Sumana

some things I'm currently doing

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:06:23 GMT

looking forward to the next episode of Pluribus

starting to read the scifi mystery Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

making note of the upcoming Grolier Club exhibition on the mechanization of printing: "The Second Printing Revolution: Invention of Mass Media", starting January 14

thinking about whether I could make some use of the new Rx Inspector tool from Pro Publica

spreading word of the Otherwise Award's year-end fundraising campaign to celebrate scifi/fantasy/genre fiction that expands or explores our notions of gender (I'm on the board)

teaching activists how to use Signal features -- usernames, disappearing messages, nicknames, etc. -- to preserve privacy and improve convenience

listening to episodes of KEXP's Runcast (music) and an Australian guy's One Man, One Hammock (rambling monologues) as I do chores

playing an ad hoc guessing game with my spouse where I look up random records on the Guinness world records website and ask him to guess, e.g., how tall the tallest chocolate fountain is

dithering on whether to write a year-end retrospective for my blog

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Bush vs. Gore vid

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 11:01:41 GMT

Happened across this Bluesky post embedding a TikTok of a vid about Al Gore "losing" the 2000 election to George W. Bush, set to a Sabrina Carpenter song. Enjoyed and wanted to share.

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Discussing the upcoming Murderbot TV show

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:34:09 GMT

Over in this MetaFilter thread I've been going on and on about:

the books use the medium of prose well, including unreliable narration; how can the TV series adapt that? can it?

the bookending of the two big rescues at the start and end of All Systems Red, and how Wells describes people helping each other overcome their automatic patterns

etc.

I welcome your thoughts! I have spent like 3 hours this week talking about this stuff and would happily talk 3 more.

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Butler and complicity

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:25:38 GMT

An interesting MetaFilter comment on complicity in Butler's work.

.... in various books where people are forced into bad bargains because the other choice is quite literally to die.

There are a number of feminist books of the seventies/eighties/nineties where the narrator refuses and it more or less works (Fifth Sacred Thing, eg) or where the main character refuses and choses basically to die (Woman On The Edge of Time). I think that if you want to consider American history, you have to consider all the people who for whatever reason didn't refuse because they wanted to live.....

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news to me

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 11:40:54 GMT

I am on Bluesky and sometimes I go look at denise 's feed there.

I remembered that a few years ago she had noticed that Tumblr had a particular job opening, and had speculated about what a person in that role might want to do with the platform.

https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3libfgunrhc2q

https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3libfqau4rk2q

I had not realized that she had applied for that job, and that she had done so partly because she is "very bored."

This feels like information other people who use Dreamwidth might like to know. I had not previously understood that the chief executive of this platform is bored with her current job, and that provides me with a perspective I'm a little uncomfortable with.

EDITED 17 FEB TO SAY (as I said below in a comment): I screwed up here. Yeah. I’ll write about my screw-up at more length later, but I want to at least note here that yeah, I really didn't go about this in a way that foregrounded "I have concerns but I want to share them in a way that is overall supportive of the site".

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reusing some material

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 16:57:26 GMT

Belatedly realized I'd already made a front-page post to MetaFilter recommending a short story that I already recommended to you but without much fanfare! So I'll post here what I was gonna say there:

"Subject: 'Became a zombie' Life Event"

From 2013: "Feature Development for Social Networking" by Benjamin Rosenbaum, an epistolary zombie story set at a tech platform, exploring "how fantastical tropes might alter a familiar technology that many of us use every day". Tracy: "We decided AGAINST making it a Life Event! The point is to be able to tag other people as zombies. If you can log in to update your own status, you’re not a zombie, am I right?" Floyd: "There is a 24-hour incubation period, so you could set it in advance of symptom onset."

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things I'm tall at

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 19:00:01 GMT

Am trying out this way of thinking:

If I were the tallest person in a group, I'd be the one who helps grab things off high shelves. And that would be fine, as long as it's not All The Time, and other people don't just take me for granted. And probably there would be other things that other people are particularly good at, better than the rest of us, and the little favors we do would all balance out.

There are some activities that I am .... it feels uncomfortable to say that I'm GOOD at them. But I seem to be able to consider myself "tall" at them. That is, I seem to have the ability to do them more easily than the other people I'm around can. How much of that is nature and how much is nurture? What's skill and what's temperament? And am I objectively good at those activities? I can sweep those aside by instead thinking that I am "tall" at them -- for WHATEVER combination of reasons, those shelves seem easy for me to reach, RELATIVE to how the other folks in the group feel.

