Kinetic Conveyances

Mark and I walked down to Pearl Street on this pure blue-sky Colorado day, and then over to 29th Street where the Kinetics Conveyance Parade was assembling. In this yearly May event, kinetically designed conveyances are displayed for all to see, prior to a race the following Saturday which starts on ground but includes a tricky run across Boulder Reservoir and its mud flats as well. Designing a vehicle that works well both on land and water, and is a sculpture, and is creative and interesting, is not easy.

There are many, many prizes, not just for winning the race but for all manner of distinctions, including awards for Sculpture, Engineering, Costumes, Team Style, and others with such names as “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” “Murphy’s Law” and “Best Bribe” (to be blatant). Most participants dress up for the event, and thus we observed black and white Jersey cows with black sparking top hats doing the can-can next to a vehicle with a matching black and white tail, pirates in a vehicle shaped like a shark and sporting an eyepatch, glittery silver dragons with red spikes down their tales in a vehicle with a matching dragon tail, Irish green outfits with red wigs, and much more. The parade includes one pass by the grandstand for official judging, but then another pass by the stand again where bribes for the judges are expected: food, shooters, or whatever else comes to mind. To understand this and other Boulder events, it is helpful to have a reference, thus this pointer to the “Keep Boulder Weird” site for those who need or want to know more.

We spent a little quality time on the upper deck at 29th Street Mall on the veranda of the Purple Martini, sipping our drinks and observing the scene, with a truly extraordinary view of the Flatirons and the more distant snow-covered Continental Divide as a backdrop.

Must Blogs be “Civil”, and What is Civil?

Death threats on her "Creating Passionate Users" blog caused Kathy Sierra, a well-known local Boulderite who writes about computer user interfaces, to cancel her appearance at conference recently. I went and took a look – and what I found was indeed offensive, pointless, and scary. I can see why she was upset. (She has since moved the original post to a separate website but has a link to it for those who are still interested.)

A Computerworld article this week explored the question of whether blogs can be regulated for civility, or whether that would be considered censorship. Now Tim O’Reilly has proposed a draft blog code of conduct with the hope of somehow enforcing civility in the wild, wild Internet, complete with a badge you can affix to your blog indicating that you follow the code. There is another badge depicting a stick of dynamite if your blog is the kind where "anything goes."

One of the dissenting comments was “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges,” and another argued that there is no way to enforce civility.

Of course there is much debate on the proposed code. Some bloggers hate the idea of private conversations between bloggers to settle issues regarding offensive comments, for example, because it strikes at the heart and soul of blogging, an inherently public activity. Others argue that not allowing anonymity will eliminate many valuable comments. Many bloggers find the idea of a code of conduct offensive and believe that the spirit of the Internet and free speech are at stake.

Up until now I have moderated this blog (which so far has received a miniscule number of comments anyway), which means that no comment is posted until I’ve reviewed it. I don’t think I would delete a posting unless it could truly be considered malicious abuse or libel, though. For some bloggers, even that much censorship is unacceptable. One blogger, commenting on the code of conduct says, “I know offensive when I see it, and I’ll delete it.”

What do you think?

Judy

I used to sing a lot. Folk songs. I would sit on the grass at Indiana University’s Dunn Meadow in Bloomington, Indiana and sing song after song with my guitar, usually with a pretty good audience.

I still sing, but mostly in my head. I still know most of the words to many, many songs, and they arise in my consciousness as a kind of running commentary on my life. Thus, as I walk up to the side door to enter my place of work on a Monday morning, I might have Janis Joplin’s tune going in my head:

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all have Porsches,
I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Why that one? Who knows, it just seems right.

Two Sundays ago, at the suggestion of my daughter Cait, I got to see the incomparable Judy Collins in concert at the Paramount Theater in Denver.

I loved it. She had a piano player as backup but did several songs by herself, either with the guitar or playing the piano. Her voice is still clear, strong and beautiful.

She sang a few old-timey folk songs including “John Riley” – the one where the young woman has patiently waited seven years for her true love to come home, explaining to the stranger in the garden that she remains faithful, and he reveals that he is himself her long lost John Riley (happy ending, although the woman is far more patient than I think I would be in similar circumstances).

She sang several others that I love, including “Amazing Grace,” her bittersweet rendition of “Send in the Clowns,” and songs about Colorado including “Someday Soon.” She won applause by mentioning that her 91-year-old mother was in the audience, and told stories about her father Jack and growing up in Denver surrounded by musicians.

She sang Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and told the story of how she had first heard the song--a friend (Graham Nash?) had called her at 3 a.m. from New York City insisting she listen to a singer he had discovered.

