changes

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

Previously read this myself a couple years ago - one of my favorites of recent years. Disappointed that I never actually wrote a review of this back then.

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

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

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

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: booktitle

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

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Louder Than Hunger

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Meet Me in the Fourth Dimension

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

Past Log Updates

2024-07-25:

Continuing to read this at bedtime with my son, every other night or so.

2024-07-10 :

Started reading The Wild Robot with Will tonight.

We started reading Sheine Lende the night before last but it was making Will feel quite anxious and so wasn’t a good bedtime read.

Resources

• I really hyped this book back in 2016 on Granite Media. The review is still there, and I still stand behind it: The Wild Robot – Granite Media

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Wild Robot

I am building this web site as a place to collect and share things I’m working on, as well as my random obsessions. This old “about” page originally served as my single-page first draft/iteration. The site you are viewing is my third iteration, which has some additional features to be found by clicking on the ‘+’ sign in the top right corner of the page.

About this Project

I’m using this site to learn more about web development and design. I’m tired of silos and bloated content management systems, so I’m trying to be more DIY and Indieweb.

This is my third draft/iteration of the site, using the W3.CSS framework to build out custom theming and templating for the the Hugo static site generator, hosting the final product via Github and Netlify.

My next step will be building out a template and multi-page publishing capabilities, likely with Jekyll. My next steps will be creating a custom taxonomy, fully indiewebifying this site, and more navigational features, and possibly incorporating a photo blog section. I’m also thinking about building a hyper-narcissitic, cross-platform lifestream/microblog with Known and/or Micro.blog.

WP51

Yes, I am trying for a vaguely Wordperfect 5.1 aesthetic. I think I’m doing this because it puts me back to when I was a tween writing things and creating stuff on an old 286 in the basement. It was already an ancient computer even then. Fonts are currently IBM Plex Mono and Merriweather Serif, both via Google Fonts.

Standalone post link: About

Welcome! I am building this web site as a place to collect and share things I’m working on, as well as my random obsessions. This “about” page originally served as my single-page first draft/iteration. The site you are viewing is my second iteration, which has some additional features to be found by clicking on the ‘+’ sign in the top right corner of the page.

My Work

I am a digital content manager for the library media program and educational technology department of a large public school district. I catalog, curate, document, promote, and support library and technology resources for students and staff.

I am passionate about connecting students and teachers with the best resources and making resources ever more accessible and discoverable, whether that means a physical copy of a not-as-well-known-as-it-should-be middle grade fantasy novel or the latest digital learning tool on a classroom Chromebook.

You can see some of my work at granitemedia.org, www.graniteschools.org/edtech, on social media channels such as @edtechgsd and @librarymediagsd, and in other library and content management systems accessible only to students and staff in the district.

My Family

I am husband of Virginia and father of two children who do not yet have web presences. (I may help them with that soon.)

My Writing

I am an occasional writer. The new iteration of this site will come to incorporate writings from my once and future blogs. The old sites are forlorn, neglected things, and I actually don’t feel comfortable linking to them at this point. Reintegrating them and having a nice place to share writing going forward is at the heart of why I am building this site.

The past few years I’ve been most likely to share thoughts or links to my writing on twitter, at @jdwhiting. I also share and retweet a lot of library, children’s literature, and educational technology kinds of things related to my work, although I’ve been kind of quiet lately.

My Reading

I keep track of my own reading and follow the reading of my friends and colleagues on Goodreads. Feel free to friend me there.

When I read children’s or young adult literature I try to make it a habit to write a review, and when I do I always publish the review first on Granite Media, which is my district’s library media site and home for book reviews from school librarians, teachers, and students.

I’m a member and chair of the Children’s Fiction committee of the Children’s Literature Association of Utah. We determine the shortlist nominees for the Beehive Book Awards, which kids and teens throughout Utah vote upon to determine winners.

Other Places You Can Find Me

I obsessively and meticulously document all the music I listen to via last.fm. (The Universal Scrobbler enables me in this endeavor.)

I’m trying to learn more about film and watch more movies, and I document this at Letterboxd.

