Hello everyone. It's another tuesday morning. Life is certainly moving along. In three days, I'll be heading off to a church conference in Grand Rapids Michigan. I've been gathering things in accesible form like the schedule and information about the speakers. It's all going on my netbook just like two years ago. Yes, shocking as it is, that much time has truly passed. Events like this certainly have a way of putting one's life in perspective. Back then, I had no idea that I'd be in my own apartment. Going into this, I feel at least a little more knowledgeable than I was last time. Still, it's such a different world and there's loads to learn.
Facebook is one of those sites which I find very annoying to deal with. However, every time I get close to thinking about deleting my acount there, something happens to stay my hand. This time was no exeption. A couple who I inadvertently lost touch with around eight years ago found me thanks to my Facebook profile. Michelle used to attend a youth group for blind people back when I was growing up in Mississauga. She's a very simple soul who had the misfortune to slide through the cracks of the education system. Enough sight to make teachers think she was being lazy and not give her the help she needed. She's very short and if you heard her, you'd swear on your life that she couldn't be any older than thirteen or so. However, in reality, she's as old as I am. Get past the appearance which I'm told is child-like and the voice to match, and you'll discover that time and adult life have indeed left their marks. She's amazing when it comes to travelling around on public transit. When she wants to do something, she has a surprising degree of stubbornness. Last saturday was a prime example. It was absolutely pouring out there. I called to warn her of this but she still insisted on coming over with her saintly husband Jerry. He would have preferred to stay home and dry but Michele was quite determined to get together with me. I believe I was able to make the trip a worth-while one for poor Jerry. I only met him once before we fell out of near orbit and drifted into separate directions. It's ironic. I've been pushing as hard as I could and hoping to find new friends around here. Who'd have thought that my social prospects would improve for the Summber by having old friends chance upon me?
Michelle and Jerry both have computers but haven't gone very far yet in learning to use them. I certainly have the time and inclination to help them more into the digital age. They, in turn, are quite willing to help me go into Toronto and hang out with people in the blind community there who I've also lost touch with. I've never been very comfortable using public transportation on my own. It takes months to even try to learn a route somewhere for me. These two have been doing it non-stop and don't even have to have instruction to learn a new route. They'll just get up and go wherever they like. I wouldn't have thought of asking them to go so far out of their way to include me. It adds at least an hour to whatever trip they'd make. However, they just up and offered to do it with a simple natural manner which completely surprised me. Unlike most people I've dealt with over the past while, they have lots of time on their hands. Now, I have some sense of how other people feel when I offer my time as I have. I'll happily take them up on it. In turn, I'll spend the time it takes to help them make better use of their computers and take advantage of the online world. My father was good enough to drive us between the mall and my apartment during the rain.
We spent the afternoon and evening mainly chatting and catching up on what befell each of us over the past near decade. I introduced Jerry to margaritas, a favorite drink of mine. Michelle doesn't drink. The highlight of the visit was thanks to Twitter and Mushroom FM. I sent a tweet into Lulu Wells, a broadcaster from South Wales. Within five minutes, she mentionned my guests by name live on Internet radio. It just blew their minds that this sort of thing was possible. They want me to go over their way and teach them to get in on Twitter and internet radio. I'll be quite happy to do this. There are dead spots in my week which such excursions would fill very nicely. After a very good first visit, I walked them back to the mall and the busses with my Trekker Breeze. It took a while to lock on but I know the beginning of the way quite well even without the Breeze now.
The church had a barbecue on sunday which very nicely polished off the weekend. I've been marvelling over the past couple days how life seems to be filling in for me. So many things are sliding into place. I just got a call from John Morgan this morning. Now there's an excellent reason to miss a chunk of Lulu Wells's excellent extra Bear's Lair broadcast on Mushroom FM out here on the balcony. Haven't heard from John in quite a while now. He's kept pretty busy. However, he'd like to see about Sandy and also see me and the new stuff I've been masterring over the past while. I ran into Sandy as both of us were headding out to different places recently. He sounds alright but hasn't taken any steps to get back in greater touch with me. I don't have his number so John plans on buzzing him when he comes over eventually. Both of us are busy over the next while but we'll get it together at some point soon. It's so damned good to be able to say that. I've spent so much time with no scope for hope or change. That dead time seems to be well and truly over. God seems to have found me new engagement with people at last. Now, I know I'm in the right place at the right time. This need not be a box where I've simply been stuck away by society to slowly rot. There are possibilities to do good and enjoy it in turn. I just needed the right people to come along to hook up my engine to the great machine of life.
