Los Patitocabras & other abominations of nature

Sleep is often a valid life choice. I needed sleep this morning. I woke up with my second alarm (the main one), feeling refreshed.

Nature, red in tooth and claw, or something, has been shrinking the numbers of the workplace ducklings. ( Read more... )

I had a 1pm meeting (for the conference) so I went to lunch a bit early. A lot of the team wandered off to the other cafeteria, leaving behind mostly the people headed to that meeting. (I poked Purple for lunch before he poked me; he didn't see me poking and poked back, saying that his guys had just poked him... by that time I had already fetched my lunch and wound up at the team's usual outside table. He was looking around outside; I waved just as one of his guys hollered; he went with his guys. Which is entirely fair, as I had him all to myself for Friday's early lunch.)

The PM who was escorting one-half of the two partners in crime from the Cambridge office (there are three members of our team there, and two are more inseparable than the other; sadly this week one of them is tending to family affairs and can't make it for the conference) picked my brain about tips and tricks for seeing a good aurora borealis display. I was happy to help. If you can arrange to go shortly after solar activity, do that. Go during the winter -- that's not a sun tip, that's a darkness tip. Arrange for clear skies which are not too cold to stand out under.

I did swing by their table to say hello on our way back. One of the facilities guys then waylaid me to ask what I'd meant by a particular ticket. I'd thought that it was pretty clear, especially by the category, but apparently not.

That was followed by the last actual conference committee meeting before the conference. Inevitably, things will happen, or won't, but all things considered we seem to be in less of a panicked fucking rush than last year. I'm bringing my first aid kit, just in case.

I checked in with my Overlady, and found her in a state of post-move, scrubbing the coffee of her new office's previous occupants off the walls in a far more leisurely manner than I'd scrubbed the ( SQUICK )

of the previous occupant of my booth at the Domain Shop from the booth's walls. Coffee is a much better substance to be dealing with. The movers had also fucked up on the chair front somehow, leaving her with one of the vaguely horrible plastic chairs from the team table, instead of a proper desk chair. Also she found a mostly unlabeled laptop in a box, one that was not hers. It proved to be charged, and bear the login of the guy who has her old desk now. SHENANIGANS.

Kat and I have managed to basically stagger our work/sleep/driving/incapacitated by migraine/incapacitated by sleep dep time so that we are neither conscious nor coherent at the same time, unless we're at work. It's impressive.

I tried to pop back into my cube, but found that it was full of facilities guys bending over my double monitors in an attempt to install different cube walls behind said monitors. I wanted to be able to hang stuff on the rails, which required rails. Which required facilities guys.

At the rate they were banging around and trying diligently to not swear, and also knocking things over, I concluded that I needed to be anywhere but there, so I went back to commune with my Overlady. It's been unnatural to be in a different building from her. It was great to perch in her office not actually all that far from mine. The Turkish Delight did not hurt either, though I was careful to make sure that we were not in Narnia.

Between all the things, it was a while before I was actually able to start with the transcription again. In the middle of it all I noticed that I was already getting tired and hungry, and I wasn't likely to be able to properly go home for a while yet. Clearly it was time for delivery. And the minimum order meant that there would be a whole pile of food. I asked a quick question, and got an answer that pleased me.

Delivery arrived, and in pretty close to the right place. This is no small feat given the confusing nature of the campus to someone who's never been there before, and getting the right side of the building is also a feat.

I padded off to Purple's building, bearing the bag. He was also about to have a late night, and was very happy to see me with unexpected dinner.

When he sees the ferns from his office window, he's reminded of home. When I see the aspen trees from his office window, I'm reminded of the birches at home. Tay is visiting back home right now, and her friend will be joining her shortly.

"Pork! Dessert!"
... yes, the steamed pork bun does, in fact, make a reasonable dessert.

Back at my desk, absent further interruption from marauding co-workers and guys with power screwdrivers, I was able to bang out another ~20 minutes of transcription before it got too late and Purple was about ready to leave. (I don't think I've ever felt unsafe in our parking lot, but it's pleasant to walk out with a friend.)

