Reid My Mind

Audio: New Year’s Countdown… “Happy New Year…

TR:
1,2, 1, 2… Alright, 2019 Reid My Mind Radio is back!

Audio: Reid My Mind Radio Theme Music

TR:

What’s up Reid My Mind Radio family?
Happy 2019!I hope you all had a great holiday season.

If this is your first time checking out the podcast, I’m very happy to have you here.

Since the end of 2014, I’ve been producing episodes featuring interviews with people I believe have an interesting story. I have focused on people with disabilities, most often those who identify as Blind or Low Vision or in some way have been impacted by blindness.
In addition to that I occasionally share stories from my own experience adjusting to blindness.

Audio: from A few of my favorite things episode…]

As I mentioned in the last episode focusing on my favorite things was truly important. I realize there are just some things that require me to be intentional.
I’m not saying I don’t know how to have fun or enjoy myself… actually I can be pretty entertaining at a party. Still, more than often there’s a bunch of serious stuff that’s always in my mind ready to take over and dominate.

I like to think of my mind as a stove top with multiple burners. Sometimes your standard 4 burner stove top (audio: 4 gas stove tops lighting)and at other times one of those fancy 6 to 8 burners.
Of course, those things requiring my immediate attention get place in the front. However, I never turn off the back burners, rather I let them simmer on a low fire cooking as I take care of the other dishes.

As we approached the holidays, I was feeling as though my mind was telling me it was time to turn off the stove all together. I mean who would want to leave the stove on when they’re going away, either physically or figuratively speaking.

Audio: sound of a flame lighting into a large fire…Eddie Murphy “Now that’s a fire!”

So I went away!

Audio: a chill Hip-hop beat grooves underneath…

But turning off the burners isn’t that easy! I guess you can call it an auto pilot that lights up when it wants to. The trick is to just shut it off as quickly as possible. And for me that requires constant work. Yes there were the occasional moments when one of those back burners lit up, but I did remember to turn it off and focus on enjoying time with my family.

In the last episode I eluded to one of the biggest pots cooking away on the back burner; the notice that my job is being eliminated.

Audio: Flintstone, you’re fired! From, The Flintstones

To be clear, my job elimination is exactly that. The company I worked for was purchased. The new company simply is eliminating redundancies. Think of that show called storage wars

Audio: Scenes from the show talking about the price of various items…

pawn shops or antique dealers purchase foreclosed storage rooms. They do so because they know they can sell off individual items the total of which will reap them a good return on their investment.

Well, that’s what happened here. The more they sold off, the less they needed the legacy group.

This leaves me with a serious reality check. Some real considerations;
I’m 50 and companies like young blood
Inaccessibility is a constant threat
most of my technical experience is outdated and
I’ve been comfortably working from home because of some real transportation issues.

Yet with all of that, I believe I’m a real catch for almost any organization. I have a lot to offer, but at this stage in my life I’m feeling like I would have to really find a company that’s worthy. Bold statement? True! But if I don’t believe in my value who will?

I’m doing a lot of thinking about this both as it relates to me and my own career as well as trying to pick out aspects that can be helpful to others.

Like those who are now themselves looking to return to work after an acquired permanent disability.

Maybe others who are coping with job loss and finding that either their specific skills aren’t required or employers prefer a younger staff. the impact here obviously goes beyond blindness or disability.

Maybe this is a full podcast episode, a blog post or just some thoughts I share randomly on Twitter.

If you have a related story to share on returning to work following a disability, are you a midlife career switcher or perhaps you experienced ageism in the work place let me know. email me at ReidMyMindRadio@gmail.com. Maybe we can make a full episode from such a discussion and hopefully give some real advice to others.

Audio: Doe, Rae, Me, Fa , So La, Tea from Sound of Music

On that note, one of the other pots on the burner is this podcast.

I’m always thinking about ways to keep it fresh both for the listener and me as the producer. I know that if I want to improve I have to find new ways to communicate ideas. Some of that will be in the actual words, the production and the approach.

I am particularly interested in more collaboration.

First, I really want to increase interaction with listeners.
We have the comments section on the blog, ReidMyMind.com.
The email; ReidMyMindRadio@gmail.com
The Reid My Mind Radio Feedback Line where you can leave a voice mail: 1 570-798-7343

I would really love voice messages that I can share on the podcast. If you don’t want to call, you can grab your smart phone and record a voice memo and email the finished recording to ReidMyMindRadio@gmail.com.

I’d love to hear and share the voices of those who are listening. If you want to send a message but don’t want it shared just say so and it’s all good.

Then there’s collaboration with other podcasters and audio makers, writers, producers and creatives. I’m not exactly sure what this will turn out to, but I’m feeling like there’s just some real opportunity for some fun, relationship building and mutual growth that comes from working with others. This could be teaming up to work on a project that is published across multiple podcasts, blogs. It could be sharing ideas that are best fitted for different voices. I don’t know the specifics but I know I am open to it. I also strongly believe there are some who themselves may be thinking along these lines so I want to make sure I am clear about my willingness to create with others.

As I continue to expand the scope of this podcast, I’m reminded of why I initially created my blog back in 2006. I just wanted my own little space on the internet where I could share my thoughts and observations as I was beginning my new experience through the world of adjusting to blindness, becoming a person with a disability and all that came along with it. I wanted to meet others with similar experiences.

This podcast continues to be personal. I mean it’s called Reid My Mind Radio after all.

To some extent it’s a reflection of my own adjustment to blindness and even how I think about disability. Both of these being an ongoing process.

One of the things that I found helpful in my early adjustment years was that exchange of information with other Blind and Low Vision people. As I expand and continue to consider the larger disability community as a whole I feel the need to find others in order to exchange ideas and develop my own way of thinking about and living with disability.

I want to challenge myself to do more with this space. I have to admit it, that’s sort of scary to say knowing someone is listening and may call me out on that. But at this stage in my life I’m feeling like it’s scarier not to do it. Plus, I’m from the Bronx baby, we don’t scare that easy!

In 2019 we will continue exploring audio description from different angles. It’s a service and I dare to say art that is for us. The Blind and low vision community. Shouldn’t we have more of a role not only in providing feedback but also as participants in its creation?

There’s some other things that affect the community that deserve more attention. I’m hoping to make them conversations as opposed to me getting on my soapbox.

Speaking of soap boxes; If you enjoyed the 90 plus episodes to date, if you like the sound of where this is headed you need to …

Subscribe!
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Visit www.ReidMyMind.com

So there’s no confusion, that’s R to the E I D like my last name!

Now, it’s a new year, new opportunities and there’s only one way to look at that!

Audio: Flintstones “Yabba Dabba Doo!”

Audio: Reid My Mind outro

Peace!

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