Banjo's World

Deaf Village, How About A Compromise?
Banjo's World The new blog aggregator, Deaf Village is the featured topic in this vlog. It is captioned in English for people who are not fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). In hope for a compromise, I decided to propose a solution to this situation. It has been on my mind for the last few days. Basically, it may be the only true way of promoting inclusivity of all people from ...
Language Tech Culture Fri, Jun 20 2008 hide this blog

Comparing Deafread and Deaf Village's Guidelines
Banjo's World There is an ongoing controversy involving DeafRead and Deaf Village, the new blog aggregator for the deaf and hard of hearing bloggers and vloggers. People gave birth to Deaf Village out of spite to DeafRead over due to the dispute concerning their policies. They felt that DeafRead was being unfair to them. The removal of Cochlear Implant Online was the final straw. I...
Language Tech Culture Sat, Jun 14 2008 hide this blog

Deaf Priests Vs. Castle Hills, Texas
Banjo's World Yesterday, a group of deaf priests successfully won a fight with the city hall in acquiring the permit to run a seminary. The residents of Castle Hills protested the seminary out of fear that it may open up the door to group homes and fraternities.The seminary will be on an 8,100 square-foot-house. I think I can understand why some may be concerned about the idea of f...
Media Audism Legal Wed, Jun 11 2008 hide this blog

Oh The Drama!
Banjo's World I'm not going to make a big of commentary out of this. As many of you may know, it was brought to everybody's attention that the DeafRead team had decided to stop publishing blog entries from Cochlear Implant Online over allegations of Rachel Chaikof failing to disclose that Cochlear Awareness Network (CAN) is owned by Cochlear Americas. The DeafRead team was aware of...
Tech Culture Mon, Jun 09 2008 hide this blog

Sorenson, Shame on You!
Banjo's World Sorenson, shame on you!Shame on you!The provincial government of British Columbia, shame on you!Shame on you!The federal government of Canada, shame on you!Shame on you!Some of you may have heard by now, Sorenson set up a VRS (Video Relay Service) call centre in Burnaby, British Columbia. It is a province right above the state of Washington. Some of you may think that...
Language Tech Legal Culture Mon, May 19 2008 hide this blog

Faces of Captioning...
Banjo's World VITAC, a leader in closed captioning in America recently launched a new campaign to heighten awareness of the impact of captions have on many people. It is called CaptionsON. Below is what they had to say on the subject of why captions matter.Captions matter because captions are…Free to viewers of television and the Internet.Accessible to individuals living in nearly ...
Media Tech Wed, May 14 2008 hide this blog

Welcome to Banjosworld.com!
Banjo's World Yep, I finally bought my own domain. I also decided to change the template of my blog. For these who have me on the blogroll, you may have to change the web address from my old address to banjosworld.com.I don't have much to blog about at the moment. I just wanted to let everybody know about the change here at Banjo's World.Have a great day!
Tech Thu, Apr 24 2008 hide this blog Moved from DeafRead Extra

Sweet Nothing In My Ear: A Movie Review
Banjo's World Some of you may have watched the movie earlier tonight on CBS. If you haven't watched the movie and don’t want to read anything spoiling the movie; Then I suggest that you hold yourself back from reading this. Also, I have to emphasize that this blog entry is not about the cochlear implants. It is about the movie and what I thought of it.Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin...
Media Sun, Apr 20 2008 hide this blog

Captioning Sucks!
Banjo's World It's a good website to check out. They tell you all of the problems associated with captioning and more. As I mentioned earlier today about captioning issues with HDTV and high-definition media/video players such as Blu-ray and HDTV receivers.They will tell you what you need to know and have the sources to back it up. It is amazing how much power the corporations wiel...
Media Language Audism Tech Sun, Apr 13 2008 hide this blog

PS3 & Blu-ray Players: Why Closed Captioning is Necessary
Banjo's World The HDMI cable, it is a wonderful thing to have. It can carry the 1080p signal bringing you true high-definition video and audio quality. The bad news is that there are drawbacks. The cable itself is only able to transmit a video signal and an audio signal simultaneously.What this means is that you cannot put any other signal through a HDMI cable because it will not b...
Tech Legal Sun, Apr 13 2008 hide this blog

