I had a meeting with a library vendor this week and she mentioned visiting my online portfolio. Despite being the owner, maker, and updater of said portfolio, it took me by surprise that someone actually Googled me. 

I don't know why that surprised me. I created the portfolio specifically with the intent that people could find out more about me and see examples of my work. I often submit professional speaking and writing proposals, and having a portfolio can be useful to link to. Plus, I use it as a platform to blog and track my reading.

I'm an elder millennial (one of the Oregon Trail generation) whose had a blog since the early days of LiveJournal. But I can still clearly remember what it was like in the "before internet" times. I have no problem sharing online but I never think of myself as someone people actively look for. Heck, this newsletter only has 150 subscribers. I write it for myself but I love sharing things and going, "Hey! You might think this is interesting, too."

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is the "live" me and then there is the "me who happens to be online." I'm the same person, and yet I view these as two different things. There's this weird online extension of myself that I forget about when I close my laptop. But that online presence is always there and other people can access it whenever they want. 

I am genuinely curious about how you view your online self. Have you Googled yourself? What do you do when you find out that people actually read/view/listen to your online presence? Do you actively curate your online presence or just let things happen?

If you’re comfortable doing so, feel free to share in the comments or hit reply to this newsletter.

I’m about 100 pages into The 1619 Project: A New Origin story. So far, the essays have fallen into the narrative non-fiction category. They are all well researched with full citations and analysis, but they read like stories. I find the impact of what they have to say is much deeper than more academic texts.

• Information is sticky. [The Atlantic]

• What we can learn about history, community, and culture from cookbooks. [The Kitchen Review of Books]

• This designer dragging Google Slides is comedic gold. [Medium]

• These travel photos are giving me wanderlust. [BuzzFeed]

• The fascinating field of horses that sprung up in someone's yard. [Atlas Obscura]

• All the links to the music made by or inspired nature on this page are fascinating. [Syllabus Project]

• We shouldn't always use money as an incentive. [Hidden Brain]

• How coffee conquered our mornings. [Gastropod]

• How to cook a dish when you don't have what the recipe calls for. [Life Kit]

• Putting big numbers in perspective. [The Indicator]

• A beautiful way of looking at ballet. [EUPHRATES]

• John Oliver takes on the critical race theory "debate." [LastWeek Tonight]

• We decided to binge watch old episodes of MythBusters this week. I love how they essentially gave up on busting myths and just moved to investigating weird sayings, urban legends, and random stuff that would let them blow things up. [Discovery]

• We've been on an Indian kick lately. The husband made delicious slow cooker chicken tikka masala meatballs. The sauce was flavorful without being too spicy (we left the chili out) and worked well with cauliflower rice. We thought it was weird that there were no breadcrumbs in the meatballs, but they still came out tender and light. [PureWow]

• I love any excuse to make pickled red onions. This week, we tried mushroom, potato, and chorizo tacos. Tasty. Really tasty with pickled red onions on top. Next time, we'll use "real" chorizo as opposed to chicken chorizo sausage. That way the potatoes have a chance to soak up some of the chorizo flavor. [What's Gaby Cooking]

Given [gesticulates wildly] everything… I think today is a good time to share one of my preferred library skills teaching resources. Media Bias / Fact Check helps you see the biases in new sources and shows you best practices for evaluating. It keeps up with current events which can be insanely helpful when checking out the latest news floating around. Plus, you can see profiles of individual news sources if you want to learn more about their bias, reporting style, or history.

Trying a new thing this week. I read a lot of newsletters and I think many of them are worth sharing. In this new occasional section, I will shout out a newsletter I have been enjoying lately.

This week, I want to recommend 10+1 Things. If you like this newsletter, you are bound to like 10+1. In it, author Rishikesh Sreehari shares 10 (+1) interesting things he’s encountered online. I love that it’s a vibrant mix of interesting material that runs the gamut from science to IKEA and toasters to career insights. Each issue is wonderfully curated and designed making for delightful learning.

A live look at me trying to get through the first few hectic days of this week to reach the random long weekend I gave myself.