2014-12-11 00:54:43 (edited by defender 2014-12-11 00:56:02)

O no not all stereotypes at all, I said lots, what I mean by that is, more than people want to think and accept.


And what I mean by truth isn't the clouded truth of the stereotype it's self, what I mean is the cold hard facts that can be found in more stereotypes than people would like to think, and the cold hard fact is that in most 3rd world, yes, I don't much like the term either because it' creates a gulf and doesn't recognize our own problems while at the same time elevating our society, but it's a useful way to not go on for a paragraph or more being politically correct, but that in most third world countries, yes, disability is viewed as a curse to keep away from people, and that, what we would consider a difficult but workable disability to overcome here, may be grounds for getting rid of that baby, something that is practiced in many places.


That doesn't mean that communities are not able to rise up and help that child and parents or gardians to overcome any obsticles and when I hear of such things it's very inspiring, nor am I trying to suggest that it is impossible for a person to overcome cultural bias and raise the baby anyway with as much love and support as any other, nor even that it's impossible for that child to not be overly sheltered and unable to function indipendently as an adult later on in that child's life do to cultural and religious beliefs, but I am fine with saying that it's unlikely.


And it's not at all as if we don't have these stigmas here too, but I would say that the majority of the people around you aren't averse to your very existance here, either, allowing you to find people that can accept you mor easily.


I find that this carries over in a few different ways with people from other countries that migrate to places such as America, the UK, and Canada as well as others...



Sometimes, the stigma remains deeply rooted, and those people will avoid you, fear you, even hate you for managing to even function, though that is not very common thankfully.
Other times it manifests as constant worry, selfish fear for your safety with out consideration of you as a person, panic, stress, resentment at being placed in a situation with you, violent defense of you, fear of having to deal with you, so to speak, because of the fact that they feel obligated to do so, and they don't really care about how you feel at all.
Other times, very pleasantly in fact, you will get very understanding people, who even charish you for getting this far, want to know you, learn more about you, admire you and take strength from you, think about how you differ from people in their own country in how independant you are, and sometimes it stops there, but other times they actually crack that shell of admiration and get to know you as a person, as well, without the disability attached.



I'm not saying this doesn't happen with people in my country too, I'm just saying that it's more likely that the stigma will be negative, yet while also fully realizing, which I do, that not all countries have the same views as others, and I'm sorry if I gave that impression of trying to lump everyone in together under one banner.


These are just observations I have made personally, stories related from my blind father who is fully East Indian and was born in Canada, then moved to America and is now back in Canada, multicultural blind friends, people on forums including this one... etc.

2014-12-11 01:19:06

Well Defender, from the research I've done and the people I've spoken to, I would suggest your statements of "most" and "many" be changed to "some" and "a few"

I would also suggest not confusing governmental legislation with over all cultural attitude, especially sinse the legislation frequently fails at preventing negative treatment of disabled people even in countries like Britain, much less the over all pervasive attitude of pretending that you don't exist. I have already noted the rather unfortunate fact that anti discrimination frequently have the opposite effect to their intention (something which I believe also happens in the Us), it's also notable that in the Uk, though a person may be prossicuted directly for a racist or sexist motivated attack, the same is not true of disability, ie, if someone beat up someone else because they were dark skinned, female, chinese etc it would be treated as more serious than a standard aggravated assault, not the same if the victim was disabled.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-12-11 03:17:18 (edited by defender 2014-12-11 03:18:42)

Hm, odd about that legislation, but yeah you may be right.  You know my dad has pointed out that things have been changing since he was young, but still not as fast as they should be he thinks, and I do notice more of the third type of response I listed lately, but there's still a great deal of the second, almost none of the first in my life though, which I am thankful for.


I wasn't specifically talking government, mostly religion and culture fueled by shared religion, because government is a hole other ballpark, still it does really add to it, just maybe not in the same way.


I'm also not trying to say we don't suck with disability, just that we try more not to suck with disability than allot of countries, and that it isn't as much a direct part of our culture, possibly do to all the conflicting but not actively warring religions aposed to just 1 or 2, that determine everything?  When I say our I mean mostly Canada, but here you get more of response number 2 than in America it seems.
In America, you often get the neutral acceptance, which is ignoring it most of the time, and dealing with it as and when it comes up, which is nice, but not always...


