Bad photographer cred?

 

Again with the tree photo
this time basically
at the crack of dawn

Still a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest, and RantWoman is trying to demonstrate quirky skills.

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

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The contest does not want anyone who has ever done professional photography. Do the following comments mean RantWoman might be over-qualified? 

Part of the instructions ask for a one-minute video about a bad photography experience that still turned out well. There is also the part about other skills. One of RantWoman's skills is going on at length. Hence the multiple blog posts.

First Prize in the 4H photography category at the county fair: there were no other entries. 

This happened decades ago at an age when RantWoman officially could see enough with glasses to maybe do decent photos. RantWoman remembers giving a speech about sewing. RantWoman may have entered some baked goods. But the blue ribbon went to an album of black and white photos. RantWoman has long since lost the actual album but remembers that it was in black and white. Some of the composition was less than perfect, though RantWoman also remembers at least one shot of one of the town mountains that she really liked

The fambly reunions:

RantMom, may she rest in peace, and her siblings had a tradition, after their kids were grown and everyone was on less tenuous financial footing. of getting together every couple years with at least a few at a time of the cousin generation. So there RantWoman was recently looking at photos ahead of RantMom's memorial. Quite a bit of the time, RantWoman found herself thinking "who are theese people and why can't anyone take decent photographs? RantWoman can tell that photographs of people standing with light behind them in front of various forms of scenery do not do justice either to the people or to the scenery. Does that observation already make her overqualified for the contest? The memories are FUN regardless.

The cat and the disposable camera. 

While RantWoman was trying to land on her feet after her midlife vision-related DNA kicked in, RantWoman signed up for a workshop series called "Getting involved in your Neighborhood." Part of the project involved handing RantWoman a disposable camera with instructions to document one's surroundings. Very funny. RantWoman really could not even locate the camera viewfinder and took a few pictures just by framing the camera based on externam things she used to orient the camera. The Queen of Meow, RantWoman's cat overlord at the time liked to jump up onto the railing of the balcony across from RantWoman's apartment. To RantWoman's surprise, a couple of RantWoman's cat photos showed the Queen of Meow proudly strolling along the railing, oblivious to the 4-floor drop to the patio.

The incision at the bottom of RantWoman's neck.

Scroll forward a couple decades. Add a smartphone so theoretically RantWoman can better use her limited vision to frame the photos at least a little better. Oh, but wait: a new task. Recently RantWoman had a surgery related to a different strand of DNA lotto. The surgery involved a small incision at the base of RantWoman's neck, sealed up with surgical glue and steri strips. RantWoman lives alone and cannot really see into the mirror to monitor healing. RantWoman an also has a smart phone that attempts to tell her how to capture her face. RantWoman did not want to capture her face. RantWoman wanted to capture her incision as it healed. To do that RantWoman basically had to ignore the instructions offered. RantWoman probably would have been able to tell if she were developing a raging infection without photos. Luckily, RantWoman has a coupe people in her life willing to receive daily photos and comment on the evolving color palette. The doctor was impressed at the follow-up visit.

The daily tree motif

RantWoman's apartment looks out on a tree, actually more than one tree. RantWoman does daily tree photos more or less just for fun. RantWoman is not preoccupied about the quality, composition, contrast of the photos. RantWoman's task is to write alt text for the photos. Alt text is description used by screen reader users to describe content of photos. Nowadays, a lot of platforms have AI which automatically does a mediocre job. RantWoman's efforts are also possibly inadequate. Sometimes the descriptions include details like the building in the background or the plants growing on the window ledge or some observation about weather conditions. There is some dance of messing with AI, attempting to improve on AI, and meditation about how much description is just right for different situations. Does RantWoman just have weird ideas of fun?

Binge watching Salmi

 RantWoman's binge watch of the week, in this time of global discombobulation and offerings struggling to emerge from the keyboard in memory of RantMom is a tuxedo cat named Salmi.

Behold. Check out her entire channel.

The opinions are definitely Salmi's but RantWoman is wondering whether perhaps she has persuaded her human to take dictation.

And should Salmi be able to bear sharing the spotlight with the tuxedo cat of RantWoman's childhood, please enjoy 

RantWoman and the RSOF: Mr. Tuxedo: reprint from the WA Council of the Blind Summer 2022 newsline

Adventures of RantWoman: Severe Weather Recommendations

PS RantWoman has never been to Finland in winter, but Salmi should be glad she has a radiator to sit on. And yes, winter air in CO mountain towns is probably at least as dry as in Finland. It's physics.

Lynnwood City Center on the Light Rail.

 RantWoman would in principle like to pen a sunny "I love you all and I am sure life is going to get better" holiday greeting. That, alas, is not going to happen, or at least not before RantWoman just gets some opinions off her chest. With that in mind, RantWoman is going to offer a Christmas tree of posts assembled in such form as to give readers options to pick and choose which RantWoman eye views of the year sound most enticing, entertaining, elevating, ... Get the idea.

Lucky Lynnwood City Center Sound Transit station, the first window into RantWoman's year, and luckily for someone the topic RantWoman can most concisely summon rants about.

Start with Thanksgiving. 

There was an invitation to family for feasting in Lynnwood. There was also an offer of a ride all the way that was going to involve too many people, a dog, and a vehicle specially lifted for off-roading. RantWoman owes the world a whole post about getting in and out of cars. In this case, RantWoman was still flirting too easily with some post-surgery crabbiness and wanted simply to take transit and, if needed be fetched from a transit end point.

