jesse_the_k | Entries tagged with visibility

The first annual Cloud Appreciation has been delightful. The skies over southcentral Wisconsin filled with clouds small and large, wispy and chunky, traveling all the points of the compass. This afternoon we drove to Pope Farm Conservancy, a high spot overlooking the lakes. 360° of clouds: white, gray, frond-y, zooming.

( Admiring north western horizon )

Foregrounded by a fieldstone wall, overhead a thick gray cloud drifts into more than 20 white/gray puffs over rolling hills with dark green trees and drying grasses.

As hoped, folks from around the planet contributed to the public exhibit. My favorite for this hour is from John Montague, shooting in the Salisbury Plain of South Georgia Island in the Scotia Sea (southern edge of the South Atlantic)

( Preacher Penguin Leads the Flock )

Hundreds of tightly-packed penguins face us, while we see the back of one penguin, arms out like a conductor. The horizon is softened by a warm fuzzy "fog bow," showing the top eighth of a circle, rising from the treeless tundra.

Attention nature photographers! The Cloud Appreciation Society is launching the first-ever Cloud Appreciation Day this Friday 16 September, hosting sky pictures from everyone everywhere.

Of course, every day is a cloud appreciation day for members of the Cloud Appreciation Society, but this is our opportunity to encourage others to pay attention to and engage with the sky above.

We will be launching our new Memory Cloud Atlas website

https://memorycloudatlas.org

Anyone, anywhere in the world can upload an image of their sky on this day, locate themselves on a world map, and write or record some words about how the sky makes them feel. It’s free and anyone can upload from a mobile device or computer.

More background, and teacher resources at https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/cloud-appreciation-day-2022/

I got a kick when I saw this "maintain 6 feet social distance" sign -- a wheelchair user is among the six folks sharing the path. Thank you to Public Health Madison & Dane County (Wisconsin) for inclusive design. It was a lovely trip on the Lower Yahara River trail, a ten-foot wide asphalt and boardwalk path that wanders through a marsh (remediated landfill) and then parallels a railroad line between two of our lakes.

( sign photo )

( full description in the cut )

This site is catnip for the at-home mechanic. It has a wide range of fun and funky instructions, from all-cardboard storage systems, DIY security, and 3D printers that print themselves, to cooking recipes, provided in step-by-step detail.( Pretty & Practical Bikes )
Instructables provides a nice framework for documenting your amazing projects (called ibles) so others can admire and do it themselves, as well as comment threads for more praise and good ideas.

Following the sterling example of

wrdnrd, I'm inviting anyone coming to WisCon who has questions to speak up! I'll answer 'em here. If the answers annoy you, you can know to avoid me. Or maybe there will be fascinating answers and you can plan to share a meal or a stroll.

I'm a 155lb, white woman with short pepper-and-salt brown hair and thick purple glasses. Which is probably irrelevant because the first thing you'll notice is my zooming black power wheelchair with red bag on the back. I'm 5'3" standing, but 4'3" sitting. I'll be wear a hat (oh! having to choose!) with my badge on the front.

Better Interactions through Advance Notice

If we're speaking for more than two sentences, please get to my eye level, cause I can't tilt my head back.

NO HUGS, thank you. Any weight on my hypersensitive shoulders means throbbing all weekend long.

Hold hands! I love holding hands.

Don't rest your weight on my chair. I feel the tiniest shift as pain down my body, so lean on a wall.

PRONOUNS: She, you, me but mostly we!

ANXIETY: Fundamental building block of my spirit, these days. I assume the worst, and reliably misinterpret subtle cues. I particularly welcome open invitations.

COMPREHENSION: I'll have a better chance of understanding you if you look in my eyes when you talk.

SINGLE-TASKING is a talent; multitasking is a horror show.

There's more than one wheelchair user at WisCon. I am not Liz Henry, Susanne Blom, Stef Maruch ... or any of the other wheelers whose names elude me right now.

Resources

I'm local to Madison and I can help you find things.

