Life Marches On

Hello everyone. It's been entirely too long since I wrote a blog entry or much of anything else. No real good reason for that other than enjoying my marriage and coming to better terms with my hearing loss. That last has been irksome at times. When I take my hearing aids out, it's like someone has rapped a bunch of cotton around my head. As Spring has arrived, one bright side of this is that the birds which used to annoy me so much are far less of a bother. I'm certainly counting my blessings over all.
Sara and I have enjoyed the last months together as social life slowed over the Winter. We can both keep ourselves and each other engaged. Games, books and audio dramas are enjoyable for us both. Now, we're both starting to think more about our projects and getting on with things. Now too, things are picking up again in the social life department. We're seeing more friends and look forward to a wonderful Summer as far as that goes. Aladdin hasn't had a whole lot to do but is very loyal to Sara. She's getting more used to his nature so very different from Rocky's. Playing with him is certainly a form of exercise for me, but I've got to get into a habit of walking around the lake again. I've gone on a few good walks and we'll be off again to Symposium Cafe for a dinner with Antony and Angela. It's been quite a while since we've gotten together with them but they're settled in Mississauga so I expect to see a lot more of them over the next while. Steve visited recently. As part of that visit, he joined us at a jam cession with people from my former church. Everyone had a good time. Mushroom FM had its sixth birthday bash. Sara and I caught as much of that as possible with other things happening over the weekend such as Palm Sunday and a visit from Mark and Wendy. Events piled wonderfully atop each other giving me a very nice sense of being connected. Mark and Wendy haven't been able to see us for a while due to a baker's cyst Mark had to cope with on his leg. They've been out of action for quite a while but that seems at last to be getting better.

On the whole, my sleep hasn't been too bad lately. However, there have been some rough patches. I sometimes find myself at my most alert very early in the morning. I've been able to cope well for the most part. I'm hoping more fresh air and exercise will help as I spend more time outdoors with this gear. I'm using my iPHONE as my laptop replacement writing this on my bluetooth keyboard. Rather than using my Trekz Titaniums, I have a new bluetooth speaker in front of me which is able to keep up with my iPHONE thanks to its use of bluetooth 4.1. There's no annoying lag between a touch or swipe and hearing what Voiceover has to say. I can pug everything into my external battery and not worry about any extension cords. It's a nice way to operate. It should serve me well over the Summer and on trips.

I recently had to replace my laptop thanks to a nasty bit of spywere which simply wouldn't let go and die peacefully. Thankfully, the money for a low-end but very serviceable laptop was there. I think it will do what I need for the next number of years. Hopefully, I won't have any more equipment needs for a good long while. Sara's Braille display is really old and that might well be the next major expense. It seems that organisations have banded together to produce an actually affordable 20-cell display. From the sound of things, the Orbit Reader 20 has rudimentary notetaking abilities and can read electronic Braille documents. It's not quite as snappy as a more costly display but is apparently quite durable. My Focus40 Blue will more than meet my needs for ages but I'd love to feel an Orbit Reader20 in action at some point.

May should be a great month for gaming and audio dramas. Bigfinish will be releasing Dracula as well as what I expect is the final installment of this current arc of Pathfinder Legends. There also might be an anniversary Dark Shadows release. All great stuff. Add to that the Robin of Sherwood drama I backed all those months ago. I think it comes out this or possibly next month. Audible has just released a version of Alien with Rutgar Hower. That should be very good. Perhaps, this will finally be enough inspiration to get my EarThought blog going. Guess we'll see.

Travel Gear Review 2016

travel gear 2016

Hello everyone. It's been quite a while since I've gone over my set of electronic travel gear. This past year has seen a lot of change in that department for a few reasons. I'll go over these as well as my selections for what I now regard as my equipment choices. Students and other readers have enjoyed this sort of review collective in the past. For those hoping for life news, wait a while longer. Winter can be a slow time of year especially right after the holiday season.

What has driven me from my comfortable laptop and accompanying equipment? For one thing, size. I have sleep apnea and need to bring my CPAP machine wherever I go. The machine isn't heavy or large but is thick and takes up pack space with the hose and power supply. You never want to put too much pressure on the hose. Another thing I've noted during my last few outings was that the laptop took up too much pack space along with other necessities and had to be carried separately. This meant I had two packs to potentially deal with while getting on and off busses and such. The other major change has been hearing aids. This makes wearing earpods uncomfortable while using hearing aids although they still are best for audio gaming and night time listening when I don't wear hearing aids. Hearing loss also makes carrying around various speakers and large headphones less attractive.. At a volume level where I would enjoy hearing music or other audio, other people would find it intrusively loud. Also, when I'm out and about, I like to have situational awareness. I don't want to be isolated from people or events happening near me even if I am doing my own thing. That happens a lot particularly when sports are being watched. Nothing other than fashion bores me more. In such circumstances, it's nice to have unobtrusive entertainment of one's own choosing to hand.

Thanks to a warranty and a battery bulge of epic proportions, my trusty 32-gb iPHONE 5S has gone to iPHONE Heaven. I now carry an iPHONE 6 with 64 gb of memory. This affords me enough space for quite a lot. Compared to the 16-gb iPHONE 4 I started with around five years ago, it's positively luxurious. The speed and responsiveness has reached a point where switching between tasks and having things happen in the background is easy and smooth. In effect, my smart phone has become my laptop. This means my trusty laptop of many years is now my home base and desktop computer.

Having one's smartphone as a travel computer requires you to have some accessories on hand. I carry everything in a small carry-all bag I purchased from Mountain Equipment Co-op. It can be slung over a shoulder or carried in hand. I used it back when I had a netbook and it now comes into its own all these years later. It's sturdy, has several zippered compartments, is rugged and water resistant. I can't remember what its name was for the life of me but Mountain Equipment Co-op has many suitable bags. Visit them at:

www.mec.ca

While the ability to dictate is helpful, you really need a proper keyboard for any sort of sustained comfortable rapid writing. To that end, I have chosen the Microsoft Universal Mobile keyboard. It works very well with my iPHONE. I can type quite quickly on it. The dimensions are 27.2 x 13.8 x 3.4 cm and its weight is around 12.875 OZ or 365 G. I find the keyboard's heft a good thing. It combines nicely with a couple of thin rubber strips on the bottom to keep it sturdy and still while you type. Key travel is very good especially when you consider how thin the keyboard is. There's a nice tactile response. I tend to do mostly typing with the keyboard and use the iPHONE to control Voiceover and do other things. Voiceover features many keyboard commands but I'm not quite as good at mastering a bunch of new key commands as I once was. The touchscreen is so intuitive that there really isn't any great need for me to do so.

Provided I plug the keyboard in every so often for a couple of hours, I need never worry about it lacking power. The battery can apparently last up to six months of average use. Tactile switches and buttons make controlling it easy. The keyboard is sturdy enough for use on one's lap. The hard keyboard cover provides space to lay an iPHONE flat and has ridges to let you stand a tablet at an angle provided it isn't in a thick case. This creates a small basic two-piece laptop. The top detaches which can be useful in tighter circumstances. It is magnetically held on and will turn off the keyboard automatically when folded shut. The top and keyboard are sturdy enough to withstand bumps and other mishaps. I paid under $80 for the keyboard in July of 2015 and doubt I'll need to replace it any time soon. There are switches and buttons controlling volume, music playback, muting, and more. I don't use all of the switches mainly because things are so easy to do on the iPHONE itself. You can acquire  this and many other accessories at:

Www.amazon.ca

For listening privately to what comes out of my iPHONE, I now use the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium headset. This headset is light and is warn hung over the ears with the headband extending down behind the neck. Transducers rest in front of each ear sending sound through the cheekbones and skull. The transducers are about as big as an average thumb. In total, the headset weighs 1.45 OZ or 41 G. This leaves one's ears free for hearing what's happening around you. Also, you can wear the Trekz Titaniums without interfering with hearing aids. The hearing aid receivers and band of the Trekz Titaniums can both fit comfortably behind ones ears. I've found it more comfortable to wear the hearing aids on the outside and the Titaniums next to the skull.

