This Girl Can Write

31. An educator who dreams of also becoming a published author one day. I try to post original content as much as possible, and reblog things that I think are great. "Being a teacher Means taking a life in hand And giving it wings"

[extramadness]

[atesan]

HAIR LOVE (2019) dir Matthew A. Cherry, Everett Downing Jr., Bruce W. Smith

[logarithmicpanda]

First time crying in 2020 heyyyy

[hai-lei]

Holy heck this was SO MUCH BETTER than the gifs let on! PLEASE WATCH THIS IT MADE MY LITTLE SURVIVOR HEART HAPPY.

[completed-nihilism-blog]

[labiodentist-deactivated2015021]

what. why? someone pls explain to me pls i wasnt born yet in 1999 why turn computer off before midnight? what happen if u dont?

[awhdjksadaluigsjkdfasdk-deactiv]

y2k lol everyone was like “the supervirus is gonna take over the world and ruin everything and end the world!!!”

[jibini]

This is the oldest I’ve ever felt. Right now.

[the-ilyasaurus-deactivated20160]

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU WEREN’T BORN YET IN 1999.

[faisdm]

Ahh the Millenium bug.

It wasn’t a virus, it was an issue with how some old computers at the time were programmed to deal with dates. Basically some computers with older operating systems didn’t have anything in place to deal with the year reaching 99 and looping around to 00. It was believed that this inability to sync with the correct date would cause issues, and even crash entire systems the moment the date changed.

People flipped out about it, convinced that the date discrepancy between netwoked systems would bring down computers everywhere and shut down the internet and so all systems relying on computers, including plane navigation etc. would go down causing worldwide chaos. It was genuinely believed that people should all switch off computers to avoid this. One or two smart people spoke up and said “um hey, this actually will only effect a few very outdated computers and they’ll just display the wrong date, so it probably won’t be harmful” but were largely ignored because people selling books about the end of the world were talking louder.

In the end, absolutely nothing happened.

[ralfmaximus]

Oh gosh.

I’ve been a programmer working for various government agencies since the early 1990s and I can say with some confidence:

NOTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE WE WORKED VERY HARD FIXING SHIT THAT MOST DEFINITELY WOULD HAVE BROKEN ON 1-JAN-2000.

One example I personally worked on: vaccination databases.

My contract was with the CDC to coordinate immunization registries — you know, kids’ vaccine histories. What they got, when they got it, and (most importantly) which vaccines they were due to get next and when. These were state-wide registries, containing millions of records each.

Most of these systems were designed in the 1970s and 1980s, and stored the child’s DOB year as only two digits. This means that — had we not fixed it — just about every child in all the databases I worked on would have SUDDENLY AGED OUT OF THE PROGRAM 1-JAN-2000.

In other words: these kids would suddenly be “too old” to receive critical vaccines.

Okay, so that’s not a nuke plant exploding or airplanes dropping from the sky. In fact, nothing obvious would have occurred come Jan 1st.

BUT

Without the software advising doctors when to give vaccinations, an entire generation’s immunity to things like measles, mumps, smallpox (etc) would have been compromised. And nobody would even know there was a problem for months — possibly years — after.

You think the fun & games caused by a few anti-vaxers is bad?

Imagine whole populations going unvaccinated by accident… one case of measles and the death toll might be measured in millions.

This is one example I KNOW to be true, because I was there.

I also know that in the years leading up to 2000 there were ad-hoc discussion groups (particularly alt.risk) of amazed programmers and project managers that uncovered year-2000 traps… and fixed them.

Quietly, without fanfare. 

In many cases because admitting there was a problem would have resulted in a lawsuit by angry customers. But mostly because it was our job to fix those design flaws before anyone was inconvenienced or hurt.

So, yeah… all that Y2K hysteria was for nothing, because programmers worked their asses off to make sure it was for nothing.

[spytap]

Bolding mine.

[jaybushman]

Absolutely true.  My Mom worked like crazy all throughout 1998 and 1999 on dozens of systems to avoid Y2K crashes. Nothing major happened because people worked to made sure it didn’t.

Now if we could just harness that concept for some of the other major issues facing us today.  

[shananaomi]

this meme came so far since i saw it this morning. god i love tumblr teaching tumblr about history.

[forloveofreason]

As a young Sys Admin during Y2K, I can confirm that it was SRS BZNS.  I worked for a major pharmaceutical company at the time.  They spent millions of dollars on consultant and programmer hours, not to mention their own employees’ time, to fix all their in-house software as well as replace it with new systems.  Sys Admins like myself were continually deploying patches, updating firmware, and deploying new systems in the months leading up to Y2K.  Once that was done, though, the programmers went home and cashed their checks.

When the FATEFUL HOUR came along, it wasn’t just one hour.  For a global company with offices in dozens of countries, it was 24 hours of being alert and on-call.  I imagine that other large organizations had similar setups with entire IT departments working in shifts to monitor everything.  Everyone was on a hair trigger, too, so the slightest problem caused ALL HANDS ON DECK pages to go out.

Yes, we had pagers.

For hard numbers IDC’s 2006 calculation put the total US cost of remediation, before and after, at $147 billion - that’s in 1999 dollars.  That paid for an army of programmers, including calling up retired grandparents from the senior center because COBOL and FORTRAN apps from the ‘60s needed fixing.

Also note that there were some problems, including $13 billion in remediation included in the figure above.  Some of these involved nuclear power plants, medical equipment, and “a customer at a New York State video rental store had a bill for $91,250, the cost of renting the movie ‘The General’s Daughter’ for 100 years.”