RantWoman should have somehow been able to ask her info sources "which light rail station is closest to the address?" The answer: Lynnwood City Center is about a mile away. Instead RantWoman got various unhelpful suggested routings wound up having to ask Irrepressible Nephew to fetch her from an intersection before the one suggested by the trip planner.

Nephew was EXTREMELY good natured about this.

Family feasted well, petted a cat and two dogs, and did fine about many things.Then came time to go home. Nephew dropped RantWoman off at a station entrance inside the parking garage. Another woman in the same boat joined RantWoman in fogging around until we found the hallway with elevators to the platform. Some signage in the parking garage would definitely not be a terrible idea.

Next comes Christmas Day. The RantFamily did Christmas Eve church gathered around a laptop at the rehab where RantMom is currently in residence. The laptop does not do justice to a church organ but that was the celebration needed for this year. It also left RantWoman free on Christmas Day to invite herself over for takeout Thai food with her buddies The Weed Whackin Wenches who also live in Lynnwood. RantWoman would have been happy to take Zip to their house, but WingNut was itching to drive a few days after several days of heavy pain meds due to a dental abscess.

This is now the second try for connecting with the Wenches and their car. The first time was opening day. There were crowds and crowds. RantWoman got to a point where the only thing that made sense was to stand still somewhere amenable to car traffic and act tall. 

Christmas day is SUCH a mellow time to travel on Light Rail. BIG shout-outs to everyone working on holidays. The train was not crowded. RantWoman found an elevator to "surface." The only problem: RantWoman does not consider it "surface" if there are 10 steps between the pedestrian path and what did turn out to be an acceptable driveway. RantWoman is not sure what signage would have provided more helpful guidance about how to connect with cars.

In any case, the day was a blast. The Wenches have been working on re-doing their kitchen. One appliance quit and then something else had to be moved and then another thing needed upgrading. Christmas saw the work paused in mid transformation. Hence the interest in take-out, along with a grand tour: new stove with an induction cooktop, big round tactile controls as well as the possibility to do all kinds of things from a smartphone app. Some electrical work is still needed to ensure the wiring is appropriate and now there is talk of a new exhaust hood to go with the new sink, new dishwasher, and new compact overhead ceiling fan. Never mind that the refrigerator is currently around a corner into the dining room. The Wenches just had so much fun talking about their kitchen. Everyone agrees that moving around the appliances opens up LOTS of ideas.

The Wenches also have two new cats, intriguing but not as snuggly as previous household felines.  The cats emerged for dinner. RantWoman appears to have passed muster. After supper, the more standoffish kitty sat at the other end of a long hallway and just observed for quite awhile. The other more adventurous one visited RantWoman's dangling fingers several times. RantWoman got two nose touches, a leg brush, and a tail brush. Apparently this is high praise for this kitty around strangers.

Now an awkward confession: the Light Rail plus one bus is easy peasy for RantWoman. The Wenches like to drive RantWoman all the way home. RantWoman is always glad for car ride conversations. RantWoman is A LOT less glad about rides in the dark involving a lot of headlights from oncoming traffic. RantWoman is going to have to find some way to...

With that, may there still be feasts ahead as we kick 2025 out the door.

Madow: Hundreds of protests planned as Trump's abuses generate ...

RantWoman still hasn't collected the black pussy hat with pink ears that a friend promised to knit RantWoman for the worldwide women's march at the onset of Trump 1.0 but BOY is RantWoman glad people are willing to take to the streets now.

True confession: RantWoman has a long list of activities she may need to handle instead of rushing out in the pollen and glorious sunshine to stand around in visible outrage. Trust RantWoman on this: RantWoman will still be protesting but probably just no in the streets.

Bird Flu. Cats. Other species. Beware. Be reasonable

RantWoman recommends that people, especially cat people take a break from multiple strands of human insanity and focus on care of cats and other animals.

Uh, actually we are not necessarily taking a complete break from human insanity so a few tips before the video.

--RantWoman has a friend from high school who is now an infectious disease doctor. So far she is pretty blase about bird flu in humans. Her advice: stay up to date on flu and COVID shots. A tiny number of people have gotten bird flu due to work exposure for example to raw milk. There is still no evidence, though, of human to human transmission.

--Digressing to the price of eggs, NPR reported recently that there is a vaccine against bird flu for chickens. So far it is not widely used because external buyers are resistant to buying products affected by the vaccines. On the other hand, if the President is going to go bananas about a trade war and tariffs, vaccinating chicken flocks could end the need to cull flocks and get the level of egg production up to a point that MAYBE the price of domestically produced eggs would come down.

But now cat tips, with an inventory of all the other species that have gotten bird flu.

And, at the end, STRONG note for the interviewer who is into raw food that maybe he will need to rethink that.

Also, look in the notes for more resources.

PS. This is RantWoman's "light reading" for the night.

What if RFK Jr double dog dares the President Elect to EAT A SALAD?

RantWoman thinks God has a weird sense of humor. RantWoman will at some point wander down that rabbit hole in search of ways to address the outcome of #Election2024, people who think differently from RantWoman or worse, don't appear to think at all.

In the meantime, RantWoman copium:

--cat videos

--recipes with no plans to cook.

--material that makes RantWoman laugh between other howling.

There is a lot besides RFK jr. to bite into. That is for another time.

RantWoman thinks that RFK Jr. will make a terrible Secretary of Health and Human Services. And he gets to get in line with a bunch of other terrible nominees.

