For Sara with no H

For Sara when physics definitely was not on her side.

Holly Near It could have been me but instead it was you

Worship and Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

RantWoman! We send you off and even get you to North Seattle Friends on glorious much more frequent than in the past bus service. We get you across the street with a new traffic signal and modern crosswalk.  We fill our worship with praise and hymns, okay with the words projected on big screen (sigh), but still.... We perform laying on of hands for someone with a kidney stone. There are powerful messages about Truth and Love and spiritual work in Russia and you come home for THIS? The Mormon tabernacle choir? Really? Isn't Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing enough solo?




Yep, RantWoman digs the whole choir. But RantWoman is not messing around getting wrapped in the music and held in the words, either the ones in the video or the cool ones projected for North Seattle Friends. No sirrrree. Spiritual inspiration is spiritual inspiration but RantWoman is really interested in:

Looking for gender balance in the bassoon section and the string bass section?

counting people with glasses? The percentage of men in glasses looks higher than the percentage of women in glasses. Still, RantWoman thinks a lot of people must either be wearing contacts or performing without their glasses. And RantWoman gets to be grateful for screen matgnification and up close so she can even see whether or not the performers are wearing glasses.

Bless us Lord for this is the RantWoman raw material we are working with.

What People Want for Christmas with JAWS, Chromie, and Talkback?

RantWoman would find it kind of easy just to lounge in a post-Thanksgiving turkey and carbohydrate fog, but RantWoman is called to attend to requests she has opted to hear as "Things people want for Christmas," including "RantWoman please tell us what YOU want for Christmas."

RantWoman sometimes takes on daily blog post marathons. This year there is a LONG time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Epiphany. RantWoman does not know whether she will manage daily posts, but she realizes she has plenty of material to spill back and forth over both her blogs. So fasten your seatbelts. Strap on your skis. Find the Chair lift. Pick the transportation pathway of choice and come along. MAYBE along the way Santa Claus will drop off some gifts.

RantWoman recently heard what she interpreted as a request for MORE blindness tourism. Actually there were two elements: encouragement to RantWoman to share more of the I didn't tell you about my day moments that usually make RantWoman REALLY glad for distractions, and a big thank you for RantWoman's whole month of disability awareness item some years back. RantWoman did not particularly hear a request for mind-numbing technological ups and downs. Tough! Those come with the territory. Over time progress DOES occur about some technological vexations. RantWoman also from time to time shares breadcrumbs along her path toward coping strategies, but  if RantWoman needs to go off on what seems like a tangent, just think of fractals, bear with the expansion and see if you can find your way back to the thread you think you are following.

Fractals, RantWoman?

Use your search bar. There is a post either on this blog or on Adventures of RantWoman that should explain the metaphor. RantWoman probably needs to know if it does not.

Back to Blindness Tourism. RantWoman appreciates the Thank you. RantWoman would not have minded hearing it A LOT sooner, like maybe right after the then Clerk of Worship and Ministry proclaimed no interest even in reading RantWoman's posts. Then W&M Clerk did earn a RantWoman lecture about various topics. Enough said for now though there is something to season in the flow, besides data point number n of a long series about why RantWoman is hyper reactive to anything that comes across as erasure, wish RantWoman would disappear, go away, just leave people alone about stuff she never gets a vacation from.

RantWoman, you are starting to froth at the keyboard....

Froth? Could we just make it a beer? Oh, wait... Surfing! That's the metaphor.

RantWoman, it's NOVEMBER. NOT surfing weather around here.

ummm, surfing the internet with different browsers and screen readers... One of the screen readers I even called JAWS. Can we do that?

Anyway, today's I Didn't Tell You About my day" moment: RantWoman is trying to read this article talking about homelessness and programs in various parts of the region.

Kitsap Sun article about homelessness
The article is in the Kitsap Sun, published in Bremerton, to the west across the Puget Sound from Seattle. The article mentions a tent city in Bellevue, across lake Washington to the east of Seattle. So there is room to argue about what it does or does not have to do with the life of RantWoman's Meeting. RantWoman has decreed that  topic too much of a digression and worthy of its own blog post(s).

RantWoman is not being very attentive, but her screen reader for whatever reason is not delivering things that make much sense and is delivering a bunch of numbers which RantWoman MIGHT be able to eliminate by adjusting some Windows screen reader software settings. RantWoman is not going to try that today. RantWoman will make a mental note maybe to post to a  blindness list and see whether people who probably read the Kitsap Sun site more often than RantWoman does have any tips.

