Hello. I'm back again. Things have just got a lot more interesting lately.

First, the exciting news is I have been offered that job in Florida I'd applied for a while ago. I just got the call this morning. I'm almost certain I'll be taking the job. The pay isn't bad vs the cost of living, and the job itself will be really fun. I think I described it a little in an earlier entry, but here's a little more info. I'll be working as an assistive technology teacher, doing one-on-one trainings, presentations and workshops, evaluating new technology, and helping in a new computer lab. Sounds good to me... Another cool thing is I should be able to get an apartment right on the bus line, and maybe even within walking distance to work. The city is also excellent for public transportation and for just being visually impaired I guess. It should be an interesting experience. I only wish I knew someone down there.

As for my current job at CTEP, things are also going well. I'ts been a little slower toward the beginning of the week ,but I've been helping out more in the homework center and helping people learn to use the computer. Riley and I did a intro computer class this morning. Sadly not many people showed, but it still went really well. I helped someone create a resume for an interview he had today, and we both helped another guy get an E-mail address and learn more about the Internet.

the interesting part is going to be to see just how many hours I have left to complete my 1700 hours of service, especially since the job starts on the 21st of August, earlier if possible. And I'll need to get down there a few days early to figure out where things are and get the very basics situated. I hope I've caught up the last few weeks on hours because I'd hate to find out that I needed to work 60+ hours a week to finish in time. I really want to finish my projects, and especially get my education reward. That would really really really help out a lot. I could probably have my student loans completely paid off over the next year, year and a half total with this new job. Yeah! Stupid debt...

I'm also busy with my Masters class. I really need to start working on my paper, and finding sources for APA format because I haven't a clue how that stuff works. I can easily write 5 pages worth, but sourcing will be the pain. Hopefully I'll get something accomplished with that this weekend, along with more work on the toolkit.

Last weekend was pretty fun too. Friends from Crookston came down, and we hung out some. We didn't do as much as I thought we would, but it was still fun, and a nice break. Even better, I made it to the Dell store, and even better still, my monitor I wanted went back on sale. So I finally bought it and had it delivered Tuesday. It's sweet... 20.1 inch widescreen ultrasharp with hight, tilt, and other controls. Best of all I can finally use my DVI output on my video card, and wow does FEAR and Oblivion look awesome now. I'm still hooked on Oblivion, but hardly have time to play lately. Hopefully I'll get a little time this weekend after I get some work done. I've also started playing FEAR multiplayer with a friend of mine, and it's been a lot of fun.

That's about all this time. Tons of stuff is going on, and the next couple of months will probably be just chaos, but great. I'm SOOOOO glad I will have a job, not have to not work for a period of time, and I don't have to keep up this crazy job hunt going. Yes!

Hello again. this week has been pretty interesting. I've started working at Dayton's bluff Library now full time for CTEP, and things are going pretty well. I've had a couple of meetings with staff on the assistive technology, and I'll be starting to do some presentations to library and university staff soon. A lot of people seem pretty interested in these trainings/presentations, so that's pretty cool. I only wish I could demo Dragon, but we don't have that on the computer yet. I'll probably be demoing much of the technology with my laptop, at least in the beginning.

We're also working on updating the computer with new versions of the software they already have, as well as getting a couple other pieces of assistive tech. I'm really not sure how this is going yet, but hopefully something will happen with it soon. right now, I'm planning the presentations for the staff, which will be a little different since I'll be using my laptop, and some of the technology won't be demoed. People have expressed interest in learning specific things already about different programs, so I'll be able to demonstrate that. I'll also be able to show off Web Adapt, since I can probably put that on this library's computer, since it's through the university, and not the city. There's been some interest in the Bookport too, so I might put that in the demo. I think it's a good idea especially since it's a college setting. It's nice to be able to bring books with you.

A couple of us are also going to a demonstration of the Freedom box at MCIL this afternoon. I'm not sure who will all make it, but it will be interesting. I'm curious to see what other library staff think of the software. I think it might work pretty well in a library or university setting.

