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Hello to all. My name is Jake Joehl and I just registered on here a few minutes ago. I'm 33 and have been blind since birth. I have a somewhat rare eye condition called Leber's Congenital Amaurosis. It is basically a discolored retina, but beyond that I can't tell you any details. What I do know is that the daughter of Chicago Cub Derrek Lee also has this condition. On these pages I hope to chronicle just some, or maybe all, the events that have happened in my life thus far. I am testing the waters here at Tabulas, if you will, because I received absolutely no comments in my other journal and I'm thinking of going back there and deleting all my entries. When I attempted to find a cure for this all my inquiries went unanswered. Maybe nobody really does like me, LOL! Actually I have a lot of friends and they have a lot of me, and Lord knows why I was so unpopular over there. I guess those people are all a buncha losers anyway! Having said all that, please take just a few moments out of your busy lives to read and post comments. Comment registration is required but it is absolutely free so no worries. Thank you so very much and cheers for now. Let's hope this is clear and legible.

Today's entry will focus on an issue which has been on my mind for a few months. That issue is whether or not US paper money should be made accessible to people who have low or no vision. Back in 2002 the American Council of the Blind (ACB), filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department claiming that our country's paper money was inaccessible, which it still is. The ACB was aided in their efforts by a Washington-based attorney. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), on the other hand, has continuously opposed this decision calling it "ludicrous" and "dangerously misguided." What's interesting, however, is that the NFB originally supported the idea of accessible paper currency. But when the ACB filed their lawsuit, the NFB did an about-face. A petition has been launched at www.money4all.info. A grassroots campaign has also been started at www.OurMoneyToo.org. Both these websites, as well as a third website which is linked to on the second website I mentioned, cover this issue in great detail and are a must-read. Please do our country and its great citizens a favor by signing the petition at www.money4all.info. If you're like me and feel everyone with a visual impairment has the right to know what they are spending and what they are getting back in return, then this is something you should act upon immediately. Please note that the "four" in that web address is the number 4 and not the word. Thank you kindly.

Hello to all. Wow! I can't believe this is already my third entry on here! Tempus fugit! That's "time flies," for those of you detail-oriented people out there. I do believe I got it right too, or perhaps a refresher course in Latin might do me some good. But anyway, quite a lot has happened since my last entry, yes indeed! For one, I am a year older than I was when I last visited these pages. That's right, tomorrow I will have been a year older for exactly one whole week. But, I did not just party on for one day and that was that. As a matter of fact some of my family took me out for dinner on the Saturday before my birthday. As if that wasn't enough, I partied with my neighbors too. They got me a cake and a card. The card was signed by all of them and I am keeping it as a treasure. One of my siblings and her husband also sent me a card which was writtten in Braille. It is actually a Starbucks gift card. For those of you not familiar with Starbucks, it is a coffee shop. Actually they have a lot more than just coffee, which is good because I'm not a coffee drinker. I hate the stuff! Speaking of Starbucks, a neighbor treated me there this weekend for breakfast. So that was my birthday and it was a lot of fun. I'll talk to y'all on the flipside.