More on that Steampunk Wheelchair video: reaction from the Original Poster

...Since I don't think most of my LiveJournal f'list reads my DreamWidth versions of things, here are comments by jesse_the_k over there. And she has more current knowledge and eloquence than I in this matter.

Her reply to my comment, about how I've lusted over Permobil chairs (the base for wood and velvet throne inn the vid:

(Quote) I recognized the Permobil caster beam right away, and I was stunned that someone found that in the "junk" pile somewhere.

Permobil has a U.S. division in Tennessee now, but I think the chairs are still made in Sweden. In my circles, they were famous for a sweet smooth ride, excellent elevation, tilt, and standing features, and spending more time in the shop than the average chair. (That was due in no small part to waiting on parts from Sweden: the supply chain is I'm sure faster now.)

I tried one for my latest chair. It was indeed beautifully suspended, so it had a great smooth ride. I'm too much of a speed demon to put up with a front wheel drive chair; their rear-wheel drive chairs weren't fast enough for me. Finish was nice, but not appreciably nicer than the Quantum or Invacare I've had my hands on recently. And the price tag was still in the luxury department: their base RWD ["rear wheel drive"] was $10,000, while my Quantum R4400 with 8mph motors was $6,000. (Unquote)

So -- yeah. Think of a high-end Sweedish luxury car, in wheelchair form. Nice that fanboys can play around with that for their costume parties.

Speaking of which, here's what she said in her own reply thread:

(Quote) Yeah, part of me got a huge giggle out of the vodka-cranberry bubbling pipes out the back, while the other part of me was all ****grrrrr**** these Maker fanboys love wheelchair motors for their projects; couldn't they set aside a little time each month helping people maintain their chairs? Because those of us who rely on the motors rarely have the capacity to coddle them as we'd like to.

Non wheelchair users probably don't know that wheelchair repairs are rarely covered by insurance; emergency repairs and loaner rentals are never covered. Wheelchair dealers don't get any money for in-warranty repairs from manufacturers. (unquote)

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One reason I made my YouTube reply more passive than aggressive was because most of the replies there never went beyond squee over the fact that it's a rolling cocktail despenser. I was afraid that if I harshed their squee too much, I'd get dismissed as a "hater" and "unclassy." And if it got too many thumbs-down reviews,* it would get marked as spam and hidden. I know it's not cool to cave to "tone arguments," but the reality is, if you want to be heard by certain people, sometimes you have to.

Step One, for me, was simply to raise my hand and say:

"Yo! Hello! Real people actually need to use these chairs for things other than partying down, you know."

Sometimes, even reminding the "TABs" that we're real, here, and not your coatrack,** is radical enough.

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*speaking of accessibility -- ever notice how often red and green are used as the primary indicator of information (green thumbs up on YouTube for a positive review, red thumbs down for a negative one), when Red / Green colorblindness is the most common type? And those icons are so tiny on YouTube, you'd need a magnifying glass to see which way the thumbs are pointing.

**I've had my chair actually used as a coatrack -- by strangers, without permission -- in theaters ...While I'm sitting in the chair. I've also had strangers lean on the back of my chair, as an elbow rest, while they're talking to someone else (also a stranger)

A Mid-Year Resolution:

It hasn't become a habit yet, but I'd like to cultivate it as a habit this summer:

At least once a day:

• Get out my minute timer,
  
• set it for ten minutes
  
• start an entirely new scene or snippet of a story, without premeditation
  
• stop when the timer stops, even if that's in the middle of a sentence, or a word.

Yes, it means I'll end up with a metric buttload of unfinished stories. But right now, I'm stuck in the rut of thinking that if I don't think I'll be able to finish something, it's not worth even starting.

And this way, when the next Screnzy or NaNo comes along, I'll have buttload of random vignettes to read through, to spark my brain when the dreaded Writer's Block comes along...

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So far, I've done this three times, total (The bit with Christopher and the pebble-that's-really-an-egg, and once yesterday, and once today). I remember reading (or maybe hearing) somewhere that it takes six weeks of everyday-doing to turn something into an ingrained, automatic habit. I hope this becomes one of those habits. And after ten minutes becomes a habit, I can step up to 15, then 20, 30, 45, and so on.

I have a hunch (or a hope) that writing against the clock (especially a tightly set clock) will help me get into the habit of jumping in right away and writing something, and just going with it. If I made this resolution to write for three hours every day, instead of ten minutes, I fear I'd spend most of that time staring at the blank page and panicking.

I remember writing everyday-ish like this when I was a teen. I was a lot happier as a teen than I am now. I think this writing habit (or lack of it) has a lot to do with my happiness quotient.