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A little something to help you sleep?

5th January 2007 • Dave

Apart from staying up to listen to England getting a comprehensive thrashing by the Ausies on Test Match Special over the past few weeks. My usually unstable sleep patterns are now pretty settled. When I was working at home for 3 years my sleep was all over the place. So I think the regular hours are suiting me nicely.

Disturbed sleeping patterns affect a lot of blind people. There has been significant research conducted in that area. Doesn’t it have something to do with not getting enough daylight and unusually low levels of melatonin. Quite a few blind people I know take Melatonin supplements to help regulate their sleep patterns and the people who use Melatonin can’t rate it highly enough.

I have a history of dodgy sleep patterns, but if I can possibly help it I prefer not to take anything to help me sleep. In fact I have to be pretty ill before I will start hitting the medication. I have had a drop of winter flu, but I think I’m in the process of kicking that into touch. And all things considered I am in pretty rude health thank you for asking.

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Thinking inside the tech bubble

5th January 2007 • Dave

Someone recently said to me that they were making up a cassette of tracks to listen to while on the train. This made me feel all nostalgic as making compilation tapes is something many of us did twenty years ago. I had no idea that people were still out there using cassettes. I guess while many of us are immersed in our own particular technology bubble there’s a whole world out there getting on quite nicely without technology thank you very much.

I feel almost naked without at least a mobile phone. And I can’t remember the last time I went on the train without a laptop. A few albums, podcasts, email etc can quickly see off a two or three hour train journey for me. I can’t even remember when I last used a tape recorder. I’d feel really restricted now if I was stuck with a couple of C90s listening to the same songs in the same order and not being able to skip back and forward, and read the artist and title of every track. Many people now have large music collections stored on large hard drives so they can hear any track in a couple of seconds. I’d quite like to be able to get to that point with movies and TV series which I have on DVD, although that tmay take a bit longer to set up.

Anyway, if the tapes are meeting your mobile music requirements, take no notice of me. This is the bloke who has had more gadgets than hot dinners. But I wouldn’t go back, especially not to a time witout Internet access.

It is difficult to dispute the assertion that access to the internet is one of the most significant developments to empower people who are blind since Braille itself. Many of us love being able to shop and bank online and read news and sports results on the day it’s all published, and browse TV listings, and film reviews, and encyclopaedias, oh the list goes on. But to have a good slice of human knowledge and experience instantly available at one’s fingertips makes many of the connected blind feel all liberated and independent. Sure, there is a lot of pap online too. The trick is to become proficient at filtering out the dross and focus in on whatever it is you’re seeking.

Although, however clever we think we are, it is important to remind our selvs that technology and the skills to use it are only in the hands of a small minority. Hopefully that will not always be the case.

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What is up in 2007!

5th January 2007 • Dave

The Assistive Technology Industry Association annual conference is held in Florida a the end of January and I will hopefully see some of you there. I am going to see Kylie in concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena first on the 19th though.

The Monty Python musical is called Spamelot and it is currently playing the west end. With any luck I will catch it some time in February.

March is the California State University conference on disability and yours truly should be there for the first time this year.

April will mark one year working for Dolphin and living in Worcester and this will be a time to reflect.

May is the end of the English football season and with any luck Liverpool will win something!

June is always a busy time with lots of birthdays in my Calendar.

In July as well as being at more conferences including Sight Village in Birmingham in the UK. I will be featured on a Microsoft Calendar that month.

August is a strange time as it is the height of the UK media silly season.

Either in August or September I will take some holiday. Two Pints Roberts over at www.mproberts.co.uk and I are kicking around the idea of going on a distillery tour in Scotland.
October is when the European Blind Union will be holding their general assembly and I would like to be involved in some capacity. Watch this space.

By the time November gets here I’ll be 31!

And finally December brings us up to the top of the next year.

May your 2007 be heaven. Mine is shaping up to be a little belter!

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