Anyway, long story short, I came across these photos of Yara from Easter:

I only have these two because all the others included or were solely of Uschi who was apparently was still channeling all her playful energy because she’s just as much a motion blur in those as all the shots I took of them playing. I should have just taken a video, but at the time I couldn’t remember how to do that on my camera. (Note to self: Use camera more so this is less an issue in the future.)

Related, Yara has a new little brother! A few days after these photos were taken my father officially adopted a German shepherd rescued by a North Carolina shelter named Eli. The fact that he shares his name with a very beloved mutt we used to have when I was growing up was probably enough to melt my dad’s heart, but what solidified it was finding out that he was surrendered because he has EPI, like Yara. The whole thing is a rather involved story, but I’m happy to say he’s been settling in pretty well. Uschi and I have yet to meet him what with my Dad living in the Middle of No and Corner of Where and the fact that Eli’s still recovering from being very emaciated.¹ Not to mention he’s basically a puppy and, well, in her own way so is Uschi. :-)

Stories like that, I have come to realize, are important not just because they make people laugh at my lack of grace or even because they might “loosen up” to the concept of disabilities, but because they make blindness relatable. Even the least clumsy of us can think of a time where they’ve inadvertently injured themselves on something unseen.

That’s the thing with being born blind that I find both fascinating and relentlessly difficult: relating to “normal” vision. I’ve always seen the way that I do — a world absent of color, depth-perception, and distance vision. One of my favorite things is listening to someone describe a sunset. My father has a particular talent with conveying the breathtaking beauty in astonishing detail. Except as interesting and vivid a picture he creates in his description there’s a point where he might as well be speaking to me in another language because I literally have no understanding of colors.

Growing up I loved to color. As a very little kid I remember having those big crayons that are easier for little hands to grasp and use. There were eight: red, yellow, blue, black, green, brown, orange, and purple. I remember them so well because they were among the first words I ever learned to read and this was so important because the black and brown both looked the same to me. Even the blue crayon itself appeared the same, but I knew when I used it that it didn’t look the same as the coloring I did with those other two crayons. I didn’t really understand why those two crayons had different names when they looked the same to me, but I did know that tree trunks were brown and not black so that seemed a good enough differentiation to my little kid mind.

For some reason enjoyment of coloring is interpreted by adults on almost a continuum of skill so after several years trying to keep my giant crayons working inside the lines I graduated up to the regular sized crayons and that inevitably led to the 64 crayon box. If everyone has their own version of an Unsolvable Puzzle in their life, the 64 crayon box is mine.¹ Do you know that there are seven crayons in that box with red or some combination of red in their names? I do because to this day I still don’t understand why there is a red-orange crayon and an orange-red crayon. And what the heck is brick red anyway? I mean, bricks come in all different colors!²

Anyway, getting back to the point, suddenly coloring was so very different. Before the 64-box came into my life I only had two crayons that gave me a bit of confusion and required some extra attention to use. When I went through my new big box of crayons and grouped the ones that looked the same I suddenly had more than half the box in a pile of “black-ish.” And, as I already explained, the labels were far less helpful than my trusty 8-pack. I remember I reorganized the crayons from their original setup where they are grouped by color into something that made more sense to me. Essentially I put my eight trusty friends in the front and just dumped the rest back in the box. When I was feeling particularly adventurous I might sneak out a “new” color to draw with, but when the coloring books were spread before me I only ever picked up a different color if someone handed it to me as a suggestion.

So, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t just ask someone why there were a bunch of repeated, baffling crayons in my new box. Well, for one, I grew up in that strange time when children were taught some amount of manners so telling my parents their gift basically sucked wasn’t remotely a possibility. But more to the point, I didn’t realize I was confused by the crayons. I knew what colors were or at least I thought I did. I mean, we went over them in school and I knew the names of them and various facts like grass is green. Anyway, it became a moot point because it was around this time that I became interested in other art forms like origami and sculpting and making anatomically incorrect horses out of clay for 4-H didn’t require knowing what the heck magenta was.

