[accessibleimage] Re: Chris' blog

Lisa, I think that entry was your third appearance in Blind Confidential.  I
find a lot of things on this list inspire me to improvise on the subject and
do a little verbal "riffing" for the blog.  I have a piece based on that
Business Week article you posted a few weeks back and a number of others on
Braille and tactile issues.

I'd love to hear feedback from anyone on this list.  The blog is a mixture
of serious issues, my opinions and thoughts on them and a bit of my sense of
humor (or lack thereof) mixed in.  One day, I wrote a fairly long sequel to
Orwell's 1949 classic, "1984" that a lot of people seemed to find
entertaining and I think I actually did a decent job of counterfeiting
Orwell's post war modernist writing style.  It is the only item up there
that isn't written in my own voice and is kind of funny.

I've also learned that, in the blogosphere, people take some stuff far too
seriously.  I've received emails and one truly classic comment about one of
my satirical pieces that demonstrated just how uptight some people can be.  

I'm using the blog both to advocate and express opinion on issues I feel are
important as well as to do a lot of riffing to get my writing chops back
into form.  It's been a fairly long while since I had the discipline to
write for an hour per day (my journal has been dreadful for the past six
months or so and I felt the craft deteriorating in me.  

Mostly inspired by this mailing list, my creative and artistic spark has
returned.  I spend more time playing my piano poorly and my harmonica pretty
well.  I write daily and have contemplated some tactile abstractions as well
as interactive 3D audio "sculptures."

Working at the university provides me with so much intellectual freedom that
my mind has come out of the moth balls of corporate storage and is once
again ablaze with all sorts of ideas for projects, technical, artistic,
activist and theoretical.  I suppose having recovered from my terrible RSI
problems and vast volumes of pain killers will also bring a bit of pep back
to the thought process as well.

I'm still no where near 100% yet.  I still struggle terribly with
agoraphobia (my experience with FS since my last day there has generated
tremendous problems trusting people outside of my inner circle) so I spend
most days indoors but, unlike last year, I do spend the time productively
and try my best to force myself to get out when I can muster the courage.
Fortunately, aside from fishing, most things I love doing can be done in my
house; unfortunately, I find attending live performances nearly impossible.

I have no fear being out and about if the excursion is related to work.  I
can go to Gainesville and attend meetings, teach the occasional class and
work with students in our AT lab.  With confidence, I can sit with potential
big donors and ask them for hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash money.
But, as soon as the event moves from structured to social, I need to excuse
myself and head back to my room.

My old friends JS Bach, Beethoven, Coltrane, Faulkner, Toni Morrison,
Naipaul, Hawkins, Hawking, Miles, Elvis Costello and others are always there
in my room waiting for me.

The arrogant swagger and "damn the torpedoes" attitude that once defined my
public persona has deteriorated into a "Have you seen Chris?" Kind of
personality. 

Why am I blabbering all of this here?  Why not.  This list is, along with
the artists I list above, one of those friendly places I can take myself
where the demons don't live and, while I slowly either accept a demon or two
and push others back into the box, I need places, physical or virtual, where
I can feel at home, feel safe and let the intellect drive for a while.

So, I invite all of you to visit the blog.  I'm having fun writing it and I
think some good ideas and reasonably adequate writing can be found there.

Thanks to Lisa for this list and all of the great ideas I learn here.

Enjoy,
cdh 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lisa Yayla
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 1:53 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Chris' blog


Hi,
Just read Chris Hofstader's  blog for March 9 
http://blindconfidential.blogspot.com/ entitled Thoughts on Tactile 
Images and really enjoyed it. Interesting story and reflections about 
"touching behavior ". Is that a concept?
(also a bit flattered about being mentioned- blush)
Best,
Lisa

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