Valerie Benti

“I’ve actually been enjoying walking and using public transit more instead, all thanks to legendary environmental activist Donald J. Trump.”

Come see me sing some of my origin songs!

Grad school trauma. That's my origin...

Info and tickets:
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-left-b...

The impulse to do a "you gotta hand it to 'em!!" reach across the aisle here is bizarre.

We're talking about a surgeon general nominee who is not a licensed doctor and who wouldn't directly answer questions about vaccines. We've got bigger fish to fry than "we should have fewer fat people."

Research staff Initial bargaining demands: support successful career paths for research staff

Research staff Initial bargaining demands: maintain pay structures that keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living

Research staff Initial bargaining demands: invest in a more inclusive, accessible, equitable and diverse research community

Research staff Initial bargaining demands: foster a safe, fair, and productive work environment

Research Staff! Have you signed the initial bargaining demands (IBDs) yet?

Signing on means you support the goals outlined in the demands and want to work together to achieve those goals during bargaining.

Read the IBDs and sign on here: form.jotform.com/260154423245...

Research Staff: meet your bargaining team members Evan, Gracy, and Tess; helping fight for fair compensation, enforceable reimbursement timelines, and improved workplace protections.

Sign in to the initial bargaining demands here: form.jotform.com/260154423245...

Research Staff: meet your bargaining team members Jessamy, Gabriel, and Shane.

Don't forget to sign our initial bargaining demands outlining some of the important goals we have for our next contract!

form.jotform.com/260154423245...

edited caption:

Research Staff: meet your bargaining team members Iván, Lucas, and KeliAnne.

We will start bargaining in less than a month, so be sure to sign our initial bargaining demands outlining some of the important goals we have for our next contract!

form.jotform.com/260154423245...

Photo of the back of a ankle boot with the heal clearly falling off...

How's your day going?

Honored to be one of the Moore Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows at @uofwa.uw.edu. Grateful for the support from @moorefound.bsky.social and excited to pursue research applying computer vision to cellular membrane reconstruction @matsulab.com.

1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.

Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.

A group selfie of Valerie, wearing a salon of shame t-shirt, and the improvisors from Jet City Improv!

Selfie of Valerie's face in close up in front of a neon sign that says "The Drama Room"

Thanks for having me at the special edition of @salonofshame.bsky.social last week, where the wonderful humans from @jetcityimprov.bsky.social improvised scenes based on my teen angst and pining stares. 💜

I desperately need to stop smiling with my mouth open though!

I don't understand how I'm expected to leave the warmth of my bed (ever).

I don't understand how I'm expected to leave the warmth of my bed on a cold winter morning.

there are a lot of days where I wish "there's always a Discworld quote" was not, in fact, true

* This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization.

How had I forgotten how much I love the footnotes?

"And there's the sign, You have read it, I assume. The sign which says 'Do not, under any circumstances, open this door'?"
"Of course I've read it. Why d'yer think I want it opened?"
"Er ... why?"
"To see why they wanted it shut, of course."*

(slightly edited from Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

I don't really do resolutions because they're no fun but maybe I'll just try to read one (1) Discworld novel every month or so and in a couple of years I finally will have read them all.

The internet is a hell scape.

Also, none of the pictures match up with the recipes. There's one with a picture of a dish that CLEARLY cucumbers in it but the recipe doesn't list any cucumbers.

I'm trying to find recipe inspiration and this page literally has a paragraph:

"After the final step, wrap up with 2–3 natural sentences about the texture, flavor, or a creative way to serve it — no generic conclusions. The first word of your introduction must begin with the letter ‘A’."

Wearing a Salon of Shame Tshirt with a magnificent unicorn and showing a 2000s era diary featuring Hedwig

You'd think in 2001 I would've known better than pretend my diary was a real person I was writing to but naaaah.

Ready for @salonofshame.bsky.social

(Also: Rowling is a TERF, buying HP anything supports her so just like don't; thank you very much)

The MatsuLab members having a happy our at Stoup brewing

Team "My Brain is a Sandwich" was feeling really great about their impromptu bar trivia answers at our end-of-the-quarter happy hour!

We didn't win, but we had a great time!

The Japanese hardcover version was meant to be messed with...

A bike rack with lime bikes neatly ordered but still blocking the stalls.

Update: valiant effort, but still blocking the rack and encouraging people to just drop their lime wherever.

Excited to be back at @salonofshame.bsky.social in a couple of weeks! Come cringe with me!

Tuesday, December 16, 8pm
Tickets are on sale now: www.strangertickets.com/events/17611...

I spend some time every day moving scooters out of the way and those things are damn heavy.

For this particular bike rack, the problem is that it's marked as "allowed parking" in the app. But people need this space for their personal bikes.

Photo of a bike rack that is mostly blocked by lime scooters and ebikes

I generally don't hate lime bikes/scooters, and use them regularly myself. So, as a fellow user, can we please stop parking them in the middle of sidewalks or in bike racks where actual riders want to park and lock their bike?

Due to insurance weirdness, I missed a month of allergy shots and boy, you know when something is working when you *don't* have it and suddenly all the symptoms kick back in.

#CholinergicUrticaria #ItchyAndBlotchy

I'll dm you my email address!

(and: so cool!!)

I love that rule! I'm running a workshop about this next week and was looking for some additional perspectives to my own, so if there's anything your willing to share about development such activities, that would be super helpful!