I Can't Help It. I'm Hooked

Couldn't resist this one either!

Snowball the Dancing Cockatiel -- just because

Just because everyone should celebrate Friday like this if they can!

Retinal Atrophy

Scar atrophy post sub-mac

Some history before the update. I have Ocular Histoplasmosis Syndrome or POHS which has caused the total loss of central vision in my left eye (1990) and visual field losses in my right as well. I had sub-macular surgery in the right with Dr. Matthew Thomas back in the dark ages circ. 1993, and I’ve been stable since baring a small inflammation in 1995 controlled with prednisone. Since, I’ve developed severe light sensitivity due to many factors including a pigmentation migration from the areas around the last scar / vessel that blew and the fact that my pupils no longer contract normally, but stay open to 7 or 8 mm (full dilation) most of the time.

Well, about three weeks ago, I had a sudden decline in visual acuity from about 20/35 to 20/70 (all this in the right eye, since the left lost all center vision in ’91). Visual field disturbances in all four quadrants. Eye pressure up to 22 in the right eye an only 9 in the left. Not good at all. That way a Saturday night in the ER.

Monday I saw my regular ophthalmologist. Vision still down at 20/70; eye pressure up to 24 or 25; 25 being the beginning of the range for being concerned about glaucoma. Regular ophthalmologist pontificated and told me to go home for a month and I might “want to buy a magnifier” – the dolt!

I called Thomas’s office and had an appointment for 9 am that Wednesday. Gotta love working with professionals! Even his office staff is the best!

After spending most of Tuesday fighting with the Mason Eye Clinic about whether or not they were going to give me copies of my records including the floresine angiograms they took (I won after several hours, multiple conversations with my tape recorder going, and the promise that if I didn’t walk out of there with a CD with my pics the next call would be to a lawyer, AND a phone call to Dr. Thomas’s office to have them call and apply pressure), my mom and I went to St. Louis. She flew in from Pennsylvania Monday morning to go with me and is still here.

Thomas took some pics and angio and an OCT. No bleeders, no inflammation, no fluid at all in the OCT. (Cool test, btw!) But I’ve a record of being able to see what’s coming long before they have anything to shoot at, sometimes as much as six weeks. So. Come back in two weeks if no improvement or four if it gets noticeably better. Sooner if something drastic happens.

I’m back in two weeks (this Wednesday, April 16th) They can get me up to 20 / 50 with best correction. Again, no sign of vessels or a bleeder or any fluid registering in the OCT; the one spot that looked like it might have been the beginning of an inflammation is now totally quiet.

The conclusion. Atrophy of the surgery scar and surrounding tissue. Visual acuity will wax and wane as the retinal tissue continues to deteriorate. Nothing to be done. Nothing. Go ahead and get my new glasses. (I have an RX from December I’ve been too busy with depression and other things to get filled) Come back in a month for monitoring in case it IS actual histo activity that I can see before they can. But apparently this is something that they’ve seen before. The sub-mac surgery gave me fifteen years and no re-occurrence, but now it’s going to just fade out as the tissue atrophies.

I’m not sure HOW I feel at the moment. While I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand getting a shot in the eye every couple of months, I was willing to try, to at least attempt to fight it. But now I’m told there’s nothing to fight. The fight to maintain and make best use of my vision has consumed most of my adult life. This started when a routine eye exam at Sears resulted in the optician saying "Did you know that you have large white spots on your retinas?" when I was 23, and I’ll be 43 near the end of this year.

The last few years have been a major battle with the photophobia, but we’d just gotten the pain management under control with the use of prosthetic contacts with a 2mm pupil and a total black layer under the rest of the “iris” of the contacts, which are a dark brown, rather than my own green to further block the light. It was working. Almost no headaches for eight months. I still couldn’t see as well with the contacts in, and I still couldn’t see outside in the sunlight. But my quality of life is much better.

And now this. I’m just -- pole-axed. I’ve longed for the constant anxiety and battles to end; I considered refusing further treatment and just living with whatever came so I could live my life without the constant fear and battle. And now this. I’m so damned pissed off that I don’t even get to make THAT choice that I don’t know which way to turn. No treatment. No research into any way to boost or support the tissue that’s left. Nothing.

Thomas was great. Explained it all twice, so my mom and I could take it in. Walked us through the pictures and the OCT printouts. He’s a marvelous doc and an excellent communicator. But. damn.

Retinal Education

The subject today is retinas. Mine, to be precise, although this first picture isn't -- mine, that is. This is a picture of a healthy retina from a medical site here on the web. See how nice and shiny and pink it is? The light spot to the right with all the blood vessels branching from it is actually the optic nerve, while the darker pink area in the center of the field is the macula. The macula is the portion of the eye where the retinal tissue is very thin, and where the eye is able to produce the fine vision that allows people to focus on print, small objects, and fine details. You'll notice that this area has no blood vessels snaking through it. The tissue here is far too thin for even the smallest blood vessels.

The eye disease that I have, presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome or POHS, causes the body to send blood vessels into this area of fine vision. The vessels rupture the tissue, destroying its ability to absorb light and transmit information, and they also rupture, obscuring even more vision with blood.None of this can be seen from the outside, but it can completely obscure the center vision should treatment be unsuccessful. The retinal results look like this second picture, which is an actual photo of my left retina.

