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Joshua Whiting

joshuaw.xyz

Status updates

Summaries or first lines of all posts on this site displayed in a microblog format. I’m considering syndicating this to some social media accounts. [2024-04-28]

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2026.02.20

I'm listening to Heaven Ain’t Sold by Choker. 🎵

Heaven Ain’t Sold - Cover Art

Been waiting 7 years for new music from Choker, and it’s not disappointing. Listened obsessively to his Filling Space trilogy of EPs back in 2019 and haven’t forgotten. Dijon last year, now Choker…

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Heaven Ain’t Sold
2026.02.19

I've been listening to AngieAngieAngie by spill tab. 🎵

AngieAngieAngie - Cover Art

It’s 2025’s ANGIE but with 4 more tracks now and a different cover image. Nothing to complain about.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: AngieAngieAngie
2026.02.19

I've been listening to the apple tree under the sea by hemlocke springs. 🎵

the apple tree under the sea - Cover Art

These tracks really popped out in mixes, and I had to grab the album. I’ve listened three or four times now and I think I want to like this a little more than I actually do. Still objectively great, though, and I still will probably give it more listens in the future.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: the apple tree under the sea
2026.02.18

I've been listening to Plie / Falta Algo / Tierra / Pan / NPR Tiny Desk Concert by Chuwi. 🎵

Plie / Falta Algo / Tierra / Pan / NPR Tiny Desk Concert - Cover Art

Branching out into some of the collaborators on  DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS now…

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Chuwi EPs and Singles
2026.02.18

I've been listening to Un Verano Sin Ti / nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana / DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny. 🎵

Un Verano Sin Ti / nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana / DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - Cover Art

Almost endlessly listenable, it turns out. Guess maybe that’s why he’s the most-streamed artist in the world…

Standalone post link: Listening Log: más Bad Bunny
2026.01.31

I'm reading Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood. [ 20% ] 📚

Will There Ever Be Another You - Cover

This book deserves a weirder status update than this, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment: I’ve previewed, preordered, started, stumbled, and restarted this book a couple of times now, but this time it is taking and I’m sure I’ll continue…

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Will There Ever Be Another You
2026.01.19

I read The Forgotten Teachers: How Nature Wrote the Story of Life by Written by Brian Isett, Illustrated by Claudia Biçen. 📚

The Forgotten Teachers: How Nature Wrote the Story of Life - Cover

Genre: creation story, mythopoetic science writing, psychedelic illuminated manuscript, nature, life, ecology, Earth, picture book for teens and adults…

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Forgotten Teachers
2026.01.18

I'm reading 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books by Melissa Stewart, Marlene Correia. [ 37% ] 📚

5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books - Cover

Another book I’m happy to read for a PD book club at work.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: 5 Kinds of Nonfiction
2026.01.16

I'm reading Manga Goes to School: Cultivating Engagement and Inclusion in K–12 Settings by Ashley Hawkins, Emily Ratica, Sara Smith, Julie Stivers, and Sybil “Mouna” Touré. [ 38% ] 📚

Manga Goes to School: Cultivating Engagement and Inclusion in K–12 Settings - Cover

I suggested this title for a PD book club at work and they actually took me up on it!

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Manga Goes to School
2026.01.11

I realized that though I’ve been making this chili for years I never have set down my version of this old recipe. So, this afternoon before I cooked I documented everything I was going to do, and now I’m sharing it here.

Standalone post link: Recipe: Grandma Naoma's Chili (Josh's Version)
2026.01.04

I'm reading Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang again. [ ↻ 25% ] 📚

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence - Cover

Reading with my son at bedtime some nights. (Only once in a while because most nights my bedtime is earlier than his now.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Babel
2026.01.04

I've been listening to LOWER by Benjamin Booker. 🎵

LOWER - Cover Art

This is a really solid collection of songs, quite liking it.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: LOWER
2026.01.04

I stopped reading Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America - with Kate Nelson and Kristen Donnelly by Sean Sherman. [ Did Not Finish ] 📚

Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America - with Kate Nelson and Kristen Donnelly - Cover

Need to return to library, but placing on hold again to continue reading later.

This is a cookbook to read all the way through, as much about history and culture and how foodways tie everything together as it is a gathering of recipes

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Turtle Island
2026.01.02

I stopped reading What It Is by Lynda Barry. [ Paused at 34% ] 📚

What It Is - Cover

Might try some of the activities in this and/or in Syllabus, but for now I’m just reading through the “essay questions” (blue-paged section.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: What It Is
2026.01.01

I want to learn how to take honest photographs with my phone.1 Until then, I just have quick snapshots that I feel inclined to share for some reason.2

2025-12-31 Writing Spot Snapshot
This was my walking destination and writing spot yesterday morning.

Standalone post link: Writing Spot Snapshots 2025-12-31 and 2026-01-01
2025.12.31

I’ve left this site derelict but at the end of the year now I’m wishing I had kept up a comprehensive reading log and music log here, (my own personal ad hoc ‘wrapped’), so I might retroactively populate my site and feed with a bunch of backdated posts, mostly reading log updates. Just a heads up if you are out there somehow following this feed.

Standalone post link: ''joshuawxyzmetaupdate20251231''
2025.12.29

I've been listening to Micrographia by Bug Teeth. 🎵

Micrographia - Cover Art

I listened to this so much throughout December; this is just one representative log entry.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Micrographia
2025.06.08

I read Log Off by Kristen Felicetti. 📚

Log Off - Cover

So great!

Should probably have a lot more to say about this, and maybe I will someday, but until then I need to at least get it logged. It needs the hype of being posted on this most obscure and derelict website, extremely appropriate.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Log Off
2025.03.30

I've been playing Stardew Valley. [ Paused at 4?% ] 🎮

Stardew Valley - Cover Art

Gotten into summer of the first year. Tempted to start over and try spring again now that I know a little better how things work…

Standalone post link: Playing Log: Stardew Valley
2025.03.29

I read Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. 📚

Autobiography of Red - Cover

Amazing images and atmospheres throughout this book. Among other things it made me want to take photographs, gave me new ways to think about photography. I like photography but I’m a dummy about it.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Autobiography of Red
2025.03.29

I read The Mythmakers - The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix. 📚

The Mythmakers - The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien - Cover

This is a phenomenal book.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Mythmakers
2025.03.16

I've been listening to Complete Discography (shuffled) by Big Thief. 🎵

Complete Discography (shuffled) - Cover Art

Listening to every track by Big Thief on shuffle because I’ve wanted to see them for years but never could, and found out they are doing a Twilight Concert in Salt Lake in September for just $20 a ticket and I got a ticket and now I just need to figure out if or how I can convince anyone in my family to go to this concert with me. No worries if not, though, I will not hesitate to go by myself.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Big Thief Complete Discography on Shuffle
2025.03.16

I read Still in a Dream: a Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995 by various authors. 📚

Still in a Dream: a Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995 - Cover

I don’t like how this is still showing as a ‘currently reading’ book on my website after all this time, so, though I am not finished with the overall shoegaze/dreampop/4AD/90s rock listening project (mission creep and distraction) I am marking this ‘completed’ as a book.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Still in a Dream - A Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995
2025.02.01

I read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis again. 📚

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - Cover

Comfort bedtime reading with my son every other night or so. Past Log Updates DATE : 2025-01-01 Started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with Will tonight.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
2025.02.01

I played and finished Sneaky Sasquatch. 🎮

Sneaky Sasquatch - Cover Art

The friendmaking challenge really threw me off and I stopped playing this for a long time, but I finally got back to it and pushed through to finish the main storyline. I kind of love this game.

