Jamie Thingelstad

I have been blogging for nearly 20 years and have created thousands of blog posts in that time. I’ve hosted my blog on several platforms over the year, and my writing style has evolved over those decades. I have every intention of continuing to blog for the rest of my life. And in fact, will hope to have my blog last well beyond that.

As a long-term blogger though I’ve noticed that tending and curating my archive is both difficult due to the size, but also entirely satisfying and rewarding to do. I’ve come to think of this like digital gardening. You tend to the plants, pull the weeds, clean up things.

Once you’ve gotten past the hurdle of regularly posting on your site, I highly recommending taking 5-10 minutes each day to do some small thing to curate and improve your blog.

My gardening routine in OmniFocus.

Here is how I do it.

I visit my On This Day page every day. This is perfect for me as it divides the thousands of posts into 365 slices so I’m typically only gardening around ten to twenty posts. My gardening typically involves:

• Fixing a typo in a post.
• Cleaning up a hyperlink that is worded poorly or with a broken link.
• I shouldn’t have broken images, but sometimes it happens and I fix those.
• Sometimes a post lacks the context to understand it now, so I might add that.
• There may be two short posts that would be better merged into one.
• Adding a post to a Collection or a List, as well as adding a link to those in the post itself.
• Adding links to other posts, particularly links to older posts to new ones that were written after the old one was published.

It makes me happy to make these small fixes. I bet it is like a gardener that pulls some weeds in their garden. My website will be some part of my legacy, and this small daily task makes that legacy a little bit better all the time.

Funny UX thing I’ve noticed with micro.blog.

I use the “Reply” feature way more on the web than the macOS app.

I suspect it is the difference between the “inline” interaction on the web opposed to a new window which macOS uses. I much prefer the web interaction. FYI @manton.

Homemade pasta night.

Without a question this was the best concert that I’ve ever seen at the Minnesota State Fair, and for Brandi it was one of the best shows of hers we’ve been to. The night started off different with Brandi singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, not at the end in an encore, but instead it was the 2nd song of the night. An early nod to the set list ahead and the special night.

Brandi recounted how 15 years ago they performed free shows at the Minnesota State Fair. She also shared her love of fairs and highlighted that her very first concert was seeing the Judds perform (Wynona Judd opened up for her!) at a fair in Washington. The set list went deep. Her wife Katherine came out for a song. Wynona came up for three different songs. It was an epic night filled with love.

See list of Brandi Carlile shows.

What do you do when the only opportunity for the State Fair is to arrive a couple hours before the Brandi Carlile concert in the Grandstand? There is much to do, and not much time. Move fast!

✅ Sweet Martha’s Cookies
✅ Meet old friends at Lulu’s
✅ Dinner at Baba’s
✅ Giant Sing Along
✅ Fine Arts Building
✅ Prize winning student art in Education Building
✅ Cheese Curds from Mouse Trap in Food Building
✅ Crop Art in Horticulture Building
✅ Butter heads and Ice Cream at Dairy Building
✅ Giant Slide

A few years ago we got a simple flat top grill at the lake and it has become one of our favorite ways to cook outside. I decided to upgrade and ordered this Blackstone 36" with a ton of accessories and air fryers which is a new thing for me to try. 🔥👨‍🍳

Tammy and I have both been digging into Peter Attia’s new book Outlive. The way he frames these health and wellness topics resonates strongly with me. So much that I decided to subscribe to gain access to the deeper dives on specific topics like blood pressure.

Picked up Mason Jennings records and a songbook.

Mason Jennings did a great Album Release show tonight at the Parkway. He played a wide range of new songs and old. He was joined on stage by Dan Lawonn on bass and amazing cello performances. The crowd was so into it they got him out for two encores!

Sailboats on Lake Harriet.

Birds resting on rocks at Lake Harriet this morning.

Ukraine is commemorating its 32nd year of independence today! 🇺🇦 It also marks the 547th day fighting Russia’s invasion. A stark reminder that independence isn’t simple or free.

I’ve been a subscriber of the Kyiv Independent since it launched. This is the best way to get direct English language news from Ukraine. Join me with a Kyiv Independent membership to be better informed and support independent journalism in Ukraine.

Today is also good day to read “Everything you didn’t know about Ukraine’s flag”. 🇺🇦

Wearing my Kyiv Archangel shirt and Ukraine colored heart pin I received from our team in Kyiv.