Review: Kindle Ap With Voice-Over

The world of literature is bigger and better for the blind; thanks to the wonderful invention of technology. Voice-over helps Blindy's do things just as easily as a seer. Today we are going to take a look at the Kindle Ap for IOS.

If you are like me and love to read, you should totally give the Kindle ap ashot on your Iphone, Ipod, Ipad, or Mac. Thanks to voice-over, this application is fully functional for the blind.

Confession: Since I discovered this ap worked with voice-over I have been a bit obsessed with Ebooks. In all fairness however, there are countless books available for free on Amazon. You can't go wrong with free baby.

It is easy to move from screens throughout the application. Menus are easily toggled through. The ability to adjust the reading speed makes for further enjoyment as well.

Another nice function is the bookmark function. When you are on the reading page, fully engrossed in book pleasure mode, simply tap the screen twice to make the menu screen pop up. One of the very first options is bookmark. Directly under that, is the "Return to Book" button that will take you back into your book.

The menu screen gives you options such as bookmark and return to book as previously mentioned. It also lets you see how far you have gotten into you book by both precentage and page number if available. When you push the menu button again, it brings up other options. First is the option to go back to your book library, which is a list of books you've downloaded. It also allows you to check out other bonuses that your particular book has to offer. This can include book extras, table of contents, about the author, and other extras.

For those with low vision, there is also a feautre that may interest you. Kindle allows you to highlight text. This can be useful if reading text for school. It can also be nice for recreational reading as well. Once highlighted, said text can be saved. It can also be shared on your desired social media platform.

Lastly, when you are finished reading a book, a screen pops up called, "Before You Go". This screen is cool because it lets you check out other books relted to what you just read. It also lets you share you have finished with your friends on Twitter and Facebook. Cooler still, you can review the book directly in this section.

All in all, this is a really cool ap. You don't have to have an actual Kindle tablet to enjoy the functionality of Kindle books.

Happy reading guys....

As always, thanks for reading... and remember... look before you leap

Got To Love Spam... Not!

Got To Love Spam... Not!

It is completely possible that spammers are what make the internet go round...

Or, that's a bunch of bull and I am simply using sarcasm to break into your mind... Hmm... It's a thinker really. If I were you, I don't know exactly what I would choose.

Before you make your decision hear me out. Let me give you my vast pearls of wisdom in the terrifying world of spam. If I haven't convinced you that my motives are pure, you have the right to burn this post... Okay, well maybe that's a figurative reference, but you get the point right?

A long time ago, in the land of blogging, A wonderful Princess started something amazing called Playing The Blind Card. It was probably her greatest idea yet.

Imagine, a place where an actual blind person could talk about what? You guessed it... blindness.

And not just any old blindness my fiend... the bright side of blindness.

I know what you're thinking... the bright side to blindness? It can't be done. Well, it hs been done my friends, this I can assure you.

The Princess thought she could bridge the gap between the lands of the seers and the blindy's through not only good old fashioned information, but through some humor along the way too.

Now because this wonderful place is targeted to both communities of seers and blindy's, the PRincess wanted her enchanted world to be available for all, no atter their limitations.

Then, along came the big bad antagonist... a bully if you will. This horrible onster is called Captcha. Like most bad guys Captcha is really just missunderstood. It was created with the purpose of illiminating the internal struggles between well intentioned bloggers and their evil counter parts, the dredded spammer.

The problem that hasn't apparently yet been considered, is that blindy's have their own struggles going on behind the scenes with poor Captcha. The two of them just don't workf well together, as it is that poor missunderstood Captch was created with primarily seers in mind.

"I'll illiminate this problem all together," Princess thought. "I will not enforces the obsticle that is Captch in my enchanted orld of Playing The Blind Card.

You would think that would be that right?

Well think again my poor little friends.

Now don't get me wrong. This was a marvelous idea in theory. Blindy's everyhere cheered the forward thinking blogger for her efforts. They loved how much easier it was to leave comments on their favorite postings.

Blogger Princess thought she had it all figured out. She was horribly mistaken however. She did not take into consideration the horrible underhanded sneak that is... the spammer.

Thespammer preys on kind hearted, equal opptunists such as this particular blogger from Playing The Blind Card. They search high and low, devouring pages of the world wide interweb, seeking places like Playing the BLind Card.

Why would they do such things you ask?

The answer is simple my friends. Are you sitting down? Wait for it... wait for it... Because they can.

