MILES to GO || before I sleep

In 28 minutes, Ada Lovelace day will have come to a close. I pledged over at FindingAda.com to make a post about women in technology somehow, but coming up with a good topic has been harder than I thought. I was initially hoping to make a post all about female characters in video games, but my post about that sadly didn't get as much of a response as I'd hoped. I didn't hear about the Finding Ada website soon enough to make that other post as early as was probably necessary, to be honest.

When it comes to thinking of particular women in technology that I admire, that could be my heroines, it's actually challenging to think of a particular person or a name. I know there are awesome women behind the scenes at Dreamwidth, at AO3, at LiveJournal and Wikimedia and all those other companies and organizations that are making incredible sites and interfaces and experiences for people the world over. But they're all amazing--there's not just one particular woman who is more awesome than the others, or has done more than anyone else.

I'm pretty proud my own personal involvement with technology. I got a good start from a great teacher: my late sister, Michelle Smith, who helped me learn computers by way of our IBM Aptiva and playing games like DOOM II and chatting online using MTEZ for DOS. She took me to the Windows 95 "reveal," (where the head presenter was a WOMAN! Shock! She gave me a shirt and her card and I felt special even at age 9) and I can't ever remember feeling so excited to be in a room full of people who were unabashed geeks, knowing that we were--still are!--the future while everyone else thought we were weird.

Of course, my sister and I wouldn't have been able to do any of that were it not for my mom, who recognized that technology would be something great for both of us, and she struggled to make sure we both had every opportunity to access and use that technology, whether we had to go to a library or get a home computer ourselves to really experience it. I felt good, sitting in front of a computer and learning about American history through the original Oregon Trail, or imagining all kinds of worlds for stories that got printed on dot matrix printers and green-and-white striped paper.

When I finally started getting involved with computers--going on the Internet, attempting to write stories for others, build websites, and meet people--my foundation was comprised of the incredibly supportive network of young ladies and women that made up the Sailor Moon Romance Fan Fiction (SMRFF) mailing list. If it wasn't for them encouraging me to keep writing, keep reading, keep learning, I might have found some other interest to occupy my time. But because they gave me a reason to keep coming back online, to keep learning more and doing more, I made an effort to get better with technology. I may not be in touch with all of them anymore, but I'm forever grateful to them for getting me started and honestly making me feel comfortable and even loved, even if I've never seen their faces or heard their voices.

In high school, I asked lots of questions and learned a lot about technology. I started a blog, kept building websites both for myself and for classes, and even worked as one of the few female student aides to the school's Technical Adviser. In college, I was one of the few women who worked at the university's Information Technology Help Center, but by the time I left this past December, I was one of many girls. Not all of them were engineering or computer science majors, either, which seems to be the expectation for anyone that really "knows" computers: we had art majors, humanities majors, and people who, like me, just loved technology. It was a guy that gave me--a journalism major--a chance to be a computer "expert" and help people across the university, a position I held with pride. But I felt it was part of my duty to make technology seem easy and not so intimidating, so girls just like me could pick up a computer and feel like they knew what they were doing and that it was FUN to use computers and other devices.

So for this Ada Lovelace Day, I don't have one particular heroine or woman in mind that has inspired me through her use of technology. I think I probably have closer to a hundred, maybe more. I may not know all of their real names, but they have all played a vital role in my life, making me who I am today (for better or for worse, haha!).

Thank you, ladies.

a_white_rain stole all the good subject lines for this issue, so I'll just be honest and comment "this is an awfully apt song title for the context, innit?" Read on.

The Bush Administration is trying, yet again, to tie religion to government, and therefore control people's lifestyle and choices. I'm all for people being able to practice their religion how they please, so long as that doesn't mean shoving one's religion down the throats (or up the uteruses, in this case) of others, forcing them to change their lives to suit those views.

Basically, they want to let medical clinics define "abortion" willy-nilly, based on a poll where NOT EVEN THE MAJORITY of people believe that life begins at conception (vs. implantation) and where the accepted medical definitions (from across several organizations) DIFFER from this whole "at conception/fertilization" point.

As is mentioned in some of the pages AWR links to, this is going to give power to religious right medical clinics, doctors, etc. to say that abortion can take place at a point when a woman doesn't even know if she's pregnant. There is NO definite way to know that an egg has been fertilized-- no blinking red light, no incontrovertible signs. Doctors can "opt out" of assisting a woman with getting birth control and/or an abortion, and there is no legislation that provides for a woman in this scenario: no alternatives she is given to seek, no transportation should the next nearest place be hundreds of miles away, nothing.

They call this a "conscience" act, as if to imply that doctors that DO assist women with birth control and/or abortions don't HAVE a conscience. What a bunch of bullshit! (For the record, I'm on birth control and have been since I was 16. I haven't been sexually active for that long; I've just had horrible, horrible, debilitating PMS and MS cycles. But will that minor detail stop a "conscientious" doctor from denying me my medication? No. And then I'll be S.O.L. for a good week out of every month. Thanks, Bush!)

*groan* I could probably rant on this for a while, and half the things I'd say might come out wrong because it just makes me that furious. Check out AWR's links, read up on it from various sources, and then ACT. I don't care if you're a man or a woman, young or old, religious, spiritual, or anything else in-between. Hell, even if you're not a U.S. citizen, write to our government and tell them how STUPID they're looking to the rest of the world and how, for a supposed world-superpower and global leader, we're sure acting like we've just popped into existence from the Middle Ages! (Actually, that's insulting the Middle Ages.)

I already sent out emails to both friends and family, and to the government in protest of this. It's bullshit and I won't stand for it as a woman or as a U.S. citizen.

Details, links, and more:
AWR's first post, including links out
Naamah Darling's rant on the subject, very nicely worded, with more links out
AWR's second post, with some more links out

Okay, so I'm leaving SD in a little bit, but I've managed to somewhat catch up on my LJ FL (I'm about 400 entries back at the moment), and I've gotten a bunch of LJ-related Greasemonkey scripts which are doing some pretty cool and interesting things! I even got a few new extensions, like Auto Copy (handy for all the memes I do), and a script for GM that allows me to see additional user info besides the LJ default hover box.

I had a bit of a stomachache earlier, but the graduation party was pretty fun. I talked to this one couple for a long time about San Francisco and journalism (since Erin's moving up there tomorrow, and I'm going up to visit tomorrow... hey everyone, should I plan a bonfire?)

The food was delicious, even if my stomach is still doing some flips. There was a great chicken pasta salad with beets, celery, cashews, and cinnamon, and some to-die-for macaroons dipped in chocolate and shortbread sandies. Tasty!

Your Scent is Pumpkin Pie

Warm, comforting, and a bit old fashioned You've got what men want - believe it or not!

Speaking of memes, I mentioned to heartless_vaz that I might try to do my own version of the "What Gemstone are you?" including more stones than the usual quizzes-- and there are a lot of those on the web. Alas, they seem a bit superficial, like someone only checked one small site for the meanings or general associations of gemstones. I've always been kind of curious why I've gotten so attached to Azurite, and why I feel it suits me so much, so I wonder if I'll be "Azurite" according to my own quiz? I'll probably make it on Quizilla, so when I get around to it (assuming I don't forget or get too overwhelmed with other things in SF), you'll see that from me soon. :)

I wish more people had taken my quiz about women/sex, though! I wanted more guys to expand the results a bit... if it sounds like something you want to take, let me know and I'll link you, or you can look back in my post history about 2 weeks and find it.