Nor is RantWoman going to see if Chromie the gender-ambiguous Chromebook and the Chrome browser and Cromevox will do any better. RantWoman DOES mean / intend to watch some more Chromevox training videos one of these days. For one thing, RantWoman deliberately bought a Chromebook with a comparatively large screen. RantWoman deliberately ignored reviews about issues with screen brightness. RantWoman took into consideration advice from Google test administrators she sometimes consumes alcohol with not to have unrealistic expectations. But RantWoman really does need to bite the bullet about less reliance on visual info even if it means lots of email to Google on top of "whole different file system," figuring out how to use Android apps and download files...."

RantWoman did not even try on her phone partly because of some links not working issue she has not tracked down and that did not get fixed automatically with the last exciting round of updates. Speaking of updates, and expertise, and help that is or is not help, a final note: rantWoman was recently at a meeting with somewhat younger blind self-taught Technology Whiz. RantWoman was complaining about issues after she just updated her phone to Android Oreo. Self-Taught Whiz asked if he could take a look. Self-taught whiz has his own phone voice set even faster than RantWoman whose phone voice is much faster than another Android user who also needed help just turning TalkBack the Android screen reader on and off.

Self-taught whiz wanted to install an app that is supposed to help about some accessibility issues. RantWoman said okayyyy. The app seems to help somewhat but Self-Taught Whiz set up a bunch of settings RantWoman did not like so she finally just turned the app off for now. RantWoman does bless Self-Taught whiz though for showing RantWoman enough about bulk updates through the Playstore that RantWoman was able to figure out and repeat it on her own.


Oh, and RantWoman and Self-Taught Whiz BOTH talked to another person's phone. RantWoman is not sure it's a great idea for one person's phone to respond to "Ok Google..." from multiple other voices, but RantWoman has decided she is not going to fret too much about that for now.

Anyway, there. Is that the kind of tourism readers had in mind? The tour guide is a little eccentric  and customer service with snarl or smile is a little unpredictable but RantWoman means it: PLEASE ask questions.

Arlo Guthrie "Coming Into Los Angeles" Even better than Alice's Restaurant

Bad Friend Material on multiple counts including references to surveillance, technology,  substance abuse, inspiration, and revelation mixed in with sometimes prickly narrative

RantWoman always needs a laugh and is very grateful this item has surfaced in her info streams.





Trust RantWoman on this: the rest of this will make more sense if you have actually watched the video.

By contrast with Arlo's narrative, RantWoman's day was a little more pedestrian:

Prickly narrative of two forms:
--more than one couple sharing spousal moments

--A message in worship about Roses with thorns and thorns that come with roses. Friends offered remembrances of a recently deceased Friend, a Friend about whom others feel fond and RantWoman also, despite care,  has MANY stories of prickly and downright wounding moments.

Mind-altering substances other than coffee? Nope.

Likelihood of  olfactory detection of specific categories of things being transported: the rantWoman did not need some guy standing on a runway detecting contraband by smell. Whether or not one things roasted Brussels sprouts SHOULD be contraband, somehow around the rantWomen they were hard to miss and RantWoman appreciates that this may not have delighted other bus passengers

Transportation: No jet planes with or without multiple searches: the King County Metro chauffeured limousine service with RantWoman as navigator to cut down the distance RantMom needed to walk compared to RantWoman's favorite last 1/2 mile from bus stop to door. See what RantWoman means about pedestrian?

Now if only RantWoman had a guitar track and someone to help herd her flurry of musings into at least slightly better coherence...

Our fight for disability rights and why we're not done yet | Judith Heum...

Beyond Disability Rights; Disability Justice: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samar...

RantWoman likes this video VERY much. RantWoman is also finding herself in the same weird space she was when she decided that comparing herself to various Wonder Blind Person people she knows was unhelpful. Possibly RantWoman still has to figure out things she thought she had figured out. Sigh

Roy Moore Was Banned From A Mall And YMCA

WARNING: Humor about way disgusting topics.

The Lord Works in mysterious ways

Line of the Night: "...putting the CHRIST back in Christmas..."

Al Franken Faces Groping Accusations & Roy Moore Stays on Defense: The D...

