July 2023

So, with the move to X "complete”, should we call it Elonly Fans? I mean, who else is left over there? (only posted this for the pun)

Now that MasterChef Australia is over, it’s time to catch up on Strange New Worlds. So glad there’s no sign of a sophomore slump!

The World Cup so far has been amazing (hooray for replays) so far. I really hope this increases interest in the NWSL in the US. The quality of play is way better than the MLS (ok, except maybe for Messi).

I’ve got a simmering blog post about my rejection of time. I don’t want breaking news, or need to have an opinion about things right away. I rarely even watch live sports anymore. I want slow news. I want to ponder before I opine. I don’t need to know things right away anymore. It’s made a huge difference in my happiness.

You know what's great? POPSICLES. I found a brand (Deebee's) that basically makes raw fruit juice Otter Pops (aka Flav-R-Ice). No dairy, 25 calories a pop, and they're delicious. My family has been CRUSHING them all summer, and give them the 8 thumbs up Lawver Seal of Fuck-Yeah-Get-You-Some!

Something that’s bubbled up a few times with clients lately: you can absolutely apply for and interview for a job you have no plans to take, in order to learn something about a company or field. You aren’t wasting their time any more than they are wasting yours if they choose someone else; and they will have a chance to make their case to you if they really want you. Think of applications and interviews as _research_ and act accordingly.

It's funny how my HTML semantics nerdery has turned into Google Docs “use headings correctly, you filthy animals" zealotry.

I am too productive. I need to goof off more.

I get to play product manager and it's been a while (a decade?). It's so fun! I'm doing user interviews! I'm writing things that other people have to read! I'm sharing a VISION.

If you're a Homebrew user this might now be one of the quickest and easiest ways to start running a LLM locally on your own machine - it's just three steps:

brew install llm
llm install llm-gpt4all
llm -m 'ggml-vicuna-7b-1' \
'ten fun names for a pet pelican'

I hop around projects so often that I feel like I'm rusty at EVERYTHING except context switching.

“It is not possible for an employer to exploit our relationship, because it exists outside of their reach.” —@aworkinglibrary

https://everythingchanges.us/blog/work-friends/

People coming over from Twitter are henceforth referred to as X-Forwarded-For

Hari Seldon is such a scamp. #foundation (I’m on S1E7)

How I choose which team to root for in an international sports competition (like the World Cup):

1. Countries I’ve lived in.
2. Former colonies of imperial powers.
3. The smaller country.

I want a GPT-based bot that, given a photo of a rash, tells an anxious person to apply hydrocortisone, antibiotic, go to the doctor, or go to the emergency room.

Something something... turd polishing... something something. I just don't wanna today. I currently have a heart full of Nope.

I keep forgetting what uses Gravatar and what doesn't. I needed to go change something today and realized that it's a 15 year history of my hair loss, weight fluctuation and how unprofessional my profile pics have been / still are.

Slack at a large-ish company is so different than Slack at a small one. So... much... activity... I can’t handle it anymore. Time to go aggressively eject myself from some channels.

At the end of the day, all that rage and stubbornness made a thing five whole minutes faster and a whole lot simpler. Worth it.

Sometimes, success only happens through rage and stubbornness. Wisdom is knowing when to apply it.

You know it's going to be a good day when you start working and the first thing you utter out loud is scream "WHY?! FUUUUUUUCK!!" into the void.

Current status.

I am 100% here for the queer south and especially for New Orleans bounce music. This video is super fun, and a great intro to bounce, Big Freedia and New Orleans: https://youtu.be/P6H50fU4rDQ

Been curious about the age distribution of Mastodon users.
Internet polls are known to be the most reliable method for any such estimation.*

*Trust me, I went to grad school in statistics.

Please boost to increase precision of the point estimate and to reduce confidence intervals.

Publix subs have zero calories. In fact, you lose weight when you eat them because they’re just so damn good for you.

Follow me for more lies I tell myself at the grocery store.

There comes a point in community stuff where it's someone else's turn, and if no one steps up, you've got to be OK with it not happening. If you're not OK with it not happening, then you don't get to step down.

I think those are the rules.

I finished The Wild at Heart today and it’s a lot of fun. Pikmin-ish, with some tough puzzles and a lovely story. Two middle aged thumbs up!

This is REALLY important.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment and counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

Let that sink in. It costs less than accepting homelessness.

#Finland #Helsinki #homeless #cities #homes
https://scoop.me/housing-first-finland-homelessness/

When the COVID test is negative but now you’re worried you have the plague instead, and CVS doesn’t sell tests for that.

There's really nothing better than a Friday afternoon "situation.”

Wife texts: You want to go out just you and me this weekend?
Me: Yes! What do you want to do?
Wife: Finances.

Womp womp…

I blogged! About finding clarity and the side effects of being a Single Point of Failure (kind of): https://lawver.net/2023/07/clarity/

I had a rough 4th thinking about how an entire political party has decided it's their job to make life harder for their neighbors, while pretending to be Christians. I hate where we are in this country and I don't see any way to make it better.

Christ didn't ask anyone to do this. He said way more about adultery, public religiosity & hypocrisy than he ever said about queer people.

I wish people would police their own behavior and let people just live.

i like how "illegal in the EU" means it probably violated a human right and "illegal in florida" means it probably is a human right

Making a meetup for me, and inviting other people: https://www.meetup.com/techsav/events/294616667/

I’m still not perfect, especially over zoom, where accidentally speaking over people is called “a meeting” but I try to leave space in meetings before I answer things and then push people to step up and answer behind the scenes.

It’s not just about not talking over, it’s about knowing when to lean back and when to lean forward.

Give people room to think and answer. You don’t have to prove you know everything, especially if you’re the senior person in the room.

@kpl
1. We shut the fuck up.
2. When a man talks over a woman in our presence, we say "I'd like to hear what she was going to say."
3. We take men who chronically talk over women aside and tell them to stop.
4. When we have the chance to be in charge of a project, we make sure everyone feels comfortable communicating and make affordances for people who need them.

Men of Mastodon, how do we stop talking over women in professional settings? And how do we support women being talked over?

Inspired by: https://mstdn.social/@briannawu/110652357211775771

And to be even more clear: No, it's not good that mastodon is hard because it keeps the rabble out. That kind of elitist, exclusionary attitude is poison to community building. Don't fall into that trap. We WANT people here, and we want people who are not necessarily fluent in social media tech, because those are interesting people with valuable things to say!

Coming out is a thing because the *closet* is a thing. The closet is a thing because society isn't safe for LGBTQ+ people.

We should be fighting for a world and a society in which there is no closet, where people are able to fully express themselves without fear of being harassed or assaulted or fucking killed.

We can, *and must*, do better.

Watching Evil Dead 2 with the youngest and none of it works without Bruce Campbell selling the 💩 out of it. And he is doing a whole lotta selling.

I want a buddy cop movie starring Rebecca Ferguson and Betty Gilpin as identical twins on opposite sides of the law. Bonus points if Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard are in it too.

I had coffee with a friend this week and we both left the same company within a few months of each other a couple of years ago. We marveled at how freeing it is to DECIDE to leave a bad situation, and how the fear almost held us back.

So, if you’re afraid to decide to leave, please know there’s freedom on the other side of deciding to decide.

A piece of advice for Twitter exiles, ignore the Mastodon HOA and just have fun.