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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)

@mecm.bsky.social
651 followers 1.5K following 446 posts

Content design/strategy, information architecture. Feminist. #BlackLivesMatter. #Baltimore. Civic tech, #a11y, vintage stuff, powerlifting. Kinda salty.

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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Plus, my observation is so many of these AI pushers seem to be spending inordinate amounts of time on inconsequential decisions like researching flights. To the point where I think it’s not saving them time doing the task, it is saving the time & removing the distress of making the decision.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
yes, and I absolutely have been given one when I was sitting in Economy when there was a problem with my seat but no extra seats to move me.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Oh man, this sucks. I was on one of the 2k cancelled flights out of LHR on September 8 and BA was much better than this! (Although I haven’t yet filed to get my expenses back. But they did cover the hotel with nothing out of pocket for us.)
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
BA also gives those out in Premium Economy—1st/business class folks get a nicer version of it.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I say this as a religious person—most of them aren’t but they get some identity/social benefits by outsourcing the contemplation. I do think you have to do your own thinking/reading to be a morally mature person though, no matter what your spiritual beliefs are.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ultimately, this is a scenario where respect goes both ways. If the company is being respectful of your time, providing you adequate information to prep for the interview and evaluate the job, being communicative about their plans, etc they're fulfilling their end of the deal!
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
You will generally be offered coffee or water before beginning, so there really shouldn't be any concern about drying out while you're speaking. And--these are things that you can use to evaluate the company too--do they take steps to help you be more comfortable?
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A lot of jobs DO have occasions where it's not actually ok to be carrying a drink around and showing up with one can make you look like someone who can't go more than 30-60 minutes without a comfort object.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Part of YOUR job in prepping for an interview is to arrive adequately prepared--which includes nourished, rested, hydrated, as well as having done your research, etc. Give yourself a couple minutes so you can use the bathroom or anything else you need before the interview is scheduled to start.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
You run the risk of appearing overly casual or unprepared or presumptuous or babyish--small orgs/businesses may not have daily janitorial service and have norms around not having food/drink outside a break room/your own workspace. These are things you won't know when you go in for the interview.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It's a semi formal/formal event where part of what you are showing is that you can be not the main character for a little bit! Not EVERY job/org will care, but even informal orgs might care the role you are interviewing for requires social awareness or the ability to navigate different environments.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
jfc, no, you should not show up at an in-person job interview with iced coffee! And, no, it's not even really about performative corporate bs social norms. You don't show up with iced coffee at a job interview for the same reasons you don't show up with a beverage at a wedding or a funeral.
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Reposted by Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)
Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is spectacular, folks. We live in a moment in American history when the president and his administration are so racist and dumb that a toy company has to put out a statement saying: "OUR GIANT ROBOT THAT TURNS INTO A TRUCK DENOUNCES RACISM AND HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE CURRENT PRESIDENT."
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I think so too. There’s minimal mechanism for them to be able to actually do significant projects and I am sure the digital teams at most agencies and their various contract vendors are not exactly cooperative to have them come in and fuck up their work. So—racist games it is.
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Reposted by Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)
Nome @nome.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hell - I've known for years that fascists take over (and take credit for the smooth function of) systems built by the liberal democracies that spawn them before driving them into the ground. I never considered that the GOP is, ultimately, also one of those systems.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Just as a note—ICE was showing up at schools in Maryland this week for the first couple of days of school.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Also, this means she gets backpay for all that time. So, even if she comes back, does a column and immediately quits, that’s still a great outcome.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
She was so cute. (I also believe that I may have some photos of Hopper T. Dog as a puppy on my devices somewhere.)
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Yeah between that and smaller European portions.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
There are so many things like this re: public services. The only reason what we do now looks “cheap” is because the costs are distributed across multiple parties, obscuring all the waste.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
These turned out to be the showstoppers of the day. Coming soon to marycmvintage.etsy.com or you can contact me directly.
marycmvintage.etsy.com
MaryCMVintage - Etsy
Shop Vintage and antique clothes, decor and housewares. by MaryCMVintage located in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The gentleman of the house worked for the govt in some way—there was midcentury stuff from all over the world. I picked up this wooden cigarette holder that is also a music box. Almost certainly from occupied Japan.
A wooden cigarette holder with an owl and scrollwork carved in
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
There was a ton of cottagecore type stuff but some things weren’t in good enough condition for me to bother with. But I did get this handmade cabinet that is sort of perfectly weathered.
A rectangular wooden cabinet with a latch closure and a heart cut out
