Inside the Little Plastic Castle

Thanks, pauraque for giving me S for this six-question meme.

Something I hate

scented shampoo, soap, or similar substances. Fragrances like these trigger coughing fits and sometimes migraines. Weirdly, I developed this sensitivity after I quit smoking 10-15 cigarettes/day.

Something I love

sencha green tea, in particular Telsaan Sencha Spring Shizuoka, tragically out of stock

Somewhere I have been

Skópun, Sandoy, Føroyar (Faroe Islands).

Somewhere I would like to go

Shetland Islands, Scotland or Svalbard, Norway, especially during midnight sun season.

Someone I know

sasha_feather! I introduced her to a disability rights framework at WisCon. She enthusiastically joined in and succeeded me as WisCon Access Chair. She introduced me to Stargate Atlantis thence LJ thence DW fandom. We’ve had weekly lunches almost continuously for more than a decade.

Favorite movie

I'm drawing a complete blank. I loved Miyazaki's Spirited Away when it first came out--I should rewatch and see if still shines.

Want to play? Raise your hand for a letter.

Comment below and I'll ask you five questions. Drop me a link to your answers in your own journal. Offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue!

Thanks for these great questions, boxofdelights

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of "best friends". Do you have a best friend? Did you, as a child? What do you think about the concept?

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Tell me about one of your best memories of WisCon.

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Do you play games? If so, what is a game that you like?

( Read more... )

Tell me about your first dog.

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When you are stressed, how do you like to make yourself comfortable again?

( Read more... )

You’re So Brave I’d Rather Be Dead

I love Barry Deutsch (aka Ampersand)’s cartoon style: ligne claire with bodies that look real, including many fat folks like him. Most recently is his excellent 6-panel cartoon on the endless theme of non-disabled people telling us "I’d rather be dead than live your life."

https://amptoons.com/blog/?p=25717
Images with full description as well as DVD commentary on how he came to create it.

NYTimes Sunday Magazine in Paper Braille!

Since August 2016, the NYTimes has published a Disability op-ed at least monthly.§ The vast majority of contributors bring a social justice perspective on living with impairment in a disabling society.

The NY Times’ Sunday Magazine this week is an all-disability issue, celebrating the ADA’s 30th anniversary. Thanks to yourlibrarian for letting me know they’ve been making a newspaper-wide push for accessibility, including producing braille editions of the Sunday special. (I was pleased to discover that they’ve been captioning all their videos for the last few years.)

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/the-new-york-times-special-section-on-disability-is-available-in-braille-and-audio-and-has-its-own-style-guide/

Mighty Painters Tape

One of the joys of working on WisCon access was deploying blue painter’s tape to create a reality that worked for all of us. Blue tape marks wheelchair parking spaces in program rooms, front row seating for those who need it, and keep-clear aisles to improve traffic flow.

My favorite podcast hosts an article on painter’s tape creating physical distancing in public spaces

Absent context, images from the Tape_Measures feed on Instagram could look like a series of art interventions. In light of a global disease outbreak, though, they are clearly signs of the times showcasing how a low-budget tool can help reinforce social distancing practices.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/roll-tape-documenting-ad-hoc-measures-to-encourage-social-distancing/

tape_measures

Better Batteries, Better Wheeling

New Mobility magazine focuses on wheelchair users, particularly power. I published an article there in 1999! Now published by the United Spinal Association It’s free, it’s got lots of detailed information, and stories from wheelers around the world. (Sadly not a lot of service-journalism on wheelchair manufacturers. They would be the #1 advertisers, of course.)

This article explores the fundamental differences between the very heavy deep-cycle marine batteries in traditional powerchairs, and the much lighter laptop-like lithium batteries powering the Whill CI, SmartDrive, and the new under-60 pound folding personal mobility devices.

[gear hacker] Mackay estimates he gets 30 miles on one charge, which is about the same distance he expects from his supplemental 24-volt, 75-amp-hour, lithium-ion marine battery — but the similarities stop there. The lithium-ion one weighs 70% less than its lead acid counterparts. Additionally, the two power sources deliver their charges very differently.

