My sabbatical is slipping away. It feels like just a few weeks ago I was coming back from a wonderful sunny vacation, preparing for winter, and finding a pleasantly low stress vibe in which to carefully and thoughtfully try to build a more just world. My winter was wide open…

For those stumbling upon this, note that peer review is not my main jam. That would be design-oriented scholarly envisioning about more equitable computing futures. Consider this a passionate digression into academic wonk in service of that mission. I occasionally write about peer review (A Modern Vision for Peer Review…

My first SIGCSE Technical Symposium was in 2013. I can’t understate how much has changed personally since then. At the time, I was just past tenure and promotion, just leaving my startup, and just beginning to realize I couldn’t run from my gender identity any longer. I was just starting…

I have days darkened by despair. Mostly not for my own plight — despite my struggles with self loathing, I float in a fragile bubble of privilege that keeps me relatively safe. But for the plight of my people: the trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming folk of this Earth, and particularly…

Most that know me well know that I have a bit of a contrarian streak. I’m always interested in taking the other side of a debate. I generally see a lot to gain from an iterative Hegelian thesis/anti-thesis discourse, even on topics for which I have strong beliefs. Sometimes this…

I do not like hype. Perhaps it’s the skeptic in me, always seeking to question a claim, to look for evidence, to examine closely before making a judgement. This stance on the world means that I’m often last to accept dramatic change and first to question it. …

Growing up, I had a fraught relationship with books. I read them, but mostly because school forced me to. And although I occasionally enjoyed some fiction, I was so much more interested in video games, illustration, and daydreaming that I could never really sit down and enjoy a book. …

Back in June, with the start of my sabbatical year, I decided to (mostly) leave Twitter. And a few months ago, I took stock of that decision and found it (mostly) good, at least for me, at this moment in my life. It’s certainly meant I’m less attune to what…

I can’t believe it’s already been six months since I started sabbatical! Summer went by quickly, full of research with students, travel to Chicago, Germany, Switzerland, San Diego, and Vancouver. …