My Elementary Made Who I Am Today

Transcript for Sign-Impaired: "My Elementary made who I am"
done by KMG.L (aka) gnarlydorkette

****

When I was age 2, I was diagnosed deaf-- severe to profound deaf. That is fine, but my mom was stumbled on where to enroll me for school. The first consideration was Riverside Deaf School-- in California, known as "CSDR" (California School for Deaf, Riverside). She was contemplating but you have to know that Riverside is about two hours away from my home-- so we went to see the school-- I do remember vividly the visit. I spent my time playing and socializing with Deaf people. Anyway, my mom felt that she cannot send away her daughter. She loves her kids too much and she was in conflict with herself until she found out a public elementary school close by in San Diego which is mainstreamed-- my mistake, a school that has a special-needs program tailored for Deaf children using sign language. The program was a lot like to Riverside program-- deaf children in a classroom-- so I was sent to that elementary school.

I went through all grades at that same elementary. I do have many positive memories related with Deafness and ASL. I grew up knowing and seeing Deaf adults at my school. I didn't have any Deaf teachers at my school until 6th grade-- no, 4th grade. So from preschool to 4th, most Deaf adults were working as teacher's aides for hearing teachers who could barely sign. The Deaf teacher's aides would take over and tell stories in ASL-- many are still alive and still working. There were so many Deaf teachers’ aides, so I will say that in my class annually, there would be two Deaf teacher's aides at most. There was one Deaf senio-- well when I was 4 or 5 years old so it must mean he was... probably 60years old, at least to me, and he was "old-school" and used ASL old fashion in story-telling-- we the children adored him so much.

But that is my point! From age 2 to... age 10, I was in a HEARING school BUT I do have Deaf teacher's aides-- deaf, deaf, deaf everywhere. Plus my classmates were Deaf-- on an average for every grade, there were 10 deaf classmates-- from five to ten per class. There was always at least one Deaf classmate with a Deaf parent. So I grew up knowing that there were Deaf parents-- and that I was just different by having hearing parents. I went through elementary thinking that life is normal. When I reached fourth grade, I did have a Deaf teacher originated from CSDR-- in later years, I found out that he taught at my school because he was a graduate student and he had to teach a class for his thesis or dissertation. So we, the deaf students, looked up to him and found out he graduated from Gallaudet University-- we were fascinated by Gallaudet. When I was young, I thought Gallaudet was the ONLY college-- I didn't even think about where the Hearing people go-- so I thought to myself, Ok I will go to Gallaudet University because it is the only one so I must go there anyway. Growing up, I thought Gallaudet was the only one choice. Oh how naive I was!

Anyway, the deaf teacher always preached his love for books which was the reason for his thick eyeglasses. We learned a lot from his classes. I became older and in 5th and 6th grades, I did have Deaf teachers-- all were similar to my 4th grade teacher-- Deaf graduate students training to become a teacher.

My 5th grade teacher was a champion-- that was where I realized how possible it is to ... compare ASL and English. How she did it-- which frustrated me so much-- was that she would film us signing in ASL-- poetry for instance, then asked us to write down English equivalent of our ASL poetry as our homework. It stumbled many of us because we thought it was impossible and only saw ASL and English as separate and non-interchangeable languages. She forced us to see a bridge to interpret back and forth. It was frustrating but at same time, an eye-opening lesson to realize that it is possible to interpret English to ASL or vice versa.

Often we would discuss about which English word that best suits a sign-- we would look up in dictionary or thesaurus to get close enough for translation. The teacher filmed us over and over and assigned us the homework-- which we got sick of but we knew she got a good heart with good intentions for us to understand English and ASL. Often in front of the camera, we would try to sign in PSE or SEE and she would stop filming and said that it was not our normalcy, just sign as we would in normal circumstances. We gave in and just signed in our natural language. We watched ourselves on videotapes and tried to scribble down English translation-- Imagine a 5th grader, aged 10 or 11, watching a videotape of self and write down English translation!!