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Well, like all part-time vintage/antique sellers, when I determined that I had a day to myself today, it seemed like a good time for sourcing, despite the fact that I have plenty of items to list already. First up, an estate sale near home where everything was ancient.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I would try it. Our local farmers’ market had a vendor for awhile who fried up pork rinds on the spot. She had various seasonings you could order and when you ordered she would fry them up and toss them still hot into the seasoning and they were delicious.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I got cards made for my side business even though I don’t have them for my day job —vintage/antiques businesses are old school and analog and I am often in places where phone service is unreliable so you can’t just do the, oh give me your number and I will text you so you have mine.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Don’t you remember being a teenager and how much of your time was just devoted to stupid bs? Lol. Plus, it was a way to see and be seen.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Nah, I grew up in the boonies and there were big ragers in cornfields and in houses when parents weren’t home where you had to run for it when the cops showed up. I wasn’t cool enough to get invited to them usually, but they did happen.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
There were definitely clubs strictly for teenagers too where folks over 21 were actually banned. I remember the ads for the one in Ocean City, MD.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Yeah, I am using on a personal device that has all the other Meta apps. It’s still awful. Like, the most brain dead, barely coherent takes on everything.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Man, that’s not my experience of their algorithm at all. I feel like my IQ goes down about 50 points every time I open that app due to being surrounded by brainrot.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Even if you do the liquid—they’re not all the same! Mine was a tiny amount of the gross liquid. Also, depending on whether you hate being hungry or lacking sleep more—I did mine midday and that meant there was no disruption to my sleep the night before.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
People think that someone else (who, I have no idea) covers the legal fees. It’s not just people on the right who don’t know how anything works!
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Reposted by Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)
Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This story is crazy. It would appear Trump admin officials rigged their nationally televised high school civics contest to keep a young man from a Sikh family out of the finalists. www.notus.org/national/ame...
notus.org
Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest
America’s finest young scholars competed to mark their country's birthday. It led to a disputed finish in the age of mistrust.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Oh yeah, I believe all the fake sugars are really poisonous for dogs. One of those things I have to be on high alert for with my beagle.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Yeah, the online betting stuff genuinely is a scourge on society—and I am generally speaking, not at all priggish about gambling.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I think they don’t care about that much tbh. It’s just that we show ID at so many things that it seems logical to require it. If you don’t know how things work, you don’t realize that most of the reasons we show ID are performative.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
One of the things I loved the most about Spain was being in a culture that observed my preferred schedule! 😂
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
..and sometimes need help clarifying what they want their end result to be. They don’t always love me pointing out that our job isn’t to recreate the existing system if we know it doesn’t work but—it does change the way they think about things.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
At this point, I have many years of experience working with government types and while I am not generally working with something of such great consequence as public benefits, I can say that there is almost always desire to do the right thing. But they tend to be rulesy…
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
So I see the aphorism as being as much about consequentialism as intentional malevolence. Not fixing something is an active moral choice.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Yeah, when I talk about this with clients, I tend to note it as A. You can’t build something to serve two purposes that are opposed to each other. You have to choose. B. If you build something, and it operates so poorly it becomes a barrier, what you intended doesn’t matter.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
To be cynical: A system’s purpose is what it does.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Yup, this is two separate issues. A lot of tech folks ARE illiterate in the humanities and could use better education there. The humanities don’t magically prevent you from being a shitty person!
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
To start, anyone who defended Jan. 6 or questioned the validity of the 2020 election needs to be banned from holding office again. Some of those folks need to be prosecuted. We need to systematically drive white nationalists out of places like the military and law enforcement.
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Reposted by Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)
Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 03/07/2026
Peculiar reporter’s notebook detail: I reached out to a lot — like, a LOT — of evangelical professors/scholars for this piece. Southern Baptist seminaries, evangelical schools, etc. Few responded. Almost none wanted to talk about interpretations of Matthew 25 — which wasn’t true of other scholars.
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Reposted by Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her)
Birds Are Dinosaurs @birdsaredinosaurs.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I want to believe in the power of Etsy witches, but logic dictates that if they were really effective, the top google search would be "why did my dick fall off?"
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Since the Etsy link doesn't provide a thumbnail, here's a photo.
A brown lacquered vintage chinoiserie cabinet style jewelry box with shell inlay in a floral pattern on the doors and lid and brass hardware.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
It's a beautiful and HUGE jewelry box, so if you want shipping, you gotta buy off the online platform, sorry. My pricing there incorporates my time/expense associated with shipping also including any sales I might run periodically.
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Mary Carroll-Mason (she/her) @mecm.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Hi peeps, back on my vintage selling bullshit. I have a piece here that I could do a significantly better deal on if someone was able to pick it up from me locally or even if you wanted delivery within about 50 miles of my home in Baltimore. marycmvintage.etsy.com/listing/4528...
marycmvintage.etsy.com
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