That's right, it's truly as simple as that. They have a purpose too. That purpose is to litter as many places on the web as humanly possible with their advertising and propoganda. Even worse, many of them will leave missleading comments on blog posts. Posing as well intentions readers, before eventually leaving their true evil behind... links to whatever crap they are selling, pushing, or pursuading.

Please know my faithful readers, this garbage has not gone unseen. It hasn't escaped the notice of anyone. The problem is, what to do about it? If Captcha is reinstated, blindy's will again have difficulty leaving their thoughts on postings. If left disabled, spammers are able to run free all over every beautiful surface of Playing The Blind Card. Thus, making it almost pointless for a reader to leave a comment as well, because it is next to impossible to swim through all the trash left behind by spammers.

It is being considered that Captch will be disabled as per-usual. It is also possible that comments will be disabled all together. This would in turn mean that readers could only be heard in private through email. I'm not sure exactuly which is the right way to go. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

As always... Thanks for reading, and remember... Look Before you Leap

Did You Miss Me? Me Too

So for the first time in ages, I am coming to you from my computer. Granted, at the moment I am on my old computer, but am on a computer nevertheless.


I have nursed this one for just about as long as I am going to be able to. I was able to get it to boot up today so that I could get all the word documents off and transfered to my newer one. I thought this mission was already accomplished. However, after looking through my email inside and out, frontwards and backwards... I realized I was wrong... unfortunately, dead wrong!

So, here I am...

I am getting very excited about getting back to work on an official capasity. It feels good to have a laptop on my... well... my lap. Okay, so that didn't sound as cool as I was hoping. You will forgive me right?

I know that in the past year I have really neglected this blog. I could spend countless sentences and endless words begging for your forgiveness, but I am not gonna do that. Do you want to know why??? Beacause it won't really matter!

What will matter is my promise and didcation that I still care about all of you. There has just been a lot going on with life that I can't disclose here. I am working hard to get back to the world of the living. As some of you may know, I have been trying to make myself seen again in the social media world. I am still hoping to get back to the land of Good Reads. That hasn't been difficult without a computer.

I also am well aware that I owe you some blog posts. I am in the middle of my series on my trip across the country to Florida. I am also going to be starting a series on blind traveling in general, blind dating, blindness in school and a blind technology section as well. As always I will be posting about my writing.

As mentioned before, I am going to be transferring the material from my other blog, over to this one. I think it will just be much easier for me to maintain one blog instead of two. Don't you agree? This will take a bit of time because I need to incoorporate the assistance of a seer. I will keep you posted on the development of this.

I will be slowly but surely uploading some of my more popular posts from there soon. Now that I can get to them that is. So, for those of you who have been loyal to bother blogs... sorry for the repeats, please bare with me.

I will be uploading some new videos to the You Tube channel soon too!

Are you as excited as I am? Okay, I know, you're probably not, but put on a brave face okay? Thanks.

Clandestine in audio book form is still in production. Yes, I know... you guys are ready and waiting. I am so sorry for the time it has taken to get it out to you. There has been some complications behind the scenes in the technical world, but I assure you it is coming very soon.

If any of you is good at creating wbsites... please send me a private message. I am looking for someone who can build me a spectacular, stupendous and out ragiously amazing web page. Of course, I should probably also mention that I am looking for someone that is willing to do this on either a volunteer or extremely cheap basis. If you are interested, or you know someone who is, get a hold of me via email or on Playing the Blind Card's Facebook page. The link to both can be found on this page.

Well, I have successfully rambled for long enough I think. I must get back to work transferring files. Thank you for allowing me to take a break with you.

PS... I noticed when I signed in that the blog is getting close to 60,000 page views!! Now all we gotta do is beaf up the ammount of people signed up to follow. Keep doing what you do and get the word out about the page. Remember, I couldn't do all this without you all. That being said, just know that you all rock and I love ya bunches.

As always... Look before you leap

To self publish or not to self publish

So as pretty much all of you know, I have been trying my hand at the self-publishing gig for the past couple years now. I only have the one book out. You can find clandestine in print and also in e-book online at Amazon, and Barnes & Noble and whatnot. However as I lay here in bed, I keep circling around the same question… What am I doing? Do I really have any business self-publishing?

Let's face the facts…

I really have absolutely zero experience with the book industry. I do not know anything about distribution. I have no idea on where to start with marketing tactics. Platform? I don't even have a stepstool LOL

In order to make money at selling books, you need to have money so that you can advertise and get your book in people's faces. I am not going to lie, I don't have a lot of money to do that. I would love to… I need to… It's crucial for the life of my career after all. So what now then?