Standalone post link: Playing Log: Sneaky Sasquatch
2025.01.31

I listened to This Dungeon Earth / Remove Your Skin Please EPs by Chat Pile. 🎵

This Dungeon Earth / Remove Your Skin Please EPs - Cover Art

Send my body to Arby’s

Standalone post link: Send my body to Arby's
2025.01.29

I've been listening to Dust Inside a Dream by Stalled. 🎵

Dust Inside a Dream - Cover Art

This was a “personalized” suggestion for me from the Apple Music algorithm and it was a good one. I hate that a little bit, but glad to learn of this band.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Dust Inside a Dream
2025.01.25

I've been listening to Mapambazuko by Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta. 🎵

Mapambazuko - Cover Art

This is one of those albums that opens several avenues of musical exploration, some entirely new to me (Ale Hop) and some I know and love but need to catch up with (Nyege Nyege Tapes, Soukous.)

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Mapambazuko
2025.01.11

I'm listening to Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995 by Various Artists. 🎵

Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995 - Cover Art

Been listening through this comp, but also using it as a jumping off point to explore more by some of these artists and also just an excuse or occasion to listen a lot of other 80s and 90s rock I loved or always wanted to listen to but didn’t have access back at the time.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Still in a Dream
2025.01.05

I've been listening to Pisces Iscariot (Deluxe Edition) by Smashing Pumpkins. 🎵

Pisces Iscariot (Deluxe Edition) - Cover Art

This was so real to me as a 14 year old, and a little bit scary. First Smashing Pumpkins album I purchased. And I still like listening to it now, I guess.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Siamese Dream
2025.01.03

I've been listening to The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses. 🎵

The Stone Roses - Cover Art

I don’t have much of note to say about this. It was a side quest from my Still in a Dream shoegaze/dreampop/4AD listening project and I’ve been stuck on it since, listening to it in various iterations. I know, I know, this isn’t remotely shoegaze or dream pop but it is from the same time period and was mentioned throughout the liner notes and I just wanted to listen to it again, and I get to do what I want with this project.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: The Stone Roses
2025.01.02

It’s not the bespoke listening log gallery I intended, but here are some accurate visualizations of the music I listened to in 2024.

Standalone post link: My 2024 Music Listening
2025.01.01

I've been listening to Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. 🎵

Loveless - Cover Art

I went on a really random new year’s day afternoon-evening drive out to the middle of nowhere to maybe take pictures or just whatever and got caught in a snowstorm and I listened to this album twice in a row on my drive.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Loveless
2024.12.30

I read Nature's Best Hope (Young Readers' Edition): How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard (Young Readers' Edition) by Douglas W. Tallamy, Adapted by Sarah L. Thompson. 📚

Nature's Best Hope (Young Readers' Edition): How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard (Young Readers' Edition) - Cover

I’m trying to actually do this “Homegrown National Park” thing in my yard, so I have a lot of notes, but I’m not ready to share them. (Today I’m just trying to get my 2024 reading log filled out and updated.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Nature's Best Hope (Young Readers' Edition)
2024.12.07

I read Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte. 📚

Rejection - Cover

Extremely depressing. Debilitating levels of chronic cringe. Possibly the most self-aware book ever. Life-affirming empathy machine. Absolutely hilarious. 5 out of 5, would read again. BOTY?

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Rejection
2024.11.16

I read Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos again. 📚

Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative - Cover

Took so many notes and quotes from this today, which I always think I am going to do with books like this but rarely ever do. Learning to be more deliberate and thorough about my reading and writing, I hope.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Body Work
2024.11.11

I listened to The Sunset Violent by Mount Kimbie. 🎵

The Sunset Violent - Cover Art

Genre: dreampop indie rock? I don’t know what, was expecting something dubsteppy James Blake-y and this was honestly better than I thought it would be

Standalone post link: Listening Log: The Sunset Violent
2024.11.10

Decided to start posting again and push my updates to micro.blog and then to a bluesky account I set up. Thinking about pushing to Threads as well, but not pulling the trigger on that yet.

Now to see whether it works like I hope it will, wether I stick with it or get scared, whether I actually want anyone in the world to be aware of my weird little website.

Standalone post link: on posting updates again, and pushing to some social media sites
2024.11.09

I listened to Florist by Florist. 🎵

Florist - Cover Art

Queued this up after Night Palace because Night Palace made me think of it and it’s lowkey one of my favorite albums ever.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Florist
2024.11.09

I listened to Night Palace by Mount Eerie. 🎵

Night Palace - Cover Art

Listed genre as: nature noise folk rock

I’m trying to get organized and be more deliberate about doing the things I actually want to do, so among other things I put down “Start listening to music again” for Today in my Reminders app, and then I finally listened to this album while putting away laundry and stuff.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Night Palace
2024.11.09

I listened to Night Palace by Mount Eerie. 🎵

Night Palace - Cover Art

Listed genre as: nature noise folk rock

I’m trying to get organized and be more deliberate about doing the things I actually want to do, so among other things I put down “Start listening to music again” for Today in my Reminders app, and then I finally listened to this album while putting away laundry and stuff.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Night Palace
2024.10.06

I’ve forgotten and failed everything meta I meant to do. I’m afraid to look at this website, I’m afraid to look at my notes, I’m afraid to look at the stacks of books on and around my desk, I’m afraid to look back at all my open tabs.

Just keep stacking it on, I guess? Open more tabs. Continue to live my life occasionally and a little bit, with no commentary or performance.

Standalone post link: Open More Tabs
2024.09.15

I made two syrups this afternoon - chocolate and lavender

Standalone post link: Two Syrups
2024.09.13

I listened to Pointy Heights by Fousheé. 🎵

Pointy Heights - Cover Art

Possibly could be listening to this one obsessively, remains to be seen. Loved the unusual, diverse productions on some of these tracks, retro but fresh sounding: some seemingly lovers rock type stuff, some 80s electro Afropop-type stuff, etc. Feels almost like listening to some nuggets comp or some DJ on community radio with impeccable taste for old international grooves. Don’t know the story yet on if this is her own production work or if she collaborated with someone on this, but I guess I’ll look into it.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Pointy Heights
2024.09.13

I listened to My Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya. 🎵

My Method Actor - Cover Art

Listened to this twice and I zoned out for the last few tracks both times. I don’t think I’m going to be replaying this as obsessively as I did PAINLESS.1 But maybe, if for no other reason than to figure out what I actually think about this album or if I can come to like it as much as her old stuff. Or if I add it to a playlist of her whole discography and start shuffling…

Standalone post link: Listening Log: My Method Actor
2024.09.12

I listened to Is This It by The Strokes. 🎵

Is This It - Cover Art

For murky reasons I don’t understand, “Last Nite” has been in my head for days and nights now. The other morning, with the song in my head yet again, before walking out the door I scanned my shelves and pulled this actual decades-old-CD in its jewel case and took it to my car and slid it into my car’s actual CD player, and I’ve been listening to it on loop whenever I am driving ever since.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Is This It
2024.09.09

I listened to Ghosts by Hania Rani. 🎵

Ghosts - Cover Art

Very nice. One from last year I never spent much time with, but a track came up on shuffle and I immediately wanted to hear the whole album.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Ghosts
2024.09.09

I listened to EKKSTACY by EKKSTACY. 🎵

EKKSTACY - Cover Art

At first, it made me miss Craft Spells. (Whatever happened to Craft Spells btw?) Then I wanted to be listening to BLACKSTARKIDS, or the new Toro album, or I’m not sure what else.

