a stream
All posts and notes on this site, sorted by when published.
Playing Gris
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.25]
[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
Started playing Gris tonight. Stunning and mysterious game.
There were a couple of points where I wasn’t sure if I was ‘going the right way’ or not, but it was so beautiful that I didn’t really care. So far I’ve ‘brought back’ the color red and I’ve gained the ability to make my dress into a stone block, which is super useful. Will definitely be continuing with this game.
Started playing Gris tonight. Stunning and mysterious game.
There were a couple of points where I wasn’t sure if I was ‘going the right way’ or not, but it was so beautiful that I didn’t really care. So far I’ve ‘brought back’ the color red and I’ve gained the ability to make my dress into a stone block, which is super useful. Will definitely be continuing with this game.
Standalone post link: Playing Gris
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My Favorite Music of 2022
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.21]
[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
Running log of my favorite albums and musical works released in 2022. It will be updated throughout the year, and even after.
Running log of my favorite albums and musical works released in 2022. It will be updated throughout the year, and even after.
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Things I’ve posted about this album: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You by Big Thief
Things I’ve posted about this artist: Big Thief
Modern Nature: Island of Noise
Things I’ve posted about this album: Island of Noise by Modern Nature
Things I’ve posted about this artist: Modern Nature
Nilüfer Yanya: PAINLESS
Things I’ve posted about this album: PAINLESS by Nilüfer Yanya
Things I’ve posted about this artist: Nilüfer Yanya
bloopy bloop
Standalone post link: My Favorite Music of 2022
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Quick note about this site
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.21]
[Last Updated: 2022.08.11]
Quick note about this site (joshuaw.xyz / jdwhiting.com)
This site is in more flux than ever at the moment, as I continue to rethink and evolve in how I want to use not only this site but also interact with others via the internet beyond this site.
I’m in the midst of making significant updates to the organization, flow, and functionality, all towards the end that I can start posting regularly again. I have a detailed list of tasks and ideas, but I’ll spare you.
I hope to make a lot of headway this week, but in the meantime some existing pages/links do not work, or do not work in the way I ultimately want them to work.
Thanks for your patience? (whoever you might be)
Quick note about this site (joshuaw.xyz / jdwhiting.com)
This site is in more flux than ever at the moment, as I continue to rethink and evolve in how I want to use not only this site but also interact with others via the internet beyond this site.
I’m in the midst of making significant updates to the organization, flow, and functionality, all towards the end that I can start posting regularly again. I have a detailed list of tasks and ideas, but I’ll spare you.
I hope to make a lot of headway this week, but in the meantime some existing pages/links do not work, or do not work in the way I ultimately want them to work.
Thanks for your patience? (whoever you might be)
Standalone post link: Quick note about this site
[]
Reading A Little Devil in America
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.20]
[Last Updated: 2022.03.21]
Also started reading today A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib.
I’ve had this, and, actually, all of Abdurraqib’s other books on my to-read list for a while now – I took the occasion of Black History Month to move this one to the top of my list and start reading.
Also started reading today A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib.
I’ve had this, and, actually, all of Abdurraqib’s other books on my to-read list for a while now – I took the occasion of Black History Month to move this one to the top of my list and start reading.
Copy from the Holladay Branch of the Salt Lake County Library. And the blurb writers on the back are all on my have-read and/or to-read lists, too: Marlon James, Jacqueline Woodson, Clint Smith, Brit Bennett
Standalone post link: Reading A Little Devil in America
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Reading Moon Witch Spider King
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.20]
[Last Updated: 2022.03.21]
I started reading Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James the other night. I’m currently at 21% completion.
I started reading Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James the other night. I’m currently at 21% completion.
Pre-ordered copy that came in at King’s English, and ended up being signed.
Standalone post link: Reading Moon Witch Spider King
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February Break Ideas and To-Dos
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.20]
[Last Updated: 2022.03.21]
‘February Break’ Ideas and To-Dos
a longlist, unfiltered and unedited other than select hyperlinks added:
‘February Break’ Ideas and To-Dos
a longlist, unfiltered and unedited other than select hyperlinks added:
Write book reviews finally
Get my website going again
Set up new bed in bedroom
Hate everyone
Ignore the haters
Therefore, ignore myself
Keep a diary
Do laundry
Figure out something for the hellscape that is our backyard
Go outside in the early mornings and stay there rather than driving to work and sitting in my cubicle
Read some books
Play some video games
Play some records
Get some lamps
Low-key get some good work done, just the work that I want to do and never let myself do when I’m at work
Cook some food
Go in the wilderness
Go to the record store and the bookstore
Go to a museum or two, art gallery
Destroy someone’s scene - make snooty people in a gallery or hipster store deal with my kids and/or just my fat awkward self
Give some attention to my dog our dog their dog the dog named Luna that lives in our house with us
Trim beard and haircut
Heal the world, make it a better place
/ IATA - WATA (I AM THE ASSHOLE / WE ARE THE ASSHOLES)
/ god damn you god damn me god damn us god damn we god damn us all
Buy a car
Watch some movies
Get out my CDs and cassettes
Standalone post link: February Break Ideas and To-Dos
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My Reading in 2022 (reading updates)
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.11]
[Last Updated: 2024.01.22]
Below is a running list of books I’ve read in 2022, with my current reads listed at the top.
