Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Life Continues

    Life Continues

    A few months ago, I disclosed that I had left my job.

    I was working for a successful startup that had all the perks. I was issued a $4,500 MacBook Pro, there was beer available at all times of the day and the office was located in downtown Ottawa. On my first week we did ax throwing as a team building activity.

    There was about ten people working on our product, and only a dozen in our office. The rest were in Montreal, along with HR and higher ups, or other offices. When I was hired, I was told I was the first person they hired in a year and a half. Another team member was hired shortly after me.

    The job was straight-forward, working on the API back-end for point-of-sale software. The workplace, unfortunately, was extremely stressful. The team lead regularly made condescending remarks to me. Questions were met with RTFM. The tickets that the team lead wrote were often just a single sentence and trying to get more info was like pulling teeth. He and his boss continually derided the competency of others. The team lead was unable to accept constructive feedback with his code or design decisions.

    Things didn’t improve. In conversations with my boss, I was treated as if it was my problem. With HR and the rest of the office being in another city, there wasn’t any other path out of the situation. I gained 40 lbs in my eight months there just from the stress.

    The other person who was hired with me quit on a Thursday. I quit on the Friday. I then found out that three others had quit over my team lead’s behaviour. For my last two weeks, the team lead stopped communicating with me and the other departing employee altogether. Job postings went up a few weeks later.

    I took some time off after that experience. I drove across Canada and the United-States with a friend, camping along the way. I spent a week in Vancouver. I worked on my own projects.

    I landed a job as an embedded software developer developing air traffic control systems. It’s been good. Everyone helps each other. My team lead facilitates development where he can. People’s diverse skills are recognized and valued. If there’s a lesson I learned during all of this, it’s to quit toxic jobs sooner.

    And so life continues.

  • Flying Recreational Drones in Canada

    Flying Recreational Drones in Canada

    This post is written in January 2018 and applies only to recreational use of drones that weigh under 35kg. If you’re flying your drone for work or research, or if it weights more than 35kg, you must get a Special Flight Operations Certificate.

    Transport Canada has proposed new rules that they expect to become law this year. These rules include age restrictions, passing a basic knowledge test and having liability insurance of at least $100,000.

    Drones are not toys

    This article covers restrictions on drone use in Canada. These rules are non-negotiable. Irresponsible drone use can endanger lives.

    Take the small DJI Spark drone, which has a takeoff weight of 300 grams. If it were to fall from a height of 90 meters, it would impact below with the same energy as a brick dropped from an overpass.

    In Canada, a drone collided with a passenger plane near Quebec City. The drone was flying at an altitude of 450 meters near an airport. Luckily, no one was hurt. The Transport Minister noted there were 131 drone incidents which were deemed aviation safety concerns in 2017.

    These incidents are preventable by adhering to the rules around drone use. Failure to adhere to these rules could result in up to $25,000 fine and jail time.

    Rules

    Exceptions to these rules require a Special Flight Operations Certificate. These rules are taken from Transport Canada’s website and Government notice on January 6th, 2018.

    My drone with my name, address and telephone number

    You must be:

    • Flying the drone for recreational purposes
    • Flying during the day

    Your drone must be:

    • Clearly identified with your name, address, and telephone number
    • Under 35 kg

    You must fly your drone:

    • Within visual line of sight
    • Within 500 meters of yourself
    • Below 90 meters (300′ AGL)
    • Not in the clouds
    • Away from vehicles, vessels and the public
      • 30 meters away for drone 250 g – 1 kg
      • 75 meters away for drone 1 kg – 35 kg
      • Includes not flying over open-air assembly of people
    • Away from where aircraft are close to the ground
      • 5.5 km away from airports or locations where aircraft takeoff/land
      • 1.8 km away from heliports
      • Outside controlled or restricted airspace
    • Away from emergencies
      • Not over a police or first responder emergency operation site
      • 9 km away from a natural hazard or disaster area

    Where you can fly

    Being away from vehicles and the public is easy enough to tell. For a lot of people, it might be harder to establish if you’re 5.5 km away from an airport or in unrestricted / uncontrolled airspace.

    There’s a few maps online to show where you can fly.

    UAV Site Selection Tool

    The UAV Site Selection Tool from the National Research Council is the best map I’ve found so far as it is the most comprehensive. You want to select the option for recreational drone and it’ll show you everywhere you’re not permitted to fly.