Hear and Now: An Intriguing Documentary?
Banjo's World The other day, I stumbled onto a preview for an upcoming documentary that was recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It won an award. It is about a deaf couple in their sixties. They get cochlear implants together. The interesting part is that they are both fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). As you know, it is still controversial to even speak of cochle...
Media Tech Wed, Apr 09 2008 hide this blog

Raychelle is an Asset to the Deaf Community
Banjo's World Raychelle is a deaf v/blogger. Her blogger is named Rays of Raychelle. She has an excellent command on both languages of ASL and English. What makes her different from many ASL vloggers is the fact that she has a cochlear implant. Unfortunately, it also makes her a target.What I am about to say may generate some heat. However, I will not just sit here and say nothing ...
Language Education Tech Culture Fri, Mar 21 2008 hide this blog

Happy Birthday Project readOn!
Banjo's World Project readOn just turned a year old. They already made an impact on the internet over the year. If you ask me, I think it's quite an achievement on what they have done so far. I command them for doing a great job.As a part of the celebration, you are now able to embed any captioned video from Projectreadon.com on your blog. Just like you can with YouTube and Google ...
Tech Fri, Mar 21 2008 hide this blog

Want to Chat with Banjo?
Banjo's World Hello Bluegrassers! Yes, that's what I'm going to call all of my readers from now on.Bluegrassers!Bluegrass is a form of American roots music strongly influenced by Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. Banjo is a common musical instrument used for Bluegrass music. Makes sense to call all of you that, doesn't it?It was LaRonda of "The Ear of My Heart", who ma...
Fri, Mar 14 2008 hide this blog Moved from DeafRead Extra

Banjo's Thoughts on Jericho
Banjo's World In this vlog, I discuss the episode of Jericho that was aired on CBS on Tuesday, March 4, 2008. The vlog is captioned for these who are not fluent in American Sign Language. For these who prefer to watch ASL vlogs without subtitles, you can disable it by clicking onto the “CC” icon.I am looking forward to what all of you have to say regarding the recent episode of Jer...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Tech Sun, Mar 09 2008 hide this blog

Ding Dong, the HD DVD Format is Dead
Banjo's World That's right, the HD DVD format is now officially dead as of today. Toshiba, the biggest backer of HD DVD announced today they are dropping the format due to the declining sales in both hardware and software. Ever since Warner Bros. Entertainment announced they were going to support Blu-ray exclusively back in early January, it resulted in a massive domino effect. New...
Tue, Feb 19 2008 hide this blog Moved from DeafRead Extra

Open Captioning: Why We Need It
Banjo's World In a recent e-mail I received, the person mentioned that he is working with the local deaf community to organize events at the theatre. He is trying to get a V.I.P. -type program set up for the deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers so it would be easier to show open-captioned movies instead of using the RWC system. I must say he's one heck of a guy because of his dedica...
Media Language Tech Fri, Feb 15 2008 hide this blog

Should We Subtitle Our Vlogs?
Banjo's World I am sure a number of readers are tired of reading about subtitles in our vlogs. Though I still want to do a poll and see what the average reader think. There are two polls below. surveys - Take Our Poll surveys - Take Our Poll For the last week, there was a surge in the discussion of whether we should subtitle our vlogs or not. As you know, I do subtitle most of my ...
Media Language Tech Culture Thu, Feb 14 2008 hide this blog

Jericho returns to TV tonight!
Banjo's World For these who are fans and are looking forward to the second season premiere of TV show, "Jericho." I just wanted to give out a reminder that it is airing tonight.There will be only seven episodes this season since it was a last-minute production due to the setbacks as caused by the cancellation back in May. They shot two different endings for the season finale. One e...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Tue, Feb 12 2008 hide this blog

The Forest: An Animated ASL Story
Banjo's World This is a pretty cool one. It's an ASL story being told by a computer-generated person. I don't believe I have ever seen one this well done. Yes, the body model itself could be more realistic but that's not the point. The animated character features body movements, the facial expressions, the ASL classifiers and more. This is where they really excelled in. Vcom3D and...
Language Tech Fri, Feb 08 2008 hide this blog