Example: initiating group social things. I am unintimidated by the prospect of, say, throwing a note up on MetaFilter's IRL site to say: let's get together at this particular date and time! Or, for that matter, blogging, and public speaking, and some other activities that carry some risk of public criticism, or of finding that no one shows up to be audience or to be the other part of the conversation.

The main useful effect of this new "tall" framing is: I can feel less frustrated when other people have a hard time following my lead, and I can accept that I'm going to be one of the people in this group who carries a disproportionate amount of the load for particular activities. I can set up scaffolding, I can teach, etc., but also I can accept that most people just can't or won't do those things.

As long as I don't get super fixed-mindset and Dweck-incompliant about it I think it's fine....

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Dragon Prince

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 03:56:54 GMT

My spouse and I are watching season 6 of The Dragon Prince right now and I find it likely my frequent complaints are reducing his enjoyment so I will instead summarize them here

(we just watched episode 2)

Nearly none of these people are managing communication or projects or security appropriately

including those who are not actual children

recently my partner pointed out that Soren was the person making the most reasonable decisions

Ask clarifying questions! Take a second person with you to do a dangerous thing! Listen to what other people are trying to tell you! Consider that beyond "leave me entirely" and "stay at my side" may be a compromise alternative such as "be nearby"!

that sort of thing

genre expectations, yeah, it's a kids' show, yeah

so annoying

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anxiety and hosting events

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 12:56:58 GMT

I could use some tips on how to be a better event host when some participants are acting unusually anxious.

Sometimes, when I am hosting an event, there are new participants who demonstrate a level of anxiousness above and beyond standard jitters. Like, it's very common for a first-timer to not initiate conversation and to not move around physically to mingle, to double-check whether it's OK to sit down in a particular chair, and to be unsure of what topics it's ok to talk about.

But I'm talking about stuff like:

about every 3rd thing they say is laced with self-deprecation
they respond with uncertainty and "is it ok?" double-checks to pretty standard offers (e.g. a snack from a pile of snacks on a table in front of them)
their worries take over the ordinary give-and-take of conversation, because when other people mention things they like or new ideas, the anxious person's responses usually include some worry about the thing (not framed as curiosity)

Tips?

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farmer's markets and similar weekend gatherings

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:29:49 GMT

If you live someplace where there is a regular place a lot of people go on weekends, like a farmer's market or a popular park, maybe there is something of a fringe or liminal area where sometimes people set up folding tables and sell stuff or campaign. Girl Scout cookies, petition signings, and so on.

If you are in the US and you want to meet likeminded neighbors because of the recent election results, and you think there are some of those in your neighborhood, you could drag a little folding table and folding/camp chair out to that spot this weekend, with a paper sign.

I did this the past 2 weekends. One sign just said "Worried about the election? Me too". The other said "Vent about the election; Plan for Jan. 20th". The second time I went, I brought a second chair, so I could invite someone to sit down for a moment to talk, and I brought a few books on politics or organizing that I am finding helpful.

I have now had like 15? 20? meaningful conversations with neighbors I didn't know before.

I also brought bits of paper with my Signal username and the Signal logo and a note to go to Signal.org to download the app. I'm messaging with a few people I met. And two of them have told me about new local efforts I can join.

Sometimes I wore an N95 mask, sometimes I didn't. I don't remember whether fewer people approached me when I did that.

Yeah, maybe 2-3 of the conversations were frustrating in ways that felt handle-able -- a 15-second chat with someone who's glad about the election results, a 10-minute chat with an immigrant who disagreed with my priorities and approach but not SUPER rudely (and he definitely had a point or two that I am mulling over), a 10-minute chat with a person who thinks her own life is pretty unlikely to be affected by what's coming and kept returning to the topic of the Democrats' flaws.

But those experiences were far outweighed by the substantive and useful conversations I've had and the connections I've made. What are some likely risks? What specific things can our households do to prepare? What specific actions can we press our local and state governments to do to mitigate risks to us? And, emotionally, finding someone in person who also feels some mix of scared/wary/angry/sad/determined/grimly laughing/tender and sharing our spirit with them.

Heads-up that you could potentially do this too.