    AirMap

    AirMap provides just as comprehensive a map as the UAV Site Selection Tool but with an improved user interface.

    Canadian Airspace Viewer

    The Canadian Airspace Viewer from Telus identifies unrestricted and uncontrolled airspace. You’ll want to set the option to show airspace below 700′. It isn’t as comprehensive as the NRC’s UAV Site Selection Tool.

    DJI Geo Zone Map

    The Geo Zone Map from drone manufacturer DJI is the weakest of the contenders. They represent restricted or controlled airspace as a fixed radius from a point, when in fact some spaces are polygonal or other complex shape.

    DJI deserves credit for making it so their drones cannot fly in the zones they deem restricted, but operators could still fly within restricted or controlled airspace. Do not rely on this map.

    Have Fun

    Flying a drone is loads of fun. So go have fun!

  • Trans 101 for Coders & Hackathon

    Trans 101 for Coders & Hackathon

    I gave a workshop at Random Hacks of Kindness on Trans 101 for Coders. RHOK is a bi-annual hackathon. You can view the slides I presented here.

    Giving the workshop at RHOK.

    This was the first time giving a talk to a mainly cisgender/straight audience where I didn’t feel like I had to explain who trans, cisgender, non-binary, two spirit people were. Sign of the times.

    This talk focused on how to make workplaces welcoming to trans people, focusing on tech companies specifically. Advice like de-emphasizing references and academic transcripts by evaluating prospective employees with real-world coding challenges don’t apply as well to other industries. The workshop had a second theme of discussing software design. Namely, in the vein of i18n, looking at assumptions that developers make around names and gender that are not applicable to everyone and end up creating barriers for trans people.

    The audience took it well.

    For the rest of my time at the hackathon, I was participating. It actually went super well. The format was simple: on Friday night, the projects from NGOs would be introduced. On Saturday morning, the participants would choose which team to join, and work on the associated project for the rest of the day. There would be a bit of time Sunday morning to develop, and then projects would be presented at noon.

    Members of my team working together.

    Our team was composed of people having very different skill sets. Everyone compromised in order to put something together. Those working on the back-end had more familiarity with Ruby and Go, but chose Python as the common language because they knew it a little bit. I worked in the front-end despite being more a back-end person, because I thought the back-end was better served by other team members.

    In the end, those compromises meant that we delivered a pretty impressive product in a little over a day: a web platform that allowed you to add recipients to a list, to whom SMSs with custom messages of support could be sent at various scheduled times. We had everything done – a functional front-end with a cool domain (http://sendme.love/), a backend that would handle the text messaging, and a test harness for it all.

    I was really proud of work. During the presentations, it seemed like our team worked best together. Other projects involved members coming up with multiple solutions, some of them almost indistinguishable from each other. I took that to mean that they couldn’t work together, so members did their own thing. Or a lot of work on a back-end, but no real completed MVP.

    This was my second non-work related hackathon, and it gave me taste to do a third.

  • Prayers of the People

    Prayers of the People

    I was asked to conduct a prayers of the people for my church. This is what I said that Sunday.

    This prayer is said responsively. When I say “Lord in your Mercy”, reply with “Guide us to wisdom”.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a country with more empty homes than homeless, may we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a country with a fifth of the world’s freshwater, 80 First Nations communities are denied clean water while predominantly white cities have access to the best water in the world. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a city with more than 130 overdoses a month, safe injection sites continue to face great opposition. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a country with over 500,000 sexual assaults on women a year, where women are 87% of all sexual assault victims, we still blame victims and say boys will be boys. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a country where over 75,000 people have HIV, we still criminalize and stigmatize those who have it in a way we don’t any other treatable condition. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a city where half of its street youth are LGBT; in a city where 50% of its trans people have contemplated or attempted suicide in the past year, our non-LGBT residents choose comfort over acceptance, silence over disturbing perpetrators. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, in a country where so many do sex work, the very politicians who call these individuals vulnerable legislate their best source of income away, and embolden abusive clients by making the police an enforcer of these laws. May we do what is right, not just uphold the status quo.

    LORD IN YOUR MERCY – Guide us to wisdom.

    LORD, we pray for the activists and community leaders all working to better the world in the face of a complex machinery of people, policies, and structures that favour the status quo. We pray for patience with the temporary discomfort their actions cause, understanding that changes are almost never given, but fought for.

    LORD, we pray for this church and congregation, for peace in us and to all, that we embody the change we want to see. We pray for Mark, Allie, Ken, Annie, our parish council, and all others who help spiritually nourish our community.