Super Bowl Ad Rankings
Banjo's World I decided to browse the internet for the reactions to "Bob's House", which aired during the pre-game event yesterday. I came across this article. Just take a look and I think you will be pleased to see how it turned out.Entertainment Score RankingsAds ranked based on their ability to entertain viewers. The top entertaining ads starting with best were: IRONMAN, Pepsi (...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Culture Mon, Feb 04 2008 hide this blog

Captioned Superbowl Ads!
Banjo's World As many of you may be aware of, they don't often caption or subtitle TV advertisements online for the deaf and hard of hearing. That was always the case with Superbowl ads ever since they started airing them online on a yearly basis following the Super Bowl event.Today, that is no longer the case. I received an e-mail from John Erskine, the co-founder of ProjectReadon...
Media Language Tech Mon, Feb 04 2008 hide this blog

Rock Band: A Game For Everybody!
Banjo's World If you think about it, the deaf people wouldn't think a game like "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero" and such types of games would appeal to them. The hearing people would think the same about the deaf people. I know because I have gotten asked questions from some of the hearing people I know.Well, you may be surprised to find out how wrong you would be. Rock Band is really...
Tech Culture Sun, Jan 20 2008 hide this blog

Jericho: Tick Tick Boom Preview - Captioned
Banjo's World Earlier today, I wrote that Shoshannah Stern would be in the second season of "Jericho." I also posted a link to the video clip at the official website. Though it wasn't captioned.Now, I want to thank Bill Creswell for captioning the video. A few days ago, I mentioned how he is working to caption as many movie trailers as he can free of charge. We shouldn't take it fo...
Tue, Jan 01 2008 hide this blog

Shoshannah Stern Stays in Jericho
Banjo's World As some of you know, the show, Jericho will be returning on February 12. The last time I covered the subject, I was unsure if Shoshannah Stern, the deaf actress, would be involved with the second season or not.Today, I took a look at a video clip promoting the show on the official "Jericho" website. I was able to spot Shoshannah Stern in a few shots meaning she is sti...
Media Tue, Jan 01 2008 hide this blog

More Captioned Movie Trailers!
Banjo's World Thanks to Bill Creswell who responded to my recent blog entry, "Captioned Movie Trailers!" He gave me a web address leading to a website titled, "Subtitled Movie Trailers!" Click here to check it out!They have over 100 trailers that are subtitled. I checked some of them out. The subtitles appear to be burnt in with the movie. Unlikely Bill Creswell's captioned trailer...
Media Tech Mon, Dec 31 2007 hide this blog

Captioned Movie Trailers!
Banjo's World Bill Creswell, a web developer who works for a theatre that provides closed captioning and descriptive audio. He first contacted me earlier this year in response to my captioned vlogs and asked how I did it. I shared some information with him regarding captioning video clips.I must say I am pleased with what he has done so far. The reason why he wanted my help in the ...
Media Language Tech Mon, Dec 31 2007 hide this blog

Senator Tom Harkin Partners with ProjectReadOn.com
Banjo's World Today, I was sent an e-mail from the founder of ProjectReadOn.com, Mateo Gutierrez. I was pleased to learn that a politician actually took the time to partner up with Mateo to provide closed captioning of web video for the deaf and hard of hearing internet users. Here's the press release that was issued.Tuesday, December 4, 2007Press Release TOMHARKIN.COM PARTNERS WIT...
Tech Tue, Dec 11 2007 hide this blog

Jericho Returns on February 12, 2008
Banjo's World I know I haven't been writing for my blog in the last couple months. I don't expect to write on a frequent basis this month, as it will be a very busy month.Now, let's get to the good news. According to Variety, "Jericho" will return on February 12. It will be replacing the recently cancelled TV series, "Cane". It will be airing at 10:00pm, ET/PT.As some of you may re...
Media Art and Storytelling Tue, Dec 04 2007 hide this blog

