Holiday Transit Wants

RantWoman always feels obliged to start out her holiday season with expressions of sincere gratitude to all her transit operators. First of all the transit operators are all at work while everyone else is celebrating!



Transit operators also get to put up with everything that comes with celebrating: overpowering cheeriness, people toting even more packages than usual, people toting redolent containers of holiday excess, people who are tired, stressed, short-tempered, people who have overindulged or who have been underattentive to modest courtesies. RantWoman definitely wants to give transit operators credit for doing a tough job and wants them to be wrapped in whatever holiday spirit will most help them survive and hopefully even enjoy the season.


Alas, this is RantWoman here, and RantWoman also has a list of holiday gripes, grumbles and wishes she hopes the transit team will take to heart.


Please learn your routes. The September shakeup is over two months old. RantWoman has gotten on several buses lately--carrying Thwack the Badly Behaved White Cane no less--and had drivers who had to ask clarifying questions when RantWoman mentions where she needs to get off. RantWoman can SOMETIMES see enough to know where she is, especially for locations she visits all the time. However, RantWoman does not just carry Thwack the Badly Behaved white cane for no reason. RantWoman needs your assistance. In fact, in RantWoman's experience a lot of other people who don't carry white canes also need your assistance.

Pay attention to what is going on right in front in the handicapped area. This time of year, everything can get wet and slippery. People have lots of extra packages and gear and there are lots of ways to clog the area everyone has to pass through. You have authority to help keep aisles clear and that is much appreciated!

Pay attention to the handicap seating area speak up when you need to.. Some people have hidden disability; others' main disability is rudeness about getting out of the way of people with special needs. RantWoman for instance can sometimes find a seat on her own. But she likes to ride facing forward and has her criteria for when she will move if she can and when it absolutely is safest for everyone if she just accepts an offered seat or stays put.


PLEASE call the darn stops. RantWoman REALLY hates it when she gets on a bus with Thwack and the driver fails to call a single stop for the entire route. Be advised, if RantWoman were not so busy having holidays of her own, she could certainly go look up individual offenders and complain. RantWoman could do this, but the problem is so generalized that she is thinking of toting around lumps of coal for every time this happens. Preach it! Let your thespian aspirations run wild. Pretend you are the President addressing the nation. Do whatever you need to find a voice. If you cannot call every stop, at least call major intersections. The MINIMUM is to call the stops someone has specifically mentioned. However even people who see badly like to space out on the bus. It really helps if you call a couple stops ahead of the stop someone has mentioned so that all those extra packages and possessions can be assembled in time to get off more smoothly.


People may be traveling at times or to places different from where they usually travel. That means more questions, more reliance on the driver for information about when to get off and directions to nearby destinations. If you don't know the answer to something, see if other passengers do! Lots of passengers can be quite helpful and everyone will appreciates dispensing requested or needed information quickly so that we can all get where we are going faster.

An excellent holiday season to all!

Holiday Tapioca

If the word tapioca makes you think of fish eyes and want to run screaming from the room, please feel free to click on to something more prosaic about transit or pedestrian rants or RantWoman's numerous other fixations. On the other hand, if you need something to stir gently while Christmas music fills the house, if the thought of holiday flavors, warm or cold in a simple, comparatively lowfat presentation sounds the slightest bit tempting, keep reading.

RantWoman really likes tapioca pudding. RantWoman usually makes pudding the custardy way with milk and eggs, but RantWoman very occasionally also uses tapioca to thicken something involving berries, lemon juice or other fruit. RantWoman does not feel very adventurous about tapioca with almond or soy milk and to be honest if lactose is a problem, RantWoman would probably stick to tapioca and fruit. Today's post is variations on the milk eggs theme.


Where to buy tapioca: RantWoman has her best, most budget-conscious results at Uwajimaya or another Asian grocery store. Next best will be your neighborhood food-coop. Failing that, RantWoman just thinks the regular grocery store will not automatically be a good deal.

Tapioca comes in small pearl and large pearl. RantWoman will usually cook the tapioca for a bit just in water before adding the custard ingredients. With large pearl, RantWoman recommends cooking the pearls until they are at least chewy all the way through; for bigger, softer pearls cook in just water until the pearls are translucent.
small pearl.

The basic recipe:

1/2 c tapioca

2 cups water for small pearl; 3 cups water for large pearl

combine in a thick-bottomed saucepan, heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Small pearl can be taken off the heat and left to continue cooking while other ingredients are assembled. Large pearl should be cooked at least until the pearls are soft all the way through. If an even smoother texture is desired, the large pearls should be cooked in just water until translucent.