    Amen.

  • Road Trip Across Canada

    Road Trip Across Canada

    I just came back from my road trip across Canada, driving from Ottawa, Ontario to Terrace, British Columbia and then flying to Vancouver. I stayed there for 9 days before then flying back to Ottawa.

    It was my dream to drive across Canada, to see the prairies, to camp in British Columbia. I got to do all of that, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

    Planning

    The trip was the result of my friend Kammy. She was heading to a community far up north in British Columbia to work for the year, and was looking for people to join her on the long drive out. I gave her a tentative yes, provided I went through with leaving my workplace.

    Well, I did that. We spent two nights planning, figuring out where we would camp each night and what essentials we needed to bring along.

    I was anxious. I had only hung out with Kammy twice outside of church, and didn’t know how it would be to spend 8 days together. What if we irritated each other? What if her music was REALLY bad? What if we had a fight? So we talked about that, and how we would deal. I was also anxious about driving through the states and getting pulled over, and about the vehicle itself: it was a 17 year old SUV that Kammy hadn’t yet acquired. What if it broke down?

    Kammy was also anxious. So the two of us water sacs of anxiety drove off for 6,000 km. And you know what? It all turned out great.

    The Trip Out

    First Two Nights

    We spent the first night in Toronto. I stayed with my friend Amanda, who I hadn’t seen in years. Kammy stayed with her family. It was lovely to catch up with Amanda; we had tons of magical moments together from her time in Ottawa. Like baking cookies at midnight and going around town hoping to catch art installations. Her life had changed in big ways since then, and it was great to finally see each other.

    Then Kammy came around Amanda’s place in the morning, and the two of us headed off. Kammy told me she was nervous. The carriage behind the car, which held four winter tires, started to droop dangerously low from the hitch. We found a hardware store, bought ratchet straps, moved two of the tires inside the already-packed car, and put the carriage into the vertical position. That seemed to do the trick.

    We crossed into the US in Sarnia. I was concerned they would pull us over and inspect the contents of the vehicle, which would of added big delays considering how full it was. There was no such problem, though the drive from Toronto had taken longer than anticipated on account of mucking with the carriage.

    We drove through Detroit rush hour and drove into Indiana. it started to get dark, and now the rear window for the car wouldn’t close. We were still at least two hours from our $6/night camp site in Illinois, which required parking the SUV in a lot and then hiking for a bit to reach.

    I suggested we forget about the camp site, and said that I would get us a hotel room for the night. We could make up the time for the next day, and deal with the window tomorrow, but right now we should just get a good night’s rest. Kammy agreed.

    At the hotel parking lot, Kammy discovered a trick to close or open the window. It involved driving over bumps. Good enough. We were in Michigan City, Indiana. I had a good shower, read a bit of A Handful of Time, and crashed.

    Third & Fourth Night

    The next day we drove through Chicago during morning rush hour. We were both concerned about getting pulled over, and so didn’t go more too much over the speed limit. A Chicago driver that wasn’t pleased with our speed, as it was too slow, gestured, honked, and yelled at us.

    We stopped by a Subway for lunch. At this point, we were keeping an eye out for the eclipse. The first total eclipse was hitting North America since 1979, and we were a few hundred kilometres north of those who would get to see the sun completely covered. We almost missed it – it was Kammy who noticed it was happening while we were in the parking lot.

    We crossed from Illinois into Wisconsin, and then Minnesota. We camped out at state park by Lake Carlos, which ended up being amazing. The lady at the desk was genuinely happy to see us. The place, like almost all camping spots on our trip, was mostly for RVs. We tried out my BioLite and made ourselves a nice camp fire.

    That night was magical. There was a clear sky, and I got to see thousands of stars and the milky way. I had only ever seen the milky way once before. The lake in front of our camping spot was still, and all the stars reflected onto it. Just above the tree line on the other side of the lake, you could see the glow from a nearby town.

    As I fell asleep, I heard wolves howl in the distance.

    The next day, we drove through North Dakota and crossed into Canada through the small town of Portal. Half of Portal was in North Dakota, the other half in Saskatchewan. We were the only non-commercial vehicle to cross, which resulted in a bit of temporary confusion about which line to go into. We were inspected at two check points by CBSA, and again I feared they would pull us over. They opened doors and went through Kammy’s clothes while we were in line, but didn’t get any issues.

