The Ancient Technology of RSS
And February Rabbit Holes
How have you been?
Since taking my foot off the gas here at Substack I’ve freed up a lot of time and creative energy. If you’re feeling pressure to post weekly it’s worth asking yourself what your intentions are. If it’s all about growth there’s no doubt there is a benefit to posting weekly.
But if you’re looking holistically at your creative ecosystem there may be another rhythm that’s better for you.
The time that I didn’t spend writing newsletters I’ve been…
Reading Norse poetry.1
Baking sourdough bread.
Studying The Wheel of Time from a craft perspective.
Trying out a new note taking platform called Obsidian.2
Working on my anthology project.
Curating my feed (and subsequently reading more Substacks.)
As an elder of the internet, I’d like to take a moment to point out the ancient technology of an RSS feed.
An RSS feed is a chronological, non-algorithmic feed of what you choose to add.
It is basically the holy grail of the internet.
But we left it behind in favor of the siren song of social media.
Before socials, if you wanted to follow updates from multiple sources, you used an RSS reader. Every blog and podcast has an RSS feed (even Substack.)
It’s baked into the DNA of the internet.
What I’ve done is moved most of my Substack reading to a free RSS reader called Feedly.
Most RSS feeds will automatically pull the post and strip away the formatting - meaning you don’t see certain Substack features like embedded posts. I have my Feedly set to open all posts in the web browser. (Here’s how.) This also makes it easy to comment or share. There are lots of ways to show love to posts without subscribing.
My actual subs are now the newsletters I read pretty much every time. The ones I don’t want to miss. If I have time to read more I can pop over to Feedly to see what’s new or to check certain categories like Food or Art.3
I’m also testing out the app again since learning this…
I haven’t done much art making recently because I’ve been focusing on curation projects (like
& Entwined.) But I have submitted a poem to Motherlore magazine and am preparing works for Painting at Night and Mothering.I’ve also been doing a lot of journaling and research for my fiction novel. I’ve started writing at my antique secretary instead of the couch and it’s been a lovely change (I’m writing at it now.) Davy has finally reached a stage where he’s happy to play LEGO beside me while I write and it’s a game changer!
Other bits and bobs I’d like to recommend this week.
Read
My favorite new sub is
. It reminds me of old days of the internet. Just because social media wants us all to yell over each other and be content machines doesn’t mean we have to comply. This post is a great place to start.
If you’re neurodivergent I can’t recommend this post by
enough. This sounds deceptively simple, but if you struggle to make time for the things you love this process can be revolutionary.Looking back this is how I climbed out of a very dark place in 2020 to where I am now.
I also enjoyed this piece by
using sensory overload as a lens to view work stress.Sometimes we need to reduce the number of layers.
Here is a wonderful piece about book writing from
.Every creator works differently and I love hearing specifics about process.
Watch
Font and design nerds this is worth opening Instagram for.
Also, this whole feed of embroidered books.
Listen
Another process chat from
.What comes first? The idea or the material?
Play
We played a lot of Dreamlight Valley over the holidays. If you’re a Disney nerd and you like cozy games (where you harvest plants, craft, and collect things) this game is for you. I don’t know why I find this type of game play so regulating, but I just do. Here are some selfies!
One Year Ago
This time last year I was reflecting on a year long creative collaboration with
. Instagram brought us together and I’m so thankful for it.A Year of Magic ✨
We exchanged photos every day. Little moments of synchronicity between the Northwest of Arkansas and the Northeast of England. I also noticed how well this form of connection suited my neurodivergence. The structured project soon became a container for friendship to grow. Life and art bled into each other.
Last Week
In case you missed it, my last post explored my experience submitting work to various opportunities and exhibiting art for the first time.
From the kitchen table to NYC 🗽
Flashback to four years ago… It was Christmas Day and I was sitting at the kitchen anxiously trying to finish a weaving to submit to an exhibition about motherhood. Here’s a video showing the weaving process. I made data weavings recording each time I was interrupted by tying a knot.
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Let’s discuss.
How do you manage your Substack reading queue?
Are you an internet elder? What do you miss about the old magic?
What does your creative ecosystem need right now?
Cheers,
Specifically listening to the audiobook of this version (affiliate link) whilst reading along in hardcover and taking notes. I’m researching the Norns (Norse Fates) and Yggdrasil (Norse Tree of Life) for a fantasy novel I’m working on.
You can scroll down to the bottom of this post for a little update about how I’m integrating Obsidian into my hybrid (analogue / digital) note taking practice.
Actually if Substack created categories we could have one called “Favorites” and it would solve a lot of our overwhelm I think.
Thank you for the link to my post, it’s a way of thinking that’s helped me so much, I really want to share it with others who might benefit too! 🙏💜
I really like obsidian, but I’ve never had the patience to learn how to make the most of it (although I did use it for a dnd campaign a while ago and it worked pretty well). I’m interested to hear how you get on.
I’ve been thinking about how I use Substack too, I’ve had a lot of overwhelm for the last couple of weeks so have hardly read anything. Trying to balance my FOMO with my capacity to read is tricky, but I probably need to rationalise my subs. Maybe an rss feed is the answer 🤔
(or I just stop reading anything else until I’ve finished Wheel of Time)
There's so many things in this I love!! The things you have been working on admist less time writing on substacks - so much joy here! You also reminded me I wanted to try baking my own bread so I'm going to go do that as soon as I finish this comment. Also, the amount of great links you shared - I'm hooked on it all! And lastly, can we just admire that antique secretary for a little longer....