If you stood there for more than five seconds… Looking completely puzzled… And finally coming to the conclusion that you had no answer to the last question… You pretty much were just looking in the mirror at me!

Part of me is very highly considering trying the traditional publishing route. I do love the concept, theory, and overall freedom that self-publishing has to offer. The only problem is, with some of the problems listed above as well as some that have not even been mentioned, it might not be the right choice for everyone. And by everyone, I mean myself mainly.

Nothing is set in stone yet. I have not made any final decisions. I have just been having trouble sleeping lately, and thereby, millions of ideas are bouncing around my poor head. I am mostly mind babbling, vent rambling, and trying to put myself into a sleep coma by overworking my brain I guess LOL

I worry that if I have already started the self-publishing game… How can I possibly get my foot in the door on the total opposite end of the field? Also, since the series bound in blood has started self published… Should be finished self published? Is it possible to start one way and and a completely other direction? I have no idea

I would absolutely love to find an author who has gone through this same situation that I am now. Basically, I am hoping that someone will let me completely pick apart their brains until I can make a decision for myself. I figure there probably has to be at least one person out there who has thought about this, and hopefully even tried it. If I'm lucky, I will be able to find someone was successful at it. Or, if nothing else, someone who can tell me that I'm being a complete and utter spaz and that I should just stay right where I'm at and do completely what I'm doing. I would be cool with either option really

Is this really something that I should be talking about in the public eye? The answer that I have come up with is who knows? I know I sure don't. However, I figure the only way to find someone that might have an idea for me is to put it out there. Besides, they always said that honesty is the best policy. I am not to this day completely sure who they are, but they sure seem to know their stuff

For now, this is all I have to say on this subject. I will probably come back and talk about this sometime in the future. Hopefully, I will be blessed to give you a rational well-thought-out decision. If not, sorry for that… Hope you enjoy the ride anyway… Until then, look before you leap

Traveling without eyes my trip across the country part one

After I lost my site, I never would have thought that I would do much traveling. I especially thought it to be true, that I would not travel by myself. Nevertheless, that is exactly what I find myself doing. Well, I guess I should speak about it in past tense, since I have already returned safely. At 30 years old, I made my first trip across the country as a blind person. I should note that I did not die, so the trip was a success if you ask me. Although, I cannot say it was flawless. There was plenty of debacles along the way.

My plane left at like 6 AM Standard Pacific time. Yes, you heard right. 6 AM comes awfully early when you're nervous the night before and cannot sleep. Did I mention it takes an hour to get to the airport from where I live? This means I had to get up even earlier. So I guess I should correct myself. 2:30 AM comes awfully early when you're nervous the night before and cannot sleep. But I digress

My wonderfully supportive parents told me that they would watch peanut. This was perfect. If it wasn't for them, I would not have been able to make the trip. Princess will stay just about anywhere. She is at that preteen age that says Hell, as long as I'm not with my parents I will be anyway. Peanut however, has serious separation anxiety. She does not like to be away from mommy at all. She is only five, but despite her anxiety has the mental maturity of a 12-year-old. She is insanely smart and once she discovered that I would be gone for more than a day she was displeased. My parents do well at distracting her from her mommy longing periods. In fact, I do not think she would have stayed anywhere else for the length of my trip. I know I was not gone that long, but still.

Anyway, she and my mom were fast asleep when my dad and I left for the airport. I was surprisingly awake and alert during the drive. One would have thought that I would pass back out and got a little extra Shadai before take off. No, my mind was racing. The train was moving down the tracks of its own volition and I did not any control over it. I was so excited to see Ryan. He really is the love of my life and to my girls of course. The prospect of the trip hadn't completely something in. I was nervous, but not entirely sure what to expect. This both helped and hindered my box for the long coming day of travel. Okay so I know this is not the first auto correct air from the dictate feature of the iPhone for this post. For those of you who are not familiar with what I'm talking about, for right now I am blogging from my iPhone. I have to do so using the blogger app as well as the dictate feature which allows me to talk to my phone and give you the information you are currently reading. This error however needed to be pointed out because it made the sentence just sounds ridiculous. When I informed you that Ryan was the love of my life this was of course true. But the rest of the sentence is where the train wreck started. It was supposed to inform you that he is the love of my life and to my girls meaning they are also the loves of my life. Okay now that I have fixed the air and inform all of you newcomers that my dictate feature sometimes does not accurately depict my words, I can continue. I suppose I should first let you know that because it does not accurately depict my words, I cannot fix the errors. It will not let me go back due to an excess ability problem with the blogger app.