In 6th grade, we have a male Deaf teacher which went by fine-- so in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades we did have a deaf teacher-- however there was still a hearing teacher in presence-- as a moderator to guide through the young graduate students.
So that is my whole elementary experience-- Deaf teacher, deaf teacher's aides, Deaf classmates, with Deaf parents...

Also, I want to add one more thing-- I remembered from kindergarten and all grades, my principal knew signs and he was hearing. We had a name sign for him-- Mr. H-- Hartford [I may be mistaken-- I realized it may be Harrison?]. I am sure you can ask any body who has gone to that elementary if they remember Mr. H-- they will automatically say, "Oh yes I know, cool black hearing signing principal!" The vice-principal did know signs, but not so well. When the principal was replaced, we were devastated but the new principal did know signs pretty well. So if we got in trouble and got punished to be sent to the principal’s office-- we didn't need an interpreter-- they knew signs well enough to yell at us.

Also, my elementary mascot had "ILY" signs in both hands. The elementary mascot was a Dragon named "Spitfire" with your typical dragon features-- wing, smoke out of nose, and two "ILY" ("I love you" sign) hands

So I grew up in a very positive environment for Deaf children-- Deaf teachers, signing principals, hearing people knows signs, etc.

There were a large number of Deaf children-- for each grade level, there was at least one all-Deaf classroom-- sometime there were three deaf classrooms for one grade level.

So my elementary years, at that certain school, had an impact on me. You know the adage where you have to expose everything to a child at a young age to make an impact-- so my elementary had done their job with me-- checked. I grew up with a positive mentality and proud being a Deaf person.

Size of the Fires

To give you an idea how huge of an impact the wildfires had done in San Diego county, my dear husband had done some mathematics and wanted to share this logistics below:

Thursday Oct 25th 7am: SignOnSanDiego: "County Supervisor Ron Roberts said during the morning news briefing that the region's fires have burned close to 350,000 acres. The fires have destroyed at least 1,470 residences."
350,000 acres is a hard figure to visualize, so I did a conversion and it's about 540square miles. It takes a long time to drive 540 linear miles speeding along on the freeway, and if you do 540 square miles, that's a huge amount of area. Equal to 5.5 "DC's" So it's obvious how much land this fire has scorched.
The image attached is looking at about 2,900sq miles and if you do the math, the fire has consumed a bit less than 1/4 of the area in the image.



To get an idea where my family are in the surrounding of numerous fires, I made boxes to roughly locate their homes.


Qualcomm Stadium is closed due to its inefficiency as a shelter (literally NO roof for people to sleep beneath) and lack of showers... so the evacutees are now migrating to Del Mar Fairgrounds. The fires are now mostly in the north and east parts of the county and in Camp Pendleton-- but the finger-biting hasn't ended.
You never know where the fires go next.

What kind of Blogger Am I?

The test determines your score based on your greed, experience, and sociability. Simple as that. I took this test for fun when I saw this over at into dean's cyberspace.

I scored LOW on the greed-- a minus six. I guess because I am not sponsored or try to profit from my blog. Blogging is just my public diary for people to listen to my ramblings and thoughts. :-) Well I won't mind earning a few bucks here and there... hint hint.

"You're not in this for the money, for you blogging is all about the passion! Sure you might make a little pocket change now and again, but you know that it's the content, the audience and the people that are what makes blogging great!"

As for experience as a blogger, I scored 1. Their questions are vague, but I can say that I have been blogging since I was age 12, I think, over at diaryland (which is still operating!), then I found my favorite home at scribble.nu but alas they started to charge for membership, so I scrambled around and decided to go ahead with blogspot.com and stayed there ever since 2002. P.S.- I have no idea who Nick Denton is !!!

"You've been blogging since Nick Denton was in diapers. When it comes to blogging experience, you are the authority on blogging. Heck you probably even have a blog where you give advice about blogging!"