3 cups milk.

RantWoman is usually perfectly happy with skim, but 2% or whole milk might be tempting for holidays.

1/2 cup of powdered milk.

This is to balance the water used to cook the tapioca; when RantWoman omits it, the flavor seems a little thin to RantWoman.

3 eggs,

The original recipe RantWoman's variations are based on called for the eggs to be separated, with the egg whites beaten separately and folded in after the rest of the custard cooks. RantWoman has done this a time or two, but usually does not find the extra lift worth the trouble.



Combine milk, powdered milk, eggs and beat with fork or mixer until everything is a consistent texture. Stir milk eggs mixture into the tapioca in the cooking pan, put back on medium heat and keep stirring. Cook over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken.



At this point, several variations are possible:

Eggnog flavor

Into the custard, stir

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp ground or fresh grated nutmeg.

By this time, the pudding should be very thick. Pour it either into a large serving container or into individual serving or storage dishes. Garnish with more nutmeg on top.



Double chocolate;

2 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate

1/2 c granulated or powdered sugar.

1 tsp vanilla

Melt into custard mixture. Store or serve as above. For this season, crumbled candy cane or fresh mint leaves with a dab of whipped topping make a fabulous garnish.



Mexican chocolate

1 round of sweetened mexican chocolate

1 square of semisweet baking chocolate

2-4 Tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla.

Melt into custard mixture. Store or serve as above. If you need garnish, a very light dusting of cinnamon or cinnamon sugar is plenty.

Urdu

RantWoman freely admits that linguist brain is a little too fond of stomping around between large numbers of language domains with total dilettante abandon about generations of politics and history colliding across different cultures and alphabets. That of course would be exactly the reason she likes the following item about Urdu:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/art-culture/19-myths-about-urdu-hh-01

RantWoman herself would check other sources for in-depth political, historical, economic analysis, but does find the outlines of the arguments highly interesting.

Snuggle Bug

RantWoman heard sad news yesterday about Snuggle Bug one of the kitties she visits regularly.

RantWoman is at this moment not really sure about verb tense except that Snuggle bug and her humans The Wenches had sad news at the vet's.

RantWoman in appreciation of Snuggle Bug's life presents some Snuggle Bug links:

Snuggle Bug asleep in the fruit bowl
http://weedwhackinwenches.blogspot.com/2009/01/tale-of-two-patients.html

Snuggle Bug with pineapple
http://weedwhackinwenches.blogspot.com/2008/03/cat-life-with-pinapple.html

Snuggle Bug with melons
http://weedwhackinwenches.blogspot.com/search?q=melons

Snuggle Bug with Eggplant
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/09/aubergine-libertine-in-limousine-with.html

The one-bite rule

The holiday dining seasons is upon us and it is time to consider the many ethnic dining options one is likely to encounter on a community buffet in these parts: rice, sushi, pickled fish, collard greens, sweet potato pie.

RantWoman is worldly and well-traveled and has done a variety of things on holidays with minimal distress. RantMom, on the other hand, is continually exclaiming about something or other. RantMom's current topic of exclamation is collard greens. For a woman who spent decades inducing spouse and children to eat our vegetables with gusto, RantMom is surprisingly vehement in her dislike of collard greens.

RantWoman's experience is that, no matter how important collard greens are as comfort food for some people, RantWoman understands why RantMom tends to complain about salty overcooked sodden green slime. RantWoman's experience comports often enough with this view to completely understand it. However, once in a great while, RantWoman encounters greens she really likes, tasting of the greens, not oversalted, sometimes with a hint of vinegar, sometimes with the right fillip of butter or bacon grease. RantWoman has read enough different greens recipes to know there are several different approaches to preparation. All of this means, unlike RantMom, RantWoman nearly always has a one-bite rule about greens on a buffet!

Bon appetit

Blog RantWoman will look at occasionally

RantWoman was chatting about blogs with someone she knows and picked up the following urls:

http://sitebuilder.friendpages.com/

http://lisacarmella.gather.com/

RantWoman is especially taking note of the choices different blog services offer as well as some screen reader peculiarities she will have to talk to the blogger about.

Fare Alert: Disabled pass price going up 100%

RantWoman does not obsessively follow the evolution of things like bus fares. Well, RantWoman has been generally aware of budget problems and many kinds of questions and even knew bus fare increases were in the offing. In advance publicity, some categories of services and passes are kind of soft-pedaled, until one looks at the latest Fare Alert !

