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All Ecology Is Queer by adrienne mares brown and Amy Ray.
To me, queer ecology means being with the true fluid, adaptive, post-binary nature of the world.
A wonderful conversation about queerness and deep belonging in the world.

What 18F means to me by Angelique Weger.
The team from 18F I worked with was deeply caring – for our mission and goals, for the sustainability of our Maryland team and for me as a leader. They were strong experts and valuable teammates.


Alt 18F "We're dedicated to the American public. And we're not done yet. I worked with people from 18F. They were skilled, kind, and dedicated to making government work better for all people. I feel speechless and heartbroken about the way they were shut down. I'm glad they posted this alternate site since 18f.gsa.gov was abruptly deleted.

Prevention is better than burnout by creatrixtiara at MetaFilter, via [personal profile] jesse_the_k.
Keep in mind that paid work is not real work. Paid work is what you do to gain money, and job security. The end goal is not to actually get useful things done. Often you can do useful things while doing paid work, but the goal of earning is primary and the actual useful stuff is secondary. When you wash your own dishes you are really working. The goal is to have clean dishes. When you are doing paid work, the goal is to keep your wages or your salary coming in.
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[personal profile] kass wrote a trio of The Book Thief ficlets crossed over with the Megillah of Esther for Purimgifts, and says, "They all have the same very short descriptive text, because they're really three parts of a whole. If you are the kind of person who enjoyed The Book Thief and knows the basic story of Purim, you might enjoy these too!" I haven't read canon, do know the story of Purim, and enjoyed the writing and narratives very much.

Our Narrator Reminisces: Vashti (957 words) by Kass

Our Narrator Reminisces: Mordechai (603 words) by Kass

Our Narrator Reminisces: Esther (737 words) by Kass

Summary (for all three): Death remembers everything.
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Two lovely stories containing mutual support.

Saints Support Group and Coffee Hour by [archiveofourown.org profile] keita52 . A delightful modern-times AU for the Chalion Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Contains kindness and a noisy cat.

Endless Roads to Travel, Endless Lives to Live by [archiveofourown.org profile] snacky . "Three adventures Polly Plummer never had, and two she gave to others." AU for Narnia after The Magician's Nephew.

(Dunno what happened to the little AO3 icon, but the usernames are correctly linking to AO3 profiles.)

Bonus video: Best of Favorite Dance Moves (2024) by Ed People. This amazing guy goes around learning dance moves from dancers of many nationalities. The dancers are good teachers, too. This one includes a snippet of a Serbian Kolo, amidst lots of other dances that look a lot more difficult to me. Full of joyful energy.
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A game about trust by Nicky Case, July 2017. Playing time 30 min.
During World War I, peace broke out.

It was Christmas 1914 on the Western Front. Despite strict orders not to chillax with the enemy, British and German soldiers left their trenches, crossed No Man's Land, and gathered to bury their dead, exchange gifts, and play games.

Meanwhile: it's 2017, the West has been at peace for decades, and wow, we suck at trust. Surveys show that, over the past forty years, fewer and fewer people say they trust each other. So here's our puzzle:

Why, even in peacetime, do friends become enemies? And why, even in wartime, do enemies become friends?

I think game theory can help explain our epidemic of distrust – and how we can fix it! So, to understand all this...


I liked the game, the music, and the underlying message. Recommended!
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My Washing Machine Refreshed My Thinking on Software Effort Estimation by Chris Horsely via [personal profile] andrewducker. It seems like any unfamiliar house project requires at least three trips to the hardware store. This one was harder than that.

Survival Tips For Women In Tech Who else is the only woman on their dev team? by Patricia Aas, Sep 6, 2018. Even though my most recent negative work experience was with a bunch of women, these tips still resonate. Sadly, women can also be sexist to women senior engineers.
6) Try to convince yourself when you begin to doubt yourself: “It’s not me, it’s them”
Gaslighting (look it up) and self-doubt are powerful things. You might have people tell you to change, that it’s not about you being a woman, it’s about you being: less capable, less likable, less friendly, less … something that makes this all your fault. Try not to believe it.