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Free digital security checkups for people/organizations concerned about the incoming US government

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:51:25 GMT

My friend Jacob is offering:

Free digital security checkups for people/organizations concerned about the incoming US government

Anyone is eligible for this - whatever your concern.

Whatever form any sort of resistance takes, it’s going to need to rest on a foundation of security and private communication. I’ve spent nearly twenty years working in the security industry, including actual experience protecting against nation-state-level adversaries. I’d like to use those skills and that experience to help those most at risk from the incoming regime (and the vigilante hangers-on that surround it).

So, if you — as an individual or a group — want to re-assess your digital security posture, I’d like to try to help. I’m offering free digital security check-ups to anyone who feels like they need it now. We’ll talk through your current digital security practices and review the risks that worry you, and I’ll give you some suggestions about practices and tools that might help. If needed (and my availability permitting), we can schedule follow-up time for some hands-on walkthroughs and tutorials.

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comedy fundraiser Oct. 26th for election protection

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 16:06:36 GMT

(A) Stand-up to Protect Our Vote: standupstandup.tech

I'm running a fundraiser for the Election Protection Hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE. No matter your position on the 2024 US election, I'm guessing you want the votes counted fairly. So I'm trying to raise USD $25,000 for Election Protection.

Not a US resident or US citizen? Hate all the major parties? No problem! You'd be donating to The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan US nonprofit founded in 1963, which houses the Election Protection Coalition. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can donate.

Then, on Saturday Oct. 26th, expect 8 minutes of nerd jokes about open source software and how programming skews your brain, and none about politics. (Only 8 minutes because that's as long as a stand-up meeting should be.)

Please donate, and spread the word!

(Mastodon/Fediverse, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Twitter. Here's a square image for groupchats/Instagram.)

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thought experiment

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 14:08:52 GMT

I thought this when I first watched it, and I still think this:

it is fascinating to imagine a US resident from, say, January 2011 watching the Celebrating America special from January 20, 2021 and trying to work out what had happened in the intervening ten years.

Why is Tom Hanks speaking with steely resolve? Why is he reassuring me that the nation's capital has been secured? Why are there no live audiences for these musical performances or speeches? Why are people standing so far from each other? Why are we talking about doctors and nurses so much? Was there a bioterrorist attack?

If the 46th President has just been inaugurated, what happened with #45 and why is no one mentioning their name? Why are #44, #43, and #42 having a conversation about unity and supporting the new guy, across party lines, and how the new guy can count on their support, but the most recent tenant at the Resolute Desk is not present to say the same thing? Is this a damnatio memoriae situation? Did they die?

The tone of the whole thing, to me in 2024, brings home how much we had just been through and were still going through. What they emphasize, what they refrain from explicitly saying, the song choices, everything. And I find a kind of grim reassurance in it. Like: yes, it really was that bad. You aren't misremembering that. Your scars come from something real.

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the intersubjectivity of "weird"

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 11:00:37 GMT

Kamala Harris's campaign sent out a press release saying, among other things,

After watching Fox News this morning we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok?

Main takeaways Trump gave to the American people: ....

Trump is old and quite weird?
This guy shouldn’t be president ever again

That phrasing, with the question mark, is (per Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguistics expert), reads as more internet-y than we usually get from US Presidential candidates:

I'd say that "Old and quite weird?" counts as the internet style of question mark because it's indicating rising tone of voice/uncertainty rather than accompanying question syntax (wh word or do/is/etc at the beginning of the sentence)

I'm also struck by the informality of "this guy" and the choice of a comma rather than a colon for "we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok?"

The "quite weird?" line has struck a chord with some folks (examples from Bluesky):

There's absolutely nothing normal about anything he's done or said in decades! Finally, FINALLY it's the official messaging of the loyal opposition, and it's inarguable.

"Have you guys noticed that the emperor has no clothes? You're seeing this too, right?"

to me it reads as "... y'all see this too, right? why is no one else saying it?" incredulity + "this is maybe not 100% proper to say in a press release but I'm gonna say it anyway"

It's asking, "you guys see this too, right?"

And some folks are thinking about the usefulness of the subjective word "weird", and its splash zone.

