maybe: sam blinde

the creative ways people are showing up and helping is largely invisible but trust me: it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen

Happy new year. May 2026 be kind to us all. ❤️

Donate to Support for Dad's Spinal Injury Recovery, organized by Samantha Bako My dad He is my biggest supporter and best friend in the world On th… Samantha Bako needs your support for Support for Dad's Spinal Injury Recovery

If you're able to help or share I very much appreciate it. <3

When it rains, it pours, and then you drown.

Alternatively, “Freddy’s: We’re Stuck Yet Again”

Alice Wong, Presente. Thank you for everything.

Damn: over on IG, New Disabled South shared that in 36 hours, they’ve received 12,400 requests for grants of $100 (individuals) or $250 (multi-person households) for people who usually receive SNAP.

The need already comes to $2.7 million—against $36,000 in available funds.

If you can help—

a blurry photo of two women standing in a room Alt: The famous “I was told by AppleCare I could walk in the store and pick up the part” video into gif. Lady in striped dress hits the stroller as she yells to an Apple Genius about her frustrations with customer service.

I’m ruined because at this point any jokes about AppleCare immediately replay the “I was told by AppleCare that I could walk in the store and pick up the part” line in my head and the lady hitting the stroller offbeat when she screams it.

To update: I played as Ellen Ripley briefly and I lasted for about thirty minutes. I hid under a table and got scared to come out. Eventually I accepted my destiny and ran out and the alien got me. Hiding/stealth games are truly the greatest fear inducer, but what a game Alien: Isolation is. 👏

A photo from the early eighties, two adult individuals stand in front of a van with a young child in the foreground (not Sam). The adult on the left is Sam’s mom, a twenty year old white female with dark curly hair, sunglasses, a long wrap with floral red pattern, turned towards the camera with her back facing the license. Next to her is Sam’s father, a Black man with dark curly hair, wearing denim pants and a white t-shirt, smiling and holding a basketball near his hip. Behind them is a dark colored van and a building that resembles some sort of supply or construction shop.

This picture so far however is one of my favorites so far. It’s of my mom and dad several years before I was born. Not sure who the kid is in the picture as it most definitely is not me and I’m the eldest of my generation. Going to treasure this collective surprise for sure.

My dad is having cancer surgery over the next few days, which falls on my birthday this year. I traveled out of state to be his caregiver during his early recovery. When I arrived today, my parents surprised me with a ton of old photos I hadn’t seen before, including some from my 1st birthday!

Chuck Wendig interviewing Martha Wells on a stage as they both sit in chairs next to a table with a placard of the cover of Queen Demon. They both hold microphones, and Chuck leans in speaking as Martha listens to his question.

Sam holds two books in her hand that are ready to be signed with post-it notes sticking out: The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red & Artificial Condition) by Martha Wells, and The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig.

Attendees at the event stand in line actively having books signed by Chuck Wendig and Martha Wells. Martha, wearing a mask, sits first at the table, and Chuck sits second at the table, which is covered with a bright teal tablecloth, near the stage the event was held at.

Highlight for the birthday month has been getting to see Martha Wells and Chuck Wendig last night discuss her latest book, Queen Demon, as well as the Murderbot Diaries. So glad I got to experience this, especially in company with other wonderful people!

First thing I did this morning when I woke up was play that song, haha

Me: "Did you remember?"
Husband (panicking): "What?"
Me: "The 21st niiiiiight of September"

Best appreciation for the penny a page book sales, just got the biggest discount on some used scientific literature. From almost $50 each to $2 to 70 cents. Yesssss. ❤️

Did not realize you can play Alien: Isolation as Ellen Ripley on the Nostromo. That… is terrifying but also makes me want to try it. I don’t think I have enough guts to do the full game though. Props to those who do.

Whenever I console log

Absolutely beautiful work!

I had a chance to play around with this recently and the Colab notebooks they provide are great ways to get up and started on your own. While not ready for clinical reliance of course, this is incredibly exciting already, and I'm paying attention to where this work continues in the future.

AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API.

Very interesting and fresh news, and available on Github already! Seems like it can be used with smaller segments of genomes in isolation now, so it's something I intend to explore myself. deepmind.google/discover/blo...

Congratulations!! So happy to hear this for you!!!

This was really fun to do, and I'm hoping as I continue to work with other uses of Ensembl VEP to build other helpful utilities. This is my first solo open source project I've published, not to mention a Shell script at that! I had fun with it and if it helps anyone beyond me, I'm happy with that!

GitHub - sblinde/vep-polaris: A lightweight toolkit to inspect, validate, and manage plugin data for Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP). A lightweight toolkit to inspect, validate, and manage plugin data for Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP). - sblinde/vep-polaris

I created a fun little utility library to go with Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP)'s Plugins, VEP Polaris. After having trouble with plugin data having different chromosome mapping (`chr1` vs `1`), I first created a tool to help identify what plugin data looks like. github.com/sblinde/vep-...

I hope anyone that reads this little thread has some little bit of hope to hold onto too, even if it's just a tiny bit during these days. I know how hard it is. Hang in there.

These little things have been the highlight of the past month. That, and staying optimistic about the future I hope for, in the ways I can. It's not that things aren't hard for us all, in differing ways, but if I don't hold on to some hope, it would be hard when heartbreak happens. ❤️

Horror games are just a lifelong enjoyment. Watching someone play is far different than playing them myself. Dead Space Remake was fantastic, I loved it, and it remains a favorite. Alan Wake 2, while I'm early on in the game, it has been SUCH a journey. What a masterpiece already. Memorable.

Spending time with people who care about the same issues, and learning about how people have self-advocated for themselves has been informative to me, and also helped me realize that I am not alone in my own journey. It's a struggle many face, and clearly further indictment of a broken system.

The bioinformatic experimentation has been interesting. Part of it has been problem solving on my own and figuring out how to onboard to tools I've never used before, but the outcome has been powerful. Some tools have been replaced and figuring out what's available vs not has been harder to discern.

Despite some weeks being hard at times, some things have been restorative lately. Spending time w/ others who care about undiagnosed & unserved ppl in medical spaces. Experimenting with bioinformatic tools like VEP on CLI. Playing horror games: beat Dead Space Remake, starting on Alan Wake 2.