Blind Chance blog suspended for now: Farewell from David Faucheux
David Faucheux is suspending his Blind Chance blog blog for health reasons mostly but also in part because of Odeo’s inability or refusal so far to restore his audios. Also, his Talkr text-to-speech service faded away. I thought I’d share his final post in TeleRead’s main part. I’d love to see David’s blog reborn at some point, ideally with help from a library-related site. – David Rothman.
Readers to my combination audio and text blog may recall that day in early May 2004 when I began my cautious journey into the blogosphere.
I can’t say I understand it any better now and don’t really know how to search and find the really good blogs with cracking content and timely commentary. My audio seems lost at present vanishing into a cyber no-man’s-land. I am sorry as I had several excellent interviews, book reviews, music-related items and thought pieces that lose considerable impact minus their audio content.
Text and audio playing off each other
I wanted the text to complement the audio, not merely repeat. Each would work to demonstrate its ability, concerto-like, to play off the other. I had to work in five minute segments then as the system was set up that way. It proved to be a great learning opportunity and made my posts short, snappy, and concise. They were a bit like sushi, epigrams, Chopin’s preludes, or miniature paintings–or I sure hope they came reasonably close!
Readers may recall that in my last post, I mentioned a freak fall last October I suffered as a result of a reaction I had to prednisone. I can only urge you who take this steroid to be careful. I am not sure if it’s a synthetic steroid and if the natural version is far safer. It’s something to check out on the many excellent medical web sites available now.
The physical and psychological recovery has been longer and harder than I had originally thought, (or my doctors thought.) . I suspect it precipitated a midlife crisis of sorts. As a result, I feel that I am in a time of searching and coming-to-terms with major losses and failures in my life. I no longer enjoy living alone and wonder if blind people are fed a line about living alone to be independent. Had I had a friend sharing my apartment, lived in a group house, or been partnered, this mightn’t have happened.
I still don’t fully understand the FMS/CFS diagnosis I received several years ago. It seems to be a trash-can, throw-away condition. Anything library seems doomed and might need to be buried. I gave up on enumerating who should have done what, when, where and how. Organizations, people, universities, state agencies, librarians, and I all seemed to have been at crossed purposes or unable to connect at the optimal time. I have had several health challenges as well. I had hoped my blog might have caught someone’s eye and achieved for its author 15 nanoseconds of chatter and a little cybercash. Perhaps, even a twitter moment.
I hope to return at some point to blog or tell you where my life is going.
On a happier note, I did audition for "Jeopardy," but I am not sure about how that will turn out, providing I am ever contacted by the producers to appear on the game show and don’t freeze up. How did Mr. Timanus make it look so easy?
This project, part-diary, part-self examination, part-edutainment, has been an interesting exercise in self-discovery and in learning how to write in short, cogent chunks.
I hope to return to this arena one day with a more successful background behind me.
My very best to all of you.
IMAGINE That!
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