“Hands Off” Rally in Downtown Madison
Saturday, April 5th, 2025 05:56 pmStepped out for a pro-democracy demonstration this noon at our highly photogenic state Capitol square.
( more details )
Five Things in this Post
Sunday, February 2nd, 2025 03:41 pmSkyview skyview.social lets you view and share Bluesky threads without needing an account. It offers a tree view, as well as an unrolled (all replies) and embed (haven’t tested it). Plus bots to save all of those; claims to track nothing.
I’d offer an example but even the briefest time on Bsky today has crashed my news wall like woe.
Excellent tool for managing time zone information https://dateful.com
The link you create a link automagically translates an event’s time to the user’s current time zone and day. When you create a free account, you can edit those links.
For example, a Media & Disability Communication Online Con
- 12 February 2025, 6PM to 9PM AEDT (UTC +11)
In my timezone
Seen on electric signboard on US Highway 12/18 E just south of Madison, 23 November 2024
Make it to deer camp safely buckle up
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonant revises John Henry for the modern day:
The Ballad of John Henry's CEO
You can't fight fate, gotta automate,
Keep the cost of production down, lord, lord,
The cost of production down.
First published in 2012, still relevant as fuck.
I’ve always known that the most stressful equipment failure is when something breaks on my powerchair.
Previously, I would have put computing equipment in second place, but today I learned a new contender: when my tea kettle won’t turn on! Thankfully MyGuy recognized I was in anxious mode, and the store had a replacement, and all is well.
Well, all is .... I have tea.
We have survived bad times before with mutual aid.
Still maintaining my news wall.
I appreciate it when people tag relevant content with "politics"
People with paid DW accounts can filter posts by tags
Tags: Show only content that is labeled with a certain tag or tags, or only content that is not labelled with a certain tag or tags (people sometimes refer to this as "blocking tags").
https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=76&q=filter
boost: Jewelry for Fair Fight
Friday, September 17th, 2021 04:36 pmOne of my joyful things is stringing beads: I've made more than 200 pieces since March 2020. I'm glad sonia offered to take their pictures. sonia's now selling my work for a great cause:
Browse the necklaces and earrings, place a $5 deposit on one you like, make a donation to Fair Fight, and sonia sends you the piece!
Stacey Abrams' work with Fair Fight in Georgia is why there's a Democratic plurality in the Senate, and democrats have a tiny grasp on power right now. They promote fair elections around the country, encourage voter participation in elections, and educate voters about elections and their voting rights.
I adored Ann Patchett's early fiction — The Magician’s Assistant, The Patron Saint of Liars, Bel Canto, and Run. I was fascinated by the parallel experiences of reality gained from Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face in conversation with Patchett’s meditation on their friendship, Truth & Beauty.
But she fell off my radar. Then this outstanding 20,000 word essay fell into my eyes
These Precious Days in January 2021 Harper’s Magazine
It’s got a big twist, just like she enjoys writing in her novels. It takes its form from the current moment, so there’s lockdowns and air travel and Tom Hanks and more air travel. Along the way Ann encounters Hanks’ assistant Sooki. Ann recognizes that Sooki radiates beauty and competence, and offers her a place to stay during cancer treatment. In return, they develop a true friendship. It’s heartening to learn these magic moments can still lie ahead.
A few quotes: ( 400 words )
Poll: Face Mask Fashion
Monday, January 4th, 2021 04:31 pmThanks to sara, I watched some excellent Baroque chamber music. The performers, as is customary in the U.S., wore formal clothing: a black suit with white shirt and black tie; a black floor-length dress. All performers wore matte black face masks. Which raises a vital question -- how should we coordinate our mask colors with the rest of our outfits?
( two questions )
I'm breaking my four-year newsfast w this podcast rec
Saturday, November 7th, 2020 02:29 pmJust listened to 90 minutes of fascinating audio: Here to Slay. The podcast features Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan Cottom interviewing smart black women.
Because it's on Luminary, you have to pay to listen. The good news is this teaser ep is free, where they discuss how Kamala Harris is a first and she's also problematic. (No transcript I can find)
Image Description for the Current Political & Cultural Moment
Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 05:01 pmTalk Description to Me is a newish podcast from Canada. Their mission is "Where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed out in description-rich conversations." Christine Malec, a perpetually inquisitive member of the blind and partially sighted community who’s always wondering about something, talks with J.J. Hunt, an Audio Describer.
https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com
TalkDescription
talkdescriptiontome
The 30-minute episodes cover a wide range.
