Refresh a Braille 18 vs. Technology gods round 2:

Last school year, I worked with a teacher of the visually impaired and the technology person in a middle sized county somewhere in the middle of Florida…give you a hint…John Travolta lives in the vicinity. Okay with that said, my first round with the Technology gods last April didn’t bode well. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Isn’t that usually the case when dealing with these crafty beings??

November 2011, Round 2:

I had my work cut out for me.. the computer that was suppose to have the software loaded on it, took forever to boot up and then as it was near completion, it completely died…Tech. gods: 1, me 0. None of the computers had power cords, TG- 2, me-0. Refresh a Braillers not charged..TG-3, me 0.  It was beginning to remind me of that day back in April, so the tech person and I decided to take a lunch break, and discuss our strategies on how to out wit these sly foes, in reality we needed to give the Refresh a Brailler time to charge.

30 minutes later: the Refresh a Brailler still wasn’t charged so that called for drastic measures…I called the APH tech. hot line and talked to Pamela again. She guided me through the entire process, such as plugging the Refresh a Brailler into a wall, loading the correct drivers and reading the Braille on the device- I discovered two things, I need to get my eyes checked because I was having a difficult time reading the Braille cells; either that or I need to refresh my Braille skills. I decided that I needed to get my eyes check and finally admit I need bifocals and it wouldn’t hurt to re-fresh my Braille either.

Once the device was charged and Jaws was rebooted,things went relatively smoothly with  loading everything on to the computers-Jaws and the Refresh a Brailler communicated with each other with almost no difficulties.. I overcame whatever the Tech Gods threw at me this time and prevailed. Chalk 1 up for me! Now this student will be able to use this device in class starting tomorrow. That is if the teacher remembers to charge the Refresh a Brailler…….To Be Continued!

Until next time,

Diana

212° Fahrenheit- a time to boil over:

Well, it has been a while since I last blogged. Eight weeks later, I am starting to feel better. It seems that everyone I know is under immense pressure, almost like we are at a boiling point. I guess, I came to a my boiling point a couple of weeks ago with one of my co-workers. All of us in the past eight weeks have been on the road and away from home. My co-worked had no idea that I was still not feeling well and had  “pushed” my buttons. I had a couple of words with him, okay, I was down right rude and it was uncalled for..knowing this, I started to blubber like the small child I was acting and  began to apologize profusely. Neither of us knew about our horrible weeks so of course we both blew up at one another. He was in his second auto accident and wasn’t feeling well either.  Anyway, my point,  I am glad he is okay and so were the turtles he was transporting.

I was lucky enough to go to the Annual Meeting at the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky. Well, almost lucky I suppose if you count recuperating in a hotel room lucky. What was great about this trip was that I got to spend an evening with my brother and his wonderful family who still live in Cincinnati. I enjoyed spending time with my beautiful nieces and sister-in-law. Both girls were entranced by my Ipad. I spent the time catching up with my brother and sister-in-law. When it was time to leave my nieces kept asking me to stay another night…it was very sweet and tempting. I am not sure if they wanted me or the Ipad to stay!  I had to get to Louisville for the meeting.

Well the weather was typical of October in Cincinnati/Louisville, it was rainy and cold. Since I haven’t lived in the “hills” for 15 years, I was a bit nervous traveling on I-75 and I-71 through Kentucky. Prior to leaving Saint Augustine, I was running a fever..and I still got on that plane and was determined to make this meeting. When I arrived, I ran into a familiar face, Suzanne Dalton from FIMC-VI,  from our sister center in Tampa. I must have startled her because she told me to go to my room and lay down. When I checked into the room and saw my reflection, I understood the strange looks I was getting from people I passed. I was the color of a boiled Lobster, and running a temperature of 100 degrees(again, at my boiling point).... This made me want to get back on a plane and come home.

Needless to say, I stayed, went to a Doctor, attended meetings and came home on Sunday. I swear Delta Airlines was trying to kill me by making me run a marathon through the Atlanta airport. We landed at the last gate in Concourse B and I had literally 20 minutes to get to the last gate in Concourse A.  I made it to the plane and was the last person on board, whew! Where was the guy with the cart when you need one?!?!

It has been like 212° F  since the beginning of the school year and this won’t be over until the end of January. We have done two Usher Screening Trainings, so that means we have three more to do. This week we start our ESE Focus Groups, seven in all that are all over the state. I am looking forward to February when things start to slow down for a bit and I can catch my breath. Until the next boiling point that begins in March.

Oh by the way, next time I will provide a dictionary for some of these acronyms I use!

Until next time,

Diana