Welcome to my Brain

Today is Matt Mullenweg’s Birthday It’s also the anniversary of my Dad’s death in 2007. So for this birthday tribute, I’m going to tell you all about my Dad. Mike Carruthers is the main reason I identify as a “theatre person” even now that I work in Tech. My parents met doing college theatre and continued to do community theatre most of my childhood. He was also the speech and theatre teacher in…

There is something beyond the pain of grief that can be appreciated– if not exactly enjoyed like a nice stinky cheese or a too-hot pepper. A feeling of opening up instead of shutting down. It can still be debilitating in a world driven by productively working through a predetermined to-do list. But not in the way you might imagine. It doesn’t crush you when you stop trying to hold it at a…

You're a Happiness What?

I’ve had a career full of jobs that were challenging, interesting, valuable, and fun; yet almost impossible to explain to strangers (in the amount of time strangers want to spend hearing about your job). My current gig as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic is no exception. That having been said, our Happiness Lead, Andrew Spittle captures the essence of what we do quite well…

This blog has been seriously neglected.   I’m going to do better starting today.  

I’ve lived in Dayton, OH for about seven years and worked in or near the downtown area for most of that time.  It wasn’t until this weekend that I noticed this park and the beautiful architecture in our downtown area. A nice reminder that when we only see things from one perspective we are almost certainly missing part of the picture.

This pretty much captures my feelings about “Women Against Feminism” which, admittedly, I’ve mostly been trying to ignore.

In a fit of enthusiasm for the challenge of learning something new, paired with the peer pressure of working in a company where all the cool kids* use use an alternate keyboard, (along with the allure of a future where I was able to type 100+ words a minute) I decided March 2015 would be the month I switched to Colemak. Colemak Keyboard Layout illustration by fellow Automattician Matt Wiebe.…

There’s this series of games I play on my phone a lot.  Maybe more than makes sense for a grown-up lady, but that’s not an important part of the story.  A couple weeks ago I saw the series had a new game so shockingly enough I downloaded it.  Good times.  Until level 44. Level 44 is a timed level which are not my favorite as I prefer to overthink my ridiculous free games, and so I was dying a…

There are a couple of processes at work that I think of as canaries. They are the first things that start to slip when I (or a teammate) is no longer working at their best. The actual task is different for each person but usually it’s something that is supposed to be done regularly; it might be a little boring for the person who does it. They biggest thing is it’s too important to stop doing all…

Cultivating a life free of violence

If you spend time with me in real life or follow me on Facebook, you know I’ve been donating to the Center for Nonviolence since the summer of 2020 when it finally became impossible for me to ignore the injustice that surrounds me, yet rarely touches me. I chose them because I wanted to support a local organization focused on building a more just world led by people who could see more clearly…