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AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → Quic question, regarding training centers
Have any of you here on the forum, been to the Louisiana Center for the blind, and what was your experience, when you went? Also, have any of you been to the Colorado center? What is that like?
I am currently at the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
I have complaints, but not of the deal-breaking sort.
It really comes down to the individual's needs/tastes/etc.
But I also do not hate slating or the NFB canes, which seem to be major turnoffs for most people (including students who make it all the way through).
On the one hand? I should totally have done this a decade ago.
On the other, well... Hmm.
Maybe I should just share that essay I had to write in the technology class? Keeping in mind that it's tailored to the original audience and my notes as I was working on it go back and forth between snarky and anguished 
. (Essays and I don't exactly get along.)
Things-that-might-be-cons:
There's this underlying assumption that of course you are involved in the NFB; why wouldn't you be?
Are you in the habit of keeping your living area spotless? You will be. You will be...
Umm... I don't remember most of my complaints at the moment, actually. Every time I go to a graduation, it makes me all depressed? Sure; let's go with that one.
Things-that-might-be-pros:
You're on your own for pretty much everything. They provide the apartments, the classes, transportation before you prove yourself capable of walking between the apartments and the center proper, and sleep shades, and will sell you canes or cane tips and slates and styli and things. But when it comes to food, going places that aren't center activities or travel assignments, internet connection... that's all on you.
Generally, classes are small enough that everyone can work at their own pace and get appropriate attention from the instructors. (Sometimes this doesn't work out quite so well, if multiple students need lots of attention at the same time. This doesn't come up too often, though.)
I'm putting "it's conveniently located" as a pro, even though I'm afraid that's going to get me way too use to being able to walk almost everywhere. It would be kinda daring to walk to, say, one of the more popular shopping areas (Wal-mart, Super1) and tote supplies back (my travel instructor apparently did this once. I do not envy him for it. Just his hearing.). OTOH, smaller places are much more conveniently located (I'm slightly more willing to carry a few lemons, a gallon of chicken stock, some mint leaves, and a six-pack of V8 for 3/4mi).) More importantly... if you don't want to make your own lunch, there are quite a few choices. ... most of them are fast food, but not all...
I'm going to go look up my previous notes/comments. I'm not really sure what all needs saying. If you have any specific questions, ask and I'll see what I can do.
Here's my first post on the subject in the monthly chat threads. (Remember, don't necropost in a monthly chat thread!)
Lots of rain here, too.
And by here I mean Louisiana Center for the Blind.
I totally get most of the complaints I've heard, already. Which is not to say that I agree with them (I got off my ars and went shopping, and bought oven stuff, even... I have no business complaining about the scary Praise the Federation subtext until the novelty has worn off.But the rain! Not the amount—goodness knows I all but had to swim to class for five of the past ten years—but the utter unpredictability. At first, I carried an umbrella around whenever the forecast called for rain all afternoon (well, thunderstorms, and I don't remember the word "scattered" showing up). Then it didn't actually rain quite literally nine times out of ten, so I stopped carrying the umbrella. I think you are all familiar enough with narrative tropes to guess what happened next.
(Reality works on narrative tropes, of course. It's just that most of them aren't the cool ones with Guitars and Laserguns. Maybe sometimes, if you can trick reality into thinking you're the protagonist. But I tried that, and Reality said... ah, let me look it up...
You are forgetting a little thing called me. ;D
See if you can control me. I am as old as time and older still. I am Reality, queen of all, wife to Time, mother of Space, ruler of Matter, Chance, Coincidence, and Physics. And I control them all. You cannot defeat me. Your petty toy is but a bleak glimmer in the life of eternity and beyond.
I control all.
tick tick tick tick BANANAS!... but that was in 2003, so maybe I should try again?)
So, yeah. There was a director who didn't like guide dogs, but the current director is cool with them. The enormous NFB canes feel kinda advantageous when you're running through an open area, but sorta cumbersome in any place where you don't have a 10 foot circle of freedom (and the training center's main building is tiny). Of all the gatherings of blind people I've been to, the complete total of apologies for collisions does not hold a candle to the first day at LCB. And it seems to take that whole "and uncompromising extroverts shall inherit the Earth" irritation that is modern America (Dark, if you can tell me that it is not this way in the UK, I might be able to get more than 5 hours of sleep tonight) and multiplies it many fold.
Yet I'm still not complaining, 'cause these things stopped bothering me surprisingly quickly. Well, the last two are kinda annoying because squeezing the whole group into a not-exactly-large library, and having everyone get on and off of buses, and attempting single-file lines... Gah!
(OK, maybe I'm complaining a little.)
I like the slate and stylus. Being able to create physical things anywhere currently feels worth the ... ah... well, I'm sure you can imagine the tradeoffs.Ugh, I need to write an essay about how things have gone so far to prove I can Microsoft Word, and I'm not even sure how to start.
Hey. When did you start at LCB. What's your name? I was in the STEP program over the summer. Tell Roland that I said hi. Also, Jack Mendez is a crazy loon... Not really. He's pretty cool.
I haven't been to either of those centers, but I have a friend who went to the one in Colorado, and he loved it. He thought it had a good balance of teaching you what you neede to know, and leaving you to do what you like the rest of the time.
I've been here since the middle of May. I shan't reveal my true name where the kako daemons can find it, but a KJSC radio guy is my current roommate .
I'm trying to imagine what would happen if I had Jack as my tech instructor and am only coming up with "...". That one time Jewel wasn't there and I was between assignments he had me figure out permissions inheritance in the Windows file system. ... I wonder if I can trick him into forcing me to actually start using ODE...
(Yesterday Marco told me that he once had to drag a shopping cart 12 blocks along the North Service Road. While I might envy his ears, I do not envy that. Sunday morning was the first time I ever had to carry a light bag of groceries half a mile. Switching arms while using a cane is more trouble than it's worth.)
(A week or two ago I got impatient coming out of the General Dollar parking lot and jumped the rail. As fate would have it, Bethel happened to be passing by at that exact moment and didn't see the part where I put my cane over it first. ^^)
(My cane has only been run over by a car once, and it actually came out unscathed, somehow.)
Well, wow. Try going to Bonner Bridge, and see if you don't lose your head.
And, as a second note, be ware where you jump, on Bonner Bridge, as it leads down into a highway, a ditch, and a sewage system in 3 different parts. Tell Mr. Ben, Chambliss says hey. Bob Riley'sstill in good condition.
The interstate bridge is worse, mostly because the sidewalks leading up to the civilian path are barely deserving of the name. Especially on the north side (at least I can find the tiny strip of pavement on the south side).
The next time I see Ben, I will try to let him know.
He was my instructor. I don't think you know Rex, but he was also there. Anyway, tell Ms. Bethel, that I said hi. Go to the apartments on Mississippi. that is where I was.
I've met Rex a couple times. Yeah, I know the apartments you're talking about 
Also, if Terry's still there, I don't know if she graduated, tell her I said hi. Can you see if you can merror Juel's movie drive on a server? Also, where are you from?
Teri's still here. Mirroring Jewel's movie drive ... ah... Umm... Oh look a bee!
1, Jack and Jewl would be better off, because if the drive dies LCB would have access to it. 2. Blind mice s thinking of closing the movie vault, from a lack of funds. 3. Jack's server has plenty of space. I incourage you tobuy a bob riley. Agela has some,as far as I know. They're 25 bucks. They're much more durable, and th handle is easier to do open palm with. Tap and slide, is still, generally the same.
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