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Yet another social media update 🤔

Posted March 3, 2024

Thanks to the social media manager in my office, I’m now back on the Gram. She has a goal to increase Instagram followers, so I registered @7minutemiles as a private account, followed @targetcentermn and started looking at the current state of that platform. As some of you may recall, I used to be @kingsbury for years and Colleen had her account stolen by a hacker (Meta support was not helpful).

It’s really amazing to me how much content is generated exclusively for Instagram, especially in the food world. Sports and entertainment is also still going strong and I’m slowly re-discovering golf, skiing and regional travel accounts (Meta appears to limit new accounts to 100 follows a day now). A few people have discovered my new account and sent follow requests, but I’m not sure how much I will publish there.

As Cory Doctorow wrote, now is the moment for POSSE – Post Own Site, Share Everywhere. IndieWeb has also written a lot about POSSE, which I had already started to try recently on both Bluesky and Mastodon. Need to think through this a little more, as I never liked when people would just post the same stuff everywhere.

Still really love the idea of people publishing their own sites and content – whether that is a small business website, a personal blog or something else. What I do here is neither free nor easy, but there are options out there for people if you look. The vast majority of people, however, will likely continue to use services like Instagram and TikTok as their only home to the content they create and publish.

As someone who basically dropped off all social media for a time to focus on my personal site, getting eyeballs on your content is infinitely harder, FOMO is strong and with comments disabled on my site, two-way communication is definitely hindered. And as Zeldman says, “go where the people are.

Still, people like Jason Kottke remain great examples of self-publishing ideas and implementation. I love reading his posts like this one on the latest kottke.org site redesign. My RSS reader follow list hasn’t changed much over the years, but there is still some great stuff that pops up in there from people like Teri Kanefield, Brian Krebs, Charles Edge, Tom Bricker, Mistletunes and Phil Roberts.

Back on the platforms, I got to explore Threads with the new Instagram account and didn’t see a lot of personal value there. The “For You” view was awful and the “Following” option showed that most activity on accounts I care about is remaining on the Instagram side.

I still enjoy reading content on Mastodon via Ivory, which remains the closest experience to what I had with Twitter and Tweetbot. Recently learned I can follow tags there and have been enjoying the “SKIING” tag a lot. Also like Bluesky, but wish I could use a Tapbots app for that service instead of the website.

Instagram on the web is much better than before, but I’ll probably get back to using the iOS app again once I have the full follow list in place. Still happy I hibernated my LinkedIn – it will be there if I need it in the future, but don’t miss it day to day…


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Spring Skiing in February

Pic posted February 25, 2024

Finally got out today @ Welch Village with MK and it felt like my old Schweitzer spring break days


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NO JOKE ⛷️

Pic posted February 19, 2024

Back bowl at Schweitzer – year unknown


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Purchase and install ski racks ✅

Pic posted February 16, 2024

Just like olden times ⛷️


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Descente Success! ⛷️

Pic posted February 6, 2024

A store in Wayzata going out of business due to the retirement of the owners had one men’s jacket left – it fit and was on big markdown 😎


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🫡 Rough morning for errands

Posted February 5, 2024

This morning I planned to hit all the errands I didn’t get to do last week before heading to the office. Went 0-for-3: the Cottage Grove DMV wouldn’t sell me a state parks license plate, a ski shop the Descente website sent me to in Long Long didn’t actually have any jackets (neither did Hoigaard’s or Joe’s) and Rack Attack had no realistic options for Oliver.

Onward to other plans…


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Link: Papa Charlie’s destroyed in fire 😢

Linked June 24, 2023


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🫡 Lutsen Mountains Updates

Posted May 7, 2023

In relatively hard to find news, Lutsen Mountains’ last day of the season was April 16th (even though the webcam shows lots of snow still around). They are also replacing the 10th Mountain Chair on Eagle Mountain with a new “Raptor Express” lift (size and type unknown). This project appears to be different than anything in the expansion plan that is still awaiting a decision from the U.S. Forest Service. WTIP reports this should now be announced this summer.


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40 Below @ MSPIFF 42

Pic posted April 23, 2023

Great documentary on the Arrowhead 135 by director Marius Anderson at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, St. Anthony Main. Also fun to have the director and 2019 women’s champion Leah Gruhn afterwards


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Five mile hike @ Afton State Park

Pic posted April 12, 2023

Record high temp (85F), still pockets of snow here and there, LOTS of tree damage, passed a horse rider, heard loons calling, saw lots of ducks clustered on the river and could’ve taken some turns still at Afton Alps (if they had stayed open)


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The Hultgren signature is classic

Pic posted February 22, 2023

Never knew this one was at Winter Park ⛷️


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Tried a new tracking app today

Pic posted December 30, 2022

Sad how little of the day was spent actually making turns (versus riding the chairs and sitting in the chalet)


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Ski day with MK @ Wild Mountain

Pic posted December 30, 2022

I think it’s been at least 25 years since I’ve skied here


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Quite the crowd for Warren Miller

Pic posted December 2, 2022

Closest I’ll ever get to the ski bum gig


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Link: In Pursuit of Soul 2 – LUTSEN!

Linked October 26, 2022


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Link: Outside Chance with Chance York

Linked October 19, 2022


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Northland Sunday Fun Day

Pic posted April 10, 2022

Lutsen, Grand Marais, Cloquet (and The Masters)


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Bulldoge Country (+ the Northland)

Pic posted March 20, 2022

All of the favorites – the Splash Cup was cool too


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Two hours, 19 runs ❄️

Pic posted February 8, 2022

Quality time with SK @ Afton Alps


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Umm…are those cooling towers?

Pic posted February 7, 2022

Interesting look for the new Big Air


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Fun day at Giants Ridge

Pic posted January 29, 2022

Despite the cluster at the start with the ticket line


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Blast from the past

Pic posted January 17, 2022

I remember this exact Birch Park trail map (circa 1984)


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Survived day two

Pic posted March 10, 2021

Finished just before the rain @ Lutsen


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The vintage Mäser has arrived

Pic posted February 10, 2021

Via Dresser, Wisconsin


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Paulie Gatorade!

Pic posted January 31, 2021

If you know, you know


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