Happy Father’s Day to my first unconditional admirer. 🥰

(It’s amazing how I’m still finding photos I don’t remember ever seeing in the process of clearing out the house.)

Puppy nephew slo-mo.

Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes! It’s been a nice low-key birthday with some fun video chats.

Favorite Chinese food delivered. Tonight I’ll be recording a movie commentary track with my Incomparable Agents of S.M.O.O.C.H. podcast pals. It’s like a party with special drinks and the birthday person gets to pick. We do trashy films, and my pick is American Gigolo. 😯🍾

“You say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday too, yeah.”

It never fails to delight me, listening to Paul McCartney on our shared birthday. Happy 79th, sir. 🥳

If you have a nice photo of your favorite pen, ink, and/or notebook, please post it with the ✒️ or 🖋 emoji and it will be added to the new Discover timeline for pen enthusiasts!

We are pleased to announce the addition of another topic to our emoji-based Discover timelines: “pens and ink.”

If you use either fountain pen emoji (officially named Black Nib and Fountain Pen) in your micropost, it will appear in this timeline.

There are quite a few pen, ink and stationery enthusiasts in our community, and starting next week, we hope to welcome more. Micro.blog will be sponsoring The Pen Addict podcast with Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley!

Previous Micro @monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatches
• coffee
• crafts
• bicycles
• bird nerds
• WWDC

Threads are still open if you want to raise your hand.

I did a quick count to see which topic had the most folks responding. 🥁 …

Pens and paper ✒️ . Coffee is close!

ICYMI: This week’s straw poll aka roll call topic is runners and running. Check out the thread and add your comment if you too are an enthusiast.

PS. I am not a runner. I’m just the roll call facilitator.

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatches
• coffee
• crafts
• bicycles
• bird nerds
• WWDC

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics

It’s Micro Monday again. While the podcast is on hiatus, I’ve been doing a series of roll calls to help enthusiasts find each other. This week’s topic is running. If you run or jog for exercise or fun, take a moment to stop let others know in the comments. 🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏻🏃🏾‍♂️

I drove for Lyft today. I really like tooling around the greater Portland area. Today I shuttled a flight attendant, a pilot, and a truck driver, so we bonded over our shared experience as transportation professionals. ✈️🚚🚗

Masks are worn, windows down, so chitchat is tricky.

Uh-oh. I just noticed that my spam filter snagged several Micro.blog sticker requests going back to February 2020. 🤦‍♀️

Give me a another chance and let me know if your request has gone unfulfilled for a long time. I’ll get it into this batch.

Ok, next batch of Micro.blog stickers is about ready to go. If you too would like to get our cool stickers in the mail, send your mailing address to jean@micro.blog. 📬💬⭐️

Check out LIVE near WWDC if you want a preview of the platform Vi.to that we will be using for Micro Camp in August. 🏕

Microbloggers: email me at jean@micro.blog if you want one of these souvenirs. I’m going to post the WWDC jackets on Twitter in a little while, so you all have first crack at them. 😇

Update (3 pm PDT): crafting that tweet now…

In honor of the 20th anniversary of @jamesdempsey’s first musical presentation and Live near WWDC 2021, I am selling these women’s jackets.

• 2011 (Med.) $25
• 2012 (Med.) $25
• 2015 (Lg.) $35
• 2016 (XL) $35
• (Shipping incl.)

Proceeds will go to our show beneficiary, Black Girls Code.

For his birthday, I have given @vincent two things that I know he wants: a coffee ☕️ and a Gluon review in the App Store. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatch
• coffee
• crafts
• bicycles
• bird nerds

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics.

Estate sale done. 🎉 I had to take Monday off to recuperate so I’m a day late with the roll call. I’ve been doing this series to help enthusiasts find each other. For this belated edition, I’m calling on folks following Apple’s WWDC this week to raise your hand and comment! 🍎🖥

WWDC Eve! Here’s me at my first one, waiting for OK Go. 🥰

For the annals of “People Never Read Documentation”: a visitor to my estate sale was briefly locked in the basement today. 🙄

It’s Day Two of the estate sale. I have a new team of friends helping today, and that is awesome. So grateful. I could never do it myself. I can’t even stand to be in the house. ☺️

It’s the final stretch of prepping for the estate sale. The next 72 hours is the most stressful I’ve faced in a long time. I’m blessed to have so many friends who are helping me, holding me up. 🥰

I have been hanging on to these devices for quite a while now, because they gave me so much delight when I got them. But it really doesn’t make sense for me anymore. If having them would bring you delight, let me know. I’ll figure out a way to hand them off.

Impromptu Micro meetup—and my first time gathering with my vaccinated geek friends from NSBeer. @samgrover @steveriggins @incanus

Every decision-making neuron I had is tapped out. I pick up items in the house and manage to figure out “keep/sell/donate/dispose” questions.

“Keep” is not really an option any longer; after this weekend “sell” will be off the table. Hopefully the table itself will be gone too.

PDX friends: details of the estate sale are online now. Saturday and Sunday, 11-4.

Please share and be sure to say “hi” if you drop by. (I’ll be the one looking really tired but grateful and relieved. 🥱🙏🥲)

Spending a bit of time communing with my backyard tree, which I’ve maintained the last 13 years. Reflecting on the fact that it was never my tree, that I’ve just been its temporary steward.

Friday is the finish line of the home clearing and estate sale prep. After yesterday’s session with Penelope the organizing angel, I’m close to empty, energy-wise. There are many details to sort today including painters.

Translation: I’m taking a day off of Micro.blog. 😓

The most precious item in the house has now been relocated to the apartment. Two hideys to help ease the transitional anxiety.

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatch
• coffee
• crafts
• bicycles

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics

It’s Micro Monday again. No podcast while I concentrate on moving/house prep.

I’ve been doing a series of roll calls to help enthusiasts find each other. For this Monday, I’m calling on bird watchers, photographers and enthusiasts to put up your hand in the comments. 🐦🦉🦜🦩🦆

How to be the favorite kitty sitter: liberally dispense treats before dinner. (Favorite aunt strategies applicable here.)

The treat is, as my neighbor describes it, “kitty Go-GURT”. Chicken rather than strawberry flavor.

Wow, the demand for Lyft rides is very high. If I didn’t turn off the app, I would have had no breaks. After six trips, I set the app to Last Ride, which prevents them from adding new rides to your queue while you’re driving another passenger.

Two very nice ladies were going to “Columbia River Scenic Area.” (Lyft only reveals the destination when you arrive to pick up the customer.) I asked them where specifically, and they said “The waterfall!” That’s Multnomah Falls is our biggest attraction. But it’s close to an hour away. I told them apologetically that was too far for me. I felt bad but adding big two hour trip on my first day out would have been overwhelming.

Two weeks since my second shot! I’m celebrating by getting the car spiffed up so I do some Lyft rides. 🚗😷🎉

ICYMI: I’m ready to send out more Micro.blog stickers.

Send your name and mailing address to jean@micro.blog to be included in the next batch. 😊

Pro tip: store your foreign currency with your passport, not in some unmarked box in the basement.

Found while house clearing: 160 francs, 50 marks, 15 pounds from my 1996 stint working in Paris. 🤦‍♀️

I was just checking out this 2016 photo from WWDC, me and my sister at the Smile party, and just noticed a familiar face there in the background. /@manton

It’s the 30th anniversary of Thelma & Louise. It made such an impression on me. 😮I remember the uproar it caused. Imagine how social media would have raged.

Also, I started taking selfies with friends then, but I called them “Thelma & Louise” pics.

Oh cool! @RossA shared a link to a Strava bicycle group for Microbloggers.

The subject of this week’s roll call is bicycling. So far, 15 people raised their hands. Add them to your follows if this is a topic that interests you, and add your comment to the conversation thread if you too are an enthusiast! 🚲

My turn to share fun stuff arriving via post. The perks of being a @Hemisphericviews patron.

You had me at “guinea pig stamp”. ❤️ I didn’t even know about these!!

I’m ready to send out more Micro.blog stickers.

Send your name and mailing address to jean@micro.blog to be included in the next batch. 😊

Why I moved: reason #1 Landscaping

In other pet news, I get to kitten sit for the neighbors this weekend, so I’ll be contributing to the abundance of cat photos.

There are a lot of cats in the Discover timeline right now. For a little while, it looked like dogs were getting the upper paw.

Photo: Dog nephew Louie waits in my car for his people to come home from a trip. Puppy sitting was fun and tiring for all involved.

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatch
• coffee
• crafts

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics.

It’s Micro Monday again. No podcast while I concentrate on moving/house prep.

I’ve been doing a series of roll calls to help enthusiasts find each other. For this Monday, I’m calling on bicycle enthusiasts to halt for a moment and put up your hand in the comments. 🚲

_ Knowing I have an audience really makes a big difference to me, makes it a lot easier to push forward with writing, even when I don’t really feel like doing it._

– @Davidrmunson

Just a reminder to leave a comment on other folks’ posts here, if you like what you read/see. 🥰

Ube cookies at Trader Joe’s, @rom. First sighting of ube in the wilds of Portland.

I’m the aunt of a graduate in professional nursing at the University of Vermont. I’m glowing with pride. 🥰

While decluttering the house today, I came across this photo. UNC Chapel Hill, Class of ‘82, with my sister Judy, Class of ‘83.

Tomorrow morning, my dear niece graduates from University of Vermont. Yikes, does time fly!

I’m working with a professional organizer to clear out everything in my house. Penelope is my angel. I couldn’t make this epic progress without a coach. Here’s my recycling bin today, which was empty this morning. My office was out of control with unfiled papers.

Has anyone ever used an evaporative cooler aka swamp cooler at home? I can’t have a window a/c, portable a/c units are big, heavy and expensive. I was thinking I might try this.

Also, I like saying “swamp cooler”. 🐊

ICYMI: I started another Monday roll call. This week’s category is crafters. So far, we’ve got leather and wood work enthusiasts. How about the knitters, crocheters, sewists? Reply to this thread to raise your hand.

I get a lot of cool Field Notes notebooks at various conferences but it turns out I use about 5 pages and forget about it. Finding quite a few while house clearing and have skimmed each one for insights from Past Me. Here’s my favorite, from World Domination Summit 2014.

Another great episode of Causality podcast by @johnchidgey, exploring the engineering failures, both hardware and software, that led to 3 patient deaths from overradiation by the Therac-25. The issues of software testing are eye-opening. 😬

This is one of my favorite podcasts.

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatch
• coffee

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics.

It’s Micro Monday again. No podcast while I focus on moving/house prep.

I’ve been doing a series of roll calls to help enthusiasts find each other. For this Monday, I’m calling on crafting enthusiasts to put down your projects and put up your hand in the comments. 🧶🧵🪡✂️🔨🪛

Second shot buddies: me and 16 y.o. nephew. He even did the driving.

Am I doing this right, @Burk?

(At Jim & Patty’s on Fremont. 😇)

Maybe Louie is not a perpetual motion machine after all. Much playtime —> much sleepytime. 🥰

Puppies are tricky video subjects, perpetual motion machines. Louie and his dog cousin Zoë played nicely together.

It’s Louie time! (My brother’s family is going out of town. We’re having a puppysitting orientation session.)

Patio furniture sale = ready for summer drinks on the balcony at the new pad. 🕶☀️🍹

This week’s roll call for coffee enthusiasts keeps growing, in striking distance of overtaking the pen-and-paper enthusiasts’ thread.

Of course, I didn’t need any data or tracking algorithms to tell me that these are popular pastimes in the Micro.blog community.😇

An old German pop song popped into my head, and now I’m deep into a playlist of schmalzy tunes that are great for refreshing my language skills.

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, aber unsere Liebe nicht…🎵

Why not try making a microcast? For example, I did a short series Guinea Pig Wheekly as proof of concept, using my iPhone and Wavelength. And we are offering a month trial of podcast hosting for everyone now. 🎙🎉

Manton Reece - Wavelength 1.1 and podcasting trial

ICYMI: this week’s roll call is for coffee enthusiasts.

Almost 30 hands raised. Whether you a snob, an addict, a former barista, a satisficer, ein Feinschmecker, or even a filter connoisseur, make sure to check out the thread and add a comment of your own. ☕

Previous Monday roll calls:

• pen and paper
• wristwatch

Conversation threads are still open if you want to declare your enthusiast status. And feel free to suggest future roll call topics.

It’s Micro Monday again. No podcast while I concentrate on moving/house prep.

I’ve been doing a series of roll calls to help enthusiasts find each other. For this Monday, I’m calling on coffee enthusiasts to put down your cup and put up your hand in the comments. ☕️

Reentry tracker for the Chinese CZ-5B rocket body h/t @phildearson. Reminding me of the opening narration of my favorite film:

“1999 was the year that the Indian nuclear satellite went out of control. No one knew where it might land. It soared above the ozone layer like a lethal bird of prey. The whole world was alarmed. Only Claire, couldn’t care a less. At the time, she was living her own nightmare. The same dream arrived each night. She was gliding over an unknown land, pleasantly at first, but; then the gliding would turn into falling, the falling into panic, and then she’d wake up.” (Until The End Of The World, 1991)

This is my dog niece Zoë. She loves me and goes completely zooming when I drop by my sister’s house. She’s 8 years old now, but still has puppy energy. 🐶

Reminder! We are working on plans for Micro Camp 2021, and need your input on time zone availability so we can craft a schedule that is as inclusive as possible.

Please take the survey and let us know what works for you.

I have wanted to do a Micro.blog general gathering for some time now. I thought it would be an in-person event, but I think it will be enough work just organizing a virtual one.

I’m excited about the possibilities for our first Micro Camp!

We are excited to announce the planning of Micro Camp 2021, a virtual gathering of the Micro.blog community to share knowledge and make new connections.

Micro Camp will feature: - short talks by community members on a range of topics of interest - live text chat during presentations, Q &A breakout conferences afterwards - Mutual interest meetups scheduled throughout - Micro.blog 101 live Q & A with Manton and Jean

More details will be available soon. If you have a presentation or meetup you would like to propose, or if you have any questions, please email jean@micro.blog.

The schedule will strive to accommodate the many time zones in our community. We expect to start sometime on Friday (August 13) on Pacific Daylight time, finishing Saturday (August 14). In some time zones, that will be Saturday and Sunday (August 14-15).

Help us fine-tune the schedule by indicating the time slots you would be able to attend.

doodle.com/poll/5kiz…

(Your answers will only be seen by the Micro Camp organizers, and won’t be publicly displayed. You need to enter a name, but it can be anything, if you’d like to be anonymous.)

Recently Ulysses, the writing app for Mac, iPad and iPhone, welcomed Micro.blog to their publishing family. Ulysses 22 added support for publishing directly to Micro.blog. Manton wrote about this in March, including a short guide to getting started.

Since then, the Micro.blog community has welcomed quite a number of Ulysses users. Our goal has always been to make writing on your blog as easy as possible, regardless of the length of your post. We also offer a safe and civil place to follow bloggers and to engage in conversation. Welcoming new members with an interest in writing and communicating is a pleasure.

Being part of a family has benefits! I am happy to announce that microbloggers who want to try Ulysses can use it free for 3 months. Activate the offer via this link, and follow the instructions.

Ulysses and Micro.blog are both part of a larger family of indie app developers. Ever since I first started at Smile in 2004, working together with like-minded folks to bring benefits to customers has always been one of the things that makes it fun to be in this corner of the software business.

The parties are also fun…
(on the left, Max Seelemann, Ulysses founder, at the Smile WWDC party.)

Meet Louie, my new dog nephew.

It’s Micro Monday again. No podcast while I concentrate on moving/house prep.

Shall we do another roll call? The pen and paper list keeps growing. @bensmithuk inspired me to find out who the wristwatch enthusiasts are. You can’t reply with photo, but feel free to share links.

Seeing @hutaffe celebrating his fourth microblogaversary got me to wonder when mine was. March 7th: “Good things come in small packages.”

I should have realized it was a bit earlier than April—I met with @manton March 2nd to get a preview and discuss working with him.

Just came across this old video of Crosby, Stills & Nash performing Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. Having just decided to trade in my electric guitar for an acoustic, it was heartening to be reminded that an acoustic guitar can really make magic.

The cat came back. Or has he ever left?

Last week I asked the pen and paper enthusiasts in our community to identify themselves, as a new microblogger expressed interest.

About 35 people replied, and now the post conversation is a good place to start if you are looking for new people to follow.

I’d like to do more of these casual polls, as part of the @monday theme of helping folks find other microbloggers. If you have a niche interest you’d like me to propose, email me at jean@micro.blog.

For @jw: your friend could construct a human scale version of Grace’s favorite, the Crunchy Condo from Guinea Dad.

First coffee after first sleep in the new place.

A bonus of packing to move: I had a feeling I’d find my AirPods, which went missing in the early days of the pandemic. I didn’t go anywhere, so they had to be in the house somewhere.

Today was that day! They were tucked in a little backpack I had no reason to use. 💃

The latest episode of ATP helped me understand how the podcast ecosystem could be affected by the latest Apple announcements. Podcasts are my favorite thing in the world. Open standards helped them grow so popular among listeners and creators. This slope feels slippery.

I have the domain habitfocus.app. It’s coming up for renewal and I’m ready to let it go. I’m never going to finish the simple habit tracking app I started during the iOS course at Big Nerd Ranch.

Would anyone like to take it? No charge. I’ll even throw in my storyboards. 🙂

Proprietary cat wishes I would cede the backyard to him. He will wait me out.

This cat has been checking out my house quite a bit lately. Too bad he can’t apply for a mortgage, because he’s got a very proprietary air.

I could imagine putting an AirTag in my car, to figure out where I left it as on-street parking gets scarcer in my neighborhood.

I wish the Apple Watch would notify you when it gets disconnected from the iPhone. That would save me from leaving the house without my phone.

Picking up the key to the new place. It’s so close, you can see the corner of the building from my backyard. I have a big wagon I’ll be using to move everything that fits in it. The downsizing adventure begins.

I’ve worked with @manton for four years now and I never thought to ask: How does Micro.blog even work? Today I learned something!

The new album from The Offspring makes me a little sad that I’ll be giving up my amplifiers, guitar, and drum kit when I move. They inspired me a lot back in the day, so smart and catchy.

I finally watched Cloverfield. It always intrigued me but seemed beyond my scary movie boundary. It was proposed as a topic for an Incomparable panel. Watching it for “work” gave me courage. (That’s how I finally watched Jaws)

I liked it quite a bit! Podcast episode out soon.

I met with my real estate agent today. He’s so great. He helped me find the house in 2007. I would be way more stressed if I didn’t have a trusted advisor.

Pictured: the massive hedge that was the tipping point. Hedge trimming was the first project I could drop from OmniFocus.

Hey, fountain (and other) pen and paper enthusiasts! We don’t have a Discover emoji tag feed for you folks yet, but I know there are quite a few of you. Roll call? I’d like to keep a list. There are new microbloggers joining us right now who are interested.

Congratulations to Dr. @kimberlyhirsh ! A great dissertation defense. I will never look at cosplay without thinking about your research. 🎉👏🧑🏻‍🎓

Repeating for time zone coverage:

Getting ready to send out a batch of Micro.blog stickers. If you’d like one, just send your name and mailing address to jean@micro.blog. International is fine.

Getting ready to send out a batch of Micro.blog stickers. If you’d like one, just send your name and mailing address to jean@micro.blog. International is fine, though I only have poinsettia, i.e. holiday, stamps because that’s all I could get for int’l post.

