RSGeo-007

Funny Moment 11: Human vs Elevator
RSGeo-007 Another time when I attended NTID, there were many of us who were a bit on the nutty side. Various students managed to find ways to abuse and confuse the elevators in the Ellingson dorm building, known as Tower A. I managed to make it think it was opening up on 7th floor when it was actually on the 6th. A trip down to the basement reset its floor identity crisis.There...
Wed, Feb 06 2013

Post-surgery Knees - Part 9
RSGeo-007 Crap...Double and triple crap...Just when I've been improving like I said in Post-surgery Knees - Part 8, something else comes up and it's a nice setback.Seems I may need hip surgery since my left hip's giving me trouble. I'm figuring it's a fall I had in a parking lot that did it while going to an event in the early summer. I was doing good all through the summer up ...
Tue, Jan 29 2013

Growing Up Deaf - Update 6
RSGeo-007 Earlier in my Growing Up Deaf - Update 3 post, I talked about MSSD. I was out at MSSD all day during their academic bowl as I mentioned in the previous post, MSSD's Academic Bowl.One of the first things I realized from back then while talking with a couple parents is that my signing skills weren't exactly that great. So if I had gone to MSSD:- I'd be more oral than si...
Thu, Jan 24 2013

MSSD's Academic Bowl
RSGeo-007 On January 10-13, MSSD had an academic bowl. Jamie Berke and I went to the January 12 events. [link] was quite an event. Her son's events with Woodson were done well and they managed to go pretty far. They had some good questions posed to the students.I had the feeling after taking a look at the stats posted on the wall that it would be interesting if MSD and MSSD co...
Fri, Jan 18 2013

Phyllis Diller Passes at 95
RSGeo-007 The entertainment world lost a comedy legend. Phyllis Diller passed away at 95. I wasn't born yet when she started, but I was hearing about her comedic acts here and there. And the wigs and other stuff she wore including that LONG cigarette holder... Seems that kind of thing added to her acts."I bury a lot of my ironing in the backyard"Only problem when I dig them up,...
Tue, Sep 25 2012

Post-surgery Knees - Part 8
RSGeo-007 I returned to Clemyjontri park last year. This time, I'd left the wheelchair and cane in the other car. I was already over halfway there when I remembered, and even Jamie knew I was in for a bit of a challenge.Apparently I did better than I thought. I was able to stop a few times in places before continuing on.I'm wondering if I can actually do the graduation walk thi...
Tue, Sep 18 2012

Cheers to DC, More Jeers to NYC
RSGeo-007 Washington DC's gotten some rather nice-looking accessible cabs. Why can't NYC do the same thing?Hey, Mayor Bloom-boy... Get a load of THIS!Wheelchair-Accessible Taxis on the Rise in Maryland SuburbsWheelchair-accessible taxis available in Prince George’sEven the DC Metro paratransit has some of these. Can you do this, Mayor Bloomie? Come on, seriously... 13,000+ ca...
Wed, Sep 12 2012

Funny Moment 10: Subway Misdirection
RSGeo-007 A year after 9/11, I was in NYC for some personal business. I managed to get all the travel logistics figured out including how to get to a friend's place in Queens on the subway. But for some strange reason, I used FOUR lines rather than two.As it turns out, I got on the wrong line, but it fortunately got me in the direction I was going. A quick map check showed me a...
Tue, Sep 04 2012

NAD Convention in Louisville, KY
RSGeo-007 I should have written this sooner, but whoa... The NAD's going to have a difficult time topping the convention in Louisville, KY, this past July 3-7, 2012. The next one is in Atlanta, Georgia on July 2014. It was activity-packed right in the middle of downtown Louisville, KY, within walking distance of many good restaurants and the waterfront. Many of us probably didn...
Mon, Aug 27 2012

Review of Sony's Captioning Glasses
RSGeo-007 I just recently got back from watching The Dark Knight Rises with captions. In this case, it didn't use open captioning or rear window captioning (RWC). The theatre used the Sony subtitle/caption glasses. They do take a little getting used to at first. No captions will show until the beginning of the movie.They've got their good points and their bad points. But basica...
Sun, Aug 19 2012

