ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: March 2014

Saturday

29

March 2014

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COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – March 29, 2014

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I’m travelling for the next few days; currently I’m visiting my sister Tampa. This afternoon we were treated to a ridiculously intense thunderstorm.

– Good reminder of how “Lean In” so often misses opportunities to really help women: Hey Sheryl: Lean On This (h/t @angryblacklady)

– Remember the vet injured in the Occupy Oakland protests? He’s settled with the city: Iraq War Veteran Scott Olsen Reaches $4.5M Settlement in Occupy Oakland Bean Bag Case (h/t @allisonkilkenny)

– Promising talk from last week’s GDC: Mass Effect developer makes emotional plea to eliminate social injustice in games (h/t @angryblacklady)

– Infuriating. There is a problem with how we allocate funds to public schools (and I don’t think charter schools are the answer to that): Mom Jailed for Enrolling Kids in School Tells Her Story in New Book, Film

– If true, this is disturbing: Scientists Condemn New FDA Study Saying BPA Is Safe: “It Borders on Scientific Misconduct” (via @MotherJones)

– As usual, Dave Zirin is on point with the R*dskins discussion: About That Open Letter Dan Snyder Just Sent to ‘Redskins Nation’ (via @DaveZirin)

– ARG: Arkansas Mother Thrown In Jail For Breastfeeding While Drinking A Beer (h/t @scATX)

– This is pretty serious concern I have, especially as it is happening where I live: Washington State Case Study: A Difficult Miscarriage Made Worse by Hospital’s Religious Restrictions on Care (h/t @AIsForOrg)

– Some of you may have seen the #CancelColbert discussion. Here is more on that: We Want To #CancelColbert (via @Suey_Park)

– Wait, what? U Of Alabama Sororites Win Right To Ban Blacks (h/t @maniacwrangler)

– And finally, we wrap up with a nice bit from Anita Sarkeesan reminding us that “ironic” sexism and racism is often an excuse to get to be sexist and racist.

Tuesday

25

March 2014

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COMMENTS

My Sister’s Keeper

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In one version of my future, I attend graduate school so I can get a PhD in Philosophy, focusing on biomedical ethics. I find the topic endlessly fascinating, and full of such interesting and open-ended questions. So I can’t believe that I waited this long to read this book. I’d really like to dive into the subject matter of the book, so if you’re planning on reading it and want to avoid all manner of spoilers, here’s my one sentence review: it’s good, it grapples with interesting issues, and the version on Audible is probably the first time I’ve really enjoyed a novel as an audiobook. Also – don’t watch the movie version (which I’ve been doing while writing this review). It’s just so different, and the choices they make really take away from the story the book is trying to tell.

The basic premise of the book is that Anna is seeking medical emancipation from her parents, who want her to give a kidney to her dying sister Kate. Anna is 13, Kate is 16, and their older brother Jesse is 18. Anna was conceived as a genetic match for Kate after Kate was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2. The book is told in alternating chapters from many characters perspectives: Sara, the mother; Brian, the father; Anna; Jesse; Campbell, the attorney hired by Anna (pro-bono) to take on the case; and Julia, the guardian ad litem who is tasked with reporting to the court on what is best for Anna. The audio book really excels here because each character’s chapter is voiced by a different voice actor, which brings a real richness to the storytelling.

One thing the book does extremely well is telling us Kate’s story without ever giving us Kate’s perspective on things. It’s a bold choice, considering she’s the reason for the situation. But Ms. Picoult knows what she’s doing – she wants us to all to consider what the rest of the family goes through, because they all revolve around Kate and her constant illness. Jesse’s chapters focus on the fact that he hasn’t had really any attention, and that he’s dealt with by becoming an arsonist (perfect choice, since Brian, the father, is a fire fighter). Campbell and Julia have a side story, a history, that both seems a bit unnecessary but also serves to remind us that people have lives that go on outside of this family. The parents’ chapters are heartbreaking and brutal, especially Sara’s chapter where she describes giving birth to Anna. She’s so focused on saving the umbilical cord blood that at no point does she express any interest in her newborn. I don’t doubt that Sara loves all of her children, but I don’t know how she can love them all with the same passion she carries for saving Kate.

