Adrianna Tan

Southeast Asian in California. I once worked at an aquarium. Now I write and work on AI evaluations.

Public Key

npub1azwfulf8yrg2ae9e2zleljhtzcwfy96lkvq6xfmfxznw9acv3y0q39gph5

NIP-05 Address

skinnylatte@hachyderm-io.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsw38y705njp59wuju4p0ulet43v8yjza0mxqdrya5npfhz7uxgj8spz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qrhdqyr

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1azwfulf8yrg2ae9e2zleljhtzcwfy96lkvq6xfmfxznw9acv3y0q39gph5

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-30 13:29:37 UTC

Black woman: Black people don’t feel comfortable on Mastodon and Bluesky!!
Everyone else: here’s why you’re wrong and I know better than you!
Honestly some of y’all sound like the ‘I have one minority friend and they say it’s okay for me to say X’ type of people

2026-04-20 19:36:40 UTC

I can happily live in most East Coast USA, European and all Asian big cities. (Probably Mexico City too but no personal experience.. this will be fixed shortly)
Something about sparsely populated west coast US cities, lack of tall buildings (for good reason I know), and general density situation makes it much harder for me.

2026-04-07 14:51:46 UTC

Nothing about what we are seeing from this administration is mainline Christian. That’s why they don’t care what the Pope says. They don’t think the Pope is a real Christian.
All of this comes from an apocalyptic end times sect / cult of Christianity centered on ‘dominionism’.
I grew up in this cult and I can trace a straight line from it to all the worst things about our world today, not just in America (they’re also huge in East and SE Asia, Brazil, Australia..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_theology

2026-03-28 01:35:20 UTC

New Mexico is the fifth biggest state in the USA, and its entire population is 2.1 million
In contrast, my country which is roughly 32 by 17 miles in size, has 6.1 million people

2026-03-27 00:20:47 UTC

This article written by a former employee of an unnamed gambling platform is.. quite something.
https://defector.com/why-i-got-out-of-the-gambling-business

2026-03-25 14:18:47 UTC

It’s almost impossible to book any local camping spots because all of your competition has built or set up some kind of scraper to do it for them. (This was happening even before Open Claw and stuff)
This is the stuff that should be in a remake of Silicon Valley

2026-03-24 22:58:40 UTC

The answer to this question is ‘France’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_independence_debt
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/286/627/401/523/404/original/611bde61ec6511b3.jpeg

2026-03-24 14:45:31 UTC

- reply

2. MacArthur BART station has a bunch of free shuttle buses. The one I use most is the EmeryGoRound, primarily to the Amtrak station in Emeryville.
Fun fact: the Hollis route runs from 5:45am to 9:20pm on weekdays, every 15 min
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/284/688/229/204/368/original/79582402890a71d8.jpeg

2026-03-24 14:24:30 UTC

Taking a series of trains, buses and fun facts about them
1. Civic Center, San Francisco to MacArthur, Oakland
Fun fact: BART uses the broad gauge, same as Indian Railways (another train system I know super well)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_6_in_gauge_railway
#Trains #Transit #BART #BayArea #SanFrancisco #Oakland
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/284/604/917/573/361/original/9cc163cdc31f10a5.jpeg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/284/604/950/321/923/original/fa167706621b95bc.jpeg

2026-03-22 23:52:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ru8t yep

2026-03-22 23:47:01 UTC

- reply

I hope everyone who works on data analysis for dynamic pricing for anything gets bed bugs.

2026-03-22 23:46:16 UTC

- reply

At the shop they haven’t gone fully dynamic price tags so there was still the physical price tag to refer to. Online, the price had changed and you wouldn’t know it. Anyway, I am sitting here waiting for a manager to decide if he will honor a physical price tag.

