Mariah

I've been thinking about something as of late while my living situation shifts around. As a community, and I'm talking the blind community specifically, we tend to get weird when it comes to living situations. What do I mean? I'll explain. There's this line that's walked in the community. If you're not living on your own with no help you're second place. If you don't have the perfect housing situation you're second-class in the pecking order within the blindness community. That is absolute trash. Why does this idea exist. I know people who are happy living with their families and they do the things they're able and the family is fine with it. These days, I'm all for existence in a space that's comforting for you, who fucking cares what that looks like. I'm not the one living your life, I won't judge. If you're not happy with your living situation on the other hand and you actively complain about it and then expect me to fix it? Then I judge a little, I won't lie, but really, it's nobody's place if you're happy with the place you're at, or the place you'll be in, it's nobody's right to tell you that you're any less than anyone else or to question your choices. When I first said something to people about the fact I was going to be living close to my folks but not with them, in a town that's literally the pure deffinition of southern small town everybody knows everybody, I got questions and I know they were curious ones but every time I got asked, "Are you sure you'll be okay without access to transportation?" or "Are you okay with having to depend on your parents for things like grocery shopping?" I felt so fucking judged and it made me shut down and not want to talk about how excited I was about this new place. I grew up in southern small towns. I've lived in big cities in my 20's like Denver, Sacramento and Tallahassee, and while yes, having access to transportation was a need that was met, and being able to order food when I wanted was nice, city life got old. The hustle and bustle of city life doesn't drive me so much now. Honestly? I want the quiet. I look forward to mornings when I can walk out my back door and have coffee on my porch and just listen to the world shift and go by. I'll appreciate those trips to town when I take them and I'll work out the rest as I go. There are things I don't like about this, sure, but it's not enough for me to worry on now. I hope that whatever living situation you're in, disabled or not that you're happy and finding peace when you can get it.

I debated with myself to even post this, just because I know that its easy especially these days for words to be twisted to fit other people's agendas, no matter how much prefacing you do in an effort to explain yourself. I'm fully aware that some folk might come at me and I'm prepared to defend my stance even though I shouldn't have to, but I've got a lot on my mind so let's go. This came about because of the new Harry Potter HBO Series. here we go with my prefacing. I'm part of the LGBTQIA community. I'm an ally to trans folks. I have trans friends. I don't agree with JKR and her opinions, just like I don't agree with most of the crap happening in the world around me. Here's where people might come at me. I'm going to watch HP when it comes out. I've been reading the audible full cast versions, too. If someone thinks I'm horrible then that's not my problem. Yall,. There is a lot of actual bullshit going on in the world right now. If watching a series you grew up with is what brings you joy? Who the hell are we to say anything about that. If you tell me, Mariah you're supporting the agenda if you give money, in the case of audible or watch, in the case of HBO Max, that's your stance and I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm going to get my joy in any way I can find it, and really you should to, friends and if watching or reading Harry potter again is what you want to do? Go for it. Look, I eat the shit out of Chick-fil-a and I'm aware of the horrible shit they support, but once the money leaves my hands, it's not my money anymore. I just want my damn chicken. Maybe that's not the best way of looking at it, but that's always how I've seen things. I'm only one person. If I decide not to watch Harry Potter or eat my chicken, someone else is ready to fill in the gap. If you feel you have to not watch potter for your own sanity, I support that, too, just please. Please don't make someone feel bad if they decide to. There's enough shit going on right now without more shade being thrown.

RE: @anon_opin@mastodon.social

This take is actually bullshit. Audiobooks are reading I don't give a damn who says otherwise. I will die on this hill and I'm okay with that.

Today in things I didn't know that are actually useful: I think I saw this tip in another post somewhere but have it again. If you put an apple watch charger on the back of an AirPods case, the AirPods will charge that way. You're welcome. Edited to add: The apple watch charging tip assumes you don't have anything covering the back of your AirPods case and have AirPods that support wireless charging.

