Warning Label

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Jul 032007
 

Someone on my Facebook pointed out that she almost lost her job for reading my blog. I’d like to point out that The 19th Floor and its proprietor are not responsible and shall be held harmless for any deleterious effects of reading this blog, including:

  • Loss of employment
  • Poor grades
  • Alienation of a significant other’s affections
  • Obsessive compulsive behavior (such as repeatedly clicking your browser’s refresh button to see if the blog has been updated)
  • Intense cognitive dissonance (as a result of this blog totally blowing your mind)

I’m glad we’ve cleared that up. Carry on.

Age Inappropriate

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Jul 022007
 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an excellent article on kids with disabilities who are being warehoused in nursing homes. The article highlights the strong institutional bias that persists in many states’ Medicaid programs. Every state Medicaid program will cover nursing home care, but only a handful of states (including Minnesota) cover the optional home care services that make it possible for kids with severe disabilities to remain at home. These kids are victims of chance and geography; the disparities in covered Medicaid services are, in part, a function of tax base disparities. Wealthier states can afford to offer a more comprehensive set of Medicaid benefits.

According to the article, nearly 4,000 children with disabilities are currently placed in nursing homes. Many of them are placed in facilities that serve geriatric populations which can offer little in the way of schooling or therapy. The article really pushes the fact that it’s cheaper to care for these kids at home (this is the Wall Street Journal, after all) and that may be true. What really matters is that these kids would be healthier and happier in a caring and nurturing home. Unfortunately, our health care financing paradigm doesn’t share the same view.

Joining The Web 2.0 Herds

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Jun 302007
 

Because my thirst for self-promotion will never be slaked, I now have a profile on Facebook. Stop by and write something clever on my Wall. I only have three friends so far, which is making me feel marginally inadequate. But I really wish something like this had been around back when I was in high school and college. My inherent shyness, while not debilitating, made it somewhat challenging for me to seek out new friendships. I could have used a Facebook to help me break the ice.

Do any of my readers have the new iPhone? Is it really all that and a bag of chips, as most of the reviews seem to imply? If I was a heavier cell phone user, I might be tempted, but I think I’ll wait until the implantable nanoPhone comes along.

Let’s Keep It Down

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Jun 292007
 

According to some scientists, we may be tempting fate in our efforts to find other intelligent life in the universe. All the metaphorical jumping up and down and hand waving we’re doing on the radio spectrum may attract the attention of an interstellar Big Bad. Could be aliens. Could be planet-killing robotic berserkers. Could be fake instructions for a warp drive that turns out to be some kind of mass mind control device.

The Supreme Prefect of the Great and Everlasting Zarl Empire had a good chuckle when I showed it the article. It waved its articulated forelimbs in mock terror and said something like, “Oooh, we better stop or the evil, genocidal alien conqueror will come for us!” It launched some more and told me to get back to work on those plans for the slave camps or it would personally come down from the mothership and impregnate me.

Pointing Out My Flaws

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Jun 282007
 

The latest Disability Blog Carnival is up at Planet of the Blind. Someone submitted a couple of entries of mine, along with the following comment:

Even when Mark Siegel is trying to be cranky, he’s still funny, in that Minnesota kinda way.

How devastating. I’ve been trying so hard to get a jump-start on the years of cranky middle-aged bachelor-dom that lie ahead. I went out to the mall and bought a whole stack of Dockers. I’ve been watching lots of golf on TV. I have a ginormous leather sofa on backorder at Macy’s. But it just isn’t taking. Maybe if I force myself to listen to an entire Norah Jones CD…

Also, please define funny as it pertains to the “Minnesota kinda way”. And don’t you dare utter the words “Garrison Keillor”. Because that kind of shit just is not cool.

Young Folks

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Jun 272007
 

Whenever some particular bit of news leads me to despair over the wreckage after six years of conservative rule, I try to take the long view. In general, I think this country–and human history–is always trying to extend a hand towards its better angels. Attitudes and mores change in ways that almost always favor acceptance and inclusiveness. As little as ten years ago, a serious debate over gay marriage wouldn’t have even seemed remotely likely. Five years ago, global warming was the sole concern of dedicated environmentalists. Things change, and usually for the better. That’s why I was encouraged when I read that a recent study shows that young people seem to lean left. Not exactly surprising, but I’m willing to bet that this generation will remain slightly left of center, as opposed to previous generations that drifted to the right as they grew older (I’m looking at you, boomers). And that’s a good thing, because we’re going to need their help to clean things up.

Fresh Faces

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Jun 262007
 

The BBC’s Ouch! website had the fine idea of featuring several guest bloggers for the next couple months. You can can read the guest bloggers’ profiles and find links to their original blogs here. And the BBC isn’t the only media outlet looking to give greater exposure to bloggers with disabilities. New Mobility magazine is highlighting several people who are currently blogging or trying their hand at it for the first time (although I’m not sure why no new content hasn’t been added in over a week). It’s good to see lots of talented gimp bloggers starting to get some recognition. Go give them some love.

Inbox

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Jun 252007
 

I’ve been experimenting with using Gmail as my primary e-mail client for the last week or so. Thus far, I like it. I have three different e-mail addresses (not including my work account) and I like being able to manage all of them with a single interface. I’m also a big fan of how Gmail organizes e-mail exchanges using its easy-to-read index card format. Most of all, I like being able to access my mail from anywhere. I suppose it’s possible that a webmail service could lose my messages, but I trust Google to back up its data on a more regular schedule than I could ever hope to achieve. Unless I discover some major shortcoming in using Gmail on a daily basis, I’ll probably never touch Outlook again.

Mistaken Identity

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Jun 242007
 

There is something about having a disability that seems to serve as an invitation to certain people; an invitation that says, “Please, come on over and be socially inappropriate with me.” I was at a restaurant last night with my family to celebrate my mom’s birthday when a server showed up unbidden at our table. She asked me if my name is Peter because I look like this guy named Peter who was once a student at a school where this woman worked as an aide. And boy, does she have a funny story about the first time she had to change Peter…

I caught my sister’s eye and quickly looked away before either one of us began to laugh mercilessly at this woman’s magnificent cluelessness. Who are these people who seem to confuse me for some other gimp from some indeterminate point in the past? Are we really that difficult to tell apart? And I can’t tell you the number of times complete strangers have approached me (or more often, the person I’m with) to share some story about a cousin/neighbor/student/whatever with a disability that resembles mine in only the vaguest terms. It’s like I’m one of Proust’s madeleines; the sight of me stirs up memories about Peter or one-legged Uncle Walt or the kid with CP who used to live down the block. Which is all fine and good. But, people, write it down in a journal and leave me alone.

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