Lithium-ion batteries maintain max power output until they are depleted, whereas lead-acids put out less power as they near empty, resulting in a noticeable slowing of the chair. “In my experience, the lithium-ion battery gives me the same range as lead-acid. But because it puts out full power until it quits, it gives me an average of 1 mile per hour extra speed over a course of 20 miles,” says Mackay.

https://www.newmobility.com/2020/07/better-batteries-better-wheeling/

§ Marking a welcome 180° swerve away from the Times I grew up with — where the only disability coverage appeared in the heart-breaking inspo-porn-fest that was the NYTimes Neediest Cases.

WisCon ONLINE! reg closes 20 May 2020

The 44th WisCon was scheduled for the Concourse Hotel here in Madison over Memorial Day Weekend. They’ve swerved to an online iteration. Here’s your chance to try out WisCon and see if you like it.

Online memberships range from free (for those of us who don’t have extra money right now) to $55 (for those of us with extra money). Read more details about programming at the registration page.

Testers Wanted for DW Mobile Features

roadrunnertwice has been busy updating our elderly codebase right and left. They’d love to have mobile users, particularly Android, find problems with the latest code push.

Standard Model (of top, bottom, and other things)

fictional_fans is a pan fannish community, and yesterday extrapenguin blew my mind with this excellent prompt, which I honestly wish to nominate for Yuletide:

We've probably all heard about tops and bottoms, but why not expand this into the rest of the quark family so we have six options to play with? A character can be not only top or bottom, but also up, down, strange, or charm. (Some sources even call top and bottom truth and beauty, respectively!)

https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/58681.html

Butches & Studs

are the unicorn chaser, from the NYTimes style magazine, of all places
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/13/t-magazine/butch-stud-lesbian.html

We’ve read your thoughtful and pain-filled emails, tweets, and Facebook posts. We are sorry for the harm that’s been done, especially to some of the most marginalized members of our community.

We recognize that the award is necessary to the community, but can’t go on under its existing name. Now we need to figure out what to do next and how to do it. We’re working on it. And we’ll say more within a month.

runpunkrun has created eighty-seven (87!) amazing John-Shepherd-as-Weepy-Colonel trash-talking icons. There is one — or more — just for you.

https://runpunkrun.dreamwidth.org/798307.html

DaveHingsburger’s short essay about a woman successfully advocating for her own sexuality brought tears to my eyes:

https://davehingsburger.blogspot.com/2019/08/opening-my-mail.html

It's DW-related because I read Dave via https://davehingsburger-feed.dreamwidth.org/

fairestcat ponders AO3’s Hugo award, summarizing the sea-change as witnessed at WisCon.

We Did The Thing: Musings On the AO3, Wiscon, and Winning the Fandom Culture Wars
compare and contrast with
Wiscon, Media Fandom and The Larger Fannish Conversation from 2009

Josh Lukin was a polymath: smart, kind, musical, punster, every day, high academic. Every time I encountered him, he radiated assurance that this was the start of something wonderful.

There are hundreds of tributes on (his wife) Ann Keefer's Facebook feed.

https://www.facebook.com/746109651/posts/10156931539849652

I regret the adventures we'll never have. I was thrice drawn into Josh's orbit: at several WisCons, at the 2013 Disclosing Disability conference, and at the 2014 Society for Disability Studies conference. I admired his masterfully terrible puns on FB, and his prose in many places.

He studied and wrote about mysteries, science fiction, and life with chronic pain. He was an Associate Professor in English at Temple University, and it's no surprise that his students loved him.

A handful of full-text articles appear on his blog. For each he generously shares the path to publication, because:

I provide some background on how each of these got published in order a) to give credit to everyone responsible and b) to give novice scholars a sense of how the process worked. I owe almost all of my appearances in print to the support and generosity of grad school mentors and/or of editors I met at conferences.

https://joshlukinwork.wordpress.com/about/

Petra Kuppers has been mining the disability culture vein for many years. She dances, she writes (plays, poetry, fiction), she creates community theater, she teaches and she spreads energy wherever she goes. ( Kvelling over her words in three contexts )

Dance mystifies me as a spectator activity: I wish I could appreciate her work in that arena. Much more detail on her site:

https://petrakuppersfiction.wordpress.com/

The best sort of conflict is now visible at the full WisCon 42 program. There's a time period with two disability-themed panels and a sign-language themed RPG. Abundance for the win!

https://account.wiscon.net/grid?search=&view=list

I've really been enjoying WisCon programming since I've left the concom. Who knew? Not worrying about being responsible for everything really lightens the load.

I'm moderating: ( two panels )