As for the sociability, I scored a three. Ihave to make a disclaimer-- the only reason I know about twitter and stumbledupon is because of Deaf258. Without him, I will be a hermit... well Facebook helps a bit too. :-)

You love web 2.0 stuff like Digg and Delicious and you're involved in more blogging groups, networks and activities than anyone else you know. With all your connections, you make Neil Patel look positively anti-social!

Communication Access -- YES!

At the end of his vlog, Jon Savage mentioned about communication access as an essential element for Deaf and Hard of Hearing who are not fluent in English (foreign Deaf residents, et cetera)-- one of them is to accompany an ASL interpreter on the TV along with closed-captioning for any emergency news break.
I did mention about it in my last entry about my friends being surprised to see an ASL interpreter on TV next to the mayor...

Below is what it looks like on a television!! Many many thanks to my dear friend Aaron H. for taking this picture for me.



I was told that the female interpreter had been working for 3 straight days-- she went and interpreted for the mayor every time he called for an emergency conference. SO many thanks to Joanne C. (seen in the image) for her hard labor and efforts as interpreter!!!

*Deaf Applause*

Contained? Relief?

My family are OK. My in-laws' house was in danger, with the fire less than 5 blocks away-- it was crazy but somehow the firefighter held the line there and it was declared safe for my mother-in-law to return to her house. I am sure she will be busy cleaning off the soot from all of windows and doors and try to salvage her plants from ashes!

My home that I grew up in since age 4 is only less than two miles from a raging fire-- I am crossing my fingers that the fire won't catch on the great dry plain between highway 52 and Miramar road... if so, then my home will be in trouble. My mom said it should be fine since Cedar did burn that area so there is nothing for the fires to set ablaze on.

It is said that Thursday should be better weather-wise and makes the job easier for the firefighters. I am just glad that a lot of help are pitching in-- from Utah and Arizona and the military forces! President Bush is supposed to come in to look around the state San Diego is in... FEMA has been called in since the state of emergency has been declared by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and approved by the federal government.

There is almost a quarter of the city's population being displaced (temporarily for many, permanent for unfortunate few). That is a shocking number. You may go to this webpage provided by CBS8.com where you can see which fire being contained (there are two being 100% contained) and which fires still raging and its whereabouts.

The best latest blog that gives you updates is http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com

As for the Deaf residents, there are a lot of changes from 2003 Cedar and Palasides fires-- and all are for better! Interpreters are being dispatched to every evacuation center to keep the Deaf evacuees informed, and all news conference made by the mayor are CLOSED-CAPTIONED along with an ASL interpreter standing next! So you can see the interpreter and the CC at same time. I am shocked when several friends told me this-- I asked them to take a picture (with their SK, digital camera, SOMETHING) for me to share with you. This is a HUGE step for San Diego and I applaud Mayor Jerry Sanders and the city for respecting and including the needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents.

UPDATE: I found a videoclip from KUSI.com where there is an ASL interpreter next to the Mayor-- you will see her after a minute or so... I am a bit grumpy that the camera didn't stay on the interpreter for the entire clip!!!
click here for the video

Update: DCS and San Diego Fires

Deaf Community Services has posted a comment that I thought should be a post itself

***

Check out www.dcsofsd.org There's a video on Deaf Community Services' website to spread the word about closings. Many interpreters has been dispatched to all evacuation centers all over the place to interpret individuals and families who had to leave their homes. We will continue to provide services to all those who need. We hope all individuals and families are safe. If they need our assistance, please contact us at 619-398-2441 voice, 619-398-2440 TTY, info@dcsofsd.org. Thank you.


The video made by DCS may be viewed below or at this link: http://www.dcsofsd.org/



*****

Be careful and stay indoors-- the air quality is unhealthy with the ashes and soot flying around. Be prepared for any evacuations.

If you do have more information about the fires that you wish me to post, you may reach me at gnarlydork@gmail.com with subject line, "For Blogging."

Harris and Witch Creek Fires: Redux

It is happening. All over again.

