šŖ Sit With Me
- Accessibility
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- And anything else I want.
- Navigation: Lists all pages for the site.
- main: The area that displays the most recent posts.
- Footer: Has links to my other corners of the Internet.
- Fediverse: If youāre on Mastodon or any other service that support ActivityPub and The Fediverse, you can hit the reply button, compose your response and send it.
- micro.blog: If you are following me with your account, the reply link follows each post, as does a link to view an entire conversation.
- Reply by email: I renamed this link to āsend an intergalactic transmissionā. Click this, and your default email program prefilled with my email address and the post title or excerpt as the subject line. Compose your email, hit send and Iāll have your message.
- Iāll respond to you via the method you choose.
- Throwing a bowling ball backwards, not in the Nintendo Wii game.
- At the same bowling alley, I took out the bumper and got a gutter ball. We called it getting a gutter ball in a lane with no gutters.
- Tagging the barbecue grill in a game of horseshoes.
- Start and end in the same spot: I usually have my smartphone playing music and I set it on the corner of the pool. The distance of the sound tells me where I am. I also use markers along the length of the pool such as jets, steps and ladders for orientation. Finally, if the sun is out, I can use its position on my face to keep me on track.
- Empty Pool: I’m introverted and blind, making me an object of curiosity to people (another topic, etc., etc., etc.). My favorite thing about the pool in my apartment is I can hit the pool at 7 in the morning and be finished long before the children are out of school. This also makes it less of a problem if I veer.
- The same place for my things every time: My place is just inside the door against the fence. I know how far the pool is from there and I’m most comfortable starting from that spot. I also know how to get from the steps when I get out to my things.
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Start the motor: Skip the stairs, take the plunge. My body deals with the shock of the cold all at the same time and I can get down to business. This is especially helpful on mornings are in the low ‘50’s.
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Warm-up; Move my legs and arms like Gymnast Barbie for the verse and chorus of a song. I like to move everything at the same time so my body doesn’t feel like it has a lot of extra parts coming out of it that I don’t know what to do with, but there are a few ways to go about warming up. Also, to move like Gymnast Barbie, get to a place in the pool that is shallow enough that I can touch if I need to, but deep enough so I don’t stub my toes. Then, move my arms and legs in a dog-paddle motion. I know when my body’s ready to go, another benefit of regular activity.
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Free-style: I prefer to dog-paddle. I do this for a song and a half, or five plus however many laps I can take before I get tired if it’s raining and my phone is safe and dry in my apartment. My poolās a rectangle with an elbow for the stairs. I estimate it at about four yards long.
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The Big five: I do five of each of the following.
a. Ghost arm: Move around the pool using both legs and one arm in a forward motion. The total number of laps is 10. I alternate arms for a more comfortable workout, or use each arm 5 times consecutively for a more challenging session. My ghost arm, arm I’m not using, can either stay curled against my torso, or it can be used as a makeshift feeler to find walls.
b. T-Rex: Propel myself forward around the pool using only my arms. It gives my legs a chance to rest before the next set of exercises. If I’m not feeling it, I put my feet out behind me and just keep them stationary and remind myself I’m longer than normal when I make the turns. If I want to work my belly muscles (reminder: Not fitness oriented), I point my feet straight down and lift my legs in shallow areas. Another advantage here is my legs aren’t completely stationary durning the time it takes me to do this exercise.
c. I forgot my kick board!: Fold my hands in front of me and use only my legs to go around the pool in a forward motion. Easier for me to write than to do.
d. Bizarro-cycle: Pretend I’m sitting upright on a bicycle, facing my feet out in front of me and use just them to move myself around the pool in a backward motion. If I’m having a hard day, I pretend I’m on an exercise bike and use my arms to help me move. If my back starts to spasm, the bicycle becomes a manually operated crotch rocket that also goes in reverse.
e. Flying chair: Sit in an upright position with my feet in front of me so my toes point up, and my soles are facing out. Then, move my arms in concentric circles to move around the pool in a forward motion. I use this one when my legs have giving up their grumbling about having to go through this routine agin in favor of an outcry to please stop what I’m doing. The extra challenge is to maintain the upright position. If my legs only grumble, this exercise usually stays on the bench as it is very time consuming.
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Cool-down: Return to Gymnast barbie position until my body doesn’t feel like a coiled spring, then a shower.
- Will the event take place online or in the physiverse?
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- I hang out with my online friends to escape to pressures of my existence in the physiverse.
š Yes And
š Yes And
Definition
Pronunciation: Yes. AND!
Derived from the shorthand of the first rule of improv.
No questions. Always respond with Yes and… Before adding more detail to said improv.
