All posts by Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

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Skateboarding is Universal

Kabul, Afghanistan: A girl ‘pops an ollie’ on her skateboard as Afghan youths gather for the Sound Central Festival

Photograph: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images

Actually I think it’s a kickflip, but either way… I like this for the juxtaposition. Too often we hear ‘Oh these people are different from us! They’re nothing like us!’ Except they’re just people, like you and me. The girls in the back are probably texting, the one in boots is clearly looking around, and then there’s the one on the right, just enjoying skateboarding.

People are people. We should remember that.

reading_underwater

Immersion

My Life

When I read a book, I want to be sucked in to the point where I want to finish work and run home so I can sit and read. I’ll get annoyed every time someone wants my attention, because damn it all, I have a book that must be read! A great book will do that too me every time I read, no matter what page I start on. A great book will suck up a whole summer’s day. A great series, though, can take me weeks.

reading_underwater

Recently I re-read Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle (two books so far, more coming), and marveled at how easy it was to slip into his world without question. It was as easy as picking up any of Lois McMaster Bujold’s, even though the two can hardly be compared in any other way. Bujold, like Laurie R. King, mastered the art of stand-alone series. Rothfuss has fantasy high drama down nicely.

This weekend I picked up A Game Of Thrones (book one of the series by George R.R. Martin). This book came out when I moved to Chicago, and on the recommendation of a friend, was my first book purchase. It was interesting. I got the rest from the library instead of the bookstore, and now as I re-read it … It’s kind of boring. Slow, and paced oddly. It’s not investing me in the world as much as I was in Kvothe.

Maybe it’s because Martin makes a habit of saying “You like this character? DEAD!” all the time. Maybe it’s too much like the Wheel of Time series, that dragged on and on… Or worse, it’s like reading David Eddings. Yes, they make for real characters, but they’re all stereotypes of 70s and 80s fantasy. Like Mercedes Lackey. They all can write. I’ve read amazing stories by them! But they take the easier road of death, pain, and trope. I’m still enjoying the books, but I don’t feel like I can’t put it down.

I guess I just need to stalk Rothfuss to finish the next book in his series!

“Babysteps are the key,” says Jennie. “I’ve attended five hackathons, but have only done one solo project. My first two hackathons, I didn’t do any work beyond the UI. Then, I worked with a friend with a similar knowledge on two hackathons, where I did about half the work. Finally, this weekend I ventured out on my own, and worked on my own. I’ve been interested in coding for about three years now, and though I still have much to learn, I feel as though I have been able to do a lot. By teaming up with friends, I was able to slowly learn how to make my own hacks.”

— eliotvb

They’re called boobs, Ed.

My Life, , , ,

I forgot to have childrenI’m a woman, I work in tech. Kinda wish I could leave it at that. I can’t, so I’m going to give you a shit-ton of relavant links, plus a commentary. There will be a test after.

Look, I’ve faced down misogyny in tech before. I think a lot about what I am and what that means and how I define myself. I deal with a life lived with a man’s name. I’m a minority in multiple ways, and sometimes that gets me down, but I also feel that, in many ways, open source gets things very right.

So now that you’ve read everything I’ve said in the last couple years about this, what do I have to say that’s new? What can I say that Stephanie Leary didn’t say better? Can I provide a POV vastly different from Chris Ford? Am I more poignant than Grimes, when she wants to be treated like a person.

I read the WPMUorg post “Where are the women in WordPrees?” too. Unlike my friends Shannon Smith and Siobhan McKewon, I was neither interviewed for this nor asked about it nor mentioned in the article itself. And I don’t really find that a personal slight. I’ve been left out of things in the WP community lists like this before (most notable would be where two WP news sites mentioned someone else who was raising money to go to WordCamp San Francisco last year but did not mention me, even as a successful ‘Look, she just did this too). Shit like this happens. I try not to take it personally, though I will say you lose a lot of my respect when I can spot holes like this in your research. They forgot HELEN for fuck’s sake. (Okay, maybe my feelers are a little bruised about being omitted… I’ll live.)

What do I think about all this for realzies, no takebacks, pinky swear?

Society is still pretty fucked up.

That’s what the problem is. It’s not tech, and it’s not WP, and it’s not school. It’s all these things to one degree or another. It’s why I picked the post title that I did. The idea that a women who shows cleavage gets powers is stupid, but it’s sadly valid in a lot of ways. There’s a reason shit like Boobquake (anniversary tomorrow!) was hilarious. Yes, cleavage causes earthquakes and gayness causes hurricanes.

Our society is growing, and it’s changing, and it’s learning. But it’s doing it in a way that feels real slow until someone points out to you that the Stonewall riots were in 1969. Or that Brown vs Board of Education happened in 1952. How about how women only got the right to vote in the US in 1920 (by the way, I cannot WAIT for the centennial party in 2020).

My point is that we’ve learned that separate but equal is a lie. We’ve learned that different people are different. We’ve learned that different societies are different. And the last hundred years have been fucking amazing with change and growth. And the point is that the problem is the world in general. It’s not just religion — some of my super religious friends are the most enlightened people I know, and some of my atheist friends are shockingly sexist — asshollery knows no limits. It’s not just technology or gaming or comics or writing or anything else. It’s everything. It’s all of it. All the time.

And the only way I know of to change it is to keep changing. Keep encouraging people who weren’t as lucky as I am, who didn’t have my opportunities and background and support. That’s why I taught at the Learn WP Workshops for Women, and why I do support women-only training. In some cases, for some women, it’s needed. Not everyone, but some, and I hate when people say “Well I didn’t have a problem, so it’s not needed.” because If you did have a problem somewhere down the line, if you were put off, this is only making it worse.

Every single day, someone is told they cannot do or be a certain thing because they are another thing.

Let’s stop that, shall we?

Let’s encourage people, tell them they can, and when you see someone who hits a roadblock because someone else back up the way told them “Girls can’t do math” or “Southerners can’t write well” or “Men can’t bake” take the time to tell them that they can too, and help them learn how.

That’s just what I think.

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