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.

Amazing Meaningful Holidays

Hello everyone. A blog entry is again well past due. It's been a very eventful couple of weeks. So eventful that I'm not going to even attempt to put things in chronological order. You'll just have to follow my stream of consciousness as it meanders through the tail end of 2011 and start of 2012. It's been a tremendously restorative good time. It's very early on Saturday morning as I begin writing this. I'm awake after an early begun five hours of solid sleep. Hopefully, I'll grab a bit more later. A cup of herbal tea, Calm Infusion, sits beside me at my desk. My computer is also in the process of converting The Passage by Justin Chronen. Hope I got the spelling right. I waited two months so I had two credits to spend. As a result, a book which could have cost $70 has cost me $28. Not bad. It's a long five-parter.

Christmas was an absolute joy this year. So was Christmas eve. usually, I would go to church on one of those two days. However, unlike every other year, my family had events on both those days and then nothing on Boxing day. I doubt that'll happen again in the next decade. I don't feel at all convicted about not attending church over the holidays. God knows my heart and where it's at. Looking back over the past couple of weeks, I've actually spent quite some time thinking about and discussing faith with my friends. Christmas day was spent in Hamilton in my brother's house. That seems to be the best thing to do with three little ones who can open and play with all their stuff. They had a terrific day and seemed to appreciate all their gifts. Ava wrote her name right away in the notebook I gave her. The flashlight from Mountain Equipment Co-op went over very well. Dad now has some money to spend on iTUNES. Mom has six games from Bigfish Games plus credits for a couple more thanks to one small mistake and the generosity of Bigfish Games making it right. After all the hustle and bustle, it was good to have nothing planned on Boxing day. I needed it to recover. I was given a pair of gloves with conductive material in the fingertips which let me use my iPHONE while wearing gloves. That was a very thoughtful idea which really stood out for me this year.

The space between Christmas and New Year's was a tad empty in places. I had family visits and also found that catching up with people online somewhat softened the solitary days. I also found myself re-reading Stephen King's The Stand. Every once in a while, that book pulls me in for another dark journey. The time passed surprisingly quickly as I made preparations for my upcoming gathering. Another pastime was Pontes Backgammon. It's a terrific polished implementation of accessible Backgammon on the computer. I bought it for 13 Euros and will be enjoying it for years. It allows for single play against the computer or two-player games on the same computer or over the Internet. You can chat with your human opponents via text message. Check out what this Romanian charity group has pulled off at:
www.backgammon.pontes.ro
I'd still love to see how Spoonbill Software would do Backgammon. That would be nifty. However, it's hard to imagine a better piece of software. I guess the doubling cube is a missing feature. Mr. Humfreys would doubtless find other neat things to ad were he to attempt it.

New Year's Eve was interesting. The day began early as I caught the very tail end of Jonathan Mosen's new year's show from New Zealand. I later heard and enjoyed the podcast when more fully awake. The morning took a decidedly crappy turn when I discovered that the drain in my sink was plugged. Not wanting to bother anybody on New Year's Eve, I tried everything including plunging the drain and putting vinegar and baking soda into it. Nothing worked though and I had to call the superintend ant. They called the contractors who came out and ended up replacing my old pipe with a very smooth new one. They used a blowtorch to cut out the old one and/or put the new pipe in. Given all the wood and other combustibles in the vicinity of my kitchen cupboards, that was the last thing I was expecting to hear. I've never actually felt one of those contraptions but must conclude that they offer an amazingly focused level of precision. They also must be far smaller than I previously conjectured. I then had to clean up the place and counter area quite thoroughly before I felt I could continue with my day. Thank God they straightened that mess out so promptly. My drain now sucks down water like it never has before.

Half the potential guests I had invited failed to show up for my New Year's party. There were six of us for a brief while. Joseph and Rose wanted to also be a part of the church's New Year's activities. Adam, Jeanette, Stephen and I stayed up until around four AM. I'm very glad Joseph and Rose were able to make it for a good chunk of the festivities and got to know my other three guests. It says a lot that I still had such a good time even though so many friends failed to appear. I very much hope I can get more friends at some future gathering. It's always so fascinating to hear friends who have never met each other and how they interact. A smaller group trades that pleasure for a more intimate level of conversation that I find equally enjoyable. There was some disappointment but this was far outweighed by a strong sense of just how blessed I am by the friendship of others.