Crimeware and Malware
RSGeo-007 Remember this post?Sherlock's Computer Nearly Taken HostageThis is yet another good reason to have a second account on your computer. Don't use it for anything except to use it when your computer is badly infected, installing the malware checkers after setup if they're not there already. The advantage is that when the original account is infected, the second account s...
Fri, Aug 17 2012

"Put Away Your Guns and Knives"
RSGeo-007 Back when Virginia Tech was hit by the student shooting other students and teachers, it started with some colleges setting up an alert system of some sort, usually sending alerts to someone's pager via email or text. It also got me wondering how other students like me are able to keep from getting killed when this happens. It's too easy for deaf people to walk into th...
Wed, Nov 23 2011

Gally Homecoming Game Win - 10/22
RSGeo-007 It was a pretty interesting Homecoming game on October 22 against Becker College. Gally won 44-20. A couple safeties, and a bunch of touchdowns and field goals. Just when it looked like Becker was going to catch up, Gally thundered ahead. It was 24-0 at half time.Gallaudet celebrates Homecoming win over Becker, Matt Harris records seven sacksThe food choices weren't a...
Wed, Nov 16 2011

Funny Moment 9: Silly String
RSGeo-007 When I attended NTID, there were a few times I'd heard about and seen Silly Stringed hallways in the dorms. It gets even more impressive when you cover someone else with the stuff. A friend and I were talking a bit and I had a can of the stuff in my hand, talking in the doorway of the dorm room. One girl walks by, and I give her a short burst of String spray. Next th...
Wed, Sep 14 2011

Growing Up Deaf Update 5
RSGeo-007 Something else came to mind when I was talking with someone about their school years, related to the Growing Up Deaf Part 19 and Part 20 posts. Back when I attended the School From Hell, there were a number of times some kids angrily asked me why I was a year older than them. I told them maybe due to my birthdate being so early in the school year? Maybe something else...
Fri, Sep 02 2011

Hearing Aids STILL Cost Too Much
RSGeo-007 The Why Hearing Aids Cost So Much blog post on the SayWhatClub blog pretty much has nailed the question and issue right there. Then they follow up with The Cost of Hearing Aids–Why It May NOT Be About Supply and Demand.I've always wondered why the prices of analog hearing aids have stayed sky-high over the years, despite many being made and sold? By now, we should hav...
Mon, Jun 27 2011

Black Sand Review
RSGeo-007 A few weeks ago, MSSD's Malz Theatre showed Black Sand. This looks like a thriller style of movie, complete with a lot of suspense. But what made the movie move slowly in its two hour showtime were all the flashbacks. Despite that, it was fairly good. I had a hard time understanding some things due to the signing nature of some of the actors, but I managed to understa...
Tue, May 10 2011

The Persistent 4th Grade Reading Level Myth
RSGeo-007 I came across this article, Born deaf, a Pinellas County girl starts school - and hears the school bell. Then one paragraph I read made me think "not again."“Unfortunately, people who have hearing aides only, really can only get to a fourth grade reading level," said speech language pathologist Sarah Wilson. "You can't get very far in school with that reading level. R...
Wed, Apr 27 2011

You Have To Be Hearing To Say Yikes!
RSGeo-007 Seek Geo's Deaf? YIKES!! got me laughing a bit. Sure, I've had my share of people who have said "I'm sorry" when they find I'm deaf. Nothing to be sorry about. Let's communicate!Two of the most oddball things I'd ever heard, and fortunately, I've only heard them said once...- Heard from a friend who heard it from someone else - "If I touch you, will I become deaf also...
Fri, Apr 22 2011

Why No Movie Subtitles on Flights?
RSGeo-007 It's been over 10 years since captioning was introduced. One place it has consistently never shown up is on planes. The airline industry keeps saying it's too expensive to add. How hard can it be to add in subtitle/caption support? Those little TVs and wall monitors can show the words. With some airline companies, the pre-flight instruction videos are captioned or sub...
Thu, Apr 14 2011

