Technology for people with vision loss

Macular degeneration affected multiple members of Jane’s family, so she wasn’t surprised to receive her own diagnosis. Still, vision problems seemed far away for a woman who was just starting her adult life.

After marrying and working several jobs, Jane started an antique business and built a very successful operation with her partner.

In the 1990s, however, friends began reading Jane’s price tags for her because she couldn’t see them. Eventually, she couldn’t identify dishes and other items in her store. Jane’s vision loss forced her to give up the antique business.

She adapted, however, learning how to do many tasks with very little sight. Initially, she couldn’t use a phone, check her finances, or browse the Internet because she had problems using technology.

Jane began adaptive technology training with Outlook Enrichment in 2019. Her husband continued his support, driving her to the sessions, but his health declined, and she had to manage transportation and other daily affairs.

Through her training at Outlook Enrichment, Jane learned how technology can help someone who can’t see well to live on their own.

She calls family and orders groceries with her iPhone and uses Uber to get to doctor’s appointments.

Jane found these valuable resources and solutions at Outlook Enrichment.

Even as the pandemic began, Jane continued her training. The virtual training Outlook Enrichment offers helped her to keep learning. She recently started managing her finances with a bank’s app which increased her independence.

Jane plans to continue learning and wants to use technology to start a digital antique business.

Like Jane, you can achieve increased independence and accomplish any goal you set with the help of technology.

Outlook Enrichment’s technology trainers can teach you how to use computers, smartphones, and other digital devices. Whether you have some sight or no sight, Outlook Enrichment can help you overcome any technology obstacles you face.

Call 531-365-5051 to get started. (Outlook Enrichment provided this information.) Medicare covers the COVID-19 vaccine at no cost to you, so if anyone asks you to share your Medicare number or pay for access to the vaccine, you can bet it’s a scam.

Here’s what you need to know: • You can’t pay to put your name on a list to get the vaccine. • You can’t pay to get early access to a vaccine. • Don’t share your personal or financial information if someone calls, texts, or emails you promising access to the vaccine for a fee.

Con artists may try to get your Medicare number or personal information so they can steal your identity and commit Medicare fraud. Medicare fraud results in higher health care costs and taxes for everyone.

Protect yourself from Medicare fraud. Guard your Medicare card like it’s a credit card.

Remember: • Medicare will never contact you for your Medicare number or other personal information unless you’ve given them permission in advance. • Medicare will never call you to sell anything. • You may get calls from people promising you things if you give them a Medicare number. Don’t do it. • Medicare will never visit you at your home. • Medicare can’t enroll you over the phone unless you called first. Check regularly for Medicare billing fraud. Review your Medicare claims and Medicare Summary Notices for any services billed to your Medicare Number you don’t recognize.

Report anything suspicious to Medicare. If you suspect fraud, call 1-800-MEDICARE.

Omaha Fire Department

The Omaha Fire Department’s Public Education and Affairs Department will install free smoke and/ or carbon monoxide detectors inside the residences of area homeowners.

To have a free smoke and/or carbon monoxide detector installed inside your home, send your name, address, and telephone number to:

Omaha Fire Department Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Requests 1516 Jackson St. Omaha, Neb. 68102

For more information, please call 402-444-3560.

The Alzheimer’s Association is offering a variety of free educational webinars.

Topics include the warning signs of Alzheimer’s, dementia research, healthy living, legal and financial planning, early stage care partners, late stage caregivers, and understanding and responding to dementiarelated behavior.

To register or for more information, please call 800272-3900 or go to alz.org/crf.

Nebraska Caregiver Coalition

The Nebraska Caregiver Coalition is offering a series of virtual workshops designed to provide training, education, support, and resources for family caregivers. Each session will run from noon to 1 p.m.

Presentations include Self Care for the Caregiver on May 19, Pharmaceutical Focus of Caregiving on August 18, and Caregiving: My Heart Sees Your Heart; Discovering the Joys and Benefits of Respite on Nov. 17. For more information and to register, please visit https://go.unl.edu/caregivers.

There is no cost to attend, however registration is required.

Metro Women’s Club

The Metro Women’s Club of Omaha’s motto is “Extending the hand of friendship.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, all Metro Women’s Club of Omaha events are on hold until further notice.

For more information, please go online to metrowomensclub.org.

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--Continued from page 9. you things and you won’t listen. But if you look at the example of others and figure it out on your own, that’s how you get ahead. My parents were very good examples and I try as best as I can to be a good example myself. One fails often, but you just try to stay on track.” Payne attended Dundee Elementary, Brownell Talbot, and Creighton Prep. A Jesuit priest who taught Latin at Prep, Father Michael Hindelang, S.J., made quite an impression on Alexander.

“The difficulty, if not sheer terror, of his class marked us all for life. His teaching style, like that of Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase, must have had its roots in some archaic, punishing tradition. Every word we uttered in class was judged and graded. If you asked a question, he wouldn’t answer directly, he’d call upon another pupil at random, and if that second student didn’t know the answer, he received a low mark for the day.

“Pop quizzes were constant. He made many students over the years cry. The funny thing was that outside of class, he was the kindest guy in the world. He was willing to be hated in order to instill academic discipline. We survivors bonded through him and still talk about him.”

Payne earned his bachelor’s degree at Stanford University. By the time he graduated from UCLA he had lived in Spain and Greece.

His production deal with Universal didn’t result in any features. A few years later though he and screenwriting partner Jim Taylor hit upon the idea for Citizen Ruth. After getting that film made, the dominos continued falling for the pair through Sideways. The tandem even took writing for hire jobs on big budget pictures. Payne made a short film and then directed the pilot for the HBO series Hung before developing The Descendants and Nebraska independent of Taylor. The two re-teamed on Downsizing.

