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Yvonne Lam

@yvonnezlam.bsky.social

6.4K followers 630 following 19K posts

I play with books, cats, food, yarn, and dirt, not all at the same time. Software engineer. Society of People Interested in Boring Things. She/her, cis.

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Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 34m

I don't know why this made me laugh so hard, but it did:

www.instagram.com/p/DPJjc_TCHd...

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Reposted by Yvonne Lam

Levi Stahl @levistahl.bsky.social · 50m

“He admitted that he was ‘unprepared for this specific situation, or for any situation at all.’”

We know the feeling, T. S. Eliot.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 47m

O no. That sounds awful. When my friends' kids have the occasional bout of existential lamentation, I pretty much lose my mind from the combination of irritation and helplessness.

Reposted by Yvonne Lam

Debbie N @kith51.bsky.social · 2d

www.regulations.gov/commenton/EA...

In 2 days, right-wing election groups have submitted over 200,000 new comments to the Election Assistance Commission to require Americans to show a passport or citizenship document for voter registration. We must drive comments to oppose this before 10/20.

Regulations.gov

www.regulations.gov

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 57m

Thinking too about the scene in Gaudy Night where Harriet and Miss deVine talk about the lies they can't tell.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 58m

Let me rephrase that: I'm emotionally on the side of the antagonist. I don't know whether I think they did the right thing or not, but I absolutely understand to my marrow how everyone not Saying The Thing made them feel.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

I've been thinking for a while about the anecdote in Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird where the punchline is something like, "You don't always have to cut with the Sword of Truth. Sometimes you can point with it." It's time to admit that, right or wrong, I'm on the side of the antagonist in the anecdote.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

...Say The Thing without warning; I definitely work on giving people who may not be in a mood to hear The Thing a chance to get out while there's still time. And I try not to blurt it out in moments of stress, not that I always succeed.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

...(perhaps self-)defensively cushioning the truth.

I've noticed that my personal tolerance for people Not Saying the Thing is extremely low. Whether it's age/hormones, rebelling against the lack of veracity of the current moment, or what, I don't know. I try not to be unkind and I try not to ...

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

Thinking of the scene in A Civil Campaign when Miles has to tell the heroine's son <spoiler>. The heroine is mildly horrified by a black-humored joke he makes, then notices her son finds it reassuring. She thinks about how saying the thing can be a good alternative to secrets, whispers, and ...

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

Most of what I'm cutting back is spent, bedraggled, or in the way. I'm going to dig and divide it once it's of manageable size.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

I am ruthlessly cutting back a giant phlomis. Yes, I know it's the wrong time of the year, but the thing is huge. One of my tenets of gardening in zone 8 is "do it when you think of it, have the time, and have the tools to hand."

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 1h

today in adhd gardening: it took me two minutes to transplant a rootbound potted bay tree. I've been dreading it for weeks.

Reposted by Yvonne Lam

Sorrowscopes @sorrowscopes.bsky.social · 6h

Taurus: You will have the opportunity to exact a terrible vengeance. Take it. Treat yourself.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 3h

Realizing I am Mercutio to someone else's Benvolio, and I'm not sure I like it at all.

Reposted by Yvonne Lam

Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 5h

I counted up the number of ways (platforms, accounts, apps) that people in my professional and personal lives plus healthcare systems and kid’s school are contacting me and uhh. This is objectively impossible.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

"passed away after a long battle with proving her humanity to robot captchas" is mine

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

you may have seen this, but I love @grimalkina.bsky.social's question:

bsky.app/profile/grim...

Dr. Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 12h

Conversations about AI all last week and today on here have me thinking:

How would we see the possibilities of software work for people if we had goals of human expression rather than production?

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

I could not help thinking of this

bsky.app/profile/ccbe...

C Baker @ccbeta.bsky.social · 2d

I live for the day when someone writes in an obituary "____ passed away after a long battle with the wireless printer"

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

I made a folder for all of the apps I have had to download to pay for parking in places I don't go regularly, because they are taking up so much real estate on my phone screen.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

In the Seattle metro area, every parking lot makes you download a different app to pay for parking. It makes me think fondly of the long-lost friend who carried bolt cutters with her back in the day when parking lots would lock your car in if you left it too long.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4h

My coat like that, which I love, only works for me because I live in the PNW. It would have been nonsense when I lived in Chicago.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 5h

you got me wrapped around your finger

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 5h

A lot of software startups engage in aspirational hiring in so many ways. They mean well, but it's an absolutely miserable experience being an aspirational hire in an org that doesn't know what to do with you.

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 5h

I've had a lot of roles where people wanted to hire me because I'm very good at systems thinking, and they wanted more of that in the org, but that wasn't what the org incentivized or rewarded or encouraged. Good for the band for being clear about what they needed, and good for him for hearing it.