Once a Technical Woman - Always a Technical Woman

I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference this past week In Baltimore. The core audience for the conference was computer science or information technology students, academics, and early career professionals. I’m much further along - being in the field for 40 years and now starting down other paths. Still - the sessions prompted some reflection on my part and I’ll be doing several blog posts over the next week as I get my thoughts organized and written down.

The first key take away (for me) is that once a technical woman….always a technical woman. 

It doesn’t matter if I am working in the field or if I have gone on to other things. Being technical is entwined in everything I do. It’s blended with the way I choose to live and incorporated into my role as a matriarch. Here are some things that have happened since I left my computer-related career.

  • I’ve transitioned to use my Kindle or other electronic media for an increasing amount of my reading. My piles of physical books are going to be a challenge to finish!
  • I no longer use paper grocery lists. Instead I use the OurGroceries app on my Kindle (and PC).
  • I still enjoy science and technology articles….they dominate the news feeds I have set up for myself. It is a luxury to set all the priorities based on my own interests rather than making choices based on what I needed to learn for my career or employer. The ‘gleanings’ for my Saturday post come from the news feeds I read regularly and always include quite a few technology or science related items.
  • When I looked through the courses offered on Coursera there are so many of interest….I still tend to migrate toward technical ones. It’s exciting to have this new way to take a class. I’ve signed up for one that will start in a few weeks. The price is certainly right (free)!
  • If I had to choose a favorite STEM (Science, technology, engineering, math) topic at this moment it would be botany. I haven’t done the stats - but I image almost half my blog posts have some linkage to plants.
  • When I travel - I enjoy knowing science and technology related info about the places I visit (geology, physical geography, flora and fauna, power generation and meteorology) 

So - I am pretty sure that for me

Once a technical woman….always a technical woman

is true now and for the rest of my life. Later this week I’ll talk about a second reflection prompted by the conference: the distressing statistics about women in science and technology…..and why we should care.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 6, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Sunrise time lapse at Havre de Grace

Earthworm invasion: Aliens causing more harm than good? - Did you know that there are different kinds of earthworms….and they influence what kinds of plant grow?

America’s Greenest Presidents - Teddy Roosevelt tops the list….but Richard Nixon is second!

Celebrating the Remarkable Mark Catesby - the man that published the first scientific description of the New World’s plants and animals….his first trip to America was in 1712. Several of his illustrated books are available online via Botanicus

6 Futuristic Sci-Fi Gadgets That Actually Exist - hurray for self-driving cars!

15 Ways to Enjoy the National Park System This Fall

2012 time lapse of Aurora Borealis from Denali (video)

100 Million to Die by 2030 If World Fails to Act on Climate - and more than 90% of those deaths will occur in developing countries

Nantucket Cranberry Cake - I’m going to make this rather than cranberry sauce this year!

Is it green to be green? - infographic comparing costs of ‘green’ vs ‘non-green’ choices over a life time

National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Now that summer is over - it’s a great time to visit museums. On a recent Saturday, I enjoyed the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. I still bought tickets for the IMAX film I wanted to see when I first got there (just before 10:30) before wandering around to look at the planes, rockets, gliders, and shuttle. There are docent led tours periodically but I had been to the museum enough times to enjoy looking at things on my own. The weather was sunny so the view from the tower toward the Blue Ridge and Dulles Airport was quite good. Enjoy the slide show of my favorite pictures below!

US Botanic Garden - Insectivorous Plants

The insectivorous plants exhibit at the US Botanic Garden runs through October 8th. We went to see it this past weekend. The exhibit is a clever mix of sculpture and real plants. I can remember being fascinated with Venus Flytrap plants as a child. The pitcher plants (at right and included in the slide show) were the highlights of this exhibit for me - particularly the outdoor sculpture grouping of them. The sculpture of the Venus Flytrap was mechanized; push a button and it snapped shut!

There are several more posts from the Botanic Garden visit…they’ll come out over the next week or so. I posted about the landmark building models in the conservatory at the US Botanic Garden last November.

10 Years Ago – In October 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the September 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10. 

