As Expected

My rather ridiculous medical crisis punted The Talk with my supervisor, but it we finally had it on Sunday. It went as expected.

Image shows a kitten with its paw up, with the caption "High 5!!!"

Actually, we only had half The Talk, because he’d spent (part of) the weekend thinking of how the projector time could be made fair, and came up with a plan that allows everyone to take a turn, whilst allowing the top performers on our team extra turns based on stats. Everybody wins: he’s got an extra way to incentivize us, and we’ve now got a system where everybody gets a chance to subject the team to their entertainment tastes. We’re better off than we were before, when it was random and led to conflict and didn’t give our supervisor new ways to ensure we stay in the lead. That’s something I wish more people would understand when these issues come up: when you face them head-on, when you think them through, you can so often find ways to not only make things fair, but improve them for everyone. Everybody wins. Continue reading “As Expected”

As Expected
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Interlude: Moment of Silence

Image shows Mount St. Helens, nearly devoid of snowcap and looking very grim, with the curved granite memorial in front of her.
Memorial to the people killed in the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Johnston Ridge Volcano Obervatory, Mount St. Helens, WA.

REID TURNER BLACKBURN

WALLACE NORWOOD BOWERS

JOEL K. COLTEN

RONALD LEE CONNER

TERRY A. CRALL

CLYDE ANDREW CROFT

JOSE A. DIAS

ELLEN DILL

WILLIAM (BILL) DILL

ARLENE H. EDWARDS

JOLENE H. EDWARDS

BRUCE EDWARD FADDIS

JAMES F. FITZGERALD JR.

THOMAS G. GADWA

ALLEN R. HANDY

PAUL HIATT

DAVID A. JOHNSTON

DAY ANDREW KARR

DAY BRADLEY KARR

MICHAEL MURRAY KARR

BOB M. KASEWETER

CHRISTY LIANN KILLIAN

JOHN G. KILLIAN

HAROLD (BUTCH) KIRKPATRICK

ROBERT E. LANDSBURG

ROBERT LYNDS

GERALD O. MARTIN

GERALD LLOYD MOORE

KEITH A. MOORE

SHIRLEY (SAM) MOORE

KEVIN CHRISTOPHER MORRIS

MICHELLE LEA MORRIS

EDWARD JOSEPH MURPHY

ELEANOR JEANNE MURPHY

DONALD R. PARKER

JEAN ISABELL PARKER

NATALIE ALI PARKER

RICHARD A. PARKER

WILLIAM PAUL PARKER

MERLIN JAMES PLUARD

RUTH KATHLEEN PLUARD

FRED D. ROLLINS

MARGERY ELLEN ROLLINS

PAUL F. SCHMIDT

BARBARA LEA SEIBOLD

RONALD DALE SEIBOLD

DONALD JAMES SELBY

EVLANTY V. SHARIPOFF

LEONTY V. SKOROHODOFF

DOUG THAYER

HARRY R. TRUMAN

JAMES S. TUTE

VELVETIA (VELVET) TUTE

KAREN MARIE VARNER

BEVERLY C. WETHERALD

KLAUS ZIMMERMAN

 

Previous: Prelude to a Catastrophe: “The Volcano Could Be Nearing a Major Event.”

Next: The Cataclysm: “Vancouver! Vancouver! This Is It!”

 

Originally published at Scientific American/Rosetta Stones.

Interlude: Moment of Silence

Guest Post: “I know better now.”

This is an email I received from my heart-sister Nicole, in regards to this post, on which she couldn’t comment because computers can be right assholes sometimes. I love this woman, people. You can see one of the countless reasons why right here:

 

I used to be one of those “just accept it” people, as you know. In fact, I used to be a card-carrying IFB, planned to go to college for an MRS degree kind of person.

I know better now.

And now that I feel my eyes are much more open, it makes me heartsick to see what is still allowed in what is called a developed nation. The idea that Americans are enlightened is a joke.

I want to help in any way I can. I’ll share posts, help promote you, whatever you need. You want to post on my blog? Say the word.

I am ashamed that for far too long I let things go, and by not doing anything, helped perpetuate a world that I don’t want my daughter to grow up in. I can’t do that anymore. I won’t. There’s no fucking reason for anyone to ever feel less-than.

Image of a dove and its baby snuggling together on a branch.

Oh, my fuck, yes. Exactly this.

And for those of you who haven’t been reading her blog, you’re missing out on a lot of excellent and thought-provoking posts. Go there. Now.