Smile is looking for an iOS developer, @macgreg posted today. The best people and company—check it out if you are interested in a cool new job.

There’s no new episode of Micro Monday today. I made a big decision to sell my house and move to a small apartment, so I’m going to be distracted while I focus on everything that needs to be done. I’m going to take a break before starting the next 100 episodes of @monday.

I made a big life decision, and it took less than a week. I’m selling my house and moving to a much smaller rental apartment.

The idea of making a change germinated 18 months ago. I was recovering from major knee surgery after a trip-and-fall in the summer of 2019. I was on a day trip to Italy from Slovenia. (I talked about this on @theweeklyreview, if you want to hear the tale of how I ended up in a Trieste emergency room for 30 hours without a phone charger: “Putting the Trip Into Day Trip”)

I came home to Portland for surgery, and I was not mobile for three months. A little later, I was visiting the apartment of a young friend who recently moved here, and I thought, “I could do this.”

My house is big for one person. When I moved here in 2008, I had young nieces and nephews who enjoyed sleeping over. During App Camp For Girls, I hosted out-of-town volunteers. The house has upstairs rooms, and a downstairs basement where laundry gets done. Thanks to my awesome surgeon and physical therapists, I am able to do stairs again. But I don’t love it. There will always be a twinge, a reminder of the accident, of the fact that I’m just getting old. I saw how easily one’s life can change in the blink of an eye, one paving stone can change your future. It could (read: will) happen again.

It’s a good time to be selling a house. I was on the verge of doing a major (read: expensive) landscaping job to control my out-of-control hedge and thinking about refinancing to take out some cash to cover house maintenance projects over the next few years. My sister pointed out that maybe it was time to sell anyway.

And it just clicked. The clincher was that there are some very nice new apartments a block from my house. I like my neighborhood and neighbors. I could postpone the decision about whether to buy something smaller and where I would be willing to move.

So I have a lease starting soon, and I’m doing small sprints of decluttering and recycling to get the house to a pre-pandemic state of neatness. Moving is a big stressor, I know, but the fact that I’m feeling excitement instead of anxiety now is a sign that I’m doing the right thing.

Enjoyed the latest @hemisphericviews! Just want to let @martinfeld know that I love pickles and Grace will fight over cucumbers. 🥒

My pal Kelly aka @verso made up the perfect new word for those of us who can’t seem to get a vaccine appointment: Shotenfreude. /@danielpunkass

And if you are so motivated, record your tip as an audio file so I can include it in the episode. Email the file or a link to jean@micro.blog

Here’s a sample. I’d limit yours to 60-90 seconds. If you want to do something lengthier, let’s chat in advance.

The next episode of Micro @monday is 101, and we are going to take the opportunity to create a good audio introduction to Micro.blog. (101 is typically the number assigned to entry-level courses.)

What tips do you have for a new user? Replies are fine, or email jean@micro.blog.

The 100th episode of Micro Monday is out!

💃

My thanks to @patrickrhone and to @manton for joining me for a special episode. (And to the pets who also expressed their views. 😼🐶)

Guinea Pig Easter extravaganza, 2016. Now that Ada is gone, I haven’t had much enthusiasm to do more holiday tableaux. Ada was the sassy actor. With Grace the scaredy-pig, it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between a still and a video. Freeze over fight or flight!

I’ve been listening to the audio version of “A Wrinkle In Time,” read by Hope Davis. 📚

It’s been many decades, and it brings me right back to my childhood. (Inspired by Ted Lasso assigning it to Roy Kent: “Am I supposed to be the little girl?”)

Grace, the guinea tortoise, comes out of her pigloo shell just far enough to capture her favorite prey.

The crowdfunding campaign for the Star Trek: Voyager documentary broke the record with $1.2 million raised, almost double what they raised for the excellent DS9 doc, What We Left Behind.

To The Journey: coming 2022. I’m proud to be a Voyager fan. 🖖

It’s already April 1 for some of us. I remember when it used to be fun to pull a light-hearted April Fool’s joke.. But somehow the pranks got out of hand. And tedious. Anyway, be wary.

And I can promise you that nothing called Macro.blog is being cooked up by me or @manton.

Happy birthday @Gaby and all the other March babies.

I thought you’d appreciate this birthday photo from 1962. Little girls do grow up fast—my dad could tell you. 😇

The drooping flowering tree has flowered. It also grew two shoots straight up like antennae. Usually it only gets one. The landscapers will trim it.

In other news, hairdresser’s shears are on their way to me today. Pandemic coiffure coming soon.

It’s already Monday for this week’s Micro @monday podcast guest @rom. Have a listen! It was a lively chat, and I also learned a lot about ube, also known as the purple yam, a delicacy I spotted in Rom’s photos recently. 💜

Happy birthday, @Portufraise, we’re Le Creuset twins now. 🥘🔵🎉

Asking the Ulysses-using folks out there: can you offer tips to @SolwayGal on posting photos from Ulysses? Thanks!

It was a treat to chat with @jayeless who has so many interesting interests! Have a listen to the latest episode of the Micro @monday podcast, as we cover: Melbourne, indieweb, linguistics and regional English, Harry Potter houses, and of course, Gidget the cat.

Lots of folks checking out Micro.blog, thanks to the new version of Ulysses adding support for posting directly! I look forward to seeing new voices in the community.

(As a reminder, we take our community guidelines seriously. Email community@micro.blog if you have concerns.)

I can’t believe I’m in the middle of #7 in the Joy Ellis series featuring DI Nikki Galena. On audiobook, that’s over 40 hours of listening, but how can it be? I swear I just learned about this series from @Miraz a week ago. They are very good! 📚🔪🕵️‍♀️

Vaccination envy is something I didn’t predict I’d be plagued by.

(If I start getting crabby, I remind myself that each vaccination benefits me too!)

The latest batch of Micro.blog stickers are finally in the mail. Apologies to those who requested them a while ago. I can’t even blame it on procrastination. It’s more like “nocrastination”—a task that appears nowhere on my list completely slips my mind. ⭐️📫

I had such fun getting to know @mandaris a bit better, and now you can too on today’s episode of Micro @monday!

I really enjoyed the latest episode of @HemisphericViews. If I had to be performance reviewed by a manager (something I’ve never experienced before), I’d want it to be @Burk.

I can’t believe it’s been six months so far. Good job, guys!

The sunbeam is more attractive than my lap this morning.

Hopefully I’ll get some cuddle time tonight when I come back to serve dinner to the kitties.

The good news: I appear to have passed neighbor kitty inspection.

The bad news: I can never leave.

The Weekly Review Episode 152

We have fun which sometimes gets silly, but @jamesdempsey and I never let our productivity failings stop us from putting out an episode.

This weekend I get to take care of my new neighbor kitties. I finally get to meet them!

I’m trying to be nice to myself today because I had to go to the dentist. (Second visit for a replacement crown.)

Pain, expense, self-recrimination, plus a dash of childhood trauma. There’s no sensitivity toothpaste for the soul, but bourbon is helping a bit. 🥃

I had great fun chatting with @NellKate this week for the Micro @monday podcast She shares some of her favorite books.📚

I had planned to edit this yesterday, but the weather was too nice to sit in front of the computer for long. 🌤

Thanks again for the prompts we used (cont’d): @stevesmit, @agilelisa, @poetalegre, @OhBananaJoe, @mariovillalobos, @muddylaces, @jayeless, @khurtwilliams , @jthingelstad, @ericmwalk, @rom, @Portufraise

Thanks again for the prompts we used: @crossingthethreshold, @klandwehr, @gannonnordberg, @gregmoore, @dejus, @canion, @odd, @RossA, @Gaby, @ridwan, @gubler, @miraz, @aa, @amit, @munish, @joshua, @maique, @jaitalking, @annahavron (cont’d)

The Feb. Photoblogging Challenge (+ March Bonus Days) is over. So impressed with the creativity and variety of posts. Manton has wired up a special Discover page in grid format which is fun to scroll through. So many thumbnails! (We have ideas on enhancing the display.)

For some folks, there is some time left to post a photo for March 3rd’s prompt defiance, suggested by @Portufraise.

If it’s already March 4th for you and you haven’t posted yet, feel free to defy the calendar.

Day 31 of the Photoblogging Challenge - March Bonus Days: defiance.

Defying gravity.

I took my eldest nephew skydiving as a high school graduation gift. 🪂 Defying my natural inclination not to exit a plane mid-flight. (Defying common sense…)

Bonus Day 30 privacy photos—guinea pig edition. Grace rearranges her hideys for maximum privacy. The cardboard tunnel is like a porte-cochère for the pigloo.

Day 30 of the Photoblogging Challenge - March Bonus Days: privacy.

The Hedge of Solitude.

“More parsley or I will keep this up all-day.” - Grace

I’m partially responsible for spoiling her since Ada’s been gone.

cc: @herself

Living at home alone for nearly one year, nothing springs to mind for the prompt photo today. I have nothing but privacy. I will have to get creative.

For Day 31 of the Photoblogging Challenge (March bonus days), the prompt is defiance, suggested by @Portufraise.

If it’s still Day 30 for you, your prompt is privacy, suggested by @rom.

What an amazing challenge it’s been. Check out all the photos here. 🗓📷

For Day 30 of the Photoblogging Challenge March bonus days, the prompt is privacy, suggested by @rom.

If it’s still Day 29 for you, your prompt is light, suggested by @ericmwalk.

Did you earn the 30 day photoblogging pin? Check your account page.

Challenge photo collection.

Day 29 of the February + March Bonus Photoblogging Challenge.

Spring light.

For Day 29 of the Photoblogging Challenge March bonus days, the prompt is light, suggested by @ericmwalk.

If it’s still Day 28 for you, your prompt is up, suggested by @jthingelstad.

Challenge photo collection.

Day 27: Pompasetting

My dad was a guest on Voyager Revisited. Besides Star Trek, we also talked about our memories of space mission launches in our home state of Florida. He snagged VIP passes for the launch of Apollo 13. He said my mother wore her best dress, and here she is.

For @purisubzi, the interior of the train car room at the Crown Plaza Indianapolis.

Bonus March prompts for the February Photoblogging Challenge:

• Day 29: light (@ericmwalk)
• Day 30: privacy (@rom)
• Day 31: defiance (@Portufraise)

We added extra days in case you want to get a 30-day photoblogging streak (plus an extra day for those who might have missed Day 1).

For Day 28 of the February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is up, suggested by @jthingelstad.

If it’s still Day 27 for you, your prompt is pompasetting, suggested by @khurtwilliams. It’s time to show off. 💃🕺

Challenge photo collection.

Day 26: Favorite

One of my favorite conferences is Release Notes, at this venue particularly. The hotel was built in the Indianapolis train station, the meeting space was the old main hall, and many of the rooms were converted train cars. I love trains! / @DazeEnd @joec

For Day 27 of the February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is pompasetting, suggested by @khurtwilliams. Look it up.

If it’s still Day 26 for you, your prompt is favourite, suggested by @jayeless.

Challenge photo collection.

Day 25: code

There’s a little Morse code baked into the Micro Monday podcast theme.

M M: — — — —

Not that anyone would notice, but it gave me a good starting place for composing.

For Day 25 of the February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is code suggested by @muddylaces.

Day 24 is still in effect for some folks. There are a lot of cute baby photos. Thanks for the prompt, @mariovillalobos!

Challenge photo collection.

Day 24: babies.

Not the best photo, but the best photo I have of my guinea piglets, when they were just 2 months old and could fit into one pigloo with room to spare.

I gathered up lots of little branches in my backyard, and some big ones, the product of our windy ice storm last week. They’ll be fodder for the Solo Stove! 🔥

My Watch credited me with 0 exercise minutes, but my back says I’m done for today.

For Day 24 of Feb. Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is baby suggested by @mariovillalobos.

If your calendar is still on Feb. 23, your prompt is banana suggested by @ohBananaJoe.

Plurals are OK, of course. Your microblog, your rules. 👶🏾👶🏼🍌🍌 Challenge photo collection.

Day 23: Banana

I’m eating a half of a banana every morning, improving my potassium intake in an effort to reduce my blood pressure. 🍌

Day 22 (slightly late)

I just finished a rewatch and podcast recording about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6. Dark but still compelling. The musical number “I’m Under Your Spell” in Episode 7 demonstrates a double meaning.

I’m taking today off. I had a dentist appointment for my broken crown that happened while I was on my little coast trip. The dentist lost power last week during the snowpocalypse.

Day 22 photo prompt is spell (@poetalegre) and 23 is banana (@Ohbananajoe). @manton is curating.

It was a great pleasure to chat with @gregmoore for the new episode of Micro Monday. It runs a little bit longer than usual, because he lives in Florida and I was eager to enjoy the subtropical experience vicariously. /@monday

Day 21: colors

In 2008, I was on the Macworld Geek Cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean, with a stop in Marmaris, Turkey. I bought this magical scarf there, with so many colors that it goes with everything. It’s a staple of my wardrobe. I’m always happy when I’m wearing it.

It’s been very busy Sunday. I was late to curate the photo challenge photos; ironically, the bulk of my time was spent producing and recording the annual Incomparable Spelling Bee. Now it’s dark and I don’t have a new photo for colors.

On the plus side, new Micro Monday edited!

PS. We’ll have a bonus extension of prompts for March 1-3, since it’s a short month, for those who are looking to get a 30-day streak.

Week 4 prompts for the February Photoblogging Challenge:

• Day 22: spell (@poetalegre)
• Day 23: banana (@OhBananaJoe)
• Day 24: baby (@mariovillalobos)
• Day 25: code (@muddylaces)
• Day 26: favourite (@jayeless)
• Day 27: pompasetting (@khurtwilliams)
• Day 28: up (@jthingelstad)

Day 20: Weather

Enjoyment of the Oregon Coast is weather-proof, a revelation to me, who only went to the beach in South Florida on warm sunny days.

Inspired by @arush’s trip through the Sue Grafton alphabet, I started the series again via audiobook. It’s almost 30 years since I read A-J, so I’ve forgotten “whodunit.” I’m reminded why I loved Kinsey Milhone. A calming listen, despite the murders! Next: D is for Deadbeat.

For Day 21 of February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is colors suggested by @agilelisa.

If your calendar is still on Feb. 20, your prompt is weather suggested by @stevsmit.

The next week of prompts will be posted soon. See the collection of challenge photos here..

For Day 20 of February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is weather suggested by @stevsmit.

If your calendar is still on Feb. 19, your prompt is alive suggested by @annahavron.

We are two-thirds of the way to the end! See the collection of challenge photos here..

Day 18 (belated): at home

Guinea pig home décor goals. I like elements spaced apart, maximizing open space. Grace likes her pigloo next to the food bowl, to minimize her time exposed in the open where I might catch and eat her. (Yeah, I t’s been 6+ years, but it could happen?)

Does your calendar say it’s Feb. 19? Your prompt for the February Photoblogging Challenge today is alive, suggested by @annahavron.

If it’s Feb. 18 for you, your prompt is at home, suggested by @jaitalking.

Photos for all the prompts are added to this page..

For some people, it’s Day 18 of the February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is at home, suggested by @jaitalking.

If it’s still Day 17 for you, your prompt is still, suggested by @maique.

See the collection of challenge photos here..

Day 17: Still

My car is still in this spot after 6 days. I have canceled two appointments (dentist and PT) rather than try to get out on the roads and then find another parking space.

Day 16: erudite

My narrow field of erudition: the work of Jean Stafford is something I like to collect. I feel an affinity with other women named Jean.

A few photos of my guinea pig habitat supplies for @ericmwalk. This is just the tip of the iceberg of stuff I have purchased for them. 🤣

Parsley acquired. The human food shelves were still quite bare. Even the wine selections are getting sparse. Luckily I have a stash of pasta and some frozen Instapot stews on hand. And I splurged on a box of Blue Star chocolate donut holes, since real food was unavailable.

In January, I offered to send out a batch of Micro.blog stickers. Well, I still haven’t done it. 😔 Apologies to those who are waiting! If you want a sticker, send your mailing address to jean@micro.blog. Hopefully the snow has melted by Friday, and I’ll walk to the post office.

We are officially out of parsley. I tried to buy a backup bunch at the corner store Saturday but it was sold out due to snowpocalypse. Must go out in the slush today or face the wrath of my rodent overlord.

On some parts of the planet, it’s the 17th day of the February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is still suggested by @maique.

On other parts, it’s still the 16th, and the prompt is erudite suggested by @joshua.

See the collection of challenge photos here..

Day 15: Reflection

Twin Rocks, Oregon

This morning at 5 am, I woke up with a panicked thought. “I totally forgot about the cat during this snowpocalypse. He must have run away! I’ve been too focused on the guinea pig.”

It took me a while to reach the logical conclusion that I must not have a cat, because I never buy cat food. (I haven’t had my own cat since 1994.)

For Day 16 of February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is erudite suggested by @joshua.

If your calendar is still on Feb. 15, your prompt is reflection suggested by @Munish.

See the collection of challenge photos here..

Day 14: Compassion

Dr. Burgess of Southwest Animal Hospital loves guinea pigs…and ferrets, hedgehogs, rabbits, turtles, lizards. A true specialist in small and/or exotic pets. His care and compassion for little creatures always impresses me, even if the patients are skeptical.

In our geographically diverse community, it’s Day 15 of February Photoblogging Challenge for some folks. The prompt is reflection suggested by @Munish.

For those still on Day 14 , the prompt is compassion suggested by @amit.

Challenge photos collection.

We still have spots on the challenge calendar open for new suggestions! Email me at jean@micro.blog with 2-3 ideas.

I really like having a community-generated prompt list. It’s much better than the Random Word generator or me trying to craft a month’s worth of prompts.

Week 3 prompts for the February Photoblogging Challenge:

• Day 15: reflection (@munish)
• Day 16: erudite (@joshua)
• Day 17: still (@maique)
• Day 18: at home (@jaitalking)
• Day 19: alive (@annahavron)
• Day 20: weather (@stevsmit)
• Day 21: colors (@agilelisa)

Day 14 of the February Photoblogging Challenge is underway (prompt: compassion, via @amit), while Day 13 continues for a few more hours for some folks (prompt: make, via @aa).

Week 3’s prompt schedule generated from your suggestions to come!

See the challenge photos here..

Day 13 of the photo challenge: I finally made it outside.

The sporg submissions are delightful. Thanks @Miraz for sparking a fun thread.

Photo from this afternoon. Tonight it’s sleeting. I probably won’t be leaving the house for a while. Please send bourbon. And parsley.

You’d think I’d be used to being stuck at home by now, but I always feel trapped when I’m snowed in.

It’s already Day 13 of February Photoblogging Challenge for some folks already. The prompt: make, suggested by @aa.

For those still on Day 12, add your sporg photo to the collection. Thanks again @Miraz for the creative (and fictional) prompt suggestion.

Reminder for Day 12 of February Photoblogging Challenge: @Miraz said “I wanted to throw a totally made up word into the mix.”

See all the sporg photos..

Day 12: I didn’t spot a sporg at the coast this week but I’m told this is where they hide out.

The snow and/or freezing rain has started. I’m glad I had the sense to put in a grocery order for this morning, or else we’d be out of parsley.

Day 11: This is a serious machine. I think it is the same vintage that we had when I was a kid.

Remember when things were built to last forever?

It’s Day 12 of February Photoblogging Challenge in New Zealand, home of @Miraz, who offers the prompt sporg with a caveat: “I wanted to throw a totally made up word into the mix.”

