LGBTQIA news! + Activism + Drag show + Mixer

If you’ve read any of my earlier blog posts, you’ve probably seen me mention the LGBTQIA conference–the third annual Lehigh Valley Intercollegiate LGBTQIA conference, actually–coming up this weekend. Kye Allums, the first openly transgender Division 1 NCAA athlete, is the keynote speaker, and there’s going to be all sorts of workshops and sessions, including ones on how to be an ally, how to find your voice in the bedroom, trans allyship, marriage equality, and workplace conditions. For a full list of sessions, see here. People are also asking attendees to register, which is here. It’ll be in the UC this Saturday; the first sessions start at 10AM. I’m planning on attending a whole bunch of them.

Here at Lehigh and elsewhere, being a member of any sexual, romantic, or gender minority can be (and in most cases, is) extremely difficult. Or, no, scratch that–being a part of any minority is difficult. I suggest everyone go to at least one session at the conference this weekend. If you don’t know what to go to, I’d suggest the Intersex to Interaction one at 11:15–intersex isn’t a topic that gets discussed too often.

And activism. Has anyone heard of #itooamharvard? “A photo campaign highlighting the faces and voices of black students at Harvard College. Our voices often go unheard on this campus, our experiences are devalued, our presence is questioned– this project is our way of speaking back, of claiming this campus, of standing up to say: We are here. This place is ours. We, TOO, are Harvard,” as says the description on a webpage dedicated to the campaign. You can take a look at that here. Now, a couple of Lehigh’s students have made an #itooamlehigh campaign inspired by Harvard’s movement aiming to get more visibility for minorities and more awareness of the bias and micro-aggressions that occur on campus. Lehigh’s page for that is here. For more information on it, and to get involved (it’s really easy–think of a quote or message to say, and you’ll write it on a whiteboard and have your picture taken to be featured in the campaign!) I’d suggest talking to Eryne Boyle or Elizabeth Pines; look them up on Facebook or something, or if you have the Lehigh LIVE app, you can search their names to find their emails. They’ll likely have more information than I do, considering I only heard about it yesterday. I’ve already done a photo for it, though.

And, the drag show! Spectrum is holding their annual drag show this Thursday. And it’s going to be pretty awesome. Music, professional performances, etcetera, plus, there’ll be some student (and maybe even faculty) performances–I’ll upload photos after the event! There also might be a prize for best drag costume in the audience, so don’t feel like you can’t dress up if you aren’t performing! It’s in Lamberton this Thursday at 9PM. COME FORTH AND HAVE FUN WITH US!

One more thing, too: There’s a social mixer this Friday in Lamberton at 5PM, specifically open to all LGBTQIA people as well as allies. There’ll be plenty of snacks and drinks, too, so if you’re looking for something to do this Friday, head over!

All right, I think that’s about all the news I have. See ya!

Hope everyone had a good spring break! + programmable microcontrollers

So! The usual well-wishing and greetings to ya! I hope everyone’s spring break was relaxing. Mine was. Well, most of the time. My car had a pretty serious malfunction, and I got a little sad to leave, but now I’m back at Lehigh and already back in the rhythm of things.

One aside before I launch into the rest of this post: if you haven’t taken my survey, please do! It’s for a speech about gender that I’m putting together to be presented in April. The survey is open to literally anyone, even non-Lehigh-affiliated people, and you can have a chance to win an Amazon or Paypal gift card! If the link above doesn’t work, just type in bit.do/gendersurvey2014 into your browser window. You can also complete it on mobile browsers if you prefer to do things on-the-go.

Now then, on to other things. I’ve seen a fair few posts about the Arduino controllers the Engineering 10 class is using, and as much as I hate to follow suit… the things are so darn cool. You can do all sorts of crazy stuff with them. Although all we’ve been doing in class is lighting up LEDs, you can do SO many other things with them–the only limit is your imagination (and, well, coding proficiency, I guess).

A couple things people have made with Arduinos: drawing programs operated by nothing but your eyeballs (awesome idea for enabling people with movement disabilities/severe paralysis with better communication!), tree-climbing robots, a biking jacket with LED turn signals, a flame-throwing jack-o-lantern, a chess-playing robot (Noah, I swear I will make you one of these one day), a wireless chess set you can play over a distance, a Twitter-powered coffee machine, and even a retractable iPhone-controlled hydraulic kitchen island. Click each thing for more info on the project, and even tutorials.

Now, admittedly, most of these projects require auxiliary equipment, like LEDs, cameras, magnets, servos, and in the case of the kitchen island, a giant hydraulic scissor lift, but the Arduinos are the things that make all those things actually work. I plan on messing around with the Arduino outside of class, too. See? Classes can show you some pretty awesome stuff sometimes.

For more info on the EyeWriter (eyeball drawing program), see here.