The Attic Community Workshop

ScreenConf #2 11/8/2014!

Sat, 08 Nov 2014 02:17:13 GMT

Posted by: audrakj

Here's the play list for tomorrow's ScreenConf (an idea so nice we're doing it twice--and probably more in the future!)

Raquel Velez: "You Can Do What With Math Now?" (Web Directions Code 2014)
Elise Huard: "Writing a game in Haskell" (StrangeLoop 2014)
Julie Pagano: "It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Battling the Invisible Monsters in Tech" (PyCon US 2014)
Katherine Scott: "Hello Physical World: A Crash Course on the Internet of Things" (PyCon US 2014)
Jessica Kerr: "Concurrency options on the JVM" (StrangeLoop 2014)
Willow Brugh: "Technology as a Means to Equality" (CascadiaJS 2014)

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ScreenConf 8/23!

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 21:28:22 GMT

Posted by: audrakj

This past Saturday we did a little ScreenConf, where we watched videos some talks from technical conferences! If you couldn't make it but would like to follow along, here's the list of talks:

Cascadia Ruby Conf 2012 Therapeutic Refactoring by Katrina Owen

Jessica Kerr "Functional Principles for Object Oriented Development"

Wat. A lightning talk by Gary Bernhardt from CodeMash 2012

Cascadia Ruby Conf 2012 A Taste of Prolog by Aja Hammerly

CascadiaJS 2014 - Cat-DNS: a DNS server that resolves everything to cats - Monica Dinculescu

Farewell and Welcome Home: Python in Two Genders -- Naomi Ceder

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Attic Reads July - September Schedule

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 22:56:14 GMT

Posted by: kristinleigh

We've picked the next set of books for our informal Attic Reads book club!

Attic Reads is intended to be a fairly relaxed chance to discuss books through a feminist lens, featuring a mix of newer works of fiction and non-fiction and parts of older feminist "canon" as well as some lighter YA featuring female characters and authors.

We meet at 7pm on the 4th Friday of each month for discussion, and there is a casual reading/quiet work "introverts'" night at 7pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month.

You can find these listed on our public calendar and Meetup group as well, and we'll be sending out reminders via our Twitter!

We will be continuing our theme of alternating between a lighter, more uplifting read and something somewhat more "serious" or tragic month-to-month.

3rd Quarter Book Schedule:

• July 25 - Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich (Meetup link | Goodreads book page)

• August 22 - Zarah the Windseeker, by Nnedi Okorafor (Meetup link | Goodreads book page)

• September 26 - How to Suppress Women's Writing, by Joanna Russ (Meetup link | Goodreads book page)

Attic members can get out any necessary liveblogging/quote dropping/note-taking/etc in our Slack #bookclub channel, and feel free to update the to-read/suggestion list on our member wiki.

Previous book discussions have covered:
The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow Series by Kirsten Miller
The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities by Ching-In Chen

And we will be meeting June 27 to discuss Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

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Peep sushi and egg dying!

Tue, 13 May 2014 05:46:22 GMT

Posted by: audrakj

On Easter Sunday, a bunch of us got together for some egg dying and peep sushi. What is peep sushi, you might ask? Feast your eyes on this spread:

The rice crispies stand in for the rice. Fruit by the foot and fruit roll ups make great seaweed binding. Vivisected peeps make for great fish stand ins! That cake frosting makes a matching wasabi and honeycomb takes the place of ginger. Candy corn, sour gummy worms, and candy eyes can be used as accents or fillings. There's even little colored sprinkles for fish eggs and mint garnish!

( More pictures! More fun! )

I hope you liked this peek into our Easter Sunday! Keep an eye out for other Attic events, if you like what you saw here.

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Pictures from the 4/27 Cross-Stitch/Embroidery on Paper Workshop!

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:40:34 GMT

Posted by: kristinleigh

Sunday I hosted an Attic workshop for people interested in learning to cross-stitch, or people who just wanted to sew on something different than conventional cloth. It was a lot of fun, and we made some pretty cool things!

I'll definitely be doing this again at some point, whether as another workshop with a designated "project" like this one or as a "sewing circle" type thing - the Attic has a whole box of supplies including embroidery floss and canvas for us to keep using. :D

( Pictures under the cut! )

Thank you to jetts for taking photos!

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Attic Reads April - June Schedule

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 05:22:10 GMT

Posted by: kristinleigh

We've picked the next set of books for our informal Attic Reads book club!

Attic Reads is intended to be a fairly relaxed chance to discuss books through a feminist lens, featuring a mix of newer works of fiction and non-fiction and parts of older feminist "canon" as well as some lighter YA featuring female characters and authors.

