Year 50 Day 45

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Me sitting in an industrial-looking stairwell with blue walls and metal railings. I have a somewhat bemused expression on my face.

Day 45: Today’s photo is actually a re-creation of an event from yesterday, which comes with a bit of a story.

Yesterday was Highline’s commencement festivities which, as last year, were held on campus (and it is so much nicer than the traditional stadium ceremonies). My wife and I had shown up early in the morning to help with setup, and then I’d been finding other ways to help out, so I’d been doing a lot by the time noon rolled around. So, a little tired, hungry, and slightly over-peopled, I headed back to my office in the library building to have lunch.

Also in the elevator with me were three of the librarians, also on their way to have lunch together. They got off on the fourth floor, and I got off on the fifth, sat at my desk, and enjoyed a quiet lunch.

When I finished eating, I checked my work email–and found an email from one of the librarians telling me which office they were in and inviting me down. While it was quite a while later, I figured I could see if they were still around, and since they were just a floor away, I took the stairs down…

..and the door to the fourth floor was locked. Oh, right, that makes sense. The library building was closed for the festivities, so that door would be locked. I went back up to my floor…

…and the door to the fifth floor was locked.

As were the doors to the sixth, third, and second floors, and the only door on the first floor is an alarmed emergency exit.

I was trapped in the stairwell.

So, rather bemused by the whole thing, I sat down and started by emailing all three librarians: “Are any of you still around? I’m trapped in the stairwell.” And then I started looking each of them up in Outlook to find their office numbers, hoping that one was around in in their office, or at least within hearing distance of their phone, so that I wouldn’t have to resort to calling campus security to let me out.

Thankfully, though they’d finished lunch and gone their separate ways by this point, one was in their office, and I was shortly able to send a follow-up email saying “I’ve been rescued!” And a little later, I found the other two out on the lawn enjoying the festivities, and we all had a laugh as they apologized for getting me stuck.

So, that was my mid-day adventure getting locked in a stairwell in the midst of the school’s graduation celebration. Hopefully it’s the last time this happens!

Disability Pride Flag

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While we’re just halfway through Pride month, July is Disability Pride Month, and in preparation for this year, I’ve created a high resolution version of Ann Magill’s Disability Pride Flag, which she released into the public domain. I have also created a brighter variant that may be more suitable in some situations.

A muted black field with a diagonal stripe running from the top left to bottom right in muted green, blue, white, yellow, and red.

You can snag the images from this blog post, or you can download the 175 KB Disability Pride Flag .zip file, which includes both the standard and bright variants as high-resolution (2000×3000 pixel) .png, .svg, and .pdf files, along with the Affinity Designer source files I created.

A black field with a diagonal stripe running from the top left to bottom right in green, blue, white, yellow, and red.

An explanation of the design and the meaning of the colors, from Ann:

I and several people with visually triggered disabilities (some of whom wished to remain anonymous) have collaborated to come up with this new design, shown above. The colors have been muted and rearranged to reduce eye strain, and each stripe also has a slightly different level of brightness (brightest in the center and darkening outward), so that even those with some form of color blindness can distinguish the stripes.

And in case you’re wondering, here’s the flag’s symbolism:

Having All Six “Standard” Flag Colors: signifying that Disability Community is pan-national, spanning borders between states and nations.

The Black Field: Mourning and rage for victims of ableist violence and abuse

The Diagonal Band: “Cutting across” the walls and barriers that separate the disabled from normate society, also light and creativity cutting through the darkness

The White Stripe: Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities

The Red Stripe: Physical Disabilities

The Gold Stripe: Neurodivergence

The Blue Stripe: Psychiatric Disabilities

The Green Stripe: Sensory Disabilities

Download link: DisabilityPrideFlag.zip (175 KB)

Year 50 Day 44

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A wide angle selfie of me wearing a Highline College t-shirt standing under an archway of balloons in the Highline blue and green colors.

Day 44: Congratulations to all of Highline’s graduates! We helped with setup this morning, handed out yard signs and did some tabling in the afternoon, and had a really good day celebrating this year’s graduating class.

Year 50 Day 43

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A black and white selfie of me with a slight smirk.

Day 43: Yes, this is absolutely a “didn’t take a photo earlier, so I’m playing with filters in a desperate attempt to make the photo slightly interesting” day. It happens!

Year 50 Day 42

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Me in the college library, standing next to a skeleton wearing a graduation cap.

Day 42: I couldn’t resist grabbing a photo with this graduation celebrant. Okay, so maybe they took a little longer to get through than some, but diplomas don’t have a time limit, right?

Year 50 Day 40

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Me standing in my living room, with shelves of books visible behind me. I'm wearing a black t-shirt with a graphic of an astronaut spray-painting a happy face smile on the moon.

Day 40: As hoped and expected, a night out dancing at the club has done wonders to loosen up those tight muscles. Aggressive dancing for the win! Also, I really like this shirt we found while shopping yesterday morning.

Year 50 Day 39

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A wide-angle shot of me sitting in a dark club, lit entirely in red. I’m wearing a black cap, black mask, and black t-shirt with a Mickey Mouse and Predator mashup.

Day 39: Back out at the Mercury! As usual, here nice and early to watch people make their way in and occasionally take advantage of an almost empty dance floor. This has always been my preferred way to hit the clubs; fashionably late has never been my style.

Year 50 Day 38

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Me outside on a street freshly wet with rain, wearing a black hoodie over a black button-up shirt with a print of yellow rubber duckies.

Day 38: After a few warm days, with more on the horizon, a couple cool, grey, drizzly days are very welcome. And my rubber duckie shirt just seemed appropriate.

Year 50 Day 37

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Me on an upper level of the school’s student union building; below me are a number of round tables with students and family members sitting and talking.

Day 37: Stayed late on campus to celebrate our Achieve program students’ graduations. They’re a great bunch of people, and it was fun to see them present their accomplishments. Though I will admit that fifteen hours on campus makes for a very long day.