Emchap's Shit from the Internet 4/18/18 🍠
Last night, in a fit of career angst, I asked a former coworker/current friend what jobs exist that aren't tech jobs, because aside from the sorts of jobs that are listed in the books for children with cats in them, I honestly no longer know. "Grad student" and "nurse" seem like the only available alternatives among my peers.
He thought about it, and listed five people he knows and their jobs, and then stopped, because that was the end of the list. (Whether this is because everyone else he knows works in tech, too, or because he doesn't know what the rest of his friends do for work is unknown.) Three of the jobs weren't technically tech jobs but were things like "data visualization," which is really cutting it. It was at this point that we both realized that we kind of don't know what the other options are, except that people often seem unhappy in them. (People often are unhappy in tech, thus the conversation, but tech has very good benefits, which is of course very nice.)
It's been interesting to contrast the emotional muddiness of my feelings about my career and industry and general personal choices with my ongoing and (so far) uncomplicated delight in California. I like it here, very much. It's beautiful, and the sky is very blue, and no matter where I am in my apartment I can hear birds. It really does smell like flowers all the time. Over the weekend I went to a delicious Japanese restaurant with someone who does not work in technology even a little bit and drank good beer and hosted a first west coast working brunch for the women's group that I'm in, and I am uncomplicatedly happy about all of those things and about the sweet potato tacos I've cooked this week and about the delicious burrito I am going to buy myself tonight. It's been a good move, and I'm happy with it.
Shit to read
This is a goofy little comedy piece from someone whose work I like a great deal and I recommend it.
For obvious reasons I am very here for content about crying in New York and then leaving it for Los Angeles. (Plus the author, based on her Twitter feed, lives in my part of town. This makes me feel cool by association, because she's very cool.)
I love Yes and Yes generally, but I particularly loved this article about how what's obvious and easy to you isn't globally so, because holding that in your mind is the foundation of providing good client-facing responses/general empathy.
The Met is offering ASL tours and streaming them online.
I loved this horrifying gallery of gelatin salads and this super interesting essay on why Jello became associated with Appalachia.
I read The Girls Who Went Away, about birth mothers in the years after the baby boom and before Roe, and it was tremendously good and sad.
Shit to eat
Buy several sweet potatoes and forget about them in your fridge for a few weeks.
When you return to them, they will be the same as they were, because they are sweet potatoes and they are relatively forgiving. (Unlike the onions which are inexplicably sprouting in the crisper drawer next to them.)
Take four small sweet potatoes or two of the ones you'll get from your grocery store because they're never not gigantic monsters, and wash them. You can peel them if you want, but honestly, why.
Cut them up into cubes, and wish your knife sharpener had arrived from Amazon already.
In the single mixing bowl you own, toss them with two tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin, a half teaspoon each of garlic an onion powder, some sprinkles of whatever chili powder you have, and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika (which will smell AMAZING).
Stir everything up and toss it on an oiled baking sheet in the oven for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
Warm or char your tortillas (use flour, feel vaguely ashamed of parental judgement) and cover each one with refried black beans, some of the sweet potatoes, lime, and avocado. Debate whether the sour cream in your fridge is old enough to kill you, and proceed accordingly.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe.
Shit to listen to
Janelle Monae is just giving us the sex jam album of the summer, track by track. Listen to the new one.
Shit to buy
I got a Waterpik and it is amazing.
This jersey shirtdress looks great.
Sweet potatoes. They keep forever and they're delicious in everything.