2026-03-22 23:43:36 UTC

Dynamic pricing is such a scam. I was at Best Buy looking at something and in 10 min it jumped $200. lol

2026-03-22 18:26:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…l7em USA public sector budgets are huge and software projects massive and convoluted.. other types of problems
(I used to say working in SF that we had more money than most countries)
(My boss was British. She would say ‘this is weird no body has ever asked me to cut costs! Or asked me how much anything cost! Or to justify expenditure by reducing costs!’) but again a rich city / state thing

2026-03-22 18:13:01 UTC

- reply

I also generally feel like when someone says ‘American immigration is awful and inhumane’ the vast majority of Americans are like yep absolutely I hate it and I’m sorry
And many people from many places who are like ‘Omg Murica is so bad’ are also very likely to be like ‘well it is true immigrants are responsible for all of my country’s problems’
Welcoming people but evil system on the one hand, bad system but unwelcoming people on the other (this is not specifically about Canada, which I know is mostly welcoming. But the anti immigrant stuff is also wrapped up in a polite culture I don’t like or understand. Just give it to me straight, like the Americans. Make movies about it. Wear a hat. Something.)
This is not pro - Murica toot. This is a ‘I personally really dislike polite racists in most Anglo settler countries because they are just culturally incompatible with me so I can’t be arsed to actually try to live in those places personally’ thing

2026-03-22 18:09:07 UTC

- reply

This article talks about them using a spreadsheet-based decision-making tool that doesn’t look much different from Excel. It looks extremely basic and not very good and I’m willing to bet it’s responsible for a lot of pain in the system. Most immigration governments have much more advanced software for their specialized use case.
I’m not willing to claims things are more humane for US immigrants (it’s not), but there are many more avenues for legal action against USCIS through other U.S. govt branches (yes this costs money but there is also pro bono support sometimes). In many countries it mostly feels like you just take the decision that you’ve been handed down arbitrarily.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/immigration-canada-ircc-technology-1.7632130

2026-03-22 17:46:38 UTC

Canadian immigration appears less evil to me but also a heck lot more incompetent and confusing to deal with
(I’ve actually never figured out how to get a work visa to Canada and I’ve figured it out for most countries. Like even the How to Apply page is.. vague. And I’m a native English speaker with international immigration experience. I think you’re supposed to use an agent, most of the time, but I refuse. Anyway, that’s not on the cards anymore and I would die in the cold)
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/03/21/bc-uk-midwife-work-permit-denied-english-test/

2026-03-21 18:37:49 UTC

Indonesia has so many excellent female music groups that it seems pointless to even call them a female music group
https://youtu.be/pEv0bHdmJJc
#Music #Indonesia #TootSea

2026-03-20 21:51:33 UTC

Many things suck but I can’t believe I exist on the same planet and timeline as baby manatees
#Marine #Science #Manatees
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/263/714/271/035/272/original/878580d66655ff6d.jpeg

2026-03-10 02:39:24 UTC

“Opportunity for Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to carry out research in the areas of peace and conflict studies, political violence or state repression at the University of Mannheim, Germany.”
“The recipient will be part of my team at the University of Mannheim and carry out their own theory-driven empirical research broadly on the topics of peace and conflict, political violence and state repression. The fellowship may last from 6 to 24 months and can be divided into up to three stays within three years.”
The Fellowship includes a monthly stipend of of 3,000 EUR, moving and travel allowance.”
“To be eligible:
- you need to have a PhD in political science
- you need to have an excellent publication record relative to your academic age
- you are not a German citizen and you do not have a degree from a German university or have previously had a longer research stay at a German institution.”
#Academia #Germany #PoliticalScience #GetFediHired
https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/feed/update/activity:7436850222930100224

2026-02-28 05:34:12 UTC

My mom sent me a list of what she is planning to eat, and what transit she will utilize to get to those places, on a specific date in April in a country she doesn’t live in.
I am her daughter for sure

2026-02-28 04:37:34 UTC

13 months ago, I printed and dropped off a dossier. It weighed about 6 pounds (I weighed it).
My laser printer more than paid itself off.
It’s been an arduous 13 months, but we are now permanent residents and I never have to check ‘require visa sponsorship’ again.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/146/401/941/406/460/original/a2be859c9a343474.jpeg

