Ad copy, shoes, and

We interrupt RantWoman's current capriciously curated timeline of current events to discuss consumer level SHOPPING, drinking vessels, footwear, and perhaps other moments.

Meet the Yeti Rambler
Insulated ceramic mug

The Mug

The mug in the picture: one example of exactly why sometimes one should just GO TO THE STORE IN PERSON. RantWoman got the mug in the picture while attempting to buy shoes in person, NOT MAIL ORDER at REI. The mug, an assortment of energy bars, and who knows what else were all impulse items cheerfully lined up along the lines to check out.

(Also available: wonderful cotton tote bags with the kind of long handles that put weight on shoulders rather than wrists. Now if only people printed their canvas bags with some kind of hi-vis elements in the design. RantWoman digresses, with more non-driver perspective.)

RantWoman prizes the mug for the slide opening in the lid. RantWoman takes note: the lid design is EXTREMELY important on water bottles, travel mugs, etc. Online ad copy almost never describes lid / cap design in anywhere near enough detail to figure out how the particular drinking vessel works without putting one's hand on the vessel and trying out all the different components.

The Beach Towel and the sleeping bag

Apropos of nothing, there is a certain edgy sense of adaptation about being able to get a good night's sleep under a beach towel in modestly heated accommodations on the edges between seasons. 

Yeah. Sure. And after decades of sleeping under a beach towel at certain events where one has some kind of bed is expected to bring one's own bedding, last year RantWoman found a magnificently functional sleeping bag on sale at REI. RantWoman still brings a fitted bottom sheet. RantWoman does not open the bag all the way so her feet stay warm, but RantWoman is pleased finally to be able to wrap up without fretting about something getting too cold.

Shoe quests

RantWoman was thinking about this after another recent REI order, one she just sent to the store. Silly RantWoman. Just have things delivered.

Except

Except RantWoman has been looking for shoes, shoes that are wide enough, shoes that have barely any drop from heel to toe, and shoes that manage her instep well enough that her foot does not slide forward and mash her toes by the end of the day.

RantWoman once had a lovely experience at REI buying sandals with a customer service person who told RantWoman he had a wider version of the sandals she wanted that turned out to fit perfectly. Shoes wear out. RantWoman took her feet back to REI, scored one sale pair of sandals and a recommendation to experiment with mail order for another style she tried on. RantWoman had no patience about trying that style by mail order but did find a LOVELY pair of Birkenstocks that she guessed, correctly it turned out, would work even though RantWoman was not sure about the size.

RantWoman decided to take her chances on picking her order up at the store, mainly so she could immediately return them if they did not work. At the initial shoe quest visit RantWoman discovered that key bus stops were again open. The second visit RantWoman was on the way home from an event and a little tired. RantWoman really wanted just to go to the mail order pickup and not have to walk all the way through the store.

Memo to self and other non-driving customers: call ahead and your mail order items can be brought to the front customer service. Also memo: there is an entry path from the corner nearest to the #8 bus stops that is smooth all the way to the elevator and otherwise accessible to people who prefer not to do stairs and are not using all the bicycle and foot paths that are part of the REI complex. 

RantWoman here is going to skip some awkward details involving a venture onto an unknown path, ROCKS that Ambassador Thwack did not find, gravity, and two very helpful women from REI security. There was a certain amount of paperwork to do on a bench. RantWoman opted not to go in and be tempted to buy more energy bars. RantWoman's mail order package was brought out. One of the security women offered an ice pack for some skinned knees. RantWoman sat massaging her knees but declined the offer because she did not want to add anything to carry home. Also, it turns out that RantWoman is not the only person who just uses packages of frozen vegetables when ice packs are needed.

After the paperwork, RantWoman fussed with all the buckles on the Birkenstocks she ordered and decided they would work well enough to take home. At home, a bit more fussing with buckles, and RantWoman is HAPPY at least about a sleeping bag and some footwear. Now back to the rest of the timeline?

White Cane Awareness Day October 17. Register Now!

 Always an excellent way to experience an assortment of important pedestrian details

Register for White Cane Day Walk 2026 Join us October 17th for our annual White Cane Day Walk! Starting Location and Ending: Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL) 2021 9th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121 Schedule: 9:00 am - 9:50 Arrival and check in 9:50 - Official Group Photo  10:00 - The Walk begins 10:45 - Guest Speakers at Westlake Plaza 11 - 1 pm - Vendor hall and activities (upstairs at WTBBL)

Register Here

Our famous White Cane Day swag is back!  Purchase NOW to get your swag in time for the walk!  https://www.bonfire.com/store/white-cane-day/ Special thanks to Erin Groth for this year's design:  Image Description: Jimothy, a round cartoon raccoon walking to the right. Jimothy is gray with a dark mask around the eyes and dark rings on its tail. He is holding a white cane with a red bottom section and a white tip, angled down toward the lower left. Behind the raccoon are several diagonal white lines, parallel to each other, slanting from upper left to lower right, creating a crosswalk style background. Curved text above reads: “White Cane Day” Text near the lower right of the design reads: “2026”

