Craziness I Can't Fake
It's Friday. A day that dawns cold, windy and full of mist. The third straight with at least some rain. And yet I shall not be deterred from escaping this apartment! I just can't stand the idea of being holed up in here all day.
So I suit up appropriately and set off for the UNC Health Science Library. We don't have class on either Friday's or Monday's, so I must get creative in order to still gain public exposure.
The first clue that today is about to take an odd turn occurs as the bus arrives. For some reason, the driver feels the need to honk the horn like it's a train! This happens constantly, all the way until we finally pull into the library stop. In order to avoid this, I take out my neckloop, plug it into the MP3 player, and put the aids into T-coil mode. This is a setting, used primarily for telephones, that isolates all other background sound and allows me to easily hear whichever programming I'm listening to.
So into the library I go. I still can't seem to open some adobe PDF files that I need from my home computer, because they are copy-protected on Blackboard and thus must be opened in the browser. If I open it in browser at home, all I see is a blank page. So I go to the library, open them there, and save them to my flash drive as text files.
I acquire the headset they loan out for use on the special computer with JAWS For Windows loaded onto it. I had a pair of my own, but managed to lose them in one of my classes. These I borrow from the library seem to produce very little sound, and the cord is so short that I have to lean in close to the CPU so as not to snap the thing.
Anyway, so I decide that I'll put the hearing aids back into T-coil again, so that I will get better sound. "Libraries are quiet," I say to myself: "only thing I might have to worry about hearing is a fire alarm. Right, like that'll happen."
I'm reading the article, which is actually moderately interesting. That's saying something for grad school texts, believe me. And wait.. what's that? Sounds rhythmic, "deet, deet, deet". Hmmm, I'd better take these things off and see what's going on. And sure enough, it's a fire alarm!
We're studying a therapeutic technique called Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which asserts that many of the things that happen to us have less to do with antecedents and more to do with the fact that we believed they would happen. It's self-fulfilling prophecy. Have I not just made a fine example of this?
It seems like the real deal too: a librarian bounds over and herds me out the door along with the thousands of people gushing from every exit. A couple fire trucks roar in as we stand in the light drizzle. I'm too afraid to ask what's actually going on; hoping mostly that the place doesn't burn down so I can go back in and retrieve my Pac Mate and flash drive, without which I'd be up the creek so to speak.
After about fifteen minutes, we are finally allowed to re-enter the building. By this point, I decide to just shut the system down and take the study materials I've gathered to another building.
And that's been the nuttiness of my day. I'm participating in my first ever board meeting as a part of the Norrie Disease Association, the organization that put on the conference in Boston that I attended this August. I'm excited for a chance to contribute to this in a meaningful way, and I hope that I am able to be of use and come up with good ideas for promoting the mission of this group. I'm mostly worried about maintaining cell phone reception! Will probably have to sit outside in the cold in order to do so, but I have dressed accordingly.
Have a fun weekend, folks. And remember, thoughts really can become things.
So I suit up appropriately and set off for the UNC Health Science Library. We don't have class on either Friday's or Monday's, so I must get creative in order to still gain public exposure.
The first clue that today is about to take an odd turn occurs as the bus arrives. For some reason, the driver feels the need to honk the horn like it's a train! This happens constantly, all the way until we finally pull into the library stop. In order to avoid this, I take out my neckloop, plug it into the MP3 player, and put the aids into T-coil mode. This is a setting, used primarily for telephones, that isolates all other background sound and allows me to easily hear whichever programming I'm listening to.
So into the library I go. I still can't seem to open some adobe PDF files that I need from my home computer, because they are copy-protected on Blackboard and thus must be opened in the browser. If I open it in browser at home, all I see is a blank page. So I go to the library, open them there, and save them to my flash drive as text files.
I acquire the headset they loan out for use on the special computer with JAWS For Windows loaded onto it. I had a pair of my own, but managed to lose them in one of my classes. These I borrow from the library seem to produce very little sound, and the cord is so short that I have to lean in close to the CPU so as not to snap the thing.
Anyway, so I decide that I'll put the hearing aids back into T-coil again, so that I will get better sound. "Libraries are quiet," I say to myself: "only thing I might have to worry about hearing is a fire alarm. Right, like that'll happen."
I'm reading the article, which is actually moderately interesting. That's saying something for grad school texts, believe me. And wait.. what's that? Sounds rhythmic, "deet, deet, deet". Hmmm, I'd better take these things off and see what's going on. And sure enough, it's a fire alarm!
We're studying a therapeutic technique called Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which asserts that many of the things that happen to us have less to do with antecedents and more to do with the fact that we believed they would happen. It's self-fulfilling prophecy. Have I not just made a fine example of this?
It seems like the real deal too: a librarian bounds over and herds me out the door along with the thousands of people gushing from every exit. A couple fire trucks roar in as we stand in the light drizzle. I'm too afraid to ask what's actually going on; hoping mostly that the place doesn't burn down so I can go back in and retrieve my Pac Mate and flash drive, without which I'd be up the creek so to speak.
After about fifteen minutes, we are finally allowed to re-enter the building. By this point, I decide to just shut the system down and take the study materials I've gathered to another building.
And that's been the nuttiness of my day. I'm participating in my first ever board meeting as a part of the Norrie Disease Association, the organization that put on the conference in Boston that I attended this August. I'm excited for a chance to contribute to this in a meaningful way, and I hope that I am able to be of use and come up with good ideas for promoting the mission of this group. I'm mostly worried about maintaining cell phone reception! Will probably have to sit outside in the cold in order to do so, but I have dressed accordingly.
Have a fun weekend, folks. And remember, thoughts really can become things.