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Sometime last year I bought this book for $1.90 online, specifically because--I gotta be transparent here--I thought it was freaking hilarious. However, after what I thought was going to be a pure-lulz read, I actually found myself with a lot of thoughts. "Y2k For Women" :(1/n)
Firstly: this woman is genuinely hilarious. She& #39;s gotta be a bit more self-aware than my first glance at the cover gave her credit for. Gems like this corona prepper deja-vu:
This passage I found genuinely sobering. I want you guys to remember this is coming from an evangelical, happily married, gender-roles-are-sacred type writer. How was it not obvious to me why this book might have been written and sold to women worldwide?
She calls her self unskilled or "not a techie" a lot, but consistently, I find evidence that she& #39;s parsed whatever jargon/buzzwords she was getting from the industry at the time into something that would turn this situation into a manageable risk assessment for homemakers.
The further I read, the more I realize: Y2K was confusing as shit. Datetimes were a real issue. At this moment, I& #39;m afraid I have to interject with a tidbit from this morning& #39;s exploration of Mayan time-tracking and date formatting--the juxtaposition is too good. "Long Count" is:
Mesoamerican spacetime astronomy magicians had our ass BEAT about a thousand+ years before memory meant storage and not ritual/story-telling. The logic was written long before our COBOL programs ever even laid eyes on a timestamp.
Anyway. Back to Karen. Karen S. Anderson, the evangelical house wife and sociocultural/Y2K expert. What a strange mirroring here in metaphor: ancient languages, calendar keeping, hieroglyphic interpretation after the fact--but it& #39;s all just about about legacy code issues. Woah
Did y& #39;all who write code for a living know people could explain our bullshit this way? Like, we know it& #39;s dense and inaccessible to a lot of people, but did you ever imagine the Karen S. Andersons of the world would have to explain it like this? *Have* to?
The next few images from the book I want to share without commentary, because they& #39;re remarkable. Truly. Karen is so above those camper/Rambo preppers she described earlier in the book -- this is valuable documentation for disasters anytime. Peep food storage checklist:
And documentation/reference for portable power/generators...
Finally, this one. I can& #39;t thank God enough for women such as Karen S, (or @carlyfindlay) who are willing to work to advocate for disabled lives. My brother has non-verbal autism and is fully dependent on caretakers every day. He is my world. I can& #39;t.
Can& #39;t let my girl Karen off the hook entirely though. Anderson, who by all signs at this point is a legit disaster preparedness expert, wanted to throw this in alongside food storage and home surgery. Karen, if you& #39;re out there, this is a roast. Ur being roasted.
"Home decorating for Y2K" is the magical headline I wanted and needed when I bought this book, but In all seriousness, I& #39;m really impressed with Anderson& #39;s work. I found myself grateful for the perspective from an "outsider". Tech is a bubble at times and this is...not that. Lol.