As you can see, the macula and the even more delicate region of the fovea at the center of the macula have been completely destroyed by rogue blood vessels, ruptures, and scarring. The area around the optic nerve also shows similar signs of bleeds and scarring, but bleeds that far from the center don't actually affect my vision and the doctors have never indicated that they present any danger to the optic nerve itself.

This final picture shows my right retina -- the one that had a bleed fifteen years ago and which Dr. Matthew Thomas at Barnes Retina Institute was able to remedy somewhat by taking the whole thing apart and removing the blood vessel, and then putting the eye back together again.

The procedures involved have much more glamorous and imposing sounding names like "vitrectomy" "sub-macular removal of the neo chordial vascularization" etc., but you get the general idea.

In this last picture, you can see the black crusty scars of bleeds near the optic nerve, but only two black spots near the macula. One is a laser scar, the first treatment attempted on this eye when the first blood vessel ripped through the retinal tissue. The laser burns through the retina, destroying it in the hope of cauterizing the vessel and preventing more bleeds. This didn't work, and the second black spot (the larger) is where the second blood vessel broke through with such force and enthusiasm that my center vision was completely obscured within just a few seconds.

The dark shading around the macula represents areas where the tissue is starting to atrophy. The process of removing the offending blood vessel and the pooling blood involved separating the retina from the back of the eye, and separating it from the nutrient layer underneath. Over time, areas in which the nutrient layer and the retina did not fully heal together have started to atrophy which will eventually cause a gradual loss of acuity in and of itself.

The shiny whitish areas in the macula of this eye are places where the pretty pink pigment decided that enough was enough, and it bugged out all in a few seconds, causing me to think that a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign announcing "The New Honey Barbecue Wings" would be the last thing I'd seen on earth.

But, thankfully, this was not the case, as the bug-out was just a precursor to the second bleed in this eye. My vision cleared after several minutes, we made yet another flying trip to a hospital an hour and a half away, and my vitreo-retinal specialist at the time, Dr. David V. Poer, said, "you shouldn't have been able to see that!" -- not the first or the last time this phrase was used in reference to me and my eyes. (grin)

The smaller whitish dots out from the center are additional histo scars which may be drawing blood vessels to them. These scars, the pigmentation migration, and the fact that for some unknown reason my pupils now remain dilated to about 7 or 8 millimeters all the time are some of the causes of my extreme light sensitivity. But that's a topic for another time.

Currently, my vision is changing yet again. About a week ago, I noticed some changes in my vision, Careful examination on an amsler grid shows changes in all four quadrants, blurred places, bent lines, glittery shapes, flickering shadows, all of which indicate that the disease is again active, and that something is coming. Probably a blood vessel, maybe more than one. But some portion of it seems to be headed directly for the center of the macula. The ER noted that my acuity in the good eye had dropped from 20 / 40 to 20 / 70. So began the frantic trips to the retinal specialists.

Dr. Thomas with his fancy tools, including the new OCT-whatchamacallit which functions like ultra sound and can pick up the tiniest amounts of fluid under the retina are going to try to determine when the threat warrants treatment with the cancer drug Avastin. So far, we are in a holding pattern. It's clear that something is going on, but so far, the photos and angiograms aren't showing any bleeds. Nor does this nifty new thing that works like ultra sound show any fluid yet; with my history, it's just a matter of time, but the docs can't start treatment until they have something to shoot at.

Personally, I wish the whole thing would hurry up. Being blind is only a pain in the butt. But the process of loosing vision is hell on earth. My mom flew in from PA on Monday to go with me to the first appointment with a local guy. She'll be staying indefinitely and working via e-mail, etc. From my history, it'll all be over but the shouting in about a month, maybe a bit more. Once they find something they can target, the newest treatment involves injections into the eye with Avastin, a cancer drug, about every four to six weeks. This will cause the blood vessels to wither and retreat and allow what parts of the retina that can heal a chance to do so, but whatever is destroyed when the blood vessel bursts through will be lost for good.

I'm not at all sure how long my nerves will tolerate having them stick needles in my eye while I'm awake, though I'll be requesting some significant sedatives. So I don't know how this will play out. Some people have continued the treatments for years; some have three or four and then the disease goes back into remission.

Knitting is a wonderful consolation; a friend here has started to record the pattern instructions for the shawl I'm working on into audio, since I can't stand looking at the charts now, and may never be able to again.

I've also started selling my home-made stitch markers in the local yarn store and earned enough to get a spindle and a bag of fiber. I had everyone in the local waiting rooms fascinated with watching me spin (grin) while we waited for eyes to dilate, photos to process, or other time consuming tortures. "Sitting and spinning" has multiple meanings for me at the moment, so I'm glad at least one of them is productive!

More pics of fiber and fripperies in the next post, and perhaps that promised discussion of skip tags!

Basic Accessibility for Blogs and Sites

I’ve taken my time working up to writing this post on how to make a blog or website more user friendly for more people. The most interesting part of the process for me has been deconstructing my own assumptions in order to address the confusion people may feel about why some alterations to standard blog editing and formatting are necessary.

While I’ve been “between” sighted and blind for more than 10 years, the steps I’ve taken to make use of adaptive techniques and resources have been gradual ones. I’ve rarely given thought to something until I needed it. When I need something, then I figure it out. [grin] Not the comprehensive way to learn or study something, but life HAS been busy in the interim.

