hmmm, poor me! :)
So Friday night I discovered a probable splinter in my thumb, but I made the mistake of not doing anything about it for fear of pushing it in further. By Sat morning however, my thumb had swollen and it was very painful and I could not feel the splinter. -- I did go to the chemist though and was let in before it opened. the pharmacist had a look and suggested I salt water it to see if that draws it out first as he didn't want to dig around in there if he could avoid it.
So yesterday when I came home I put my thumb in hot salt water, and Nan (who was here for a while) went and got some Vase ointment for me; so I then put some of that on a bandaid and put it around said thumb.
This morning, much to my relief, I hope, the swelling seems to have gone down and it doesn't seem painful at all. But I shall take myself off to the chemist soon to get someone to make sure, preferably said pharmacist again as he knew how it looked yesterday.
Apart from that drama, I went to VA's technology expo Friday, and then for a bit yesterday as I didn't get around to everything I'd wanted Friday. It was very good! I saw heaps of people there I hadn't seen for years; old friends, acquaintances and teachers; was so good catching up with everyone. But I guess the most interesting bit of technology I saw was the new generation of Perkins brailler; I'd heard about this before on a C-Sun pod cast years ago so was delighted to be able to finally look at one. It was entirely made of plastic so therefore, a lot lighter. It was smaller and the carriage and margins were in a different place. Also, it was interesting to note the carriage had an erase button on it which obviously just rubbed unwanted characters out; that was pretty cool! :)
Friday afo I did that experiment for the PHD student on tactile drawings. It's a concept which I heard of in the past in terms of a possibility for us, at least in the case of having vibrations feedback to our fingers when feeling the screen with pictures.
There was basically a touch screen and Chatai used both sound (musical notes) and tactile (the vibrations) to show me shapes on the touch screen. -- For the tactile part I had a wire attached to each index finger, and for the audio, I had headphones. -- After his demonstrating each for about half an hour, I was then asked to try and distinguish the shapes using first the audio option and then the tactile one. I wasn't very good as I knew I wouldn't be but apparently I did get a few shapes though; it was more of a fluke though. -- In the end, I told him that although the audio was good in that the different notes helped me to differentiate between the shapes, I thought the tactile was a tad more readable, but not much by any means. -- I certainly couldn't rely on this technology and I don't think I'd care too. I'm blind, I’m use to my world that doesn't involve pictures; have never known any different anyway. -- I was just thinking then however, i guess where I may benefit from it is if I was wanting to do I.T work and having to learn what the Windows environment looks like on the screen; cos I still have absolutely no idea at all.
Anyway I got 20 bucks so that was worth it. -- Got a free ride home with Matt and Mick so that was nice.
OK think I ought to wander up to chemist now.
Til Next time, RdFreak
So yesterday when I came home I put my thumb in hot salt water, and Nan (who was here for a while) went and got some Vase ointment for me; so I then put some of that on a bandaid and put it around said thumb.
This morning, much to my relief, I hope, the swelling seems to have gone down and it doesn't seem painful at all. But I shall take myself off to the chemist soon to get someone to make sure, preferably said pharmacist again as he knew how it looked yesterday.
Apart from that drama, I went to VA's technology expo Friday, and then for a bit yesterday as I didn't get around to everything I'd wanted Friday. It was very good! I saw heaps of people there I hadn't seen for years; old friends, acquaintances and teachers; was so good catching up with everyone. But I guess the most interesting bit of technology I saw was the new generation of Perkins brailler; I'd heard about this before on a C-Sun pod cast years ago so was delighted to be able to finally look at one. It was entirely made of plastic so therefore, a lot lighter. It was smaller and the carriage and margins were in a different place. Also, it was interesting to note the carriage had an erase button on it which obviously just rubbed unwanted characters out; that was pretty cool! :)
Friday afo I did that experiment for the PHD student on tactile drawings. It's a concept which I heard of in the past in terms of a possibility for us, at least in the case of having vibrations feedback to our fingers when feeling the screen with pictures.
There was basically a touch screen and Chatai used both sound (musical notes) and tactile (the vibrations) to show me shapes on the touch screen. -- For the tactile part I had a wire attached to each index finger, and for the audio, I had headphones. -- After his demonstrating each for about half an hour, I was then asked to try and distinguish the shapes using first the audio option and then the tactile one. I wasn't very good as I knew I wouldn't be but apparently I did get a few shapes though; it was more of a fluke though. -- In the end, I told him that although the audio was good in that the different notes helped me to differentiate between the shapes, I thought the tactile was a tad more readable, but not much by any means. -- I certainly couldn't rely on this technology and I don't think I'd care too. I'm blind, I’m use to my world that doesn't involve pictures; have never known any different anyway. -- I was just thinking then however, i guess where I may benefit from it is if I was wanting to do I.T work and having to learn what the Windows environment looks like on the screen; cos I still have absolutely no idea at all.
Anyway I got 20 bucks so that was worth it. -- Got a free ride home with Matt and Mick so that was nice.
OK think I ought to wander up to chemist now.
Til Next time, RdFreak