[nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?

Tue Mar 30 18:52:20 UTC 2010

Pushing yourself to succeed is never a bad thing. It is only a problem when 
you do it to excess.
Pushing others to excel is good to, so long as you do it in a constructive 
manner. Bad things happen when people don't realize this, and act like 
overgrown middle school bullies.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?

> Mark,
>
> I think you're absolutely right about the insecurity factor.  I really 
> hope
> I don't do that to others, but I do sort of get the motivations behind the
> judging.  Then there's going the other way and doing the same comparison 
> on
> yourself, which is more familiar ground to me.  Now that I'm a competent
> traveler, for instance, and don't have to put so much work and 
> concentration
> into the process, I suddenly suck in my own estimation because I don't 
> read
> braille...  Well that was true a couple of months ago, now I just don't 
> read
> braille fast enough, and also I'm not spending an hour a day using 
> computer
> braille on the refreshable display and programming things like the wind 
> and
> OMG! I don't know Nemeth!  I suck!
>
> Well, I usually catch myself before I get too emotionally involved in all 
> of
> that.  It's sort of how I've always been, and it is an integral part of my
> goal setting process and all that blather.  But with all the newness and
> weirdness of vision loss, I get more uptight or whatever than I'm used to
> being.  Then, of course, I can play the game on myself over not just being
> perfectly cool and calm and altogether while I'm losing my vision... 
> /lol/
>
> Right now, my big thing is the braille, because I really did just get to 
> the
> final hurdles and begun to cross them.  You know, achieving dot 
> recognition
> but still having to work out what each letter is...  Then recognizing a 
> word
> at a time and...  So on.  Now the building symbol recognition translates
> into my brain as thoughts and ideas, which is what I consider reading.  So
> now I'm all ticked off at myself for not reading enough or...  Yeah,
> whatever, Tami.  /grin/
>
> So I do want to thank all of you who have mentioned that you don't read
> braille perfectly at 9 zillion words a minute and have been doing that 
> since
> your first lesson.  /grin/
>
> Oh, and for the record, if someone else were to walk up to me and start
> going on about my inferiority on the braille subject or any other...  I
> *would* bite them.  Just so you all know.  /evil grin/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Mark J. Cadigan
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:28 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?
>
> Hay Julie, in that case, you are a chicken! LOL  I also find it difficult 
> to
>
> know if chicken is completely cooked. I have decent cooking skills, but by
> no miens am I an expert chef. But the fact that I am not a 5 star chef, 
> does
>
> not make me les capable than the next guy.
>
> I think the reason that this list focuses so much on mobility is it is a
> mobility oriented list. On other lists the deciding factor seems to be
> reading ability. In reality there is no good litmus test for competency in
> blind people. I can travel around for what I have to do, but I am not
> confident enough to go across the country on my own. Note I said 
> confident.
> If I had to, I could probably make it there in one piece.
>
> I am also a slow Braille reader. I would like to be faster, but for what I
> do, it is sufficient.
>
> In my decidedly uninformed opinion people declare other people as less
> capable, because they are insecure about there own abilities.
>
> Mark
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 4:27 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?
>
>
> Some of the recent discussion got me to thinking about how we, as blind
> people, perceive independence or who is more capable than who.   It seems
> that we always use travel to judge who has better skills than who.  I know
> we have discussed this before, but I still have no clue why we don't use
> Braille or cooking or something else to base our judgments on.  I'm guilty
> of it too.  I've caught myself thinking if not actually saying that so and
> so isn't as well adjusted as they could be because they are always needing
> help to get places.
>
> I happen to be a very good traveler with cane or dog.  But you know what?
> I read Braille at about 40 wpm.  By any measure that's slow, like
> incredibly, snails pace slow.  But no one has ever said to me, "You know,
> you should really attend a center where you could get better Braille 
> skills
> so you could be more independent."
>
> Then there is the kitchen...I really like to cook.  Generally I'm okay in
> the kitchen.  I cook most meals from scratch.  But, getting the meat,
> especially the chicken, thoroughly cooked is a constant stress for me. 
> I'm
> frequently freaked out about whether or not there is any pink in the meat.
> I know the skills.  I know how to check nonvisually, but I totally and
> completely lack chicken confidence.
>
> Am I crazy?  or don't you think that blind people always judge other blind
> people on the basis of travel skills and virtually nothing else?
>
> Thoughts?
> Julie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comcast
> .net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/kramc11%40gmail.com 