In general, there doesn't seem to be any lag. I can touch my phone and get immediate audio feedback. The Trekz Titaniums use version 4 of Bluetooth and support many different profiles. The only fly in the ointment is that sometimes, calls aren't routed to the headset for a while. You can always answer them using the iPHONE itself provided you can reach it. This only happens once in a while. The battery life of the Trekz Titaniums is said to be six hours of constant playback. They have up to ten days of standby time. I've gotten whole days of heavy use with the battery still in the high or medium range. They require two hours for a full charge. Unlike other headsets, the Trekz Titaniums have built-in speech and can tell you their battery level. You can also check this right in the status line or battery section of your notification centre on iOS devices.

The controls are quite simple. A button on the left transducer lets you use smartphone features like SIRI plus has some added functionality. I found this out when I held it in too long and it called the last number I had phoned. Buttons on the right part of the ban will adjust the volume, turn the headset on or off, and holding both of them in for a second will toggle between two different equalization settings. The button which doubles as a power and volume up button has a slightly raised dot on it and is closest to the right transducer while wearing the headset. Pressing one of the buttons while no sound is playing will inform you of the battery level. A very well considered control setup.

The sound quality depends on one's bone structure. For me, it isn't as full as standard earpods or over-ear headphones. However, the sacrifice in richness is minimal for casual listening. The trade-off is easily worth having situational awareness. Music sounds more than adequate. Stereo positioning does happen but it's less refined than you'd experience with more traditional headphones. I don't recommend these for audio gaming where spacial position of sound is critical. For working or general listening, however, the experience is quite good provided you're not an audiophile and have expectations fitting the technology. Compared to earlier models, the Trekz Titaniums offer markedly superior sound and much less leakage. I can walk outdoors hearing directions from GPS software in my iPHONE while still hearing what's around me. I don't recommend listening to music while navigating via sound. It still distracts even though it comes in via the skull. Hearing rich sound such as music from the Trekz Titaniums as well as sound in your environment does take some getting used to. The mind just doesn't expect to be able to hear both music and surroundings well at the same time when wearing a headset.

For recording, I can't recommend using the microphones in the Trekz Titaniums. While good enough for phone calls, the noise cancellation robs recordings of sharpness. The microphone built into your i device is far better for recording. SIRI understands me quite well if I invoke it while wearing the Trekz Titaniums. It's nice to be able to hold in a button on the side of your head and command the phone in your pocket to do things. Moving around with phone in pocket and no wire dangling down in front of you is absolutely splendid. The other great thing about the Trekz Titaniums is, quite simply, the titanium. The headset flexes comfortably while you wear it and curls up when you take them off. Being a memory metal, you don't have to worry about them losing their shape even if you really scrunched them. They come in a nice travel case which easily fits in the pocket along with your phone. However, I don't often think to bring the case and simply stuff the headset into my pocket when not needed. It does sometimes become uncomfortable after long periods of use depending on how the ban moves. The headset is so light that I have often forgotten that I'm wearing it. In order to fund the creation of these headphones, Aftershokz Held an Indiegogo campaign. I backed the project in time to get in on early bird pricing. The current price for the Trekz Titaniums is $129.00 US. You can order directly from:

Www.aftershokz.com

I resisted the whole Bluetooth movement chiefly due to the extra battery drain one incurs when using it. Why have devices which not only require their own batteries but take power from your computer's battery? Hearing aids were what has finally forced my hand. That and having more than one cord snag and break out of my former wired headgear. Now, I can work completely wirelessly. It still feels a bit strange as well as liberating. Since my computer lacks bluetooth drivers, I wear regular headphones overtop of my hearing aids and Trekz Titaniums while working at home. The Trekz Titaniums are capable of accepting input from more than one device at a time. They call it multipoint functionality. I look forward to using that whenever I get around to upgrading my laptop.

For those occasions where one wants to share audio, I currently lack an adequate bluetooth speaker. My UE Boom is using and outdated version of bluetooth. This imparts a quite noticeable lag to proceedings while navigating with Voiceover. You'll tap or Flick and then wait half a second for a response. There are doubtless plenty of better options out there. However, given my hearing loss, I no longer feel as well equipped to advise people in this area. Finding something at a reasonable price which exhibits no lag yet still sounds good is best left to others to find at this stage.

My iPHONE6 is serving me quite well. It's noticeably faster than the 5S and I get better results when doing OCR or having objects recognized via the camera. I keep it in an Otterbox Defender case. It includes a built-in screen protector and feels comfortable in the hand. The feel and construction are a definite improvement over the Defender model for the 5S. I like the rubbery feel of the case's outer shell. At the moment, I have enough on-board storage for current needs as well as some lavish extras. Sixty-four gb is enough for over a thousand tracks of music, over 100 audio books plus something near 1000 ebooks, a 90hour fully dramatized version of the Bible, an off-line reference containing the most popular 250000 articles from Wikipedia, eleven pages of apps plus associated data, and more. I still have room to spare. Should the need arise, there are now external storage drives for iOs devices. When making the shift from use as a phone to use as a laptop replacement, even thirty-two gb was tight but serviceable. I wouldn't recommend trying it with sixteen gb.

Keeping all your devices charged is the last order of business. Bluetooth does exact a toll on your smartphone or tablet's battery. This hasn't been as severe as I had presumed prior to recent experience. iOS9 is doing quite well at managing power. I recently invested in an

Anker Astro E7 Ultra-High Capacity 26800mAh  3-Port 4A Compact Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank with PowerIQ technology. This is enough to fully charge my iPHONE ten times if necessary. This isn't a pocket-sized battery mainly due to length and weight. It weighs in at 490 G, just short of half a kilogram. Its dimensions are 16.6 x 8 x 2 cm. In a bag with other gear, it doesn't take up much room at all. It is quite rugged and sleek coming with a softer protective pouch. Three USB ports are available to charge multiple devices at once. The ports are intelligent and detect how much charge to give items plugged into them. An 18-month warranty is provided should anything go wrong. It comes with a built-in LED flashlight which is useless to me. I've used a light detector app on my phone to make certain that it hasn't accidentally activated.  As a blind user, there's no way to check how much power the battery has remaining. This would have been nice. However, with so much spare capacity, I don't expect this will be a problem provided I charge it fully every month. When my iPHONE is plugged into it, IOS states that the phone is on AC power. The recharge rate is very fast compared to other external batteries I've used. When the battery itself is charging either via a USB port or wall adaptor like the Apple power brick which came with my iPHONE, the batter warms up. It's smart enough to stop charging when full and will cool quickly when this happens. There's one button on the side of the battery which activates the display. Holding that button in or double-tapping it will turn on the flashlight.

A smartphone is never going to give you quite as much power or storage as a laptop. I'm currently blessed to have both options. Given my current requirements while away from home, this more portable setup works very well. There are some tradeoffs. The bulk of my audio drama collection is for all practical purposes off limits. I shudder to think how much it would cost to store my full collection of audio in the cloud. And then, there's being able to get at it without going over your monthly data plan. That's where an external drive would come in handy provided you could access content without the need for Internet use.

