About

What’s this blog about?

Anything I find interesting. This includes but is not limited to: accidentally vegan foods, beekeeping, education, d20-based RPG games, yoga, personal finance, polyamory, farmers markets, statistics, linguistics, gender, astronomy, cats, tattoos, global warming, alien conspiracy theories, and, of course, bikes and burritos.

Will you fix my bike?

Will you buy me a burrito?

Why are there ads?

Full disclosure: If you’re wondering who’s getting your cookie data when you visit this blog, it’s Google Adsense. If you have a problem with that, consider leaving the internet entirely. Either Facebook, Google, or Amazon has all your data, even if you use duckduckgo, probably.

Running a blog is relatively cheap. Buying and registering domain names costs about $10 per year. You can get server space to host a website for about $5 per year. If you do everything yourself and don’t count the value of your own labor as tech support, graphic designer, writer, editor, photographer, front-end engineer, and social media promoter, you can do the rest for free.

I make tens (sometimes hundreds) of pennies each year in ad revenue from the various blogs I manage.

This is not profitable.

What are your hobbies?

Biking, primarily. I’ll ride bikes, fix bikes, advocate for bikes, clean bikes, or talk about bikes all for the bargain basement price of one burrito. I’ve hosted folks on Warm Showers, I’ve biked most of the length of California, I joined an anti-fossil-fuel protest called World Naked Bike Ride, and I impulsively bought a broken tandem bicycle as retail therapy.

I also make mead, paint, write, rock climb, practice yoga, attempt acroyoga, garden, and play games. Lots of games. Card games, board games, video games, pen and paper RPGs, you name it. I’m a player in a number of D&D 5e games and the dungeon master in a Pathfinder game.

What’s your lifestyle like?

I believe in everything in moderation, including moderation. I try to find the balance between enjoying my life now and prepping for a good life long term. I could be frugal and pay off my student loan debt sooner, but what’s the point of living if I can’t treat myself to an occasional fancy coffee?

I can’t have dairy or seafood, so I’m accidentally vegan a lot of days. I’m also known to pack down an entire rack of ribs after a long bike ride. I love my canvas bags, eco-friendly hybrid car, and always turn off lights, but I also buy the latest tech and sort of want a gas-guzzling motorcycle.

It’s about balance and moderation. We’re all doing the best we can.

Who are you professionally?

I’m an educator. Currently, I edit technical documentation, translating engineer jargon into user-friendly instructions. I volunteer time and donate money to local science fairs and to organizations like Hackbright Academy,  Khan Academy, and Critical Core.

I’m also an ex-academic (linguistics and cognitive science). I dropped out of a PhD program in 2015. I used to teach university-level courses (in writing and linguistics) and coach youth basketball (ages 8-10). I have an abandoned blog at wugology.com. I might return to teaching someday, maybe at a coding bootcamp or as a yoga instructor or working with kids as a tutor. I don’t have much faith in our traditional K-12 and university systems anymore.

What’s your personal life like?

I’m polyamorous. I live alone with two cats right now, but I would like to build a community of partners, metamors, and/or queerplatonic relationships to live with. Something less like roommates and more like chosen family. This household would ideally also contain an apiary, meadery, vegetable garden, workshop/art studio, and a dog.

I’m also pretty queer. Gender is a social construct, but you can use she/her pronouns when referring to me. I mostly date men, but also have dated women, non-binary folx, and trans folx. I guess this makes me pansexual, but I identify as heteroflexible.

I like this blog! How can I support you?

I might set up a Patreon if I get enough followers. I’m not even sure how that works.

I’m a Madera brand ambassador, so if you click this link and buy a hammock (or anything else they sell), they’ll plant two trees and I’ll get a little bit of money. Win-win!

I don’t work for these brands, but I’m really happy with them. I have referral links that will get both of us discounts and bonuses if you click them and use them:

Cool! Is there anything else I can do to be awesome?

I don’t work for any of these nonprofits, but I’m friends with some of the wonderful folks who do. So if you’re looking for somewhere to donate to through Amazon Smile, consider (in alpha order):

  • 826 National
  • Game To Grow
  • Girls Who Code Inc
  • Khan Academy
  • Kiva
  • Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Action Network Inc
  • Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children
  • Yoga Seed Collective

Girls Who Code is also an option on Lyft’s Round Up & Donate program.