2026-02-26 15:49:52 UTC

- reply

Baby manatees drink milk from their mother’s armpits
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/137/721/204/715/031/original/bcb73e17753d5af5.jpeg

2026-02-26 15:48:44 UTC

The first things I learned when I woke up today:
- polar bears and grizzly bears can have offspring! Grizzly bear father + polar bear mom = grolar bears
- polar bear father + grizzly bear mom = pizzly bear

2026-02-25 19:41:08 UTC

I am ‘my body hurts for no reason, including my butt’ years old

2026-02-09 07:32:47 UTC

I’m going to learn Spanish. I don’t think it’s possible to live where I live, in this time, without participating in a world that is rich, vibrant, joyful, Indigenous, wonderful and welcoming. All of my favorite parts of living in California have been centered on what little I have experienced of Mexican, Salvadoran, Honduran and other cultures.

2026-02-09 06:50:32 UTC

Posting a story about mushroom poisoning is just like posting a story about scams. Everybody thinks it won’t happen to them, they’re so smart, unlike all the victims

2026-02-03 04:26:06 UTC

Some dudes would rather clean up documentation for AI agents than make documentation easier to read for everyone, such as people

2026-01-17 04:55:51 UTC

First day without Mila. Feels weird. Losing Cookie was like losing a phantom limb. Losing Mila is like.. everything feels quiet. She was a highly interactive cat who made her presence felt in every room. I miss her so terribly

2026-01-13 02:26:01 UTC

Someone on a call told me they liked reading about my info dumping about #Food even though they don’t love food as much as I do.
I said I enjoy Info Dumpling
#Puns #ActuallyAutistic

2026-01-09 22:02:45 UTC

sorry for the *stack link, but many writers i like from developing countries are on it, and this is an impt post:
every time someone says 'hey it's so cheap to have a nice villa in bali' here's the exploitative math behind it
---
the money quote
"Villa owner: Australian guy named Brett who visited Bali once in 2015 and decided he deserved to own a piece of it.
Property manager: UAE company with an office in Seminyak and a token Indonesian partner who doesn’t do anything.
Booking platform: American corporation headquartered in San Francisco.
Cleaning staff: Indonesian woman named Wayan who’s been scrubbing toilets for five years and still can’t afford to take her kid to the doctor without selling her phone.
But sure. “Locally staffed.”
https://wulanadlerunfiltered.substack.com/p/balis-40000-villas-and-the-8day-cleaners
#Indonesia #Travel #Bali

2026-01-08 00:36:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…myvq very close. He’s a large Samoan man, so it fits too. Also dressed in bling

2026-01-08 00:18:29 UTC

Was not expecting to hear super effusive yelling of my name while walking along Van Ness but turns out it’s my least online and most favorite friend who had lost his phone and thought he had lost me forever (we are not on any socials)

2026-01-06 00:18:36 UTC

I’ve never identified more strongly with anyone
#Singapore #TootSea #Food
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/845/281/522/306/382/original/1a3a897658b87212.jpeg

2025-12-24 08:30:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7ppx that sounds traumatic. So sorry you experienced it

2025-12-21 03:35:22 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7ppx @nprofile…9ynp leaves of ginger and turmeric are also delish and great in coconut milk based stews!

2025-12-21 03:28:10 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7ppx @nprofile…9ynp stir fry sweet potato leaves are delish. Also in soup. Use like spinach

2025-12-20 23:49:09 UTC

Power outage in most of San Francisco, including traffic lights. Autonomous cars going nuts. I shall stay home (in the dark) in case I get run over by a Waymo.

