So for those of you who don’t know Canadian Thanksgiving was the Monday that’s just passed. Of course our school made a turkey dinner for the event. The thing is that Monday was also the day we were hit by the hurricane. At one point the internet went down then the power flickered. At about five minutes before dinner started the power went out completely. Of course the school has backup generator just in case this happens, but for some reason that wasn’t turning on like it was supposed to so we had to get facilities to fix it. Meanwhile lot of us were ready to go to dinner (though we had to take the back way in because the doors were locked since we had no power). We have cards that we always use to get itno meal hall so it’s taken off our meal plan and they had to take the numbers by hand since the system wan’t working. Good thing was that the power only went out a few minutes before supper so it wasn’t ruined. Still for at least half an hour we were eating in the dark by candlelight. It was certainly an experience.
Pasta or Fries
One thing I love about being on campus is the cafeteria staff know me very well. I got into the habit during my first year of always asking them what they had (because the online menu could change and it was hard to read the printed out ones because the text was small). So now they’ve gotten used to just telling me without me asking, and it’s a good thing too because apparently my eyes confuse pasta and fries. Now the pasta was with meat sauce mixed in so it was around the same colour as fries in general, but it certainly would have tasted different had I thought it was fries.
I used to feel silly at fast food places asking what they had because the menus are up on the walls, but it’s a very useful habit to get into and usually the people are very nice about telling you what’s there.
Why I don’t trust elevators
This is a more silly thing that happened to me once. Well it happened to a good friend of mine, but I was actually the only other person there ate the time. So we were at a conference for visually impaired and blind people of New Jersey with a program we were in. We were at the hotel we all were staying at going to go to supper. We’d gotten to the elevator earlier than the others (I can’t remember why we were so early actually). So we went into the elevator, but were going to hold the door open. Still his cane got stuck in the gap between where the door closes. He tried to pull it back out, but it slipped out of his hand. Perhaps it was because his tip was worn down, but somehow the cane managed to slide through the hole and fall down the elevator. We stood there in stunned silence for a while listening as the cane clattered down the shaft. Needless to say that cne wasn’t recovered. We laughed about it afterwards. I would have lent him my cane, but I was rushing and forgot it at home. Still it’s an interesting moment and I always think of it when I go into an elevator.
Interesting or not?
Sorry for not posting in a while. I think I’m going to keep thse to one post a week because I had a lot of school work this week so I didn’t have a lot of time to write.
One thing I’ve found in life is that things are very interesting to people who don’t have to deal with them. What I mean by that is is that people will find some of the technology I have very interesting and cool. Though I agree that some of it is amazing, most of the time it’s more hassle than it’s worth. Still, it’s a conversation starter because a lot of people want to know what it is and how it works. Especially when you’re in school. I suppose it goes off the idea that things are so natural to us that we take them for granted, but when something else comes into the mix we pay attention to it. We take things almost for granted that they’re the way we thin they are. If someone constantly gets coffee from the coffee machine at their work, but suddenly their office bought a new machine they would notice.
My point is that with some of the things I have it’s so unusual to other people that they’re interested in what it is and how it works. They want to test it out and play with it for a bit It’s not that I mid that, but that I don’t see why they’d be so interested in something that for me is a normal thing.
I’ve had plenty of “toys” in the past including computers with cameras so I could see the board or machines that could read the text on the page and make it bigger. So many people wanted to play with them and explore them.
I also had one time a young girl ask what my cane was to her mother while I was walking past them one day. her mother told her and I showed her a bit how it worked.
It’s also interesting to think how sometimes you take tings for granted. I had a program during high school that was set up for blind and visually impaired students and at one point my high school had four blind students (including me), but my girlfriend when she first met me was very curious because she’d never met a person who was visually impaired before.
So I guess we really just assume things are mainstream that we’re used to, but when something is common to us it might not be so common to others.
Zoomtext: Three versions in one?
When I got my new computer I had to get a new version of Zoomtext since my old one was out of date. The price was lower given a few very helpful discounts (me having own a copy before and just a general discount they were doing at the time) so I got a new version of Zoomtext they created last year called Zoomtext Fusion. It’s an interesting version which is meant to help people with progressive vision loss so I thought I would try it out ((despite my vision being stable). I had it for a while and was struggling with a few bugs that were causing me trouble. One e-mail to their sales office to see what their policy on returning or trading in a version yielded something interesting. Apparently a feature I didn’t know was that you can switch between all three versions of Zoomtext (magnifier, magnifier/reader and fusion) not only is this really awesome, but switching to one of the other versions solved my issues. Fusion is a rather new program so it’s not perfect by any means. They’re still working on bug fixes and such, but for now I’m quite happy using my Zoomtext in one of the other versions. The fact that thsi feature exists is quite exciting. it means that if you thought you only needed magnifier, but find you need a reader as well you’re not stuck with not being able to have it. Or if you find the reader annoying and jst want the magnifier you don’t have to put up with having the reader there at all.
