Blog: IndieWeb Carnival

My Site Redesign is Good Enough - IndieWeb Carnival April 2024

2024-04-30 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Pablo Morales

I recently redesigned my website and let me tell you, It was long overdue. The redesign was on my to do list from a long time a go. Things were a mess in the code. It's still a work in progress. I was using multiple style sheets (I'm still reducing this). I was using a theme I had modified and I was using Tachyons, a CSS framework. Having to add more CSS classes for specific purposes was getting overbearing. Sure my blog posts were getting pretty with various designs and looked a little nicer. I hate to say it, I was often more worried about what my website looked like instead of focusing more of the quality of my posts. An RSS reader simply pulls the content and none of the styling that comes with CSS classes.

I was starting to lose it. I simply needed to strip my website of any unnecessary CSS and classes. I was also limited on time so I couldn't commit to something from scratch. I found a simple CSS framework that provided me the bare minimum that made my website look very simple but more put together.

The name of the CSS framework is...wait for it... called, simple.css. It's a CSS framework that has no classes built in. Simply load this and boom! Your website is mostly organized without the "extra" stuff. It's super simple to override the CSS code to add something specific.

Using simple.css was good enough for me. Simply, it was a no brainer. It allowed me to address the issues, and it was good enough to implement. simple.css is simple and fast. At this time, I don't feel the need to commit to designing from scratch the CSS to make my site pretty. Going minimal is good enough for me.

This is why 'Good Enough' is enough to get things done.

This blog post is in response to Aaron's, known as RisingThumb, IndieWeb Carnival April 2024 post on good enough. Thank you for hosting this month's carnival. Everyone and anyone is welcome to host an IndieWeb Writing Carnival.

IndieWeb Carnival November 2023 – Community and belonging

2023-11-27 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

I've been looking forward for this month's Indieweb Carnival on Community and Belonging hosted by Alex Sirac. Merci Alex pour ta présentation sur la sujet de communauté.

Community and belonging for me means, a place I feel that I belong and a place where I can be accepted for who I am. It's been hard to integrate into some communities. Often, being the only person color in a community has been difficult at times.We enter and leave communities as we older. Some communities change for the greater good and others change not for the greater good. I belong to different communities. My background and life experiences have influenced who I've become and the things I've been interested in. I've entered new ones while I've left others. Some communities I can come back and be able to jump right in right where I left off. There are communities where it was only during a certain period of my life and might be harder to be in now. There are communities where I've had to leave because it no longer followed who I was as a person or it wasn't good for me. Some became dangerous in their vission

I'd like to talk about community and belonging in these three (3) situations or places.

  • Being a Multilingual
  • Being a Student in France
  • IndieWeb

I'd like to write about these topics in this carnival but I'd like to take make a dedicated post with a slightly different approach.

  • Being Mexican and American
  • Growing up in Nebraska

Being Multilingual

Here in the United States, it's not common for people to speak another language. Which is a shame. Growing up in a small town in Nebraska, it often seemed that it was few of us who would consistently speak another language. Even at a young age, I felt we had a small unintentional community. I was very fortunate to grow up bilingual - Spanish & English (in this order). Then I learned French in my teens.

Being a multilingual here in the United States has allowed me to be join new communities. With the amount of people who don't speak at least a second language on a constant basis, it almost feels exclusive to be multilingual. It allows me to have deeper connections with others. It allows me to belong in various communities. When I was living in Omaha, One example is attending French speaking events at Alliance Française and on Meet-Up. It was so amazing that I could find so many individuals who I can speak French with and share many of the world views. It was nice to meet so many francophiles and francophones who enjoyed sharing culture, language, cuisine, wine and so much more. I would become great friends with these individuals. Now that I live far away, I know if I were to visit or move back, I could rejoin this community. Going back to a place where I'm a visitor and one I am familiar with, I know I can find a place of belonging again.

Growing up in a place that lacked lingual diversity, or to simply put it - growing up in a very vanilla place, it also seemed that there was a community that didn't seem to like people speaking different languages. It seemed to alienate them. There seemed to be pressure to join the community where one needed to behave and present themselves with the majority. I know people who had my cultural background give into that community and not speak their language spoken at home. Parents gave in the idea that there kids will be more valuable in society if they don't speak another language. I felt supported and limited by these co-existing communities. I'd be lying if at one point I didn't fall in this negative community. I felt at times I needed this negative community to to belong. Learning to belong to something that conflict with my values felt like being pulled in both directions.