RantWoman spent part of her weekend talking to elders now suffering post-polio syndrome, remembering the mass dosing at her elementary school and collecting a Twitter / X thread about RFK Junior going to American Samoa, arguing against polio vaccines, and leaving in his wake the germs of a huge deadly outbreak a few months later.

That, of course, is by far not the only reason one might have a very negative opinion of the current nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

RantWoman, however is touched by the cabinet secretary nominee's concern for the President Elect's diet. In fact, RantWoman wonders how long the nominee will last if he dares to insist that the President Elect maybe say EAT A SALAD.

Revenge of the Childless Cat Ladies | Talking Feds Podcast

Really pointed discussion of #DementiaDon, a debate and the appearance before NABJ

Tim Miller and CO Gov Jared Polis talk common sense

#HappyPride #COpol

Ink!

Stylized
Orange and Black
Tiger face

RantWoman wants INK. 

RantWoman thought vaguely of getting a tattoo around her most recent decade milestone a couple years ago. It didn't happen then. RantWoman kind of just didn't get around to it.

But lately RantWoman's interest in getting a tattoo has picked up again. The motivations are partly world affairs, partly various yearly cycles, partly grief over having to say Goodbye to the Queen of Spades, partly a sense of perhaps upping the level of badassery in life.

Here we come to important questions:

What tattoos should RantWoman get?

Where should she get them?

First the where: decent chance of being either easily seen or easily covered depending on the situation. Also somewhere that is not going to hurt too much. Stay tuned for further consideration.

As to what tattoo to get, 

The Queen of Spades
Napping

1. RantWoman has a whole camera app full of pictures of the Queen of Spades, aka the #pandemic sanity goddess. Making one of the photos a tattoo seems somehow much more satisfying than some container of ashes.

2. Consider the Gorbachev era anti alcoholism slogan Kefir is the vodka of the future: Кефир водка будущего

3. RantWoman is toying with ideas about flowers, other significant letter combinations and symbols.

4. Some kind of PrincetonTiger?

At this point, RantWoman put her thoughts into her most available search engine and all sorts of things turned up.

Where to get Princeton Tiger temp tattoos

New Biography of George Schultz

Fun fact: there is a bit about a much discussed thematic tatto.

2015 Politico article with a great quote about the famous tattoo

Letter to the editor about tiger tattoo plans by someone much older even than RantWoman

Digression into the long fog of Presidential primaries as mediated by Twitter / X: someone is floating the idea of Michelle Obama running for President.

Let's see: 

Michelle Obama. Princeton undergrad. Harvard Law

Ted Cruz. Princeton Undergrad. Harvard Law.

RantWoman would strongly prefer Michelle Obama. Michell could definitely do it or find good advisors to assist her, if she had even the slightest temptation to test the waters.

But look, someone demurred, never mind party. Look at all the titles Ted Cruz has had.

Well, people actually LIKE, respect, admire Michelle Obama!

And to close this time warped wandering through both personal and global events, a younger YouTube voice RantWoman has come to appreciate.

Will RantWoman actually GET a tattoo?

Stay tuned.....

Spontaneity: Bright Sunny Day. Motivational Calamity. Lynnwood!

This journey needs good picture
even though this rhododendron
is from a different journey

RantWoman needs to recount a mostly joyous transportation on demand excursion out to Lynnwood to see her buddies The Weed Whackin Wenches. Curmudgeon and Wingnut have long ago migrated to Facebookistan and are otherwise having to be unintentionally adventurous, but getting to see them is always a delight. Before RantWoman gets to the meat of her recent journey, though, RantWoman needs to get one minor and two MAJOR gripes with Community Transit out there for the world to help digest..

1. As judged by signage on stops at the Aurora Village transit Center, Community Transit signage SUCKS. Metro has nice clear signage with good contrast that RantWoman can read as long as her nose is just inches from the signs. Community Transit signs have print that is too small and color elements that destroy contrast and make the already too small text even more unreadable.

2. Memo to everyone buying vehicles for on-demand service: give a contingent of people with all kinds of bodies and mobility devices and strollers and shopping carts a chance to test load the vehicles BEFORE you buy them. RantWoman was THRILLED when she finally connected with Community Transit's ZIP service that the driver has a reader that can read ORCA cards and even better that the last leg of the trip counted as a transfer. HOWEVER, RantWoman found the vehicle very hard to climb in and out of. The entry is high off the ground and the wall of the vehicle inside the door is very thick. RantWoman was offered the lift which did not seem on point, but the whole experience did not make RantWoman want to see how well RantMom and her walker would do.

3. Now the minor gripe: in the course of the journey RantWoman tried to download the Zip program app. The app has another name which RantWoman is not going to dig out of the text stream tonight. There was some hang-up in the download process. Curmudgeon and RantWoman both have Android phones. Curmudgeon reported also getting stuck, but neither of us have gone back to troubleshoot. For one thing there was a WONDERFUL customer service staffperson who is allowed maybe to think RantWoman might be a little nuts or giddy in the sunshine just because of being so happy about the parts of the trip that worked.

But back a few steps: Friday RantWoman started out underslept in the way that tends to make one basically a motivational calamity. Fortunately there was SUNSHINE and RantWoman had errands on the E line doing errands. It occurred to RantWoman that she has not seen the Wenches since exactly Christmas and that maybe it would be a good day to invite herself for a visit.

RantWoman texted and Curmudgeon instantly texted back YES!. 

The only hitch: Wing Nut, the driver in the household was out but hey there is this new service called Zip.