It's getting close to noon now. I'll be packing up my netbook and taking my gear inside. The breeeze coming in over the balcony rail has ben very nice. It's time to head in and make my brunch. Haven't had bacon and eggs in quite a while. After brunch, it'll be off to the Dam. Tomorrow, I'll be at Symposium Cafe having lunch with my father. Got a load of laundry to do after that among other chores. My world certainly does keep turning. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Unexpected Interesting Times
Hello everyone. Yesterday proved to be more interesting than I expected. Hence, another blog entry for your reading pleasure. I ended up spending the afternoon out of my apartment despite the rain. That's because I was still indoors. I went to see Sandy for the first time in a while. He's doing about as well as he ever is. His worker from the CNIB has done some excellent stuff with helping him start to remember the keyboard. He ran into some trouble with Microsoft Word though and hasn't been able to practice typing the words she's recorded onto tape for him. I've hopefully managed to solve the immediate crisis but I believe it's time to start thinking about getting him and I in line for an ADP assenssment and equipment update. It's been a very long time since I've had any involvement with them. Although my situation isn't nearly as acute as his, that's only because I was in the economic position to purchase new equipment and keep up my screen reader's SMA. Those days are now definitely behind me.
I went back up from the second floor to my apartment on the seventh only to realise that I hadn't gotten my mail yet and could have just gone down to the ground floor first. Deciding to actually go down and get it proved to be a very fortuitous decision. In the lobby were a number of people just shooting the breeze. I hadn't encountnered anything like that for ages here. The building just doesn't seem to be condusive to that. There are only a couple of chairs in the lobby but a cane makes a good third leg on such occasions. I must have spent most of an hour standing there chatting with mail in one hand and cane in the other. It's good to know that people actually do, once in a while, have time to talk to each other around here. I feel like I've moved at least a little closer to the kind of sociallly connected state of being I eventually hope to achieve. It felt damned good.
After the group of us went our separate ways, I returned to the apartment and finally got around to visiting the Blio site. I was thrilled to discover that it had actually launched this time and was available for download. I did this immediately, installed it, and that's where the good times ended. I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be the accessibility experience of the decade as the previous demonstrations and marketting had suggested. It was actually pretty close to completely inaccessible with NVDA and System Access. I finally managed to get the manual to start reading out loud but couldn't pick and choose what parts to read. I decided to simply let it read through completely while I ate my dinner on the off chance that I'd missed some obvious setting which would fix things. No such luck. I at last got around to checking my Twitter updates and found I wasn't the only one thunderously disappointed in this latest turn of events. What can I say? It just doesn't look good when you're promised a revolutionary accessible reading experience by a company known for such things and they release software which proves inaccessible in the extreme in favour of dazzle for sighted folk who already have numerous options for affordable e-book reading. Apparently, I missed a comment on their download page stating that a screenreader-friendly version of the Blio software will be released some time in October. Had this been the first hiccup on this journey of anticipation, it still would have been a noteworthy one. Obviously, sighted powers that be went for rapid release to the sighted population and didn't consider the exceptionally bad optics of the decision for us blinks. Ultimately though, they'll be forgiven for it. When they release the accessible version, it'll likely be damned near flaweless. I'm certainly not going to forego that kind of book affordability and selection based on initial disappointment. I doubt many others will either. As soon as I'm actually able to, I'll gladly sign up my credit card and start looking for good additions to my library. They have me over a barrel. I've witnessed accessible game developers get burned out of business for missing half the promised release deadlines as these folks have. Games are one thing. What these folks are apparently going to offer us in a matter of weeks is a vital step forward in making printed material accessible and affordable to us. I for one can hold my breath a little longer.
Goodness! I've just found out via my Twitter client that I've been on Twitter for at least 485 days. Imagine that! Me! The digital dinosaur and diehard blogger on twitter for well over a year! I suppose I should try and be a more worthy leader for my followers and tweet more. I just feel so much more able to express myself in these blog postings. One thing I find myself slowly doing more of is responding to tweets from others. I guess that's something.
It's early afternoon now. I just got back from an outing with my father to Symposium Cafe. It's martini day on wednesdays and those things taste absolutely splendid. Symposium burgers are enormous so I don't believe I'll need to bother with dinner later on other than perhaps a salad. It was good to catch up with dad and hear more about their recent expedition to a fare with Ava and Amia. Sounds like they had themselves a splendid if rather pricy time of it. He's keenly anticipating his Golf getaway which he leaves on later this week.
And now, it's late afternoon. I went down to meet with Sandy's worker and make certain things went smoothly with Jarte. They certainly did. She's made some excellent progress with Sandy teaching him to type. That's the one area where I felt shakey of my ability to teach him. Looks like she's covering that aspect of things very nicely indeed. She'll also be putting in our referral forms for ADP assessments.
