This article is also available in a podcast episode (NSFW or radio edit). Those recordings were published before the election, and are much angrier in tone than the edited version below. In the November 2021 elections, among the thousands of various local government positions up for grabs, nearly 400,000 students…

For over a year — ever since the first attempt to implement public health policy in response to the COVID pandemic — a vocal minority of our community has cultivated anger and resentment to build a “parents movement.” This movement culminated last week in the election of two new school…

AKA: I ran out of time — Earlier tonight, I rapidly burned through my allotted 3 minutes at the public comments period of the July 19 Board of Education meeting for the Blue Valley School District. I’ve transcribed them here, for easier reference by the Board and other interested members of the community. Below my comments, I…

I know I can do more, should do more, yet I do not. Cannot. Even the slightest odor of one more task or project or short-term dopamine chase makes me nauseous and tired — it sinks into my skin, adds its weight to my lungs. …

Friday morning of every week of the 2020–21 school year, I transcribed case data from our school district’s COVID-19 dashboard into a public spreadsheet. It started as a personal coping mechanism for understanding the local impact of the pandemic, as I wrestled with whether or not to transfer my child…

I never did understand why someone would move into one of these things. — The Microwave Lady, after entering my apartment complex In the waning 48 hours immediately before my walkabout (I once enjoyed a 6-month around-the-world fit of global vagabonding), a brief 20-minute encounter with a woman now known…

A wish-I-could-illustrate ode to holiday with my son. I wrote this for us, not for you, but perhaps you’ll enjoy it too? If not, that’s OK. This is Lo, a boy in the world. On his sixth December, his father explained, The two of them would be boarding a plane. …

Last month, I spent an unreasonable amount of time searching through AWS documentation trying to figure out how to: host static content… …in an S3 bucket… …with a custom domain name… and SSL (HTTPS) connections. Given the increasing popularity of static site generators like Hugo or Jekyll, this seemed like…

All that Mafia Wars and Farmville spam in your Facebook news feed was paying off for someone — If you’ve recently played any mobile game — particularly the “free to play” — you’ve probably seen more full-screen interstitial ads for other mobile games than you could ever possibly want. The reason is simple: A North American mobile interstitial ad can earn a solid $5 CPM. Translated: Each viewed…