(Mostly) not a tech blog

In a conversation with one of my closest friends, they described to me a new Netflix show. In it, the superhero have somehow disappeared. Maybe taken captive, maybe murdered. I don’t know. Their children though, also tween and teen supers were put on the front lines to fight for the survival of our species. Or something like this. The point is that we culturally don’t object to the type of fiction where children are put into war. It’s gross. He was right about his point. Fast forward a week or so, a Georgia runoff election and a day later, and…

I love that I can show my son real examples of super hero's. People that defy all cultural and social pressures and barriers to try to save us from ourselves. Stacey Abrams is just that kind of human. A Marvel-Movie worthy freedom warrior. A person bullied and spat on because she had the audacity to DARE be born with ovaries and dark skin. She isn't fighting for herself, she is fighting for every person in this nation. She is working to improve our access to self governance. She wants the most oppressed and marginalized people to have the same…

I don’t want to be hopeful. I really don’t. Last Presidential election I voted for the first woman candidate. She was vastly qualified, superbly composed and having a woman in The White House too long delayed. I was proud to vote for her no matter how you looked at it. And her competitor was a clown. I was sure of her victory. And here we are, 2020. I don’t feel safe in any feelings of certainty. I’m worried that this year's results may set in stone a lifetime of negative attitude I have about the average person. I’ve fought against…

Article Cover Photo by unsplash-logo Matt Collamer This is a snapshot of a living document I am working on. The canonical version is on github. If you wish for the latest version of the below text, please check there. By Lee Hilton Original GNU Kind Communications Guidelines by Richard Stallman In the last several years, the community at and around the GNU project has been debating and building a standard document describing how to communicate with each other. The result is the GNU Kind Communications Guidelines, a wonderful attempt at codifying a mindset that is oriented towards solving problems. A…

Social media has become a strange place during the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. One of my friends posted a question, and it has spawned a great deal of conversation and camaraderie among my friends. The question is: Tell me your favorite memory with me When my wife inevitably asked the question, I sat with this for a moment. I found answering this publicly to be a difficult undertaking. Even though I find it joyous, my answer is still packed with emotion. My lifes circumstances, the least of which are toxic cultural ideals about men, have made it difficult to express…

Hidden in the news Friday was a small press release from Microsoft with the title "Microsoft Announces Change to Its Board of Directors". Quietly, amid much bigger news, was the announcement that Bill Gates is resigning from the Microsoft Board of Directors. I would guess that this was much as Gates would want it. He would rather focus any of his press awareness on the causes his foundation works on than some private business shuffling. But for me, this feels like the end of an era. The titans of the industry that raised me have nearly all passed from…

My beautiful bride and best friend shares with me many quirks and details. We found in each other a type of weird that is so great together that it just tickles me endlessly. One of our things is a total love for the performances of actor Nathan Fillion. We will pretty much drink any Kool-Aid he is selling. I think his best role since playing Captain Mal on Firefly has been his portrayal of John Nolan in The Rookie. It’s got a lot of range, more than most police procedurals, and the cast does a wonderful job bringing their characters to life. The most recent episode reminded me…

As I have just recently written, football has been an incredible impact on my son this year. Charlie came into 7th grade hopeful but anxious. He was excited as always but last year wasn't as good as we hoped. As we prepared for the year he decided that he wanted to play Football. I was nerveous and optimistic. I thought back to my own experiences with sports, especially football. A lot of my adult identity was developed through the athletic program of the very school my son is now attending. Much of my love for teamwork, comradery and hard work started while down…

I don’t write as much as I want about my son’s experiences as a young Autistic person. I lack the confidence that I can consistently respect his experience. It is impossible to accurate describe someone else’s inner world as a third party to it. At the same time I want him to control his own narrative as he ages. Some day he may read these things I publish and I don’t wish him to adopt my ill-informed, biased or simply wrong perspectives on who he is or what he is about. I can talk about my experiences as a father of a young…

It is the dawn of another NFS football season. Already, during the preseason games, we have had controversy and spectacle. Famed QB Andrew Luck unceremoniously and unexpected retired right in the middle of a game. Why? Professional Football was destroying his body and his vitality. He was boo’d by the very fans that wore his numbers. This goes to the center of an American problem. Maybe it’s all of humanity, but I want to hope not. It feels more solvable if it’s just our culture. We place so many wrong things over human lives. We value the Quarterback over the…