My childhood was full of traumatic events. I was bullied verbally and physically for years. I hid my transness out of fear of rejection, abandonment, and violence. My parents’ divorce thrust me into a position of parental and sibling caregiving early in life, leaving little room for me manage my…

Back when I was a senior undergraduate in 2001, I was sure I wanted to go to graduate school to get a Ph.D. My wonderful mentor Margaret Burnett made a simple pitch — a life of following my curiosity and telling people about everything I learn—and I was sold. But…

Over the past few years, I’ve written and spoken extensively about the need for more critical perspectives in to computing education, to balance out the more utopian, solutionist rhetoric in computing. I wrote a book, I gave talks about programming + politics, requirements and oppression, structural inequities, CS culture, and…

The United States (and the UK) are still afire with anti-trans legislation, and it’s not the first time. For decades, the religious right has desperately tried to limit our protections, our access to health care, and even our ability to pee safely. Countless youth end up homeless after coming out…

My grandmother was intense. A tall Danish orphan and mother of thirteen, her eyes were always wide with ideas and her body afire with action. I remember staying with her at her manufactured home in Junction City, Oregon one weekend and just standing in the middle of the living room…

It’s been a long two years of sheltering in my home office. It’s just been me, my cat, and my wife (who has basically been working two years of overtime as a nurse). Traveling was out of the question, both to protect ourselves, my immunocompromised daughter, and our immunocompromised parents…

I was a trans child in the 1980’s United States. Quiet, shy, and serious, but curious and creative, my experience of false boyhood was one confinement. The world wasn’t about what I might learn or who I could be, but what might be allowed. I couldn’t play with girls, I…

Two years ago I was on a train to Portland, Oregon in an N-95 mask I had from an old painting project. My car was nearly empty, but a couple boarded in Olympia and sat in the seats next to me. I moved to the other side of the car…

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on how I learned to code. I’ve lamented how complicated programming systems have become; I’ve pondered the half-life of technical knowledge; I’ve given talks on how my unexpected path to computing was through a simple battery-powered graphing calculator that fit in my pocket. …