For last week’s Why Wiggle Work I gave a mini tour of our Discord channels. Today, I wanted to share a look at our specific events. These are always some of the trickier aspects of navigating an online community. There are different time zones, different work schedules, and it can be challenging to get people’s attention to let them know what’s going on. But, when it works out it’s absolutely delightful and goes a long way in establishing proper bonds.

I’m aiming to publish Some Super Short blog posts on Wiggle Work Wednesdays revolving around Why Wiggle Work–why you should join us and why people are sticking around. I usually stick with Mastodon posts around this topic on Wednesdays, but I think it would be helpful to be able to provide a bit more insight. Choosing a community, after all, is a big decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

One of my favorite aspects of the Wiggle Work community so far is the daily discussion prompts in the general channel. Monday through Saturday, I post a prompt to kick off the day. Sometimes, the discussions stay within what’s posted, and better yet, sometimes, we end up on a weird path that at first glance, has no connection to the original prompt. For instance, one day, we started with “Friendly Fight” topics like dogs vs cats and landed on food safety guidelines. It’s a fun, unique way to get to know each other better fairly quickly since it brings up topics that would likely never come up organically–like someone sharing that they tape holiday cards to their ceiling.

I have yet to talk about this in much detail. Partly because it’s been too painful, partly because I don’t know what’s happening most of the time, and partly because this problem hasn’t concluded. I’m realizing more and more, though, that since I appreciate when people share similar stories in real-time (the r/microdiscectomy community comes to mind) and that a “conclusion” isn’t so straightforward, I should maybe get this out there to help others and myself along this complicated recovery journey.

I recently put a WEIRD presentation together for a hobby happy hour in the Wiggle Work community: Bonkers for Bugs. It focused on the three primary types of bugs my son and I raise together, the three Bs–bees, butterflies, and beetles. It was a lot of fun to sort through all these hundreds of pics from over the years and fully realize the important role it has played in our lives and in our relationship. The bugs themselves are undoubtedly very cool, but more than that, it’s a hobby that fostered curiosity and research, created bonding and “hyper-focus” opportunities, and drove an appreciation for pollinators and nature. So, here’s that presentation in blog form.

I have been hyperfocused lately on AI use’s current and future implications in general, but more specifically with ChatGPT and neurodiversity. Ultimately, trying to think of all the potential ways it can create more inclusive and accessible jobs, classrooms, and communities–not only as a tool for neurodivergent individuals but for others looking to better understand and adequately accommodate them. As always, I figured a blog post would be the best way to get my head straight around all these exciting and hopeful thoughts.