Blogging in a vacuum

Here's another contradiction -- I have this blog, but no one is reading it (except maybe Alice). I know this is because I haven't really told very many people that I'm doing this. Right now, I like it this way. I don't feel like I'm saying anything particularly interesting or important, while the more interesting stuff of my life, I don't feel like I can put on the Internet, for fear it will be read by people who will not only be offended or alienated, but also feel exposed or betrayed.

I know very well from my involvement in various kinds of activism and the blowback I've experienced in my time (links intentionally omitted) that offending people comes with the territory. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wrote a book that lays it on the line for social justice in engineering. Still, there are people I dread reading that book, not because of their critique of the work, but because of how it might impact my relationships with them.

Perhaps I am still finding my voice, figuring out this new medium and how to speak my mind in ways that shine the light where it should be shone, without creating unwanted havoc in my personal relationships. And as I figure out what I have to say, it will be worth a wider conversation.

gardening

My big project this year was dealing with a narrow, weedy slope between my house and my neighbor's fence (about 10 ft across). Solution: a small flagstone patio just large enough for a bistro table and two chairs. Perennial plantings all around with a flagstone path meandering through the space. I didn't think to take a before photo, but believe me it's a huge improvement.

The best part is that the leveling of the slope makes the garden somewhat sunken, and not visible from the street with foliage and all. A nice retreat that will get better as more plants grow in!

fundraising

I've committed to raise $1000 for Barack Obama's campaign. I figure if I find 20 Obama-supporting friends who can each give $50 (or 50 who could each give $20, etc.) that would get us there. I don't have the funds to just whip out my checkbook and write a single $2300 check (the federal limit for a candidate in an election). But by pooling the resources of myself and others like me, we can collectively feel like one fat cat supporting our candidate. If I could raise $2300 that would be amazing, but I think $1000 is realistic for now, maybe with another cycle in the fall if I meet with success now... any readers out there, please feel free to participate.

first sweater

After a close call, I finished my first sweater project. You have to celebrate the small victories.... I used a free pattern in Berroco Zen Hako Mix. It's labeled "easy" by the folks at Berroco, but the cabling suggests otherwise. Although, while I think cabling should earn it an "intermediate" rating, I have to say that it was fairly easy for this novice knitter to learn cabling - the instructions are fairly straightforward using a cable needle. Working with slippery ribbon yarn also proved a challenge for me at the beginning, so much so that I put the project down for more than a year before finding the confidence and motivation to finish.

I was surprised that it fits beautifully. I don't insist on perfection in knitting, and thus live with many flaws that carry meaning for me: I'm proud both of my accomplishment and of the fact that I allow it to be what it is - hand made by me, warts and all. So it's an added bonus that it's actually wearable. Can't wait to show the folks at the knitting group! And I've still got half the summer left to enjoy wearing it. Maybe I'll even be ready to tackle that sock project soon...

I have to start somewhere

So I created this blog about 18 months ago, but never took the plunge for that inaugural post, until Alice asked me what gives. I couldn't decide - do I want this to be a blog about my work as an engineering professor, my heretofore less public activism for queer equality in the Presbyterian Church, or other, still not public direct actions for a variety of social justice causes... or do I want it to be about my more recently adopted harmless hobbies: running, cooking, gardening, knitting. Lately it's all been coming together. My knitting has become political. We even did a project to support queer inclusion in the Presbyterian church. And I wrote a book about engineering and social justice.

I'm all about this new integration. My critiques of facebook notwithstanding, I have to say it has provided a space for integration of selves I had kept mostly separate - engineer from activist, family from friends, friends from students, queer Presbyterian (I managed to put those two together somehow) from engineer, etc. When I've friended my students and my pastors and my knitting cohorts and my partners in crime, it forces a reckoning of self to self. Still, I won't be putting it all out here. I intend to edit, in order to maintain boundaries in my life, and hopefully in order to say something coherent. Maybe someone will even find it worth their time to read it.