Blanche!

 Congratulations Blanche, recently proclaimed the Icelandair "World's worst photographer.

Readers who don't want RantWoman ramble, scroll down for comments specifically about this. Readers game for more piquant notes from RantWoman's life, moments from RantWoman's Instagram learning curve, and / or more contributions to crowd sourcing social media market research, stick with us. 

1. RantWoman does not exactly have out loud conversations with Ambassador Thwack, the badly behaved white cane and anger management consultant. RantWoman does suspect need to note the following:

"Hot lava AND ice caves? You want me to do WHAT exactly?"

"Relax. We can handle it when necessary. Just Chill. Wait. Is that the wrong word?"

2. RantWoman thinks she has figured out how to do a like that is not just a reply with an emoji.

 RantWoman, knock on wood, seems to have trained her instagram to skip the annoying thumbnails and always just open with a full screen photo that RantWoman can swipe about.

RantWoman has not figured out what a reel is, how to sort out who to follow into coherent streams, or how to fire up her phone's AI to read the itty-bitty text way too many stick in their posts. Sorry, but if it's too busy for RantWoman, RantWoman just swipes away fast.

RantWoman really likes Instagram posts with sound, either sound that tells a good story or sound that bears some relationship to the visual content.

3. RantWoman has not fully gotten into the reply vibe, but RantWoman is going to gripe anyway. Along with all the congratulatory posts for Blanche, there were people still trying to vote for Diane, the mom from Kansas who can't photograph her own children. RantWoman can relate. RantWoman did not submit her own "who are these people and why can't they take decent photos?" specimens. 

Why? Because privacy. Even though a lot of the "who are these people?" faces have long departed to other realms, enough of the ones who are allergic to the internet are still around that RantWoman did not want to subject them to mockery. RantWoman has been looking at other older, pre-digital family photos and grumbling about all the times no one thought to note who the person is next to Aunt Tilley, or where the photo was taken. So maybe a nudge to everyone out there laying photo tracks in the digital sand: label your photos as soon as you can after you take them.

4. The chorus of voices looking for some Mom energy jogged RantWoman's memory about one thing. RantWoman has watched a ton of Iceland videos. She onley remembers seeing a child in one channel and the child was a toddler riding in his Mom's video. Surely children exist in Iceland. Surely some arrive as tourists. 

Iceland is EXPENSIVE but RantWoman wonders whether some videos specifically about family friendly travel would put Iceland in a better position for the "planning a family vacation" market segment. RantWoman's mind also wandered to the question: do kids do pen pals any more? or what about some kind of teleconference learning and interaction? Understand, RantWoman is tossing out the idea without necessarily any capacity to work details out further, but there are so many interesting things about Iceland...

So now we get to Blanche. RantWoman thinks Blanche will be an absolute hoot to travel with. So again Congratulations Blanche!

The Weather Forecast on D-Day

RantWoman is a big fan of Cliff Mass even though his graphics sound really silly through a screen reader.  

Here is a really interesting item about the weather forecast on D-Day.

History like this is always timely for the D-Day anniversary

Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Real Story of the D-Day Weather Forecast

Iceland Volcano vid of the week

 Iceland #Seimicity #DataVisualization

RantWoman admits it: RantWoman is volcano nerd enough to find this video data snapshot in time interesting though a little bit tighter geographic specificity or pre-existing familiarity with Iceland geography would never be terrible. 

Sometimes one just digests the data without speculating whether an eruption is imminent.

Kind of interesting also to think about how to present this information to someone who is blind, either in sound or some kind of tactile rendering. Both ideas are on edges of products being worked on....

MInimal walking plus bananas.

 RantWoman's consumption of bananas has everything to do with how she COPES with everything there is to cope with. Details matter, both the product and how the product gets stowed in shopping bags to come home.

RantWoman's banana preferences: on the small side, slightly green so that a bunch will last several days without heading toward banana bread. These details are not to be found when ordering online.

Banana happiness

A couple weeks ago, RantWoman had an opportunity to bananas across the street from an event she participated in. Buying bananas there would have made bus travel home a breeze via one easy transfer. The bananas were perfect size. The transportation realities were perfect. The bananas were already way to yellow AND the price, even considering the time savings from not having to travel, was through the roof. So no bananas that time.

Things went much better Friday, but first the other point of the journey.

Friday, RantWoman had a long-awaited physical therapy appointment in theU district. RantWoman, thankfully, was able to walk from the bus stop to the clinic without massive pain. Thank you, YouTube coaching; at the time of the referral RantWoman had been in too much pain even to think about an outside referral. The therapist observed that RantWoman "walk(s) like someone with arthritis. Right. So glad you noticed.

RantWoman's experience is that physical therapists are VERY good at analyzing what might need stretching and what might need strengthening. In a couple cases RantWoman came home with suggested exercises that amounted to "Do what you are already doing but add resistance." RantWoman can do that! RantWoman is going to have to schedule in a little more time daily to add new exercises. 