Excellent. RantWoman remembers getting to the Wenches' house via the E line, a Community Transit bus to the Lynnwood transit center and the last leg of the trip on foot, but RantWoman did not remember details like which Community Transit route was involved. RantWoman also remembered the last visit: RantWoman had let the Wenches kidnap her after an afternoon visit to RantMom but what RantWoman could see of the area around the transit center was a lot of construction mess. But RantWoman opted to proceed on the E line rather than catching something from the Northgate light rail system.

No Google. It was too nice a day and the lack of motivation that got RantWoman out in the sunshine definitely extended to excessive interaction with devices.

Plus RantWoman had to be reminded of the Wenches' street address; when RantWoman went to enter the address in the address field of her phone contacts, as soon as RantWoman entered the first digit some kind of autocomplete wanted RantWoman to be travelling off to Malaysia. RantWoman finally just entered the address in the Notes Field. RantWoman fired off a WTF Tweet to @GoogleAccess and now still needs to follow up with the reply. Stay tuned.

RantWoman tried the Zip phone number first phone from the Aurora Village transit center. Oops. Out of area. 

Okay, fog around the transit center. A helpful SWIFT driver suggested a couple route numbers and pointed RantWoman to the middle lane of the transit center. Sure enough, a stop for the 130 and a number of people waiting. A good sign!

Shortly the bus to the Lynnwood transit center came. There was lovely greenery along much of the route and then yet one more leg of the journey: find bay A1 where the Zip vehicle stopped. RantWoman has eyes enough to tell which direction bay letters and numbers change. After trying one direction, RantWoman realized she would need a different direction and had to find a place with a painted but not very convincing crosswalk. Luckily there was little traffic inside the transit center and RantWoman made her way to Bay A1.

Soon the Zip chariot arrived. RantWoman coped with the accessibility challenges listed above and the driver and another person delivered RantWoman right to the Wenches' front door.

There were hugs all around.

The house smelled wonderful. The menu was fajitas and rhubarb clafoutie (sp?) with this year's rhubarb.

So much worked, in spite of the hiccups!

As a final bonus, the Wenches' two cats M and C in the past have usually just ignored RantWoman. This time both came close enough when RantWoman dangled fingers down to sniff andC even let RantWoman pet her.

Dear Amazon Prime Customer

Learn About Our Latest Updates

Dear Prime Member, We are writing to let you know about upcoming changes to Prime grocery delivery benefits from Amazon Fresh. Starting Feb. 28, 2023, Amazon Fresh delivery orders under $150 will incur a service fee. Prime members will continue to receive free grocery delivery on orders more than $150. Delivery charges will be $3.95 for orders $100-$150, $6.95 for orders $50-$100, and $9.95 for orders under $50. This service fee will help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience. We will continue to offer convenient two-hour delivery windows for all orders, and customers in some areas will be able to select a longer, six-hour delivery window for a reduced fee. We will also keep evolving our Amazon Fresh grocery service, testing and adding more delivery options, and increasing selection of low-priced foods for customers to enjoy. One-hour grocery pickup at Amazon Fresh stores will continue to be free for Prime members in your area. Other exclusive benefits for Prime members at Amazon Fresh include an in-store discount on select groceries, including discounts on a rotating selection of prepared foods.  (large segment of non-grocery text deleted.) If you have questions about the Amazon Fresh delivery service fee or options for free delivery, you can learn more here. Sincerely, Amazon Prime

Above is an excerpt of the email RantWoman received informing her of the latest update in delivery fees for Amazon Prime members who get grocery deliveries through Amazon Fresh. RantWoman has gotten quite spoiled about exactly this service, in spite of some hiccups about preferences.

To be concise, RantWoman expects to: 

--comparison shop about other grocery delivery programs

RantWoman will catalog test criteria separately. Expect the list to include app accessibility and whether or not RantWoman should refer anyone who receives SNAP benefits, delivery parameters, and other criteria TBD.

--do a lot more in-person shopping and a lot less grocery shopping online.

RantWoman is a single person and the Queen of Spades does not get fed from Amazon Fresh. RantWoman MIGHT manage once a month to come up with a $150 order sufficient to qualify for free delivery. RantWoman has limited storage and freezer space to handle bulk purchases.  RantWoman will also be doing in-person shopping for things like fresh produce and dairy products. RantWoman has several in-person shopping options--besides Amazon Fresh--that meet her one bus segment and one street crossing each way to and from criteria. 

To be fair, the price increase for RantWoman's average order would a little more than wipe out what RantWoman budgets to tip the driver. RantWoman prefers to tip the driver.

--Offer some candid customer service observations

It's the bananas, folks. RantWoman likes to buy a week's supply of bananas that might even be too green to eat the first day she brings them home. Most of the time bananas delivered via Amazon Fresh come perfectly ripe for about two days before they start turning brown. And there is no way to tell anyone of RantWoman's preference except, consistently, to buy bananas elsewhere in the course of RantWoman's travels. Enough said?

RantWoman also finds the Please rate our service screens after delivery annoying: just put ONE open-ended question on the form as a small gesture indicating that y'all care enough about RantWoman's opinion to read real words instead of offering inadequate categories.

--toss in some wacky suggestions that MIGHT make the whole exercise more palatable.

RantWoman is not sure about the idea of 6-hour--long delivery windows. RantWoman does tend to schedule deliveries at least 6 hours ahead of when she places the order and would not mind being rewarded for scheduling delivery in time windows that are less busy or that have less traffic.

RantWoman also would not mind being rewarded every time she has to explain to drivers about how they need to get from the door by the garbage area of the building to the door with the keypad where at least during daylight hours someone can buzz them in. RantWoman has no idea which interaction of GPS and Amazon routing leads drivers astray but RantWoman has done what she can in her account.