What's Wrong With This Picture?
Banjo's World Earlier this week, I went to Wal-Mart. I was browsing through the DVD racks and I came across a DVD. It grabbed my attention because of the cyan colour taking up the whole cover with a simple logo in the middle. Then I took a closer look. I was taken off guard by what I just had read. I had to read at least a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Apparently ...
Language Tech Sun, Oct 21 2007 hide this blog

The Influence of Marcel Marceau
Banjo's World
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Mon, Sep 24 2007 hide this blog

Cochlear Implants: A Wedding Sermon
Banjo's World In this vlog, I decided to bring up a subject of something that occurred at a wedding ceremony a few weeks ago. It was a deaf couple's wedding; the bride is a good friend of mine. I've known her for many years. She is Polish and most of the family members at the wedding were Polish and many were born in Poland. In my city, they have a strong Polish community and many [...]
Audism Sun, Sep 16 2007 hide this blog

The Deaf Family: The Trailer
Banjo's World The folks at Mosdeux are at it again. They are currently producing a movie called, 'The Deaf Family'. Here's the synopsis that is featured on the official website.Anything that could go wrong inside The Deaf Family will go wrong! This light-hearted family sitcom about a dysfunctional deaf family going through trials and tribulations as each characters experiments with [...]
Sun, Sep 16 2007 hide this blog

Nuts to Kokonut
Banjo's World Unsurprisingly, Mike McConnell of Kokonut Pundits is trying to make it all about himself. He's always trying to be the victim at the hands of the so-called Deaf militants. He's one of these people who gets into your face till you say something and then he will scream, 'Deaf Militant! Deaf Militant! Deaf Militant!' Now he's accusing Ben Moore of "personally slamming" [...]
Audism Sun, Sep 09 2007 hide this blog

Bionic Woman: The Deaf Character
Banjo's World Recently, there was a controversy surrounding the upcoming TV series, 'Bionic Woman' featuring a deaf character being portrayed by a hearing actress. Even though an executive at NBC made a request to restore the deaf character's hearing, quite a number of people still viewed the pre-air pilot episode. They often show the early episodes to the executives and critics [...]
Art and Storytelling Tech Culture Fri, Jul 27 2007 hide this blog

American Sign Language In Ontario's Schools
Banjo's World Last night, an article was published over the internet. This is good news for the deaf communities across the province of Ontario in Canada. The government of Ontario is making a promise to improve the learning environment for the students who are deaf or hard of hearing. They are going to allow ASL and LSQ to be used in classrooms. This is for public-funded schools, [...]
Media Education Culture Fri, Jul 13 2007 hide this blog

Banjo's World on iPhone
Banjo's World Today at 6:00pm in every time zone across the USA, iPhone will be released to the public. Though it come with two big price tags, $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.From what I have looked at, I have to say this is the most amazing mobile phone I have yet to see. Some of the shortcomings are that it doesn't come with iChat at launch, but hopefully it [...]
Tech Fri, Jun 29 2007 hide this blog

Aspect Ratios: What You Should Know
Banjo's World Thank you for all the positive feedback regarding my last blog entry titled, 'HDTV Captioning: What You Should Know'. As a result, here's another 'What You Should Know' column.The reason why I'm writing this is in response to several complaints among some deaf people regarding subtitle issues while watching movies on their DVD players. There are a lot of people out [...]
Tech Fri, Jun 22 2007 hide this blog

HDTV Captioning: What You Should Know
Banjo's World The technology of closed captioning is a wonderful tool for the deaf and hard of hearing. Even the hearing people are finding the benefits in using the technology. I just want to let everybody know that this blog entry will not be covering the issues regarding the problems with captioning on HD channels through some cable/satellite services. Mainly, I will be focusing [...]
Tech Mon, Jun 18 2007 hide this blog

Save Jericho: Mission Accomplished!
Banjo's World It's official. 'Jericho' will be brought back next year. No specific date has been set but it's likely to be somewhere in February or March, maybe April at the latest. They will be producing seven episodes. They are hoping that they will get more viewers. After all, publicity is what they need. We gave them the publicity and they have taken it in stride. The truth is, [...]
Media Wed, Jun 06 2007 hide this blog