That sense was further strengthened by a journey I went on at Stephen's invitation after we had recovered from the New Year's celebration. We spent another couple of days at my place. Shirley came for a visit that I believe was much longer than she had originally intended. Good conversation just kept it going for something around four hours. Originally, I think she intended to stay perhaps half an hour. I hope she makes it to a New Year's gathering one of these years. She'd fit right in and enjoy herself despite the age gap. On Monday, Stephen and I set off for down town Toronto. I ended up spending four days in his company as we travelled around visiting friends. I got to meet Judy and reconnect with Jevan, a young lady I once encountered while at the SCORE camp run by the CNIB. She certainly seems to have found her stride in life. I was surprised she remembered me especially from that long ago. It was a very pleasant bit of travel and visiting.

I also got to visit Michelle McQuigge along with Steve. We showed her how our iPHONES worked and let her take them for a spin. She loves her old Nokia phone with its tiny keyboard. Given her amazing facility to text rapidly versus my agonized snail's pace tortured texting, I can't exactly blame her. Texting is far less a priority for me than for her. The benefits of having an iPHONE far outweigh the annoyance that I find typing on it to be. Not so for Michelle. Our discussion was pretty far-ranging and she seemed full of energy. She certainly handles a knife well when chopping vegetables. Steve and she seemed to hit it off well right away as I suspected they would. Sadly, during that first day, I lost the speaker for my Trekkor Breeze. They cost $25 each. It's the second one of those which I've had to purchase as the first one broke. While I was at it, I also bought a new battery for the Breeze. Add the expense of a set of Urban Ear headphones for my iPHONE as well as renewing my Apple Care plan for my iPHONE and you've got a pretty expensive start to 2012. We never checked the kind of cab someone found for us at the subway station so there was no way to inquire about the speaker. The driver was convinced that the noise was the seatbelt dangling and that's what I thought until we were well away from the cab. A mistake I don't plan on making again any time soon. From now on, the speaker goes into my pocket even during short cab rides or whenever it's not in use. An easily avoidable stupid absent-minded mistake on my part.

I was able to attend Meko's birthday celebration due to weather completely changing initial plans for Tuesday. Tuesday was just too cold to think of travelling. Stephen and I had a pleasant relaxed day at the Murgaski house. I got to show Steve a bit of Backgammon and we caught up with what had captured our interests over the past while. As always, the food was great and the conversation stimulating. I've always felt very comfortable and open around the Murgaski's and hope Steve has felt the same around my parents as has seemed to be the case over the many years of our friendship.

Wednesday was a chance to reconnect with Earle, Meko, and others I haven't seen in quite a while. I guess the last time I saw a lot of them was at Steve's going away party before he headed off to India. What an awesome adventure that turned out to be. Earle has a very spacious sounding apartment. He seems pretty happy with it over all. After hearing about that incredible fire in 200 Wellesley, I guess I had expected to find him in a far smaller more cramped space with the added presumption that most units in the building would be similarly small cramped affairs. The reality is of course quite different. It's too bad he had to lose some irreplaceable stuff as a result of the fire but I'm glad he wasn't anywhere near it when it happened. I remember the newscasters remarking how people would just go out on their balconies when they could have left the building. 2011 really seems to have been an eventful year for a lot of us. It's as if time just reached out and caught us in its fast-moving currents for a while.

While Earle, Steve and I sat together in his place, talk naturally turned to others from our grade school days when we first became acquainted. Apparently, Daniel still thinks rather uncharitably of both Earle and I. He apparently thinks we're Radio Shack quality people, whatever that means, and that we should be eliminated. I couldn't help but observe that when dealing with such remarks, one should always consider The Source. They got it. I'm amazed that he's still thinking about me at all after such a long time. I really must have struck one heck of a nerve with my last letter to him all those years ago. Hopefully, it'll ultimately work to his good and help him become a better person. That was, after all, the spirit in which I wrote it. I don't wish him any misfortune at all but believe he'll bring that upon himself unless he's changed or will change substantially from the man I once knew.

Steve and Earle both have superb mobility skills combined with a sense of location and geographical context that I can only dream of. The ease with which Steve guided me around the city was nothing short of profound. Even after extensive lessons in an area, I don't enjoy anywhere near that level of sense of location. I'm always waiting and hoping that next landmark will appear and dreading that it won't because I can't keep a larger mental map in my head for any length of time. On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if I actually move around a little more safely. Steve remarked that he thinks my place was nicely set up. It certainly is and I guess I do tend to keep it fairly neat. Still, I'd think his place would turn out somewhat similar if and when he obtains one. He still sees advantages living with his parents. They're very nice folks much like my own. Also, he has more freedom of action due to his navigation skills than I do. Even so, I would still conjecture that it would do Steve's sense of self and family good to have his own apartment. This is especially true when you start to connect with the community. I couldn't put into words how much that has helped me deal with everything.

