Ok. I'm sorry! 1. I left the house without my iPod and my earphones. I had been looking forward to listening to the new Julie Fowlis CD since I got it last night but I couldn't because I left the stupid iPod at home! 2. I had to do something while traveling to work on the laptop before I got to work but because I forgot my earphones I had to do it with jaws, my screen reader, talking through the speakers. To ensure others didn't hear what I was doing and the synthesized speach didn't annoy people, I had to have it at a bearly audible volume. 3. What I was trying to finish didn't work. I'm still not sure why it wouldn't. I was basically adding some functionality to a site that I have created for an organization but the code was showing without the functionality! It makes no sense and when I tried the exact same steps when I got to work it all went fine! 4. I tried to log onto my home exchange server to check for new mail but it looks like my internet connection at home is down. That's going to be gone all day so I'll have to keep up with my personal email during breaks using web mail via my backup server. 5. The budget is coming tomorrow so things here are quite on edge. Plus, we were given some news a week and a half ago about the company I work for that will apply in April that has everyone very worried as well so although I'm fighting, I'm not happy about it. 6. I've decided that I'm just going to go buy a coffee. But guess what? I have €1.46 in change on me. a coffee is 2:50. I'm not going to an ATM to get money out. If I get a 20, it's just going to be spent before I even know it's gone. The Irish urin currency just falls through your fingers as soon as you break a note. 7. I can look forward to the prospect of sitting on a crowded train today at a quarter past five on the way back home without any music to listen to. I really should just go back home to bed. I'm not liking this Tuesday.

Well, yesterday I promised that pictures would follow our decorating attempts on Saturday night. Click on any of these pictures to see them in a new window at a much larger size.

As the description in the graphic describes, the tree is shown in the room with only it's lights eluminating the walls. I'm told that it makes the room look very different. There's a lot on there. There's two sets of gold and silver beeds, four sets of lights, red silver and gold tinsil, four bells, 12 glittering star things, ten lantern shaped things, the usual round shiny things tat are also come in red, the angel on top and in the middle, probably not very easy to see, a hand made wooden angel that was given to us last year by a very good German friend of ours.

There's a lot on the tree. It probably sounds a bit too much. But, the tree is over six foot high. In fact, considering the one in the porch is six foot high, I'd say ithe one in the living room is over seven foot high and is very broad on the bottom so to get rid of the bare look, it's necessary to have a lot on it. A part from the angel on the window looking out, it is the only decoration in the living room as with it, nothing else is needed.

Speaking of the angel, Emma loves this.

It was dark out when this picture was taken so unfortunately some of the features of the angel cannot be seen. A better picture will be taken during the weekend when it's not so dark out. Well, that's the plan anyway.

The angel has a white dress on that is very intricate. It's just less than a half a foot high from bottom to top. The top part of is light up with fibre-optic lights on it's back. It's very difficult to explain it other than that.

The next picture was also taken outside.

This time we look at the front of the house. We have an extention to the left of this picture so from left to right you can see the living room window with the angel, the porch with the fibre-optic christmas tree and on the right you can see Emma's sowing room. It has an electric candle thing. This looks like a tryangle shaped candle stand with about seven candles on it. Three on the left and three on the right and one on the top. Again, up close, this is very detailed. There is a leaf effect at the bottom of each candle stick to make it look very authentic.

So there you have it. I hope those descriptions were comprehensive enough to give you an idea of how things look. Oh, I forgot to mention. The christmas tree in the porch is about six fot high. It's not half as dominating as the tree in the living room.