RantWoman admits to being wary of offering opinions about big events based only on short YouTube clips. RantWoman is wary but not deterred.

Did Al Franken or did he not fully apologize. The apology here is orders of magnitude different from other Deny Deny Deny. But ya know saying the target of your groping "misinterpreted" your intentions is BS! You do not get to define how she experienced it. She does.

RantWOMAN, um, your own...Seasoning?

Yeah. Seasoning.

Many Shitty First Draft Moments: sex abuse prevention training and document format circus.

Bless us oh Lord and Please hold this entire circus in the Light. RantWoman means it about Hold in the Light. RantWoman CANNOT deal with the fiascoes here alone; RantWoman has faith that publicly holding in the Light will find needed paths.

RantWoman, your whole community--including you--is traumatized by recent doings in Meeting for Business and you are writing about document formats.

Yep! and there are MANY strands of confusion. So be forewarned: this entry IS complex and RantWoman reserves the right to join everyone else who  loses it in conversation, tell others just to read the post, write down questions, and THEN talk to RantWoman.

Let's start with the 3 documents on RantWoman's mind.

--Two one-page handouts from the most recent Sex abuse education event at RantWoman's Meeting

--A notebook in the Meeting library full of pamphlets and handouts about a number of topics related to abuse and domestic violence . At least RantWoman assumes the topics she remembers are still there since RantWoman has not been in a position to do more than put her hands on the notebook in more than a decade.  Has the notebook been checked for updates, question RantWoman was TRYING To communicate years ago....? Even if a lot of contact info may be out of date, should there definitely still be something people can put their hands on in the library? Does RantWoman even care since RantWoman knows plenty of topical search strings and resources and is likely just to use her search bar anyway? PS Someone at the event mentioned a website; RantWoman did not catch the url. Somehow a request to have that url got lost.
PPS For anyone besides RantWoman who might care, REWA.org has downloadable and easy to pring PDF's in a number of languages.

--The report on the Meeting's website 
http://ufmseattle.org/home/reports/

2013 A Quaker Ministry on Sexual Abuse and Interpersonal Violence: An Historical Notebook from University Friends Meeting, Seattle, 2

This 350+ page PDF compiles excerpts of minutes from walking with a specific offender through treatment. In retrospect kind of excruciating reading at several points. Headings help for screen reader and RantWoman definitely recommends reading the table of contents and knowing how to skip to the corresponding pages, but of decidedly limited use if one is looking for resources in a crisis.

Now to today's document format saga.

Blame the technology, or blame the Official Bogeyman of RantWoman's Meeting. Either way, there is WAY too much data and RantWoman should intone a moment from a long ago eldering conversation: if you're in a hole, stop digging. (RantWoman was thinking the same thing in the direction of her counterpart, but  let's just say the thought took time to ripen and mercifully did not tumble out of RantWoman's mouth at the time.

Recently RantWoman's Meeting held its annual sex abuse prevention training session. RantWoman is duly grateful for a presenter who donated her time. RantWoman is grateful for participants new to UFM's ministry who had a lively discussion. There were other moments RantWoman collected data about and will hold in the Light.

Now we come to what Breme Brown calls the shitty first draft SFD interpretation of several data points, the initial frequently wrong first pass analysis  we all do leaping to conclusions never mind how many people might also be around discounting lived experience

Data points. RantWoman goes to public events all the time staffed by people who understand the phrase reasonable accommodations and most of the time when RantWoman remembers to ask, needed documents are forthcoming. RantWoman thinks that would be a minimal courtesy though Rant Woman does not really care to argue the applicability of ADA for religious organizations here except to note that the topic needs more reflection. In any case, RantWoman did not think to request electronic copies of handouts before the event and was peeved after the event to be told that electronic copies were not to be had.

SFD interpretation: RantWoman is a flake who communicates poorly and has unreasonable expectations that people might know her needs without being told.

SFD interpretation: Lots of people know RantWoman is blind and might think to ask for handouts in advance when planning an event.

SFD interpretation: RantWoman has been doing a poor job of educating people about her needs.

SFD interpretation: even if RantWoman had been doing a better job of educating...

Data point: why would RantWoman not think to ask the person organizing the event about electronic copies of handouts? Well for one thing because event organizer acts personally affronted when RantWoman asks her pretty much anything. And for another thing because one of RantWoman's  standard SFD stocks in trade is that if she asks for what she needs the world will fall apart and people around her will explode, and not even in a funny cartoon way.