General Principles

So. Accessibility. Making a website more friendly for those who use adaptive computing programs and tactics. One of the first things to understand would be that the more complicated the site, the more careful a designer has to be to integrate accessibility features in the construction. All the interactive tools that allow a site visitor to interact with the site are lovely things, and web designers have done an amazing job coming up with new ways to make sites fun and attractive.

Fun and attractive do NOT have to suffer in order to make a site more accessible, but often, talking with designers can be like talking to new writing students about ways to adapt their writing to suit a wider audience, rather than to just suit the professor or their friends. It can make them grumpy because they think that the constructive criticism is actually negative criticism. So that would be the first point I’d like to address – I’ll be talking from the stance of already greatly appreciating the work that designers and programmers have done. The things we can do on the web are amazing, and having all these options available in a format that is, by its very nature, easier to access and adapt than print on paper is a marvelous transformation.

Basic Philosophy and Function

The main premise of making websites more accessible is pretty much a no-brainer: why would you NOT want to increase your readership, your patrons, your advocates, your contacts? We’ll assume that you’ve answer that question with an “of course” and move on. At some other time, I’ll regale you with tales of the profound effect web access has had for vast numbers of people who have used this technology to improve and increase their interactions with the rest of the world. For now, I’ll focus on reviewing some of the ways people with disabilities access the web and then move on to basic things people can do to improve the experiences people with disabilities have on their sites.

First, in case you are new to my sites, yes, blind people can access the web. They don’t have to be able to see to read your blog. I access the web using a screen-reader software program called JAWS, made by Freedom Scientific. If you’d like to hear what your blog sounds like to me, you can download a trial version of JAWS by going to the [link follows] Freedom Scientific site. This trial software is set up to let you use the program for 40 minutes at a time; for additional use, simply re-boot your computer to re-set the software clock.

Other programs frequently used by people with disabilities include Window Eyes, another screenreader, Dragon Naturally Speaking, which allows people to use voice commands to navigate and type, and Zoom-text, a program that provides comprehensive and variable screen magnification as well as basic document reading capabilities. Additionally, many people use adaptive hardware, including joysticks,

These are just a few of the programs available, but most adaptive programs alter the way someone interacts with the web in one fundamental way. They change the way the person navigates the site. Rather than navigating visually, and using the mouse to shift the computer’s focus to the desired link or segment or visual, most adaptive programs involve using keyboard commands and keyboard navigation tactics to negotiate the site.

Using the keyboard to negotiate the site and shift the computer’s focus means that a person accesses the site in a linear progression, as if all the style sheets and formatting were removed, rather than by scanning from left to right or right to left and then down. Or by following the most dramatic and active elements on the page such as flash movies or components. In fact, flash elements can aggravate the process immensely, since many times, the adaptive software can get “hung up” on the flash element. So anytime a designer can provide a way for someone to skip past a flash element or at least work to insure that the flash element isn’t the first thing that the software will encounter on the site, that designer has already improved the experience of many people who want to access the site.

Well, that’s enough for now. The next installment will be on skip tags: those wonders of html coding that let someone jump to specific content without using a mouse!

How many People?

Well, I got this one from Knitnana, but I must say, elementary school is always a good indicator for this. We had three girls with my name in the same classroom, and more in the other two, so, how original could it be?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 81 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The funny part? My mother's frustration! She'd chosen names for me and my brother some ten years before, and just happened to have her children when these names came into popularity. What was unusual, became common place. (sigh)

Got Spoons?

Thanks to the wit and linkage of the Infamous Lady Bracknell, the Lady Bracknell of "The Perorations of Lady Bracknell," mind you, I have been introduced to the "Spoon Theory" of explaining life with a chronic illness or disability. Spoons work well. So would matchsticks, or beans. But the story of the spoons, to be found on "But You Don't Look Sick?" and written by Christine Miserandino has a certain charm and applicability, since spoons are not easy to carry nor easy to forget when you ARE carrying them, and the feeling of being without them once you are used to them is a significant loss.

When I can, I'm going to have to invest in some "Got Spoons?" paraphernalia.




There are days I got spoons, and days I don't. This has been a marvelous week for collecting sources of spoons, or sources of spoon reinforcement, one might say.

In addition to some exhilarating discussion to be had on the forums at Ravelry.com, I've also been chatting with folks at Disaboom (disaboom.com), yet another vigorous community for folks with disabilities and their friends and families. If you sneak a peek, you should see some new buttons over in the sidebar which reflect this week's expansion in my participation of various online communities.

Now, lest it be thought that I'm always connected to my computer (close, but not always, it would get in the way of the knitting and of sleeping), and that with such a connection I should certainly be posting FAR more often, it should be noted that my participation in the groups on Ravelry has led me to more local connections, and I'm to be found, almost weekly, at one of the local coffeehouses chatting away with fellow knitters, hookers, and spinners, not to mention the occasional weaver. We're a very accepting bunch, so local folk who just want to drop by are welcome -- Rendezvous is a marvelous coffee house -- and while a craft of your own is not necessary, we can provide you with sticks and string as "set dressing" or "props" if you are feeling left out. I'm sure more than just myself would be willing to provide instruction as well -- Ruthanne, this is targeted at you! (grin)

My search for a good, non-copyrighted picture of a spider web that I find suitable for the header for the group I want to organize on Ravelry myself has not been very productive. My attempts and drawing one myself in "Paint" have been absolutely GHASTLY! But I've had some luck with plain paper and pencil, so I may make use of the scanner and keep it simple.

