the saddest poem in San Francisco

Biking to work this morning, I passed a Muni bus going the opposite direction. The screen on the front of the bus said: "MUNI TURNS 100"* and then as I passed it, the screen changed to say, "OUT OF SERVICE."

If only it could have been like this.
*I am paraphrasing. It may have said, "100 Years of Muni," but I think you see my poem.

what is the lack

Not just because it's her birthday, but also because she's awesome: I'm dedicating today to Sasha Laudy, founder of the meetup group Women Who Code (SF). What motivated Sasha to form this group? In this blog post on Women 2.0, she states, "While many men were friendly and helpful to me, I grew tired of being the only technical woman at event after event. I craved a space — just one night a month! — where I wasn’t the only one. Where I didn’t constantly have to prove myself with every introduction, and where I could see what other technical women were accomplishing. So I launched Women Who Code." The group's grown to over 300 women and, even though Sasha's moving on to work for Codecademy in New York, it's clear that the group will live on without her. And that's the measure that you've made something good, no?

So hats off to her. And this makes me wonder (and I bet it makes you wonder, too): What is the lack in my life, the lack that is not only mine, that I could make a space to fill?

writing women in

I'm pretty sure there are more articles about Yu-gi-oh! on Wikipedia than there are about the Blue Stockings. Or even the suffragettes. Is this related to the fact that over 80% of Wikipedia contributors are male? Possibly. But let's not sit and stew about it; let's change it! 

This Saturday I'll be attending Wikipedia's women's history edit-a-thon, and you should join me! It's in downtown San Francisco, and includes food & drinks. Not in San Francisco? No problem! That's the amazing thing about the internet, kids; you can edit Wikipedia from anywhere in the world. This is something you can totally do. And it's free. I would love you to join me. Hope to see you there!


(p.s. Huge kudos to Angie for sending this my way!)