@Annalee@wandering.shop
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Annalee

@Annalee@wandering.shop

Science fiction writer (Fireside, F&SF, Futurescapes, elsewhere). Open source technologist. Quaker. Co-founder of wandering.shop, now largely emeritus.

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Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Hey who's going to the Nebulas weekend in person?

I'm coming (with a new tux!) but my anxious heart wishes to identify friendly faces in advance

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

Guess what? I'm on book tour this summer. Come see me discussing the history of psyops and the future of peace with these astonishing conversation partners! Be sure to say hi!

A picture of my book "Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind." It has a blue cover with red-and-cream text. Next to the book is a cartoon bomb with a book attached to its fins. Text inside says, "Coming June 4. Pre-order now!

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@annaleen DC! We must hang

(If you have time)

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

I just found my favorite new Chromium feature: go to settings/content/sound and you can set "don't allow sites to play sound."

This will mute ALL sites until you manually allow them (which you can do via site settings in the URL bar).

If you, like me, hate basically all noise, please enjoy this bounty.

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Responsible people: April Fools Day is cancelled because too many of you don't know how to comport yourselves

Me, carefully arranging a curated selection of hand puppets according to my meeting schedule for the day: The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

This right here is why I have no sympathy for "but accessibility is too hard!"

Someone went out of their way to write code to make their login less accessible. What if they'd put that same energy into making it more accessible?

https://mastodon.social/@Edent/112178064386176414

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“The quiet, pervasive devaluation of frontend - Josh Collinsworth blog” https://joshcollinsworth.com/blog/devaluing-frontend

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@baldur what is odd to me about this article is that the author clocks the gendered nature of this but doesn't really get into the history of that specifically as it relates to front end.

Annalee,
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@baldur when I was starting to code, "front end is devalued because people think it's women's work" was well-known.

Then, as with other types of computing, there was an intentional effort by men to revitalize front end's image by masculinizing it. The broification of the front end pushed many women out (because the culture was hostile!). Wages and prestige rose. Institutional knowledge and best practices were lost to this "disruption."

None of this "just happened."

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@baldur and to the point of institutional knowledge being lost we've now got folks equivocating and unsure if this is "really" happening when it's been happening the whole time.

If there was a brief reprieve from it, it was because of broification, not because it was a more enlightened time.

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

A nice side benefit of the rowing is that now my traps are big enough to provide some padding for my shoulder blades when I lean back on a hard bench 💪.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Next steps:

  1. start a rowing ministry among quakers on the grounds that it makes our ancient pews less uncomfortable

  2. People will protest that we should just replace the pews with more comfortable seating

  3. Inform everyone they have been pranked into understanding universal design

  4. Counter-discourse erupts about historic value, aesthetics, and how comfortable seating will encourage sleeping in Meeting

  5. Inform everyone they have been pranked into understanding universal design

mishellbaker, to random
@mishellbaker@wandering.shop avatar

If you are offended by the idea that a person with a terminal disease should coddle herself a bit and enjoy what remains of her life, then I am not someone you should follow/befriend on here. My angle of approach is just going to anger you, and I don't want to be a cause of anger.

A part of the old me still lingers, wants everyone to approve of me and think I'm edgy and informed and Angry Enough.

But mostly I just want to enjoy the fact that I am alive today. And tomorrow, if applicable.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@mishellbaker I just did a long journal entry yesterday about feeling good about things in my life even though I know there are a lot of Bad Things Happening and came to the conclusion that it's a fallacy to think of hope and despair or joy and sorrow as poles on a spectrum, or two sides of the same coin. They can in fact be entirely separate coins, and the pockets of our life have room for all of them.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@mishellbaker which is of course a different question than whether we have all of them on display on social media, or whether we trade equally in all of them, or share all of them with others.

We should resist the urge to assume we know what's in other people's pockets just because we see what they take out and pass around.

danhon, to random
@danhon@dan.mastohon.com avatar

hello I have I created some more tongue-in-cheek ha-ha no-actually-really-serious images to help you manage replies in lieu of affordances to help you manage replies please steal and use if you find useful or, so help me, funny

  1. Do not reply unless you have direct experience
  2. Do not reply with a software suggestion
  3. (multipart) This is an observation. Do not attempt to help. No reply necessary.

YOU MAY REPLY if you have a suggestion or request for another helpful informational message.