I don’t mind saying that it was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced. For the people who read this who are not blind, go home tonight and imagine someone is in your house. Imagine that the scope of your awareness is limited to that you can hear, smell and touch. Imagine that someone is outside that scope. Their aware of you but your not aware of them. Imagine that you are alone with that person and you don’t even know it. The dog barks! The silence is broken. I jump out of sleep and I’m fully awake and alert. But. I’m frozen. Unable to move. Unable to think. Unable to process what is happening. My commen sense tells me it couldn’t be happening and it was just a bad dream but the part of me that still is frozen with dred cant ignore what ever it was that woke me up so quickly. I’m not sure why I’m frozen solid but I know that it’s not something I drempt. I’m still unable to move. I feel stupid for being afraid of what is possibly nothing. What is it? I can feel something. I cant hear anything though. The rain batters the window. The dog isn’t barking now. I’m consintrating on trying to hear something but I cant move! I won’t move. I’m afraid that if I do, what ever or who ever it is, if something or someone is in fact there they will know I’m not a sleep and ……. No. I cant think of that. I lie there. I know that a lot of time passes. But still nothing! I start to loosen up. I tell my self that I’m stupid. The dog could have got spooked by something out side the apartment. I tell my self that the presence I felt wasn’t a person. It couldn’t have. I’d have heard him or her. It was all in my head. I try to sleep. After more time, the alarm goes off. I spring out of bed, throw the clothes on from the day before, grab the dog and leave the apartment within minutes. I don’t need to be out that early but the feeling of being watched won’t go away. As the cold morning air hits me on the way to the train station, I convince my self that there is no way someone else was in the apartment with me all that time. I say it to no one because I feel so stupid. I push it out of my mind and I hardly give it another thought. Satisfied that it was not real, I continue on for another month. Things are as normal as they’ve ever been. One night, after going to bed, I hear a door close. Determined to fight the feer I experienced the month before I check that the rooms are empty. More time passes without incident but residents speak of apartments that have been broken into. I’m assured that my dor cannot be opened using a card like others have been as the lock is too stiff so I’m happy with this reassurance. I also feel very confedent that the dog will be vocal in his notification that someone is in the apartment. One morning however, I leave the apartment and open the second door toward the stairwell. Freddie emetietly behaves like someone is near. Without any reason to be concerned, I greet the person. He doesn’t respond. I let the dog walk over and find that he’s lying on one of the ornamental sofa’s. He’s a sleep but concerned that he may be locked out of his apartment, I wake him up to see if there’s anything I can do to help. He admits that he’s sleeping rough. Satisfied that he’s telling the truth, I continue to work. Within five minutes, On the way to the station, I call another resident and ask him to check the landing as with the break ins in the building I would rather that he’s monitored. I’m told that he’s no longer there. I return home the next evening to find that the door to the spare room is open. Things begin to add up and I become less sure that my previous fears were unfounded. Because of the mounting security problems in the building, I ask my land lord to get something done about it. He has the largest stake in the building as he owns most of the apartments. He fights the management company to get extra security added. The security company installs new locks but it is learned that keys have been left in post boxes. This has no effect as as soon as keys are provided, one is stolen. After some more time, I decide to move out. Packing begins and everything is moved to the new hous. While clearing out the spare room I find a cussion, different to the others in the apartment standing up against the wall in the spare bed. I’m now convinced that someone was there both when I was there and when I was away. I return to the apartment for the last time to clean it to ensure it’s ready for the next tennent. I open the door and the dog stops dead in his tracks. I know straight away that there is someone in front of me. I muster a very angry and demanding voice and demand to know what the hell he’s doing in there. He tells me that he was given the apartment. Concerned that he could be armed, I leave and close the door to the apartment and the door to the stairwell. The next time I go in I bring Emma with me. She doesn’t inform me that he has any kind of weppon so I confront him further. I ask him again. “Who gave you this apartment!”. He answers again that he was given it. When I demand to know who gave it to him he says he was given it by magic. I give up and leave again. This time, I call a neighbour to stand at the door with me and call the gards. He comes out and attempts to leave. I block him and tell him that he’s going nowhere . Expecting a confrontation I feer for the worst and tell Emma to take the dog out of the way. Instead, he calmly agrees that he’ll stay and returns to the apartment. Another resident passing by tells us that he knows who the man is. A number of very shocking facts are divulged and we’re advised to leave the building. The gards arrive and ask us a number of questions before going in side. They already know the man and their aware of what he’s been doing in the building. I wish I understood how they were aware of it but yet did nothing to stop him but that’s a story for a later time I think. They also back up what I’d been told a short time before and suggest that I do not confront him again. I was told he had been linked to a number of high profile and serious crimes in Tallaght and had travelled to Drogheda to hide. I was also told by the same person that he enjoyed acting stupid to throw people off. The Gards went up and threw him out. When we met outside, they requested proof that he didn’t live there as he told them that I was the intruder, not him! Of course, a call to the land lord proved that but I’m still amazed that they needed proof! When all that was done, they just sent him on his way. Thank god, I’ve never heard from him since. When he was gone, the Gards asked me to go to the apartment to make sure he had not taken or damaged anything. The gard walked through each room describing everything she could see. When we got up stairs she told me there was a cussion on the bed. When I checked, it was the same one from the spare room. I completely loved that apartment. It was in a great location, the inside was done to such a high standard, the church design was really unusual and the high vaulted sealings with the windows made everything sound fantastic. But, when I returned to that apartment, everything seemed different. I knew that he’d been in there, I knew that I was stupid for not trusting my instingt and I knew that he could have been there a lot more than I knew. I don’t mind saying that it was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced. For the people who read this who are not blind, go home tonight and imagine someone is in your house. Imagine that the scope of your awareness is limited to that you can hear, smell and touch. Imagine that someone is outside that scope. Their aware of you but your not aware of them. Imagine that you are alone with that person and you don’t even know it.

