FIFA travel advisory

 #FIFA  #FAFO

Probably if RantWoman posts vids like this, YouTube will send RantWoman more FIFA content.

Readers can search on #FIFA or #FIFAWorldCup for other previous posts cataloguing previous videos

RantWoman would SO like to have a president who does not generate the kinds of warnings and boycott threats that President #StableGenius is ginning up.

RantWoman is firing up her transit knowledge bank preparing to have as normal a life as possible. RantWoman is glad to know some other conversations are taking place and is has full confidence in very articulate voices involved. Stay tuned.

The World Cup Ban ⚽🔥 They Tried to Stop Iran - YouTube

If we are VERY lucky RantWoman will also manage enough soccer literacy to at least hold her own for conversations with far more rabid fans. Maybe

Trump FREAKS OUT as MAJOR EVENT COLLAPSES

Germany Drops 2026 World Cup BOMBSHELL — FIFA's 2026 Master Plan Is Falling Apart in Real Time - YouTube

World Cup Mess WORSENS As U.S. Gets Slapped With Travel Warning

Trump's RECKLESS Move Just Destroyed 2026 World Cup Tourism

Icelandair bad Photographer Contest

One of RantWoman's
daily tree(s) photos

There are only a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest.

RantWoman encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The only small accessibility blip: Must be able to interact and choose one of 5 emojis to respond to one of the questions.

Need some tips?

• Just be yourself, no script needed.

• Share any other skills you have other than being bad at photography.

• What excites you most about this opportunity?

• Got a memorable photography fail? Tell us about it!

   

So there RantWoman was one night watching volcanic eruption videos, one of RantWoman's fave diversions from other horrors of the current timeline. There was a volcano erupting in Grundjavik for several days. The eruption was the kind of slow meltdown that opened wide features and crept closer and closer to a village until part of the village had to be evacuated. 

That eruption has faded from RantWoman's media streams, but along with the eruption videos YouTube sent RantWoman several videos of things one might do while visiting Iceland. The videos featured a certain amount of rugged hiking, sometimes in rainstorms, as well as ordinary daylife activities such as going to the grocery store or swimming in a completely non-chlorinated geothermally heated pool. 

The rugged hiking sometimes in pouring rain sounds like maybe not the biggest sell, but a possible trip to Iceland in June when days are longest still intrigues RantWoman enough to do a couple posts turning over the idea of entering the contest.

And why the tree motif? STAY TUNED.

Mind wandering again to the Metro fare enforcement report.

 RantWoman, as has already been established, is a bit of a nerd who spends a lot of time on the bus.

During today's bus travels RantWoman's mind wandered again to the recent King County fare enforcement officer report and to RantWoman's own experience riding around for more than a month with a demagnetized ORCA card, a card that only very occasionally produced the beep indicating that the card read properly when tapped. 

Adventures of RantWoman: Reporting on the Metro Fare Enforcement misses a number of points.

(Please do not tell RantWoman about paying her fare on her phone. Between a white cane, a purse, and whatever baggage RantWoman is carrying, taking out a phone and waking it up to pay a fare is more than RantWoman even wants to attempt.)

RantWoman currently has a small couch on a cord around her neck but the whole time her card was not beeping, RantWoman was pulling the card out of somewhere and trying to tap it. RantWoman is white and bathes regularly so maybe drivers just believed her when she said she had a pass. Or sometimes, the imperatives to stay on schedule outweigh more detailed inquiry.

That entire time, RantWoman had in fact paid for avalid pass, online through the MyORCA app. At some point, possibly after RantWoman encounterd a fare enforcement officer, RantWoman followed directions on the back of the card and called an 800 number. RantWoman was referred to her local transit agency. The person RantWoman spoke to looked up the number of transactions which had registered for the previous month. It was substantially lower than RantWoman's estimate of the number of her trips. Then it registered with RantWoman that she just needed to get her disabled pass replaced.

RantWoman imagines that her situation is probably a small minority of situations that look to drivers like someone has not paid a fare. RantWoman has no idea whether these comments are helpful in deciding what the report actually means, but here the info is anyway.

Reporting on the Metro Fare Enforcement misses a number of points.

Silly RantWoman. RantWoman still naively hopes that asking a search engine for a specific document will immediately yield a link to the document, AS THE FIRST LINK in the search results. Thankfully, the Urbanist article and the KIRO radio links below this video both have a direct link to the Metro fare enforcement report. 

For grins, RantWoman read the whole report. The report is presenting the raw numbers requested in the ordinance that requests the report. RantWoman still has questions not addressed by reporting that only looks at the numbers.

RantWoman has ridden every route addressed in the report at least once and usually on a round trip in the last 12 months. So RantWoman's opinions are informed by lived experience. RantWoman considers fare payment a mark of good citizenship, an indicator that she has her own act more or less together. RantWoman always just pays for a disabled pass because that is so much easier than payment for each ride. 

RantWoman may have encountered fare enforcement once on Metro and once on Sound Transit during the study interval. At some point RantWoman's disabled pass got demagnetized and whichever fare enforcement officer RantWoman met looked at the ORCA app on her phone, and told her she needed to get a new card. Since then, RantWoman's card has reliably beeped as expected when tapped.

RantWoman wonders where the estimate that 30% of passengers don't pay fares comes from. RantWoman's estimate would be more like 20% based on what she can observe. However, some of the routes surveyed are so crowded during peak times of the day that people literally cannot get to the card reader to tap their cards. These same routes have plenty of capacity at other non-peak times. By peak times, RantWoman means both regular commuting hours and times when there are concert or sport events RantWoman is VERY glad people take transit to.