2025-12-20 08:12:38 UTC

American hot sauce packaging vs Indonesia sambal packaging.
#Hot #Spicy #Indonesia #TootSea
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/750/885/410/360/949/original/b01535fbfe2754b7.webp
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/750/885/355/342/174/original/e78a27e7184b12a5.jpeg

2025-12-09 00:32:54 UTC

I’m so autistic that the main reason I can’t eat rice noodles in the U.S. is I think it’s the wrong width. It should be exactly 6 cm wide

2025-12-08 19:45:02 UTC

My cat hogs the space heater.
#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #Torties
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/685/661/141/083/912/original/21f81ec56ca17c12.jpeg

2025-12-08 18:31:48 UTC

After not leaving her for a few months, I left her for 4 days. She ignored me when I got home. I’m not sure I’m out of the woods yet, but she is back to being cute (instead of murderous).
#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #Torties
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/685/373/138/211/075/original/ee52537b00d0ba30.jpeg

2025-11-14 03:14:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xmyn @nprofile…7ppx @nprofile…mdwy back home.. we also make tofu with.. seafood. And eggs. Tofu can be anything really. Even pumpkin!

2025-11-14 02:46:40 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7ppx @nprofile…mdwy you can make delicious Burmese tofu using chickpea flour!

2025-11-01 00:52:34 UTC

Malaysia has a govt procurement code for ‘witch doctor services’
https://mefi.social/@cendawanita/115452184609217432

2025-10-29 17:09:50 UTC

- reply

It’s also impossible to do all of that without sounding like an out of touch classist. You don’t have secret knowledge about food or money, you just have more of it.

2025-10-29 17:08:27 UTC

I really think that people who haven’t been poor should not give money or frugality advice to poor people. The problem with poor people isn’t money management or knowledge, it’s the insufficiency of money. This goes for anyone who wants to help people on food stamps navigate this situation. People on food stamps are already experts in navigating food and money with a shortage of both.

2025-10-11 19:40:16 UTC

As I get older I’ve concluded, ‘everything is basically either a cult or a database’. I will not be explaining

2025-10-07 07:15:08 UTC

40 years old today! I’ve always wanted to be forty. Now I am here.

2025-09-10 13:09:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…jx7w hey, canceling this. Can’t make it to dc anymore

2025-08-28 01:07:04 UTC

Ok DC folks: who’s up for a Fediverse snack on the evening of 9/15?
I’d prefer an outdoor location with nonalcoholic beverages available.

2025-08-25 02:24:42 UTC

WE CUDDLE CATS
#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #Torties
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/087/027/774/093/996/original/c2c2adfdd9ffd872.jpeg

2025-08-23 05:20:59 UTC

I will never make fun of sea lions for being lazy anymore. I saw thousands of them in the ocean swimming and hunting for a long time. no wonder they are so tired and they like to bark about it
#Monterey #SeaLions #Pinnepeds
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/076/387/911/382/424/original/e3e551d3476a0c51.jpg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/076/387/917/391/092/original/5126c902c35ca6d6.jpg

2025-07-23 20:02:01 UTC

People who say the best Chinese food is only at hole-in-walls annoy me.
There are absolutely different levels of Chinese food, which can be cheap and good, cheap and not good, mid range and good, mid range and not good, or high end and good, or high end and not good.
I think one of the best examples of that is congee.
At Dim Sum Bistro in SF Chinatown: a $3-5 bowl of good cheap congee. Texture is good. Minimal ‘ingredients’ (just some pork, as is standard in cheap congee). The quality you expect of a good take out congee.
At Hon’s, down the street, a $9.95 bowl of good mid range eat-in and sit-down congee. The sort of place that also has good wanton noodles.
At Harborview, a good $20 restaurant quality congee. The kind with a texture you cannot achieve easily at home. Silky. Good technique you won’t achieve without training. High end ingredients. Lots of it.
Quality of the tea also maps in similar steps.
Of course unless you eat this type of food extensively you may not be able to immediately see the difference. We pick places to go depending on mood and occasion and time of day.
My mom would get me the first two to go, but she would never get me the high end congee to go. It would be a place we would go to together to spend time together, or celebrate special days.
I’m tired of western foodies pretending to some degree of authenticity by over-indexing on cheap, as though non-European foods can’t also be high end, expensive, or good quality.
Chinese foodies are the most quality and performance obsessed people I’ve met. They care about provenance, technique, and are generally very knowledgeable about why something costs more and when it makes sense to pay for it. It’s not just a class thing.
#Food #ChineseFood

