Still on the Brink of the Web

A year ago, a first big wave of migration from Twitter happened and I found myself trying Mastodon and CounterSocial. Mastodon felt better somehow and it’s very nice, has great community, you can work up some conversation if you persist and post and leave comments – but that’s how ALL social media works.

Today I see a FB memory that I was trying these out and now we’re in the middle of another round of shouting about how awful Twitter/X is and especially because

the owner is a loud jerk who allows others to be loud jerks. OMG the other N word! OMG! Another round of migration.

Oddly, this is not at all my twitter experience. I don’t see any of that and it’s a MUCH better platform for getting faster news. I’ve laid off it for a few days because a part of me is bothered by the jerk-who-owns. (since the first migration, I’ve actually increased the number of artists and writers I see there as well as adding some excellent opinion people)

But, despite following so many of the same accounts of news and opinion people in Mastodon and now Threads (another arm of FB so don’t bother telling me how wondrously shiny and human it is – it also has a board of directors and a profit motive and an often jerky bossman), there is just not the same stream of information there. I don’t know why these news and opinion folks say they’re on other platforms and then don’t mirror their posts but they don’t.

Mastodon at least has the ability to find people across the fediverse, to search for hashtags etc and to f-ing edit posts. So despite and because of its reliance on volunteer folks willing to run physical servers, it has a lot going for it. Twitter has lost a lot of features but keeps its speed of delivery. FB is just awash in fake ads and other crap.

Deep in my gut I think that even if the Far Right folks prevail in real life, no one will care as long as their cat pictures and videos can still be posted. I am SO positive about this. I hate it. I remember when I had to continually explain what a blog was, so there’s not much can be done about my disappointment in this.

Congratulations for making it this far.

Still on the Brink of the Web

Monday already.

When I woke up this morning I was an itchy mess. Or at least my neck and chin were an itchy mess. I was going to take some benadryl, but I guess this doesn’t happen often enough (thank goodness) so the first order of business for the day was to drive to Nassau and get some Benadryl to replace what I had with an expiration of 2017. It had reduced a lot of the puffiness and some of the itchiness. Not a lot of itchiness but some. (my guess is that I finally reacted to some poison ivy after all these years) I didn’t want to drive around with Benadryl on board so I did a little this and that and some painting.

First I did this of some of my plants waiting for planting.

Today was the second lesson by Mind of Watercolor YouTuber Steve Mitchell – spontaneous watercolor landscapes. He’s so calming and reassuring. Full of reminders that this is about learning a process and not every one of these will turn out good. It’s about the experimentation and practice. I posted my four sample pieces from last week here and here and truthfully today I was only supposed to play around with the two wet on wet pieces but oh well. I have more paint and more paper!

Monday already.

Using Technology to Communicate and Connect

One of the best things to come out of the pandemic was the embracing of things like Zoom, YouTube, Facebook live etc for communicating. We got to be live with people far away and spread out and sometimes who we might never had had the chance to spend time with. Some community grew up around that. Places like museums and bookshops that embraced online gatherings kept the interest of their followers and gathered new ones. During the early months of covid I had a daily and weekly schedule of these which really helped a lot.

https://www.facebook.com/BillyCollinsPoetry/videos

Cocktails with a Curator

Baumgarten Fine Art Restoration

The Metropolitan Museum

Laura Boswell, Printmaker

Udon Noodle Restaurant

I learned a lot from very knowledgeable folks who generously shared with an unseen audience. I appreciated folks who showed what they did or what they were interested in via video or audio online. I can’t really explain so easily while watching people cook in tiny Japanese or Chinese restaurant kitchens is soothing but I went with it. I learned quite a bit about art conservation and how to restore mostly metal objects. I sat daily with a former poet laureate (and a few hundred other homebound souls) and sipped adult beverages like we were in a salon sharing witty conversation and ignoring the world for a half hour. I received close up guided tours of objects I might never visit or be able to view that closely.

Some of that has mellowed as people have ventured back into the world but I’m still taking advantage of things which come around and this week that included this:

An Anniversary Edition of Braided Creek by Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, published by Copper Canyon.

It’s been interesting to see the use of technology evolve over these past few years, and to see people grow more comfortable using it and understanding how it can be used and best used. Thanks all!

Using Technology to Communicate and Connect

Day 23 NaPoWriMo 2022

I did a quick survey of conveyors of Indian food today – and drove, thinking to do take out, which meant I should have also done a search for nearby parks but when I got to this little place in a small strip mall, it was actually very nice and not quite empty so I sat down and ate. And ate. And went home with two bags of naan!

Looking for Indian food
I try to remember my first,
how and where,
who would have convinced me
to join them in
something so exotic.
Later, I bit
into a cardamon pod
tasting only gratitude.

Day 23 NaPoWriMo 2022

administrivia

You may notice that the weird error message at the top has gone away and that the things in the sidebar are a) working again and b) only there once rather than multiple times. I spent some time yesterday focused mainly on getting everything working and the removal of dupes was easy to do along the way.

Apparently, the WP plug-in that lets you access widgets “in the old fashioned way” needs some massaging to get those widgets, apparently brought over without a problem, actually working. Not as onerous as it might have been. Now the cat cam should update correctly and the random picture actually randomize!

The weird error message at the top meant that the archive directory wasn’t **really** working in the latest version but the good news was there was a very similar replacement plug-in that did work.