Growing Up Deaf Update 3
RSGeo-007 Jamie and I were talking about the mumps when she was doing an article for about.com and the subject of the mumps comes up. I mention in Growing Up Deaf Part 1 and Part 5 about the diagnosis and how I lost my hearing. But she gave me a historical aspect that I had to check.I have a paper from my doctor back then that my dad was "trying to locate record of MMR." I don'...
Mon, Feb 21 2011

Life's Little Musings
RSGeo-007 There's days that I wonder how things would have been different with me.When I was adopted, mom was married to a highway patrol officer who died in the line of duty a little over a year later. I'm wondering how things would be different had he lived. Would he still be a patrolman? Would we still be living in California?I started losing my hearing around kindergarten a...
Tue, Jul 27 2010

Back from the NAD Conference in Philadelphia!
RSGeo-007 So I'm posting this a bit late! Whoa... What a week... I was out at the NAD convention in Philadelphia, PA, with Jamie Berke. We took Amtrak from the Alexandria, VA, station to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. Then SEPTA to the Marriott Hotel, two stops away on the 13th Street station. It was pretty much a relaxed ride getting there.The hotel's Grand Ballroom was u...
Mon, Jul 19 2010

"See What I'm Saying" Review
RSGeo-007 Last Saturday afternoon, I saw Hilari Scarl's "See What I'm Saying" documentary at MSSD's Malz Theatre. Many short films done by deaf have been done, but a documentary? It was pretty nicely done. So's the introductory music video by Powder. We see Robert DeMayo going from having an apartment to homeless to having a home, shared with the homeowner. It's a common theme ...
Tue, Jun 15 2010

Hearing Aids vs Humans
RSGeo-007 I had to laugh when I read Eh? Huh? What?'s blog on What Not To Do With Your Hearing Aids.I've had my share of broken tubing including ones that just plain split. In the split case, I was in class in high school and it was whistling the entire time. At the end of class, my interpreter told me. I wondered why no one told me at all.Whatever happened to saving the dead b...
Sun, Mar 28 2010

Relay SWAT calls
RSGeo-007 Having read the Watch Out for That SWAT! blog post and a followup article in the Washington Post recently, it's a frightening thing when your home is invaded by a SWAT team. Apparently they're there for no reason other than the fact that someone tried to "prank" the police into thinking you're a dangerous person.I use a cane or wheelchair when I'm out and about due to...
Thu, Oct 01 2009

"Growing Up Deaf" Update 3
RSGeo-007 Sherlock Steve's blog post against the deafness.about.com post! reminded me of a few things.But first, in my Growing up Deaf - Part 11 post, I mentioned that I had printed information on MSSD, but never went. I talked with mom about this when I went home to join my family for a wedding. She said she and dad wanted me to stay home and learn more. I'll talk more with he...
Wed, Sep 02 2009

Moderation in Postings
RSGeo-007 I had to write this after the near-flamefest here (the audism posts) and on The Deaf Sherlock last month. Over the years, I've been a moderator in chatrooms and message areas. Sometimes the work is fun. But then there's the occasional time when you'll have a member who is quite abusive and openly flouts the rules.In some cases, moderators need the ability to clamp dow...
Mon, Jun 29 2009
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My Knee's Progress 2 / National Police Week
RSGeo-007 Back in mid-May, I attended National Police Week's Candlelight Vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial. I mentioned my first adoptive dad in my Growing Up Deaf - Part 4 post.My attending this event marked the first time I used the metro/subway without using the wheelchair. It was a longer walk compared to when I walked to someone's house for dinner in t...
Tue, Jun 16 2009

New Tech Solutions Needed To Save Captions
RSGeo-007 After I posted the "More Info" post, Jamie mentioned something from her time as a captioning activist some time ago;"Long ago I was told that when the media format changes, e.g. from movie to DVD to television to internet, the closed captions are lost because of the altering of time codes on the media. Closed captions have to match up with time codes."In addition, I r...
Wed, Jun 10 2009