I've read some of your posts that talk about the overall British outlook on disability, but it's really hard to explain that in a way that someone can understand without going there, though you do pretty well at it.  Never the less I'm still kind of curious...

2014-12-18 23:11:00

Just thought I'd share a little in this topic as well.
My year has been decent, it is the first year of my son's life where he has been cancer free and that has been such a huge weight lifted off of the shoulders of me and my wife. He was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, tumors in the retinas of the eyes at five days old and it was an eighteen month fight. Thankfully we saved both of his eyeballs which wasn't the case when I had the same cancer which turned out to be genetic.
As far as the prejudice of people goes, they constantly fought me and my wife because of my total blindness and her legal blindness, thinking we were incapable of taking care of a newborn baby going through chemotherapy. For the record we did just fine, gave him his shots ourselves and did maintenance on his pic line ourselves without any problems at all. Although the hospital tried to get him taken from us, CPS had nothing on us and left us alone.
Now, however we're preparing for a cancer free and peaceful Christmas, even though we are dealing with a toddler who is going through the most terrible twos.
Having said that, we have done our best we can as parents and get constant compliments on how smart he is.
We've had to take most of our decorations off of our Christmas tree because the little guy couldn't contain himself from ripping them all down and throwing them and breaking them.
All the same, there is no better feeling then being your little boy's Santa Claus.
@tom, being totally blind with a child I can't imagine the struggles you are going through, I wouldn't know whether I'd want to cry or punch somebody, how degrading and demoralizing, I feel for you sir and sincerely hope things look up for you.

Stevie-3

2014-12-18 23:35:03

Hello,
@steve: congratulations and I hope you have an awesome Christmas! I was rather happy today anyway, but this news has made me, I guess, feel even more happy is the best way I can describe it.
All I can say regarding the people who run our systems, is, if only they saw what goes on on this very forum, I actually think they might be able to learn a thing or two, not necessarily based on the topics about them, but the topics based on gameplay discussions, tips, and the topics about living independantly. I think they will then see that as a community we can collectively come together and such, although they might be tempted to leave us alone which isn't the best idea, they need to just realize that well, even though we don't have working eyes we can still live and think. There are some blind folks around who have careers and such, I mean, while he's not part of our forum (as far as I know anyway), look at steevey wonder, he's made quite a successful career. Closer to our community, I can think of someone like Andre Louis, but as for the rest of us, we're here talking about tech and living our lives the best we can, and I hope I speak for most of us, when I say, that we're quite happy. Although, saying that, @tward: I gotta say, I feel sorry for you right now and I just hope that something can happen in the future that will help your situation.

2014-12-19 15:48:56

Hi
Well as it’s the last month of the year and I am thinking of all what happened to me this year, I realize and got my opinion that this was not a good year for me. Fulltime studies, no brakes, daily routine and fortunately some great moments with my classmates. I don’t know why, but I feel less loved this year, rather than past ones. Some people want to be just rivals and not friends, they want to be over you in every way, so as to be on top. (that’s what’s happening among adolescents here where I live).
Hope for a better year on 2015, with a great prosperity, friendship, and endless of great time!
But it’s too early to say: “Happy new year!”
I wish for you all a great new year, hope your dreams come true.
God bless you!

2014-12-23 01:42:18 (edited by Dan Gero 2014-12-23 01:43:38)

Well, afrim, to be honest, that's kind of how I feal, looked at as the underdog, I must say things didn't go well for me this year. Just to list 1 thing, I went to governer morhead school for the blind down in Ralleigh NC, and I lost my microphone there. I just got it back today. Also, right after that I got my MacBook fixed, only to figure out that the charger is broken, and we still haven't gottin a new charger yet.

Discord: dangero#0750
Steam: dangero2000
TWITCH
YOUTUBE and YOUTUBE DISCORD SERVER

