a minor rant
OK, whatever happened to common courtesy? I'm on the Heights/Montrose Freecycle mailing list, and Wednesday a girl offers a free large black bookcase to the community. I emailed her asking if it was still available, and she said, sure, here's my number, call and we'll arrange a pickup time. I told her I couldn't get it until Thursday, and she was fine with that.
So yesterday afternoon I call her about picking it up, and after I explain who I am, I hear this ominous pause. "Oh," she says. "Someone already picked that up."
WTF! First I don't even get the courtesy of an email telling me such. And second, she couldn't wait one bloody day more to let me get it? It's just a shitty thing to do, and that's the second time it's happened to me. I've never actually picked anything up from that ML, because either the item is taken (which is fine, there's lots of us on there), or this happens. I was looking forward to that, too, considering the gobs of books I have scattered randomly everywhere. Not to mention that bookcases get snapped up like cocaine in the 80s, so I felt pretty lucky being told I could have it.
Sigh. So much for that.
Random link time!
Cats on Scanners! Apparently posting this link is a tradition on Metafilter's anniversary, and today is its 7th. I lurk on MeFi like whoa, so I share the love. :D Some of the pictures are funny, some are odd. ...Yeah, interesting.
The Game Developer Magazine It's a magazine about being a developer and what the biz is like. I haven't read it, but I'm linking it just for the cover art.
Male Scientist Writes of Life as a Female Scientist I've been reading a lot of gender studies articles in the past few days, particularly about the "boy crisis." Sorry, people, achievement in academia (and equal rights and a lot of other things) aren't zero-sum games. Girls doing better in college and getting more involved in the sciences doesn't mean automatically boys are doing worse. It means things are evening out, and it shouldn't matter two bits what someone's gender is. What SHOULD matter is how well they do, how hard they work. I'm a big fan of meritocracy. Anyway, interesting article talking a bit about how you can rant about the "boy crisis" all you want, but the fact remains there's still a ton of gender bias in science. I never experienced it firsthand, but I have seen it happen to other females. Perhaps it helps that I'm so physically hard to ignore that I haven't been. Who can say. Plus I can tend to be a bit of a steamroller, and I've been accused of playing "the male game" by being ambitious and competitive. But too bad, because I choose to do things my way, which really, isn't that how it should be in the end? (at least in this society of ours that is focused on individual determinism)
Oh yeah, and I'm thinking of going see A Scanner Darkly at some point. Based on the screenshots, it looks like a cell-shaded movie. Plus, based on a Philip K. Dick novel! And I heard Waking Life was good, though I never saw it, so it could be an entertaining time.
Despite all the ranting above, things are a-ok and worked out. Life is good. :)
So yesterday afternoon I call her about picking it up, and after I explain who I am, I hear this ominous pause. "Oh," she says. "Someone already picked that up."
WTF! First I don't even get the courtesy of an email telling me such. And second, she couldn't wait one bloody day more to let me get it? It's just a shitty thing to do, and that's the second time it's happened to me. I've never actually picked anything up from that ML, because either the item is taken (which is fine, there's lots of us on there), or this happens. I was looking forward to that, too, considering the gobs of books I have scattered randomly everywhere. Not to mention that bookcases get snapped up like cocaine in the 80s, so I felt pretty lucky being told I could have it.
Sigh. So much for that.
Random link time!
Cats on Scanners! Apparently posting this link is a tradition on Metafilter's anniversary, and today is its 7th. I lurk on MeFi like whoa, so I share the love. :D Some of the pictures are funny, some are odd. ...Yeah, interesting.
The Game Developer Magazine It's a magazine about being a developer and what the biz is like. I haven't read it, but I'm linking it just for the cover art.
Male Scientist Writes of Life as a Female Scientist I've been reading a lot of gender studies articles in the past few days, particularly about the "boy crisis." Sorry, people, achievement in academia (and equal rights and a lot of other things) aren't zero-sum games. Girls doing better in college and getting more involved in the sciences doesn't mean automatically boys are doing worse. It means things are evening out, and it shouldn't matter two bits what someone's gender is. What SHOULD matter is how well they do, how hard they work. I'm a big fan of meritocracy. Anyway, interesting article talking a bit about how you can rant about the "boy crisis" all you want, but the fact remains there's still a ton of gender bias in science. I never experienced it firsthand, but I have seen it happen to other females. Perhaps it helps that I'm so physically hard to ignore that I haven't been. Who can say. Plus I can tend to be a bit of a steamroller, and I've been accused of playing "the male game" by being ambitious and competitive. But too bad, because I choose to do things my way, which really, isn't that how it should be in the end? (at least in this society of ours that is focused on individual determinism)
Oh yeah, and I'm thinking of going see A Scanner Darkly at some point. Based on the screenshots, it looks like a cell-shaded movie. Plus, based on a Philip K. Dick novel! And I heard Waking Life was good, though I never saw it, so it could be an entertaining time.
Despite all the ranting above, things are a-ok and worked out. Life is good. :)