It's certainly been a nicely busy day. Weird or What is on at ten tonight. That ought to be good as it has been these past weeks. Perhaps, I'll do some online chatting this evening. We'll see how it goes. My membership with vipconduit has expired and I don't believe I'll pay for another subscription. I want to direct my disposeable income towards offline happenings. Oh. How interesting! I just checked my email and found an update from CBC Documentaries. One of them was based on a book which I've just pounced on with glee in the CNIB library. It's called Acquainted With The Night; Excursions Through The World After Dark. The author is Christopher Dewdney. Looks like I'm in for a fascinating read this time around. Yet again, I'm ever so glad I checked my email. A very fitting way to spend the early evening hours.
I went back up from the second floor to my apartment on the seventh only to realise that I hadn't gotten my mail yet and could have just gone down to the ground floor first. Deciding to actually go down and get it proved to be a very fortuitous decision. In the lobby were a number of people just shooting the breeze. I hadn't encountnered anything like that for ages here. The building just doesn't seem to be condusive to that. There are only a couple of chairs in the lobby but a cane makes a good third leg on such occasions. I must have spent most of an hour standing there chatting with mail in one hand and cane in the other. It's good to know that people actually do, once in a while, have time to talk to each other around here. I feel like I've moved at least a little closer to the kind of sociallly connected state of being I eventually hope to achieve. It felt damned good.
After the group of us went our separate ways, I returned to the apartment and finally got around to visiting the Blio site. I was thrilled to discover that it had actually launched this time and was available for download. I did this immediately, installed it, and that's where the good times ended. I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be the accessibility experience of the decade as the previous demonstrations and marketting had suggested. It was actually pretty close to completely inaccessible with NVDA and System Access. I finally managed to get the manual to start reading out loud but couldn't pick and choose what parts to read. I decided to simply let it read through completely while I ate my dinner on the off chance that I'd missed some obvious setting which would fix things. No such luck. I at last got around to checking my Twitter updates and found I wasn't the only one thunderously disappointed in this latest turn of events. What can I say? It just doesn't look good when you're promised a revolutionary accessible reading experience by a company known for such things and they release software which proves inaccessible in the extreme in favour of dazzle for sighted folk who already have numerous options for affordable e-book reading. Apparently, I missed a comment on their download page stating that a screenreader-friendly version of the Blio software will be released some time in October. Had this been the first hiccup on this journey of anticipation, it still would have been a noteworthy one. Obviously, sighted powers that be went for rapid release to the sighted population and didn't consider the exceptionally bad optics of the decision for us blinks. Ultimately though, they'll be forgiven for it. When they release the accessible version, it'll likely be damned near flaweless. I'm certainly not going to forego that kind of book affordability and selection based on initial disappointment. I doubt many others will either. As soon as I'm actually able to, I'll gladly sign up my credit card and start looking for good additions to my library. They have me over a barrel. I've witnessed accessible game developers get burned out of business for missing half the promised release deadlines as these folks have. Games are one thing. What these folks are apparently going to offer us in a matter of weeks is a vital step forward in making printed material accessible and affordable to us. I for one can hold my breath a little longer.
Goodness! I've just found out via my Twitter client that I've been on Twitter for at least 485 days. Imagine that! Me! The digital dinosaur and diehard blogger on twitter for well over a year! I suppose I should try and be a more worthy leader for my followers and tweet more. I just feel so much more able to express myself in these blog postings. One thing I find myself slowly doing more of is responding to tweets from others. I guess that's something.
It's early afternoon now. I just got back from an outing with my father to Symposium Cafe. It's martini day on wednesdays and those things taste absolutely splendid. Symposium burgers are enormous so I don't believe I'll need to bother with dinner later on other than perhaps a salad. It was good to catch up with dad and hear more about their recent expedition to a fare with Ava and Amia. Sounds like they had themselves a splendid if rather pricy time of it. He's keenly anticipating his Golf getaway which he leaves on later this week.
And now, it's late afternoon. I went down to meet with Sandy's worker and make certain things went smoothly with Jarte. They certainly did. She's made some excellent progress with Sandy teaching him to type. That's the one area where I felt shakey of my ability to teach him. Looks like she's covering that aspect of things very nicely indeed. She'll also be putting in our referral forms for ADP assessments.