Braille in Pokemon?
When I came home from school today after doing my homework I was watching a few videos and I was reminded of something interesting. In some of the games you were able to catch a certain trio of legendary Pokemon, but in order to get to the areas where these Pokemon are you have to go through a few things involving a certain “code”. The interesting thing is that this “code” is in fact braille writing (though written out as the dots so you can visualize them). They were considerate enough to write out the braille alphabet since most people wouldn’t be familiar with the language. Though I understand complaints about how this would be tough for most sighted people because they would be unfamiliar with the system of dogs that make up the language for the blind I find it interesting. It’s a rather remote thing in the games being optional after-game material that you can unlock, but they went through the detail to make the braille spell out what they wanted. Thee is more to the puzzle than that, but being able to read the braille is essential for unlocking the Pokemon. Sign language and braille I find are usually rarely known by people who don’t need them (or in the case of sign language translators). It’s especially unlikely that a fully sighted ten year old would be able to read it (and of course a blind ten year old wouldn’t be playing Pokemon very easily if at all), but it’s almost nice that the Pokemon Company did this. I’m not sure how it’s written out (or if it is) in the Japanese release since I’ve never looked it up, but I know for the English version it’s there. I would assume it’s similar in other versions. I appreciate that they put the time and effort into making it accurate and bringing a language that is a “blind” language to people who can see so they can at least appreciate it to an extent (even if that means looking it up because even us blind people mix up letters, stupid i and e, r and w, d and f and j and h).
I remember when I had to learn braille at around that age and I hated it because it set me apart. It made me different than everyone because I was taken out of class in order to learn it. I was the only one who had to learn how to read it and write it (maybe I would have been happier being the only person who could have told them easily what to do when it came to that part), but I didn’t want it to set me apart. So it is nice to see that it’s used in a way that isn’t solely just so us blind can read
So if I ever look at videos where someone is playing through that part of the game I look at the braille and read it to myself so I know what it’s saying because even though I’m not familiar with contractions I do remember the letters (even though I mixed up i and e on a present I made someone who then told me a helpful trick to remember which one is which). But it’s a nice touch, and despite the frustraton it causes people who have to try and figure out what it’s saying I think it’s a nice homage to a language most sighted people would never come across.
pronunciation and spelling
So today in one of my classes my teacher was talking about words. It came up that most of the time we read a lot of words, but we don’t know how to pronounce them because we’ve never had to say them out loud so we have to figure out how they’re pronounced. That stuck with me because in my experience it’s completely the opposite. Since I spend most of my time reading by listening to books (because it’s very hard for me to read actual text) I tend to know how to pronounce words I have no idea how to spell. It does lead to some bad spelling and me struggling with certain words. That’s not to say I’ve never seen a word written and not known how it’s pronounced, but my main experience is the opposite to others.
Dorm room living
Well I’ve been living in dorm for the past years of university (and I’ve had the same room for all but the first year, and technically last year because I switched rooms, but I was originally in this room). Still it’s interesting living in a residence because you’re surrounded by people, but at the same time you have your own space [or a space shared with one other person, or a few if you have roommate(s)]. Still, you have a space out of your parent’s house to call your own, while at the same time having other people who are around to help you out if you need them. Also a bunch of people who are in the same boat as you are in regards to being new. Well there are people like me who have been here for more years, but most students in residence are in their first year as well. It also means that you are close the university so finding and getting to classes is much easier.
First week back!
Well I just finished my first week back at college. Things are already starting to get into full swing, but I’m starting off on the right foot. I already put in my forms for my accommodations regarding tests so now that’s done in advance. I have a feeling it’s going to be a god year and the things I’ll be reading are going to be interesting. I am excited for the weekend though, just relax, but also look over some things. I’m happy to be back at least. It’s nice being in residence. Maybe I’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Well that wasn’t very helpful Campus map
So I was looking at my classes and I had to go to a building that I’ve been to, but not very often. I had a feeling I knew which building it was, but I wanted to double check with the campus map. The thing is that some of the buildings have similar names so the building I thought was the right building wasn’t actually right. So I spent time walking around the wrong building. Guess I should have trusted my instincts. Good thing I gave myself a lot of time so I wasn’t late for class. At least now I know where it is.