Don't Write Code That Hurts People by Carlana, quoting Bill Sourour, Nov 17, 2016.
As developers, we are often one of the last lines of defense against potentially dangerous and unethical practices.
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In response to [personal profile] asakiyume's post about finding a creepy site in the woods, I said:
I believe you about the site you found. The day after the knifings at the Hollywood MAX station in Portland, OR in 2017, I went to the Hollywood Farmers' Market, and felt an unfamiliar silent ringing of tension in the air. Then I remembered what had happened just a block away. I wonder if you found the young man's camp, but he died elsewhere?

You're right, odd that no one has cleaned that up. If it felt right, you could choose to do that... At the Hollywood Transit Center, Sarah Farahat (the sister of a friend) painted a beautiful tribute on the stairs and ramp to get to the station.

And then, in response to comments:
Watching the video about the creation of the mural now made me cry, too.

The mural is a powerful piece of art for sure. Not just a commemoration - it keeps the sense of sacred space that was created with the spontaneous altar of offerings from the community in the days after the attack. Here's a photo of part of it via Wikipedia, but it stretched for half a block.

Sadly, in looking for photos of the original memorial, I found an article that sounds like they destroyed the mural, suddenly dubbed "temporary," a year ago. Augh.
------

I've been thinking about my word of the year, Love. It's such a huge, complex, amorphous topic. I'm struggling to carve out smaller things I can post that don't feel painfully cliched or too vulnerable or both at once.

But I can say, I love that mural. It was a 15 minute bike ride away from where I lived, not my closest MAX station, but always a pleasure to go up that gloriously painted ramp with my bike when I did go through there.

It felt like sacred space, like a communal affirmation of love, joy, inclusion, all the things we need for healing and creating a better world. I was sad to leave it behind when I left Portland, and I'm bereft to hear it has been destroyed. Love and grief are so intertwined.

ETA: I thought about it more and changed devastated to bereft. They both feel like intense words to apply to a mural in a city I don't live in anymore, but it's also entwined with everything else that's going on politically, socially, environmentally, and both words definitely apply to all that.
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Experiencing Joy While the World Burns by Christie Aschwanden, quoting Ed Abbey on Last Word On Nothing, Feb 26, 2025.
"It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.

So… ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.

Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive."


The Revolution Will NOT be Televised by [personal profile] shadowkat, Feb 23, 2025. 100 items of genuine good news about resistance to the current political catastrophe.

The Cognitive Load of It All, or the Response Matrix by [personal profile] siderea. A brief and encouraging analysis of the categories of things that need to be done in resistance.
My point here is that you don't have to feel bad that you can't do it all. You have to remember you are one person in a huge, multifaceted movement of resistance, and other comrades will be doing the things you don't do. The second most important thing to believe in, after yourself, is one another.

Relatedly, we need to resist the temptation to tell other people they're not picking up the right rocks or the rocks they're moving aren't important. All the rocks ultimately have to get moved, all the rocks are important.


Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting by grueproof. Compilation of links with a lot of practical ideas: mutual aid, organize groups, support your library, etc.

on approaching hard problems by Ursula Whitcher.
But something Adriana and I have talked about over and over is that dealing with your feelings about hard problems isn't a distraction from the work; it's part of the work. So I'm reaching out to you, through text and symbol, to say: let's work together. When somebody asks you why decisions in Washington matter, here's a story you can share.


No One Knows How This Will End (But I Do Not Think It Will End Well for Them) by Rebecca Solnit, Feb 16, 2025. Solnit's new newsletter is called "Meditations in an Emergency." A fierce look at the current political situation and where the holes might be in what looks like an impenetrable front.
They do not understand power. I'm not sure they understand wealth either.


The Ed's Up - On Doing Something by Ed Yong, Feb 5, 2025. Stunning bird photos, book recommendations, and his wife Liz Neeley's newsletter Meeting the Moment tracking assaults on science.
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I don't know if this actually (still) works, but it seems worth rebroadcasting. Anyone here connected with mutual aid orgs or large singing groups or a school or want to distribute handfuls of tests to everyone they meet? Let me know if you try this and it works!

Free Bulk Covid Tests by [tumblr.com profile] toothsalad. Has several reblogs with comments saying it worked.
Anyone in my geographic area need free Covid tests? There is a program through which any interested individual or group can get free Covid tests from the National Stockpile upon request.