If it’s still Feb. 11, your prompt is machine suggested by @gubler.

See all the sporg photos..

Day 10: Energy

At the coast, I was really in awe of the effects of the sun and the moon. Such energy affecting everything around me.

Schlaf gut, träum suß. 🌚✨

Day 9: Caution: Muddy boot generator straight ahead.

Day 8: Hope

I hope the next couple days next to the ocean help me reset my circadian clock to Pacific Time! 🥱😴⏰

It’s Day 9 of February Photoblogging Challenge for some of you. The prompt: muddy suggested by @Gaby.

For those on Day 8, the prompt is hope suggested by @RossA.

@manton is managing the challenge for the next two days. I’m off to the coast!

Challenge photos collection.

The new episode of Micro @monday is available. I had such a nice time chatting with @mariovillalobos. I was under-caffeinated when we recorded, but he was very nice to put up with my frequent flubs, edited out of course! Give it a listen!

Day 7: craving

I crave a visit to the Oregon Coast. I crave fun hangout time with my niece and nephews.

At least in the former case, I will be remedying that with a 3-day solo jaunt to the coast starting tomorrow. The latter case will have to wait until we are all vaccinated.

For Day 8 of February Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt is hope suggested by @RossA.

If your calendar is still on Feb. 7, your prompt is craving suggested by @odd.

See the collection of challenge photos here.. (But beware all the things that you too will now crave!)

Oh! I found a photo with me in it, standing next to my target. But no bullseye. 😒

Day 6: Sport

It’s been a while since I “arched.” This is from July 2011. It’s possible that it was @macgreg’s arrow. It could have been mine. I am not terrible at archery.

Week 2 prompts for the February Photoblogging Challenge:

• Day 8: hope (@RossA)
• Day 9: muddy (@Gaby)
• Day 10: energy (@ridwan)
• Day 11: machine (@gubler)
• Day 12: sporg (@miraz)
• Day 13: make (@aa)
• Day 14: compassion (@amit)

It’s still Day 6 (sport) for me, then Day 7 (craving).

It’s Day 7 of the February Photoblogging Challenge somewhere.🌏 The prompt: craving suggested by @odd.

Still Feb. 6 for you? The prompt is sport suggested by @canion.

See the collection of challenge photos here..

The next week of prompts will be posted soon!

I just finished a short series with @jamesdempsey on @theweeklyreview. Instead of next actions and projects, we looked at the higher levels of planning work, ending with The Big Life Questions Episode. Somehow we ended up talking about Las Vegas, metaphor-rich territory. 🎙

Day 5: Pets My dog cousin. We got to meet when I was in Minneapolis. She’s a fetcher!

It’s the morning of Day 6 of the February Photoblogging Challenge where @canion lives. He suggested the day’s prompt: sport.

Still Feb. 5 for you? Your prompt is pets suggested by @dejus. Cats, dogs, cats and dogs together, fish, a gecko, and more! Add yours! See them all.

When I bought this house, the siding was one of the few things I didn’t love. Layers of textured aluminum that needed cleaning and painting, and would still look pretty shabby. Today’s prompt led me to read about siding history. 70 years ago, I bet the owner was happy to get it.

Somewhere on the planet, Day 5 of the February Photoblogging Challenge has already started. The prompt: pets, suggested by @dejus.

If your calendar says Feb. 4, your prompt is layers, suggested by @gregmoore, and it’s shaping up to be a visually striking collection.

I read @mattbirchler’s article in The Sweet Setup, and added Drafts dictation to my watch. I feel just a teensy bit more geeky now.

Capturing Ideas on the Apple Watch with Drafts

You might wonder if the prompt for Day 3 of the February Photoblogging Challenge is “cat.”

I calculate cats are represented 100% more frequently than dogs when it comes to comfort! Then there are feet (slippers!), couches, chairs, fireplaces. See the challenge collection.

On one side of the International Date Line, it’s Day 4 of the February Photoblogging Challenge. The prompt: layers, suggested by @gregmoore.

If it’s still Day 3 for you, the prompt for Feb. 3 is comfort, suggested by @gannonnordberg.

A collection of all the challenge photos.

Day 3: Comfort Pre-pandemic, I had “fix chimney and install a gas fireplace” on my to-do list. Thankful that I got my act together and managed to have the whole thing completed by mid-March, because it made a big difference for stay-at-home comfort.

Took a quick peek at my “on this day” tab and there was last year’s photo challenge entry for “sight.” In this case, the guinea pigs first sight of arugula…and now I’m sad missing my little piggie princess Ada. 😢

How to add On This Day code, h/t @cleverdevil

I am loving all the posts in the February Photoblogging Challenge. 🥰

ICYMI:

• View the photo collection in this special Discover feed.
• Subscribe to a prompt calendar. (Thanks @Burk!)
• We still have open spots on the calendar for prompts. Email 1-3 suggestions to me.

Day 2 of the February Photoblogging Challenge: morning beverage, suggested by @klandwehr.

This is my favorite mug. Sadly, the Jimtown Store in Healdsburg CA closed for good in December. They survived massive wildfires over the years, but the pandemic did them in.

Thanks to @Burk for creating a calendar with the February Photoblogging Challenge prompts. Here is the link if you want to subscribe: user.fm/calendar/…

Somewhere on the planet, Day 3 of February Photoblogging Challenge has already started. The prompt: comfort suggested by @gannonnordberg.

Most of the world is still on Day 2. The prompt for February 2: morning beverage

A collection of all the challenge photos.

So this is what you get when you share from Flickr to Micro.blog on iOS. In an ideal world, it would be nice to display the photo with a link. cc: @canion

flic.kr

So cute

Ram Dass:

If you think you’re enlightened, spend a week with your family.

Me:

Or just record a Star Trek podcast with your dad.

I thought it would be a bonding experience to watch Coda together, the one where Janeway’s dad shows up. 🤷‍♀️

New: Voyager Revisited 22

Day 1 of the February Photoblogging Challenge: close up, suggested by @crossingthethreshold.

Sometimes a closer look can result in a revised opinion. I’ve been calling this plant “forsythia,” but now I question this. The flowers clearly have more than four petals.

Day 2 of the February Photoblogging Challenge has already started 🌏, and the prompt is morning beverage, suggested by @klandwehr.

If it’s still Feb. 1 where you are 🌎 🌍, you have time to post a photo for the Day 1 prompt: close up

Visit the February Challenge photo collection.

We’ve started a special Discover section for the February Challenge submissions. It’s curated manually, so you don’t need to do anything special to mark your posts. If you feel the need for a hashtag, use #mbfeb, but remember that hashtags aren’t supported on the platform.

It’s the morning of Feb. 1 in Aotearoa New Zealand and other locations on that side of the world, which means Day 1 of our February Photoblogging Challenge has already started. 🌏🌍🌎

Today’s prompt, close up, was suggested by @crossingthethreshold.

It’s been six months since our last photoblogging challenge in August. Time has flown by…or has it? 🤔

We’ll begin the challenge on Monday, February 1, with a prompt for each day. Again, the list of prompts are compiled from community suggestions.

New prompts posted below

If you want to earn the 30-day Photo Challenge pin, posting a photo every day in February is a good start. But February is a short month, so we are going to add 3 bonus days of prompts March 1-3 in order to help you reach this milestone. (And 31 days of prompts gives a little leeway for people who might miss the first day. This happens every challenge. ☺️)

Here are the first week’s prompts, as suggested by members of the Micro.blog community. The order was chosen at random. Thank you to everyone who has made a suggestion so far! There is still room on the calendar for prompts–let us hear your ideas. Email your top 3 suggestions to jean@micro.blog.

Bonus prompts

• Day 29: light (@ericmwalk)
• Day 30: privacy (@rom)
• Day 31: defiance (@Portufraise)

Week 4

• Day 22: spell (@poetalegre)
• Day 23: banana (@OhBananaJoe)
• Day 24: baby (@mariovillalobos)
• Day 25: code (@muddylaces)
• Day 26: favourite (@jayeless)
• Day 27: pompasetting (@khurtwilliams)
• Day 28: up (@jthingelstad)

Week 3

• Day 15: reflection (@munish)
• Day 16: erudite (@joshua)
• Day 17: still (@maique)
• Day 18: at home (@jaitalking)
• Day 19: alive (@annahavron)
• Day 20: weather (@stevsmit)
• Day 21: colors (@agilelisa)

Week 2

• Day 8: hope (@RossA)
• Day 9: muddy (@Gaby)
• Day 10: energy (@ridwan)
• Day 11: machine (@gubler)
• Day 12: sporg (@miraz)
• Day 13: make (@aa)
• Day 14: compassion (@amit)

Week 1

• Day 1: close up (@crossingthethreshold)
• Day 2: morning beverage (@klandwehr)
• Day 3: comfort (@@gannonnordberg)
• Day 4: layers (@gregmoore)
• Day 5: pets (@dejus)
• Day 6: sport (@canion)
• Day 7: craving (@odd)

It’s been a challenging week, due to (or evidenced by) serious insomnia.

I landed on a little mantra for myself: pick up where you left off. It’s helped me not to add overwhelm to the other issues. Much better than trying to double my efforts and “catch up.”

Our 2nd Annual February Photoblogging Challenge starts Monday. 📷😮

As we did in the August 2020 challenge, the daily prompts will come from community suggestions. Email 1-3 prompts to jean@micro.blog.

And thanks for all the great suggestions so far!

New Micro Monday episode!

@ohBananaJoe has a lot going on. And we don’t even talk about the house he is building or where he got his internet handle. (But you can check out the song on YouTube.)

It’s almost time for our 2nd Annual February Photoblogging Challenge. 📷🥳

Like our August 2020 challenge, the daily prompts will come from the Micro.blog community. Email 1-3 prompts to jean@micro.blog.

First burn in the firepit! 🔥

Larry King’s passing reminds me how my grandmother always listened to his late night radio show on Miami’s WIOD 610 AM. My sisters and I had many overnights at her house in the 1960s and we all fell asleep to loud Brooklyn-accented chatter.

I think I finally figured out the math: for each shot of espresso I have in the morning, I stay up one more hour past midnight.

Someday I’ll get back to a more conventional circadian schedule. Today is not that day.

I’m feeling a lot more creative about plans and projects today. It’s as if a significant part of my brain was in silent anxiety mode, using up most of the energy the last several months.

It’s a done deal now. :: exhales ::

The singers all moved me. I wasn’t expecting that. 😭

Amy Klobuchar was really good.

Biden hit the right themes. I wish we could have a VP address in the same program.

I had a lot of fun chatting with Tyler (@twweaver) for the latest episode of the Micro @monday microcast.

🎙😊🐕🐕🐕

(What the heck is Micro Monday?)

The new firepit has arrived, and both my brother and brother-in-law want to come over for a fire warming. One is a bit of a pyromaniac, and the other got a new axe for Christmas and wants a reason to chop stuff.

Today is the 4th anniversary of Manton’s announcement that the Kickstarter stretch goal would be to hire a community manager for Micro.blog…and also the 4th anniversary of proposing myself for the job. 😇

My plan was to celebrate today with a “state of the community” post, including updates on discoverability and engagement, and on diversity.

But I’ve had a busy and tiring few days, and I’d rather postpone writing about these important topics when I’m feeling sharper next week.

PS. wow, four years goes by fast! 😳

Almost time to walk down to my local post office. If you’d like a Micro.blog sticker, email me your postal address: jean@micro.blog

(I have international stamps, so no worries if you are outside the U.S.)

Ok, it seems to be working again. Whew! I had that terrible feeling one gets when one’s primary social media outlet is no longer available. 😅

Something is definitely not working for me on Micro.blog. I will need to sort this! I need to use this platform for my job. 😉

My account was having an identity crisis last night and posted personal posts to the Micro Monday account. It looks like signing out and signing back in on the app solved it. Admittedly I’m an edge case: multiple micro blogs, two teams, and a renamed user.

Also it was 2 a.m.

Thanks to @vishae’s clever idea, I’ve created a group on my Signal account that has a shareable link if someone wants to communicate privately with me. Thanks to everyone who has been trying out this experiment, and to @patrickrhone and @maique for getting the ball rolling.

New episode of Voyager Revisited has been posted! A great chat with Shelly Brisbin, whom I would love to lure to Micro.blog, about the episode Revulsion (S4E5), one of my faves.

Organics Are So Revolting

After @cheesemaker’s enthusiastic recommendation, I put the Solo Stove fire pit on my Christmas list. It was backordered to mid-February, but it coming January 12. 😀

I think Pandemic Backyard Micro Cinema will still be a thing in 2021, so this will warm up me and my guests.

And the vote is certified. Time to go to bed. I wish I had a time machine to go to January 21, i.e. the day after the inauguration, which I was already nervous about.

I feel like I need to watch this through to the end. Someone needs to keep an eye on these people, and to sigh with relief when the vote is certified.

I did not have “glued to the television all day and evening” on my to-do list today. 😳

I’m grateful they were able to get the Senate proceedings moving so quickly. I thought I’d be up all night seeing this procedure to the end.

If your resolution for 2021 is to have a Micro.blog sticker, I can help. Email your postal address to jean@micro.blog. I will probably send out a batch next week.

(If you listen to @theweeklyreview or @voyager_cast, let me know for a bonus sticker or two. 🗓🖖)

The Fave Eight is a corrective to what 2020 felt like overall to me, which was this:

I don’t remember who suggested this last year, as an alternative to Instagram’s top liked photos.

Here’s my 2020 Fave Eight.

Happy First Monday of 2021!

I don’t have a fresh episode of Micro Monday to offer, but the latest episode of the @relayfm Parallel podcast features @stevesawczyn and me as guests of host Shelley Brisbin. I was glad for the chance to get to know Steve a little better.

I’ve been using “macgenie” as my internet name since I first signed up for Digg (Wikipedia article) in March 2007. A friend asked me to “digg” his news story, and I said I would try to do it quickly, but that I often suffered from decision paralysis when it came to choosing a user name. He suggested the name macgenie, a play on my first and last name, with the added hint that I am a Mac-using person and (laughably) have some magical touch with my computer.

It was before Twitter, before the iPhone. I felt a vague unease about using my real name, so I just stuck with @macgenie for all the signups that followed. But I never truly felt connected to the name. Years later, when I tried to switch to my own name, it was too late. (There are tons of Jean MacDonalds out there.) I resigned myself to this online identifier, which had the advantage of being relatively unique.

When we first launched Micro.blog, I debated whether it was time for a new user name. I decided to use @macgenie, because it would be helpful to others if they were cross-posting to Twitter. After nearly four years of microblogging, managing the community, and being part of something that is unique and wonderful, I care a lot less about Twitter. A LOT less. I’m not closing my account there, and may occasionally post and interact with my friends over there, but it’s time to make the switch to @jean. The fact that I asked Manton to reserve the name when we launched was an indicator that I wish I could just be myself.

I’ve noticed a number of people on Micro.blog changing their user names lately. I think this is a natural evolution once you get comfortable with a community and figure out how you want to use your Micro.blog account. It’s not hard to change your user name. But there are some consequences, which I will now be experiencing. The good news is that I’ll be reporting issues to Manton and requesting features, and will soon document the process in a new Help article.

Unexpectedly I have my dog niece for New Year’s Eve company.

Related: I do not like people who shoot off firecrackers on New Year’s Eve and 4th of July, especially 2 hours after midnight.

I’m also going to be watching Trading Places this afternoon, which is a good New Year’s Eve movie. I wonder if @bitdepth has any other recommendations. cc: @Alligator

Apparently, if you start watching The Poseidon Adventure (1972) at precisely 11:35:28 on New Year’s Eve, you’ll be right on time for the movie’s 10-seconds-to-midnight countdown.

I’d tell you what happens at midnight, but spoilers!

All my best wishes for 2021, microbloggers and families! I learned to appreciate staying close to home this year. 🏡🥂

Planning a New Year’s Eve movie watching party with my siblings. Until The End Of The World is appropriate, but too long and complicated for the purpose. 🌏 🔚 🎥 🇮🇹🚗🇫🇷🚊🛫🛬🇩🇪🛫🛬🇵🇹🛫🛬🇷🇺🚊🇨🇳🛫🛬🇯🇵🛫🛬🇺🇸🚢🇦🇺🛻🚀

So maybe The Poseidon Adventure? 🇬🇷 🌊🛳

Last Christmas treats and cuddles with Grace. We hope everyone had a nice holiday. 🥬🥂🍰

God Rest Ye, Merry Guinea Pigs (2015) #tbt

Merry Christmas/Eve, Micro.blog. 🎄🥂 🌟

wheek wheek wheek (insert guinea pig here 😏)

Tonight’s coquito making was a success. I even put together a dairy-free batch for my brother-in-law using coconut milk instead of the evaporated/condensed milk.

Coco Lopez brings back memories of college. 😇🍹

I’m feeling a lot better today. I managed to get to the store for the coquito ingredients (h/t @Gaby) and will make a batch to share with my family as part of tomorrow’s socially-distanced gift-and-treats swap.

I made the mistake yesterday of doing one more chore (guinea pig cage refresh, disproportionately strenuous to pet size) and tweaked my back. I’ve been laid up with my heating pad and that’s just depressing.

Then I open Micro.blog, and it made me happy. I’m grateful for this.

Rereading 12 days of microblogging, Day 2: photos

On this week’s episode of Micro Monday with @helgeg, I commented that I have noticed a “blossoming” of photoblogging on M.b, and I think it has really enriched the community. I love that it brings the world closer to me.

In 2018, we did a series called the 12 Days of Microblogging, a way to showcase all the things you can do with your Micro.blog. I’m going to be highlighting these every day, starting with Day 1: Microcasting.

Have you thought about doing a podcast? It’s easier than you think.

Here’s a quick way to close all browser tabs on my iPad Pro: knock it off the chair so it lands on the lamp’s granite base. Weird. And painful for both me and the iPad, which got a little chip on the corner.

I also dropped my iPad mini this morning. Can I go back to bed now?

All afternoon, I’ve been thinking it’s Monday. I realize it’s because I had a great chat with @helgeg for the Micro Monday podcast earlier.

Now, shortly after midnight, it is Monday, so here’s a new episode. Helge has quite a variety of interests!

(Are you following @monday?)

I let a predictable frustration knock me off my stride this week. I had to fill out my application for health insurance and reevaluate the plans. After hours of research and phone calls, I determined there is no way I’ll be able to continue with the three doctors I see most. In the end, I decided to prioritize one and save $1200 in premiums.

After each session of trying to sort this, I’d be spent. I find that I take it personally, as if corporations are specifically uncaring about me. Then I’d retreat into doing nothing productive for the rest of the day to calm down.

Anyway, it’s done now. No wonder I procrastinate doing this every year. Next year, I’m going to just put a couple days off on the calendar with no expectation of getting anything else done and (hopefully) schedule something nice like a massage or pedicure as a reward to offset the crankiness.

Docsember Day 9: I edited Third-party apps.

I updated links and added Mimi Uploader, the iOS app for quick uploading of multiple photos by @samgrover. I moved the iOS and Android apps to the top of the page to make them easier to find.

Docsember Day 8: I edited Finding people to follow.

I added a recommendation that people fill out the “About me” profile to help others learn about their interests and decide to follow them. I also added a bit more detail about Discover subcategories and emojitags.

Docsember Day 7: I spent some time drafting a new document but it needs some tweaking. Hopefully I can post the finished version tomorrow.

