Step 1 was returning to my own site. Step 2 was returning to RSS  I think Step 3 will be returning to bookmarks.

This is basically what I’m doing on my own website. I ask myself, “How did I use the Internet in 2001?” because the Internet of 2001 is definitely the Internet for which I’m most nostalgic.

In 2001, I owned my own domain name. I blogged in a hand-coded html file. I made friends with other people through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer posting board. I made other friends through those friends visiting their blogs and commenting on their posts. We had link lists, blog rolls, fan Listings, and web rings, and that’s how we found new sites to visit. We made fan art and wrote fanfiction.

Some of this is still happening, most especially the fan works part. And some innovations have definitely made the Internet better - I switched to automated blogging software in 2002 and I haven’t regretted it once since. Other pieces inspired by other people working on the IndieWeb, I’m bringing back: my following page is basically a blog roll and I’ve started reading blogs again.

This is a beautiful piece about trees, forests, libraries, reading, writing, distance, and connection. I found it thanks to Austin Kleon. I will definitely be picking up Rebecca Solnit’s books.

Families at Play - Marked to-read on 04/15/2018.

Found via Connected Learning Alliance.

Library: An Unquiet History - Marked to-read on 04/15/18.

Kim Werker’s weekly newsletter contains gems like this. I highly recommend subscribing.

And Now We Have Everything - Marked to-read on 04/15/18.

Found via I’ll Be Right Back.

In his newsletter last week and this week, Austin Kleon has recommended several reads about walking. Given my reminder yesterday about the value of a good walk, I wanted to capture his recommendations so I can come back later. I didn’t want to have to dig through the newsletter archives, so I’m creating a list here.

• A Philosophy of Walking, Frederic Gros
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit
• The Wander Society, Keri Smith
• Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, Lauren Elkin
• Rebecca Solnit on a Childhood of Reading and Wandering
• "Walking While Black," Garnette Cadogan
• "Due North," Garnette Cadogan
• How to Walk, Thich Nhat Hahn
• For All My Walking, Taneda Santoka

Yesterday I posted about how I’m done posting directly to Facebook. Today, I’m announcing the same thing about Twitter. As with Facebook, I’m not disappearing entirely. Instead, I’m syndicating out to Twitter from my own website, kimberlyhirsh.com. I will be able to receive Twitter replies, likes, retweets, etc on the original post at my website. I can also send all of those things from my own site.

As for Twitter’s other functionality… I have, in the past, declared Twitter bankruptcy, unfollowing everyone and then refollowing. It’s harder than it used to be in the past, and I don’t necessarily want to lose track of anyone I’m following right now. So for the time being, I’m noticing when I do browse Twitter which accounts I am finding most valuable. Then I’m using TwitRSS.me to create RSS feeds of those accounts and subscribing to them in Feedly.

If you want to know who I’m following, I’ve got a page for that on my website.

The other key functionality that Twitter has for me is the use of hashtags to aggregate posts about conferences or on Twitter chats. For those purposes, I’m using Tweetdeck and creating a column for each relevant hashtag. My likes and retweets will be posted from my website and then syndicated back out to Twitter.

If you mention me on Twitter without replying directly to a tweet of mine, it should still ping me on my website. I’ve got a special page for Mentions. It’s not linked where anyone but me can see it without typing the URL in directly, but you can trust that I will see it.

I’m working on writing a statement of educational philosophy and yesterday I was stumped. I sat down to write and opened with “I believe…” Everything I wrote after that felt simultaneously true and hollow. My writing process, which wasn’t going great anyway, was disrupted by some family medical issues. (Everyone is fine.) I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was trying to do.

I texted two friends to complain/reach out. Each of them offered some really good ideas that I’m pocketing for later. They weren’t what I needed yesterday. What I was struggling with yesterday was the why. I knew what I believed about learning and teaching but I couldn’t figure out how to articulate why I believe those things.

I was very tired.

I emailed W. He was out of town for the day. I told him that I needed to talk my ideas through, that for whatever reason, I couldn’t get this done via freewrite (which is what I normally do). I said, “Tomorrow, let’s talk about it and then you spend some time with the baby and I’ll write.” (When do I need to call him something besides the baby? I mean, I use his name, obviously. But he’s 18 months old. The toddler doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

W. got home from his travels late at night. As he got in bed, I asked him if my plan was okay. He said, “Maybe we can talk about it when we go for a walk tomorrow.”

“Good idea,” I said.

I highly recommend finding a walking partner and talking about stuff as you walk. It’s so good. So we went for a walk this morning. W. wrote a teaching statement recently and I asked him to tell me about it. As he spoke, I realized that the piece that was missing, the why, comes from my own experiences as a learner and teacher. And that I needed to work that into my statement.

It felt blindingly obvious. I don’t know why I couldn’t make this connection without the conversation with W., but I have it now.