Is this some Texas code that I'm not getting?

Megan, you should get your university to pay for you to attend the film festival. My friend goes every year and has a great time. In fact, last year he got to see A Prairie Home Companion before its official release and, better yet, shake Robert Altman's hand.

Megan, you should get your university to pay for you to attend the film festival.

Hah, that would be nice, but it is harder and harder to get funds to just to "attend" anything. And, at the moment, I'm just hoping to be permanently employed.

Also, given the timing of my visit, I'm assuming I need to figure out exactly when I'll be there and reserve a room tout de suite. I've never been to Austin, any recommendations?

Artys-craftsy question:

I want to mold a clear material in the shape of a cube. So when it's done, it would look (as much as possible) as if it were made of glass. But it would have to start out as a liquid that would be poured into a mold. And maybe it should be capable of being ground/polished to make it a more perfect cube.

Any ideas? Acrylic?

Um, water -> ice?

To women who do technical computer work: does it seem that people find it less odd nowadays that women are doing this work? I get more calls from women in technical positions, too.

I suppose so. Six years ago in a far more technical position than I have now, I encountered a lot of resistance from men in the same business. I was the only female tech in the department; all the other women were administrative support staff. People would be startled to discover that I was the one working on their computer. I often got shit from our help desk and other vendors, and I doubt they would have pulled that crap on a fellow dude.

I don't get that as much these days.

That's good to hear. Six years ago when I was in the field, I was the only woman anywhere within a thousand yard radius. But of course, I was a female tech working in an airplane company, full of male engineers and male pilots and male service technicians and male firefighters. Okay, I don't know why the firefighters were there, they were just in my building. But still, vastly male dominated. I got some shit, but then, I knew my shit and was the only one who could do what they needed, so I got a lot of latitude, too.

Yeah, the temp IT guys we brought in for projects always took an attitude with me until something broke and I fixed it in five seconds. Once they realized I hadn't earned the position via nepotism or my feminine wiles (har), they treated me more like one of the guys.

Looniversity IT has always been better balanced than the larger IT world, and looniversity library IT even more so -- but even with those disclaimers, it's been forever since I've been the only woman in a techly meeting, which used to happen pretty often.

We also have more women in management in looni-wide IT these days where there used to be approximately none, which is lovely except that of course they're still management.

Crap. I forgot to bring in the paper with the new card # on it, and already fares are nearly $600. Which means they'll just get worse and I really need to talk to the parents before I'll let them shell out that much. Of course, if they'd gotten their act together weeks ago, this wouldn't be an issue. Crap.

Women in IT hasn't been unusual here, despite there being some incredible jackasses regarding women in other departments (I actually interviewed with one who made such disparaging comments I was stunned silent. He got laid off a few years ago. HAHA!) But this is academia, so things are all kinds of non-standard.

My ops team is predominantly female, which is only ever an issue when we go out for drinks and our lone male co-worker has to listen to us talk about shoes, bags, and Daniel Craig's abs.