Being a Student in France

I have very fond memories of being an exchange student in France. I studied at the Université de Strasbourg at the age 22. Being a student in France was different compared the attending university in the United States. Being in University you build Not only was I apart of the exchange student community but I was also a student trying to improve my French abilities. I was the only student from the university back home who attended a program in France. I isolated myself the Americans. In a way I left the "American" community for many months. I saw this as a blessing to form new habits and quickly find a new community or communities. We were here to learn the French language. We all were from various parts of the world. I was hanging out with all the people and students from France, the rest of the European Union, South America, and basically anyone from around the world. Just not the Americans

We were homesick. We bonded with food. We made meals from our respective cultures. We would learn about their upbringing and how they got to France. We all bonded together because many of us had experiences with immigrant culture. Many of these students were also immigrants to France or have been in the European Union already. They were trying establish themselves and incorporate themselves in the society. Seeing them everyday reminded me of my parents telling me stories of them trying to make their way in the United States. I understand being in a new place and trying to find a sense of belonging can be daunting.

Yes, I could do many of these things back at my home university. There was such a deeper connection with these international students. We were living and studying in a place where being a student meant so much more. I felt I could have genuine conversations with people. I really felt like I belonged here and understand what it's like to be student outside the United States. Student community here is nothing like in the United States.

IndieWeb

Oh the IndieWeb! I joined back in March 2023. I heard of the IndieWeb throughout the years but didn't think much of it. I'm happy that I got the interest and courage to join. This is a community that I am truly happy to have found. It has become a community I truly feel that I am apart of. The best part of it is getting to meet so many great people and interacting with them on a weekly basis. People are so willing to help each other out. I've had people reach out if there is something wrong with my website or microformats are not placed correctly. It's been pretty rad attending Homebrew Website Club. Every single one of them has been pretty amazing. I really enjoy the encouragement of taking initiative to as planning events, starting writing carnivals, etc. It's a pretty open group.

The IndieWeb has helped me grow as an individual. It has also rekindled the fire in things I didn't think I would find interest again. One example of that is blogging. It This community has helped me find a new place of belonging.

I will admit since I'm still relatively new to the community, I'm still a little shy and still learning the ropes. I know that this is part of the journey.

Conclusion

I'm happy with all these experiences.

Round-Up of October 2023 IndieWeb Carnival

2023-11-04 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

October is a wrap! 🎃 I hosted October's IndieWeb Carnival on self-care. Thank you to everyone who participated in this month's IndieWeb Carnival topic. I appreciate all the responses I recieved. I recieved so many perspectives on the topic. I chose this theme as this is something I am working on improving for myself.

Carnival Stats

Responses
10
Happiness
∞

Responses

Sara Jakša - Using 4 E of Cognition to Conceptualise Self-Care

  • I really enjoyed the way way you structured your reponse using the 4 E of cognition: embodied, embedded, extended, and enactivistic. I really appreciate the approaches using your educational background to explain. It has really helped me see things in a different perspective. I agree that self-care is "a process to adapt my life". One must adapt. You're right, I can't ignore self-care because whether or not I felt I was ignoring it. I was doing it whether I admit it or not. I now see it as having a low battery. It had some juice. I realize now I was also scared of myself, nervous of outcomes, and more. I realized many things. I ignored my ehealth. I really enjoy how you ended the response, "do the self-care for the reason of your better wellbeing." I am doing this for myself.Thank you for being so straight foward and not beating around the bush.

Grigor Malo - Should we care about self-care?

  • I really enjoyed "[your] answer to the prompt" and the approach. I would agree with you some self-care/help guides do take the wrong approach. It often seems like how to appear to be fine on the outside but not actually on the inside. It's been hard in the pastto find self-care/help material related to my cultural background or for individuals who live in a multiculural life. There is no one size fits all. Hyper-individualism or individualism has been a conflicting thing for me. Why do we need to isolate ourself when things can also be experienced with other people as well. I also agree that action at the end of the day starts with the individual. "Caring about your self is a fundamentally selfish endeavour? Not really, or at least not if practiced properly." That is a beautifully written phrase. I share many of the same thoughts on wellness industry and the corporate wellness. You really put in the persepective how much we buy into capitalism to feel better about ourselves.