Anna’s chapters are challenging because she’s only 13, and she is so torn between loving her sister desperately and wanting a life of her own. Anna’s been called on to save her sister repeatedly, through stem cell donation, bone marrow transplants, and other donations. It’s affected her ability to do things, like go away to summer hockey camp (because her sister might need something from her). Anna and Kate are really close, though, so you know Anna is internally conflicted about wanting to save her sister and wanting a life for herself.

The issues that Ms. Picoult is grappling with in this book are so numerous. Is there something wrong with genetically engineering a child with the express purpose of saving another child’s life? Can the parent love the engineered child in the same way – can he or she ever see the child as an independent being, as opposed to being the one who is responsible for saving the other child’s life? What about other siblings in a sick child’s family? Even outside of all the issues of the sister being asked to contribute to and save the other sister’s life, what happens inside a family where one child is chronically, likely terminally, ill? Is it wrong of the other children to want to have lives, even if their ill sibling can’t? And how can a parent be asked to provide opportunities to the healthy children when they are so focused on saving the sick one? I can’t imagine being in that situation – it seems so horribly challenging, and exhausting, and unfair. And finally, what about the child who wants to make decisions for herself and stop being tied to her sister? It seems so easy to say ‘it’s just a ______’ (blood donation, bone marrow donation, etc.), but really, there’s got to be a limit. And can we expect a child, or a teenager, to pass those limits?

Having read the book, I’m still not sure how I feel about any of these questions. But they’re interesting, and as science progresses, we’re going to have to explore more of them.

Thursday

20

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This by Julie Jansen

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Two Stars

Hmmm. I can’t tell if this is a bad book, or just isn’t the book that I wanted or needed it to be. I’m in the midst of a bit of a self-improvement kick (and my books this year will likely reflect that), and bought this one during one of my many ill-advised book store visits. It looked interesting, and even seemed to offer suggestions for people like me, who have ‘good’ jobs but just feel like they might be in the wrong career and are looking for something different.

office-space-4

The book starts with a whole lot of self-assessment. Some of it is really interesting and some of it seems to require a whole lot of self-reflection that could mean the book could take a reader months to get through. Some of it feels like a glorified Cosmo quiz, but some of it really did get me thinking about what I want out of the work I do to make money, and what I need to do to get there.

After sixty pages of self-assessments, worksheets and quizzes, the author breaks her advice down into chapters to address common problems people who are unhappy in their work are likely to face:
– Finding meaning in work
– At a good point (financially) and not able to take a pay cut
– Current very negative work environment
– Bored
– Desire to run a business
– Close to retirement

Obviously close to retirement wasn’t really applicable to me, but the rest did, at times, apply to how I’ve felt about my career over the past few years, so I read through them. Each was filled with some more quizzes and attempts at forcing self-reflection, but I think the book tried to be all things to all people and so ended up not giving me enough to work with in any given area. I think it did help me sort through my thoughts on starting my own business, as well as my desire to have a job that makes a difference in people’s lives, but I didn’t finish reading it with any sort of concrete action plan. Maybe that’s on me, or maybe it’s on the book, but either way I can’t really recommend this to anyone who is struggling with where to go in their career.

Thursday

20

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – March 20 2013

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It’s the first day of spring! Does it feel like it where you are?

In ‘disgusting abuse of power / xenophobia’ news: Judge Who Took Away Immigrant’s Baby Said Lack Of English Would Cause ‘Developmental’ Problems (h/t @irevolt)

People in California show up to fight fracking: PHOTOS: Thousands Turn Up For California’s Largest-Ever Rally To Ban Fracking (via @ThinkProgress)

Mistreatment of sex workers: ‘I Have a Right to My Own Body’: How Project ROSE Tries to ‘Save’ Sex Workers (via @melissagira)

Councilmember Sawant offers options for small businesses to address $15/hour minimum wage: Sawant talks a friendly path for small businesses as March for $15 finishes on Capitol Hill (via @jseattle)

Great post about the non-technical folks at tech start-ups: The Myth of the Non-Technical Startup Employee (h/t @agoodcuppa)

For all those (ignorant or sexist or both) asshats who claim the wage gap is because women just don’t negotiate: Negotiating While Female: Sometimes It Does Hurt to Ask (h/t @JessicaValenti)