Last year I shut down the my family group thread by simply replying to their right wing banter with “WHAT A BUNCH OF WIERDOS OOPS WRONG THREAD”. Calling them dumb doesn’t work because that can’t *possibly* be true in their minds. Weird works. No one wants to be weird, and we (non-narcissists) all have at least a tiny voice inside us that wonders if we are. Feed that voice.

and

*I* am weird. Weird is GOOD.

Republicans are irrational, evil, ignorant, and ridiculous.

Calling them "weird" is an insult to the unusually reasonable people who have been called "weird" our entire lives.

response:

Words don’t have single meanings. “Weird” can mean “wonderful”, and it also sometimes means “creepy, offputting, and repellent.” Context matters. Words aren’t Lego blocks.

I'm late getting ready for my day, but I want to mark how useful the intersubjective derogatory power of "weird" is. It's like "creep" or (per this Black programmer's experience) saying something is "uncomfortable". It's easy for a person with structural power to use "this makes people uncomfortable" to deflect accountability for a decision. But also the subjectivity of "uncomfortable" is why it has extra power for marginalized people, as Erynn Brook discussed on Twitter a while back.

I am not making the time right now to think about this in more detail, but, it's interesting.

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COVID

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 03:19:01 GMT

Caught COVID for the 1st time Am slowly recovering. Am likely not fully catching up on reading page.

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Streets of Fire

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 11:45:52 GMT

The 1980s action movie Streets of Fire is, in the US, up on YouTube in its entirety to watch free-with-ads right now. Saw it last night.

A few thoughts:

It's infernokrusher. It's pretty. It kind of reminds us of Dark City, Batman: The Animated Series, and Brazil in how it synthesizes a stylized 20th century urban aesthetic that sort of is unmoored in time. And it's a MOVIE, visual and sonic spectacle. According to the English Wikipedia article, one co-screenwriter said that the director/co-writer wanted a comic book movie but wasn't satisfied with any existing comic book to base the film on, so it's like a comic book movie, and the director said:

the film's origins came out of a desire to make what he thought was a perfect film when he was a teenager, and put in all of the things that he thought were "great then and which I still have great affection for: custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honor".

What more do you need in a trailer? Although the trailer itself is also fun, and perhaps helps illustrate my belief that Streets of Fire could fit somewhere in the Mad Max franchise without a ton of changes.

Spouse and I, fairly early in the runtime, started suspecting that the character of McCoy had originally been written as a man, then genderswapped -- so much so that, at one point, Leonard forgot the character's name and called her Starbuck. We were right. According to IMDb trivia, originally the filmmakers had Edward James Olmos in mind!

What a treat to see Rick Moranis playing someone so loathsome, given how I grew up on his Honey, I Shrunk The Kids character. (Also, that's a marvelous title.) Also, funny how Willem Defoe's Raven is the actual threat and does dangerous and reprehensible things, but we have way more screentime of Billy (Moranis's character) just being incredibly irritating.

More elevated municipal rail than I had expected -- not just as stanchions that serve as obstacles during car chases, but also as a relevant mode of transport.

Spoiler for the ending: I ( spoiler )

Thank you Jim Steinman for those opening and closing songs - in his obituary I read the deathless quote "If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side," which is the essence of infernokrusher.

A fun ride.

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Blast from the past

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:21:30 GMT

I'm watching "Making The Cut" (the Project Runway-like show that is on Amazon Video). Tim Gunn talking about runway shows in the Amazon fashion studio reminds me of him in an early Project Runway season reminding contestants to use items from the Boo.com Accessory Wall.

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appreciating a few quotes right now

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 13:23:56 GMT

“queer not as being about who you’re having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.” -bell hooks

(via Dr. Damien P. Williams on Bluesky; I have not checked the cited source, which is a video of a live conversation)

in 2010, in a conversation at Open Source Bridge, Jim Blandy mused aloud,

"Every good thing I've ever done has been unauthorized."

I mentioned that just now in the Fediverse and a friend replied with:

"We need people who can do good and not get caught." - Alan Furst

And I'm thinking about Huckleberry Finn, specifically:

"All right, then, I'll GO to hell"--and tore it up.

As I wrote a few years ago: The nuance I still ponder is: Huck doesn't say his way is right. He decides he's wrong but he's going to do it anyway. He decides to be a hypocrite. He does not see himself as articulating a new consistent ethical framework under which he is morally right; he is accepting the status and the consequences of his actions in the religious framework everyone's taught him, but he decides not to let that get in the way of what he feels compelled to do. It's a different kind of resistance.
I heard an echo of this moment in "The Rundown Job" (Leverage, S05E09), when a government official tries to get Eliot, who used to do wetwork, to leave the Robin Hood-type vigilante outfit he's with now:

Colonel Vance: The world can always use more good guys.
Eliot: Yeah, well, too bad we're the bad guys.

