggie Appleton’s links in her “A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden” https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history

(Also some other old hypertext essay of Bernstein’s…)

Standalone post link: Digital Gardening
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Webmentions

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.18]

Update: I’m sort of trying to implement webmentions on this website. I think I’m halfway there but I don’t really have any way to actually know because I don’t have any friends and I don’t share anything anywhere anymore.

Update: I’m sort of trying to implement webmentions on this website. I think I’m halfway there but I don’t really have any way to actually know because I don’t have any friends and I don’t share anything anywhere anymore.

Notes

Webmentions seem to be a key part of participating in the indieweb and interfacing my site with other networks, if I ever decided I wanted to participate more fully in the indieweb or re-engage with twitter or something.

I tried enabling them in my early days of playing with this Hugo iteration of my website, but couldn’t pull it together.

I think I am set up now and know more now that I can probably do it, so here I’m collecting notes/links/processes on how to do it.

Tools

https://webmention.net/implementations/#services

https://webmention.io/dashboard

https://brid.gy/twitter/jdwhiting

https://github.com/PlaidWeb/webmention.js

https://www.miriamsuzanne.com/2022/06/04/indiweb/

https://www.jayeless.net/2021/02/integrating-webmentions-into-hugo.html

https://fundor333.com/post/2022/indieweb-webmention-and-h-entry-in-my-blog/

https://www.synesthesia.co.uk/note/2022/02/21/webmentions-revisited/

https://rowanmanning.com/posts/webmentions-for-your-static-site/

Standalone post link: Webmentions
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Ant on Flower Buds

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.19]

A large ant crawling on the buds of some plant growing through the fence from our neighbors' yard.

Ant crawling on flower buds - still

A large ant crawling on the buds of some plant growing through the fence from our neighbors' yard.

Ant crawling on flower buds - still

Standalone post link: Ant on Flower Buds
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Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead...

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.25]

“I love man-kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead un-kind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead, to the last codicil and letter. They rule this world, and the living are but their executors.”"

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 282 of 882)

“I love man-kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead un-kind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead, to the last codicil and letter. They rule this world, and the living are but their executors.”"

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 282 of 882)

Longer, with more context"

Thus it has happened, that not the Arch Fiend himself has been in my way, but these toils which tradition says were originally spun to obstruct him. They are cobwebs and trifling obstacles in an earnest man’s path, it is true, and at length one even becomes attached to his unswept and undusted garret. I love man—kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead un-kind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead, to the last codicil and letter. They rule this world, and the living are but their executors. Such foundation too have our lectures and our sermons, commonly.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 282 of 882)

Standalone post link: Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead...
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Men do outrage to their proper natures as the tool of an institution

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.25]

Herein is the tragedy: that men doing outrage to their proper natures, even those called wise and good, lend themselves to perform the office of inferior and brutal ones. Hence come war and slavery in; and what else may not come in by this opening? But certainly there are modes by which a man may put bread into his mouth which will not prejudice him as a companion and neighbor.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283 of 882)

Herein is the tragedy: that men doing outrage to their proper natures, even those called wise and good, lend themselves to perform the office of inferior and brutal ones. Hence come war and slavery in; and what else may not come in by this opening? But certainly there are modes by which a man may put bread into his mouth which will not prejudice him as a companion and neighbor.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283 of 882)

Longer, with more context:

If, for instance, a man asserts the value of individual liberty over the merely political commonweal, his neighbor still tolerates him, that he who is living near him, sometimes even sustains him, but never the State. Its officer, as a living man, may have human virtues and a thought in his brain, but as the tool of an institution, a jailer or constable it may be, he is not a whit superior to his prison key or his staff. Herein is the tragedy: that men doing outrage to their proper natures, even those called wise and good, lend themselves to perform the office of inferior and brutal ones. Hence come war and slavery in; and what else may not come in by this opening? But certainly there are modes by which a man may put bread into his mouth which will not prejudice him as a companion and neighbor.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283 of 882)

Standalone post link: Men do outrage to their proper natures as the tool of an institution
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Life as fresh as this river

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.25]

A man’s life should be constantly as fresh as this river. It should be the same channel, but a new water every instant…Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283-284 of 882)

