2018-01-26 - 8:29 p.m.

I attended WonderWoman Tech Conference in Washington DC today which was quite a privalege,
even thought I feel like an imposter in this world of values misaligned with what I think is truly important; even though I was reading the book I purchased for my son as his belated Christmas gift , ISHMAEL , on the Loudoun Commuter bus ride to and from, and for the hour prior (As I arrived actually an hour and a half early... mainly as read the schedule of when the bus leaves and saw it left at 6:05 so hustled to get on that bus

and in my ADD BRAIN it did not occur to me to read further to see when the LATER buses actually left and arrived...as when got home looked and could have caught a later one and been on time...

NO I just wanted to leave early and have time just in case I got lost or what not.. and when saw that bus was soon didn't read further but hustled to make it.

IT was fine...
I was up at 4ish anyway. I was glad I decided not to color my hair at that hour of the morn but settle with the bad hair I have had for months now.

The silver grey roots are kinda growing on me....
starting to like them, along with the purple growing out..

So I began and ended my day (As about to curl up with Ishmael by Daniel Quinn) reading about how backward our world is

But in the middle part of my day throughly enjoyed the tech conference OF this world we are in.

It really was pretty marvelous.

I had many inspiring conversations and met many remarkably talented smart women.

I bought my daughter a bracelet with binary code that says "I am Equal" and she acted very disinterested. (It also has a key to take an HTML coding class and as expected she flippantly said "I can already take HTML classes when I want." AH fifteen.... this too shall pass....the age of disdain for parents, even when they do something a kid secretly thinks really is kinda cool)

Made me disappointed....especially as it was $50 for the bracelet with coding class which is really out of my budget (as the budget for discretionary spending SHOULD BE ZERO rather than a NEGATIVE... which is the way I view it when I use a credit card! GOing into the red should NOT be an option EVER..... CE la vie...I splurged and just want my 15 yr old to be happy and OK and its so damn hard to TELL IF SHE IS as she is on her computer and plugged in so darn often...

So after coming home and getting no interest in hearing of the conference from geeky girl, I took the puppy for a lovely long walk, looked at the stars this lovely clear night, and the moon and am ready for bed after a wonderful day.

I just checked social media to see what people posted.

I found this Twitter. DARN missed this particular accessibilty talk (I was in a round table convo about disruptive AI innovation that happened at the same time and I remember being really torn which I wanted to hear more- but disruptive tech won over accessibility although the later is truly a passion of mine.)

The former is more a NEED of the space I am working in, and once I am comfortable I understand its current dysfunction really well then I won't hold back in criticism and encouraging of completely shifting the paradigms.

There is so much inefficiency and lack of accountability.

In fact a lawsuit over sexual harassment was just filed at my company. The thing that strikes me is not that the company is not a good place for women to work

BUT

that the allegations likely happened NOT Because it is a culture that promotes or tolerates such misogony if aware of it-- IT IS NOT the corporate culture of such,

BUT RATHER because it is a corporate culture of complete individual AUTONOMY
TRUST IN EMPLOYEES
*which does nurture innovation at times

yet ALSO is sadly a culture of LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
and responsibility
so that same freedom which spurs innovation is the same freedom that allows bad actors to do things unchecked like sexually assault a female co-worker.

I am HAPPY with where I work and the current corporate culture. (AS it has evolved and have to say much better than the last fortune 100 company I worked for , where frankly I was sexually assaulted and reported it to HR and to be honest think all that resulted was I was then "suspect". That along with the fact I developed training to assist people in learning how to request ADA accomodations did not seem very *apprechiated* by that company! There seemed to be a *corrolation* between those events and the efforts to document every mistake I ever made at work to then get rid of me.

Just SAD one bad apple so royally embarasses the rest of the good people and somehow went unchecked so it seems. They just need to straighten up and pay more attention

BE MORE MINDFUL of what is going on under their own noses.

OH yeah... here is the first hash tag found from the conference when searching for #weareinnovators

I saw this gal sitting at the table next to me and never did chat with her and am sorry missed her presentation. Too tired to see what else is out there ... and I saw it live so leaving it at this.

https://twitter.com/raqueldesigns?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

The day was good, but also intense. A woman talked of her horrific experience of "taking on the man" And losing her career, her house, her rep....

all because she was a victim of abuse
#METOO and because

SHE WAS BRAVE enough to fight it.

You lose all in the fight and then get to the point of having nothing more whatsoever to risk therefore you are in fact the absolutely MOST THREATENING To an abuser who knows inherently if you have nothing more to risk you have NO NEED TO SELF PROTECT AND OBVISCATE TRUTH

YOU HAVE NO INCENTIVE TO KEEP SILENT

YOU HAVE EVERY INCENTIVE TO KEEP DILIGENTLY FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE

So many have too many other people dependent on them and cant risk giving up so called "stability" in this world to face those who are abusing others in their positions of power.

SO I was happy to see this one brave woman speak up and tell her story despite the challenge and pain of doing so.

It was exhausting and emotionally draining just listening to her story

And people sometimes do not want such discomfort
SO KUDOS to this WONDER WOMEN TECH CONFERENCE

for EMBRACING OUR DISCOMFORT
to indeed make the world a better place.

Only when that is done can TRUE INNOVATION actually happen.

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION which shifts ALL The paradigms.

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