However, I’m pretty sure if I had tried to explain all that back then it would have been met with bewildered confusion because it happens constantly now when I try to explain it! Here’s an example:

Person: You know you have two different colored socks on?

Me: No. Why, what colors are they?

Person: Well, one is blue and the other is green.

Me: Interesting. They look gray to me.

Person: Well, they aren’t. *indicating each sock* This one is blue and that one is green!

Me:*baffled* Okay then.³

What happens is basically a communication breakdown. The person here is trying to politely convey that my socks don’t match by pointing out their colors and I’m Just Not Getting It. Unfortunately for me that isn’t an excuse because even the most intellectually deficient person on the planet understands what blue and green are. We know that we all have to be taught our colors, but we learn about them at such a young age and after we’ve already had a lengthy visual understanding of them that they are such an ingrained part of our psyche we literally can’t comprehend how someone doesn’t understand them. So, no I didn’t just miss a few days of kindergarten and somehow my teachers managed to forget to check if I got that particular lesson. I’m color blind. I literally do not perceive colors; I physically can’t.

Complete colorblindness is an accurate description for me, but it’s difficult to explain in a way that’s understandable to others because the absence of color and the ability to perceive it are independent of one another. Semantics aside, it’s also a far more rare type of colorblindness than is generally bandied about. Red-green colorblindness is the most common and essentially is the inability to distinguish between the two, which is due, at least in part, because these colors are perceived in hues of yellow, orange, and beige. So, often when I say I’m colorblind it’s understood as I’m seeing some psychedelic version of whats actually there when in fact I’m just not seeing the actual color at all. Yes, I know I said my socks were gray above, but in all honesty I don’t really understand what gray is any more than blue or green!⁴

What’s really confusing to try and explain is that I don’t live in some drab world of blacks-and-grays. I know this because I can tell the difference between a black-and-white film where things tend to melt together in a sea of monotone blobs and reality where there is a vibrant array of contrast. It’s at this point that I lose any ability to really explain the differences because I don’t understand them any better than any other person. If I could transplant my vision into someone else head they would perceive the way I see completely differently than I do simply because they have an understanding of color perception and would be aware of the absence thereof. The same goes the other way, without an understanding of it, I can’t really paint a picture of the way I see.

What will really bake your noodle is that I have some affinity for the color red. Physically I can’t perceive it, but I can almost always pick out brighter reds — they look, well, warmer — and as yet I can provide absolutely no reason as to why that is. So, while I may never have another anecdotal story to help bridge the understanding of my particular form of colorblindness, I can at least say without guilt that red is my favorite color.

Incidentally, I’ve been told it’s my color. ;-)

That is because I’m a glutton for punishment and when good things happen at the movies — specifically good comic films — I immediately start on an Internet sleuthing expedition to find out information about the future of comic films. And then I want to be a superhero who can go back in time and slap myself upside the head because of my crippling stupidity.

For what it’s worth this time I can blame other people. See after seeing IM3 with a group of friends we got on the subject of Man of Steel and there was some general excitement from these friends which I was baffled by. I wasn’t sure if it was just that these people largely don’t read comics — and maybe they’re the smart ones in this case because I’m still trying to forget my brief toe-dipping into the DCnU — but these were also the same people who were genuinely excited about The Hunger Games after I’d completely written it off before the trailer was released and the train wreck had turned into awesome. Could that be the case here?

Yeah, no. It’s still awful. Or at the very least really confusing. I might be biased, though, because I still have residual anger about Nolan’s Batman trilogy and I actually watched Green Lantern and I really miss Superman’s underpants.

I realize now that the crux of my problem is that too much is changing. I know this sounds somewhat counter-intuitive to my usual assertion that transitions inherently are change because they are an interpretation. And here I am quibbling over things like costume designs. If I seem nitpicky perhaps I am. But by all accounts the recent changes in the comics — and by extension the films and television shows — are all attempts to streamline stories and make these characters relatable to today.

