tabulas.com

May 1st, 2008

CAPTCHA Issue at BlogCarnival

Hi everyone. I've been asked to spread the word about another visual-only CAPTCHA. This one is at http://www.blogcarnival.com, and several people within the blindness community have emailed the support team asking them to please make the CAPTCHA accessible. I am going to send an email and give BlogCarnival a piece of my mind momentarily, but I am asking all readers of these pages to please do likewise. Send those requests to support@blogcarnival.com. A big thank you goes out to Darrell Shandrow at http://www.blindaccessjournal.com for drawing attention to this and many other CAPTCHA issues. I suppose it's no coincidence that one of the major topics on Blog Carnival is disability-related?

Posted by jajoehl_74 at 03:22 PM | Add a Comment

April 28th, 2008

End-of-April Thoughts

Hey everyone. I hope everything's going well for you, wherever in this world you may be. No news is good news, as they say. Things here are going pretty well. Last night my life-skills tutor and I hosted a dinner party, and everything turned out great if I do say so myself. Attending this party--besides the obvious, me and my tutor--were several of my neighbors and some family members. One of these neighbors is also a life-skills tutor, but he works with some other people including a neighbor of ours who was not in attendance last night. Actually this other tutor filled in for my tutor a couple years ago, and we had a lot of fun together. My tutor and I had been planning this dinner for a little while, and both of us agree that it was pulled off very well. We had tons of yummy food and drink. He and I are doing our regular Monday grocery run today, weather permitting, but he gave me the option of sleeping in a bit and I went with that. My family gave me two audio-described movies, which I am going to watch sometime soon. For whatever reason my TV doesn't work but the VCR does. You just can't beat those audio-described videos, especially on bad-weather days! For that matter any audio-described programming is a welcome addition to my life. They say spring--or summer--is on its way but I'm not too sure about that. Those who have never been to Chicago aren't lucky enough to experience all this weird weather. As my dentist said to me over the weekend, you don't even have to go on vacation if you want to get nicer weather--just wait a few moments and it'll change on its own. I think he's absolutely right! I also got to experience something about a week and a half ago which I had never experienced before. It was the early morning, probably around 5 or so. I cannot remember the exact time, but when I reached over to check the time on my trusty Sharp EL-640 talking time piece, I remember being told it was around that time. Anyway, I felt my bed start to shake lightly, and I heard sort of a clicking noise and I also heard some neighbors talking. I didn't really think to ask anyone that day what if anything had happened, as I was only half-awake when it supposedly occurred. A day or two later however, I was listening to the radio and heard something about a minor earthquake in Central Illinois. Not much was said about it though, except that it was very minor.

Posted by jajoehl_74 at 10:05 AM | Add a Comment

April 7th, 2008

Playing Dead? You Figure That One Out!

Howdy folks! Just writing in to let you all know I'm still kickin'! Not much has been happening here that is worth writing home about. Easter with the fam was good. My youngest sister, who attends college down in Alabama, brought a friend with her. We went to church twice that weekend, and following each service were receptions. There was a baptism at the first service. We had the traditional Easter dinner at my folks' place. And yes, lots of yummy goodness was to be had both at church and at my folks' house. I had another administrative assistant shift at Center for Independent Futures last week. I had originally been scheduled to work later this month, but I have another engagement which is rather important. I ended up filling in for my former roommate that day.

Posted by jajoehl_74 at 06:44 PM | Add a Comment

March 16th, 2008

Easter Tidings and Internet Problems

Hi everyone. I know, it's been like forever since my last entry. However, please know that I am still alive and well. I've been having Internet troubles again. I don't really know what's going on, but whenever I log onto my email or the Internet, there's a delay that lasts for a very long time. When I log onto my email, I'm getting an error message. Funny thing is, everything's working. This problem is being looked into though and will hopefully be resolved shortly. I have a thought as to what's been going wrong, but I won't bore readers with the story. I'll just say I'm glad things do eventually get going because the computer is my primary source of protein, carbohydrates, etc. Actually I do have other ways of satisfying those needs. Other than my weirdness computer prob, I've been faring pretty well. I just found out that Easter is next weekend. I can't believe how time flies, especially during DST! I haven't a friggin' clue what my family and I are doing to celebrate this year, but I know this. I will finally go back to church. The family church always has great festivities planned for each and every holiday. There are even fun festivities outside of the holidays, and everyone is absolutely awesome! And yes that does include God for those of us who believe in him/her/it. I haven't gone to any churches around where I live, simply because they all involve street crossings. Lord knows what would happen to me if I attempted to cross one of the busy streets in my area all by myself. This is exactly why we need at least one accessible pedestrian signal here. It is true that the cost of those things is rather high, but the reality of it all is that I need to be as independent as is humanly possible. Without those signals, I'd probably be no more if I tried to cross one of these busy streets. I think we all know the saying "stop, look, and listen." However, for a person like me--having only the ability to distinguish between light and dark--looking is just not going to ever be possible. We can stop all we want, and we can listen all we want, but we can't see to look. Traffic is at times so congested that even our listening abilities are curtailed. On my way to and from work at the office of Center for Independent Futures, there is a small one-way street which I'm told is almost an alley. I have absolutely no problem getting across it by myself. Actually I did wander a bit astray on my way to work not too long ago, but some very kind passers-by pointed me in the right direction upon me telling them where I was going. But this whole issue of not having safe crosswalks is one which is very important to me. It is absolutely shocking how some people don't believe these signals are needed. Put quite simply, what a lot of these people fail to consider is safety. Everybody needs to be safe, and that does include those of us with a visual impairment. To all of you who celebrate it, have a blessed Easter and all its accompanying good treasures. Those of you who celebrate Passover, just wait and I'm told the two don't coincide this year.

Posted by jajoehl_74 at 08:24 PM | Add a Comment

February 27th, 2008

Just Another Day in Paradise

Hi everyone. I don't have too much exciting news today, just been working on my transcriptions for one of the local senior centers. I also had another admin assistant shift last week at the CIF office. They asked me to come in a bit later than I had been scheduled, because they had someone for me to meet and talk with about CIF a bit. On Friday my mom and I attended an employment seminar which was hosted by CIF, and there were actually some very good presentations made. One of these presentations was given by a mother of someone with severe CP who has a paper-shredding business. My mom and I have known them for several years. The paper has thus far been used mainly for gift baskets, one of which I picked up at the CIF office for Christmas. She does a great job! I spent that night at my parents' house because I had to have a routine blood test the next morning. I then came back to my apartment early that afternoon, because there was a meeting of the newly-formed CIF Mens' Group. That was fun. I read something a few days ago that really caught my eye. A young man in Florida was dumped out of his wheelchair as he was awaiting questioning for a traffic violation. The police officers who did this--one of whom was a deputy police officer--then laughed at him. I don't know about anyone else, but I fail to see the humor in dumping someone out of their wheelchair. And, they shouldn't have laughed at him. What they should've done was carefully pick him up and carefully put him back in his wheelchair. I cannot believe this kind of behavior is still to this day going on. If this had happened to someone of a different race, ethnic background, etc., you can bet that some people would've gotten in trouble. But since it happened to someone with a disability that somehow makes it perfectly acceptable? I think not!

Posted by jajoehl_74 at 09:57 AM | Add a Comment

« Newer 5 entries | Older 5 entries »
site powered by tabulas | Back to Top - Home - Gallery - Friends - Friends Of - Favorites - Content - Archives - Links