RantWoman has been putting her brain around the fact that the cost of a monthly Disabled Pass will go up 100% effective January 1, 2010. This is on top of an 89% increase the last time there was a fare increase. Simply in percentage terms, RantWoman could easily understand why many riders' heads would be spinning, especially riders who are on fixed incomes and not even getting cost-of-living increases in, say, Social Security. RantWoman is amused to note that the increase in price for passes is steeper than the per ride increase for disabled passengers. The current increase will be only 50% though the previous one was a 100% increase.

Conversation about this topic indicates that Seattle-area fares for disabled passenegers have historically been dramatically lower than for comparable services in other areas. RantWoman is not going to go check this thought out on other transit-agencies' websites, at least not right this minute. If that is the case, it would be really nice for local transit agencies to get the big percentage-wise increases out of their system so that people can settle down at least a little!

RantWoman does note that even with fare increases, for heavy bus users like RantWoman, the bus pass will still be a BARGAIN. RantWoman has previously noted how much easier it is for her to have a pass and not to have to fuss with change or transfers. RantWoman also notes other big changes available on links from the Fare Alert page above about the ORCA card replacing passes and other transfer esoterica. For the time being, RantWoman is at least going to TRY not immediately to get a headache! Well, RantWoman is going to try.

BUSTIME

Is RantWoman the only person on the planet who still uses BUSTIME, "Metro's automated stop lookup service?" RantWoman ADORES bustime because she can use a plain old ordinary phone or in RantWoman's case cellphone. RantWoman dials a number, listens to exhortations impractical to RantWoman to get the info she needs on the web, steps through some menus, and gets scheduled departure times for the next 3 buses at her bus stop. Well, that is what USED TO happen.

Here's the deal: the Rant family all finally got our cellphones migrated. RantWoman would most happily have gotten something with a camera, a QWERTY keyboard, talking menus, even full internet access. Unfortunately, RantWoman's budgetary sensibilities reared their ugly heads and RantWoman settled for a plain phone with nicely tactile buttons where RantWoman can actually most of the time read the menus and the text messages. Even though RantWoman MIGHT rather get her own dang info off the internet, RantWoman cannot do so and that is why she loves BUSTIME.

RantWoman uses BUSTIME,once or twice a month if she is traveling someplace she commonly goes but at a time she less commonly travels or if she is in a new area. RantWoman, if she presses her nose up to the schedule sign can some of the time read schedule information except that at stops where many buses come by, the route RantWoman needs can be predicted to have its schedule posted at about RantWoman's waistline, or even RantWoman's knees. This would be another case where RantWoman might use BUSTIME.

Problem is, since the September bus shakeup, RantWoman has had decidedly mixed success using BUSTIME even for routes close to where she lives. RantWoman knows that a big bus shakeup means data tables to maintain. RantWoman knows that if a caller has to step through menus, the phone system can be collecting data about what info is wanted. RantWoman knows that she could have just opted to get into the queue for a live human sooner. RantWoman was pleased with the info she finally got. RantWoman is even tolerant of guinea pig services if Metro is trying to figure out alternatives for new ages and new technological environments: RantWoman would love to be seduced by soemthing better than BUSTIME, but at this point a plain phone is what RantWoman has for accessing this info and RantWoman would really prefer to keep BUSTIME.

Excellent Accessibility PR

RantWoman feels duty bound to post the following link about the marvels of assistive technology:

http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/providers/businessvalue/housecalls/housecalls3_access.mspx

Full disclosure:
RantWoman would not be RantWoman without more to say about the topic. For just one example, all the nice accessibility products and features this article talks about are no darn good for vast pools of users who depend on computer access through libraries or community centers if the public user configurations bury these features so that people who might benefit cannot even get at them even if they know they are there!

RantWoman could with frightening ease go on for a good long time about related themes; readers are in luck because unfortunately RantWoman has other problems already in queue.

Mumble Test

The Mumble Test is a language skills test used to evaluate language proficiency for language students and potential interpreters. Basically the idea is that the person being evaluated is supposed to decipher important information from some kind of bad audio, something with noise in the background, distortion, some kind of sonic effect that usually one would prefer to eliminate.


RantWoman thought of the mumble test Monday night trying to ride Link during the rush hour derailment. The regular, played all the time announcements are all clearly enunciated and pleasant to listen to--even when the cycle sometimes gets out of sync with the station the train is passing through. The various ad hoc announcements broadcast while RantWoman waited for her train were all pure mumble test.