I've also signed up to participate in an experimental group of feminist knitbloggers, making my own little niche by concentrating on academic and disability related contributions. More info on that as it reaches me.

Since I have finally gotten a new laptop to replace the one destroyed in "The GREAT Sodapop Debacle of November '07," I should also be able to become more regular about posting here again. Tomorrow I'll see about posting a knitting update with pictures of all the Christmas knitting. I've also started a pair of thick superwash merino socks for myself AND one of the "Tea Cozy Elf Caps" from Charmed Knits, the Harry Potter knitting book I got from my SIL for Christmas.

The dogs are sleeping, and it's now time to make banana bread and pumpkin bread for tomorrow's winter celebration for the local Ravelry knitting group. Yeah! Who knows what I'll get in the white elephant stash exchange? I've put . . . . well, I can't very well tell you, now can I? It's supposed to be a surprise!

Starting a Group on Ravelry

Starting a group on Ravelry doesn't sound all that intimidating, does it? But in truth, I've never been a group-starter. Rabble-rouser, organizer, synergy source, enthusiastic supporter, even ad-hoc or temporary leader, all these, I've been. But I've never just started a group and said, "come join."

I know, I know. It's about time then, isn't it? And I'm already caught up in the details. What to use for a banner? How irreverant to be at the start? Best give them some idea of what I'm like; wouldn't want to shock anyone who came looking for "Mary Ingells" and found someone a bit more like "Anne Sullivan" than they were expecting. I'm just not the reverant sort when it comes to blindness. [grin] But I don't want to drive away any new blinks or 'tweeners who are still shaky about the whole thing. Hmmmmm. This makes choosing a name a bit of a challange, too.

If I put "blind" in the title, will the folks with Macular Degeneration or other Vision Impairments similar to mine not consider themselves eligible? Many people resist the word "blind" on so many levels. "Blind Webs"? "Tinking in the Dark" ? I myself no longer really like the word "Low Vision" as a social term. It's perfectly fine as a legal or diagnostic term, but wishy-washy, hesitant, or temporizing to me for social use. VI sounds like we're in a sci-fi movie. Hmmmm. Do crips or deaf people on the web have these difficulties too? Well, perhaps I should just use the word "Blind" in the title, since it's my favorite. Clear cut -- unlike actual vision loss most of the time -- descriptive, and short. It's amazing how political a simple word choice can become. [sigh]

"Blind Webs" it will be. A group for knitters, spinners, and crocheters with vision impairments of all sorts and their friends. Ever wonder what to get a blind knitter for Christmas? Wonder where to find patterns in an alternate format? Trying to find a good way to mark your decreases or increases without having hundreds of bits of string hanging from the piece you're knitting? Someone here has probably run into the same problem. "It's highly unlikely that you are the first person in history ever to have this difficulty!" So spoke My Mother the Oracle in the year 1992, modern era.

Hmm. Now. How to drum up business. I've got one other knitter interested already. Ah -- a discussion of web braille on the audiobook group? THAT would be a good place to start! Hm, hm, hmmmmmm. Now I need to go find a cool picture of a spider web for the banner!


"

Nothing Like a New Gang!

Well, the CoMo lunchtime group from Ravelry met at the Rendezvous Coffeehouse this afternoon, and, I must say, signs indicate that a good time was had by all!

Nothing like a new gang of knitting gals to liven up a blog. More soon!

What Woman from Outlander?

Which woman from the Outlander series are you?

You are Jenny Fraser Murray. You are a strong, motherly figure; loving and practical. You are good at being in charge of large groups of people of all ages. Your home is your castle and your family is the most important thing to you. You are also a good friend.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code,/center>

Yep. Re-reading this series again -- and knitting -- AND spending too much time on Ravelry!

First Toe Up Sock!

I did it! I finished my first pair of toe-up socks, simple crew socks following the instructions in Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts’ Simple Socks Plain and Fancy. I used Opal sock yarn in a self-striping pattern. As a learning experience, I say it was a complete success. I learned how to do short rows using the yarn-over method. I much prefer short row toes to the ssk/k2tog toes I’ve done in the past. It’s much easier to make them gradual to fit my square feet! I’m looking forward to trying some lace patterned toe-up socks I’ve had on hold for some time now. This was too much fun! Gibson-Roberts explains the principles extremely well. The whole hour-glass shaping element is clever and makes for interesting heels as well.
As for the Provincial Waistcoat, I’ve been trying to get a good picture of the buttons for more than a week, and finally realized that my best chance to get the detailed carving on the buttons was to scan the sweater. This also worked. [grin] Would have saved myself considerable trouble if I’d thought of it sooner! However, the current file is too large for blogger to load. [sigh] Great detail, and the price for it. I still need to wash and block this piece, and then it will be done, not to be worn until fall.

The Daphne top and the Bobble Blue top have both been on hold, so it’s time to choose one to go on with. Maybe both, at that! [laughing]. The Daphne top will include a great deal of mindless knitting, so perhaps that might be a good relief to all the complex cable and rib elements of the Bobble Blue. I don't know how likely is that I'll finish both in time to wear this summer, but perhaps one will be ready in time. I think I'd prefer the Bobble Blue top -- actually done in an orchid wool-cotton from Brown Sheep -- since I've the skirt to match it ready and waiting. From what I can tell, they will make a lovely outfit, and it's a color that doesn't fill my closet at the moment.