But by the halfway point I had finally accepted this for what it was and not what I expected or wanted it to be, and I realized it was pretty nice.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: EKKSTACY
2024.09.07

I listened to Hole Erth by Toro y Moi. 🎵

Hole Erth - Cover Art

Toro y Moi’s music is just endlessly listenable to me, almost no matter what does, though it often takes me a minute to come around to whatever his latest flavor is. This album is no exception.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Hole Erth
2024.09.07

I stopped reading Soil by Camille T. Dungy. [ Paused at 16% ] 📚

Soil - Cover

(I didn’t complete my re-read of this book, I guess.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Soil
2024.09.02

Now

  • rewilding my front yard
  • working at the same job I have had for fourteen years
  • reading a bunch of wild shit
  • walking around my neighborhood without my dog, sometimes for miles and miles

Next

  • develop a consistent writing/making practice
  • sort out the listening log on this site
  • sort out everything else on this site
  • be social on the web again
  • go on some wilderness adventures in the fall

Standalone post link: Now and Next (September 1, 2024)
2024.08.30

I read All Fours by Miranda July. 📚

All Fours - Cover

All fours is a hell of a book. Hilarious, ridiculous, not infrequently gross and also not infrequently profound. Feels like it was probably a lot fun and freedom to write this way, but with a huge amount of thought and work under the surface.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: All Fours
2024.08.26

I read The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown again. 📚

The Wild Robot Escapes - Cover

Forgot what a smart follow up this is; it builds so well on the first book while exploring so many more ideas.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Wild Robot Escapes
2024.08.17

I read Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger. 📚

Sheine Lende - Cover

Finished reading early this morning. Another great one from this author. Review to come?

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Sheine Lende
2024.08.13

I listened to GIZMO by Tanukichan. 🎵

GIZMO - Cover Art

I had to scroll back through my added albums to last year to find this again because I couldn’t remember this artist or album name. I only remembered the crunchy fuzzy 90s-altrock/shoegazish vibe and that Toro y Moi produced it and that it came out last year and that it had a dog and barfy slimy green and magenta letters on the cover.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: GIZMO
2024.08.12

I listened to MAHAL by Toro y Moi. 🎵

MAHAL - Cover Art

My father-in-law is in the Philippines on a work trip and there were pictures shared and discussion of the awesomeness of jeepneys and tricycles in the family chat, so that of course over anything else gave me a flimsy excuse to think of this album and listen to it again, as it doesn’t take very much to make me think of this album and want to listen to it again. And I surprisingly couldn’t resist also randomly sharing1 in the family chat a modicum of my enthusiasm for the album and Chaz' associated jeepney restoration project.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: MAHAL
2024.08.11

I saw several fish swimming in the creek1 this morning, as many as eight to twelve. A grey ghostly shadowed slow shimmering of fins and scales in a protected pocket of murky water beneath the rough old rock wall, across on the neighbor’s side.2 I didn’t think I could capture them sufficiently in a photograph or video, especially at that distance.

Standalone post link: Murky Shimmer | Picture Not Taken
2024.08.11

‘You have new memories of your relatives’ [Email Notification]

‘You Have New Memories of Your Relatives’ Familysearch Email Screenshot - Detail

‘See memories’ [Action]

Not sure how this actually works, but I’m curious and a bit creeped out on the concept of receiving “new memories” and being notified about them via an email message.

Standalone post link: You Have New Memories
2024.08.03

I watched Dune (2021). 🎥

Dune - Cover

Finally got around to this one, and Will watched it with me. Should have tried harder to see this in the theater, it deserves as big of a screen as it can get.

Standalone post link: Watching Log: Dune (2021)
2024.08.03

I read The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. 📚

The Ministry of Time - Cover

I love that in the afterword the author essentially admits that a germ of this book was in fact a crush on an arctic explorer, written for the enjoyment of friends who perhaps share the romantic obsession. I had already assumed as much while reading the narrative, so it was refreshing for her to not be coy or pretentious about this.

Great reminder to me as a would-be writer that a way into this (maybe the way into this?) is to unabashedly pursue an idea that interests me, and learn and write all I can about it. When the writer is interested in what they are writing about and having fun writing it, that intrigue and fun should come through to the reader. It worked in the case of this book for this reader, at least.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Ministry of Time
2024.08.01

I read The Wild Robot by Peter Brown again. 📚

The Wild Robot - Cover

I’ve been reading this with my son - a reread for both of us, as I read it to him years ago. We finished it last night and were surprised; what we remembered as the final scenes of this book must actually be the opening scenes of The Wild Robot Escapes. Very nice flow from one book to the next, I guess? We will be moving on to the next book.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Wild Robot
2024.07.06

I read Louder Than Hunger by John Schu. 📚

Louder Than Hunger - Cover

Undeniable, probably book of the year. I have thoughts that I should articulate better, if I get brave.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Louder Than Hunger
2024.07.06

I stopped reading Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka ; translated by Michael Hofmann. [ Paused at 35% ] 📚

Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Cover

Stopped after the 1912 stories and “The Stoker” because I meant to jump over to Amerika next, but then I read other things and continue to want to read other things. I do intend to still come back to this, though. I should put entries for the individual first edition published pieces I did read so at least it they come up on my reading log gallery…

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Metamorphosis and Other Stories
2024.07.06

I read You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World by various authors ; edited by Ada Limón again. 📚

You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World - Cover

Read this back to front, basically two times, then started looking up the websites and other poems and writings of many of the poets here.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: booktitle
2024.07.05

I read A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger again. 📚

A Snake Falls to Earth - Cover

Read aloud with my son at bedtime some nights. We both really enjoyed it; hope for more with these characters and/or in this world.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: A Snake Falls to Earth
2024.06.24

I read Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi. 📚

Parasol Against the Axe - Cover

Orlando vibes, Kafka vibes, fun weirdness vibes. I will likely be reading more of Oyeyemi, and the other writers she mentions in interviews (linked after the “more” jump.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Parasol Against the Axe
2024.06.22

I read Mid-Air by Alicia D. Williams. 📚

Mid-Air - Cover

(I guess I put everything in the genre tag now, feels less auspicious.)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Mid-Air
2024.06.02

I listened to Frame & Canvas by Braid. 🎵

Frame & Canvas - Cover Art

Listened to this album for the who knows how manynth time - still just love it, songs have been in my head all week and I’m not sure why.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Frame & Canvas
2024.06.02

I read Starfish by Lisa Fipps. 📚

Starfish - Cover

I get so angry at terrible adults in middle grade novels - i have no patience for it and want the kids to start fighting back immediately. It takes her awhile but this girl finally pushes back spectacularly.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Starfish
2024.05.26

I read Orlando by Virginia Woolf. 📚

Orlando - Cover

This is such a rich, enjoyable book, I almost started at the beginning again right after finishing.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Orlando
2024.05.12

Pushing up new listening, playing, and reading logs with several entries, though still not exhaustive, and with old clutter still not cleaned up. More changes, details, documentation pending.