I don't always need to type lengthy emails or documents but can when I wish. I can even set the typing feedback so that it's silent while using a bluetooth keyboard and doesn't cause voiceover's audio ducking to disturb the music I listen to while writing. When using the touchscreen keyboard, typing feedback is there where I need it. The keyboard is somewhat smaller than a normal one. Just large enough not to seriously cramp the hands but you do lose a bit of speed and comfort. When I'm in different places and need to charge up my stuff, I can do so without needing to inconvenience anybody. The only time cables need to be in evidence is when things are plugged in. Otherwise, nothing can get snagged, impede packing up or get lost. Even when I eventually track down a suitable speaker, I doubt my bag of tricks will exceed two kilos unless I add snacks and a bottle of water for an extended trip.

The piper always has to be paid somehow. The price for such convenience is that good devices are held hostage to the capacity of their batteries to hold a charge. When that is no longer possible, the device is useless unless the battery can be replaced. We'll just have to see ultimately how long the batteries maintain the ability to hold a charge. On the bright side, having each component a separate thing makes replacement more manageable. These devices seem to come with 18-month or 2-year-warrantees. Changing to a new iPHONE won't require me to discard bluetooth devices like the keyboard and headset. Provided I don't opt for something lighter, my external battery should serve me for a good many years.

The portability of an accessibility solution centred on my iPHONE is absolutely mind-blowing. My desk used to have an OCR scanner taking up a good part of its surface. That scanner has been gone for over a year now. An app called KNFBReader has let my iPHONE replace it. Most of the time, it does a far faster and better job despite the camera being operated by a blind man assisted by artificial intelligence. You can easily carry all the computing power you need for normal day-to-day tasks in a pocket. Has someone suggested this would be the case even as little as five years ago, I would have laughed openly. All the accessories fit in a small light bag and merely enhance various aspects of the user experience. These accessories can be taken, left and upgraded as required.

I'm glad the iPHONE6 wasn't much larger than the 5S I treasured. A larger screen does nothing for me. This iPHONE6 was an unexpected but very pleasant step in my journey through the Apple ecosystem. Combined with my chosen accessories, it has afforded me the ability to travel a whole lot lighter than I would have thought possible.

Half a Year Newly Married

Hello everyone. It has been entirely too long since I've written in this blog. For that, I apologize profusely. Many completely blog-worthy things have happened and should have been remarked upon in this space. In terms of accomplishment, there isn't all that much to crow about. However, in terms of enjoying married life, Sara and I have done pretty well. No major disagreements or fights to speak of. After all this time, it's hard to know where to begin. I can't promise to cover everything but will attempt to hit the highlights of our first six months together.

Sara and I continued to enjoy an excellent Summer. All the administrative stuff with ODSP and Peel Housing has been settled. That took somewhat longer than I expected but I needn't have worried. Sara has done better than I at keeping her creative projects going. She has begun recording and editing things using her new Blue Yeti microphone. The bedroom seems to be best suited for that. She also does pretty much all the major cooking these days. She truly delights in having her own kitchen. While I appreciate its utility and my good fortune to have an apartment like this made affordable, I've never taken much enjoyment from cooking. Not like Sara. Dish duty is more my area. I've found us some good auditory entertainment to while away the hours companionably. We've been enjoying audio dramas from my collection and have expanded it thanks largely to Big Finish. Dorian Gray has been mostly excellent. So has Sherlock Holmes, Pathfinder Legends and other splendid additions. The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre has graced us with some nifty H.P. Lovecraft Stories turned into audio plays. That has to be the best discovery of the year. They've put out some really fun stuff.

By far though, a very supportive cast of family and friends have been key ingredients to our happiness. It was wonderful spending time at the Murgaski cottage with Steve, Michelle and Steve's parents. Everyone had a good time. Drink and the Summer sun each took a toll that was well worth paying in my humble judgment. We have also enjoyed visiting Shannon and Kim. After hearing so much about Shannon's new place, it was interesting to actually go there and get a real sense of it. We'll have to see about having them visit us here after the holidays. Adam and Jeanette have graced this abode a time or two. So have Mark and Wendy. Good friends all. One thing I hope for this coming year is that we have some more regular opportunities for socialization.

I don't believe I'll be able to finish the book by the middle of next year as anticipated. I'll still take a good crack at it but there's so much ground to cover. I really don't want to break it up into more than one book. There's enough of an interest in public circles to make me think that one book would be grabbed as a novelty particularly by parents and friends of blind people, game design students, game developers and such. Not a whole series though. I don't really want to do a text book so much as a personal examination of the accessible gaming history I've experienced plus current possibilities and speculations on current and future possibilities. I will also discuss why it's so important that blind people be included where ever feasible in digital and other forms of play. Getting the balance right is going to be a real bear. I also have my game to get back to eventually. I've done well at gathering resources for both these projects over the past while. The epic find of the year in that quarter was discovering an accessible way to obtain and read The Art of Game Design: A book of Lenses 2nd ed. by Jesse Schell. When the Kindle version proved impossible to read with its iPHONE app, I was forced to look farther afield and discovered CRC Press. they use something called Vital Source bookshelf. It's a system for reading text books which is made to be accessible with screen-readers. There's an app for i devices and versions for Windows and Mac. The books are typically of the more expensive type you'd get for taking courses in particular fields. Students in particular will want to check out:
www.crcpress.com

Getting to know my new church community is going to be a long and slow process. Sara has really found a place of honour there. They value her musical abilities very highly. She knows her religion and her music. Hearing that combination at work is something special. I'm getting along well with people. they're very patient and kind. It's a lot to take in from a theological standpoint. I'm simply not on the same spiritual walk. There are some real glimpses of the kind of wisdom the Orthodox approach affords. I am increasingly confident that my patient observation and attentiveness will prove rewarding. I really don't know that I'll ever be a real believer in their take on what God wants of us. At the same time, it's obviously the same God I've believed in and worshipped so differently.


My birthday this year was tremendous fun. Adam and Jeanette came over and we all enjoyed a Swiss Chalet dinner courtesy of my lovely Sara. One present, a trio of unique soundscapes put together by Julian Treasure, has just arrive during the holidays. I'm very thankful to have been able to use my gifts to acquire music and books which had waited on my wish list for ages. I also got the whole Afganada series of audio dramas done by the CBC about Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Lots of superb listening for long Winter days.

One new challenge I'm just beginning to contend with over the past couple of months is the use of my hearing aids. It really changes the character of what I can hear and adjusting is really not a thing to be taken lightly. This is especially true when you rely on sounds as heavily as I do for getting around. Sara has proved to be remarkably patient as I've gone through this process. I've had to do everything from acquiring more gear to figuring out which mode works best in given circumstances. Both of us use headphones most of the time while working so asking each other to repeat what we said is nothing new. She's far more tranquil with the reality of my hearing loss though. At some level, I'm still blown over by the fact that I, who take pride in my listening abilities, must now use hearing aids to do what used to come naturally. I go through batteries more quickly than average since I need to increase volume in many situations to hear more comfortably. Just how many of these little pellets will I use up before life ends or I need to upgrade to new hearing aids? The Aftershokz Trekz Titanium headset is a godsend since I can use it for my iPHONE and keep all that sound and phone calls separate from my hearing aids. I've just discovered yesterday that wearing the Aftershokz on the inside and hearing aids outside doesn't stress the hearing aid wire and is far more comfortable than having the aids between the headset and my skull. Little tricks like that are worth their weight in gold.

