important update (creative title)

Hello world, I am writing a quick 5 minute update so that all my great readers can have a concept of what I have been up to. I have been working at a social work internship since the beginning of march, it is going really well and I am so excited to help out people who are blind like myself. I am learning a great deal about this field and I feel this experience is extremely beneficial. I have been keeping track of the Yankees’ progress so far this season: the team looks very competitive but after all it is still early and anything can happen. Nevertheless, I am hoping for the best (eternal optimist) and would really like to attend a few games this season (hint hint). The return of baseball is a great thing, especially because I experience an immense feeling of anticipation during the months of the off-season.
I enjoy reading audio books very much, and I just finished reading a fascinating yet strange science fiction book: WWW Wake. It is difficult to summarize such a complicated but well-told story, so for your information this is part of amazon.com’s description: “Blind teen Caitlin Decter gets an experimental signal-processing implant that inexplicably opens up her vision to the wondrous infrastructure of the World Wide Web. Inside the Web is a newborn webmind, a globe-spanning self-contained consciousness that is just becoming aware of the outside world.” I recommend this book, as long as you found that portion of the description to be of interest.
In other news, my struggles with weight loss continue, and my scale can never decide how much I weigh from day to day. I have been creating many salads this week, and I am continuing my diet despite the occasional frustrations. Finally, I am busy doing many reviews of restaurants and venues for a project I am working on called Accessible New York. According to our new website, “Accessible New York empowers people with disabilities to share their experiences of New York's dining, lodging, and entertainment destinations, and provides quality information about these establishments to people who are ready, willing, and able to dine, stay and play in the greatest city on Earth”.
I hope you have learned more about me and my progress from this update, there will be more blogs to come in the near future. Thanks everyone!
Dan

My frustration with access a ride:

Access a ride: the best of times, the worst of times:
I am feeling extremely frustrated with access a ride after today’s debacle. I admit that access a ride can be extremely helpful to people with disabilities, it allows us to go to work, meet friends, go to doctor appointments, and travel from one place to the next in the same way as our nondisabled peers. However, after what I went through today, I am not so sure if it is the greatest solution for me. I do not use this service very often, I happen to be totally blind and therefore I prefer to take the subway as long as it is the most convenient form of transportation. However, my trip today, according to hopstop.com, would consist of over seventeen miles, three subways, and a bus. I believed that access a ride offered the best option for traveling so I booked my reservation far in advance. I waited patiently in front of my building for my 4:11 PM pick up. In fact, I waited a half of an hour until I became concerned that I would miss the meeting and decided to call to check on the status of my transportation. To her credit, the woman who assisted me was very helpful and friendly, but her news was anything but good: my driver was currently driving on an express way in queens and wouldn’t arrive at my location for at least another fifteen to twenty minutes. This information by itself indicated that I would be late for the meeting, but I became even more annoyed when I heard the next part of the story: the driver’s plan was to pick me up, then pick up another three people, drop them off at their destinations, and then finally take me to Kingsborough community college in Brooklyn. I understood at this point that I definitely would not be able to make the meeting, so I hid my frustration and nicely asked the woman to cancel both parts of my trip. Therefore, I am now sitting at home, feeling extremely frustrated, and am not able to attend the meeting which I was looking forward to. Thanks for nothing, access a ride!

my very first post

Hello, my name is Daniel Aronoff and this is my very first post on my very first blog! Today I would like to talk about my disability: I am blind, but I am just like you (the person who is reading this): I cross the street by myself, I take the subway and bus, I even use a computer and created this blog with absolutely no assistance. I welcome any and all questions from anyone who is curious. I feel that the greatest barrier for someone with a disability is the discrimination from people who believe certain misconceptions or stereotypes about people with disabilities. Please ask before you judge.

Well, I feel better now that I got that off of my chest. In the future, I'll keep you up to date with music, sports, technology, and other fascinating stories and facts. Stay tuned!

Take care
Daniel