Living The Questions

Say What Club Convention - Day Five
Living The Questions This is the last in my series on conventions I attended this summer. Over this past summer I've come to realize how much I crave real-life interaction with other people with hearing loss. I hope to become more involved with the local HH/deaf activities in my area, as my work schedule allows. I want to stay connected to those I can support in the northwest, and who I m...
Thu, Jul 31 2008

SWC Convention - Day Four
Living The Questions Since we hadn't been satisfied with the previous morning's buffet offerings, Robyn, Paul, Mike and I decided to go out before the workshops began. I tried several times to get hold of Lorne too, but his phone wasn't working and he wasn't checking his email. We found a nice little deli not far from the hotel where I bought a yogurt parfait with strawberries and granola...
Tue, Jul 29 2008

SWC Convention - Day Three
Living The Questions In the morning we had workshops. Usually convention hotels provide "breakfast" in the form of rolls, fruit and coffee or tea for those attending meetings. I managed to find a yogurt and a sliver of honeydew melon before everything ran out. Many complained about the skimpiness of our 'breakfast', and I'm happy to say our catered buffet overflowed with fruit and muffins...
Mon, Jul 28 2008

Piece of Pie?
Living The Questions Something of an epiphany occurred while I was gone. Think about this. At the IFHOH (International Federation of Hard of Hearing People) Congress, people gathered from all over the world to discuss issues that impact ALL deaf, hard-of-hearing and Deaf people worldwide. It didn't matter whether we spoke, signed, were late-deafened, wore hearing aids, cochlear implants, ...
Sun, Jul 20 2008

IFHOH Final Day -- Inspiration
Living The Questions IFHOH Day FourDay four started out like the other days-- a long drive to the Wall Center, followed by coffee at Starbucks and attendance at workshops. Unlike the other days, I felt a little bit more harried than usual because I had to pack my bags early in the morning and take them with me to the hotel. The only thing I left behind was a package of Splenda.The first w...
Fri, Jul 18 2008

IFHOH Day Three, Part II
Living The Questions Day three-- part IIThe first workshop we attended Friday was called Accessibility Awareness Collaboration and Hard-of-Hearing People given by Sami Virtanen from the Finnish Federation of Hard-of-Hearing People. Like the the real-time text workshop, I found it exceedingly difficult to pay attention. Tired of reading CART, and feeling full from the large lunch I nearly ...
Thu, Jul 17 2008

IFHOH Day Three. SideKicks in Canada? Public loops?...
Living The Questions IFHOH Day Three. SideKicks in Canada? Public loops? Real-time text? In the interest of making each of my posts a little shorter and more readable, I have decided to post about IFHOH in smaller segments.Friday, we made it to the Wall Center just in time for a quick coffee and lunch! None of the morning workshops appealed since they were either about cochlear implants o...
Thu, Jul 17 2008

IFHOH-- Day Two
Living The Questions We missed the first Plenary Session-- something I would regret for the next several days whenever people mentioned "that deaf man who flew around the world." His fantastic story inspired everyone who heard it. But I overslept, then we ran into traffic, and by the time we got to the Wall Center we wanted-- no-- NEEDED-- coffee. After all the previous walking around the...
Wed, Jul 16 2008

International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress 2008--...
Living The Questions This is just a quick recap of the IFHOH. (International Federation of Hard of Hearing) Congress in Vancouver, BC.Since I hate driving in Vancouver, and didn't want to mess with long lines over the border crossing during TWO Independence Day holidays, I took the train. The IFHOH began a day after Canadian Independence Day and ended a day after US Independence Day. The ...
Wed, Jul 16 2008

I've been away
Living The Questions I feel badly I've been neglecting my blog here. The past two weeks I've been attending back to back hearing loss conventions. The first was in Vancouver, BC. Maybe some of you went to the International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress 2008 (IFHOH), though I didn't recognize anyone other than those I already knew from the northwest. Over 500 deaf/HOH people ...
Wed, Jul 09 2008

