Toph Beifong - Electrical Engineer πŸ‡°πŸ‡ͺ Profile picture
Electricity in SSA. Very neurodivergent. Feminist. Surviving burnout. Made peace with uncertainty. I dislike absolutes. Views are mine. πŸ‡°πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡°πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡°πŸ‡ͺ
Nov 27 β€’ 5 tweets β€’ 1 min read
I forgot to remind you guys not to take Montelukast. I thought that start of the year warning was enough. Seems I have to do it every 6 months.

Leave that drug alone. Or have someone watch you when you take it. Find alternatives - I've found mast cell stabilizers to be helpful. And check if the drug you're taking is a dopamine antagonist if you have ADHD. Your doctors will not check - some of them don't even think ADHD is a real thing.

Almost killed me in 2022 - I got heavily depressed for a few days before I realized I was on a dopamine antagonist.
Nov 9 β€’ 10 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Who is this guys you people gave the presidency? Because I have an airport story too - Not KRA.

I'm talking boarding.

My colleague and others were gorced to pay a guy at the check-in 5000 each to board a flight to Uganda, around two weeks ago. Here goes the story - her flight is at, let's say 6 in the evening. So she arrives at 4 - that's two hours early. As she arrives, she receives a text message saying that the flight is boarding.

She panics.

She gets through security and heads straight to the check-in point.
Dec 12, 2023 β€’ 10 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Someone should also mention how a good chunk of lines in a certain county mentioned in this list are illegal - because of some very senior politicians in this and the previous government. And KPLC can do nothing about it - because again politicians. People steal from parastatals then get shocked that the theft has consequences.
Aug 27, 2023 β€’ 14 tweets β€’ 3 min read
This guy is making laws that impact electrical engineering 😳 I've never seen someone this proud of their own ignorance so let me take a second and explain all these terms to you people, in laymans terms. If you're an engineer reading this, feel free to add your definition. I'll explain everything with the thermal power plants as a reference point so you understand how important they are to the electrical system. Like I said - there's alternatives like battery energy storage systems but for now what we have is thermal plants so here we go.
May 23, 2023 β€’ 6 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Qatar Airways delayed my flight by one hour 30 which made me miss my direct flight to my destination in. They changed me to a connecting flight so I arrive at my final destination at 10PM - which now means I'll be travelling for a whole 24 hours by the time I arrive. I'm already exhausted from the flight from Kenya given the delay. Now add an extra layover in Germany and arrival at 10PM, and I'll be a zombie by then. What have they said or done to say "we're sorry this happened" - nothing. You make people travel for 24 hours then do nothing.
May 21, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
If you're between 20 to 30 and working, I need you to realize that you own this country. You're the people the government is counting on taxing to raise funds for the country. So I need you to start demanding that those funds finance the priorities that matter to you. One of the priorities we all care about is fast and cheap internet. So ask your government representatives when cheap and affordable fiber optic is coming near you. What they are doing to make laptops affordable for you. The things that help you. Be selfish.
May 21, 2023 β€’ 8 tweets β€’ 2 min read
I'm very sorry to our current president. You were handed a country of millenials and Gen Zs as your working population. Sir - you'll have to work hard to explain to us why you want to tax us more. Your agemates are retiring or nearing retirement. Ni sisi ndio tuko. You can't just make pronouncements on money we work this hard for. Ati uamke uamue - give me 3% of your salary? For what? Why? Ati kujenga nyumba? Ya nani? Kwanini? What we want to hear is job creation stories. Not creating new funds to be looted.
Mar 25, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
I don't understand why the US refuses to tax its billionaires. The rest of us are tired of being their collateral damage - Bill Gates has been treating the continent as a playground for his ideas for a while. The rap sheet is likely longer than this. You need the money. Why not do it? Why let them run rampant with all the extra money they can't finish in 50 lifetimes? Doing horrendous experiments on poor people in the global South with that money. Changing the priorities of governments in the process.
Mar 25, 2023 β€’ 12 tweets β€’ 2 min read
It's designed for use in conditions where proper earthing is done - also known as *definitely not in Kenya*. Don't use instant showers as a Kenyan unless your electrical wiring was done properly.
Mar 25, 2023 β€’ 5 tweets β€’ 2 min read
The moment you find yourself in a movement where one of the figureheads is a child of apartheid with a recorded history of segregating Black people in his companies - I don't think the question is *if eugenics and racism are involved*. There's no question. Cue my shocked face πŸ«’πŸ™„
truthdig.com/dig/nick-bostr…
Mar 23, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
I think I just realized that engineers have egos πŸ’€ I could have sworn that's a lawyer thing - right until a colleague pointed out that the toxicity in my former office is likely due to engineering egos. And you know what? True - and I'm part of the problem 😬 Person: There's this thing in solar - might you know it?

