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Moving (Advice + Some Whining)

There are some achievements in life that receive recognition and appreciation, but moving is not one of those things. I recently went through two big events: graduating from law school, and moving. Graduation involved a weekend of parties, a ceremony where I received my diploma, and was overall a satisfying conclusion to an accomplishment that took a LOT of work. Meanwhile, moving also took a lot of work, and the only celebration was when I finally found that missing extension cord. (Go me!)

This was my first “big” move - gone are the days when I could stuff all my clothes and books into a car and drive to the next place. Relocating furniture, framed art, rugs, and everything else is a real move, and it is hard. I’m writing this because I benefited from a lot of online research before my move, but there were still some things I wish I’d known. Read on for a major TMI about moving!

#moving #moving advice

People think Austen was not a feminist; some even think she’s anti-feminist. But if you believe that, it’s because Jane Austen has tricked you. She writes with such clever and sometimes subtle irony and wit that a cursory reading looks like a bunch of characters making an awkward amount of silent eye contact, leading us to miss the point.

Amy Watkin, Jane Austen is Probably Mad at Us.

This piece is part of a cool series on literary ladies, Women Who Should be Pretty Pissed Off. Watkin has me intrigued to reread Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf with a new perspective.

She can’t be sad or angry, she can’t be happy or amused, and she can’t refrain from expressing any of those emotions. There is no way out of this one. There is no right way for her to act.

Sady Doyle, in Slate, on why she likes Hillary Clinton.

#2016 Election

The planet doesn’t need us. We need the planet.

#climate change

A person who looks white can refuse to act white, meaning refuse to collude with the injustices of the law-enforcement system and the educational system, among other things. ... Refusing to collude in injustice is, I’ve found, easier said than done. Collusion is written onto our way of life, and nearly every interaction among white people is an invitation to collusion. Being white is easy, in that nobody is expected to think about being white, but this is exactly what makes me uneasy about it. Without thinking, I would say that believing I am white doesn’t cost me anything, that it’s pure profit, but I suspect that isn’t true.

Eula Biss, White Debt, The New York Times

I found this to a be a thought-provoking and helpful article. Many commenters on NYT state that the author is groveling in self pity, but I disagree. She is a privileged white person, conscious of the racist society she lives in, and wanting to at least be aware of that problem and try to remedy it. Maybe I find this so relatable because I am a privileged white person - but so be it. That’s what I am, and it is important that I and others think about how to make the world a more equal place.

#race #racism

Look what I made! I created this video for an amazing course I took this semester, The Technology of Privacy. Professor Ohm taught us the basics of Linux, and introduced us to mitmproxy and a variety of other tools that can be used to understand how tech can invade (or protect) user privacy. It was pretty funny to be in a room of future lawyers struggling to master skills that are extremely basic for any computer scientist or coder.

This is a quick summary of a longer analysis I conducted that looks at the data-sharing practices of two online lending companies, Earnest and LendUp, based on the cookies they allow to be embedded on their websites. Of course there are other ways that companies can share users’ data, but cookies are a direct tool allowing third parties to track users during their visit to the lender site and during other online browsing.

You can read my full analysis here.

#tech #privacy

Addicted to Distraction

Read: NYT op-ed Addicted to Distraction, by Tony Schwartz

Addiction is the relentless pull to a substance or an activity that becomes so compulsive it ultimately interferes with everyday life. By that definition, nearly everyone I know is addicted in some measure to the Internet. It has arguably replaced work itself as our most socially sanctioned addiction.

The brain’s craving for novelty, constant stimulation and immediate gratification creates something called a “compulsion loop.” Like lab rats and drug addicts, we need more and more to get the same effect.

I aptly read this editorial while procrastinating from doing real work, and of course it had resonance. Over Thanksgiving, because I was hanging out with family and frequently left my phone in a different room, I became disconnected from checking my email and immediately responding to text messages. This disconnection was a good thing - I was focused solely on whatever was in front of me: baking apple pie, or talking with my cousin and aunt.

Now I am getting back into my typical work flow, which is far less productive than the mental space I was in during Thanksgiving, in part because of the many distractions pulling me in different directions. I appreciate Schwartz’s editorial for identifying and defining a societal problem. However, he does not propose a broad solution for addressing an addiction that so many people experience. The closest thing to a solution is that Schwartz shares some of his personal practices, which are helpful:

When I’m online, I try to resist surfing myself into a stupor. As often as possible, I try to ask myself, “Is this really what I want to be doing?” If the answer is no, the next question is, “What could I be doing that would feel more productive, or satisfying, or relaxing?”

I also make it my business now to take on more fully absorbing activities as part of my days. Above all, I’ve kept up reading books, not just because I love them, but also as a continuing attention-building practice.

I’ve retained my longtime ritual of deciding the night before on the most important thing I can accomplish the next morning. That’s my first work activity most days, for 60 to 90 minutes without interruption. Afterward, I take a 10- to 15-minute break to quiet my mind and renew my energy.

