I just realized something today.

[conuly]

I realized I can tell one river when in the city from the other because the East River is bound to be East of wherever I am.

(I recognize that the East River is west to those of you in Europe and whatnot, unless you want to take the long way around. I'm just happy that it's east-in-relation-to-Manhattan and not, say, Iowa (which would potentially make the Hudson the Even More East River, I guess), you know?)

D'oh!

Comments

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

See, that wouldn't help me at all, because short of using a compass I never have any idea which direction is which.

[conuly]

Well, the traffic on Broadway runs downtown (south) and the street numbers go higher as you go uptown (north), so all I have to do is walk a block and I know north from south.

[hopefulnebula]

And around here, it's "Well, the mountains are west, so North is 'mountains to the left,' South is 'mountains to the right,' and East is 'what mountains?'".

In Kentucky, what taught me directions was a section of campus called Northside. It took me five months of directionlessness before I realized that Northside was on the (...wait for it...) north side of campus.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

I only realized very recently that there are four quarts in a gallon because quart is short for quarter.

[conuly]

I thought I was really clever the day I figured it out, but it's caused me no end of pondering:

If half a quart is a pint, and half a pint is a cup, and half a cup is a gill (look it up)... why is two quarts nothing more than a "half gallon"? Even havga or something would be better!

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Let's start calling a half gallon a winchester (http://www.hants.gov.uk/regulatory/tradingstandards/wmhistory.html), then! I mean, sure, that's Imperial quarts so it's actually more, but still. It's used to denote two quarts, ain't it?

Hmm? Eh?

(Not that I just spent the last 45 minutes trying to find something that means "two quarts" or anything. You bring it out in me.;-)

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Well, that's obviously a hag.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Within the last year I realized that the written word "epitome" is "ep-it-o-ME". I read it all my life as "epi-tome", despite very well knowing the word epitome in* speech.

I felt very much the idiot that day. :(

YAY Typos!

[leora.livejournal.com]

I often use the sun to tell rough direction if it's a time of day when that works (the weather usually cooperates where I live). I wonder, do they have beeping/chirping stop lights in New York City? And if so, since you can tell east-west versus north-south, do they make a two tone sound for north-south and a chirp sound for east-west?

I'm just vaguely curious how constant the system is. It's been that way at every crosswalk for the blind I've encountered while knowing which way was which, but I've heard other blind people criticize chirping stoplights for not being consistent from place to place (or worse, some of them not actually having the sounds match up with when it is safe to cross, but that is obviously a huge error that should be dealt with).

So, I just try to get data now and then when it seems like I can get some easily. If you don't know, it's no big deal.

[conuly]

No, I don't think we have beeping or chirping stop lights :(

[leora.livejournal.com]

Ah well, that's unfortunate. My absolute favorite kind actually is generally silent, although it emits a quiet beep periodically to let people know where it is located. Then you push and hold it to tell it you want to know when it's safe to cross. The really good ones are programmed to know where they are installed, so you push and hold and a voice says what cross streets you are at. Then when it is safe to cross it both makes the appropriate noise and the button vibrates. As the button is usually placed at wheel chair height this is an amazing example of accommodating various disabilities in a way that should work for virtually everyone. And it generally functions like a normal cross walk. But most of them aren't that good even in the parts of the bay area with lots of disabled people, since those are a more modern version and they haven't upgraded cross walks, as far as I know. I'd think putting in some form of device in the cross walks that have nothing would be higher priority than upgrading the older versions.

I find it somewhat interesting to learn what kinds of cross walk options there are, although probably most people don't.

[ncp.livejournal.com]

I live across the street from the California School for the Deaf and Blind. One of our talking stop lights was BROKEN for quite some time.

[leora.livejournal.com]

*sighs* Many blind people can manage by listening for traffic (assuming they are not deaf-blind). And the cane tends to do a very good job of making traffic stop, usually. I like to keep mine well in front of me so drivers will see it and stop. I've run into problems twice with drivers not stopping, but each time a blind-friendly crosswalk wouldn't have helped as I had right of way through normal crosswalk rules anyway and the cars were just acting horribly.

Most drivers seem to slow down whenever they spot me. Often they'll stop well before I make it to the crosswalk if I am obviously headed there. They seem to act like: Oh no! A blind person! Let her get safely out of my way before I continue. Who knows what a blind person might do? She might leap out into the middle of the street! I often try to use body language that indicates I am not ready to cross to let cars go or I try to get across as soon as I can so they go back to driving normally.

Hopefully drivers in other areas are also good about stopping for white canes and well, generally not hitting pedestrians.

[ncp.livejournal.com]

Oh I get that the blind can get along just fine without a talking stop light. And when they can't they're not shy about asking for help either. It's just the principle of the thing. When a piece of equipment is supposed to aid the handicapped in some way, you'd better make sure it actually works!

