My first deaf bingo game!
As some of you might know, I know very little sign language. I was mainstreamed in a school that did not provide a dual setting to learn the English language and sign language. I was never against learning sign (as some of you think I am) but when I was younger I preferred to talk and I always will. There have been times that I wish I knew ASL like when I went to a couple of local Deaf Fests. My experiences at these events were not great because the minute that I would start to talk, they would walk away from me. I know you are thinking that my cochlear implant was a problem but the fact that I had a CI never entered into the equation because I didn't even get remotely close to getting through the preliminary greetings to tell them I had one. It was hurtful at first but I needed to learn more about the culture and I made a decision that I wanted to learn ASL because I think it is a beautiful language, just like dance.
My friend Joleen (she signs) and I danced ourselves to my first deaf bingo game on Saturday. When I first walked into the room, everybody flinging flanging fingers was flying all over the place. I was a little overwhelmed.
"Way out of my league," I thought to myself.
Once I took a seat, I started to study the hand movements. I learned more sign language in 2 hours then in the past 20 years. The deaf people that I met were patient and took the time to show me different signs. There was even a couple of interpreters there which was helpful because I was the one that needed interpreting :)
Overall, the deaf bingo game was a good experience for me. I made some new friends, left with a boatload of signs, and I am planning to go back. My only complaint is that I didn't win... blah!
Been itching to gossip about some of you because I am way overdue!
Deafcone was just activated last Tuesday and already had a couple mappings since! Ahh... those first few weeks are fun times, fun times indeed. I think he hinted around that he has an activation video that he is attempting to caption yippie!! I will be looking forward to that!
Jeff has posted his activation video some time ago which I feel the utter need to exploit :) Go check it out
hereCyborg Queen was activated last Friday! She seems to be doing fairly well; she is in that "Oh boy! its loud!" stage. She can already tell a difference between using the CI and the HA... I'm very excited to see how she does with hers :)
Mike Chorost had his junior partner activated on January 24th and I am having such a joy reading tale of his two ears :) He is already able to localize sounds! I am over the moon for him!
Sam Spritzer has an up and coming activation slotted for February 15th for his second ear. It seems like it is taking forever to get here which is good for me for an undisclosed reason, but for him, i can't wait!
My friend Joleen is being turned on Valentines Day!
She went and had her stitches taken out last Tuesday, which went fine.
Then her Audi hooked her up to the computer to test drive the first four electrodes and she heard her Audi talking!
She said it sounded far away which is normal but it sounded just like her hearing aid!
This is an ear that she has never ever used a hearing aid and I am not allowed to divulge how long that has been :)
Now she is antsy in the panties for activation!
Thank goodness, my dear Audi didn't tease me like that!
Amy is another one with a February activation! Its the ears of the Aquarius :) She is slotted for the 12th. One more week to go girl!
Shari has become a candidate for a Cochlear Implant! (doing the wave) She is in the beginning process of picking out which brand of CI to get. I really like reading her blog because she is not only deaf, she suffers from Ushers which is a disease that causes progressive blindness but it offers a completely different perspective.
Jillian is a little one that will be having surgery tomorrow. Her mom has been fighting with the insurance company for quite some time to pay for the surgery and she finally got approval back in December! I got my fingers crossed Jilly!
Captioned Videos!
I must say I am tickled pink that I am starting to see a trickle of people showing interest to start adding captions on their vlogs which stands for "video log."
Here is a few that have done it already and some with
Overstream.net!
Seek Geo's is my favorite vlogger because he signs AND he captions his videos which helps someone like me who doesn't know how to sign. I have learned a lot just from watching him and I am looking forward to watching many more! I like the way he thinks too, he believes that everyone should respect one another! He is so entertaining to watch and is pretty easy on the eyes if you ask me :)
Jennifer , my bionic belle has captioned one of her activation videos! Go check her out, captions and all
hereVal who is the mother of two adorable children with cochlear implant just posted a video with subtitles! Go check it out!
Mike McConnell at
Kokonut Pundit has quickly become one of my favorite spitfire blogs to read. The southerner has become the first vlogger on
Deafread to use his voice and not sign but he captions to make sure not one single person is going to miss what is being said. Some people are upset by this because he does know how to sign, I'm just slapstick happy that it is captioned!
Another blog I just discovered is at
http://www.bluejeansguy.com/ which uses ASL and he has started captioning his vlogs!
If I forgot someone, shoot me an email and I'll revise this faster then you can learn to say "How are you?" in Urdu :)
I must end this post with paying homage to the NEW YORK GIANTS!!! Hopefully, the Giants will set the tune that the Yankees will march right to the World Series this year.
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