Tag: Disability

Then and now

Just this past Tuesday, March 8th, marked the 100th International Woman’s Day. And instead of posting a largely symbolic bunch of words declaring my solidarity with all the day represents, I chose not to post. I didn’t have anything relevant to add. That was then. This is now.

Yesterday, while sitting on my throne I was listening to CBCs The Current, and their reading of their listeners mail specifically, when they featured responces (at 8 minutes and 30 seconds) to a piece, Women’s Work & the State of Feminism, that The Current aired on Tuesday.

When it hit me! Before I get into it, to be fair, it wasn’t so much anything that was raised yesterday, but rather a culmination of opinions I’ve heard spoken this past Tuesday, yes, but previously on the CBC, as well…

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Time, as it always has, will tell

Well it’s been over a month since I’ve written anything here. For shame, I know. And what a month to be absent from commenting on events happening around the world! It’s quite a remarkable time to be in opposition to power!

I’m speaking, of course, toward the uprisings in North Africa, the Middle East and the American Mid-West. “It is not a good season to be a tyrant.” And it’s getting increasingly more difficult not to think these bullshit hierarchies — or the way they are ridiculously structured at least — are all beginning to level out.

Finally, a real reason for hope!

Continue reading Time, as it always has, will tell

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Just this past Wednesday, after a month or so of trying to coordinate a suitable time for both of us to meet, I was able to get into the city and visit a friend and check out what he is really busy working on.

My friend, Colin, has been working in the field of computer technology — mainly by helping to make various software applications, largely internet related, accessible — for years now. In fact, that is precisely why and how we met, over an entire decade ago! He was involved, as a student, with the folks who set me up with the means to use my first computer. University of Toronto’s ATRC (who are now at OCAD University as the Inclusive Design Research Centre).

It was the ATRC who outfitted me with the original gear I used to interact with a computer. Keep in mind, that was a time when I was differently abled, well differently abled than I am now, at least. Where my interactions were entirely facilitated through a head switch and an on screen keyboard. Much like I’ve written here before — well not so much the onscreen keyboard aspect, I’d rather foolishly forgotten, but I was delightfully reminded during said visit…

Continue reading Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

For Christie’s sake

Just this past week I was involved in quite a personally significant conversation with a friend. In a very round about way we arrived at talking about our respective childhood’s and each of our schooling career’s — if a half-assed, uninterested effort qualifies as a “career,” then I had a glorious one! When she informed me of her experiences during high school being bullied.

In a directly related aside, also this week, I received a mailing from ZCommunications, detailing ZMagazine’s January’s 2011 issue containing Michael Bronski’s piece Glee and Queer Bullying.

It’s precisely what everyone, “Gleek’s” particularly, really should take a few moments to read and truly think about…

Continue reading For Christie’s sake