November 30, 2007

Giving The Customers What They Want

If you're deaf and have been considering the iPhone, but you don't want to pay for voice minutes that you'll never use, there's good news. AT&T will soon be offering a data-only plan for deaf and hearing-impaired customers. I know the Sidekick is popular within the deaf community, but the iPhone seems to offer the same capabilities in a smaller and sleeker package. And kudos to AT&T for targeting the specific needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. If only other corporations would get on board the clue train. It boggles the mind that the movies and TV shows available on Apple's iTunes Store still don't include closed captioning.

AT&T: Trying to make up for narcing on its customers at the behest of the Bush Administration.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:12 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2007

A Pox Upon Both Their Houses

I discovered that I'm able to watch the Packers-Cowboys game via streaming video on the NFL website. I'm using the word "watch" in the most charitable sense. The video is about the size of a Post-It note and, judging from the way it's skipping and stuttering, the main server must be using a dial-up connection. It's better than nothing, but I shouldn't have to demean myself like this. I have a rather nice 32" television (not high-def or anything, but still nice) sitting a few feet away, but instead I'm sitting here in front of my computer like a putz. I'm not sure who to blame for this travesty, but the greedy executives of both the NFL and the cable companies seem like deserving targets.

And who is this Aaron Rodgers kid? For a backup QB, his suckage quotient is surprisingly low.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

Unmet Need

I received a phone call from a single mom with cerebral palsy who was desperately searching for an attorney to represent her in a child custody hearing. Someone gave her my name and she was hoping that I could direct her to someone who could help her. I gave her a couple phone numbers, but unfortunately, I don't think I was of much help. I also recently spoke with a friend with a disability who may be a father (the circumstances are complicated) and is concerned that the mother's parents may prevent him from having contact with the child. These two separate events have gotten me thinking about the challenges facing parents with disabilities. In most cultures, disability is equated with an inability to care for oneself. The notion that someone with a disability could care for a child is one that does not compute for society at large. Of course, many parents with disabilities can and do raise happy, well-adjusted kids. But the legal profession seems poorly equipped to advocate for these parents when they need it.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

I can't be sure, but the Current seems to be repeating songs on a heavier rotation and losing some of its eclecticism in the process. I like M.I.A. just fine, but if I hear "Boyz" one more time... Perhaps it's time once again to expand my music collection. And maybe cut down on the Current at work.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

The Good Life

I meant to point this out a few weeks ago: Forbes ranked Minneapolis as the most affordable place to live well. This should help assuage Minneapolis' chronic inferiority complex when it comes to competing with other metropolitan areas, particularly Chicago. Here, it's possible to live downtown without earning a six-figure salary. And our music and theater scenes rival anything west of NYC.

We have a saying around here that people who leave the Twin Cities for other parts of the country eventually find their way back. We know why that is, but now so do the rest of you.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2007

Mirror, Mirror

Astronomers have reason to believe that a vast hole in the universe is evidence of the presence of another universe adjacent to this one. This could mean that there really is such a thing as a multiverse and some of these universes could contain slightly different versions of me, some of whom are sitting in front of their computers on a Sunday evening and composing blog entries. The question is: are the blog entries of these other mes any more interesting than the one I'm currently drafting? Another question: should I be concerned that the thought of the potential existence of alternate mes provokes a weirdly competitive response in this version of me?

Thanks to Warren Ellis for the tip.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

Capitalism Run Amok

Among the countries of the developed world, the U.S. is the only one that treats health care like a commodity rather than a social service. Commodities that can be bought, sold, and financed like any other consumer debt. BusinessWeek offers an extensive look at the growing practice of hospitals and clinics transferring outstanding medical bills to private corporations that charge interest at rates as high as twenty-six percent. Of course, the reason that these are outstanding debts in the first place is that these individuals don't have health insurance and don't have the cash on hand to pay their medical bills. These credit companies push these poor people even further into a financial hole by charging interest they really can't afford to pay.

Is it me, or does it seem really fucked up to use the same financing scheme for both the purchase of a flat-screen TV and a three-day stay in the hospital for a burst appendix? Sometimes, I get the sinking feeling that the only thing we Americans know how to do really well anymore is make a quick buck off other people's misery.

Thanks to Paul Krugman for the tip.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2007

In Other News, Water Is Wet

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, has a shocking revelation to share with us: George Bush is neither terribly bright nor insightful. Here's how the senator described his discussions with the president regarding Iraq.

I just felt a little bit underwhelmed by our discussions, the complexity of them, the depth of them.