While the past months have been largely about settling into married life, I really want this coming year to be more about building up that life socially and re-kindling my creative drive. The resources are largely in place now for that to happen. A final piece of the puzzle just arrived in the form of Trekz Titanium headphones from Aftershokz. These are a godsend and work wonderfully with my hearing aids. I'll be doing a travel gear update post early in the new year. It's long overdue and I believe things have reached a tech plateau for me in this area. Kickstarter and Indegogo have been a big and exciting part of that process. The Trekz Titanium campaign did a masterful job of making me feel like part of the team. That journey will continue as more of the projects I backed in other non-tech areas such as audio dramas and one game development book are slated to be finished in the coming year.

I really have to curtail my spending. This will be a struggle for me. I've managed to obtain pretty much every urgent item on my wish list over the past while but at a cost I simply can't sustain over time. I don't want to bar myself completely from purchasing books but really need to be more disciplined in my approach. I think I've come to a point where I'm ready to do that. Expanding life socially is going to require some money when it really starts hap penning. That'll likely be when things warm up. Winter has arrived in force here. We're under an extreme cold alert today. My cote, Winter boots and gloves are already in use and in good shape as far as I can tell. I don't plan on many Winter walks unaccompanied but am glad I was able to test my new iPHONE, Blind Square, hearing aids and Trekz Titanium on a windy outdoor walk recently. It's nice to know I can do it if I have to provided I take my time. Echoes of cane taps sound different enough to throw off my sense of distance from things. Too much wind simply renders walking with any idea of my surroundings beyond the tactile completely impossible.

Technology expenses should be a thing of the past for a while. I believe I've managed to hit a stable point where my needs are met nicely both at home and while travelling. My laptop will now be my desktop and likely won't leave home. The iPHONE6 has 64 gb of storage which is plenty for books, music, apps, documents, etc while on the move. I recently put my new Anker external battery and Bluetooth keyboard to a more sustained field test over the holidays and am very pleased with the results. More on that in my upcoming travel gear entry.

There is a whole lot to look forward to this year. More of my long-time friends are popping up in Mississauga. I fervently hope we'll be seeing more of Bill, Tony and Angela. One larger-scale project I really need to undertake is more orientation and mobility lessons. I'll need to get onto the waiting list for those. Mastering the bus system, learning to get to doctor/health appointments, getting downtown to Union Station and assorted other destinations on my own would be a very good thing. At the very least, getting enough information into Blind square and enough notes on routes to be useful to me is worth pursuing. I realize that mobility will always be a weak area for me but it's time for taking another stab at doing better there.

We have a brand new government in power who are ready to undo a lot of stagnation and stifling Harper had in place over the past decade. Societal cohesion has really taken a back seat to the budget and we need that changed. I'll be very keen to see how much the new government will be able to do of what it promised to do. I'm glad we're doing our part to help the Syrian refugees. Shutting the doors wasn't the right approach in World War II and it wouldn't serve us well here. I just wish Trudo hadn't bitten off more than we could chew in the quest for votes. I hope things and proceed at a measured pace which the systems here can realistically deal with. I also feel for the many would be immigrants who have been forced to wait longer due to this crisis. Should there be a meaningful way in which I can help at all, i won't say no. I've felt like this country just hasn't been its best self this past decade. Restoring our good compassionate society is long overdue.

One area I must always be thankful to Harper for is his ongoing support of the underwater archaeology surrounding the Franklin Expedition. I now have an accessible copy of Franklin's Lost Ship, in iBOOKS and have begun to read it. That story of arctic explanation has long fascinated me and we'll at last start to really learn from the remains of hopefully both ships. I don't believe the Terror has yet been found. That will be a profound journey of soul-searching and really force some people to re-examine their thinking on Native culture.

The Truth and Reconciliation report has come out and seeing how that gets dealt with will be very interesting also. I have copies of the six volumes on my iPHONE awaiting my attention. I don't expect that to be a pleasant read but think we ought to be aware of the negative forces employed to shape the society too many of us take for granted. I really feel for everyone involved in the process which produced these documents. I hope generations of Canadians to come are given a better sense of our past and are able to figure out how we can really move forward. Even with abundant good will in our current politicians, I have no illusions that there's some magic quantity of resources, apologies or anything else which could really mend this sort of damage quickly.

A whole lot is hap penning in accessible games. This year seems bout to be a historic one in that quarter. Another successful kickstarter has put 64oz Games in a position to acquire new equipment to drastically increase their capabilities to make board and other games accessible which have heretofore been beyond the experience of blind people. I was a small part of that kickstarter and expect a 20-sided die for my small donation. I still intend to eventually acquire at least one board game from them for our own entertainment and for hands-on research for my book. While it's sad to see Something Else Ltd. bow out of the audio game creation business, they have left a wonderful legacy. A number of the best audio games to grace iOS as well as a sound engine which those more skilled than I will doubtless put to good use. The year will kick off with an English localization of a Korean games called Ji Eum. I've earned a place in the credits with another small donation. Lots of new stuff coming up. Fallen London should be a spectacular offering on iOS rivalling even King of Dragon Pass for death, scope and replay value. Six Ages, the next game from A Sharp, makers of King of Dragon Pass, should also be a very good experience. PC gaming is picking up again. Marina Break is a strange combination of Breakout and Pinball which appeared over the holidays. So far, no other projects in development for play on Windows have been widely discussed. I expect everyone's busy getting used to Windows10 much like I am.

I started this blog entry before Christmas. It is now January 4th, 2016 as I bring the post to a close. Due to a switch in calendars instituted by Sara's church of choice, this is in fact a few days before Christmas. Time travel just isn't as flashy as it's made out to be. I do appreciate having the more secular family events separate from what should be an interesting religious Christmas experience this week. This does however mean that our new thankfully  small and out of the way Christmas tree will remain on our dining room table for a while yet. Life is both wonderful and strange. And with that last observation, I will leave you for a hopefully shorter while between entries. Happy New year everyone.

First Blog Post using iPHONE and Bluetooth Keyboard

Hello everyone. I'm writing this blog entry using my new Microsoft Universal Mobile keyboard and the Voice dream Writer app. So far, this is proving to be a very effective combination. 

 The keyboard is, of course, smaller than a laptop keyboard. Around as spacious as a  netbook's keyboard. A whole lot lighter and thinner. It's solid enough to use on my lap without worry but it's barely long enough to be stable with knees close together. The key travel feels surprisingly good. I can type quite quickly and accurately already.

It's very hot outside so Sara and I have spent the majority of our time indoors. The air conditioning has served us very well indeed. We had a great Sunday visiting Shannon and Kim as well as attending church. Everything went very well and it was fun getting to know Sara's good friends a bit better. Travel by Go Transit costs a bit but is pretty convenient going between cities. We'll have to budget for these occasional expeditions.

A lot is happening in the tech area over the next while. Applevis is marking its fifth birthday with a week of giveaways. This celebration could really do people some serious good so I've been retweeting some of their giveaways in case any followers can benefit. I'll eventually be doing a review of this keyboard for the site once I've learned all of its quirks and features. I think I may choose to use this setup to write my book. The only real issue is that Voice Dream Writer needs to import rtf files and turns them into plain text. Still, I may write the rough draft as a text file and then move it over to the laptop once it's ready to be turned into a manuscript.

Another aspect of this is getting used to the Voice Dream Writer and Blogger apps. I'm hoping this will make blogging while out and about a lot easier and less irksome. I believe I can simply cut and paste this entry into the Blogger app. Guess we'll see. I'm certainly enjoying playing interactive fiction using the Frotz app. It works wonderfully with this keyboard. Doubtless, Mudrammer would be just as pleasant an experience.

