Catherine Berry
@isomeme.bsky.social
I'm a 63 year old Thelemite vision-impaired autistic trans woman software engineer. I live in Los Angeles with my wonderful partner Leanne. I celebrate diversity in all its radiant forms.
Banner: Wilson River, Oregon USA (my photo)
Banner: Wilson River, Oregon USA (my photo)
Pinned
Catherine Berry
@isomeme.bsky.social
· Nov 15
I am outsourcing my "I'm here!" post to the brilliant and delightfully weird poet Stephen Crane:
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
Reposted by Catherine Berry
"I trust my healthcare to the AcmeMed Weasel."
December 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM
"I trust my healthcare to the AcmeMed Weasel."
Join me in savoring a small pleasure: Today is my last day of jury duty, and I was never asked to show up at the courthouse. Seeing my fifth "not tomorrow" status on the website last night felt like opening a lovely little gift.
December 19, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Join me in savoring a small pleasure: Today is my last day of jury duty, and I was never asked to show up at the courthouse. Seeing my fifth "not tomorrow" status on the website last night felt like opening a lovely little gift.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
There is always something pleasingly ghostly about encountering a heron, as if they are constantly passing surreptitiously between dimensions and we aren't officially supposed to see them.
December 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
There is always something pleasingly ghostly about encountering a heron, as if they are constantly passing surreptitiously between dimensions and we aren't officially supposed to see them.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
the idea of antifa paying protesters is so funny. if i wanted to get paid to destroy the government i’d run for congress
October 18, 2025 at 4:22 PM
the idea of antifa paying protesters is so funny. if i wanted to get paid to destroy the government i’d run for congress
Reposted by Catherine Berry
I actually prefer GMO vegetables. They're CRISPR.
December 13, 2025 at 9:29 AM
I actually prefer GMO vegetables. They're CRISPR.
Your Gold Teeth II
YouTube video by Steely Dan - Topic
music.youtube.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I actually prefer GMO vegetables. They're CRISPR.
December 13, 2025 at 9:29 AM
I actually prefer GMO vegetables. They're CRISPR.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
You have to admire a tule fog with this attention to detail. You could draw a precise elevation contour curve on a topographic map by tracing its edges.
December 10, 2025 at 11:15 PM
You have to admire a tule fog with this attention to detail. You could draw a precise elevation contour curve on a topographic map by tracing its edges.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
I've been saying for some time that the fact that genAI can act in such seemingly human ways says less about machine intelligence than about human intelligence.
December 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I've been saying for some time that the fact that genAI can act in such seemingly human ways says less about machine intelligence than about human intelligence.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
Has everyone noticed that we are an utterly disgusting species? I sometimes hope for rapid human extinction on purely aesthetic grounds.
December 4, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Has everyone noticed that we are an utterly disgusting species? I sometimes hope for rapid human extinction on purely aesthetic grounds.
You have to admire a tule fog with this attention to detail. You could draw a precise elevation contour curve on a topographic map by tracing its edges.
December 10, 2025 at 11:15 PM
You have to admire a tule fog with this attention to detail. You could draw a precise elevation contour curve on a topographic map by tracing its edges.
Wow, I knew I was enthusiastic about Waymo, but I hadn't realized quite how much! 🙂
December 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Wow, I knew I was enthusiastic about Waymo, but I hadn't realized quite how much! 🙂
Reposted by Catherine Berry
The version I heard:
The optimist believes that this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist worries that the optimist might be right.
The optimist believes that this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist worries that the optimist might be right.
December 8, 2025 at 9:14 PM
The version I heard:
The optimist believes that this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist worries that the optimist might be right.
The optimist believes that this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist worries that the optimist might be right.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
So. We’re doing alt text discourse again. COOL. Welcome to a primer.🧵
If you're unfamiliar with what alt text is, what it means, and how it's used around here, the following may be helpful.
Although it's still a very underused feature, users can add "alt text" to any image
🧵 [1 of 9]
If you're unfamiliar with what alt text is, what it means, and how it's used around here, the following may be helpful.
Although it's still a very underused feature, users can add "alt text" to any image
🧵 [1 of 9]
December 10, 2025 at 5:22 AM
So. We’re doing alt text discourse again. COOL. Welcome to a primer.🧵
If you're unfamiliar with what alt text is, what it means, and how it's used around here, the following may be helpful.