Let's talk Be My Eyes for a bit because there are two big things that have been all over my various social media spaces concerning the company. Thing 1: There was a guy who supposedly ran a marathon with BME volunteers connected via Meta glasses. I saw someone on my facebook feed post about this and while the press could have sensationalized the story and there could have been other factors at play, why is this even allowed? I know I might not have all the facts, but I'm Pretty sure BME has it in the terms of service that getting navigational help is a no no, especially considering the volunteers are just regular folk who don't know how to assist with that sort of thing. I think I read that the volunteers in this case were just being cheerleaders for the guy running but still, the fact this was even published makes me question a lot. This reminds me of that incident a few months back where someone said they used Be My Eyes to help them get to their mailbox without their cane. I'm sorry but that's careless and that person is lucky they didn't get hurt. Why publish a feel good story that could potentially cause problems and make people think that trying to navigate with a service that's volunteer-based is okay. If it's a feel-good story, stop it... and speaking of feel-good stories... Thing 2: Why do volunteers think it's okay to record their calls and post them to their social media? Where is the privacy? It's common sense not to use Be My Eyes for sensitive things; you wouldn't catch me using it to help me with reading my mail, but now with this new info coming out I feel like there's a lot more pressure on the users of the service itself. I myself feel like I would have to stage a call even more than I already do because now there's the potential for me to be recorded without my permission and be used as someone's inspiration porn on their TikTok or Instagram which means I'd really have to be careful about what the camera sees and hope there wasn't anything that might have even a small chance of giving something away. Even thinking about the idea of having to really stage a call like that makes my head hurt. I have never had an issue with written posts that describe the experience of helping someone. Change the names or don't mention names at all and just tell a story if you want, I'm fine with that, but the idea that I could be recorded because I asked to have a label on a can read or something equally simple and then have that posted because someone is looking for views? No. Stop it. I am not your inspiration porn. Also, there are videos that are circulating that show this actual thing happening, and to those people who don't think that that's enough evidence, I ask you, what more do you need? I'm not sure what can be done to prevent this or discourage it but something should be. This isn't a great look and it makes me a little more hesitant to use Be My Eyes in the future. Edited to add: I just got asked how I felt about someone talking about their experience with volunteering and helping someone in a video after the fact. I'm 100 percent fine with that. I get it, writing isn't everyone's thing, so if you want to make a video saying "hey, so I did this thing today" I'm all for it. What I'm not okay with is posting the actual call to your TikTok or whatever platform you use because you want views. Take that somewhere else.

Good afternoon from Colorado. The drive was mostly uneventful accept for something huge. I took a shot in the dark and reached out to Peter V. Brett himself through TikTok and just said thank you for an amazing series. Yall. not only did he answer back, I'm able to ask him questions!!! I already have and he's given me some closure about the ending of this wonderful series. I'm freaking the hell out right now. So that happened. Currently in the first of two hotels, relaxing a little before I see the friends who were so gracious to me throughout a time where I needed people most.

In case you don't want to listen to the entire recording I just posted to see what happens when I don't keep my mouth shut, I pulled the exact moment I got what I wanted. Lesson learned. lol.

Good morning, friends. I promised stories, so here's one. Strap in, this is long, thank god for my character limit. First of all, I want to say that Saturday was a whole experience. I haven't traveled with a big group of blind folks in a really long time, and blind folks who knew what they were doing, at that. There is a distinction for my non blind kind that follow me. Trust me. There are also things that are part of an experience that the average able-bodied person doesn't understand, even my mother was confused. There was planning; a lot of it, trying to figure out midway points for everyone in the group to meet so that bank accounts weren't crying because uber isn't cheap, then the usual timing things: What time do you want to meet. Then there was another layer. Service dogs. In our group there were two cane users and two dog users, both of them big dogs, one shepherd and one collie, and one of the dog users had her bird in his bird backpack along for the day which was awesome. I had my electronics bag as well. Yall there was a lot going on but the organized chaos was glorious! Anyway for the story. One of our friends left for work so there was only one dog user at the time of this story. The plan was to go to another friend's place for tater tot casserole and flan. The three of us, plus our feathered friend walked out of my friend's apartment to meet the Lyft. The moment we did, the dreaded words were spoken. "no dog." I had a little of the Colorado green stuff, I was not letting a denial ruin my day. I placed myself in the car, half in, half out. I wasn't putting my service dog-using friend in harm's way, but I also wasn't going to let there be a denial. Not today. Not when lunch had been so perfect. My other friend and I started in, "it's the law, you can't deny her." you know, the usual thing. I'm used to doing this, I had a dog myself at one time. Admittedly I was a bit more direct than usual, but I wasn't going to have this, not when the day had been so amazing already. The woman let slip that she didn't speak English and I thanked the powers upstairs for my rusty but useful high school spanish. My friend with the dog had her camera out and was filming and I told the driver so. With that, the situation changed. This woman took her IPhone out and loaded the translate app. Just like that, she was able to communicate. She told us the didn't have a problem with dogs, but she didn't realize that lyft would make her take "real." dogs, whatever that meant, and that she didn't want the dog in her car. I told her again, thank you translate, that it was the law, the dog was well-groomed, and that she would be on the floor the whole time. She understood and finally, after maybe 15 minutes let us in and we were off for our food which was fantastic, by the way. I'm so amazed at the power of tech these days. This situation could have ended very very badly. I honestly was nervous that she would drive with me half in the car like I was, I've heard the stories, but that went better than I hoped. Man technology even with all the bullshit is so cool.