Neil deGrasse Tyson is performing an amazing public service with Cosmos. I saw him speak once, and it’s still one of the coolest evenings of my life: Science Deniers Are Freaking Out About “Cosmos” (via @MotherJones)

Wednesday

19

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

I Feel Bad About My Neck

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Three Stars

 

When I lived in New York, I used to watch Sleepless in Seattle all the time. That and When Harry Met Sally. Now that I’m back in Seattle, when I’m missing New York, I watch When Harry Met Sally, or You’ve Got Mail. No, I don’t have an obsession with Meg Ryan; I have a love of fun, sweet movies that feature two of my favorite cities and have interesting female leads. But there is a common thread across these movies, and that is that they were written by Nora Ephron.

I recently realized that I was spending too much on a monthly Audible.com membership and went to cancel. I was about to lose nine credits (NINE), so I did a quick scan of books and downloaded nine audio books, including two by Ms. Ephron. I figured her work would be interesting, fun, a little on the sweet side, but ultimately satisfying. I was mostly right.

The audio version is a pretty quick one – I got through it on a couple of runs and a few walks to and from work. It wasn’t laugh out loud funny, but it was insightful and amusing. The book is a collection of essays on being a woman. Specifically, the essays are her reflection on being an older woman. She tells stories from when she was younger, but most of those stories come back to how it relates to her thoughts now. She wrote it when she was 64, which is near my own mother’s age, so I also think I was hoping for a little insight into what my mother may be experiencing as she’s gotten older, which I feel like I got.

The stories aren’t mind-blowing, and Ms. Ephron’s reading of it is very slow (she pronounces every word very deliberately), but I’ve always enjoyed hearing these books read by the person who experienced the stories. I feel like it adds something to the experience. In the essay on death, it added a somewhat disturbing note, as Ms. Ephron died in 2012. She seems like she was an interesting person, a lovely friend, and clearly a talented writer. If you’re looking for an interesting read that sometimes goes a little deeper (though not always – there is an entire chapter devoted to her hatred of purses), I’d recommend this.

Saturday

15

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

Zeitoun

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Four stars.

While at a friend’s house for dinner last week, a friend lent me this book. This is the same one who turned me on to steampunk, so I trusted her judgment. I found this to be a really compelling, interesting and infuriating book about one component of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. However, I really wish that I hadn’t Googled Mr. Zeitoun when I finished it, for reasons I’ll share at the end. This review will contain some spoilers, because there is a bit of shift in the middle of the book that I’d like to address.

zeitoun

The book is told alternatingly from the perspective of Mr. Zeitoun, a Muslim originally from Syria, and his wife Kathy, a woman who converted to Islam in her youth. The first part tells of their preparation for the storm, going between their perspectives. Additionally, the book gives us their back stories in pieces during the build up to the storm and beyond. The main thing to know is that the Zeitouns own a painting and contracting company, as well as a few rental properties. They also have four children.

Mrs. Zeitoun and the children leave New Orleans, but Mr. Zeitoun stays behind. He keeps an eye on their house, and checks in on their rental properties as well. He makes it through the storm, and even the levee breech that floods the first floor of his home. Over the next week, he travels around New Orleans in a canoe, helping with a few rescues and taking care of some left-behind pups. But a week after the storm, he is at one of his properties with a tenant and friend, and gunmen storm in.

We learn that he has been arrested, and are given a look at the utter failure of the criminal justice system after Katrina. The unwarranted arrests, the abhorrent treatment, the suspension of all rights of those accused to even know what they are accused of. Mr. Zeitoun was not allowed to contact his wife at all while he was in jail, waiting for a hearing – for over a week she thinks he is dead. Because of his ethnicity, the police tell him he’s suspected of being Al Qaida, or Taliban. It’s utterly absurd, and a reminder that in a disaster, some people rise to the occasion and some people use it as a reason to mistreat others. Unfortunately, that holds true for civilians and military / law enforcement alike, although it seems that those in power are more likely to take advantage of the situation than those without power. One example is an interview with one of the law enforcement officer who arrested Mr. Zeitoun – he tells of how he and his fellow officers would steal fuel and cigarettes from convenience stores because they ‘needed’ that to do their work; meanwhile these same officers were shooting and arresting people for ‘looting’ things that they needed for survival. The double standard is so disturbing.