Although it's still a very underused feature, users can add "alt text" to any image
🧵 [1 of 9]
If you're unfamiliar with what alt text is, what it means, and how it's used around here, the following may be helpful.
Although it's still a very underused feature, users can add "alt text" to any image
🧵 [1 of 9]
Health care is utterly broken. I've been having a long, low-intensity set of health problems, and people have been nagging me to see my doctor. I finally gave in and made an appointment today. The first available is on February 6, almost 2 months from now. I'll be better or dead by then. 🙄
December 10, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Health care is utterly broken. I've been having a long, low-intensity set of health problems, and people have been nagging me to see my doctor. I finally gave in and made an appointment today. The first available is on February 6, almost 2 months from now. I'll be better or dead by then. 🙄
Reposted by Catherine Berry
I can't think about debates among the medieval scholastics without feeling the urge to work out how to say "Well, *actually*" in Ecclesiastical Latin.
December 8, 2025 at 9:33 PM
I can't think about debates among the medieval scholastics without feeling the urge to work out how to say "Well, *actually*" in Ecclesiastical Latin.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
Both doses of shingles vaccine hit me like a bad flu for a couple of days. Those were truly miserable experiences. I've also known people who developed shingles, and I would willingly have had those flu symptoms ten times as long to avoid it.
December 9, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Both doses of shingles vaccine hit me like a bad flu for a couple of days. Those were truly miserable experiences. I've also known people who developed shingles, and I would willingly have had those flu symptoms ten times as long to avoid it.
I was at a wonderful conference over the weekend, and came home today with all kinds of interesting ideas. Now I've got my cat in my lap and some excellent tequila, and that's nice as well. Life is good.
December 9, 2025 at 7:47 AM
I was at a wonderful conference over the weekend, and came home today with all kinds of interesting ideas. Now I've got my cat in my lap and some excellent tequila, and that's nice as well. Life is good.
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Blake, "The Tyger"
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Blake, "The Tyger"
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
What in me is dark: illumine.
What is low: raise and support.
That to the height of this great argument,
I might assert eternal providence,
and justify the ways of God to man.
Milton, "Paradise Lost"
What in me is dark: illumine.
What is low: raise and support.
That to the height of this great argument,
I might assert eternal providence,
and justify the ways of God to man.
Milton, "Paradise Lost"
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust" - TS Elliot. ,"the wasteland"
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust" - TS Elliot. ,"the wasteland"
December 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Blake, "The Tyger"
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Blake, "The Tyger"
Reposted by Catherine Berry
Fragging is just speedrunning mutiny.
December 4, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Fragging is just speedrunning mutiny.
Welcome to a one minute sample of Autistic Hell. I recorded this at LAX as I waited for a Lyft to pick me up after flying home on Tuesday. If the Christians are right, I will probably spend eternity here. I was in stimming shutdown mode by the end of that first minute.
December 5, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Welcome to a one minute sample of Autistic Hell. I recorded this at LAX as I waited for a Lyft to pick me up after flying home on Tuesday. If the Christians are right, I will probably spend eternity here. I was in stimming shutdown mode by the end of that first minute.
I'm a software engineer. Google Ngrams gives the year of my birth, 1962, for the first published appearance of the term "software engineer", so I half-joke that I was born for this work. Now it seems AI is making the profession obsolete, so I may die with it as well. A melancholic symmetry.
December 5, 2025 at 7:17 AM
I'm a software engineer. Google Ngrams gives the year of my birth, 1962, for the first published appearance of the term "software engineer", so I half-joke that I was born for this work. Now it seems AI is making the profession obsolete, so I may die with it as well. A melancholic symmetry.
Reposted by Catherine Berry
That is a truly remarkable level of stupidity. One of the greatest values of intelligent, experienced staff officers is as devil's advocates. A smart commander finds out whether their plans can survive staff review before trying them against the enemy.
December 4, 2025 at 4:54 AM
That is a truly remarkable level of stupidity. One of the greatest values of intelligent, experienced staff officers is as devil's advocates. A smart commander finds out whether their plans can survive staff review before trying them against the enemy.