Me: *Gets offended* I'm an electrical engineer specializing in solar. What do you think?

It's so automatic that I never stop to think: Wait, why am I getting offended? It's something lots of engineers do.
Feb 5, 2023 β€’ 8 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Autistics don't "think in patterns". We "think in systems". I'm watching this online course on complex systems and on *emergence* - I was like "but that's how I think". You know - small things stacking up to become big things. Can't believe we don't all think like that πŸ’€ It reminds me of the thing people here call "manifesting". Think about what you want then take steps towards achieving it. At the beginning, progress is slow then at a certain inflection point, progress becomes rapid before a plateau is achieved - an exponential curve.
Dec 28, 2022 β€’ 6 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Ethical relationships being based on luck - that they can change with a change in financial or beauty capital is something I always remind myself of. That I'm a woman and the illusion of freedom that I've built for myself is just that - an illusion. It's why I keep fighting - I know there's no freedom unless the changes are systemic. There's nothing like individual freedom in a system that's built to oppress your kind. You can't succeed your way out of oppression. You can only negotiate exemptions and partial relief.
Dec 28, 2022 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
Guess what? As my steroid dosage gets reduced, the mast cells situation ramp back up πŸ˜‚ Before I went to the doc, I was busy on inhalers and antihistamines. As my dose reduces, I'm going back to inhalers and antihistamines to cover for the reducing dosage πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ Anyway, I've told the doc. I also have a theory as to what's causing the morning anaphylaxis - Nairobi pollution. Moving to Upperhill was great but every morning everyone drives into the city - and brings in tonnes of pollution with them. Something by body isn't very happy about.
Dec 27, 2022 β€’ 26 tweets β€’ 6 min read
Kenyan Autistic parents have asked me questions and I feel strong enough to finally answer it... First of all, if your child is Autistic, one of you is likely Autistic. The best thing you can do for your child is find out who and start adapting to being Autistic with them. Second - you can't treat Autism.. there's nothing to treat. You can, however, manage the comorbidities. Most are due to known autoimmune conditions. Find out which one if you can. Don't ask me why the high occurrence in Autistic populations - we don't know.
Dec 27, 2022 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
Well, that turned out to be mast cells for me. When tired and when stressed. Any big emotions or big hormonal changes - and my brain starts hurting as my blood stream decides to release histamines and the cousins into the blood stream. I can't even get overexcited for long. Afterwards, my brain would feel like it was put through a fryer and then baked in an oven. I say would because I'm on steroids for a month before I'm put on mast cell medication - and I was good after a whole day talking on Christmas.
Dec 27, 2022 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
All politicians are trash. But the only trash politicians we have courage to chase out of office, are women. I refuse to board! Absolutely refuse to board. I will support women's mediocrity in the same breath we've decided men's mediocrity shouldn't garner our attention. Someone shot someone and was given office. Another one slapped a woman. Another one is said to have murdered baby and mother... All of them are still walking around with their political careers very much intact. But Kawira "is rude and entitled" so she should be kicked out?
Dec 27, 2022 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
Watching "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" and one episode reminded me of a comment that someone made - about movies being used to make us believe that status quo is the best scenario we have. So don't fight it - other scenarios might be worse so don't take that chance. When talking about the world today, movies always default to the current reality as being always the best reality. The reality we fight to keep. The reality we should save. It's such a white man thought process if you think about it - this world is theirs to live mostly.
Dec 26, 2022 β€’ 7 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Do you know the worst part of those Visa stories? I think they have a list of professions that they don't disturb while getting a Visa. I've never had trouble getting one and my husband suspects it's my profession - they use Visas to encourage certain professions to relocate. On first try, I was given a 6 month Visa to a country that denies near all Visas. On second try, I got a 2 year one. At the port of entry, a good no of people would comment about my profession - it does enable some nice conversations about how their kids can become elec engineers
Nov 12, 2022 β€’ 6 tweets β€’ 2 min read
I hate to say this but - y'all know men actually think this way a bunch of times. Like, the reason women struggle in STEM is because this is literally the default partriachal reasoning. Unless he's actively made an effort to not think like this, he thinks like this subconsciously Yeah - the most improperly socialized lot, the lot that hasn't been socialized to see the world for what it is, walks around thinking they are better reasoners than people who've been socialized to see the world as is. Sometimes I stop and wonder if they actually realize it.
Nov 12, 2022 β€’ 8 tweets β€’ 2 min read
EIon bought a left leaning platform thinking it was left leaning because of the moderation. He forgot it was left leaning because on average, people who are active tweeps on Twitter have a certain level of education. So it's an inherent Twitter characteristic - akin to Academia. It's not a good characteristic per se - people with certain levels of education develop horrid justice sensitivity around topics they don't understand. But it is the inherent characteristic. You'd think it would be obvious to him - this place is built for people who are writers