It's like a silver sandwich
Dec. 11th, 2010 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quadruplify1. I finally came back home this afternoon, and my stressful, draining semester from hell is over! :D I'd totally be celebrating harder if a.) I was the partying type, and b.) I wasn't so physically and mentally exhausted. Oh yeah, and having a bit of a sore throat doesn't help either. (I'm not sick, but that's usually a sign that I will get sick sometime soon.) :P
2.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kattidya, I got your postcard. Thanks so much! 8D
3. The last thing I was working on was my GIS project. I know I didn't quite explain what exactly I was doing with it, so I'll try to do that briefly: What I decided to research was wheelchair accessibility in downtown Middlebury (not including the college), namely how someone in a wheelchair might view the area -- the only buildings one can even enter because they don't have even one step from the sidewalk to the door, the only places one can park, what areas one would be uncomfortable moving through because of steep slopes or bad sidewalks, etc. A couple of weeks ago I interviewed someone who works at the college, whose daughter uses a wheelchair (and mentally disabled as well, and therefore wouldn't be able to answer my questions, so the mother volunteered instead), and what she told me was really eye-opening. For example: The town library has one only parking space that's accessible to vans with a wheelchair lift. If you have to use such a van, you want to go to the library, and a vehicle is already parked in that space, you can't go to the library. Period. You'd either have to wait until the space is vacated, or you have to park farther away and then wheel all the way down there, which can be done but is often problematic, especially if there's snow on the ground and you have no choice but to run into snowbanks. There's just so, so much that able-bodied people take for granted, and that things we don't normally think about (like single steps, parking spaces, and steep sidewalks) can be uncomfortable, scary, even dangerous for some people, and if you gave a damn about trying to "build a sense of community" in your town or whatever, you'd try to make your outdoor and indoor spaces as accessible as possible, even if no one living or working there had any disabilities whatsoever.
I also interviewed some other people who have some experience working with people in wheelchairs (one being an architecture professor, and other being an elderly care worker recommended to me by the professor, even though she wasn't of much help), and did a couple of field studies of downtown (in which I discovered that the only way anyone in a wheelchair can get to 95% of anything inside the town offices is by using a chair lift up some steps that someone else has to operate -- a chair lift that appears to be broken, by the way -- and the only easy thing to get to is the gymnasium). I then made a map that I had to present to the class on Thursday (which, fortunately, everyone seemed to like), and handed in a 13-page behemoth of a paper to go along with it the next day (even though it was a day late because I just couldn't work up the motivation to get it done any sooner -- not that the prof had that much of a problem with it, of course). In case you're interested, you can download the map I made here -- it's rough around the edges and some of the colors appear to be off, but it's something. (It'd be so much better if this were a long-term participatory mapping project, in which I got a handful of wheelchair users and helped them make their own accessibility maps, but I only had two weeks to do this, so. :PPP) The next thing to do now would be to show the mother I interviewed this map, and see how I can get it posted around town, perhaps by asking the college ADA office to see if they can pull some strings. Very excited! :D
3a. And in case you're curious, here are a couple of projects other people in my GIS class did:
* HidMidd, a virtual tour of Middlebury's hidden spaces, and places people normally don't think about, especially in and around the railroad tracks and river -- click on "The Project" on the top of the page to read what it's about and why they did such a project. The website still needs work -- the interactive map isn't working all that well, and it needs a disclaimer -- but it looks very fascinating and well put together as it is right now (the photography itself is pretty amazing).
* Midd Traffic, in which the often frustrating traffic patterns in the downtown are visualized. It's very fascinating how they created a methodology to study traffic flow, and how it can be used to do something about the congestion problems downtown gets a lot.
4. The only other big thing I got stressed over was the geology exam Thursday morning. I think I did well on it this time.....I hope. D:
5. Climatology Nerd visited campus last weekend, and I got to meet up with him thrice -- it was so good to finally see him again! ^_^; He's still working at that Japanese restaurant that's close to where he lives, though he's currently applying for a French and Spanish tutoring position in Albany, which will allow him to move out of his parents' place and live on his own for a while. (Apparently when he was interviewed for the Spanish position, he had a better calling of the language than the interviewer. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD) So yeah, that was pretty awesome!
6. Our ES seminar class went to our prof's house Wednesday night for an end-of-semester get-together, which was a lot of fun even if I was my typical wallflower self when it comes to these sorts of things. I tried some of the wine (which wasn't all that good) and learned that not only are polar bears one of the very few animals to actually stalk humans as prey, but the best way to fight one off is to stick your forearm in its open jaw to keep it immobile, then cut its jugular and stab its eyes and snout before the jaw closes and your forearm snaps. Oh, college parties. O_o;
7. Last week I got a chance to sign up for J-term workshops (and forgot to mention it then, oops :V); I finally settled on Ancient Art of Tea, Persian Language, "Skillful Storytelling to Get the Job You Want" (LOL I know, but this might actually help), and First Aid & CPR (because I desperately need to be recertified). Should be fun next month!
