“I am just going outside and may be some time.”

Lawrence Oates, qtd. in Robert Falcon Scott, Diary, 16-17 May 1912.

When Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram launched, I was an early adopter. I remember when Facebook was limited to .edu email addresses, when Twitter mobile meant SMS, and when Instagram felt like weak-sauce Flickr.

Since the meteoric rise of the Big 3, I’ve been reluctant to get involved in other platforms. I’ve stepped back from social media more generally over the past few years, even before the towers of Twitter began to crumble. By 2019, I had deleted all my Facebook content and de-activated my Instagram account; and while I had set my tweets to auto-delete, I was still actively engaging with my Twitter community. The Elon take-, make-, and break- over pushed me over the edge and I stopped posting completely last spring. Many of my connections left the platform. Some are still there, but the exodus of so many is hard to ignore.

I am still debating whether to get back involved with Twitter, now that some of the dust has settled and those who stuck around are tweeting regularly again. In the meantime, I’ve joined Mastodon. I’m happy to be on a server hosted for library and museum folk. It’s definitely quieter. I’m still not sure I’m doing it right. I do love the content warnings. Even if it’s for things I’m OK with (e,g., politics), it makes it easier to skip over if I’m not in the mood. 

In any case, you can find me glammr.us/@johnxlibris. See you there!

Garden updates

The winter garden is in! I have carrots, golden beets, celery, Tokyo bekana, onions, garlic, cabbage, spinach, and potatoes. The okra, peppers, and watermelon are still trucking along as well (such is garden life in a coastal zone 10b). In planter trays I have fledgling cauliflower and Brussel sprouts, but they are slow-going and I’m starting to suspect I’ll need transplants.

What I’m reading

We are not supposed to live like this by Erin Remblance

“How can we care about species loss when we cannot name the species that live in our own community?”

My Saturday self versus my Sunday self by Tom Ellison

“…with the tail of Godzilla, the tentacles of Cthulhu, and the politics of Elon Musk.”

xQc is stealing content by LegalEagle

This is a fascinating rumination on the possible legal outcomes for YouTube reaction videos.

Links to the past

• 1 year ago: On arm twisting and outreach work. I”t’s like that meme about everyone’s reaction when the social media person shows up to your office: Shit. Shit. Shit.” 
• 6 years ago: Learning to live with it. An important life lesson was learned that day.
• 10 years ago: Did I mention… It’s been a decade since I started my first “capital L” librarian job!

Overhead online

“my perpetual advice to new university students: go the fuck to class and go the fuck to bed. almost all student crises stem from not doing those two things”

abadidea on Mastodon