Y2K was anything but nothing.

[all-things-olicity]

@figure-forever

[cumaeansibyl]

tfw you do your job so fucking well that everyone thinks you weren’t necessary in the first place :(

salute our COBOL cowpokes and other Y2K wranglers, they saved all our asses

another important lesson we learned: a shitload of stuff in the ‘90s was still running programs from the ‘60s and ‘70s. it’s hard to justify the expense and trouble of a massive upgrade when things are working “fine” – easier to say “well, I suppose we’ll need to change at some point, but not now”

and if things really are working “fine” you can let them go on for a while but every so often you run into something like Y2K where the software simply wasn’t designed to handle certain eventualities. can’t really blame the programmers, either. if you were writing shit in the ‘60s, would you expect people to still be using it in the science-fiction year of 2000? that’s not a real year! you might be dead by then!

so, y’know, you don’t always need the latest and greatest for everything you’re doing – how much power do you really need for an inventory system? – but regular upgrades are a Good Idea

[awakingdream]

After years of wanting one I finally did it!

[buzzfeed]

Emma Watson And Lin-Manuel Miranda Sorted The Founders From “Hamilton” Into Hogwarts Houses

[chrisriddellblog]

Dark Sonnet by Neil Gaiman.

[neil-gaiman]

I love that Chris Riddell is drawing illustrations for some of my poems for no better reason than pure enjoyment (and what better reason for making art could there be?)

[abhiouslyabhi-deactivated201708]

Neil deGrasse Tyson everyone

[thejunglenook]

Saving this for future scientific takedowns

[dynastylnoire]

Omggggggggggg

[awakingdream]

I have always been my harshest critic. Instead of allowing myself To be soft I pinch, prod, and push the parts that I don’t like About my body. The scale has always been constant, An unmoving 113 Yet when I look in the mirror Only my flaws look back at me

I have grown weary of crumbling, Of looking down at Everything I drown in Yet I want to push myself harder, To start counting the calories And computing in macros and ounces Turning mealtimes into an exact science, Robbing myself of the joy And the pleasure and passion That override my senses when I eat the food I love

I wish I could measure up To the woman I think I should be, While simultaneously questioning why I need to measure anything at all

Sometimes I wonder why I do this, Why I can only find imperfections Instead of feeling secure in my own skin. Does it stem from having divorced parents, Growing up between two houses? Did the security I lacked then find a way to Scar my soul and leave me Vulnerable, emotional, and always needing To prove that I can attain perfection? Will it be like this forever?

I want to shed my anxiety and fear Like old skin I want to be able to look at my reflection And notice everything I like about it Without judgment, To feel light, To allow myself to be soft.

[nowthisnews]

Killer Mike On The Importance of Voting

NowThis caught up with Rapper and Sanders supporter Killer Mike in the spin room following the democratic debate.

[marvelousamanda-deactivated2017]

I’m so sorry you did not get to do that. Rest In Peace ❤️

[awakingdream]

I woke up today to learn that Alan Rickman passed away, also at 69, and also because of cancer. What a tremendous loss. He was an exceptional actor. Before J.K. Rowling released the rest of the Potter books she told Rickman Snape's secret, and he crafted his art around that knowledge. For ten years Rickman exhibited the same kind of loyalty as his character, never revealing to anyone what she had said. There were times when a director would tell him what to do and Rickman would refuse, saying he simply couldn't do it, and then deliver the scene the way he knew he should do it. If you re-watch the Potter films, as I have many times, you will see that in every film you can see how that there is always so much more going on there - an expression, a sentiment, the way he looks at Harry - the emotion he conveys is immeasurable. I am deeply saddened by the news of his passing, and grateful for his legacy. RIP #AlanRickman

[awakingdream]

This is what my commitment to reading 2-3 books every week and writing every day looks like - a giant box of hawaiian cookies with my current books piled on top of it (re-reading Harry Potter for the nth time because I was recently given the new illustrated version, Birth of the Pill, and HONY stories which I finished right away), and two journals on top of the whole pile. I've got my one-line-per-day 5 year memory journal and my trusty moleskin. Having them right beside my bed has been the best motivation. I've written in both journals every day since January 1st and happy to say that I've successfully found time to read two books last week. I'll be switching out the HONY book for something else tomorrow.

[tblaberge]

A soulmate is not someone who shares your interests and is attractive to you. A soulmate is someone who is willing to grow with you, who chooses to be with you until the end, and will love you through good and bad. It’s not about sunshine and laughter, it’s about mundane moments filled with unknowns. Love is so much more than a spark you have, or passions shared, it’s working for something deeper and lasting. I think that at the end of all things, we’ll see what really matters, and I think the things we produced with love and grace will be what we have to show. So love with purpose, love beyond yourself, and love knowing that what you are growing is beautiful and good.

T.B. LaBerge // Go Now  (via modernhepburn)

[awakingdream]

The best part of being a teacher on Christmas break is staying up until 3 to finish reading the great book that I started this afternoon without worrying about having to get up for work at 7!

[awakingdream]

Some days are just so damn hard.

[awakingdream]

Pork belly ramen! The restaurant that makes this opens at 5:30. I was in line at 5:20 and the waitress was going down the line taking orders. By 5:34 the entire restaurant was PACKED, every single seat occupied, with a line that was still out the door. Best ramen in the Bay Area!

[tanae-briana-deactivated2018010]

Drawing

[agoldthatactuallystays]

Black is so dope.

[stankyleg-deactivated2918973]

Wow!!!

[allakinwande]

She’s cool beans