Sometimes RantWoman HATES collecting data.

2. RantWoman received a copy of the handouts but gave them away thinking it would be reasonable to ask afterward for an electronic copy.

SFD moment: RantWoman was being Dork blind person and failing to use her technology. Ummm, RantWoman does not have the spiffiest OCR phone app. In general RantWoman's experience, app or no app, is that OCR of cellphone camera text images is not by far her favorite technology.path to accessibility.

3. When no electronic copies of the handouts were to be had, RantWoman emailed several of those present and asked whether anyone still had the handouts and could just scan them and route to RantWoman.  In short order RantWoman got back quite usable images from one of the younger participants and RantWoman was able to read the documents sufficiently to read that one of them contained a request not to copy without the presenter's permission, a request that needed commentary in the email about copying for accessibility

In keeping with a promise not to do reply/all more than once in 24 hours, RantWoman did not tell others that she had what she needed. Possibly doing that would have been preferable to learning that another person present had torn the handouts up for scrap paper but was willing to tape them back together if that would help RantWoman. How to say it kindly: taped together images are about as useful as smartphone camera images or maybe less so. Or just say "Thank you," as RantWoman practices many times a day for all kinds of unhelpful help.

SFD interpretation: RantWoman is ungrateful for one person's efforts.

SFD interpretation: no one on Care and Counsel thinks about such handouts as a community resource.

4. Possibly RantWoman should have just quit, but RantWoman asked a question in email about updating the Notebook, meaning the big thing full of resources in the Library. RantWoman expressed the value of lots of people understanding the same resource.

SFD response: For RantWoman's trouble a request was made to someone to scan all the (probably outdated pamphlets in the resource notebook and send them to RantWoman.

NO! That was not anywhere near what  RantWoman had in mind. That would take hours and possibly leave RantWoman with a whole library of documents of varying visual quality needing to be read. Thankfully, RantWoman's NO was heard.

But no, we are NOT done with confusion. In another conversation about Friend Who taped things, someone else asked whether the resource notebook in the library was the thing on the Meeting website. Noooo!

And for still more achievements in the realm of Quakers at their very, very best, one of the conversations about taped together handouts came with a spectacular tirade about how RantWoman is the abuser and abusers are not to be tolerated in the age of Trump.

Please excuse RantWoman. A bunch of pissed off people with
disabilities standing up for themselves and getting themselves
arrested in Congresspeople's offices all over the country is a big
part of what at least for now derailed Trumpcare. So maybe possibly if
RantWoman heard in said conversation any sense of who exactly is directly under attack
needing to stand up for themselves and frankly needing all the help we
can get in the current regime, RantWoman MIGHT also be better able to extract meaning from other threads of the whole day's conversation. MAYBE.

Actually someone's "I'm concerned about YOU" matters and that has to be enough for now.

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY MOM

A very, very HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY to RantMom!!!

Mom!  Mom! Mom!

RantWoman has much more to say but it is not corralled into the right form of festive verbiage--yet.

Hugs and blessings ALWAYS.

Sincerely, RantWoman

(and GIANT thank you's to Little Sister for the picture!)

Day of the Dead with SHARE / WHEEL Day of the living with property value

El Centro De la Raza has a tradition of inviting community organizations to provide ofrendas for exhibirt as part of their Annual Day of the Dead / celebration of Life / excuse to further distribute Halloween sugar event.

 This ofrenda is provided by SHARE / WHEEL. Since 2000 SHARE / WHEEL has been standing vigil every month for homeless people who have died outdoors or by violence. This year's ofrenda contains over 700 stones, each with the name of one of these people.

The total for 2017, so far is 79, 20 in October alone. RantWoman hears statistics about the totals every month and every month, the total has been up from last year. When rantWoman asks the person who presents the info, the person blames "the sweeps," the police practice of "offering services" and then busting up unauthorized homeless camps including anyone who does not get connected with services.

But, says another person on the spectrum of homeless / formerly homeless / in need of and very grateful for secure and very low income housing, some of those people in the unauthorized encampments really ARE terrible neighbors.

Yes, went the conversation, and people in the camps are afraid to call the police on the terrible neighbors because they too will get dislocated in any resulting sweeps.

