Two readings: one written, one of what may be written. A novel to finish, Turkish coffee grounds to use to read the future. Though I haven’t ventured into the mysteries of prophesy, the siren song of the knowing prediction calls to me, as it does to many of us. And I’m all too aware of the economic and technical apparatuses that do data-driven predictive analytics. It’s funny, my years of studying Western technologies and cultural practices have made me less skeptical and more curious about older, othered technologies of prophasizing. The coffee grounds. The stars. The story. …

It was a last minute trip south. With four of us masked and two of us vaccinated, in late June we planned to travel — finally. To jointly commemorate my circles around the sun and celebrate — a year later — that I completed my doctorate.

In May 2020, I defended my degree in an oversized shirt to mask the sweat of panic. Sheltering in place in the basement, I was teaching from home. N was working from home. The children, out of school and daycare, were just home. We told them to help themselves to goldfish crackers and watch…

How can literature be a love letter for change? Two weeks ago, I attended an online literary event where this was a central question with Hugo House. The event, “Writing Off the Patriarchy,” featured four fantastic local writers: Sonora Jha, Kristen Millares Young, Soniah Kamal, and Stuart Getty.

The conversations raised hard questions: How do we carry our grief? What does it look like? How do we grapple with the pain of being expected to protect abusers in our lives? The pain of estrangement, of betrayal?

There were tears. Bravery. An active chat channel and dozens of heart emojis.

❤

…

People have lived along this river for ten millennia. In several indigenous languages, its name translates to ‘big river;’ in Upper Chinook, the name is Wimahl, in Sahaptin, Nch’iWana or Nchi wana, in Sinixt swah’netk’qhu. The the north bank is Skamania, which comes from the word for ‘swift waters’ in Upper Chinook.

Seven took this photo from a gorge carved years ago near the Bridge of the Gods. Ours was a spirited and wonderful visit. The waters were calm, the winds did pickup. We hiked daily.

Upon return, I notice the photographs documenting our stay at a picturesque lodge are…

Work culture of the 2010s is over, whether or not we go “back to normal.” But in the last few years of the decade, I was immersed in research and analysis of remote freelance writing work in English after the 2008 Recession. With the massive — and uneven — social changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought on workplaces, my findings are all too prescient on what was, and is yet, to come.

So I’m sharing them. My dissertation manuscript (link at end of story) is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. This means you’re not allowed to make…

I want to be read so I read into everything

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I am stretching myself out this year into creative writing. I've harbored the desire to write stories for years. Now, I have released that desire. It no longer has safe harbor. This makes me feel unhinged, which is a necessary danger.

I've looked for fellow travelers. “We need you,” wrote Sabrina Orah Mark in an email for a workshop I took with her. To be needed moves me to action. Since, I have been writing avalanches of words — raw and strange. …

My latest piece for Data Journalism, "The Promise of Wikidata," describes the difference between the promise of Wikidata and how it actually works.

While the piece is written for journalists, the style is easy-to-read (imho). There are excellent quotes, visuals, and screenshares. Anyone curious about the hype around this machine-readable linked open data set and what it can and can't do right now will find this a useful starting place.

I like to write using examples. And I am purposeful in the examples I use. In this piece, I write about Accra, Ghana; Polish women protesting the abortion ban; research…

The free encyclopedia requires digging for best use. And I've just published an omnibus piece for Data Journalism on how to do it.

https://datajournalism.com/read/longreads/harnessing-wikipedias-superpowers-for-journalism