8. I plan on sending out Christmas cards within the next few days, and I should be on IM (especially AIM) more often too -- I don't like being the one to initiate conversation, but don't be afraid to contact me when I'm on! I'll try not to be too shy. ;-)
9. This music video is absolutely amazing, if really creepy as well. (Slightly NSFW)
10. That's about it for me, really. How's everyone else doing?
2.
kattidya, I got your postcard. Thanks so much! 8D3. The last thing I was working on was my GIS project. I know I didn't quite explain what exactly I was doing with it, so I'll try to do that briefly: What I decided to research was wheelchair accessibility in downtown Middlebury (not including the college), namely how someone in a wheelchair might view the area -- the only buildings one can even enter because they don't have even one step from the sidewalk to the door, the only places one can park, what areas one would be uncomfortable moving through because of steep slopes or bad sidewalks, etc. A couple of weeks ago I interviewed someone who works at the college, whose daughter uses a wheelchair (and mentally disabled as well, and therefore wouldn't be able to answer my questions, so the mother volunteered instead), and what she told me was really eye-opening. For example: The town library has one only parking space that's accessible to vans with a wheelchair lift. If you have to use such a van, you want to go to the library, and a vehicle is already parked in that space, you can't go to the library. Period. You'd either have to wait until the space is vacated, or you have to park farther away and then wheel all the way down there, which can be done but is often problematic, especially if there's snow on the ground and you have no choice but to run into snowbanks. There's just so, so much that able-bodied people take for granted, and that things we don't normally think about (like single steps, parking spaces, and steep sidewalks) can be uncomfortable, scary, even dangerous for some people, and if you gave a damn about trying to "build a sense of community" in your town or whatever, you'd try to make your outdoor and indoor spaces as accessible as possible, even if no one living or working there had any disabilities whatsoever.
I also interviewed some other people who have some experience working with people in wheelchairs (one being an architecture professor, and other being an elderly care worker recommended to me by the professor, even though she wasn't of much help), and did a couple of field studies of downtown (in which I discovered that the only way anyone in a wheelchair can get to 95% of anything inside the town offices is by using a chair lift up some steps that someone else has to operate -- a chair lift that appears to be broken, by the way -- and the only easy thing to get to is the gymnasium). I then made a map that I had to present to the class on Thursday (which, fortunately, everyone seemed to like), and handed in a 13-page behemoth of a paper to go along with it the next day (even though it was a day late because I just couldn't work up the motivation to get it done any sooner -- not that the prof had that much of a problem with it, of course). In case you're interested, you can download the map I made here -- it's rough around the edges and some of the colors appear to be off, but it's something. (It'd be so much better if this were a long-term participatory mapping project, in which I got a handful of wheelchair users and helped them make their own accessibility maps, but I only had two weeks to do this, so. :PPP) The next thing to do now would be to show the mother I interviewed this map, and see how I can get it posted around town, perhaps by asking the college ADA office to see if they can pull some strings. Very excited! :D
3a. And in case you're curious, here are a couple of projects other people in my GIS class did:
* HidMidd, a virtual tour of Middlebury's hidden spaces, and places people normally don't think about, especially in and around the railroad tracks and river -- click on "The Project" on the top of the page to read what it's about and why they did such a project. The website still needs work -- the interactive map isn't working all that well, and it needs a disclaimer -- but it looks very fascinating and well put together as it is right now (the photography itself is pretty amazing).
* Midd Traffic, in which the often frustrating traffic patterns in the downtown are visualized. It's very fascinating how they created a methodology to study traffic flow, and how it can be used to do something about the congestion problems downtown gets a lot.
4. The only other big thing I got stressed over was the geology exam Thursday morning. I think I did well on it this time.....I hope. D:
5. Climatology Nerd visited campus last weekend, and I got to meet up with him thrice -- it was so good to finally see him again! ^_^; He's still working at that Japanese restaurant that's close to where he lives, though he's currently applying for a French and Spanish tutoring position in Albany, which will allow him to move out of his parents' place and live on his own for a while. (Apparently when he was interviewed for the Spanish position, he had a better calling of the language than the interviewer. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD) So yeah, that was pretty awesome!
6. Our ES seminar class went to our prof's house Wednesday night for an end-of-semester get-together, which was a lot of fun even if I was my typical wallflower self when it comes to these sorts of things. I tried some of the wine (which wasn't all that good) and learned that not only are polar bears one of the very few animals to actually stalk humans as prey, but the best way to fight one off is to stick your forearm in its open jaw to keep it immobile, then cut its jugular and stab its eyes and snout before the jaw closes and your forearm snaps. Oh, college parties. O_o;
7. Last week I got a chance to sign up for J-term workshops (and forgot to mention it then, oops :V); I finally settled on Ancient Art of Tea, Persian Language, "Skillful Storytelling to Get the Job You Want" (LOL I know, but this might actually help), and First Aid & CPR (because I desperately need to be recertified). Should be fun next month!
8. I plan on sending out Christmas cards within the next few days, and I should be on IM (especially AIM) more often too -- I don't like being the one to initiate conversation, but don't be afraid to contact me when I'm on! I'll try not to be too shy. ;-)
9. This music video is absolutely amazing, if really creepy as well. (Slightly NSFW)
10. That's about it for me, really. How's everyone else doing?