When we got to the airport, parking was not terrible. This made me hopeful that the airport would not be crazy busy on this morning. Boy was I wrong! It was packed full of people. Security was quite busy. I would have thought choosing an early flight such as I did, I would have missed some of the Podesta tree in traffic 

Once through security, and once I received my cane back. Okay pause, I should probably explain what I mean by get my cane Mac. I was not referring to when you put your items into the tote tray and then simply grab them back out when you were done. I was referring to The man who helped guide me through the metal detector giving me back my cape. He did so after evaluating the material and deciding whether or not he should send it through x-ray. Can I just tell you how ridiculous, absurd and completely obnoxious I found this to me? I am not completely unreasonable. I am perfectly aware that in the past our country has experienced seriously horrible times. I understand the need for caution. I also understand that sometimes people go to extremely drastic measures to get there terroristic ideals into the public. 

In taking that into consideration though, I ask that you take my next appointment consideration. I would like you when you're done reading this post, to please go to your favorite search engine. I would like you to then type in the words blind terrorist, blind serial killer, wind criminals. Then carefully look down the list of results. I am pretty confident that no matter which one of those terms you decide to search for, you are not going to come up with much. There is a reason for that. Can you guess what it is? Well, in case you can't, I will let you know.

Blind people make really crappy criminals!!

I am about 99% sure that my people will not be responsible for the takedown of any government or any other type of public forum. The reason being is how the hell are we supposed to get away? It is not as though we can do the deed and then take off running. Well, I suppose we could, but we would not get very far before the takedown. So what would be the point?

Anyway I apologize I got distracted by a shiny again. I get a little emotionally attached when it comes to this subject because I just do not get it. I suppose I should calm down however it really isn't that big of a deal I suppose. If nothing else, he did give you something to think about that right? Even if not in a serious context, I bet they gave you something to consider in a comical one. Just picture that blind person running down the jetway trying to make away and shoot past all of the security. Don't forget they probably do not have their cane because it blew up on the plane causing a terrible explosion in the airplane toilet that nearly took out an entire roll of toilet paper. The blind person almost didn't get away because the damn flight attendant did not tell them they had to turn off the light in order to get let out of the bathroom. It was a near miss but they were able to get out in time thank God LOL. By the way, getting locked in an airport that Larem on an airplane, not fun. That will be described later on I promise

So anyway… Dot…

Before my flight, I decided it would be a good idea to purchase some soda and possibly something to eat on the plane. I was not sure if Southwest offered or sold food, but I figured if they did, it would be insanely expensive. I stopped at a minute mark style vendor and purchased 220 ounces of Pepsi. Normally these cost only about a buck 50. In the airport however, you can expect to pay $2.50 for one bottle of 20 ounces of Pepsi! This was highway robbery. If it was not for my extreme need for caffeine, I would not have purchased two of the delectable beverages. By the way, yes I noticed that in the beginning of this paragraph the dictate feature has decided to tell you that I purchased 200 some odd ounces of Pepsi. This is of course not true in case you were wondering. I only purchased two bottles of 20 ounces of Pepsi. Now you know

That was the minor debacle number one. Now we move on to minor debacle number two.

I figured it would be the easiest to pick a food place that was near by my gate. Near my gate for things such as McDonald's, big town hero, a few Mexican restaurants and a random café. I figured a sub sandwich would be the easiest to take on the plane. First, it was still in the wrapper. Second, it did not matter if you need it warm or cold it still tasted the same upon calling the day before, I was informed that all of these places would be open at 4:30 AM. This may have been true, but even still, at big town hero there was no one at the counter. The lights were on but no one was home. In my sleep deprived state I thought about stamping my foot and causing a ruckus. Luckily Justin time, I thought better of it. I was still holding my cane after all. I wouldn't want people to think that the crazy blind girl was about to go on a terrorist rampage.