I've also been working on my Masters stuff again. I got my presentation done. It probably could be better, but it should work, especially for the time I had. Now I just have to keep up with the online discussions and write my other paper. Writing the paper is fine, but we have to use APA format, which is actually quite annoying. Personally, I hate reading sourced text because all the long sourcing breaks up the information, and it doesn't read well. A bibliography page is fine, but I hate putting stuff right in the text. Plus I know nothing about APA right now, so this will be fun...

I also have my Skype video interview for the Florida job tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. I really have to nail this interview because I really want this job. It sounds like a sweet job, and then I wouldn't have to keep looking. I'm getting sick of job hunting. I just want to work.

Haven't been doing much for fun lately either. I haven't had time. I play a little DS from time to time, and I'm still loving my DS Lite. It's so much better. I also play a little Oblivion off and on, and the game is just getting more amazing and fun. I think it will take me at least a year of off and on playing to finish this one, and I still probably won't see everything. this game's huge!

I'm pretty excited though because friends from Crookston are coming down later today for the weekend, and so we'll have lots of fun. Who knows what we'll do, but it will be a nice break.

Well that's about it again for this week.

Hello, I'm back again for another extra update. I've been doing a little more reading for the CTEP book club, and will talk a bit about the book. This month I've read Adaptive Technology for the Internet: Making electronic Resources Accessible to All by Barbara T. Mates.

The first thing I'll mention is that some of the information in this eddition is rather outdated because the book was published in 2000. I was still interested in reading the book because I thought it might have a good general overview of accessibility and assistive technology.

The book started out talking about public computer and Internet access for people with disabilities. It also addressed some common mis-conceptions people had about the disabled using computers and the Internet. The main one is that people with disabilities mostly don't use technology, and the ones that do are such a small group it doesn't pay to invest in so much technology. This isn't true at all. In fact public technology centers are great places for people to go to use the computer and Internet, especially if they can't afford a computer, let alone all the assistive technology they need to use said computer. It's also important to have resources available for introductory training, or at least enough to get people started. Computers in general and assistive technology can be a bit intimidating for some users, so it's helpeful to have someone available that can help get them started. Having thousands of dollars worth of technology is useless if no one uses or is able to use it.

the book then went on to talk about website accessibility, as well as various types of assistive technology people use. The content was pretty well done, and I liked how the information was divided into each disability type, and then by type of assistive technology, like screen magnifiers and then screen readers.

The only real problem I had with the book is some of the information was pretty outdated. Even for being published in 2000, the book often referred to Windows 95 and technology around that time. Many of the hardware and software mentioned is still available in newer versions. Some of the limitations of the technology are a bit outdated though, like how screen readers aren't able to read tables very well. This has gotten a lot better.

There is still some good information in here for someone new to assistive/adaptive technology though, and some of the accessibility tips and principles still apply. Maybe there's a newer edition of the book by now too.

Well, it's my last week here at Lexington Library. In a couple of weeks, the library will be closing for the move. Starting next week I'll be working at Dayton's Bluff/Metro State to help upgrade their assistive technology, and then do a lot of what I've been doing here, outreach and training. I'll also be helping with other computer trainings and projects over the summer. It should be pretty fun. I got started there yesterday for a quick orientation and planning for my first few days. I then helped out in the homework center. It was their last day of normal hours, so they had a little party. It started out pretty slow, and we didn't know if anyone would come, but it was soon packed. We watched movies, played games, and hung out.

I've also been working on my grad school stuff again. Summer classes have started, so I'm working on the few projects we have to do for the class. I'm almost done with my online presentation. There's just a few more things I'd like to add and put together. Then it's just completing a few discussion questions for the readings which I finally got done last night. So far the class is interesting, and thankfully a lot less work than the previous two. There's still stuff to do, but not an epic project like last semester.

