While in Ruston, the NFB of northern Louisiana put together a fashion show in bennefit of an organization dedicated to working with children of the community. Here are some clips of tehat fashon show!
Enjoy!
And of course, I am in it.
Part 1: http://youtu.be/6b8tf1xTdiA
Part 2: http://youtu.be/51NgW6N1BSo
Faces of the Show: http://youtu.be/C8IUUp6dRnU
You can also find them all on
the blog: http://cityoflightsfashionshow.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The wetness
Thoughts have crossed over and over in my mind as to why this blog has not been updated in months, and the reason still escapes me. I’ve sat down a couple of times and attempted to write about my experiences at the NFB national convention in Orlando this past July, and how great the hotel was, how wonderful the staff was, how I loved eating real Cuban food after almost 4 months of deep fried Louisiana goodness, my fingers wouldn’t type, and when they did, my true thoughts were not in the writing.
So, I’m just updating, complete thoughts or incomplete ones…
Next week, all of the staff and students are going rafting. I’m not sure if “rafting” is the same as white water rafting, but a rubber raft, water, rapids, and adrenalin are involved. Yes, I am excited about this. This seems like the type of activity that I would normally love to do, but perhaps some months ago, might have questioned and wondered how exactly to go about doing it. Frankly now, I just don’t care. It’s something I want to do, and I’ll be enjoying myself. There will be some zip lining, ropes courses and a possible water park included in this trip as well. You may ask yourself, why are a bunch of blind people who are to be receiving blindness training doing this? Well to put it simply: because we can. Seriously, that’s the reason why.
It might not cross our minds every day, but most of the things associated with blindness which are negative, such as being unaware of one’s environment, being clumsy, very apologetic, having this humble still like nature and blah blah yakity schmakity, can typically be attributed to how the public treats blind individuals. It’s never “hey blind person, come and get involved in what we as a society is taking part in.” It’s always “hey blind person, stay out of the way while society gets involved and we will throw ya a bone.”
Think of a blind man. Now, honestly describe that person. Is that person someone you want to hang out with, have dinner with, or how about introduce your attractive single sister to?
We are going rafting because it is a confidence builder, a confidence booster, and a good time. The secret to blindness training, as I’ve discovered, is not necessarily the skill one learns, as those skills can be taught in a classroom, from a book, or online, it is the practice of those skills, and most importantly, it’s how they translate into confidence.
There have been some studies which show that for many people, having a terminal illness would be preferred than simply being blind. AIDS, Cancer, suicide have all been chosen as things which would be better than blindness.
These attitudes strip blind people of not only self-esteem, , but also dignity, respect, and of course Confidence.
It is the enslavement of the mind of a small minority by a society; it is at times the self enslavement of the mind of a minority by its own members, as it perpetuates on itself the stereotypes of the general public; but rarely is blindness enslavement because of lack of useful eyes.
I have 4 months of training still. Below is my last accomplishment.
Dinner for 8, under sleep shades, using only brailled recipes, and having shopped under sleepshades for all of the ingredients.
Starter
- Caribbean ginger black bean soup.
Yeast-Yeast rolls
Main dish
-Grilled salmon with mango avocado relishCurry grilled eggplant (sorry vegetarians, the eggplant was burned at the grill)
-Parmisian garlic mashed potatoes
Dessert
Home made coconut icecream
The meal took forever to make, serve but not digest.
Thanks to all who filled their bellies that day.
Get Wet!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Little Ones
It's overwhelming, microscopic moments in the day in which I want to take the sleepshades off. It does not occur when I'm on a travel lesson, or attempting to locate a misplaced or forgotten itemm in the kitchen; it happens when I step into the bathroom, or for a second when I'm waiting in a line. The mind plays tricks on us all and this is one of those tricks I can't figure out.
Here is another overwhelming and brief thought;much like that Twilight Zone episode where a man complains about not ever having enough time, and he loves to read, then finally time stopsstill just for him and he finds himself in a library, but has the misfortune of breaking his reading glasses. Well, There I was, bored, nothing to do except lose time. There were books all around me, volumes upon volumes, and all in braille. I can't read braille as of yet. Sad, it is just sad.... I hate to say it, but it must be said:If you cannot read print, and cannot read braille, you are functionally illiterate. I'm working on this braille business...
The wood shop is starting to not feel so frightining.
Travel lessons are really testing the boundreis. If I can travel without sight, and by travel I mean I've been doing this for only about 3 weeks and am already feeling the ninja skills growing.
