2018: My year in review

Looking back over my posts, this has been my most prolific year in blogging (posted something in every month except August!). At the start of the year, I was trying to post a link a day, and managed to get into early February before dropping off. In March, I did a first-ever podcast to look at how my feed would capture the enclosure, as Pocket Casts (my phone podcast client) seemed to be having problems with picking up podcasts that were part of blogs (like Scripting News). April and May each had a link post, but June showed more activity (a Pocket Casts bug report, some links, a blog conversation with John Philpin about the micro.blog service, and getting my Technician ham radio license). July brought a return to link posts, and I began to start responding to other posts trying to use the Webmention protocol. In September, I got interested in Federated Wiki again, had a phone call with Ward Cunningham and wrote a post or two on that topic, as well as some links. October had 3 posts, but a key one was a link to an item by Seth Godin encouraging the reader to do something every day that builds an asset for you. I decided to rededicate myself to posting something daily, whether it be just a link or something more substantial. This lead to 18 posts in November and 27 posts in December! In November, I began to get more involved with users of the micro.blog service, particularly John Philpin and Ron Chester, who I met while I was using the 1999 blog tool from Dave Winer some years ago. I did a few more podcasts, and started work on a new book (listen to podcast episode 2 for more information on that!). I have also been working with Ron Chester to set up a river of news for Bob Dylan sites, and helping with setting up some WordPress blogs for Bob Dylan writing and ham radio writing. I also wrote up instructions to help others set up rivers of news for their areas of interest. The most exciting event for me in December was to see one of my posts (Is there a RSS revival going on?) appear in Stephen Downes’ OLDaily newsletter – wow!

With this increase in posting, I am getting more and more in the habit of posting. If it is getting near the end of the day with no post, I work to at least find a link that I want to save on my blog. I have enjoyed playing with IndieWeb technologies like Webmention, and starting my “In The Car” podcast has been fun. I have even told John Philpin that I would love to be a guest on his new podcast – whoa! Finally, I have enjoyed reading and interacting with fellow bloggers on micro.blog, have had a taste of community, and I like it! I am looking forward to many great posts to come. Here’s to a great year in 2019 and a post a day!

Inspector Maigret Resources

My wife and I just finished watching the Maigret TV series on Britbox, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I did some research on the original Jules Maigret novels by Georges Simenon. Penguin began releasing updated translations of the novels in 2013, they are now up to book 55 (full available list from Penguin). The site Book Series in Order has a list of the original publication order. I have reserved the first one at the library – looking forward to it!

Sights and sounds of the Christmas season

The choir at my church, Resurrection Catholic Parish in Tualatin, Oregon, sang last week at The Festival of Lights in Portland, Oregon, hosted at The Grotto, a religious community and gardens. We performed a half hour of sacred vocal music at the Grotto Chapel, and it was a wonderful performance!

 

During the Festival of Lights, the grounds of the Grotto are filled with Christmas lights:

Finally, the choir my wife and I sing in performed at the 5pm Mass on Christmas eve. It is a contemporary group, and I made a recording of one of the prelude songs (What Child is This) performed in a jazz style by a quartet. Enjoy!

 

Looks like bad inputs to the software were a factor in this accident.

Leonard Bernstein at 100

Yesterday, I listened to a terrific episode of Radio Open Source, Christopher Lydon’s wide-ranging podcast, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. The show focused on his popular musical, West Side Story. I have played several arrangements of West Side Story and other Bernstein works in concert band and marching band, and they have been some of my favortite band pieces. The conversation between Lydon and Nigel Simeone is a fascinating analysis of many of the songs in the show and looking at the influences of classical, jazz, and Latin music on Bernstein’s creative process. Check it out!

A cool River5 trick to update subscription lists

Frank McPherson has created a wiki page on his usage of RSS, which includes River5. One aspect of using River5 is that the default setup is to have subscription lists within the folder where the app resides. On Frank’s wiki page, he gives a tip on how to use an OPML file to refer to another OPML file on a server to update the subscription list. Neat!