So instead I settled on McDonald's. I ended up getting a couple of sausage McMuffin. Not that you really care, but you should know that after a while on an airplane, sausage McMuffin's do not taste good a arbitrary. Plus the bread does not want ballpark. So I felt like I was savagely eating one of my sandwiches on the plane. The poor old lady next to me probably wondered if she was next. Needless to say I never ate the second sandwich. And just so you know I am well aware of the spelling errors in this paragraph, but there are a couple of them but I do not even know what they are supposed to be so I'm just going to leave them alone. Consider this your English lesson for the day you can edit and revise at will. Ask your credit points will happen if you decide to not judge me for the mistakes LOL

The people at the Southwest counter where amazing. They were very friendly and very nice. They helped me to the gate where I said goodbye to my dad. That was a little weird. We had never had to do something like that before other than when I went to guide dog school, but that was a little different I suppose.

It took me a little bit to figure out how to fasten my seatbelt. These are not much like one in a car. They got that weird flat thing that pops up and it kind of got the better of me for a second before my brain finally switched onto hey I'm not really stupid mode.

The old lady that I mentioned earlier, was so sweet. She sat next to me in the middle chair. Her husband who just happened to be a retired pilot, took the window seat. I did not put up much of a fight there since I couldn't really check out the view anyway. She was very helpful throughout the entire flight process. Once the plane started moving she informed me when we were getting closer to taking off. By the time the tires under the plane left the ground, my heart was racing hard enough to propel the plane on its own. The build up was phenomenal. I felt like we were at the climax of a very cyst suspenseful movie. I was completely terrified, but totally excited at the same time. I have only one once before this easy. But I was under the age of nine and really had absolutely no memory of the experience other than the fact that it was cool and I haven't done it.

The first time the plane hit turbulence it bumped a little. After-the-fact talking to you now, I can admit the bumps really weren't that bad. At the time, I thought the entire plane was going to fly apart. My butt practically left my seat. I put my hand on the old ladies arm hopefully not leaving any bruises. What was that? The words came quick from my lips my breath was short and my heart was in my butt. She left a little removed my hand and then had it gently like a grandmother would. It's okay dear, she informed me. That is just a little turbulence. It means we are getting some when that's all. Nothing to be afraid of.

Right, right, I said trying to catch my breath. Just a little turbulence, no big deal. Right, then why was the damn plane still bumping. Does the pilot not know how to look for air because not have speed bumps? Is that not a part of their training? And if it is not part of the training process, should we the passengers not be informed of this? I did not receive any type of memo about said turbulence. Okay well maybe I am being a little dramatic, but it really was scary. I did feel slightly stupid once I realize what it was. I have heard of turbulence after all and I am perfectly aware that I was not going to die although for a second I kind of thought I was.

I wanted to listen to my audiobook, I was terrified that I would miss something if my headphones were in my ears. The plane was too loud to just have the one in and I knew just knew something would happen if I obstructed my last sense of knowing what was happening in the outside world. I decided I would wait until I could tell that the plane was on level air. More turbulence no more lifting just smooth flying. Once that happens, I would be free to read at my leisure. Until then I needed to diligently pay attention. Nothing was going to cut catch this blind girl offguard no sir.

The flight staff was all amazing. They periodically check on me, help me get my bag down from the overhead compartment anytime I needed and even assisted in taking me to the bathroom. Or I guess I should say the laboratory, as they call it on an airplane. Which by the way, I find to be a little silly. It is not like you are conducting science experiments in there. And if UR I do not want to hear about them.

I would totally recommend Southwest for your traveling needs whether you are a senior or you are a blinding. Okay now that was a dictate debacle. That is not at all what I was trying to say. I meant it to say whether you could see or you are blind you will like flying with Southwest. That is all

The rest of this part of my trip went well. I landed in Phoenix for my layover. That as well as the rest of my trip across the country will be in the next post. Not to give you any type of cliffhanger or anything because I know you're just so incredibly at the edge of your seat and all. It is just that I need to go for now. This post is getting longer than I had anticipated. So in the next post, you can expect to hear about Phoenix and the rest of my flight across the country.

Also coming soon is a series about travel while you're blonde on the YouTube channel. This will be accompanied by my own personal experience as well as the experience of my boyfriend Ryan and hopefully from a few other blind people that I have connected with recently. Be sure to check that out in the near future. It would be a great idea for you to not only subscribe to this blog but also to the YouTube channel. This will ensure that you will know all of the information as it becomes available and public. Plus it shows the support of fellow blind person which is always a prosperous endeavor. The more people subscribe the more the word gets out and the more people learn from all of these ridiculous debacles.