Episode 1 — the image behind the protests — details the video where Derek Chauvin murders George Floyd in Minneapolis. I appreciate that they face up to the impossibility of "neutrality," which is often touted to audio/image describers.
Episode 4 — Sports in the COVID era, and Bob & Doug’s new Space-age look — delves into the crowd noise "sweeteners" that now accompany baseball games as well as the actual Hollywood set designers for the SpaceX spacesuits. Since I know zilch about baseball, I appreciated the context for the stylized drama between managers and catchers.
Finding hope in hard times
Friday, December 13th, 2019 05:14 pmThe UK election result crashed through my news barriers. Oh, crap.
This scary turn reminds me of a song that helped me in an earlier ugly time, when I was stunned in certainty of imminent nuclear annihilation.
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love til you’ve loved it away?
Bob Franke: Thanksgiving Eve.
( The lyrics )
Three ways to hear it (hoping one of these links survives):
- Bob Franke performs with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin inside a nuke-proof bunker in Moscow
Franke writes from a Christian tradition, so it’s no surprise Amidon Choral Music arranges the song for SATB, with full recording and lyrics
More sonorous version from Irish singer Janet Holmes 2004 record, Road to the West
Poetry re Disabled Rage in the Current Moment
Friday, July 14th, 2017 04:51 pmFrom Cal Montgomery, my disability studies mentor:
https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/mike-pence/
begin quote
[...snip...]
I can see the god of hands:
flapping in joy,
dancing full of language,
poring over six-dot cells of knowledge,
easing joysticks across broken sidewalks,
torn between frustrated teeth,
cracked and callused and sore,
dowsing for love on screens,
flipping tables, throwing chairs,
juddering to a rhythm of the nerves,
loose and still,
knotted,
contracted,
balled into fists,
wrapped around guns
that turn out to be trinkets,
bruised,
bloodied,
wet with tears.
I can see holiness
in the rising,
in the sharing,
in the reaching out to one another
against rejection,
in the demand
for freedom, food and futures,
even as your forces array against it. [...snip...]
quote ends
https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/mike-pence/
Le Guin's Post-Election Essay is Profoundly Helpful
Friday, November 25th, 2016 05:07 pmAfter reading Ursula K. Le Guin's essay on the election, I was, for a few moments, able to breathe deep and focus on the long view. I recommend it to all, especially the anxious & paranoid:
begin quotehttp://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2016/11/21/the-election-lao-tzu-a-cup-of-water/
My song for many years was We Shall Overcome. I will always love that song, what it says and the people who have sung it, with whom I marched singing. But I can’t march now, and I can’t sing it any longer.My song is Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.
Though we’ve had some great scholars of peace, such as Martin Luther King, studying it is something Americans have done very little of.
The way of the warrior admits no positive alternatives to fighting, only negatives — inertia, passivity, surrender. Talk of “waging peace” is mere glibness, you can’t be aggressively peaceful. Reducing positive action to fighting against or fighting for, we have not looked at the possibility of other forms of action.
end quote
Thanks to sonia for the link.
Grateful for ...
Sunday, November 20th, 2016 11:12 amHighly Local Nature Movie: The red-tailed hawk who glided around 8 feet above the street in front of my house, perched on a bare maple tree, but failed to catch any squirrels.
Friends to spend time with.
Bella has finally understood that she's to sit and wait for my sign before going through a door. I've tried to be a consistent trainer, but this took eight months.
Euphoria by Lily King is an exhilarating fiction inspired by elements of Margaret Mead's life. Whee!
Libraries that offer me lots of Margaret Mead to explore.
All these things above, which I can think about while the political situation (still?) reduces me to paranoid, wailing tears.
Friends to spend time with.
Bella has finally understood that she's to sit and wait for my sign before going through a door. I've tried to be a consistent trainer, but this took eight months.
Euphoria by Lily King is an exhilarating fiction inspired by elements of Margaret Mead's life. Whee!
Libraries that offer me lots of Margaret Mead to explore.
All these things above, which I can think about while the political situation (still?) reduces me to paranoid, wailing tears.
Naming & Shaming Neoliberalism
Monday, April 18th, 2016 04:32 pmI like to think of myself as "politically aware." Yet this kick-ass editorial in The Guardian (UK) opened my eyes to the continuity of "neoliberalism."( Quotes & Link )
Signal Boost: Effective Community Organizing
Monday, October 26th, 2015 06:14 pmI've been privileged to hear Mia Mingus speak three days in a row. Among other topics, she emphasized how important trust is in the relationship between organizer and community. ( earlier and later examples )
Here's an outstanding example of organizing through community service:
Tired of doing hair, don't know how, or don't have time? No Problem! We will do your baby's hair for free while they watch a movie and eat snacks.