How do deaf enjoy music?
Living The Questions I was inspired by Shel's recent comment about music in my last post. Several months ago I mentioned how Evelyn Glennie, a deaf percussionist had motivated me to learn the djembe. Here is her intriguing explanation of how she perceives music. [link] She considers hearing just another type of touch.Most hearing people don't understand that. Being deaf, I totally get...
Sun, Jun 22 2008

Shel asked, What was it like?
Living The Questions Me-- when I could hear well. (1961)Shel wrote a nice comment in my post On the Fence, and asked about my childhood. I guess he wanted to gain a better understanding of what it feels like to be late-deafened.You're right: I can never fully understand where you are coming from. You can also say you can never understand where I am coming from as I've chosen to own ASL as...
Sat, Jun 21 2008

"On the Fence"
Living The Questions Below is an anonymous response to Dena of "Going Deaf" after she expressed confusion over the growing hostility in DeafRead because of the new Deaf/deaf aggregator formed. As a late-deafened person experiencing a progressive hearing loss, Dena seems to feel pulled in two directions. [link] me! We are not responsible for your choices. It is you who decide, not us. You...
Tue, Jun 17 2008

Comparing On-Line ASL Resources
Living The Questions I don't believe American Sign Language (or any language) is best learned on-line, but it's a fact of life that many of us who are late-deafened are extremely busy. Sometimes we cannot find any ASL classes nearby, and often when we do, class schedules conflict with work hours. In the past few years I have discovered a few on-line ASL resources for those who don't have ...
Sun, Jun 15 2008

Why I'm Supporting Obama
Living The Questions A few weeks ago while checking out the candidates and where they stand on issues important to me, I ran across this video made by Senator Obama about how and why he supports the Disabled. I couldn't understand much of what he said because originally the video wasn't captioned. Disgruntled that his video wasn't captioned I wrote in to tell Obama that he needed to capti...
Fri, Jun 13 2008

For Tony-- Meaning of the Golden Rule
Living The Questions After visiting Deaf Village, Tony asks, “What is this Golden Rule?"It’s not spelt out, and it is left to the reader to workout what it is. But if by the Golden Rule she (Rachel) means, being polite and respectful towards different opinions, then it needs to be spelt out on the aggregator. Furthermore, being polite and respectful need to be defined. Do they mean no swe...
Tue, Jun 10 2008

My Response to Patti (People of the Eye)
Living The Questions Of all the blogging action about how DeafRead removed Cochlear Implant On-line from its aggregator, the only place constructive discussion seems to be building bridges is on Patti's blog, "People of the Eye" I felt the need to respond openly in my own blog.Sorry I'm so late in responding, Patti.Kim – . . .I want to ask you – when u challenge DR not to exclude Rachel ...
Tue, Jun 10 2008

Still looking for clarification. . .
Living The Questions I can't help it. I'm still confused. Why? Here's how I see it.A DeafRead blogger was kicked off DeafRead because she violated a guideline. Which part of the guideline did she violate? A highlighted link takes us here: [link] to a site that is NOT EVEN CONNECTED TO DEAFREAD OR POSTED IN THE DEAFREAD GUIDELINES "6. Disclose professional relationships: if you work...
Thu, Jun 05 2008

Exclusion Confusion
Living The Questions Many late-deafened people feel isolated when their hearing loss is first diagnosed. I mentioned before that I never knew one single person who wore hearing aids when I first got mine in my early twenties. Most of my friends at the time were finishing up grad school, getting married or having babies. Usually I was the only one they had ever encountered with a hearing l...
Tue, Jun 03 2008

Can You Sign. . . Parsley?
Living The Questions Seriously I'm stumped. I have this ASL project where I'm translating Peter Rabbit. He gets sick and needs to eat some parsley to settle his tummy. We're not supposed to fingerspell, if at all possible. Is there a sign? I've got maybe seven ASL dictionaries around here. None of them have the word parsley.
Sat, May 31 2008

