The Somebody, Nobody, Anybody and Everybody Blog!

Friendship is a crucial element in protecting our mental health. Our friends can keep us grounded, help us get things in perspective, and help us manage life's problems. “The best thing my friends did for me was that they just accepted me as I was.” even after acquiring a disability!

Today I bring you the Ugly side of being blind. For no reason but to help you understand what happens to me in different situations of my daily life living with blindness.

This is going to be a really boring read; but I just had to document this so that my future self can look back on how I acquired a competency at work for Transition Management and thought about restructuring my career at the young age of 46!

I am a visually impaired person, simply put I am blind and cannot see. Thanks to the recent development of technology and the power of computers, I am able to use a computer and access information on the internet with help of an assistive technology called a screen reader

Facebook has helped me connect with so many old lost friends in the journey I call life. One of these lost friends was an old flame from college, then a looker and a drop dead gorgeous eye candy chick. Forgive me ladies, that's how we men think and talk about pretty looking women. This is the wrong blog to expect political correctness, get with the program and be a sport!

Every year, 15 October is celebrated as White Cane Safety Day. As ever I got caught up in so many things to do with work and training I did not find the time or the energy to write something about my trusted companion the white cane. I was introduced to this mobility aid in the year 2011. At first it made no sense using this aid as a mobility tool as it told me no directions or wasn't smart enough to guide or get me out of a pickle.

Do you read? I was asked. I said yes. But you are blind! came the spontaneous reply. Well you see that wasn't a total ignorant reply; because the persons idea of reading was with their eyes using printed material like books or paper. For a blind person reading is done using assistive technology; using text to speech tech. like screen readers on a digital medium like a computer or smart phone. I also surprise some by stating that I read novels and the newspaper. How? Well thanks to this technology we now have audio books that offer a variety of commercial books from renowned authors like Ken Follett and the newspaper comes to me via email; in digital print. So you "see" a blind person does read; and yes, we love reading!

This has been a really difficult question to answer after I lost my sight; being the kind of person who collected a lot from his experiences, not just memories. From the slam book in school to the first stuffed toy I owned; I kept everything that could be preserved.

My favorite frustration on the internet is getting struck out at the image captcha after filling out a tedious online registration form. Luckily some sense prevailed over and developers recognised that blind users are now able to access the internet using assistive technology called a screen reader, so they provide alternate ways to the captcha trap.

Yes, everyone has those days when you feel down and insignificant. How do you overcome this time? How do you deal with such a feeling and emotion? Some I know have taken up drinking as a solution, some drugs and some went to extremes and tried ending their life. I wouldn't judge their decision but to me, it's wrong a total NO, NO to indulge in anything toxic to bring you back to feeling good about things and ending your life, come on seriously get help!