Last week's trip has certainly opened things up in a pretty deep way. I keenly look forward to similar adventures in the future as ODSP economics permits. As much as my old friends help me get around, I believe I can help them in other ways as we all navigate life in this strange place society has put us. Earle wants to come out to my place for a weekend to show me more of the Mac operating system and feels I didn't give it enough of a chance. I would welcome such a tour from someone so accomplished and experienced as he is. However, I simply don't see myself just abandoning Windows even for a month as has been suggested to me. Simply put, I have other things on the go than mastering a whole other operating system. If I find that it can really do things better for me, that's great. I'll certainly make use of what I have. However, after my initial experience, I need a higher degree of proof that it's really worth my time mastering it. I just haven't been swept along with all the hipe. For me, the main blessing here is simply having reconnected with Earle, Meko, and others and not feeling like it's just a one-time thing. I absolutely welcome this new doorway which has opened even as I continue to hope for greater community involvement here in Meadowvale.

Some of that will happen fairly shortly. I've been invited out for drinks with people from my church who I never got a chance to connect with over the holidays. Doug and Nan are always a blast to be with. Tomorrow, I'll be meeting with John Morgan. Haven't seen him in quite some time. I'll be showing him some of what my iPHONE can do.

It's now very early Monday morning. I just had the most disgusting disturbing dream that has graced my subconscious in at least a year. I had a great time with everyone last night and don't think I deserved this nasty mental nugget at all. In the dream, I had to chop off the head of a deserter or face the prospect of him still being decapitated and my being drawn and quartered for good measure. He was such a nice man too. I felt absolutely rotten but there was no way out of the situation. My sword stroke wasn't strong enough to do the job neatly so I ended up lying the guy down and sawing through the rest of his neck. I don't believe I've ever felt so utterly disgusted and bad about what I was doing in my sleep before. You can appreciate why the thought of just lying down for more sleep seems quite absurd at the moment.

The one major event that I haven't written about at all is that I've broken up with Emily. There were a number of pretty big differences right from the start. My compassion can lead me into situations that I just don't have the resources to handle. I've got to be honest and acknowledge that my strong desire to find a life partner played a part in this misadventure also. Emily just completely shut down on me over the holidays being afraid that telling me her problems would have lead to the result which has now happened. Too much special meaningful time passed without her being a part of it at all. It made me see clearly how a whole lot of circumstances are going to have to come together for her to achieve any sort of real stability. As a friend, I believe I can be of real help to her in this journey. However, I just don't have the ego anymore to think that I have what it takes to deal with someone who just shuts off communication and disappears on someone she loves. She did the wrong thing for the best of reasons. I feel bad about how things went and wish I could turn back the emotional clock somehow. However, whatever spark of love I felt has simply disappeared. It's as simple as it is messy and un fare.

given all that's happened, I find myself in a place where that need for love has taken somewhat more of a back seat. Life has at last reached a point where I can see myself really being content as a single man from here on out. I would still very much hope to find someone stable, cheerful and intelligent to partner with. Having had two ladies show interest in me over this past year, I find that I have a great deal more hope that I will eventually come across a more suitable match for me. I fervently hope that Emily too will eventually find comfort with someone who shares more of her interests, likes Stevie Wonder's music, and doesn't mind the prospect of owning cats among other things. I very much want her to find happiness in life. Sadly, I've simply come to the conclusion that I'm not the one who can give it to her. It looks like we'll be able to stay friends once she's had some time to adjust her feelings toward me. Having that happen with someone who is actually near enough and has the time to come and see me would certainly be a refreshing welcome turn of events. Of course, there's still the question of whether or not to put up my dating profiles. I guess I probably will despite how ineffective they've been. Increasingly, I'm of the opinion that the next one will be someone who I either meet locally, at Lake Joe, or who finds and takes an interest in my blog. I guess the dating profiles can help lead people to that. If nothing else, it'll help me move on a little having left out my welcome cards so to speak. Meanwhile, I have a sense that there's now enough opportunity, meaningful connection and activity in life so that it doesn't feel like there are major pieces missing. I no longer feel so incomplete like a puzzle piece that can't quite slot in anywhere.

