Author Archives

Mary is a women in tech activist, a programmer, a writer, and a sometime computational linguist. She writes at puzzling.org. Her previous projects include co-founding the Ada Initiative and major contributions to the Geek Feminism blog. She's @me_gardiner on Twitter.

• While we were sleeping: the 78th Down Under Feminists Carnival!

  By Mary on 2014-12-09

  

  All the details on the latest edition and how to submit to the next-next one!

• Vale Stella Young

  By Mary on 2014-12-08 • ( 5 )

  

  Australian writer, comedian and disability activist Stella Young died suddenly on Saturday, December 6. I loved Stella’s writing, and I’m really sad. Goodbye Stella.

• Welcome back! Extra special open thread!

  By Mary on 2014-12-08 • ( 24 )

  Surprised to not see a “Maintainence Mode” page when visiting hoydenabouttown.com? Us too! But we’ve busted out of our shared server environment and stopped overloading their system and are stretching out luxuriously on our virtual private server.

• Sydney Hoyden Meetup: Sunday October 26 in Camperdown

  By Mary on 2014-10-21 • ( 4 )

  

  There will be a Hoyden meetup at Victoria Park Camperdown on Sunday October 26 at 1pm. See you there!

• Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi’s first episode discussion thread

  By Mary on 2014-08-23 • ( 19 )

  

  No longer HaT’s Dr Who abstainer, I saw the 50th anniversary episode, the last Christmas episode and I have every intention of watching the first Capaldi episode and seeing how it goes. Thus, a thread!

  Once the ABC and BBC broadcasts begin, this thread should be assumed to contain spoilers.

• Happy 100th, Galactic Suburbia!

  By Mary on 2014-05-25 • ( 4 )

  

  Australian speculative fiction podcast Galactic Suburbia has just celebrated their 100th episode. I… found a picture of a cake! On the Internet!

• Australian childcare; a very partial wishlist

  By Mary on 2014-04-03 • ( 9 )

  

  I was inspired by my baby suddenly being given a daycare place, and my ambivalence about placing her in daycare as a young baby, to remember all my frustrations with the Australian pre-school daycare system, and to suggest what, from my perspective, would be considerable improvements.

• Fetal personhood in NSW: “an issue that should be of serious concern to all of us”

  By Mary on 2014-03-11

  

  Health lawyer Julie Hamblin opposes fetal personhood in NSW on the grounds that even limited recognition of fetal personhood, combined with the legal grey area of abortion access, would to allow someone to challenge access to abortion in NSW.

• Movie Thread — The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (SPOILERS)

  By Mary on 2013-12-26 • ( 7 )

  

  Because it appears to have been days since our last media thread, here’s one for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which opened today in Australia. Spoilers welcome.

• Xmas open thread

  By Mary on 2013-12-22 • ( 13 )

  Feel free to talk services, observances, decorations, rushing, shopping, gifts, surprises, feasting and family traditions heart-warming and otherwise. If anyone making other seasonal observances wants to join the thread, please do.