Free Neckloop From Clarity If Attending HLAA Convention

:)

HLAA Convention - June 18-21st

Hearing Loss Association of America is holding its annual convention AND celebrating its 30th birthday in Nashville, Tennessee at the monolithic Gaylord Hotel on June 18th to the 21st. You can check out the convention registration package and rates here. Hurry though, the rooms at the hotel are at 98% capacity and registration ends on May 24th. So, break out your happy finger and click on this link for convention details.

The keynote speaker for this year is Vint Cerf, Ph.D., vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, and widely known as known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet." Anyone who had a hand in developing the Internet is alright in my book. He is hard of hearing and his wife is a recipient of a cochlear implant. I can't wait to hear Cerf's up!

I just so happen to have the workshop schedule here. If you take a gander, you see that Tina Childress and I will be giving a workshop called "Wireless Technology Made Simple", on Thursday, June 18th at 2:30. I'm so excited because I love bringing out the inner geek in people especially when it comes to helping them hear better with technology. :)

AND!

I am going to be representing Advanced Bionics on Bilateral Cochlear Implant panel that my buddy Wayne Roorda is hosting on Saturday, June 20th at 10:00. This panel will be made up of recipients of all brands. I encourage that if you have any questions or concerns regarding bilateral cochlear implantation and you are attending the convention, shoot an email to cipanel09@yahoo.com with your questions.

At the same time, my very best bilateral bionic belle, Jennifer and coincidentally Nashville's local HLAA Chapter President will be giving a presentation on Social Networking for Young Adults. She is just the person to give that presentation because she emanates social butterfly! On another note, please help Jennifer reach her goal for the Chattanooga Walk4Hearing on May 16th.

AND!

I will be volunteering at the Advanced Bionic booth just waiting for people to pick my geeky brain about cochlear implants and the Harmony processor.

AND!

I am HLAA's 2009 convention blogger!

I got some pretty big ears to fill here...

Walk 4 Hearing Fundraiser

On October 18th of this year, I will be dusting my sneakers off to go walking 5k for the Garden State, Walk4Hearing sponsored by Hearing Loss Association of America, a non-profit corporation, whose mission is to open the world of communication to people with hearing loss through information, education, advocacy, and support. The Walk4Hearing purpose is to increase awareness about the causes and consequences of hearing loss and to raise funds to provide information and support for people with hearing loss. The Hearing Loss Association of America depends on generous volunteers to raise funds and awareness at each of our Walk4Hearing sites.

I am asking you to help support me in this important project by contributing generously. For information about this volunteer fundraiser and its programs, you can visit http://www.walk4hearing.org/ and to make a donation online, please visit my personal page.

It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause by making your tax-deductible donation online using the link below. If you would prefer, you can send your contribution by mail, please shoot me an email that is located on the right hand side just under my activation video.

Come join us!

Kickoff Celebration

Sunday, September 7, 2008
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Montclair State University
University Hall - 7th Floor Conference Center
1 Normal Avenue
Montclair, New Jersey
(click for directions)

Garden State, Walk4Hearing event

Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Registration - 9:00am
Walk starts - 10:00am
Mercer County Park
West Windsor, NJ
(West Picnic Area
(click for directions)

Thank you!

Tomorrow is the HLAA Convention :)

This is going to be super short because I am in a hurry to get sleep before my first flight ever that leaves before the roosters are crowing. I am one hot bionic tamale! It is a rarity that the east coast gets plagued with 104-degree days and it is even more disgusting when the humidity is at 99.99%. Lucky for me, I am en route to RENO for the HLAA Convention tomorrow to enjoy this beautiful forecast :)

Lucky for you eastern coasties, the heat will break tonight or tomorrow...

Next post I write will be written from the biggest little city in the world! :)

Download my HLAA Magazine Article.

As I mentioned here, I have written an article for the May/June issue of the Hearing Loss Magazine which is now available to download! You can click on the picture to go to Cindy Dyer's blog to download the PDF file. This is my first published article and I am so excited to share this with you all! I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Cover Girl for Hearing Loss Magazine

I'm going to pull my hair out if I don't tell someone! I can’t keep this a secret anymore! I am going to blow a fuse if I do!

The HLAA’s (Hearing Loss Association of America) magazine, Hearing Loss is going to feature yours truly! This is going to be my first cover shot AND my first article published!! It will be coming out around May!

