June 30, 2008
Unintended Consequences
The Olympics are approaching and, once those are complete, the Paralympics will follow. The NY Times reports that Iraq, unable to field much of an Olympic team because of the ongoing violence in the country, will send a sizeable delegation to the Paralympics. Many of the Iraqi Paralympians became disabled in the same epidemic of violence that has shattered the country's Olympic hopes. One wheelchair fencing coach notes that Iraqi Paralympic team is better than its Olympic team.
The article notes that most of these athletes were street beggars before joining the team, underscoring the fact that Iraq continues to present an overwhelmingly hostile environment for its citizens with disabilities. And once the Paralympics are over, there's a good chance that many of them will be forced to return to that life.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2008
Celebrity Tracking
Lots of familiar faces are resurfacing on other parts of the web this weekend. Yesterday, it was Mike Phillips. Today,I see that Minnesota Public Radio is running a story about Christopher Harmon. I blogged about Christopher last year after he appeared in a City Pages feature article. Christopher is a local writer with various disabilities who's now working on turning one of his screenplays into a film.
We need more people with disabilities appearing regularly in the media, if for no other reason than it would allow me to set up a separate blog that dishes on who they're sleeping with and which ones are charged with assaulting their attendants. I could be the Perez Hilton of the gimp world. Well, except for the whole being gay thing.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2008
The Reading Life
I was just scanning Ominivoracious, Amazon's books blog, when I noticed that one of the entries contained an interview with Mike Phillips. Some of you might remember my previous entry about Mike and his appearance on This American Life. In the Amazon interview, Mike talks about his wish that more books would be released in accessible electronic formats. He also discusses his tastes in books. We seem to share a fondness for the darker side of the fiction spectrum and in particular for George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice fantasy series (that next volume can't come out soon enough). He also heaps praise on Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I feel like I'm one of a handful of people in the country who didn't care for that book.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2008
Come To The Dark Side
My friend Matt and I took this afternoon off to check out the Star Wars exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum, where we both proceeded to geek out on an epic scale. And I have the pictures to prove it. 
Me getting schooled by Yoda.
I wonder if C-3PO is available for private duty nursing. 
Lord Vader doesn't like having his picture taken, which is why he used his dark powers to make the camera shake.
And I've been meaning to tell you about this other part-time gig I started. 
I was trying to look all badass, but instead I look like the galaxy's most befuddled Sith apprentice ever.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:49 PM | Comments (1)
June 26, 2008
Long Odds
A new Quinnipiac Poll shows that Obama has a commanding 17-point lead over McCain in Minnesota. If McCain is still giving serious thought to picking Pawlenty as his running mate, these numbers might give him pause. The race's dynamics will need to dramatically shift to make Minnesota competitive for McCain. Pawlenty still has much to offer as a potential veep choice. He's young, politically savvy, photogenic, and he can probably teach McCain how to play solitaire on some aide's laptop. But our governor doesn't have the mojo to single-handedly turn his home state into a battleground come this fall.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2008
Forgotten Wars
I was catching up on some of my TiVo'd Daily Shows and I watched John Stewart's great interview with journalist Lara Logan. She's clearly frustrated with the tone of most American news coverage and especially with the near total lack of coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's difficult to find fault with her argument. Over 50 Iraqis died in a horrific bombing last week and the major networks did little more than mention it in passing.
My only beef with the interview is that Logan is bleeped out as she cheerily recounts how she greeted a group of American soldiers with "What's up, motherfuckers!"
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Red Light District
I just received this postcard from a friend who is visiting Amsterdam: 
I love the contrast between the cute tulips logo on the bottom of the postcard and the seductive poses of the women in the windows. Once again, I find myself jealous of my wheelchair and its overnight stay in the city.
Thanks, Rosie.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:51 PM | Comments (1)
June 23, 2008
Scenic View
I've been going for lots of walks lately and today I discovered a place that had somehow completely escaped my attention until now. In the St. Anthony neighborhood, there's a path that leads to Water Power Park. This completely accessible park offers magnificent views of St. Anthony Falls and, in the background, downtown Minneapolis. I didn't have my camera with me, but someone else was good enough to post a brief video of the falls on YouTube. However, it doesn't include the impressive roar of the rushing water.
My neighborhood is pretty cool, no?
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:04 PM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2008
Going Dark
Theatre de la Jeune Lune, one of Minneapolis' most respected regional theater companies, has announced that it's shutting down and selling its Warehouse District building to pay off creditors. It's a significant blow to the area arts scene. Jeune Lune had a reputation for producing bold, unconventional works that challenged audiences without intimidating them. I'm now kicking myself for not patronizing it more frequently. I really must make more of an effort to check out the smaller theaters around here that aren't named "Guthrie".