It's certainly been a nicely busy day. Weird or What is on at ten tonight. That ought to be good as it has been these past weeks. Perhaps, I'll do some online chatting this evening. We'll see how it goes. My membership with vipconduit has expired and I don't believe I'll pay for another subscription. I want to direct my disposeable income towards offline happenings. Oh. How interesting! I just checked my email and found an update from CBC Documentaries. One of them was based on a book which I've just pounced on with glee in the CNIB library. It's called Acquainted With The Night; Excursions Through The World After Dark. The author is Christopher Dewdney. Looks like I'm in for a fascinating read this time around. Yet again, I'm ever so glad I checked my email. A very fitting way to spend the early evening hours.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Alurt and Alive
Hello everyone. I've stopped snoring now so you can all uncover your ears in complete safety. My goodness! Two entries in less than twenty-four hours! Aren't we special? Call in pennance for sloppy upkeep in the past month which was partially but not totally due to illness. I feel very well rested at the moment which, incidentally, is right around nine o'clock. I remember at least a part of a couple of dreams I had last night which I take as a positive sign of things to come sleep-wise. I'm not going to hold my breath about this. However, rumour has it that at long last, Blio will actually be launching today. I've heard that song before only to discover that there have been yet more delays. Blio is a new epublishing service for electronic books whose software has been designed for everyone to use but with blind people in mind right from square one. The days of waiting well over a year in most cases for a book to be made accessible to blind people by the CNIB digital library may at last be behind me. That would certainly add spice to the coming Winter. I don't mind budgeting for books if I'm not asked to pay four or five times as much for an unabridged audio version when all I'm really after is to have the damned story made accessible to me. I'm quite used to my computer's syntheti speech reading books and it sure as shit doesn't cost publishers much at all to produce a straight-up accessible electronic copy.
People have at times wondered what kind of social life I would deem a good and successful one. Given my limited financial resources, that's a good question. I'm simply not in the same financial league as most of my working contemporaries. On the other hand, I'm also not as hung up on appearances and also not in debt. I do have to space out my more costly outings. Presuming I don't save up, I can spend something on the order of $120 per month if I make relatively painless cuts in other areas. For instance, if I knew that I was going to be out with people regularly, I wouldn't spend as much on junkfood, audio dramas, and other things which help pass solitary time more pleasantly. If I knew, for instance, there was a place I could go to once or twice a week where I could engage in some activity which let me actually get to know people and develop meaningful relationships, I would cheerfully make those cuts. I have yet to find any local club for disabled people or even for so-called "normal" people who want to expand their social circles. It's like there's an unwritten rule that you have to be too far away to meet in order to have the time to do so. I can attend online chats regular as clockwork with people in the US or other provinces but can't find a few people around my age to go out for coffee with once a week. There's just something fundamentally fucked up with that picture. I want to achieve more of a connection with people in my community. If I can get there and back without crippling myself financially, I'm quite happy to volunteer somewhere if it gets me out of the apartment and isn't a solitary activity. I have plenty of work I can do on my own already right here. Alright? I don't think I'm asking for the moon. Just the sense that if some unfortunate accident befell me, someone outside my immediate family might wonder where I was before I began to decompose.
This friday, if nothing comes up for her, I should be seeing Minney. She's a woman I met in the Clearview church who still talks to me regularly by phone. She's working as a nanny and a cleaner so when she's not busy, she tends to be flat out exhausted. It'll be the first time I've actually physically gotten together with her in at least a year. She feels the need to bring over some food for me to try. I'm fine with that but said that she should come back on another occasion and try some of my cooking. As with a lot of people, I have my doubts that she'll take me up on my offer. A lot of well-meaning people out there are quite willing to jump through hoops to help you. However, trying to aim for a more balanced, healthy and reciprocal relationship seems to be like pulling teeth more often than not.
When I've reached the stage where I can hear about an event in the GTA and know someone who would truly enjoy going to that event with me, that would certainly tell me that I'm on the right track. I hear about so many things like festivals or conventions that I just can't get to even if I have the money available. I'd like to make some friends who would naturally want to go to these things as opposed to people who go out of a sense of helping me experience something they're not interested in that I otherwise couldn't.
When it comes to friendships, I'm not really after quantity of friends as much as I am quality. This generation seems to be all about how many "friends" one has on Facebook. I'm after depth of relationship. Friendship in my book is built on shared time and experiences of common interest. I want to have a sense that I'm giving as much as I'm getting. Unfortunately, most of the friends I have a deeper relationship with are ones I can't get together with very often. Steve Murgaski is a prime example. I've known him since grade school. However, it's harder to share new experiences with him since he doesn't live very close and both of us are blind. That limits travel and experience possibilities. I want to have friends who don't hesitate to ask *me* to help *them* with things. I've found that the only person who actually gets me to help him assemble stuff rather than just doing everything for me while I sit there like a lump, is my father. Nobody else thinks it worth taking the time to describe what needs doing, let me feel the parts or tools involved, and actually help with the process. I know I'm not an expert carpenter but just because my eyes don't work doesn't mean my brain and hands are useless.