On the other hand, I’m also interested in catching up with the latest KAL I’ve joined. It’s the Monthly Dishcloth KAL, and I’m having fun figuring out what the pattern will make, since we only get so many lines of knitting a day. It will be a fun way to supplement my own kitchen, as well as add to the stack for the church bazaar. I’m also able to copy and paste the instructions into a work document, and listen to them on my Bookport MP3 player / document reader. This might make these projects an even more interesting option for travel knitting while I’m riding the buses.

Books, Books, Books, Books, & more Books!

Booking Through Thursday

School days, Golden Rule days…. June 21, 2007

Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:
1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by?
2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky?

As an English major, I think I kept almost all the books and novels I acquired as an undergrad, and definitely all those I acquired for my Master’s and for my doctorate so far. The only real drawback is that moving is a MAJOR undertaking! [laughing] I think I was up to nine or ten milk-crates of books that came with me to undergrad each year – just the essentials, mind. Nothing extra or unneeded – at least not to my way of thinking!

I ditched the books on the hard science and the one Calculus class I took [shudder], but I kept many of the business and accounting books. Both came in handy as I helped a small living history museum I was working for set up a double entry book keeping system and begin to make use of standard business reports for financial matters.

The most interesting thing about that school schedule of acquiring books is this: I STILL get an almost uncontrollable urge to buy stacks of books, paper, pens, etc., each August or September. At this point, I’m doing independent research, and don’t need such things, but there you have it. [grin] Each fall, I start to haunt the stationery aisles in stores and to roam the discount book stacks at local stores to fulfill these cravings. I’m sure there’s a twelve-step program out there for this somewhere, but for now, I remain unrepentant. Ah – check back with me after my next move!

Writing Delayed, Knitting Advanced

A quick review will show you that I’ve not made my regular posts in the last week and a half or so. Allergies escalated into more serious troubles, and I’m happy to admit that I vanquished the demon spores – ah – pollen with modern chemistry and a large quantity of salt water. A summer cold and subsequent breathing problems left me with little inclination to write, and much time to knit while I protected my lungs and tried to avoid adding insult to injury. The fact that I was willing to start tossing bones and waving feathers if it would let me take a deep breath was beside the point. I DID NOT actually start chanting in public. And those scraps are Kleenex, not the remnants of voodoo dolls. Seriously. Honest. Oh, crap. I’d have done almost anything to be allowed a full breath. Let’s not talk about it, okay? Summer colds are a rotten way to spend time, but it did give me a chance to get a large quantity of knitting done. [grin] Yes, yes, most things seem to push me in that direction, don’t they? Perhaps this is something I should be concerned about? Nah.

As I was hanging out, listening to The Historian, I managed to get a huge chunk of knitting done on the Provincial Waistcoat.
So. In the next couple of days, I’ll be catching up on half-written posts and back dating them to keep with the line-up. I’ll also be getting pictures of the almost-complete Provincial Waistcoat. It’s all over but the buttons and blocking! It’s a wonderful piece, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, 2005, is a lovely read, by the way. Long -- something you know I love -- and a solid addition to the Dracula legends. Great mystery, fun revelations, stunning array of countries represented, a natural for book nerds. I hope she writes another soon! You can find it on Amazon, of course, at http://www.amazon.com/Historian-Elizabeth-Kostova/dp/0316011770, though by now, the paperback is also out, and libraries all over the world have added it to their sections on Dracula.

I’m in dire need of the inspiration to pick up another project. There are plenty to hand, as you know, but I need some motivation. I’ll probably start on a pair of socks, just because I need something in that line to keep my hands busy. Hmmm. I’m also going to Stitches today, one of the local yarn shops, and perhaps the Noro Silk Garden there will inspire me. I haven’t been to a yarn shop in months, and I’ve missed the atmosphere and the lovely yarn to pet!

Do I WHAT?! Peek?

Dessert First

Booking Through Thursday
1. Do you cheat and peek ahead at the end of your books? Or do you resolutely read in sequence, as the author intended?
2. And, if you don’t peek, do you ever feel tempted?

Well, this week’s Booking Through Thursday requires something of an admission. The answer is: “Not any more!” I have been known to cheat and jump to the end of a book, to peak ahead when I was just about to have kitten’s trying to figure out how something would be resolved or IF it would be resolved. Ahem. That was before I knew that ALL romance novels end the same way. [laughing] It had never occurred to me that the hero and heroine HAD to get together in those novels. Not until I was part way through high school! I just couldn’t stand the suspense when it came to love stories.

Mysteries are a genre I’ve only gotten into as an adult, and I’ve not tried jumping ahead in one of those – ‘twould ruin the fun of the genre. Tempted? Oh YES! Sometimes it’s a physical challenge to keep from peeking. I have to put the book down and walk away. But the mysteries aren’t always like the romances, so I don’t always want to know if a character I like is going to be one of the casualties!

Waistcoats and Wacky Dogs

What a week! Kala is home, making everything in life a little more amusing. [grin] She arrived last weekend with some friends who stayed to party for a couple of days before heading back home. Five large dogs and two cats at my place, and what a party it was! Kala and Sally are getting along famously, with good manners and much romping and chasing. I tried to get pictures of the romping and chasing, but ended up with multi-colored blurs. So still shots will have to do!