Bush is probably a nice man. He's probably a well-meaning man. But one lesson we should take away from the Bush presidency is that choosing a president is not akin to selecting a homecoming king (or queen). Qualities like amiability and aw-shucks humility are great attributes, but they shouldn't take primacy over things like intelligence, curiosity, and self-awareness. We apply the same criteria to presidents that we apply to all the other celebrities paraded across our media: they should have nice smiles, they should smell good, and they should be kind to children or small animals. I will gladly elect the smug know-it-all with the rank body odor as long as I'm convinced that this person shares my priorities for this country and possesses the skill to make the bargains that will get things done. I don't necessarily need to like my president as a person.

The president represents the common people, but that doesn't mean the president should be common. We elected a common man for president and have paid the price.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2007

Grazie

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I just returned from my sister's place and I'm probably going to make a midnight snack of the pumpkin pie she gave me. As always, I'm grateful to all of you who continue to read the blog. I've become a better writer and thinker due in no small part to the obligation I feel to keep things interesting for my readers. Your comments and e-mails mean a great deal to me and I never stop feeling fortunate to have a regular audience for my assorted musings.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2007

Comeback

I've been neglecting my BBC blogging duties, so I just posted an entry in which I poke fun at a representative of the mainstream media. Regular blogging will resume here tomorrow.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2007

Feeling Left Out

I caught Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, on Charlie Rose last night (in the wake of the writers' strike, Rose has replaced my nightly dose of Letterman before bed). He was pitching Kindle, Amazon's new e-book reader. The device has received mixed reviews in the gadget press, but one thing keeps bugging me. People with disabilities are a natural consumer market for e-book readers, but Amazon and other hardware manufacturers have shown zero interest in even exploring the needs of readers with disabilities. I recognize that these companies are in business to make a profit and I'm not expecting them to cater to a niche population, but I don't think I'm asking for the moon, either. Lots of really brilliant people are working on these readers and I'm fairly certain they can figure out how to include switch access, voice recognition, or text-to-speech capabilities. And, as with most accessible technologies, the average consumer might find them useful as well.

Sooner or later, a reading device will come along that has universal design elements built into it and I'll eagerly give that company my hard-earned cash. The wait is getting frustrating, though.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:52 PM | Comments (1)

November 19, 2007

Academic Matters

Today's edition of All Things Considered features an interview with Dan Habib, the creator of a documentary about his son Samuel, who has cerebral palsy. I blogged about Samuel a few weeks ago. The host followed up that story with another piece discussing the inclusion of kids with disabilities in our public schools. To summarize the facts from the story, only half of all kids with disabilities are fully included in "regular" classrooms and only eleven percent of kids with intellectual disabilities are included in regular classrooms. As with so many aspects of a kid's life with a disability, geography plays a critical role. Some states and school districts do a substantially better job of promoting inclusion than others. And yes, I was a beneficiary of the inclusion philosophy during most of my years in school.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:54 PM | Comments (1)

November 18, 2007

Pageantry

A Norwegian artist has founded a beauty contest for women who have lost limbs to landmines. The contest, known as Miss Landmine Angola 2008, champions itself as a vehicle for "female" and "disabled" pride and empowerment. The concept strikes me as gimmicky and vaguely exploitative, but that could just be me. There must be ways to bring the consequences of landmine deployment to the public's attention that aren't quite so cheesy.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the tip.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

Critic At Large: Beowulf

The sight of Angelina Jolie's curvaceous and digitized naked form emerging from a murky pool will probably never rival other touchstones of geek iconography like, say, Princess Leia in her golden bikini. But you can bet your entire collection of action figures that that particular scene from Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis' retelling of the the old-school epic poem, will be replayed frame-by-frame on the DVD players of adolescent boys (and probably a substantial number of girls) for years to come.

As a story, the film works just fine. Screenwriter Neil Gaiman has taken a few liberties with the original, but it's still a satisfying tale of a flawed hero batting demons both literal and metaphorical. As an example of motion-capture technology's ability to mimic real-life actors, the film is less successful. The uncanny valley effect here is perhaps less noticeable than in previous films of this type, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a very long cutscene from a video game. I have no doubt that digitally-rendered human actors (a different breed than the Gollums and anthropomorphized bees of the cinematic world) will eventually achieve the realism filmmakers are seeking, but Beowulf reminds us that we're not quite there yet.

However, the technology is quite capable of giving realism to Angelina Jolie's ass. My goodness.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:20 PM | Comments (3)

November 16, 2007

The View From Above

It's Friday night. You've had a long week. To help you keep things in perspective, here's a high-definition picture of the Earth taken by a Japanese satellite orbiting the Moon.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

The Unlikely Steward

I don't agree with Governor Pawlenty's positions on a range of issues, but he deserves credit for pushing policies that safeguard the environment. Earlier this year, he signed landmark legislation that will require Minnesota to produce 25% of its energy from renewable resources by 2025. Today, he and eight other Midwestern governors signed a pact to create a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The states' respective legislatures will still need to give the plan their imprimatur, but this agreement represents a significant first step towards an eventual nationwide strategy for reducing emissions. I'm not sure what influenced Pawlenty to resist the environmental rape-and-pillage mentality of his party, but I'm happy to see him offer some real leadership on the matter.

