As a lifelong fan of speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy), I read the genre for both leisure and intellectual stimulus. When a book or series captures my attention, it’s usually because at least a few of the following things are true: the plot is well-constructed, the characters are interesting/engaging, the writing is competent, andContinue reading “Musings from speculative fiction: Queen of the Tearling”
A walk along Johnson Creek
I took a walk around midday, today — between rain showers — and stopped to watch the rushing waters of our swollen local creek. I like living close to water, even when it’s a (usually) small body. There’s something both evocative and calming for me, watching the points of movement and stillness — I findContinue reading “A walk along Johnson Creek”
Meal plan for Jan 25-31
One of the ways I ensure our family eats healthfully while managing my mid-week stress, is to plan out our meals every week. I try to incorporate leftovers from other meals, as you can see below. I also consider what kind of evening activities we might have scheduled, and if I know an evening willContinue reading “Meal plan for Jan 25-31”
The lost city of Bayocean
If you enjoy watching short documentaries, and you’re interested in learning more about Oregon, you might check out the Oregon Public Broadcasting show called Oregon Field Guide. Tonight I watched a really interesting and very sad episode about the lost city of Bayocean, Oregon. Apparently in 1907, a family of real estate developers founded aContinue reading “The lost city of Bayocean”
Good things
When your job involves a lot of finding where things are broken and fixing them, it’s easy to get in the habit of only paying attention to broken things. To help me offset all the criticism I regularly pile on my own head (there’s a lot), a friend recommended a simple little app called 3Continue reading “Good things”
Caturday
Dancing with production
I always enjoy the excellent podcast Hurry Slowly (hat tip Josepha Haden Chomphosy for the recommendation), and a recent episode called “Are you Satisfiable?” really resonated with me this week. The episode centers on the ideas of writer, facilitator, and activist adrienne maree brown, who recently published the book Pleasure Activism. The whole interview isContinue reading “Dancing with production”
Innovation and Empathy for Loss
In reading Megan Risdal‘s excellent article, Reflections on Stack Overflow: Building Successful Communities, I was struck by a particular passage: Have empathy. Loss aversion is a very real thing. Even if simplifying something is the best thing for users by all other accounts, taking something away still hurts. And this impacts not just end users,Continue reading “Innovation and Empathy for Loss”
Talking leadership, events, and open source with Cory Miller
I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with my friend Cory Miller about leadership, event organizing, and open source today. Check out that conversation if you’d like to hear about the three epiphanies that have changed the way I think about my work! Cory has a ton of great content on his Youtube channel, tooContinue reading “Talking leadership, events, and open source with Cory Miller”
Post-summer camp study hall
After I pick the kids up from summer camp every day at 4, I still have an hour of work to do (at least). If the kids want to watch some tv, they have to spend some time with their workbooks. So our afternoons frequently look like this, with all of us working at theContinue reading “Post-summer camp study hall”
Sweet peas
With a sunflower chaser.
Worth reading: The Skamania County Pioneer
I spent a weekend on the Columbia Gorge recently, and happened to buy a copy of The Skamania County Pioneer, the local paper, in a Stevenson, Washington. 1. There are still local newspapers in small towns; isn’t that good to know? 2. This paper has a Sheriff’s Incident Log that is pure, unadulterated GOLD. Out-of-townerContinue reading “Worth reading: The Skamania County Pioneer”