Has RantWoman mentioned that she lives in an apartment building. RantWoman can imagine scenarios where several people placing orders could aim for the same time window so that the total to one address would easily exceed the minimum to qualify for free delivery with the only extra step being delivering orders to more than one apartment. RantWoman would not want to increase the risk of order mixups but thinks that possibility would be a solvable problem. RantWoman envisions getting to the select delivery time slot and seeing some indication of time windows when other deliveries are scheduled and being offered the opportunity to adjust delivery time to lower the delivery cost by sharing the schedule.

There. Enough free advice. If more is wanted....

Bureaucracy Digitalizes

 The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing is slowly coming back to life!

Please note, RantWoman is happy to use the official brand name when touting everything that is wonderful about the place. Today though a rescheduled meeting had only two attenders and conversation turned to need annually for many participants to propitiate critical bureaucracy and after an email exchange with topical staff into reflection on the rocky road to the digital universe.. 

One totally blind participant did not interact with some key paperwork until after a designated deadline. Another participant, RantWoman, a screen reader user who is not totally blind has probably,  based on the information shared, the same paperwork with a different deadline that RantWoman may eke past if she can successfully with a wonderful new portal developed by RentCafe. 

Email from the topical staff person said "Try the new portal." RantWoman vaguely remembers previously interacting once with the new portal and was able after two tries to nail the password she had previously set. 

On the way RantWoman noticed that while the screen says Tenant Login, the screen reader says Resident Login. 

What difference does this make as long as the link works?

At this point in life RantWoman has tech support instincts so firmly hard-wired that she frequently attempts to tell people what to look for even when she herself cannot see the screen. Can anyone see the problem now?

Next step: report the problem but to whom?

To the topical office which RantWoman knows based on other conversations is understaffed and full of new people? Not RantWoman's first choice.

To the staff now busy helping lots of people clamber aboard the new digital internet express? Also not on RantWoman's critical path for getting her own paperwork done though possibly a relevant FYI for others needing to shepherd other residents along the needed pathways.

Nope, RantWoman's instinct is go straight to the creators of the website. There is even an awesome accessibility statement that sounds really wonderful until RantWoman cannot find a direct link to report problems.

RantWoman found a Contact Us link that appropriately provides information about the organization using the website but not a place to report technical problems with the website.

RantWoman's screen reader does read her something about RentCafe and RantWoman knows perfectly well how to use the Google. However, RantWoman has expended as much time and energy on this exercise as she even wants to think about today and will now direct staff mentioned above to read this post and consider questions on RantWoman's mind.

RantWoman has no opinion about whether there should just be an internal organization link that says "Report Technical problems with the website" or whether there should be a link where to the actual vendor.

RantWoman also nurtured the hope that she would be able just to fill out some online version of the paper forms she recently received by snail mail. That appears maybe still to be on the horizon because the Upload documents section of the portal wants people to be able to scan.

At this point, RantWoman is aware that she probably has a hungry cat and needs to hand off this post and handle other issues.

Cat Food Two years on, masks, and another variant on the horizon “More Infectious” and “No Less Deadly:” Fmr. CDC Director on New Variant...

  

The Queen of Spades
in one of her
 "I'm NOT cooperating with this photo op" poses

 This post dedicated to the Queen of Spades, without whom RantWoman would, after all the #pandemic ups and downs be even less sane than she is today.

Now watch some sensible science and realism.

Now today's glorious sunny day errand to Go Buy Cat Food.

A little more than two years ago, RantWoman answered a phone call from an unknown number while on the bus. When RantWoman learned what the call was about, RantWoman got off the bus to finish the call in the semi-private open air of a nearly empty sidewalk.

Someone from the medical staff at RantMom's retirement was calling to say that RantMom had tested positive for #COVID. RantWoman was not exactly surprised. RantWoman had just read a Seattle Times article about RantMom's debate watching buddy. RantMom never developed any symptoms and endured a month of monitoring and isolation before testing positive.

But back to the bus tidings. By that time, RantWoman THINKS she was using a couple different kinds of makeshift masks, either a folded bandana secured at the ears with pony tail holders or a single layer cut from a black T-shirt. In any case, RantWoman did not immediately go home upon receiving the news. RantWoman needed a couple grocery items and the Queen of Spades preferred flavor of cat food. RantWoman finished her errands and then went home. RantWoman called her clinic and learned she does not have enough underlying conditions to hurry out for testing unless she develops symptoms. RantWoman ws not distressed. 

RantWoman survived 10 days of imperfect efforts to quarantine. The past two years have had several ups and downs, meetings indoors and out with RantMom and variable ridership on Metro.

Today RantWoman was thinking about all that will out on a spectacular sunny day, again catering to the Queen of Spades dining habits.

Uneventful? Not quite?

The right bus came first so RantWoman missed a routing that could have taken RantWoman near the scene of a shooting. 

Litterboxes gone viral?

The Queen of Spades
finds the following account of
viral virtual litterboxes
absolutely hilarious

Remember the Tik Tok teenagers who "sold out" the Trump Rally. Some schoolkids somewhere in Facebookistan ...well take a listen.

PS. The Queen of Spades also celebrates successful delivery in real space--minus schoolkids--of cat litter at our house.