  1. A Florida man who was lost at sea for more than two months was rescued 40 miles off the coast
  2. Canada plans to create 10 huge new national parks and five marine conservation areas over the next five years to protect unique landscapes and animals 
  3. Enrollment at major Canadian schools by U.S. citizens has risen by at least 86 percent over the past three years, to about 5,000 students.
  4. King Tut - an abnormal curvature of the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, a condition associated with scoliosis and a rare disorder called Klippel-Feil syndrome, which makes sufferers look as if they have a short neck.
  5. Sniper keeps D.C. area on edge
  6. Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize
  7. Peruvian archeologists have discovered a complete mummified human skeleton in the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu
  8. Bacteria found in a 2,000-year-old piece of cheese could be the final evidence that this food was a continuous source of infectious disease in the ancient Roman world.
  9. All 115 hostages killed in the raid that ended a Moscow theater standoff died of health problems stemming from the gas used by Russian forces to end the siege
  10. About 150,000 years ago, an anomalous ice age was triggered by an increasingly salty Mediterranean Sea, a development that's occurring today and may start new ice sheet growth in the next few decades

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 29, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Speaking of Science: September 2012′s selection of notable quotes

Gender Bias when Hiring Scientists - Both male and female researchers are less likely to hire a female candidate than a male candidate with the same experience.

Pictures: Fire "Tornado" Spotted—How Do They Form? - from National Geographic

Flatworld Knowledge Catalog - online that textbooks that can be read online for free

Chia Seeds - more ideas from VegKitchen on incorporating chia seeds into your diet every day

Cloud Collector’s Reference - from the Cloud Appreciation Society

Lighter-than-air craft rise again - made possible by advances in materials and computer control systems…potential for transporting freight, big enough to be a hotel, casino or spa

Snacking Outside the Box - geared to children…but these are good for adults too

Of Frogs and Embryos - micrographs that could be art

Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. - Book cover designs you’ll recognize and how they came into being

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 22, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Another Way to Think about Learning - from Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop per Child Foundation

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #22 - from the Wild Bird Trust

Antlion  - otherwise known as doodlebugs…find out what the ‘bug’ at the bottom of that conical pit really looks like?

Antietam 'Death Studies' Changed How We Saw War - 1862…. photography of the aftermath of the battle at Antietam

Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

New Test House to Generate More Energy than It Uses - a stereotypical suburban house that can generate as much energy as it needs to run

U.S., Russia Move Closer To Sharing Their "Beringian Heritage" - Beringia National Park in Russia to be linked with Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alasak

Crews Uncover Massive Roman Mosaic in Southern Turkey - 1,600 square feet of mosaic….from a Roman bath

Rx Guide for High Blood Pressure - BP medications are currently failing millions. The author of a new book on the topic says “Despite their best intentions many physicians continue to place their hypertensive patients on blood pressure medications, drug combinations or doses that may not be the best treatment available to them”

Give peace (and quiet) a chance - Is there any place to hear the early morning bird song without the backdrop of traffic?

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 15, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Decoding the Black Death: Anthropologist Finds Clues in Medieval Skeletons - how ‘health at death’ can be determined from skeletons…the impact of disease (like the Black Death) on populations (health of survivors, genetic diversity)

Hadley Crater Provides Deep Insight into Martian Geology - craters within Hadley….there is still a lot to learn about Mars

Fungi Need Some Love, Too - Why? They are nature’s recyclers, food, and source of drugs such as antibiotics. We need them.

CHOCOLATE-PEANUT BUTTER “TRUFFLES” - these sound decadant but 'healthy' too - put on the list for upcoming holidays if you don’t make them this week!

15 Things I Never Knew About Health & Fitness - from Marlo Thomas

7-Point Action Plan for Repowering U.S. - If the US wants to remain a leader rather than become a follower in the world - we are going to have to start down this path to ‘energy independence’ rather than reverting to the strategy of the 20th century (i.e. heavy dependence on oil and coal)

Pumpkin donuts - these are baked….and sound yummy. I’m going to make them in mini-Bundt pans

Good Food on a Tight Budget - The guide includes a food list (by food group), tips, recipes…and more.

British Health Open for Research - Giving researchers access to the health records of 52 million people in England could prove invaluable for studying disease. Finally - some truly large scale analysis will be done. How many drugs and procedures that are widely utilized now will withstand the analysis?

Eyes: a Window to Diagnosis - A possible quick and easy screening for Parkinson’s, ADHD and FASD…maybe other neurological functional differences.

Steps….and More Steps

It takes steps…and more steps to transition from a mainly sedentary to an active life style. Yes - some cardio workout is required too but if you haven’t increased your overall level of activity yet- focusing on ramping up the number of steps is a better place to start along a path toward improved physical fitness and healthier life style. That’s what this post is about. Think about making the transition by integrating more activity into the way you live every day.

Wearing a pedometer is a good first step. It provides a metric that can be used in setting goals; having a measurable goal that aligns with the ultimate objective (of becoming more active) is a motivator for many people. 7,000 steps a day was my initial goal. Now, my goal is 12,000. You’ll figure out pretty quickly that grocery shopping takes more steps than gardening; vacuuming takes more steps that cleaning a bath tub. Gardening or cleaning a bathtub are still good activities in your plan to integrate more physical activity into your daily routine, they just won’t count as very many steps.