I haven’t been actively promoting Micro Monday lately AND I am behind on posting new interviews on the @monday podcast. 😬

But there are so many new interesting people who have joined M.b lately, I bet they would love your follow recs—and they probably have some of their own.

Docsember Day 6: I edited Profile photos

I added the specs required for podcast profile photos. I also de-emphasized the use of Gravatar. For a short while in the early days, you had to use Gravatar to have a profile photo. It still works, but most people upload a photo to M.b.

Docsember Day 5: I edited Frequently asked questions.

I had a rough night of sleep, so I was looking for a quick victory. A few questions could be deleted—the issues had been fixed! I plan to do a more extensive edit on this page and research new FAQs. Suggestions welcome!

Olive and Mabel, YouTube’s star Labrador Retriever pair, never fail to amuse. Scent of a Dog.

Bonus: the clips are always short. this one is 58 secs.

Docsember Day 4: I edited Writing longer posts

I wanted to clarify what happens on the Micro.blog timeline when you write a long post without a title.

Part of the challenge of this challenge (😅) is resisting the urge to work on more than one article a day. I naturally see things that need fixing elsewhere as I work on one task, but if I’m going to do this consistently for the month of December, I need to stick with one defined doable project per day and consider it a victory.

You don’t have to use titles for longer posts if you don’t want to. If you write a post that is longer than 280 characters, the title field will appear, but you don’t have to fill it in. When you publish the post, the first 280 characters will appear (approximately), and then the post will be truncated with an ellipsis (…) and the URL of your blog, linked to the complete post.

(Yes, I’m creating a screenshot for Docsember!)

The elusive guinea turtle pokes it head out of its shell, hoping for a treat.

Docsember Day 3: I edited What’s the difference between Micro.blog and Twitter?.

The article needed cross-linking to pages that didn’t exist when I first wrote it. I’m also emphasizing that Micro.blog can also be used for longer posts, which we weren’t focused on at the start.

I was just reminded by @miraz that I forgot to post this time lapse video of Grace’s thanksgiving feast here. Grace is very skittish (after 6 years!) and doesn’t like being exposed. But a festively large pile of lettuces is hard to resist. 🥬

Docsember Day 2: Added links and updated the pricing information on the Welcome to Micro.blog page. Also, from Day 1, the additions to the video intro page are visible. I wanted to start with these to help orient newcomers.

Added to my 2021 list: update the video itself. 😅

ICYMI Next week is this week now…

===

It’s time to send out Micro.blog stickers! Send me an email (jean@micro.blog) with your name and mailing address. I’m going to send out a batch next week.

We got a new book! Well, it’s mostly for me. Grace is a big Tribble fan, and sadly, there are no Tribbles in Star Trek: Voyager. I had to bribe her with parsley to do this photo.

Docsember Day 1: I did an little update of our video introduction page. It’s not posted yet, because I need to sort a technical issue. But I did it. Link to come!

I published the latest episode of Voyager Revisited, with special guest @Miraz! We look at Voyager’s own lower decks, as we discuss the episode “Good Shepherd” (S6E20). There is a lot of good humor, good lessons, and another that answers the question: What Would Janeway Do?

Organizing this year’s Microblogvember, I wanted to give our community an outlet for daily writing that was doable, even if you couldn’t commit to writing 1666 words a day for NaNoWriMo. (And serious kudos to those folks who did NaNoWriMo!)

Lots of microbloggers participated, myself included. Even though I was posting the daily prompt, I did not slack off and count that as a Microblogvember post for the day. 😇 But the prep of each day’s random prompt, plus the curating of the posts for the Discover feed, was a good way for me to start off each day and I appreciated having something regular to concentrate on during a challenging month.

Focusing on one discrete micro task first thing in the morning became something I look forward to. I need another structured challenge, something doable but valuable to me, and hopefully to you.

Today I’m starting on a project I’m calling “Docsember.” (It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like Microblogvember. 😉) Each day I will review one of the Micro.blog Help docs and publish the update. Some days the changes might be minor. Other days, I might write a new document to add to the Help when I find that’s necessary.

Suggestions for edits or new Help docs are welcome! If you have a bunch of web pages of your own to update, feel free to join me in Docsember for mutual encouragement purposes.

Progress:

• Day 1: Video introduction page
• Day 2: Welcome to Micro.blog tips page
• Day 3: What’s the difference between Micro.blog and Twitter?
• Day 4: Writing longer posts
• Day 5: Frequently asked questions
• Day 6: Profile photos
• Day 7: Drafted a new article; not yet finished
• Day 8: Finding people to follow
• Day 9: Third-party apps

For completionist sake, I’m circling back to Day 4 of Microblogvember, near. It was the day I lost my little guinea pig, Ada, so near and dear to my heart, and I couldn’t bring myself to post about anything. 😢

I think it worked. From my original Microblogvember 2020 post:

We know that a lot is going on in November 2020. A commitment to writing something small every day might help you deal with everything else competing for your attention. And, as a community, we can support, encourage, amuse, and inspire each other during these challenging times.

I’ve enjoyed this year’s Microblogvember. To reinforce the habit of a small daily challenge, I’ve come up with a personal December project. Each day I’ll focus on a Micro.blog Help document that could benefit from updating/enhancing.

Can I call it Docember? Docsember? 🤔

I complained about a website’s unreadable color scheme in a discussion today about OmniFocus, and @mdhughes came to the rescue with his bookmarklet that converts colors to mono. Exactly what was needed! Thanks.

Now, I should read that article…

Microblogvember has several more hours to go on the planet, but it’s already over in some places 🌏, and close to being over in others🌍.

The prompt for the final day is reinforce. Lots of great contributions so far, and you can see them here.

I had a lovely day meandering around Trieste last year on a day trip from Ljubljana. After I took this photo, I trippped, injured my knee badly, and my pedestrian pursuits were over for the next four months.

Now I am really grateful for the ability to walk on my own two feet.

The final prompt word for Microblogvember is reinforce. (If it’s still Sunday for you, you can get in your November 29 post with pedestrian.)

Whether you managed a post every day or missed a few, thanks for participating! I hope you found it a helpful exercise in microblogging.

The Day 29 Microblogvember prompt is pedestrian.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Monday, the final day of Microblogvember 😯, here’s the Day 30 prompt: reinforce.)

Microblogvember Discover feed.

Random unordered items arrive in my Instacart order. This combination of ingredients is so strange, I worry if it’s a secret message, perhaps a call for help?

Meanwhile they forgot the parsley, which I order every time. The essential guinea pig treat.😫

Walked all the way to the store but I forgot my mask. 🤦‍♀️

The upside: more steps!

We’re in the homestretch of Microblogvember! 🏁

Reminder: if today is Saturday, the prompt is mask; if it’s Sunday, the prompt is pedestrian.

Tune in tomorrow, when we’ll check in with the Random Word Generator one last time.

(Microblogvember Discover feed.)

The Day 28 Microblogvember prompt is mask. *

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Sunday, here’s the Day 29 prompt: pedestrian.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

*I swear it was random. ✋

My dilemma is that guinea pigs are social animals who should have a friend or at least a frenemy, but I’m not sure I want to get another after having lost my pretty princess Ada. Grace and I are getting to know one another better, now that our sassy extroverted one is gone.

The Day 27 Microblogvember prompt is dilemma.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Saturday, here’s the Day 28 prompt: mask.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

4 (or 3) days to go! 🌏🌍🌎

I could adjust this post’s time stamp to make it appear to come out before midnight.

We did a swap of Thanksgiving dishes, and it felt like trick-or-treat on Halloween.

One of my nicknames for Grace is “sweet pea” which is short for “sweet potato.”

Happy thanksgiving! Enjoy your sweet things. 🧡

The Day 26 Microblogvember prompt is adjust.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Friday, here’s the Day 27 prompt: dilemma.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

(Almost there!)

It’s time to send out Micro.blog stickers! Send me an email (jean@micro.blog) with your name and mailing address. I’m going to send out a batch next week.

I used to be so good at phone calls. In the 90s, I worked as a foreign rights manager in book publishing, and most of my job was “wheeling and dealing” with people on the phone.

Now, I’ve been known to call it the “Red Hot Poker” context in my task manager.

You know how Snoopy makes toast and popcorn for Thanksgiving dinner? At my house, it’s pie and lettuce. The lettuce is a feast for Grace the guinea pig. The mini pie is all for me. The big pie will be shared, though not with Grace (who would choose lettuce over pie any day).

Accidental Micro Meetup: @samgrover was behind me in the pie pickup line!

And now pie (and gluten-free bread cubes) have been acquired. Let the Thanksgiving cooking begin!

Time to go pick up the pie! Say, @Burk, do you need me to pick up yours? I am very trustworthy with pie…😇😂

The Day 25 Microblogvember prompt is call.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Thursday, here’s the Day 26 prompt: adjust.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

One of the most intimidating steps before the first session of App Camp For Girls in June 2013: provisioning all the iPod touch devices so they could run apps from Xcode. I had nightmares about it before, having only provisioned one iPhone in my life, but I was successful.

The Day 24 Microblogvember prompt is provision.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Wednesday, here’s the Day 25 prompt: call.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

RIP Mayor David N. Dinkins. 1989 was my first year living in NYC, and I can still remember how excited we were when he defeated Koch in the Democratic mayoral primary, and then Giuliani in the general.

The intrepid guinea pig captures its parsley prey.

Guinea pig humor.

The Day 23 Microblogvember prompt is capture.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s Tuesday, here’s the Day 24 prompt: provision.)

Microblogvember Discover feed.

(I forgot to post mine yesterday. Too many border stories, I couldn’t decide. 😭)

The Day 22 Microblogvember prompt is border.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Monday, here’s the Day 23 prompt: capture.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

The spatial audio feature with the AirPod Pros and iOS 14 is spooky good. I’m watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix in the backyard and at one point I had to pause just to be sure the audio wasn’t coming from the iPad, worried the neighbors would hear it. 🪄

The first time I saw snow was the winter of 1975. I was 15. Our family was driving to Boone, NC to ski. As we traveled north, I could see white patches along the side of the road. I thought they were sand. In Florida, people used white sand on their lawns to fill in patches.

The Day 21 Microblogvember prompt is winter.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Sunday, here’s the Day 22 prompt: border.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

Fading. How did it get to be 11:30 pm already? 🥱

The Day 20 Microblogvember prompt is fade.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Saturday, here’s the Day 21 prompt: winter.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

⅔ of the way there!” 🗓✒️📝🖍

It’s possible that my only pandemic Thanksgiving requirement is one gluten-free bourbon pecan pie from New Cascadia bakery. Anything else will be a bonus. (I’ve ordered mine. Deadline is Sunday.)

The Day 19 Microblogvember prompt is possible.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Friday, here’s the Day 20 prompt: fade.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I made a stew in the Instant Pot tonight that is so good, I’m in danger of eating it all tonight.

Most people would rather give help than ask for it. But if we never ask for help, when will the helpers have the opportunity? Once this inter-dependence was pointed out, it made it easier to ask for help when I need it. Don’t wait for a dire need: do your fellow helpers a favor!

The Day 18 Microblogvember prompt is dependence.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Thursday, here’s the Day 19 prompt: possible.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I like to make these little train ride movies, despite the unfavorable conditions and technique (holding the iPhone flat against the window that hasn’t been washed recently). They remind me what it’s like to be en route. (Puget Sound, Dec. 25, 2018)

The Day 17 Microblogvember prompt is train.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Wednesday, here’s the Day 18 prompt: dependence.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

My earliest clear memory of being self-aware was when I was five. I was sitting in the bathtub, thinking that five years old was the perfect age and wishing I didn’t have to get any older.

The Day 16 Microblogvember prompt is memory.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Tuesday, here’s the Day 17 prompt: train.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far through Microblogvember. We’re half way there. I’m saying a little prayer to the random word generator gods in hopes of good prompts for the next half.

The Day 15 Microblogvember prompt is far.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s Monday, the Day 16 prompt: memory.)

I add the posts manually to the Microblogvember Discover feed.. “Far” is an easy word to miss—let me know if I miss your post!

I am always nervous about watching spooky shows. I loved The X-Files, but it was a challenge. I remember exactly where I was Nov. 23, 1997, dog sitting at my sister’s, watching the episode Detour, and spending every commercial break on the phone with a friend who was also 😬😱.

The Day 14 Microblogvember prompt is spooky.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Sunday, here’s the Day 15 prompt: far.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

👻

Today’s Microblogvember prompt has sent me down a rabbit hole, listening to (and reading about) that kickass Canadian band The Guess Who.

“On July 17, 1970, the band was invited to perform at the White House for the Nixon family and its guests, but they were asked to eliminate ‘American Woman’ from their setlist.”

The Day 13 Microblogvember prompt is guess.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Saturday, here’s the Day 14 prompt: spooky.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

Wearing my Kelly Joe Phelps t-shirt at my rock-n-roll stage debut, Satyircon, Portland, Oregon, Ladies Rock Camp showcase, 2008. cc: @pgor

The Day 12 Microblogvember prompt is wear.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Friday, here’s the Day 13 prompt: guess.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

As I like to say, “There’s always tomorrow.”

(Which is not true, I know, but it lets me off the hook today.)

The Day 11 Microblogvember prompt is say.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Thursday, here’s the Day 12 prompt: wear.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

My house is almost 95, which is a bit elderly by local standards. I do like that it has character, even if it needs some major work occasionally, and I hope that’s how my loved ones will regard me if I get to be that age.

The Day 10 Microblogvember prompt is elderly. That’s ⅓ of the way! 🎉

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Wednesday, here’s the Day 11 prompt: say.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I forced Grace on the scale today. I want to keep track so I avoid unintentionally overfeeding her or spoiling her with too many treats.

The Day 9 Microblogvember prompt is force.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Tuesday, here’s the Day 10 prompt: elderly.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I’m disappointed in myself that I forgot about “binders full of women” when I was casting about for an idea in response to yesterday’s Microblogvember prompt. Today’s word is force. Time to generate tomorrow’s random word… stay tuned.

I did not expect the Day 8 Microblogvember prompt, bind, to lead to songs getting stuck in my head. First Bruce Springsteen, thanks to @helgeg, and now Charlie Daniels, thanks to @jamesdempsey.

Here’s my contribution, Johnny Cash, “I Walk The Line.”

The Day 8 Microblogvember prompt is bind.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Monday, here’s the Day 9 prompt: force.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I’ve done a lot of odd jobs over the years in between “real” jobs. One was demo’ing software in the big box stores. Once at Costco, I had to inflate Quicken balloons for my display. I should put it on my résumé.

(It didn’t end well. A little boy kept sneaking behind the booth to try to play with the helium. I sternly banished him. Later, his dad came to the display to yell at me. I actually thought he had come to apologize for his son’s behavior. My blood still boils a bit remembering that jerk!)

I slept late this morning. Reviewing all the posts to Micro.blog, I can pinpoint that I was asleep for about an hour after the presidential race was called. It looks like @hawaiiboy was up early* and his was the first post, at 8:27 Pacific.

(*Or maybe up very late!)

I love seeing @johnjohnston’s Scottish landscape photos from his walks. I know he is a 21st-century schoolteacher, but in my mind’s eye, this is how I picture him.

The Day 7 Microblogvember prompt is inflate.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Sunday, here’s the Day 8 prompt: bind.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

(Prompts are definitely random, I swear.)

Most days, you’ll find me puzzling over Good Sudoku, as a distraction. I think it’s good mental exercise, and preferable to following the news to closely.

The Day 6 Microblogvember prompt is puzzling.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Saturday, here’s the Day 7 prompt: inflate.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

New emojis on iOS. 😑 One of my big disappointments this year is the rejection of my proposal for a guinea pig emoji.

I lived in Brooklyn Heights for three years during my NYC days. We lived atop a brownstone on State St. at the corner of Sidney Pl., which featured the classic front stoop. St. Charles Borromeo was down the block. Cammereri Brothers was a short walk down Henry. Very Brooklyn.

The Day 5 Microblogvember prompt is stoop.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Friday, here’s the Day 6 prompt: puzzling.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

The Day 4 Microblogvember prompt is near.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Thursday, here’s the Day 5 prompt: stoop.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

When I got up this morning, I discovered that my little guinea pig Ada had passed away overnight. Respiratory infections are very hard on these little creatures. She was 6 years old, pretty good for a gp.

So I’m not up to being on online today, which is a blessing I think.

I am having a hard time feeling “astonish” today. But I’m glad to see that most of you are more creative than me.

Day 4 of Microblogvember should be better for me. The prompt is “near.”

The first election I voted in at age 18, I cast my ballot for “liquor by the drink” (in Chapel Hill, you had to bring your own liquor to a restaurant in a brown bag) and against Jesse Helms for a second term in the Senate.

1 out of 2 is about my average ever since.

The Day 3 Microblogvember prompt is astonish.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Wednesday, here’s the Day 4 prompt: near.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

I’m grateful to have Micro.blog and the Microblogvember challenge. It gives me something positive on which to concentrate my energies this month.

For @martinfeld: respect the hedge! Mine really needs a big trim, but I love the feeling that I’m inside some massive green castle walls in the backyard. Also, I leave the trimming to the professionals.

The Day 2 Microblogvember prompt is concentrate.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Tuesday, here’s the Day 3 prompt: astonish.)

Check out the collection of contributions: Microblogvember Discover feed.

After reading this article about how Scandinavians embrace cold, dark days, I have set my brain’s autocorrect to substitute “cozy” for “dreary”. 🔥🕯🍵

@jamesdempsey and I talked about this on the latest episode of @theweeklyreview, “Don’t Let The Season Get You Down.”

For his Halloween birthday, I gave my brother The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack aka @AstroKatie. Coincidentally my 7 y.o. nephew wore a NASA costume this year. I give you future well-read pilot and explorer Jonathan MacDonald!

Day 1 of Microblogvember is off to a busy start. I’m collecting the posts in a special Discover feed. You can bookmark that page or add it to your RSS reader, to admire the work of your microblogging comrades and to remind you not to break your streak!

The Day 1 Microblogvember prompt is dreary.

(For our friends on the other side of the Int’l Date Line where it’s already Monday, here’s the Day 2 prompt: concentrate)

We set our clocks back in the US. As the great band Chicago once said, “Does anyone really know what time it is?”

My most memorable Halloween was 1967. My little brother was born that night, and he’ll always be my little brother, even if we are definitely not little kids anymore.

Best treat ever. 🎉🎃

The challenge is to write a post with the prompt for 30 days in a row. If you want to pretend you’re in New Zealand and start today, that’s up to you. 30 days, 30 prompts = challenge completion. 🇳🇿 🌏🌍🌎

I wish I could be in New Zealand right now…

It’s Sunday morning, November 1st, in New Zealand. Microblogvember 2020 begins!

Day 1 prompt: dreary

(I swear the Random Word Generator is random and this is the first word it spit out.)

Are you ready for Microblogvember to start? Random word prompts every day for 30 days. It will be fun, I promise.

You don’t have to overthink it. Unless you like overthinking. It’s totally up to you.

No surgery for Ada today. After they put her under, they couldn’t intubate her because she’s got a respiratory infection. So she needs a course of antibiotics first.

They sent her home, packed in hay for warmth. Dispensing oral meds and eye drops, I’m going to be unpopular.

In case you missed it, the second annual Microblogvember starts Sunday! A fun challenge to get you into a daily microblogging habit.

I’ll post new prompts will at 7 am New Zealand time, starting on Sunday, November 1 (which will be 11 am Saturday here in Portland.)