I feel much better now that I let the cat out of the bag! :)

This weekend, I had a photo shoot with the most AMAZING photographer name Cindy Dyer! She is a creative genius and an absolute joy to be around! Go check out her blog here, which features a taste of her captivating portfolio of beautiful photographs. She really knows how to capture the emotion of her subjects. I’m definitely adding her to my Rolodex. :)

Here are the pictures from the photo shoot that Cindy took! I still can't believe she made me look like that! Someone pinch me! Please feel free to drop some comments over at her blog!!!

Somebody pinch me please!

Three men and their articles.

Michael Chorost, author of "Rebuilt" released his latest article today for Technology Review called Helping the Deaf Hear Music. I found this very interesting because it discusses a computerized test that measures how well cochlear implant users perceive music.






Josh Swiller, author of "The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa" had an article released today as well in the New York Times about him, Cochlear Implant Supports an Author’s Active Life. He discusses how his cochlear implant has changed his life.





Michael Royer, a fellow Advanced Bionic cochlear implant user AND he is on the cover of the next March/April edition of the Hearing Loss Magazine. According to the HLAA's website, it will feature his article called Buried Treasures which is "a personal story about growing up with a hearing loss and finally getting a cochlear implant."

Hello World.

• Gigantic Productions is going to begin producing a show called "True Life: I’m deaf" on MTV. They are looking for a variety of deaf individuals ages 14-28. This is the casting call notice from HearingExchange along with the contact information

Do you have severe or total deafness? Are you a deaf student, about to graduate and go out into the world on your own for the very first time? Or are you currently attending a school for the deaf but about to transition to a mainstream school? Perhaps you’re trying to find a job but experiencing difficulty because you are deaf? Are you hoping to get a cochlear implant or be fitted for a hearing aid to significantly improve your ability to hear? Are you a [deaf] member of an advocacy group, fighting to gain more rights or assistance for deaf people?

If you fit any of these descriptions, MTV and Gigantic! Productions want to hear your story at casting@gigantic.tv or call 212.343.2674.

• Project readOn is a completely free online video captioning service. You can go there and search through video that have captioning or submit one that you want it! Sounds like a bargain to me!

• This is a petition to the FCC to push the issue of making it mandatory to caption online or downloadable video. Popular broadcasting networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS AND FOX all have rich video content on their websites, but they do not provide captioning. However, CNET TV has announced that all their videos have the capability of captioning with a click of a CC button.

• Paula Rosenthal over at HearingExchange has made an online site for kids! HearingExchange Kids is geared specifically towards elementary and middle school kids with a hearing loss. I feel that this site would be good for educating a hearing child about hearing loss as well.
  

• HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) is holding their convention in Reno, Nevada this year on June 12 to the 15th. The only problem with this is that I have to fly *gulp* but I'm going! I was considering driving but I did the math, $640 in gas alone changed my mind quickly.

• When I was listening to Josh Swiller, he mentioned a company called Godisa Technologies located in Botswana that provides low-cost digital BTE hearing aids and did I mention it is solar powered to people that otherwise would have been unable to afford them. The battery, the aid, the charger is all charged by a solar panel. From the clean technology to the vision of the company is genius!

• I just ordered this book off of Amazon, its called Rally Caps and the author is a loyal reader, an amazing and HIGHLY entertaining blogger and a wonderful devoted mother to her son Jordan who has a cochlear implant, meet Jodi Cutler Del Dottore
  

Now for some Cochlear Implant Surgeries and Activations

• A loyal reader and fellow blogger Deafcone had his first cochlear implant surgery this past Monday and I would appreciate if you would pop over there and give him some love! His recovery process sounds so similar to mine, poor guy.
  

• Sam Spritzer is going bilateral on January 15th and getting turned on.. February 15th which so happens to be yours truly birthday! Sam used to suffer from the eye twitches like me UNTIL he printed out a copy of the post that rectified mine and took it with him to a mapping. Read about how it fixed him up! I am SOOO happy that it was able to help him!
  

• Another blogger SkullChick is having her first cochlear implant surgery on January 15th and her activation is February 12th!!

• Michael Chorost is activating his second implant on January 24th!
  

I can't keep up with them all!!!