Reads

reading a book, magazine, newspaper, other physical document, or online post
Read Passive Tracking > Active Tracking by Eddie Hinkle (Eddiehinkle.com)

In the most recent episode of Two Dads Talking, Jonathan and I talk about tracking our information and whether we are using active or passive applications. Jonathan is using mostly passive applications that collect his behavior and translate that into posts on his website. I, on the other hand, spend way too much time tracking all sorts of information:

I mostly track everything I’m doing manually, and am still working on the automation part. This seems like a worthy goal to work on in 2019, because while manual tracking has its advantages, (well, OK one, which is thinking about what you’re tracking and hopefully therefore tracking intentionally), it’s mostly a pain and means that I forget to track things and post them to my website.
Read Exit Through the Novelty Exhibition by Kyle Paoletta (The Baffler)

Winnie the Pooh, destroyer of art museums
“I know you’re out there.”

On one level, as I was reading this piece, I was thinking “Man, seriously, how can you hate Winnie the Pooh so much, he’s adorable!” Well, he’s adorable, unless we’re talking about what happened when he met the internet. Yes, that’s an Angelfire page. I’m surprised it’s still up. On another level though, I get where the author is coming from. I completely understand the “get-off-my-lawn, why do you guys have to ruin everything” sentiment that seems to be on display here. I can kind of see both sides though. From a purely artistic perspective, and from the perspective that museums serve a very specific purpose, I can see how adding an exhibition like this that purposely leaves out any context and is merely an attraction to draw in younger visitors would be viewed as nothing less than some sort of abomination. But on the other hand, museums have to generate revenue. After all, nonprofit is a tax status, not a business model. I imagine that the Pooh attraction, as devoid of real art as it is, probably draws in at least enough revenue to keep itself going and to help the museum along with its research and other exhibits.
Read You don’t have to live in public by AUSTIN KLEON

if I re-wrote the book now, I would encourage artists to use much more caution when it comes to using social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It seems ridiculous to say, but 2013, the year I wrote the book, was a simpler time. Social media seemed much more benign to me. Back then, the worst I felt social media did was waste your time. Now, the worst social media does is cripple democracy and ruin your soul.

I think tending to your own website more than your social media is always good advice. For one thing, regardless of whether or not you go full indieweb or full federated. Granted, you need all the indieweb building blocks if you want to add more semantic meaning, along with the social components, but the basics of owning the content you create are as simple as purchasing a domain, some hosting, and setting up your own website, followed by posting there. Of course this means you might miss out on the instant gratification of social media, and you’ll have to do more work on those platforms to get the word out, but to really have an impact at this point on social media, you need to put in that work anyway. It’s not just about using the right hashtag. I also think you can take a middle road when it comes to social media by posting on your own site first and then syndicating to social media, instead of posting on social media first.
Read Welcome the January 2019 Ultimate Blog Challenge (The Martha Review)

Today I am excited to Welcome the January 2019 Ultimate Blog Challenge! For those who aren’t familiar with the UBC, it’s held January, April, July, and October every year and the challenge comes by writing a blog each day for the challenge months.

I think it’s incredible that someone has managed to sustain not just one blog challenge, but three in one year. I have some rather large shoes to fill, and admittedly this has awakened my competative streak. I think this makes challenges like this a lot more fun, but that’s just me.