If you have not checked out the YouTube channel already, you can find it by clicking on the link in this blog. It will take you to the YouTube channel directly. You can also find links to my Facebook pages from this blog as well. I would please ask and encourage you to like those pages and share them with your friends. And always remember look before you leap

Disclaimer, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any spelling errors in this post. I take great offense to having these errors in my writing posts. I am an author for Hells sake. This should not be happening. I worry that it will eventually ruin my reputation. Or at least make me look stupid if nothing else LOL. Please remember this is the doing of the dictate feature on my iPhone in conjunction with the use of the blogger app on the iPhone. Again I apologize for any convenience that these errors may have caused you. I hope that you have not suffered any permanent damage as a result to but missing and indulging in these errors. If so, you can leave a comment down below and I will take each predicament under advisement I assure you.

The skinny on blind people blind dating

Are you a sighted person wondering if blind people date? Do they stay with in the blind community? Or, do they branch out into the world of the cited? No matter how they date. The blind community has much XPerience with blind dating… pun intended lol

Another new interesting dynamic to the land of blind dating, is the new and wide spread phenomenon of online dating. It has opened a whole new door for the disabled community. It has allowed them to meet all kinds of new people they may not have otherwise had the chance to encounter. As some of you already know, I myself have embarked on an online dating journey. It wasn't intentional in my case. I did not seek comfort at eHarmony, mashed.com or one of those other fishy sites. Not that there is anything wrong with these of course. I simply wasn't looking for love when it came directly in front of me and struck me hard like a Mack truck. It was kind of rude actually, I wasn't even looking. Where is the respect?

Sometimes you find love when you least expect it. There is no need to be afraid of this. Embrace it! Don't give up on it! I thought about it for a second, and tell my boyfriend clued me in to reality. Love knows no boundaries. It is not aware of the true definition of distance. The heart wants what it wants.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Many blind people date other blind people. There may be many theories to this. I personally think it can be a good idea for some. It allows two people to come together that have many things in common. They know the inns and outs, ups and downs and all other directions of blindness. They will understand when others may not be able.

Up until I met my current boyfriend on the playing the blind card Facebook page, I also only dated sighted people. This wasn't necessarily a choice. It was mostly lack of options. The town I live in doesn't have any other blind people my age. 

As absurd as it sounds, when I met my boyfriend Ryan, it didn't occur to me to even attempt to date a Nother blind person. It seems silly to me. I figured, I should be looking for someone who can see, can drive, and therefore better the situation that I was in before I met him.

A few of my friends and family told me how Insein the prospect of this theory was. You are a hypocrite! They scolded me right and left.

They were right. I totally knew they were right. The problem was, my heart had already been hurt several times. Yes, I admit it. I was and probably am still a little, a woman scorned. That's right, I've been through a lot. It's taking me a long time to admit that, but it is true.

In retrospect, that is probably the main reason I was so jaded about getting into a new relationship. It really wasn't anything to do with the fact that we are both blind. Instead, with the fact that my heart was still drying. You see, I had just recently applied the crazy glue and duct tape. I had actually been single for quite a wild. But only recently decided to even think about having my heart exposed even a little. That didn't mean I wanted to date. It just meant I was open to the idea of meeting someone new.

And then there came Ryan. He of course is Mr. wonderful! I never expected to meet him. I thank God every day that I did however. He has completely changed my life for the better. He makes me every day want to be a better person.

He is a smart ass just like me. Which of course, I love! What he doesn't think of, I do and vise versa. It is a perfect blind match in heaven! I would not have it any other way. I have decided to adopt a new mantra… blind dating is the new black…

I have decided to explore the prospect of blind dating more and more on this blog, on the Facebook page, and especially on my YouTube channel. I look forward to having more conversations with you about this topic. I plan to open up with you a lot soon. Ryan has even agreed to talk with me on the YouTube channel about it too! I am really excited about that. I have also been talking with other blind friends on Twitter and on Skype about joining me in this venture as well. I will keep you posted as more develops on this.

If you are interested in being interviewed through Skype in an audio only interview for the YouTube channel, please feel free to find me on Twitter or on Facebook and let me know either in a private message or by leaving me a comment. I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. I look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible. It will be fun to get to know all of you and inform the world in the process.

As always, thank you for reading… And remember… Look before you leap

Finally an accessible game on the iPhone

I've been looking for months for a fully accessible game that works with the iPhone. I wanted something that was multiplayer. Meaning, I could play with a real live person, not a computer.

Thanks to a friend of playing the blind card on Facebook, I have finally found one! You can find it in your App Store for free! It is called dice world!

It has four different fun dice games that can be played by yourself or with another person. You can connect with Facebook or Twitter friends. Or, if you would rather, you can look for a random opponent.