Tonight, we were heading to where our cars were parked (this time right next to each other) when a great big white van came barrelling through the parking lot, just going straight through the mostly-empty bits, avoiding the last mile shuttles. Purple and I took a simultaneous step back out of its path. It stopped, so we continued. It then pulled forward, turned, and drove rather more circumspectly up the actual place where people are supposed to drive. What on earth were pedestrians doing in the parking lot of a tech company at that hour, anyway??!?!

There are rules about things we can and can't say in the office. In the office, we can chat cheerfully about The Sausage Incident. ( Read more... )

My tweets

• Mon, 20:18: "Pork! Dessert! :D " -- Purple
• Mon, 20:41: Still life with overly hostile tissue box. http://t.co/f0OEO2vetq
• Mon, 22:30: "Ipanywhere" "come over here so I can fist you"
• Tue, 01:02: My fitbit #Fitstats for 6/16/2014: 4,474 steps and 1.9 miles traveled. http://t.co/gFMrr7qBz6
• Tue, 11:00: I see someone went by while I was in the loo. http://t.co/tLmqnwWblx

Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/SQ7Pby at June 17, 2014 at 04:30AM
nenya-kanadka: Moniquilliloquies.: About Cop...
nenya-kanadka:

Moniquilliloquies.: About Cop Watch

apihtawikosisan:

ladyatheist:

i-am-septima:

baddominicana:

poemsofthedead:

note-a-bear:

So there are groups that do this, they stay in highly policed areas on shifts and bring cameras and such, and record to make sure police brutality doesn’t escalate, and when it happens there’s evidence against it.

But that’s not the only way it can happen.

Every single person is entitled to watch an arrest go down as long as they are not obstructing or interfering. That means, if you see cops bumrush someone, even if that person is waving a gun, you are allowed, even legally permitted and encouraged to watch the events occur.

This is important white folks, because the cops work inyourservice. Oh sure, they’re supposedly in the service of “the common good” but we all know that means protecting white people.

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And now a story, when I was in high school, and my mom was working under a horrific principal, she was late to work one day because there was something going on in our neighborhood. Cops were gathered near our pharmacy and a guy was on the roof (it’s a little over one story, so he wasn’t a jumper or anything) and she stayed as long as she could and watched the scenario go down for a while. Not because she’s trifling. not because she’s nosy. But because she saw a POC and cops gathered and said to herself “I want to make sure this goes by the book.”

And that’s all it takes to be a cop watcher.

You acknowledge that you, as a white person, are in a relative position of safety and you watch. You bear witness, because your voice, unfortunately, carries more weight than ours in the criminal justice system.

Justice is not blind, nor should you be.

If there are cops, and they outnumber an individual, shit, even if it’s 1:1, it is your responsibility to keep an eye on the scenario and take down whatever information you can. And if it looks like something shady is going on, you areobligatedto call in to your local precinct and say “Listen, I saw X happen on Y, and it looked questionable.” And if you get a negative response, well, y’know what? You find out if there’s a civilian oversight committee. In NYC we have one, but they’re underfunded and continually being legislated against (currently there’s a statute of 18 months from the time of the event within which you have to file charges).

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If the prospect of keeping vigilant about cops scares you, imagine being a POC, and knowing that no matter what you do, you could be railroaded by a system that wants to not only disenfranchise you, but has no intentions of treating you as a human being.