Simplification for expression of the often complex state in which two conclusions are true at one time and are technically thought of and are not necessarily exclusively separate from each other, meaning these two conclusions can always be true at the same time, but many people cannot function in a way that allows for true validity of both conclusions, usually for reason of bias, inexperience, or yes and. Depending on the situation, there can be more than two valid conclusions. Bias, inexperience, pride, self-preservation, yes and.
Being able to function in a state of yes and is an indicator of emotional maturity if not good or gradually improving mental health.
Other examples not given as many yes and situations involve socially polarized statements and ideas typically found allover the place.
Then and Now: On blind social media users and their use/choice not to use profile pics, complete with much deeper message for readers who are a step ahead.
šš§š¼āš¦Æ Since my newest frontier into the Fediverse, I’ve become aware of just how many blind and visually impaired folks are out there with no profile pics. I remember a time, it seems so not long ago when I remember it, when someone in the blind community would make an argument for why we all need to have profile pics. Then, a bunch of users (I won’t hurt anyone’s dignity by calling them people when they act this way) would dogpile on the person–enough said, okay? What’s important is it was not a random occurrence.
The trend I am seeing now is, it’s accepted that blind people may not always have profile pics. I hope so. If we can have a subtle shift like that, there’s still hope for other… Shifts.
Are you seeing this, too?
The ultimate Intro Post
Welcome :)
Imagine a social media experience where you log into one place and get all your content from across the Internet. Imagine a social media experience where you can follow people who post about interesting things, but also repost a lot of nonsense, and you can enjoy the best of them without putting yourself or the other person out. Imagine a social media experience where the reactions are hidden and what youāre left with are people who take the time to have meaningful discussion with you about your content. This is The Starship Changeling.
My experience is The Starship Changeling. The developer of micro.blog doesnāt describe his content management system as social media, but heās got one of the most accessible forms of the future of social media, I feel, so I switched.
My Name is Randy
My name is Randy and I often go by Changeling. If youāre wondering why a government name and fun name are being used at the same time, hereās what happened.I used to be an Assistive Technology instructor for people with visual impairments, CATIS certified and all. For reasons way beyond the scope of an introduction post, I am now an accessibility and inclusion specialist for the organization I used to teach for. At the same time I was an instructor, I began interacting with more online communities.
In these communities, I went and still go by Changeling. Wonderful, right? Nice separation of casual and official life, but hereās the deal. Because Iām blind and it is one of those disabilities that has wide-ranging impacts both subtle and explicit, thereās no way for me to get away from my circumstances by adopting a digital life like many people can and do. Ready Player one? I look forward to it. Player two, I dream about it. Rogue AI god aside.
Because of this, I still had to advocate to get my needs met. I began doing accessibility testing and checking for people, reviewing their social media posts, online stores, websites and, in one instance, a consultation about image descriptions for an envelope-book via Twitter DM. I always did this without asking for compensation. I wanted in those spaces, and I was the one who knew what I needed to be functional in them, so charging felt wrong to me.
Furthermore, I didnāt often have the opportunity to teach special topics I thought were awesome. I started writing guides for using online platforms. The ones Iām most known for are Changelingās Guide to Mastodon and Discord for screen readers. (Note: If youāre wondering about the whereabouts of said guides, I am currently in the process of updating them and reworking them to reflect requests from people who found it useful and saw ways to make it more user friendly.) I was building an extensive though untraditional resume under this name. The Discord guide even made it into an issue of Top Tech Tidbits.
Then I became an accessibility and inclusion specialist as a day job, and I saw a personal choice for myself. I could do my job based on my traditional credentials alone, collecting credentials more specific to this role as I go, abandoning a resume of experience I came by honestly and fairly and honestly and that directly benefits my knowledge reputation in my day job, or I could spruce up my home on the Internet and turn it into a tool that displays valid though unorthodox credentials. For the record, I think itās going to be a yes and situation, meaning both methods are going to be used, said method to be determined by the situation.
About Surface Me
I love roller coasters, horror novels and music. I am also the human partner in crime to a cat named Alex.
Content
Here are the things I talk about. You can also find this information on the the Archive or feeds pages.
You can also use the Feeds page and an RSS reader of your choice to subscribe to those topics that are of interest to you. Finally, visit the nurture your inner alien page to subscribe to the email newsletter. Be aware, however, this is only set to deliver a weekly digest of all posts. As you may be realizing, this email would be quite large.
Navigating
If you are a screen reader user, your best bet for consistent navigation around pages is to use the landmarks or regions feature. There are three main areas.
You can also use the articles feature of your screen reader to quickly move between posts in the main area.
Interacting
As mentioned before, my starship is now completely free of likes, reposts and followers counts. Iām not saying you canāt do those things, but I will remain unaware of them. Letās look at how we can effectively interact with each other.
More info
See the about page for more information.
Thank you, and enjoy your ride on the Starship Changeling!š¢š¢š¢
Happy Birthded Agay
š¶šÆGot exposed to another group of waitresses singing āHappy Birthday to Youā to a diner. It started out in the key of D and looked promising, but then they hit that high note just before they say the personās name and dropped into something like B-flat.