There are even tournaments that can be played. This will help you earn more gold coins. Well, providing you when that is. I tried one last night when I couldn't sleep. I took the silver metal. I was able to get some more coins in my bank without annoying my Twitter and Facebook friends with postings

There is an option to make dice world ad free for just $1.99. So far though, the ads really haven't bothered me that much. I'm not sure if I will bother with the ad free version or not. Either way, this game is totally worth the download and space taken up on your phone. If you love Yautzy and other dice filled fine, you will love dice world! I highly recommend this for blind and sighted people alike.

Until next time… Remember… Look before you leap… And if you can't, well, that sucks

Possible new feature for the blog

Hey, just wanted to drop a quick note. I am thinking of incorporating a new feature to playing the blank card. I wanted to give you guys a chance to weigh in on this idea.

As many of you know, the iPhone is a very accessible device for the blind and low vision clients. Many of you already have one whether it be an older version, or the latest 5C or 5S. I have recently purchased the 5c.

I have been talking with my boyfriend, and we thought that maybe it would be a good idea for blind people to review different iPhone applications. That is, how they work with voiceover. How accessible are they? Do blind people really have the ability to use them?

There are other websites, YouTube channels, podcasts and possibly other avenues that also explore this topic. I figured it was something that playing the blind card should tap into, as it is a very important topic

If there is ever an application that you would like to see reviewed on this blog, please feel free to shoot me an email. You can use the contact form that is on this page. You can also leave it in a comment under this post. Or, you can also leave your comments on the plane the blind card Facebook page.

Also, if you are a company or person producing an application that you feel would be a beneficial app for a blind user, please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to interview you for the blog. 

Are you a blind user who would like to do your own review on the product for this blog? That is welcome here. If you are interested, send me a message. I will set up with you a time and date that you can do your own post for this site.

In one way or another, everyone has a voice on playing the blindside. So standup, shouted out, and let me know what you want! Thank you and I was always see you next time. Also as always, yet again the dictate feature has made an Ermer I am not from playing the blind side I am from playing the blind card! Thank you iPhone dictate feature. Review coming in for the post…

Did that really just happen? Knocking over display at Wal Mart

Have you ever had one of those moments while shopping that you wish you could take back? You know what I'm talking about, one of those moments where your face is fire engine red and you wish you could crawl under the end Never to be seen or heard from again. I had one of those moments yesterday

I guess in the big scheme of things, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. To me, it was a very big deal. You see, I embarrassed easily. Well, maybe not easily, but when it comes to myself and being self-conscious… It's definitely not difficult to embarrass myself

I was out at the store with Princess and peanut. Peanut was in the stroller as always. I was behind pushing, while Princess, was leaving. She does a very good job at this. For the most part, she always has my back. Never letting me run into anything. Or at least, not laughing very hard when I do. So sidenote… I just noticed while listening back to what I dictated that there was an error princess was not leaving anywhere. She was Leedean the stroller. Dang it! It just aired again so, I will change the word entirely. Princess was guiding the stroller. … Much better… Stupid talking software!

Anyway, it was all going really well. I had run into anything, not anything over, or made any sort of blunder whatsoever.  When out of nowhere, I feel something thing against my shoulder and biceps on the right side. It didn't hurt or anything, but it did feel as though I ran into a person. I was instantly embarrassed. I always feel bad when this happens. This is mostly because the general seeing public, doesn't look at me as though I am a blind person. When I run into them, they look at me as a rude, obnoxious, awful person. None of which is true of course. They however, do not see it that way.

So as I feel my face flame up with fire engine red mortification, I whisper in a rush to princess. Quotation mark was that a person quotation mark

She looks back, and with just as much emphasis says, quotation mark crap, no, that was a display of towels. Quotation mark

At that moment, my heart fell a little. I hate when I make any type of mess in public. Well it's also a problem when you draw attention to yourself that is completely unnecessary. Some people might not mind this. I am not that person. I quickly and as efficiently as my blind self could manage, tried to pick up all of the packs of towels. You see, these were packs of five full-size towels that were twined together. Process and Little Miss peanut did their best to help. Peanut had three stacks in her arms that made it up past her head. She kept trying to get my attention while I was busy cleaning my own pile. It was hard to hear her through them muffled block of towels.

No one that I am aware of ever came into the aisle. I did hear some voices close by. I kept waiting for one of them to come and see the debacle in the towel I'll.

