some accomplishments

I am fortunate that there are a lot of people in my neighborhood who like to do crazy things like sled down luge-like hills late at night and then eat hot dogs. Lucky because I was always a bit of a shy kid and while I might not do a lot of dangerous sledding myself, and don’t have kids to act as my foil, I like being able to stand by and cheer and take some photographs. These events take all kinds. I did sled down the hill a few times. Once I lost my mitten. Once I bottomed out and had to hurl myself off the track to avoid being run over by more fearless sledders. Once I made it down okay. I did take a great set of photos which I tossed up on Facebook because that’s where a lot of the other sledders can be found. Here are some more photos.

I was also asked to write a piece on Wikipedia and gender for the New York Times’ Room for Debate section. I kept to the requested word limit and hammered out a few paragraphs in a few hours that said pretty much what I wanted to say. I then watched a bunch of grouchy internet people complain loudly in the comments section. Usually I’m pretty cautious when I write online. I try anticipate people’s objections and write with a lot of equivocal language. This time I said more or less what I wanted to say–that Wikimedia Foundation deciding that they care about things like this is a good thing and an opportunity, and that there are ways of trying to make online spaces welcoming to women–and if people didn’t like it, well I guess they didn’t.

It’s not always the best way to make friends, to talk about gender differences and social inequality and centuries of unequal representation, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that I’m not always doing what I do to make friends. We’ve taken some affirmative stances on MetaFilter to try to keep women interested in participating. Not all of them are successful but many of them are. I work in my real world to help women (and men) get interested in technology and to pass on the general idea that interacting with computers is something that anyone can do, given the right motivation. It’s been interesting watching Facebook, in many cases, becoming that motivating factor.

the ice-smashing-man cometh

iceman

So just as I was thanking my lucky stars that this has been a disaster-free year, the bathroom ceiling starts leaking. Mercifully this is not actually a bathroom ceiling belonging to me, but one that I rent. So I called my landlady who told me the ice-breaker man would be out in the morning. Another small mercy: morning meant more like 11 which meant I was awake by the time the terrible crashing started and pictures fell from the walls.

For two days in a row Terry came by and hacked huge chunks of ice off of our roof, sometimes from ladders, sometimes from windows, where it would fall two stories to the ground. Now there is no more giant dam of ice keeping water on the roof where it leaks into my bathroom. As I mentioned on Twitter, it’s like our own version of Most Dangerous Catch. Terry is a bit of both a local legend and a town trade secret. He seems to love the work and is good at it. My bathroom has dried up and I’m optimistic that if it starts leaking in the future it will be handled. It’s snowing outside and I’ve got noplace I’ve got to be. Not bad for Winter so far.

doldrum two step

flowers in the window

Some times of the year I feel pretty unexcited about my lack of progress in various things. This time of year it feels like a huge success to just be treading water in place or quite possibly taking tiny incremental steps towards getting some things accomplished. A lot of the people around me have a tough time in the short days of the new year and I feel slightly guilty just being able to say that I’m not in my own personal doldrums.

Some small accomplishments

Made a little video of the birds in the snow
Kept all my current plants alive.
Went out snowshoeing, twice, and got tuckered out each time.
Reorganized the shelf of shame on my bookshelf where I’d just been tossing stuff that didn’t belong elsewhere.
Ditto the Closet of Boxes which is now empty.
Got my copyedits in on time and mostly complete. The incomplete part was all my fault and a technology error. Oh my!
Got some headshots taken which has convinced me that I need some sort of haircut. There are a few examples on Flickr (me, me and Jim)
Got to the gym once and realized I may not have been running since late September.
Got a boomerang in the mail. This is not an accomplishment but pleases me just the same.

That’s the short report. Writing a little blah blah thing here was also on my “to do” list, now completed.

my world of work and money

2010income1

I think I usually make this post around tax time, but I kept good track of money stuff last year (thanks Excel, and USAA website) so it’s easy enough to make now. Without giving actual numbers, this is where my income came from last year. Nothing too surprising except that the library sliver is teeny. Interestingly, it’s not that I worked so much less at the library on an hourly basis but that the jobs pay so much worse. Working at the library pays about 30% of what working at the high school pays. I decided that my library job was going to be my public service work for last year, so I donated all the money I made working at the library directly to the food bank. I’ll probably do the same this year.