I believe that things are finally beginning to move in a positive direction here in the social department. It's just going to take quite a while longer than I think it should in order to undo the effects of having five years of progress undone when my marriage fell apart and then not being settled in a permanent place of my own for so long. Thanks in no small part to the church I belong to, I'm beginning to have more of a life outside family. Every once in a while, I'll probably still go to Symposium Cafe on my own in order to stave off cabin fever and enjoy the wonderful food and service. However, I'd much rather go there with other people and have reached a point where I've got to do less of that on my own so that I'm financially able to eat out with others. Being determined to enjoy my first Summer here whether or not I had people around, I've spent extra to do that. I certainly don't regret those decisions. They've allowed my favorite season to pass far more pleasantly than otherwise. However, things do have to change now if I hope to have any wiggle room next Summer.
By damn! That pineapple was flipping perfection. Probbly ate more of it than I ought to have but Man! That was splendid. It's pouring rain out there now. My balcony is somewhat curved in a way that means I can actually step out onto it around half a meter or so before I start to feel the rain. Otherwise, I just get some of the wind going across. Call me a simpleton but I find that rather nifty. I think it's due to the curve of where th rail meets up with the bedroom window. Well, folks, I'm just about finished this cup of Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Breeze Non Dairy Beverage. Now there's a marketting mouthful for you. It's proved to be one of the more successful grocery experiments of the last while. Somewhat richer than milk but quite refreshing when cold. Two cups up. On the other side of the coin in my latest order was San Pellegrino Chinotto. I won't be ordering that stuff again any time soon. I figured it would possibly be an interesting change from softdrinks. What I got were six very small bottles not even containing half a large glass worth of liquid. These bottles are thin at the top but thicken as you go down. They're quite weighty for their sise. The bottom third of them are so thick that I wonder whether I could even crack them with my hammer. Perhaps, I should try it just to get some bang for my buck. What's in that bottom third of bottle anyhow? An emergency supply of pressurised air, or perhaps an enraged djinni travelling economy class?
I'll rap this entry up with another of my more successful purchases. ZBS is a favorite place for me to acquire audio dramas. They came out with an addition to the Jack Flanders series called Steam Dreamers. It's a shorter entry but I found it an interesting couple of hours. It explored the natures of both reality and adiction in a fairly unique way and thereby helped a couple of solitary evenings pass more pleasantly than they otherwise would have. Hats off to the crew at:
www.zbs.org
They've kept a good thing going for decades. I look forward to whatever they come up with next. Later, everyone.
People have at times wondered what kind of social life I would deem a good and successful one. Given my limited financial resources, that's a good question. I'm simply not in the same financial league as most of my working contemporaries. On the other hand, I'm also not as hung up on appearances and also not in debt. I do have to space out my more costly outings. Presuming I don't save up, I can spend something on the order of $120 per month if I make relatively painless cuts in other areas. For instance, if I knew that I was going to be out with people regularly, I wouldn't spend as much on junkfood, audio dramas, and other things which help pass solitary time more pleasantly. If I knew, for instance, there was a place I could go to once or twice a week where I could engage in some activity which let me actually get to know people and develop meaningful relationships, I would cheerfully make those cuts. I have yet to find any local club for disabled people or even for so-called "normal" people who want to expand their social circles. It's like there's an unwritten rule that you have to be too far away to meet in order to have the time to do so. I can attend online chats regular as clockwork with people in the US or other provinces but can't find a few people around my age to go out for coffee with once a week. There's just something fundamentally fucked up with that picture. I want to achieve more of a connection with people in my community. If I can get there and back without crippling myself financially, I'm quite happy to volunteer somewhere if it gets me out of the apartment and isn't a solitary activity. I have plenty of work I can do on my own already right here. Alright? I don't think I'm asking for the moon. Just the sense that if some unfortunate accident befell me, someone outside my immediate family might wonder where I was before I began to decompose.
This friday, if nothing comes up for her, I should be seeing Minney. She's a woman I met in the Clearview church who still talks to me regularly by phone. She's working as a nanny and a cleaner so when she's not busy, she tends to be flat out exhausted. It'll be the first time I've actually physically gotten together with her in at least a year. She feels the need to bring over some food for me to try. I'm fine with that but said that she should come back on another occasion and try some of my cooking. As with a lot of people, I have my doubts that she'll take me up on my offer. A lot of well-meaning people out there are quite willing to jump through hoops to help you. However, trying to aim for a more balanced, healthy and reciprocal relationship seems to be like pulling teeth more often than not.
When I've reached the stage where I can hear about an event in the GTA and know someone who would truly enjoy going to that event with me, that would certainly tell me that I'm on the right track. I hear about so many things like festivals or conventions that I just can't get to even if I have the money available. I'd like to make some friends who would naturally want to go to these things as opposed to people who go out of a sense of helping me experience something they're not interested in that I otherwise couldn't.