A man’s life should be constantly as fresh as this river. It should be the same channel, but a new water every instant…Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283-284 of 882)

Longer, with more context:

Undoubtedly, countless reforms are called for, because society is not animated, or instinct enough with life… All men are partially buried in the grave of custom, and of some we see only the crown of the head above ground. Better are the physically dead, for they more lively rot. Even virtue is no longer such if it be stagnant. A man’s life should be constantly as fresh as this river. It should be the same channel, but a new water every instant…Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (location 283-284 of 882)

Standalone post link: Life as fresh as this river
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Lunch Today

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.06.30]

  1. Tried Taqueria Los Lee for lunch today.

  2. This interview with Alok Vaid-Menon was by far the best thing I’ve read/listened to/otherwise taken in this week.

  1. Tried Taqueria Los Lee for lunch today.

  2. This interview with Alok Vaid-Menon was by far the best thing I’ve read/listened to/otherwise taken in this week.

  1. I came back to the office and climbed the stairs without limping or even using the handrails!

(This was a major lunch excursion - I’ve taken to eating boring cafeteria food or microwaved things at my desk most days.)

Standalone post link: Lunch Today
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On Reading Updates

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.07.02]

I’ve explored a lot of alternatives, but I’m going to continue with posting bespoke reading updates here; I’m also going to try and get back to sharing updates on Goodreads again.

I’ve explored a lot of alternatives, but I’m going to continue with posting bespoke reading updates here; I’m also going to try and get back to sharing updates on Goodreads again.


[Note: I originally wrote this on 2/21/2022, and found it in my notes yesterday, 7/1/2022, as I was working through updating my reading here and on Goodreads. Seemed relevant still to what I’m doing so I decided to post it now.]


Longer:

One of the things I’ve been trying to work through as far as how I want this website to function and how I want to participate in, or, more commonly these days, avoid various social media platforms, is how best to explore and share my reading life. I didn’t attend, but today lurked and poked around with interest on the notes and blog posts associated with the recent IndieWebCamp Pop-up on Personal Libraries. I always learn a lot when I start poking around on the websites of participants in the IndieWeb, and today was no exception. However, I did not find in the discussion or posts a viable alternative for Goodreads, at least not for my needs.

The key for me is that I’m already connected to many friends, colleagues, and, on occasion, even actual authors on Goodreads - it is one of the few social networks that I still participate in that actually kind-of works without distracting me too much from my original purpose. My original purpose when I’m on Goodreads is to explore what books these people I know are reading, or share my own reading with them, or find new books to read myself or purchase/share in my school library world. It’s not like twitter, where I log in at work to do a specific social media task and end up doomscrolling and angry about a bunch of different things that really have nothing to do with me. And in my experience there is not a lot of toxicity on Goodreads, at least compared to many other networks. (It does have its moments, though.)

There’s mainly just the philosophical problem that it is kind of a silo, and it is tied in with Amazon (though not as much or as well as it could be, to be honest). The fact that design-wise it is stuck in 2007 is maybe actually an asset these days?

At any rate, I’ve discovered nothing in the IndieWeb or decentralized offerings shared that I could ever hope to convince all or even a few of my contacts on Goodreads to adopt as an alternative to Goodreads. Even if there was something completely awesome I don’t know if I could do that; No one likes me that much to follow me to a whole new platform - it would have to sell itself.

So I’m going to post reading updates on my website so that I have them for myself, but I’m also going to continue to use Goodreads. I think I’m also going to continue to use Letterboxd for movies, and for now I’m continuing to scrobble all my listens to Last.fm. I can’t be a pure evangelist for the indieweb. For my website updates I may eventually figure out JSON or something to make them fancy or standardized, but for now I will just be typing things into markdown and html. That’s the origin and mode for a lot of what I do with this site, anyway.

Standalone post link: On Reading Updates
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Listens Last Week (July 3, 2022)

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.07.03]

[Inaugural entry!]

A log of my full album or playlist music listens from the past week, with occasional notes and context. Does not include completely random shuffles, unless something worth commenting came up.

My Top Artists Last Week - Last.fm - Screenshot

[Next week look for a “Links Last Week” log feature as well.]