All of the routes listed are heavily traveled frequent routes, with frequency as high as every 6 minutes. So, one obvious way to look at raw numbers of fare enforcement contacts would be to look at some kind of ratio, say, of contacts per 1000 boardings.

During non-peak hours when the bus is mostly empty. but when the bus is almost empty, if passengers are clean and well-behaved, RantWoman is just FINE with people using the service, especially if their destination is something like a governmental or social service. Well, passengers who get on the bus carrying a bathtub sized latte and can't pay their fare get a disapproving look and the acknowledgment that one can't pay a bus fare with, say a Starbucks gift card.

RantWoman is aware that transit services are paid for in large measure by sales taxes which are highly regressive. If people can't come up with bus fare because they have paid sales taxes, RantWoman still figures they have at least partly paid their way.

Several media reports note that many of the people who received citations are "experiencing homelessness." If they can't pay bus fare, is anyone surprised that they don't pay fines either? Clearly though, actual payment of fines is not necessarily a great indicator of program success. Fare enforcement officers are also supposed to help direct people to options to be able to pay fares and to other relevant resources. 

So one obvious question: what is the trend about people getting signed up for low income or senior / disabled fares? And can the trend be linked to the work of fare enforcement officers? RantWoman has seen firsthand how just having a bus pass, reliable transportation can help people manage all the inconveniences of homelessness and get them on to paths toward more stable situations. It is not obvious to RantWoman how one might illustrate this point with numbers, but it should be considered when evaluating the fare enforcement program.

Here though we also come to the public safety concerns that are part of the push behind fare enforcement and to driver comments that people causing problems tend also to be people who haven't paid their fare. RantWoman would definitely look more deeply at that concern. 

RantWoman is not at all charmed by drug use on buses or near bus stops. If it were up to RantWoman people also would not smoke tobacco or weed near bus stops. Worse than drug use though are assaults and verbal abuse. RantWoman would be interested to know whether presence of fare enforcement officers reduces on-board crime, either compared to runs when there is no office present or overall.

RantWoman also wants to know more about the increase in fares collected overall. Is that because informational programs are reaching the people they are intended to reach? Is it because more people have figured easier ways to pay their fare? Is it possible to quantify whether the fare enforcement program has contributed to the uptick in fare revenue.

Citations Virtually Nonexistent After Metro Resumed Fare Enforcement

Huh? King County hired 30 fare enforcement officers – they only issued 8 tickets in an entire year

Best sneering from local ragemonger Brandi Kruse

King County Metro faces scrutiny after only 8 citations despite 78K fare checks

on "WasteWatch"

Harger: King County hired 30 fare enforcement officers. They worked 40K hours, issued 8 citations, and voided all of them - MyNorthwest.com

A search will yield several  additional articles for readers who want to geek out in even more detail.

As long as its AI slopaganda anyway, WHY can't it be audio described too????

 Is it okay to admit that the barrage of AI "slopaganda" related to the war in Iran are a bit of a guilty pleasure?

Some of the videos are so dead-on that RantWoman wonders where the authors are getting their cultural insights?

In some cases, RantWoman would be just fine with the content if it were not for the certainty that the content is coming from forces that probably do not have US interests at heart and are happily playing into multiple fractures in US society.

Never mind all that.

RantWoman has one simple question: as long as all the videos are all AI-generated anyway, can't SOMEONE add an audio description track for all the viewers who can't follow the frenzy and probably couldn't stand some of the imagery even if we could follow it?

Pretty please.

Here are a few examples just to fire up everyone's literary instincts and try to tackle the visual complexity.

Nice music. What is on screen?

RantWoman realizes that the audio experience is a little less frenetic if RantWoman listens at noraml speed than if she were to listen at her usual 1.5x

A collection of the Lego Iran War Movie bangers

At least some of the clips here have subtitles but RantWoman is thinking of Bad Bunny's halftime show and all the different rounds of cultural examination she has seen about it. Do some of these clips need that much cultural interpretation too? OR based on subtitles RantWoman manages to read, is it safe to just file it as dueling war propaganda in the same bucket as the Secretary of #WarCrimes praying?

TRUMP Blocked IRAN.. But Tankers KEEP COMING 🚨 - LEGO EDITION

Who did this one. Several comedy lines.

Iran Answers Trump’s Blockade With a LEGO Diss Track

US Blocked the Strait… Then Everything Went Wrong

The U S Blocked the Strait… Until This Happened

HE SAID HE WAS CHOSEN… Then Lost Everything

Line 2 Opening Day Adventures!

 First, please enjoy this lively commentary with some fun, yes, fun engineering details about how actually a light rail on a floating bridge actually stays afloat. 

RantWoman also enjoyed some hints of festivity at stations she did not make it to. For more on the RantWoman experience, please read on the other side.

First in the world: How Sound Transit built light rail on a floating bridge

First the wardrobe, with thoughts of POSSIBLY stopping by a #NoKingsDay event: Nothing organization specific. A #WhiteCaneDay T-shirt under a hoodie that said "ICE OUT" in a long-winded, pedantic and harder to read way: "the GPS coordinates of your mother's cervix at the time of your birth have no bearing on your value as a human being." The hoodie turned out to be a great weight, warm enough in the morning, not too warm when the sun came out.

RantWoman is thrilled that the #CrosslakeConnection is open. RantWoman appreciated mostly cheerful sunny weather. RantWoman definitely applauds all the parents getting kids started early, even the tiny ones who fell asleep on the bus or while waiting for the bus.