My family and friends in San Diego kept updating me while I worked today-- they informed me of the track the fires left behind, the houses lost, the mandatory evaucation.

My mother-in-law and the family dog have left her home in Poway to a relative's house in Carlsbad. My mother said it is very smoky and people were told to stay indoors. My friend in Linda Vista said it is snowing ashes.

I am angry that I cannot go over and help.

I am angry that I am thousands of miles away.

I am angry that the news channel doesn't close-caption their online videos. I am gonna to bitch to them about it-- I wonder if they did it agian-- not closed-captioned the emergency services on the news channel for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing viewers... they got in BIG troubles in 2003 when the Deaf viewers were lost and didn't understand what were happening and what they should do.

I am angry that it has to happen all over again.

100,000 acres have been burned, and the fire is only 5% contained. The city and county just have to wait for the Santa Ana winds to reduce its gust speed-- (I was told that in canyons, it is expected to be 80mph while all other place will experience 40 to 60mph winds). Tomorrow should be better and turns in favor for the firefighters to smote the fires out.

What the Cedar Fire didn't burn in 2003, the 2007 fires savor. Right now, there are seven fires raging in the county. It is said that the fires are worser than Cedar fire and that more homes will be lost this year compared to 2003.


The current locations of the fires are shown in the image below from www.cbs8.com --


To keep yourself in the loop, http://www.cbs8.com/ seems to be a reliable site. A live blog by a San Diegan that keep records of the fires which is very helpful: http://stankowski.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/witch-creek-fire/ at Checksum Crusder blog.

2003 Fires-- Redux into 2007?

With the recent news headline popping out from Southern California about wildfires spreading... there are two fires east of San Diego County. I got worried and called my mom-- she said it just made to the news, but nobody got the evacuation warning.... yet?

It triggered a flashback to 2003-- it was my first semester at the university and it occurred on Wednesday when the news broke a story about a wildfire spreading east of Julian (a mountain town, 40+ minutes from the downtown)... we didn't take it serious because we trusted our handy firefighters...

However little we did know our fire department was underfunded, understaffed, and under equipped.

In the end, there were 3 fires engulfing the eastern part of San Diego County and cornering us-- with Tijuana in Mexico or Pacific Ocean as our escapes. We were like sitting ducks, with no plans in our hand. We never handle wildfires of this magnitude.

To get an idea how the fire in 2003 spread, go to http://map.sdsu.edu/fireweb/animations.htm and choose to watch the most scary wildfire-- The Cedar Fire-- because in one SINGLE day, it spread rapidly, over many miles, into the San Diego City-- and the day I got evacuated.

The day was already yellowed and smokey. It seems as if the city is on fire but nobody can see the flames. The cars were coated with ashes... our windows were smeared with ashes... we were told to stay indoors. Classes all over the county were closed. Red Cross shelters went up at all local high schools/elementary schools.

We didn't have an escape plan. Then all suddenly police cars wailed to tell us to evacuate... we scrambled and packed in our car: me, my mother, my niece (who was 5 years old), and my cat... we didn't think about packing clothes nor taking important documents such as our passports et cetera. We just had to get out of our tinderbox home.

We had troubles to get out of our neighborhood. Our exits were all closed but one-- which consisted of two lanes street... and you factor in hundreds of cars trying to leave at once-- it was crazy. Cops had to guide us and control the traffic coming in from every directions-- all aim to leave westbound...

Once we left our bottlenecked neighborhood, I looked to my right and saw highway 52 bridge over freeway 15-- I was shocked. It was on fire-- and the flames were wild and restless. MY niece broke out in tears and cried for her parents.

We cannot even drop her with her parents (my brother)-- we were literally cornered. Freeway 15 north were closed off-- all 5 or 6 lanes in both directions. 805 and 5 were crowded and the police discouraged us to try to flee to north because there were more fires- (Palisades and the Los Angeles fires).