A really cool angle about the exercises. First step: demonstrate and practice at the clinic. Second step an email exercise routine from a resource called Medbridge. RantWoman happily gave permission to send email. The link arrived. Heaven. Each exercise labelled with the recommended frequency and number of reps. The images were presented in clear simple graphics, with both audio and text. There is a browser version and an app version. The app even appears to hound the user and RantWoman is dutifully going to figure out the data recording as well as which exercises to rotate on which days. RantWoman is SO excited to try things.

RantWoman is getting ahead of herself though. Physical therapy takes a lot of energy. RantWoman clearly needs to do her exercises because even before the PT session, RantWoman has trouble standing too long. RantWoman left PT a little sore but energized. RantWoman thought of tackling a couple errands but did not argue when her body thought that was not necessary. Instead, RantWoman walked out of the clinic, found the bus stop, hopped one bus that took her to a bus with a perfect connection to a favorite banana buying option.

Here we come to...RantWoman's recommendations about packing bananas.

1. Bananas NEVER belong on the bottom of the shopping bag.

2. Never make a bunch of bananas rest only on the back of one banana.

3. Excellent banana packing is a little bit of an architectural exercise. Pack the bananas on top of other grocery items so that both the stem end and the other end bear the weight of the whole bunch. Pack the bananas over something sturdy enough to support the banana bunch.

RantWoman also has been encouraged to look for a water exercise class. Figuring this out and scheduling will take more time. With banana needs well metand well packed for the trip home, RantWoman is on it.

How to or not to pack for Iceland

 Iceland

RantWoman already did one post about clothing for a trip to Iceland and the topic is important enough to hit again, with a couple RantWoman specific notes

RantWoman has been having fun imagining personas, people / market segments who might jump at a chance for an impromptu summer trip to Iceland. People from hot climates. People who work in tech or call centers or are at least middle class.

It's about 60 degrees F in Seattle today. It is a temperature where transplants from cold climates are already in shorts and transplants from warmer climates are still wearing layers. The sun is glorious so no frets for today about water resistance though that is a perpetual theme in Seattle and , RantWoman imagines, in Iceland.

This video is a FUN way to look at the practical problem of how to pack--or what to plan on renting on arrival.

RantWoman assumes a lot of the same packing principles apply to guys and there are probably videos with more gender specific tips out there.

Not that RantWoman herself has a lot of ski gear, but are there reasons that ski gear would not be good options?

The other thing RantWoman would have to contend with: RantWoman wears glasses. Contacts are not an option and neither is going without. RantWoman favors broad-brimmed hats to protect against glare and to channel wind away from her face. A lot of wind in RantWoman's face or eyes just does not sound like fun. So if RantWoman were actually going to Iceland, RantWoman might start by looking into the specifics of ski googles over her regular glasses.

What To Wear In Iceland In Summer

Note: Helmets or boots with ankle support may be required for some tours

Never hike on glaciers without a guide.

Waterproof sandals!

Eyeshades because of midnight sun

sunglasses

It's not too late to catch some of the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2026, May 30-June 14

 Iceland

RantWoman has become adept enough at Instagram to find the @IcelandAir page and even to interact a little with the content.

1. Icelandair recently began flights from Newark (EWR) to Reykajavik. Even though RantWoman had to enlarge the screen, the presentation was dead simple, simple enough at least for RantWoman's bad eyes.

2. It is not too late to catch a little bit of the Reykjavik Arts festival. RantWoman learned of the festival from a cellist flying home to perform and from the following YouTube link.

Please enjoy the following links about culture, as in wool, and tourist approaches. And scroll all the way down for RantWoman ramblings about search engines an algorithms

A FUN video tour. 

Audio tours of the oldest museum in Iceland available in multiple languages

For people who don't want to spend their whole trip hiking, try the aerial tour or a paragliding options

Unique Iceland: Activities and Experiences | Icelandair

The Handknitting Association of Iceland!

The CitiCard

Unique Iceland: Shopping and Design | Icelandair

Oh wait. This happened in March and now there are links  online.

Astral Couture: Speculative AI Fashion | DesignMarch 2026 Reykjavik Exhibition

Oh wait. This already happened too.

Reykjavik Folk Festival 2026

Now the RantWoman ramble:

RantWoman has mainly been "grazing," making viewing choices from what YouTube serves up. It has taken a long time for anything specifically related to music or theater or art or anything to do with the kind of festivals that make someplace a destination for many market segments. RantWoman will make a note to search more with an open calendar. RantWoman definitely would not mind links to graze without having to do queries herself. RantWoman has no idea how to feed algorithms to this end but DEFINITELY does not want Gemini trying to make things up. See rant below.

The other night when it was already too late even to be tempted to do sequential queries, RantWoman asked Google about music in Iceland. There was some mushy AI blather and a few links. RantWoman  looked at a bit of Bjork's Wikipedia page. RantWoman is already getting SICK of Gemini volunteering to do her thinking for her! Enough said? 

Leaving RUSSIA because of ... Internet Censorship

#Russia #Censorship #FAFO