You can find a list of links to articles, essays, poems, and other shorter works I’m reading [here], and you can find all of my reading updates [here].
Below is a running list of books I’ve read in 2022, with my current reads listed at the top.
You can find a list of links to articles, essays, poems, and other shorter works I’m reading [here], and you can find all of my reading updates [here].
—–
Grow Now [73%]
by Emily Murphy
[currently reading - started on 2022.10.02]
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers [60%]
by Henry David Thoreau
[currently reading - started reading on 2022.06.01]
Poetry [July/August 2022] [35ish%]
Various Authors
[currently reading - started reading on 2022.10.09]
Poetry [October 2022]
Various Authors
[read from 2022.10.06 to 2022.10.08]
Successful Gardening in Utah
by Caleb Warnock
[read 2022.10.05]
The Words in My Hands
by Asphyxia
[read from 2022.10.01 to 2022.10.02]
Moonwalking
by Zetta Elliot and Lyn Miller-Lachmann
[read from 2022.09.09 to 2022.09.12]
Poetry [September 2022]
Various Authors
[read from 2022.09.03 to 2022.09.05]
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
[read with my son from 2022.06.unknown to 2022.08.29]
Nightcrawling
by Leila Mottley
[read from 2022.08.18 to 2022.08.23]
ttyl
by Lauren Myracle
[read from 2022.08.17 to 2022.08.18]
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out
by Susan Kuklin
[read from 2022.08.15 to 2022.08.16]
—–
Impulse
by Ellen Hopkins
[read from 2022.08.12 to 2022.08.14]
—–
The Black Flamingo
by Dean Atta
[read from 2022.07.29 to 2022.07.31]
33⅓. 9, Unknown Pleasures
by Chris Ott
[read from 2022.07.10 to 2022.07.11]
ain’t burned all the bright
written by jason reynolds, artwork by jason griffin
[read on 2022.07.09]
Loveless
by Alice Oseman
[read from 2022.06.29 to 2022.07.09]
Heartstopper. Volume 4
written and illustrated by Alice Oseman
[read on 2022.07.07]
The Beatryce Prophecy
written by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
[read the first half to both of my children, the second half to only my son after they got separate rooms - read from 2022.unknown - 2022.06.04]
Melissa (formerly published as George)
by Alex Gino
[read on 2022.05.22]
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
written and illustrated by Kristen Radtke
[read from 2022.05.12 - 2022.05.14]
Heartstopper. Volume 3
written and illustrated by Alice Oseman
[read on 2022.05.unknown]
Heartstopper. Volume 2
written and illustrated by Alice Oseman
[read on 2022.04.unknown]
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
[read on 2022.03.28]
Heartstopper. Volume 1
written and illustrated by Alice Oseman
[read on 2022.03.28]
Moon Witch, Spider King
by Marlon James
[read from 2022.02.16 - 2022.03.05]
A Snake Falls to Earth
by Darcie Little Badger
[read from 2022.02.02 - 2022.02.11]
Beyond the Mapped Stars
by Rosalyn Eves
[read from 2021.12.27 - 2022.12.29]
Me (Moth)
by Amber McBride
[read from 2021.12.unknown - 2022.12.27]
[A gallery and history of stand-alone reading updates and notes follows.]
[I’m also going to start messing around with Goodreads again because I actually know people there.]
Standalone post link: My Reading in 2022 (reading updates)
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Reading A Snake Falls to Earth
[Originally Posted: 2022.02.09]
[Last Updated: 2022.03.21]
I read A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger 📚
I read A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger 📚
Standalone post link: Reading A Snake Falls to Earth
[]
Links from Last Week (Dec 26, 2021 - Jan 2, 2022)
[Originally Posted: 2022.01.02]
[Last Updated: 2022.07.16]
Trying something new today - a weekly post where I round up quick notes and links to things I read, watched, played, listened to, or otherwise engaged with in the past week.
Some links or ideas might also get their own posts, if I find I have more to write or share about them. Or if I decide I feel like spreading stuff out over days and giving things their own spaces.
Trying something new today - a weekly post where I round up quick notes and links to things I read, watched, played, listened to, or otherwise engaged with in the past week.
Some links or ideas might also get their own posts, if I find I have more to write or share about them. Or if I decide I feel like spreading stuff out over days and giving things their own spaces.
Reading
-
I read Me (Moth) by Amber McBride, a young adult novel in verse about a teen named Moth who has lost her family in an accident. Features root magic, song lyrics, dancing and not dancing, angst, first love, a road trip, and a plot twist.
-
I read Beyond the Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves, a young adult historical fiction novel about a Mormon girl who wants to be an astronomer, but growing up in a polygamist family in 1870s Monroe, Utah, she doesn’t see a path to follow to that future. Features a realistic and diverse portrayal of Utah and Western U.S. life in the late 1800s, a train robbery, emergency midwifery, a near altercation between Thomas Edison and Texas Jack, a ball in a luxury hotel, a solar eclipse viewed from Pike’s Peak, faith, science, and again, first love.