Standalone post link: joshuawxyz changelog 20240512
2024.05.06

I read History Comics: The Stonewall Riots - Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights by Archie Bongiovanni, A. Andrews. 📚

History Comics: The Stonewall Riots - Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights - Cover

Not that great as a graphic novel tbh, but definitely age appropriate and on an important topic/moment for which there isn’t much available

Standalone post link: Reading Log: History Comics - The Stonewall Riots
2024.04.26

I listened to Final Summer by Cloud Nothings. 🎵

Final Summer - Cover Art

This really syncs with my recent 90s midwest emo indie rock deep dive. In fact, I listened to this a couple of times, then listened to the first two Sunny Day Real Estate albums, started listening to Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape, but wanted to come back to this again over all of that. [2024-04-27]

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Final Summer
2024.04.21

I listened to THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY by Taylor Swift. 🎵

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY - Cover Art

Started drafting out a whole narrative of my thoughts and mixed reactions to this album, but realized probably absolutely nobody needs my take on this and I have plenty of other things to write about and do, things that might benefit from having more written and explored about them.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT THE ANTHOLOGY
2024.04.05

I listened to COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé. 🎵

COWBOY CARTER - Cover Art

Also didn’t realize I needed a countryish sometimes Beatlesish Beyonce album, but here we are.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: COWBOY CARTER
2024.04.05

I listened to Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend. 🎵

Only God Was Above Us - Cover Art

Didn’t realize I needed a new Vampire Weekend album, but it turns out I really did need it. And its the most Vampire Weekendish album they’ve ever made.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Only God Was Above Us
2024.03.29

I read The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaughnessy. 📚

The Octopus Museum - Cover

Wasn’t quite as cohesive as I was hoping, but I don’t know that it intended to be.

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Octopus Museum
2024.03.26

I read I Love Information by Courtney Bush again. 📚

I Love Information - Cover

Now I’ve read this book twice, I could probably read it again and again, but I don’t know why exactly

Standalone post link: Reading Log: I Love Information
2024.03.25

I listened to Something in the Room She Moves by Julia Holter. 🎵

Something in the Room She Moves - Cover Art

I’ve been a fan of Julia Holter for a long time1. She occasionally creates moments that irritate me, but I kind of love her all the more for them.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Something in the Room She Moves
2024.03.18

I track my music listening pretty exhaustively using last.fm, and have about six full years of history there. This is a place for me to manually highlight particular listening projects or obsessions of the moment.

Standalone post link: My 2024 Listening Log
2024.03.16

I listened to Braid 1998 Van Mixtape by Braid / Polyvinyl Records. 🎵

Braid 1998 Van Mixtape - Cover Art

After listening to Nothing Feels Good a couple of times, I was ready to do a deep dive back into midwest emo. Frame and Canvas is my other favorite album from this era, but I’d seen this playlist a while ago and thought I should branch out. It’s pretty great, and has some nice surprises

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Braid 1998 Van Mixtape
2024.03.15

I listened to Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring. 🎵

Nothing Feels Good - Cover Art

For some reason my annual springtime Jay Som listen made me think of this album and 90s midwest emo in general, and I’m so glad I dug it out and listened to it. Somehow in the late 90s a track from this album got airplay on X-96 one evening in between “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “Loser” or whatever they were usually playing and still I think play 25 years later, and I happened to hear it. It stuck with me; I remembered the band name and that I liked it through two years of Mormon mission, but didn’t find or hear the album until college, when I was in the Graywhale by the University of Utah and found a section I’d never paid attention to with the strange-to-me label of “indie”, and there in that section was this album, with it’s ironic retro colorfulness and white CD case backing. This album was my conscious entry point to the world of “indie rock”, emo, Pitchfork, etc.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Nothing Feels Good
2024.03.10

I can
do
whatever
I
want
here

Last December I opened a fresh notebook and started with this entry. It is kind of my current thesis statement for having a website, being on the internet, trying to make stuff, etc. I haven’t followed through with these ideas so far, but I feel like putting it up on the website is a start.

Standalone post link: I Can Do Whatever I Want Here
2024.02.29

I listened to PHASOR by Helado Negro. 🎵

PHASOR - Cover Art

First album I’ve just flat-out loved this year. I could listen to this endlessly, and did for a week or two there, and then listened again through his entire back catalog.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: PHASOR
2024.02.18

I read Multiple Titles by [Multiple Authors and Illustrators]. 📚

Multiple Titles - Cover

Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes, words by Traci N. Todd, pictures by Shannon Wright
There Was a Party for Langston, King o' Letters, by Jason Reynolds, with art by Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey
The Truth About Dragons, written by Julie Leung, illustrated by Hanna Cha
Jovita Wore Pants: The Store of a Mexican Freedom Fighter, by Aida Salazar, art by Molly Mendoza
In Every Life, by Marla Frazee
Big, by Vashti Harrison
How to Write a Poem, by Kwame Alexander & Deanna Nikaido, art by Melissa Sweet

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Picture Books 2024-02-18
2024.01.21

Description: morning birds winter rain window - field recording

the birds this morning when I opened the bathroom window - I took a video but mainly for the sounds - forgot birds would do that in the winter morning rain, I associate this with spring - our little creekside backyard and neighborhood is a stopover for migrators - I should pay more attention

Standalone post link: Morning Birds Winter Rain Window
2024.01.02

Front yard perennial pollinator native sustainable grass replacement project - Update 2024-01-01

I planted seeds as the sun set on the first evening of the new year. (Not to be overly dramatic about it or anything, this is just what happened.)

New Year’s Day 2024 Seed Planting -02

Standalone post link: Planting Seeds on New Year's Day
2024.01.01

A new year, a new arbitrary occasion to start up this website again and think about sharing things and engaging with people on the internet again.

Let’s do it!

I’m going to first practice sharing daily or frequent notes and status updates exclusively here on my own website, and see how it feels.

Standalone post link: New Year's Day 2024 Website Note
2023.12.31

This is a placeholder for an essay I hope to finish and publish here someday exploring my thoughts on this topic.

Standalone post link: Why He/They?
2023.03.25

I kind of forgot how my website works. Oops.

And if anyone out there actually subscribes to this RSS, just a heads up that I am messing with it and it is about to change to be more conventially formatted…

Standalone post link: Forgot
2022.11.27

It has only been two days since I started posting on my site again and also syndicating the posts to various places, and I’m finally ready to admit:

  1. it is in fact a huge pain in the ass to use Hugo as a microblog (at least the way I have mine set up)

Standalone post link: RE: Scattering
2022.11.27

Two books standing on a desk - The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander and The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

Finished reading Kwame Alexander’s The Door of No Return last night, and then started on Christina Soontornvat’s The Last Mapmaker. (I’m only at ~8% on Mapmaker so I’m breaking my self-imposed “only post an update if you are at least 20% of the way through the book” rule.)

Standalone post link: ''readingthedoorofnoreturn''
2022.11.26

Finished reading Windswept by Margi Preus last night, and then started in on The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander [~35%].

Getting into an active reading mode with books of my own choosing. It has been awhile.