A few recent must-reads:

A rant-y post about a recent conversation about religion

How my faith made me kind of hate myself

Don’t love me anyway.

Guest Post: “I know better now.”

Ada Lovelace Gets Honored on Wikimedia Commons

This is actually quite intensely cool: this portrait of Ada Lovelace was today’s Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Day:

Watercolor portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (Ada Lovelace), 1840. Portrait by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780–1860). Image courtesy Science & Society Picture Library via Wikimedia Commons.
Watercolor portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (Ada Lovelace), 1840. Portrait by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780–1860). Image courtesy Science & Society Picture Library via Wikimedia Commons.

Amazing to think that this computer I’m writing on exists in part because of her, a poet’s daughter who became a mathematician, and explored the collaboration between human and machine.

Charles Babbage called her “The Enchantress of Numbers.” I might have to do a Halloween costume round that…

Ada Lovelace Gets Honored on Wikimedia Commons

When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture

So the thing about having your consciousness raised is that you can’t really lower it again. When your attention’s repeatedly drawn to something important, when people chip through your resistance and decades of cultural conditioning and open your eyes to things you should have seen long ago, you can’t close them again without seeing after images.

Image show a gray kitty with yellow eyes peering over a table with an expression of concern and horror. Caption says, "What has been seen cannot be unseen."
Take the fucking projector that has caused a good part of angst in my personal life just lately. Years ago, I’d not have noticed the endless parade of dude stuff. Dude stuff was just fine with me. Who wanted that icky chick stuff, anyway? Who cared if the ladiez didn’t get a look-in – they’d probably choose some awful chick flick thing. Eww.

And then I started spending my time around people who, like fish investigating the invisible medium they swam through, had discovered such things as everyday sexism and microagressions and the billion and one ways we tell women and other minorities they’re second class. Continue reading “When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture”

When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture

The Saga of the Salivary Gland

Look, it’s not a tumor.

Image of white kitten on top of a larger white cat that is grumpily saying

Not that you’d know that from the reaction. You know how they tell you to see your doctor if your sore throat doesn’t go away or worsens? Well, going in to week three of this wretched illness, everything was improving except my throat, which was busily getting worse. My regular doctor has taken a sabbatical to be with her kids, and it seemed rather asinine anyway to drive all the way to Totem Lake and see a real doctor over a silly little illness like this, so I went to our on-site clinic. One torture session with a cotton swab and a needle-stick later, we’d decided it wasn’t mono or strep, just a persistent virus. No worries. Come back if it gets worse.

Later that night, I got a sharp pain in the roof of my mouth where the hard palette meets the soft, near where all that crap drains from your sinuses down your throat. Felt like a canker sore, and there was a little bump that night that was a large painful bump in the morning. Continue reading “The Saga of the Salivary Gland”

The Saga of the Salivary Gland

Caution: Emo Times Ahead

First of all: all of my love and thanks to you, my darlings, for standing with me when I needed you. Having you in my cheering section, virtual arms around me, and telling me to fight the good fight has definitely kept me from dissolving. Knowing that I’ve inspired some of you to fight the fight yourselves is immeasurably rewarding. There is a reason for doing this. What I lose is balanced by what we gain.

B and I… aren’t good. Continue reading “Caution: Emo Times Ahead”

Caution: Emo Times Ahead

The Right Thing Isn’t the Easy Thing

“Just go along to get along.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“You’re blowing this out of proportion.”

Yeah. That’s what they always say.

So there’s these little things, at work, going on. We’re in an industry dominated by women, but by a twist of fate, nearly everyone on my current team is male. Male supervisor, only three women, and neither of the other two women is what you’d call a feminist. One’s too timid to stand athwart the tide, the other one doesn’t care. That leaves me as the Lone Social Justice Ranger.

And it sucks. Continue reading “The Right Thing Isn’t the Easy Thing”

The Right Thing Isn’t the Easy Thing

Prelude to a Catastrophe: “The Volcano Could Be Nearing a Major Event”

The mountain boomed. Steam and ash soared to 3,962 meters (13,000 feet), announcing the end to a two-week lull. At the top of Shoestring Glacier, an opening steamed. It was May 7th, 1980, and Mount St. Helens was letting everyone know she wasn’t ready to sleep yet.

Continue reading “Prelude to a Catastrophe: “The Volcano Could Be Nearing a Major Event””

Prelude to a Catastrophe: “The Volcano Could Be Nearing a Major Event”