We meet at 7pm on the 4th Friday of each month for discussion, and there is an casual reading night at 7pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month.

You can find these listed on our public calendar as well, and we'll be sending out reminders via our Twitter!

Right now we're experimenting with a format where we alternate monthly between more "heavy" fare and "lighter," generally YA reads.

2nd Quarter Book Schedule:

• April 25 - Inside the Shadow City (Kiki Strike #1) by Kirsten Miller

• May 23 - The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities by Ching-In Chen

• June 27 - Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Attic members can get out any necessary liveblogging/quote dropping/note-taking/etc in our Slack #bookclub channel, and feel free to update the to-read/suggestion list on our member wiki.

For those interested, here's a selection from our suggestion list for future meetings - please recommend anything we've missed in the comments!

( Read more... )

Previous book discussions have covered The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild and Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine.

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January 19: Game day featuring MACHINE OF DEATH

Sat, 11 Jan 2014 22:26:58 GMT

Posted by: memnus

I recently received the brand new MACHINE OF DEATH card game, and would love to have folks to play it with, so will be hosting a game day at the Attic! January 19th, starting at noon, going until people get bored and/or hungry.

For those not familiar with MoD, it started with a throwaway joke in Dinosaur Comics, then grew into two collections of short stories based around a machine that can predict, with 100% accuracy, how a subject will die, given only a blood sample. In the card game, players are a team of assassins that have their targets' predictions and are simply tasked with making them come true.

I will also have RoboRally, Dominion, and whatever else fits in my bag. Feel free to bring other games as well.

If the Seahawks win today (scores so far point to a good chance of that), there will be a football game at 3:30, so travel accordingly. It may be wise to wrap up early to avoid the rush leaving town.

This event is open to the public. Directions on our website.

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Sunday 1/5 from 1pm-4:30pm: How to hem your jeans!

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 02:25:27 GMT

Posted by: cme

We're hosting a class on hemming your jeans! We have one spot available for someone who needs to borrow a sewing machine and three for people who can bring them. (But if you have the time free and don't have a machine, let us know- we might be able to work something out.)

The class is 3.5 hours long with a half-hour break in the middle for snacks (provided) and stretching your legs. We're asking for a $25 fee to cover materials and food, but if you can't do that, let us know and we'll work something out. Details are at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-hem-your-jeans-tickets-9914751288

This class is intended for people who are comfortable operating a sewing machine. If that's not you, don't worry- we're having a "Meet your sewing machine" class in late January which will prepare you for another run of the Jeans class in February!

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Screening Tomorrow: "An anthropological introduction to YouTube"

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 22:30:56 GMT

Posted by: cme

Just a reminder that we're watching a movie tomorrow! Please join us!

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Come see an awesome movie with us!

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:05:03 GMT

Posted by: cme

Seattle Attic will be screening a documentary about YouTube on Friday, September 29, from 7 pm to 9 pm.

This presentation is an hour-long history of YouTube and a discussion of the anthropologically exciting things about web 2.0 (the interactive internet) by Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State University. It touches on major YouTube cultural sensations, and even features the amazing fanvid "Us" by blimvisible.

For a 4:33 teaser, try "The Machine is Us/ing Us" from the same guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

The video itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

"Us" by blimvisible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxHKgQyGx0

We'll watch the presentation on the Attic's TV and have time for discussion after. We have an extensive supply of tea; please feel free to bring snacks or soda!
For more info, please email info@seattleattic.com or check seattleattic.com for travel information and details on accessing the space.

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Talk at the Attic tonight on usability and static analysis tools

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:01:14 GMT

Posted by: foxfirefey

Brittany Johnson will be speaking at the Attic tonight (at roughly 7pm) about her research. In her words:

A little about me; I'm a Ph.D. student at NC State University in Raleigh, NC (starting my 3rd year). I work under Emerson Murphy-Hill and Sarah Heckman in the Developer Liberation Front. My research area is software engineering/software development tools. I had a paper at ICSE this past year ("Why Don't Software Developers Use Static Analysis Tools to Find Bugs?") and was just awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to begin in the Fall.

Our lab is focused on improving the usability of program analysis tools, such as static analysis and refactoring tools, so that developers want to (and do) use these tools. My research began with an investigation into why developers do and don't use static analysis tools (such as FindBugs) to improve the quality of their code. One of my findings was that difficulty understanding the feedback they are given is one barrier to use for many developers. This brought me to my current project where I am investigating the expressiveness and scalability of program analysis tool notifications. I will be talking about my research and the direction we see it going.

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