Review of Apple TV Using Voiceover

Entertainment is a priority for everyone right? Well this fact shouldn't change just because you can't see what's entertaining you. Today we will be discussing the functionality of Apple TV with voiceover activated.

Don't worry seers... there is good stuff in here for you too, so do not... I repeat... Do NOT hit your back button!!

As many of you probably already know, Apple is an amazing company by normal standards. To the blind community, it is outstanding. It brings the wide world of technology into our hands without adding a lot of excess. This is huge!

Back in the day, in order for us to have technology, we would have to spend an outragious ammount of money and probably break our backs carrying the monstrosities. Now however, for the most part, we are only spending the outragious ammounts of money that a seer would pay and are carrying around devices that are the same size as them too.

Thank you Apple for helping us blindy's be followers!... Ok just kidding :)

But seriously, Apple has taken huge strides in making their products usable by the blind, and other disabled communities. This is truly much appreciated by most.

Getting to the point, today I am going to talk to you about the Apple TV. This for those of you who don't know, is a media streeming box that hooks up to your television.

This product is a tiny little box that packs a big punch. It does a lot and isn't terribly expensive in comparison to other Apple devices. It retails for right around a hundred dollars.

The only thing extra you will need to purchase besides the Apple TV device, is an HDMI cord and a converter if you are not running a High Definition TV.

One flaw right out of the box, once hooked up, in order to turn on voiceover, you will need a seer. This can be frustrating for someone (like me) who wants to play with the device right away and can't.

Once this pesky problem is taken care of, it's pretty much smooth sailing from here. You will need to of course sign in with your Apple sign in information. This will allow to to acess any content you have boughten from Itunes such as movies, music and TV shows. You will also be able to get your Itunes radeo stations here as well.

If you have a Netflix account, or Hoo Loo Plus (probably spelled wrong), you are in luck because those are available on here as well. You can also get content from other things such as Disney Channel, PBS, ESPN and much more. Just so you know however, in order to watch certain items you will need to have a cable or dish subscription.

Before you even ask I will provide the side note: Yes, Netflix and what not is usable by us blindy's. More on that to come in another post.

You can also utilize the wonderful world of You Tube from you amazing Apple TV.

Parental controls are also functional. However, might I offer a small tip mom and dad? Be sure to send the kids out of the room before entering your passcode... hello... it talks... they can hear it and see it. This may pose a problem for some of you. There are ways around this thought. The restriction section will also allow you to make it to where a passcode has to be entered to make a purchase. You can also choose ratings that you do or don't want your little ones watching. Don't worry, if needed, this can be bypassed with your passcode.

Furthermore, in the Main menu section of settings, you can tell your Apple TV what you want shown on your home screen. It will give you such options as "Show, HIde, or Ask" The first two are self explanatory. The ask option just means that if the item is clicked, it will ask the user to enter the passcode. For instance, if you don't want your child using You Tube without permsion, you would set that to "Ask" in the main menu section of settings.

All in all, the Apple TV is a great product. I would give it a four out of five rating. I honestly use it more now than my regular cable TV. There isn't anything on it that I can't do. The only improvement I would like to see is the inconvenient way to put it into sleep mode. This can be annoying at times. If you love movies, TV and music, you will love the Apple TV.

Stay tuned for a demonstration on the You Tube channel.

Thanks for reading guys and as always... Keep your head up... you can't see the ground anyway :)

The good, The Bad, And The Ugly

No matter how positive a person is, it’s impossible to be optimistic all the time. Lately, I admit, I have been having the less than positive attitude. Don’t get me wrong, things are great.

Book stuff is wonderful and friends and family life is alive and kicking. The second situation is the reason for my slight state of dismay.

Having two beautiful daughters is the best part of my life. I would not change a single moment of it, even when I want to pull my hair out. Sometimes, one of them will do something adorable or new. I am elated for the newest milestone, but regret still floods my heart.

It’s a deep ache that stabs me all the way deep in my gut. My eyes start to sting and a lump forms in my throat. Sometimes, just being able to hear the even isn’t good enough.

Though I’m still happy it’s happened, I long to observe it for myself. Other people’s descriptions are great and much appreciated. It’s just not the same.

When Peanut started school, I was so happy for her. She was beyond excited and I don’t think her head left the clouds the entire morning. A genuine smile was plastered across my face. Inside, just inside, I was enveloped in a strenuous pity party.

It didn’t seem fair that I couldn’t see my baby at her first circle time, or doing the hand motions with her classmates to new songs. When she made her first new friend of the long school year, I couldn’t see the dimples on her cheeks as she smiled. When she played on the playground and rode in a wagon, I couldn’t see it for myself.

Am I usually down in the dumps about my situation? Nope, not at all. However, I feel it’s necessary to share everything with you, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The whole point of this blog is to shed a new light on the subject of blindness. I wanted to show people that there is a brighter side to the disability. Nevertheless, it is equally important to show the reality of the bad moments. Though they may be few and far between for me, they might not be for someone else.

To be able to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, you have to first see all angles of how they fit. So, that’s what this post is about. My shoes fit great, but sometimes there’s a lump in my sock that makes me uncomfortable for a minute.

Intro To Me

The land of blogs is completely new to me. I've always thought it would be cool but never thought to actually do it. I'm not really sure if this blog will have a set theme but hopefully as it takes shape it's purpose will present itself on it's own. Of course there are numerous things I could write about but for now with this post I will simply introduce myself. Well here goes nothing...