I can't believe July has up and vanished already. The month has just flown past even without iced Summer drinks from Tassimo. They're finally available and will hopefully arrive soon. I also have a USB charging hub on the way to keep all my travel gear charged. For most trips, I'll use the keyboard and my iPHONE as a makeshift laptop. It's a very light and portable solution with excellent longevity thanks to my external battery pack. However, it does lack the capacity and comfort factors of a laptop and accessories. We'll see how it goes. 

A New Desk for A Changed Life

Hello everyone. I'm writing this entry on July 4 as noon approaches. I'm sitting at my brand new desk. It was assembled yesterday by my father and Jim, a family friend who we've known since I started secondary school. Sara and I can now sit at nice and sturdy new wooden computer desks. They have a built-in cabinet above a large drawer, a keyboard shelf, and lots of space. A little later, we'll be heading over to a delayed Canada Day celebration. It's apparently a very nice day outside. Ideal for swimming. I haven't done that yet this year.

It's so nice to have my own desk which has a drawer and cabinet built in. Its also higher than my old desk. I've brought out my old keyboard and am making use of the keyboard drawer. Haven't used a regular keyboard in long enough that I forgot how good it felt.

Figuring out what to keep close at hand and what to have in storage is a bit more complicated. However, I can now have confidence that things I need handy can also be safe. Aladdin is good-natured but you just never know what he'll go for next. This morning, Sara's English muffin was snatched and she had to get a new one. During our visit to Sara's parents for early Canada Day celebrations, Sara found some more toys to bring back for Aladdin to play with. He loves his new rubber ball and bone. That makes four toys laying around which seems to help keep him amused and less prone to unintentionally cause mischief. The visit was quite pleasant. They sure know how to celebrate. Sara and i took an unexpected trip into town which proved pleasant. Aladdin is still in the process of settling into his role as guide dog. I thik all of our expectations regarding the behaviour of a new young guide dog were somewhat unrealistic due to how well-behaved her former dog was.

We had our first actual guest as a married couple. Rose came over for a visit yesterday bringing some scrumptious onion rings. We can now look forward to meeting Angela and Tony for lunch in a couple of weeks. I can't say I look forward to the physical checkup I have coming later that week. I haven't had one for quite some time. No word yet on the appointment with the ENT specialist to further investigate my hearing loss.

It's strange to think we'll have been married for a month in just three days. It's been a good experience so far as we establish our routines and figure out how we can best contribute. Now that the furnishing and moving in process is done other than paperwork, we're starting to look outward and connecting with people more as a couple. I'm also hopeful that I'll find it easier resuming work on my creative projects. The balcony table and this desk will serve me well. Perhaps, by the time the new wood smell has faded away, I'll have written more than this blog entry which will stand the test of time. I've deleted so many paragraphs which seemed promising initially but eventually lost their lustre. As life takes on a new shape, I hope more lines of thought prove to be keepers.

The Wonderful Wedding and Two Weeks After

Hello everyone. It has been nearly two weeks since our wedding. I ended up having a bachelor party the night before. We went to the Lionheart pub and had a really nice evening. Ron Schamerhorn and a few other friends from Oakville joined us. The food, conversation and noise level were all optimal. It was so good to reconnect with that happy bunch of guys.

The wedding day went wonderfully. A lot of really special people in both our lives were there to celebrate with us. Adam was a great best man for the second and hopefully last time. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food and have a good day. For me, that was paramount. The kids were quite good. I needn't have worried about their being too bored. The Orthodox wedding service seemed to interest more of our non-orthodox crowd than I would have thought. They don't use the standard questions when it comes to "I do." They ask whether you are doing this of your own free will, [hopefully yes], and whether you have been prom iced to another for marriage, [hopefully, no.]. Glad I didn't mix up my answers due to nerves. I don't harbour any doubt that I've chosen well marrying Sara. I was very conscious, however, of the possibility of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Other than some unexpected confusion when dealing with signing the registry, all went splendidly.

Seeing so many close friends and family in one space was one of those lifetime memories. None of the close friends I invited had to miss the day. Joseph and Rose from my former church were there. I was so glad they could share the occasion. Steve Murgaski and his parents, all very key figures in my life, were there. This made it easy for Michelle McQuigge, our good friend and match-maker, to also be present. The day would have been scandalously incomplete without her there. Mom got to meet and talk with Michelle for the first time in over two decades. Sadly, I didn't hear that reunion. Sara's good friends Shannon and Kim also attended. We had a little time to talk. I look forward to getting to know them both much better. Hearing people meet each other for the first time was as fascinating as I thought it would be. I wish I could have heard more of that happening but needless to say, I was somewhat occupied. Getting to introduce Shannon to the actual Adam, the Immortal Gamer was a priceless moment. Also, dad finally got to briefly meet Rose. Small moments but no less satisfying for their brevity.

Carine and Richie, our photographers, were very good. A number of people commented on how active and professional they looked. Despite never being able to see their accomplishments on our behalf, I have no doubt that those who can see the photo albums will be pleased. I hope the pictures will also serve as good advertising for Carine and Richie's services. They're two of my newest friends who have quickly become special enough that I was originally going to invite them as guests until they insisted on doing our photography free of charge. I'm very pleased to learn that there is some actual audio of the day recorded. That's going to be nice to hear and sharpen the memories with. So much happened in such a short time. Hearing such a big crowd of people outside of the church knowing that they were all here to celebrate our wedding really sticks in my head as something wonderfully special. A sonic snapshot of the people who helped us get to where we stood by being important in our individual lives. They all sounded so happy for us.

A day like our wedding really illustrates just how blessed we are with good people in our lives. So many different beliefs, life styles, and points of view were represented there. We had some brief but wonderful conversations as we attempted to speak with all who were present. It being a Sunday, a number of people had to leave relatively early. I don't think any had to miss the delicious dinner, but I could be mistaken there. The food was great. I enjoyed every last bite. The DJ was very good and kept the volume reasonable so we could hear each other talking without it being an Olympic feat to do so.

The first week of married life has been a combination of relaxation and setting the foundation for our lives together here. That process is proving somewhat less rapid than I had hoped when it comes to officialdom. Our files have been joined at ODSP. That went smoothly enough although we won't know precisely what our income will be until later this month. And then, there's subsidized housing. they need the ODSP income before they set the new rent. In theory, July should see all of this worked out. I don't anticipate any troubles but will feel ever so much better once this is done.

Next week, we'll be shopping for some furniture. Dog-proofing this place is an absolute must. It really should have been done much sooner. Having my stuff so vulnerable has proved very stressful for me. An electric toothbrush was the latest victim of Aladdin's jaws. It's not like he's destroying things every minute. However, when you're wearing headphones in order that two blind people can work on separate things as we often do, the potential for such destructive acts looms large in my mind. There's simply no warning or way to detect an act of destruction until after it happens. Sometimes, long after it happens. At that point, it's too late to try teaching the dog not to repeat such acts due to their short memories. I just have to try to batten down the hatches and put up with the ongoing state of affairs until this place can be reconfigured. I just hope we can find affordable furnishings I'm relatively happy with quickly. Something as personal as a desk isn't the kind of thing I feel comfortable just ordering online without knowing what it feels like. Therefore, I need sighted help to do the shopping. I think it'll also be necessary to replace the credenza so we have room for two desks and something hopefully with more drawer space in between them. That would be ideal I think. I'll be living with my decisions, made in all too necessary haste, for hopefully many productive years. For me to be productive, I need to feel that my stuff is safe and handy. Right now, I can choose only one of those options and safe has to win out. Thank God he doesn't seem too interested in going after wires. There comes a point where you simply can't have everything tucked out of reach. The only danger there is that he'll accidentally run into or snag them as he makes his way around the apartment often at great speed. Sadly, he's not as infallible as I once thought. I've heard him hit his poor big head on a few things while racing around. It never seems to trouble him much though. He barked at me when I accidentally stepped on a paw. Just one sharp little bark and then all was forgiven. I envy him his marvellous equanimity.