When it comes to friendships, I'm not really after quantity of friends as much as I am quality. This generation seems to be all about how many "friends" one has on Facebook. I'm after depth of relationship. Friendship in my book is built on shared time and experiences of common interest. I want to have a sense that I'm giving as much as I'm getting. Unfortunately, most of the friends I have a deeper relationship with are ones I can't get together with very often. Steve Murgaski is a prime example. I've known him since grade school. However, it's harder to share new experiences with him since he doesn't live very close and both of us are blind. That limits travel and experience possibilities. I want to have friends who don't hesitate to ask *me* to help *them* with things. I've found that the only person who actually gets me to help him assemble stuff rather than just doing everything for me while I sit there like a lump, is my father. Nobody else thinks it worth taking the time to describe what needs doing, let me feel the parts or tools involved, and actually help with the process. I know I'm not an expert carpenter but just because my eyes don't work doesn't mean my brain and hands are useless.
I believe that things are finally beginning to move in a positive direction here in the social department. It's just going to take quite a while longer than I think it should in order to undo the effects of having five years of progress undone when my marriage fell apart and then not being settled in a permanent place of my own for so long. Thanks in no small part to the church I belong to, I'm beginning to have more of a life outside family. Every once in a while, I'll probably still go to Symposium Cafe on my own in order to stave off cabin fever and enjoy the wonderful food and service. However, I'd much rather go there with other people and have reached a point where I've got to do less of that on my own so that I'm financially able to eat out with others. Being determined to enjoy my first Summer here whether or not I had people around, I've spent extra to do that. I certainly don't regret those decisions. They've allowed my favorite season to pass far more pleasantly than otherwise. However, things do have to change now if I hope to have any wiggle room next Summer.
By damn! That pineapple was flipping perfection. Probbly ate more of it than I ought to have but Man! That was splendid. It's pouring rain out there now. My balcony is somewhat curved in a way that means I can actually step out onto it around half a meter or so before I start to feel the rain. Otherwise, I just get some of the wind going across. Call me a simpleton but I find that rather nifty. I think it's due to the curve of where th rail meets up with the bedroom window. Well, folks, I'm just about finished this cup of Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Breeze Non Dairy Beverage. Now there's a marketting mouthful for you. It's proved to be one of the more successful grocery experiments of the last while. Somewhat richer than milk but quite refreshing when cold. Two cups up. On the other side of the coin in my latest order was San Pellegrino Chinotto. I won't be ordering that stuff again any time soon. I figured it would possibly be an interesting change from softdrinks. What I got were six very small bottles not even containing half a large glass worth of liquid. These bottles are thin at the top but thicken as you go down. They're quite weighty for their sise. The bottom third of them are so thick that I wonder whether I could even crack them with my hammer. Perhaps, I should try it just to get some bang for my buck. What's in that bottom third of bottle anyhow? An emergency supply of pressurised air, or perhaps an enraged djinni travelling economy class?
I'll rap this entry up with another of my more successful purchases. ZBS is a favorite place for me to acquire audio dramas. They came out with an addition to the Jack Flanders series called Steam Dreamers. It's a shorter entry but I found it an interesting couple of hours. It explored the natures of both reality and adiction in a fairly unique way and thereby helped a couple of solitary evenings pass more pleasantly than they otherwise would have. Hats off to the crew at:
www.zbs.org
They've kept a good thing going for decades. I look forward to whatever they come up with next. Later, everyone.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
A Very Warm Autumn Saturday
Hello everyone. Another week has drifted past. For the first chunk of it, I had a short-lived flu of some sort. It certainly drained my batteries something fierce but then left in a hurry. I felt fine by the time I went for the physical I had previously scheduled on tuesday. Nothing major I have to worry about as far as that went. I stayed in for most of the week just in case. Other than that, things have been pretty uneventful. I read two books called Pandemic and The Ten Thousand. They were fairly nifty modern thrillers but nothing I'd call extraordinary. However, they certainly kept me from boredom while I was too damned tired to do much else than read. For that, I'm thankful.
Writing was pretty slow going this week. Dragon Tavern adventuring has gone fairly well though. I've finally gotten Eldrex up to level 50. A bunch of randomly generated outcomes punctuated by the odd decision to return to base or purchase equipment here and there is hard to actually call an acomplishment. However, it's taken long enough so that it feels like one. There are now a bunch of new areas, new skills, new items, etc, for me to pursue in an endless frittering away of time.