I’m not sure where to start this entry. Do I start it by talking about the fantastic gig on Friday night? Do I start by talking about how I didn’t make it to bed on Friday night? Do I talk about the crazy crowds in Nury on Saturday morning? Or, do I talk about decorating the house on Saturday night. Ah! Too much happened! It was a very busy one. Ok. I suppose it’s more logical to start from the beginning. Friday night, I did the usual gig in Dundalk. It’s an Irish music gig that I’ve only recently been invited to play at. Usually, it’s Malachy on guitar, Alan on fiddle and banjo and my self on Pipes whistles and the bodhran. This week though, instead of Alan, we were joined by Noreen. She also plays the fiddle but she has a very different style. Both musicians would be the same in terms of experience and talent but I really enjoy when Noreen plays music with us as the change is very nice. Of course, they’ll say the same when someone stands in for me. The change, no matter who stands in is always nice. As usual, I was last to leave the pub. We normally wait around after everyone has gone to stay for a drink with the bar staff. It was around 4:30 when I finally got out of there. There was method in my madness though this week. I’d organised with Emma that we’d go straight from Dundalk on Friday night / Saturday morning to Nury. For people out of Ireland, Nury is in the occupied 6 counties in the north of the country. It therefore benefits people in the 26 counties who can travel to it to go up there for shopping as the VAT (Value Added Tax) is less up there than it is in the 26 counties. In certain shops such as Argus, further discounts can be found as for some reason, their prices are lower in the 6 counties. The reason that we were crazy enough to go to Nury so early on Saturday morning was to avoid the huge tail backs on the way into the town. Last year, we left Drogheda at 8AM but it took us 3 hours to get into Nury! It should take 45 minutes at most! So, the shops opened at 8AM, but the crowds started building at half seven! It was amazing! Ten people ascended on the door trolleys at the ready within a few seconds. By the time we got from the car park to the door at 20 to 8, the line was a good fifty feet long. By a quarter past 8, there were people in the shops complaining that there were no trolleys left. I’ll not bore you with the rest of the events of the day but I have to tell you, I got 48 pints of Bulmers for around 50 Euro. You can really appreciate why people are travelling to get these prices. I’d promised Emma that we’d put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Saturday night. I’d been invited to a large house party on Saturday as well but I decided to cancel. I’ll probably get an ear full next Friday though. The tree I bought a few years ago is over six foot so with four sets of lights and a lot of decorations; it needs a lot to fill it. It’s not over done though from what I’m told. I have a picture of It on Emma’s camera but as usual she’s been too lazy to edit it for me. I’ll annoy her about it later. The reason it is so big is I bought it when I was living in the most fantastic apartment ever. It was an old converted convent and I was on the top floor where the chapple use to be. It had really high vaulted sealing and the bedroom was up stairs over the bathroom and the spare room. The living room and kitchen had no sealing so when standing in the bedroom up stairs, you could look down into both rooms. I’ve a very scary blog post to write about my time in there. Anyway, back to the decorations, it’s all done now for another year. We’ve a tree in the porch, we have a fibre-optic angel in the window of the living room and we have an electric candle thing in the front window on the other side of the house so from the front the two windows on each side of the house is lit up with the porch in the middle containing the fibre-optic tree. I hear it looks well. Again, pictures will be available soon. I have to admit, Sunday was more or less lost. Because I didn’t get to bed at all on Saturday night and was therefore up for almost 48 hours straight, when I did finally get to sleep on Saturday night, I didn’t wake until 4PM on Sunday afternoon. Terrible isn’t it? I felt terrible for losing most of the day. It’s not like me at all!

