u/WeirdLight9452

I’ve literally just watched it and I’ve forgotten what number it is. Season 4 ep 22 I think?

There’s a little blind boy, anyway. I’m blind, and I just wanted to flag that he’s not a very good portrayal. This isn’t meant to be a big offended rant, it was like 15 years ago or more, we weren’t good with disability rep.

But this kid is a face toucher, and he uses echo location because… His mother didn’t want him to use a cane? Echo location is a thing, but very few of us use it, it’s just one of those things the media likes to show. Bats and all that. But also it is not nearly that reliable, kid would need a cane. The audio description wasn’t great at describing him, but I think it said he had glasses, which is also not that common. If you can’t see, and light doesn’t affect you, why would you cover your eyes? But honestly the worst bit is the face touching. No one does that, it’s creepy, and I have never understood why the media insists on showing us doing it.

I found it a little funny, because when I watch something with a blind character I have like a mental bingo card, and this one ticked a lot of them. One day I’ll make a drinking game of it.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got to the end. I hope it doesn’t sound confrontational, I’m not here to cancel anyone or whatever. I just thought it might be of interest to someone.

Edit: ok no glasses on the kid, thanks for clarifying, the description was not phrased well. So I didn’t do as well with my bingo as I thought.

So this was on the bus. I hear a lot of things there. I didn’t get all the conversation, but I will lay out the snippets I have. I’m thinking they were talking about a stag do. I could only hear one guy, the other’s responses were too quiet. Here we go:

“We all had air rifles, what could possibly go wrong?”

“So I’d had three pints before they’d even got started.”

“It was a free bar. Beer, wine, whiskey, perfect.”

“So my head hit the pillow and I was like oh no, something’s wrong. So I got up, got to the bathroom, projectile vomited all over the bathroom, all over the towel rail, all over the sink, all over the floor. So I had to clean that up at five in the morning.”

“So I sat on the toilet, fell asleep, next thing I knew it was half twelve.”

“Yeah, I can drink all day. Beer, wine, doesn’t matter, I can drink all day and be fine. I don’t even get hung over.”

And then, as the bus was stopping, even more loudly:

“I’m ready for a piss!”

So… This guy has a drinking problem, right? Or at least is in serious denial about his inability to drink.

Two staff in a toy shop, I know from the conversation that one is Alicia. I will call the other one Steve, just for convenience.

Alicia (skeptical): Oh, the year 2000, when dinosaurs roamed the earth!

Steve: Birds are dinosaurs, Alicia!

Alicia: Go on then, which ones?

Steve: The flying ones.

Alicia: I meant what species specifically?

Steve: I can’t be expected to know everything!

At a bus stop earlier, two middle-aged ladies.

1: So how are your bins?
2: We’re not getting on with them on our street, how are you getting on with yours?

1: No, we don’t like them either. Far too many of them now.

And then the bus came and they said their goodbyes. The joys of village life.

Sorry to be posting again so soon after the last time. I’d got a list of what you’d recommended together, ready to start, and then two family members went in to hospital at the same time. I don’t have the energy for a lot of the fantasy people suggested, amazing as it sounds. Thanks again for all that.

So I need cosy, fantasy or sci-fi or paranormal, anything like that. I’ve read all the Legends and Lattes books and the Wayfarers series.

I’m reading the first Vampire Diet book right now, it’s very light and silly but I’m nearly done.

I want just like a hug in book form, it needs to have an audiobook.

Thank you!

“Ur fat and ugly and everyone hates u even ur mum, get back in the kitchen.”

“Ur fat and ugly and everyone hates u even ur mum, get back in the kitchen.”

So I’m reading ACOTAR because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I don’t quite see what people are getting out of it, it’s just making me feel uncomfortable. Bit of dubious consent, girl becoming beautiful just by putting on a dress instead of trousers, that weird thing where a man being super possessive is meant to be romantic… It’s not doing it for me.

Your recs for vampire books were fantastic, so I wondered if you could help me again? I’d like fantasy, if romance is the main plot that’s ok but if it’s not that’s also fine, I’m not fussy. I like a muscly butch in my fiction, like that’s not essential but it’s more likely to hold my attention. We all have our thing, right? I’ve read Aurora’s Angel, which was nice, though maybe a little slow.

I don’t want anything with like a coercive relationship, I don’t mind one person being a bit more protective but I’d rather not read about someone overly possessive or controlling.

Things with audiobooks are preferred as I’m visionary impaired.

Thanks in advance!

Posh boys again! I’m in a university town so it makes sense. This was in the manga section of a bookshop.

Boy 1: You strike me as an Attack on Titan fan.

Boy 2: I’ve watched MHA and like three episodes of One Piece.

Boy 1: Not an Attack on Titan fan, then.

Boy 2: Nah. Why are there so many tits?

Boy 1: To get people like you to buy it. Tempted?

Boy 2: Nah, I just don’t think I’m ready to read anime yet.

I then made them stop and laugh because my partner was asking if I (blind) wanted her to read Witch Hat Atelier to me. I just said “How the hell do you read manga to a blind person?” Which seemed to get them for some reason.

But that’s not all!

They then went over a couple of aisles and:

Boy 1: Oh look, Boris Johnson’s book! It’s been revised!

Boy 2: He can’t revise it! I bought it for my brother for his birthday! Do I have to get him another now?

So I was just at the hospital visiting my mum, she’s had surgery but on the mend thankfully.