In knitting, many good things have been happening. I’ve finally gotten some pictures to show. The finished lilac Wildefoot socks are comfy and lovely. I’m tickled with both the yarn and the pattern.Sensational Knitted Socks is turning out to be a wonderful resource and an excellent investment. These are knit in the six-stitch repeat "waterfall rib" pattern.
My first pair of socks from this book (and my second!) were knit in the four-stitch repeat, "Elongated Corded Rib." I haven’t decided on the next pattern I’ll try, but the red Wildefoot will undoubtedly be turned into something from this pattern book. I'm looking eagerly at the cabled patterns at the moment! I’ve also got several skeins of KP’s Telemark waiting to be used, so it may turn into my first pair of colorwork socks; this book has some interesting patterns in colorwork I haven’t given much thought to yet. More investigating to do! But at the current rate, I'll have worked my way through my summer sock yarns and be back to worsted weight winter socks long before August! I'm finding the patterns and the quick finishes very satisfying.

The work on the Provincial Waistcoat continues. I’m having to rip back to about the point these pictures were taken, losing about an inch or so, because I was thinking “sets” of rows, rather than rows and knit happily along without continuing the decreases for the neckline!I’m currently still doing the increases in the back of the bodice while starting the neckline decreases. I think the low neckline is the only reason I considered this vest, as I usually stick to sweaters or jackets alone. But between the neckline and the stitch designs, I was hooked! This Classic Elite yarn is working up beautifully, and I’m very happy with the weight and feel of the piece. I'm hoping to have it finished in the next week so I can move on to my orchid "Bobble Blue" sweater from last summer. This cooler weather we are having would be perfect for it!

Other adventures this past week include my first “Booking Through Thursday” entry, and managing to blister my hands so badly while mowing the yard that I couldn’t use my blind cane for several days – which means I’ve been home entirely too long! Cutting the law is not a normal activity for me, but I wanted to burn off some excess energy, and, well, using the old-fashioned push mower is just plain fun! The blades whirl and send grass clippings flying – I think it’s the similarity to the “popcorn walker” toy that I had as a kid that charms me so much. That toy doubled as a lawn mower, a sweeper, a car, all sorts of things! Anyway, the satisfaction of watching the tall grasses disappear was hypnotizing, and a recent rain had pulled most of the pollen out of the air – so that wasn’t a concern. However, I will be letting the boy next door resume his duties in law care as soon as his school year is over – I’m too much of a wimp to keep this up! And yes, I have heard of work gloves, but you have to be expecting to do “real” work in order to plan ahead and have them in the house! [grin] I’ll be picking some up at the mall tomorrow, just in case.

Oh god -- WHAT day is it? Monday? Again?

Here too soon, yet another Monday. More Coffee is Definitely Required!

Seriously, it's a gorgeous day here. With the temperature down in the '60's last night, I could sleep with all the windows open, and it's as yet (at 10:00 a.m.) only up to 68, so the day has much promise! Of course, my second cup of coffee, and the fact that, finally, I got pictures of knitting taken yesterday help with that outlook, to be sure. More on the knitting later today, but here is my poetry for Monday.

I've been making my way through The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence, 1885–1930, Penguin Classics edition, 1993. Lawrence is yet another of the relatively few 20th Century authors I read regularly. His blunt address of life, death, sex, and the power of the internal life of people ties him to another poet I enjoy, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester 1647-1680. But more of him next week.

While many of Lawrence's poems are designed to shock an startle people, here is a selection I found very apt to a knitting blog.
This is from the collection Pansies:

WHATEVER MAN MAKES

Whatever man makes and makes it live
lives because of the life put into it
A yard of India muslin is alive with Hindu life.
And a Navajo woman, weaving her rug in the pattern of her dream
must run the pattern out in a little break at the hem
so that her soul can come out, back to her.

But in the odd pattern, like snake-marks on the sand it leaves its trail.

Alternate Texts

Paper or plastic?

May 30, 2007 Booking Through Thursday

• Do you read e-Books?
• If so, how? On your computer, or a PDA?
• Or are you a paper purist? Why?

Now this is an interesting question with which to begin my Booking Through Thursday entries!

While I try to focus on using audiobooks now, ebooks have been a great alternate format for me since 2001 when I first found some Adobe Acrobat Reader ebooks. Adobe Acrobat had a “read aloud” function at that point, which helped me greatly.

In 2002 I found MicrosoftReader ebooks and also discovered the free version of the Overdrive Readerworks program for turning electronic texts into MicrosoftReader ebooks. Microsoft now has an add-in for Word which also allows you to make your own books quickly and easily. This can be a great way to store and use class notes for future use and study. These programs have improved dramatically over the years. MicrosoftReader has a text-to-speech function and now has many features that allow you to take notes, write in the margins, add bookmarks, and highlight text while you read. You can also view and search your annotations or markups from the annotations list, rather than flipping through the pages to find the bits you thought were important.

I also make use of the ebooks available through my public library which has a subscription to NetLibrary. This is a MARVERLOUS resource for those of us who have a hard time returning books to the library on time! The book checks ITSELF back into the library at the end of two weeks, so you never have to worry about it! Now how cool is THAT!

These ebooks are compatible with my screen reader software, JAWS, and also allow you to add your own notes which are saved on the system, even after the book is “returned” to the library. Additionally, my public library also has down-loadable eAudiobooks through NetLibrary which play on a variety of media players like Windows Media Player or Winamp and which also check themselves back in after two weeks.