2014-12-23 12:04:04

Hello,
I've actually been quite lucky over all this year and have made some new friends. I hope next year turns out better for you both, but I might have something to cheer you two up below.
Well this week has been pretty nuts, getting ready for the Christmas season and things. I had two parties one night after anotuer, Friday and Saturday, so I got to dance and stuff. I didn't have any alcohol, I'd much rather have a j2O which is a sort of fruity drink here in the UK.
I managed to crank out four (yes, you did just read that right, four!) audio parodies last week, and I'm going to post links to these below, no copyright infringement intended, fair use, etc.
First of all, you'll all be very pleased to know that these parodies are all family friendly. Second of all, it's best to listen as and when you encounter the links so that when you continue reading you won't be spoiled and can follow along behind the scenes. With that out of the way, here goes:
I started out wanting to do a parody of Let It Go, but it evolved into something which is quite possibly one of the most random things I have ever done. Trust me on this, it starts off like one of my normal parodies (I would use fart sounds and make something explode), but then I had one of the most craziest ideas I have ever come up with, and it turned into something very different. Even the folks I showed on Teamtalk had absolutely no idea what was coming and to hear everyone laughing so much, well, it made the effort worthwhile.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/177 … 20fart.ogg
Well, I wanted to take this even further. I found some chiptune style Christmas tunes. What was going to be one parody of Let It Go, became three parodies in the space of around four days.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/177 … parody.ogg
This particular parody let me really practice my sound editing skills, as the timings were pretty difficult but the result was pretty neet.
This next one had some lyric changes, and if anyone wants me to post them let me know:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/177 … Parody.ogg
Well, that's the end of the parodies with a similar, central theme. What makes these so tricky was I had to splice all the words together from wav files that I'd had for a couple of years. I don't even know how I got them. I'm not talking about mixing words tha were already there, I mean actually creating new words by taking bits out of other words.
The fourth parody was something I was much more used to creating, but I still had a heck of a lot of fun doing this. The voice you keep hearing in this one is a narrator from a game called the Stanley Parable (again, no copyright infringement intended.)
For those not in the know, The Stanley Parable is a mainstream, but unfortunately inaccessible game that allows you to branch on many different paths, all of them narrated. The narrator might say, Stanley walked through the doors on his left. Well you can also go through the door on the right and just not do anything the narrator tells you to which can end in some hilarious results, well I wanted to play on that, so I came up with this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/177 … parody.ogg
I hope you all enjoy.

2014-12-23 13:18:27

thanks for your post aaron,
I finally found a great British voice from Acapela TTS for my phone called Rachel which is very good although it wouldn't change anything for this year smile
But it has definitely the accent I like from britain which I like to listen to, everytime. smile

2014-12-24 00:35:14 (edited by defender 2014-12-24 00:37:36)

rofl Aaron that was really good, my favorite was the last one, considering I've heard my brother play the demo video...


Yeah silibic splicing sucks, you can get some amusing results though sometimes, like that, rofl.  Though pretty hard to understand.


Yeah I just watched Frozen.  Finally!  I actually liked it allot, I mean I had a few critisisms, but that didn't really make the movie bad for me or anything.  I think it's Disney's best in a while and one of the better princess ones, my sister watches them allot so I've seen most of them.


But I do have to admit, because of how much Elsa freaks out and what she always says when she's about to start throwing ice everywhere, I also thought replacing that with farting would be amusing, rofl, that and it would also be amusing if the hole thing was an extended metaphor for puberty and self image, but, it clearly is, so...


I guess the hole this is what happens if you suppress your daughter, on the advice of a bunch of old and wise, but also overly self confident people, the entire contenent will freeze solid, and if you don't make it better everyone will nearly die, and she'll start randomly exploding everywhere, and have a harder time holding it back the older she gets, until she lives by her self and gets some big scary dude to guard her home, well it's kind of an amusingly blunt way of saying it, especially considering her sister, who's basically the exact opposit, even though she was also suppressed, if less, is the only one that can save her, and by extention everyone else.  But it's a good message, especially the part about anger and fear creating ice, love and hope thawing it, and also about not falling for the first pretty face you see, in Ana's case, since that person may just be taking advantage of your inexperience.



Yeah that's probably why I think it's the best Disney movie in a  while, I mean most have good underlieing messages but this one was easier to flush out even for kids, partly because the glits and glam wasn't so overblown that you couldn't even see it through it all, and partly because instead of using the same message that most of the movies use, or only 1, it tackles allot of often interconnected issues at once.


Probably the only things I didn't like were the overly depressing back story, and the sort of pasted on side note messages on some of the scenes. Rreally, in the end, yes Elsa and Ana have each other now, but you only see the beginning of the healing, Elsa was still gone, and ignoring Ana for something like 12 to 15 years, which probably really screwed up Ana's childhood, something you can see in her lonelyness and sadness as she gets older and Elsa still doesn't interact with her.
Then the parents die, obviously so that the independants thing can happen but it's still salt in an open wound at this point, and after that Ana starts giving up on her sister and becoming bitter.


