Favorite Harriet McBryde Johnson quotes

My copy of "too late to die young" has several bent pages with underlined passages. Here are a couple of my favorites.

"We need to confront the life-killing stereotype that says we're all about suffering. We need to bear witness to our pleasures."

About a trip to Cuba, "It's the old socialist formula, 'From each according to ability, to each according to need,' played out one to one. It's hard to pin down, but I get the feeling that being a crip is no big deal here. People talk to me. On a family trip to Mexico, people were afraid to look at me; they sometimes made the sign of the cross, my mother helpfully explained, to protect themselves against the evil eye. In Paris, cabs wouldn't stop. Even in Charleston, where I am so much at home, people tend to address my able-bodied companions. In Havana, I'm a person."

Not sure where this one is from, but it is quoted in the Inclusion Daily Express story,
"The presence or absence of a disability doesn't predict quality of life."

"the float"

At lunch last Friday, I learned about "the float." Today, I found this article, What PayPal does with your money that says, "The money-transfer service earns interest on funds in its custody" and describes how other folks are kind of miffed at paypal. Cool. I'm not alone.

Actually, now that it's been explained to me, I'm not miffed anymore. Now, I'm just puzzled. Why couldn't the customer service folks tell me about the float?

service rep: "Listen, chick, you get this service for free. In order keep it free, we need to accrue some interest. You signed an agreement that said your money could be combined with others and blah blah blah."

Done and done.

another dumb user - me

I am schooled in the ways of human factors. I know that if your user feels dumb, there is probably something wrong with your system. I know that you should give your user a way to back out of a mistake. I know that most of the "user errors" that cause harm could have been prevented by better design.

I feel dumb.

Here's my situation: Yesterday, I tried to transfer money from my checking account to my paypal account. It didn't show up. I poked around and finally noticed the "details" link on the transaction and learned it was going to take 3-5 business days to transfer the money. That wasn't what I had in mind. I searched for a way to cancel the transaction. No dice.

I called my bank. "Nothing we can do."

I called paypal. "It takes 3-5 business days. Nothing we can do."
me: "Why does it take 3-5 business days?"
service rep: "It takes 3-5 business days. Nothing we can do."
me: "May I talk to your supervisor?"
service rep: "Sure. But she'll tell you the same thing."
me: "Ok. I'd like to hear it from someone else."
service rep's supervisor: "3-5 business days. Nothing we can do. It's a process. If you want to complain you can print this form and mail it in."
me: "You are an online service and you want me to print and mail something?"
service rep's supervisor: "You could email service@paypal.com"
me: "Right. That sounds really helpful. Thanks."

I was kind of huffy at this point and sent out a couple tweets. Then, here's where I feel really dumb: On the "Add funds by electronic transfer" page in paypal, just above the drop-down and text entry field is this line, "It takes 3-5 business days to electronically transfer funds from your bank account to your PayPal account."

Ok. You told me. But, I missed it. I'm dumb. And that mistake will cost me 6-10 days without access to my money while it sits in limbo to transfer from my bank to paypal then more limbo when I transfer it back to my bank account.

I get it. Dumb. But, how is it that when I buy my groceries down the road the transaction shows up in my online checking account before I'm home? How is it that when I pay my bills online, the payment is taken out of my account the day that I say I want it taken out of my account and it doesn't take 3-5 business days for the company I'm paying to receive the payment? How is it that if I make an error in paying someone, I can call my bank and say, "don't let that one go through?"

Ideally, I'd like a way to stop a process and don't understand why paypal can't stop a process that they initiate. (Could someone explain that one to me?)

At a minimum, could they give me some sort of alert message after I click, "submit" that says, "Are you sure? Are you really really sure? Go back and read the terms, dummy."

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project

Would you like your site reviewed for web accessibility?

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project matches accessibility experts with companies that would like a brief review of their site for accessibility. In return, the site owner is asked to contribute a minimum of $500 to The John Slatin Fund. The John Slatin Fund was established to help John’s beloved Anna offset the medical expenses incurred during John’s long illness. Our goal is to raise $25,000 for that purpose.

I'm volunteering my time. How about you?

Spread the word.

jollification

Dictionary.com Word of the Day - jollification: merrymaking; revelry.

Thank you

Here are a few brief glimpses of memories; they don't do justice to the awesomeness that is John Slatin.

I went to dinner with Anna and John then we went to Body Choir. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was blown away. At first, I felt a little awkward, but I started moving to the music then realized that I was connecting with people without words. Through movement, eye contact, I was interacting with people in ways I never had before. In the car afterwards, I had many questions and we had a wonderful discussion about intimacy - something I've always struggled with. That was a pinnacle discussion for me - one that caused me to question how I think. I'm still growing as a result of that discussion and still have further to grow. As I've read Leukemia Letters over the last 2 years and about all the people surrounding Anna and John, I see that the wisdom and the openness we talked about that night is the strength behind the love and the connections.

June 2005: We were in Brussels for a WCAG WG face-to-face meeting that was to start the following day. John and I were sitting on a bench in a park, Dillon at our feet. I had told family and a couple friends that I was two months pregnant and decided to share the news with John. I had slept every afternoon for the two weeks leading up to the trip and was anxious about how I would manage 8-12 hour days in meetings. "I can't leave the meetings every afternoon. What will I do?" He replied, "If you need to leave, then do it. If people ask, then tell them." I could always count on John for calm and clarity. I could talk with him about things that I couldn't with other people. I didn't know it at the time - but we were both tired. John would return home from that trip and begin the first of many hospital stays.

I wish I could be in Austin this weekend. I want to be part of the energy of the amazing people that surround John and Anna. You both have been influential with your wisdom and your love, your energy and your calm. Thank you. I love you.

irony

Back in the day, Java was supposed to be our "write once, run anywhere" solution. Today, all those beans live on the server handling service calls from other "write once, run anywhere" RIAs. All that promise of fame and glory and they end up hiding in the background. Poor beans. They just weren't flashy enough. heh.