I need to get to bed! There are only two hours until my obligatory middle-of-the-night wake-up at 4 am. 😐

It’s time for the Second Annual Microblogvember challenge. I can’t believe a year has gone by since the first one.

---

The prompts (updated daily; see all the contributions on the Microblogvember Discover feed)

• Day 1: dreary
• Day 2: concentrate
• Day 3: astonish
• Day 4: near
• Day 5: stoop
• Day 6: puzzling
• Day 7: inflate
• Day 8: bind
• Day 9: force
• Day 10: elderly
• Day 11: say
• Day 12: wear
• Day 13: guess
• Day 14: spooky
• Day 15: far
• Day 16: memory
• Day 17: train
• Day 18: dependence
• Day 19: possible
• Day 20: fade
• Day 21: winter
• Day 22: border
• Day 23: capture
• Day 24: provision
• Day 25: call
• Day 26: adjust
• Day 27: dilemma
• Day 28: mask
• Day 29: pedestrian
• Day 30: reinforce

---

Microblogvember was inspired by the Blogvember challenge, which uses prompts to encourage folks to post every day in the month of November. Because this is Micro.blog, we micro’d it: instead of a long blog post, you write something short that uses a daily prompt.

The plan is the same as Microblogvember 2019:

1) Every day I will go to a random word generator to get the latest prompt and post it.

2) Participants write a micropost, 280 characters or fewer, that includes the prompt word.

We want this to be as simple as possible, so you have fun while flexing your writing muscles and establishing a daily writing habit. We know that a lot is going on in November 2020. A commitment to writing something small every day might help you deal with everything else competing for your attention. And, as a community, we can support, encourage, amuse, and inspire each other during these challenging times.

There’s a Microblogvember pin that you will earn if you complete the challenge. To allow for time zone differences, we’ll count posts made between October 31 and November 2, U.S Central time.

There’s also a Daily Blogger pin, for posting 30 days in a row. If you’ve had your eye on earning that one, here’s a good way to do it.

If you want to use a hashtag, it’s #mbnov. Email me if you have questions at jean@micro.blog. Or just reply. 🙂🖊🗓

Ada has surgery on Friday morning for the lump on her shoulder. The vet’s office just called to remind me no veggie treats for two days before. That’s 48 hours of shrieking deprived guinea pigs I have to endure. 😱

Ballot accepted and will be counted.

The 24-hour trip to Astoria was a quarantine-qualified success. I like big bridges and big ships, and had a view of both from my hotel room on the Columbia River. No hanging out at pubs or in our hotel rooms, but some nice outdoor time.

Manton will cover community management duties for me. And my neighbor will cover my guinea pig concierge responsibilities. 🙂

Have a nice weekend!

I’m going on a little road trip to Astoria today with my sibling and their families. We have to burn some expiring travel points. For social distancing, three separate cars and hotel rooms. I’m definitely anxious about leaving home, but looking forward to a change of scenery.

Last week I worked too hard on too many different projects. By Sunday, I was a mess, equal parts exhaustion and anxiety. So I did something I never have before: I turned off my phone. It worked. But there were consequences. I wish there was an out-of-office reply to texts!

What Scandinavians Can Teach Us About Embracing Winter

👋 @odd

I accidentally left out @rom’s gorgeous photo from the A Day In The Life collection. The downside of human curation.

Checking out one of my daughter’s plants. These two are ready for the harvest. Taken at around 730am (UTC+8), October 14, Southeast Asia #adayinthelife

I’ve been reviewing the A Day In The Life photo challenge collection and enjoying taking my time to appreciate each photo. It’s quite impressive when you take it all in.

Thank you to everyone who participated in A Day in the Life!

There will probably be some late additions due to posting delays and to technical questions that we will resolve, but I am so happy to see these 138 views of life around the world.

If you’ve posted a photo for the challenge, you should see your new pin by going to your Account page on the web and clicking Show All.

📌🎉🌏🌎🌍📷⏱

Less than one hour left. Post a photo before the 24-hour challenge window closes.

Or just enjoy the 128 photos that have already been posted in the A Day In The Life collection.

There are fewer than 4 hours left in the 24-hour photo challenge.

Still wondering what to post? Here are 115 photos submitted so far to inspire you. An amazing trip around the world.

Less than 9 hours to go in the photo challenge. 86 photos so far. Keep them coming! I am going to bed now, but promise everything will be curated to the Discover feed in the morning.

I’m taking a bit of time to scroll back through the 80 photos that have been submitted so far for the global photo challenge, and I’m enjoying each one, as well as the overall impact of seeing what you’re seeing.

I’m ready for some more from the UK and Europe now…

Portland, Oregon / 2020-10-13, 11:30 a.m.

I love seeing photos from all over the world and getting to know people a little better by what they choose to share.

A Day In The Life: Micro.blog photo challenge

53 photos posted from 9 time zones so far in the A Day In The Life collection! (We still have a few hours before morning in Europe. 🥱☕️

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed so far. If you just tuning in, here are the details of our 24-hour photo challenge.

It’s sunset on the East Coast of the U.S. Everyone still has 18 hours to take a photo and post it for the 24-hour photo challenge. Day or night, show us what it’s like where you are.

37 photos are already posted and you can see them in this special Discover feed.

Here’s the special Discover feed for A Day In The Life of Our Online Community.

All the photos will be manually added to this collection. I will be adding a few random photos to the main Discover feed (truly random–no judgements from me!), for the purpose of reminding people.

It’s noon in Austin, home of Micro.blog HQ, and we are kicking off the A Day In The Life, a 24-hour photo challenge.

Take a photo and post it within the next 24 hours. Include a caption with the location and the local time. Optional: link to the challenge or #adayinthelife

A Day In The Life of Our Online Community starts in less than one hour! Here is a list of starting/ending times for our synchronous 24 hour challenge.

I used TimeAndDate.com to doublecheck, and to correct for Daylight Saving Time status as of the day of the challenge.

Starting Oct. 13, ending Oct. 14:

• UTC+5:30 (Bangalore): 10:30 pm
• UTC+3 (Moscow): 8 pm
• UTC+2 (Brussels): 7 pm
• UTC+1 (London): 6 pm
• UTC: 5 pm
• UTC-3 (Buenos Aires): 2 pm
• UTC-4 (New York): 1 pm
• UTC-5 (Chicago): 12 noon
• UTC-6 (Denver): 11 am
• UTC-7 (Los Angeles): 10 am
• UTC-10 (Honolulu): 7 am

Starting Oct. 14, ending Oct. 15:

• UTC+13 (Auckland): 6 am
• UTC+11 (Sydney): 4 am
• UTC+9 (Tokyo): 2 am
• UTC+8 (Beijing): 1 am

The 24-Hour Photo Challenge starts in less than 24 hours!

Starting at 12 noon U.S. Central Daylight Time on Tuesday Oct. 13, post one photo from where you are. Include:

• Location

• Local time when the photo was taken

Optional:

• A Day In The Life linked

• Tag #adayinthelife

I am grateful that between moving, working, and taking care of tinyMovieStar, @maique had time to appear on the new episode of Micro @monday.

I wanted to talk about photography on the eve of the 24-hour photo challenge, as I thought he’d have some good advice, and I was right.

I had a great time chatting with @Burk, @canion and @martinfeld on their new podcast Hemispheric Views.

(Even though I had to get up at 5:30 am to do it… 🥱☕️☕️☕️)

I’ve interviewed each of them for Micro @monday, and it’s fun to see them go on and do their own podcast.

I’ve seen some questions of what would make good post for the 24-hour challenge.

The idea is to provide a window on what life is like where you are. Family, home, neighborhood, shops, activities, parks, events, views–those are just a few ideas. It’s up to you!

We are up to 150 people signed up for the Micro.blog 24-hour photo challenge!

The challenge kicks off at noon Tues., Oct. 13, US Central time, and end same time on Weds., Oct. 14. Sign up anytime beforehand.

📷🌏🌍🌎⏱

Some folks have been wondering what type of photo they want to submit for the 24-hour challenge. The idea is to provide a window on what life is like where you are, so It’s really up to you. Family, home, neighborhood, shops, activities, events, views–just a few theme ideas.

Signing up for the challenge means you’ll get a reminder or two from me so you don’t forget to send in your contribution. There’s also a survey of time zones for us to get a sense to what extent the challenge is global.

148 people have signed up for the Micro.blog photo challenge, A Day In The Life Of Our Online Community!

The challenge kicks off on Tues., Oct. 13 at noon US Centrall time, and runs for 24 hours. I’m looking forward to the collection we’ll create of one day around the world.

There was a hiccup with the timeline today, so I’m reposting a few posts I wrote about the upcoming photo challenge.

Some folks have been wondering what type of photo they want to submit for the 24-hour challenge. The idea is to provide a window on what life is like where you are, so It’s really up to you. Family, home, neighborhood, shops, activities, events, views–just a few theme ideas.

Signing up for the challenge means you’ll get a reminder or two from me so you don’t forget to send in your contribution. There’s also a survey of time zones for us to get a sense to what extent the challenge is global.

148 people have signed up for the Micro.blog photo challenge, A Day In The Life Of Our Online Community!

The challenge kicks off on Tues., Oct. 13 at noon US Centrall time, and runs for 24 hours. I’m looking forward to the collection we’ll create of one day around the world.

I am not much good at charts, but here is my attempt to show the time zone representation of the photo challenge participants. The numbers:

• UTC-10: 2
• UTC-7: 19
• UTC-6: 8
• UTC-5: 18
• UTC-4: 30
• UTC-3: 3
• UTC: 1
• UTC+1: 25
• UTC+2: 16
• UTC+3: 2
• UTC+8: 4
• UTC+9: 2
• UTC+10: 6
• UTC+12: 3

Our 24-hour global photography challenge starts in one week! 140 people have signed up so far to share one photo that gives us a little peek at life where they are! 14 time zones are represented.

My dad @bobmacd has promised to join in too!

I just posted the new episode of Micro Monday, Q & A with @manton, because it’s already Monday for a lot of you. :-)

Thanks so much to @Gabz, @pauljacobson, @bobschulties, @agilelisa, @paulrobertlloyd, @vincent, and @simonwoods for your excellent questions.

For @mcg @midath1193: the MacCabin. Our family of six + 🐕 spent every summer in this ramshackle one room A-frame. As adults, we built a larger more modern, insulated (!) home for our retired parents, but no amount of plumbing and heat will replace this little one in our hearts.

To be clear, we’ll be recording today at 1 pm Pacific, a little more than 5 hours from now.

Got any questions for @manton about Micro.blog 2.0, Sunlit 3.0 or anything else?

ICYMI

It’s been six months since our last Micro Monday podcast Q&A with @manton. We are recording a new one today, 1 pm Pacific time (UTC -7).

Submit your questions via @-reply or email (jean@micro.blog)!

Today is the birthday of my friend Michelle, who passed away in 2016. She loved autumn, and threw amazing Halloween parties. She was the positive energy source that made App Camp operations run. I miss her this time of year especially.

It’s been six months since our last Micro Monday podcast Q&A with @manton. We are recording a new one tomorrow, 1 pm Pacific time (UTC -7).

Submit your questions via @-reply or email (jean@micro.blog)!

In case you were wondering, we hit our goal of having 100+ people signed up for the global photography challenge before Micro.blog 2.0 launched. 🥳

117 people in 14 time zones! But only one Kiwi, according to the time zone poll. I hope we get a few more! Sign up,here.

I have always thought it was “desserts” because I like picturing desserts. But no.

‘Just Deserts’ or ‘Just Desserts’? - Merriam-Webster

The day of a big release is like Christmas morning. Parents stay up late, finishing the wrapping, bows, tags, and then are pretty tuckered out when the kids open their goodies. Enjoy Micro.blog 2.0.

If 4 more people sign up now for our upcoming 24-hour global photo challenge coming October 13-14, we’ll hit our minimum target of 100 participants before Micro.blog 2.0 launches.

Did I mention that there will be a new pin to earn?? Sign up here.

It’s Micro Monday again! (What the heck is that?)

Sorry— no new podcast episode. I suggest a deep cut from the archive with @jack, the man in this photo, not the man in his profile photo.

Got a Micro Monday follow recommendation? We track them via a special Discover feed.

😯 87 folks from 14 time zones have signed up for our upcoming 24-hour global photo challenge, A Day in the Life of Our Online Community.

Our goal is to have at least 100 people participate. It would be cool if we reached that before Micro.blog 2.0 launches! Please join us!

A new episode of Voyager Revisited went up today. We talk about the holodeck, the old-fashioned 1930s serial adventures, and pheromones in _Bride of Chaotica! _ My guest David J. Loehr knows something about all three. 🖖🕷💘

Yesterday we got a ton of rain. This morning, I was pleased to see some sunshine.

Then I remembered that I was hoping it would rain even more today and put a damper on the massive influx of right-wing extremist Proud Boys demonstrators who have targeted our city today.

The response to our upcoming 24-hour global photo challenge has been amazing!

61 folks from 11 time zones have signed up so far! I didn’t expect the list to grow so fast. 🎉

Our goal is to have at least 100 people participate. Please join us!

In October, Micro.blog is hosting a 24-hour photography challenge. Members of the community are asked to post one photo that presents a window on life where they are on one specific day.

Here’s how it works:

• The challenge begins at 12 pm (noon) Central Time in the United States on Tuesday, October 13, and ends at the same time on Wednesday, October 14.

• During this 24-hour period, take a photograph and post it, along with a caption that provides the location and local time.

• You are also encouraged to include a sentence about why you blog or what your online community means to you.

• Your post should fit into the 280-character limit of a micropost so that your photograph appears on the Micro.blog timeline.

Our goal is to have at least 100 participants from around the world in the challenge. Please register your intention to participate. We’ll email you a reminder, maybe two, so that you don’t forget and miss your opportunity to be part of this.

The challenge is inspired by the photography series A Day in the Life of… co-created by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen, which launched with A Day in the Life of Australia in 1981.

“The series has acted as a time capsule of sorts to remind us to take joy in our remarkable similarities and celebrate our extraordinary differences.” – Liesl Ulrich-Verderber, “100 Photographers, 24 Hours: A Powerful Legacy,” Ever-Widening Circles

Please welcome @jimgroom to Micro.blog! He just signed up during the Domains of One’s Own meetup, organized by @c.

(And that’s another toaster oven for me.)

Just had a mini dance lesson from the Hamilton choreographer: a few steps from My Shot. 💃💃🏽🕺🏻🕺🏿 It’s part of the program on today’s Vote Forward event.

I really appreciate that they included a little physical break in an hour of community letter-writing.

Bharath (aka @purisubzi) is on the latest episode of Micro Monday.

His observations on Micro.blog are really nice, an affirmation of our mission here, which made me all 🥰.

Warning: you might be struck with a craving for Indian food. I was.

Tomorrow I am excited to attend a Vote Forward @votefwd virtual letter writing kickoff party with Lin Manuel Miranda and Hamilton cast members providing entertainment.

Maybe you want to join me?

The Air Quality Index is down from 436 to 26. 🎉 I will be walking to the post office tomorrow to mail Micro.blog stickers to 15 people. If you want to be in this batch, email jean@micro.blog this info:

Name Address

(Apologies to those who have been waiting since July. 😒📭)

I have become hooked on “reaction videos” from this particular YouTuber, who is just a lovely young person discovering the music of my youth. Today he watched/listened to Aquarius by The 5th Dimension from 1969, which was one of my requests. It’s pure joy and I needed that. ♒️ ☀️

“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough women on the Supreme Court and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

– Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)

Checking out my On This Day page and it’s my guinea pigs, four years younger. They are now almost six years old. Click the link if you need a dose of cuteness.

Many new folks checking out Micro.blog lately—a bright spot in these otherwise trying times. ☀️🌈

It’s a good time to point to the extensive Micro.blog tutorial by @rosemaryorchard at ScreenCastsOnline. Normally you need a subscription, but SCO granted free access to it!

At the end of the August Photoblogging Challenge, I lamented that we didn’t have a gallery of all the submissions. Manton and I discussed what we could do for the next time, and he suggested using a tool that would let us manually add photo posts to a special Discover section for the challenge.

In theory, this would work very well for a future challenge. I tested it out on the August submissions, but it is nearly impossible to manually fish out 31 days of themed photos from many contributors. I put in a couple hours of reviewing and curating to see how it would work. You can view the gallery but please note:

• It’s a proof of concept, not a complete record. A lot of photos are missing, so if you don’t see yours, feel free to let me know and I will get them added.

• We will be adding a grid view as well.

Curating will work much better on a daily as-you-go basis, rather than trying to find everything after the fact. But it was really a nice experience reviewing the photos that I did. There were some I had appreciated properly the first time, or cool details I missed.

Scene: Discussing coronavirus, fire devastation, and air quality with a Seattle friend.

Him: At this rate, would we even be surprised if frogs rained from the skies?

Me: I would be surprised. Then I would immediately search online for “Best Home Frog Filter.”

On Day 23 of the August Photoblogging Challenge, the prompt was filter.

@spratte suggested it, probably thinking about photographic filters. Yet a several folks checked their air filters and replaced them. An unexpected benefit of the challenge, esp. for WA, OR and CA folks.

This morning I got up quite late because 1) perpetual smoke = dusky all day, and 2) why bother to get out of bed.

I felt guilty that the GPs were getting fed so late, so I gave them parsley, which is the equivalent of chocolate cake for breakfast.

Me and my daddy.

This is probably 1961, despite the date stamp. People procrastinated bringing their rolls of film into the photo store!

New toy. I was moved to set it up today to counteract the all-day dusk of Smokepocalypse. (h/t @kimberlyhirsh)

“Nearly 2 in 3 Portland voters view Mayor Ted Wheeler unfavorably, even more favor new police oversight system”

I was pretty sure it wasn’t just me, but when you never leave the house, you wonder what’s happening with your fellow voters.

I’m getting ready to send out a batch of Micro.blog stickers. Send your requests now. I may not send out another batch until after November 3, so as not to stress the postal system during mail-in voting. 😇

Send name & address to jean@micro.blog. 📬

The arborist was already scheduled for Sept. 25, but Mother Nature got the job started last night. (Today I am grateful for neighbors who are handy, strong, and own a power saw. 🙏)

Labor Day always reminds me of my parents, who were involved in organizing teachers into Miami’s first public school teachers union UTD.

I learned the meaning of “collective bargaining” before I was 10. My father created a slide show to explain it. With actual slides!

No new Micro Monday episode today.

May I suggest you listen to @martinfeld’s Lounge Ruminator Episode 40? @miraz is his guest, they chat about simplicity and tech, and it’s quite delightful.

Based on Screen Time data, I decided to set my first ever limit on an app. After setting what I thought was a generous allowance, I immediately got an alert that I have 5 minutes left for the day. 😳

I may have a sudoku problem.

Backyard Micro Cinema tonight with my bro and his family. We watched “Abominable,” which was just great.

My bright idea about Jiffy Pop resulted in an underwhelming result, OTOH. Oh well. I haven’t made JP in like half a century. 😬

Pandemic silver lining. This was one of my favorite places:

15 years after closing, Garbonzos returns as a food cart, with falafel as fresh as ever

I have really upped my #GoodSudoku game. 🤣

(Actually I kept running into unplayable warnings, so I ended up erasing every number played to start over and then solved it. Edge case, no doubt.)

I updated my August photoblogging wrapup post with links to collections/recaps by Maique, Greg, and David. (aka @maique, @gregmoore and @dejus).