Our online community has really been busy lately. Lots of congratulatory messages on all social platforms to respond to. And of course, there were plenty of wedding gifts to sort through. Thankfully, lots of people went with gift cards. Those will come in very handy indeed and aren't counted as assets by the powers that be. The physical gifts are gradually making their way into everyday life. Lots of thank you cards to do over the next while. Ultimately, I'm rather glad we didn't plan some sort of honeymoon. The reality of married life will progress from somewhat chaotic into whatever our new normal ends up being. Going away for a week or so would merely have staved off that process leaving it hanging over our heads like an anvil rather than the more natural journey it has turned out to be. This also gives Aladdin and Sara time to bond and settle in their relationship. They aren't the smooth well-practiced team I experienced with her former guide dog. I don't know how relaxed a vacation in a different place would actually have been just now. Better to get all our ducks in a row first.

It is now Tuesday morning of the second week of married life. Sara sleeps much better than me. I've taken some time to read a little from the iPHONE user guide about the hearing aid mode option. I get tested for hearing loss today. I don't know whether it's all in my head, serious enough to warrant action, etc. It'll be good to have an objective opinion. ODSP and ADP can help if I find that hearing aids would be beneficial. Hopefully, I can get a pair compatible with my iPHONE. Not sure whether that's taken into consideration at all by the rules governing the selection of any sort of hearing aid. If it's simply a drastic improvement in hearing ability, all well and good. However, what about echolocation, noise filtering altering my perception of surroundings, etc? I've never really thought about hearing aids much. I guess that's partly due to that myth that blind people have better hearing than sighted people. The nugget of truth behind that myth is that we use our hearing for more things than sighted people. That doesn't mean we can't lose our hearing or have substandard hearing.

It's Thursday morning. I'm sitting out on my balcony for the second morning in a row. Tuesday was very eventful. We met one of the building staff who told me that the balconies were in fact safe to use and stable. All that remains to be worked on is some loose concrete. I wish communications had been better. I could have enjoyed my balcony quite a lot over the past couple of months. At least July  can be fully savoured. August gets tricky due to wasps. It isn't safe to enjoy anything which might attract their attention.

We went out to look at some desks. This process did let me feel a few desks within our budget but we were unable to feel as wide a range of desks as I had hoped. Stores are leveraging online shopping more and more. This reduces the floor space they need but can make it harder to try before you buy. I honestly could have done just as well shopping online with a sighted person making certain what I picked didn't clash horribly or something. We're not quite at that point but it's just around the corner. We ordered a desk I was unable to feel first. However, it was good to have some tactile notions to go on in terms of height, texture and such. They'll arrive in early July.

My hearing test was interesting. It took quite a while to do. They played a bunch of tones at different frequencies which could be devilishly quiet. I often wondered if I was imagining them as I raised my hand in response. Apparently, I did quite well on the test. The technician thought I had mild nerve damage related loss. She felt that it was borderline whether I needed hearing aids. Definitely some loss there but for sighted people, likely not enough to justify hearing aids. Because of my increased reliance on my hearing, she still recommends them. I was relieved to learn that I had no eardrum damage and only soft wax in my ears.

I'll be going to see my family doctor to discuss the letter I was given by the audiologist. She thinks I should see an ENT specialist to investigate further. The process will likely take time over the next while. I'm really wondering if I'll end up choosing hearing aids. That would be yet another piece of tech which would have to be kept charged and accompany me everywhere. They're starting to add up a little disconcertingly. On the bright side, all these devices are getting smaller and smaller. My next laptop will, I think, be a little smaller and certainly lighter.

Sara is making herself right at home here. She has found a good spot for her keyboard and musical instruments. We still have a fair bit of stuff in boxes kept in the storage room. That'll get less crowded once the desks get here. One of the great features of the apartment is that built-in storage room. Far better than having stuff in a basement locker. Sara and I will attend the upcoming building barbecue in mid July. If nothing else, we get a free dinner out of it. I'm hoping the noise level will be kept at a level which allows proper discussion with our fellow residents this time. There are so few opportunities to really have those and meet new people.

Our walks around the park are slowly becoming more coordinated. I don't find them very social. I need to give enough space for Aladdin to work and tend to walk ahead or behind far enough not to get in the way. BlindSquare is performing magnificently. I recently switched off the shake sensitivity thereby solving a major annoyance I was having with announcements being cut off by location reports. When in the pocket, BlindSquare interprets ordinary walking movements as shaking fairly often. Sara has gotten hold of KNFB Reader and has very quickly mastered it. That app is worth its weight in gold.

As things settle down, the responsibility of both enjoying our wedding gifts and using the financial ones wisely takes hold. We have to lay down good foundations both physically and habitually. At the same time, we need to enjoy this first Summer as a couple letting it be as extraordinary as it might. A Summer of building up relationships as a couple with each other as well as with friends and family. There are also threads of life which must be re-worked into a new richer tapestry. I need to get back to serious work on my book soon. That will likely be after Canada Day. It feels like too many threads are hanging unresolved at the moment. Getting all furnished and organized is taking longer than I expected it to. All sorts of stuff is tucked away in strange places. I find that far more unsettling than is rationally warranted. I didn't realise how much my sense of home depended on where things were. It has taking me more mental effort and longer than I expected to come to terms with change. I'm more in the flow now but feel like I'm mid-point between two realities. Once the paperwork is done and the desks are here, this will feel more like a home suitable to our new lives together.

Nearly Time to Get Married

Hello everyone. It's been over a quarter of a year since I last posted to this blog. Life has been anything but uneventful. Marriage is less than two weeks away now. Sara will officially be moving in on June 1. However, she has essentially been living here for a week. The paper work still remains to be done. I don't think I'm the only one to have life go somewhat chaotic just before marriage and trust there's enough leeway in the system to come with that reality. I'll feel a whole lot better once all the official stuff has been taken care of. Both ODSP and Peel Housing are struggling with case overload and it's not like we've sprung our plans to get married on anyone. We've given lots of notice and I trust that counts for something. It's an odd transitory period where nothing is happening quite like I expect it to.

I am on the whole incredibly thankful for this place and the life I've lead here as a bachelor. It has been peaceful and secure. As much as I've found tranquility, self-acceptance, friendship and peace living alone here on Aquitaine Avenue, I've also found periods of isolation and stagnation. My creativity and motivation have both suffered. I've wrestled alone against the demons of lack of extrinsic reward for work,  and the ever-present dangers of consumerism and boredom. Those demons are still very much with me, but I'm no longer alone. Changes are coming thick and fast these days.

One thing which sadly hasn't changed is my balcony. It has been in need of repair since work was interrupted by Snow at the end of last Autumn. There have already been countless days I would have spent mostly out there if I could have. There's no word yet on when that'll get done. Very frustrating indeed. Thankfully, there's Lake Aquitaine to walk around. I'll try to get used to taking my laptop out there and make use of one of the benches which have made such good landmarks on my walks. The batteries aren't nearly as good as they once were but I should still get a good three hours from the large one especially with the wifi off. I may also look into getting a blue tooth keyboard for my iPHONE and see how that goes. Not nearly as nice as my laptop plugged into an extension cord with very fast abundant Internet on the balcony sheltered from the sun. However, the only alternatives are indoors on a couch with the air conditioning blasting right at me, or else at my desk in an area of the apartment which can get quite uncomfortably hot. You never fully appreciate something until you no longer have it. there's some real truth in those words.