    We spent the fourth night at a camp site in Estevan, Saskatchewan. This one was a bit of a disappointment compared to Lake Carlos. We were the only tent there, and the place was clearly intended for RVs. There were electric plugs by our tent. Sites were clearly marked for RVs but not those who were tenting. Still, there were washrooms with flush toilets and showers.

    Fifth Night

    The fifth day we drove through Saskatchewan, passing Regina and Saskatoon. Whereas Kammy and I, who were chatting about everything from sex to religion to sex plus religion, were noticing all the anti-abortion billboards in the states, we couldn’t help but notice all the bible camp signs in Sasktatchewan. There was also a sign that said PREPARE TO MEET GOD at one point.

    It was on this stretch that I finally saw the prairies. There was hints of the flatness in North Dakota, but not like this. It was stunning.

    We crossed into Alberta and camped at a place just outside Edmonton. Kammy’s friend, who labelled themselves the Edmonton Tourist Board, recommended a few spots to visit while we were there. They didn’t disappoint.

    Edmonton reminded me of Ottawa. I really liked it. We hit up a vegan restaurant, Cafe Mosaics. The food was pretty awesome, and a welcome reprieve from the camp food we had been making. There was also a flyer to protest a white supremacist gathering in Calgary. This was on the heels of the Charleston white supremacist gathering and in which one bigot plowed down those protesting the event with his car.

    We then hit up a little hole in the wall that had delicious onion cakes that we saved for the next day.

    Sixth Night

    The next day, we hit up a nearby provincial park that Edmonton Tourist Board had also recommended. There we ran into a herd of bison. We stopped to take in the view. They were everywhere.

    We continued driving. Where once there was flat land, now were mountains. We were in the Canadian Rockies. We passed Jasper, stopping to take a hike along the way and stopping by Mount Robson to take a look.

    We entered British Columbia and drove to our camping spot outside of Prince George. That too, proved breathtaking.

    Seventh Night

    The next day we headed for Terrace. We were going to camp up Kitwanga Mountain, which was free, provided you could get there. Google Maps didn’t show any roads for it, but the BC Parks site had some directions. We had a backup plan of going to a motel in Terrace if none of it worked out.

    We drove almost all of the Highway of Tears that day, from Prince George to Terrace. There were posters at gas stations, signs by the road, offering rewards to find women who went missing after being on this highway. A large billboard warned residents not to hitchhike, but what option do you have when you don’t have access to a car?

    We arrived at the base of the road that would take us up Kitwanga Mountain. A sign at the bottom cautioned only 4x4s to proceed. We made our way up. 500 meters in, we encountered a tree that had drooped so much it was flush with the road. We decided to drive through it, thinking the car would push it out of the way.

    We got stuck on the tree. We got out of the car to inspect. The tree was jammed in there. We stopped to think what we would do. Much like the carriage drooping and the window not closing, we remained calm. We had a bread knife, and so decided to cut down the tree with that.

    It worked! We got through the tree, taking turns. The base of the tree almost took Kammy’s leg off as it rebounded. Kammy was able to drive over the tree at this point, and I threw it in the woods.

    There were a few more felled logs ahead of us blocking the road. Those Kammy and I moved together. Eventually, we got to a spot we couldn’t drive the SUV further. So we parked it to the side, and hiked the rest of the mountain to the intended turn around spot.

    It was likely no one would come that night, as at least three trees blocked the road until our arrival, and those had been there for a while. I was still scared about waking up to a car running us over. We set up camp anyways; it was the only viable clearing that wasn’t a road.

    From the turn-around spot, Kammy and I continued up the trail. At one point, I got freaked out. There were cries from what sounded like an elk. That was fine. But then there was a distant, deep, stomping sound from a different direction. My anxiety infected Kammy. We both turned around and went to the camp. I regretted not picking up bear spray in Edmonton at this moment.

    It started to rain. We quickly prepared food and put our stuff in a bear hang.

    We hit the tent, and the two of us being pretty scared, held each other as we fell asleep.

    Departure

    The next morning was raining pretty hard. We packed up as quickly as we could and made our way down to the SUV.

    Kammy dropped me off at the airport, and after some heart felt goodbyes I boarded the plane to head down to Vancouver.

    The plane flew at a low altitude compared to the larger passenger aircraft I was used to, giving me a stunning view of the mountains below.