RantWoman could probably leave the memorial above as is, to speak for itself, but RantWoman famously does not know when to quit.

1. It is City Council budget season. One measure that would help is the HOMES tax, a head tax on the largest employers in the city, thought to be responsible for skyrocketing housing costs. RantWoman urges the City Council to support this.

2. How is our Meeting called to address this? On one hand, escalating real estate values have created great potential windfalls for many members and related to ourcampus itself. On the other hand, skyrocketing housing costs create considerable stress for many in our community and others in our community can find many reasons to dread any further reduction in the supply of very low income housing, to be distressed by displacement and breakup of favorite neighborhoods and parts of the community.

RantWoman finds herself seeking and is curretntly sighing off many things In Light and faithfulness.

Bridges Not Walls

Another Display from the El Centro Day of the dead observance. This one says Build Bridges and not Walls.

Catholics mumble their confessions to a priest behind a screen.

Lots of Protestants mumble in unison through some statement printed in their bulletins.

The following meditation may or may not apply to a complex situation on RantWoman's mind. Or it may be just a Quaker confession. In any case, it is jumbled enough that RantWoman SHOULD let sit and go to bed. RantWoman is not going to do that but does reserve the right to edit further.

Friend, RantWoman would say thee has been treating RantWoman badly (and others have been enabling but that is a different problem.).

RantWoman thinks you fell on your face while doing so.

RantWoman hopes you did not skin your nose too badly and really really does want you to pick yourself up and keep going. RantWoman though is stuck and trying not to keep spinning in the same ruts.

RantWoman realizes the following comments are not necessarily going to sound respectful or confidence-building; RantWoman really does mean them in a more respectful way than they may come out.

You have been entrusted with the task of clerking a major complicated process. RantWoman has been going around saying how much it meant when she was way newer to meeting than you are to be included in something, RantWoman does not remember what exactly. RantWoman hopes you feel the same way. RantWoman acknowledges that unwanted advice probably comes with the territory. RantWoman keeps trying to just let unwanted advice be unwanted. RantWoman is not succeeding.

So far a question the campus discernment process has not touched: what kind of community do we envision in 10 or 20 years. What ifwe think ahead 100 years? How much is location tied up in what kind of community we imagine.

What conditions might make it absolutely necessary to move?
How might our community need to adapt as part of a chainging neighborhood?
How are all the changes, skyrocketing rents and dislocation... affecting Friends in our meeting?

In terms of immediate work, RantWoman has been thinking in terms of defining tasks that anyone new attender or longtimer could help with. RantWoman means to post some email lists that people could just follow and then share info. RantWoman thinks this level of participation could be very meaningful, but RantWoman feels like all her emails go into a black hole without even any acknowledgment. So RantWoman hesitates even to bring up...

RantWoman further wonders whether some past RantWoman moments would help about what RantWoman partly sees as "Don't take it so personally" problems.

Here is one blog post sort of on point.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/12/letter-to-frank-stilwagner-of-flying.html
And another one
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2010/08/heartwarming-tale-of-successful.html

The Pink Guy: Overcommitment

Mexican style figure as part of pink cut out

RantWoman is mixing her own content with other items from the day's events.

Text of spoken word offering which may or may not apply to general flow of Life, Death, and DRAMA on RantWoman's mind

Welcome to Overcommitment Anonymous. We are men and women who have come together to share our strength and our pain in overcoming overcommitment.
We have scheduled an extra hour a day for meetings to accomplish this.
This is our program:

1. We recognized that our schedule was completely out of control, and that being in three different cities at two o'clock on Tuesday was probably never going to be physically possible.
2. We came to believe that a Higher Power could help us out of the chaos.
3. We made a decision to turn our lives over to our Higher Power, who has more control over space-time than we do.

   3a. We admitted that even a Higher Power probably won't be able to help us be in three places at once.

   3c. We admitted that this giving up control thing was going to take awhile.

   3d. We skipped 3b because we were busy with another project just then.

