Hi there! I'm Kimberly Hirsh. My pronouns are she/ her/hers. I'm somebody's mom. I work as a school librarian. I have a PhD in information and library science. I love to read, play tabletop and video games, and make things. I used to perform in theater and improv comedy and I may one day again. I have been extremely online since 1993 and still enjoy tinkering on the web. I manage multiple chronic illnesses. I'm married to my kid's dad. We have a cat.
Want to get in touch? You can reach me by email.
🔖 Read The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing by Vauhina Vara (Wired).
This is an excellent long read. There are a lot of good questions here. How can we scale non-capitalist initiatives in a capitalist world? How can we acknowledge volunteer labor in that scaling? How can we support local action without resorting to geographic discrimination?
Currently reading: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 📚
Now that I’m reading for vibes & character instead of a narrative arc, I’m enjoying this properly. The book didn’t work for me the first time I tried it.
My kid’s school is hiring a classroom teacher in his age range. So if you got the gig you might get to teach him, and I hear he’s pretty delightful.
🔖📝 Read IF YOU LOVE WRITING, YOU SHOULD RELISH REJECTION.
This is a really helpful piece that reframes rejection as the water writers swim in.
🔖🎓 Read All my classes suddenly became AI classes.
I love the assignment here that asks students to work with ChatGPT as if it were a student and they were a teacher coaching it to get better writing out of it.
Hi friends.
I wanted to take a moment to share my blogging “process,” which I put in scare quotes because it’s not very refined.
First, I have a thought or encounter something to which I have a response and decide I want to share that thought/response.
Then, I open up Google Docs and type what I want to share into a file called “Current Blog Post Draft.” I mainly do this to avoid losing a post because of a browser or app crash.
I sometimes read over it before posting. Sometimes I post right away.
My posts aren’t reviewed by an editor or even a beta reader. They go out fresh, raw, and often flawed in either form or content. The ideas are sometimes half-baked. I’m sometimes writing in the heat of emotion. I’m going to be wrong sometimes. Perhaps often.
Blogs are tools for thinking. As such, the thoughts expressed in them will not always be our most polished.
This is a personal blog, not a professional publication. I don’t mean for it to be anything but a personal blog and portfolio.
Thanks for reading it.
Yesterday I saw 3 people (I’d guess women) at Amsterdam Centraal 🚄 walking together wearing matching pairs of gorgeous plain black Docs and then felt super sad that I’d only had room for one pair of Docs in my suitcase and went with the floral ones.
Status: in a parasocial relationship with the crew of the Enterprise D.
I’m not saying I’m just saying, the introduction to GENDER AT SEA talks a lot about Moana and what the story can tell us about women in maritime pursuits and how Moana saves the environment and teaches Maui it’s okay to be vulnerable, so… I chose wisely. 📚🌊🎓
Who goes to the Dutch National Maritime Museum and buys an edited collection titled Gender at Sea as a souvenir? This academic. 📚🌊🎓