2025-07-13 20:58:59 UTC

I was trying to type to someone ‘you can use my Kikkoman’ and it turned out as ‘you can use my milkman’, which feels like a different type of offer.

2025-06-30 23:51:39 UTC

Me: my superpower is I always get free food when I least expect it
Orcas:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/these-orcas-have-been-trying-to-feed-people-new-research-shows/
#Marine #Science
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/774/998/475/302/013/original/969b7934b4bec588.jpeg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/774/998/462/488/619/original/4dbdb3558bd992e2.jpeg

2025-06-24 03:48:51 UTC

- reply

This includes all the wringing about H-1Bs taking *your* jobs.
Criticism of the exploitative tech industry and inane exploitative immigration system is valid. But I just can’t shake the gross feeling of how much of all of that is just objection of certain types of people supposedly ‘taking up’ the ‘good’ jobs.

2025-06-24 03:28:30 UTC

I don’t care what side you think you’re on, anyone whose take on immigration is ‘immigrants take away American jobs’ is not a good person

2025-06-23 17:24:35 UTC

BREAKING NEWS
Orcas seen grooming each other with kelp, in a first for marine tool use
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/23/killer-whales-kelp-grooming-tool-use
#Marine #Orcas #Whales #Science #Kelp #Ocean

2025-06-13 21:16:35 UTC

I like how Mastodon basically tags me in every marine pun or question now. I wanted to be a marine biologist, but I will settle for Mastodon marine random.

2025-06-13 04:10:14 UTC

This reminds me of how when I first moved to Jakarta I was not aware of the flirty connotation of ‘abang’ (standard phrase in Malay to refer to anyone on the street, much more.. flirty in Jakarta). I called everybody abang. This is how I ended up with many random men’s phone numbers accidentally
https://social.nancengka.com/objects/45b1f023-70a4-4fd8-97fd-1c01f1cfa65f

2025-05-31 06:07:56 UTC

I went on a tour of the aquarium today with one of the early founders of the place. When others heard I had met him they asked me if I had heard the story about the whale genitals. I said yes, shared it, and it turned out that 4 of us had a completely different story about whale genitals.

2025-05-02 04:06:07 UTC

I’m glad someone reminded me that I have to vote tomorrow. I thought it was the day after. Damned time zones

2025-04-26 04:29:10 UTC

i'm always sad i don't have the negatives from my early film days. but this was from my first roll of film on my first solo travel, exactly 20 years ago in cambodia.
i was 18 and i decided to travel to cambodia by land. eventually, i made it here. All photography does this for me, but especially with film: it reminds me of exactly where I was and what I felt, at the time.
#TootSea #Cambodia #Photography #BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/402/371/364/574/968/original/08e646f147a82c0e.jpg

2025-04-26 01:33:14 UTC

A coworker says the only way to get out of the tunnel traffic in Monterey during the summer is to bike.
I was once stuck in it: 1h (0.5 miles). Never again. Walking it is nicer, and you can also look at the sunset over the water.
Looking forward to all my bike rides there this summer. (Many people don’t live locally. They have to go to San Jose or Santa Cruz, and during rush hour it can be as long as my off-peak commute back to San Francisco). There’s only one tunnel in and out of New Monterey, where the Aquarium is
#BikeTooter #Monterey #California

2025-04-22 21:37:03 UTC

The face Mila makes when I sneak up to her to take a photo of her while she’s napping
#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #Torties
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/383/770/207/756/262/original/30149bac0c7aff02.jpeg

2025-04-08 17:47:32 UTC

When I first came to SF 13 years ago I asked for ‘cut chillies’ and ‘chilli sauce’ at a pho place and I didn’t understand when I was given jalapeños and sriracha. None of these met my definition for ‘even remotely spicy’.
13 years later, I’m still annoyed about it but no longer surprised.
(I was expecting sliced birds eye chillies..)

