Re: reading books
- From: "Mary Ellen Earls" <meearls@xxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 12:50:31 -0700
Well my Aunt had written a book of poetry in the very early seventies, and
her editor was a former teacher of hers named Mr. Wobenitz. Well one
Saturday afternoon my Dad and Mom were watching Wide World of Sports (way
before cable) and I came into the sunroom and said "I didn't know that Mr.
Wobbenitz spelled his name the way he does." My Mother was reading and she
said simply "yes!" Well Dad turned and said "I honestly didn't think you
could really read with that thing until you talked about Mr. Wobbenitz!
I hope I brought that book with me as it is still extremely special.
----- Original Message -----
From: "pamdrake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 11:23 AM
Subject: RE: reading books
The first book I read was "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." What a trip to be
reading something in print with such unique concepts for its time...but not
as unique as the newspaper I picked up from a booth at a coffee shop in
January, 1978, and took home. It was a copy of "The New York Post" and my
fingers started perceiving this stuff about a child having been cloned!
What?
Yes, it was the first report of the cloning of a human baby boy! It also
turned out to be a hoax, but the published article launched the first
public discussion of such a possibility. Anybody remember that? <smile>
Oh yes, let me not forget the novel I was reading when I read the following:
"She shook her heads..." Sheesh! <smile>
-----Original Message-----Pam
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Kaye Kipp
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:54 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: reading books
Oh gee. No fair lol.
The first book I read with the Optacon was Go Ask Alice.
Kaye
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Ellen Earls" <meearls@xxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 5:53 AM
Subject: Re: reading books
> Well guess what the first book I read with the Optacon was? _HARRY _S.
> _TRUMAN by his daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel. That book was about as
> thick as a pocket size bible.
> I also read lots of biographies and have tons of print cookbooks because
> not
> one talking reading machine can read fractions properly
> It was interesting when I first brought the optacon home from TSI, we were
> having a family party for my Mother's birthday. Mother asked me to bring
> the
> optacon to the party and show it to my siblings. My Brother-in-law had
> been
> a Lion and had seen a demonstration of the Optacon when it first came out
> so
> he knew quite a bit more about it than the rest of the family. Anyway we
> had
> birthday and them Mother asked my Brother, Dan to go get a book so I could
> read a passage.
> Do you know what that big twerp of a brother did? He brought me a book and
> I
> read and I read and I couldn't figure out the text so I turned the book
> around to a chorus of "No! You had it right/!" Well I struggled and
> finally
> there was a chorus of giggles. My Brother had grabbed a fourth year latin
> book from the shelf.
> How's that for having to eat humble pie?
> Mary Ellen Earls
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <maryemerson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 3:58 AM
> Subject: reading books
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've read full-length books, and when I was a technical writer, I was
> responsible for writing a couple manuals that included pictures of command
> syntax, and a few flow charts, and a couple books that had pages and pages
> of computer screen shots. I had to go through these books and manually
> read
> the syntax diagrams and other stuff to be sure all the lines connected.
> But
> I missed a couple places, and I remember a couple errors that I didn't
> know
> about until the book was printed, and sighted colleagues overlooked when
> they glanced through the book before sending the camera-ready copy to the
> printers across the country in Mechanicsburg. I never would have been able
> to work on these books without the optacon.
>
> I had at least one interview with an individual who applied for a
> technical
> writing job; he was recently blinded, didn't know braille, and although he
> had a scientific background, couldn't answer when I asked him how he would
> proof read his books, since he relied only on speech synthesizers. At the
> time, the optacon was still in production, and he had just obtained one
> and
> was working with it. I urged him to increase his proficiency because he
> wouldn't be able to do quality work without at least some optacon skill.
> I've noticed that people who work with braille or the optacon can write
> much
> better and spell much better than those who rely only on speech. In fact,
> we
> seem to be much more careful than many sighted people.
>
> For example, I recall the final version of IBM's version of DOS, in which
> one of the manuals included a poorly written note from an employee to the
> technical writer; the note was written by somebody who hadn't learned
> English very well, and the content could have been summarized in one
> concise
> sentence, but it was overlooked in the final draft. More recently: A few
> months ago, I found quite a few errors in a recently published book, and
> it
> had supposedly been proof-read quite thoroughly. I notice this more and
> more
> as people rely on spell checkers and less on human effort.
>
> Mary
>
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