Internet -- information -- criticism -- poetry -- connection -- feminism -- open source -- open spaces -- translation -- digression -- recursion -- boats -- wheelchairs -- disability rights -- ranting -- the future -- by Liz Henry
I have been extremely busy in a good way and will be able to talk about my new project soon! In my down time I have been tearing through the Sector General books, which are just amazing! The growing Galactic Federation realized that a huge space hospital would be a great way to prevent wars Continue reading "Sexist general"
I have made a fancy cocktail called El Presidente with rum, dry vermouth, cointreau, grenadine, and a twist of lemon. (And a cherry for extra.) A toast to Vicky and Peter. Co-inventors of the RISC chip, and the oriental shorthair cat, among so many other things but I like those tiny touchpoints. I used their Continue reading "A toast"
A minor complaint about a thing I just mended a fancy and heavy duty wooden coathanger. It is the kind of wooden hanger with a wooden dowel that goes crossways, meant for pants to hang on. Considering that it is meant to hold weight, why would you design the dowel part to fasten to Continue reading "Bad design mending"
I have been a bit overwhelmed and need to spend a good part of today catching up with all my projects and things. Inbox 829. A billionty tabs open. To-do lists in my scheduling notebook on many different post-its. A new attempt at kanban on a magnet board to go with my GitHub project kanban. Continue reading "Settle down, focus, CATCH UP"
This is utterly trivial, and I should be working right now, but the other day I was making dinner and had a vivid memory that haunts me a bit. I was peeling some carrots into the sink, and thought, huh, this takes me about 10 seconds and it barely registers in my mind as a Continue reading "Oddly vivid memories"
I have a cosy day of domesticity planned as I spent a lot of this week out of the house. Lots of mending and organizing and maybe some cooking for visiting (adult) kids. I am kind of proud of my repair job on a gorgeous majolica-ish plate that goes under a matching pitcher, as an Continue reading "Repairing things"
Rather comically I have from a fairly young age, thought forward to wanting to be wise and the practice of being an elder. I found some of Suzette Haden Elgin s ideas useful there though I think in actual practice what I took from her writing is perhaps different from both what she intended by it Continue reading "Logical steps and eldering "
I have been tinkering with a useful AI tool, llm, which lets you poke around with various large language models from the command line, by Simon Willison. Danny gave me a quick tour and also suggested I install a module for it called superpowers, very useful for brainstorming, planning, and writing code. One of the Continue reading "Riot llllm considers poetry"
I was excited about Lightscape because I thought it was sort of an expansion of Entwined a bunch of large glowing installations in the park. In past years Entwined has been so lovely, and I have enjoyed tooling around its space and especially the part where I get to observe little kids freely running Continue reading "Discernment and experience"
When Quilter and I left Mary s house I ended up with several large plastic bins of Freddie s collages as well as some boxes of slightly mildewy books. Quilter pulled the stuff that looked like older, more rare or interesting anarchist and other political books along with first editions and old copies of feminist science fiction. Continue reading "Going through Freddie s books"
A few conversations from the front of the bus that have stayed with me – Skater Dad A young guy sitting across from me with a skateboard propped up next to him. Shaved head, some neck tattoos going a bit onto his face. He remarked on my crossword puzzle, said he just couldn t wrap his Continue reading "Some conversations on the bus"
While going through Freddie s political books, zines, and pamphlets, we came across this interesting zine, undated and with no editor / publisher listed, containing Heidi Hartmann s 1979 essay The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union. There is a short essay at the front of the zine, unsigned, that I scanned Continue reading "A short anarchafeminist critique of…
I just was thinking about some past hoaxes today and realized I never posted here about the CBC s 6 part podcast Gay Girl Gone. It was a really good, detailed account of the Amina / Gay Girl in Damascus story. You can listen to it here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1408-gay-girl-gone There was also a fantastic movie about this Continue reading "Thinking about hoaxes"
First of all I am vastly sad that Alice has died. Hilarious, witty, insightful, compassionate, she was amazing to talk with. I admired her more than I know how to express for her writing and work making spaces for us all to be heard, and I will miss her and am aching for our community Continue reading "DCC open mic night"
My new startup idea qualifies as a Bad Invention for sure! It is an AI powered app that you install on your phone. Take a photo of a pile of dog poop and it will extrapolate a photo of the dog that left it. Perfect for placing blame on your neighbors for not picking up Continue reading "Bad invention: Catch that pooper"
On my way to get my allergy shots I take two trains and pass from 3 to 5 little free libraries, which I often raid. The other day I picked up a children s fantasy novel that is what they call middle grade level, so one short step up from chapter book . My thoughts went something Continue reading "A casual dig at a beloved author"
I have a new little zine ready and printed! It is the same size as the Take the 49 and Copies tiny poetry zines from last year, but has extra internal pages. It s called Girls to the Front and is basically one medium length poem about riot grrrl. The cover images are a little collage Continue reading "New tiny zine: Girls to the Front"
I have invented an excellent gender-confused term of address. It is not really gender neutral . Sometimes, when my haircut is just right, strangers address me something like this: Sir, uh ma am, uh, sir, uh I mean . . . and then they trail off in confusion. If my gender presentation confuses people, that s perfect! I Continue reading "Bad Inventions, linguistics edition! M Dude m"
It s time for . . . BAD INVENTIONS! Today s terrible invention and bad idea is a vertical loom, the kind that you would stand or sit in front of to weave a big tapestry, combined with a beautiful, complex, cat tree for your cats to play on. Penelope would not have had to stay up Continue reading "Bad Inventions: Vertical Loom and cat tree combo"
I love to make paper maché piñatas and recently have been working on some cardboard and paper mache furniture. It is relaxing because it isn t writing and isn t a computer, hurrah! The furniture is a large cardboard box that my parents had been using as a patio table after moving into their new condo. My Continue reading "The power of glue and wheatpaste"