recycle.

I spend a lot of time in the Seattle area for work.

One of the weirdest areas I’ve noticed a change is in how I throw out trash, or rather how I feel about throwing things in the trash. Who even thinks about that, right? See, San Francisco passed a law a few years back that called for mandatory separation of recyclables and compostables. And the prevalence of bins for compost and recycling makes it so you hardly have to think about it. Sometimes it’s even easier to find those than regular trash cans. On top of that, glass, paper and plastics can all go into the same bin. Even better – by plastic they mean any of the numbers - no more checking the bottom of your plastic containers or taking off the caps on bottles.  Most bins even have handy pictures on them to indicate what can and cannot go in them. My apartment came with a handy little compost bin that I can keep by the sink. And the city picks up compost like they do trash and recycling.

It’s pretty amazing to me how much garbage can be diverted from landfills and such.

But here in Seattle, I’m just not sure what to do. My office building only gives us individual trash cans, and a bin for recycling paper (which I really think is more for documents that need to be shredded). What am I suppose to do with my plastic bottles? What am I suppose to do with the compostable lunch take-out containers? I just feel bad that I’m putting them in the trash! Talk about habit changing.

breaking bad.

One of the reasons I love Netflix Instant is so that I can watch TV shows straight through. I can’t even remember the last TV show that I actually watched on TV, waiting from week to week for each episode. And a whole year of not working meant I actually sat down and watched a lot of TV. Which is probably a topic for another post.

But anyway, the boyfriend and I are currently powering through Breaking Bad. I just can’t handle reading the hype every time the season premier or finale comes around – or rather avoiding the hype because I may watch the show eventually. So we’re finally doing it. Or rather, we’re trying for the THIRD time to get through it. Part-way through season 3 and it’s just gotten to the point where I think I want to watch it when I’m not doing anything else.

Because, let’s be honest, season 1 was slow as molasses up until the last two episodes and season 2 would be unmemorable if I hadn’t just watched it in the last couple weeks. And now that I’ve invested so much time, it’s at the point where I should just stick it out.

Chuck Klosterman wrote a great piece on why Breaking Bad is great. He says:

The central question on Breaking Bad is this: What makes a man “bad” — his actions, his motives, or his conscious decision to be a bad person? Judging from the trajectory of its first three seasons, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan believes the answer is option No. 3. So what we see in Breaking Bad is a person who started as one type of human and decides to become something different. And because this is television — because we were introduced to this man in a way that made him impossible to dislike, and because we experience TV through whichever character we understand the most — the audience is placed in the curious position of continuing to root for an individual who’s no longer good.

While I love that the show is about Walt’s transformation into a bad person, I cannot get behind the fact that he’s a likeable guy. Because I think he’s not. I think Walt’s arrogant, stubborn, resentful, unappreciative, with bottled up emotions. What exactly makes him likeable? I find myself siding with all the other characters – his wife, his son, his drug dealing partner – but I never seem to be on Walt’s side. And it’s hard to love a show where you aren’t all that invested in what happens to the main character.

ceo.

Marissa Mayer just became Yahoo’s new CEO. Just another female, C-level exec in the tech industry. Would seem like old news following Sheryl Sandberg. But Mayer is special because she is pregnant with her first child due in October. So pregnant female CEO. It’s a big deal – to a lot of people. As CNET puts it, she “ is a new breed of woman in technology and business and — as a pregnant CEO — a role model of the highest order”.

Penelope Trunk, however, had a different opinion. And I love Trunk’s females and work (despite that she seems crazy sometimes). She says,

“Why do we celebrate Mayer’s decision? Why does Mayer fight for all women? You know why people don’t like to hire pregnant women? Because it is completely normal to have a new baby and be so consumed by the new baby that you divert lots of energy to that baby. In fact, it would be abnormal to not divert a significant amount of energy to a new baby.