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2008
Drowsy
Here's something I learned last night. Even if one has good intentions and tries to get some writing done after midnight, one isn't going to accomplish much if one keeps falling asleep in front of his computer screen. And every time I began to doze off, my ventilator would start alarming, jolting me awake. I need to somehow program it to distinguish between "My master's tube is disconnected and I must call for help!" and "My master is sleeping with his mouth open and is in no immediate danger."
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2008
World Views
Summer has finally arrived in Minneapolis. I'm looking out my window at a cloudless evening sky, all pale blues and soft golds. A friend of mine is throwing a solstice party tomorrow and I'm trying to figure out how to gently tell my nurse that she can wait in the van once the naked dancing around the bonfire begins.
And if you're looking for something to cleanse your palate after visiting my scruffy corner of the Web, check out The Big Picture. It features gorgeous photography based on the news of the day.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2008
Enforcement Action
The Justice Department has published proposed rules that update the access standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new rules address the number of disability seats in theaters, access to auditorium stages, definitions of service animals (monkeys need not apply), the proper placement of light switches in hotel rooms, and much more. The Chamber of Commerce is not a big fan of these rules, arguing that they impose costly burdens on businesses. But opponents of these rules miss a larger point. The business community has had a decade and a half to comply with both the letter and spirit of the ADA, but their collective foot-dragging and apathy has forced the feds' hand. While the new rules might seem ponderous to some, they represent a concerted effort to compel both businesses and local governments to get serious about accessibility.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2008
A Difference Of Opinions
Kids, if you want an interesting career that will make you the life of any dinner party, get an advanced degree in bioethics. Everyone will want your opinion on news stories like the one about a Canadian physician who is refusing to treat an 84-year-old man in the intensive care unit. The physician is defying a court order to continue treating the man, claiming that any intervention would constitute a breach of his oath to do no harm.
The tension between courts and physicians in end-of-life decisions is something I find interesting. We rely on physicians' expertise and judgment when deciding on courses of treatment. But we give a court of law the ability to substitute its judgment when the physician makes a decision contrary to the family's wishes, especially when that decision might lead to the patient's death. We're comfortable when physicians take measures to prolong life, but everyone lawyers up when the physician and family disagree about the futility of treatment. It begs the question of how much deference we are really willing to give physicians.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:05 PM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2008
The New New Thing
Attention nerds: the final version of the Firefox 3 browser is now available for download. I've been test-driving it for the last hour and I'm impressed with what I see. Page-loading is noticeably punchier and the address bar (or the "Awesome Bar", as some are calling it) is now much more useful; it does a pretty good job of predicting where you want to go based on what you've typed. Most of my extensions seem to be working (I can't live without ScribeFire) and everything seems quite polished. If you want to be like the rest of the kool kids, download it now.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2008
Vulnerable Adult
Earlier today, one of my nurses asked me if I had instructions in my living will regarding life-saving measures. I told him that that there were no specific instructions and that I'd appreciate any efforts to revive me. He paused and then asked me, "Can I have your iPod if something happens to you?"
He knows something; I can tell. After years of suffering under my petty tyranny, my nurses are planning their long-overdue uprising. I'm sleeping with one eye open from now on.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:38 PM | Comments (2)
June 15, 2008
Overheard
Yesterday, I was walking home from a movie with a friend when we passed a middle-aged couple having a smoke on the sidewalk. The woman gives me a startled look and turns to her companion. "Man, count your fuckin' blessings," she said.
Mark Siegel: making perfect strangers feel better about their circumstances since 1973.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)
June 14, 2008
Dare To Dream
This quote from a recent JK Rowling commencement speech at Harvard is lovely:
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
The world would probably be a better place if we tended the gardens of our imaginations a little more frequently. But as Rowling said, our capacity to imagine is also one of our saving graces. Our imaginations give us glimpses into the foggy realm of the possible, even while our more rational selves fold their arms and shake their heads disapprovingly.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:52 PM | Comments (1)
June 13, 2008
Step Right Up
A freak show is coming to Minnesota, featuring a woman with one leg and a little person who eats broken glass. Amateurs. Put me on a stage with a blender, a bowl of live cockroaches, and my feeding tube. That ought to sell some tickets.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:03 PM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2008
Grammarian
My deadline for reporting my continuing education compliance is coming up fast and I'm still short on credits, so yesterday found me at a day-long seminar on improving one's legal writing. Even though I fancy myself a better-than-average writer, the class did point out some gaps in my knowledge. Like the proper usage of that versus which in sentence clauses. How could I have not known that that is used in restrictive clauses and which is used in nonrestrictive clauses? I mean, it's so obvious. Observe:
The CLE that I attended yesterday was mildly interesting and somewhat overpriced.
