Do you like having the news and feeling "up" on things, but lately (or heck, even for the past several years) the news has been too much to bear?

This is my recommendation: focus on your local news. This has three benefits:
1. You'll stay up on the things that would actually impact your day-to-day.

Coronavirus cases up in your city? Take extra caution this week.

New local black-owned coffee shop? Time to try a new brew.

Nearby neighborhood impacted by food insecurity? Join an effort to help.
2. At the local level, there's usually a balance of "wins" and "losses." So it's not, almost ever, ALL doom.

And even the "bad" things are local, which means you aren't powerless. You live here! You can help!
3. You have conversation topics besides the presidency/the pandemic/the weather that are timely, impactful, and interesting.

Of course, your topical interests also work here, but only for conversation partners who share your hobby or profession. Local news is general-purpose!
OH WAIT I HAVE A BONUS FOURTH ONE

4. You get to support a local business. Mine is @BlockClubCHI. Local outfits are often staffed by folks who really care about the community and are trying hard to bring you real information, rather than clickbait. Reward their hard work!

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More from @HeyChelseaTroy

20 Oct
This is a joke, BUT, I have a hypothesis why OS projects get names like these.

Strap in. Let's talk about STEM, and art, and names.
To give you an idea of my perspective: I work on 6 OS projects.

Here are the three I inherited and where they fall up on @vboykis' name taxonomy:

theia - #1
zooniverse mobile - #3
galaxy zoo - #3
Usually, an open source project gets a name from an individual contributor, or maybe several. And usually, it's an individual TECHNICAL contributor.

I know dozens of engineers who have a special love for coming up with these names.

Why? Well...
Read 11 tweets
4 Sep
Okay. This is gonna be an ongoing #VirtualPopcorn thread about how sexuality is represented in the TV show Lucifer.

I'm gonna start with some links to tweets where we've talked about this topic in other TV shows for context, and then get into it.

1/prolly too many
So first, the prior art.

We talked about "He's not my boyfriend" in The Old Guard.

I, a queer, can tell and appreciate that that scene was either directed or acted or both by a queer person. But I don't explain WHY I can tell.

I mention a similar thing again with respect to Orange is the New Black.

Read 68 tweets
8 Jun
Hey, uh, programmers?

We need to sit down and talk for a second.

It's about social justice and change and privilege and all that stuff. But please bear with me. I am going to try to be gentle. But it's going to be uncomfortable.

A thread.
So I need to start with this: a lot of what I'm about to share, I learned the hard way—that is, by realizing that I was wrong about it, and had been operating like that for a long time.

So I'm not saying I'm some grand teacher; I struggle with this stuff too. Anyway, here goes.
I've seen the following with the COVID response and the worldwide racial justice protest.

Programmers jump in like "What TECH thing can I do to help? Can I build an app? Can I write a machine learning model to help?"

And the intention is appreciated.

But.
Read 24 tweets
2 Jun
I'm organizing an "Allyship for People with Racial Privilege" workshop for my neighborhood's mutual aid org. (I used to teach these with @surjchicago).

I'm posting my notes for folks to peruse. Please also follow/learn from black folks at the #BlackLivesMatter tag.

1/
First we are going to talk about is the immediate present: participating in protests. (I know there's other stuff to get into but that's top of mind right now and if I don't address it first people are going to be distracted until I do).

Here's how I show up to that:

2/
First of all, choosing protests:

I don't go to every gathering I hear about. I go when I know who organized it. I've seen their faces; I know their names. They usually have (or get) my phone # so they can text me where they need me/what they need during a protest.

3/
Read 57 tweets
28 Apr
I have a hypothesis about humans' historically inept pandemic responses.

Folks in power are usually unfamiliar with microbiology. They're much more familiar with, and interested in, stories about war.

So they approach a pandemic like a wartime enemy, which doesn't work. 1/
Viruses don't have ears, eyes, or brains. So unlike humans, they cannot be moved by bluster and bravado.

Rousing speeches, glitzy airshows, and parades are all wartime traditions. But at best, they don't affect a virus.

At worst, they make it easier for a virus to spread. 2/
The second wave of the Spanish flu that you see in the above diagram kicked off at a celebratory World War I parade in Philadelphia.

The parade gathered thousands of people in one place—which is precisely the condition under which a virus spreads. 3/
Read 17 tweets
19 Jul 18
OK people. I'm live tweeting @neo4j's #Chicago #GraphTour event today.
We are currently in the keynote. The speaker is talking about how popular Neo4j is
Keynote now telling us about all the new Neo4j features. Examples: location filter, including 3d. Auto cache reheating. I'm interested to know if auto cache reheating is working with query patterns or meant to replace them or what
Read 64 tweets

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