No! not me! Come on... You should know me better than that at this stage! I'm sitting on the enterprise in first class on the way to work this morning. Believe me, there is really no better way of traveling to Dublin. While sitting here, I notice that the cairage is almost full but yet very few people are talking. When Emma who's sitting beside me speaks, she wispers. The entire environment screams "BE RESERVED!" Around me, rattles can be heard from every side. What was once a very quiet and modern train seems to have fallen into some disrepair in recent years. Still, the heat is at a perfect tempriture, the seats that recline to provide that extra bit of relaxation during the trip are still a welcome change to the upright cattle props that we normally sit in while being hurded from one stop to the other. Even the carpeted floor on this train adds a difference. With all this comfort and relaxation, I begin to overhear a phone conversation behind me. The young woman who is probably in her mid twenties with a fantastic northern accent is confiding in a friend seemingly. I hear her talk about a possible love interest. They talk about a possible encounter that may be on the cards but how she is still unsure if she will follow through with it. She exclaims that she is too afraid of being hurt again and she doesn't know if she's ready yet. This conversation may as well be preached across a 10000 wat sound system to me as because everything else is so quiet, I cant help but be drawn to the one voice that can be heard. But I am interested. How can someone who is afraid to be hurt be so comfortable to voice her feelings on a crowded train. How can she be so open to inadvertently profess her deepist worries to a cairage full of complete strangers. Maybe she's just so caught up in her conversation that the rest of the world has faded into the background. Either way, I find it strange, interesting and kind of sad that what should be a private conversation with I assume is a close friend has been broadcasted around the cairage. Or, I could just be really bord on this train trip to Dublin.

Thanks to an idea I got on Twitter yesterday, I've added a new tutorial to LALRecordings that looks at RSS, what it is used for, how you can benefit from it, how it works in Internet Explorer, Outlook 2007, Firefox and a stand alone application called Sharpreader.

The audio tutorial is now live for everyone to listen to at http://www.lalrecordings.com/node/34

As always, your comments, suggestions and even complaints are always more than welcome. Please send them to Info@lalrecordingsr. .com. Without feedback, LALRecordings wouldn't know what our visitors want.

Visit www.lalrecordings.com for a lot more recordings on Windows, Linux, mobility aids, accessible media players and mobile phones to name just a few topics that we cover.

I could never say I'm any good at audio production, but I took this on a while ago because it needed to be done.

I have just released the December edition of InfoVics to the VICS Ireland website for members to listen to it.

I'm nervous as to what the feedback will be like. It's the first audio thing I've done like that.