Frank Meeuwsen - Global PSC Awareness Day and selfcare

  • First, I like the multilingual approach created for this post. Thank you for sharing about Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and your experience living with this disease. I really enjoy the approach you take. With self-care you learn to see things in a positive light. I agree with "to rest more and consciously slow down." This has been something I've been learning as well. It became unhealth and bad for mental health. Strecthing yourself thin is not feasible anymore. I appreciate you aspect on learning to take control of a situation. "I know I can affect it. I know now that I can change it." This resonates with me so much!

Jeremy Cherfasi - Self-care Success

  • I really your approach of enjoying the little and big things in life. I can agree that traveling has always been a way of self-care. A way to disconnect physically from the place one is based out of to a different environment. Self-care to you seems that you truly enjoy life and you genuinely enjoy the things you do such as biking, baking, etc. You wrote having "a sense of purpose and of mastery" is something I resonate with. I'm still trying to find my sense of purpose. I'm learning not to stretch myself thin an focus on the things I love. I love who you wish the drivers to take care of themselves

Tracy Durnell - Extending my understanding of self-care

  • Right off the bat, your approach on the "bigger whole" is a like a piece of the puzzle or a train network. If any of it is missing, it simply doesn't work well. Community is so important. Unforntunately we live in a very individualistic society and we need community more than ever. "So much of self-care is treating the symptoms rather than the source, because the source is systemic." I didn't think about it this way. I recently started going to therapy and I thought the goal was to get to the get to the root of the problem while hitting the symptoms like a ping pong. Thank you for sharing the books you mentioned in your response. There are so many self-care books it's hard to find where to start. I'm trying to get to the right path. Oh man, this is hits hard: "Showing up for our friends better, sometimes that means showing up for ourselves, and sometimes it’s shared." This makes me reflect, when I wasn't for there for myself, I wasn't there for my community in this case, my friends. If I wasn't Self-care shows that you can care for yourself and for others. This has been a year of improvement but so much I still have to reach. Thank you for sharing this perspective on community and individuals. This opened my eyes in so many ways.

Anthony Ciccarello - Creating space to feel my emotions

  • I can relate so much with Anthony's response. Right away, the second sentence, "My natural inclination is to bury my own emotions to protect my relationships" is very similar to what I've felt over the years. All at my expense. Bottling it all up just wears a peson down. I've been very hesitant about sharing that I've been seeing a therapist and how I've started to open up a lot more to people on what's happening in life. I really appreciate your emphasis and approach on the word, space. A space can have so many purposes. I've been learning how to use spaces inside and outside as more than being inside and outside. The space one uses can truly affect the outcomes of self-care. Spaces to think, spaces, to move, spaces to unwind, and a space to grow demonstrate healthy, safe, self-reflection and so much more.

Jo - Things to do offline

  • Jo does a great job at "kill[ing] two birds with one stone" by addressing the self-care prompt and a post I wrote on books. The response is amazing. I really like perspective on reading books. I don't discourage reading not matter the format. We live in a world where we have so many different mediums of reading. Reading away from anything that has a microchip of any kind is for me a form of reset. Just like you mentioned, sometimes the only way to get access to specific content is via digital means. Reading physical really helps reground and reconnect with the digital world. Having solo time and hanging out with people is great but a balance is necessary. You defintely don't want to go to far on the solo end or not having solo time and spending too much time with others. It's a preference in many aspects. I enjoyed your self-care activity list! I get lost with looking at vinyls at the record shop.

CJ - Self-Care and Routine

  • CJ has some great points on find things at are less "productive-feeling." For the longest time, doing things like watching Netflix or go to the movies, I felt that I was wasting time and I pushed these activities away. It's been hard just to disconnect from my obligations and I've come to the realizations that I need to sit my ass down and just relax. It's not necessary to be always engaged in things that are "productive." It's productive to let your mind engage in other things!