Uh, okay. Well, that’s fine and good to an extent, but I don’t really understand the point of changing the very essence of the characters themselves. It’s my biggest issue with Nolan’s Batman, though, admittedly not the issue that sends me into a frothy rage. And, by all accounts, it’s the same thing that’s going on with MoS. Certainly it’s the angle the New 52 have taken and why I can’t really manage to read anything that’s come out from the last year. But that was an issue long before the reboot, albeit on a less grand scale — and mostly I was concerned with Wonder Woman who has been going off the deep end of character development for what seems my entire life.

The funny thing is that taking characters that are popular and retooling them into new superheroes is not something that’s never been done. The best example I can think of — you know, to be relevant to today — is Green Arrow who literally started out as a carbon copy of Batman except he had a bow. I’m not exaggerating this in the least. It wasn’t even thinly veiled as so much there wasn’t an effort to veil anything. And now he has a surprisingly popular TV show that I haven’t bothered to watch because I’m still trying to get over Smallville and I only watched three seasons of that, which was giving up on it well before it truly became absurd.

What reduces me to tears is that MoS is very likely to succeed. It’s Superman after all. He’s as recognizable as Mickey Mouse. Even if you’ve never read a single comic, seen the Donner films, or had any exposure to him through all his stints on TV you probably still know a bit of his story. Plus, it’s summertime and action flicks rule the box office and even at it’s most terrible there will still be fists and explosions and other visual eye candy. And, really, all it has to do is make more money than Superman Returns. That may not seem like much of a feat, but it too followed a rather unloved Supes film and at the time was the largest opening weekend for Warner Bros. From this inevitable future will undoubtedly come yet more films that will actively chip away at my soul. Like Justice League. Oh, and the animated features aren’t instilling any confidence either. In short, it’s something of a joke to say that the LEGO Batman film is the best from the latest crop. And it should be noted I already knew what I was getting into with that particular flick since I played through the game.

Don’t even get me started on Teen Titans GO!

See also.

Oh, also there’s this because sign language is awesome:

I’m still working on that massive office organization project. In fact, just today I achieved quite a milestone by putting my new desk together. See:

Not sure what I did that made the computer screen not show up, but it was just the Apple logo so you aren’t really missing anything. And yes, that is totally a chocobo sitting there reading a book. Personally, I think the metal slime is even more unique because, hello, metal slime. Heh.

Anyway, setting up the new desk only required about 20,000 other things to happen before then, which is why the photo literally only shows the desk itself because the rest of the office looks like a bomb went off. However, it is a very clean bomb because I dusted, swept and vacuumed the entire room to a degree that might be borderline obsessive.

This is because (a.) nothing in my office has really moved since I first unpacked my house and (b.) I got a new vacuum. It’s a very spiffy Dyson and it just so happens to be purple. (I didn’t choose the color but since it IS purple I feel this should be mentioned.) Seriously, everything you’ve ever heard about Dyson is true. It’s a monster when it comes to cleaning. I’m pretty diligent with the daily vacuuming because shepherds really do shed a lot, especially when they’re blowing their coats which Uschi just so happens to be doing right now. Really, though, if you looked at what this vacuum was picking up when I empty the canister you’d swear I’d never run one through this house before. It’s both amazing and kind of gross. It’s also remarkably quiet! Even so, Uschi has decided it is the enemy and has been giving it a wide berth like it might suddenly leap to life and eat her. Ha, Purple Puppy-Eater!

But the desk assembly was certainly the most difficult of the project so now that it’s finally done I expect the rest of the organizing to go a bit more smoothly. Even though I’m sure to continue procrastinating. I just got LEGO Lord of the Rings for one, which is entirely addictive. Oh, and there is school and stuff, too.

Today, in fact, I really feel deserving of an “A” because I have spent quite literally the last two days trying to get my retrieve my schoolwork from my old desktop PC. I can only think that it is feeling the pangs of rejection and wants any excuse left to keep itself attached. Even if that requires testing my stress levels with the most extreme examples in frustration imaginable.

