New elderblog available

New to me, at least. WordPress.com now has options for the corporate server to add links to other websites that it thinks may be relevant to a particular post. We bloggers have no control over what those links are, except to turn them off. However, an incoming visitor to here came from a linked web log that is interesting. Check it out. Global Ageing Network Blog http://iahsa.wordpress.com/

The International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing, http://www.iahsa.net IAHSA is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
2519 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008-1520
iahsa/AT/aahsa/DOT/org
Phone (202) 508-9468
Fax (202) 220-0041

IAHSA is an affiliate of AAHSA American Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing

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Site Search Tags: elderblogs, aging, ageing, resources, international, housing, eldercare

Nonagenarian MySpacer, Kirk Douglas

Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times, click to view original

By Tina Daunt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, April 4, 2008

AS F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said, there are no second acts in American life. But Kirk Douglas, at age 91, has not only found a second act but now is writing a third in, of all places, cyberspace.
…

“Someone once told me, ‘Be ashamed to die before doing something for humanity,’ ” said Douglas, relaxing on one of the plush couches in his Beverly Hills home, with its gardens and courtyards, colorful paintings by Marc Chagall — a personal friend — and two beloved large dogs wandering in and out. “As you get older, you must think more of other people. You must strive to help other people. Who needs the most help but the young?

“What kind of world are we leaving them?”

It’s a question to which Douglas returns over and over on his website and in his new book, “Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning,” which was recently released as an audio book read by “Seinfeld’s” Jason Alexander.
[...]

MySpace page is
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=171170276

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Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, elderblogger, MySpace, audiobook, Tolstoy’s+Bicyclist, accessibility

Liz Taylor takes comments

One of the best reads ever on aging deliberately is Liz Taylor–

Her series has been mentioned previously -

• A say in one’s or other’s life?
• Dad deserves a say about his life, even if he’s wrong
• Elder neighbor in crisis?
• Prisons Not Geared to the Needs of the Elderly, Study Finds
• How to fall-proof your body and your home
• nesting in place
• Think ahead to stay safe at home
• Growing Older – Liz Taylor (major series under old title)

I just discovered that the columns published at Kitsap Sun Stories: Liz Taylor: Aging Deliberately allow comments (registration required) and have an RSS feed . This is so much more convenient and useful than the Seattle Times venue. I’m not sure which is the primary home for Liz’s work, however, and Kitsap may not carry all her columns. At the Seattle Times I have to subscribe by E-mail to their health series (once a week e-mail, all health stories which are interesting) to get notice of her columns. Otherwise I have a Google News Alert for Liz Taylor+ aging, which sometimes brings in notice of National Velvet. [the colors behind some items below mean nothing except straightening out the code remains to be done.]

Liz Taylor began her career as a federal consumer-fraud investigator and was appointed by Elizabeth Dole in 1976 to direct a nationwide investigation of the nursing-home industry. She’s worked in the aging field ever since.

In the 1980s, Liz became one of the first geriatric care managers in the Pacific Northwest, working with thousands of families and older adults to find high-quality services. In 2000, she founded Aging Deliberately, a business that teaches people how to prepare for their aging so they’ll have more control over what happens to them. In 2005, she served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. She’s won the American Geriatrics Society’s 2007 Aging Awareness Media Award and the Washington Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Excellence in Media Award. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/growingolder/

Liz Taylor Aging Deliberately New Kind of Retirement Ahead, Part Two 3/9/2008 12:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Finding Out About Low Income Options

It’s relatively easy to age successfully if you’re wealthy. Money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly allows you to buy the things that make life more comfortable at any age. 1/26/2008 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: When the Wrong Person Is in Charge of Someone With Dementia

In my last column, I wrote about a growing problem: what to do when an older person who has dementia hasn’t named anyone she trusts to make decisions for her. This week I’ll tackle a tougher issue: what to do when the person she names does a poor job. 11/17/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: When Someone With Dementia Resists Help

My e-mail has had a repeated theme recently: An older person with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, isn’t paying bills, preparing meals, bathing, and other important tasks — but refuses to allow anyone to help.

11/3/2007 09:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Patient Numbers Grow as Geriatric Practices Decline

There’s a certain uniformity to finding a physician under Medicare these days. Rich or poor, if you’re 65 or older, you’re likely to have similar slim pickings (more so if you’re poor and on Medicare and Medicaid). 10/20/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Becoming Eldercare Savvy

Most of us want to live a long time, but nobody wants to grow old. The irony is, most of us will — live a long time and grow old. It’s easy to do — all it takes is letting the days roll by. As long as you’re healthy, getting old is a piece of cake.