4. We made a searching moral inventory of every time we have scheduled 46 hours out of 24, promised to deliver a project the next morning that would require a week of work, scheduled a two hour meeting at 9 AM and another one at 9:30 AM, eaten lunch at our desk, slept on the office floor, slept on our keyboard, gone without sleep, and generally overextended ourselves. Even when it was fun.
5. We shared this moral inventory with at least one other person who would give us enough time to listen to the whole thing, which proved to be a useful way to identify other candidates for Overcommitment Anonymous.
6. We became entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all these shortcomings and make us content with accomplishing what human strength can do in 24 hours of normal spacetime.
7. We humbly asked our Higher Power to please do so while we still have some human strength left.
   NOTE: Most of us are still coming up with qualifying clauses for Step Six. (aka Step Sux)
8. We made a list of everyone who has ever been adversely affected by waiting for us in Omaha Nebraska because we were sure we could get to New Jersey and back in two hours, or any other overcommitment we ever made.
9. We committed ourselves to making amends to all of these people.
10. We assured our Higher Power that yes, we will allow longer than 24 hours to do it all and will not try to make all amends at the same time.
11. We sought through prayer, meditation and daily Net searches to find calendar software that will slap our hands whenever we overbook our bods.
12. Having had an Awakening of some sort or another as the result of these Steps, we try daily to carry the message to other sufferers --

Commit to Overcommitment Anonymous!

 

Link for Proper Attribution

 

 

Eldering? Commenting on Ministry: God, Public Transportation; Worship

Two Day of the Dead altars in honor of two people recently trying to elder RantWoman

In observance of these kicky visuals from RantWoman's Day of the Dead ofrendas observance,  RantWoman is dumping some "hard to elder" moments from recent email.

For instance, recently two Friends tried to elder RantWoman in person about not finding God in a certain vocal ministry. The vocal ministry involved the phrase "Crip Transit Mafia Worship Auxiliary." RantWoman would have found it entirely reasonable to hear the question Huh? but that did not emerge in the conversation. Bear in mind, RantWoman also received warm appreciation from other worshippers.

In conversation, RantWoman asked whether the Friends trying to elder hernotice any patterns in RantWoman's messages. RantWoman would say many people in cluding RantWoman have recurring themes. RantWoman asked whether those addressing her noticed any themes in RantWoman's messages.  RantWoman would say that she does tend to be called to speak around a couple specific themes and that RantWoman tends to be called to minister when the salad in her head falls into place around these themes. RantWoman suggested that Friends try listening better.  However, it can be wacky and variable salad and RantWoman supposes worshippers should be forgiven if the themes do not leap out to casual listeners.

Perhaps RantWoman was also being too cryptic, speaking both of the reality of her daily experiences and all the movements in the world of transportation shaping the area in the immediate vicinity of RantWoman's Meeting and also, fair or not, with public participation and accessibility practices shaping RantWoman's expectations. RantWoman is kind of stuck in "we need to explore this NOW" mode in order to shape ways for people to watch calendars and meetings and feed insights or questions into the campus discernment process. RantWoman alternates between trying to let the process take shape and refusing to let her concerns be erased. Please hold RantWoman and those around her in the Light figuring out what best supports discernment.

In any case, after the conversation, RantWoman went home and penned the following request.

Thank you so much for comments after business meeting about my
ministry out of worship. Both of you mentioned having trouble finding
God in my ministry. Do either of you remember any words or phrases
from what I said? If you remember any moments and can rephrase your
comments as questions based on what you remember, perhaps I can speak
more completely to something on your mind

[I am Not Interested in Your Thought Processes Friend has worked hard to earn his nom de blog, and RantWoman is  nowhere near saintly enough to have come up with a path to a different pseudonym. ]

Another commenter later suggested that instead of suggesting that Friends listen
better, maybe RantWoman should have just written email about what she meant.
Considering the comment above, I stand by my request to listen better.
    To be honest, unlike some messages, I definitely remember enough
of what was on my mind and enough of what I said that I can probably
write several Russian Novel chapters on different themes. Unlike
Dostoevsky, though, I do not get paid by the cuartto and I do not get a warm
vibe from either of those trying to elder RantWoman that even one Russian novel chapter in email will speak to your condition. But again, if you can rephrase
your comments as questions perhaps I can more precisely articulate
something of movements of God on my mind.
In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman

Bomb Them with Hershey's Kisses

RantWoman is HIGHLY certain that a recent moment from life at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing will somehow magically inspire people who are baffled by RantWoman's realities. Um, no. RantWoman is less than certain but is called to offer anyway.

