Monday, May 21, 2007

Down with stupid junk mail

I just signed up for GreenDimes, a Palo Alto startup company whose sole objective (and business plan) is to reduce junk mail. In return for my $36, they promise to harass the evil people who send me the stuff and get them to stop. They also plant trees.

I find it strangely Kafka-esque (or Mafia-esque) to fork over my credit card number in order not to receive something. On the other hand, if it works, it will be so, so, SOOOO worth it.

Besides, I bet this company was founded due to sheer frustration - and I get a kick out of that. "What do you mean I have to spend my time, energy, and recycling bin space throwing out this stupid stuff I didn't even ask for?! I would SOOO pay someone else to get me off these lists! Hey, wait a minute ... what if ... ? "

Pissed-off-ness is the mother of invention :)

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The interesting thing about sexual harassment ...

... is that if you are a manager, and an employee sues you for sexual harassment, you may be personally financially liable.

Whereas if you discriminate against the employee for racial, ethnic, religious, etc. reasons, the company you work for is financially liable. You're not.

Isn't that fascinating?

Disclaimer: I attended a Managing Within the Law training seminar earlier this week. I may have misunderstood something. If you are contemplating sexually harassing or discriminating against someone, I recommend you a) not do it b) not rely on this blog post for legal advice and c) consult a lawyer first. By the time you've done all that, you ideally should have mastered that incredibly dumb impulse you had anyway.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I'm famous! (anonymously)

Gov Bill Richardson, of New Mexico, gave an hour-long talk at work yesterday. And I gotta admit it - I'm proud. I asked him a question he couldn't answer, which got an end of story mention in a local newspaper.

The aide in question (Adam Steinhorn) did come find me. He was a pleasant, dedicated guy who was as enthused about Richardson as you'd expect a campaign staffer to be - but he also seemed extremely sincere. He said no one had asked Richardson about the farm bill so far (!), so he was glad I had. He gave me his email address so I could send him the article my question was based on: "You Are What You Grow," by Michael Pallin in the New York Times (link may not work; try a Google News search if it doesn't).

The cool thing is, I was pretty impressed by Richardson's policies & ideas. He appears to have thought about the issues he discussed. He appears to have thought about them rationally (I've also seen Clinton & McCain speak recently, so I have some basis for comparison). I really, really want to continue to like him as a candidate.

But I'm left with one nagging question: will I get a response to my email?

Monday, May 07, 2007

Mangoes and nukes

A while back my guy and I both heard the exact same story on NPR: some political interview (or maybe a discussion with an author?) mentioned, as a side note, that there are around 1000 varieties of Indian mangoes - and due to US-imposed trade restrictions, none of them are available in the US. The interviewee was from India, and hoped, rather wistfully, that maybe the trade restrictions would be lifted as part of a new nuclear treaty (?!) currently in discussion.

My guy and I both came home absolutely incensed, bursting in our front door to tell each other - did you hear?! There's an import restriction on mangoes! There are types of mangoes in the world that we have never even heard of! What is the US government thinking?! (Not to mention the whole nuclear tie-in. What the ...?!)

I nearly wrote to my Senator.

And now, I am happy to report that NPR has once again informed me (as a side note to another story) about the State of Mango Trade with India: relations have improved! Indian mangoes are now allowed into the US! After searching Google News I found several Indian papers covering the story (like this one), but the US press seems so far oblivious.

That is so sad. I mean, come on - cover some happy news for once (bloggers, however, are all over the story).

Oh well. I'm left with one question: where is this first shipment of mangoes going, and how can I find it? Is it, by any chance, heading for California? We have a large Indian population in the Bay Area.... I doubt my Senator is the right contact for this, but I have every intention of suggesting Indian mangoes to Whole Foods.

Flourescent bulbs that I don't hate

It turns out that, in addition to my pickiness about ambient noise levels, pizza temperature, and plane ticket purchasing experiences, I am also quite demanding when it comes to lightbulbs. "Oh good!" I think. "Yet another personal eccentricity I've discovered about myself!"

Backstory: in addition to my feminist rants, I am also trying to do the environmental right thing - so I recently bought some flourescent bulbs.

Problem is, I hate 'em. I can take the flicker when they turn on, but I can't take the way they make the room (or me) look. They're bad enough that when I heard a news story mentioning the vague possibility that California might make incandescent bulbs illegal, I immediately started plotting to stock up on those energy-guzzling yet friendly-cozy-light-givng bulbs.

As a last hope before renting a storage unit to hoard my stockpile in, a couple of weeks ago I stopped by my company's environmental fair with a single goal: identify a type of flourescent bulb that I don't hate.

Me to PG&E guy: "I'd like to use flourescent bulbs, but the light they give is just horrible. Can you recommend one that's not?

PG&E guy: "Um." Pause. "Well, it's about color temperature.... Color temperature is measured in Kelvins. Most incandescent bulbs are about 2700."

"Great!" I thought. I figured I could go read some packaging and come home with a decent bulb. Not so, however: I could not find one single flourescent bulb package that referenced color in Kelvins. Instead, they offer misleading marketing-y language like "soft white." On incandescent bulbs, "soft white" may mean "normal light bulb color," but on flourescent bulbs, it means instead "evil color that makes you look like you're coming down with a wasting disease."

Several searches later, I found a better result: a guide to selecting bulbs that includes actual color warmth measurements. I haven't purchased from here yet, but as my bulbs burn out, I probably will, and so I'm sharing in case any of my three loyal readers also hates their flourescent bulbs:

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs...including color temperature info

Finally! Now, why exactly did this have to be this hard?

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Discussion redux: "The Feminine Mistake"

I did, in fact, go to hear this author speak - and came away with a few interesting points, none of them counter-intuitive and many of them encouraging. My favorites are:

  • Intensive child-rearing doesn't last long. At five years old, kids go to kindergarten. When planning for the initial few years when children demand the most time, it's also important to plan for the years that come next.
  • There's a positive correlation between women's happiness and working.
  • There's a positive correlation between women's working and children's learning to be self-sufficient (walking sooner, tying their own shoes, making friends more easily).
  • At higher income levels, not working is often a status symbol for a woman (and her husband).
  • The author of the book isn't aware of any research on what happens to a man's career when he leaves the workforce to care for children for several years.
  • The female taboo on publicly striving for, rejoicing in, publicizing, gloating about, and even taking credit for work success is alive and well. I've seen it clearly myself since I started mentoring: almost every woman I mentor has asked for advice on how to get recognition & credit for her work - and most these same women feel frustrated that they don't already know how to do this. Not one guy has brought this up. It might be time for me to stop feeling mildly embarrassed about my shameless self-promotion - and start giving my mentees a to-do list.
Isn't that interesting? We've come so far, and yet....