RantWoman was riding Link to avoid rain. Well, RantWoman left her abode, thought of the bus. Then RantWoman decided she would get equally wet either walking or waiting for the bus so she set off on foot. RantWoman was not the least bit surprised when the bus passed her halfway between the next stops. RantWoman had further pedestrian delights in the form of a flood of runoff as she tried to cross the street. Next, RantWoman almost gave up on the train: it literally came as the elevator arrived so RantWoman could choose the more conventional bus route to her destination.

There were a couple more mumble test announcements as RantWoman's train made its way to downtown.RantWoman definitely noticed a spot with a lot of bright lights and people in dayglow jumpsuits working on the opposite tracks at one point, but RantWoman decided just to be glad her train was getting her where she needed to go.

Dreamfly

Yesterday RantWoman briefly attended an event for a great cause, the Dreamfly foundation

http://www.thedreamfly.org/

Dreamfly mobilizes funds in the US and partners with local nonprofits to build and operate schools in Pakistan and now Afghanistan. RantWoman was utterly charmed by the effort and the people.

RantWoman was slightly not charmed by two points:
First, RantWoman saw a sign about the event at her house of worship. The sign was nearly all tiny print, not a darn thing RantWoman can read. RantWoman only knew about the event because someone announced it. Then someone else who had heard the announcement was asking RantWoman and we both found the barely readable sign.

On a similar note, the event was nicely done with questions to help everyone mingle and get acquainted. RantWoman found herself grumbling though: if one is going to use a whole sheet of paper with one's mingle questions, it would not be terrible to print the questions in, say, 14-point font.

It's not like curious legally blind visitors are necessarily vast pools of funds ourselves, but sometimes we do have friends who are!

United we Ride--Not so much

RantWoman opened this morning's email to comments from other people who tried to respond to the http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/10/united-we-ride-interagency-information.html

information-gathering process.


RantWoman for a number of reasons was not in position to detect all the web accessibility problems with the data collection website. Even worse, the fact that a web-based information gathering process is completely inaccessible to a large percentage of heavy users of transit and paratransit went winging right by RantWoman, computer junkie that she is. Bear in mind, people who do not have access to or know how to use computers are people who might in fact have highly topical insights about how to make many parts of transit systems more efficient. RantWoman would further note that providing additional opportunities not limited to the web forms for email input at the last minute on the last day of data collection is a poor excuse for fuller accessibility throughout the full process.

In RantWoman's rich fantasy life, the voices of people who actually use the services would be included early enough in the design of the research to provide meaningful input. RantWoman is just saying....

Executive Decisions

RantWoman has an exalted title at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. RantWoman has this title because she opened her mouth at a key juncture and because no one has deposed her.

The upside of this title is being called on to make executive decisions. The downside of this exalted status is being called on to make executive decisions just as one is coming in from a dentist appointment.

RantWoman's two executive decisions while still under the influence of novacaine:

The Friendly Neighborhood Center... labored for months to get a mission statement that is both grammatical and representative. Despite the plainly obvious point that everyone who has anything to do with the place has either visible or hidden, acknowledged or unacknowledged disability, we decided we hated the word enough to leave it out. RantWoman finally after feedback about still really having to talk to the outside world changed a key phrase to "of widely varying abilities and disabilities."

The most recent version of our brochure needs a couple corrections. Originally it was printed with little graphic icons in color. RantWoman is unable explain why but she and at least one other person feel the result in color just looks like something the feline staff would throw up. Beware, there are certain intrinsic problems about assigning graphic design decisions to the legally blind anyway. Rantwoman happened to be looking over a version printed in bblack and white, though. The results were to RantWoman's view much more satisfactory than the color version.

Executive decision number 2: print it in black and white.

Stop! RantWoman is just not going to overdo the executive decisions!

If you read social theory

RantWoman came across a wonderful storehouse of interesting materials.

There is a lot of social theory, cultural criticism, aesthetics, poetics, and bits of urban planning and geography.

http://a.aaaarg.org/

If there is something obscure you are looking for in electronic format....

Back to Gangbangers

Life as a bus passenger sometimes gives one peculiar frontrow seats on current events. The shooting of Officers Tim Brenton and Britt Sweeney is a good example. Much has been written and more eloquently than comes quickly to RantWoman's fingers about the service of police officers, Officer Sweeney's heroism and the outrageous circumstances of this case. The perspective of humble bus passengers is but a blip in this pantheon. RantWoman hereby offers it anyway.


