Thinking Globally

In a couple of different capacities, I work with international teams. I received an email - sent by a USian,  a few weeks back that ended with the closing, "I hope you all are enjoying vaccinated life" and I cringed internally. 

I am vaccinated. I am lucky to live somewhere, and to have had a schedule at the time that meant I could just pick the best times for me and go. I had the ability to spend a day recovering. (My symptoms were neither unusual for me nor outside the usual reported ones. But for me, I was not much good for about 24 hours after.)

I am aware that there are those with conditions who have been advised to wait. That plenty of people live in households with people currently unable to be vaccinated. Oh, and that worldwide the vaccine is only available in abundance in a handful of countries. Such that the worldwide vaccination rates are under 25 percent. 

Someone got a lot of flack on Twitter earlier this year for pointing out that when working in international teams, it's worth considering that not everyone is in the same season. And sure, if someone wishes me a good morning, I don't yell at them to respect time zones. But I do often answer with, oh, good afternoon. 

And one of the easiest things that people with access to vaccination can do, is remember that there are tons, literal tons of people, who still don't have the option yet. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I was alerted to two posts about Janet Dailey this week.  The first was here - from April. And then this one that delved a little more into it. 

I recognize that the posthumous author angle is clearly the most intriguing, but I feel it worth noting that Janet Dailey was found to have gone through a period of plagiarism mostly because for all the folks that pop up and say the internet is mean for cancelling people, this author's career has outlived both plagiarism and her.  

2. Linda Holmes at NPR dabbled in watching each sport for the Olympics.  

3. This story about the goings on at Scholastic in the wake of the CEO's death is a reminder that these things happen in real life too, and affect real employees. 

7 Things I (Re)Learned From the Olympics

1. Some days, no matter how hard you trained, no matter how many accolades you have already gotten, you cannot get all the things to work the way you want on the day you want. 

2. After you've done a very hard thing, it's normal to collapse in a heap for a bit.

3. Sometimes your very best day aligns with someone else's very best day. Sometimes that means incredible success. And sometimes that means people asking did you mind only getting the bronze even though you were faster than the world record that was on the books. 

4. People who are not you are very sure they know your future (This is probably her last Olympics...). You don't have to listen to them. 

5. There are only three medal winners but between personal bests, country, and continent records, there are lots of ways to measure excellence. 

6. Sometimes finishing really is achievement enough. 

7. Sometimes sharing the win is cooler than duking out who was the tiniest bit better. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I found this article about the various concerns wearing leotards can bring for young women interesting. 

2. This article really nailed the issue for me with food and cultural appropriation. 

3. And I put together a Bookshop list of native American writers.  I will add to it as I run across more names.

A Tangled Fan

I need to get a new fan. 

Growing up our house had AC, but my mother was very much an open the windows for a cross breeze person, where my dad was a modern technology means never being uncomfortable person which meant the thermostat was set to 78, and got turned off altogether if it was deemed a cool night. 

The building I live in has central air, but I find my individual apartment unit too cold if it runs all the time, so I rely on the main building cooling and a fan for much of the time. 

The current fan I have sits on the floor and tilts up, keeping the air in the apartment circulating. 

I was sitting near the fan knitting. Yes, it is predictable in retrospect that sitting near a fan with yarn would lead to yarn in the fan. Also, yes, I could, in theory, disassemble the fan. In practice the fan does not come apart easily, which is a shame because it is very gorgeous yarn. 

I also spent a good amount of time poking a plastic crochet hook into the unplugged fan, but not being able to get a good angle at the back meant I couldn't tell when I had crossed from unwrapping to rewrapping, so in the end scissors had to be employed. 

And also, now I need a new fan. This time I'm prioritizing ones that come apart easily. For cleaning of course.