We were stuck.
And it was scary. Three days of being homeless and wandering around in wonder where the fire was exactly and how close was it to our homes.

***

And now fast-forward to year 2007-- we have learned our lessons-- we put more resources for our fire department and emergency services. We developed escape plans. We trimmed our dead and dry shrubs to keep 15 feet "border" around our homes. We keep a wide open eye for any small wildfire and pay attention if it is moving.

The Santa-Ana winds, gusting at 35mph and up to 60 in some areas, are making it difficult for the firefighters.

Right now, I am holding my breath and hoping our labor and wise decisions have enabled San Diego's fire department to stop the days of October 2003 happening all over again.

Inhaling... and holding....

***
pictures from 2003 fires in San Diego--

And my job is....!

Mid-day dog-walker!!

I work for a pet-sitting company so mostly I work as a mid-day dog walker with occasional house visits for cats.

I am actually enjoying it. Alas, this job is only temporary-- this is not something I will do in five years from now. If I want to become a vet, then this job definitely will benefit me, but my future goals don't agree with my current occupation.

I do have some odd jobs (such as tutoring or marketing) but they are based on contracts so I am not always needed to work for those companies. Still seeking for a full-time job.

My job?

I realized that I never mentioned about my job. I got a job in last week of August after numerous of job interviews and resumes being mailed out.
Well I do have several jobs but this one is my main occupation since it guarantees me a paycheck every other weeks.

What is it? Let me give you several hints:

*My work clothes are consisted of a pair of tennis shoes, yoga pants, and a stretchy t-shirt.

*I have to stay hydrated.

*I meet with clients at their homes on a daily basis.

*Most of my clients are very friendly and lovable. There are a few that don't bond with me.

*When I get home, I have to use a lint roller.

Can you guess what is my occupation? Leave a comment. :-)
(Those who already know what my job is, SHUSH!!!!!!!!!!)

Noisy Neighbors

Whoever said that Deaf people are usually loud roommates/neighbors had not been to my apartment building!

I am fully aware that I am the worst roommate for any hearing people who are not accustomed to the Deaf way-- banging doors, loud footsteps, and clanking of pots in the sink...

I do always TRY my best to be quiet when it is dark outside-- holding the doors all way to shut it... instead of flinging it shut... pulling out the drawer slowly... not stomping on the floor for attention (my husband and I had taken up the habit of throwing a rolled-up sock at each other at our previous home)....

BUT.

This apartment complex!
The impossible is possible. There are people more NOISY than me.

What, you say, I can hear noises?

NO. But I can feel my neighbors! If I could feel them, then they must be loud!
That is my hypothesis-- if I could feel something, that is because it is really loud like a jet flying by, a motorcycle passing by, a loud music concert....

Every hour, even during the wee hours, I feel every vibrations-- from my floor, from my wood chair, from my thin walls... BANG, STOMP, CLANG! BANG! STOMP! CLANG!
And where the hell it come from, I don't know! Upstairs? Definitely not downstairs. Nothing but musky basement with mice and cockroaches, I am sure. Next door? They do have a kid...I think. I never saw them. I only saw the grandmother that, no offense, looks like a prostitute. Perhaps it is the apartment to my right? There is a teenager boy and a man, perhaps his father or uncle. I never see any young kids whose tantrums may account for the BANG I always feel.

One time, not too long ago, we felt something over and over-- that the best guess I had was that somebody's bookcase full of books has toppled over... and over.. and over... because you can feel those little bangs, almost as if it was vibrating the entire floor then BANG!.... and it didn't stop there. It happened again for almost every 10 minutes. Finally it stopped after an hour.

I just hope I don't have any hearing overnight guests while I live here.

Hoorah!

66 degrees with 16 mph winds!

Can you imagine the scene with all yellow, red, (and some green) leaves swirling around and fluttering off from the branches???

Finally, finally finally...