-
I’m still working my way through Investigations of a Dog and other creatures, short fiction by Franz Kafka in new translations by Michael Hofmann. Grabbed this impulsively from a Jewish Fiction display at the Holladay Library, but it has led me to plans to really dig into Kafka and read as much as I can of his work. I haven’t read Kafka since I was a teenager but what I did read then was extremely influential on my thoughts and tastes in literature and art, and its weird that I have forgotten that. So, library displays can be important.
-
I’ve been subscribing to more and more newsletters lately, and since getting on top of my email inbox I’ve been able to keep up with them. Sharing links just to the things that I most liked that I read in the past week.
-
“The Year in Vibes” and its prequel “TikTok and the Vibes Revival”, both by Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker.
-
“Love in a Time of Climate Change”, poem by Craig Santos Perez shared in the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day newsletter.
-
“A Father’s Work is Never Done”, poem by Nathan Hoks also shared in the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day newsletter. (My exact initial response was “WITAF did I just read?")
-
Listening
Been clicking around Bandcamp a lot lately and these are albums I found there this past week that I liked - none of them are particularly new except for the Deerhoof, but oh well.
Playing
- Finished Wandersong on the Nintendo Switch this week.
- Also watched an interesting talk from the creator of the game, Greg Lobanov - “Wandersong: A Game About Feelings”
- Played A Short Hike today, again on the Nintendo Switch. Fun little game.
Watching
Didn’t really watch anything, other than occasionally getting sucked into whatever my kids were watching, shows I don’t want to enumerate here this week.
I guess there was this TikTok user I got sucked into after my friend sent me one of the “cozy nintendo” videos:
Fritz and Donnybrook (@oldtimehawkey)
(Holy shit look at all that tracking junk on the original URL I followed:
httpx://www.tiktok.com/@oldtimehawkey?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8tRvCShfQTSFOXpWMVc2%2F
CGmW%2BQZyHW62eLaXG85iVDpdvrAWKLp8R4K%2F%2B%2Bf2nW3hBJSZ6T2
c1g46JCPwGgA%3D&checksum=daabe076b9bef9aef0b47d138cc0cc154a
1d2466edad06d107f2351c7d1ecfaf&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec _user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAC
-Nor83oLDUTwTcpnj8QNBCO03Tvyzt89oSOMKbri-
aJUkR0d8qfphh3zWf923A5&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7008 004354242301189&share_link_id=20C2FD9B-4755-45B1-96A8-
FF181077CAF9&source=h5_m×tamp=1640668684&tt_from=copy&
u_code=daabba7b8fm9ce&user_id=6781623360004031493
&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1
)
Clicking
Wado Sanzo’s Dictionary of Color Combinations, web edition: https://sanzo-wada.dmbk.io
Standalone post link: Links from Last Week (Dec 26, 2021 - Jan 2, 2022)
[]
this winter break
[Originally Posted: 2022.01.01]
[Last Updated: 2022.07.16]
this winter break I was going to write a bunch revamp my website establish good reading writing learning sharing habits for the coming year but I didn’t really do those things and though I didn’t do them I can’t seem to let the idea of still doing those things just go away so it may still happen just not necessarily in concert with an arbitrary Gregorian year change or an extended time
this winter break
I was going to
write a bunch
revamp my website
establish good
reading
writing
learning
sharing
habits
for the coming year
but I didn’t really do those things
and though I didn’t
do them I can’t seem to
let the idea of
still doing
those
things
just
go
away
so it may still happen
just not necessarily
in concert with
an arbitrary
Gregorian year change
or an extended time
off work
- so what did I do?
-
passed Wandersong
-
and read some Franz Kafka, which feels a little bit like YA fiction to me but only because the last time I read Kafka was when I was myself in the “teen/young adult” demographic
-
took the kids sledding
-
made masaman curry
-
made french toast
-
made sweet pork barbacoa for in-laws’ Christmas taco party (recipe pending here in these URLs because I’ve made it too much my own to link to where I started from)
-
engaged in various obligatory Christmas preparations and celebrations
-
shoveled actual snow (I don’t remember if that ever even had to happen even once last winter)
-
read from an ever increasing number of newsletters (reading links forthcoming)
-
doomscrolled
(even though I’ve deleted my Facebook account and logged out of my personal Instagram and Twitter accounts on my phone I still somehow managed this – my persistent traps / points of weakness are the Apple News app and the notifications I still get for work social media accounts) -
and then there’s bandcamp exploration, which I don’t quite consider doom scrolling, though at times there I do scroll through actual doom
So I guess I actually did
do a few things that might be
worth sharing and linking
or potentially expounding upon
but I’ve limited
myself to this
platform
with no audience
and haven’t
sorted that
out yet
- instead of waiting
- or deleting
- or further retreating
- or plotting out
some clear future
for this website
and my writing
and my social
media participation
I will just try
by improvising
as I go
with whatever form
feels right
or useful
or interesting
in the moment
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Millcreek, Utah