Complete info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/791639540981877/
Tell me about more effective service projects, which also increase community awareness of political issues.
Here's an outstanding example of organizing through community service:
Complete info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/791639540981877/
Tell me about more effective service projects, which also increase community awareness of political issues.
ANSWERED! Origin of "Sex Object" or "Sex Objectification"
Monday, March 17th, 2014 05:08 pmGreetings, o wise ones
I've poked the standard free searches available to me and haven't found out who first used the words "sex object" to describe how patriarchal culture defines women as nothing more than a being with whom to have sex.
I'm looking for the coiner of phrases like:
He whistled at me then pawed me like a sex object because I wore a skirt
He asked my husband where he worked; he asked me how many kids we have. I hate that kind of sex objectification.
Feel free to signal boost!
I've poked the standard free searches available to me and haven't found out who first used the words "sex object" to describe how patriarchal culture defines women as nothing more than a being with whom to have sex.
I'm looking for the coiner of phrases like:
He whistled at me then pawed me like a sex object because I wore a skirt
He asked my husband where he worked; he asked me how many kids we have. I hate that kind of sex objectification.
Feel free to signal boost!
Four Things Make a Post
Saturday, June 15th, 2013 06:13 pmMore Boundaries & Wheelchairs
The awesome vibes from my last post made it all the way to Chicago. Captain Awkward's letter yesterday was I'm in a wheelchair and people are condescending as fuck. Tasty reading, and hundreds of non-hostile, yet non-submissive responses.
Th@ is wh@ ma@ters( wh@'s up? )
Locked Out: Investigating Societal Discrimination against People with Disabilities Due to Inaccessible Websites
( A clear, fun, and useful presentation on the basics of why we need accessible sites )
Cyncism is consent
( a thought for the day if you're a weary advocate )
The awesome vibes from my last post made it all the way to Chicago. Captain Awkward's letter yesterday was I'm in a wheelchair and people are condescending as fuck. Tasty reading, and hundreds of non-hostile, yet non-submissive responses.
Th@ is wh@ ma@ters( wh@'s up? )
Locked Out: Investigating Societal Discrimination against People with Disabilities Due to Inaccessible Websites
( A clear, fun, and useful presentation on the basics of why we need accessible sites )
Cyncism is consent
( a thought for the day if you're a weary advocate )
US Politics: Elections and After
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012 05:45 pmI was terrified in the few days before the U.S. election. Anxious and cranky and blah. Woke up bolt upright at 2:30am, had to crawl the web to see weather it would be 2000 all over again — rigged voting, suppression, &c.
Relaxed a bit after, for a good 14 hours.
Now this "fiscal cliff" is hitting home for those of us with disabilities. Easter Seals (v old brand, which I could do without, but they do a lot for families affected by disability) set up this magic letter-writer for you to contact your members of Congress. Fill out your ID info, add some fighting word to their statement, click send. According to some of my electorally savvy friends, these messages do make a difference.
Unbelievable. On January 2, automatic budget cuts from Congress will slash programs helping people with disabilities: special education, employment resources, housing assistance and more. Nearly $1 billion will be cut from special education alone.
I know we've got to make some tough decisions about the budget, but we also have to must also work to protect services and supports for people with disabilities. If you agree, send a letter to your representatives now: https://secure2.convio.net/es/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=579&s_src=2012-Nov-budget-taf
Millions of people with disabilities are counting on us to speak out against these devastating cuts. I hope you'll join me and stand up for families living with disabilities today!
Relaxed a bit after, for a good 14 hours.
Now this "fiscal cliff" is hitting home for those of us with disabilities. Easter Seals (v old brand, which I could do without, but they do a lot for families affected by disability) set up this magic letter-writer for you to contact your members of Congress. Fill out your ID info, add some fighting word to their statement, click send. According to some of my electorally savvy friends, these messages do make a difference.
Unbelievable. On January 2, automatic budget cuts from Congress will slash programs helping people with disabilities: special education, employment resources, housing assistance and more. Nearly $1 billion will be cut from special education alone.
I know we've got to make some tough decisions about the budget, but we also have to must also work to protect services and supports for people with disabilities. If you agree, send a letter to your representatives now: https://secure2.convio.net/es/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=579&s_src=2012-Nov-budget-taf
Millions of people with disabilities are counting on us to speak out against these devastating cuts. I hope you'll join me and stand up for families living with disabilities today!