If anyone else has a recap to share, let me know so I can add your link!

Congratulations to @manton and @cheesemaker on the release of Sunlit 3.0! It’s a very impressive major upgrade. 🥂🎉📷

And finally, an emoji rendition of a month’s worth of photoblogging prompts, a silly but challenging thing I like to try to do:

⬆️🎈🐞🕊🚿🔪🏖

🗻🔲🔳🚎🔈🎧👩‍👩‍👧‍👦

🌄🛑🦔💠🎀👛🍿

🏡🤸🏽‍♀️🥶🙏🦝🧗🏽🤯

❄️🔬❤️

On to a new month with new things to do! 🗓🍂

cont’d…@gregmoore @jensaplin @canion @maique @poetalegre @GregMorris @dominikhoecht @kurite @matthewlang and @vincent!

I really appreciate everyone who took the time to contribute a prompt idea. Keep your thinking caps on: Microblogvember will be here before you know it!

Big thanks to everyone who suggested photoblogging prompts! @LJPUK @RossA @CTD @dejus @TheDimPause @cdevroe @Stevsmit @florentin @Gabz @Miraz @odd @rnv @spratte @ronguest @crossingthethreshold @joelhamill @jemostrom @johnjohnston @agilelisa @mitch @gannonnordberg + 10 more…

It’s September 1, which means our month-long photo challenge is over. It was a great thrill for me to see all the contributions each day, responding to creative prompts suggested by members of the Micro.blog community. Thanks so much to everyone who participated!

A number of people commented on the quality and the quantity of the resulting posts, compared to our first photoblogging challenge in February. I noticed a “leveling-up” too, though I didn’t try to quantify it. I do know we’ve had some very talented photographers join the community since February, but I also believe that the community as a whole has been more active in sharing their photos and appreciating Micro.blog’s potential as a photoblogging platform.

Update: Check out these recaps with photos:
Maique Madeira (@maique)
Greg Moore (@gregmoore)
David Sinclair (@dejus)
Sam Grover (@samgrover)

Things I did right:

• Asked for community prompt suggestions. For the February challenge, I created the list myself, using a combination of word generators, thesauruses, and common sense. By getting community involvement, the whole experience was even more interesting for me, and for you too, I hope. I am always looking for good ways to introduce members of the community to each other.
• Labeled the challenge days numerically, rather than by date. The community is definitely global, and those to the East of the International Date Line are almost always a calendar day ahead of Micro.blog headquarters. I tried to make sure they got a reminder of the new day’s prompt by early morning there. At the same time, other folks did not feel constrained to the exact 24-hour day, and that is just fine. This is Micro.blog, and you control your content however it works for you!

Things I would do differently:

• Ask for one single prompt suggestion. Initially, I got multiple suggestions from folks, which meant I would have to choose from your lists, defeating the purpose of having the prompts be community-generated. I went back to folks and asked for their top pick, or I used the first prompt on their lists.
• Figure out a way to showcase and archive the challenge photos without overwhelming the usual Discover feeds. By default, I added every challenge photo to the main Discover feed. This is an all-or-nothing proposition as far as we are concerned; we are not in the business of judging, honoring or even “Liking” your work.

  But, as the community becomes more prolific in challenges, this undermines one of the main purposes of Discover, which is to give a snapshot of what’s happening on Micro.blog. Adding so many photos overwhelms the text entries, and could make it harder for new or potential users to skim this sample timeline. I am going to work with Manton to figure out a way to showcase challenges in the future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, either as replies on the timeline or emails to jean@micro.blog. Our next month-long challenge will be Microblogvember, but I am cooking up some mini-challenge ideas to sprinkle into the schedule too.

A second dose of love: I got to see my oldest nephew before he takes off for University of Oregon tomorrow. His junior year! How can that be?

(He’s mimicking littlest nephew’s pose from earlier.)

Less than a half a day to go in the month of August, if you go by the time at the International Date Line West, which means the Photoblogging Challenge is drawing to a close. I would still love to see more contributions on today’s prompt! #mbaug 📷❤️

Love. (Day 31 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

I’ve had a hard time of late, being a flake in this relentless pandemic mode, feeling meh about discovery and hope. But today my emotional tank got a top off with a visit from littlest nephew.

My friend and neighbor Jen, who is an origami teacher, persuaded me to sign up for the Foldspace Origami Convention Sept. 25-27.

I am pretty much a beginner, but it seems like a good skill to add. I’m also looking forward to seeing how they manage the remote technology!

It’s Micro Monday again! (What the heck is that?)

A new episode of the podcast is available. I had a wonderful chat with @agilelisa. Have a listen!

Got a Micro Monday follow recommendation? We track them via a special Discover feed.

The prompt for Day 30 of August Photoblogging Challenge is discovery, suggested by @matthewlang.

If it’s already Day 31 for you, congratulations! 🎉 Your prompt is:

love

Thanks @vincent for the suggestion!

The prompt for Day 29 of August Photoblogging Challenge is flake, suggested by @kurite.

If it’s already Day 30 for you, your prompt is:

discovery

Thanks @matthewlang for the suggestion!

The prompt for Day 28 of August Photoblogging Challenge is emotions, suggested by @dominikhoecht.

We are in the final stretch! The last three prompts:

• Day 29 flake (@kurite)
• Day 30 discovery (@matthewlang)
• Day 31 love (@vincent)

The prompt for Day 26 of August Photoblogging Challenge is relentless. Only a few more days to go, so don’t relent now! 🙋‍♀️

If it’s already Day 27 for you, your prompt is:

overcome

Thanks @GregMorris for the suggestion!

My smart and compassionate niece Paige is in her final year of nursing school. She’s also a sensible person when it comes to pandemic behavior. That gives me hope. (Video here.)

The prompt for Day 25 of August Photoblogging Challenge is hope. In many time zones, you still have hope of getting a photo posted for this prompt on this day.

But if it’s already Day 26 for you, your challenge is:

relentless

Thanks @poetalegre for the suggestion!

The prompt for Day 24 of August Photoblogging Challenge is frosty. Nice cold drinks and flashbacks to winter are amongst the contributions.

If it’s already Day 25 for you, your challenge is:

hope

Thanks @maique for the suggestion!

A new episode of Micro @monday has been posted. Jon Hays, aka @cheesemaker and Sunlit developer, talks about the new version and the growing popularity of photoblogging in the Micro.blog community.

Have a listen!

Frosty. (Day 24 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

It’s hard to picture this frosty scene now when it’s dry and hot.

The prompt for Day 23 of August Photoblogging Challenge is graceful. Nice to see the contributions gracing our timeline.

If it’s already Day 24 for you, your challenge is:

frosty

Thanks @canion for the suggestion! ❄️

The prompt for Day 22 of August Photoblogging Challenge is home.

If it’s already Day 23 for you, your challenge is:

graceful

Thanks @jensaplin for the suggestion!

See all the Week 4 prompts!

For Day 21, a cavy cucumber crunchfest. You really need to see/hear the video to appreciate it.

It’s nice to have a cloudy day for a change. (Yesterday’s prompt, but yesterday was sunny…)

The prompt for Day 21 of August Photoblogging Challenge is crunch. Not going to lie, some of these photos are making me crave crunchy food.

If it’s already Day 22 for you, your challenge is:

home

Thanks @gregmoore for the suggestion!

See all the Week 4 prompts!

The prompt for Day 20 of August Photoblogging Challenge is change. Lots of interesting takes on this one.

If it’s already Day 21 for you, your challenge is:

crunch

Thanks @gannonnordberg for the suggestion!

Week 4 prompts coming soon!

Day 19 of August Photoblogging Challenge is still in effect for some of us. Show us your ribbon photos!

Meanwhile, it’s already Day 20 for microbloggers east of the International Date Line and the prompt is:

change

Thanks @mitch for the suggestion!

Ribbon. (Day 19 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Seattle Solstice Parade, June 2017.

I’m really enjoying this year’s 360|iDev conference, despite the remoteness. The talks have been great, lots of interaction amongst speakers and attendees, and tomorrow we will attempt virtual karaoke. 🎤🎉

To the spider, this is a grid, I suppose. This one seems to be protesting the opening of the garage as a backyard micro cinema.

Day 18 of August Photoblogging Challenge, is grid. Loving all the orderly compositions.

And now for something completely different. It’s Day 19 for lots of microbloggers east of the International Date Line and the prompt is:

ribbon

Thanks @agilelisa for the suggestion!

Grid. (Day 18 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Inside my ancient garage. Future home of a micro outdoor cinema.

I promise that the Micro Monday podcast is coming back. But in the meantime, you can get your fix of Micro Mac nerds on this podcast with @canion, @burk, and @martinfeld.

I’m really enjoying being part of the 2020 360|iDev conference. The organizers are doing a good job of facilitating attendee interaction. I miss seeing people in person and visiting Denver, but oh well.

Day 17 of August Photoblogging Challenge, is cuddly. Love seeing all the contributions. 🥰

Day 18’s prompt offers an interesting layout challenge:

grid

Thanks @johnjohnston for the suggestion!

Cuddly. (Day 17 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Cuddle cup full of guinea pigs.

Near my brother’s house, in a spot where a USPS mailbox was removed.

I am behind on the photo challenge. Here’s my silhouette early yesterday morning, contemplating how the heat would climb 30 degrees by afternoon. 🥵

Day 16 of August Photoblogging Challenge, is still going with the prompt stationary. Depending on your location, there’s still a few hours to make a move and post a photo.

Day 17’s prompt should bring out the critter pics:

cuddly

Thanks @jemostrom for the suggestion!

The August photoblogging challenge prompt for Day 15 is silhouette suggested by @crossingthethreshold.

On Day 16, the prompt is stationary suggested by @joelhamill. The notebook/paper/pen aficionados who grace our community should know this is a tricky homophone.

Among. (Day 14of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Among the many (many many) dudes at the WWDC 2015 Beer Bash.

The Day 14 prompt is among.suggested by @ronguest. Count me among those who find this a good challenge.

For those who like to think ahead, I posted the photoblogging prompts for Day 15 - 21, starting with silhouette.

Thanks @crossingthethreshold for the suggestion!

Filter. (Day 13 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

After watching everyone else do it, I checked my furnace filter. “Clean.” 😇

Day 13 of August Photoblogging Challenge is having an unexpected side benefit, with a few folks realizing they’re overdue for a filter change in their household.

Day 14 starts on Friday. The prompt is among.

Thanks to @ronguest for the suggestion!

Sound. (Day 12 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Tacoma Narrows, Puget Sound. Site of the famous 1940 bridge failure.

(A bridge photographed from the train earns me extra transport points from yesterday.)

On Day 12 of August Photoblogging Challenge, I’m still casting around for an idea for sound, but if you’re west of the International Dateline from me, it’s time for the Day 13 prompt:

filter

Thanks to @spratte for the suggestion!

Kamala Harris has been chosen. Joe just texted me. 🎉

On Day 11 of August Photoblogging Challenge, a wide range of transport-inspired images, including a couple clever metaphorical takes.

It’s already Day 12 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt will certainly challenge you:

sound

Thanks @rnv for the suggestion!

Transport. (Day 11 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

There is nothing I love more than a long train trip (48 hours or more) with a my own sleeping compartment and a dining car for meeting new people.

This is my first political yard sign. Portland’s current mayor has shown himself to be utterly useless in the current social and economic crisis we are in. He’s had 70+ days to step up to the challenge of mediating the protests and taking steps to reform the police.

On Day 10 of August Photoblogging Challenge, we’ve seen such a variety of windows.

It’s already Day 11 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

transport

Thanks @odd for the suggestion!

Windows. (Day 10 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Ljubljana, July 2019.

I woke up this morning, thinking it was Wednesday. But no, it’s Micro Monday again, a day to recommend microbloggers for others to follow.

I really enjoy @MDonaldson’s scenic early morning lake views.. The variations in light, color and mood are striking.

Black-and-white. (Day 9 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

It’s still Day 9 (prompt: black-and-white) of the August Photoblogging Challenge here in Oregon, but it’s already Day 10 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

windows

Thanks to @Miraz for the suggestion!

It’s already Day 9 of August Photoblogging Challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

black-and-white

Thanks @Gabz for the suggestion!

Seeing some stunning views on Day 8 of the August Photoblogging Challenge!

I want to remind everyone it’s now easy to add an accessible description to all your photos. Tap the photo preview for a pop up to fill in, or edit the HTML IMG ALT property after posting.

View. (Day 8 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Today marks 150 days of self-isolation. I’ve gotten to know my backyard view well.

Day 7: Daytripping

I know a bit about putting the “trip” into daytripping last summer. Here’s the Parco di Miramare in the beautiful and historic port of Trieste. About an hour later I was in on the way to the emergency room with a blown-out knee. #mbaug

On Day 7 of the August Photoblogging Challenge, I feel like I’ve traveled to many new places thanks to your daytripping photos. 🌍🌏🌎

It’s early morning on Day 8 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

view

Thanks to @florentin for the suggestion!

Prompts for Day 8 – Day 14 of the August Photoblogging Challenge have been posted, for those who like to plan ahead. #mbaug

Folks have really stepped up to the challenge of bisect on Day 6 of the August Photoblogging Challenge So many interesting takes.

It’s already Day 7 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

daytripping

Thanks to @Stevsmit for the suggestion!

(Seven new prompts coming soon!)

Bisect. (Day 6 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

I built a wall of cardboard rolls (each filled with a treat), bisecting the playpen. Grace and Ada were up to the challenge.

Just received a birthday card from my sister in New Zealand, postmarked June 5. (She loves meerkats.)

We could use some more suggestions for the August photoblogging challenge. Our goal is to have a suggestion from a different community member for each of the 31 days.

Got an idea? Email me: jean@micro.blog (All suggestions will be rewarded with a Micro.blog sticker!)

Day 5 of the August Photoblogging Challenge is going great. Loving all the flow contributions!

It’s already Day 6 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The prompt is:

bisect

Thanks @cdevroe for the suggestion!

Flow. (Day 5 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

Every summer I would take the niece/nephews to the coast. They spent hours constructing dams to block the flow of this modest rivulet.

It’s morning in Aotearoa New Zealand on Day 5 of the August Photoblogging Challenge) The Day 5 prompt is:

flow

Thanks @TheDimPause for the suggestion!

Peace. (Day 4 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

A little nook in my backyard that I overlooked all these years, perfectly for early morning coffee.

Bug. (Day 3 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) #mbaug

I am pretty much a “live and let live” person, but the ants have gone too far and they are bugging me.

Day 3 is going great. So many bugs!

It’s early morning in Aotearoa New Zealand on Day 4 of the August Photoblogging Challenge) The prompt is:

peace

Thanks @dejus for the suggestion!

Floating.. (Day 2 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge #mbaug

Cheerios and blueberries, floating in Oatly milk.

It’s early morning in Aotearoa New Zealand on Day 3 of the August Photoblogging Challenge) Today’s prompt is:

bug

Thanks @CTD for the suggestion!

It’s early morning in New Zealand on Day 2 of the August Photoblogging Challenge) Today’s prompt is:

floating

Thanks @RossA for the suggestion!

These girls now recognize the sound of an Instacart order being delivered. Or as they call it, “The Parsley Express.”

Up. (Day 1 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge #mbaug

I’ve spent so much time looking up at this tree the last 143 days. It obviously needs a trim, now scheduled for September. (My tree is getting a haircut before I do…)

(Apologies to @Miraz and the Micro.blog Kiwis for the late morning start. I originally set the launch for Perth time, but of course it’s even earlier in New Zealand!)

We’re ready to launch the August Photoblogging Challenge. The prompt for Day 1 is:

up

This suggestion comes from @LJPUK. Thanks, Lee!

A week’s worth of prompts has been added to the original post. The order was randomly selected.

(If you want to use a hashtag, use #mbaug.)

I’m thrilled to announce that the ScreenCastsOnline Micro.blog tutorial has been made available now to non-subscribers. Everyone can enjoy @rosemaryorchard’s detailed and extremely helpful presentation.

I created an outline to help folks navigate the 46 minute video.

ScreenCastsOnline released a 46-minute tutorial on how to use Micro.blog. The presenter is a voice known to the Micro.blog community, Rosemary Orchard. (The editor is another one of my favorite people in the Apple community, J.F. Brissette.)

If you are a Mac or iPhone user, and you like in-depth tutorials of software that are well-produced and well-presented, I highly recommend you check out ScreenCastsOnline. For a $8/month (or $72/year), you’ll enjoy access to a rich library of tutorials. I’m excited to announce that ScreenCastsOnline has generously made the Micro.blog tutorial available to everyone.

The service has been around since 2005, launched by Don McAllister, a popular speaker and producer. I’ve been following Don all this time. We worked together on tutorials for Smile’s products, and we’ve also shared many good times at Macworld, Blogworld, and the MacMania cruises. The ongoing popularity of SCO is a testament to Don’s passion for helping folks with comprehensive yet clear software tutorials.

I’ve created a detailed outline here of the topics that Rosemary covers, with timestamps for some frequently-used features, to help current Micro.blog community members to skip ahead. 😇

Getting started with a tour of Micro.blog website (1:00)

• create an account
• choose a theme
• add podcast and video hosting
• writing your first post
• preview and markdown
• Finding people to follow and using the Discover tab
• Replies
• Chronological timeline
• Favorites
• Mentions and conversations
• Mute or report a user

A tour of the options available under the Account tab (10:00)

• Complete your About Me profile
• Add a profile photo
• Adding crossposting
• Crossposting to Mastodon

Editing posts and site organization

• Time/date, title, content (15:15)
• About, archive, photos, replies
• Adding pages and navigation links (17:50)
• Uploading a photo and copying HTML (19:23)
• Categories (20:55)
• Using category filters
• Design (23:10)
• Site Title
• Podcast category and author
• Track podcast downloads
• Custom themes (24:40)
• Edit css colors, footer content
• Include conversation on post page
• Use a custom domain (26:45)
• Save posts to the Internet Archive
• New post options (28:17)
• Save drafts
• Show categories
• Automatic title field for long posts
• Long posts vs microposts
• Create photo posts

Micro.blog compatible apps (31:00)

• Getting started with Micro.blog app for Mac
• Tagmoji in Discover for browsing special interests (33:10)
• Menus on Mac app (33:55)
• Create new post (Command + N)
• Add markdown formatting
• Add photos
• Help options

iPhone apps: Micro.blog and Sunlit (35:50)

• Sign In with Apple or email
• Allow notifications
• Create new post
• Add photo, markdown
• Choose category
• Using Sunlit (38:07)

Perfect aunt moment with baby Jonathan, 2013.

My brother commented “So glad we didn’t miss baby time, that would’ve been really rough.” Agreed. Now I view these four critters as virus vectors. 😂

#tbt

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the first 7 days of prompts for the August Photoblogging Challenge, the morning of August 1 in Perth aka @canion Time.

I’ve received 14 great prompt suggestions so far, each one unique! I’d love to have 31 to fill the month. jean@micro.blog

The August Photoblogging Challenge starts Saturday!

Send me your top choice for a single word prompt at jean@micro.blog. We’ll give you credit and even send you Micro.blog stickers if you like.

Reality check. I canceled my rideshare driver insurance coverage. Took down the @Lyft stickers and the driving checklist by the door.