Graduating from a simple pedometer to something like a Fitbit  means the level of activity can be tracked throughout the day. I wanted to reduce the length of sedentary blocks of time and the Fitbit has graphs the show the steps all through the day. Airplane or car travels are about the only time when I have prolonged sedentary times any more. Moving - even for just a few minutes - every 30-60 minutes makes a positive improvement in how well I feel at the end of the day.

Making previously sedentary times into active ones is a good strategy. Almost all my reading and talking on the phone is done while pacing, bouncing on my Swopper , walking on a treadmill or bouncing on an exercise ball. I don’t watch much television but the same activities could be used then too.

Taking the stairs rather that the elevator. If there are multiple flights of stairs this could be the bridge to a cardio regime - but here I’m mainly talking about the one floor at a time. The current Fitbit  measures ‘floors climbed’ to provide a metric. If there are stairs in your house - the initial goal of 10 per day may be quite easy.

Becoming more active happens with steps....and then more steps....and never going back to the sedentary ways of yesterday.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 8, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Stalking Sharks - researchers monitor movement of sharks off California’s coast

In Bike-Friendly Copenhagen, Highways For Cyclists  - one third of the people of Copenhagen ride their bikes to work or school…and they are extending the existing infrastructure out to the suburbs.

Birds hold 'funerals' for dead - experiments with western scrub jays

Face of America: Spirit of South Florida Montage - high energy montage of clips from Wolf Trap's upcoming Face of America: Spirit of South Florida, set to appear at Wolf Trap National Park (article at National Parks Traveler here)

Raw Veggie ‘noodle’ dishes - a step beyond spaghetti squash. If you don’t want to invest in a spiral slicer, try putting your veggies horizontally in your regular food processor and using the grating blade; the opening in my processor is large enough to make 3-4 inch ‘noodles’ this way (see zucchini and sweet potato noodles at left)

Learn the Top Native Plants for Your Backyard - beautiful and usually require less maintenance!

Grand Canyon National Park - the guide from National Parks Traveler.

Wow! NASA Video Shows 'Mind-Bogglingly Gorgeous' Solar Eruption

Green Money-Saving Tips: Cheap Ways to Be Environmentally Friendly - 10 tips (scroll over the images in the slide show to see the accompanying text). The 8th one (make your own cleaning supplies) includes of link to recipes for cleaners!

Cheers, Voyager: 35 Years of Exploration - the most distant human-made object was launched 35 years ago on Sept. 5th

Snail Mail

There aren’t nearly as many instances these days that I send something through the mail. There is a lot that can be done electronically that we used to do via mail. Even gifts can be ordered online and sent directly. The majority of items I receive in the mail are catalogs or ads that are sorted directly into the paper recycle pile. There are the occasional notifications and coupons for items I actually want to buy; it’s a challenge to find them amongst the things I am not interested in at all.

The only snail mail cards and letters I send these days are to individuals that, for one reason or another, are not online. Reverting to an older style of communicating takes a little extra thought - maybe a little more time - but it has the reward of overcoming a barrier that could end a relationship too soon. It has a dimension that email does not have - the physical paper or cards, envelopes, address labels, and stamps. There is tremendous variety. My favorite elements of variety are the stamps celebrating the 200th anniversary of statehood for Arizona, Louisiana, and New Mexico.   

10 Years Ago – In September 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the September 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.    

  1. Jordan is hoping to save the Dead Sea from dying completely by channeling in water from its large and less-salty southern cousin, the Red Sea
  2. Millions of Muscovites have been advised to stay indoors as thick smoke from forest fires shrouded the city.
  3. A Pennsylvania judge has imposed an injunction against Hershey Foods from selling itself
  4. Military jets have resumed round-the-clock patrols over New York and Washington as the anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches.
  5. World Security Tight Ahead of 9/11
  6. Milk and other dairy products can be as effective as some conventional fungicides in controlling powdery mildew in vineyards
  7. Using DNA extracted from the dung of wild elephants in Africa, biologists have determined that three different types of elephants exist on the African continent
  8. The Pyramid Rover -- a robot the size of a toy train -- took two hours to crawl through a narrow shaft in the Great Pyramid outside Cairo, drill through a door at the end and push through a camera to reveal: another door.
  9. A top Russian space official has proposed temporarily shutting down the International Space Station (ISS) because the cash-strapped country can no longer pay its bills
  10. "Vampire" appliances cost consumers $3 billion a year -- or about $200 per household. 