RantWoman probably has some "Dear Accessibility community...here is an opportunity to preview..." email she has not read. RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack the #WhiteCane caught a bus unencumbered by much knowledge of the day's schedule. Plus RantWoman wanted to check out the Rainier Avenue entrance to the Judkins Park station.

Meh. Whose bright idea is it to put the bus stop nearly a block away from the light rail entrance. RantWoman will be interested to see what actually happens about scooter and biker share users stowing their vehicles in the designated areas.

Also, issue a bullhorn for the nice woman whose job it was to stand behind the pull down barrier and tell people over and over that the opening of that entrance was going to be delayed.

Never mind the delay. Hanging out where RantWoman was turned out to be an easy way for friends to find her.  Excitement was contagious, even with the heavy crowds and long waits

RantWoman had an invite to an opening day meet and greet but realized that sleep was going to have to take priority. RantWoman also had to decide not even to try to get into a line to walk up the hill to the 23rd Avenue entrance where people were allowed to board sooner than from Rainier.

After about the third delay in the promised opening, with the line getting longer and longer, RantWoman decided to skip the thought of any inaugural ride. Instead, RantWoman did an errand involving the 7, the E line, a detour for lunch at IHOP and an ibuprofen, Despite some nasty pain issues, it felt good to walk to catch the 40 to Northgate. 

The southbound 2 line was already packed, but RantWoman basically zoned out. At every station, lots of people got off, but an equal or larger number got on. RantWoman was lucky to have a seat. RantWoman would have preferred to face forward, but managed with a side seat.

RantWoman would like to say the view over the lake was glorious. RantWoman would like to say that, but the train was too crowded to catch more than a glimpse of sky and open water, with views of trees as the train rolled through to Bellevue City Center. RantWoman decided that was as far as she needed to go before heading back to the Judkins Park station.

Score a couple bright spots:

--After seeing construction for quite awhile, it was nice to see the train actually serving downtown Bellevue.

--RantWoman likes that the platforms seem wider than  some other stations and that there is more space for people both to stand and to navigate along the tactile warning designs in the floor.

--It was fairly easy to find the elevator(s?) to go up and over to the return side of the tracks. One small grumble: RantWoman's glasses had turned dark but the hallway to the elevators could maybe use a little more lighting.

On the way back, RantWoman wanted to get off on the 23rd avenue side of the station so she purposefully headed for one of the rear cars. Again, the train was packed. A very observant guy indicated a seat next to him and then, when it was time to get off, stood and loudly asked people to move so RantWoman could get off the train. 

Next, walk the direction everyone was headed toward the exit. Locate the elevator(s), again in a hallway where RantWoman might want a tad more lighting. Out the door, across the plaza, hoepfully to catch the #8 bus southbound. That was not to be. After various wanderings and directions, RantWoman decided to just take the 48 NB from the stop she could actually find and pick up the 8 at Jackson as part of her quest for bananas.

From there, life was easy. The only minor hiccup: somehow the pavement in the crosswalk at MLK and Union is, um, worn unevenly. 

The Loo Review and a mumble test announcement

 which sound transit stations have public restrooms - Google Search

RantWoman is feeling lazy about boring more deeply into the question of which SoundTransit stations have public restrooms. RantWoman does think that if hundreds of thousands of visitors are going to pour into town for the world cup or even for the upcoming opening of cross-lake service THIS SATURDAY, maybe a concise list somewhere with tips would be desirable.

RantWoman is also perplexed because the search results claim there is a restroom at Tukwila International Boulevard station and RantWoman has never found it. A fast skim also yielded no info about restrooms on the 2 line. Assuming people will come to opening day for cross lake service, and / or will ride transit to No Kings Day events RantWoman would be THRILLED to get info systemwide in one easy query, not just relying on Gemini, especially when Gemini might not have complete information to work with.

RantWoman digresses. RantWoman's THRILL of the day was to find not just one public restroom at the North end of the mezzanine as previously but TWO. RantWoman managed to locate the directions for how to gain entry. 

The directions lacked one piece of info: both restrooms were occupied. RantWoman would not have minded some kind of more explicit audio cue about this. However, just as RantWoman was about to press a button to have security try again about unlocking, someone emerged and RantWoman was able just to walk in. One judge of the need and public appreciation for this amenity: someone was waiting when RantWoman emerged.

What does one walk into? An almost palatial space with room for a whole family and whatever mobility device or baggage one is traveling with.

Truly, RantWoman was so excited to be able to enjoy this amenity, she ALMOST forgot to find anything to complain about. Two small grumbles.

The toilet is COLD. The design is the same one used in many Seattle Parks, so one can live with it, but it is noticeable.

--There are no hooks or places to put one's bags anywhere but on the floor. This is less than ideal. Transit riders nearly always carry some kind of bag. And floor storage is not preferable on rainy days. RantWoman is determined just to COPE.

But while RantWoman is going on about "Rider experience," at one point recently, RantWoman was listening to announcements about the 2 line. There was the usual English voice. There was a female voice that was pure mumble test, and there was a male voice definitely in a language RantWoman does not understand.  By mumble test, RantWoman means the kind of real-life situations where travelers or aspiring interpreters need to make sense of something like train announcements in a foreign language through bad audio in a noisy space. RantWoman could not tell whether the female voice was speaking English or something else. RantWoman will simply leave that here as a concern.

American Council of the Blind calls for open transparent investigation of the death of Nurun Amin Shah Alam

 Statement verbatim

Statement from the American Council of the Blind on the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam

Posted on March 2, 2026

Statement from the American Council of the Blind on the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam
March 2, 2026

The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is deeply saddened by the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee who was blind and died in Buffalo, New York, shortly after his release from federal custody.