More Info from Hulu on Captioning
RSGeo-007 While Jamie and I have been discussing the issues related to Hulu and Netflix, including the upcoming new Epix website, Jamie got a response from two people from Hulu;Eugene from the help desk writes;"I think the issue is that often we're sent digitized videomasters that have the captions stripped out. It's not the same as recording media off of TV and then stripping ...
Wed, Jun 10 2009

Correction to the Hulu Blog Post
RSGeo-007 Jamie and I had some minor errors in our previous post, How Might Hulu Be Showing Its Captions? It's more attitude than software which gets the captioning across the the viewer. Also in the previous post, Jamie got a response from Hulu which was posted in comments and I'll repeat here;"We ask all our content providers for caption files. Some have them available, other...
Fri, Jun 05 2009

How Might Hulu Be Showing Its Captions?
RSGeo-007 How is Hulu able to show closed captions when Netflix does not? That is the $60 million dollar question. A bit of research online by Jamie and me yielded some clues. First, according to an April 2008 article in Entertainment Close-Up, Hulu is using Signiant Software. Signiant makes digital media distribution management solutions. Google Hulu and Signiant and more arti...
Wed, Jun 03 2009

Netflix CEO Said No To Captions?
RSGeo-007 Did I read Jared's Netflix CEO really doesn’t care about subtitles/captioning blog post (including the shareholder meeting post) right? The Netflix CEO said there's no captioning technology or it's not widespread? Picking my jaws up off the floor, I read further..."Mr. Hastings said other sites didn’t offer captions, and mentioned hulu.com as one of them."Does he live...
Tue, Jun 02 2009

When is Audism Not Audism? - Part 4
RSGeo-007 So I ask once more, when is audism not audism?Returning to the definition of audism, it is the belief that hearing and speaking are better than sign language. It is the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears. It is all in the attitude. Hearing people who refuse to do anything other than speak to the deaf per...
Thu, May 21 2009

When is Audism Not Audism? - Part 3
RSGeo-007 Here's another of Jamie Berke's articles on Deaf Culture - Audism. It's got a lot of good points here including a couple of good links, especially the two resources near the end.Please do not say that I don't understand. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt, felt the emotional impact, and then some. I have even talked about my own experiences in my Growing Up D...
Tue, May 19 2009

When is Audism Not Audism? - Part 2
RSGeo-007 Let's move back in time when the Oralism vs Manualism debate was hotter, and the child was mainstreamed or in a deaf school. For the child who was mainstreamed, there were often issues such as being able to follow along with the lesson and classroom discussion including socialization with peers and classmates. In some schools, especially middle, there is a lot of peer...
Sat, May 16 2009

When is Audism Not Audism? - Part 1
RSGeo-007 I'm seeing many other deaf call any kind of mistreatment of them audism. It's become too much of a blanket term. But first, before I start, the definition of audism as coined by Tom Humphries in his unpublished 1975 work "The Making of a Word;""Audism- (o diz m) n. the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears....
Thu, May 14 2009

Interpreter Scam with a Twist
RSGeo-007 Another interpreter scam has come up, but this one has a bit of a twist. In Ocean City, Maryland, an interpreter basically created a need for interpreters by sending false messages from fake email accounts from deaf people. She pretended to be deaf, sending interpreter request emails, in order to create work for herself.Here's the article;OC Police Probe Reveals Sign ...
Sat, Apr 25 2009

"Growing Up Deaf" Post Update 2 - Part 2
RSGeo-007 After doing some more research on this Utley book, Google had a page that contained a passage that says exactly how it is with those who were in oral schools and were forbidden to even learn or use sign, and then learned sign later;Effective education for learners with exceptionalities By Festus E. Obiakor, Cheryl Anita Rose Utley, and Anthony F. Rotatori. ISBN 076230...
Fri, Apr 17 2009

