On a wood desk, the game Trouble is set up in front of a laptop with a heart and glasses on it. Next to the laptop is a fall theme mug.

Pandemic Dating: 10 Virtual Date Ideas

In my last post about dating, I shared tips I had around dating virtually because currently most of us are in long-distance relationships, even if we live a mile away from our partners (yes, I really am living less than a mile away from one guy I’m dating).

A candle burns next to a laptop and a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Across the top text reads, "Pandemic Dating: 10 Virtual Date Ideas."

One of my tips is that you should plan activities for your dates. Activities are essential to creating shared experiences! Continue reading

From Bathrooms to Ballparks, the 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration

“A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for.” – Admiral Grace Hopper

Last week, I attended the 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, presented by the Anita Borg Institute (ABI). It’s the largest conference for women technologists in the world. It’s a cool historical feeling, to attend. ABI and GHC grew out of Systers and, an idea Anita Borg first thought of when she only ran into other women in the bathrooms at tech conferences because there were so few of them. Now, 15 years later, GHC is so large women routinely take over the male restrooms, and we had a dance party that filled the Astro’s ballpark.

Minute Maid Park

Minute Maid Park

It was my first time attending, and it was unlike any other conference I’ve ever attended. Not because it is rooms upon rooms filled with an elusive type of person – the female engineer and coder. Not because I was surrounded by 12,000 (that’s right 12 THOUSAND) women. Not because the big name male CEOs, like Blake Irving, straight up addressed the issue of gender discrimination.

Those are all true, and certainly make GHC an interesting experience. But the reason that makes GHC truly unique?

Continue reading