An information message to manage replies. It reads DO NOT REPLY WITH A SOFTWARE SUGGESTION ANTWORTEN SIE NICHT MIT EINEM SOFTWARE-VORSCHLAG NO RESPONDA CON UNA SUGERENCIA DE SOFTWARE NE RÉPONDEZ PAS AVEC UNE SUGGESTION DE LOGICIEL
An information message to manage replies. It reads: THIS IS AN OBSERVATION DIES IST EINE BEOBACHTUNG ESTA ES UNA OBSERVACIÓN DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HELP VERSUCHEN SIE NICHT, ZU HELFEN NO INTENTE AYUDAR NO REPLY NECESSARY KEINE ANTWORT ERFORDERLICH NO ES NECESARIA RESPUESTA

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@danhon I now really want a series of Creative Commons-esque short codes for this so that we can append like DR-NQ for "no reply - not a question" or DR-OF for "no reply - overfamiliarity"

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Made the mistake of looking at Content (TM) on the Internet and decided to design myself a new weekly spread. Weekly goals, tasks, and retro will go on the left page. On the right, the log for each day.

I know from past weeks that this will be enough space for each day, but the weekdays still look cramped to me - I'll probably revert to the "classic" layout after this week. I try to stick to form over function so that doing the layout doesn't become a distraction.

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

My story "Refuse All Their Colors," about a Quaker thread witch caught between two armies in 1777, is eligible for awards etc.

But it's also available to just read. @friendsjournal has made it available for free, so please feel free to read it. And if you like it, let me know!

https://www.friendsjournal.org/refuse-all-their-colors/

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

1/25: How do you feel about writers who write outside of their gender/sexuality/race?

Flip the question: how would you feel about a writer who ONLY ever wrote inside their gender/sexuality/race?

(They're not exactly stretching themselves or developing their art, are they?)

Yes, it's easy to mess up writing the other. "How not to" isn't a topic I can answer in a toot. But it's important for writers to try to see the world through other eyes.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross I recall @maryannemohanraj having a good analysis about how hey actually some people write really moving and beautiful works about homogeneous communities and that's fine as long as they're aware that they're not writing a universal story.

The way I see it, the diversity of the cast is part of the world-building. There are good reasons to make one choice or another - but writers should actually know what their reason is and make writing choices on purpose.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross @maryannemohanraj indeed. And of course there's bad reasons too: if someone is writing an all-white medieval Europe because of "historical accuracy" then lol no they're not. We make more interesting choices when we actually think things through.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross yeah ten years ago I would hold plenty of space for the possibility that they were just clueless and feeling defensive, but in 2024 the only people saying "but historical accuracy" with a straight face are people who think they're being way more subtle than they actually are

jacob, to random
@jacob@jacobian.org avatar

About a year ago I tried to find a therapist and totally struck out. It was super stressful and left me feeling like I just suck at life.

So I'm super-glad to read this reporting from the Seattle Times that it's not just me! They called FOUR HUNDRED therapists and only NINETEEN had any actual availability.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mental-health/how-insurance-companies-fill-their-networks-with-ghost-therapists/

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@jacob there was a similar wapo article a few years ago with the same findings. It's so gross.

I always recommend the Psychology Today directory, which can be filtered by insurance, distance, and specialty - and which therapists update themselves because they control their own profiles.

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Wilson's translation of The Iliad is really funny

I just got to the part where Aphrodite and Ares decide to LARP the battlefield and Athena and Diomedes send them whining to Zeus on Olympus like "DAAAAD make Athena leave us alone!" and Athena is like "what, she scratched herself on a dress pin, I wasn't touching her"

the humor really glitters in this translation

mishellbaker, to random
@mishellbaker@wandering.shop avatar

As a gift for me this birthday weekend:

Tell me in as many words as you can about something you wholeheartedly, unreservedly love and/or enjoy. Paint me a picture. Leave out any apologies, buts, or "in spite of"s. Just love the thing out loud, and let me love it with you.

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@mishellbaker I have this friend I met at a writing workshop who is possessed of a truly staggering talent. She's also incredibly kind? She shows me often that hope and joy are a skill and a practice. And reminds me of the Amanda Gorman verse: "there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it/If only we are brave enough to be it."

Anyway she is you, happy birthday

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@mishellbaker (also I AM NOW READING THE ILIAD AND YES WILSON IS STILL BRILLIANT you know how I get about The Odyssey and I just want you to know I AM LIKE THAT RIGHT NOW. The picture is me holding a copy of the book running around being FULL OF GLEE about it. Actually sitting by a fireplace reading it on my phone but IN MY MIND I am bouncing around a con full of nerds)

Annalee,
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@mishellbaker I LOVE AND ADMIRE YOU sorry to be weird about it but I'm not THAT sorry because clearly I'm still doing it anyway I'm glad you are my friend

Annalee,
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

@mishellbaker nono see it was a thing I was doing. Structural trickery. Misdirection. ✨ Technique ✨

Annalee, to random
@Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

Watching someone wax poetic about the good old days at Big Tech Co when it was a "playground of innovation" where "half the engineers had PhDs" is an odd experience as a self-taught engineer who was gatekept out of STEM degrees due to gender and disability

They don't realize this, but they really are saying "it was so much better before they let the rabble in and stopped being a frat house."

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