The basic point for readers with short attention spans: RantWoman was busy trying to both listen to a customer's conversation and use her screen reader to find some web content on a couple webpages. RantWoman and customer were talking partly about customer's previous travels in Asia, partly about the week's travels by the current White House occupant. Somewhere in the conversation between the quacking of RantWoman's screen reader, customer said he would just "bomb North Korea with Hershey's kisses."

The longer version. Thursday a blind customer came to the Friendly Neighborhood Center. RantWoman does not remember this customer's path to blindness but does remember his stories.

Training is not really this customer's path. Instead his visits mostly involve requests that need some modest level of tech savvy after which he takes the results home, usually on paper or USB drive and gets help from his late wife's relatives. RantWoman and another staffer once had to tag tem about some serious document conversation, but Blind customer has interesting stories of work in forestry and of travel in many countries in Asia 

Blind customer has moments where the elevator does not quite seem to ... but he also wants to stay engaged in his field. This time blind customer wanted the calls for papers for two conferences occurring jointly in early 2018, a task easily done by a sighted user in just a few minutes of searching and views of the relevant websites.
But RantWoman was who was available and RantWoman does not mind helping the guy. RantWoman does struggle both to listen to her screen reader and to follow conversation. RantWoman can explain in more excruciating detail. Basically, RantWoman found one call for papers and the URL for the companion conference including a link to a Google form which was refusing to print after several tries. But customer went away happy. Despite dual track sonic vexations and task not completed to RantWoman's standards, RantWoman is kind mostly smiling inside about they bomb them with kisses. idea.

Ofrendas with Volunteer Appreciation and Use Alternate Methods

Picture of one of this year's ofrendas

Themes:
Appreciation for someone who said she has not received any kind of award since grade school
Lots of inspiring stories and not too much downer content about housing affordability  crisis, looming federal budget cuts....

A power to the people story that deserves its own entry and that will get recognized after the fact

Blindness Tourism and Use Alternate Methods
This will be the first of several entries reflecting the ofrendas displayed for this year's day of the Dead observance at El Centro de La Raza. RantWoman shot a lot of pictures. RantWoman knows what is in some of the pictures. RantWoman has no idea what is in other pictures. RantWoman could not tell at full size and there is no way RantWoman is going to be able to tell in photos.
    The Use Alternate methods community building approach that is applicable: some of the ofrendas will have no alt text. Readers with vision issues are invited to find someone who can describe the picture. The picture above is one such example.

Wayfinding with accessibility constraints: Venue signage does not do a great job of routing people to the wheelchair entrance. Neither did event signage. Sigh.

Wayfinding with cognitive challenges: you took the train one way to come here. You need to take the train the other way to get home.

RantWoman has just returned from a volunteer appreciation event.

The volunteer appreciation was held at El Centro De La Raza, the old part where accessibility takes a lot of walking around. The signage was not perfect and a wheelchair user would have had to drive some to find the accessible entrance, which turned out to be near the venue.. There was a mic and no one who needed interpretation. The food was great though people with teeth issues found broccolini challenging.

Enough Data dump. More in queue.

Happy Birthday to Aunt Crochets a Lot

Potholder

Happy 80th Birthday to Aunt Crochets-a-lot, RantDad's younger sister, who by coincidence:

1. was born in the same county as RantMom 3 days before RantMom's birth but born at home instead of the hospital where RantMom was born

2. had the same first name as RantMOM's youngest sister, known here as Aunt Office Manager

RantWoman remembers Aunt Crochets A Lot for:

crocheted Christmas ornaments made of thin thread that RantWoman would find visually excruciating to work with

crocheted afghans including a couple of completely unreasonable size and weight

crocheted potholders

crocheted dolls (see below)

Crocheted baby booties for the Crisis Pregnancy Center

Also:

Jello and particularly ribbon salad at Christmas time

33 1/3 records

some sort of estate unpleasantness and complexity when the Righteous Rev. Rant Grandad passed away.

Being part of the 3 adults and two kids in a two-bedroom apartment scene for a bit before Little Sister arrived.

The part about being a former nurse, and this fact of biography somehow not being reassuring.

And to recapitulate, read the first part of this post. Read the rest as led.
https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2015/01/merry-christmas-lets-talk-about-death.html




Standing doll with blue ruffled dress

Allau Akbar with the Presbyterians

RantWoman has discovered an easy way to delight RantMom: go with her to events at her church. RantMom's church has gotten some kind of grant to do special events in support of worship.