Now, if only he'd buck up and pass a gas tax increase so that we can fix our roads, bridges, and build ourselves a real transit system.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:44 PM | Comments (1)

November 14, 2007

Mind Reader

The BBC reports that scientists are able to interpret the speech signals in the brain of a paralyzed man who is unable to speak. This could eventually lead to assistive communication devices that can be controlled via thought. It could also lead to devices that can expose your private thoughts for the whole world to laugh at, but let's try to stay positive about these things.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Fantastic Voyages

While I was putting together the links for yesterday's post on homeless veterans, I stumbled across another NPR story offering a survey of must-read books of the science fiction and fantasy persuasions. Nancy Pearl, the Seattle librarian who serves as NPR's resident book reviewer, claims that she isn't a "fanatic" for sf/fantasy, but the title she chooses to highlight reveal a connoisseur's appreciation for the two genres. Pearl earns my instant respect with her inclusion of Gateway and and The Forever War, two books for which I've held a deep fondness since I read them in college. And her praise of The Name of the Wind is sufficiently intriguing for me to add the book to my Amazon wishlist. She also lavishes praise on Cryptonomicon, a doorstop of a book that has been sitting on my shelf for the better part of a decade and one that I really should get around to in the near future.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2007

Support The Troops

A recent study indicates that one in four homeless Americans are veterans [PDF file]. NPR is running a series of stories about the plight of homeless veterans, including oral profiles of several vets who are or were homeless. As another commentator notes, many veterans come from disadvantaged backgrounds and are thus more likely to experience homelessness at some point in their lives. The military provides one of the few opportunities for young men and women from economically depressed regions to build a future for themselves. Veterans' disproportionately high representation in the ranks of the homeless is stark evidence of our collective failure to support our military personnel when they re-enter civilian life. We excel at providing lip service to the patriotism of those who choose military service, but we're even better at ignoring them once their service is complete.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2007

From The Peanut Gallery

To the person who submitted the comment with the 5,000+ word count: if you expect me to read your rather creepy head-scratcher of a screed, don't use this as your introduction:

You are all disfavored.  You may have been evil/preditory [sic] in your last life and this disability is how they are punishing you.

Remember the first rule of good writing: know your audience. So it's off to the killfile with you.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:59 PM | Comments (2)

November 10, 2007

Convicts & Canines

Most of you probably won't read this until Sunday, so I decided to give you some comfort reading to go with your coffee and pancakes: a story about the redemptive power of puppies. If you read the article without getting even a little misty, you're a cold, inhuman bastard who should keep far away from children and small animals. Thanks to the invaluable Metafilter for the link.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2007

Self-Service

My van wouldn't start this morning. Since nobody was on hand to give us a jump, my nurse and I decided to throw caution to the wind and hook up the jumper cables to my ventilator battery. And to our mild surprise, the van started right up. Don't try this at home, kids. I think I'm going to start roaming the streets and parking ramps of downtown Minneapolis in my free time, jumping stalled cars for fifty bucks a pop. I'm going to need the extra cash to pay off the hefty car repair bill I incurred later in the day. After the van wouldn't start for a second time, I discovered that it needs a new battery and a new water pump; a rather expensive start to my three-day weekend.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

Life Imitates Art

In a recent ER episode, a teenage kid with a degenerative neuromuscular condition is brought in to the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. The doctors prepare to put him on a ventilator, but the kid refuses, stating that he doesn't want to live the rest of his life dependent on a machine. The kid persuades one of the docs to support his decision and the kid dies.

When it came time for me to be put on a vent, I was in similar dire straits: deathly ill with pneumonia and semiconscious because of the elevated CO2 in my bloodstream. I remember a team of doctors filing into my hospital room and matter-of-factly informing me and my mom that I needed to be intubated. I remember freaking out and starting to cry, but I must've blacked out because the next thing I knew, I was in the ICU with a tube down my throat.