Because everyone needs
a screenshot of
the delivery success report

 RantWoman is probably supposed to put the most positive spin possible on the ends of #WeekWithoutDriving, #NDEAM (National Disabilities Awareness Month) and a certain all-virtual state convention about which some of RantWoman's more prickly opinions should go into targeted email rather than to the whole blogosphere. Postcards from the weekend

Names / topics especially to remember with thanks and respect

Kirk Adams, currently President of the American Foundation for the Blind

Ari Neiman and people appreciating Ari Neiman

A woman named Anna Gomez who has a Youtube channel called BlindVision full of the sounds of her life.

The woman on the employment panel talking about one job as part of the Humana healthcare system where accessibility is built into the software (Thank you the Two Chicks in Marketing) and a different job where "accessibility" meant having to hire a programmer to adjust accessibility software every time there was a major update (Jargon: JAWS scripting)

Food, traffic, Less salt better vegetables

Around RantWoman #WeekWithoutDriving lasts all year. RantWoman's concession to the weekend schedule was to order grocery delivery and schedule it outside of rush hour. RantWoman means soon to conduct sort of a grocery delivery bakeoff. In this case RantWoman forgot some key items but an unexpected opening in the schedule and a dead simple there and back bus option meant RantWoman got to give in to yearning for some Halloween candy and to select her own bananas. RantWoman passed on the opportunity to fly into a fit about the clerk putting the bananas on the bottom of the bad and just quietly repacked several things, balanced the weight among the bags, and  stowed the bananas to her satisfaction. Overall also a win: less salt and better vegetables than much hotel food.

The cat opines

The Queen of Spades is not that interested in the voices coming out of the cellphone. She is always interested in the human's availability to pet her. Also she does not prefer to put up with intruders even if intruders need to come feed her because RantWoman is away. Fortunately for the Queen of Spades, cats generally are exempt from necessity to worry about DRAMAS occurring in connection with RantWoman's building. 

Pet-themed digression for non-drivers: RantWoman has seen plenty of pet carriers holding howling creatures on the bus. RantWoman's experience with a previous cat: the howls of protest are not less in a car; since RantWoman finds transit physically more comfortable just take the bus and don't worry about some drivers' pet issues.

Zoom process:

RantWoman is not clear how many of the tech team are totally blind or visually impaired. The event was run as a webinar. RantWoman found the dance of muting, unmuting, promoting to the panel, lowering hands, and not being able to tell who else was in queue a little stifling and frustrating. Enough said for now. Such opportunities for continued learning.

Gather?

Faith community readers, please be patient with RantWoman sounding off about her week. There really will be relatable content below.

No RantWoman did not even try to visit #CSUNATC21. RantWoman got enough just following Twitter about use of an inaccessible "accessibility overlay." CSUNATC has been the leading accessibility issues conference for many years, drawing large companies, rehabilitation professionals, and accessibility researchers. This year, Cal State Northridge, the campus who has hosted the event for a number of years tried to do web accessibility by purchasing something called an accessibility overlay, software that no matter what cannot make a website accessible if the website does not start out with some accessibility prerequisites built in. They blew it. One well-known blind professional involved is now trying to spin the debacle as unintentional beta testing, that is releasing into the internet wild software that is most definitely still in progress. Definitely a loser PR move. On the other hand, if even accessibility pros sometimes have to deal with bad accessibility, let's talk average users at a definitely not technologically oriented event.

RantWoman also did not find time to pop over to the #axecon series of talks about accessibility organized by Deque systems. RantWoman's schedule just got too full in spite of good intentions and very positive Twitter buzz.

Instead, EVEN THOUGH parts of RantWoman's faith community are still very busy reminding RantWoman both why she needs faith and why she needs a faith community, RantWoman is opting to hang out virtually with international strands of her faith community, to have conversations with real humans in language not muddled by machine translation. Demographically the event skews heavily older, white, and educated though in some cases still tentative about technology from North America and much younger from other countries. Especially during #pandemic times, people are so happy to see each other that everyone is being very patient with all kinds of technological hiccups. Indeed, RantWoman is so happy just to have conference documents available as easily adjustable / accessible Google docs, links to videos, and such that RantWoman plans to have a great time in spite of hiccups about gather.

Zoom has been the technological star of the show so far: interpreter channels, international inclusiveness, a pathway through a package called Jitsi because that works better for aspects RantWoman will pointedly not comment on about one country's telecommunications system.

Journeys to Planet RantWoman, though, are rife with opportunities for unplanned accessibility testing. Today's experiment in unplanned accessibility testing: a link in the bottom of a conference email to something called gather town. 

Gather is supposed to facilitate more spontaneous conversations among different groups of people. When everything goes as hoped, people sign in, create avatars for themselves and then wander around a space. Avatars can hang out it one place and see who stops by. Or they can walk around different spaces and listen in to group conversations of different sizes as they get near and decide whether or not to join. RantWoman definitely likes this design element better than having to drop into Zoom breakout rooms (or wander into real life breakout spaces when she can't identify people visually) in order to find out who is there.

Here RantWoman is wanting to fit in and have a good time like everyone else. RantWoman is also glad to leave a lot of the technological fussing to others.

Things even sound like there might be reason to hope because everyone says "navigate with arrow keys" and some even find it a pain not to be able to use the mouse.

No, RantWoman did not check out the site for any mention of accessibility before she just waded in. RantWoman also realizes that making accessibility work would be a non-trivial task; some blind users might try use Aira or BeMyEyes to have a human narrator help them navigate. RantWoman is really glad to have enough vision not even to want to try that.