With the progressive loss of my functional vision, I’ve been forced to go looking for alternate text formats. In the last two years, Rehabilitation Services for the Blind have provided me with the equipment and software to make my own electronic texts efficiently and at need. I do this by using a high speed scanner and the educational software program Kurzweil 1000. With practice, I can now scan a two hundred fifty page book in about 45 minutes. Kurzweil has some additional features which make it an excellent tool for anyone who needs or wants to work in electronic format. It allows me to skim books, reading only the first sentences of paragraphs, take notes, and add hyperlinks between sections of a book, so I can jump to related sections. This feature is somewhat like writing “see page 67 for another example” in the margins of a print book.

Several organizations have been creating online e-texts for many years now. Project Gutenberg has been around for decades provide plain “vanilla” texts, that is, electronic versions of texts in plain text or ASCII 2 format that any computer can display in any word processing program, even low-tech programs like notepad or very old programs. They are also expanding their collections to offer audio version of texts in Mp3 format; some are electronic audio like the ones I can make at home with the program TextAloud Mp3 and my AT&T Natural Voices. You can try a demo of these voices at the following page: http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php which is part of their research section. The demo at the Natural Voices homepage is currently down.

I’ve gathered a number of other sources for electronic texts, which I’ll include in a list of links in the sidebar sometime in the next few days. I’ll mention two of the free ones here. First, the Free E-Text Center at the University of Virginia provides more than 2,100 books in MicrosoftReader format, Palm format, or HTML. Many include the illustrations from the older versions of books or from the original classics such as A Christmas Carrol by Charles Dickens or Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This was one of the first electronic libraries using ebook formats for the general public.

My other favorite source for electronic texts is the Online Books Page at the University of Pennsylvania. These books are all in HTML format, but convert easily to MicrosoftReader format with the free add-in. Aspects of this Library that I really enjoy are the “Celebration of Women Writers Project,” the “Banned Books Online” project, and their “Award Winners” project. They also have an extensive listing of free periodicals available on the web, many of which are strictly historical archives, like The Gentleman’s Magazine 1731 – 1907 or The Galaxy which was an entertainment magazine from the mid-19th century which was eventually absorbed by Atlantic Monthly. People looking for free books should check the Microsoft site from time to time; one year, Microsoft gave away two books per month as a way to promote the use of MicrosoftReader – it was a great way to collect some very interesting books!

One source to purchase ebooks that I have found very reliable and quite reasonable in price is Fictionwise.com. Fictionwise offers membership discounts, newsletters, rebates, and of course, free and continuing storage of your books, should your hard drive crash or your download disappear in any other type of traumatic event, such as an over-enthusiastic spasm of the delete key [grin]. Books from Fictionwise come in MicrosoftReader, Palm, and Acrobat formats. They also have “multi-format” books which any computer can access without proprietary software. The majority of books (including the large sci-fi and fantasy collection) are current titles. If you are considering the purchase of any book that might be in the public domain, check the free sites first. It will be cheap at Fictionwise, less than $10, but if you can download it for free for a little effort – it will be worth it!

Originally, I read my ebooks on my Jordana PDA, which allowed me to magnify the font to a comfortable level and which remains the most portable format I have for electronic books. Now that I’m working on a laptop, I use it for most purposes, including reading ebooks, since it allows me to access more formats from the single device and use the complete programs. The MicrosoftReader for the PDA will not accept the text-to-speech add-in, so I can’t have the PDA read aloud. This is very frustrating, and from time to time, I e-mail Mircosoft to hassle them about it, but so far, I haven’t gotten a response!

My personal collection of electronic texts is increasing rapidly with the use of the high speed scanner. For those concerned with copyright issues, I can give you a bit of information. Most of the free online libraries are working from versions of books which have aged into the public domain. The public library service through NetLibrary has current novels and non-fiction books as well as classics, but this is a service the library pays to access, and the authors are paid just as when the library obtains a paper copy or audio copy of a book to lend. Because I am copying library books for my personal use only and need to scan them into an alternate text to access them, my personal collection does not violate copyright law, so long as I don’t distribute the books to others.

Both Acrobat and Microsoft and other developers such as Franklin have been working on systems for allowing people to “loan” e-books to each other which would involve denying you access to the copy while someone else uses it, but none of the systems I’ve seen can be described as user-friendly. They are all clunky and often full of bugs by all reports, so I’ve not gotten into sharing my ebooks yet.

My house is still filled with actual paper books that I can lend out to others. While I’ve greatly reduced my purchase of paper books, it hasn’t been eliminated. Some books I want for their maps and other materials which do not appear in audio versions or which don’t show to advantage on the screen. Others are gifts or items I’ve acquired as part of my collection of older books. I particularly love to collect the “pocket books” which made up a significant part of my grandmother’s library and are still handy to carry about. The age of the book adds to my pleasure in reading, as do many of the illustrations, and they make it worth my while to hassle with a magnifier. I love the connection with my grandmother and the history involved in collecting old books, and I’ve never shaken my love of the dusty, dry smell that comes from the leaves and collects in the back sections of the nearby university library [smile].

My “inner librarian” died a quick death when I first discovered the wonders of taking notes in the margins of books in college. She wasn’t very reliable anyway, since most of my books from childhood include broken off corners, fudgesicle smears, and other indignities [grin].