The CLE, which was mildly interesting, was somewhat overpriced.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:52 PM | Comments (1)
June 11, 2008
Playing Make-Believe
Reality television is gimmicky. I get that. It's entertainment and depicts a distorted, artificial reality that doesn't exist in the world that you and I inhabit. Still, the gimmickry can be overdone at times. 30 Days is a documentary series that profiles various people in month-long experiments that might have been dreamt up by a slightly daft social studies teacher. Past episodes have featured scenarios like a staunch immigration opponent being sent to live with an undocumented family and a computer programmer whose job was outsourced sent to live with a family in India. Lessons are supposed to be learned and eyes are supposed to be opened.
Last night's episode featured an ex-NFL player who agreed to use a wheelchair for thirty days. The cameras followed him around as he struggled to maneuver through his palatial but minimally accessible house, competed with a wheelchair rugby team, and met with people in a rehab hospital who had experienced spinal cord injuries. The whole thing seemed silly to me. A television audience isn't going to learn much about living with a physical disability by watching a wealthy, able-bodied athlete get around in a wheelchair for a few weeks. In fact, the episode came close to portraying the wheelchair as the sum total of the disability experience.
I'm probably expecting too much of a television show, but the episode's tone left me frustrated and depressed. Its superficial voyeurism did little to give viewers any real insight into the lives of people with disabilities. The producers could have chosen a more interesting route and focused on someone with an actual disability who goes to live with, I don't know, just about any family in America that's clueless about disability; it's not like they're in short supply. Instead, we get this tripe that probably had most viewers think, "Holy crap, glad I'm not a gimp."
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:26 PM | Comments (2)
June 10, 2008
Prey
This is both strange and disturbing: in Tanzania, people with albinism are being hunted and killed for their body parts, which are believed to possess magical properties. The practitioners of this particular variety of the black arts don't seem too interested in hearing their victims' opinions on the matter.
Just so we're clear, none of my body parts should be used as good luck charms or ingredients in love potions. You'll be sorely disappointed in their effectiveness.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:40 PM | Comments (2)
June 09, 2008
Self-Medicating
I haven't been a fan of the writing-as-therapy model. Writing about one's feelings and experiences as a way to work stuff out has long struck me as self-indulgent and narcissistic. But perhaps I'm too harsh a critic of people's motivations for writing, especially in light of studies that show that expressive writing--including blogging--leads to better health.
I still have a tendency to roll my eyes when I come across writing that seems overly confessional or breathless. I like my blogging to show some restraint, thank you very much. That said, I can't deny that I receive some therapeutic benefits from writing and keeping this blog. Not long ago, a friend rightly pointed out that underneath my charming exterior lies a pretty melancholy person. Actually, she might not have used the word "charming", but that's beside the point. I'm not melancholy to the point where I dress in black every day and sprinkle my speech with quotes from nineteenth-century poets, but I do live inside my head and there's lots of shadowy nooks and crannies in here. Writing for an audience (however small) is how I get perspective. It's my way of letting in the sun.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:01 PM | Comments (1)
June 08, 2008
The Shape Of Things To Come
Futurist Ray Kurzweil has glimpsed into his crystal ball and, if he's to be believed, the twenty-first century might not be as grim as we fear. Here are some of the things he foresees:
- Within 5 years the exponential progress in nanoengineering will make Solar power cost-competitive with fossil fuels.
- In 15 years, life expectancies will start rising faster than we age.
- In about 20 years 100% of our energy will come from clean and
renewable sources, and a computer will pass the Turing Test by carrying
on a conversation that is indistinguishable from a human’s.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:06 PM | Comments (4)
June 07, 2008
Great DJ
Having these songs on your iPod might make you almost as cool as me:
"In the City" by Chromatics: Hypnotic, synth-driven pop that you want playing in your car as you drive home from a party late at night, sleepy and maybe a little stoned. I have no idea what the lead singer is going on about when she sings of "shining violence, shining victim", but I don't really care.
