Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I always like to think about the early days of blogging, when there were too many posts to read in a day, and they would collect in your feedreader, waiting for you to add your thoughts in the comment section.

This essay puts the heyday earlier than expected. I think 2008 was a sweet spot in the blogging explosion years earlier, but I think the points about how getting exposed to another person’s story changes you are spot-on.

Enjoy.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Erin McKeown’s musing on whether they have guts is very brave. I think any time you look internally and weigh your feelings, it is brave; sharing them with others adds another layer of bravery. I thought this was profound:

“i know my gender, i don’t care if the government recognizes it. or do i? because i certainly made the effort to change both license and passport to X when i could. frankly, i feel naive for even wanting my government ID to reflect my actual self.”

And later, when speaking about the actions of a friend: “my gut tells me i wouldn’t have an ounce of her courage. but maybe you don’t know until the circumstances force you into action. maybe there will be a moment when all these thought exercises and essays and pods and gut pangs just will not matter. when the only choice is action, and i won’t think twice.”

I thought the whole piece was gutsy, but Erin is always a brilliant writer.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I came across this fun site of 1 million screenshots from top sites. You can type in the site name, and if it’s part of the project, it will come up in the list. You click on it, and it takes you to the tiny dot on the screen. This is one of those things that is easier to experience than explain.

It was fun to look up sites I’ve worked on and see the screenshot they grabbed from the front page. But also just to look back on this snapshot of time.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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You know how, on The Good Place, the characters sometimes kill Janet by pressing a button, and doing so makes her come back with enhanced features? Killing Janet is usually Janet’s idea. But as they walk up to the button to press it, she is also programmed to beg them not to do it. So they walk up to the button and then have doubts because she’s crying out to them to stop. So they pause, and then she points out that she is programmed to do this, and they should ignore her. And the whole dance starts again until they finally go through with it?

That is how I feel about cutting off a streaming service. Today is our last day with one of them, and I feel like I will be better off after it’s done (more money in my pocket, more time for things I actually want to see on other services). But in this scenario, I am also the Janet screaming my head off. “Don’t close the account!”

I am going to ignore my inner Janet and close the account. I’ve done this with other streaming services, and I find that the day after I lose access, I never think about it again. But that day before, oof, my inner Janet is working overtime.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I learned a new term this week: ambient panic. Being surrounded by low-frequency panic at all times. It’s not a new term, but it kind of perfectly describes the world right now. Or always? It’s so hard to know.

I think I look at the past through rose-tinted glasses because I got through it. Whatever “it” is, it has happened, and I am on this side of it with all of the knowledge and memories and experience. Whereas the future is like an invisible steamroller. It may go by you on the street and crush someone else, or it may roll right over your body and smash you to bits. And you can’t get out of the way because you have no clue where to go because that is, of course, the issue with invisible steamrollers.

The future, on the other hand, feels do-able. Just being in this moment. Breathing. But then I tell myself that I can’t stay in the present forever. The future has to roll by.

Or does it? Can’t I just stay here, always in the present?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.