[Inaugural entry!]

A log of my full album or playlist music listens from the past week, with occasional notes and context. Does not include completely random shuffles, unless something worth commenting came up.

My Top Artists Last Week - Last.fm - Screenshot

[Next week look for a “Links Last Week” log feature as well.]


Date | Album or Playlist | Artist or Curator


Sun.2022.06.25 | Black to the Future | Sons of Kemet

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: cleanup at the cabin

Sun.2022.06.25 | A Light for Attracting Attention | The Smile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: cleanup at the cabin

Mon.2022.06.26 | The Joshua Tree | U2

Format/Source: Vinyl LP
Location/Context: home stereo

Notes: My kids have been watching Sing 2 a bunch and I noticed that songs from this album kept popping up in the show, so I got this out and made them listen to it. And then it got stuck in my head, and I kept re-listening throughout the week. This was, for me, pretty much the definitive, ultimate album when I was a kid and teenager. Haven’t listened in a while, but won’t lie, I still really like it.


Tue-Wed.2022.06.27-28 | [Full Shuffle of 5 Albums] Lost Souls * The Last Broadcast * Some Cities * Kingdom of Rust * The Universal Want | Doves

Format/Source: combination of CD rips and Apple Music on my phone
Location/Context: over headphones at work, then while driving

Wed.2022.06.28 | Pink Dolphins | Anteloper

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: driving

Thur-Fri.2022.06.29-30 | [Playlist] The “Reconstructed” Joshua Tree | U2

Format/Source: CD rips
Location/Context: working and driving

Notes: As a teenager I read some obscure mention that The Joshua Tree was originally intended to be a double album, but that the producers or label talked U2 out of it. There was a supposed tracklist that incorporated the b-sides where they were supposed to be if it had been a double LP. I was obsessed with this, and even purchased on ebay the JT-era CD singles so that I could get access to these tracks. (They later of course released deluxe editions with all the b-sides, and now I think you can just get them via streaming.) Listened to my playlist of this expanded album for old-time’s sake. I do still love “Walk to the Water” and “Deep in the Heart” - “Silver and Gold” and “The Sweetest Thing” showed up later in other projects, but it is fun to hear the original versions in their original context. [This should become a digital garden entry and I should research out any truth to this and share the supposed tracklist.]


Thur.2022.06.29 | Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | Big Thief

Format/Source: Double Vinyl LP
Location/Context: home while doing dishes, etc.

Thur.2022.06.29 | Butterfly 3000 | King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: laptop headphones

Notes: I got a Gizzyverse newsletter and then wanted to listen to their music. Also wanted to purchase a bunch of it on vinyl, but didn’t pull the trigger on that - yet.


Fri.2022.07.01 | [Playlist] New Music Friday | NPR Music

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: laptop

Fri.2022.07.01 | [Playlist - Partial] Wildflower | Apple Music Indie

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: laptop

Sat.2022.07.02 | Barbarism | Katie Alice Greer

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: driving around

Notes: First listen - discovered from the NPR New Music Friday playlist above. Not sure what I think yet, but there will be more listens.


Sat.2022.07.02 | Crest | Bladee & Ecco2k

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music
Location/Context: laptop headphones

Notes: listened while setting up the template and details for these new ‘Listens of Last Week’ pages.

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 3, 2022)
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Reading Loveless

[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
[Originally Posted: 2022.07.04]

I admit, I absolutely thought this was a graphic novel that I was going to blaze through in an hour, until the moment I opened it the other night and found almost 400 pages of un-illustrated, small-font text. Started reading it anyway.

I admit, I absolutely thought this was a graphic novel that I was going to blaze through in an hour, until the moment I opened it the other night and found almost 400 pages of un-illustrated, small-font text. Started reading it anyway.

At this point I’m still only about 5-10% hopeful that it will have anything to do with My Bloody Valentine’s classic shoegaze album.

Standalone post link: Reading Loveless
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Copyright 2005-2024 Joshua David Whiting. Made in Millcreek, Utah, USA. Contact me. Built with Hugo and my own WP51 theme, still a work in progress. Hosted via Github and Netlify.