Still some work ahead to bring things up to code but at least it’s functional again.

administrivia

The End of March – April is Coming

It’s been too long a time and here I am again, about to launch into April and National/Global Poetry Writing Month. This interruption started in February, as I was settling into writing daily postcards for World Peace Poetry Postcards. Got thrown off that horse for a couple weeks but finally did get caught up and back on track.

What’s this National Poetry Writing stuff about, you ask? Pretty simple – you vow to yourself that you will write a poem a day for the month of April which is National Poetry Month. If you need some direction or companionship – the NaPoWriMo site is a great place. There you can get daily prompts and information, and read the poems of others and share your own. You’re under no obligation to show anyone your month of poems during the month or after. No matter what you’ll have stirred the pot of poetic and other creative juices and that’s always a good thing.

The End of March – April is Coming

Merry Christmas 2021!

Well we made it to Christmas! Hurrah for us!

Thinking about all of you who maybe still aren’t with your family and friends because of the pandemic. Hope we can turn it around this year. Like they say – next year in Jerusalem! Or as others say – Make It So!

I’ve been quiet here, but I’ve been plugging along. Recently I tried something new. Sort of put me off course for NaNoWriMo, but it was fun and made my brain work pretty hard at times. Gave me a few flashbacks to my start up days of doing layout and printing too. I tried lino printing and was supported by generous people on youtube who shared their knowledge and craft there so I could see the whole process, get pointers, get some warnings etc etc.

So Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming year! Here’s my holiday card to all of you!

I was reminded while working on this of what is said when the reading of each book of the Torah is completed: “Chazak, Chazak v’nitchazek!:”– Be Strong, Be Strong, and Let Us Strengthen One Another. Let’s continue to be strong and be strong for each other in the coming year.

Merry Christmas 2021!

August Postcard Poetry Fest 2021

It’s definitely August (I’m melting!) and so it’s also Postcard Poetry Festival time!

This year I’m in two groups of 32 folks. The plan is to write a poem a day and send it via postcard to each successive person after you on the list. There is a lovely dailiness to this and it’s a good stretch of the “get-it-done-no-matter-what” muscle. Some days a poem comes easily, other days not so much.

I usually go into august armed with a short list of possible fall-back topics and sometimes a plan of what the poems will be – sonnets or whatever. I have quite a collection of postcards to use so I’m set for a long time. I make sure I have stamps. I have my sharpie pens at the ready.

Over the past year, during the pandemic, I began cutting up all my cardboard boxes: crackers, cereal, tissue, into postcard sized pieces. This may have started when I found a stack of old phone books that had nice or interesting covers and I ripped off the covers before recycling the rest. Who knows? Anyway, with a few donations from Mom, I ended up with more than enough postcard-sized hunks of boxes to use for August. I put self-adhesive postcard backs onto them and so far, so good.

I did have a short list of emergency ideas but I haven’t dipped into it yet. Also during the pandemic, I started responding to a friend’s facebook practice of posting a photo and asking us to show our daily “one good thing”. Early on in the pandemic I really looked forward to getting out in the yard and finding something good. Taking photos is another way of looking at things and dailiness is a good practice. When he stopped posting those for awhile, I picked it up and kept it going with my friends. Now that he’s back I send him a different version of my one good thing.

So it seems that in the first couple weeks of PoPoFest 2021 my cards are going out with a short poem about something simple but noticed. Something heard and pondered. After the first couple days, a format I like – three haikus on a theme – seemed to be the plan.

And that can be my good thing for the month!

Here’s a little view of all the cards received so far from the two groups. I also got a card (not shown) snuck in from the World Peace Poetry session in February – very welcome after some list rummaging! And turns out two bonus cards which I’d only registered one.

August Postcard Poetry Fest 2021

NaPoWriMo – Day Thirty – The End

The last day of NaPoWriMo 2021 has come and gone. It’s always a bittersweet moment for everyone participating. Perhaps some feel relieved. Thirty days is a push when you are trying to write something everyday. Snatching something from the air and putting it out there in words.

Keep on poets everywhere. See you next year if not sooner! Thanks to all my April visitors and for the reading and comments on my writings here. Means a lot.

In a swirl of green
April morphs to May
juncos to robins
last year’s leaves
tomorrow’s flowers
in a whorl of green

In a whorl of green
overnight the world changes
April bcomes May.

x

NaPoWriMo – Day Thirty – The End

NaPoWriMo – Day Twenty-nine

I listened to Billy Collins talking and reading tonight. And then I listened to a whole lot of people reading a whole lotta poems in celebration of National Poetry Month – an event put on by the Academy of American Poets.

Even the NYTimes and NPR have been talking this month about how poetry has been especially important in the past year.

Well, we already knew that, but now it’s time for a little sleep on this penultimate night of Poetry Month.

I listened to so many words
my ears were swimming in the
familiar currents and
the unexpected rip tides
the waves leapt up
I fell into the trough
and rose again triumphant
from the brimming sea.

Billy Collins recently had cataract surgery and is still amazed to find that he can read without glasses. I wrote a quick haiku during the broadcast based on what he mentioned as “a bowl of glasses” needing a new purpose.

a bowl of glasses
gathered, reminiscing
after surgery

The poet tonight paused
to consider the habit
of wearing glasses

A side benefit
of cataract correction
a new view on life.

I asked the cats to pose like poets for their book jackets and this:

NaPoWriMo – Day Twenty-nine