fred_mouse

Today, I managed to finish some of the previously started things (two reading tasks), but I balanced this by adding two more:

6. read the Hugo nominated short stories (three read, and they are glorious)
7. make another pussy hat to hand over to a friend who is collecting them for a friend of a friend for a women's march happening in Alice Springs.

This morning I spent reading -- this was approximately the plan -- while artisanat took youngest to skating. I got caught up on the judging (no highly rated short stories, sadly), started on reading the short stories for the Hugos (artisanat are sharing a ballot - I'm doing the parts of the reading that I like, and he is doing the parts he likes, for a single vote, because only one of us is going to Helsinki), and finished Running the Nullabor, which I reviewed earlier.

In the late afternoon, we ended up with F&D and their younger two kids, as well as F's mother coming over - we sat on the couch and crafted, had Chinese takeaway for dinner, and watched Hidden Figures (this is also part of the Hugo voting). I really liked the movie - nicely understated in so many ways, didn't really push the story. There was a romance, but it was just a gently flowing one, and while there was a wedding mentioned, there was a scene of the bride getting ready, and then we got to skip the rest. And the rest was science, and pushing the boundaries, and how amazing the three protagonists were to end up where they did from where they started. Petitioning to go to night classes because the school was still segregated, stealing a book from the white library because 'those books are paid for with my taxes, and you can't steal what you already own) so as to learn to program the electronic computer that will steal the jobs of you and your co-workers, pushing back against being 'just the computer' when it is your maths solving the problems. My guess is that the racism is downplayed - sketched in with a few scenes that worked well as story, but it was such a moment when Mrs White Woman said 'Mrs Vaughan' instead of 'Dorothy'.