About Me

I am an assistive technology specialist with over thirty years of experience providing support and training to blind and visually impaired computer users. I think that my passion for technology started in my childhood. As a kid, I had always been interested in gadgets. I remember being introduced to my dad’s cassette tape recorder when I was nine years old and I thought it was pretty amazing. During my teen-age years, I figured out how to use more than one tape recorder to do a kind of sound on sound effect, giving me the ability to record more than one voice and pile them onto one recording. Eventually, I discovered more about music and, equipped with a keyboard and an upright piano, began to compose and record my own music, harmonies and all. The audio quality wasn’t what I’d call extremely professional but I had the capability to make music and I was having fun being a rock star, myself being the primary and usually sole member of the audience.
I dabbled into various types of writing, such as poetry, science fiction and keeping journals of my thoughts as well as my dreams (the kind you have when you’re asleep) and I still have those volumes to this day. I always had an interest in computers but they were either inaccessible, unaffordable or a combination of both.
In 1987, I acquired a used Versabraille P2C from a dear friend of mine, who I still keep in touch with to this day, and the rest, as they say, is history. I now had the ability to not only compose and read documents but I also began going online, calling BBS’s with my brand new 300 baud modem which I purchased from Radio shack. It was slow compared to today’s lightning-fast speeds we come to expect from cable and DSL providers but it introduced me to the pre-Internet world. I sold that machine in 1989 and purchased a state of the art Braille ‘n Speak notetaker from Blazie engineering, along with a service maintenance agreement and a cassette tape interface device, allowing me to back up my Bns files onto casette tapes. Yes, it was crude compared to today’s massive thumb drives and hard drives but you’d be surprised at how much data you could save onto a 90-minute tape.
I loved the product and loved the company’s responsiveness to its customers and actually fantasized about what it would be like to work for them. Two years later, my fantasy would become a reality and I became their technical support rep in 1991, where I assisted customers, ran their BBS, wrote product documentation, recorded tutorials, facilitated training sessions, did some QA testing, tested firmware and, all in all, had a grand time. It was also during this time that I learned about Windows along with various screen readers. Actually, I started out using DOS in 1991 using version 1.1 of Vocal-eyes from GW Micro.
In 1998, I left the company and began my career as an assistive technology trainer.
I’ve been doing it and loving it ever since.
I enjoy watching TV and use on-demand services such as Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus to get most of my content. My favorite show in the secular realm is Babylon 5. It’s a well-written, complex sf series that I highly recommend, particularly if you watch it from the beginning. I also enjoy all variants of the Star Trek series. One of my other favorite programs is EWTN’s “the Journey Home” which features a different guest each week, discussing his or her journey to the Catholic church.
Regarding books, I enjoy reading Dr. Scott Hahn. He makes me excited to be a Catholic. C. S. Lewis is another of my favorite authors. His seven books in the Narnia series would make a great gift for anyone, whether the recipient is a kid or adult. the stories are wonderful and they are loaded with Christian theology. His Space Trilogy is not one I’d recommend for kids but the books are amazing. The trilogy consists of science fiction stories, also loaded with Christian theology.
For excellent Catholic fiction, I recommend “Father Elijah” by Michael O’Brien. The book is a treat for your soul.
I am a Jewish convert to the Catholic church. I was born Jewish, slowly embraced Protestant Christianity during my teen-age years and, in the 1990’s, began to hear more about the Catholic church. I am planning to write a more detailed essay on how I became a Catholic and will publish it to my Web site once it’s completed.