I sometimes take random pictures with my phone. Long before Instagram, I once fancied myself an interesting photographer. I may get there again. I also intend to incorporate photos directly into this site; that’s a 3rd draft/iteration feature.

I always have it in mind to eventually do something more with Pinterest than I am currently doing, such as using it to explore and curate more art and photography. My wife is a Pinterest power user, and I linked to her profile above.

I love the idea of location-based social media, but I don’t like the reality of Swarm all that much. Nonetheless, I do use it occasionally. I still miss Gowalla. If you know of a good location-based platform for documenting travel or visits to interesting places, please share it with me.

About this Project

I’m using this site to learn more about web development and design. I’m tired of silos and bloated content management systems, so I’m trying to be more DIY and Indieweb.

This is a second draft/iteration using the W3.CSS framework to build out custom theming and templating for the the Hugo static site generator, hosting the final product via Github and Netlify.

My next step will be building out a template and multi-page publishing capabilities, likely with Jekyll. My next steps will be creating a custom taxonomy, fully indiewebifying this site, and more navigational features, and possibly incorporating a photo blog section. I’m also thinking about building a hyper-narcissitic, cross-platform lifestream/microblog with Known and/or Micro.blog.

WP51

Yes, I am trying for a vaguely Wordperfect 5.1 aesthetic. I think I’m doing this because it puts me back to when I was a tween writing things and creating stuff on an old 286 in the basement. It was already an ancient computer even then. Fonts are currently IBM Plex Mono and Merriweather Serif, both via Google Fonts.

Standalone post link: About

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

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

Past Log Updates

2024-08-02 :

Picked this up yesterday and tried it out simply because it had the next closest due date of all my current library checkouts, would not be renewable. Spent a couple hours reading instead of doing other things, then stayed up past midnight reading until I got too sleepy to actually finish it.

Not world-shattering but has a little bit of everything, like the blurbs say, and it’s fun. Like a lighter, funnier, more romantic David Mitchell book? (Thinking Bone Clocks, Cloud Atlas, etc.)

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Ministry of Time

I’m trying out Alegreya as the regular text font on this website.

I’d been using Merriweather for a few years and I liked it okay, but occasionally something felt janky with the width and spacing between characters. I’ve wanted to try something else, but messing with fonts seemed like a distraction when I don’t do enough of the basic stuff here, like actually write things, or keep the home page and menu working properly.

However, seeing how excited this guy got about a cool font inspired me to start looking at fonts again. (One of the growing number of personal-ish websites I lurk follow via RSS, a topic for another time.) The font he geeked out about wasn’t the one for me, but I encountered the Novel font, tried out the demo on a local build of my site, and really got my heart set on using it. Eventually I came to terms with the reality that I can’t or shouldn’t spend that kind of money on a font for this little hobbyist website, though.

So, I pulled myself away from browsing Fonts In Use and artisan font foundries, went back to Google Fonts to settle on something I can afford. Some of the Google Fonts, such as Alegreya, do appear to have come from cool artisan font foundries, so at least there is that. I don’t think I open up my “indieweb” site to tracking and other garbage just by using Google Fonts, but I could be wrong. I’m using free services for almost every aspect of this website, so I’m likely compromised and beholden to all sorts of interests.

Headings remain IBM Plex Mono. I have a vague sense that this pairing of a mono heading with a serif is not ideal and wasn’t ideal with Merriweather, either. However, the probability that I’m breaking design rules and conventions is admittedly an energizing agent. There’s something in me that wants things to be purposefully off and ugly and wrong; part boredom with convention, and part fear of the inability to ever get it “right.” Maybe this isn’t off enough, though? Mainly I’m just weirdly committed to these precious mono headings, while I don’t want a sans font for my text because I just prefer serif fonts for printing or displaying text. So it is what it is. I can do whatever I want here, and I can always change it again, and, to quote my old favorite band’s blog quoting Jean Genet, “to achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.” These are individually good fonts, though, so is this cacophony in good taste? Power clashing? Or just sloppy, inelegant.

Standalone post link: A note on the type, 2024-08-04

Made significant updates to the text and layout of the home page, about page, footer, and ‘[ + ]’ menu ordering. Changed the text font to Alegreya.

Standalone post link: joshuawxyz changelog 20240804