Archive for July 2006
Posted July 13, 2006 at 4:16 PM | Tagged as: People I Admire, Women! | Comments Off
Leave it to Uma Thurman to tell it like it is:
The stay-at-home mom is over not just because of women’s liberation but because of men’s liberation from wanting to be the breadwinners.
Not only does she essentially call the stay-at-home mom a relic, but she also calls out the men on their often unspoken desire to be free of traditional roles (which I completely support, BTW). Now if only the men could embrace the potential for change, and share more responsibility and equal pay with women!
Posted July 12, 2006 at 7:46 AM | Tagged as: Computing, Meeeeeeee, Quotations, Technology, Women! | Comments Off
I am a geek, a computer nerd, a technologist, a computer scientist. Since a young age, I’ve been good at tinkering with mechanical and electrical things. I always loved math and computers, writing programs, playing games, and helping people achieve their goals through the use of technology.
I was good at other things too, and when people discouraged me from pursuing my interests in math, science, and technology, I focused on those other things. But, thanks to a liberal arts education (in which I realized my true strengths) and good people who helped reignite my interest in computers, I eventually came back to technology, and have made a career of my passion.
In 2003, just 29 percent of Computer Scientists were female. As Katha Pollitt (and many other feminists) would have me say, my presence here is a victory for the women’s movement!
I will not be scared away by statistics of dwindling numbers of women in the field, or by sluggish job prospects. I will not be intimidated by men in the field, nor will I be swayed by “opt-out feminists” who would want me to believe that my true calling is in the home by my husband’s side. Many women have gone before me, and I will seek to include more young girls and women in the field, and to support them as they traverse this rough and bumpy road.
Posted July 10, 2006 at 11:27 PM | Tagged as: Current Events, Just Sayin, Pro-Choice, Women! | Comments Off
Rebekah E. Gee, M.D. and M.P.H., has written a piece for the New England Journal of Medicine, Plan B, Reproductive Rights, and Physician Activism. It’s well worth a read! Here’s my favorite bit:
Our government has been burying its head in the sand, pretending that sex does not happen. This agenda sets women back decades, threatening their right to achieve equally in society by robbing them of options for planning their childbearing.
Posted July 10, 2006 at 8:31 AM | Tagged as: Just Sayin, Television, Things I Love | Comments Off
Yesterday, Kevin told me that I was the most brand-loyal person he’d ever met. Which was funny to me, because I’d been thinking about the very same thing recently.
Indeed, I am an incredible brand-loyal person. I blame (in a good way) my family for this. A few of my family members worked for Westinghouse, back in its heyday, and ever since I was a small child I was always attracted to Rand’s ‘W’ logo. Next was Coca-Cola, the only soda we drank, accompanied by Volkswagen — there was only one in the family, but there’s a story behind my love for the car and brand (part of which could be the shared ‘W’ with Westinghouse). Other brands I’m particularly loyal to include Panasonic, Microsoft, Dell (despite the exploding laptop incident), and Wonka Candy.
One brand that I’ve never been particularly loyal to is AOL. For those of you that don’t know me, and may not know that I worked at AOL for six years, you may not find anything strange about this. But for those that do know me and do know that I worked at AOL, you probably also won’t find this strange. My modus operandi was to subvert the norm and push the products I worked on to be the industry’s best, rather than the AOL average of lame and boring.
Well, I don’t know if anything I did at AOL ever worked (see today’s NY Times article, but I can say that they’re now doing something that I can get behind… they’re putting old TV shows online at In2TV! You can catch one of my all-time faves, Max Headroom online. (Max was sort of a brand, too, wasn’t he?) Other oldies-but-goodies include Wonder Woman and Welcome Back, Kotter. Now go watch some TV!