"With Every Heartbeat" by Robyn: A Swedish artist with a knack for crafting pop songs that don't make adults cringe, Robyn uses strings and drum machines to dramatic effect in this song about a failed relationship that will have you crying on the dancefloor.
"Distant Dreamer" by Duffy: Rounding out today's set is this bit of power pop from another British artist fond of that classic diva sound from the era of transistor radios. She demonstrates more of a vocal range and mastery of style than Amy Winehouse, especially in this soaring orchestral track.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:17 PM | Comments (1)
June 06, 2008
Fallen Comrade
This is terrible news. Harriet McBryde Johnson, the well-known attorney, disability rights activist, and writer, passed away at age 50 at her Charleston home. Johnson, who had spinal muscular atrophy, was an early critic of Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. Many of her writings appeared in The New York Times, including a magazine piece about her debate with Princeton philosophy professor Peter Singer. She also wrote a memoir, published in 2005, entitled Too Late to Die Young.
A website dedicated to Johnson's memory can be found here. In the time she had, Johnson lived a rich life, accomplishing much and earning the the love and respect of countless others. We should all be so fortunate.
More about Johnson's life and writings can be found at The Gimp Parade.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:40 PM | Comments (1)
June 05, 2008
Check Me Out
Wow, you can get just about anything at the library these days. Not just the usual stuff like books and DVDs, but actual conversations with fascinating and exotic people. So-called "Living Libraries" give patrons the opportunity to reserve thirty-minute blocks of time with individuals of varying backgrounds; the idea being that face-to-face dialog is sometimes the best way to understand a perspective different than your own. If this concept ever comes to my local library, I'm going to sign up as a volunteer. I'm all kinds of interesting. But I'm going to give everyone this list of bullet points to prevent every conversation from covering the same boring territory:
- No, I'm not in pain.
- No, I was not in an accident.
- No, I won't give you free legal advice.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:48 PM | Comments (1)
June 04, 2008
We Have A Winner
The future is unknowable and anything can happen between now and November. But after watching both Obama's and McCain's respective speeches from last night, I'm thinking the only thing that can keep Obama out of the White House is a zombie uprising or an asteroid smashing into the planet. Obama comes off like a rock star. McCain comes off like the keynote speaker at a Kiwanis banquet.
It's difficult to overstate the significance of Obama's primary victory. He managed to bring down one of the biggest names in modern American politics and he proved that this country is still capable of rising above its own bloody history. Even those of us who knew he was something special back in 2004 are stunned that this moment has actually come to pass.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2008
Center Of Attention
Not long ago, I wrote about the stares I sometimes receive and my reactions to them. Montana-based artist Kevin Connolly, who was born without legs, took a more original tack and turned his camera on the gawkers ogling him in all corners of the globe. The photos capture people expressing varying degrees of curiosity as they check out Connolly. They really aren't much different from the people staring at me. The human brain seems to be hardwired to respond to the novel and that's why I have to wonder, if my own circumstances were different, whether I could be one of the people in these photos.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:34 PM | Comments (1)
June 02, 2008
Past Is Prologue
I was in a retrospective mood last night, which led me to take a look at my old journal. Covering an eleven-year time span from 1992 to 2003, it's everything you would expect from the journal of the twentysomething version of me. Self-indulgent, overly dramatic, and occasionally perceptive. I'm struck by how much time the younger me spent worrying about so many things: finding a job, not having enough friends, whether this girl might actually like me. I had a tendency to write many of those journal entries late at night, which probably explains why I come off sounding so emo. And the writing itself is...not good. I recognize it as mine, but it isn't anything I'd want to include in a portfolio.
But my younger self was right about a few things. He was pretty sure it wasn't impossible for him to see Paris. He was determined to live on his own someday. And he understood that he needs to keep writing because it's the only thing that helps him make sense of everything.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:39 PM | Comments (1)
June 01, 2008
Irradiated
We've had a long winter and a cool spring here in Minnesota, which makes it easy to forget about the hazards that come with warmer weather. I was sitting outside with a friend at a nearby restaurant when my friend peered at me over her sunglasses. "You did put sunscreen on, didn't you? You're starting to turn a little pink." Of course, I waved off her concerns. After all, I have a reputation as the toughest cripple on the block to maintain.
But as I'm sitting here at my desk, I'm feeling like I was left in the microwave for too long. Put a little steak sauce on me and I'd make a nice appetizer. I wouldn't call it heat stroke. I'd call it lightly broasted.
On a completely unrelated note, I saw my first funnel cloud yesterday. It drifted through the southern end of downtown and I watched its progress from my window until it faded away.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)