It will be months at least before I’m comfortable with strangers in my car. I’m sad. I liked driving for Lyft. 🚗

In an alternate timeline, I’m in the air, winging my way back home after a month studying Slovene in Ljubljana. 😢

The A380 had already been changed to something else so the regret is not as great. (I really wanted one last 380 flight.) ✈️

I registered for 360|iDev, coming August 16. The organizers have always done a great job of choosing speakers and encouraging social interaction. I am looking forward to seeing how they translate their creativity to online.

(I’ll also organize the 3rd 360|iDev Micro Meetup!)

The August Photoblogging Challenge is around the corner. The prompts will come from your suggestions!

I’ve gotten some really good suggestions so far. Email me at jean@micro.blog.

It’s 1 a.m., and I am wide awake, following the protests in my city. Inspiring: the Wall Of Moms, who form a boundary between the protesters and the federal agents.

Also, Leafblower Granddad is pretty cool. Apparently they’re great for blowing back tear gas.

I offered several tips on how to pass cognitive test questions in my 2010 Ignite talk, The Beginner’s Guide To Psychiatric Hospitalization (YouTube, 5 mins.)

Spoiler alert: being “cognitively there” doesn’t mean you don’t have a mental disorder.

Updated with a list of prompts below. Happy photoblogging!

Time has flown by since our February photoblogging challenge and we’re ready to challenge you again! We’ll begin the challenge on Saturday, August 1, with a prompt for each day.

This time, the list of prompts will be compiled from community suggestions. Email your top suggestion ideas to jean@micro.blog. If we use your suggestion, we’ll include an acknowledgment and we will send you a Micro.blog sticker, so please include your mailing address.

If you want to earn the 30-day photoblogging pin, posting a photo every day in August is a fun way to do that!

Update! All prompts now published

As suggested by members of the Micro.blog community. The order was chosen at random.

Week 1

• Day 1: up (@LJPUK)
• Day 2: floating (@RossA)
• Day 3: bug (@CTD)
• Day 4: peace (@dejus)
• Day 5: flow (@TheDimPause)
• Day 6: bisect (@cdevroe
• Day 7: daytripping (@stevsmit)

Week 2

• Day 8: view (@Florentin)
• Day 9: black-and-white (@Gabz)
• Day 10: windows (@Miraz)
• Day 11: transport (@odd)
• Day 12: sound (@rnv)
• Day 13: filter (@Spratte)
• Day 14: among (@ronguest)

Week 3

• Day 15: silhouette (@crossingthethreshold)
• Day 16: stationary (@joelhamill)
• Day 17: cuddly (@jemostrom)
• Day 18: grid (@JohnJohnston)
• Day 19: ribbon (@agilelisa)
• Day 20: change (@mitch)
• Day 21: crunch (@gannonnordberg)

Week 4

• Day 22 home (@gregmoore)
• Day 23 graceful (@jensaplin)
• Day 24 frosty (@canion)
• Day 25 hope (@maique)
• Day 26 relentless (@poetalegre)
• Day 27 overcome (@GregMorris)
• Day 28 emotions (@dominikhoecht)

And the final three days:

• Day 29 flake (@kurite)
• Day 30 discovery (@matthewlang)
• Day 31 love (@vincent)

It’s been three days since Poppy’s family returned from their trip and took their love bug home. I have PCS (phantom chihuahua syndrome), and have to remind myself it’s ok to change positions in bed without worrying about waking her up.

This is Poppy. She’s staying with me for a week while her people are away. She’s a champion at napping and outdoor lounging, which makes her the ideal housemate. 🐕

Today is the anniversary of the Tumble in Trieste, when I tore up my knee while on a day trip from Ljubljana, resulting in an early departure from my planned month in Slovenia.

Lesson learned: don’t walk and look at your map at the same time. 😕

Congratulations to @becky on the release of YarnBuddy! 🧶

As a lapsed knitter with an unruly stash of unused yarn, I am inspired to catalog it and turn it into projects. I love the intuitive organization of the app and its tools.

It was great to take a break. I stayed away from all social media, Slack, and news. I read an actual hardcover book (I haven’t read a book in ages), I watched Hamilton (first time), Do The Right Thing (first time since 1989), and did some serious decluttering.

What did I miss?

I am taking the rest of this week off. Not going anywhere, but I’ll be on break from the internet*. See you lovely folks again July 6.

*except for streaming Hamilton—first time ever seeing or listening to it, because I always assumed I’d see it live and didn’t want spoilers.

Me: Oooh, big package just dropped off. Maybe a very belated birthday gift? 🎁

:: opens it up ::

Me: Oh right, I ordered this.

Grace and Ada: Thank you for not running out of essentials. 🧻

It’s Micro Monday again! (What the heck is that?)

I’m working on cleaning up the podcast archive and getting more interviews transcribed. If you want a listening recommendation, check out this interview with Patrick Rhone (transcript here) from April 2, 2018. 🎙🗓

The Incomparable - Knights of Exposition (Episode 521)

The Micro scoobies might want to check out our annual Buffy episode, in which we consider Season 5. 👱🏻‍♀️🤖👩🏻‍🦰🩸

Now that WWDC is over, I can focus on the important job of shipping out Micro.blog stickers. I have been collecting requests since June 14. If you get yours in now, you’ll be in this week’s batch going to the post office. Details: welcome.micro.blog

Be Water, the Bruce Lee documentary, is great. I’m not a martial arts film follower, but having watched Ip Man recently because of Netflix’s insistence that I would like it, I appreciate the genre a bit more. The exploration of racial prejudice in Hollywood resonates still. 🎥

Thursday is a great night for partying at WWDC. We’ve made it (almost) through the week!

Here’s the Spotify playlist we play at LIVE Near WWDC before the show and during breaks. Girl power mixed with nerd tunes and Bash bands.

Please enjoy this song about memory management traditionally performed on Wednesday evening at WWDC by @jamesdempsey and The Breakpoints, brought to you this year remotely from homes and backyards around the world. 🤘

Chris Cooper gives a birdwatching tour in Central Park. (YouTube)

He talks about Amy Cooper and social justice, but what he clearly loves talking about is birds.

Maybe you need to take a break all the tech news?

We didn’t do much socializing during today’s photo op. I will organize more virtual meetups after WWDC, in a variety of time zones no one has to wake up at 3 am to attend.

It is nice to put names and faces together!

Thanks to all who came for a 2020 WWDC “group” photo! @miraz @darius @joec @incanus @mitch @apulianas @rexbarrett @foster @paulopinto @johnbrayton @crossingthethreshold @adamprocter @hutaffe @sproutlight @Gabz @vincent @hawaiiboy @mikepj @kimahlberg @chaitanya @zorn @ctm @dejus

I just sent out the invite for the meetup, which begins at 12 noon Pacific time.

Tip: change your Zoom display name to include your Micro.blog handle and your location. We won’t have time for real socializing, but we can put names to faces. 😊

(Jean, @macgenie, Portland, OR)

In about an hour, we are hosting a short virtual Micro Meetup so we can take a snapshot (aka screenshot) as our 2020 WWDC Micro Meetup photo. We’ve done this every year in person, and we want to have this one for posterity.

There’s still time to sign up!

There’s a special Discover timeline for WWDC 2020-related posts, curated by @manton. The main Discover timeline will continue to be updated with posts of general interest with perhaps a few WWDC comments sprinkled in. 👩🏼‍💻🧑🏻‍💻👨🏽‍💻

After a poor night’s sleep, four hours of Apple presentations and two hours of Zoom socializing, I think I’m about as tired as I would be if we were in San Jose. Enjoying some backyard self-isolation now without FOMO.

We’d love to have a short virtual Micro Meetup for WWDC at our usual time (Tuesday lunch, 12 noon PDT) so we can take a “group photo” to add to our growing collection.

Please sign up here to get the video conference link and make an appearance in our 2020 photo!

This year, we would have held the 4th Annual WWDC Micro Meetup. Obviously, that can’t happen this year, but we would like to do a quick remote meetup so we can add another photo to our collection.

If you can make it at 12 noon PDT on June 23, (Tuesday lunch has been our tradition in San Jose), please come say a quick hello and give us a chance to capture a Zoom meetup group photo for 2020 for posterity. Sign up to receive the Zoom link and more details! All are welcome!

Check out previous years’ group photos below. There is also a nice collection of photos by @jeffwatkins from 2018.

Update: 2020 WWDC Micro Virtual Meetup

2019 WWDC Micro Meetup

2018 WWDC Micro Meetup

2017 WWDC Micro Meetup

The new Dance Fitness mode on the Apple Watch will prompt me to emulate my dance fitness idol, @hollyhoneychurch.

Manton is curating WWDC-related posts on a special timeline.

I’ll still be gathering your cats, dogs, kids, and other posts on the regular Discover timeline. Including new Micro Monday recommendations. 😀

Waiting for the keynote at WWDC. (What? Women Don’t Code?)

The lizard babies, all grown up. / @cheri @yorrike 🖖

I know he had more prominent and important roles, but to me Ian Holm will always be Fr. Vito Cornelius. Here’s hoping heaven is like Fhloston Paradise without the Mangalores. RIP.

I came across a podcast I want to listen to, Hear To Slay with Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan Cottom. But it is exclusive to Luminary. 😭

I’m not paying $35/yr to support a podcast publishing model I disagree with. I would pay that to the creators for this one podcast though.

How to customise Micro.blog

Community member @miraz created a great trove of tutorials on how to make changes to your Micro.blog-hosted blog, including easy and advanced tips.

I thought it would be useful to the new microbloggers (welcome!) to mention it again.

My sister, who lives in New Zealand, wrote a song for me today:

🎵
It’s your birthday down here.
It’s your birthday down here.
It’s Jean’s birthday in New Zealand.
So she can start celebrating now.
🎶

(19 extra hours of birthday!)

🎂🇳🇿🥂

I identified my email problem. The SpamSieve plug-in was deactivated, but its Mail Rule, which moves everything to a Spam folder first, was not. 🤦‍♀️

Thanks to @manton for the tip, and @rnv and @baker for testing. Your Micro.blog stickers will be sent soon!

When I first joined an online guinea pig community in 1997, we called ourselves “guinea pig slaves,” a joke about our demanding pets.

It was the protest against the tshirts worn by the cast of Suffragette that opened my eyes.

Now I’m a guinea pig concierge.

I haven’t gotten any email since 9 a.m. today. I don’t think it’s likely that no one sent me any. This for Gmail and FastMail.

Does anyone need a Micro.blog sticker? Send me your name/address at jean@micro.blog, and help me test this out!

Civil Rights Law Protects L.G.B.T. Workers, Supreme Court Rules (NY Times)

🎉🥂🏳️‍🌈

‪Up early prepping for the Slovenian placement exam, thankful as always for the Boomerang translation app (iOS) by @ishabazz and @heidi_helen. The best tool for quick reference and fun to use! 🇸🇮

Not unrelated to my earlier post, I’m looking for my first handheld gimbal stabilizer to improve my photo and video quality. Suggestions?

‪I have a difficult time with anything that requires manual dexterity, a side effect of medication I have been taking for 25 years. I never hoist a glass of water to drink without using both hands. I really felt a sting when I saw this being mocked. Being mean gets us nowhere.‬

Four years have gone by fast!

(June 13, 2016, WWDC San Francisco)

I shared Kimberly Jones’s video “How Can We Win?” with my 85 y.o. dad. He watched it. It made an impression. We had a good discussion about it.

The Monopoly metaphor is spot on. I mentioned it when I sent the link to pique his interest. That he took the time made my day.

Anita Sarkeesian: “I looked around at our mutual friends and didn’t see anyone else having a problem, so I gave myself permission to think that there wasn’t one. I did not realise that they were doing the same to me; they were looking at me, and since I didn’t seem to have a problem, they too assumed there wasn’t one.”

Anita Sarkeesian, “Ending My Relationship with Cards Against Humanity and Max Temkin” (Medium)

I’ve played CAH. I don’t know the founder, though we have podcaster friends in common. Now reading the accounts of many who feel empowered to speak out about discrimination. #cahisover

It’s been over two years since we launched the ritual of Micro Monday. The idea was to help each other find new bloggers to follow. A lot of new folks have joined the platform recently, and I’d love it if we could help welcome them with recommendations. If you use the phrase “Micro Monday” in your posts, they’ll appear in the special Micro Monday category timeline automatically.

Not too long after we launched Micro Monday, I started an interview podcast with the same name, with a new guest from the community every week. I’ve published 84 episodes of Micro Monday. I had a record of not missing a Monday for a good while. In the last year, that hasn’t been the case for a variety of reasons. The last one was April 6 this year. (And that’s a chat with Micro.blog founder @manton.)

I know a lot of you enjoyed getting to know your fellow community members this way. I intend to get the podcast going again. I have a few ideas about how to refresh the format and maybe make it easier to maintain a weekly schedule. (And your Micro Monday recommendations will help me build a list for future episodes!)

Stay tuned.

——

Want to know more? The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Micro Monday

A lot of new folks have joined Micro.blog recently. Let’s introduce them to Micro Monday, our “Follow Friday” equivalent and help them discover new microbloggers.

Even if you’ve recommended someone before, it’s a good time to re-recommend.

3 years ago today: First WWDC Micro.blog meetup.

Sometimes Twitter makes me happy. Today there was a 4-episode tweetwatch tagged DoctorWhoBlackout. Besides offering solidarity with our fellow DW fans of color, a good deal of money was raised.

Related: can someone come over and help me off my couch? Ooof.

It’s hard to get work done right now. I’m lucky to have a friend like @jamesdempsey to remind me that it’s ok.

And he wrote a new song, titled “Alright.” We talk about the songwriting process. Check out the latest @theweeklyreview: Episode 112: Not Alright

Edward McNair, my teacher and mentor in web design and general geekiness, on The Legacy of Race and Privilege in America.

(It’s a Medium link, but I am persuading him to set up shop at Micro.blog)

Rose Festival, Home Edition.

I heard a Black poet on the car radio who read a poignant poem in on the theme that “yes, we will make it, but not all of us will make it.” I heard it a month or so ago, though the poem was written before the pandemic. I didn’t write down the poet’s name. Anyone know it?

I just ordered pea flakes for Grace and Ada from GuineaDad. This site and the YouTube channel bring me much guinea pig info and joy. You will be amazed at his guinea pig architecture skills, too.

I spend most of my time/effort here, not on Twitter, but I can’t stop monitoring what is happening in Portland right now. Thankful to see restraint on the part of those doing the policing.

(First time posting one of my tweets to Micro.blog. Promise not to make it a habit…)

Human Rights Campaign President on the Launch of Pride Month and Anti-Racism

In case you missed it, Micro.blog added 🏳️‍🌈 to the emoji categories. Tagged posts will appear here.

(It’s the third night, not the fourth night, of curfew in Portland. I corrected my previous post.)

Third night of curfew in Portland announced. It’s the first time I’ve had my phone unmuted, and that emergency notification sound is quite eerie, breaking the silence. Holding a thought for those who will go and protest nonetheless, and those on behalf they go.

I have been quiet here the last few days. It’s a combination of shock, sadness, quarantine weariness, and a lack of anything worthwhile to add to the discussion. But I wanted to say that I am reading all your posts and I’m so grateful for a thoughtful community.

Just started watching Hannah Gadsby’s new show Douglas and I’m already laughing out loud.

Real loud. “Making fun of Americans is technically punching up, but that window is closing.”

This is good therapy. So far, but I’m optimistic.

I’m going to the post office later today to mail out some Micro.blog stickers. If you want to get yours in this batch, please email name and address to jean@micro.blog.

Day 4 of the Micro.blog Art Challenge Sprint 🎨🖌#mbmay

Unfinished view from a house in Neskowin on the Oregon coast, sketched in the Paper app.

Not to put blame on the cat exactly, but I suspect it was maneuvering into position to pounce on a bluebird, of which there have been many in the backyard.

A cat got stuck under the gate to my backyard today. I thought he’d wriggle out without my help, but I was wrong. I had to call animal control, who ended up removing my gate. I hope the kitty isn’t too injured and gets lots of love from its people when reunited. (It had a chip.)

Day 3 of the Micro.blog Art Challenge Sprint 🎨🖌#mbmay

I get lessons on How To Draw PJ Masks characters Catboy, Owlette and Gekko from @joncast a couple years back.

Day 1 of the Micro.blog Art Challenge Sprint 🎨🖌#mbmay

I enjoyed a session on emoji design at the 2016 Layers Conference, where I spoke during WWDC week in San Francisco. 😮➕🤘

Day 7 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

Born With Teeth: A Memoir by Kate Mulgrew. A breath-taking memoir about the consequences of irrevocable decisions made in one’s youth. And I was lucky enough to see her read from it in 2015.

Starting May 25, it’s Week 4, the final May Micro.blog Challenge Sprint. Focus: Art. 🎨🖌

Choose 7 drawings, paintings, illustrations, sidewalk chalk art, by you or someone else. Anything that inspires or amuses you.

On Day 7 of the book recommendation challenge, I can see that the recommendations I’ve compiled are books I read more than a decade ago, closer to two. I lost my excitement for reading books along the way, nothing grabs me like it used to, and I’m not alone.

Day 6 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

A fascinating novel featuring an opera diva and a hostage situation. My introduction to Ann Patchett, still one of my favorite authors, who deftly mixes in the everyday and the extraordinary.

Day 5 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

The Music Of Chance by Paul Auster

I couldn’t decide between this and Moon Palace which together made me a lifelong Auster fan. The film adaptation with Mandy Patinkin and James Spader tipped the scales.

Day 4 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I loved this book. I’ve reread it. I also really liked the film. 🐅🌊

Day 3 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Earth’s first mission to visit another planet’s civilization, led by a Jesuit. It’s profound and unsettling. A “realistic” sci-fi story that stayed with me.

Day 2 of the Micro.blog Book Challenge Sprint 📚#mbmay

The World As I Found It by Bruce Duffy.

A novel featuring Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Abstract theories come to life in an entertaining and illuminating combination.

An short exerpt from the failed guinea pig playpen video this weekend. I tried setting up a little tripod to catch them at their eye level. It wasn’t long before Grace inadvertently shoved Ada out of the frame.

Day 1 of the Micro.blog Book Recommendation Challenge Sprint:

Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

Such a fascinating memoir of Angelou’s time living in Ghana 1962-65. I lived there in 2001, and loved revisiting through a poet/artist’s point of view.

📚#mbmay

It’s Week 3 of the May Micro.blog Challenge Sprints. This week: book recommendations!

Choose 7 books you love to recommend, and share why. They need not be recent reads.

Consider linking to IndieBound to support local independent bookstores.

📚#mbmay

Queer Eye comes back June 5 from Philadelphia. Something to look forward to!

Due to a grocery delivery mixup, I have Ground Breaker’s gluten-free Porter instead of IPA #5 in the fridge.

How many months until a Porter-loving pal drops by? I’m tempted to put them in front of the house with a “Free Beer” sign, but that’s probably irresponsible?

Day 7 of Micro.blog May Photo Challenge Sprint.

This is the best I can do for violet while self-isolating. (No guinea pigs were harmed in the making of this image.)

🤷‍♀️ 🌈📷

Last day of the Micro.blog May Photo Challenge Sprint.

We learned a lot about what color Indigo actually is. It was a challenge for many of us, but Violet should be doable. Wikipedia says it is closer to blue than red, while purple is closer to red than blue. 🤷‍♀️ 🌈📷💜

The latest episode of the Causality podcast: Aberfan. @johnchidgey is so good at explaining engineering disasters and how they could be averted.

I learned of Aberfan from The Crown episode, which barely covers the history and science behind the tragedy.