I’m also disturbed and reminded of how often the public is willing to let law enforcement and the military do what they ‘need’ to do in a disaster, regardless of who they hurt, what laws they break, or how despicable their actions would (or should) be viewed during regular operations. I work in emergency management. Things fall apart. You do have to adjust, but it seems as though so many folks in power use disasters as an excuse to adjust things to they have even more power (I’m looking at you, post-9/11 PATRIOT ACT).

Even more spoilers ahead.

Ready?

Okay. So Mr. Zeitoun is released after three weeks, and the charges are, I believe dropped. I figure that’s the biggest spoiler of all, because the entire second half is a lot of ‘will he ever get out’ storytelling.

One last thing. After finishing the book I googled “Zeitoun” to get a picture of him and his family, and the first couple of links are to the website, and the book on Wikipedia. Disturbingly, however, this was the third link down: Zeitoun found not guilty on charges he tried to kill his ex-wife. Holy shit, guys. So they divorced, he was charged with beating Mrs. Zeitoun at one point, and then charged with trying to kill her. Yikes.

Thursday

13

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – March 13 2014

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We had a 60+ degree day this week, no rain, just sun. It was glorious. And also resulted in a lot less media consumption; hence the short post today.

– But seriously, gender discrimination is all in our heads, right? Right? Even With The Same Pitch, Investors Prefer To Give Money To Men Over Women (via @ThinkProgress)

– This is great – and as a 49ers fan, I’m pretty excited: In a Victory for Ending Mental Health Stigmas, Jonathan Martin Lands With the 49ers (via @EdgeofSports)

Wednesday

12

March 2014

2

COMMENTS

$15 an hour

Written by , Posted in Politics

Like many of you, I’ve been following closely the movements across the country seeking increased pay for people currently making minimum wage. In the county I live in, one city passed a ballot initiative increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour; unfortunately it was ruled to not apply to airport workers. My current home recently elected the first socialist council member in years; Kshama Sawant is now leading the charge to have a $15/hour minimum wage here. Mayor Murray has issued an order increasing the minimum wage of City of Seattle employees to $15/hour; he’s also created a panel to explore raising the wage in the rest of the City. That committee seems to be viewing $15/hour as a starting point for negotiations, suggesting that a lower wage, or a wage + compensation approach, may be warranted, while labor is demanding $15/hour without including benefits.

Minimum wage workers are doing HARD jobs. Someone standing over a hot grill, or a fryer, or washing cars, or loading / unloading baggage off of plane is working way harder than nearly everyone I know who is working at an office job. Office jobs certainly can have their own stresses, although really none of them are unique to working in an office. But when I go to work, I can sit down in a chair. I can take a bathroom break whenever I want. Unless I have a meeting that conflicts, I can take lunch whenever I want. If I get sick, I use one of my sick days. And with the money I earn, I can make my monthly (absurd) student loan payments, pay my rent, go out to dinner, and travel. It’s awesome.

But that’s the perk of having a college degree, right? NOPE. At least, it shouldn’t be. The ability to go to the bathroom when I need to, or have enough money to maybe eat out on occasion, or buy a birthday present for my loved ones, shouldn’t be a perk of having gone to college (or knowing someone who could get me a decent-paying job). It should be something all humans are deserving of. Honestly, I doubt any CEO could work a month doing the jobs of their lowest paid employees. It’s hard, it’s work that we all ask to exist (if we, you know, ever eat in, or eat out, or buy clothes, or travel), and we should be paying these people as though they are human beings.

I’ve heard the response that ‘they just need to work harder, and move up to management.’ Um, okay. Let’s say they do that. Then who will be doing their current job? Another human who is earning poverty wages. Unless you figure out a way to never need any humans to perform the labor that runs this city and this country, there will always be ‘entry-level’ jobs that people work in for years, and I think those people deserve respect and should have their humanity recognized. If someone is working 35 or 40 hours a week, there should be absolutely no scenario where they need food stamps to be able to feed themselves or their families.

