tag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532Dispatches from a happy Hulliansometimes known as Woodgiepapametawidget2023-05-09T17:31:16Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:234346Friday Five on Monday2023-05-08T13:56:53Z2023-05-09T17:31:16ZHome Cookingdisplacementpublic2<dl><dt>1. What is your work/school commute like?</dt><br /><br /><dd>Summer: by bike in my work clothes — Strava on, maybe do an errand on the way.<br /><br />Winter: by express bus after dropping the kids at school. Sometimes with an ambition to read a book but often just noodling around on phone news, Wordle and e-mail.</dd><br /><br /><dt>2. What did you want to be when you grew up? Has it changed?</dt><br /><br /><dd>I had astronaut, engineer, architect, web designer, propagandist and science journalist in my sights over my career. Now I design algorithms and explain statistical processes and methods to people (including statistical laypeople). So different, but not shockingly so, aside from how far it is from astronaut.</dd><br /><br /><dt>3. What is your weirdest work/school/project related story?</dt><br /><br /><dd>Might be the time I flew up to the Lower North Shore to teach Web basics? Or went to a transgenic goat farm to take pictures for a website? I had to wear clinic booties over my shoes, touch nothing and wash my hands obsessively on the way in and out.</dd><br /><br /><dt>4. What is something you're closely familiar with that media always gets wrong?</dt><br /><br /><dd>The media's understanding of contract expiry dates and real pay has been perhaps deliberately wrong in many cases, but really, even friendly sources often flub details.</dd><br /><br /><dt>5. Describe the stuff on your desk/workspace.</dt><br /><br /><dd>Foreground: cables, coffee cup, phone, two laptops, bullet journal, pen. Background: union stuff storage, binders, basement laundry hanging area.</dd></dl><br /><br />From <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png' alt='[community profile] ' width='16' height='16' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/'><b>thefridayfive</b></a></span> questions of last week :)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=234346" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:212683Podcasts2015-12-13T16:09:11Z2015-12-13T16:16:27Zgoodpublic0It's been a while since I posted, and this has been sitting on the notepad for a while…<br /><br />When I was at work, I listened to a lot of podcasts to damp down noise from the floor while doing not-too-intense work. At home, I find time here and there — while cooking, sometimes while the kids play if the kids are off doing their own thing, while on the bus to grab a car… it's a small luxury to let a chunk of consciousness run around with smart, different folks across Internet audio.<br /><br />Here is what I manage to listen to regularly:<br /><br />Spark from CBC Radio: Nora Young has the best radio voice among living radio hosts, in my opinion (Lister Sinclair gets best ever). The podcast is mostly about technology, but in an expansive, humane way that often focused on usability, accessibility and the creative uses people come up with for existing technologies.<br /><br />Death, Sex, Money from WNYC is a show of long-form interviews touching on the title topics (usually all three of them) with people who have lived through some interesting stuff.<br /><br />Planet Money from NPR is a show about economics for laypeople — sometimes they do a show on explaining a hyped topic (What is a collateralized debt obligation? What just happened to the Chinese markets?). Sometimes they look at something mundane and explain the minutiae (t-shirt manufacturing, raisins) and sometimes they follow a person's cunning business plan with an eye to what economic mechanisms are in play underneath (a y taxi medallion empire, for instance).<br /><br />More or Less from BBC Radio 4 is a show of statistical fact-checking: from political claims to memes about toxic levels of banana consumption (hint: absent a health condition that makes you super-sensitive, you will have trouble keeping down enough bananas to kill you via potassium or radiation poisoning). It's funny, chatty and a neat way to think about all steps of the statistical process while finding out what's preoccupying Brits who listen to or make geeky podcasts.<br /><br />I also listen to and enjoy Savage Love (US politics and relationship advice), Polyamory Weekly (charmingly indie relationships and media watching), Radiolab (lovingly crafted, humane stories touching on science) and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (passionate lectures on a huge range of history, mostly military and political, with lots of quotes from original sources and psychological guesswork — and a voice and delivery that I like but is hard to be neutral on).<br /><br />Any suggestions I might like, especially in the 15–30 minute range?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=212683" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:208078Letter B, Letter B, Letter B, Letter B... My mother always whispers Letter B...2015-03-01T13:30:06Z2015-03-01T13:33:54ZMonster in the Mirror (Sesame Street)tiredpublic0Some things starting with the letter B, as suggested by <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://rottenfruit.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://rottenfruit.livejournal.com/'><b>rottenfruit</b></a></span>:<br /><br /><b>Something I hate:</b> Broken promises: personal, political, whatever — with a particular disdain for broken promises of amends. Hey, Kelowna Accord!<br /><br /><b>Something I love:</b> Bicycling! I am looking forward to the season being in again (for me, I know there are hardcore year-round bicycle users).<br /><br /><b>Somewhere I've been:</b> The Biodome, although it's been a while. I hope to bring the kids sometime soon, maybe this year.<br /><br /><b>Somewhere I'd like to go:</b> Aside from the Biodome, maybe Boston, to soak up some of the great intellectual history and wander about the U.S. equivalent of Montréal (in terms of student concentration).<br /><br /><b>Someone I know:</b> Beatrice at work. We're not super-close but she's been helpful and kind in career and getting-to-know-people spheres.<br /><br /><b>A film I like:</b> <cite>The Birdcage</cite> was fun, probably of its time but when I watched it I liked it and found it had some substance.<br /><br /><b>A book I like:</b> <cite>The Burning House</cite>, by Jay Ingram, one of my favourite science-explainer writers. Hemispheres! Awareness! Braiiiins!