2025-04-04 14:29:47 UTC

Local credit union (SF Fire CU) took out an ad on the bus that said, ‘we use AI (Actual Individuals)’
#SanFrancisco #ai

2025-03-25 15:41:48 UTC

Hello from my office
#Monterey #MontereyBayAquarium #California #Photography
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/223/828/541/611/612/original/8e08c5751ed077f2.jpeg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/223/828/621/955/712/original/46fb1731892edfa5.jpeg

2025-03-23 04:21:57 UTC

Sometimes when people who don’t like trains say ‘what? 18h? You can drive it in 8’, I say yes but that’s 10h of not riding a train; which sucks.
That confuses them.
#Trains #Transit #Amtrak

2025-03-19 01:05:21 UTC

Growing up in Singapore / Malaysia and spending time in Chennai / Bangalore means the only dosa places I don’t hate in San Francisco are Dosa Corner and Aditi

2025-03-16 22:50:36 UTC

Doing the 8 mile round trip walk to Chinatown and back through Russian Hill is the kind of walk that reminds me a lot of Cookie. We used to do that a lot as our long walk. We’d stop at tea shops, empanada shops, chicken wing shops, and just snack and laugh and run up hill together all the time.
She was a big part of my life here and it feels like a part of my body that’s missing.
https://hachyderm.io/@skinnylatte/112651966894929652

2025-03-13 00:14:01 UTC

Last night I went to a Chinese massage place that had a one star review for ‘being so painful I couldn’t sleep’. It was exactly the place I wanted. Susan (from China) expertly and patiently worked on all the knots in my body. The infrared lamp on my back was lush. The place looked like crap (as places in this price range all do) but I felt like a brand new person.
Having lived most of my life in SE Asia, having good relationships with local experts in bodywork in different modalities is something that is important to me. It also often provides a window of connection for me in the diaspora as it almost always means I’m talking to someone in Mandarin, Indonesian or Thai.. for an hour.. while naked. They also always give me restaurant tips for the local area. I appreciate them so much!

2025-03-11 03:53:53 UTC

Duterte arrested in Manila. I needed to see evidence that autocrats can fall.
https://apnews.com/article/rodrigo-duterte-manila-philippines-icc-9b9d08b8832b43282db53418535fb245
#Philippines #TootSea

2025-03-09 09:22:56 UTC

Saw yet another ignorant and condescending European take on ‘who in their right mind would want to emigrate to America’ post.
Well, there’s a reason I’m spending thousands of dollars trying to stay in this country, but I don’t need to share it with people who don’t understand that lots of people have different reasons to emigrate and maybe your own countries are also quite terrible for immigrants.

2025-03-05 19:53:49 UTC

/r/bayarea: ‘Bay Area drivers are terrible’
‘It’s all the H-1Bs’
I’ll have you know that bad drivers here come from all backgrounds. Ask any pedestrian.

2025-03-04 16:39:18 UTC

Put this person in charge. At least they dare take on the hard questions.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/105/146/192/683/963/original/33e8e113cd77355b.jpeg

2025-03-03 16:07:04 UTC

Om on Skype: "Microsoft now talks about Teams being their focus, showing that even today they haven’t realized what made Skype a cultural, consumer force. Microsoft Teams is a terrible product — and I dread using it. In simplest terms, Teams is a perfect encapsulation of a bureaucratic, archaic, and outdated 50-year-old company that is trying to reinvent itself as an AI leader."
https://om.co/2025/02/28/skype-is-dead-what-happened/
#Microsoft #Teams #Skype

2025-03-02 04:57:41 UTC

In 2019 I met a young Meta engineer who was really fired up about wanting to change the company ‘from the inside’. She asked me why I hated her company. I said I’d just come from a place where I saw it accelerate genocide (Myanmar) and suppress democracy. She said oh at least they won’t do it here.
I wonder where she is now. Probably laid off.