In the couple years leading up to that day, my hometown pediatrician tried repeatedly to have a conversation with me about what life with a ventilator might be like, but I kept blowing him off because I didn't want to think about it. Looking back, the transition might have been a little easier if I'd known what to expect. And I probably would have still chosen the ventilator under less urgent circumstances. Even at thirteen, I was fairly certain I didn't believe in God and I wasn't ready for nothingness.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:09 PM | Comments (2)

November 07, 2007

Strange Bedfellows

I'm trying to puzzle out Pat Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani. This is the same Pat Robertson who gave a resounding hallelujah to Jerry Falwell's assertion that abortionists and gays were partly to blame for the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Perhaps this is consistent with the win-at-all-costs mentality that is permeating the GOP. The very real possibility of a Clinton presidency probably gives Robertson heart palpitations and he finds Giuliani's authoritarian tendencies comforting. But it's interesting to see how quickly family values are sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2007

Special Treatment

At The Washington Post's On Balance blog, a father writes about Samuel, his seven-year-old son with cerebral palsy. He writes this about parenting a child with a disability:

My experience is that parents of children with disabilities face a
different balancing act. One big struggle is balancing time spent
supporting a child with a disability vs. the family's other child(ren).
Others include marshaling the time, energy and financial resources
needed to manage a child's medical care and therapy, and the scarce
resources left for yourself, your relationship with your spouse, and
your work.

I think about my own family and how the gravity well of my disability shaped and tempered our dynamics. I consumed a lot of of my parents' time and energy, especially during those years when it seemed like I was getting sick every other week. And my siblings sometimes had to assume the role of caregiver or personal assistant, particularly my brother. We used to play computer games that I didn't have the dexterity to play independently (oh, Wing Commander II, how I miss your awesomeness). And when I wanted to play and he didn't, my petulant rages would eclipse anything that any of those whiners My Super Sweet Sixteen could muster.

I have good, close relationships with my parents and siblings, in large part because I learned that I am not, in fact, the center of the universe. Now, when I see other families coddling or kowtowing to their kids with disabilities, I wince a little bit. We may look innocent, but many of us have an almost preternatural ability to bend minds to our will.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)

November 05, 2007

First-Hand Account

I received an interesting e-mail from a friend who attended a lecture on disability studies. The scholar delivering the lecture commented that one of current trends in disability studies is the historical analyses of the lives of people with disabilities. Researchers are searching for diaries and other documents that might provide insight into the daily existences of people with disabilities in decades and centuries past. And that got me thinking about blogs and their potential value as primary sources for future generations of scholars. The abundance of disability blogs could serve as a treasure trove of information on the lives of people with disabilities in the early twenty-first century. To be sure, blogs alone would not provide a complete picture of the disability experience at this point in history. A substantial number of people with disabilities lack Internet access and it would be both arrogant and foolish to think that bloggers are representative of the larger disability community.

Still, blogs have intrinsic historical value and I'd suggest that it might be worth some enterprising grad student's time to start creating an archive of disability blogs. It would be a shame to lose a lot of the content out there simply because the author stopped maintaining his or her site. Quick, somebody write a grant proposal.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:58 PM | Comments (1)

November 04, 2007

Street Justice

As I was walking home from a movie last night (American Gangsters: decent but not spectacular), I noticed several red-clad Guardian Angels riding a city bus. The last time I checked, this isn't New York City circa 1986. A couple of them wore wraparound sunglasses; they looked like extras from a direct-to-video movie. Is the Metro Transit system really that unsafe as to invite the presence of a group that I thought has been inactive since the early days of grunge? Or am I completely oblivious to the present dangers of life in the city?

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:11 PM | Comments (1)

November 03, 2007

Godspeed, Ensign

Star Trek geeks: rejoice. You will soon be able to declare your fanboy/fangirl status from beyond the grave. A company called Eternal Image is offering Trek-themed caskets and urns to house your mortal remains once you've beamed up from this mortal coil. The casket looks comfy, but you probably won't get to be shot out of a photon torpedo tube onto the Genesis planet where you'll be miraculously rejuvenated. The urn looks like some cheap trinket from the MoMA catalog.

As for me, this kind of stuff is a little too crass for my taste. Sure, I like to get my Trek on, but I don't want to be stuck on the ground or placed on a shelf encased in a pop culture artifact. Just hire a cadre of beautiful fishnet-stockinged women to dump my ashes in the the Seine and I'll be happy.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2007

Going Dark

I'm trying to prepare myself for the imminent loss of fresh Daily Show and Colbert Report material as a result of the looming writers' strike. Other sources of satire will have to do; maybe it's time to become a regular reader of The Onion again. And perhaps the loss of scripted television might compel me to get through my geometrically expanding reading pile. As a fellow union worker, my sympathies are with the writers. If I must go without new eps of The Office in order to ensure that my working brothers and sisters get what's owed them, then that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2007

Creative Process

Today marks the start of National Novel Writing Month. I don't think I'm ready to acknowledge the awesome suckage of my last attempt at long-form fiction, so I won't be participating. But don't let me discourage you from trying.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)