See, the thing is, I’ve become really good about backing up my data. It only took twice loosing everything to get that way. But the point is, I’m now a diligent backer-upper to the point that I got a bit neurotic last year when one of my two external hard drives up and died on me and I was left with no extra storage. (One of the hard drives is dedicated to my iTunes library, photos, and other assorted goodies; like the backup of my websites.) And even though I was transitioning from a PC to a Mac, I had made sure that everything was theoretically accessible for the Big Move. I checked and double-checked even to make sure that the latest synced backup was the one I was transferring.

And yet for some reason the folder with all my schoolwork was not the most recent version. Which meant that none of the work from this semester was in it. And, as luck would have it, I only discovered this after disassembling the PC. After setting it all back up again, though, the problem was not so easily resolved because before moving them to the iMac, I had to do a bunch of random things to allow access through OS X, which I never did because I didn’t have the correct version. The PC, however, didn’t care and very stubbornly refused to load the files at all because it was determined to sync with a different computer to get the “latest version.”

Eventually, I managed to get it all straightened out, though, I couldn’t possibly tell you how.

You would think the advancement of technology would make this process very simple but this has proven untrue. I suppose it’s the whole moving to a Mac, though, the actual transferring of data and settings went fairly smoothly. I’m still finding myself rather baffled by the new iMac at times. One thing that has been really throwing me has been using the trackpad because while it’s not complicated — and I’m finding gestures to be very useful when browsing the Web — it’s just different enough that it’s not the movements I am used to so half the time things are doing totally unexpected (read: backwards) things. I am definitely not helped by still having to use a PC for the time being. For now I’ve switched the mouse to left-handed, which has helped me keep things a bit more straight in my head.

The office has been the most time-consuming effort, which I expected. It’s been two-and-a-half years since everything in there was set up and so the dust accumulation under and behind furniture is ludicrous. Also, it tends to be the catch all space for assorted miscellany, like boxes from holiday gifts. So all that had to be cleared out before anything could be done. The dust is really bothering me, though, and so any effort I make is basically in 30 minute increments because that’s about the time it takes for my allergies to go berserk, sending me into a sneezing fit that seems to cause the dog great concern.

The rest of my time has basically been eaten up by school work I feel it’s an endless task presently and I am very much looking forward to the break next week.

The iMac continues to be a fun new toy if a bit mystifying at times. I’m still trying to convince myself that even though I feel like I spent a small fortune, it was actually the cheaper and easier route to switch. I’ll expect about three months from now is when I’ll have truly confirmed this one way or the other.

My goal for the weekend is to get the office squared away. I think a good portion of my frustration stems from the inconvenient location the computer is currently in coupled with the continuing malfunction of my old desktop PC. Of note, JAWS is no longer working which is making the file transfer that much more difficult. Because, you know, PC to Mac transfers didn’t have enough issues.

On the nontechnical side of things, there is mostly a desire for the weather to decide it really wants to be Spring and have less of this pussyfooting about it. I would take it as a personal kindness if it could stop snowing!

Even though I wouldn’t say the transition from Mac to PC is difficult, it is different and just enough so that it’s sometimes quite a process to do what is in actuality quite a simple task. And, of course, since all the Apple products in the house are constantly talking to one another, I’m forever being distracted by notifications for email and text messages and various social media accounts.

And through all that, I’ve been working on school stuff. Well, trying to at least. I’m finding something of a chore to be on the PC at this point, which is partly because I want to play with my new computer and partly because it feels oddly foreign after trying to get used to using the Mac.

Hopefully once I get the new computer moved into my office I’ll be a bit more reliably around once again.

Oz the Great and Powerful isn’t a terrible movie. It’s a fun enough distraction, if that’s what you’re looking for. And I think kids will enjoy it, though, I can’t quite endorse it given the central character of the film is a womanizing con man. A fact which is stated roughly every fifteen minutes throughout the course of the film.