She spoke with great affection of the first time she met Leonard Cohen, how attractive he was, how grateful she was that she never fell in love with him as friends had. She told him he could not sing, but that she would be recording his songs the next morning. She stepped over to a special smaller sparking keyboard, and I thought for a minute she was going to sing “Famous Blue Raincoat,” but instead she sang one I of Leonard’s haven’t heard much but would like to learn: “A Thousand Kisses Deep”:

And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep.

She also sang an absolutely heart-breaking version of a song dedicated to her song Clark, who committed suicide in 1992 at age 33, called “Wings of Angels.” She has written a book about this called “Sanity and Grace: A Journal of Suicide, Survival and Strength.”

Wings of angels tears of saints
Prayers and promises won't bring you back
Come to me in dreams again
Wings of angels tears of saints

We also heard “City of New Orleans,” “Open The Door,” “Since You’ve Asked,” and many more. It was a great evening and I was glad Cait shared it with me.

Inspired, I played my guitar with Mark the other night and sang again for several hours, one of my trustiest songbooks (“Rise Up Singing”) open before me. It felt really good but my fingers are sore. They’ll toughen up if I keep it up.

Women in Technology

As I ponder my existence as a woman in the high tech industry, it is encouraging to see a few signs of progress. A guy I work with says that his college-age daughter, after a full circle exploration of everything from aerodynamics to veterinary medicine, has decided to become a software developer, and is very excited about it, doing quite well in her C++ class so far. In our conversation, I mentioned the fact that Frances Allen (check out her ideas on mentoring, networking and problem solving here) had in 2006 become the very first woman to win the Turing Award since its inception in 1966. See her picture at right - doesn't she look like she'd be interesting to know?

I learned about her by reading a blog entry by Joyce Carpenter of ComputerWorld, entitled “They took anyone…even women” - a quote from the late John Backus describing the formation of the IBM team that created Fortran.

It is still a challenge being a woman in high tech. I often notice even in this day and age, especially when I am traveling on business, that I am the only woman in the conference room, or one of very few. My approach to resolving problems is a different than many (although not all) of my male co-workers, and I know this can perplex them. I am more collaborative, more interested in sharing information, perhaps more willing to listen to both sides of an issue before taking a strong stand. (It would be interesting to see if my co-workers really agree with these self-observations – you never know how you are really coming across). Is this because I am female, or just my personality?

My father was always urging me in my teens and early career days to be tougher, stronger, more assertive. And over the years, I have done this in order to survive. What has been the cost? Do people still share their true thoughts with me as much, or do they hold back to avoid what to them feels like an argument (and to me feels like a spirited discussion)? These days, do I talk too much and listen too little? Food for thought.

Spring

We’ve had marvelous spring-like weather all weekend. We have a single daffodil in our back yard, and I am most grateful for it. It seems like it’s been a long, cold lonely winter. No, wait. That sounds familiar.

There are purple crocuses in the front yard, too. I know that we are not finished with snowy weather, but it is a pleasure to feel the warm sun and see the early flowers.

At work there is a fundraiser to raise money to fight cancer called Daffodil Days where we all buy bunches of daffodils (and extras to donate to hospital patients), and they are all delivered one day next week. The sight of all those daffodils will soothe my soul, I know it.

I am a Warrior

I was doing my stretching exercises in front of the TV tonight and happened upon a show with Suze Orman, of all people, talking about Women and Money. She spoke passionately about how women undervalue themselves, take care of everyone else but themselves. She spoke about the eight characteristics of a wealthy woman. The characteristics included harmony and balance, generosity, happiness, wisdom, among others. The third characteristic she discussed was courage.

She talked about how she summons courage herself when times get tough—emphasizing that taking action is what helps one find courage. She says to herself: “You are a warrior and you are not to turn your back on the battlefield.”

That struck a chord with me; I think I say something similar to myself at times to muster the courage to speak up, object, recommend a different way, confront a bully, and more.

I am a warrior and I will not turn my back on the battlefield.

Full Flight to Denver

Do not fly into California via the San Jose airport again if you can possibly help it.

I thought the flight times were a little more convenient, and the cost was a little lower. And it wasn’t too bad flying into San Jose from Denver. But the dinky United gates in San Jose on my return trip were extraordinarily crowded, and boarding the airplane involved climbing stairs up to the airplane door lugging my beloved computer.

The flight was delayed and there were too many stressed out people waiting already in the small gate area, so it was literally a case where there was no room to breathe and no place to put myself that wasn’t somehow in somebody else’s way.

“Oh my Grace I’ve got no hiding place…” Paul Simon

Center seats both to and from my destination didn’t help matters. It is interesting how many airline passengers view both armrests as undeniably theirs. When you end up in a center seat between two big guys, this can be problematic.

After a long but reasonably productive week in Dublin, I just wanted to get home last night, and it was harder than it had to be. But the pleasure of eating the tasty beef stew Mark had cooked to welcome me home and of sleeping in my own comfortable bed again made up for it.