My MetaFilter job now comes with health insurance, a 401K and all those other “normal job” perks. It’s a little strange to have a job that is largely invisible to most people, but I muddle through. I passed my five year mark at the new year and got a gold star next to my username as recognition. And then some random MetaFilter person sent me a pen set anyhow.

I’m trying to do less travelling for work this year, something I did fairly successfully last year. I’ve got two trips to Austin and one to Connecticut lined up. I’ve picked up a few more volunteer jobs, possibly against my better judgment. I’m teaching some classes for the Vermont community broadband project. Natural fit, right? Unfortunately, there’s this reinventing the wheel aspect to the whole thing that I find maddening, I’m trying to be the change I want to see in technology instruction, but it’s an uphill climb. I’m reminded of one of the inside jokes we have on MetaFilter, when you see yourself (or someone else) again doing that same old thing that drives them crazy and expecting different results….OH LOOK SISYPHUS THERE GOES YOUR ROCK AGAIN. I’m also the web editor for the VT 251 club which has so far been delightful.

My book (available April 30th) which has so far paid absolutely nothing is in the copy-editing stages. Like all nerdy types, I’m not really a gracious editee but I’m doing my best to just power through it and not turn into a fussy irate special snowflake dork. It’s going okay.

Holidaytime wound up okay which I attribute to my decisions to make tiny presents for people and to bring slice and bake cookies everywhere I went. Could it be that simple?

my year in cities and towns, 2010

guestrooms2010

Places I stayed in 2010. You’ll notice the list is significantly shorter and almost all of it takes place in one of three states: Vermont, Massachusetts (Westport, Amherst, Belmont, and Boxboro) and Florida. I only left the country once overnight. Nine different states, one province. This is some sort of progress. This coming year my plans are more or less the same. Somewhat less travel, fewer airplane rides, see how that feels.

As before, stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Numbers indicate number of distinct guestrooms at each location. Past years: 2009, 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

Belmont, MA (2) *
Niceville, FL
Grayton Beach State Park, FL
Westport, MA *
Orange Park, FL
Boxboro, MA *
Austin, TX (2)
Anchorage AK (2)
Corda Bella, AZ
Lake Arrowhead, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Cepachet, NY
Amherst, MA *
Brooklyn, NY
Lantana, FL
Indianapolis, IN
Burlington, VT
Hanover, NH
Regina, SK

serendipity

Wrapping up a week down in Massachusetts tomorrow and heading back to Vermont on Saturday. My mind is swimming with potential resolutions and end-of-year lists and infographics. For now, I’m typing in a dark chilly room while Jim takes a late afternoon nap beside me and it’s dark and cold outside. 2010 has been a pretty good year but I’m interested to see what’s coming up.

planning, scheming and snacking

vanillasugar

So the Christmas Bird Count went well. I went for a nice long walk in the woods and saw nothing, and then I walked along the road on the way to the supermarket and saw a bunch of the little local birds and one big pileated woodpecker. I even managed to get a photo. The night before I had one of my standard recurring dreams where I was out looking for birds and the feeder was filling up with all sorts of rare and unusual species–the Curtis Jennies of birds. I have similar dreams about my coin and stamp collections–suddenly I’m surrounded by the rare and unusual and I think to myself “What good fortune!” So, getting a photograph of a woodpecker on Christmas Bird Count day was sort of terrific. And I never mind a walk in the woods.

At the moment I’m heating water on the stove for a bath–the hot water heater here doesn’t quite fill the tub, I am not living in Frontier House or anything–and packing to head down to MA for a week or so. I am not sure if being a 42 year old lady who still brings laundry to her parent’s house is exceptionally weird, but I think it’s within tolerances for my family. I’ve got some snacking and relaxing planned and not much else. I made some little presents for folks this year, not so much because I’ve got any sort of holiday spirit but I like giving people little things when I see them in the doldrums of winter.

I often feel that my handmade gifts have all the appeal of a macaroni sculpture so this year I tried to go a little upscale. Got some vanilla beans early. Made some vanilla stuff [extract, salt scrubs, sugar] and did up some labels and whatnot. Super holiday score came when the thrift store in town was selling little glass angel bottles for a quarter and I bought ten. I had to ask people if giving someone a little angel filled with liquor was sending a message I might not want to send. They assured me it was not.

I’ve also got a trunkload of Grade C maple syrup. If you see me, have a jar ready.