Okay, a bit to respond to here. And BTW, thanks for reading my journal -- I'm curious about how you found it.
I don't want to come off as a naysayer in my responses to you, but some things are sort of a big deal or a hill too tall to climb.
"Hope Thinking" is my own way of putting it -- hope often involves expectation, though as flamingsword points out to me every time it comes up, that's not a 100% thing. I try to limit hope and instead go from there -- or as a character in the second Holly and the Wizards series said, "Be, then react accordingly, leaving the postgame analysis to others" (She's a very interesting and iconoclastic teen). I try to implement the Eastern philosophy tenet that expectations decrease joy, which sounds a lot easier than it turns out to be. Hope is often thought of as the last thing left in Pandora's jar (later changed to a box) of curses, but not everyone thought that way back then -- to them hope was as much a curse as the other things in her jar, because it would make someone (they'd say a man because they didn't think much of women back then) keep attempting something that logic said was not going to happen. And BTW, the May issue of Scientific American has, in a math article, clear calculations to decide if it's a good risk to buy a lottery ticket. Timing, got to love it, it's what makes synchronicity more than a dead-end mental wandering.
Here's the conundrum -- I'm blind and post-transplant, so unless someone's aware of suppressed immune system needs I don't feel comfortable around others -- a hard row to hoe for an extrovert who digs facilitating others to join into social settings and interactions. By blind I mean close to a hundred percent, maybe a tiny amount of light and gross motion perception but nothing else (until the folks down under get their optic nerve regeneration tech out of testing). So the less interactive social group is in part due to decisions I've made (or in a broader view everything going on in my life post-childhood is due to decisions I've made).
Oh, and I also know I'm statistically (ugh, adverbs...) in a small minority -- I don't like bitter drinks, which means bars and coffee purveyors aren't on the wanna go list, and because my sight isn't bullying into my sensorium my already exceptional hearing gets overloaded at places with lots of hard walls or noisy reflections. I also swore off caffeinated drinks back in April of 2002, which I've kept up, so no drinks containing caffeine. And going places solo is problematic -- without someone to help me navigate a place it can get way weird, and I cultivate an avoidance of public restrooms because of the theoretical international contest to make every single one of them different enough from others that developing a skill in their navigation is fraught with modifiers and variable failure percentages.
The proximity friend group idea has merit, but unfortunately the property values for my neighborhood have gone up almost fivefold in the past twelve years, so property isn't all that affordable around here. I'd love for someone GBTI etc. friendly to move in next door, but I don't think it's all that likely to happen. That said, anything's possible in a constantly changing universe, and one of my friends wound up with a boyfriend because the family member the friend was taking care of managed to butt dial a person who my friend hooked up with.
I'm sort of thinking that when I can manage to get covers for several of my books I'll get people who're interested in what I write to interact with, and that'll open doors.
Okay, on to the pantry et al... My pantry is shallow -- it's a cabinet on one wall of the kitchen with shelves in it, and it's, maybe, six inches deep. I don't keep much in it, because it's difficult to do so, and some things won't fit in it at all. Good ideas though -- a bar code reader that'll run on my antiquated Android phone would help a lot. Braille and I have agreed to go separate ways -- I've played harder surface hand drums, like congas and cajons for long enough the pressure sensitivity in my palms and fingertips is long gone, and of course colors won't help at all. My big resistance to using dots or other labels is that they get expensive (like all things relating to the servicing of a minority's needs and wants) so I can't justify that direction. And my biggest issue with such things is when I get them delivered and need to put them in the freezer, fridge, or pantry, so when they come into the house. It's a challenge, and I don't have friends close thanks to the property value issues.
This is one of the inherent challenges for folks who have fringe or non-mainstream spiritual beliefs. Upon reflection it feels like I've done things that limit my resource options from mainstream sources.
I've got sources for some excellent stuff, and I've read a lot already -- including golden age science fiction (Eric Frank Russell is on my favorite writers list, along with several others writing speculative fiction). A nice example -- Over drive productions did excellent work on four of Cara Bastone's novels, where they produced them more like plays instead of reading them like books, and they were fun, inventive, and enjoyable -- even though there was romantic content. The one I finished earlier today was about recovery from grief and loss, non-romantic grief and loss, but it was what sparked my comment on my Whitman list about being a girlfriend in waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and...) because even though I've got some distance working now I still haven't conquered the desire to have someone close in who I can share experiences and develop camaraderie with. So there's some taking the bad with the good involved.
I've got an effective screen reader, though it's in need of an upgrade so it isn't functioning one-legged in Windows 10, so I can read/listen to stuff online. This is also vital for the stuff I write.
Thanks for a well thought out response -- some of it isn't something I can do, but I appreciate the effort.