Today, I went out to Symposium. It was a terrific day for it. From what I hear, tomorrow is going to be equally as pleasant. If nothing else comes up, I may decide to walk over there for supper tomorrow. Church will definitely be a welcome excursion. Not much new to report socially other than a phone chat line I learned about via Twitter. Due to a couple of spammers who have recently tried to make their malodorous presences known on this blog of mine, I won't post the phone number. I've been pretty much free of such idiocy for quite a while but it looks like the ability to moderate comments to this blog is going to come in handy now.
That stupendous sense of entrapment and utter disconnectedness I felt over the Summer truly seems to be gone for the foreseeable future despite nothing major having changed in my social circumstances. I guess I've finally adjusted back to facing the likelyhood of a solitary future. I can enjoy days pretty reliably again so long as a damned flu doesn't decide to pay me a visit. I still very much hope for more; more outings, more friends close enough to hang out with, a more interactive way to spend some of my days on a regular basis, a new special lady. Those things would all be very nice indeed. However, I've regained the ability to enjoy what I have. I'll keep slowly plugging away at Enchantment's Twilight, surfing the net, and taking in as many documentaries, interesting auditory experiences, and whatever else comes within my reach. The divercity training my church is taking part in ought to happen fairly soon. I may find out more about that tomorrow.
Writing was pretty slow going this week. Dragon Tavern adventuring has gone fairly well though. I've finally gotten Eldrex up to level 50. A bunch of randomly generated outcomes punctuated by the odd decision to return to base or purchase equipment here and there is hard to actually call an acomplishment. However, it's taken long enough so that it feels like one. There are now a bunch of new areas, new skills, new items, etc, for me to pursue in an endless frittering away of time.
Today, I went out to Symposium. It was a terrific day for it. From what I hear, tomorrow is going to be equally as pleasant. If nothing else comes up, I may decide to walk over there for supper tomorrow. Church will definitely be a welcome excursion. Not much new to report socially other than a phone chat line I learned about via Twitter. Due to a couple of spammers who have recently tried to make their malodorous presences known on this blog of mine, I won't post the phone number. I've been pretty much free of such idiocy for quite a while but it looks like the ability to moderate comments to this blog is going to come in handy now.
That stupendous sense of entrapment and utter disconnectedness I felt over the Summer truly seems to be gone for the foreseeable future despite nothing major having changed in my social circumstances. I guess I've finally adjusted back to facing the likelyhood of a solitary future. I can enjoy days pretty reliably again so long as a damned flu doesn't decide to pay me a visit. I still very much hope for more; more outings, more friends close enough to hang out with, a more interactive way to spend some of my days on a regular basis, a new special lady. Those things would all be very nice indeed. However, I've regained the ability to enjoy what I have. I'll keep slowly plugging away at Enchantment's Twilight, surfing the net, and taking in as many documentaries, interesting auditory experiences, and whatever else comes within my reach. The divercity training my church is taking part in ought to happen fairly soon. I may find out more about that tomorrow.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
canes, crossings and opportunities
Hello everyone. I'm feeling pretty good today. Not fully rested by any means but not bad. It's going to be a pretty hot day apparently. Yesterday, I had another lesson with Ray. Things went more smoothly than I expected. This route involves a whole lot of straight travel right up until near the end. That'll make things easier than other routes I've tried. On the down side, a few of the crossings are of the awfully damned wide variety. It's going to take a while to get the nerve to just march quickly out there into the void. I cross far better when I do it that way as counter-intuitive as it sounds. Especially when you're in the middle of the crossing, there's a strong tendency to second-guess yourself. I'm slowly getting better at that though. We went through around eighty-five percent of the route and so far, the route seems to have been recorded correctly by the Trekkor Breeze. There are times when the Breeze loses track of my position. Ray doesn't really have the time to wait too much as it catches up. For the first months when I actually feel competent to do the route myself, I'll certainly be waiting after most crossings for that to hapen. There are a lot of fairly close turns in the final part of the route which I'll doubtless take longer to grow confident with. Still, I'm fairly positive that I should be able to make my way to Symposia's at some point this Summer. Ray also brought over a new cane which I asked him to order for me. It's good to have a spare one of those around again. My old grafite cane shows no sign of bending or waring down but if the elastic suddenly goes, I'd like to be ready.
In the meanwhile, God seems to be taking some action openning new doors for me. There's a church conference in Chicago which I've been offered a chance to attend. It would be the first trip of that kind I've ever taken. One thing which may get in the way is if I can't get a passport in time. I've never owned one of those and have no clue how long whatever processing which has to go on will take. Mom's going to take me out this afternoon to get a picture taken and help me apply for one. The workshops and schedule sound pretty stimulating. It's all about multiculturalism. Presuming things work out, I'll doubtless learn a ton and perhaps even be able to bring a fresh perspective. If not, at least I'll be more ready for the next opportunity to travel out of the country. Before that, I'm going on another camping trip with Ron and the gang. This time, I'll make damned certain my computer is left turned off. I'll also strive not to get as drunk as i got last time despite their likely efforts to the contrary. Good food, good fun and good conversation go a long way to making me feel connected to the world outside my family again.