    Kammy and I made excellent travel partners. We both had different taste in music, but both liked some of each other’s stuff. We had tons of really great conversations. We both stayed calm when things went wrong, came up with solutions, and went ahead. All that anxiety in the beginning about what would happen if we didn’t get along seemed a little silly now.

    I was also proud of myself for driving through the US. I haven’t driven much in my life, not being a car owner, and having never rented a car. The biggest trip up until this point had been a drive to Toronto as a support vehicle while my best friend walked his way down as part of a fundraiser.

    In the end, the trip, including gas, food, and lodging, was under $900 CAD. It took us 7 nights to get there. Best $450 I ever spent.

    Vancouver

    Jean welcomed me at the airport in Vancouver. I was spending the first night with her. The next day she took me to Boundary Bay.

    In the first days I was pretty awful company. A bunch of emotions were coming to the fore, and I was pretty terrible at dealing with them constructively. That started to change the second day.

    In my time in Vancouver, Jean showed me some gems. Cheap sushi. Bao buns that were loaded with tasty fillings for less than $2. A beautiful community garden hidden in between industrial buildings that eschewed pesticides for alternating plant types. A Chinese garden with quiet enclaves downtown that was one of the city’s park.

    That second night, I also went to my hostel. I had this place for the remainder of my stay in Vancouver. There I met Gauthier from France, Claire from England, as well as a Moroccan fellow whose name escapes me. I breathed a sigh of relief to see they were a bit older; I’d be able to get some sleep tonight.

    Claire and I would eventually befriend each other and go up Grouse Mountain, which was accessible from downtown Vancouver by way of a free shuttle. It was stunning.

    Meanwhile, I was eating all the sushi I could while in Vancouver. I must have gone every day. Ottawa had nothing this fresh, inexpensive, or generous in portions.

    In addition, I got to hang out with other friends while in Vancouver. My friend Emory, who was the reason for my last visit three years ago. My friend Janelle, who I met through church in Ottawa, and had moved there. My cousin, who had also moved there from Ottawa.

    They were all generous with their time. Emory took me to a coffee shop and then bowling, and in so doing, introduced me to Commercial Drive, which seemed to be where the queers hung out more so than Davies Street. A person at the coffee shop had a THEY/THEM patch, while the individual they were talking to had a t-shirt promoting the safe injection site. I saw a few of those shirts while in Vancouver; it made me think of Ottawa where the city was fighting safe injection sites.

    Janelle made me a beautiful breakfast, and we had a really sweet chat catching up and seeing her incredible house, that she shared with two roommates. My cousin was also a pleasure to hang out with. We went for breakfast after I had gone to church that Sunday, and on the day of my departure, went for ramen together. Both places were joints he really liked; and the food was pretty great.

    As my days in Vancouver came to a close, Jean and I hung out more. She took me to parks inside the city and out. We spent one night walking around a park downtown that had a lake and lots of happy dogs running around.

    Vancouver was special. Jean was right. As the injection site t-shirt hinted, people were doing more to stand up for others here. The library, which I spent one afternoon at, had explicit signage to indicate trans people were welcome to use washrooms. You didn’t find those in Ottawa; not in any official building, anyways. Even washroom scribbles were about acceptance. There was a self-defence class for trans people here; as well as a trans barber shop where I went and got my hair done!

    Everyone I spoke to loved Vancouver, but they all also spoke of how housing and rent was not affordable. The cost of a one bedroom apartment is double what it is in Ottawa. There are no rent controls. There are ridiculously few apartments going around, so its not uncommon to go through interviews to try to get a place, along with however many others hope to rent that same spot. Housing prices are the second most unaffordable in the world, after only Hong Kong.

    I did a lot more while in Vancouver – crossing the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, visiting Granville Island, looking through shops for contemporary indigenous art to bring back, going to the historic (if you’re queer in Canada, anyways) Little Sisters book shop, hiking through Lighthouse Park, etc. I was out doing something all day for every one of those nine days I was there, taking afternoon breaks in my hostel.

    Then came time to say goodbye. Jean dropped me off at the airport. I flew home on an overnight flight, though not without first being diverted to Montreal on account of poor visibility in Ottawa. I took a taxi and made my way home.

    Back in Ottawa

    As the taxi navigated the familiar streets of Ottawa, the city felt a little different to me. It didn’t feel like home as much. Maybe Vancouver wasn’t as alien in terms of feeling home as I thought.

    The next day I got to hang out with Joy, and tell her everything about my trip over beers and nachos. It was one hell of an adventure.