It’s independent film week here on The 19th Floor. NPR is running a story about Rolling, a documentary featuring footage shot by three different wheelchair users. The site also features a few clips from the doc and I was compelled to smile at the familiarity of the lingering crotch shot featured in the second clip. Imagine the carnival of horrors I would be subjected to if I ever had to venture into a nudist colony. More disturbing is the third clip: a woman’s wheelchair stalls on the way home from a party and her paratransit driver refuses to help her get inside her house, so she remains stuck in her driveway for what looks like hours.

If I mounted a camera on my wheelchair, I would shoot footage of my daily elevator rides in my building. Our elevators are on the small side and occasionally people have to high-step over my footrest to squeeze themselves in. They’re usually cool with this, but occasionally I’m the recipient of irritated glances and heavy sighs. Whenever this happens, the impulsive side of me wants to feign concern, apologize for being such a nuisance, and invite them to sit on my lap.

Thanks to my bestest friend Amy C. for the tip.

We don’t have flying cars yet. We’re not taking vacations in low-Earth orbit. Our computers aren’t talking to us in soothing conversational tones. But brace yourselves, because the forces of progress are going to change our lives in dramatic ways. Imagine…being able to rent movies…on your computer. Imagine…being able to purchase digital music…that will play on any device. Imagine…being able to download things…really, really fast. Truly, we live in an age of wonders.

I understand that the future will come in a series of shuffling, incremental steps rather than a heady rush. A decade from now, I might marvel at how we ever put up with [insert today’s cutting-edge but inevitably kludgy and obsolete technology here] for so long. But until I get to have sex with robots, everything else is underwhelming hype.

Dear bloggers:

Can we all agree that the word “intertubes” has lost whatever snarky charm it once possessed and should be relegated to the place where overused web slang goes to die? We can bury it right next to “teh” and “ownz0r4ed”. Trust me, the world will be a better place.

Sincerely,

Mark

I’m giving some thought to doing some freelance work to supplement my regular income. Last year, a small magazine offered to contract with me to write an article, but I had to turn them down because work was crazy-busy. Things are more settled now and it might be interesting to take on some side writing projects. Grant writing is one possible avenue; I’ve done a fair amount of it and it’s something that always seems to be in demand. I have friends who do some occasional feature writing and that could be fun if the topic was interesting. Or I could combine a couple interests and try doing some disability-related consulting for technology companies.

My overarching goal is twofold: to further develop my writing and to put some cash value on all this free time I already spend in front of my computer. I don’t have much of a portfolio, but this blog and some of the work I did for the BBC should prove that I can at least string together words in a semi-engaging fashion. Any advice from other freelancers on how to hawk my wares?

I really should take down the string of Christmas lights I put up a few weeks ago. For some reason, a good third of the bulbs have gone dark, as if they’re suffering from a case of the post-holiday blahs.