Meanwhile Elsa is still suppressing everything, somehow, after being told as a small child just how dangerous she is to everyone she cares about, and having even less of a childhood than her sister, while the adults she loved and was supposed to trust aided her fall into self doubt, but are now dead, and now she is at the same time probably hating her self, not only for what she is, but what she has and could do, but also for letting down Ana constantly, and she is clearly becoming more depressed and closed as time goes on because of this.


Then we've got the hole adventure part, after Elsa refuses to bless Ana's marage, scares her sister yet again, hurts her even worse than before.., runs away so she can't hurt anyone, while also having to worry about the responsibility she's leaving behind.  But at least Elsa discovers her self before she's crushed by what she's done again, and sees her friends and people, her entire country turn on her, while Ana finds someone she can actually understand and appreciate, Christoph is like Elsa in that he's a hard nut to crack, but he can be, unlike Elsa, so Ana falls right back into that roll, all be it with more success this time around.
Elsa sacrifices her self for Ana after realizing what she's done, and what Hans will do,essentially paying for both their mistakes by her self, changing Ana's mind about Elsa's true ententions, which she had thought had turned towards uncaring and reckless even to those she loved the most.


Ana saves Elsa, they live happily ever after, supposedly, but allot is unsolved, and even throwing in the snowman as an incredibly obvious distraction from the miserable past the sisters share doesn't help that hole lot, at least for minds old enough to think about it.


It's nice that Elsa is more controlled now and can use her powers safely, but she still can't do it much, and the idea I get is that she's pretty well tied directly into the land around her, which is where she gets her natural powers of elemental manipulation, so that's gotta feel kinda crappy compared to the ice palace, maybe they can work out weekend retreats? Rofl
But Elsa still has a hole lot of new responsibility and they will probably both have trama for this, Ana for her heart almost freezing and being abandoned to die by a sociopath, which, can't have felt good physically, or mentally, and Elsa for hurting her sister yet again, even worse than before, but at least they ahve the snowman and the raindeer and the viking dude for moral support.


Just think it should have been finished better, the bonding you get to see is basically the 2 sisters scating, and that's sweet, and a good faidout shot,  but it is kind of underwelming, not even any promises not to up and leave, or go off the rocker and freeze the contenent or marry some random dude again, or lock your self away for a decade or more, or get all emotional and untrusting. big_smile

There was also the kind of pasted on, among the fixer upper song of insanity and being blown away by a storm of love, message about o, by the way, can't change people.  So anyway!


Along with that hole Hans gets kicked into a pool or something at the end, and gets to roam free, really?  That's all?  Lock up this mentally unstable and clearly murderous guy, people, and get him some help if possible, you did it for Elsa, don't tell me you don't have a jail|! ROFL!

There's also that time Ana kicks, I think? Christoph in order to force him to start traveling earlier than the next day, think she does it twice actually, she feels all bad and says she's sorry, like she didn't mean to hit him that hard or, something, maybe it was an accedent and I didn't read into it correctly but the timing and tone of her voice and his seemed like it.
I think the message should be, don't hit guys to get them to do what you want just because they are stronger, not, get all flustered then quickly forget about it and passingly appologise when you actually do it hard enough to cause some pain.

I think Disney here was confused about exactly how much they could sneak passed the conservative croud, and, to some extent, the people who've been watching the movies for ever, they took some risks even with what they did do, but they also did some half assed messages because  they got scared about how the overall drift of the movie would go, which is more societys fault than theirs I think, unfortunate though it may be, but they still need to make money off it and they do have a reputation to uphold, so they can't alienate everyone no matter how hurtful their stuck in the passed beliefs, and or down with political correctness! even when it becomes just harmful! may be.


I know that explination makes it seem  as though I hated it, but there was allot of good jokes and touching moments, the score was great, plenty of good attention grabbing melodies that were also very pleasing to hear, I liked most of the singing and acting, the ideas were unique, the ice powers were kick ass, especially for Disney which, yes does that kind of thing, but not usually for the princess's them selves, the setting was good and while still off the mark, was closer than some other Disney movies to being accurate to the area and culture portrayed, but I do know that it's a tossup between viewer relatability and cammio appearances and awh inspiring and unique  atmosphere and appropriate  places, carictors and behaviors for directors of mostly kid oriented films, especially those meant primarily for a home audiance.
The story was a good one, with some interesting and unique situations, even if it had some  choices that I might disagree with, and it unfolded well, made me feel more than just 1 overwelming emotion afterwards and made me think, and as I said before the message is a vitally important one, rapped in enough good special effects and strong plot progression to really get the ideas out there with the excellent opertunity that this type of wide spread media from a  well knone corperation, and a few famous names, can command.