If I have other work during the day that requires sustained focus, I go completely offline for designated periods, repeating my morning ritual. In the evening, when I go up to my bedroom, I nearly always leave my digital devices downstairs.

Finally, I feel committed now to taking at least one digital-free vacation a year.

I’m looking forward to implementing some of these strategies. The idea of determining the first task of the day the night before is particularly appealing to me.

#productivity

Powerlessness

It is early on a Thursday morning during rush hour. Roads and sidewalks are crowded, city buses and trains are carrying people to their destinations, and I am on the metro. At Gallery Place I get off the green line train, walk through the station and wait to board the red line. Usually my commute is focused around reading as much as possible of my current novel (Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel). However, on this day something catches my eye and I put down the book.

A blind woman stops on the metro platform just in front of me. Her seeing-eye dog is calm. It guides her to a safe distance from the edge of the platform and lays down. We all wait for the train, and I watch this partnership absentmindedly: the dog is so cute; I can’t believe this woman commutes every day on the metro without seeing; but then again how else would she get to work? The red track lights start blinking and the metro train pulls into the station slowly. The dog stands up, alert, ready to lead his friend through the train doors.

People are everywhere, moving quickly and slowly (fast walkers try to edge past slow walkers within the narrow space). Commuters press in around the doors of the incoming train. Suddenly I see a man walking by, too close to the blind woman, carrying a large bag. The bag smacks the dog hard in the face and the dog flinches and I gasp out loud. No one else notices. I catch a brief glance of the man with the bag — he looks vaguely annoyed that he bumped into someone, but he doesn’t turn around to see what happened.

I am horrified. A man in a suit shoots me a funny look when I gasp -- I get more attention than the injured dog.

What is one supposed to do in this situation? Jumbled ideas rush through my head: Is the dog okay? Should I help it? But aren’t you not supposed to touch guide dogs because it will distract them (or something like that)? Someone should stop that man so he knows what he did! Maybe I should tell the woman that her dog was hit, so she can make sure it’s okay.

Everyone moves quickly when a train pulls up. In the space of a few seconds, the man hit the dog, the train doors opened, the dog guided his owner away from me towards another set of doors, I gasped, and I moved with the crush of people to board the train.

This event from last week has stuck in my mind. It is rare for me to feel such powerlessness, but in that moment I felt incredibly useless. If someone falls, I help them up. But when a man with a bag hits a seeing-eye dog in the head during rush hour in the city’s busiest metro station, what is the right thing to do?

#DC life #reflections

Worthwhile reading about the Germanwings plane crash:

The Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps was a horrifying, tragic, and utterly unexpected event. As the news unfolds, it seems that everyone is looking for the same thing: more information about co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. I confess that I have been following online news attentively, trying to understand what could possibly motivate a person to take the lives of 149 fellow humans.

However, it is important to step back and think about how we are framing this discussion. The articles below were meaningful and eye-opening to me.

Don’t Blame it On Depression, Anne Skomorowsky, Slate

Bad behavior—even suicidal behavior—is not the same as depression. It is a truism in psychiatry that depression is underdiagnosed. But as a psychiatrist confronted daily with “problem” patients in the general hospital where I work, I find that depression is also overdiagnosed. Even doctors invoke “depression” to explain anything a reasonable adult wouldn’t do.

Everyone’s Trying Really Hard Not to Call the Germanwings Co-Pilot a Terrorist, Zak Cheney-Rice, Mic

Disturbed? Yes. Mentally ill? Probably. A troubled outcast? Of course. But "terrorist"? That term is reserved for a special type of person, someone with brown skin, a foreign-sounding name, roots in the Middle East or North Africa and a progressively anti-Western Internet history — probably typed in Arabic.

#news

Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

The Miami Herald

Since Republican Governor Rick Scott appointed Herschel Vinyard as Director of the Florida DEP in 2011, the unwritten (yet clearly enforced) policy of the department has been to avoid using climate change and similar terms.

This is why the 2014 governor's race was so incredibly important:

Scott’s predecessor, Charlie Crist, had been proactive on climate change, forming a statewide task force and convening a national summit in Miami in 2007. But evidence the issue has fallen out of favor during the Scott administration is apparent.

#Florida #climate change #environment

Winter in Florida, Part 2: The Everglades. January 2015. We stayed at Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park and were nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Most of these photos are from an afternoon canoe ride out in Florida Bay, which was the only place the bugs couldn't follow us. We started at the marina, paddled past the campground, and went out and around Bradley Key (where we stopped for lunch).

#Florida #photography #outdoors #nature

Happy Valentine's Day from America's national parks and lands!