What I Learned From A Butterfly
Living The Questions "Hoping to catch your eye Circling around you, oh my Butterfly, butterfly, come into the light Oh, what a beautiful sight Flying so gracefully Into the sky, the butterfly Trying to catch a butterfly Fly, fly, fly, butterfly. . ." - Sharon AdamsonA few years ago I was inspired by a visit to our zoo where they had just opened their new butterfly garden. I wish I had a c...
Sat, May 24 2008

Oralism vs Spoken English
Living The Questions I couldn't help but respond to Barb Digi's vlog after seeing her video with the little boy. In this video we watch as a hard-of-hearing or Deaf child tries to process a math problem. He seems to be concentrating hard. He uses his hands to make a plus sign. Then he makes a five with his right hand while saying the word "five" There was no sound on the video but it's ea...
Wed, May 07 2008

My ASL Assignment
Living The Questions 'Now run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out.'Last night we were given an assignment to translate a children's story book. We were allowed to pick one book out of a pile my teacher had dumped on a table. I have always loved Beatrix Potter, so I chose The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I was thinking there would be lots of fun action and so on.Now I'm in the pro...
Tue, May 06 2008

Learning the Deaf Way of Life
Living The Questions Not long ago in a recent post (The Blame Game) I mentioned the need for Deaf support to help the late-deafened transition into deafness. My article focused mainly on the difficulties of learning ASL in a hearing environment, but there are a number of ways a Deaf person could support late-deafened people through the transition of learning to live with deafness.Wendy be...
Mon, May 05 2008

Advocacy
Living The Questions Last night during ASL class, my teacher came up to me with a copy of last Fall's ALDA (Association of Late-Deafened Adults) newsletter. My picture was on the front. I'd forgotten I had written that article for ALDA. She had found a copy of the newsletter at her audiologist's office during an appointment last week. And she was surprised to find one of her students...
Tue, Apr 29 2008

I Learned Something New
Living The Questions As many of you know I've been taking ASL for awhile. Tonight we were learning deaf conjunctions-- the OTHER meaning for signs signs we've already practiced. My ASL teacher gave us many examples of the proper expressions-- such as, "I walk, WRONG rain!" Most of you would get this immediately but bear with me as I explain to people who only speak English. What that sent...
Tue, Apr 29 2008

A Dead Culture
Living The Questions All cultures continue to change and grow. Many Deaf have drawn comparisons between the death of Native American culture and Deaf culture of today. I do not deny the parallels.Jim's article reminded me of the great whale hunt Native Americans had in Washington state back in 1999. [link] the beginning it's been written into the Makah Treaty Rights they could hunt whal...
Tue, Apr 22 2008

Are the Deaf blind?
Living The Questions I was looking at different career options the other day when I came across this interesting career-- braille transcriber. Being naturally interested in books, I love the idea of transcribing books for blind people. This is also something you can do out of your home on the side as contract work, so it could bring in a little extra cash. Cool! The site went on to explai...
Thu, Apr 17 2008

Thrillers With Deaf Characters
Living The Questions I read A Maiden's Grave by Jeffrey Deaver, years ago, and I couldn't put it down. This is the book that turned me into a Jeffrey Deaver fan long before he became popular. Though it's one of his earliest novels I believe maybe it is his best. This is about a bus full of Deaf school girls who end up getting kidnapped and held hostage in a deserted warehouse along with t...
Wed, Apr 09 2008

The Blame Game
Living The Questions Hello everyone, I have a couple comments on the “blame game” and I don’t mean to get down on anyone personally, but I do want to address those who posted to my comment in Rachel's blog. This was my comment: Hi Rachel,The one comment you put in bold from the woman who couldn’t find a level three ASL class could have been written by me. I could add so much more. Bottom...
Fri, Apr 04 2008