And, relatedly, N.K. Jemisin's "Cold-Blooded Necessity".

"I think the shift from extrinsic to intrinsic valuation -- from caring about what others think to caring about yourself -- is a fundamental part of the transition from amateur to professional..."

And, I'd add now, for me, just a general part of maturing.

So much of maturation, for me, is about accepting things about me that just aren't going to change no matter what the jerk voices in my head want to shame me about. And that's all tied up with self-confidence and self-worth.

I'm noting down here a few of the bits of compass that help me realign myself when things get foggy.

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Dominance/submission and unflattering personas in nonfiction-ish television

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:02:45 GMT

I've gotten into Taskmaster (UK) recently, subsequent to previous fannish dives into the Dropout game show Game Changer, Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal, and The Colbert Report.

I am extremely open to talking with y'all in a fan meta fashion about

The different Dominance/submission approaches within Game Changer and Taskmaster, and in particular, how they delicately balance how much/whether to humiliate contestants. Like, (spoiler for Series 13 of Taskmaster), ( Spoiler for Series 13 of Taskmaster ) And that made me think about how much the show's executives and staff have to juggle, to simultaneously trade off the 3 levels of (1) making an entertaining TV show, (2) running and maintaining a workable system of games, and (3) taking adequate care of each performer's ego. And my understanding is that Game Changer is much more Californian in culture about this, in either not doing or not showing us situations where the performers are just having an unalloyed bad time. In early Taskmaster seasons I think we see, for instance, vegans who have to eat eggs as part of a task, which is just not something I'd imagine Game Changer doing.

Alex Horne, Greg Davies, Stephen Colbert, and Nathan Fielder deliberately donning unflattering personas and maintaining them indefinitely during improv. If Colbert were willing to reprise a bit of his old Report character, I'd suggest him for a judge for a US outpost of the franchise.

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some food analogies/metaphors that have come to mind recently

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 16:31:08 GMT

From Emily McCombs in a Slate advice column last year:

In recovery circles, I’ve heard this described as “going to the hardware store for oranges.” In this case, the hardware store is your parents and the oranges are the love and support you rightfully wish they could give you. Unfortunately, the hardware store simply doesn’t stock oranges. And we save ourselves a world of hurt when we learn to stop going to people for things they aren’t capable of giving us.

From Frowner on Ask MetaFilter ten years ago:

....a "this is the way the world has to work or something is wrong" way. It's like my parents feel that you really aren't having breakfast unless you have a little egg-cup-sized glass of orange juice. It's how they grew up, there's nothing wrong with orange juice...but I had to get orange juice glasses for their visits because they really did not like not having orange juice at breakfast and not having tiny cups, even though I never have it myself and don't really have a use for tiny cups*. But breakfast is Wrong without orange juice in tiny cups - they're not tyrants, they're not selfish people, they just have this...deep....feeling that the way the world works requires OJ in tiny cups.

My point is that you do not need to be a selfish tyrant to have learned that something is just off about the world if your daily life isn't completely in line with your feelings, wishes and beliefs. You can feel this in a very deep way that feels "true".....

*My parents are great; I don't mind having the cups.

And I can't find this bit right now, but I remember a blog post where a guy mentioned that his usual order at a particular restaurant was such-and-such main dish, because "I like the potatoes it comes with." Which has stuck with me as a metaphor for doing something because you want a side effect that indirectly comes along with it, rather than intentionally and directly choosing the thing you want.

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Excised from elsewhere, on trust

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:19:33 GMT

I'm writing a blog post over at my name blog about how open source maintainers can think about trusting new co-maintainers, what that trust entails, how to check for trustworthiness, etc. I was writing this bit, and then a friend reminded me that including something about sex in this piece would mean that she could not share it in her starchy workplace. So I'm saving it here instead, and will replace it with an analogy that won't raise as many eyebrows.

...some intake processes concentrate quite a lot on checking for trustworthiness, specifically for the candidate's capacity to be a responsible colleague and take criticism well.....