I haven't really had much time for anything fun. I did however trade in my Nintendo DS for the newer DS Lite model that came out last Sunday. It's really nice and I'm glad I did. The screens are so much brighter and clearer. It really is like going from the original GBA to the SP. The buttons are a little better too, although the face buttons seem a little too close together sometimes. The stylist is also much better, bigger and more comfortable. If you don't have a DS yet, go get a DS Lite. They're great! If you do own the original model, it's still worth looking into an upgrade.

After a long break, I've started over and gotten back into Oblivion. This game is just so awesome and deep. You can do whatever you want, play however you want, and create your character so it's completely different each time. I created a new orc character similar to my first one, but I did things a little differently based on how I want to play. So far things are going well. If you have a PC that will run it, this is really the only game you'll need for a long time. I can't recommend it enough.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. I have a job interview, and then my friends from Crookston will be down here for the weekend. I'm sure we'll head out for a few drinks, maybe play some cards, and who knows what else.

Well, that's about all for this week. I just can't believe how fast the year is going by and that I'm pretty much done working at Lexington already.

Hello again. I'm back for another weekly update, and wow are things getting crazy, and by crazy I mean insanely busy.

I'm wrapping up my work here at the Lexington Library. It's hard to believe it's well into June already, that I've been working here for over 6 months now, and that the year will be over before I know it. Still, things are going well. There's still some interest in the assistive tech computer. I've been shoing it to other customers as well as other organizations and libraries who are interested in what we have. Next Monday I'll be meeting with a few people from a newly formed MELSA library assistive technology interest group. They are really interested to see what we have, and may try to start something like this in their libraries.

I'm also continuing my prep work for Dayton's Bluff library. I've been contacting other colleges and universities to see what they have for AT and what's been working the best for them. I may also set up an upcoming presentation for the Freedom Box over the next month. I did find out that they do now have a special public account organizations can buy that addresses some of my concerns in our last meeting. Chat and e-mail features are disabled for these accounts, but the users would still have access to all the other links and resources on the network, as well as System Access Functionality.

The AU committee is still working on the video and toolkit projects. Laureee is working more on the video and I'm devoting more time to the toolkit right now. I do wish our committee hadn't lost half its members, but what can you do... I really just need to take a day to work on nothing but the toolkit, and I think we'd be well on our way to getting it done, but I haven't had much time with everything else going on lately. It's wierd because other committees are starting to really wind down, and we're working like mad. Still, I think and hope our final projects will be useful to current and upcoming CTEP members.

I have also just started a summer class for my Masters program this week that goes until the middle of July. I wanted to take the summer off, but the class is only offered during the summer, so I decided it would be a good idea to take it. It's the intro class to the degree, and shouldn't be too bad. It's mainly just a lot of reading, discussion posting, and a couple projects. My first one is due around the 20th. We have to research someone in the Instructional Design field, and do a PowerPoint Presentation with another audio plugin that describes a bit about them, their past and present contributions to the field, and any publications they've written. I chose to be one of the first to get mine done since I thought things would only be crazier later on in the semester. The other project is to do a paper on something in the field, but I'm not sure because I haven't looked at that assignment yet...

Finally I've been doing a lot of job hunting lately, and finding lots of potential jobs. The good news is a couple have called me back. I'm currently in the process of trying to get a job in Florida and California at the moment. The one in Florida sounds really really sweet. Not only is it pretty much what I'm doing here at the library, teaching people computers and assistive technology, but it's in a campus style area with tons of other organizations and resources for the blind and visually impaired right there, including the worlds biggest collection of braille and audio books. I really want this job! I had a phone interview earlier this week, and they just called me again this morning. They would like to do a Internet video interview using Skype. Skype and a headset I have, a webcam I do not... So that's also on my immediate to do list. I need to find a webcam and get it working quick so I can let them know I'm ready to schedule my next interview. Anyone have a webcam I could borrow for a couple days?