"Growing Up Deaf" Post Update 2 - Part 1
RSGeo-007 Update from Growing Up Deaf - Part 10.I managed to find a classmate from third grade on a social networking site and she remembered me. Then I broke out the report cards and checked some notations made way long ago. One thing that I missed all these years was something written in my first grade report card."REGULAR grade 2. No need for special class. Definitely *no* '...
Wed, Apr 15 2009

Will Metered Internet Hurt Deaf?
RSGeo-007 I was passed this article about metered Internet in the Rochester area by Time Warner. It's a pretty hot issue and very unpopular.Deaf community reacts to Time Warner metered pricingIn short, Time Warner Cable in the Rochester area will be implementing metered pricing. When that happens, those who use videophones could be priced out of using them. Watching online vide...
Tue, Apr 07 2009

New Disabled Blog
RSGeo-007 Jamie Berke alerted me to this rather interesting blog and site which says it has "news and insights on assistive technologies and innovations for people with disabilities" on their About Us page. Co-founder and editor Suzanne Robitaille herself is deaf, though her partner, Gregory Papajohn, is not. Not only is it a blog, but there's News Watch, Tech Talk, and Expert ...
Fri, Mar 27 2009

"Growing Up Deaf" Post Update
RSGeo-007 Back in my Growing Up Deaf - Part 6 post, I mentioned something about a character called P. Mooney. Apparently, I was using the wrong search keywords. I tried again recently and found something. [link] a closeup of the puppet on page 4... [link] down to the post titled "Whee" and you'll see the lyrics. [link] what we find when we remember more...
Tue, Mar 17 2009

The Rest of the Story
RSGeo-007 There was this young boy, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who just about grew up in newsrooms, building his own radio sets. His frequent contributions to radio and communications lent him a spot in the Radio Hall of Fame. While at KCOK in St. Louis, a girl walked into his life whom would he would marry.When both moved to Chicago, both combined their talents into a newroom ca...
Sun, Mar 01 2009

Deaf-Blind Man Facing Child Porn Charges
RSGeo-007 Someone passed this article on to me, Deaf, sight-impaired man not competent to face child porn charges, about a deaf-blind man who is accused of uploading child porn pics to a website. Another search found me this article, Attorney General Abbott's Investigators Arrest Waco Student Following Child Porn Indictments.The major issue I see here is that when he uploaded t...
Mon, Feb 23 2009

Technology and Equal Access
RSGeo-007 Interesting vlog titled We, Deafies have equal access to today's techology. NOT! She has MANY good points, especially when she said that we still have a long way to go in catching up.I was in the hospital in 2003 for a bad infection and December 2008 for knee surgery. I had the same problem as RLM in the comments when he was trying to use the call button on his hospit...
Tue, Feb 17 2009

You Will Be Assimilated. Your Culture Will Be Adapted...
RSGeo-007 It was interesting to read Shel: A Deaf Canadian's Thoughts blog post on the Borg metaphor (post 1 / post 2)."We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. Resistance is futile."This particular Star Trek character is well-known for its assimilation of cultures and worlds rather than learning by experience. In a way, the nondisabled hearing world is lik...
Wed, Jan 28 2009

Rube Goldberg + Architect + Home = A-maze-ing / Inauguration
RSGeo-007 The New York Times has an interesting story titled Mystery on Fifth Avenue. In short, an architect remodeled a living area and turned it into a Rube Goldberg style game, having them go different places in the house to find different clues.Be careful what you ask for when you talk to the renovator and make sure they don't have any practical jokes or brainbuster ideas i...
Thu, Jan 22 2009

More on the Knees and Surgery - Final
RSGeo-007 After much anticipation, I got home Saturday afternoon after I signed some paperwork and Jamie took me home. With some difficulty, I managed to get up the stairs. The steps will get easier in time.The interpreters did a good job despite the somewhat crowded rehab room throughout my stay at the rehab facility. I did manage to meet a few of the residents. One resident i...
Sat, Jan 10 2009