The difficulty is that you have to take 300 tests minimum.

These have an expiration date of May 2025.

If any of my followers are connected to food pantries or mutual aid orgs, a friend of mine just found a bulk order form for free covid tests from HHS and it seems to have worked. There is a minimum quantity of 300 tests and no required proof of affiliation, so you could just get them and distribute them to your community (as my friend is doing).

How to bulk order free rapid tests from the government & FAQs (Google doc)

Per that FAQ, make a copy of this Google sheet Home Test Order Request Form_blank and send it to tdx@hhs.gov
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A Cure for Solastalgia by E.M. Linden. A delightfully hopeful story about pushing back on what capitalism does to the environment.

To Labor for the Hive by Jamie Lu. First place winner in the Grist 2024 Imagine 2020 competition. A tender story about care in the context of climate change.

Mena, Until by Patricia Russo. A brief, atmospheric story about action in the face of climate change. It might be hopeful, or might be hallucinatory.

On more of the hallucinatory thread, Digger comic by Ursula Vernon,
via [personal profile] sophia_sol. "A wombat. A dead god. A very peculiar epic." Digger is a wombat who has gotten lost, encounters a statue of Lord Ganesh, and things get weirder from there.
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First new non-opioid painkiller approved in the US for decades – here’s how it works by Alistair Mathie and Emma Veale, at The Conversation, Feb 5, 2025.
In two clinical trials with over 1,000 patients in each, suzetrigine was found to be equally as effective as opioids at blocking acute pain following moderately painful surgery.


Broken Legs and Ankles Heal Better If You Walk on Them within Weeks by Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, Feb 18, 2025 via [personal profile] andrewducker.
In a study that looked back at outcomes for a series of patients, Heng and her colleagues showed that those who walked early on femurs that had broken just above the knee had no higher rate of complications than those who stayed off the leg for six weeks.


The NASA History Series via blogdiva@mastodon.social. "The NASA History Series includes over 200 books and monographs on a wide range of topics in aerospace history, many of which are available in downloadable digital formats." Download what you want while the website is still accessible!

The Inspection Paradox is Everywhere by Allen Downey. A good thing to keep in mind when writing, reading, and interpreting surveys.
When you survey students, you oversample large classes: If there are 10 students in a class, you have 10 chances to sample that class; if there are 100 students, you have 100 chances. In general, if the class size is x, it will be overrepresented in the sample by a factor of x.


I hate my new progressive lenses, is what I see normal?, on MetaFilter, Feb 20, 2019. Summary seems to be, it takes a while to adjust to progressives, and also they're not a good plan for people with neck and shoulder pain. *raises hand* That's what I figured, but it's good to hear other people's experiences.
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You know what's fucking terrifying? Friend's symptoms )

While chatting about having a cold before all that, I asked if she had tested for Covid, and she said, "I haven't been around anyone." Which is an odd thing to say, since she just got back from a trip to the coast with her sister. And she got the cold somewhere. I hope rest is all she needs to be ok!

ETA: Had our postponed meeting this afternoon and she seems ok, if still a little bleary with the cold.
Further ETA a week later: She said today that she realized she had doubled up on her cough syrup, which knocked her out. Also she's been in bed for a week with this "cold".
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This "Disable Auto-Formatting" box at the top of posts is new, right? So frustrating that it's checked by default and turns my posts into one big lump of text.
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I just got a Novavax covid vaccine on [personal profile] siderea’s recommendation because it’s been six months since my last vax and who knows how long we’ll be able to get vaccines at all. She said the currently available Novavax vaccine expires end of March, so get it while you can.

I got a next-day appointment at CVS, no fuss, no muss, no hassle about how long it’s been since my last shot. Also my arm was barely sore and no other side effects that I’ve noticed. Moderna has been tougher on my system (which can be reassuring in its own way).

Highly recommend getting it ASAP.
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I got into a conversation with [personal profile] silveradept in a comment thread about quieter smaller ways of resisting. I like what they said about "making the strategic decision to fight them on the front(s) you are strongest on and trusting that others will fight them on their strongest ground."