Nicole
Re: Thoughts
Okay, a bit to respond to here. And BTW, thanks for reading my journal -- I'm curious about how you found it.
I don't want to come off as a naysayer in my responses to you, but some things are sort of a big deal or a hill too tall to climb.
"Hope Thinking" is my own way of putting it -- hope often involves expectation, though as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flamingsword points out to me every time it comes up, that's not a 100% thing. I try to limit hope and instead go from there -- or as a character in the second Holly and the Wizards series said, "Be, then react accordingly, leaving the postgame analysis to others" (She's a very interesting and iconoclastic teen). I try to implement the Eastern philosophy tenet that expectations decrease joy, which sounds a lot easier than it turns out to be. Hope is often thought of as the last thing left in Pandora's jar (later changed to a box) of curses, but not everyone thought that way back then -- to them hope was as much a curse as the other things in her jar, because it would make someone (they'd say a man because they didn't think much of women back then) keep attempting something that logic said was not going to happen. And BTW, the May issue of Scientific American has, in a math article, clear calculations to decide if it's a good risk to buy a lottery ticket. Timing, got to love it, it's what makes synchronicity more than a dead-end mental wandering.
Here's the conundrum -- I'm blind and post-transplant, so unless someone's aware of suppressed immune system needs I don't feel comfortable around others -- a hard row to hoe for an extrovert who digs facilitating others to join into social settings and interactions. By blind I mean close to a hundred percent, maybe a tiny amount of light and gross motion perception but nothing else (until the folks down under get their optic nerve regeneration tech out of testing). So the less interactive social group is in part due to decisions I've made (or in a broader view everything going on in my life post-childhood is due to decisions I've made).
Oh, and I also know I'm statistically (ugh, adverbs...) in a small minority -- I don't like bitter drinks, which means bars and coffee purveyors aren't on the wanna go list, and because my sight isn't bullying into my sensorium my already exceptional hearing gets overloaded at places with lots of hard walls or noisy reflections. I also swore off caffeinated drinks back in April of 2002, which I've kept up, so no drinks containing caffeine. And going places solo is problematic -- without someone to help me navigate a place it can get way weird, and I cultivate an avoidance of public restrooms because of the theoretical international contest to make every single one of them different enough from others that developing a skill in their navigation is fraught with modifiers and variable failure percentages.
The proximity friend group idea has merit, but unfortunately the property values for my neighborhood have gone up almost fivefold in the past twelve years, so property isn't all that affordable around here. I'd love for someone GBTI etc. friendly to move in next door, but I don't think it's all that likely to happen. That said, anything's possible in a constantly changing universe, and one of my friends wound up with a boyfriend because the family member the friend was taking care of managed to butt dial a person who my friend hooked up with.
I'm sort of thinking that when I can manage to get covers for several of my books I'll get people who're interested in what I write to interact with, and that'll open doors.
Okay, on to the pantry et al... My pantry is shallow -- it's a cabinet on one wall of the kitchen with shelves in it, and it's, maybe, six inches deep. I don't keep much in it, because it's difficult to do so, and some things won't fit in it at all. Good ideas though -- a bar code reader that'll run on my antiquated Android phone would help a lot. Braille and I have agreed to go separate ways -- I've played harder surface hand drums, like congas and cajons for long enough the pressure sensitivity in my palms and fingertips is long gone, and of course colors won't help at all. My big resistance to using dots or other labels is that they get expensive (like all things relating to the servicing of a minority's needs and wants) so I can't justify that direction. And my biggest issue with such things is when I get them delivered and need to put them in the freezer, fridge, or pantry, so when they come into the house. It's a challenge, and I don't have friends close thanks to the property value issues.
This is one of the inherent challenges for folks who have fringe or non-mainstream spiritual beliefs. Upon reflection it feels like I've done things that limit my resource options from mainstream sources.
I've got sources for some excellent stuff, and I've read a lot already -- including golden age science fiction (Eric Frank Russell is on my favorite writers list, along with several others writing speculative fiction). A nice example -- Over drive productions did excellent work on four of Cara Bastone's novels, where they produced them more like plays instead of reading them like books, and they were fun, inventive, and enjoyable -- even though there was romantic content. The one I finished earlier today was about recovery from grief and loss, non-romantic grief and loss, but it was what sparked my comment on my Whitman list about being a girlfriend in waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and...) because even though I've got some distance working now I still haven't conquered the desire to have someone close in who I can share experiences and develop camaraderie with. So there's some taking the bad with the good involved.
I've got an effective screen reader, though it's in need of an upgrade so it isn't functioning one-legged in Windows 10, so I can read/listen to stuff online. This is also vital for the stuff I write.
Thanks for a well thought out response -- some of it isn't something I can do, but I appreciate the effort. Nicole