In 2019 Payne was still licking his wounds from Downsizing when he became attached to the dark comedy The Menu, a story of ritzy guests invited to a star chef’s island retreat for a gourmet meal that has them on the menu. Payne backed out long before production commenced.

“It was an extremely seductive and dangerous premise, but I ultimately couldn’t crack to my satisfaction what it was about enough to justify some aggressive scenes of violence.”

An untitled project scheduled to star Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as a father who takes a revelatory road trip with his daughter was four days from the start of principal shooting when Netflix canceled the production.

After coming so close to the cameras rolling on a project Payne felt deeply about was a bitter pill to swallow. “I was really excited about this one. I told my agent, ‘I feel like a boxer who’s been trained, weighed, and all oiled up. I’ve got my gloves on, I’m robed, I’ve blown kisses on my way to the ring, and I get to the ring and the fight’s been called off. But I have to hit somebody.”

Payne is notoriously picky when choosing properties.

“I still go on what’s a story I’d like to tell, what’s a story I feel connected to on some level even though if not ostensibly autobiographical. The story still has to reflect some questions I’m having in my own life or depict some kind of life experience or fear I’ve had or might have.

“One is always balancing the need to make a movie with the need to make this movie, tell this story. The good movies come when you have that urgency.

“Jim Taylor and I lament we haven’t received a book manuscript as rich lately as we when we got Sideways and Election (the pair earned Oscar nominations for adapting the books those films were based on, winning for Sideways). If only we could get another book that is really up our alley and rich in those human ways.”

Like everyone, Alexander has endured COVID-19 worries and social-political unrest. After quarantining in Omaha from March through June, Payne was anxious for a change of scenery.

“We braved the perils of international travel and went to Greece. I came back mid-December to look in on my mother and to do some work here.”

Today’s America is more polarizing than when Payne came of age. Though he doesn’t plan to comment on the divisive social-political climate in his coming films, it’s bound to show up anyway.

“I think anytime you’re making a film the social trends, the winds of culture blow through your work whether you’re conscious of them or not. I rarely think in terms of doing something very literally from the current social situation. I like to think more in terms of metaphor.

You still want to just tell a story, but hopefully it has a political or strongly human point of view.”

Pundits inevitably reference Election during every American presidential race cycle.

“Barack Obama told me it was his favorite political movie,” Payne said. “But I didn’t set out to make a political movie. I just thought it was a nice comedy. But the stuff of it, the meat of it was political on some level. I just thought it was human.”

Film’s ability to hold a mirror to society is not lost on Payne. Because he believes so strongly in film, he teaches it on occasion. including master’s degree classes at festivals.

“A few years ago, I taught a semester at UCLA. I taught a version of a class I had been taught by one of my mentors, Richard Marks, where students screen their thesis films in class as works in progress. We all offer editing suggestions. Writing a script and shooting a film is one thing and really hard, but editing is where you can really make or break a film. Post-production is where young filmmakers really need a lot of help.”

He found the full circle experience of teaching at his alma mater “super cool.” The same for guesting on a recent television episode of Noir Alley with host Eddie Muller on Turner Classic Movies. The two discussed the 1950 Michael Curtiz film The Breaking Point starring John Garfield. Payne loves sharing his passion for film, giving and receiving recommendations with fellow enthusiasts.

Despite the travails that can attend filmmaking, there’s nothing Payne would rather do.

“I like making movies and I still want to do it. It’s fun to make them. Other people are still making movies. Why can’t I.”

Payne said the means of production is extremely accessible and affordable now. “For $2,000 to $3,000 you can have a fantastic quality camera with wonderful lenses and edit with sound at home. There’s little excuse not to make a film of some kind anymore.”

He advocates young filmmakers to broaden their horizons. “The more you know about noncinema things, the better your cinema will be,” he said.

“Anybody can learn how to make a film in about a week, and then you spend the rest of your life figuring out what to film.”

Payne retains faith in the power of film’s storytelling

“Film is still the best art form. Not just fiction films that come out of a writer’s brain. Look at all of the many documentaries which have an impact.”

His enthusiasm for movies extends to supporting silent film preservation efforts. He helped fund the restoration of a Charlie Chaplin Mutual short, The Adventurer.

The older he gets, the more Payne values the long-lasting relationships he enjoys with colleagues including a company of professionals he works with repeatedly. Local residents include writing partner Jim Taylor, editor Kevin Tent, composer Rolfe Kent, costumer designer Wendy Chuck, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, music editor Richard Ford, producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, casting director John Jackson, location scout Jamie Vesay, and actors Patti and Tim Driscoll.

“It’s very meaningful to have not just friendships but collaborations that span the decades,” Payne said. “It’s scary that now I can say decades. Look, I’m not alone. Many people who work in film collaborate over and over again. But I’m lucky in some of the relationships I have in that department.”

The loyalty he shows his crew and that they show in return is legendary. By acclimation, he’s known as an artist who’s also a mensch. “My ego says I would like to be remembered as both.”

With any luck he’ll be making films into his 70s or 80s. The fit, energetic Payne, who contracted a mild case of COVID last winter, watches his health in order to withstand the rigors of his profession.

“I try to get some exercise every day. I typically do something as soon as I wake up. I’ve been practicing yoga off and on for going on 30 years. I try to eat well. I do try to take care of myself.”

Though no spring chicken, Payne looks forward to many more films. “At an age when some of my high school and college classmates are starting to consider retirement, I feel like I’m just getting started.” (Biga is the author of the book Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film.)

Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures

Payne with Bruce Dern who won the Best

Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for his role as Woody in the film

Nebraska which Alexander directed.