People who are blind or have low vision, like all people with disabilities, deserve to be treated with dignity and provided reasonable accommodations in their interactions with government agencies. Serious questions remain about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Shah Alam’s death, including whether his disability and communication needs were appropriately considered at each stage.

ACB urges a full and transparent investigation into what occurred, with particular attention to how disability-related needs were addressed. That review should identify clear steps to help prevent similar tragedies in the future and ensure that policies and practices fully protect the rights and safety of people with disabilities, including those who are blind or have low vision.

For information about reasonable accommodations and the rights of people with disabilities in interactions with immigration enforcement, refer to: https://www.ice.gov/leadership/ocrc/disability-access#main-content

Post: Edit

See also the statement from tne National Federation of the Blind.

Statement regarding Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam | National Federation of the Blind

May Mr. Nurun Amin Shah Alam rest in peace.

 First #RamadanMubarak to all who are observing the fast

Second, Heartfelt condolences to the family of Nurul Amin Shah Alam and the entire Rohingya community living through the nightmare of his death during ramadan

Trump’s ICE Hits HORRIFYING NEW LOW After DEADLY Decision

Clear reporting about issues with cause of death determination

Comment RantWoman posted

1. Mobility aids are NOT Weapons. WTF with the weapons charges for what multiple sources have said are CURTAIN RODS? Thank you for the description of two poles. I could not make that out in the body cam video released by Buffalo PD. Curtain rods are, of course, not standard white canes many people use, but other people do use walking poles for all kinds of reasons. 2. LOTS of blind people, even blind professionals with excellent travel skills get lost sometimes. It seems like Mr. Shah Alam is charged for: --getting lost while brown --getting lost while Muslim --getting lost while blind --getting lost while not speaking English. --accidentally trespassing 3. The body cam video of the original arrest you mentioned featured a female officer SCREAMING at Mr. Shah Alam to drop the poles or she was going to taser him, like he has any clue what a taser is. Then there is a melee, reportedly by two officers who somehow could not de-escalate the situation.

In other words, Mr. Shah Alam was WAY overcharged for what should have MAYBE been a simple trespassing issue. What is the source for hearing that Mr. Shah Alam's family and attorney were waiting for him when he was released? Reporting I have seen says there were no efforts to contact family or attorney. This case is heartbreaking and infuriating on so many levels, and so much worse for the Muslim communities because it's Ramadan. And unfortunately, except for the extra issues because of blindness and medical fragility, this case is all too similar t DHS general Deport First and due process be damned policies.

Scott Jennings' DEPRAVED Take On Refugee Death STUNS CNN Panel

TYT reporting with more details of situation and perspective from Cenk Uygur and TYT voices. And Cenk makes the case about why would any jurisdiction tell ICE / CBP about immigrants in custody if they are going to be treated this badly.

RantWoman now can't locate her reply comment rant about assertion that Mr. Shah Alam was able to make known his wishes via some kind of translation device. Hopefully Gov. Hochul, AG James, and Congress will add questions about validation of any such system used to questions about this outrage.

Nearly blind refugee found dead in Buffalo after Border Patrol drop off miles from his home 

Blind Refugee "Abandoned By Border Patrol" in Buffalo Dies in the Cold; Family Demands Answers

Blistering comments from mayor of Buffalo abotu why Buffalo does not cooperate with administrative warrants

Discussion by immigration attorney of Rohingya refugee situation, many elements of immigration law including efforts by Mr. Shah Alam's attorney to negotiate a plea deal.

How the System Intentionally Killed Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya Refugee

Reuters report after funeral

A nearly blind refugee from Myanmar, 56-year old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, missing since his release from a Buffalo jail into the custody of US Border Patrol has been found dead on a downtown street https://t.co/ayXj0QU7AY pic.twitter.com/srFTreb7Er

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 27, 2026

Near-blind refugee found dead in Buffalo after release by US Border Patrol | Reuters

RantWoman means to add links to accounts from Reuters of community and family comments as well as items from several other sources.

Buffalo NY "Border Patrol" officers leave nearly blind Rohingya REFUGEE to die in the snow.

 RantWoman's laundry is going to have to wait.

First, HEARTFELT condolences to the family of Mr. Nurun Alam and to everyone in the Rohingya refugee community in Buffalo NY.

RantWoman is shaking her tree of blind people contacts to see whether any blind people in Buffalo NY are familiar with the story below of Mr. Nurun Alam, a Rohingya REFUGEE. If RantWoman were a properly politic advocate, she might also collaborate with others to craft a carefully worded statement about why blind people--LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE US--should care about immigrant neighbors, blind or low vision immigrants, and assaults on Constitutional and civil rights, not to mention all the ways ICE/ CBP are making life MORE unsafe for everyone in the US. RantWoman will be grateful if all these comments lead to such statements. 

In the meantime....

RantWoman's head is exploding about the heart-wrenching story of a nearly blind Rohingya REFUGEE left to die in Buffalo NY by Border Patrol agents. Aside from that outrageous level of cruelty, the whole story should make every jurisdiction in the country think twice or three or a dozen or seventeen times about handing ANYONE but the most dangerous criminals over on Border Patrol (ICE/ CBP) detainers. 

According to the TV news report linked below, Mr. Alam was originally arrested in 2025 after an encounter with 2 Buffalo Police Department officers. RantWoman has not found reports of the original altercation but one post on X referred to some kind of stick that may have been used as a walking stick. Mr. Alam was held in the Erie County jail until there was some kind of plea deal, someone recently posted bond and he was picked up by "Border Patrol" Border Patrol apparently figured out there was no reason to deport him. There was also no reason just to dump him out in the cold to die in the snow.