2014-12-24 01:37:24

Hello,
Just a heads up, @defender, please remember the spoiler tag for those who might not have seen it. I've seen it, but I stilla sk everyone to use the following:
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
then go on from there.

2014-12-24 08:15:59 (edited by defender 2014-12-24 08:16:30)

If you haven't seen it, your living under a rock, or an iceburg, so I'd use it if it was new, or even just newish but not otherwise, personally.

2014-12-24 11:57:06

Hello,
I know one forumight inparticular who hasn't seen it, and the person said that they might (and I stress might) watch it. I saw it at the cinema so I've known about the story for quite some time, but there are people who, believe it or not, still have not seen this. I'd use a spoiler tag for anything out of respect for those people.

2014-12-24 23:25:20

Fare enough

2014-12-24 23:39:02

Hello all,
I can't believe it's Christmas Eve, so I'd just like to say in case I odn't et time tomorrow, I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and that you enjoy yourselves, enjoy time with your family, and pelase let us know what sorts of gifts you get if you want to!
Merry Chrismas one and all, and even to the cyber elves! *extends hand*

2014-12-28 19:53:48

Well with a few days left in this topic before January's starts up I thought I'd give an answer and talk about christmas. Christmas was pretty quiet, which was nice for a change, though we did get actual goose for christmas dinner sinse my mum knows someone who breeds wild birds for the hunt geese included. Goose is actually rather nice but it has so much fat it needs cooking properly and the fat all draining off otherwise it's greasy as heck, luckily my dad is a bit of an expert at that sort of thing, (and a small drop of the goose fat does wonderful roasties).

I wasn't particularly wanting or expecting oo much for christmas. My mum asked me what I would like and the only things I could come up with was the music from the first five series of new who on cd, and a copy of the neverwhere miniseries from 1996. The music is actually really awsome, though I'm glad I stopped at season 5 as I really can't remember much of the music in the last three series and the peace I am the Doctor has been over used far too much, then again sinse season 4 is where Doctor who stops as far as I am concerned that doesn't matter too much anyway big_smile.

Weerdly enough, my favourite series in terms of music is series 3 having sat down and listened to things. The master's theme, and the theme for galifrey when the Doctor was talking about his lost home are amazing, also martha's theme is probably the strongest in terms of melody, there's a wonderful remix of it from the episode human nature. It's quite strange sinse in terms of Doctor who I always rated seasons 2 and 4 over 3, but it seems musically 3 is the one that stands out. Oh, and before anyone asks I've not watched the christmas special yet sinse my dad and I will sit down and watch it this week, (we've got it saved on the tv box hard drive).

Mostly we had a day together, and I spend the evening watching game of thrones season 4 with my brother. We've been running through the first three seasons on his huge home cinema system, and sinse we had 4 recorded at my parents that's what we did over christmas, which was definitely good (the red viper really made me laugh, and tyrian is as awsome as ever). We also began the rather amusic zombie romance anime Sankrea, about a boy with a zombie obsession who has always wanted a zombie girlfriend and winds up turning a girl unexpectedly into a zombie, very creepy and quite dark in humour terms, though I've not yet seen the end of it.

Two other amusing christmas presents I got were a set of wire puzzles, the ones actually called blacksmiths puzzles in series like wheel of time, and some street fighter socks from my brother (which are rather cool). The puzzles were a fun present from my mum who enjoyed that sort of thing, an I'm finding them definitely good to do though I'm having to limit myself to how often I do them sinse I don't want to run out of all of them too fast, and I really! got on my mum's nurves when she bought me the boppit extreme one year and within the same weekend I'd maxed out at 250 big_smile.

As I said, other than that fairly quiet. I'm continuing my run through the Doctor who audios, and have just started the graceless series which I'm finding actually pretty awsome after finishing the key 2 time trilogy, I also treated myself to several choiceofgames titles, and am playing slowly through heroes rise after buying the trilogy. I will likely get back to more intensive gaming later, especially when i get back to my pc and swamp.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)