Have some survival and x1's revenge. Seemed like the fun thing to do. You'd think in all my years of gaming, audio or mainstream it doesn't matter, that I'd learn to keep my mouth shut because sometimes the game hears you and will oblige in mean mean ways. There's a very good example of "be careful what you wish for" that happens here and it's hilarious. I tried not to do my usual commentary oplaystyle but the game had other plans. Listen on headphones and if you prefer safe commentary just skip over this one. I did try! https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xjgt0gx353a04vqqputiu/super-liam-survival-and-x1-s-revenge-04-06-26.mp3?rlkey=9t41g98hb9gm071ekjpzgtjhb&dl=1 #audio

I'll try not to spoil anything too much for those who aren't as obsessed with this series as I am and probably three people will care, but I need to take a second and complain about one particular character. Leesha Paper irritates me so. much! I know, her backstory is supposed to make me feel sympathy but I have none. Yes, her mother Elona is a whole level of awful to her daughter, (that's a separate post), but Leesha, despite what Peter V. Brett does to make her seem better than her mother is objectively worse. I know I'm supposed to feel sorry for her after events that take place in the Warded Man and the rest of the series as well, and I did... until I saw her character develop as everything progresses. Her holier than thou attitude bothers me, and the way she goes about things to get what she wants isn't noble no matter what anyone says. She's not even a good mother. I'm sorry, but sheltering a child so much that they put themselves in danger that you should have warned them about? Idiotic and she could have done better. There's something she goes through in the spinnoff that I hoped would knock her down a few pegs and it does... for approximately 2.5 seconds and then she's right back to being that irritating holier than thou I'm noble and better than anyone else woman that I can't stand. If she were to get killed off in the final book that's coming out I would do a happy dance. I don't think that's going to be the case but I can dream.

RE: @mhoye@cosocial.ca

The devil also cheats in that song, too. A fiddle contest with Johnny which he doesn't win but he still uses a band of demons while Johnny plays solo.

I got asked to share these as I found them on my feed so have some more music lessons that aren't dirty... or are they. Your inner 12-year-old can be free during this lesson. Tonight it's double tongueing. You're welcome.

My impatient ass just opened audible. 8 hours and some change now. 8 hours!

Took off work an hour earlier than usual to get in some necessary reading. The Demon King comes out in... less than a month and I'm not even finished with The Dessert Spear. I still have the main Demon Cycle series including novellas to get through. I've been so wrapped up in work and trip plans I've not done my reading. That ends today. I need to make sure I'm refreshed on my Demon Cycle lore and every little thing about the universe before this final book in the Nightfall saga. Even with reading the graphic audio adaptations I'm wayyyyy behind. Time to crack open a beer and sink into the series I love so much. I've earned it.

RE: @guilevi@dragonscave.space

This is disturbingly accurate.

it's so immature but I love it. also oh my god it's so midi I can't stand it and yet it's in my playlist. How's your whole... family? https://open.spotify.com/track/1sODKwgnoFoLOFjL9DkEO8?si=9339ab89359b48d3

Good morning, lovelies. This time tomorrow I'll be on the road to Colorado. I'm excited and nervous and so many other things, but it's going to be worth it, I hope. I finished The Demon King. I'll need to reread it, but I've done one full pass and wow. Just. Wow. Today is packing for the trip day, but after coffee and a few hours to wake up, of course.

I'm going to need to reread this book again but holy fuck you guys. what a ride. I'm a bit sad to see this end but my heart wasn't shattered like I feared it would be. I'm going to hit my pillows in an hour or two and sleep like the dead. Tomorrow I'm packing for the Colorado trip, but tonight? a good sleep and a lot of info to turn over. What a day.

To my favorite author of all time: Thank you for not breaking my heart. seriously. Thank you.

I'm glad for the break I'm taking from reading to get myself back in order. I wasn't expecting to get thrown in the deep end of a wave pool with nothing to hold onto. god damn what a ride and I'm only about halfway through.

This book is going to give me a fucking heart attack.

No spoilers, but jesus Peter v. Brett has never done what he's doing now. Used to be there was a chapter or two to orient... There was maybe a paragraph or two per first two chapters to get situated and recap. There's so much new info it's almost overwhelming. Challenge accepted, sir.

your preorder is now available. mine! If anyone needs me today... don't. it's coffee and book devouring time.

ugh why did I do this to myself. impatient for this book rar