So why do we celebrate women who are aberrations? Clearly only a minority of women could even dream of making the choice to take two weeks maternity leave when they have enough resources to take much more. Her decision is an anomalous decision.”

Holy cow. Two weeks maternity leave. Only two weeks off when the first child is BORN – which is probably one of the biggest events in both their lives. That’s like the holidays in December. Or “I got really sick with the flu, possibly mono”. At least in my opinion, that doesn’t even count as a maternity leave. Not to even think about any complications (for mom or baby) that could arise. That’s crazy to me.

CNET included a video in their article – it’s Mayer talking about women in tech. And about halfway through, she’s discussing how she thinks burnout is a result of resentment. Specifically, your job causing you to miss other parts of your life. Now here she is – about to be a new mother and taking on a job, which we can all agree, will have crazy hours.  So I wonder, how much will Mayer feel she’s missing out on in her child’s life? And if she doesn’t feel like she’s missing out on anything – why choose to have a kid you never see? Or maybe she really will be able to “do it all”? (cough, doubtful)

Extra: this article was also good, though not at all focused on Mayer being a female and therefore not connected to this post much at all.

e-sign.

I’ve spent the last couple weeks getting prepared for my new job. That means, in addition to drug screens, immunizations, booking travel, and setting up email, I’ve had to do a whole bunch of paperwork. I know, expected. There’s the government forms, insurance forms, direct deposit, 401k, and various agreements where you sign your life away. Yes, I will adhere to your dress code and not wear earrings that dangle more than 1/2 inch or nose rings that are bigger than 1/8 inch.

Now, paperwork isn’t terrible in most cases. But in this case, I’m working remotely. And that means the old sign-and-date that should take two seconds really takes a whole lot more. Why has this not become an easy process yet? I’m pretty sure it hasn’t changed in the last decade. You have to print the document, sign it, and either scan it back into your computer or – god forbid – fax it. That just doesn’t work for today’s digital generation. Few enough people own printers – and even less than that have scanners. And who wants to walk all the way to a library to try to do this kind of stuff?

In the end, I resorted to the “take a picture of your signature and put it into the PDF” version of e-signing. It was not that much easier. Multiple pictures of my signature to get a good one and a lot of playing around in Adobe trying to figure out how to edit a PDF (because who has Adobe Professional?). At least I’m done with all that now.

Plus work sent me a scanner

having it all.

The Atlantic article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” has been making the rounds this past month.It’s interesting – and long. The first half discusses myths about how women can have it all, while the second half goes into what’s needed to make this change.

The first half of this article is great because it points out that not being able to hold down a high level career and be a very present parent is not because women aren’t trying hard enough. Obviously, you need to have some ambition to get to the top and you need a supportive spouse and you need to do some life planning. But there’s no magic formula. That’s huge – that women realize it’s not just that we’re not working hard enough to make it work.

But what I wish is that the article addressed that “having it all” as defined by work-life balance isn’t just a women’s issue. It’s mentioned, on the last page, only briefly that men are starting to be in the same boat. That it’ll be easier for women to balance work and family if top level men are doing the same. But why aren’t there articles about men having it all – or not? Because we still expect women to have families and be the primary caregiver, and it’s ok that fathers work long hours and miss a few school performances and are rarely home. Men in top positions are making similar choices between work and family – women need to start feeling that it’s ok for them to make those choices too.

Perhaps that’s why so many women in high powered positions don’t have a family. The NY Times had an interesting opinion piece on the decision to have children having a much broader impact than the immediate family.

In fact, people are still expected to provide reasons not to have children, but no reasons are required to have them. It’s assumed that if individuals do not have children it is because they are infertile, too selfish or have just not yet gotten around to it. In any case, they owe their interlocutor an explanation. On the other hand, no one says to the proud parents of a newborn, Why did you choose to have that child? What are your reasons? The choice to procreate is not regarded as needing any thought or justification.