The other job is also quite interesting. It's in California and also deals with assistive technology. Basically I'd be helping people who are trying to find jobs, learn technology, and make their job site accessible. I'd perform technology evaluations to see what they'd need and what might work best for them in their situation, do on-site evaluations, and lots of other stuff. I'm also hoping for this one. I had a phone interview for this one on Monday, and they should be getting back to me any time now about a possible second interview.

On top of all that, I managed to catch another virus of some kind this weekend, which is odd because I rarely get sick. It's been really quite annoying actually, and on Tuesday I stayed home because of it. I got some work done, but not as much as I'd have liked. I've pretty much gotten rid of it now, except for the occasional coughing. Now I just have to make up for a few lost hours on Tuesday, but with the amount of stuff I have to do this weekend, that won't be a problem.

That's about all for this week.

Update: Sorry for the duplicate posts. My Internet connection was being extremely slow and seemd to refuse to actual post this entry. Turns out it eventually did, 3 times... It's fixed now though.

Back again for another week, and it's been a really busy one. This week has been the busiest in a while. I didn't get too much done this weekend. Instead I caught up on some movies and stayed in my nice air conditioned apartment a lot of the time on Saturday and Sunday.

The AU committee is still working on the video and toolkit. We met last Friday to work more on both. We have a few ideas for background music for the video, as well as a possible method for closed captioning it. We're talking about accessibility after all, so we definitely want to make the video itself accessible. I also came up with a rough template for the toolkit. We talked about a couple minor layout changes and ideas, so now it's really just organizing all of our past presentations, blog entries, and resources we've collected over the year and catigorize them. I don't want to do too much with the actual HTML piece until we figure out the actual catigories so I can make the proper navigation links. I'm really hoping to get a lot of this done this weekend.

After the nice, long, 3 day weekend the week got really busy. ON Tuesday I met with a couple library customers. One didn't need to use the assistive technology, but just needed help finding something out on the Internet. The other customer was a regular that is learning to use screen magnification software. Both went really well.

Then Wednesday I met with a new customer who was interested in Magic, to enlarge things on screen so she could surf the Internet, check E-mail, and write in MS Word. This went very well, and she'll be coming in more often to practice using the software, and maybe even learn about a couple of other programs we have available.

I also showed the assistive technology to library staff from 2 other branches who are getting some AT for their branches later this summer. It's really cool to see how use of this equipment is taking off, and even expanding to more library branches.

Finally on Wednesday, I met with a few people at Dayton's Bluff/Metro State Library to start coming up with some ideas for my work there during this summer. It sounds like we'll be updating the software that's already there, and getting some additional software to serve more people. We also talked about ideas for projects for the summer like outreach and training.

One interesting thing that came from this meeting was a possible future job prospect. The idea came up that it would be great to offer some training via a class or independent study where students could actually get credit to learn about the technology. This would be useful to students who are getting a degree related to disability and social services. It also might help people just be more interested in learning about the technology. People often come for mainly night classes and don't want to stay around the university for the rest of the time, so this might be another possibility to get people interested. I then could maybe help with the disability services office too. I'd love to see something happen with this because I really like the college and university setting, and I have lots of experience doing all of this stuff. It would just be cool to say I was a professor, even if it's at an adjunct level.

We're also getting more interest in the assistive tech computer. A few more people are calling and stopping by, and some regulars are coming back again too. I should have a couple appointments next week already.

I also finished my AT basics binder and started showing it to people. It seems to be really well received, and people at every other branch with AT wants a copy. I think it will work very well as an intro piece for the next CTEP member working here. They might not have much, if any, experience with assistive technology, so this should help get them started.

That's about all for this week. I'll hopefully get a bit more done with the toolkit this weekend. And we're having our Corps day at the capital tomorrow, so that should be interesting. I'm just hoping the next couple weeks will be as exciting as this week. I'm also looking forward to starting work at Daytons Bluff in a couple of weeks.