Events are sweeping me along into this new chapter of life far more quickly than I expected. This coming Sunday will be my last day attending the Meadow vale Christian Reformed Church. The Sunday after this one, I'll be getting married. After that, I'll be attending Sara's church regularly. Life goes on. It'll be bitter-sweet saying a fond farewell to the congregation who has been there for me these past years. They've been instrumental in my recovery and growth as a man. From just after I turned away from the worst sense of stagnation and hopelessness I've ever experienced, they've been there to help me build an adult life that is extraordinary and well worth living. Unable to find work voluntary or otherwise, they were my roots and place in this community beyond my family. The one place in the world who reached out to meet me halfway and where I knew I made at least some difference. Over the years, the cast of characters has changed. Key people who became more than just Sunday acquaintances have long since moved on. Like a Rock in a changing world Pastor Sam remains as a consummate leader and one of the best role models of what Christ wanted in God's Christians I've ever encountered. Through good fellowship, Pastor Sam's excellent sermons and some wonderful music, they've blessed me with a keen sense of God's love, joy and mercy which I'll carry to my grave. I'm coming away having made some friendships and connections which will survive this parting of ways. A nice change from prior church attachments. Two of these hopefully life-long friends will attend my wedding and reception. Perhaps, others will attend the wedding itself despite the distance and not being able to join us for dinner.

Wedding plans are quite in hand and things have been largely free of ongoing stress in that quarter. Sadly though, a number of people who I would dearly love to have attended can't be there. I found my lovely Sara years too late for my grandmother to have attended in person. She has passed away a little over a month ago now. I was unable to visit her during her unfortunate mental decline towards the end of her life. She really didn't want to become old and dependent on others. My last memories of her are from before she could no longer travel and live in her own apartment. In a sad sort of way, due to this geographically enforced distance, my memories of her are like she would have wanted everyone else's to be. She died in relative comfort during the night. There was something truly surreal about finding out she had passed away as Mom and I approached a store where I picked out my wedding suit. It felt like her passing was just sort of pushed past rather than really dealt with. She never wanted a funeral as such. However, there was a small ceremony in Winnipeg attended by relatives who live there. I'm glad she learned that I had found Sara and intended to marry her. I'm not certain how long that stuck in her mind, but she knew it for a while and wished me well. She has also visited my apartment here and seen how I've managed. I have all sorts of good memories of her going as far back into childhood as I have any memories at all. The only real closure I've found is that her confusion and mental suffering is at an end. If the God we both believe in is nothing to a figment of collective imagination, she is at least beyond misery. If I'm right in believing there is truth at the core of Christianity, then she now has a peace and clarity of perception we can't even conceive of in this world. As mom said, she'll be at my second wedding in spirit.

Neither of my uncles or aunts are able to attend the wedding. Thankfully, this is due to far less traumatic reasons than death. Other commitments and expenses have gotten in the way but I can still look forward to seeing them again in the future. All in all, my family contingent is around five people less than it might ideally have been. My brother is training to be a fire fighter and this will make it necessary for him to miss the actual wedding. However, he'll hopefully be able to attend the reception and dinner. The rest of his family will be there. I hope my nieces aren't bored stiff.

On the other side of the coin, most of my really close friends as well as some long-standing friends of my family will be there. That's a tremendous comfort. They've all helped me become the man I am and find the sense of purpose and belonging I've come to treasure. Mark and Wendy will be there. So will Steve Murgaski and Michelle Mcquigge. Steve has been a very close friend since childhood. The day would be fundamentally flawed were he not present. Michelle  got Sara and I talking again after over two decades. She has been a wonderful friend ever since she stumbled upon my blog a number of years ago. Carine and Richie will be there as our combination guests and photographers. Shirley, Rose and Joseph will also be there.

The suits, dresses and rings are purchased. My suit fits well and is quite comfortable to wear. I don't think I'll ever be all that comfortable with the idea of wearing a suit though. Standing in a thousand dollars worth of clothing that can certainly be used again but was essentially bought for one very special occasion is just always going to seem quite preposterous to me. Perhaps, once I've finished writing my book and am giving a lecture on accessible games somewhere, dressing up won't seem quite so pretentious. I don't expect so though. I've simply met one too many people judged harshly and tossed aside for their physical appearance when their good character earned them far better treatment than they received. The ring is something whose purpose is more easy to grasp. Rarely have I felt so out of my depth than when standing in a jewelry store helping to pick the rings out. However, the basic message of a wedding ring is very clear and simple. Something I can more readily appreciate.

Sara's new guide dog Aladdin has been an interesting somewhat chaotic addition to life. He's a playful two-year-old black lab who puts pretty much everything in his mouth. That has included electronics like the old Olympus 420 digital recorder I spent a good chunk of my 40th birthday hunting madly for. Gosh! So much has happened since I posted those Journeys of the Mind lectures. Trying to pick out the important stuff which should have gotten its own blog entry is a truly ludicrous exercise at this point. There have been some remarkable movies, podcasts and books lately. I really enjoyed Interstellar despite needing headphones to make out some of the dialogue. that movie tackled issues like climate change and family in a very interesting way. My favourite podcasts have been up to their usual snuff. It all tends to run together in my memory after a while. I keep saying that I'll try to do better in future and I always mean it. One of these times, it'll actually happen and you'll see more frequent shorter updates.

Anyhow, back to Aladdin; He has had to get used to Sara's parents' home and now must learn to think of my apartment as his home. Sara is attempting to instill some discipline and boundaries for him. While Aladdin seems to keep Sara quite safe, he is often distracted by the dogs, people and other animals near Lake Aquitaine. He sometimes grips your hand with his mouth. That seems a more accurate description than to say that he bites. There's absolutely no meanness in him. he loves getting attention from people. Apparently, grabbing and masticating things is simply part of a lab's nature. My desk and shelving are both stupendously ill-suited to having a young dog. At the very least, I think a new desk with drawers I can close is warranted. This desk has served me very well despite a wheel broken off during my move here. It still has my old Compuserve user number and password in faded Braille on its surface. I've had it for ages. Now though, I have no need of its length and open shelving which has proved so inviting to Aladdin's playful inquisitiveness. I've had to find inconvenient places for nearly everything that used to be so handy on those extensive open shelves. There's enough room on my left and right for him to stealthily approach and have his head grabbing and pushing at things on the wide open shelf beneath. Especially if I'm wearing headphones so Sara and I have some privacy, you can be completely unaware what he's doing until something falls onto the floor. He pulled a roll of dynatape out of my Braille labeller. Nothing is too inanimate to be safely uninteresting. I've stuffed all I can into the small drawer in my credenza. This again features a lot of open storage space easily accessed by inquisitive paws or snout.

This kind of unpredictability is precisely why I never wanted a guide dog, child or pet myself. You have to think six steps ahead all the frigging time. Right now, as Aladdin gets through what Sara calls his puppy brain phase and we try to build whatever normal life is going to look like from now on, this place just doesn't feel as tranquil.

Technology has at last rendered my OCR scanner obsolete. This used to take up a good chunk of my desk surface. Now, I can just lay a sheet out on the desk and snap a picture of it using my iPHONE. That capability still strikes me as miraculous even though I've had the KNFB reader app for months now. The printer is wireless so there's no longer any real need for most of my equipment to be on a long desk. I find it strange to think I could happily have passed years on my own with no great desire for much in the way of new furnishings. Now, I wish I had anticipated the consequences and changed it ages ago. You need to catch a dog right in the act of doing something even to have the ghost of a chance of teaching him that you'd rather he not do that thing. Thank God he doesn't seem to go after charging cables. There's almost no point having a garbage can near my desk now. He'll dig out anything you would likely put in there.