After the fact, when RantWoman put Gather Town JAWS, the name of RantWoman's favorit screen reader into the search engine, RantWoman turned up a whole bunch of links related to a certain shark movie. Look, it's WAY too early in the release cycle to want to think about the phrase "jumped the shark."

But RantWoman is getting ahead of herself. RantWoman clicked on the link. RantWoman was able to enter the meeting password just fine. Likewise a name. Next came picking an avatar. Not feasible using any screen reader tricks RantWoman knows; reasonably well-behaved when RantWoman worked visually with her screen enlargement software, Zoomtext.

Next came another screen with more options for customizing one's avatar, selecting clothing and skin tones, and hair style.  All the avatar options are a little pixelated at 4 x magnification and nothing was navigable with screen reader. RantWoman finally just exited JAWS and decided to see how things go with just Zoomtext. Bear in mind, conferences are tiring and RantWoman ALWAYS wants her screen reader to help cut down on visual fatigue.

RantWoman's verdict: RantWoman will have to do about the average amount of screen scrolling with Zoomtext to be able to see parts of the screen not visible at 4x magnification. RantWoman got stuck on something but will probably go back at least on her Windows machine.

RantWoman is a masochist and a nerd. Plus RantWoman had not scored any interpersonal connections and needed to fortify herself, tonight with a peanut butter and pickles sandwich

. So while toasting bread and having the cat get supper, RantWoman also decided to try on her Android phone with the Talkback screen reader.

RantWoman clicked through from an email to Gather. RantWoman braved the warning that mobile access is in beta, like pretty early rickety beta. Enter name. Fiddle a little bit with avatar but lots of "unlabelled button." By mashing finger around screen manage to change both the avatar's clothing color , skin tone, and hair style. Talkback is uneven about telling RantWoman what is occurring but RantWoman has enough vision to tell. RantWoman got to the screen where she could enter a room. On screen arrow keys occur, but they don't work at all, no description, no activity, just sit there. So we're done. No more beta testing on the phone.

No turning off the Talkback screen reader is not an option. RantWoman could probably learn the easy gestures to turn Talkback on and off and rely on vibrate on tuch to help about some screen elements she would have heard about through talkback, but no, just no.

Okay. We're done. RantWoman is glad she knows how to Zoom host and has signed up for volunteer Zoom hosting during a couple blocks of social time. That means RantWoman will actually show up for the social time and with any luck actually make some connections.

RantWoman may or may not come back to the Gather town website

Virtual Thanksgiving Open House Suggested Conversation topics

 Invitation to Virtual Thanksgiving Open House

Thursday November 26, 12:30-5:00 PST 

The Christmas Cactuses
of Gratitude

If you are reading this and have not gotten a Zoom invitation from RantWoman but want to participate, please leave a comment with a little about yourself and a way to sent an invitation. RantWoman will not post the comment but will be happy to send invitations.

RantWoman has invited quite a range of people from different parts of her life. RantWoman does NOT promise that everyone will instantly get along. In fact RantWoman hopes that the rhythms of people dropping by will generate laughter and lively conversation without too many matter / antimatter collisions.

The format is intended to be pretty free-flowing. RantWoman will from time to time ask people to do a round of introductions. Please feel free to share the invitation, to include children if they are interested, to bring pictures of children or grandchildren or of your feast. Pets and service animals welcome. Please be prepared to describe the pictures because RantWoman is inviting a lot of bad-ass blind people.

Should people run out of things to talk about, RantWoman offers the following suggestions:

--Best Vegan entrees and favorite vegan holiday dishes

--Vehement Opinions about Vegetables

   --Yams vs Sweet potatoes and what goes with them

  --Green bean casserole: Yes? No? What's green bean casserole? 

  --Brussels sprouts?

  --Broccoli and hollandaise sauce?

  --Squash.Yes? No? Stuffed with what?

  --Don't mess with people's comfort food: what is the thing you MUST have for Thanksgiving?

  --Turkey leftovers? Yes? No? How many variations?

  --Has RantWoman forgotten something?

--Favorite family media moments: guests are allowed to be grateful that the slides of Uncle Harry's dams have vanished in the shifting tides of several family moves, but RantWoman is happy to tell of...

--Politics  

   --How shall we thank the outgoing President for his service?

   --Hopes and dreams and controversies near and far.

  --COVID, COVID, COVID

--What have people been doing to stay busy and sane during the pandemic?

Other suggestions?

Happy Thanksgiving all. Let's COUNT OUR BLESSINGS

Resting Reproach Face

RantWoman intended to post the content below only to her sleep blog. RantWoman needs to sleep more which is partly how the content got posted here. Readers who WANT info about the ups and downs of sleepting, snacking, getting dressed, household chores and the occasional cat pic are welcome to head over to the blog  via the link for yesterday and then to enjoy today's content.

Festive orgy of Zoom and Powerpoint 

Yesterday's plus Powerpoint event was fine. Sometime RantWoman will meditate about what actually turns out to be useful for RantWoman around Powerpoint. But not tonight. Tonight, tags for this post and then...

Today's entry:

Welp. If one goes to bed promptly at 1 am, one has time for a good 5 hours of sleep before the first wakeup. This would be pee and feed the cat and try not to get sucked into Twitter or texting with sister and just GO BACK TO BED. That did not happen today. For all of the usual reasons. 

The Queen of Spades,
Resting Reproach Face

Trash collection and removal did happen. That is a great good thing.

If one does not snack in the evening, one wakes up hungry. Luckily there is porridge with raisins though time to get some more fresh fruit.

Tomorrow. If it is not raining or I decide on a wrap that is the right level of water protection and warmth.