I'm twenty-eight years old and not sure if I like it. I miss the good old days sometimes when the biggest worry was getting a research paper turned in on time and what I was going to wear to school tomorrow. I miss the great friends I had in high school that I've since lost touch with other than on the wonderful world of Facebook. I of course don't miss curfews, punishments, bedtimes, phone restrictions and those annoying girls that always seemed to be in the way at school.

Now I'm a mom to two amazing girls that are in essence my entire life. They totaly drive me crazy but I can't possibly imagine life without them. There's quite an age gap between them so that of course makes for some interesting challanges sometimes but we manage. At least I think we do, would you call wanting to pull my hair out sometimes managing??? Well anyway back to my story.

I have the cutest little dog in the entire world who will be one year old at the end of this month. He is a shorky and we absolutely adore him.

We live in a typical house in a pretty good area of town in which it rains far to often. All in all it's a relatively good life. Like anyone else I have normal day to day drama, stress and chaos. Honestly, without at least a little of that life would seem boring.

Unfortunately, some of my stresses are made worse by my disability. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm blind? Well I am and most of the time it's no big deal but other times that fact is truely the bane of my existance. There is no cure for the conditions that I have as of yet. I have Retinitis Pigmentosis(RP) and C.O.A.T.S which is an acronym for a really big word that I sadly have no knowledge of how to properly pronounce let alone spell. Basically in a nut shell I was screwed right out of the gate.

I was born with both conditions but wasn't diagnosed until the age of five when I was starting school and went in for a regular eye exam. RP is a condition taht affects the perifial part of the eye and C.O.A.T.S covers the central portion of the eye. I didn't start really losing my vision until I turned eighteen. Up until then I was considered legaly blind but no one around me really knew the difference. I did things completely normally. I could play catch, read regular sized print, walk or run without assistance and yes before you ask I could even dress myself and tie my shoes.

I became pregnant my Junior year of high school. Wait, before you judge or comment I'm well aware it wasn't morally the most responsible act I've ever done. But, I have no regrets and wouldn't change a thing because it's helped to make me who I am today. Also before you ask yes I graduated high school with my class with an official diploma. Anyway as I was saying...

Towards the end of my pregnancy was when I started to notice some issues with my vision. So I guess that would have been slightly before I turned eighteen.

I was laying on my parent's bed watching TV one night when everything began to change. I went to itch my left eye and when I did that made me look with only my right. I remember this like it was yesterday. It scared the heck out of me. I was looking up at the time staring up at the ceiling fan/light. It had five lights in it modeling what a five would look like on a dice. When I itched my left eye making it close, suddenly I could only see two of the five lights. I didn't really know what to make of it. I was really wierded out and kept covering my left eye and then removing it to compare what I wasn't seeing.

I yelled for my mom and dad to see what they thought. They said that I was going to have to go see my specialist and get it checked out as soon as possible. They of course tried to do the parent thing and comfort me by saying oh it's no big deal I'm sure it's nothing.

I however was pretty sure something major was going on. The next day the doctor confirmed my fears. My retina had detached. The only way to stabalize the eye was to surgically fix the problem. Seems logical right?

The only problem was I was starting the last trimester of my pregnancy and couldn't have eye surgery. The doctor said I would have to wait until I delivered my baby girl. Meanwhile, the only thing we could do was hope and pray no other complication came up with my vision while I waited for the surgery.

Soon after that I learned that my baby was breach and I would have to have a C-section instead of a normal delivery. I must admit I was totaly freaked. I was barely eighteen and was going to have two surgeries done in a matter of months. Also, I'm sort of a baby when it comes to pain so the entire prospect scared the bejeases right out of me.

Since I had to have surgery in order to have my little girl that pushed the eye surgery out a little further. The doctor wanted me to recover fully before putting me under the knife again.  Which on one hand was cool with me because again, not a fan of pain or knives.

The birth of my beautiful baby girl went flawlessly and the recovery while bumpy, went pretty good. I was eager to get the eye surgery done and over with before something else went wrong in my eye. I didn't like the idea of someone tinkering with my eye but I braved through it and it went flawlessly too.

I don't really reccomend eye surgery as an elective though just sayin. It is seriously the wierdest thing I have ever experienced. When you first wake up afterward your eye is patched so you don't try and scratch or anything. Even though they tell you ahead of time that it's going to be like that it doesn't make the experience any easier. When you wake up and are all groggy from the knock out drugs all you know is you went in being able to see light and came out in pitch blackness. It's not very comforting let me tell you.

From then on life at least as far as my vision was concerned went down hill tremendously. I have now had about tenn eye surgeries (more or less) all together between both eyes. Some were serious and others were minor procedures that were done right in the doctors office. None of the surgeries made my vision any better though. Their main purpose was to keep the eye stable and keep me from losing what ever vision I had at the time of each surgery. The two pre-existing conditions that I started out with later stemmed into further trouble. In addition to those I'm now blessed with glaucoma, nystagmous and I had catteracts. These new conditions are also in both eyes and also have no cure, well accept for the catteracts of course.

I'm down to pretty much no vision in either eye. I have a very small amount of light perception in the left and can't even see shadows or shapes in either. It's been a roller coaster at best and an emotional wreck at worst. I like anyone else have my bad days where I don't even want to get out of my bed in the morning. But, I have more good days. I know that my little girls need me to be me and not be depressed lets have a pity party me.

So, I deal the best way I can even if some days it's just going through the motions. I make light of the situation and try to laugh it off as much as possible. I still have the use of all four limbs, a strong heart, a voice and I have really strong ears that sometimes hear more than I want them to. Reguardless of my vision I live a relatively normal life with mostly minor hiccups. But really it's the hiccups that make life exciting and I'm cool with that.