In the subculture of people who engage in nonmonogamy or other alternative sexual experiences together, "vetting" is sometimes informal, but sometimes groups do require new members to go through a formal process. This Bay Area-based group's application asks whether any existing group members have endorsed the candidate's application, and asks questions like
How do you know when someone consents to an experience you invite them to share with you? What information do you look for and how do you seek it out?
In Bonobo, we understand that people may make mistakes, cross other people's boundaries, or just impact one another without necessarily realizing it. But we also expect that people will own up to their impacts and mistakes, and take responsibility for them. Tell us about a time you crossed someone's boundary and took responsibility for it. What happened, how did you respond when you realized you crossed their boundary, and how did you deal with it after that?

https://www.bonobonetwork.com/apply
vetting, asking them to think about their values (Oakland play application), asking for references,.....

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Things I learned about eldercare, family caregiving, and end of life

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:12:07 GMT

My mother died this year, after a long decline in her health, and I was one of the main people who helped take care of her. (Here’s her obituary.) While caring for her, preparing for her death, and handling logistics afterwards, I learned a lot from online resources, various professionals, and friends. So I'm trying to pass on some things I learned by sharing them in a new blog post: Eldercare, Family Caretaking, and End-of-life Logistics: Stuff I Learned.

Topics:

You HAVE to take care of yourself: what happens if you don’t, the minimum you have to do, and checking for emergency levels of stress.

Changes to expect in the months, weeks, and days before death: read this free guide.

Checklists for before and just after death: a few free lists and workbooks to help you plan things and take care of logistics.

Wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives: start before you need them, and LegalZoom is fine.

Easy-to-eat food, and letting your friends help you: MealTrain, deliveries, and what food is easiest.

Hospital chaplains can do a lot: even if you’re not Christian, they can connect you to useful people and resources.

Patient advocacy (which means catching mistakes): the medical team will probably accidentally miss stuff unless you remind them.

Medical notetaking at appointments and the bedside: be a patient advocate, provide continuity of care, and prevent mistakes; make and bring basic records, and keep up during a hospital stay.

Researching specific treatments and how to perform at-home procedures: look up science and instructions by professionals so you can know what’s happening and how to troubleshoot.

Organ and body donation, and donating unused medicine: try to do paperwork before death, and have a Plan B.

Palliative care, hospice, insurance (including Medicare), and hospice facility eligibility: the doctors are giving you subtext you need to understand.

Delirium and persuasion: it’s hard to be with someone who’s losing connection with reality, but I have some tips.

Music for comfort: calming playlists can calm agitation, and be solace if you’re not there.

Books and blogs that helped me prepare for this: I recommend some memoirs and how-tos.

This was, at times, hard to write. Hope it helps. Please feel free to share it publicly and widely.

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out if touch

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 07:53:03 GMT

Haven't been keeping up on my Dreamwidth or Fediverse/Mastodon feeds since early October. Hope folks will email or comment here if they social media posted something they really would prefer that I know.

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DIY fit testing pointers

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 19:50:55 GMT

I'm a little frazzled and need a pointer or two.

I don't want to spend $150 on a fit testing kit. I'd like to spend less.

The $40 one I've seen mentioned is sold out.

Resources I've read about how to do-it-yourself say that I need a nebulizer/atomizer. I saw a mention at some point of a USD$10-$15 nebulizer the author had bought on Amazon, and evidently I misplaced that link because I can't find it now. I find disposable nebulizers for sale at Betty Mills in about the $3 range. Are those the types that I would want?

Or, if you have a lead on a complete DIY fit testing kit that costs under about $50, I'd love to know. Thanks.

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Senior software engineer looking for next gig

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 13:09:00 GMT

My spouse Leonard Richardson, the creator & maintainer of the screen-scraping library Beautiful Soup and coauthor of the book RESTful Web APIs, is open to new work opportunities as a senior software engineer. (He left the New York Public Library last year and has been doing some part-time consulting since then.)

He's open to remote contracting, consulting, full-time or part-time gigs starting in December 2023. And he's seeking a mission-oriented org, ideally involving publishing, freedom of access to information, or climate resilience.

A little more about what he's looking for in his Fediverse post which is what I would suggest you publicly link to, or pass along to interested folks, instead of this Dreamwidth post. Resume, LinkedIn.

[EDITED 9 NOVEMBER 2023: New gig found!]

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