last week this week edition #1 california condor central coast monterey june 2019

Last Week This Week, Edition #1

It’s going to take a little while to build up a regular blogging habit after such a long time away. The “weekly recap post” seems like a good way to wade back in, so I’m giving that a go. Welcome to Last Week This Week, Edition #1.

The best part of my week

A warm welcome back to this space!
One reason I rarely unsubscribe from a dormant blog is the pleasure of seeing a post pop up from it after a long absence. It’s gratifying to see that some of you feel the same way. I have honestly felt a bit adrift without this space—and the community I associate with it—and I’m happy to know that it’s still as welcoming and accepting as ever.

(Disclosure: the title of this section was stolen from the NPR podcast It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders)

The most important thing I did this week

I voted.

For the first time, California’s primary election is being held in Match—on “Super Tuesday”—instead of in June. That’s early enough to actually matter. But even with the new schedule, it’s remarkable how many of the candidates who qualified for the ballot aren’t actually candidates anymore.

california 2020 democaratic preseidential primary ballot rendering
Some of them are gone..and frankly, already forgotten

I have voted by mail for over a decade, and this year more Californians than ever are expected to cast ballots that way. Voting by mail lets me take my time and research on the fly–it’s like a take-home open-book test. The biggest (little) drawback to it was not getting the coveted “I Voted” sticker. But this year–maybe because the state expects so many votes by mail?–they’ve corrected that little problem.

california i voted by mail sticker 2020

Books of the week

currently reading week of february 24 2020 Wild Game Uncanney Valley Daring Greatly

Some behind-the-scenes changes happened during my absence from the blog. Most of it still worked (whew!), some of it worked better (yay!) and some things were brand-new. The most exciting new thing was the Book Database plugin that Ashley at NoseGraze had installed. (Disclosure: NoseGrazes BookHost hosts this site. Additional disclosure: these are not affiliate links.)

One huge reason I switched to a self-hosted WordPress blog in the first place was NoseGraze’s Ultimate Book Blogger plugin. The Book Database does some of the same things but has some unique new features. I’m especially excited about the Reading Logs. These don’t display on the blog, but they feed to a “Currently Reading” widget in the admin dashboard. It’s easy enough to share what I’m reading at any time with a screenshot.

Coming up this week

We are escaping to Margaritaville on Leap Day. I’m expecting this musical to be Mamma Mia! for Parrotheads, basically, so it should be a pretty good time.

What are you looking forward to this week?

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…and start all over again

…and start all over again

Let’s start all over again by continuing my recap of 2019. My #OneWord for 2019 was “regroup,” and for reasons discussed in my previous post, I can’t say I did. All things considered, maybe I should just recycle “regroup” for 2020. There were some bright spots and distractions from the assorted dramas of last year. Here’s a recap of 2019 highlights to start 2020 here on the blog. Movies The ones that stuck with me […]

In which I pick myself up, dust myself off…

In which I pick myself up, dust myself off…

…and glance back at the year that wasn’t here. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I know we’re almost two months in, but I hope it’s not too late to wish you a Happy New Year …whether you call it the first year of the new decade or the last year of the old one. (I guess maybe it depends on whether your count runs from 1 to 10 or 0 to 9?) I’ve been […]