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=208078" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:170856Stuff I've been enjoying reading2011-04-06T15:44:14Z2011-04-06T15:45:57Zbouncypublic1<p>I think it was <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://audrawilliams.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://audrawilliams.livejournal.com/'><b>audrawilliams</b></a></span> that got me on to <a href="http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=3">Digger, by Ursula Vernon</a>. I've been nibbling my way through it for a week or two, and it is a funny, strange, silly, pretty and humane story with sympathetic characters and a touch of Douglas Adams. The main character is a staunch rationalist wombat named Digger who takes a wrong turn while tunnelling and gets entangled all sorts of things in a very strange and unfamiliar land. And apparently, after 752 panels or something like that, it has wrapped up, so start now and have a complete work waiting there for you. I've still got two thirds of the story to go.</p>
<p>I've also been enjoying some of the <a href="http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=lmbujold" title="Baen catalogue of Bujold books, including the Miles ones">Miles Vorkosigan books</a> by Lois McMaster Bujold — just finished Brothers in Arms, which also is about two thirds of the way between straight SF space opera and Douglas Adams weird, with a bit of Adrian Mole thrown in for good measure. I find suspension of disbelief a little tenuous with Bujold sometimes, but it doesn't matter because when she's over the top, she is also funny and clever, and the suspension-of-disbelief trouble is more on the end of improbable plot and less on the part of her main characters, who are generally sympathetic and believably crazy. I've got one more Bujold book borrowed from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://commodorified.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://commodorified.dreamwidth.org/'><b>commodorified</b></a></span> (which, to her, is probably a “Lois book”), and it is probably next on my reading stack.</p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=170856" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:170082Kind of couple-centric but funny and truthy nonetheless2011-03-30T20:17:24Z2011-03-30T20:17:24Zpublic0<blockquote><a href="http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1929" title="Dinosaur Comics - awesome fun times!">…ESPECIALLY the ones that barfed on me.</a></blockquote>
<p>The flip-side is when fun, happy woodgie is our fault*, too.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>*and I know fun woodgie can result from many different relationship structures!</small></p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=170082" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:168841Recursive Oscar2011-03-14T22:51:30Z2011-03-15T03:47:45Zamusedpublic7<p>So, we found that Oscar was having a blast in a laundry basket in front of a mirror. Then I took some video footage (not thinking, I took it portrait-sideways, which is why the laptop is on its side). Then Oscar saw the video of him, and I had to take another video of him enjoying the video of himself in the mirror. I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but we were laughing.</p>
<span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://metawidget.dreamwidth.org/168841.html#cutid1">Recursive baby</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div>
<p>And yes, he was similarly excited at this video too.</p>
<p>Here are some stills of Oscar and the mirror (without recursion):</p>
<span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://metawidget.dreamwidth.org/168841.html#cutid2">Non-recursive baby</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div>
<p>After all that new media excitement, Oscar is now sleeping soundly beside me, for now…</p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=168841" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:167790Co-sleeping2011-02-28T16:59:30Z2011-02-28T17:00:25Zpublic10Co-sleeping makes a lot of sense for everyone's sense of security, for ease of night-time feeding and changing, and all that, but there is sometimes the issue in the icon over there (LJ users: <a href="http://metawidget.dreamwidth.org/167790.html">over here</a>).<br /><br />Thanks to Hyperbole and a Half for including that panel in Allie's <a href="http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/02/scariest-story.html">lastest story</a>, and for the cheerfully generous permissions Allie posts her stuff under.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=167790" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-03-22:490532:2636Teinm_laida's questions2010-06-20T20:11:53Z2010-06-20T20:11:53Zcalmpublic4<p><span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://teinm-laida.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://teinm-laida.livejournal.com/'><b>teinm_laida</b></a></span> gave me some random questions:</p>
<dl><dt><b>if you had a time machine, what time period would you be most tempted
to relocate to?</b></dt>
<dd>I think the future, definitely, to see how it all turns out. Say, 2210, under the assumption that my English may be quaint but not entirely useless, and some serious history will have happened by then.</dd>
<dt><b>what was the last film that really moved/disturbed you and why?</b></dt>
<dd>I think the most disturbing one lately was The Idiots, by Lars von Trier — cultiness, mental illness and black comedy are always a disturbing mix.</dd>
<dt><b>what is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?</b></dt>
<dd>It's hard to sort out a ranking of them, but my elementary school teachers — Mrs. Lawrence, Mrs. Lang and Annick stand out — and our awesome ahead-of-his-time principal Mr. Rennie really went out of their way to put lots of stimulating stuff in my path. It can't always be easy to be long-time elementary school faculty, but they were awesome anyway.</dd>
<dt><b>least favourite vegetable? ;)</b></dt>
<dd>Probably Brussels sprouts, but even they can be saved with black pepper and butter.</dd>
<dt><b>would you bungee jump?</b></dt>
<dd>No, I think the days when that made any sort of sense for me are past — I'll take my life-and-limb risks doing yard maintenance and bicycle commuting, now.</dd>
</dl><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metawidget&ditemid=2636" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments