So lately, my entire life has been about college. I mean, it has for the past 2 years anyway, but this semester I started officially taking courses that matter—instead of those crappy Gen Ed classes they require you to take (like underwater basket weaving) To get a little background, my major is called Visual Disabilities This means in about a year and a half, I get to go out and teach blind children how to live independently in a sight-dependent world. There are only about 3 other colleges in the USA that reach this as an undergraduate degree. No one really knows about this major, which makes it easier to find a job once I graduate. This year, the class is the biggest it's ever been. We have 30 first year students , which makes up about 10% of the entire Visual Disabilities Majors on the ENTIRE planet. Which means that I have a really amazing shot at making a huge impact on the blind community. I already have life goals to open up schools for the blind, writing textbooks, and possibly coordinating programs like the one I'm in at other colleges With the major being so small, it also means I get to go to conferences and meet all the people who actually WROTE my textbooks!! So awesome!! The courses I'm taking this semester are fun as hell already. One class is called the Independent Living Skills class. We basically learn how to do daily things with a blindfold on, so we get a feel for every day life of children who are blind. One of our tests is to go out to dinner and eat blindfolded. And we aren't allowed to eat finger foods I'd show you a picture of the ridiculous blindfold but I don't have one so instead here's a picture of my cat trying to hide from me. Other classes I'm taking include Human Exceptionality, Anatomy of the Eye (we get to dissect a cow eye!), an introductory course, and .... BRAILLE!!! One time I told someone what my major was, and she asked Oh, so you like, get to learn sign language? *facetrain* Aaannnnyyyywaaayyy. I got a Braille machine The official name of the Braille machine is called the Perkins Brailler, named after the guy who opened one of the first schools for the blind (Perkins Schoo Fo Da Blind) back in the olden times. This $900 Perkins Brailler (loaned to me for free (thanks sweet baby Jesus) is so ridiculously cool... It brings all the boys to the yard. Learning LE Braille Learning braille is white possibly the coolest thing ever. Each letter has their own sign, and each sign has its own word. And 2 signs, and sometimes even 3 signs put together make other words! Again, back in dem olden times, paper was expensive and the main thought process of dem smart Braille folks was to save as much space as possible. So a lot of Braille is really complicated in the whole "a lot of what's going to come up soon will not make sense to you" kinda way. Braille isn't some kind of "language form" based on logic. It's kinda like people were building a house, ran out of wood to build the rest of the house, and started cutting apart the already built part of the house and laying over that part as the new part. So a lot of the holes in your figurative house equals the amount of paper I waste because I almost always goof up (and that's a lot of paper) So the standard Braille format is 2 columns and 3 rows. For a certain amount and arrangement of dots, certain letters accompany it: And like I said, each letter—when standing alone—represent a word. For example, B is for but D is for do G is for go K is for knowledge Etc. Then it gets all weird and you see things like X is for it Z is for as You know, the process of building that messed up house begins. If you put letters together (I've only learned 22 so far), they create another word: BL = blind TM= tomorrow WD= would Etc. About the Brailler itself, the space bar is in the middle of the "keyboard" To the left of the space bar are three little keys: Starting with the key closest to the space bar, when you push it, it corresponds with the dot on the left side of the Braille column as the 1st one. Then the middle one represents the middle dot in the first column. And the last key is the bottom one of the left side column. The other side of they keyboard are 3 other keys: This side mirrors the other side so if you click the one closest to the space bar, it's the first one on the right hand column.. And so on. I started off learning Braille really slowly, but with practice, I'm a lot better than I was 3 weeks ago. Eventually you get it to look THIS good! Only not blurry or as sexy. I love my major! I hope you enjoyed. If you're a college student, what's your major? If you're still in high school/middle school/no school... What do you do (hobbies, extracurricular activities, smell feet)?
Converse is well popular here in the US still, one of my co-workers used to work for a manufacturing company in 2004? My wife and I bought shoes from him almost every two months. I love my hi tops,y wife loves the slip-ons lol