When one comes to a small town, one does begin to gossip. Man I've never trashed talked so much in my life and enjoyed it.
I've gained about 7lbs.
Hitting the gym soon.
Here is another overwhelming and brief thought;much like that Twilight Zone episode where a man complains about not ever having enough time, and he loves to read, then finally time stopsstill just for him and he finds himself in a library, but has the misfortune of breaking his reading glasses. Well, There I was, bored, nothing to do except lose time. There were books all around me, volumes upon volumes, and all in braille. I can't read braille as of yet. Sad, it is just sad.... I hate to say it, but it must be said:If you cannot read print, and cannot read braille, you are functionally illiterate. I'm working on this braille business...
The wood shop is starting to not feel so frightining.
Travel lessons are really testing the boundreis. If I can travel without sight, and by travel I mean I've been doing this for only about 3 weeks and am already feeling the ninja skills growing.
When one comes to a small town, one does begin to gossip. Man I've never trashed talked so much in my life and enjoyed it.
I've gained about 7lbs.
Hitting the gym soon.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Into The Mouth Of The Beast
A radial arm saw, is a DEVICE WHICH CAN GRAB YOUR SHIRT, PULL YOU INTO IT AND SAW YOUR BELLY WIDE OPEN... Well, it’s just a wood cutting machine which has a circular spinning saw attached to an arm which you pull in your direction. This cuts across a piece of wood quite nicely, and I happen to have used the machine while blindfolded. Now, this is some scary, no other word for it but shit! It’s a non-modified, industrial machine which can have quite a bit of bite. All students are required to learn the use of most of the devices in the industrial arts shop, and they are required to use them safely. Our instructor is often under sleep shades so this is a definite, blind teaching blind class which is not for the purpose of creating carpenters, but for creating confidence.
Many of those people who attend these training centers, have lived what one could call “
a “normal” life, and after blindness, have given up that life because they thought that such things were not meant for them. Being blind meant sitting home, getting paid not to work, often just being “humble and still” while life moved all around them, in all directions, leaving them behind to only remember the life which they had previously lived.
A woman in my class, intelligent, witty and with a great job left her work behind because she was going blind. It did not occur to her that having two masters, and having almost finished a PHD, she might have only needed to adapt to the new situation as opposed to walking away from it.
I had never thought of my fear as a barrier before, but when the instructor said, “I can feel the fear in you, you’re very nervous.” It really hit me that the reason why I was afraid was that I could not see what was going on in front of me, and this fear, was probably what kept me from ever playing around with power tools.
“Now you know how to use the machine,” the instructor said, “you’ll be cutting your own wood from now on, I’m lazy.”
So, that’s what I’m doing from now on, relying on myself.
This was not the only experience which would of made most people question their personhood. For the past week and a half or so, I’ve been walking around, learning travel skills under sleep shades. Now, I thought that the coolness of the cucumber was always with me, as it turns out, I was simply feeling safe because the travel instructor was paces behind me. The first time I crossed a street with 4 intersections, the crossing took about 5 minutes. The second time about 40 seconds.
The instructor, who, whether he knows it or not is known all around as one of the best in the business, is also blind. He gave me a call while I was in a home management class making biscuits from scratch and told me that I should do my first route alone.
This meant going from the training center to the student apartments alone, under sleep shades, and when I mean alone, I mean the instructor was eating lunch at Sonic’s.
I thought I was brave, cool, awesome, and then I started stalling… The route was finished and it took me 40 minutes: It’s a 15 minute walk each way.
So, now, conversations only heard in Louisiana, while preparing to use the radial arm saw….
M: I’m telling you, Ima gonna hurt you.
W: now, you do that but listen up, you remember that law don’t ya? For every action there is a what?
M: hmm, an equal positive and negative reaction?
W: uh hum…. You got it…
M: Oh, I see. now who was it that said that?
W: Oh, that was, hmm, what this boy name?
M: What is, that boy name?
W: Boy name is Neuton…. Yep, that him.
Friday, April 1, 2011
The first day
There are two reasons why I will write this blog: I want to keep a record of this unusual journey, and I want to see the progress which 6 to 9 months of intensive "ninja-like" training will bring about.
Ruston Louisiana is not New York City. This sounds obvious, as geographically they are indeed two different places, but it is not only location which makes these two places different. Ruston is a slow-moving sort of town, friendly, everyone drives, no one walks; and what ever your heart desires, exists in drive-through form. And for the curious minds, drive through form does not necessarily translate to being expedient. This is a college town, with LA tech being the town's life force. This is a place were Jesus is not a word which makes people cringe, and prayer is common. So far, this seems to be a sweet town.