I've been on the Concom for a while, and would be delighted to talk about volunteering.

if you're having a blood-sugar crash, I always have at least two emergency GF, vegan bars

I'll be at the hotel but if you're having a desperate craving for a dog to play with, it can be arranged.

I love assistive technology and will happily talk about it for ever.

SCHEDULE
Friday 9pm Making the Most of WisCon Starts wicked late at night for me but I decided to risk it. If you have any suggestions for things to communicate, feel free to let me know!

Saturday 2:30p Beyond Etiquette: How Not to Disable People with Impairments This one should be a gas!

haddayr as well as two experienced and educated Anns (who aren't on DW/LJ), and

sasha_feather

Monday 10a The Tiptree Award Winners That Everyone Should ReadI'm moderating this one -- the panelists have all been Tiptree jurors so I'm sure they'll have lots to say.

Current Mood: chipper

So I have a small bumpersticker on my chair's back reading "Thank you for not patting me on the head."

Clearly the couple this morning overlooked it.

I was in a post-swimming trance, reading SGA fanfic, and waiting for the paratransit van (as you do). Suddenly a woman looms into my vision. "Why did you put sparkles in your hair?" she queries. I'm "huh? buh..." and she repeats "do you know you have sparkles in your hair?" I shrink away from her hands which are swooping in for a landing. "Oh look, dear" as she turns to her male partner, "It's her gray hair! It sparkles! Did you know your hair sparkles?"

I was speechless, although the urge to bite was strong. She invited her guy over to look at the remarkable sight of my head. At that point I got myself together enough to speed around 15 feet away and stare balefully at them. They didn't, thank Ghu, follow me.

Just another morning on the planet. At least it's 20° F (which is warm in these parts).

Current Mood: distressed

Thanks to Lawrence Carter-Long, an enthusiastic support of films with disability issues, who brought this to my attention:

'Glee' wheelchair episode hits bump with disabled

LOS ANGELES — The glee club members twirl their wheelchairs to the tune of "Proud Mary" and in joyful solidarity with Artie, the fellow performer who must use his chair even when the music stops.

The scene in Wednesday's episode of the hit Fox series "Glee," which regularly celebrates diversity and the underdog, is yet another uplifting moment — except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates.

For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.

The article goes on to quote two actors with disabilities and five behind-the-scenes advocates (probably because LA is a company town for TV.)

Let's hear it for union solidarity! Unions for actors on film, TV and stage are mounting a "civil rights campaign." I AM PWD, Inclusion in the Arts & Media of People with Disabilities includes a blog of union members' experiences.

Current Mood: awake

Bill Shannon, aka Crutchmaster, is a four-legged dancer: a pair of legs plus two rounded-bottom canes. I'm not much for dance, but this guy adds a clueful, witty social analysis to his public performances and interactions with his audiences.

Crutch Freestyle
Uploaded by ViaMedia

You may have seen his rad moves on YouTube.

In this Poptech presentation he lectures on the sociological details of how he perceives and is perceived as he dances in public: a 20-minutes disquisition on the social model of disability and the disabling gaze. (The video is Flash-based, but it starts automatically.)

His home sites, What is What and Virtual Provocateur, both use Flash, and are thus opaque to speech navigation.

As part of the UC-Berkeley-based Artists with Disabilities Oral History Project, there's a 70-page transcript from 2004 covering his early history, education, design & performance philosophies, and a ton of other interesting stuff.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Disability-rights advocates hate institutions. Their high walls and one-way doors nurture a culture of sexual, physical and mental abuse. The most important Supreme Court ruling so far on the Americans with Disabilities Act has been Olmstead v L.C., which held that sentencing people with disabilities to institutions when they could live in the community constituted discrimination.

Almost ten years later, states are still fighting to keep large institutions open (and advocates are still suing to switch spending from supporting institutions to supporting people living in the community). As always, civil rights laws never automatically mean discrimination is over: it only gives us the legal standing to sue.

Today my invaluable Inclusion Daily Express brought news of excellent political theater necessitated by the State of Texas' refusal to implement the Olmstead decision.