Friends With Hearing Loss
Living The Questions There's nothing like getting together with others who understand your hearing issues. I'm so excited! I just made my reservation for the Say What Club convention in Philadelphia this summer, and I'm going to be rooming with Robyn, The Ambling Rambler from New Zealand!!If you haven't had a chance to check out the Say What Club blog, go there [link] I've been a member...
Tue, Apr 01 2008

Dear Rachel
Living The Questions I loved your letter and the way you advocate for yourself. For those who haven't seen it, go here-- [link] Dr. ——————,I’m looking forward to being in your 20th Century Art History course this quarter on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8AM - 10:30 AM. I was born profoundly deaf, but I hear with an extraordinary technology, cochlear implants, and I hear like an almost normal...
Thu, Mar 27 2008

Deb Ann asked--"By the way, why did the doctors say such...
Living The Questions Deb Ann asked--"By the way, why did the doctors say such things like that? Did they really graduate from college?"I'm going to write about about my medical history in greater detail later, but I did want to give a short answer to this. From my experience few doctors know much about hearing loss. I think they must gloss over it in med school, because most doctors I'v...
Wed, Mar 26 2008

DING! DONG! The Witch is Deaf!
Living The Questions Last week I blogged a little about my frustrations with bus drivers failing to notify me visually when we were about to approach my bus stop. If you missed that, I'll recap a little. I always tell bus drivers I'm "deaf "or "very, very hard-of-hearing" when I board. They always assure me they will let me know when my stop is approaching, then they don't. I had been dre...
Tue, Mar 25 2008

Waiting Forever At the Blinkin Doctor's Office
Living The Questions Today I had a follow-up appointment for last month's surgeries. The doctor wanted to know how I was doing, and to make sure all my incisions had healed. I had never been to his office before since both surgeries were emergencies. After filling out all the paperwork I told the receptionist, "I am deaf. I will not hear the nurse when she calls my name. Please tell h...
Wed, Mar 19 2008

Free Deaf Bus Fare
Living The Questions I live in the woods east of Seattle. (Yes-- that's my front yard.) When we first moved here, black bears used to wander into our yard sometimes. Then some acreage behind us got developed, and we only see deer or coyote now. We've recently been reclassified from rural to "suburban," but most the roads around here are still windy and have only two narrow lanes. One of t...
Tue, Mar 04 2008

Yes Mike, I get it.
Living The Questions Yes Mike, I understand.I have this deaf friend I practice ASL with. Her name is Kate. We meet every so often for lunch at this shopping center where there are a bunch of different restaurants. Normally we go to an Indian place and sometimes we go to an Italian place, or a Thai place. Recently we found a deli we like.Usually, Kate does all the "oral" talking to the wai...
Sat, Mar 01 2008

Treasure Award/ Blogging for Beck
Living The Questions This is long overdue, but I wanted to explain about the Treasure Award that has been on my blog for the past few weeks. A friend awarded it to me. What a shock because I treasure her blog more than she knows! Her "Blahg" is listed in my favorites to the right under "Melissa."The idea was to pass it on, so I passed it on to Abbie of Chronicles of a Bionic Woman. She bl...
Fri, Feb 29 2008

Dealing With IT-- Part 2
Living The Questions I covered humor and standing tall, but I failed to mention WHY you need to stand tall when you are d/Deaf. There are times-- and we all know it happens very occasionally-- but it happens to all of us that people are rude for some reason. You might call them audists. I simply call them a**holes. These are the people who make discourteous remarks about your deafness, as...
Wed, Feb 27 2008

Dealing With IT
Living The Questions Today while I was sitting at the my library desk, once again I had to ask a little girl with the softest voice to repeat her question three times. Then I asked her to write it down because I couldn't make out one thing she said. Her lips barely moved. When I told her I was very, very hard-of-hearing (I never use the word "deaf" at work) and then asked her to write, sh...
Sun, Feb 24 2008

