HSU IT Department

Today I mailed my letters for Vote Forward!! Mine were 110 out of more than 16 million letters sent, encouraging folks to participate in the election and vote, vote, vote -- check out all the photos :)

From xkcd.com:

We saw A Wrinkle in Time today. Visually it was gorgeous, and it definitely had the bones and the heart of the original book. I loved the girl who played Meg, the family dynamics were well done (her missing her father, acting out at school because of cruel comments, etc.), and the positive message for young girls was clear and uplifting (if a wee bit heavy-handed for adult viewers). I also liked the way they worked in the larger message about the many different ways that The Black Thing can affect people (fear, anger, cruelty, etc.), even to the point of showing that the girl who bullies Meg is dealing with her own issues, and a tentative move towards friendship.

On the other hand, they changed a few things for no discernible reason (e.g. instead of the winged horse we get a weird leaf-creature, and Camazotz is a weird hallucinatory kind of place, less cold war and more LSD). The storyline/script was a bit of a mess: erratically paced, oversimplified (for example, Meg's math and physics gifts are underplayed), and too many things glossed over or info-dumped instead of organically revealed. I wanted to like it much more than I did; on balance I have to say that it was just OK. I think perhaps it's aimed at viewers around age ten, vs tweens.

On the letters front, I got a real letter in the mail -- you know, the kind with multiple pages and coherent thoughts and everything! As a bonus, it was sealed as shown below :) Now I love getting letters, and it happens so seldom these days that I was enormously pleased/excited to receive it. I will be writing back. One is never too old for a pen pal, is one?

(click to embiggen)

These women. Fabulous.

Watch on YouTube

A group of technical folk from Silicon Valley have initiated a pledge called 'Never again', by which they state their refusal to create or contribute to databases that would be used to oppress and exclude.

This makes me happy.

The full text is posted online, but here is an excerpt:

We, the undersigned, are employees of tech organizations and companies based in the United States. We are engineers, designers, business executives, and others whose jobs include managing or processing data about people. We are choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies. We refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable...

"The Star Wars universe is going on 40-years-old these days, but apparently the alt-right just now got the memo that the franchise’s universe is multi-cultural..."

Yup. The poor wittle Trumpflakes are apparently all miffed about Rogue One because it's, er, "anti-white" or something.

So they've invented a #DumpStarWars hashtag -- which was promptly, and humorously, co-opted by Star Wars fans and people with, y'know, an actual sense of proportion, with tweets like these:





Seriously, what is wrong with these people??

No, this isn't photoshopped. It's real. And I could not be happier for the many people for whom today's Supreme Court decision means so much :)



(Click for story)


And there's even a live feed, with the fountain playing and flag waving above. Yay!!

because real life has taken over for the moment, but I had to recommend this article which rebuts accusations that the new Cinderella movie (which is AWESOME, how could it not be because KENNETH BRANAGH) is anti-feminist:

...What absolute rubbish. Once again, the idea of “feminist media” has been twisted around, so that anything short of sassy female characters dishing out one-liners and kicking butt is seen as “weak” and “anti-feminist.”...Cinderella’s great strength is not just that she stands up to her stepmother in the end. It’s also that she retains her own kindness, remains true to her personality — she doesn’t have to become someone she’s not to escape...

Read the rest ==>

Yesterday I posted a very funny Olympics ad from the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion which pokes fun at Russia's atrocious attitude towards the LGBT community.

Well, today lady_of_clunn posted a link to another, even funnier, Olympics ad from the U.K.'s Channel 4 which I just had to repost and share. I dare you to watch this without laughing until you cry -- the best part is the dj who looks just like Putin XD


[Error: unknown template video]

It started with Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. And now, my friends, we have this absolutely fabulous internet ad. (Where was this when I was thirteen??? But hey, at least it's here now!) I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at an ad while at the same time being so utterly and completely delighted. (Here is the associated article from CNN.)


[Error: unknown template video]