Standalone post link: Reading Update - November 26, 2022
2022.11.25

It feels like the last days of social media, looting, anarchy, the scattering of peoples and the confounding of languages, so I feel like I can post again with abandon now. Posts no longer feeling chiseled in stone, but wandering snowflakes that might melt away at any moment. Or maybe just blobs of semi-melted snow.

Standalone post link: scattering
2022.08.21

Image of Nightcrawling physical book and Moonwalking digital cover on my phone on my desk in the dim lamp light tonight

Currently Reading: Moonwalking [29%]

by Zetta Elliot and Lyn Miller-Lachmann

[currently reading - started on 2022.08.19]
[Granite Sora ebook copy]

Currently Reading: Nightcrawling [28%]

by Leila Mottley

[currently reading - started on 2022.08.18]
[SLCO Library physical copy]

Standalone post link: Nightreading Nightcrawling Moonwalking
2022.08.11

2022.08.11 (committed)

  • Added a [more of ‘Title’] link at the bottom of the main microblogish rss index
  • Added [more/less] buttons to recent updates on homepage and ‘new/now’ list pages
  • Improvements to the functionality of the ‘recent images’ section of the home page
  • Moved ‘links’ into their own main section

2022.07.22 (committed)

Standalone post link: Changelog - 2022.08.11
2022.08.06

On spending Saturday afternoon driving around two counties in the rain making returns of dumb shit I bought online that doesn’t fit or that I don’t really need, and on being too self conscious to go to the art museum and go in with wet clothes on the last day of an exhibition I wanted to see, even though I was just a few blocks from it and going there was my original plan

Standalone post link: On spending Saturday afternoon driving around two counties in the…
2022.07.31

The truth is I’m not listening to music right now but to backyard morning sounds: birds, creek, calm Sunday morning traffic from 1300 East, my neighbors' baby fussing a bit, an AC unit kicking on, and a single dog bark. I also really didn’t listen to a lot of music last week, between spending time at the cabin (cabin/canyon sounds are prioritized, just like backyard sounds) and people being around in the office at work when I did go back into work. There are some interesting things here nonetheless, and I have a lot of promising stuff queued up to listen to soon.

My Top Artists Last Week - Last.fm - Screenshot

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 31, 2022)
2022.07.30

My knee has recovered enough that I went on somewhat of an actual hike!

Luna helping me navigate the aspens on the mountainside

A Moffitish mountainside forest

Standalone post link: a hike!
2022.07.27

Do I really need to get credit for every random thing I read and find at all interesting by semi-publicly recording it here on this website?

Maybe, yeah.

Standalone post link: Reading Credit Questionmark
2022.07.21

Really, most of the time I just like sitting beneath trees, and it turns out my backyard is an extremely serviceable place for that, so no need to go anywhere else to write or work.

Standalone post link: Just Trees, Really
2022.07.18

I’m playing around with reorganizing almost my entire site into topic- and theme-based files and folders on the back end.

With keeping my new “digital garden” off to the side of the rest of my content, I can’t decide where to put things. It feels redudant; so I’m making the whole site into the garden.

Standalone post link: 20220718 Changelog
2022.07.18

Give me a sentence which no intelligence can understand. There must be a kind of life and palpitation to it, and under its words a kind of blood must circulate forever.

– Henry David Thoreau, from “Monday,” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

Standalone post link: Give Me a Sentence...
2022.07.17

In our backyard we have a little hill/bluff down to a creek, but no easy way to get down there. I’ve decided to build a simple rustic step trail down, and here is how I think I’m going to go about it.

Standalone post link: How to Build a Trail
2022.07.12

I read this 33 and ⅓ entry on Unknown Pleasures and then re-listened to pretty much every track Joy Division ever recorded.

Picture of the book Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott, about Joy Division Screenshot of my Joy Division discography playlist in Apple Music

Standalone post link: Unknown Pleasures
2022.07.10

The first “links last week” still isn’t really happening today - I didn’t keep up with it other than the first day of the week, which happened to be the 4th of July.

I guess I could still post the links I did note at the first of the week, because a couple of them are really good, though a bit dependent on the “Independence Day” context. Find them after the jump.

Standalone post link: Links Last Week Not Happening Sort Of
2022.07.10

Here goes my second “listens last week” post. Strange exercise, but whatever.

I think next week is going to be a Toro y Moi kind of week, but not yet. Currently listening to the sounds of the birds and the creek by my backyard, and somebody’s prop plane looping around above the city macking a racket this morning.

My Top Albums Last Week - Last.fm - Screenshot

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 10, 2022)
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.

Standalone post link: Reading Loveless
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.]

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

Standalone post link: Lunch Today
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)

Standalone post link: Life as fresh as this river
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)

Standalone post link: Men do outrage to their proper natures as the tool of an institution
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)

Standalone post link: Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead...
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

Standalone post link: Ant on Flower Buds
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.

Standalone post link: Webmentions
2022.06.18

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

Standalone post link: Digital Gardening
2022.06.18

Update: my wife referred to this as my “moveable grotto,” which is ridiculous, but probably better. Definitely better.

Original: a view from my backyard “desk” just as I was creating the home page for my new “digital” garden.

At my “desk” in my backyard

Standalone post link: My Backyard Desk
2022.06.15

I just corrected an error in my RSS template and site configuration, and now, after months of transmission failure, my notes on this site are propagating to micro.blog. Now that it is working I’m not sure how I actually feel about it.

Standalone post link: mbs
2022.06.13

I’m going forward by going back…

I let this site go dormant again, but that was not for lack of unpublished notes, pictures, ideas, etc. – I have physical and digital notebooks full of stuff.

Basically: I get busy, and I also get shy.

What to do about all that could’ve / would’ve stuff?

Standalone post link: Going Forward / Going Back
2022.06.13

This post’s notes about breadcrumbs helped me figure out some things with my taxonomy list pages today.

In other words, I updated my taxonomy list page template, so as to prepare for a move toward building and surfacing more topic-based pages, supplemented by changelogs such as this.

I also added another instance of the Taxonomy Tree (a.k.a. Tree of Life, a.k.a. Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, a.k.a. Cast Out from the Digital Garden, a.k.a. Site Taxonomy) to the home page of the website, utilizing my now increasingly ubiquitous [+/-] toggle buttons. Again, a move I’m making as I explore ideas around digital gardening. I’m not actually doing digital gardening yet so I don’t have anything to link to - yet.

Standalone post link: 20220613 Changelog - Taxonomy List Pages
2022.03.26

‘Album Released’ notifications might be my favorite phone notifications.

These are:

  • two of my favorite albums
  • two of my favorite albums to listen to on vinyl, that I own on vinyl1
  • two of my favorite albums that sound like spring to me, though I can’t say why2
  • two of my favorite albums that I am listening to on vinyl right now, and noting on my website on this day, for these reasons

Standalone post link: Spring Listening 2022: Turn Into and Everybody Works by Jay Som
2022.03.20

  1. Updated the home page of this site today, adding prominent links to RSS feeds, a gallery of recent post images, and returning a link to the “Featured / Longer Things” post collection. Now I need to update the front matter of all the other missing posts that belong in that “featured” collection.

screenshot of joshuaw.xyz home page on 3/20/2022

And with the images back I feel like I should start taking and posting more photographs of things other than just screenshots and shit I bought.

Standalone post link: Home and Taxonomy Updates (March 20, 2022)
2022.03.20

I had in mind a new reading update rule for 2022 - I wasn’t going to post a reading update about any book (neither here nor on Goodreads) until I was at least 10-15% of the way into the book.