Lets Stop Bein Crabs
Living The Questions The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.-- Jawaharlal NehruYesterday I left this comment in John's blog, Children of the Eye. I've modified it somewhat."I would like to suggest that someone needs to clarify some rules of respect (within the d/Deaf/hh community.) I realize we can't have a d/Deaf/hh police. We'll have to take it on ourselves to monitor ou...
Thu, Feb 14 2008

tunnel of deaf
Living The Questions Up in the Cascade mountains there is a bike path with a crumbling old two-mile tunnel called the Iron Horse Trail. Even on the most beautiful summer day, the tunnel is cold, dank and pitch-black. Once inside if you hold your hand in front of your face you can’t see it. After riding about the three-quarters of the way through, just when you lose all hope of ever seeing...
Fri, Feb 08 2008

My short stay in the hospital
Living The Questions It's a good thing I didn't go to the DeafRead conference because my gall bladder decided to give me hell Saturday night, then checked out. I had to have emergency surgery. I'm now at home recovering, pumped full of pain meds. If there are misspellings or non-sensical sentences, please ignore. I'm on drugs. Three gauze bandages have been taped to my belly where the lap...
Mon, Feb 04 2008

A Message to Deaf Vloggers
Living The Questions "If all vlogs created by hearing people have subtitles, then I will add them to my vlogs.I guess it is all depends on who you want to target with your vlogs. For me, Deaf community and ASL users. I guess it's matter of preference here." Unnamed Deaf V/blog CommenterFive Things I Wish You Knew--1) It bothers me that hearing people don’t caption their vlogs too.2) I wis...
Thu, Jan 31 2008

Can the "Culture" Argument Be Applied Equally?
Living The Questions Today I came across a dvd I'm sure many of you have seen. Maybe some of you are even in it for all I know. . . haha! It's called The Sound and Fury. I watched it several years ago with mixed feelings. Seeing it again reminded me of a blog I read recently -- Cochlear Implant On-line. Rachel, a young woman who was implanted at age two said one reason her parents decided...
Mon, Jan 28 2008

ASL Practice With My Husband
Living The Questions My husband and I took a couple beginning ASL sessions together two years ago, then he forgot nearly everything. He’s busy. We didn’t practice enough. I have deaf/HH friends who know a little sign, so I practiced with them and advanced more quickly, then he decided to drop out and I took more classes. To be fair, he isn’t a stupid man. He was fluent in German when we m...
Tue, Jan 22 2008

Thank you Mishka
Living The Questions I realize your recent blogging has been to examine implants for children, but it has influenced my decision not to go through with an experimental cochlear surgery.As many of you know, I went for a cochlear implant evaluation last November. Though I don’t hear speech well, I don’t qualify for a regular implant because I have good low tone frequencies. There’s a new, l...
Sat, Jan 19 2008

Do I have to love deafness to accept it?
Living The Questions The concept of self-acceptance and Deafhood has been tossed around quite a bit lately. Many have differing opinions regarding what this means to Deafness or deafness. Does it mean you need to love being deaf? Or does it mean you merely need to accept deafness? What does it mean to accept deafness if you don't love deafness? How can you love yourself as a d/Deaf person...
Tue, Jan 08 2008

A Question About Blackberries
Living The Questions Since a thief took my Sidekick, I will need to replace it. I might not get a Sidekick this time, so I am hoping for advice on what to get.If you own a Blackberry, please let me know which type you have, what features you like, and also why you like these features. I would really appreciate this information. Later, if enough of you respond, I'll publish a blog on what ...
Sun, Jan 06 2008

Lessons from Dr. Seuss
Living The Questions When I was a little girl my favorite bedtime story was The Sneetches. My dad used to read it to me using funny voices. It wasn't until many years later, I realized this book was really about racism. I think because the message contained in this book was so important to my dad, he took great care to read it in an entertaining way, so I would understand. You see, as a l...
Thu, Jan 03 2008