Elaine

Indira

I read about one third of the way through before realizing it was Yet Another Pseudo-Intellectual (YAPI) argument that basically “carefully defines its terms” (by redefining them away from conventional meanings), then argues with a straw man. Oh, and that carefully overlooks its own counter-arguments as people who ostensibly share the writer’s stance are so carefully overlooked it practically calls attention to the absence.

You’ve introduced nothing new nor interesting to the debate about religion. You’re Hitchens without the style. You’ve got the hypocrisy of Harris, but without the personal charm. You bring nothing to the table but hollow platitudes and the typical intellectual dishonesty of the YAPI crowd.

Nyakim

爱玲 (Ài Líng).

None.

When I was very early in my career, fresh grad, first job, I wanted to be the “model Asian” that I’d been indoctrinated into by the society around me, and I was very much all about 水无常形，因器而变 (shuǐ wú cháng xíng, yīn qì ér biàn or “water has no constant shape; it changes according to the vessel”). So when I saw someone getting what I know now to be bullied in a meeting, my assumption was that this was the way things should be done; that was business. I changed my behaviour according to my vessel.

Thankfully I had someone with a stronger backbone than me in that meeting; someone also Asian (in his case Korean), but one who was further along the path of not putting up with that shit than I was at the time. He stood up in the meeting, walked over to the woman being bullied, and in a quiet voice (that thundered in my own ears) said, “This is a business not a playground. We are either professionals here, or you’re down a head count of two.”

See, while I was living according to one proverb, he was living according to a better one for the circumstance: 宁为玉碎，不为瓦全 (nìng wéi yù suì, bù wéi wǎ quán or “better to be a broken piece of jade than an intact piece of pottery”). In his mind there was nothing more shameful than standing by peacefully while a gross injustice was being done.

I really wish I’d had the courage to do that instead of him.

About the only thing the tariffs have done for me is put the final step in the slowly-building boycott of all goods from the USA that I started off in the 1990s. I now have only one product that has an American component in it (my phone uses Android) and once that stops being useful I will have successfully de-Americanized my life.

I have an embarrassing number of ziploc baggies. 😬

Of course there’s also people like me. I hate computers and software. But I also hate finance bros. 🙂

The easiest way to distinguish between them is to ask what they do in their spare time.

Tech enthusiasts do either tech work, or creative work.

Techbros do extreme sports or other brodudish things.

Oh wow, that’s terrible!

Then there’s really not a lot you can do short of manually curating everything or making copies of known-good sites before they get ruined.

I moved to China in 2001 “for a year or two” to get in touch with my family roots on that side.

I’m here almost 25 years later.

That’s what I make of China. 😂

Yeah, I heard her story when I lived in the Arctic and it was quite the resonating thing. When I saw a video about her today I replaced my original planned #2 with Ada.

I guess the original planned #2 will become #3.

From outside to in: my nation of citizenship, my nation of birth, and my nation of residence. :D I’m half-Chinese (mom), half-German (dad), half-Canadian (passport), and all bad at math.

people don’t quit jobs they quit managers

स्वाहा, my dear. Or 娑婆诃.

(Or if you must, “Amen!”)

Fair point.

Huh. Apparently if you give it an image it ignores the link. 😲 I’ll keep that in mind for future posts.

It might be best to return to the days of in-person gatherings of hobbyists. Like my mother and quilting circles.