I'm in a different office today...... Don't ask. I'm also working late. In fact, I'm in work typing this at the moment and I'll be here until 10 tonight. So, I'm not sure where the hell I'm going in this place, I'm not even sure how I'm even going to find the lift to get out. I know I'm on the fourth floor and I know the window in this office looks out to the road. I can hear the traffic. So, when it came to heating up my lunch this evening when everyone was already gone home, using the microwave was a bit of a challange. I had asked before the last person left where the Microwave was and had been told that it was the door on the left with the glass pannel on it. That was grand. It just took some feeling around to find that one. I forgot to ask how the microwave worked though! It has a nob for selecting the time... that was good. using a digital microwave without knowing what button is for time can be difficult. Also, they usually have different buttons for seconds, minutes and every tens of minutes. It also wasn't a touch screen thing or just a panel of things that were not risen from the surface. so at least I could actually feel all the buttons. The problem was that there were too many buttons and the ones that I thought were start and stop didn't actually do anything. I tried everything I could. I noticed that when I pressed one of the eight buttons on the middle of the controls , the start button worked. Problem was, it didn't stay on for long enough and it made absolutely no difference to the tempriture of the food. Determined to succeed, I tried more buttons. but, it looked like only the first of the eight buttons actually did anything. So, in desparation, I called Emma to see if she had any suggestions. I thought that maybe if I described the controls she may be able to shed some light on what was the most likely button to press. Unfortunately, she was unable to figure it out without seeing it either. She however came up with a fantastic idea. I used the camera on my phone to take a picture of the microwave. She got that picture and was able to read that the eight buttons on the middle of the control were for selecting the power of the microwave. The right button needed a few presses before I heard the beep to confirm that it was actually working but when I pressed the start button it jumped into action. Three minutes later, I was delighted to find my food was finally warm! I've never had such an experience just trying to use a microwave ever before! Thanks to Emma for her very good idea. Who said cameras on phones were pointless for blind people. ha!

After five months of development, design and testing, I am delighted to announce the release of the New VICS website. Vics, the Visually Impaired Computer Society of Ireland is a group of Visually impaired computer users of about a hundred or more. Their remit if you like is to assist in delivering training to its members, organise information and technology days where resellers and manufacturers of assistive technology exhibit their products, lobby technology manufacturers and software developers to improve accessibility for users who are visually impaired, increase awareness of the ability of people with visual impairments and a lot more.

The new VICS website will serve all of these aims as well as providing an online home to Vics members. The site hosts training documentation and audio recordings, Infovics, the quarterly audio VICS magazine, the most extensive list of Links to third party resources relating to visual impairments in Ireland, the VICS blog, the twitter feed for VicsIreland, a podcast of all new audio published on the VICS website and VICS news to name just a few items.

The site conforms to accessibility guidelines published by the W3C, provides high contrast for users who find it difficult to read black text on a white background and also provides text resizing options for users who require large font sizes.
And it’s members. It’s over to them now to make use of it.

This deserves a blog entry. I know, it’s silly but this is the first day I’ve been on a train from Drogheda to Dublin in almost Three months. Since one of the bridges collapsed into the sea in August, commuters from Drogheda to Dublin have been left using buses. In fairness to Irish rail, they’ve done a great job with providing busses on the effected routes but for me, nothing is better than a train. Their so much quieter, smoother, punctual and more spacious. Oh, plus, I don’t have to leave my house so early in the mornings either! I know, people will say that Irish rail isn’t always punctual, but their more reliable than busses. In my experience anyway. So, here I am. Blogging once more from the train. It’s great to be back. Oh and there’s more space for the laptop too! And I seem to be connecting via 3G at a faster speed at the moment also.

OUCH! Yesterday, I pulled something in my neck. Nothing serious, it just hurts when I move. Anything! I move my arm and I get a shooting pain. I move my head and I Feel like it’s going to fall off! I don’t even know how I did it! I never have neck or back problems. Never! I don’t even know what to do. Do I keep it as still as possible? Or do I keep stretching and all that kind of thing to keep the muscle moving. I know after sleeping, or attempting to sleep last night, it was much more painful when I got up than it had been last night so I’m airing on the side of moving and stretching to speed up its recovery. It’s stupid!

Well, that's me done................................ The working week is over. Tonight, I'm heading to a friends house to set up a router, then I'm doing a gig. Saturdays plans have been canceled so for most of the weekend I'll actually be at a loose end! That's great! I'll get some work done with Fedora. Hope your week hasn't been too difficult? Have a fantastic weekend.

Ok. it's wet! it's been raining for a few days. It's horrible wintery weather. But Ireland just cant coap! Rivers over flow, Dams start to become unstable and river walls fall! Yep. One week of bad rain and the country turns to crap. Atlantis! move over! Ireland will be joining you soon. No of anyone selling an Ark? Where's Noah when you need him? Yep... Soon, your going to need a boat just to get to Cork. In Kerry, there are floods as deep as four feet. Oh, but the worst part of it is Eircom, our national tellecommunications infrastructure provider has just lost a main exchange in Bandin in Cork resulting in no internet connectivity for 8400 people! We're all doomed. Doomed I tell you! Right! When's the looting starting. I can see it now. Freddie rummaging through the petshop appearing an hour later with a shop load of dog toys on his back.