What I am doing here in Ruston, has often been described to friends and family as Ninja training. I will not leave here a couple of months from now with the ability to climb walls or catch throwing stars between my teeth, instead, I'm here to learn how to do everything that up to now has been done under the dependency of light, in complete darkness.
This means that I will travel, cook, clean, dine, read,swim, climb, canoe, in short, live every day from 8 am to 5 pm, with out the use of sight.
Why am I doing this?
Glaucoma is one of those diseases which can be treated, but not eradicated. It affects the eyes by making the ocular pressure too high or too low. Either way, the chance for total blindness is always looming about. One's sight can go gradually throughout their lifetime, or it can quickly vanish in a period of weeks, or days: A frightening thought really, unless you happen to be well, someone who can function in complete darkness.
That is the goal here. I was born with Glaucoma, and slowly, my vision has deteriorated. The concern which I have is not weather or not I can keep the vision I have or improve it, which would be sweet, the thought I am concerned with is having the skills and ability to function as someone who is totally blind.
The premise is simple, If I can function as a totally blind person, there really wouldn't be much to functioning as someone with some useful vision. In other words, Why do something half-assed which is based on half-assed vision, when you can do something correctly using more efficient alternative techniques which do not rely on your half-assed vision?
So here I am in Ruston Louisiana, taking on this training.
I've met most of my fellow students and tomorrow I get a housemate.
What where the highlights of today?
1. Ruston is not NY. an intake session which would normally take about 1 hour in NY, takes about 2 in Ruston.
2. Old friends, "good", old friends will swing by their friends job while they are doing your intake. They will hug, and share some heartwarming moments as you sit and strangely enough, understand that this 2 hour intake summary, is waisting no one's time or patience.
3. Strangers say hi to each other at K-mart.
4. I am really looking forward to taking on these classes.
5. Walking around without the use of sight, paints the landscape in sound, not images. I am confident in my goal, confident in what I must do, but shaky at walking about in the dark.
Ruston Louisiana is not New York City. This sounds obvious, as geographically they are indeed two different places, but it is not only location which makes these two places different. Ruston is a slow-moving sort of town, friendly, everyone drives, no one walks; and what ever your heart desires, exists in drive-through form. And for the curious minds, drive through form does not necessarily translate to being expedient. This is a college town, with LA tech being the town's life force. This is a place were Jesus is not a word which makes people cringe, and prayer is common. So far, this seems to be a sweet town.
What I am doing here in Ruston, has often been described to friends and family as Ninja training. I will not leave here a couple of months from now with the ability to climb walls or catch throwing stars between my teeth, instead, I'm here to learn how to do everything that up to now has been done under the dependency of light, in complete darkness.
This means that I will travel, cook, clean, dine, read,swim, climb, canoe, in short, live every day from 8 am to 5 pm, with out the use of sight.
Why am I doing this?
Glaucoma is one of those diseases which can be treated, but not eradicated. It affects the eyes by making the ocular pressure too high or too low. Either way, the chance for total blindness is always looming about. One's sight can go gradually throughout their lifetime, or it can quickly vanish in a period of weeks, or days: A frightening thought really, unless you happen to be well, someone who can function in complete darkness.
That is the goal here. I was born with Glaucoma, and slowly, my vision has deteriorated. The concern which I have is not weather or not I can keep the vision I have or improve it, which would be sweet, the thought I am concerned with is having the skills and ability to function as someone who is totally blind.
The premise is simple, If I can function as a totally blind person, there really wouldn't be much to functioning as someone with some useful vision. In other words, Why do something half-assed which is based on half-assed vision, when you can do something correctly using more efficient alternative techniques which do not rely on your half-assed vision?
So here I am in Ruston Louisiana, taking on this training.
I've met most of my fellow students and tomorrow I get a housemate.
What where the highlights of today?
1. Ruston is not NY. an intake session which would normally take about 1 hour in NY, takes about 2 in Ruston.
2. Old friends, "good", old friends will swing by their friends job while they are doing your intake. They will hug, and share some heartwarming moments as you sit and strangely enough, understand that this 2 hour intake summary, is waisting no one's time or patience.
3. Strangers say hi to each other at K-mart.
4. I am really looking forward to taking on these classes.
5. Walking around without the use of sight, paints the landscape in sound, not images. I am confident in my goal, confident in what I must do, but shaky at walking about in the dark.
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