Tag Archives: blind

Breakfast with BlindGeek

Holy jeez, it’s been a while! Yes, this podcast still exists. Yes, I plan on making more frequent contributions to it. I know, I did say in the beginning that this podcast would be irregular, but never in my wildest dreams did I think there’d ever be over a year between updates!!!!

Last Friday, I had my first (mostly) unassisted cooking experience. I decided to post it, as it certainly did qualify as a BlindGeek adventure. It’s a long ‘un, so strap yourself into something comfortable, don your headphones of choice, and give it a listen. I think you’ll find you laugh a lot. (Not at the cooking, I hope.) I know we who were there certainly did.

Here’s the episode.

DISCLAIMER: Language gets, shall we say, colorful at times in this particular podcast. Also, due to the nature of in-ear binaural miss, when we are finally enjoying the fruits of my labor, it’s … well … quite obvious that I am enjoying the fruits of my labor. Particularly the crispy bacon. If this offends or grosses you out, just know that everything turned out well and was well-received, so when we start to eat, you can feel free to move on to your next listen.

Enjoy!

And please feel free to send comments to the Blind Geek Adventures Facebook page.

It’s great to be back!

Superburrito Sojourn

Hiya, folks!

We’re going back to March of this year. This was one of my first walks in my new neighborhood. Zeke and I are accompanied by our friend Menissa, and we go forth to seek adventure and lunch at a restaurant called Superburrito. It’s a longer podcast than usual, because I figured I’d let you all discover this place as I did. It’s a chain, so there may be one in your area as well. I encourage you to check it out. Despite its title, the tacos are the real supers in town.

So don your audio-headgear of choice, download

…and enjoy.

Testing the New Equipment

They’re here, they’re here! The brand-new mics are here!!!

In this episode, we unbox the new in-ear binaural mics and take them for a test run to Starbucks. Fun times to be had! I’m very interested to know if you, the listener, notice any difference in the spaciality and/or quality of these new microphones. I know how they sound to me; I’m just curious to see how they sound to you.

One caviat: I talk in the podcast about how I’ve turned the limiter of the recorder off and am hoping the traffic doesn’t cause clipping or distortion. Well, as it turns out, the Olympus LS-14 has a recording mode called Quick Mode which automatically adjusts the recording levels to compensate. So as I understand it, regardless of what I have the limiter set to, Quick Mode is kind of doing its own thing. Which means we get that “limiter effect,” which seems more noticeable to me with the increased output of these microphones. So next outing, I’m putting the recorder in Manual Mode and will try recording with the limiter really off this time.

Or perhaps I should just leave well enough alone…?

Anyway, here’s our test run. Leave feedback at blindgeek@lioncourt.com, or follow me on Twitter (@blindgeek) and leave feedback there.

And now, fellow Adventurers…

…don your headphones…

Download the episode

…And enjoy!

ApplePlay with ApplePay

Here’s the episode discussed in the previous one, from October 30, 2014. Step into the WayBac machine and let’s go.

Incidentally, I do still have the mono recording mentioned. So if there’s interest, I’ll post it… although I should tell you, we’re going to be exploring that whole area in depth on this podcast in a short time, so the recording’s relevance is not what it would’ve been when it was made.

We’re off to experience ApplePay for the first time. This isn’t the most impressive demo, since neither I nor the McDonald’s employees had much of a clue what we were doing. I’ve since become much more adept at using ApplePay, as have the employees. Even so, I think you’ll find the speed of the transaction impressive.

And with that, we’re back to our friends, the binaural mics, so don your headphones…

Download

…and enjoy!

End of the Beginning

Hi, folks. Glad to finally be back.

Please forgive the audio quality in this particular episode. The why of it is explained in the episode itself, so I won’t bother to repeat it here. It sure feels great to be back!

The website mentioned in this episode is Dreaming with Jeff. As I did on our walk, I strongly encourage you to check it out. It’s an awesome thing Jeff Bridges is doing over there, and it’ll feel damn good to be even a small part of it.

If you want to send me feedback on this, or any other, episode, please send it to blindgeek@lioncourt.com. Watch for the Blind Geek Adventures Facebook page, coming soon.

I think.

That’s the plan, anyway.

You can grab your headphones for this one if you want, but it’s not nearly as necessary. This one’s just in good old-fashioned stereophonic sound. Grrrrrrrr…

In any case, download

…and enjoy!

A Trip to the Pool

If you listen to this podcast for the chatter, this may not be the podcast for you. Zeke and I put BlindSquare to the test by tagging the entrance to the Cascade Swim Center. I tagged the entrance as opposed to just the address because in order to get to the entrance itself, I knew we’d have to cross a parking lot, a small park area, and who knew what else? Just asking for a blind guy and his guide dog to get lost. Not only that, but this was our first attempt at walking to the center. Consequently, there’s a lot more ambience in this podcast, as I was thinking on my feet and trying to cope not only with a new route, but with a rather irritated Zeke. He was forced to wear dog boots. It’s a condition of the folks who run the center. I’m not sure why, but they said if he was going to come in and hang out where the pool was, he had to wear boots of some kind. For all I know, they may have very good reasons for this. Chemicals on the ground, slippery surfaces, etc.. However, he hates these boots, and let me know it during our walk through obstinate behavior at nearly every turn. Still, we came across some fun people in our journey, so I still think it makes for enjoyable listening.

A note about sidewalkless travel with a guide dog: It’s slow going, annoying, and neither Zeke nor I like it much. You’ll hear me say “Left-left,” or “Right-right,” followed by “Follow the shoulder” a lot. The essence of this command means get as close to the shoulder of the road as possible, and follow it. Guide dogs generally tend to want to stay in the middle of a sidewalk, and so, they tend to drift away from the shoulder if not kept in check. So every twenty to thirty steps, we stop and turn back toward the shoulder, walking up to it, and then turning back on-course for another twenty to thirty steps. LIke I said, it’s slow going. But in an area like Redmond, it’s necessary.

Okay, enough babbling from me. Grab some headphones, download, and enjoy.

Spaghetti Making 101

We’ve been doing a lot of walking in these first episodes, so I thought I’d show you another kind of fun to be had in this podcast. We’re taking a trip in the time machine, back to June of 2009, when I took a crack at making spaghetti. This was originally published on the Blind World Blog and Podcast, but now that I have a podcast of my own, and since I just happened to accidentally stumble upon the recording, I thought I’d include it here. You’ll also be hearing some of these people in future podcasts, so this is as good an opportunity as any to introduce them. Anyway, it’s all in my opening remarks on the podcast itself, so…

Download, don your earphones, and enjoy!