 

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 1, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Living Against the Clock; Does Loss of Daily Rhythms Cause Obesity? - disruption of circadian rhythms considered along with diet and exercise

Dr. Gary Greenberg - The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things - TED talk looking a microscopic views of things

A Pachyderm's Ditty Prompts an Elephantine Debate - Why do we have music? Is it an evolutionary accident?

Snakes, And the Snake Wranglers Who Love Them - With more drilling for natural gas…there are more places that need to be cleared of snakes (without killing all the snakes)

RAW CHOCOLATE MOUSSE - avocado replaces butter, cream, and eggs…it sounds yummy

Google’s Self-Driving Cars Hit 300,000 Miles - how soon will these be commercially available at a reasonable price…and all over the country?

littleBits - open source, preassembled electronic modules that snap together with magnets to make larger, more complex circuits….play and create with electronics

Avocado Recipes - a collection of things to do with avocados

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs by Art Wolfe ©

What Will Change Most About Our Routine Physicals Over the Next Decade? - a perspective from 3 doctors

Munro’s Light Installations at Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens has a display Bruce Monro’s Light installations through September 29. They are interesting to see in the daytime to understand the technology and then in the dusk/dark to get the full effect of the light. It’s all done with various configurations of LED lights and fiber optics. I’ve put together a slide show of my photos; also check out the links (green font) to see pictures supplied by Longwood Gardens.

The Arrow Spring display includes sprites of light fibers among plantings. They are almost invisible in the daytime but show up like little fountains of water at night. The first installation is at the entrance to the visitor center - large glass spheres with internal spheres. During the day it looks like bubbles within bubbles. At night the fibers inside give changing color. The Field of Light and Forest of Light are both glass spheres with a fiber inside. The Field of Light is reflected in water of a small lake. The snowballs hang from the ceiling of the conservatory. They are glass balls with fiber inside. The Water Towers are made from plastic water bottles and fiber. Their color is more vivid in pictures than on the field - the longer exposure making the colors deeper and more jewel-like.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 25, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

The Secret Life of a Cardboard Box - infographic

Developing Economies At Highest Risk of Climate Change Disasters - resilience outranks risk

3D-Printed Exoskeleton - Engineers at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Philadelphia used a 3-D printer to make a lightweight plastic exoskeleton for a 2-year-old girl named Emma Lavalle.

Slideshow: Echoes of the Ancients - large file but wonderful images of Mesa Verde and other Southwestern US National parks

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #20 - learning about more birds from around the world with each of these postings

Sunflower Party Time - great pictures of the plant and some insects

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano (pictures)

Easy whole grain pumpkin-banana bread - sounds yummy….but I would just double the recipe to use up the whole can of pumpkin

Make Room for (the New) Daddy - Essay and slide show from Marlo Thomas

Renewable Energy’s Growth Over the Past 15 Years - infographic

Learning Something New

Our learning expectations for children are huge…consider setting a similar expectation for yourself. It’s quite a challenge to come up with something as significant as learning to read. Everything else seems like a less significant step but, just like learning to read, it is not as hard as it appears as first. So - forge ahead with the audacity of youth toward whatever new thing you want to learn.

Here are some examples from my own experience:

  • Sometimes learning is enhanced my multi-media. What started out as an interest in botanical prints from the 1800s - looking at books from that era on Botanicus and the Internet Archive, has been supplemented by trips to gardens and classification sites. What a glorious thing the Internet is for finding just the piece of information you are looking for.

  • Sometimes learning is a physical thing. Years ago I decided that it would be better to use my mouse with my left had rather than my right so that I could have a notepad and pen on the right side of my work area (I am right handed). It took about a week to get good at it and a month to be entirely comfortable. Now if feels odd to use a mouse with my right hand.
  • Sometimes learning is via experience. You just have to try it. I’d never dug up iris rhizomes before. I knew in theory how to go about it. The sheer number I found in the old flower bed was a surprise but one I simply dealt with by adjusting the amount of time I took to complete the task. I am looking forward to enjoying the flowers next spring.

The bottom line is that continuing to learn new things all the time is an integral part of living. It’s the way we become resilient to whatever changes come our way!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 18, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #19 - From National Geographic

Prisoners pitch in to save endangered butterfly - Hurray for the Sustainability in Prisons Project

The Story of Stuff - a new movie (“The Story of Change”) has been posted…the others on the site are worth a look/listen too

Easiest Hot Bean Dip - Sounds yummy!