Princess was having a hell of a time loading the fallen towels back onto the display where they came from. She said that they Wombling. She just knew they were going to fall again. A crossed the aisle from her, there was a shopping cart with a few of the Powell packs inside. Who ever had been building the display must not have had time to finish. Princesse decided we would just put the falling debris into the cart. I didn't like leaving a mess for the unfortunate employee. If said employee happens to be reading this post, I am very sorry for making your work a little bit harder yesterday.

I know I shouldn't be embarrassed. It technically wasn't my fault. It wasn't as though I saw the towels and said to myself self, I am going to knock over those towels because it is fun!

Even still, I find myself feeling guilty. I guess I still haven't gotten used to with the blind blunders that have become a normal part of my every day life. I am getting better at laughing at them after the fact. In the moment however, I am still more to mortified

It is very important to learn that it is okay to laugh at a mistake. We all make them, whether we can see or not. It is how we handle them after the fact that really counts.

Long time no see

So, I have been gone for quite a long time. I promise I have not forgotten you! You guys are awesome, amazing, incredible… Totally and freaking great!

The problem has been with me, not you. So I know that people say things like that, and don't really mean it. In this case however, I totally mean it. Problem number one, my computer… It is an amazingly wonderful laptop that I received for Christmas last year. It is wonderful, amazing, incredible, fantastic, stupendous… All of those things. The only problem is, the talking software.  For me personally, it totally blows. I will not name names here though however. The reason being, is it is quite possible that is simply an operator error.  You see, I am a creature of habit. Therefore, I have been using jaws for so long, maybe I am just having an possible time adjusting to the new program. That being said, I don't want to talk trash about a potentially good product.

So for now, I am using my iPhone to blog. I've tried the blogger app for iPhone before. It didn't work for me back then. So far, so good. Hopefully this will work for a while until I can get some things situated with my computer. I will keep you updated on this progress. I do hear that this way is easier to post pictures. That would be a new interesting dynamic for the blog. I know that not all of you can see, but for those of you can, I will try and post pics now and then

The other issue I've been having is more of a life situation. Is something personal to do with my family life. I cannot go into it here as it is too private. However, I am trying to get it all sorted out. I think we've made great progress. I'm hoping things will be back to normal soon.

Do you ever feel like you were outside your body? Simply a spectator? Well, that is how I have felt for the past few months. I am working on it. It's going okay. I hope everything will work out. In fact, I'm confident that it will. I am too stubborn for it not to

Unfortunately, my writing, my blogs, and my Facebook for writing and blogs, has suffered. I hope that with this new app, and the new cool dictate feature on my iPhone, I will be able to keep up with you guys better. There is no app that I have found yet for my writing. I hope maybe one will come up someday. Until that happens, I am in a little bit of a standstill with that. However, I would like you to know that divinity is done. I am just in the process of trying to get the second half edited. I am also working on a short story for an anthology to be published soon. Also clandestine's audiobook is in production as we speak. The new narrators are awesome! Absolutely wonderful! They are working diligently to get the book done so that you guys can enjoy it like everyone else. There's great music wonderful narration and I am lucky enough to have two different readers a male and a female. This will make The story come alive to your ears. I am so excited! I can't wait to see what you all think

Another new situation has come alive in my life. This one though, is a good one! I have a new relationship! Believe it or not, he is a BL IND why just like us! He is seriously one of the coolest people I have ever me. So, I just discovered one problem with this app. When you make a spelling error, it doesn't let you go back and fix it. It just makes a crashing sound. Therefore, apparently, when there are errors I just have to let them go. I do not like it I was trying to give my new boyfriend the nickname that I give all of us blind people. It you haven't guessed yet he is blind just like me. Unlike me, he was born blind. That is been a little different, but not all bad. It is been interesting to see the differences between the way the two of us do things. I hope to blog about some of that soon. I will also be checking in with you now and then to let you know how the other things in life are going. Providing this app continues to work, there won't be as long in between posts anymore. I will try and post pictures. I will try and be more diligent in my ability to stick with you and to talk to you about what is happening with everything. However, there is a lot going on, things are hectic… So, it's possible there will be gaps.  This of course is not because I don't love all of you. Because of course, I completely do! You guys are awesome! If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be on this blog and published and being sold to the masses. I just don't want to bombard you with postings that are interesting. I don't want to ramble about dryer lint or anything else that you won't find to be worth reading. So when I have something to say, I promise I will jump on here and say it.

So I was always, keep it real… Be yourself. And above all else make sure to love one another.