We are in need of volunteers!  Your role as a volunteer role may include Walk Ambassador - Walking with participants and monitoring for safety. High viz vests and whistles will be provided. Some participants may request human guide.  Assisting with snack line - Describing what food is available, helping participants get food and seating Guiding participants from conference room to upstairs, directing people to the bathroom etc Clean up as needed at the end of the event

Volunteer

White Cane Awareness Network is a small non profit. We rely on sponsorships and donations.   If you are interested in having a table at our upcoming event or sponsorship you can find out more here:

Register to host a booth

Donate

Thank you so much, White Cane Awareness Network

Blame Volkswagen for high diesel prices???

 #Russia #Europe #Diesel #VehicleEmissions #VolksWagen #Fraud #Ukraine

This is a whole tangle of decisions and military strikes. 

Historylink walking tours

RantWoman is out of town, but here is a REALLY COOL local resource with an app to play all the video tours.

Enjoy

 HistoryLink Tours — Self-Guided Historical Walking Tours of Washington State

The Revolutionary Comedy of Dick Gregory

 #BlackHistory #Comedy

COOL sounding channel

"Glitch" with Voter registration in TX?

 Make sure you are registered to vote in TX before October 5 or wind up in provisional ballot hell.

Let's talk about Texas voter registration issues....

AI Slop, Fat Bear Week, and forcing AI's to exist under severe conditions.

RantWoman has discovered a whole delicious form of brain candy: AI slop Youtube videos that are better than soap operas: money, betrayal, corruption, women coming out on top after getting badly underestimated, hidden historical heroism that pops out in sudden recognition from something in the past, teams who have been able to land plans under extreme conditions, logistics specialists who get military operations out of extreme danger, men who have built businesses and had to protect their legacy from conniving relatives and their children's fiances...

RantWoman ignores the visuals which frequently incongruent with the story: the wrong uniform for the branch of the armed services involved, scenery that does not match the geography, and who knows what else because RantWoman barely looks. RantWoman can tell it's brain candy. Some of the videos contain disclaimers. Some of them claim to be true stories with details altered to protect privacy. It's still AI slop. And it's a delicious alternative to a LOT of the news timeline.

But how do we get there from Fat Bear Week, the internet election of which bears look like they are best bulked up to survive hibernation?

When RantWoman is not feeding her brain AI slop, she has been listening a LOT  to a podcast called The Wild with Chris Morgan, findable on the KUOW app and probably otherwise if RantWoman were more adept about the world of podcasts. Lately there have been several episodes about animals surviving in extremes that would leave humans dead: polar bear and seal mothers who experience massive weight gain to build up fat to feed their cubs, octopus who eat only what their mates bring during the LONG time they are incubating their eggs, birds that migrate thousands of miles without ever stopping to eat.

Yes, RantWoman and now it's AI's gone rogue???

RantWoman's point: so far, as RantWoman understands it, the AI's that have gone rogue have basically had unlimited resources and no morals or very weak easily defeated scruples. The unlimited resources scourge is headed in drastically worse directions: all of the companies building data centers are trying to steal all the water they need, stomp all over environmental regulations and basic neighborly like NOT running LOUD gas turbines 4/7 in residential areas.

So the plan appears to be to let Ai's experience no constraints, the kind of constraints that actually force any kind of engineering effort to continually refine itself to make the best use possible of resources. AI's that have gone rogue have figured out how to get onto the internet and perform predatory attacks on other AI's. But they get unlimited resources: unlimited electricity. Do components ever break down? What would be the AI equivalent of what a whale needs to do to dive to the depths of the ocean? What about storing up enough resources to make it through a long winter?

What happens to rogue Ai's if there is a prolonged electrical outage? What happens when components start to wear out or fail? What happens if humans develop new components more powerful than what is built into existing AI's???

These questions are as far as RantWoman wants to let her mind wander at this hour. By no means is this an automatic fear not there will always be some factor that limits AIs' ability to do damage but it is a big blaring caution sign backed up by firm belief in civilizing environmental constraints as one necessary element of responsible AI development.

And meanwhile, RantWoman gets to experiment whether she wants to or not. Quite a big of the time, RantWoman curses because the AI adds content RantWoman finds unwanted and annoying. RantWoman curses a lot and probably should flame more vehemently about some of her user experience issues.

RantWoman knows several people who are finding AI very useful. RantWoman herself has yet to ask, say, ChatGPT to help her out with any tasks. RantWoman worked with two undergrad college students who initially thought they might be able to use AI for projects that were at least semester level graduate research if not a full career. The students both quickly realized that their projects were definitely unrealistic and both refined proposals to important measures doable without AI. Maybe that is the point of the fat bear analogy: concentrate on the problems at hand. Do great amazing even in seemingly impossible environments.