While having a higher desk with drawers will help minimize dog damage to things I want to keep safe yet handy, there are other aspects of having a new guide dog around which are less easy to mitigate. Poor Sara has to contend with everything from outdoor distractions in a very stimulating environment near Lake Aquitaine to some unfortunate bladder accidents. One of these happened in the elevator as we were heading down. Had he waited mere moments, all might have been well. The people in the elevator and the building staff were all wonderful about it. That's another reason I feel very blessed having ended up in this building. 'All of the staff I've encountered will go that extra mile when necessary. I've never had the sense of being a bur don on them unlike friends of mine in other buildings. All I really have to do personally is keep from unintentionally confusing the issue of who's in charge by being too friendly with Aladdin. It'll take a while for the relationship to really jell properly. He's had to cope with as much change as we have. I find it impossible to remain annoyed with him for longer than thirty seconds or so. I'm also forward-thinking enough to realize that he'll likely lead us to more positive adventures as a couple once he really matures.

As unsettling as it has sometimes been, hearing Sara and Aladdin start to lay down the rules for relating and living here has been fascinating. So many presumptions of mine have proved wrong. Aladdin has a metal crate large enough for him to turn around in. He actually seems happy to be left in there and goes to it often. The crate isn't perceived as any sort of punishment or torture. it's more like his small house where he feels safe. He can barf up something like apiece of leash leather and not feel bad or anything. He'd had to go through a period of being on leash constantly but that's over now and seems to have settled him down. He seems to have a very good internal clock. Around five or six, he starts getting that little bit more excited when Sara makes a move. He almost never barks and can be utterly silent for long stretches of time. At other points, he races madly around the apartment without hitting anything at all with head or tail although I expect him to bump his poor big head any minute. He sort of snuffles when excitedly playing with his kong toy. He'll bring it right up to you and push it into your hand as if to show off that he has it. Like other dogs I've known, he gives off those cute dog sighs when he's bored. He also sort of grown-growls as he relaxes or presumably shifts into a comfortable position of repose.

Apparently, Apple will be hosting its next big event a day after we get married. iOS9 will likely be revealed in some detail. Sara and I should be good for at least a couple more iOS upgrades with our 5S iPHONES. Adding further encouragement of this estimation of mine, rumour has it that the next iOS will focus on quality control and running better on older devices. All of which bodes well for my own experience as well as those who I am trying to help. I also hope we'll soon hear when the next iTUNES festival will take place. I really enjoyed the last one. I'm subscribed to the Apple Keynotes podcast and will avail myself of that after Sara and I are back from any celebrations after our marriage. I think we'll be pleasantly occupied in our own celebrating for at least a few days.

Sadly, one of the people who I help, Michelle, has decided to give up on her iPHONE for the present. I feel bad about that considering how much they cost. "With her iPAD, she'll at least still be able to use the apps and music she has purchased. It's very hard to determine how much her reasons are due to actual problems or simply different expectations or misperceptions. Her assumptions and desires can be hard to dig out or anticipate particularly when they involve visual appearance of things like Facebook. Thankfully, she's at last eligible for ADP funding and can get a computer and software which I fervently hope will give her less trouble than her old one. It was the very first computer I've ever felt which had suffered physical catastrophic damage. The laptop monitor shorted out or something and a chunk of the back blew off.

On the surprising other side of the coin, Gerry is doing quite a lot better with his iPHONE than I had any reason to expect. Mastering the device is a long and slow process but being totally blind, he just needs to worry about Voiceover. It's more complicated for Michelle since she wants to use her vision as well as Voiceover. Gerry has shown remarkable patience and fortitude here. As he gets the hang of more aspects of what his iPHONE is capable of doing, those efforts will be well rewarded.

I have at last upgraded to a larger Internet package. Sara and I both use the web for quite a bit and I think we'd have often paid for going over my former 60-gb data cap. Now, we've got 200 gb per month which should be more than enough for us. The new cable modem now does double duty as our router. I've turned off the network my trusty time capsule has long provided. It is, of course, still easy to access the files on it provided you have the password and Airport software. We've gotten our first jointly ordered groceries. This next month is going to be quite unique with the wedding, getting the move all done, doubtless seeing friends, and other stuff. A tad hard to really plan for. We just have to take things as they come for the next while.

Creatively speaking, I haven't gotten a whole lot done. The book proceeds in dribs and drabs. There'll be stretches of Summer where I think that'll change as the rest of life settles into the new "normal". For now, my priorities are starting the marriage and life here together well. There are also friends who haven't been seen or spoken with in a while. Over the May long weekend, we got to see Mark and Wendy. It was really good to catch up with them. I'm very glad they'll be able to attend the wedding. I didn't get to any fireworks. Sara had just unofficially moved in and Aladdin hadn't even begun to really settle. Hopefully, we'll be spending Canada day with family and friends. If not, Sara and I can catch the fireworks around the lake. Sara doesn't seem as keen on it not wanting to do something which might hurt Aladdin's ears. However, attending such festivities are an important opportunity for meeting local people at a time when they're not in an infernal rush and may be inclined to chat. Doing that for the first time on my own was a real milestone and I didn't get married in order to keep doing these sorts of things alone. Especially when we'll be attending a non-local church, you have to take opportunities to be a part of the local community. I volunteered at the Peel Multicultural Centre due to just such a chance meeting while walking around the lake. That's also how I first met Shirley.

The groceries have served us well this past week. We got everything we ordered. I think we'll be pretty good food-wise until the tail end of June. Things have certainly taken on a different feel lately. We're really starting to share daily life. So far, it's all going well. Not that kind of dreamy perfection books would have people believe in. Too much change is happening to both of us for that to be the case. We're able to come up with the compromises and good communication needed to have things go smoothly. On hot days like we've had, there have been many occasions where I'd have deeply enjoyed eating a Drumstick or other ice cream treat. We decided not to get those thinking we'd have enough special foods to eat this month. We'll really have to start watching our pennies a whole lot more than I'm used to doing while we figure out how the larger financial picture will shape up.

At this late stage, I think it's safe to say I won't be having a bachelor party. Nobody can really afford one these days. Adam's gone through some rough times and has plenty to do for me on the actual day as best man. I'd rather put money towards celebrating with friends as a married couple. Besides, I've had the experience prior to my last marriage. We've all got to prioritize these days. I'm hoping for at least one fun trip into Toronto to see Steve, Meko, Earle and company. There'll be other visits with Michelle and Gerry and hopefully, Angela and Tony. I haven't seen Ange or Tony in far to long although I've managed to help a little from a distance.

Both of us keenly look forward to being married. We aren't having any sort of honeymoon. We'll be getting all the paperwork sorted on the 10th with ODSP to merge our files into one. This process will then allow Peel Housing to set the rent and officially add Sara to the lease on the apartment. She will then be transformed in the eyes of officialdom from guest to lady of the lake. I have a dentist appointment and hearing test in the not too distant future. There'll be furniture decisions to be made once we know what assets we've got after the wedding. Extraordinary lives need a proper haven after all. Extravagant travel may be beyond our means but a comfortable apartment can be managed. One that is welcoming to guests and allows us to pursue our creative endeavours. Thanks to previous investments and our wonderfully supportive families, there are merely finishing touches remaining to be contemplated. Even if my balcony remains off limits, I look forward to a very special Summer spent in the best of good company.