It’s a precarious time for those of us who live in the US. DOGE is gutting the federal government and taking over reliable software systems with hack jobs meant to give them full data access. This past week’s tariffs create an extraordinary level of economic uncertainty, where it’s difficult to find a modern comparison where it was an intentional act. In addition, political firings and the same…
I’ve mentioned in other posts that I volunteer with Portland NET . Folks have asked me to talk about that more, so here I’ll give an overview of the program, the activities we participate in, and how it fits into a larger disaster response context. The Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) program trains volunteers to respond to local disasters, covering skills like medical triage and search…
In a previous post on disaster preparedness I suggested putting the issue of food storage aside until you’ve dealt with other priorities. But now that you have your radio, first aid kit, and water at hand, what’s the next step? I’ve been working to shift more of my grocery shopping toward basic foods that are some degree of ‘shelf stable’. The goal is to make having more food on hand in case of…
Broadcast radio may seem like a thing of the past, now that we have smartphones and widespread internet access. But it remains hugely important during disasters, as well in any part of the world that has less reliable access to electricity and internet service. Regardless of where you live, a basic AM/FM radio will make sure you have access to important information during emergencies like wildfire…
I’m writing this just two days before Trump takes office, for the second time. There’s a whole slew of reasons this makes many people in the US concerned for their safety. In this post I’m going to talk about the set of situations I’m loosely calling ‘civil unrest’ — everything from police crackdowns of street protests to right-wing rallies meant to instigate violence. My aim is to help people who…
This post is a grab bag with notes from various disaster-related activities I’ve been doing since I wrote Community preparedness in uncertain times . One of the big areas I’ve been focusing on is how we can learn from the extreme weather and climate disaster situations that already impact every one of us. In some places that might be hurricanes, tornados, and extended periods of severe cold. Here…
I lost my job in March and I’ve been slowly starting to look for my next thing. I’ve been talking to other folks who’ve been laid off to get a sense of the job market — and the stories they’re sharing give me flashbacks to twenty years ago. Postings for jobs that don’t seem to exist, all sorts of shenanigans to hide that fact, recruiters who don’t even want to forward prospects to the client, and…
Earlier this year I decided to take my electronic music live and started streaming on Twitch with a group called Golden Shrimp Guild . They’re an awesome resource for anyone who wants to try this out. GSG puts on a regular event called SYNTHON! and this month’s theme is voice. People have been singing, speaking, doing live effects and loops, and sampling all sorts of vocal audio. For my set , I…
Update: I’m no longer looking. Thanks for all the leads! After a restful sabbatical, I’m ready to look for my next job. I’m interested in a staff or senior-level software engineering role. In the past I’ve worked on developer tooling like package managers and language servers, software installers and platforms, as well as other backend systems and APIs. I’d like to find a small or medium-sized…
Lately I’ve been thinking about my professional identity and how my earlier work relates to the things that are possible and interesting today. It’s been cool to take another look at talks from a decade ago, unpublished drafts, and so on. Here’s a couple pieces on a common theme: I wrote a new article about “The Fine Line Between Creepy and Fun” , a talk about social boundaries, data collection,…