Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin

2018-01-24 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Musings
I can't remember the first time a read a book by Ursula K. Le Guin, but I know it was *Catwings.* My parents bought the first Catwings books for my older sister, so by the time I learned to read they were in the house for me to inhale along with everything else vaguely age-appropriate within my reach.

The cost of relearning to play the clarinet

2016-12-02 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Musings
As a child I played some instrument or another continuously from the ages of 9 to 21. I started out on viola for two years, switched to piano at 11, and then added clarinet...

End-of-year carbon offsets

2016-01-01 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Musings
I've written before about how I don't really do New Year's resolutions so much as ongoing "I want to deal with this problem" resolutions, but this time around, the timing was right for me to do some more traditional year-end introspection...

A Website A Week

2014-08-17 00:00:00 -0700
Filed under DesignToday I MadeWeekly Website
I've been restless lately, in need of a project. I've looked at a few hackathons and similar events, but what I want is something a little more extended than a weekend, and a little more compatible with my vital weekend afternoon nap schedule. But I've been feeling in particular that I ought to do more to improve my visual design skills...

Bite-Size UX for Nonprofits

2014-06-24 00:00:00 -0700
Filed under Design
A few months ago I gave a presentation as part of 501 Commons' Brown Bag Training series on UX for nonprofits. The emphasis was on quick, low-cost activities that people at nonprofits could start doing without a lot of training, but would still provide useful feedback for their websites...

A Bird and a Resolution

2014-02-04 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Musings
I was sick this weekend and spent a lot of time either in bed or on the couch trying to move and speak very little. So, among other things, I read a lot of twitter, and on Saturday I noticed lots of people talking about this game called Flappy Bird. which, in case you haven't heard, is the terrible, unfun game that no one can stop playing...

Committing

2014-01-26 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Design
Well, after a long process of messing around with wireframes, colors, fonts, content drafts, fiddling, tweaking and general fear of committment, I've finally ~officially launched~ a redesign I've been intending for nearly two years.

Old Year's Resolutions

2014-01-06 00:00:00 -0800
Filed under Musings
Awhile back I broke up with my hosting company and moved to A Small Orange, which has been lovely so far. In the move I broke my blog, and rather than deal with it I just ignored it for awhile. But I have now unbroken my blog, and it's sort of still the time for posting things like year-end lists and new year's resolutions, so I thought I'd write something to mark the occasion...

A More Diverse Universe

2012-10-09 00:00:00 -0700
Filed under Reviews
I learned about this Diverse Universe project way too late to participate, but of course it's exactly what I started doing with book reviews on this blog two years ago. Some of the books are ones I've read and reviewed, but many of them are not, so I've got a bunch more books to add to my reading list. Check it out!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

2011-09-28 00:00:00 -0700
Filed under Reviews
So it turns out that when you stop working in your PJs on the couch and actually go to an office every morning, it's a lot harder to use the time when you can't sleep and can't stand to stay in bed anymore to write blog posts. But I read the first two books of N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy this summer, and now the third book is due out in a month so I thought I'd tell a little story about reading them...