#nowreading
"The Welfare Marketplace: Privatization and Welfare Reform" by Mary Bryna Sanger.

Hello! I'm Stephen. Here's a real #intro:

I've been a lawyer for ~8 years. For 6 years I represented marginalized folks in Ohio's courts, mostly appeals. For the last 2 years I've worked in systems and data for public defenders. Now I live in NYC and work in the Bronx.

I work with #data, #ethicaltech, process/systems improvement, #policy, #communications, #cjreform, and where all of that intersects. Let me know if you want to talk about any of that! (Also into #maps, #scifi, #hiking, my cat)

Update: saw the famous duck again. Still very beautiful, and still tons of people crowded around whenever he appears.

The mandarin duck was hiding when I visited today, but these fellas were happy enough to pose.

Loot at this shirt!!

https://kirtlandii.com/collections/mandarin-duck/products/mandarin-duck-nyc-skyline-t-shirt

"Political activism here [in Appalachia] is ever-brimming with life-and-death urgency... 'Ours is a region that makes graveyards for mountains, because companies have made our mountains into graveyards,' wrote queer historian Elizabeth Catte."

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/11/queer-appalachia-radical-politics-south.html

!!! "Jim Henson's 'Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas' Is Coming to Theaters"

https://mentalfloss.com/article/563578/jim-henson-emmet-otters-jug-band-christmas-returning-to-theaters

This is the place where I work, and I'm very proud of the things we do here.

"The Courts See a Crime. These Lawyers See a Whole Life."

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/11/12/the-courts-see-a-crime-these-lawyers-see-a-whole-life

I just had my first ever Arkansas Black apple, and it was absolutely lovely. Anyone else a fan?

Happy Monday! Eggs and corned beef hash!

I’ve been working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.

Fair enough I guess.

This was also a great opportunity to write my first all-staff email at my new job. I've mentioned it before: our office has a weird relationship with all-staff emails. And mine was legitimate, short, and informative! What a good day.

We just did our first EVER deployment of new code and database structure to our case management system as a team (all previous updates were by one now-departed guy). This was my first real thing as project manager, and I am so relieved it's over. Playing this on repeat while working wasn't necessarily relieving the tension. But it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqBDw_iSPuY

I'm eating an apple, and sometimes when I eat apples I think about my grandfather. He was kind, but his kindness took weird shapes sometimes. He used to bring me and my siblings fruit when he visited on the weekends, and he could perfectly slice and core an apple with just a pocket knife. He also spoke fluent Czech.

Grandpa never taught me anything about either of these skills. Instead, he and grandma would talk in Czech whenever they wanted to hide something from us.

For a decade my job has been providing services to poor and marginalized people, both through government and through non-profits. "Politics" can be exciting, and it's really good to participate and move the needle wherever you can, but believe when I say: pretty much no matter the outcome, the work will still be there and still need done.

- It will be both better and worse than we expected in different ways.
- It will mostly not be very surprising.
- There will be some incremental victories and a lot of work left to do.
- It was, and still is, important for all of us to do our best.

(And to save a bit of time, my predictions also apply to nearly all elections going forward!)

Enjoying some sunshine.

It’s not as shocking, but exciting to me: I also saw my first ever palm warbler today.