I passed a fella i use to work with in a former life this morning. It was lashing rain at the time so neither of us stopped to talk. I know he stops by here from time to time so John, give me a shout. Funny, I had thought that I'd not seen him in over a year on Monday. Funny how these things happen. On a different note, The scooter that was always parked at Bru-bakers on the corner of south Fredricks street hasn't been there in almost a week. I hope the woman who drives it is ok. It's been there every day from Half eight until after 5PM for over a year now without fail. At the start, she was parking too far in so as to provide a bit of difficulty getting past with a dog but when I explained it she always made sure to give me space. She's probably just on holiday or something but it's strange.

I’m completely unconscious. Sleep has a tight grip of me and I’m content to let it stay that way. I’m wrapped up in the bed sheets and only the very top of my head pokes out. It’s comfortable! The relaxing, quiet and peaceful room is suddenly plunged into the realm of reality as a deafening tool of Satan, feared by many, hated by all pierces the silence with its incessant repetitive beeping. Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep! Pause… Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep! Pause… Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep! Pause… Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep! Pause… Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep! It pauses again. Before the next round can start, a well trained arm is flung from the warm and secure confines of the bed in the direction of the sound. With only habit and the longing for this torture to stop, it lashes out and aimlessly strikes with hope that the noise will stop. Relief washes over me with the realization that the deed is done for another day. The horrid tool of Satan has been stopped and piece returns to the room. As consciousness begins to rear its ugly head I fight it. With every ounce of strength I can muster, I fight it. Still it comes. It begins to win ground when I realise my arm is hanging limply out of the bed. Its pre-programmed instinct to stop the noise that disturbed the piece did not extend to putting it back under the sheets again and it begins to get cold. As I become more aware, my brain has an internal argument with it’s self. Brain: Waky waky! Come on. It's time to get up! Me: Is it that time already? Brain: Yes. You’re going to have to get up now. Me: Ah no. You must be wrong. Brain: No, arm got rid of the noise a second ago. Me: Did it? I didn’t hear it. Brain: Yes. You have to get up! It’s time! Me: Ah no. I can wait a few minutes. Brain: Fine! But you won’t be able to check Twitter or Email. Me: Ah, that’s fine. I’m not bothered anyway. Brain: Get! Up! You have to go! Me: AAAAH! You’re wrong! It’s not time yet. It couldn’t be! I just went to bed a minute ago! Brain: No. It’s been ages. Me: Actually, today is actually Sunday isn’t it? There are no busses to catch today. I’ll be fine! Brain: No, today is Wednesday. Yesterday was Tuesday. Remember? Me: Ah crap. Your right. Crap. And my arm is really getting cold now. So starts my days from Monday to Friday…. And a few Saturdays too. I try to convince my self that I don’t have to get up. I try everything! From telling my self that I have no work today to telling my self that the alarm didn’t actually go off. I was told to write about this because last Saturday, I was meant to be in Dublin by 10AM. But, I successfully talked my self out of getting up. In my defence, I was trying to get up by 8AM and I’d been out until 5AM that night at a gig.

After Tuesday, even the Calendar says WTF... Thanks to my very good friend Abby for that little tidbit this morning. It's all her fault. That's all. Nothing more interesting I'm afraid. Have a good one.

How's it going? Is life treating you well? Not bad weather out there today is it! It's a bit nippy but the sun was shining when I was out earlier. Any plans for Christmas? I'm off for two weeks around the end of December. No major plans for it just yet but I'm really looking forward to it! Just think! No work for two weeks! Good catching up with you. I'll talk to you again soon yeah?

Do you ever hear music that is so damn fantastic, you actually shiver while listening to it? Some stuff is just so good that it feels like I've just been dipped into a bath of ice cubes.