At last, it's approaching seven in the morning. That's a far more reasonable hour to shave, shower and prepare for the day. I'm feeling a tad tired but otherwise quite good about things. Writing things down always tends to help me work through stuff. I feel like this blog entry hasn't done these holidays justice. I've had such a wonderful and profoundly meaningful time. What I've captured here seems so inadequate but will simply have to serve. This year has already started off so full of surprises. I've never had a Winter like this which hasn't slowed to a painful crawl of days so similar and devoid of events that they blend into each other. Life really seems to have changed fundamentally for me. I'm very grateful for such changes and the challenge they bring. I know that God has blessed me with the friends and family to see me safely through them one way or another.

a gps walkabout

Hello again everyone. My mobility instructor Ray and I just went on an impromptu GPS excursion. I now have routes recorded to the corner store from home as well as to the bus stop. I just have to do a little cleaning up of extra landmarks. We learned quite a bit about the Trekkor Breeze today. Ray and I both thought it would be worth-while to record my impressions for others.

For the most part, the Breeze will announce landmarks when you're fairly close to them. However, the ten-meter radius of error is large enough to make for some possible missed turns and could certainly put you in your neighbour's driveway. It will often announce things a fair number of steps before you come to them or after you've passed them. Humanware was quite serious when it says that you should be basically familiar with the area you're in. For instance, I know that I'm the second house down from the nearest corner. From that corner, I go up two driveways on my right side and that one will be my parents' home. If I didn't know that, the Breeze would be absolutely useless at guiding me back home. Don't expect it to be all that precise with street numbers. It says I'm near a street address that Ray couldn't even spot from where we were. There may not even be a 5789 Montevideo Road. I think there may be something wrong with the backtracking feature when you use it to reverse your steps. It's probably meant more for when you're in exploration mode rather than on a route. We tried it and it got me pretty well back to where we started alright. However, it failed to notify me of its success. In fact, it started to think we were moving farther and farther away the longer we stood still at the correct place.

One thing to always bear in mind is that the Breeze won't always know precisely where you are at all times. When you hear it make a slight dong sound and announce the street it thinks you're on, that's when it's updating the fix it has on where you are. People may find that annoying but the more I hear it, the more I can trust its directions. The satelites are constantly moving above you and sometimes, you have to just wait in one spot for it to zero in on you again. It can sometimes seriously lose track of you. One thing I thought we should do was to see how it would direct me back home from the corner store. It doesn't know about the shortcut path that I use to get there so I knew it would take me on a completely unfamiliar route. Ray knew the area enough so that I could trust we wouldn't be out there for ages. He too was curious to see how the GPS would do in such a crisis when one were hopelessly turned about and lost. I told it to guide me home and it warned me that it might guide us on unfamiliar paths. Ray's first impression wasn't a good one as it sent me onto what he thought was a crazy and much longer route. However, we decided to follow it and off we went. It did a pretty good job of telling me enough about intersections and crossings. However, there were several instances when it lost track of how far I had gotten. The Breeze certainly did take us on an unfamiliar and circuitous walk home. One thing people should do is to wait around a minute or two at any intersections to give the Breeze a chance to be certain of where you are if you're in unfamiliar surroundings. Otherwise, it might still have an older instruction as the current one and that could send you in a wrong direction. If you go off-route, it will eventually correct you once it figures out where you are again. As long as you do that, the Breeze should get you to your destination. However, it may not notice that it has done so right away. We had to wait around a minute and a half before it finally figured out that we were home and announced that fact. Make certain you're not in any kind of hurry when you travel with the Breeze and will be relying on its guidance rather than your personal familiarity with a given route. You've really got to have good mobility skills in terms of cane technique and safety. Having said all that, it did indeed manage to get me back home again. The Breeze is certainly going to be good to have as a guide of last appeal in such situations as long as I'm not in a rush. You just have to get a good mental grasp on its limitations and quirks. It was certainly interesting to try something totally new like that. Once it's gotten somewhat warmer out there, I'll probably go out for more walks with the Breeze and perhaps do a bit of cautious exploration.

Rogers, the internet provider I currently use, has just decided to throw another curve my way. As of the middle of next month, my Internet phone service will be discontinued. As a result, since I'm going to be moving in another five or six months, I'm going to be unexpectedly thrust into the world of cellphones. Now folks, I don't really want any of these advanced features like texting and web access. I just want a simple cell phone which is relatively inexpensive and easy to destinguish the keys on. I'm just going to use it for receiving calls and making the odd call. Mostly, I'll be using Skype. I have the jaws scripts for Skype4 installed and have purchased a subscription which gives me free calls anywhere in North America. All I couldn't ultimately get was an online number for people to call. Everything else is splendid with Skype but they don't have online numbers which people can call available in Canada. What a pain! Snarl! That's the only reason I'm getting a cellphone although it will likely come in handy if I do more travelling. Also, I'll be able to take it when I move and keep the new number. Having said all that, if anybody has recommendations about good simple cellphones which don't cost hundreds and where I can use a "pay as you go" plan, I'd be much abliged to you for sharing them.