10/6/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Where to Go When It’s Time to Move

It’s easy as pie to age well when you’re healthy. The friction comes when you become frail. Sometimes it’s self-inflicted, the product of isolation, poor eating habits, lack of physical activity and falls — all common problems for people who age in their homes but don’t plan it correctly. 9/22/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: How to Know When It’s Time to Move

A woman in her late 70s, a good friend, is pondering her options. Her home is two stories (or three, including the basement), with many stairs to her bedroom, bathroom and the washing machine. 9/8/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Reader Shares a Parental Care Success Story

Dad is 87, fun and funny, with moderate dementia. He lived “on the edge” in his own home for years while we kids worried sick. 7/28/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Living With Chronic Illness

When I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, cars were sort of round and later sort of square. My dad wore a hat to work and took the bus.

7/14/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Life’s Gifts Are Within Everyday Actions

I’m 75 and have lived in an assisted-living facility for a year.

7/8/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Good News on the Doctor Front

Older people are not simply younger people with wrinkles our bodies change dramatically as we age, both inside and out; some parts wear out before others, sometimes several at once.

6/17/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Safety Circles Good Way to Build Safety Net as We Age

Whether you live at home, in a retirement community, or in a yurt on top of a mountain, as you age, you want to do it consciously.

6/3/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Caring for Stubborn Parents, Part IV

5/20/2007 02:00 AM

Advance Directives Ensure Dignity

One of the best parts about writing this column is learning about breakthroughs that help readers — and me — grow older more successfully. Today is about one of those discoveries. 1/18/2007 11:00 PM |

Here’s the Seattle Times list of articles,

long-term care insurance

Part I: Long-term insurance a must
Part II: Government doesn’t pay
Part III: Shopping for insurance

Why rates are rising

Part IV: 3 more insurance essentials
Part V: Five factors driving costs
Part VI: Long-term care Q&A Lessons from the past

 2008

Monday, March 10  Hey, brother, can you spare some time to help Mom?

Monday, March 3 When parental care falls to one child’s shoulders

Thursday, February 28 Charting an eldercare path requires family teamwork

Monday, February 18 Even with trusts, Medicaid and eldercare, money is the bottom line

Monday, February 11 When the wrong person is in charge of an aging parent

Monday, February 4 Caring for a parent who has never been easy to deal with

Monday, January 28 Diversions help ease “addiction” to mail solicitations

Monday, January 21 Forever young – well, at least to ourselves

Monday, January 14 Funeral planning is a touchy topic, but it’s a must-have talk

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Site Search Tags: Liz+Taylor,, aging,, ageing,, geriatric+case+manager,, RSS

Supercentenarian milblogger

(nonagenarian blog posts)

World’s Oldest Milblogger Tells All, William Henry Bonser (“Harry”) Lamin
from Kris Alexander at Danger Room from Wired.com http://blog.wired.com/defense/

Military blogs have changed the way we follow and understand war. One British soldier’s “blog” is gaining a large readership on the internet as he details the daily routine of being a soldier…in WWI.
…
Bill Lamin, Harry’s grandson, has done an excellent job of researching the historical background and weaving an interesting narrative of both the battlefield and the homefront. Worth a look.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/worlds-oldest-m.html

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin’s letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. To find out Harry’s fate, follow the blog! http://www.wwar1.blogspot.com/

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Site Search Tags: WWI, nonagenarian, supercentenarian, milblog, military, grandchild, Wired.com

More on computer accessibility: let your uvula do the browsing

The notice of the Vocal Joystick for accessibility comes from

• http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/09/vocal-joystick-for-a.html

Opera browser uses voice commands. Now I’ll have to actually test it to see how well it works. The Vocal Joystick would work on all software that uses a mouse device. I thought something like Dragon Naturally Speaking can command more than the voice recognition software? Somewhere in the back of my mind is a little piece of software I’ve seen that also does voice commands not a mouse substitute but nevertheless slick and free (for Firefox) (originally noted at Paul Hamilton’s FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

• http://clcworld.net/

University of Washington researchers are developing a new “Vocal Joystick” interface to make software more accessible for people who don’t have use of their hands or arms. The software converts simple vowel sounds and other intonations into cursor movement. The louder the sound, the faster the cursor moves. Saying “K-Ch” represents a mouse click and release….

“A lot of people ask: ‘Why don’t you just use speech recognition?’” (electrical engineering professor Jeffrey) Bilmes said. “It would be very slow to move a cursor using discrete commands like ‘move right’ or ‘go faster.’ The voice, however, is able to do continuous commands quickly and easily.” Early tests suggest that an experienced user of Vocal Joystick would have as much control as someone using a handheld device…

“The tool’s latest developments will be presented this month in Tempe, Ariz. at the Assets Conference on Computers and Accessibility.

Vocal Joystick detects sounds 100 times a second and instantaneously turns that sound into movement on the screen….

Versions of Vocal Joystick exist for browsing the Web, drawing on a screen, controlling a cursor and playing a video game. A version also exists for operating a robotic arm, and Bilmes believes the technology could be used to control an electronic wheelchair.” [...] http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=37134

Video demonstrations and publications are available on the group’s Web site,

• http://ssli.ee.washington.edu/vj/

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Site Search Tags: BoingBoing.com, voice, mouse, accessibility, Internet, personal computer, video, wheelchair