I have had to ask Emma, my girlfriend to change deodorant as she's started using one that my sister used when she was younger. I didn't like the smell then and I still don't like it now. Plus, From a person who really judges certain things from smell it was very very off putting.

The Friday before last, I got so drunk, I'm almost afraid to drink too much again as although the hang over was mild in comparason to some, I did things that were not in character for me while out. I was almost afraid to return to the same pub this Friday. Fortunately nothing was said though!

I'm listening to a CD at the moment from a group called Tripwire. I'm loving the different rhythms. Not exactly traditional. It's more galithian sounding.

I haven't gone to a live gig in ages. I'm too busy playing music. I'm hoping to get a few gigs in around Christmas. There's a few groups coming to Dublin and Drogheda that i'd love to see.

I'm doing a lot with media center stuff at the moment. basically, i@m connecting all the media in the house. From music to movies to pictures, it's all beginning to be accessible from any room at any time. And it's all working with my screen reader. I'll post in more detail about this again shortly.

That concludes my random thought's for today. Most of these are posted regularly on twitter. You'll find the twitter feed on the left of this page. You can follow me at the username digitaldarragh

Have fun.

There's nothing particularly special about this, it's part of his job but still, I wanted to write it up here because if it wasn't for him, I'd not be writing anything today. We were simply walking around the corner to a meeting in another building. On the road that connects both offices, there are three car park entrences. We're aware of these so Freddie always pauses for a split second before continuing past. We've never actually met anything coming out or going in but he is trained to stop at kerbs and it's something I like him to be aware of. Today was no different. We passed the first and the second entrence without issue and had stepped off the path for the third. Half way across though, a car started to my left. I thought nothing of it though and kept walking. Cars regularly park there as although it's not a legitimit space, it's handy. Before I could think any more about it though he must have begun reversing. I didn't notice so kept walking. Before I knew it, I was pushed back by Freddie swinging across to my right. When he swings around like that, he lands across my body blocking my legs from moving any more. If he does it fast enough, he can push me back. It's not really something he's been trained to do, it's just a reaction when he knows I shouldn't move any further. I'm sure other guide dogs do something very similar. When I got back to the kerb I started from, I heard the car reverse into the car park. the stupid fool driving it obviously didn't bother looking where he was going. I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deel, he couldn't have been moving very fast but I'd say he would have hit both me and the dog if I wasn't pushed out of the way.

Boxing is never something I have really taken an interest in but it just happened to be on while I was over at another's house last night. Tyson Fury faught some other fella who's name escapes me at the moment. What was funny was Fury was a tower of a man in comparason. Both were heavy weights but Fury was almost a foot taller than the other man. How it was fair I won't understand. There must not be a heavier weight that he could participate in. Anyway, it was quite funny. the commentator explained at the start of the match that Fury was only into his ninth professional match and hadn't been beeten yet. You have to think to your self, if all his aponents are that different in height and weight, it's really not surprising is it? It's hardly a fair match! Even still, although Tyson Fury is known for generally winning on average on round two or three he lasted right to round six last night. If memory serves. The commentators complained that Fury was using a clawing action with his right hand and he wasn't going to get very far with that kind of bad habbet. Although at the start they thought he was a sure bet, they spent most of the match putting him down. In fairness, it did seem like he was having way more problems than he should have had fighting such a smaller and lighter aponent. Of course, the size and weight isn't everything but it's a good help! At the end of the match Fury explained that he dammaged his right hand early on and couldn't hit as hard with it therefore limiting what seems to be his trade mark right hook. But, he changed to south paw, i.e, seemingly using his left hand as the dominent and still managed to win all be it with a margin of three points. I was surprised at how entertaining it all was. Oh, then Bernard Dunne, after all his big talk over the week about how he was going to win this match in the memory of Darren Sutherland, a boxer who died last week, lost on round three. The aponent he had was much much better than Bernard and it seemed obvious from very early on. I hear that that first left hook dropped Bernard like a tun of bricks! So, Dunne's lost his title. I definitly feel sorry for him. but, I think basing a marketing campaign on the tragic death of someone is kind of unscrupulous so he kind of deserved it.