Save Jericho: Mission Accomplished?
Banjo's World Well, not yet. Though we are getting closer than ever.A few hours ago, several reports started coming in regarding the cancelled TV series, 'Jericho'. It has been reported that CBS is now reconsidering the cancellation of 'Jericho'. I must say that I'm incredibly proud of the people who got involved with the campaign. With the number of people involved, we did make a [...]
Art and Storytelling Tue, Jun 05 2007 hide this blog

Walls of Jericho: A Message
Banjo's World In this vlog, I have a message to both the deaf and hearing people who participated in the campaign to save the TV series, 'Jericho'. In the vlog, I share some of the details and facts that some may not be aware of. The vlog is subtitled, but for whom these who don't want the subtitles on, just turn it off by clicking onto the 'CC' logo if it's on.By the way, in the [...]
Art and Storytelling Tech Sun, May 27 2007 hide this blog

Jericho: The NUTS Campaign
Banjo's World Nuts Online, an online store that sells... well... nuts. They have decided to join the campaign to save the TV series, 'Jericho'. The best part is that they're taking advantage of the war term, NUTS. The term stands for 'Not Understanding Terms of Surrender'.. Go here to check the site out. The reason why they're using the term, 'NUTS' is because of what happened in [...]
Thu, May 24 2007 hide this blog

UPDATE: Save Jericho: The Letter-Writing Campaign
Banjo's World We are continuing the fight to get 'Jericho' renewed for the second season. We strongly believe that CBS made one of the worst mistakes to nuke 'Jericho' off the air. We are not alone; there are millions of fans out there that are now upset at the news of the cancellation. There's even an online petition that is nearing 50,000 signatures at the moment. That's just in [...]
Media Sat, May 19 2007 hide this blog

Save Jericho: The Letter-Writing Campaign
Banjo's World For every fan of the TV series, 'Jericho'. As I announced earlier, CBS has decided to cancel the TV series. This show features a deaf character in a recurring role. I am asking all of the fans of the TV series to write a letter to Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President of Programming Operations at CBS. CBS need to be told that we don't want this show to be taken [...]
Art and Storytelling Wed, May 16 2007 hide this blog

CBS Nukes Jericho!
Banjo's World Bad news, the CBS recently revealed its fall schedule. Apparently 'Jericho' has been cancelled for good. The show featured a deaf character in a reoccurring role. I'm disappointed that this show has been cancelled. The show was starting to get really good. For God's sake, they had a big cliffhanger in the season finale. Actually, it's the series finale now that it's [...]
Media Wed, May 16 2007 hide this blog

Working Together To Make Changes
Banjo's World I think people who read Lantana's recent blog entry, 'Variety Is The Spice of Life' are taking it the wrong way. I certainly hope people won't take this the wrong way either.What I believe Lantana's saying is like the expression, give the mouse a cookie, it'll want a glass of milk. In today's America, people are like that now. They get a cookie, they ask for a glass [...]
Legal Culture Tue, May 15 2007 hide this blog

The Worst ASL Vlog Ever
Banjo's World After viewing Oscar's 'Worst ASL Vlog' bit. I thought I´d join in and have some fun. This is my first attempt at making the worst ASL vlog possible. If you thought this ASL vlog was terrible, then I accomplished the mission! Feel free to heckle me at my expense.
Culture Sat, May 12 2007 hide this blog

The Importance of Communication
Banjo's World My whole life, I have been told so many times that I´ve lost count about how fortunate I am to have a family capable of communicating with each other. They even have commented that it is as if I came from a deaf family. Everyone else in my family is hearing; I´m the only deaf person in the entire family. Sure, I have wished on several occasions that there were some [...]
Language Audism Education Culture Fri, May 04 2007 hide this blog

Conveying Your Message Effectively...
Banjo's World As many of you may be familiar with Ben's blog, 'Der Sankt Speaks'. In a recent blog entry titled, 'How Insulting!´ somebody under a pseudonym (fictitious name), 'Deaf Philosophy' posted a lengthy comment, which I thought was well thought out. S/he appeared to be coherent (able to speak clearly and logical) and clarified (less confusing and clearer) where the real [...]
Audism Wed, May 02 2007 hide this blog