For women who work long into the night and even on weekends and are fast-tracking up the ladder of success – do children need to factor into your game plan? I know there are people out there who refuse to get a pet because they’re never home and they would feel bad. Having a child is a similar, though much more important, decision. If you do not have time for a pet, you do not have time for a child. Being pregnant for 9 months and, often, breast-feeding for 6 months, women are going to feel an impact on their work – even if after the child is born, they are willing to have 24-hr nannies and day care and a stay at home husband. So in my mind, it makes a lot of sense for the women at the top to choose not to have kids. And that doesn’t mean they don’t have everything they want.

bookworm.

It’s been a while and while my current reading has been going along somewhat slowly, I did go through a couple weeks where I read like crazy. My biggest problem is that I hate not finishing a book. Even if I hate it and it’s boring, I just can’t stop reading it. It means I read several books at once and the ones I don’t like are pretty slow.

I Want My MTV: Not so much a story as it’s an anthology of quotes. The chapters break down important events in MTV’s lifespan and is then told through the quotes of people involved. It ended up a little long, but it started out really interesting. When MTV started, music videos weren’t even a thing and the people involved really had no idea what they were doing. It’s completely different from how it is now. And I realized I’m too young to have been impacted by the rise of MTV (that and I never had cable). But it’s weird because most of the time I feel so old – but definitely, I am not this old.

Snow Crash: Ah, classic cyberpunk. Can you believe I haven’t read this book yet? I really liked it. Even though, it does just have a whole chapter that explains exactly what’s going on to you. But that’s ok, because otherwise, it would be Neuromancer all over again and I wouldn’t have a clue what actually happened.

The Night Circus: This is THE book to read. It made a lot of best seller lists last year; I think it’s already got film rights sold. It’s really great. It’s about two magicians who are locked in a battle of skill against each other. Their battleground is a traveling circus. Then, of course, they fall in love. The love part isn’t terribly exciting, but the battle is. Don’t expect your typical magic spells and bursts of energy fighting. It’s all about what crazy things they can create with their magic to make the circus amazing.

The Manual of Detection: This was a very interesting book. It seems like classic non-spy turned spy and needs to solve a mystery. Complete with classic arch nemesis, creepy henchmen, a girl whose both good and bad, and a lot of sneaking around. I liked it, but I don’t really know how much I liked it.

Bio of a Space Tyrant #2 & #3: Better than the first one. Book 2 focuses on the space tyrant as he moves up the ranks in the Jupiter Navy, building the best team and eventually working to exterminate a significant number of pirates. Book 3 focuses on his political rise in Jupiter – essentially how he goes from ex-military to tyrant. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of references to the first book, so I guess you have to read that first.

There were a whole bunch of books that don’t warrant much of a review and you can find them on Goodreads.

planes.

In the last month, I’ve made a few trips: San Diego, New York, Philadelphia. It’s definitely weird to travel so much after a year of not going anywhere. But I guess I better start getting used to it. Here are my observations from my trips.

• A surprising number of people use airplane bathrooms without shoes. This is gross to me. Though airplane bathrooms do constantly surprise me with how not gross they are.
• AirTran charges you to select your seats before your flight. Really?
• Non-stop flights from San Francisco to the East Coast are so long. I almost prefer having a layover than a straight six hour flight. Also, the time difference kills me – a whole 8-9 hours gone just to get there.
• Traveling without a suitcase is pretty much the greatest thing ever. I think I’m the only person who actually likes to check bags.
• San Francisco Terminal 2 looks so much cooler than Terminal 1. Is this because Virgin flies out of that terminal? Or something else?
• Flew my first flight on Virgin. They have more male flight attendants than other airlines – at least that’s what it seemed. And they have a fancy computerized ordering system for snacks/drinks. This is not a more pleasant experience – at least not in coach.
• Don’t buy nail polish in airports. Even in an emergency. It’s a total ripoff. Just wait til you get to your destination and then go to Walgreens.