Now the next step is do a snow dance... akin to the rain dance. How do you do the snow-dance? Well fear none! I did my research on the internet and found those steps:

1. Turn your pajamas inside out and put them on.
2. Then gather white beads and a couple pieces of white paper.
3. When that is done, rip up the paper into small pieces.
4. Then turn your music on real loud and dance until you get tired.
5. While you dance, throw the paper and beads around your room. it symbolizes snow.
6. When you are so tired that you can't dance or throw the paper and beads around any longer, pick up the beads and pieces of paper put them in the under side of your pillow case and go to sleep.

It was confirmed that it works for her and everybody else she knows.

And also-- just to double-check that the snow will come, everybody-- let's flush an ice cube in the toilet! It will make the ocean colder and triggers a climate change to bring us snow... hey, it makes sense!

Nightmare?

Dreams.

Everybody dreams about different things. Sometime people just dream a recurrent theme or never dream.

My dreams are somewhat odd. It does have a recurrent theme and it bothers me. Why? Because I always dream the same thing that results me in having a knee-jerk reaction and wake up at 3am, checking to make sure I am still here in the bed.

What is it? What dream made me waking up scared?
Maybe that is linked to my phobia of bridges or tall buildings... yet it is not about the height that makes me petrified. I love roller coasters. I love flying. They defy heights.
But this phobia... is something different. It is not the height I am scared of. I am scared of falling to my death.

And this dream taunts and draws out my fear to its maximum.

Every time it is always the ground or foundation below my feet disintegrate and soon enough, nothing keeps me grounded... and my feet begin to sink into nothing... I am falling.

In this worn-out and creased dream, the sensations of falling are magnified. It happens so slowly that I can tell you in intricate details about it-- or at least how I come to realize that I am falling.

In this dream, I will either walk, stand, drive (the most odd one was when I was riding in the back of school bus when I begin to fall along with the bus floating).
All sudden it seems as if I was levitating-- but only for a minute.

The realization of me not levitating kicks in the second I feel the weight of my hair to be light-- it no longer weights down on my back... lighter, lighter... until they are completely sticking straight into the air above my head.

I could feel the puffs of air going under my shirt and balloon up my top as I fall.

I no longer stand upright, but rather falling backward... with my arms straighting out to grab something... alas there are nothing to grab because it is all black and air around me. I will just fall... fall... slowly... with each thought running by slowly... "Oh.... I am falling.... oh.... why?...."

I never see to an ending of my fall-- by this time, my knee-jerk reaction in reality shakes me awake-- my heart pumping like crazy and I notice I have stuck out my arms as well. I blink for the clarity to ensure that I am still in my bed next to an angry and yet sleepy husband who signed with fervor: "What matter?! stop kick me!" I stroke his head and then his back as he turns away from me in anger. Sighing, I try to soothe myself back to sleep-- the very same land where I keep falling.

October.

Somebody. Please. Tell. Me.

That this horrid humidity will go away by end of this week.

It is OCTOBER! I thought we are supposed to don our coat and strut our scarves up and down the streets...

Yet I am finding myself wearing tank tops, denim shorts, and sandals on October 8th.

Is something wrong with the picture?

Ubiquitous Greenery

Most of pictures are taken in Alexandria. One or two are taken at Capitol Hill in DC. I love Alexandria more than D.C.. It is more fun to take pictures-- I do have some spiffy pictures of the building, but this post is all about GREENERY, so I will refrain myself until next post.


A green spiky acorn... yes. It is a punk acorn.


Your typical acorn-- the kind that Chip'n'Dale crave for.



Ah, it can't be that hard to be green!



The view from our bedroom... nothing but green grass and trees! (just behind the brick fence is a very busy street. Thank goodness we are Deaf!)


Praying Mantis! They are everywhere here... it must be DC's state bug? They are totally cool to see up close.


Okay, this is my "odd" nature snapshot. This is actually some type of acorn (lack for a better word) that falls from this big tree. At first I thought it was a nerf ball, but realized it is rather a fruit/acorn instead with odd texture. C described it as "floam" and I thought it is the most accurate description.