2025-03-01 19:06:33 UTC

In some way the firing of gov tech workers is also about scaring others from taking alternatives paths other than exploitative tech work.
So many of us looked at big and mainstream and ad tech and surveillance tech today and said nope, and took our skills elsewhere.
This plants the seed of ‘do you really want this instability?’ Unsaid of course is that the people who are apparently thankful they said no to federal tech jobs to avoid such treatment, don’t feel empowered to also speak up about their poor treatment in the private sector. If you’ve been laid off by Meta the expectation is you’re still supposed to say thank you, I’m looking for new opportunities.
Federal government employees who have been treated poorly still have far more support than any private sector employee who has been laid off. Almost everyone is in a union, and there are lawyers that specialize in federal employment law.
This whole thing is about suppressing the power of labor.

2025-02-28 05:33:41 UTC

This was a confusing headline
#Singapore #TootSea
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/079/879/628/618/473/original/a6e924af7ad4111b.jpeg

2025-02-27 23:43:10 UTC

Is there something that someone out here needs help judging or reviewing?
Specifically I have expertise in building software and software teams that have a public interest angle. I also do research on AI ethics and bias in the non-Western context (how LLMs work in Asian and global south countries.. which is to say poorly) and what the social implications of that might be. I also research energy and water use of AI data centers.
I am completing some paperwork for something, and having more recent 'judging' and 'reviewing' experience will be good. Boost welcome!
Please email me: skinnylatte [at] gmail

2025-02-27 16:32:26 UTC

I have #aphantasia and I can’t make visual images in my head. ‘Picture an apple’.. I can’t picture anything. People have asked me how I dream. I don’t have visual dreams.
I just had a dream in which I.. smelled a variety of things. Interesting!

2025-02-27 04:44:16 UTC

Everything I’ve ever learned about cereal foods in America has been against my will.
Cornflakes were invented by Kellogg’s to prevent masturbation. And now I’ve just learned Chex was created by white supremacists to try to give white people mind control powers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralstonism
#Food #Weird

2025-02-26 22:54:05 UTC

I was reading a wildlife conservation group talk about their owls and raptors, and it turns out that they organize an annual TALONTINE'S DAY
I think when you get a PhD in any kind of animal science, you need to also pass a pun defense
#Puns #Birds

2025-02-26 06:36:46 UTC

Love this
<Edit: guess we can’t have nice things and this was set up by Anduril themselves. Truly evil>
#Seattle #radicalgrafitti
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/068/803/052/483/669/original/f4a81218bb53edc7.jpeg

2025-02-26 03:06:49 UTC

California cities want to arrest people for 'camping' and 'being homeless' but they don't seem to want to go to trial to state a case for why they want to arrest people for being poor. They're happy to throw people's things away and treat them violently, though.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/they-were-arrested-for-sleeping-outside-while-homeless-now-these-californ/
#California #Homeless

2025-02-26 00:04:17 UTC

Really fascinating piece of SF history: The Chinatown Telephone Exchange
"Both male and female operators had to remember nearly 1500 names along with the owners place of residence. They had to know all of the languages spoken in Chinatown as well as all of the different dialects. These operators knew all of the 4-5,000 residents of Chinatown. They knew all of the extensions for the businesses and residences in the area. They handled more than thirteen thousand calls a day. The phone system was also a method for contracting labor. Employers called with job offers and the operators would know to whom to put them through."
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Chinese_Telephone_Exchange
#SanFrancisco #Chinese #History #AAPI