Next week’s Micro.blog Challenge Sprint: book recommendations. I’m already working on my list of 7 favorite books that I recommend without hesitation. 📚

Photo Challenge sprint, Day 6: Indigo. Just before dark. 🌈📷 #mbmay

Photo Challenge sprint, Day 5: Blue. It’s not every day that we get a blue sky in the Pacific Northwest. Today is one of those days. 💙🌈📷 #mbmay

(The easy colors were Red, Green and Blue. I think Days 6 and 7, Indigo and Violet, will be most challenging. Good luck!)

Photo Challenge sprint, Day 4: Green. Throwback Thursday with souvenirs Grandma brought back from Hawai’i. 💚🌈📷 #mbmay

I’m getting ready to send out another batch of Micro.blog stickers. Instructions for requesting them are on the Welcome page.

If you need more than one, let me know.

Photo Challenge sprint, Day 3: Yellow (lab). My dog-niece Olive. 💛🌈📷 #mbmay

Photo challenge sprint, Day 2: orange. 📷🌈 #mbmay.

The butterfly habitat at the Volčji Potok Arboretum, Slovenia, July 2019.

We’ve entered the second week of the Micro.blog May Challenge Sprints. Last week’s theme was quotations. 💬

This week is photos, each featuring a different color of the rainbow. The first day color is Red, then

• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet

📷🌈 #mbmay

Kicking off Week 2 of the May challenge sprints.: Daily Color Photo, starting with Red, then Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

Here’s 2020’s overachieving poppy. A couple more have bloomed in the meantime, but that first one is always a stunner.

Doing the quotation sprint was very eye-opening. I don’t usually collect quotations, but I found it an interesting and relaxing activity—but more difficult than I realized. I did miss one day, and I’m glad it’s not a month-long quotation challenge.

Today is Day 7, the final day, of the quotation sprint segment of the May Micro.blog Challenge Sprints.💬

Tomorrow, we begin the photography sprint. Every day a different color will be the prompt, following the rainbow, starting with red. 📷

Week 3: 📚 Week 4: 🎨

My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind.”

— Michael Jordan 💬 #mbmay

Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Protest

(This poem was used in Season 5 of Orphan Black as the source of all the episode titles.) 💬 #mbmay

Expectations are resentments under construction.

– Anne Lamott 💬 #mbmay

It feels like the commercialism of Mother’s Day is a bit subdued this year. I’ve felt less affronted by mass culture assuming I have a mother to fête with flowers and brunch.

Mother’s Day #21 since my mom died, and it still hurts. If you’re feeling sad too, my condolences. ❤️

Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.

— Maya Angelou 💬 #mbmay

If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity.

– Eckhart Tolle 💬 #mbmay

These stories of young people making a difference give me hope.

Teens can volunteer safely amid coronavirus through website designed by St. Mary’s robotics students

My brother, who was 5 when the Dolphins went 17-0, texting the family on the death of Don Shula: > When I was little I believed Don Shula and Bob Griese were always my back up dads. But you were always there for me, Dad, so it didn’t come to that :-)

Have you posted a quotation yet? It’s the first day of the weeklong challenge to post a quotation a day. It’s a fun light exercise in microblogging and I’m enjoying seeing all the posts.

Discover Quotations Feed

Just keep swimming.

– Dory 🐠💬 (clip)

Reminder: we are kicking off a series of four challenge sprints starting Monday, May 4. It should be fun!

Week 1: Quotations 💬

The new episode of @theweeklyreview answers the question: “Who is Sending Me Work?” @jamesdempsey gets an unexpected shipment on his birthday that radically alters his to-do list for the day. 🦞🦞

“The Internationale,” (YouTube), conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1944, part of a tribute to the Allied Powers, later removed by censors under McCarthyism.

(The full performance of Verdi’s Hymn of Nations: Italy, France, England, with USSR and US added.)

Happy May Day!

ICYMI, details and signup for tomorrow’s Micro meetup at 5 pm PDT. 🖥

Here’s what we’ve hatched for the May challenge: four mini weeklong challenges! 💬 📷 📚 🎨

After the success of Microblogvember and the February Photo Challenge, we are ready to challenge you again. Instead of a single month-long focus, we thought it would be fun to break things up with a series of challenge sprints!

Each Monday in May, we’ll kick off a new weeklong challenge sprint. Here are the details:

May 4: Quotations 💬
Inspiring, funny, serious, joyful, famous, made-up: it’s up to you!
Bonus: We’ve just activated the quotation tagmoji as a Discover category.

May 11: Photos: Color-A-Day Challenge 📷
We’ll prompt you each day with the colors of the rainbow, starting with Red.

May 18: Book recommendations 📚
Which are the seven books you most love to share?

May 25: Artwork and drawings 🎨
Show off your own creations, or share someone else’s work.

We are not creating a new pin for this series. But your posts will count toward existing pins, such as:

• 10 Posts
• 25 Posts
• 7-day photo challenge

And if your trying to earn the elusive 30-day Blogger pin, you’ll get very close if you post for 28 days in a row in this challenge.

We’ll post reminders about each day’s challenge, and we’ll also add your entries to the Discover feed. And if you feel the need to use a hashtag: #mbmay

During morning coffee in the backyard laurel fortress, I had a visitor. Or more accurately, an inspector. Kitty observed me for a bit, then left to continue morning rounds.

Jon Hays (@cheesemaker) and I are holding Micro Meetup this Thursday (Apr. 30) at 5 pm PDT.

If you’re interested, RSVP here. We’ll send invites via email.

This is a trial run to gauge interest and sort out logistics. The goal is to hold meetups in a variety of timezones.

I would love to take the guinea pigs out to lunch today. But it’s a little damp and the temperature isn’t going to break 70F.

I love stories like this. Oregon high school student is making clear face masks so the hearing-impaired can be safe during coronavirus crisis

And check it out…

**Micro Meetup next Thurs. (Apr. 30), 5 pm - 6 pm PDT. **

@cheesemaker and I will be holding a virtual happy hour. Everyone is invited to be a guinea pig at what we intend to be a regular event.

Mark your calendars. Plan your backdrops. Details to come.

2020 goals that have not aged well so far:

1. Level up my travel hacking skills.

2. Plan monthly Micro.blog meetups in PDX and elsewhere.

3. Start using a big 2020-at-a-glance wall calendar to manage a year full of conferences, cons, meetups and travel.

🤷‍♀️

Meditation book I’m listening to: “Bring to mind someone you’ve spent time with recently.”

Me:

Today @manton released an update to Micro.blog for Mac OS with a fix for a bug in the Instagram import.

(Does everyone know you can bring your Instagram photos over to your Micro.blog? It was SO happy when I freed my photos from silo captivity! See Manton’s post for a video.)

My brother and I are having an Ip Man festival via Netflix Party. I adore Rogue One and Donnie Yen in it, so it piqued my interest.

Tonight, Ip Man 2.🥋

The Centre for Slovene as a Foreign Language (@centerslo) is now tentatively offering a USA- and South Africa-friendly schedule for the 2020 online course, depending on demand.

It’s an awesome challenging language for which I’m willing to get up to do the class at 7 PDT! You?

Ok, ready for a trip to the post office.

The final installment of “Getting Started With Microcasting” covers publishing: how your humble audio file and its RSS feed become a real podcast that everyone can subscribe to! 🎉

Go for it. All Micro.blog accounts include podcast hosting through 4/30/2020.

It’s been interesting curating a virus-free Discover timeline for almost a week. The experiment will be over on Monday.

In the meantime: please post your cat and dog photos so I can add them! (Or whatever pet you have.) It feels like there are fewer lately. 🐩🐕🐈🦜🦆🐓

If you like maps, you should check out @AJgloe’s feed. Lots of interesting new entries. 🌍🌏🌎

We have a new segment on @theweeklyreview called The Weekly To-Do. @jamesdempsey and I commit to one task each week that we’ll get done by the next podcast. It’s good for ferreting out tasks that need an extra dose of accountability. Bonus: new segment music! 🎵

Oops, I forgot about time zones. The daily class takes place at midnight PDT. I am pretty flexible with my schedule, but I don’t think taking a course from midnight to 3 am for 3 weeks will be a healthy choice!

It’s official. The Slovene Summer School program at the University of Ljubljana will go online only this year. Time to look into canceling my trip. 😭😭

• The good news: I can still take the course!
• And good news for everyone else: You can take it too!

I’m thankful for discovering this neglected corner of my backyard. It’s my daytime happy place.

I’m looking forward to the weekly Survivor family watch party tonight.

Portland high school students fill a need with free grocery delivery service for seniors

A great idea. Thank you, Roosevelt high school students!

The Peanut Butter Falcon is the 99 cent movie Movie Of The Week on iTunes. My personal favorite film of 2019 and a good one for the whole family.

itunes.apple.com/us/movie/…

I’m planning to strike out tomorrow and go to the post office to mail out Micro.blog stickers to those who requested them. If you want to get into this batch, send me your mailing address in the next 12 hours. 😊 ⏳

jean@micro.blog

The latest episode of Getting Started With Microcasting with me and @manton covers the post-recording processing you might want to do to make your microcast sound its best.

One more episode to this introductory series to come, focusing on publishing.

Me, one year ago today: “I had a big travel snafu today, my own fault. But it’s April 14, the 107th anniversary of Titanic striking an iceberg, and I have to ask myself ‘Are you on a sinking ocean liner? No? Then life is good.’”

This one holds up.

Weirdly, I just had a dream I owned a hamster. I took it on a train trip and it was constantly going missing.

Guinea pigs like to stay put…

🐹🚂😨

I knew it was a longshot, but I am sad that the Unicode Consortium rejected the guinea pig emoji proposal.

They probably won’t consider a crying guinea pig emoji either. That’s what I’d use here. 😭😿

(But I’m never using 🐹 for guinea pig!)

One of my jobs as community manager at Micro.blog is to sort through everything posted to the platform and select posts to highlight via our Discover timeline.

The Discover timeline is where new members of the community can find other members to follow, and where the community can find introductions from new members and follow them. For more details about the details of the philosophy and principles of the Discover timeline, see my blog post.

In the last month, this curation has become challenging. It’s not the influx of new members, who are interested in spinning up their independent microblogs to either record their quarantine experiences or distract themselves with new projects.* It is the reality that the majority of posts are related to the challenges we are facing: staying home, procuring groceries, schooling children, staying healthy and active, missing our friends and families and our public gathering places.

I’ve experienced some burn-out lately, living through all of your experiences vicariously while managing my own stressors. I took the holiday weekend off. This week, as an experiment, I’m not going to add any obvious coronavirus-related posts to Discover. It will make it easier for me to skim the aggregate timeline, and it will be interesting to hear your feedback on what it’s like having a virus-free reading experience.

I believe the Discover timeline should reflect what people are interested in, but given the fact that you are probably getting pandemic content everywhere else, maybe you’ll enjoy a respite. I also believe that community members can be a great support to each other, sharing mutual concerns and offering solutions. That won’t stop.

Take care, everyone, and thank you for continue to support Micro.blog. It means a lot to us.

*I am enjoying all the dedication to such pursuits as: 🍞🥘🐈🐕👩‍👧‍👦🎹🎲🎨📷🐝🦆💐📺🎞🧰☕️🧶🧵🧘‍♂️

Why should bunnies have all the fun? Happy Easter!

I’ve published another segment of Getting Started With Microcasting. @manton and I talk about software for audio recording and editing, including our own iOS app Wavelength, which is designed for microcasting.

Look for more episodes next week and have a nice holiday weekend! 🐰

A quiet nook in my backyard. It’s not my usual spot, but the nice weather means the neighbors on the other side of the house are outdoors chatting on the phone. Today I am thankful for my laurel hedge fortress.

More guinea pig cuteness. The instinct to stay in the cuddle cup is overridden by the instinct to eat fresh grass.

First fresh grass of 2020. The piggies didn’t get out at all last summer due to the knee surgery. I left the cardboard lid as a hidey this time to ease them into the great outdoors.

You can subscribe to the @microcaststudio podcast using the feed link http://microcast.studio/podcast.xml.

I submitted it to Apple today, so hopefully it will be in the directory soon.

cc: @strengthentheverbs 😇

On the second episode of Getting Started with Microcasting, @manton and I talk about keeping it simple when it comes to mics and recording. (Manton’s dog didn’t even bark once.)

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of vivid dreams. Last night I dreamed I was in Jurassic Park, with a T-Rex on the rampage.

Related: it’s 2 a.m. and I don’t want to go to sleep. 🦖

Getting Started With Microcasting: a short series of episodes covering the basics of launching a short podcast. I interview @manton, founder of Micro.blog and host of the microcast Timetable.

On the first episode: what is a podcast? (4 mins.)

RIP John Prine. 😢

Hello In There (You Tube)

An Invitation to some Self-Isolating Meditation Sessions

David Johnson aka @crossingthethreshold is offering this starting today. He was on Micro Monday almost a year ago, if you want to hear a little more about him.

It’s still Monday where I am…

Here’s the latest episode of Micro @monday, in which @manton and I review what’s new at Micro.blog so far this year.

Getting my money’s worth out of BritBox: a true binge (6 episodes in a row) of the latest series of Unforgotten, a fantastic detective series starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar. It was too good to turn off, and I didn’t have to be anywhere anyway. 📺🕵️‍♀️🕵🏽‍♂️

You all are killing it with the baking. I do enjoy adding your photos to the Discover timeline because it’s nice to see the creativity (and the home economics skills) flourish. 🍞🥖🍪🥧🥮

My family has a tradition of big parties for big birthdays. I had a pretty awesome 50th birthday party in 2010, with a Bollywood/karaoke DJ party at McMenamins Edgefield..

A few months ago, I decided I didn’t want to do anything big for my 60th in mid-June. So glad now.

I am thankful for TV watching dates with family and friends. We have standing dates to watch The Voice and Survivor, with video conferencing connecting us. The quality of the video isn’t great, and the shows aren’t the most compelling, but I am there for the company.

For @Gabz and anyone else who needs some cheer, birthday or otherwise. 🎂🎉📻

Finished Series 10 of Vera. I love her so much! Now, what do I do with the rest of my month of Britbox? Let’s see… oh, there is a whole series of Midsomer Murders I haven’t seen yet. 🔪⚰️😵😏

Yonks by @eay is a groovy app. I like having simple day counters. 😷🎂🇸🇮

It’s Micro Monday again! (What the heck is that?)

On the latest @monday podcast episode: @jeremycherfas, who writes about science and food from his homebase in Rome.

All you bread bakers on Micro.blog: Jeremy has even done 32 microcasts just about bread and wheat.

For @alcedine and anyone else who needs a little cheer! 🎂🎉

At least the dogs aren’t subject to social distancing. (Goldie, my next door neighbor dog)

Today I’m thankful for my pals on The Incomparable Network. We had a lively chat today to wrap up Picard. A podcast a day keeps the blues away.

I look forward to another quiet night alone with the guinea girls.

Some people think this emoji:

🐹

could represent a guinea pig.

Never ever confuse hamsters and guinea pigs. That’s a common but serious faux paw.

I have been meaning to write up the process of submitting a guinea pig emoji to the Unicode Consortium for a few weeks now, but I’ve been distracted. 🤷‍♀️

I thought you all would enjoy seeing the proposed design too, by Neven Mrgan. I really hope it gets accepted!

On March 4, 2020, I submitted a proposal for a guinea pig emoji to the The Unicode Consortium, the folks who decide these things. My guinea pigs are five-and-a-half years old, and I always wanted to have an emoji to represent them. There is a rabbit (🐇), a rat (🐀), and a mouse (🐁). There is even a hamster face (🐹), which some suggested would be usable as a guinea pig. *

Update (4/13/2020): The emoji was rejected. The committee felt that there wasn’t enough evidence that a guinea pig emoji was needed.

You can see that The Unicode Consortium’s emoji proposal request page has been updated, with the Guinea Pig marked “New” instead of “No proposal form.”

Like many guinea pig enthusiasts, I’ve always complained that there was no emoji representing our favorite rodent. I was inspired to stop complaining and work on a proposal when I saw Jennifer 8. Lee of Emojination give a talk titled “How I Became An Emoji Activist” at the 2018 XOXO conference. From Jennifer I learned that there was a process to getting a new emoji accepted. It requires some research and writing. My friend Heidi Helen Pilypas also inspired me with her successful proposal for a bell pepper/capsicum emoji.

The Unicode Consortium has a very specific template for emoji proposals. (Emojination has an annotated template that can be very helpful.) Besides building a case for why a new emoji is needed, you have to do research on the relative popularity of the proposed emoji item via Google and Bing searches.

You also can make the case that the proposed emojii can represent multiple meanings. Guinea pigs are synonymous with laboratory test animals; human test subjects are referred to as guinea pigs; and guinea pigs are also a popular meal in some parts of the world. (Researching that last bit was hard on me 😱, but I knew it was important to be complete and as objective as possible for the proposal.)

You also need to submit a proposed design. I was very lucky that Neven Mrgan, designer at Panic, has also owned guinea pigs and offered to design the sample. His guinea pig emoji so good, I want to start using it right now! But the earliest it’s likely to appear would be spring 2021, and it might not even be accepted. I would be disappointed, but I will still be very happy that I got this proposal together and submitted it for consideration.

• Listen to the Clockwise podcast episode Guinea Pig Hate Mail, where I discuss the hamster problem with Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia.

The 2020 Cancellations-At-A-Glance Wall Calendar 📆

In the latest episode of @theweeklyreview @jamesdempsey and I chat about what’s different and what’s the same in our routines as we shelter in place.

I have more time to invent toys for the guinea pigs. 😇

I am thankful to have a cozy home with two guinea pigs for company.

I am looking forward to watching the latest season of Vera tonight. (I’m treating myself to a month of BritBox.)

Ada and I are in the new Cats & Netflix 2020 music video by The Doubleclicks!

The original was about being stuck inside in Portland during the rainy season. The new one features a guinea pig and a cat teleconferencing. (That’s Bandit and Erin on the other end.) 🤣

Today’s happy thought: Tomorrow we get to watch the finale of Picard. 📺🖖

Micro Monday 82: Joel Mearig is Talkin’ Microcasts

If you are thinking about doing a microcast, be inspired by @joelmearig who just celebrated the 101st episode of “I’m Talkin’…”

(And yes, I know it’s Tuesday here, not Monday but yesterday got a bit out of hand. 🤷‍♀️)

It’s Tig Notaro’s birthday today. I highly recommend her Netflix comedy special “Happy To Be Here” if you need something funny and full of love to watch. 😊

I got some new cards and envelopes for sending out Micro.blog stickers to those who requested them. Let me know if I should add your name and address to the list at jean@micro.blog.

(I’m happy to send out two stickers if you need two—just let me know! ⭐️⭐️)

I just received the nicest email thanking me for creating the Star Trek: Voyager episode guide. It really means a lot to hear from someone who enjoys my work.

If you have time on your hands, maybe take a moment and send a thank-you to someone whose work you like!

Here’s a fun thing to do: The Doubleclicks are updating their “Cats and Netflix” song and making a new video to go along with it. This one will be feature user videos of folks with their cats or otherwise self-isolating.

I’m sneaking guinea pigs into my submission.

Congrats @johnbrayton for the great post about Unread 2 on Daring Fireball. 🍾

Who has taken advantage of Micro.blog’s free microcast hosting through April? I want to be sure to listen to your episodes!

Who wants to give it a go and could use a little push? Or would like a basic intro to getting started? 🎙💁‍♀️