The first such event was about music and starred the former choir director who is originally from South Africa. The event prompted RantWoman finally to read Bishop Desmond Tutu's account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. RantWoman has been reading that,--URK-- for bedtime reading recently. RantWoman is not sure it is good to be able to fall asleep to such reading but more than enough comes back to RantWoman in tired moments toward the end of the day. Luckily, what comes back is not only the various hideous deaths spelled out by different parties' requests for amnesty. RantWoman was also struck by the intrusiveness of the pass laws and the contentious first year of the members of the commission knitting their diversity together in support of the common project.

Also on RantWoman's mind:

--the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, not only the part about great theological openings but also the part about people finding whole new sets of reasons to kill each other.

--the uncelebrated 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, yet more mass murder now on the dustbin of history while plutocrats, kleptocrats, and garden-variety oligarchs define Russia today.

Such was RantWoman's state of mind as she settled in to the next event in the series. The event involved:

Taking a seat at a table supplied with a piece of black paper of highly individual shape

introductions including some delightful ones from the numerous Burundi children whose families are connected with the church

some kind of musical tape and an invitation to draw whatever the music called to mind.

Please note it was black paper. The supplies of brightly colored crayons were less than colored pencils RantWoman could not see. Plus, there was NO WAY  RantWoman was going to try to draw all the bloodletting on her mind.

But RantWoman had to draw SOMETHING.

Finally what came to RantWoman was words, Prayer in the three languages RantWoman has officially studied.

Prayer

Oracion.

Молитва

There still remained space on the paper and a bit of an argument with God arose. RantWoman thoroughly enjoyed an NPR story about a Muslim poet and practicing Muslims reclaiming the phrase Allau Akbar from its terrorist associations. RantWoman is amused by the idea of saying Allau Akbar when one's team scores. RantWoman is also amused by the mispronunciation that sounds to Arabic-speaking ears like "Potatoes are great."

After the music was over RantWoman listened as several present spoke of what the music called to mind. RantWoman just listened.

Later, after dinner, all the idiosyncratically shaped pieces of black paper were pasted into their places on circle mosaics and people were again invited to reflect. This time, the nudge to speak came...and came...and came..

Finally RantWoman rose and recounted the points here with the further comment that RantWoman values deeply held faith even if it is different from RantWoman's.

RantWoman sat down with her post-ministry shakes. RantMom squeezed RantWoman's hand. And after worship, another woman spoke of hearing the same story and of working as a public health nurse with many interpreters. At least some of the Presbyterians could handle Allau Akbar.

Anyway, RantWoman's argument with God was about whether or not Allau Akbar would be too much for RantMom's church. Okay, okay, Faithful to one's Light is a persistent theme for RantWoman right now.



Wherein the RantWomen do our part for Interfaith dialogue at the next in a series of exploration of worship events at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church.

RantWomen

Alloo Akbar (sp?) Potatoes are great indeed.

FOUR mesages at 9:30 worship

RantWoman is reviewing moments from recent worship experiences.

RantWoman of late has been particularly clear to attend Meeting for Worship, sometimes twice per First day. Some weeks ago, RantWoman was called not only to attend 9:30 worship but to give vocal ministry there. RantWoman was in fact one of FOUR Friends called to so minister, an unusually large number. of divine interventions at 9:30 worship.

RantWoman's Message, for ONCE departing from hopefully easily digestible bits"

RantWoman had been hearing a lot of a quote by Parker Palmer about how it is more important to be in right relationship than to be right. RantWoman frankly does not get the quote. RantWoman does not see how it is possible to be in right relationship without understanding someone's perspective about right.

RantWoman has also been reading Breme Brown's most recent book called Rising Strong. There, part of what Brown calls :"rumbling" with a situation is "What more do I need to understand about the Situation? What more do I need to understand about the people involved? What more do I need to understand about myself?

This ministry occurred in a week with two messages departing from a story about ego and someone getting all tangled up in having red ballet slippers. RantWoman is embarrassed at this remove that she does not remember the content of the fourth Message. RantWoman remembers that there were four. RantWoman remembers registering the fourth one as meaningful. RantWoman at this remove just does not remember more about the content. Interpreter brain also notes that probably this level of recalled detail is more than anyone else wants to interact with. Hold the problem in the Light.