Amy, Jayne, Nassim Maya, and Ben on Zoom, all selfie smiling.
Today I'm proud of Jayne Everson for masterfully defending her dissertation, "Computing is for Everybody: Pedagogy for Joyful Secondary Computing." She shared 5 studies, demonstrating that feminist pedagogies encourage joyful secondary computing education. Congratulations Jayne!
A magenta lit stage with a dozen performers standing for applause.
Tonight I’m grateful for the delightful Moisture Festival, Seattle’s annual variety arts show each spring! It’s simply wonderful and all smiles. moisturefestival.org Eleven more shows through April 12th!
We used to have a very robust network of trains and street cars. We demolished it for highways 75 years ago. Probably one of the biggest infrastructure mistakes the country has made. We’re fixing it in the Pacific Northwest, slowly.
We spend most of it on roads instead, because most Americans have never left a 100 km radius of their home and cannot imagine a different world.
Today I'm grateful for the Amtrak Cascades, taking me back north from Portland to Seattle late this evening. It's janky, wobbly, slow, unreliable, and far from world class, but it still connects me to family across Oregon and Washington, faster, cheaper, and more safely than a car. Choo choo!
Today I’m excited about our 30 new wordplay.dev contributors, learning how to self-direct open source contributions to design, development, localization, research, verification, and more! It’s not easy to scale alone, but we’ll definitely do it together.
It's Trans Day of Visibility. I'm trans. So are ~100 million other people. This world is being terrible to us now, stripping our rights, banning us from public life. You can help by telling your governments and friends to stop being assholes. Thanks!
Today I'm grateful for my uncle Dan, who passed yesterday after 7 years fighting prostate cancer. He was endlessly homophobic, transphobic, and orthodox in his evangelicalism, but he was always willing to debate in good faith about our differences on what it means to love. May he rest in peace.
Today I’m grateful for the 5th cohort of STEP CS, our pre-service teacher education pathway! I’m excited to spend the quarter learning and teaching with our excellent group of 9, sorting through CS, equity, and justice (and yes, AI).
My favorite shot from the No Kings community organizing at Seattle center today: Trump babies, musk nazis, a general strike table, and in the background, thousands of people connecting, planning, plotting, and resisting.
Amy with her hair back in a leather jacket in front of Justin’s station and a sunny cloudy sky.
Today I’m so excited about the cross lake connection, bringing together the east and west Seattle metro area, increasing frequencies, and opening transit to new communities in the south sound! Two decades of advocacy, engineering research, federal support, and taxpayer support are finally realized.
On July 1st, all trans Idahoans who need to pee will be forced to choose between risking violence or life in prison. Friends, come to WA, we will find you refuge, while fascist ID revels in its hate open.substack.com/pub/transiti...
Today I’m grateful for 27 years of support from the National Science Foundation, funding my education, research, and service to the world. All my grants are now terminated or non-renewed, as I believe too strongly in the American dream of equal opportunity. Until we meet again, federal funding.
I spent a few days in Minneapolis, talking to academics, queer folk, and finding cozy corners in the aftermath of the ICE invasion. Here's a quick trip report, for the curious: medium.com/bits-and-beh...
Same pattern as with all tech: capitalism aims to extract wealth, independent of wellbeing, norms, safety, etc. Claude Code, etc. are just an accelerant to wealth concentration, at least in for profits. It all depends on where you aim the rocket.
Today I’m grateful for spring break, even if it’s only a week, and even if I have to work during it. The change of pace and the transition to spring always bring me a kind of existential hope, even amidst the horrors of our times 🌧️🌤️☀️.
Today I’m grateful for the berries of the Pacific Northwest. They make a great shrub, and a wonderful treat! There are so many things broken in this world, but the humble marionberry is perfect.
Today I’m grateful for the beautiful Puget Sound. I had the privilege of floating around on it with a few dozen prospective Ph.D. students and very much enjoyed waving to an orca family and talking about the future of computing. Thanks to the Allen School staff for organizing a great visit day!
Today I'm grateful for every trans Idahoan doing their best to live life under Idaho's hostility, bigotry, and cruelty. You are strong, you deserve far better, and if you reach your hand across the Washington border, we will welcome you with open arms. www.erininthemorning.com/p/idaho-hous...
Today I’m grateful for clever, hilarious, cunning, and kind trans kids. Despite all the forces denying their existence, they very much exist and are amazing.
Today I’m grateful for ππππππππππππππ
Today was a fatigued Friday full of faculty governance. It's far from the easiest way to end a week, especially amidst continued chaos, uncertainty, and civic decline. But my many thoughtful, sharp, and proactive colleagues make the medicine go down and I'm grateful for that.
Today I’m proud of keeping a hundred things on track at a sustainable pace without burning out while living my values. It took a few decades to learn how to do this, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!
Today I’m proud of this quarter’s Wordplay contributors. You’re kind, you’re great learners, you’re thoughtful and persistent. Keep up the great work as we barrel towards the end of the quarter!
Annie Clark on staging next to a piano and her accompaniment, with a rose held high.
Tonight I’m grateful for the amazing St. Vincent for her transfixing show at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall in Portland. She was somehow engrossing, hilarious, irreverent, and more, all while transforming her music into jazz, in the spirit of the Portland jazz Festival. Incredible!
A hundred posters, two hundred people, in a ballroom.
Today I’m grateful for being part of such a vibrant community of Information School scholars! Our breadth is astounding, deep, impactful, and led by so many wonderful humans. This was tonight’s Research Fair.
SIGCSE TS posted a recording of my recent keynote, "Love, Learning, and Computing Education". If you haven't seen it, I hope this live version is a helpful guide for navigating this era of hate, at least in our little world of computing education: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVrn...
Today I am proud of the amazing Adrienne Gifford, middle school CS teacher extraordinaire; for submitting her first research paper last week! She’s been an amazing teacher partner, centering youth visions while also advancing knowledge. Thanks to NSF for supporting her participation.
