Whimsical

A great word, whimsical.

• Currently listening to: Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue

Yeah, so I’m rather pooped, but these three things have i to mention.

I owe a fair amount of my blog-fodder to trams and tram rides, and most particularly, to those that ride the trams. Today, whilst on the tram, i saw a blind lady. With a laptop. Yup. No, no it wasn’t an ordinary lappy. It looked more like this:

 

Now, let me explain this illustration. Firstly, on each of the keys, those crappy dot things are braille. Makes sense, thats how the person reads, with braille, so yeah it would be helpful to have the keys printed with it so they knew what they were typing. But, how do they read this thing? It clearly doesn’t have a monitor, not that one would be any good. And, while speakers might have been an option, they weren’t included in this model, or at least she wasn’t using them. Nay, Lo and behold, she reads by moving her fingertips along that dotted bar down the bottom. (perhaps its badly drawn). As she types, these little white thingies poke themselves out of the holes and move across like scrolling text. When she stops typing, the characters stop too, and she can press a button at the end to make it scroll a line forwards or backwards. I’m sure there are other features too, but thats all i could work out on the tram ride home.

Second thing was something gross that happened to me today. I bought a packet of honey-soy redrock deli brand chips. Usually, i enjoy this brand, and this particular flavour is up there on my list. But holy moly! What the hell was in this pack? I got near the bottom, and as i looked in to forage for the remaining small parts of chips and crumbs, i saw something i’d missed. I pulled it out reluctantly. Resembling a chicken nugget, and around the same size, this disgusting thing – which did NOT belong in a chip packet- i decided eventually was a massive clump of flavouring and oil that had somehow stuck together and sort of … formed into how i found it. I’m still dry retching even now as i think about it. It was all crumby like it was made of wet sand, but it wasn’t damp, just oily yet dry. Weird! Maybe it was some form of chip-alien egg, or even a whole bunch of really small chip-alien eggs. Maybe i’ve just pissed off the queen! Anywho.

Final point (not that any of these have really been points, nor is this one). Piano. I’m in a beginner piano class at uni, which we had today. It’s a lot of fun. I really enjoy being able to be quite shit at something musical but not have to really worry. It’s so nice not to have to attain perfection on something everyday. Although, i am getting right into it and i am disappointed when i’m not the best or equal best in the class. Nah, it’s all good. Anyway, we were given double the amount of practice to do over the holidays, but really, we should have been given half. So i fronted up to class expecting to be killed, but actually all was well- no one else had practiced either. .Eh, really tired, kind of a small blog tonight, but thats ok. Quality, not quantity. I leave you with my impression of what i thought piano class would be today….

Told you i meant quality

XXX