But I forgot my rule, and now the books I barely started and haven’t continued to read are hanging over my head, and I hate all you big invisible jerks for holding me silently accountable for every random thing I post here.

Standalone post link: The 15% rule for Reading Updates
2022.03.07

I often find myself tinkering with already-published notes on this site. I initially thought of this as a confession, because at times I’ve felt that editing old posts (beyond fixing minor typos or bugs) is somehow cheating.

Standalone post link: My Revisionist History
2022.02.27

Maybe a little too excited that I managed to create a hugo shortcode to do this hide/show toggle function in any post now:

Standalone post link: Hide Show Excitement
2022.02.25

I’ve also been playing a bit of Pokémon Legends Arceus lately. Gave it to my son for his birthday recently and I guess I could say I started playing it at his urging, but truly I was just curious to try it anyway and I do kind of like it.

It’s not exactly Breath-of-the-Wild-levels of intricate open world, but I’m much more engaged by it than I was by Pokémon Shield. I probably will play some more of this game as well. (I think when my kids begged me to try Shield last year I stopped after 20-30 minutes, and I never went back to it.)

Standalone post link: Also Playing Pokémon Legends Arceus
2022.02.25

Started playing Gris tonight. Stunning and mysterious game.

There were a couple of points where I wasn’t sure if I was ‘going the right way’ or not, but it was so beautiful that I didn’t really care. So far I’ve ‘brought back’ the color red and I’ve gained the ability to make my dress into a stone block, which is super useful. Will definitely be continuing with this game.

Standalone post link: Playing Gris
2022.02.21

Running log of my favorite albums and musical works released in 2022. It will be updated throughout the year, and even after.

Standalone post link: My Favorite Music of 2022
2022.02.21

Quick note about this site (joshuaw.xyz / jdwhiting.com)

This site is in more flux than ever at the moment, as I continue to rethink and evolve in how I want to use not only this site but also interact with others via the internet beyond this site.

I’m in the midst of making significant updates to the organization, flow, and functionality, all towards the end that I can start posting regularly again. I have a detailed list of tasks and ideas, but I’ll spare you.

I hope to make a lot of headway this week, but in the meantime some existing pages/links do not work, or do not work in the way I ultimately want them to work.

Thanks for your patience? (whoever you might be)

Standalone post link: Quick note about this site
2022.02.20

Also started reading today A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib.

I’ve had this, and, actually, all of Abdurraqib’s other books on my to-read list for a while now – I took the occasion of Black History Month to move this one to the top of my list and start reading.

Standalone post link: Reading A Little Devil in America
2022.02.11

Below is a running list of books I’ve read in 2022, with my current reads listed at the top.

You can find a list of links to articles, essays, poems, and other shorter works I’m reading [here], and you can find all of my reading updates [here].

Standalone post link: My Reading in 2022 (reading updates)
2022.01.02

Trying something new today - a weekly post where I round up quick notes and links to things I read, watched, played, listened to, or otherwise engaged with in the past week.

Some links or ideas might also get their own posts, if I find I have more to write or share about them. Or if I decide I feel like spreading stuff out over days and giving things their own spaces.

Standalone post link: Links from Last Week (Dec 26, 2021 - Jan 2, 2022)
2022.01.01

this winter break I was going to write a bunch revamp my website establish good reading writing learning sharing habits

Standalone post link: this winter break
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.

Standalone post link: Your art is more important than your audience
2021.11.25

Yay holidays! Yay traditions! Yay America! Yay humans! We’re the best! We’re smarter than turkeys!

Standalone post link: Yay Thanksgiving!
2021.11.19

I Made the World’s Blandest Facebook Profile, Just to See What Happens

by Kaitlyn Tiffany in The Atlantic

It seems like not many people are talking about this aspect of why Facebook is so horrible because it is also horrible in so many other ways. This is actually one of the main reasons I finally deleted my Facebook account, though.

I didn’t have a ton of “friends” (230ish, which I’m sure is below average for someone on Facebook for over a decade) and most of them didn’t share much that was real (or if they did, the algorithm didn’t see fit to share it with me), so my feed was filled with so much inanity and corporate stuff, and I still just scrolled through it compulsively, hoping something interesting would happen.

bland toxic facebook article screenshot

Standalone post link: Reading Link: Facebook Sent Me Down a Centrist Rabbit Hole
2021.11.18

The last rays of the sun transfigured the water tower, the freeway overpasses, and the tops of the pins on the bowling alley sign, as I sat at my computer in an emptied office. I hadn’t noticed the sky darkening as I tapped away on my keyboard, compulsively shift-tabbing the cursor, re-reading, revising, substituting words, deleting phrases, and reorganizing paragraphs.

Standalone post link: Writing the Great American Email
2021.11.17

Teen Librarians are not Pornographers and Other Things You Should Know About the People Who Have Dedicated Their Lives to Serving Youth in Your Community

by Karen Jensen of Teen Librian Toolbox

Loved this blog post that I happened upon today – being on School Library Journal’s network she’s kind of preaching to the choir, so I don’t know if this will convince or speak to anyone outside of libraries, but it’s honest and heartfelt and made me personally feel just a little bit better about my life.

teenlibrariansarenotpornographers-screenshot

Standalone post link: Reading Link: Teen Librarians Are Not Pornographers
2021.11.14

Yesterday morning I finished reading All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. This morning I wrote six to seven pages of thoughts and notes about it, that I’m likely not safe to share anywhere right now, including here in unsyndicated nowhereland.

It’s a powerful book, though, if you’re willing to spend the time with it. And I’m afraid that fear of that power might be the true root and rot of the issue that seemingly requires me not to talk about it.

Standalone post link: Reading: All Boys Aren't Blue
2021.11.14

I ended my cooking drought by making some potato-broccoli-cheese soup this afternoon, and now I’m ending my daily posting drought by sharing it here.

Standalone post link: potatobroccolicheesesoup
2021.11.13

fillingupspace

I filled up another ‘Field Notes’ notebook. I’m obsessed with these, and I already have too many, but I justify it because I do really like to write in them, I think I write more because of them. And now I even draw silly stuff in them sometimes. I’m sure I’ll use them all eventually.

stack of my filled ‘Field Notes’ notebooks with Grand Teton on top

Standalone post link: Filling Up Space
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.

Standalone post link: Listening: Mesita - Empty Island
2021.11.08

It’s an intended project of this website, but currently I’m not sure to what extent I want to re-share old photos and posts from prior websites, social media accounts I don’t use anymore, or just random things from my photo library or ideas and happenings noted down that I never got around to sharing in the first place. And if I do share them, should I have a system or chronology to the sharing, or just rely on randomness and serendipity? Re-post them now as fresh posts, or backdate them to when they occurred?

Standalone post link: rockofages
2021.11.07

I was doing so good at posting something every day here in nowhereland but then I got sick and stressed out and distracted, and I fell off.

Starting again for November.

Standalone post link: ''felloff''
2021.10.31

My wife jokingly asked my kids to figure out what I should be for Halloween, and my daughter quickly came up with this concept and then actualized it. So I wore it while I lurked out in the street behind my kids during their trick-or-treating.