Alex Sirac - Improving our relationship to news

  • Alex has a written a great post on self-care by focusing on news consumption. Right away you wrote, "Not only do I spend too much time on the Internet – I spend way too much time consuming content and news." You took the words right out of my mouth. News isn't limited to listening to reading it online, or watching it on the television (or historically radio). Now the news in the 21st comes in so many different mediums such as podcasts. I've seen an increase of this negative news. It discourages me to use any form of social media, even decentralized social media. I want to ignore but it seems hard not to even if you don't click links. "Curating a me-friendly news experience" by "find[ing] the things that bring you joy and give your brain a break from the hate." It's important to step away from even if it's for a little while. We can't let it consume us to the core. It will make use dark and bitter. I catch myself becoming angry. You make a great point on finding the right sources and filtering things out by using an RSS reader. Even I as an avid New York Times and leftist news person, have to turn off my computer and throw my phone across the room to reattach myself to the world around me. It's got to the point where I have to go into my terminal and turn off the Docker container and turn of my RSS reader. There has to be a better way for everything. Support local journalism because we need to know what's happening in our hometowns and the places we live. We need to now what's happening in our communities to make a difference and become aware what's around us.

James G - Self Care

  • James wrote beautiful response regarding self-care. It is complicated! This has been something I've had to learn the hardway, "I know, deep down, that feeling is unsustainable: one can't be creative every day." We want to create more every damn day. It's not always feasible. I agree with the following, "I don't need to create new things all the time." The way I see it, is work on the things you are working on and give it your full attention in a reasonable manner. It's great to find comfort in things we are familiar with. It allows us to be vulnerable.

Late or Missing Reponses

If you still would like to write a response for October, I'd be happy to recieve more. If you sent me a response and I missed it, please email me directly at pablo@lifeofpablo.com. I'll update this post.

November IndieWeb Carnival

Now, I will pass torche to Alex Sirac. Alex is writing on community and belonging for the month of November. C'est parti !

Interested in participating and/or hosting an IndieWeb Carnival, please click here! Remember, anyone and everyone can participate.

This post has been syndicated to IndieWeb News.

IndieWeb Carnival October 2023 - Self Care and Routine

2023-10-01 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

IndieWeb Carnival October 2023 - Self-Care and Routine

Taking Care of Yourself is Important

This month I am hosting this month's IndieWeb Carnival on self-care and routine. Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate in the carnival.

What is self-care ?

"a multidimensional, multifaceted process of purposeful engagement in strategies that promote healthy functioning and enhance well-being." [1]

"Self-care means taking care of yourself so that you can be healthy, you can be well, you can do your job, you can help and care for others, and you can do all the things you need to and want to accomplish in a day." [2]

There is no one size fits all model for everyone. People's backgrounds such as culture, spiritual beliefs, life experiences, etc influence how self-care is practices. It could also be proactive or reactive. There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

Self-Care in the Digital Age

We live in age where we are always connected online. This also adds complexities balancing our lives. Setting boundaries isn't just limited to people. Being always connected to the web is also taxing on our mental health.

How Am I performing Self-Care ?

Learning self-care has been something I've been working on a lot this year. It has been something I neglected for many, many years. It has helped me be more aligned and be more connected with myself. Finding a self-care routine isn't exactly a straight line to follow. I'm still finding ways to better improve my routine. It's been important to adjust as I go because it's a continious learning process. Some things worked a few months ago and now it isn't working as well before.

  • Setting boundaries with myself and people
  • Actually find time for myself and appreciate alone time.
  • Actually address insecurities
  • Excercise such as running or biking.
  • Disconnect from digital devices as needed
  • Picking up new hobbies such as hacky sack.

I invite you to write a post on self-care.

Here are some prompts to help you get started or to build off of this post.

  • What type of self-care routines do partake in?
  • What are some hard realizations once you started to take care of yourself?
  • How do you incorporate self-care in difficult times?
  • What has been your journey in reaching self-care and your routines.
  • How does your self-care routine differ during the week vs the weekend/going on holiday?
  • How do you take care of yourself.
  • Do you check in with yourself too make sure your self-care routine is keeping up with your needs?

I will create a roundup post on the 1 November 2023 on all the responses I recieve. I will post on Indieweb News

Send me your responses via:

If you would like to host a future monthly IndieWeb Carnival, please check out the details on the IndieWeb Wiki.

This post has been syndicated to IndieWeb News.