For the record, I think the birthday song needs to be changed. I suggest Rabbit Aināt GotIt shares itās melody with Mary Had a Little Lamb, a tune most people can carry in some form. Basically, everyone surrounds the birthday person and sing this song instead. Do it seven times or whenever you end p yelling rather thann singing, as each repetition gets a bit louder. Itās easier on everybody with the same amount of awkward.
Swimming or Whatever
Why?
I’m live in the blind community, and one of the things that comes up is trouble accessing physical activity. Reasons for this include but are not limited to access to transportation, accessing the gym, following visual cues in group classes, etc. This means that any time a blind person appears to be getting regular exercise, other blind people want details. That’s why I’m posting this. Itās not an exercise video, just a blog post by someone stuck on the idea that even written casual information needs some structure.
Disclosure I Hope Makes Me less Intimidating
I’m not particularly fitness oriented. I call any sporting event Sportsball, and some of my highlights in this portion of human existence include:
I’m also the one ordering the supersized order of fries This is why anyone who knows me is saying, An exercise routine? You? Itās also why this is not a training material
The fact of the matter is endorphins help manage my chronic pain and are cheap, comparatively speaking. Exercise is also good for helping to manage circadian rhythm disorders, from my own research to deal with my stuff. The existence of necessity combined with my general contempt for gym memberships, exercise videos, etc. (a completely different story) allow me to go into this with the understanding that I have no reason to be attempting physical activity. I don’t care what I look like. I’m there to meet a need. I have, however, included a screenshot of a recent tracking session(https://starshipchangeling.net/uploads/2024/image.jpg) recorded by my Apple watch to show the results for myself.
I bring this up to tell you that if you are a blind person and if you want to be successful at something like this, you’ll have to get comfortable with the idea that, when it comes to your exercise, you’ll tell someone what their opinion is when you want it as long as you’re not in any danger. You may even need to say so out loud. If you can get comfortable with that, you can own your exercise and are more likely to stick with it/return to it following a break. This is an underlying principle of fitness in general, I believe. The turning the not worrying about what I look like long enough to do the exercise is my personal struggle as a congenitally blind, fitness disoriented person.
Considerations
I live in Florida. My pool is outdoors, useable most of the year and appears to be open 24/7, though the earliest I have been out there is 7 in the morning. I based these adaptations on my own comfort and needs.
The Routine
Before we begin, one final disclosure. The names of the moves are what I call them in my head. That’s all. I didn’t invent the moves, and please don’t spend your energy replying to me with corrections. I really had to do some personal rewiring to get here, so on my starship, I call the moves what I call them. If you’re reading this and yelling, “That’s not what that’s called!” At your computer, please relax. You can call these exercises whatever you like in your house of no imagination.
Conclusion
When I first sat down to write this, I hadnāt intended for it to be a long-form post. I also hadnāt intended for it to be all about me. However, as I was reviewing the first draft, the part about not being fitness oriented, it hit me that the only way to write this in a way appropriate to my station was to make it personal. Iām not an exercise instructor, but a troubleshooter. In this case, the thing I needed to fix was my own personal attitudes toward exercise.
Iāve enjoyed the water since forever, so Iāve figured out ways to enjoy pools independently. Thereās also just something about the smell of a swimming pool, the mix of chlorine and sun lotion, that I find invigorating. Combine that with changing what I was doing according to how my body felt before, during and after, and thatās how I found what worked for me. And the music, of course. That works for me more than trying to keep time.
All I wanted was a link I could give people that ask what Iām doing so I donāt have to keep repeating myself. I need a way to count words because based on the length of this, Iām the only one who read it. :P
The Mirror Lesson
I found this post on Mastodon and thought it was too good not to share.
Bathroom A private school recently was faced with a unique problem. A number of girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom.
That was fine, but after they put it on they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers, and then there are educatorsā¦
The Rabbit Listens, The Goon Knows
Finished reading: The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld š
I won’t spoil it by including the message of the story, but I will say it’s a good one. I was thinking, am I a good rabbit? In the bunniverse, I’m the goon. I listen, but I also have a chaotic thought process and energy which yields results that create forces and ideas not ideal for all riders.
That’s okay, The Bunniverse also has this overlord–
Did I say overlord? I meant benevolent caretaker.
Anyway, she calls herself The Good Fairy. In a world where the caretaker has to put “Good” in their name, I’d rather be a goon, even if it is the punishment for not following the rules. If the rabbit listens, then the goon knows not to trust someone who needs to put “Good”. Similar self-praising adjectives should also apply. The same with people smile too much, always talk in a happy voice, always insist on keeping it positive, etc.