Happy Apple - Final Costume

Happy Apple - Draft Rendering

Standalone post link: ''happyapple''
2021.10.26

I’m home sick with a cough/cold that isn’t COVID but seems contagious, but I’m behind on a lot of work, so I’m using what little creative energy I have to take care of a few things at work, rather than compose missives for or update the architecture of nowhereland.

Standalone post link: ''sickdays''
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.

Standalone post link: ''AASL21updatday2maybe''
2021.10.21

Attending the AASL national conference for the next three days, but I don’t play the edu/librarian twitter game anymore, so I’m only sharing anything about it here on my little site in nowhereland.

Standalone post link: ''AASL21innowhereland''
2021.10.17

I’ve been slowly making my way through Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. By “slowly” I mean I still consider it as a book I am currently reading, though I hadn’t read a word of it in several weeks until this morning.

![A Week](/notes/2021/10/A Week.JPG)

So it is taking me months to get through Thoreau’s week- it started on “Saturday” and I’m in “Sunday” still. But to be fair to myself, I think it took Thoreau years to write through his week.

Standalone post link: A week, but so far a month
2021.10.13

This is how slimy they are.

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

Standalone post link: ''slimyfacebook''
2021.10.12

So it looks like I finally have the syndication of short posts set up how I wanted (from my personal Hugo static site to Micro.blog, then to my more obscure Twitter account) at just the time I don’t think I care about doing such things anymore. Oh well.

Standalone post link: ''syndication''
2021.10.12

You could daydream about what a collab between Kevin Shields and Frank Ocean might sound like, if they ever got around to it in ten years or something.

Or, you could just listen to boylife’s song “goldeyes” right now.

Standalone post link: ''boylife-goldeyes''
2021.10.10

Going to start posting one new thing (or new-old thing) each day here on my website. I’m finally moving to make this little place my central home on the web, an activity archive, etc.

Standalone post link: ''one-new-or-new-old-thing-each-day''
2021.08.01

Could not get enough writing random stuff in my notebook this morning - now I have to type random stuff in my digital notebook this afternoon - and post random stuff on my website this evening.

Standalone post link: ''randomstuff''
2021.04.09

I’m reading Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, and it is really good but it is taking a while because some nights I fall asleep while I’m reading it and then some nights I scroll through Facebook or web comics or websites about comic books instead of reading it. And then I feel bad, almost as if I, king-like, have killed Scheherazade by not continuing to listen.

Everything Sad Is Untrue, both the unjacketed book and the dust jacket, separate, on my desk

Standalone post link: ''readingeverythingsad''
2021.04.03

I suppose I could just fill up a notebook with random stuff all day

I suppose I could just fill up a notebook with random stuff all day.

I suppose I could just fill up the internet with random stuff all day.

Standalone post link: ''randomstuffallday''
2021.03.22

So I have digital and physical notebooks and a phone and computer filled with photos and random things from the last year that I haven’t shared or done anything with, and I’m seriously considering just starting to go through and post backdated stuff on this website, and on the various social media channels.

Standalone post link: ''backdated''
2021.02.19

Making some little moves again on my website in prep to possibly come out of social media retirement.

Been like a year - remains to be seen whether I can finally dissuade myself from getting distracted, disheartened, disinterested, dispirited, or otherwise discouraged.

Standalone post link: ''makingmoves-disco''
2021.02.18

I watched Born in Flames (1983), written, directed, and edited by Lizzie Borden.

Born in Flames Movie Poster

Standalone post link: ''borninflames''
2021.01.03

I watched the movie Soul last night, and I loved it.

Soul Movie Poster

Standalone post link: ''soul''
2020.09.08

Did I somehow call forth the winds and fires by listening to this album so fervently last week?

I was just excited about fall, and autumnal black metal…

Autumn Eternal by Panopticon

Standalone post link: ''autumneternal''
2020.08.05

The school district received a herd of ponies. I was supposed to catalog them, barcode them, and figure out a good protocol for checking them out to students.

They were all in an old corral out in the desert, and seemed wild and restless, as if perhaps they had just been captured and swept in from that desert and we hadn’t exactly been told the truth about their (lack of) training. Also, it didn’t seem like anyone was taking care of them out there so it was maybe going to fall to me to feed them, scrape out their hooves, and do whatever else needs to be done for horses. I don’t know anything about horses.

Standalone post link: A Horse Called Dreamer
2020.07.27

I’ve been here before. It’s a cycle for me. The compulsion to exist on social media, followed soon after by silence.

Standalone post link: On Whether To Share Things
2020.07.25

For nearly the past two months I’ve been tracking all my reading updates just in a OneNote page. Transferring it here for transparency/accountability, or just some form of conspicuousness. Think I’m about to go onto Goodreads and log all of this, get caught up, be a social human of some sort, &c. Maybe I’ll post specific things about some of these books on here as well if I have time and inclination.

Standalone post link: Books Read in June-July 2020
2020.07.12

My kids and I have been casually talking about turning our yard into an orchard, and re-reading this book in my backyard today inspires me to get completely serious about it. Impossible to read these poems and not want to start growing stuff.

Standalone post link: Reading: Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
2020.06.22

Been thinking a lot about curation, both professionally and personally. Where, when, how, whether to do it. I’ve been in a holding pattern about sharing things for a long time now - I have digital and physical notebooks full of things to potentially share (good and helpful things, I believe), but it seems too big a deal to share them.

Standalone post link: The Opposite of Curation Isn't A Mess But Silence
2020.05.03

mlp:qim

Arrangement by William Whiting. Photo by me.

Standalone post link: mlp:qim
2020.04.18

It’s a Moot Point by Melanie Faye - Cover Art

I had a dream that I listened to this song on a different streaming platform and the guitar solos were missing from the track. I feverishly scoured the internet trying to find the original version with the guitar solos and figure out what was happening. Tabs kept closing on me and websites glitched into oblivion. I wasn’t sure if the streaming platform or record label had demanded their removal, or if she had somehow become ashamed of them and self-censored, or if it was the Mandela effect, or some other kind of weird conspiracy, but I was going to somehow get to the bottom of this cosmic scandal against musicianship and bring the lost guitar solos back to light.

The next day I had to listen to the song several times on different platforms just to be reassured that the guitar solos had not actually disappeared, but still remained on the track in their fulness.

Standalone post link: It's a Moot Point
2020.04.16

In the past month I’ve found myself paralyzed in regards to social media, both personally and professionally. Whenever I peak into my feeds I’ve been easily overwhelmed by the content I see: deluges of RESOURCES FOR “ONLINE LEARNING1,” endless interludes of stay-at-home inanities and banalities, and then literal death and suffering, since underneath all of this inconvenience, opportunism, and political posturing it turns out there is an actual tragic pandemic that is taking lives.

I haven’t known how to contribute to this world, and ultimately decided the best way to contribute would be to just stay quiet. Or maybe I just choked and failed by dropping out of this resource-sharing, curating, connecting game at the very moment when it was suddenly THE THING TO DO.

Standalone post link: A Break for a Minute to Imagine
2020.02.15

The Slow Rush by Tame Impala - Cover

Exceeded my expectations, and I can’t remember the last time a new album from an artist I already liked has done that. There is a warmth here that I haven’t heard in any of his work up until now. This is the electro psychedelic yacht rock I’ve been prepared for my entire life without realizing, every single track an absolute adult contemporary jam.