RantWoman does not endorse middle-aged blind people getting into hand-to-hand battles with police officers. That said, several elements of the story make RantWoman wonder whether, in a properly functioning Department of Justice, there would be grounds for a federal civil rights investigation.

Google turned up reference to a now-deleted missing persons report on Facebook that described mr. Alam as about 5'7" and slightly built. So two officers? COME ON. De-escalation ANYONE? Someone? Anyone?

Next, we have someone who speaks minimal English quite possibly has age-related hearing loss, and probably has no idea what police officers might be barking at him.

Next we have a REFUGEE who probably does not have great associations with anyone in uniform but who, if he has any vision at all, probably reacts very badly to police officers.

Next, the "walking stick." RantWoman would definitely like to know more about whether Mr. Alam used whatever he was carrying as some kind of a mobility aid, either for support or as a tool for navigating his environment.

RantWoman is not a lawyer and HOPES that someone with more authority will re-investigate the original case.

For now, focus on the outrageous behavior by CBP and a fragile LEGAL REFUGEE left to die alone in the snow.

Documentation / media selections below. 

Here are such media accounts and statements as RantWoman has been able easily to assemble, along with an observation that Grok, the Twitter /X AI validates accounts from several official sources.

TV Coverage of previous arrest

Border Patrol dump blind refugee 5 miles away from home—he was found dead on the street.

Officers dropped him off in front of a donut shop—didn't notify his lawyer or family he was even released.

When reported missing—local police said he was in ICE custody and stopped looking… pic.twitter.com/DKhS77qVqv

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@LongTimeHistory) February 26, 2026

Investigative report

Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo. : Investigative Post

Another Tweet

Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan provided the following statement to News 4:

"A vulnerable man — nearly blind and unable to speak English — was left alone on a cold winter night with no known attempt to leave him in a safe, secure location."

"That decision from U.S. Customs and Border… pic.twitter.com/ScSf4uj9Ik

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@LongTimeHistory) February 26, 2026

Minimal walking to #OpenThePaths

The short version of this rant: will RantWoman just ride her usual bus Metro 48 to the #OpenThePaths conference with a few blocks walk to the Zillow Center? OR will RantWoman ride her usual Metro 48 bus a couple stops further, cross a street and catch a Metro 372 bus that would go practically to the front door of the Zillow center and mean much less total walking?

Stay tuned. RantWoman may or may not get arround to either documenting her travels in #ACCESSMap or explaining her thinking to the kinds of people who design trip planners.  RantWoman has SO many other pathways to ranting before getting back to these details.

To heck with #SOTU2026 and multiple other news threads RantWoman would find it easy to have generalized ranting about. Let us stick to the annual #OpenThePaths conference at the TASKAR center at the University of WA.

First a rant about bleeping INTRUSIVE AI. RantWoman does NOT want AI to help her write email. RantWoman does not want AI to help her read her email or at least not as a default. And furthermore, ff RantWoman puts a search string into a search bar, the LAST thing RantWoman wants to see is some wordy AI verbiage. RantWoman wants a direct link to the even website. That did not occur. Hence the rant when RantWoman already needs to rant about other topics. Hence the hastag and RantWoman will look up other info she needs later.

A while ago, RantWoman promised readers some meditations about transportation and elder care and adult family homes. Steam will still rise from RantWoman's fingers if she tackles that today. Instead RantWoman needs to go off about her own new transportation constraints called minimal walking. After weeks of various leg weakness, muscle spasms, and other delights, RantWoman finally went to a doctor. 

RantWoman got same-day x-rays. First RantWoman had to stand in a couple positions that reminded her, she probably has not one but two legs that are going to hurt sometimes. The diagonosis: Congratulations RantWoman, you have arthritis and other age-related issues which YouTube will offer abundant input about if one supplies one's birth year.

Arthritis??? I am too young to have arthritis!

Earth to RantWoman: look at your family tree. Uhhhh....

RantWoman walked out of the initial appointment calculating a path that would minimize pain because she had not recently munched any painkillers. Walk to Light Rail? Ummm? Walk to a couple different bus route options? Ummm.

Then RantWoman remembered a nearby bus stop and the Metro 65 which would take her directly to a Metro 48 stop she could ride to a Metro 8 stop and from there all the way home on the 8. Phew. What a relief.

With that window into RantWoman's current transportation thinking, RantWoman will now leave readers in suspense and report back after Day 1 on Thursday.

Seduce Me. Upsell me? How about just get enough customer service points right...

Spoiler alert: Has RantWoman been listened to by a certain enormous telecom company????

Suppose the answer is YES and RantWoman's tale from last time she attempted to interact with a home internet promotion from enormous telecom company had an impact!

After an experiment in live interaction and upselling, RantWoman decided to try home internet. Perhaps this is still a silly idea. Over the past couple months, RantWoman has received multiple text messages assuring RantWoman that the network is being upgraded in RantWoman's neighborhood. However, if there were 5G service in RantWoman's neighborhood, both her old phone and her new phone should have been able to find it. Um, no. In fact, that simple test migh be more valuable than some zip code search. But there IS a promotion....

Wait. RantWoman is getting ahead of herself. 

RantWoman has been thinking of upgrading her phone for a while. 

Should RantWoman change brands of phone? Silly RantWoman last year about this time passed up an opportunity for free to crash test a phone for a whole year. Why? Aside from all the steps required every time RantWoman changes phones, RantWoman was relying on her phone a lot in connection with medical care. RantWoman decided that the privacy intrusion of a few more prying eyes, even if engineers interested only in technical info, not in RantWoman's personal business was just too much.

