Did you know? Six years ago, on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the world health organization (WHO) declared #COVID a pandemic. That was the day the virus became a pandemic. Then, after that Thursday, our governor of Ohio shut down all the schools and businesses. It was starting to become obvious that it was getting bad by the moment. Friday, March 13 is when it all changed. School packets were being sent, and we were going home thinking we would be back in the next two weeks, but it was the opposite. I would use #SeeingAI to help read the packets of work because they were in print not braille. Later on we started doing meetings through Zoom or other means of communication. Funny how this year, today is Wednesday and tomorrow is Thursday, and Friday is the 13th. It was definitely a crazy time then. That's why I'm working on my own book on 2020, because everyone has a story, you know? Things have changed a lot since then. Little did we know that we would never return to in person learning, because our bitch ass governor Mike DeWine kept them virtual for the entirety of the fucking year, and I was a senior, so that's a big deal. Some businesses stayed open, except for schools. That's another reason why my love for Florida amplified even more during that time. They were always open. When I went down in the spring and back, airports were less occupied the normal, and the planes weren't as full as usual. Because the last of my high school days were shit. One thing I will tell you, though, throughout all the mess during the pandemic there were lots of fun Covid parodies and memes forming on YouTube, #TikTok, and other platforms. People like Chris man, Steve Stuart, I could go on. Lots of people did this back then. Many of the song parodies were about the pandemic themselves. If you wanna listen to song parodies, listen to parodys about the pandemic. I couldn't list them all, but one of them I still sing is take this mask and shove it. That's a parody of take this job and shove it by Steve Stewart. I also got @danestange obsessed with that song late 2021, because I featured it in one of my YouTube videos of me sending a mask away in a helium balloon. That was because things were starting to open up around memorial Day iSH. Both of us liked singing it. What are your Covid memories? Write them in the comments! I wanna hear them!

The joy of needing to make sure i had the right card, and realizing I can just quickly use an app like #seeingAi whilst riding to the doctor's office. <sigh of relief>! Feeling a bit empowered as I sit in waiting room, waiting for my name to be called.

Here's a question for my fellow #blind techies who use the #SeeingAI app. Have you ever had the app pause due to inactivity right in the middle of reading something and, if so, were you able to solve the issue and, if so, how? Ok, that's three questions. Lol This occurred for the first time today as I was reading my mail. The statement that I was reading was lengthy, but not any more so than others I've read with Seeing Ai. I use VoiceOver rather than the app's onboard speech, but that has never posed a problem before. About three fourths of the way thru the document, Voiceover announced that Seeing Ai was paused due to inactivity and I had to start the process from the beginning. I love this app and use it every day. If there is a way that I can lengthen the interval before it times out, that would be wonderful.

Story time: G-d is good to me. G-d is good to me. Since I couldn't log into #SSA for who knows what reason, thus began the desperate hunt for the print version of the 1099. Why do I have such a huge mountain of print mail having amassed? Clutter keeps me from that which I must find, the prize of my hunt. So, down on the floor I sit so as not to drop anything and out comes #SeeingAI and a scanning we go. An hour and a half later the mountain of clutter is sorted into a pile for saving and a pile for banishing to the trash. But still no joy. It must be here. I pray a desperate prayer and look through the tax papers folder, still no joy. Wait, what's this behind the file box. A Ziplock bag containing some braille. Well, well, there it is the #Braille copy of the 1099 and look what’s right with it the print version. I was more efficient than I knew it just hadn't made it into the box. It must have been on top of the lid and fallen behind. I tell you that box of 1,000 1-gallon Ziplock bags I bought was one of the best organizational investments I've ever made. I recommend 1-gallon and 2-gallon Ziplock bags for organizing papers and other things quite heartily. 🙏🙏🙌

I was just thinking... we currently have Be My AI from Be My Eyes, Access AI from Aira, Seeing AI from Microsoft, and Ally from Envision. And guess what, they are all currently totally free to use! Man, how lucky we are to have these great tools for our toolbox! For those who remember... even though it was a great app in its time, we have come a long way since TapTapSee. #BeMyEyes #Aira #SeeingAI #Envision #Tools #Blind