As the Inclusion Daily Express Archives show: Texas Houses Largest Number Of Americans Behind Institution Walls

( Shouting 'Fifty-three murders on your watch!' and 'People are dying, shame on you!' the group of about 20 protesters interrupted the meeting. They waved signs and emptied a bag of 53 toy watches, painted red, on the floor near the panel. )

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Current Mood: angry

In his Washington Post op-ed, No Time for Pity Gary Presley doesn't say anything shiny new, but it says important truths exceptionally well:

pity annoys

wheelchair don't confine, they liberate

things are slowly improving

So there!

Current Mood: grateful

I love Dmae Roberts's radio pieces. She explores vital, difficult issues and they're full of laughter. Listening to her voice helps me experience her insights more directly.

What are we but a collection of secrets? as we move through our lives, as we choose to reveal our lives, our stories, our very being to strangers—or not. 'How did your parents meet?'

Being visibly different in our racist society, she daily experiences rude questions from strangers. (Some of those same folks likewise see my power wheelchair as permission to say remarkably intrusive & thoughtless things.)

Her "Secret Asian Woman" explores the costs of passing. Her parents are White and Chinese, and she looks "White enough" to witness countless racist comments. She browses labels—"White," "half-Oriental," "Eurasian," "half-breed," "multiracial," "HAPA," "mixed,"—comparing their histories and fit. I laughed at her fellow-feeling with "Secret Agent Man," the 60s TV show: by being able to pass she inhabited the mysterious-infiltrator role into which many Asian women are cast.

( more good stuff from Dmae Roberts )

somehow this handful of questions turned out to describe my fashion "sense" quite well. (This meme gakked from

pantryslut.)

Your result for The Fashion Style Test...
Fashion Artist
[Flamboyant Original Deliberate Prissy]
61% Flamboyance, 59% Originality, 49% Deliberateness, 25% Sexiness

Cartoon description: Faceless pink-skinned female with purple hair, red earmuff-sized earrings, orange bell-sleeve shirt under blue tank top, red skirt with blue polka dots, no hose, and red boots with orange soles, slouches next to taller faceless pink-skinned biped with white bellbottoms, orange & red jacket, braid of long white hair dangling over zir right shoulder.

To you fashion is not what they think up in Paris or New York. You follow only your instincts and taste and, admit it, they are far from conventional. Clothes are one of the methods of expressing your personality and being interesting is even more important than being attractive. You pay attention to compose such outfits that would express you best. You tend to shock and though many appreciate your style and originality not many follow in your footsteps. Perhaps your flamboyant outfits are partly meant to hide some of your insecurity but be that as it may, few pass you on the street without looking back. Good job.

Take The Fashion Style Test at HelloQuizzy

Unfortunately they omitted my most serious issue: wheelchair color-coordination.

#1 was red. As if I needed more help being seen? #2 wanted to be English racing green when it grew up, but mainly it looked dusty and didn't go with anything except purple. #3 is basic black. #4?

Current Mood: goofy

Many artistic expressions of life with chronic pain appear at the PainExhibit.org. Mark Collen is the founding artist, who continues to solicit submissions from around the world.

I'd idly dreamed of transforming some of that thick stack of test results into sculpture:

"Hey Doc, Have You Figured It Out Yet?" does just that. Collen's illuminated tower of radiographic images brings to mind a kiosk advertising cultural delights, as well as a cooling tower on a power plant. Powerful images indeed--these could be helpful exemplars when trying to convey the reality of chronic pain to those around us who don't get it (yet).

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Inside the Little Plastic Castle

adventures with Jesse the K

Entries tagged with visibility

Cloud Appreciation Day #1

boost: Friday is Cloud Appreciation Day

Representation is Gratifying, Signage Division

DIY Glee at Instructables.com

WisCon Meme: or a post-WisCon post pre-WisCon.

It Just Happened & I Can't Believe It

With Glee! as a news hook, mainstream media acknowledges actors with disabilities

Bill Shannon: What is What?

The Only Safe Institution is an Empty One

Wheelchair Freedom

Anti-Racism 102

Silly quiz and yet...

The Pain Exhibit

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