Via americasgreatoutdoors

#nature

Last Sunday afternoon, I went to a little comic book shop tucked away in Dupont Circle to purchase March, a comic book created by Congressman John Lewis with the collaboration of former staffer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell. Both Aydin and the Congressman were present to sign copies of March, Book Two, which was recently released (I bought Books One and Two - Book One is pictured with their signatures).

Aydin is a comics fan, and he convinced Lewis that creating a comic book would be a great way to reach out to a younger generation and share stories of the civil rights movement. Lewis told the crowd at the comic book shop that he was initially reluctant, but committed to the project as long as Aydin would help along the way.

Congressman Lewis is, of course, an incredible figure in American history - he is the only speaker from the 1963 March on Washington who is still alive. I knew it would be cool to see him at a comic book signing, but it became apparent just how important this moment was: Lewis told us that when he was in college, he was inspired to get involved with civil rights activism because of a comic book, Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story. A store employee sidled over, and placed a copy of the old comic into Lewis's hands. He looked at it appreciatively.

"Yeah, this was it."

The Congressman went on to explain that the MLK comic included instructions on how to protest nonviolently. He hopes that March will have the same effect for people today - teaching about the past, while providing ideas for building a better, more equal future. From what I've read, it sounds like the work of Congressman Lewis, Aydin and Powell has had the desired effect: the comic is used as a teaching tool in more than 40 states.

#history #civil rights #comics

Asking individual women to enter hostile spaces to make them better is really asking women to make men better – and to make men better at women’s own risk. But it shouldn’t be women’s responsibility to fix men or deal with their misogyny. Instead, men should be taking it upon themselves to treat women with respect, and demand their other male colleagues do the same.

Jessica Valenti, via The Guardian

#women #Women's Equality

Winter in Florida, Part 1: Cedar Key. December 26-29. We stayed in a stilt house on the water, and a foggy early morning kayak excursion may have been the most beautiful experience of the trip. The sunsets each evening were fantastic!

While kayaking, it was great to see a colony of wood storks roosting in a pine tree. The wood stork was previously listed as an endangered species, but in June 2014 was reclassified as threatened due to recent population growth. It is the only stork that breeds in North America.

#Florida #outdoors #photography

Taking Stock of My Technology: I haven't used the camera in about two years, my iPad is not picked up frequently, and right now I'm reading a paper book, so the Kindle has been sitting on my shelf. In the top right corner, the edge of my external monitor is appropriately peeking in (similarly, I often forget to notice this sits on my desk, but when I remember to use it, the screen is very helpful).

The remaining three are a huge part of my life. I find it amazing, and a little bit discomforting, to think about how much I rely on my laptop and cell phone to get me through the day. My entire life is stored on that Macbook, and most of the items I check off of my to-do list have digital outcomes. On the other hand, it upsets me to look at the expensive items I own and don't make proper use of. (I have a really nice camera, but I hardly ever bother to take any photos!)

My question for myself is, what do I actually want? More technology use or less? Maybe the objective should be more efficient use.

Instead of wasting my time and draining my brain, tech should be a tool that helps me accomplish what I need. But then, truly, is it my iPad's fault that I'm scrolling through meaningless tweets instead of working? Not really.

I think the answer is that there is no right or wrong answer. There will always be distractions in life, and it's up to me to manage my time and energy effectively.

#tech #tech accessories #technology

Recent Read: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

My boyfriend is traveling for work, which means I'm living in what feels like a very empty apartment for a few months. On a whim, I picked up his tattered copy of On the Road from the bookshelf. This is boyfriend's favorite book and shamefully, I had never taken the time to read it.

On the Road is fascinating -- well written, of course, but also a wonderful insight into Beat America. When I think of the 1950s, I think of growing suburbia, housewives eagerly buying new appliances, men strolling off to work in nice suits carrying leather briefcases. Where did this image come from? I'm not entirely sure. (I don't even watch MadMen!)

Well, that is not the America I was immersed in while reading On the Road. Instead, young men and women, including WWII vets, race around the country having as much fun as they possibly can. No one is particularly worried about going to college, pursuing a career, or getting married. When those events happen, they are not essential to the plot. They are the side show, and the main event is the ongoing adventure.

Sal Paradise, the protagonist, aptly states:

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...

There is an undercurrent of sadness within the crazy rush. The characters, especially the indomitable Dean Moriarty, are trying to find something elusive and seemingly are never quite content. Dean and Sal are constantly ready to move on and head somewhere else: San Francisco, Denver, New Orleans, or back to New York. Again, as Sal says:

"That last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing. We keep on living in hopes of catching it once for all."

Perhaps this is a reflection of my own nature, but I found that sad undertone to be a nagging presence throughout the book, inescapable even at the height of a good time.

Once of my favorite passages was about a night out in San Francisco listening to jazz musicians and following them to different clubs. Kerouac's description of the atmosphere and the wailing saxophone riffs merged so perfectly with my own jazz memories. The book as a whole was an enjoyable read and great representation of the Beat Generation.

#now reading #lit

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