Take your fears and shove ‘em down, because they’ll never be anything when compared to what we face on a daily basis.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT IS SO FUNNY??? THIS POST HAS SEVEN FUCKING NOTES. BECAUSE GIVING WHITE PEOPLE SOME INFORMATION AND TOOLS THAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY USE TO TAKE ACTION AS ALLIES IS NOT WORTH THEM LIKING OR REBLOGGING AND SHARING WITH EACH OTHER. IT’S NOT LIKE THEY ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO DO ANYTHING WITH IT! RIGHT? RIGHT? IT’S “FUNNY” CUZ IT’S JUST BLACK AND BROWN LIVES ON THE LINE ANYWAY.

word. we ALL have white followers. but they prefer to reblog jokes or pretty pictures or “universal” (read: non-racial shit) things. let it be a good, useful critique on them and their structures and their fucking bullshit. let it be a word of advice so they can stop being oppressive dicks and *crickets*

we all see you.

But seriously if y’all see some fishy arrests of PoC (or otherwise, for that matter) going down, it’d be great if you could help out as a witness.  ’Cause I can vouch personally for the fact that when PoC speak in each others’ favor, it is immediately disregarded as “helping a brother out”.

I have 2,433 followers. The very least you could do is stop and read this.

Watching the police has become such a habit, that I was sort of taken by surprise when my daughters asked me what I was doing the first time they were with me.  Why are we still, we should go?  They asked.  I said…sometimes the police need to know that people are watching them. 

We’d been walking down Sherbrooke, and what the hell, I’d forgotten it was May Day.  So there was a march, and the riot cops were out in all their insane scary bug-like armour.  And you could see them pushing the people in the march who were straggling.  My daughters asked why, and I couldn’t help it…the cops were already in earshot, but I said, “Some people feel good when they push other people around I guess.”

It made my daughters really nervous and when I thought about it, I was nervous too.  No, I don’t trust that the cops aren’t going to do something that is going to end up with me and my kids getting hurt.  I’ve been ‘rounded up’ before, and had the police driver of the van slam on the breaks every couple of seconds so those of us seated in the back would go flying all over the place. I got a nice bruise on the side of my face before they finally stopped and kicked us out because they needed the space for ‘worse rioters’.

But whatever.  Watching ‘regular’ police action is more important.  When a car screeches up, and two cops get out and they start getting physical with the three boys sitting on a bench, yes, you need to stop and stand there.  And yes, it’s scary.  Because the ability of police officers to use force and pretty much get away with whatever they want to do IS SCARY.  They have that power because it doesn’t get questioned enough.

I sincerely hope you personally have never experienced police brutality.  But you can watch it happen pretty much any hour of the day if you open your eyes. 

I can`t count the number of times I’ve heard of the police abusing their power, and you know what the number one deterrent is to ever holding them accountable?

Lack of witnesses.

The funny thing is…there are almost always witnesses.  Just not ones willing to give witness.

she's watching the detectives, ooo when they shoot

Conference begins in nine hours. Go.

Things I will probably need tomorrow include:

the usual
charger from bathroom
tablet
charger from near computer desk
crocheting
chocolate covered espresso beans (check work desk)
full-tilt makeup
maybe even nail polish
sleep

Today included hella interruptions while trying to finish the transcription (and posting signs about No Admittance Except On Party Business), transcription, various conference business, printer shenanigans, and a hilarious lunch with Purple.

The phrase "boring manager Rob" came up (in the context of non-boring guys named Rob), and that got us onto Code Monkey. I mentioned that patch for it that I wrote. Purple was a little dubious, because part of the song's charm for him is how the narrator is doing the pathetic puppydog pining for a lady who's sort of generally out of his league, and making the lady in question be the ruler of the server room, rather than the front desk, changes the dynamic. ( Read more... )

Also, his general opinion for people (any gender) who are date-seeking is that they don't have to pull the whole high-grooming performance on a daily basis, but to every now and then put in the "ooo, they clean up nice!" level of grooming.

"So not the full-on peacock spider, then," I summarized.

This had the effect of stopping the conversation through uproarious laughter. Purple was almost disappointed to learn that the peacock spider was in fact a real thing and not just a vaguely appropriate animal and then another animal that I'd shoved in to be disturbing.

I sent him the peacock spider YMCA video, shortly thereafter, yes I did.

http://youtu.be/xYIUFEQeh3g