Monday, January 20, 2014

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

Saturday, January 11, 2014

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

Monday, January 6, 2014

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…

Saturday, January 4, 2014

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.