RantWoman could change telecom companies.

Well, yeah. But there is something about the devil you know....

Next, we come to promotions, promotions, promotions. Truthfully, RantWoman finds unraveling promotional info in the company's app or in email just bewildering. So off RantWoman trooped to a friendly, reasonably bus accessible store to just try the "Ask a human" algorithm.. 

First step: trade in the old phone. Wondrous improvements compared to previous experience:  First, transfer data from old phone to new in store. Even better, now one can take the old phone home for a couple days while setting up the new phone. SO helpful because RantWoman did need to compare one set of settings about font and screen size. More on that after further tech support adventures described below.

Apparently, RantWoman also secretly enjoys watching store clerks try to upsell.  This time, the upsell is "Try home internet" and we'll give you a 43" television. RantWoman does not need a 43" television. She does need a 24" computer monitor but that is a different problem. 

The other option on offer: a Samsung tablet. Will that happen now that RantWoman has returned home internet equipment? RantWoman has mixed opinions about carrying around another device besides her phone. Bigger screen sounds like a great idea. RantWoman might even like space to try out one of the braille input apps because those are a lot less vision intensive than the onscreen keyboard. (No RantWoman is still not into just making her devices take dictation. RantWoman's brain needs some kind of physical motion to help organize thoughts.) There is one large Samsung tablet that sounds especially appealing, but who knows whether that is part of the offer? And who knows whether the offer stands now that RantWoman has returned the equipment. 

Anyway, RantWoman packed home the new phone and the home internet equipment. At the last minute, there was even an offer to have someone come out and help set it up. RantWoman foolishly declined. After blunt reality check about whether there is in fact 5G internet close enough to RantWoman to matter, RantWoman decided not even to unpack all the gear for home internet and just send it back. So off RantWoman troops to say goodbye forever to data on her trade-in phone and HOPEFULLY to free herself of unwanted home internet equipment. 

Saying goodbye to the old trade-in phone needed a few minutes wait but was painless. Will RantWoman regret missing something? Maybe but now that RantWoman has gone through all the steps of setting up a new phone, she is not going back. 

Returning the home internet equipment took a couple steps, steps which in their simplicity almost made RantWoman swoon. Go to the UPS store, the one in the neighborrhood that does a better job than a different one. Stand in line a few minutes. Watch the clerk open the boxes, scan bar codes, print shipping labels, and hand RantWoman a receipt. 

SWOON. RantWoman remembers the long awkward phone call from a different UPS store abou generating a label that could be applied to the box (only 1 that time) and ... Eureka. RantWoman is clearly not the only person on the planet who found the old print a label at home process vexing. Now there is a super easy process! This time was SO much easier that RantWoman ALMOST forgives enormous telecom company for the need to return her equipment at a different place.

But wait. Two MORE customer service moments.

First, there was a text survey about customer service. RantWoman never knows how to respond when some of the service, such as "ask a human" in general was just fine and other parts less so but there are only number response. So RantWoman's rating generated both a text and a phone call wanting to follow up. RantWoman often does not have time in the moment to respond to such outreach. RantWoman would really, really, really be THRILLED if it were possible to call back later and on the number the calls come in on. Apparently that is never a thing in the world of call centers. RantWoman knows from listening to others' complaints that she is by far not the only person on the planet who thinks this.

As an aside, RantWoman would also be THRILLED if there were an option to review voicemails in order starting from most recent and going back. Right now RantWoman has some calls on her voice mail that are important for record keetping purposes but that, for both time and emotional reasons she does NOT want to have to listen to over and over if she mis hears a callback number.

On to the last customer service moment. After a whole bunch of set up, dealing with passwords, biometrics, accessibility features, RantWoman went to try to pay her rent through her banking app. This did not work. Various accessibility features were screwingup. RantWoman called a tech support number. RantWoman has done more than enough tech support to know that the odds of hitting someone who could interact easily with RantWoman's question might not be great but getting forwarded seemed like a good step. RantWoman spoke to someone who definitely knew enough about what RantWoman was talking about to try to help.

The only hiccup: the last person RantWoman talked to wanted to send a text with a link allowing him to look at her phone. The link went only to RantWoman's old phone. If the old phone had been powered off, would the link go to the new phone? Who knows? By the time RantWoman talked to tech support, she had already spent considerable time trying different things to make her banking app work and was just out of time in her schedule. RantWoman did manage to mess around with enough things to get her rent paid this month and will now see what other experiments might save the steps needed to pay her rent this time.

RantWoman has more to say, OF COURSE, but tis is plenty for tonight.

AHEM. Blowing whistles is protected first amendment activity...and...

The whistle code:

three short blasts: ICE has been sighted.

(Oh, Good! Just what RantWoman wants in the pedestrian environment allegedly increasing public safety: violent, poorly trained, unidentified, unaccountable goons. SURE. Sure, as in MANY local police officers and reportedly, even some people within ICE will attest)

One long continuous blast: ABDUCTION

(phrasing on the instruction sheet)

Regardless of where one comes down on federal officials grabbing people off the street, pepper spraying citizens trying to record what they are doing, and spewing lies, Lies, LIES (Can anyone tell RantWoman is a little biased?) RantWoman needs to go off about one aspect of the literal whistleblowing campaign: a bunch of whistles going off all around one is likeluy to be DARNED confusing to blind pedestrians. RantWoman also notes that there may be other people with mobility issues or personal reasons to need to find paths to safety, paths AWAY from places crowds may be running toward.