It’s also quite a visual spectacle. Unfortunately, since we don’t have the luxury of introducing some newfangled technology like color this is mostly for show.

I would say it was breathtaking, but it’s this spectacle for spectacle sake that really lost me. It’s just so, well, fake looking that while it’s a very pretty and all it’s almost distracting. It’s such an obvious thing that it’s even the subject of some not-quite-fourth-wall-breaking jokes, which seem to me to be mocking the 1939 film. (“Bubbles are just for show.”) And when it wasn’t riding the coattails of The Wizard of Oz, it was almost too campy to be entertaining.

Mostly what bugs me is that there really is no plot. And I don’t just mean there was no story, I mean, that nothing really happens AT ALL. I’m still kind of baffled by the whole thing. So, of course, there’s already talk of a sequel. But even without any story, things didn’t quite make sense. Chiefly, I really don’t understand why Weisz and Kunis speak with different accents when they’re sisters — and Weisz can fake an American accent quite well, I think.

Personally, I was glad I had a free pass. If I’d paid full admission, I’d probably have a more heated rant.

“Setting up” here more closely resembling playing, but in my defense it took two hours to transfer my iTunes library and while it dawned on me I could be doing something more productive, I opted to try and learn how to use the magic trackpad and tweak various preference settings.

If I had any fear that there would be a learning curve to cope with, it was immediately confirmed when I couldn’t figure out why my new keyboard wouldn’t work. Seems I neglected to turn it on, which given how not obvious that was you would think that’d be listed in a step somewhere in the teeny instruction book that I didn’t bother to read. Also, I apparently managed to turn on the trackpad without realizing I had done so and didn’t really clue into the how of it.

In any case, it’s a very pretty computer and it’s temporarily taking up one end of my dining room table. I need to take apart the PC and rearrange¹ my office before it moves to its permanent home. Which means I walk by it no matter where I’m going in the house and inevitably end up sitting down and poking at for long stretches of time. I find myself simultaneously awed by all the shiny features and totally baffled by how strangely foreign some of it is to me.

I’m sure to report more as I actually move over to using the iMac as my main computer. Suffice it to say, I think I’m already officially a convert.

As expected, Uschi had to make sure all that cardboard wasn’t hiding something fun for her. Or maybe she’s moonlighting as a bomb-sniffer. Who knows.

Also, tomorrow is the weekly IRC meetup for the Make WordPress Accessible group. Please feel free to join us in #wordpress-ui on freenode at 3 p.m. Eastern.

So, when I say that this semester is proving to be a fucking nightmare of epic proportions, I want you to take my full meaning. Let’s just say, I am hardly fazed when I get a bill for tuition I’ve already paid or see I was double charged for my books or I’m hours away from classes starting and I’m still not officially in the course. Those kinds of things frustrate me, I admit, but they happen so often I almost don’t believe the semester has started unless something has gone wrong.

I’ve been shut out of registration for weeks at a time when I should have had the earliest chance to get into a class because my entrance exam that I had received results from in the mail was never recorded into the system. I had a hold on my records for a $600 phone bill that was charged solely because somehow the area code wasn’t input into my home phone and so it wasn’t considered my exempt permanent address’s number. You might remember that entire semester of courses I took in the Rehabilitation Counseling degree only to find out a semester later I’d been told by my advisor to take the wrong courses and was effectively shut out of my program for an entire year even though I had a 4.0!

I even walked across the stage to get my bachelor’s degree, only to get an envelope a week later declaring my lack of degree because I had allegedly not completed the required internship necessary for my program. Considering the internship I had worked actually was for double the credits needed since it also was being used for my minor, you can understand my confusion. The best part of that letter was the bottom, which proclaimed how dire the situation might be in all caps by stating that since I wasn’t registered for the next semester, graduation requirements had changed and completing the above list would not necessarily net me my degree.

