A reintroduction I’m Julie. I am (currently) 53. I’ve lived in two nation states. I’ve studied history and am a lifelong political and social junkie. I’ve kept a journal since 1985 and I’ve been blogging since I discovered it was a thing (1996, maybe?). I write stories, and encourage others to do the same. I… Continue reading Who Are You?
Blog
Who Speaks, Next?
I was listening to Werner Herzog on the Conan O’Brien podcast, over the past week. As I listened to the calm voice of this man who were born in the middle of–and on the wrong side of–World War II, talking about environmentalism and the glorious potential of technology and Ai along with its obvious risks;… Continue reading Who Speaks, Next?
A Productive Kitchen
A photo essay from August in the kitchen (it’s mostly tomatoes…)
Say It Out Loud
This is Not Normal. This Is Not Acceptable. On Day 1 of the first Trump administration, I watched, mouth open, as his press secretary lied about something so seemingly unimportant that it boggled my mind: the size of the crowd at the inauguration. It was—we could all see with our own eyes—not the biggest crowd… Continue reading Say It Out Loud
Anti Social-Media
(not “anti-social media”) How I Use The Internet Now tl;dr: I’m going back to using RSS feeds to curate my own experience of the web and here’s why (and how) jump straight to the tools section The Ancient World (Wide Web) I got online in 1993, like a second-wave immigrant. I never used Usenet or… Continue reading Anti Social-Media
Deported for Customs Form Error?
This could have been us. 30 years ago, when K was a scientist working at Harvard, the customs guys at Boston’s airport used to ask us if we were illegally smuggling haggis in our bags, as we stepped off the plane from Scotland (especially if it was near Burns’ Night). I would l laugh and… Continue reading Deported for Customs Form Error?
You Don’t Want An Aristocracy
I’ve been thinking about meritocracy, lately. It’s extremely hard to separate out the inbuilt advantages of the financially and genetically lucky, in any society, and give everyone a level playing field. But we should at least admit that some people start half-way to the finish line, if we think a meritocracy is worth striving for.… Continue reading You Don’t Want An Aristocracy
Not you, too, baseball?!
I am so angry about this. Have I begun harassing the baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred at: 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020? Yes. Here’s what I wrote: As a new season ticket holder this year I am appalled at your decision to scrub diversity from your website. You say it’s to comply with… Continue reading Not you, too, baseball?!
We are all Zelenskyy
“I would like Trump’s team to be more truthful,” said Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, today, speaking for all of us. Source When I went and looked at what he was responding to I may have (once again) screamed into the void: YOU CANT JUST SAY STUFF AND HAVE IT BE “TRUE”!!! Except, apparently you can just say… Continue reading We are all Zelenskyy
Back to Blogging
OK, I was – briefly – using this blog for one of my business ventures, but I’m reclaiming it as my space online. I need somewhere to just be me. Yeah, I got sucked in to social media, and didn’t we all stop blogging when Facebook came along? And aren’t we all now regretting it?… Continue reading Back to Blogging