I struggled with this a lot 8 years ago. Protests really aren't my thing, and I'm very awkward at calling Congresscritters too. Last time, I realized clearly that I'm a healer, not a warrior. I was offering bodywork for trauma and helping people get through those years.

Now, I'm doing programming work. While it's contributing to the public good (for a state government, fortunately, since working for the federal government is very unstable right now), it's not directly helping people in the same way.

Apparently I'm not the only one thinking about this, because Danielle Foré posted on mastodon:
Easy and meaningful ways you can protest:
  • Get vaccinated, wear a mask
  • Walk, bike, take public transit
  • Do something gender non-conforming (especially if you’re a cis man)
  • Reduce time spent on corporate controlled social media (build a puzzle, go to the pub, park, etc)
  • Do something creative with no regard for productivity or monetization, especially if it’s a social activity

I am up to date on my vaccinations, including Covid vaccine and boosters. I walk or bike most places. I'm mildly gender non-conforming in that I don't wear makeup or heels, and I don't shave my legs. I don't participate in most mainstream social media - I'm here and on mastodon, https://ruby.social/@sonia. I sing and I'm learning to play the piano.

I resist the mainstream corporate takeover of our lives in a lot of ways. I deleted my barely-used Facebook account, I've never used Siri, and I don't have any always-on listening devices in my house. None of my appliances are "smart" or networked, except I very reluctantly have my printer on wifi. The computers & phones are on wifi, but apps aren't allowed to update in the background. As best I can I've opted out of privacy-invading tracking and ads.

I'm resisting all the time, and I'm aware of the consequences of being less connected with people because of it. I could at least give myself credit rather than telling myself I'm not doing enough to resist the current political catastrophe.
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[personal profile] siderea recommends: If for some reason you stopped masking everywhere, now would be an excellent time to resume masking, and use a N95/KN95 or better.

You may remember her excellent posts in 2018 telling us all about the flu pandemic 100 years before, and then in 2019 and 2020, keeping track of "novel coronavirus" news and giving good advice like "stock up on groceries and supplies, pandemics move slowly and then very very fast."

Her post is fairly long because it contains extensive quotes. One from a hospital administrator in Tulsa, Oklahoma saying that they're slammed with all the usual suspects (flu, RSV, Covid) plus a new mystery illness that acts like Covid but all tests are negative. Many schools and school districts, mainly across the southern US, are suspending classes or going remote because of illness.

Relatedly, Five years of the COVID-19 pandemic: An interview with Dr. Arijit Chakravarty by Benjamin Mateus at the World Socialist Web Site, December 30, 2024. Lots of concrete scientific information about Covid's effects and how we could have (could still!) handle it better.
This is a difficult virus from a public health perspective, but public health couldn’t have handled it worse. Although it remains a solvable problem, the way it was addressed has undermined the ability of public health to do anything useful at this point, given the current leadership and controls over public health as they stand. They are doing nothing except reminding us to wash our hands and not eat raw eggs.
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Musk and Treasury's Payment Systems by Adam Levitin at Credit Slips blog, Feb 1, 2025. "The fiscal operations side of Treasury gets virtually no public attention, but it’s really an amazing operation, and something for which the federal government does not get nearly enough credit." More about the Treasury disbursement system and why it's a problem that Musk has invaded it.

questions from federal workers who are currently under attack by Alison Green, Ask A Manager, Jan 29, 2025. Compassionate, clear answers, and lots of good info from the trenches in comments.

Procedure for Having to Behold by Kate Schapira and Anne Kosseff-Jones.
This is a procedure to try when you witness fresh evidence of an atrocity or injustice—not a call to action, but a piece of information where your pathway to action is not known, not clear, or not available to you, because of the time and effort you’re already putting in to fight (or survive) an atrocity or injustice, or to build something better.


What To Do When There Is Nothing To Be Done by Dave Troy, Dec 22, 2024. Good calming advice and lots of books for further reading at the end.

The Way of Water: On the Quiet Power of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Activism by Julie Phillips. I miss Ursula Le Guin so much. We need her voice and her truth-telling.
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Despair is Not a Strategy: 15 principles of hope by Abby Brockman. Lots of quotes from "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit, which I read 8 years ago and should probably re-read. Also,
Professor and activist Howard Zinn writes: “The struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and who seem invincible in their determination to hold onto it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, and patience.”