I was happy to hear earlier this week from Ron. He seems to have turned a positive corner in life and is far more at peace with himself. A lot of people from his past who had lost touch during his ill-fated marriage to Sylve have gotten in touch with him again. As for me, I'm becoming more able to look forward instead of back at what Janene and I could have had together. There's a lot less anger and the sense of utter disappointment and anguish has lifted. I still don't really see myself becoming just friends with her. However, I can at least move on with things fairly contentedly again. I can't say I exactly enjoy being back in the trenches searching for another woman who might at least give me the ghost of a chance. I've had absolutely no luck on that front at all. I must have sent out at least sixty greeting messages to women who seemed like they might value what I have to offer and were actually close enough to perhaps meet with. However, not even one of them has even gone so far as to politely reject me. Back to the drawing board just doesn't do this justice. The excitement of having somewhere that actually lets me do the equivalent of looking back and responding to people who take time to look at me is quickly wearing off. It doesn't seem to make a damned bit of difference. I'll try to keep up my end and continue to look but I think God's just going to have to step in and somehow fudge the staggering odds against my success. It's starting to feel like I'm writing to thin air already. The only interest I've been shown is from women in other countries. None of them seem to be able to read and comprehend the simple fact that I can't see and never could. I've had three of them send me pictures and ask me to send some. I have to keep reminding myself that it's still early days yet. It already feels like forever.
On Friday, the space shuttle is coming back down after a very successful mission. I'll definitely try to catch the landing live online. Other than church on Sunday, the rest of the weekend is clear as far as I know. I may go out on Saturday to practice some of the route. Perhaps, I'll meet some new people along the way. Probably just wishful thinking but sometimes, that's all we have to go with. My only realistic shot at expanding my social circle in the short term is through church.
In the meanwhile, God seems to be taking some action openning new doors for me. There's a church conference in Chicago which I've been offered a chance to attend. It would be the first trip of that kind I've ever taken. One thing which may get in the way is if I can't get a passport in time. I've never owned one of those and have no clue how long whatever processing which has to go on will take. Mom's going to take me out this afternoon to get a picture taken and help me apply for one. The workshops and schedule sound pretty stimulating. It's all about multiculturalism. Presuming things work out, I'll doubtless learn a ton and perhaps even be able to bring a fresh perspective. If not, at least I'll be more ready for the next opportunity to travel out of the country. Before that, I'm going on another camping trip with Ron and the gang. This time, I'll make damned certain my computer is left turned off. I'll also strive not to get as drunk as i got last time despite their likely efforts to the contrary. Good food, good fun and good conversation go a long way to making me feel connected to the world outside my family again.
I was happy to hear earlier this week from Ron. He seems to have turned a positive corner in life and is far more at peace with himself. A lot of people from his past who had lost touch during his ill-fated marriage to Sylve have gotten in touch with him again. As for me, I'm becoming more able to look forward instead of back at what Janene and I could have had together. There's a lot less anger and the sense of utter disappointment and anguish has lifted. I still don't really see myself becoming just friends with her. However, I can at least move on with things fairly contentedly again. I can't say I exactly enjoy being back in the trenches searching for another woman who might at least give me the ghost of a chance. I've had absolutely no luck on that front at all. I must have sent out at least sixty greeting messages to women who seemed like they might value what I have to offer and were actually close enough to perhaps meet with. However, not even one of them has even gone so far as to politely reject me. Back to the drawing board just doesn't do this justice. The excitement of having somewhere that actually lets me do the equivalent of looking back and responding to people who take time to look at me is quickly wearing off. It doesn't seem to make a damned bit of difference. I'll try to keep up my end and continue to look but I think God's just going to have to step in and somehow fudge the staggering odds against my success. It's starting to feel like I'm writing to thin air already. The only interest I've been shown is from women in other countries. None of them seem to be able to read and comprehend the simple fact that I can't see and never could. I've had three of them send me pictures and ask me to send some. I have to keep reminding myself that it's still early days yet. It already feels like forever.
On Friday, the space shuttle is coming back down after a very successful mission. I'll definitely try to catch the landing live online. Other than church on Sunday, the rest of the weekend is clear as far as I know. I may go out on Saturday to practice some of the route. Perhaps, I'll meet some new people along the way. Probably just wishful thinking but sometimes, that's all we have to go with. My only realistic shot at expanding my social circle in the short term is through church.
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