answers, part 2
Mar. 16th, 2003 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioHow does a thermos know whether to keep things hot or cold?
It's a well-guarded secret, but few thermoses are equally good at heat and cold. They actually have a genetic predisposition toward one or the other. This genetic preference is correlated somewhat with color; the ones with white liners tend to be better at keeping things cold, and the ones with black liners tend to be better at keeping things warm. But it's not a perfect correspondence, which is why the occasional odd white-lined one that you set to work on lemonade for your picnic turns out to be better for coffee. And every now and then, a mutant will arise that actually aspires to do both. Usually, however, it succeeds only at keeping things lukewarm. This is why it is important to perform background checks before purchasing a thermos.
How can I get over hating being a tech writer? (Yes, it'll probably be pretty obvious who wrote this one.)
(At least four people who read my journal are tech writers.)
You have to be more specific: what about being a tech writer do you hate? The actual writing? Getting stuck with scutwork (like marketing) just because it involves words? The lower salaries and levels of respect? Being late in the chain (along with QA) and thus never being able to do your best work? Just that you'd rather be doing something else? Or what?
Few of these issues are inherent in the field itself; they say more about particular employers. For example, near as I can tell, in my current position I have about as much input and respect as any of the programmers. (I can't speak to relative salary, though I know I'm doing pretty well for tech writers, or at least for the subset who answer salary surveys.) And because I'm fairly senior in the field (it did take a while to get there, after all) and the only (engineering) writer at the company, I have quite a bit of freedom in what I do and how I do it. It's the dream job in a lot of ways. Most jobs aren't like that, but they do exist.
If your calling is elsewhere, then that's something to work out but it really doesn't have much to do with tech writing in particular. I mean, you could be a programmer with a graphic-design calling, or a mathematician with a musical calling, and it would be the same dilemma. (Tech writing was actually my second career, by the way. I used to be a programmer, but I enjoy this more and I'm better at it.)
So is it that the grass just looks greener over there, or that the grass is actually brown and yucky here?
dare ni, dou yatte kore wo hon'yaku shite moratta no?
Ani lo mevina lashon Japan. :-)
What's your favorite passover tradition, or one you'd like to incorporate into your seder?
Hmm, good question. I like lots of singing at the seder (Hebrew, not Yiddish -- I just don't grok Yiddish). I like the "orange on the seder plate" tradition and did it for the one seder I led. (It seemed appropriate.) Mostly, I think what I long for is a fairly complete seder that actually engages the people there -- which probably means non-conventional Torah study, not just the wandering Aremean and the discussion over the true number of plagues, and people who actually care. But I don't know if any of this qualifies as a tradition per se.
So let me broaden it just a bit: I would really like to experience more truly festive meals. I'd like to learn how to be a better guest at them, and I'd really like to learn how to make them happen in my own home. It's not just Pesach -- also Shabbat and other holidays. Neither I nor my husband got that tradition from our families.
How long have you been Jewish?
Officially, almost four years. 21 Iyar 5759.
What has been your most fulfilling act of kindness?
Hmm, that's tough. I don't really have any Big Earth-Shattering Stand-Out Kindnesses to my credit; it tends to be smaller things. I think the most fulfilling ones are actually not the pre-meditated ones (like the time I helped build a house for a needy family), but rather the ones that just seem natural at the time and then turn out to have been more significant.
Ok, here's an example. Last spring we were expecting guests for Shabbat dinner, but they didn't make it. This meant that I had a fairly large quantity of food left over, which we wouldn't be able to eat for a few days at least because of other meal plans. That night at services I ran into a friend who said that a friend of hers had just been in a terrible accident a few hours' drive away, and tomorrow morning she was going to go shopping, put together some food, and take it to the family. I said "hey wait a minute..." and invited her to take my now-redundant food instead. I felt like I had done something useful for the family (who I didn't know), for my friend (who was already somewhat frantic), and for my religion (in at least this small way, I was helping someone to not violate Shabbat by going out shopping and cooking). It felt remarkably good, and it's something that just happened. I certainly didn't think about any of these implicatons (consciously) at the time; I just saw a way to connect two problems to make both of them go away.
Ok, for this last one I am going to be cryptic and omit the question. I'm sorry. The person who asked the question will understand the answer (perhaps after working a bit :-) ).
Mischievously I respond, bashfully and deliberately choosing my words. (Surprised that something is missing from that sentence?)
In most matters I tend toward "you'll never know if you don't ask". Sometimes, however, it seems wiser, if disappointing, to assume the common answer rather than to risk the results of an unfortunate inquiry.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-16 08:26 pm (UTC)Back when women were first being ordained as rabbis, Susannah Heschel gave a talk about women's emerging equality in Jewish life. A man in the audience stood up and angrily said "a woman belongs on the bima as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate". Ok, I can do that. :-)