Standalone post link: Listening: The Slow Rush
2020.02.12

I posted a review of The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop, by Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison, on Goodreads, and I’m expanding on it slightly below.

The Roots of Rap - Cover Image

I was excited about this book and assumed I would love it because of the subject matter, but I guess I’m a little disappointed and feel the need to talk about it.

Standalone post link: Book Review - The Roots of Rap
2020.02.12

I read The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson

Read: February 12, 2020

The Undefeated - Cover Image

I want to give this all the awards. It probably should have gotten even more awards than it did.

(A little ashamed to admit that I’m just finally getting around to this, but I’m repenting of my unreading ways and doing what I can do now. And despite my claims to keep track of all my reading here in 2020, I’m back on Goodreads as well, I guess…)

Standalone post link: Read: The Undefeated
2020.01.10

I used to be meticulous about tracking even my most minute reading updates on Goodreads1, but I’ve fallen off in the past few months, and I’m not entirely sure why.2

In the meantime while I try to figure that out, I’ve decided to post random3 updates4 about my reading on Twitter and also to experiment with creating a new thread/series here on this website that will serve as a running log of my reading life.

Standalone post link: My Reading in 2020
2020.01.07

This review may contain spoilers.

Can’t stop thinking about ghosts in the basement and cockroaches scurrying under the furniture. And how maybe children’s fears should be taken seriously. This is a metaphoric spoiler.

Parasite Poster Image

Standalone post link: I Watched Parasite, 2019
2020.01.05

Kids singing rhymes
Dogs barking
Car ignitions turning over but failing to start
This bitter earth
Scuffling and throwing rocks
An ice cream truck on the next street over
That’s America to me

Killer of Sheep DVD Cover Image

Standalone post link: I Watched Killer of Sheep, 1978
2019.11.28

I forgot to observe Life Day several days ago, but I’ll observe it today on the Internet and on my website. I did share Life Day with my kids (just about 7 minutes worth) soon after when I had come to myself and realigned my priorities. They kind of loved it, and kind of thought it was terrible, which is just as it should be.

(This embed is queued to start at the key celebration of life moment at the closing of the special, so have no fear in pressing the play button.)

Standalone post link: Happy Life Day
2019.11.27

Swinging and Listening to Sung Tongs

I forced the kids to listen to my Sung Tongs vinyl today while they made snowflakes and swung around.

Standalone post link: Holiday Fun
2019.11.20

Cover Image - Other Words for Home

I published a review of Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga on Granite Media and also posted it on Goodreads.

I really wanted to put screenshots of this entire poem in the review, but couldn’t justify it on Granite Media. But here, I get to do whatever I want, so…

Poem from Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga - Screenshot of ebook

Standalone post link: Book Review - Other Words for Home
2019.11.12

I made this super-inspiring video and just had to put it somewhere in the archives, and this is that somewhere.

The funny thing was that one day a whole bunch of balloons actually did float up outside my cubicle window in exactly this way. I didn’t get a video of them when it was real, so this was an animated re-creation of that moment.

Standalone post link: Balloons Outside My Cubicle Window
2019.11.10

I’m retconning my website. I might as well be transparent about it. I feel like my lack of consistently sharing anything out from this site to the wider Internet*, along with the fact that it is my little corner of the Internet and I can do whatever I want with it (and that’s kind of the whole point) gives me the freedom to add, change, shuffle, and randomly publish new posts as though they were several months backdated, as well resurrect content from my old zombie websites, &c.

Old Josh’s Froz-T-Freez Masthead

This site, https://jdwhiting.com, shall become the center of a new and expanded JdwhitingDotCom/Froz-T-Freez Drive-In Internetical** Multiverse. Will this center be a singularity? A black hole? I don’t know yet, it remains to be seen. It’s a bizarre exercise done in darkness, but nevertheless it is going to be an ongoing aspect of this project since I plan to use this site as my personal all-inclusive internet archive.

Standalone post link: The New Taxonomy of the JdwhitingDotCom/Froz-T-Freez Internetical Multiverse Drive-In
2019.11.01

So years ago I remember coming across a thing called Digital Writing Month from some educator-writer type people I followed on twitter, and when seeing the usual pre-November hype for NaNoWriMo (which I always like the idea of but don’t actually want to do) I suddenly remembered it and thought I might try it this year, because it kind of fits with the project of this site.

Digiwrimo.com Can’t Be Reached

But I guess it’s not really a thing anymore.

Standalone post link: DigiWriMo?
2019.10.19

It is currently 4 AM and I am awake for some reason, and I just heard a noise downstairs of unclear origin.

Maybe I shouldn’t have watched this with my 4 month old puppy around. Was that a mistake? Will she live deliciously now? Will she grow up and randomly kill us all one morning like that damn goat?

The VVitch Movie Poster - TMDB

Standalone post link: THE VVITCH
2019.10.13

2.

I’ve decided that I’m just going to start sharing more of my demos, drafts, fragments, and improvisations, so they are out in the world before they become irrelevant, instead of languishing half-finished in my notebooks as I wait for some mythical moment when I will have endless time and energy to create the thorough, perfect thing.

Standalone post link: Demos, Drafts, Fragments, and Improvisations
2019.10.12

![You Are Beautiful, by Mesita - Album Cover](/notes/2019/10/You Are Beautiful, by Mesita - Cover.jpg)

I wanted to write a full essay that thoroughly explores my thoughts about this album, Mesita’s Twitter song project, and how it all is actually impacting my views on life, art, &c., but since I already have notebooks and drives and clouds half-filled half-empty with so many other such good intentions that I never follow through on, I’m just going to post this now, and state that I think that Mesita’s You Are Beautiful is pretty much one of the most honest pieces of art I have ever encountered.

Standalone post link: You Are Beautiful
2019.10.08

![Weird Little Robots - Cover (plus my daughter’s collection of dismembered lego minifigs)](/notes/2019/10/Weird Little Robots - Cover.jpg)

I’m reading Weird Little Robots by Carolyn Crimi and Corinna Luyken to my kids right now, and so far it feels kind of like if Kate Dicamillo had collaborated with Stephen Spielberg on one of his 80s Amblin projects. In other words, I’m enjoying it. And my kids like it, too.

Standalone post link: While Reading: Weird Little Robots
2019.03.16

Think I’m going to try writing a poem every day in April.

Standalone post link: #NaPoWriMo
2019.03.14

Last night I posted a grumpy response tweet about my wild hope that Facebook and Instagram would just stay broken forever.

Then I thought that maybe that was a little too mean, and I deleted it.

Standalone post link: Iheartfacebook
2019.02.24

Welcome! I am building this web site as a place to collect and share things I’m working on, as well as my random obsessions.

Standalone post link: About
2019.02.06

Terms, conditions, and disclaimers to your reading of the content of this web site and all content I may create or share on twitter or any social network.

Standalone post link: Addenda to My Twitter Bio
0001.01.01

— date: 2023-01-08T23:02-7:00 draft: true title: “Bleep is good” slug: “Bleep is good” formatsandgenres: [“updates”] images: [] videos: [] people: []

Standalone post link: ''''
0001.01.01

I am building this web site as a place to collect and share things I’m working on, as well as my random obsessions.

Standalone post link: About
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.

Standalone post link: Search Results
You have found joshuaw.xyz, my weird little home at the end of the internet. Copyright 2005-2024 Joshua David Whiting. About this site.