RantWoman bases the observation about difficulty identifying the sources of whistles on what she has heard in a number of videos about ICE / Border Patrol actions in Minneapolis and other cities. RantWoman has NO desire to use her limited eyeball time on videos getting analyzed in minute detail. RantWoman does, though, want to encourage people responding to whistle alerts to look around and #ASKDontGrab if someone nearby might need help finding paths to safety. 

One more comment for #PWD who DO want to go to protests: there are any number of options for training and opportunities to game out different issues. RantWoman highly recommend both finding a compatible training / collaboration opportunity and just planning to go with a buddy.

 

Reference about the first amendment issue.

Blowing whistles is protected first amendment activity

Minneapolis Star Tribune cited here:

REVEALED: DHS Broke Pretti's Rib One Week Ago!!!

SHORT NOTICE Invitation from Lumen Technologies and AARP 1 29 2026 In person UW Bothell

 Invitation from LumenTechnologies and AARP

You’re invited to join us for an informational session hosted in partnership with AARP’s Older Adults Technology Services (OATS). This event will provide helpful insights into modern phone service options and ways to stay connected as technology evolves.

Event Details
- Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026
- Time: 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM PT
- Location: Room 202, Bothell Campus, 10201 E. Riverside Drive, Bothell, WA 98011


At this session, Lumen Technologies (fmrly CenturyLink) representatives will discuss transitioning from traditional copper landlines to modern, reliable voice solutions. You’ll also learn how these services can help protect against outages caused by copper theft and improve overall connectivity.

We hope you can join us—and feel free to bring a friend or neighbor who may also benefit.

Dear Gemini. Under NO circumstances EVER summarize email without permission.

RantWoman  HOPES there is some info in a privacy statement that will allow RantWoman to TURN OFF automatic summarization in Gmail. RantWoman is too gravely peeved and tired from personal emotional matters to go read it right now and, hell, DEMANDS option to OPT IN rather than have to read redundant and stupid verbiage longer than the original AND the response.

One Asterisk in this rant: RantWoman corresponds with TOO DANG MANY people who CANNOT CHANGE THE SUBJECT line with a new thread enters a conversation. RantWoman might really like to experiment about whether an AI can sort out the tangled threads and then present group messages by thread for RantWoman to review.

There. MAYBE RantWoman will get the privacy statement read soon.

HUD Whistleblowers reveal what probably should surprise no one.

#HUD #housing #CivilRights #VAWA  #Homeless

SURPRISE: HUD trying to ignore civil rights laws

The Mom Report: transportation to a new destination.

Just when RantWoman was starting to groove on some new to her transit options in N Seattle (Yeah 365),  RantMom will move soon, hopefully to a lovely Adult family Home on Boyer Ave E.

Location. Location. Location.

Location is so important that the RantSisters opted to skip visits to other Lake City locations suggested by the consultant assisting the RantFamily. If the goal is "comfort and quality of life," the Rant Sisters spending more time with RantMom and less time on transit is exactly on point.

The closest frequent bus route, the Metro 48 happens to serve Little Sister on one end and RantWoman on the other end. First day preview from bus stop to location was in a car. Irrepressible Nephew is good at spotting curb ramps but not so good at noticing sidewalk issues from the car. 

Stops at Boyer on both sides of the street seem a little steep to RantWoman but Little Sister has a power chair. 

RantWoman walked the sidewalk between the location and the bus stop the other day. The sidewalk is not brand new so it's bumpy in places. Little Sister at first dismissed RantWoman's observations but after a visit today thanked RantWoman for the heads-up.

Next comes visitors from Lynnwood on Light Rail. RantWoman has not put the route into a trip planner but did realize that in terms of easy connection to the 48 the best option would be to get off the Light Rail at the U District station and walk over to 15th Ave NE to get the 48. RantWoman remembers some nuance about the 48 ending at the U District station at least some of the time so probably a visit to the trip planner with some different date time combinations would be fruitful.

RantWoman generally does not try to plan / replan trips on the fly but does like to have general contours of the schedule in mind from planning ahead.

Anyway, the other option of course is to ride all the way to the University of WA station. RantWoman realized that option is less preferable just because the walk between the station and the 48 stop in front of the UW Medical Center is a pain and worse a pain to explain to another low vision person. RantWoman also notes that she may sometimes opt just to Uber part of the trip especially because of a vexing issue RantWoman REALLY needs to schedule her own medical appointment about.

Do not look at the news. DO NOT look at the news. How about some nice Nondriver eldercare transportation issues.

 

The tree outside
RantWoman's window

Same tree  different day
outside RantWoman's window

It's fashionable for stress relief to tell people to "Touch Grass." It's Seattle. WHO IS ANYONE KIDDING? After atmospheric rivers have innundated parts of WA and less cold hardy souls have made it through a few spectacular days of cold and beautifully clear, Seattle is back to grey skies and heavy mist and need for 100 words to describe Seattle rain.

The tree counts, especially since RantWoman gets tobe deliriously grateful that in the small part of her vision which sort of works, RantWoman can tell the difference between the light and cloud patterns in the two pictures.

RantWoman means it about the title of this post. The list of current news items that could make RantWoman's head explode is too long already. RantWoman may or may not get around to penning her own reflections on 2025, couture, health, technology in general, Twitter or X, and numerous other topics. RantWoman WILL be posting about eldercare and transportation.

Instead RantWoman will be writing about two non-drivers, RantWoman accompanied by Ambassador Thwack and Little Sister in her wheelchair looking for eldercare that provides RantMom a lot more services than simple independent living. HOEPFULLY RantWoman will spare readers both the sordid details of a decrepitating body and at least most of the family emotional landmines. 