Things Born of Mindfulness. "Every year in my community we draw a name from a hat at the beginning of May and then have six weeks till the winter solstice to hand make a gift."

How to delete your Facebook account by Barbara Krasnoff and Micah Singleton, updated Jan 9, 2025. I hadn't logged in for a couple of years. I went in to download my data (not much there) and got shown posts by people I care about. Tugging on the heartstrings. But I'm choosing being less connected to them over supporting fascism, and went through with deleting my account.

My American Dream is in Mexico: Alan Chazaro by Rocio Lucero, December 22, 2024. Lovely story and photographs.
Alan Chazaro made the bold decision to leave behind his vibrant network and life in the San Francisco Bay Area to embrace a quieter existence in Xalapa, Veracruz. For Alan and his family, the move wasn’t just a change of scenery — it was an intentional step toward grounding his young son in the linguistic, social, and cultural richness of Mexico.


Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann at the National Paralympic Heritage Trust site, via [personal profile] jesse_the_k in a comment somewhere.
"If I could say anything to Sir Ludwig it would be, “Thank you”… Before he did his rehab work at Stoke Mandeville, if you broke your back or your neck you were just left in hospital to die; it was that simple." -- Tanni Grey-Thompson, Paralympian


Breaking the Cycle: Redefining Fatness in the World of Cycling by Nora Andrews. A fat-positive exploration of the barriers a fat cyclist encounters and support for getting out there anyway.
These experiences underscore the pervasive impact of weight stigma, which can shape the way fat cyclists are perceived and the way they perceive themselves. Even in inclusive environments, cultural narratives that equate body size or physical ability with worth create barriers to participation, confidence, and access to the joy of cycling. When we falsely equate thinness with health, we deny people the opportunity to live fulfilling, truly healthy lives. The experiences fat individuals have in athletic spaces push many to exercise in isolation—or avoid it altogether. Internalized fatphobia not only limits opportunities for enjoyment and wellness but also has been proven to increase stress and cortisol levels, contributing to health issues that are frequently misattributed to fatness rather than the stigma itself.


The disasters we already experience by Audrey Eschright. Friendly tips for putting together a go bag. I'm leaving it open in my browser as a motivation to do that myself, although the thought of evacuating with bike, trailer, and cat in a carrier is scary.
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good bones by [personal profile] mumblemumble for [personal profile] sysann's fandomtree, for the prompt, "A ghost tries to communicate with the new inhabitant/s of their former home. Sadly nobody understands their cryptic messages. Your character is brought in to help." Seen via network. A delightful gentle story about figuring out what a ghost needs.
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There is an alleyway (that used to have trolley tracks) and a defunct cafe and a two story house and an unused warehouse diagonally across the street from me. And two tall glorious redwood trees. When I look in that direction I see dawn light, moon rise, and bits of the east bay hills.

Just before Thanksgiving, a notice went up that all of that was to be torn down to make way for a six story 143 unit apartment building that will fill the block from end to end and side to side, towering over this low-rise neighborhood. Because 15 of those units will be low-income housing, they get waivers on all the height and setback regulations that keep the area around a building livable.

The comment period was two weeks across Thanksgiving. I contacted my councilmember to ask for help around this, but his staff person was deeply unhelpful and said they're in favor of the project. I did write a letter with my concerns, and contacted some of the small neighborhood associations around here.

I felt like I should be organizing neighbors somehow, but I didn't know where to start. Friday, I got an email saying there's a zoom meeting organized by the developer coming up this Wednesday. I printed out 60 flyers with an introduction and the zoom info, with a photo of the concept drawing for the building on the back, and put them in mailboxes up and down my street. I included my email address, but no one has reached out. Maybe some of them will come to the meeting?

It's a small step, but at least it's a step. It felt like writing letters to voters was training for this, in a way. Print them out, send them on their way, expect a very small effect, if any.

I feel powerless and grief-stricken for the spaciousness I've been enjoying. Yes, we need more housing. 100% affordable and 100% in tune with the neighborhood. I can only hope that it will be a long time before they break ground.
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