The night of the shooting, RantMom had scored tickets to another culture event downtown. RantWoman and RantMom barely made it to board the 7 at Benaroya just after 10. The front of the bus was emptier than sometimes. On the 7 that also means the very colorful character count was a little below average.



One babe transacting heaven knows what on hercellphone from the seat across from the driver was more than colorful enough in her own right to make up for a few missing faces. This charming entrepreneur decided the two stiff white ladies were too many ears and a stop or two later moved to the back of the bus. Considering Ms. Entrepreneur's limited and overly foul vocabulary, RantWoman definitely was not the least bit sorry. RantWoman did, though, find herself wondering why the driver was not too many ears, but RantWoman and RantMom were.



About that time, the first calls came over the radio of possible bus reroutes on other routes we are very familiar with. RantWoman's first thought was along the lines of "Oh Good Grief. More gangbangers with guns." That would have been more than bad enough.




Entrepreneur Lady was loudly announcing all the way from the back that she was getting off well before RantMom's stop. For Halloween, the vibe was still remarkably mellow: RantWoman supposes at that hour, perhaps all the busbound ghouls had already gotten where they were going and were not planning to go home for awhile. There was some moment of traffic tie-up before Jackson, but by that time the bus radio already cleared part of the affected area. RantMom reassured RantWoman that she felt fine if RantWoman wanted to get off first at her own stop and we promised to call when home.



Email junkie that RantWoman is, she had barely gotten her coat off before firing up the computer and feeling her stomach drop seeing the news.




RantWoman has been mostly following developments online, though she did pay an in-person visit to the memorial at the site of the shooting. RantWoman went one night when she was nearby for a related meeting. One bad thing about a night time visit was the loud noise and really bright floodlights, but that's when it worked for RantWoman's schedule. Apparently that was when it worked for others as well.



The other bad thing from RantWoman's perspective was one of those scary terminally well-meaning trying to be helpful moments that Thwack the Cane sometimes brings out in people. RantWoman had found a place to sit and pray and watch for a few minutes without totally frying what her eyes don't do well when faced with really bright lights in the dark. RantWoman sat for a bit and was getting ready to leave,standing with Thwack the Cane at a corner checking for traffic.



A car pulled up across the street, a woman who turned out to be wearing a black dress got out and was yelling at RantWoman not to cross. For the record, RantWoman was wearing black too, but at least she was well festooned with visibility enhancers. RantWoman had already heard a car coming from the closer lane but turned to better hear the well-meaning voice. By this time the well-meaning voice had charged across in front of the car she was worried about hitting RantWoman and offered to escort RantWoman across the street.


Most of the time RantWoman manages a diplomatic Thank you in this sort of situation. Black Dress Lady is just lucky she did not get "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR #$%@#@# MIND?" along with one of RantWoman's trademark equal opportunity nighttime visibility lectures. RantWoman made do by assuring her that she knows perfectly well how to get a bus nearby and beat it out of there as fast as possible to avoid any further bouts of good intentions.


Came then the memorial procession and memorial service. If the city can reroute traffic all over NE Seattle for home Husky games and can reroute all kinds of things downtown for pro sports events, RantWoman thinks putting up with traffic disruptions for one day for something like the memorial is the very least the public can do.


Well, RantWoman thought that until she caught sight of one packed parking lot and the words "carbon footprint" wandered to mind. The very point of parking lots of course is cars and hence carbon footprint. It's not like first responder vehicles are any exception, but RantWoman did sourly think everyone who uses their car should.... Well, you get the idea.

RantWoman's thought about the memorial, had she any interest in going would be, if you must involve your automobile, park far away and take the bus. Then RantWoman looked at the massive list of affected bus routes, again probably not any worse than lots of other large events, but RantWoman took note anyway.

RantWoman sends sincere condolences to Officer Brenton's family, loved ones and coworkers. RantWoman wishes Officer Sweeney quick and thorough recovery and a long, strong career in law enforcement.

Meanwhile, closer to home, RantWoman took note of various contact numbers and info-sharing options. Now that RantWoman has a cellphone she is almost happy about even including TEXTING RantWoman can almost see, maybe she will add the info to her phone and even use it at least occasionally in connection with the most outrageous events around her.

Don't worry Be Happy

RantWoman has been reading various online excoriations of gossip tonight. Cuz, as of yesterday newly ensconced in her 5th decade, just like all but one remaining youngster in our generation, penned the item below.

dedicated to crabby arseholes…

The link attached and the juxtaposition with the topic really crack RantWoman up.