As an educator myself, I encourage students to do “active reading” which involves a variety of ways of interacting with a text as you read, including note taking, highlighting, underlining, outlining on paper or in the margins, making use of paperclips, sticky notes or sticky flags, and, most especially, re-reading and THINKING about important passages whenever they are studying a text, rather than just reading for recreation. These activities appall many people raised in the strict traditions of not damaging books and not cracking the spines, but they can be a seriously important method of assisting readers in engaging with a text. Something seems to happen in the brain to help “set” the information, so it doesn’t just wash through like much of the reading we do for pleasure.

I still find the connections made as I imprint my presence on a book by writing in the margins personally satisfying in a mystical way. Something about the visceral input from feeling the pen connect with and even break some of the paper fibers as I write makes the experience far more real and vivid than typing notes into a computer. Yet, I also realize that electronic texts allow others to engage in these activities without involving themselves in the depredations of book-damaging. And the electronic texts also allow me to continue in my chosen profession teaching English literature and composition. They are a marvelous addition to our resources, yet still I hope they never completely take over publishing.

Update: After reading a number of other entries in this Booking Through Thursday series, I wanted to let people know an important aspect of reading on the screen -- small or large. My low vision specialist let me know about this when I went to him with massive headaches. Scrolling to read can give people motion sickness as well as eyestrain of various sorts. Use the next page or page down functions to help alleviate this, and work to figure out the font size and brightness levels that suit you best. Pick the lowest brightness level you find comfortable, and the largest font size you find comfortable to enable you to read for longer periods of time! Enjoy! .

Vamping and Revamping

With a title like this one, I hope the new layout and extra features live up to expectations!

Revamping
If you've been here before, you'll notice many changes in both the layout and the sidebar content. Spring is a good time for a new color scheme, and I've found that I really like the updated features Blogger is offering. [grin] I'll be labeling new posts, and adding accessibility features like "skip to main content" links and "skip to sidebar" links over the next few days.

The content is changing a bit, as I've expanded the sidebar content to include more of my interests. In addition to the "Poetry Mondays," I'll be taking part in "Booking Through Thursday" and other planned features as I come across them. I'll be doing a bit of writing about disability studies and activism, as well as increasing the "fiber content" by checking in on a more regular basis and by getting more pictures up!

Of the new features, I particularly like the ease with which I could copy feeds and html or active content from other sites from the old template into the new template modules if I chose. The plain "Add HTML" unit made some of this much easier than it might have been. I'm all for cut and splice when it comes to coding, even if I have to take off for it when grading papers! Adjusting some of the "wrapper" features and sizes within the template html code was also very straight forward. If you are willing to code by hand, you can still "tweak" many things quite easily this way.

The new "list" modules for regular lists and lists of links will undoubtedly prove very worthwhile in the long run -- UNLESS I decide to divide a list into two separate ones -- that would require deleting items from the original list, a task the module makes VERY easy, and then starting over and having to input each item one-by-one into a new list, no cross over or divide functions available. For the moment, though, some careful planning should keep this from being much of a problem.

Vamping
Here's where the "vamping" comes in. No, I'm not adding modern Gothic elements to the blog -- it wouldn't suit the earth-tones I've chosen for the color scheme [smile]. But I did spend much of the afternoon "revamping" the site, so now I'm just filling in with chatter where I'd love to be posting pictures of finished knitting projects! I coded for too long and lost the light I'd need for good pictures. Those will have to wait until tomorrow.

First on the list to discuss are the socks I made from the lilac Wildefoot yarn. This superwash merino is wonderfully soft, and I managed to get a full knee sock out of each skein -- a good deal for adult socks! While my next pair -- from some red Wildefoot -- will be shorter socks for summer, this lilac pair will serve for spring and fall, as well as winter. It's a nice heavy fingering weight, and just great for someone like me who likes worsted weight socks in the winter, and cushy socks overall. The Wildefoot makes a nice compromise for summer and compares very well with the Opal sock yarns.

In other news, I wish I was able to spin. [of course!] Each summer, as the husky and the shepherd start to shed, and I spend hour after hour with the undercoat rake, pacifying the pooches with Pounce chicken treats while I comb out all the fluff, I wonder about those who have spun dog fur into yarn. I wouldn't dream of making a garment of it -- what if it got wet? The risks of smelling like a half-drowned dog are just too much for me! [laughing] But their fur is so soft that I often wish I could do something else with the "product" of all these hours of dog grooming. And if you check out the pictures in the flicker badge, you'll see what lovely colors I would get! The husky, Kala, is a red and white husky, and her undercoat is a creamy white. The shepherd, Sally, has a jet black top coat, but the undercoat that she sheds is a soft faun color fading into a rich gold at times.

This, I think, is just one of the side effects of being a fiber addict. A person just naturally starts contemplating what type of fiber, project, and technique to try whenever confronted with material with a spinning potential. I will resist, however. I will resist. When I start to spin with a spindle, I want to pick something I might like to wear in some way!

Meet My Daemon

I think it was the music I couldn't resist. I've seen these entries on other blogs and been tickled with them.





Help Refine My Daemon!
Click on the link above to help me refine my daemon or take a test to find your own.

Update: It seems you cannot comment on my daemon; it had reached its final form from the get-go. I must have been very consistant or decisive in my answers -- that or the program was only set to allow so many daemons to morph! [grin]