Instead expect

--commentary about what kinds of vehicles are easy or difficult for people with different mobility needs to get into or out of.

--consultation about transportation options for candidate locations from multiple trip planners.

--comments from Walk Score, Access Map, and Find a Ride

We will start with one generalized rant: in some respects, Sunday is a GREAT time to visit candidate locations. That is whan bus service is sparsest, so how does life work under that condition.

HOWEVER, probably on NO planet will it be reasonable to try for a tour of three locations via transit on one day unless Irrepressible Nephew can drive his mother around and RantWoman can sync up with one of the people who has issued blank ride offers. RantWoman is not crazy about this option BECAUSE the POINT of demanding to test the get there on transit angle is specifically to evaluate everyday life realities.

STAY TUNED.

Speaking of Go Bags, Holidays, and Bouncing around like Tigger.

#wawx #AtmosphericRivers

First RantWoman sends heartfelt holiday wishes to everyone displaced by recent flooding and / or struggling with cleanup. May there be joy in spite of all the struggles.  Closer in, RantWoman knows two people having lumpectomies for the holidays, a friend having a root canal, on top of what RantWoman is about to recound about RantMom. This year, all this is just going to be what is.

RantWoman feels VERY lucky to live warm and dry and far away from flooded roadways, communities, and agricultural fields. RantWoman watches evacuation orders and sometimes checks in with people who might be affected. RantWoman realizes she can be more robust in meeting the moment as far as one part of her network and has filed the observation for now. Mostly RantWoman listens to news, exchanges weather info with a couple friends. RantWoman is also collecting such data as others want to share about travel disruptions, extra long paratransit rides, and related experience.

And then a family member has a medical emergency. RantMom has been showing signs for awhile that a chronic condition is wearing on her. Friday after monitoring some concerns for several days, Little Sister decided that "bouncing around like Tigger" and hands fluttering sounded sufficiently odd. Little Sister persuaded RantMom to call the consulting nurse. The consulting nurse told RantMom to call 911. RantMom lives far away from direct flooding risk but in an area where a lot of first responders are dealing with flooding related deployment. RantWoman has no idea of the response time. RantWoman just needs to offer the following observations:

--look up Go bag via your favorite search engine and plan accordingly.

--if you are a senior with recurring reason to need to be scooped up by paramedics, don't wait around for disaster weather forecasts. Consider having a Go bag just in case of more specific first responder needs. Maybe also have a list of things to grab at the last minute.

In RantMom's case, her Go bag needs to include charger for phone (or other devices) and charging container for hearing aids. One may be able to grab such things before the paramedics arrive but it is probably not wise to expect paramedics to be able to help grab necessities, but having some kind of a plan seems like a good idea to RantWoman

In RantMom's case, it took a couple days before Irrepressible Nephew, the only driver in the family was able to take Little Sister to RantMom's to retrieve the needed items. The next parts of the story get to be told another day.

"Bouncing around like Tigger" makes RantWoman smile. Ads for ridiculous sugary cereals were one reason besides mindrot programming that RantMom for a number of years had strict limits on the Rant children's consumption of Saturday morning cartoons and weekly series. More recently, RantWoman notes that 20 years ago RantMom was finishing chemo for her second cancer treatment.

Get this lady some taxi scrip?

RantWoman is playing crash test dummy checking out the process to apply for taxi scrip as administered by Metro. RantWoman recently learned that, although her income has been looking tup, she probably qualifies for Taxi scrip for those transportation moments when the bus won't do and travel is needed within King County.

Understand, RantWoman REALLY likes the bus for being easy to get on and off, for leg room, and for some level of adventure if, for instance, RantWoman is venturing to a part of the county she does not know well, and of course for modest physical exercise. RantWoman does like the idea of taxi scrip not expiring so RantWoman can have some on hand if needed and not have to worry about it expiring.

1. a search string for the Google or copilot, RantWoman does not remember which

King County Metro taxi scrip

RantWoman has in mind a nice path to an application even though RantWoman did not specify that in her search string. Instead RantWoman got a whole paragraph full of information she already knows. RantWoman lives in King County. RantWoman is definitely over 18. RantWoman qualifies according to the household income table she found a couple steps down.

2. Because of a recent software update on the computer RantWoman is using, some stupid message asking me which ads RantWoman finds most annoying--besides the stupid question when RantWoman is on a mission. 

3. Redo the search adding "application form" to the search string

Noodle around with a bunch of "people also asked" suggestions and god knows what, especially since RantWoman tends to try bad eyes first and then remember to tab around and / or do a links list.

4. Behold: a bare minimum form to apply. Form requests RantWoman's name and contact info. Form does not ask whether RantWoman already has a Regional Reduced fare permit though RantWoman does. The form just asks for contact info and promises a response. 

5. RantWoman notices a list of cab companies that will accept taxi scrip. RantWoman will come back to the list depending on a couple aspects of experience. RantWoman does not expect to use taxi scrip very often. RantWoman also notes that taxi scrip comes as paper that works like money except that cab drivers have to submit the paper for payment. RantWoman has heard that cab drivers are sometimes reluctant to deal with taxi scrip because of the processing time. 

Here RantWoman is going to acknowledge that paying cash for paper probably is really important for some riders. HOWEVER, RantWoman also fantasizes about either an app, maybe like the app that allows RantWoman to pay for laundry or a refillable debit card, perhaps like RantWoman's ORCA card. The card would need to work for drivers who accept credit / Debit cards and Rant Woman would like to know her taxi scrip balance. Okay, it;s a fantasy...

Elapsed time to step through the hoops and write a blog post, plus or minus a couple distractions 45 minutes but the task would get easier if done regularly.