I’ve also heard talk that we need to protect businesses because this will hit them hard. The Stranger had an interesting piece on this whole issue, but specifically pointed out the fact that the large chain businesses (AMC theaters, Walgreens) have the ability to support their local stores because they have access to more money overall than the smaller companies. That’s true, and something to consider. But let’s also point out that chain businesses are horrible examples of the ‘success’ of low wages: while they save money that they pass on to stockholders (not labor), they cost taxpayers $7 billion in benefits because the wages are not enough for the workers to buy food and housing for their families. That alone should be enough to convince the fiscal conservatives who are such huge fans of bootstraps, free markets, and no handouts that we should require the companies, not the government, to make sure their employees are fairly compensated.

But it is true that even if Wal-Mart is finally forced to once again give a damn about their employees, they’ll be in a better position to compete against the smaller guys. That’s why the only place where I see the merit of a brief (maybe two years) phased approach is with non-chain, smaller businesses. My understanding is that small businesses often operate with very small margins, and an immediate hit to their budgets could put them out of business forever. A couple of years would allow them time to adjust.

However, I do want to make a point on this: if your business (small or large) can only be successful by paying poverty level wages, then I don’t think it’s a very good business. You may make the most delicious baked goods that people wait in line for hours to eat, but if the people stocking your shelves and mopping up after you have to go home to a second or third job and food stamps for you to be able to do it? YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT REALLY SUCCESSFUL! The business owner probably works very, very hard too (especially with these tiny independent storefronts), but they have the added benefit of getting to enjoy the profits once they come in. The workers will still be going to their second and third jobs.

This raises another issue: does a $15/hour wage mean that only the wealthy will be able to start businesses? I mean, I think many businesses are already started by people who have managed to accumulate SOME wealth (enough to buy inventory, rent space, etc.). But will this limit new businesses from coming on board? I really hope not. If the minimum wage is not increased, I’d love to see some super low-interest loan program created that is available ONLY to people wanting to start a small business who pledge to pay a living wage to all employees. That could be incentive to pay a proper living wage without limiting the idea of small business ownership to only those willing to make up the differences by paying workers poverty wages.

I’m not an economist (although they don’t agree on anything, and are pretty bad at predicting things in general), so my understanding of business and labor lacks nuance for sure. I’ll be watching what’s going on very closely, and reading more about it, because from everything I’ve read so far I would be proud to live in one of the first major cities in the U.S. to recognize in the law that people who work minimum wage positions are actually people, and that business only works because of labor.

 

Saturday

8

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories

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Two Stars

Hmmm. So, there are definitely parts of this book that I really, really enjoyed. Parts that either made me laugh out loud or that were funny without being chuck funny. But other parts … I’m unclear if my humor is just not the same, or if I wasn’t getting it, or if I’m not the target.

I picked the audio version, which was read not just by Mr. Novak (of The Office fame), but Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, Katy Perry, Lena Dunham and others. That definitely made the experience more enjoyable. The first story had me laughing pretty hard right off the bat, but I can say that I think that first story is actually one of the stronger ones, so perhaps if you get a chance, check the book out at a book store and read that first story. If you don’t see the humor in it, the book probably isn’t for you, as it doesn’t really get better from there, in my opinion.

There is definitely some brilliance in this book – including chapters that are just a few words long (the one on carrot cake may be my favorite two sentences in literature, if only because they so perfectly describe my feelings on the subject). At times I got the sense that he was going for a David Sedaris feel, but ended up sounding more like David Sedaris now (which I don’t enjoy), as opposed to early David Sedaris (which I enjoyed and felt was both funny and insightful). I don’t want to bash the book as, again, I may not have been the target who would really enjoy it, but I want to set expectations for people who are thinking that it’s someone who wrote for The Office, so clearly it will be well done. It’s fine.

Thursday

6

March 2014

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – March 6 2014

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It’s been a long week. But on Sunday I got a new tattoo. Man, I forgot how much it itches. SO MUCH. On to the reading …

– Fascinating. Evidence that breast-feeding doesn’t appear to be better than formula feeding when you compare within families (although I haven’t read the source study yet): New Study Confirms It: Breast-Feeding Benefits Have Been Drastically Overstated (h/t @DrJaneChi)

– Good but narrow response to the very troubling Amanda Marcotte article from last week: On Prosecutors Having Survivors of Assault Arrested: It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game (via @StudentActivism)

– Important points. Whitewashing reproductive rights: How black activists get erased