So when the song that features She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is sung, I wonder how many people memorize a moral that was told to them. The moral being follow the always follow the rules of the one who takes care you or be turned into a creature your group, your society finds objectionable, apparently the worst possible outcome in this scinario.
Good Fairy?"
I also hope there are those who listen and follow the rules based on a trust factor. I’ve always valued being trusted more than I value being liked. I think that’s why that song annoys the holy Hell out of me.
The Nonbinary Experience
What’s being nonbinary like for you? To understand what itās like to be Nonbinary for me personally, imagine that you are in a room with people and you are all singing a simple song we all know. Everyone is on key, except the person whoās a half step too high or too low sitting near you. That person is me. Itās not a big deal eat mixed in with everyone like that, but it becomes quite apparent in a one-on-one setting. š³ļøāš š¶
Physiverse
Physiverse
Pronounced fizzy-verse or fizza-verse.
Short for physical universe, refers to physical world. Replaces the term in real life (IRL) in the distinguishing between online and IRL. online and/or in the physiverse. This change acknowledge that what happens online and in the physiverse are both real, particular with the rise of remote work back in 2020.
Examples
Why Changeling? (CW for mentions of discrimination, child abuse)
Changeling and some Numbers
Iāve been on the Internet for many years, and Iāve seen many strange handlesāeven used some of them. In my early twenties, I signed up for my first Gmail account. Because my name is fairly common, it was impossible to get an address without a lot of rearranged letters, numbers and punctuation marks. I put āchangelingā into the box and a few numbers later, I had a new email address.
At the same time, Twitter was becoming more and more popular, and so I took āchangelingā, added some numbers and had a fairly easy twitter handle. This handle went on to get me an AIM name, a Skype account and other services. These days, some for of changeling is my Internet handle.It only stands to reason that someone is going to ask why, and they have. I am writing this to give those people a place to go when they ask. They can read it or not on their own time. My answer is not so different from when other people identify with words that are generally seen as negative.
What is a changeling?
Before we can fully see the significance of this name for me, we must first answer the question. Iāll be including the necessary information to do that, but since this is a post about personal experiences and how Iāve decided to deal with them, Iām not going to be linking to outside sources. Iām talking to you and I want your attention. When youāve finished here, you can look up changelings on the internet and verify everything I tell you. I will forewarn you that some of the details youāll find on other sites are a bit graphic and disturbing, so proceed with caution.
Ready? Okay. Here it is.
A changeling is the creature that results when a human child is stolen and a fairy is left in its place. There is much speculation about the motives of the Fae (I personally believe itās because the Fae were trolling humans even before there was an Internet), but the TLDR of the whole mess is that parents lived in fear of their child being replaced with a being of Faery. This superstition, according to first books and then the Internet, this superstition was part of the Middle Ages.
Since people have a natural fear of anyone who doesnāt look like them, since the Middle Ages was not known for its higher thinking in regard to people with disabilities, anyone who had physical or behavioral differences that set them apart from the group were thought to be changelings. The parents of such a creature were shunned, and so parents did any number of unpleasant things to try and (a) cure the child of its affliction, or (b) rid themselves of the changeling.
In one memorable example, a woman who believed her son was a changeling strapped her son to a board and through him in the river. At her murder trial, she stated that if the child had floated, she would have known it was a changeling and that it had to be killed. This must have been logical to everyone involved because she was acquitted.
And how is This Still Relevant?
We like to think people know better today. Disabled people are usually seen as people with differences. Iāve been prayed over, but nobody has attempted an exorcism on me. Iāve never been strapped to a board and thrown in the river, either. This does not mean that people arenāt intolerant, nor does it mean that the human race as a whole doesnāt have room to grow when it comes to dealing with people who are different, or even that people with differences are made to feel welcome in many situations.
Iām totally blind, and this is a well-understood phenomenon in 2023. Itās well-established that blind people are people with a difference, and I still live in a world where accessibility is an after-thought, assuming itās even thought of at all. In other words, Iām still living in a world where Iām only independent when Iāve been society has made allowances for it. I canāt imagine that this is a favorite truth of anyone who is disabled, but there it is. I wonāt let it rule me, but it has to be acknowledged. Therefore, the Internet knows me as Changeling.
Is there a precedent?
Of course there is. One of my favorite examples is found in one of the Vagina Monologues, where the speaker is justifying reclamation of the C-word. There are racial groups who embrace some of the epithets inflicted upon them by others. And no discussion about being known as Changeling would be complete without pointing out that many LGBTQIA+ folks refer to themselves as queer (a thing that I do not do even though I am Ace).
Did you get What you Came for?
I sure hope so. Thereās not much left to say here. TLDR: Iām Changeling because Iām acknowledging the fact that the world sucks sometimes. There might come a day when I donāt need it, but I think itāll always be there. It can be a kind of historical artifact or something. We could all do with a look back these days.