2025-02-25 07:17:09 UTC

Wyoming woman repeatedly refers to Republican senator as Madam Chairman, and points out that she cannot be compelled to use Tim French’s preferred pronouns
She is aware that misgendering someone is not cool, but has “been watching her Wyoming legislators “tear people down” and not listen to residents’ testimony, so when she deliberately misgendered French, “Disrespect was the message.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wyoming-resident-purposely-misgenders-senator_n_67bcbf05e4b05645f4fefee7

2025-02-25 02:41:54 UTC

I love pho and ramen as much as anyone, but those aren’t the only types of noodles.
I grew up eating ‘kon lo mein’, which is Cantonese for any type of ‘dry’ noodles tossed with seasoning. It can be wanton, brisket, shredded chicken, or mushroom. Or anything. Almost every noodle culture has some form of ‘dry’ or ‘tossed’ noodles.
Today I’m having aburasoba, which is a Japanese take on Chinese ‘dry’ noodles. Also sometimes called mazesoba. In the bay area, I love Kajiken in San Mateo. Here in Seattle I’m having one at Slurp Station near UW.
They differ from tsukemen in that you don’t dip the noodles into a side soup, they just come with various toppings and a sauce that’s already pre-mixed.
I wish I had more ‘dry’ noodles. They’re my favorite types of noodles. Soup noodles only feel worth the effort when the soup is exceptionally great.
#Food #Seattle #Noodles

2025-02-25 01:59:36 UTC

There is an Indian restaurant near UW called.. NAAN STOP
#food #seattle #puns

2025-02-24 23:46:55 UTC

I saw a seal that looks a bit like my cat
#CatsOfMastodon #Cats #Marine #Seals #SealsOfMastodon
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/061/529/079/830/198/original/ad89b85ec5be2c27.jpeg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/061/529/146/007/051/original/97aa656a63c339da.jpeg

2025-02-24 22:58:15 UTC

My first roll of film from my Minolta CLE!
My parents at the Portland Japanese Garden
<3
(Minolta CLE, 40mm f/2 Rokkor, Kodak T-Max 400, developed and scanned by Citizen Photo in Portland)
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #Photography #Portland #Minolta
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/061/332/342/651/507/original/276f3590f04b3c6c.jpg

2025-02-24 22:50:15 UTC

Julie Packard, outgoing Executive Director of Monterey Bay Aquarium and one of its founders, has an open letter in defense of #NOAA and ocean science
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defense-noaa-ocean-science-julie-packard-w6d2c/
#Monterey #MontereyBayAquarium #Science #Oceanography #Marine #Climate

2025-02-24 17:55:37 UTC

I’m outside the Seattle aquarium and someone is citing marine facts and puns.
I feel at home already

2025-02-24 05:17:15 UTC

The good thing about having work on the side in AI ethics is if someone tells me I simply don't understand the value of gen AI I can simply laugh at them

2025-02-24 03:32:27 UTC

if gen AI was the game changer to business that everyone says it is, there wouldn't be so many books and PDFs and white papers and playbooks for business leaders to help them convince *their employees* to use gen AI

2025-02-24 02:49:22 UTC

My mother just before getting blown away by Seattle wind
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/114/056/584/271/490/163/original/74138b2cb714e77f.jpeg

2025-02-23 21:48:47 UTC

Putting this in a public post so #ActuallyAutistic can see it:
Like many autistic people, it’s not that I don’t have empathy, it’s that I have too much, it just looks differently shaped.
When I was younger, I was able to just feel all the bad things that anyone around me felt. I had to work really hard to figure out how to put boundaries on where others’ feelings ended and mine began.
I’m a little more cautious about this now. I still have a lot of empathy, but I’ve learned that too much empathy at the wrong time for the wrong people is not empathetic to *me*.

2025-02-23 03:59:18 UTC

Every homophobic straight man who ever told me when I was a teenager that I would grow out of lesbianism failed to account for Cate Blanchett and Gillian Anderson getting hotter and hotter as I got older.
I have not noticed any straight men