In the waiting area with me was a lady on the phone to what sounded like a teenage boy. I could hear very little except grunting from him, but she was saying:

“Just go in the freezer, you’ll find the sauce, you can heat that up with the pasta…
No, you need to boil it first, you can’t just put it in the sauce…

So you fill a pan with water… No not full, like just over half…

As much as you feel like you want to eat. It expands when you cook it, so…

No, the sauce has to defrost before you mix it in…

Your dad’ll be home soon, ask him to help you.”

The utter weariness in her voice made me laugh. Like hopefully she was there for a similar reason to me, visiting someone who will be ok. But OMG having to explain how to cook pasta to a teenage boy seems worse than some illnesses.

Also, when we got up there, there was a man telling a doctor in great detail about the issues with his dad’s bumhole. So usual hospital visit really!

Overheard at quite a posh pub, what I assume were people working at a law firm from their other conversation. They had just been talking about one of their sons studying law and how much they approved. Then:

Woman: I just really don’t think it’s the place for her. She’s not cut out for it.

Man: No, she should be somewhere else. I mean she looked fifty-five when she was twenty-five!

Woman: And she hasn’t changed her hair for thirty years!

And then on the bus:

Really posh boy: I’m going to Croatia to see my Albanian friend and meet his new girlfriend.

Slightly less posh boy: Oh, is she from there?

Really posh boy: No, she’s from Eastern Europe somewhere. I think she’s Ukrainian. She’s made him start drinking alcohol, he used to be a pussy. He’s much more fun now, he gets drunk and everything!

And I can’t remember the other thing they were talking about because it was late and I was tired, but I think it got a little racist.

I’m going back and listening to the audiobooks from the start, and I’ve noticed a few things.

First, the narrator is way better, they’ve just slowly got worse as the series has gone on. Maybe that’s just me but like Militsa sounds vaguely Eastern European these days, someone who can do voices would be lovely.

But more importantly, wasn’t that jazzy music with the screaming just peak? I know it’s probably because they’re not really children’s books now so they should be treated more seriously, but honestly I don’t think that’s a good reason. It slaps and I think they should still use it, even just at the start and end.

Anyone else kinda miss it on newer audiobooks?

So I’m on season 3, episode 8 I think? I know it was a different time, so I’m not condemning them too much. And I’m not educated enough to know how sensitive the portrayal of assaults is, though I’ve noticed a higher number of people faking an assault than I’m comfortable with. So it would be good to know if they tone that down a bit? And just the portrayal of women isn’t wonderful, especially within the team. Again, probably of its time. I was a toddler when it started, I’m watching because I’ve run out of Criminal Minds.

But what I’m here to ask about is disability rep. I’m a blind person, and the first episode had a blind woman in and her portrayal really annoyed me. Just the assumption she isn’t capable of crime? Without spoilers, I would absolutely be capable of joining those women and taking part in what they did, and if that was my episode, she’d have been part of it and the team would have their views challenged. Which doesn’t happen as much as it should.

So do they get better at showing disabled people? Not just blind people, and they don’t have to be criminals obviously, but do they stop making us look utterly pathetic and helpless? And if so, when does that start improving?

So I’m blind. I’m not here to explain how I read or type or any of that, that’s what Google is for. Sorry if that sounds rude but educating people just because I’m the only blind person around is tiring.

So sometimes sighted folks are idiots around me. They’ll ask weird questions, walk in front of me as if they’re testing if I really can’t see them, that sort of thing.

My favourite example is one time this guy came over and asked where my guide dog was. I use a cane and don’t have nor want a dog. But on that day I was fed up.

So I reached out at dog height as if I expected a dog to be there, then kind of did a little mime routine of trying to find my non-existent dog. It might have gone on longer if I’d kept a straight face but I’m not good at hiding expressions.

There are other examples but this one amuses people the most. Please think before you speak, folks!

I’m blind, so I use a screen reader to navigate apps and things. I pressed the random avatar button when I first made the account, so I had no idea what it was. I’ve been wondering for years why everyone keeps assuming I’m a man. It took some troll pointing it out in the middle of insulting me for me to work it out. 😂😂😂

Note: this dude is now commenting on all my posts in a vain attempt to upset me, so he may pop up here.

Edit: it still is a dude with a moustache, he’s just dressed as an owl now. Because they can describe the outfits but not the avatars, apparently.

Edit 2: I got my partner to fix it 😂

So I’ve had Loki 3 years, he’s 5 now we think. Every so often he has these phases where he does things in the night to wake us up, like he’ll scratch the wardrobe or the side of the bed, or jump on our dressers and knock things over. We would ignore it and it would stop after a bit.

Now he’s started standing on my bedside table and kicking my phone off its charger, either on to the table or the floor. Obviously I’m worried he’ll break it, but I live in an old house with like two sockets per room, there’s nowhere else to put it.

His cat tree is beside the table, so he uses the table as a bridge to get to our bed. Knowing that, I got a charger I could put in the corner to leave him plenty of room. And at first he was fine, he didn’t like the texture of the plastic, but then he realised he cud lever the phone off without touching the stand.

I can’t move the cat tree because it won’t fit anywhere else. He has toys. He has food and water. His litter is clean. We play with him before bed. If we shut him out of the bedroom he screams and body slams the door. He was rescued from a multiple cat home where the other cats picked on him, so even if I had the space or the money I couldn’t get him a sibling. He would hate it.

But I don’t know what else I can do. Even when he finally stops attacking my phone, he sits looming over it and I’m stressed and struggle to get back to sleek. Even if I had more power sockets, surely it’s not healthy to just let him claim whatever space he wants in our house. He only started doing this about a month ago and I don’t know why. It’s like he has to have us awake at all times and he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens. I even struggle to get to sleep because I’m waiting for it to start.

Is there anything else I can do? And why does he leave my partner alone? Is it just his tree is on my side of the bed?