Suffice it to say all the turmoil I’ve dealt with before pales in comparison to what I’ve been dealing with for the last month. Honestly, if I get through this semester with even a fraction of my sanity intact, I think the school should just give me my degree. What’s going on you ask? Well, I literally have no idea! Every office tells me something different and on almost a daily basis I receive mail that contradicts at least half of what I’ve been told. In short, I’ve paid for a semester of classes that I very well may not be enrolled in. It’s such a ridiculous mess that if it weren’t actually happening to me I would swear it couldn’t be possible.

But probably one of the most interesting things I’ve seen pass across my feed was this article on economic inequality. Number two was something I was already aware of. Three and six just sicken me.

I’d post more about this, but I’m too busy squeeing.

On the sort of brighter side, today I had an appointment with my rheumatologist who pretty much unequivocally ruled out nearly all of the speculated possible diagnoses I had for the pain issues, including fibromyalgia. He thinks the initial issue from last year was likely a pinched nerve from sleeping weird coupled with strained muscles and feels the continued issues are due to bursitis. So, in point of fact, my worry that working the dog had actually caused and/or exacerbated the issue were quite well founded. Though, thankfully, he doesn’t think I’m in danger of causing myself more harm by continuing to use my guide dog.

He gave me a bunch of exercises to add to my yoga routines, a script for a pretty powerful anti-inflammatory, and wants me back in two months. If I continue to have pain after all that, he wants me to have a cortisone injection. Well, actually he wanted me to have one today, but I’d rather try something that’s more sustainable since yoga has helped greatly over the last several months. Though, having said that, the poke-and-prod session has predictably left me feeling especially achy and a good part of me is regretting not jumping on the idea of an injection.

All kinds of stuff has been going on over the last two months with regard to work. I keep thinking I’ll have something worthy of announcing, but it’s all complicated and nothing is truly settled so mostly I’ve been vague. I do have a Very Important Test in April that I just spent more money on than I think is adequately fair. I’m really excited about the whole thing, but I’ll be much more excited if something actually comes of it. I’ll be utterly over the moon if that happens quickly, though, these things rarely do.

Tomorrow is my first appointment with my new rheumatologist. It’s actually a good time for this given I’ve been having increased issues with pain the last week. The stiffness and pain is back in my neck — and actually it was bothering me on the opposite side last week, which was a first — and I’m noticing issues in my left leg again. We’ll see what comes of it. In other health news, I’ve had an unpleasant bout with migraines over the last month. I think it might be from a combination of sinus issues and allergies since I tend to get migraines when I’m extremely stuffed up, but the last few have been incredibly bad ones and I’m sad to say I’m seriously thinking I may have to go back on meds.

I completely have forgotten the other things I was going to post because the phone just rang and utterly distracted me.

Related, there’s a lot of activity going on at the Make WordPress Accessible blog. Of note:

• Twenty Thirteen, the next default theme, has reached the stage in development where feedback is being requested specifically from an accessibility standpoint.
• The addition of an “accessibility mode” for the Custom Menus is being focused on for inclusion in the next version release.
• Captions are being added to WordPress.tv and input on this new feature is needed.
• Discussion concerning the accessibility of the new Add Media panel.

If you’re at all interested in the future of accessibility within WordPress, I strongly urge you to contribute by joining our group. Whether you are just starting out with WordPress, an advanced developer or somewhere in between, we value insight and assistance. Also, please remember we have weekly IRC meetings Wednesdays at 3 p.m. Eastern in #wordpress-ui, which you are welcome and encouraged to participate in.

Anyway, I’m thrilled that there will be a presentation regarding WordPress accessibility, specifically focusing on themes. Though, if I were going I would likely be the most interested in the session on accessible e-readers.

Yoga cookie cutters are available here. And there are more yoga cupcakes here.

I’ve already shared my two favorites from this set, and there are actually a few more that I haven’t included here, but of note you’ll see a handful of shots of just me, including some with me in my new purple glasses. I threw in some “outtakes,” too, since those always seem amusing for all. Enjoy: