Writing lately, by hand.
November 2nd, 2010Pen on paper. Shouldn’t feel so foreign to do a lot of it, but it does. Lately I’ve been writing more by hand instead of on the computer. Notice: less blogs. Have I given up on blogging again? No, but it’s likely I’ll go through periods where I’m prolific with blogging and then have a lapse. It doesn’t mean that Read the full post…
Sometimes I get tired of explaining I’m deaf
October 12th, 2010There’s this woman who lives in my town who seems to pop up everywhere I go, who always approaches everyone in the coffeehouse or restaurant to say a few words to each. I don’t know if she’s lonely or just social, but she forgets she has already met me 100 times before and each time I have to explain that Read the full post…
Poisoned by Negativity in the Blogosphere
October 10th, 2010I haven’t written anything recently because I tend to write when I’m reading more. Recently I spent a lot of time reading various blogs and watching various vlogs, all of them deaf-centric. I started to feel a bit poisoned by the negativity. The truth is, more than half of the negativity wasn’t in the blogs themselves, but in the comments. Read the full post…
The Smoke Alarm is (NOT) going off!
September 28th, 2010When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time doing artwork. My last two years of high school, I spent hours everyday in the art classroom working on one project or another, totally immersed in my work. One day I turned around and everyone was gone. I walked to the other section of the art department and Read the full post…
About Deaf Aliens
September 25th, 2010Last night, my roof was ripped right off the house in an instant, which was unpleasant because it let the mosquitos in. The culprit was this silvery and polka-dotted spaceship that had landed on the house and apparently has a vacuum setting. Unpleasant. Fortunately the roof must have jammed it, because the whole thing shut off before we were sucked Read the full post…
Yakety Yak, I talk back!
September 24th, 2010You ain’t gonna rock and roll no more Yakety yak (don’t talk back) -The Coasters (1958) yak 1. a large, stocky, shaggy-haired wild ox, Bos grunniens, of the Tibetan highlands, having long, curved horns: endangered. I spy a shaggy yak over there on yon horizon*. -noun 2. to talk, esp. uninterruptedly and idly; gab; chatter: They’ve been yakking on the Read the full post…
ASL FLASH MOB!
September 23rd, 2010Today, a group of us did an ASL flash mob performance of u2′s Beautiful Day. This was one of our Deaf Awareness Week projects for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, where I work, and involved Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Interpreters, CODAs, and ASL students. I’m very proud that we accomplished what we set out to do, with some Read the full post…
Shameless Self-Promotion
September 22nd, 2010Not too long ago, I woke up with a dream still racing through my mind and thought it’d make a nice story. The story grew and grew until I realized it was saying to me, with a little kid’s voice, “No, I’m gonna be a book. A whole big grown up book, I am!” And so it was. A month Read the full post…
My Deaf and Hearing Brothers ROCK, oh yes.
September 22nd, 2010Hey, why not? While I’m on the topic of family and appreciating them regardless of their hearing status, I figured I might as well give a “shout-out” to my brothers (what would the deaf version of a shout-out be?) because they ROCK. I’ve been blessed with two. One’s deaf and one’s hearing.
I Have Awesome Hearing Parents
September 21st, 2010I just wanted to say it. I have awesome hearing parents. Why am I even mentioning that they’re hearing? Because I just think it’s worth mentioning that parents can be great even when they’re hearing. Because throughout my entire adult life, I’ve seen looks of disappointment on deaf people’s faces when they learn I don’t have deaf parents, EVEN THOUGH Read the full post…
Deaf + Screen-free Day + 2010 = Harder Than It Should Be!
September 19th, 2010Recently, I posted a blog about my self-imposed challenge to have a day without screens, meaning no computers, pagers, TVs, or Videophones. For me, that day was yesterday. It was much harder than it should be, and shows how addicted I am to the internet in particular. I believe that my being deaf contributed to how difficult it is. After Read the full post…
Things I wonder about us…
September 17th, 2010A random collection of things I wonder: Does every country’s deaf community have the same oral deaf vs. signing deaf conflict, or are there any with total acceptance of each other’s differences? When ASL interpreters grow old and become deaf, do they join the deaf community in a new way? Why do people push each other apart when we should Read the full post…
If This Was Your Last Day on Earth, How Would You Spend It?
September 15th, 2010I’m feeling nostalgic this morning, so I was looking through journals I’ve kept over the years, and in one of them, my wife had written on the last page that exact question: If this was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it? It’s not morbidity-it was a writing exercise. That particular day was in December, 2001, a Read the full post…
A Challenge: A Day Without Screens
September 13th, 2010Think you can skip internet, TV, movies, and video games for a day? Turn off the computer? Put away your Blackberries, your iPhones, your Sidekicks? Put your VPs on “Do Not Call”!? (I imagine horrified expressions on some of your faces.) That’s my challenge for all of you. A day without your eyes looking at a TV screen, a pager/phone Read the full post…
Deaf Muslims
September 11th, 2010I was curious about how many deaf Muslims there are, at least deaf Muslims who sign. I’ve never met one myself, as far as I know. I’d like to. I think diversity makes life more interesting, including diversity in our beliefs. If we all believed the same thing, it might be a more peaceful world, but it might also be Read the full post…
Being Deaf on 9/11
September 10th, 2010It’s a few hours ’til 9/11 here. I think the recent stories about the mosque that’s planned for near the WTC site and the on-again-off-again burnings of the Qurans (which I think is an absolutely wrong act to commit) has made this year’s recognition of 9/11 a little more prominent. Frankly, on that day I thought the world had changed Read the full post…
Protected: Being a Deaf Dad
September 9th, 2010There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The Beautiful, The Beautiful River (Part 3)
September 9th, 2010Ok, so now it’s not so much “at the river” as by the dry creek surrounding the camp, once we got back. Details, schmetails. We arrived at our campsite with bellies full of decadent ice cream from the best ice cream place in the area, possibly in the state, and boxes of non-damp firewood. This time, the fire was a Read the full post…
Practices in the Blogosphere
September 29th, 2010I wrote an earlier post today about how the things we’re skilled at, whether they’re good things or not, are due to the practice that we do on a daily basis. I wanted to directly address the practices I’ve witnessed online in the blogosphere, just to share my perspective. I’m relatively new to reading blogs, though I’ve written them for Read the full post…