[leora.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're too fast. My apologies.

That was the misreading I was hoping to avoid and realize I unintentionally gave. I completely agree with you.

[conuly]

Whatever the use of a piece of equipment, it had better work! (The wheelchair doors at the terminal in Manhattan no longer work, probably because snotnosed brats cute little kids like my nieces kept pressing the buttons. They switched the ones on Staten Island to open in the normal way, with a video camera (that is, the normal way for automatic caution doors, despite their lack of stickerage!) because the tech made them much heavier to open manually and most ablebodied people would go for those doors automatically (as they're on the far right) and then get annoyed because they didn't realize they had wheelchair buttons. (Most ablebodied people without three year olds around, that is, because all the kidlets grasped the concept immediately.)

In short, this sort of thing is exactly why my mother has, for my whole life and longer, refused to purchase a fridge with an icemaker. She says she'd feel silly having to say "Sorry, you can't have ice, it's broken" should we ever have guests.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

The blind client I worked for a while back was much concerned about electric cars and not being able to hear them. (That worried her much more than crossing against the light during lulls in traffic.)

[conuly]

I see people using that argument (tangent warning!) against electric cars all the time. What doesn't make sense to me is why nobody proposes requiring electric cars to make some form of noise as they travel. It doesn't have to be quite as loud as cars (or heaven forbid, motorcycles - our neighbors think it's fun to speed down the block. It's ten lots long from where they are - sure, they can get there in five seconds, but couldn't they go someplace with more road?), but it can be loud enough to warn off blind people or people who (like me) tend to listen first and then look when about halfway into the street.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yes, and other possible problems. Which is why I really like blind-friendly crosswalks, especially the kind that vibrate. But when they fail, generally the drivers should still stop. Most drivers aren't so oblivious as not to stop for a pedestrian with a white cane crossing. So, it usually isn't a disaster.

Of course, it only takes one bad driver to cause a problem. Although the two bad ones I encountered were both cases where I did have right of way and the driver was just ~that bad~. One I did hear (and I suspect was speeding, that car raced by, but fortunately I heard it and didn't keep crossing even though I already was partway through crossing with a car stopped for me). Another one actually hit my cane and did not stop moving. I was deeply offended. It was moving very slowly, but I had already stepped forward such that the cane was directly to the left of my body and the car was to the left of that. It hit the cane (going very slowly) and I kept moving forward so it wouldn't then hit me. I was so tempted to turn around and just smack that car with my cane. It never stopped going forward after hitting my cane.

But it's always possible for there to be something worse, and crossing against the light does make it more likely.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just realized that was somewhat ambiguous in my writing. The sigh was for it being broken. I meant to properly segue and say, it sucks that it's broken, however... I realize that it wasn't clear that I really do prefer the crosswalks work and be modified for the blind and blind-deaf. Just to also note that many people can manage when they aren't.

But it's better for everyone when they are. I've made mistakes about when to cross now and then, and the cars do stop. But it's best if I cross when cars expect me too.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Yes, we do, we do! Definitely at 23rd and 6th for one (and there is a blind school or something there, so obviously they figured a good spot to invest in).

[conuly]

Comment on the two Ana-cdotes. Which is cuter - the "gerbil" or the whistling? I just can't decide!

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

That's handy.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

...You can't see the sun?

(Last night we drove home on an unfamiliar road and had a brief arguement about which direction we were going. I pointed out that the moon was setting on our right, which meant we had to be heading south.)

[conuly]

I can, but then I have to think "Is it before or after noon?" and work out the compass in my head. You'd think I'd have to work out a compass in my head using streets as a guide too, but somehow it doesn't seem to work that way. *shrug* I understand that doesn't make any sense, it doesn't even make sense to *me* and I *live* it, but c'est la vie.

[rachelkachel]

I have to work out the compass too, but the way I do it is by picturing my house in my head, looking out the front window - mountains to the east, valley to the west, red house/south to the left, blue house/north to the right.

In Atlanta I had the skyline to the east instead of mountains, except when I left campus, which was rarely.

[conuly]

Your house faced backwards from mine.

[conuly]

Also the streets don't run exactly N/S or E/W, they're on a fairly significant angle, so I have to do all this while also thinking "Okay, so then I'm walking southish".

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Heh, the only river that's not East of me is the Elwha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwha_River).

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Well, hello from south Thurston county. (Do you remember the Elwha ferry scandal in the late '80s?)

[jillianfish.livejournal.com]

Lol, don't feel stupid, It took me 20 years of living at the beach on the east coast of Fl to realize that I can tell directions by using the ocean and where it is as a guide. Hence why I could never ever live on the west coast. I'd be perpetually messing up my directions!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

It took about two years living here before I realized that home was east. Home's always been north before. This is why my mental map is turned sideways.