Today I got a call from the building staff. They are doing this regularly. It was nice to hear staffperson's voice. Also take note of delivery tolobby of a couple boxes of packages of adult diapers and one of what must be the Ag department's food boxes. I dunno which T campaign contributor is making money off they boxes. but no question people would be better off if they had SNAP benefits to use to buy food they want.

But I digress. 

Awesome candidates' forum. 

Meditations on...

Pandemic Postcards Trying To Stop the Wind etc

It's time again for #PandemicPostcards

First some #Pandemic art. 

This video is not audio described but some of the visual elements are worth asking someone to explain.

Also watch all the way to the end because there are lots of credits and they are big enough for RantWoman to read.

The August primary!

RantWoman and RantMom now live in different city and county council as well as different congressional districts. And we cannot get together to have a ballot marking party anyway, but we have both voted. And we tend to agree on some major "We DO NOT WANT" contenders for example for governor.

RantMOM's take: media outlets should get their endorsements out say a week earlier. Many people have already voted. If you want to influence the vote get your endorsement list AND any glossy flyers with circles and charts and photos and brightly colored print out earlier than current practice.

RantMOM also has not absorbed the details: do ballots need just to be either postmarked or in the drop boxes by AUGUST 4? RantWoman STRONGLY urged RantMom just to call the elections office and ask (and not spread misinformation). Readers who need this info: use your search engines for King County Elections

New Blogger Interface

RantWoman should just open some documentation search results and then turn her monitor to navigate the new site without visual cheating to learn needed keystrokes. RantWoman should do this. Will it happen? Stay tuned.

The Annual Box of Lucky Charms (tm)

RantWoman gets to have a colonoscopy on Thursday. Doesn't RantWoman know how to party! RantWoman also gets to have a #COVID19 test on Tuesday. RantWoman can hardly wait.

But wait: RantWoman is supposed to eat (more) days of "bland diet" and one day of clear liquids with other procedure prep which anyone who has ever experienced this delightful process knows all too well. By bland diet, the instructions RantWoman has found online mean basically delete a whole lot of things RantWoman does to prevent what the colonoscopy is looking for. Okay it's a TEMPORARY deletion, but still. On the bright side, if RantWoman has to skip her deluxe weekly pot of porridge servings of oatmeal fortified with oat bran, flazx meal nutritional yeast ... , is it the PERFECT excuse to buy the annual box of Lucky Charms (tm)! Actually, RantWoman would have bought Rice Krispies (tm) because they are slightly more nutritionally responsible. However the Lucky Charms came in a reasonably sized box. The Rice Krispies only came in a box big enough to feed a small village for a week. Even if the cat helps, RantWoman's household just cannot handle that big a box of Rice Krispies. So Lucky Charms it is!

RantWoman also succumbed to some other temptations in the mindless carbs category. RantWoman really needs to go back to eating fiber.

Quarters

WTF about coins. People still need to do laundry. Everyone RantWoman asks is told they cannot sell quarters. WTF. RantWoman naively thinks it SHOULD be pretty hard to mess up coin circulation. There should be some essential job categories in the work process to get the quarters in and out of banks. The occupant of the White House launders all his money through Deutsche Bank; this should not mean the rest of us have to forego our laundry!

The Fourth of July in a parking garage and a REALLY big rock dumped by glaciers 20,000 or so years ago.

Nothing like a REALLY big rock, previously like 20,000 years ago, buried under thousands of feet of ice to distract #pandemic brain from all the things it thinks it would like to obsess about. Well gee, the case numbers are rising unsatisfactorily, and staying home is a drag and RantWoman has Zoom overload and local Twitter overload, but AT LEAST we are not buried under thousands of feet of ice. Oh, wait, in light of the #ArcticHeatWave, maybe someone needs some ice.



Note, RantWoman is certain the glacial rock video with some cool glacier related terminology belongs in the blog, and ahead in line before notes about spending the Fourth of July hanging out in a parking garage!

In case readers cannot tell, parking garages are generally not RantWoman's favorite architectural moment. But RantMom craved another visit with The Family. Admitting visitors into retirement communities is still Not Happening, but... It turned out that the Fourth of July fit everyone's schedules. When conversations occurred about everyone's mobility concerns, the suggestion was--ta-da--the resident parking garage.

RantWoman was prepared not to be charmed. RantWoman was prepared to spend a whole visit being annoyed about gas fumes and a few other gripes. RantWoman was not the least bit distressed when the three households of RantFamily with all our various mobility aids and personality quirks collected in a nicely ventilated parking garage with wind blowing through and leafy trees visible.

The RantFamily visited about this and that. RantMom spoke of childhood Independence days on her father's ranch. Many cousins gathered also to celebrate RantMom's grandfather's birthday which was two days later. RantWoman thinks she must have met this great grandfather as a very young child. RantWoman has no useful memory of him as a person but does remember a kid-logic question about how one can have two grandfathers with the same last name.

The RantFamily also recalled the Bicentennial in 1976. RantDad helped organize a Symphony concert in the park. The RantSiblings helped sell helium balloons. Child labor issues? What child labor issues? RantWoman thinks there were fireworks. And the family party happened the next day.

 RantMom

Little Sister's household

RantMom was thrilled about the visit. She handed off a package in advance of an upcoming RantWoman birthday. RantWoman also notes that RantMom is now not only doing yoga but speaking positively about it. And then it was time to leave, time for RantWoman to get home and comfort the Queen of Spades ahead of hours and hours of fireworks in the 'hood.