Should Doctors Treat Lack of Exercise as a Medical Condition? Expert Says 'Yes' - it would be great if doctors made this change - prescribe a gradual buildup of exercise rather than medication

An Artificial Retina with the Capacity to Restore Normal Vision - sight is often a challenge for otherwise healthy older people. This approach may be helpful. Hope the clinical trials get going and the technology/treatment becomes available sooner rather than later.

Fall Packages Make National Parks Attractive Destinations - Death Valley, Denali, Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verda, Olympic, Shenandoah, Yellowstone, and Zion….what a line up

How people spend money in America - Any surprises? Maybe the % spent on Transportation and Gasoline was a little surprising.

Andrea Marshall: An up-close look at the majestic manta ray - TED talk

Marianne North Online Gallery - North’s botanical paintings hosted by Kew Gardens; browse by country, plant group, or category

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 11, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

NASA images reveal massive forest die-off from tiny beetle - Before and after satellite pictures of Colorado

Movement Along Fault Line Threatening Cliff Palace At Mesa Verde National Park

Video Sampler Introduces You To The More Than 20 National Parks In Virginia

Zentangles - Get more out of doodling!

Black Drink: Evidence of Ritual Use of Caffeinated Brew at Cahokia - made from a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away

10 Green Ways to Improve Our Cities

Sky-High Design: How To Make A Bird-Friendly Building - tweaks to make modern architecture better for birds

How Olympic athletes' bodies have changed over the last century - an infographic from NPR

The Bison: A National Symbol for All Americans - From National Geographic…the first post in a series about the American Bison

Chart: the world's endangered mammals - From the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The primates are faring the worst with 49% of the species being ‘threatened’ - which means that they are threatened with extinction. Overall - 21% of mammal species are in ‘threatened’ status.

Pictures: Surprising Effects of the U.S. Drought - From National Geographic

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 4, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

How to store produce without plastic - a good reference

Museum of Food Anomalies - Some natural…some contrived

Nadya Andreeva: A healthy lifestyle you can stomach - A tummy exercise for everyone

Visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park With Insider Tips From Friends Of The Smokies -  - This is a recent post about Great Smoky Mountains but the site includes posts on all the parks. One for Theodore Roosevelt National Park has just been posted…check it out as you plan a visit to one of them

What’s the Most Important Thing We Can Do To Take Control Of Our Final Days? - A collection of recommendations from healthcare professionals….also A Discussion of How Doctors - and the rest of us - Prepare for the End

Bedtime Math - making math a fun part of kid’s everyday lives

Rym Baouendi: Learning ecodesign from ancient civilizations - TED video

The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard - El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery

Making Green More Macho - Apply the lessons from the “Don’t Mess with Texas” anti-littering campaign more broadly

Three wonderlands of the American West: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River…in 1912 - read it - or just look at the pictures online at the Internet Archive (see last week’s gleanings for a graphic on how to use the interface to read online). To view the book in a different format, start with the main entry for the book here.

Kindle Fire - 8 Months of Experience

I’ve had my Kindle Fire  since last November - long enough to settle into a pattern of the way I will use it. I’ve experimented with application that I still use occasionally but there are three main ones that have made the device worthwhile for me:

Reading. I’ve read over 100 novels - mostly checked out from the public library. Sometimes I use the highlight feature to mark passages. The Kindle makes it easier to read in poor lighting situations although I find having some ambient light other than the Kindle screen reduces eyestrain. The brightness of the screen makes it more comfortable for me to read without my glasses; this aspect actually makes it a better form than physical books for me. Probably over 90% of my Kindle use is for this activity and I’m finding it challenging to work down my pile of physical books! I also find that I can put it on a music stand and read while I bounce on my Swopper Chair  to get a little exercise while I read.

Grocery list. My husband and I have settled on the OurGroceries app since we can use it from all our devices (including the Kindle) and then I can use it when I am in the store to mark off items as I get them. I don’t spend a huge amount of time in the app but I do use it frequently and those little bits of time add up.

Email. I have one of my email accounts directed to my Kindle so that I can send and receive emails any time I have connectivity. I have reduced the paper I carry with me when I travel because I can simply turn on the Kindle and have all the details. I also send recipes via email to this account since I actually prefer using the Kindle for my recipe to a cook book; the Kindle is less bulky and it stays positioned on the stand much better than a bulky book (I use a stand for it to keep it above the spills and splatters of cooking).

There are times I wish

 

  • it was a bit lighter in weight
  • the screen did not smudge as easily
  • the Marware case was some other color besides black (somehow black tends to blend in with the background making it hard to spot the Kindle on some surfaces)

 

but most of the time I’m just enjoying the device. It has been worth its $199 price tag.