Countries Beginning with I

Originally a series of Tweets published June 14, 2019, probably during a tech conference Dear women engineers: I am truly, deeply tired of hearing you complain about how terrible it is to be mistaken for anything other than an engineer.

(NB: this piece was written in 2017) In the early days of CD recording, Incat Systems –- a small company in Milan, Italy –- captured most of the OEM CD-R software market, but also wanted to sell directly to consumers.

August, 2024: I’m coming up on the tenth anniversary of when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and nine years since active treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation) ended.

I began wearing glasses for nearsightedness at age eight or nine – I was the classic kid who couldn’t read the blackboard, back when children were not as routinely tested for vision problems.

Women, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You’re at a tech conference, one that you are attending as a tech professional with interest and expertise in the subject matter.

By a combination of circumstances, somewhat my “fault”, my University of Texas roommate Robyn ended up living quite near me in Europe: she has long been in Neuchatel, Switzerland; I lived for 17 years nearby in Italy, first in Milan, later on Lake Como.

In 1976, after a period of unemployment in Connecticut, my father accepted a job with Save the Children (US), as country head of their operations in Bangladesh.

The name “Deirdre” has never been terribly popular in the US – it’s much more common in Ireland (logically – Deirdre is a character out of Irish myth) and somewhat common in England.

My grandparents owned a classic 1960s Volkswagen camper.

My path to Australian citizenship was very quick and smooth compared to many others’ – I fully recognize my privilege in that I could afford a good immigration attorney to help smooth it.