Comments II

Let you know that my blog host offers option of moderating comments and I clicked yes which means when a poster writes inappropriate words that their software detects and the comment post will be automatically deleted. I noticed several deleted comments from anonymous user...It means this person wrote inappropriate words. I also do have option to delete comments I deem inappropriate which was why I deleted Tommy Korn's although he did not type anything that my blog host would deem inappropriate and delete. At first I was perplexed as to why I received those comments until a friend VPed me and informed of what was happening on another blog. I was busy over the weekend, and my boys left late this afternoon with their grandparents to Pinetop for the week, so I had the chance to view the blog. Now I know why I got those comments. There is really no need to cuss or insult. You can get your point across without resorting to cussing or insults.

I WILL NOT discuss the other blog. This is a separate issue. I will NOT feed any more into the other blog. The other blog has no part on my blog at all. Thereofore, whenever any poster comments to discuss about the other blog, I will delete. No point in feeding it any more than it already have been fed. It has run its course.

Comments

Thank you to those who posted comments on my blog! I really appreciate it. Don't be afraid to post! I love to hear from you and discuss topics. Just click on "others" if you want to leave a username or "anonymous" if you don't wish to use any username, but username helps separate yourself from others. An username does not necessarily have to be your own name.

Ridor recently entered a new post on Deafhood and Joey Baer is in the process of clipping several vlogs of the workshops on Deafhood and Think Tank at Nad Conference in Palm Springs a few weeks ago. I am waiting to view those clips when Joey finishes his project and discuss further on these topics! In the meanwhile, I am reading posts on Ridorlive to put out feelers on the Deaf community's take on these topics. They are quite controversial right now. So many different views, opinions and feelings. And I think I should read Paddy's book. I wonder if this is something I should bring up in my Literacy Club when we meet late in August....Hmmmm...

Diverticultis

Was out sick since I last posted! I started having pains in the hipbone area and felt a bump...after 4 days, I decided to go to ER because I started walking like an old lady and hugging my hip. Well, ER doctor came and prodded me and pressed on that bump and I went "YELP!" He said I needed a CT scan and to drink what looked like a half gallon orange juice. At the first sip, it taste God-awful! Too sickeningly sweet. It was for the CT scan - to fill up my bladder with chemicals that enable the scan take pictures. I took TWO whole hours to drink that God-awful liquid. Thank God the interpreter was there to keep me company and the TV had captioning. The IV in my left arm (I am a lefty) was more bothersome than my bump. Anyway, I finally gulped down that liquid and had the CT scan. They put some kind of a dye into my IV - MY GOD! It burst out with heat and pinpick feeling inside my head spreading down to my stomach. I almost puked but I survived it...Well, the diagnosis was Diverticultis. Seems I have a genetic defect in my colon. My father and I have it. Diverticultis happens when a person has the defect of having sacs along the inside lining of the colon...some indigestable food such as nuts, seeds and popcorn fall into those sacs and they become inflammed and infected. In my case, it was full of popcorn. I pled guilty to the ER doctor that I ate a bag of popcorn at a movie the Saturday before and then a small bag at home the night before. She said, "NO more popcorn! That include seeds, nuts, peanuts, and these kinds." Jeez! No more popcorn?? What will I munch on at the movies?? Anyway, I was prescribed two very powerful antibiotics that turned me into a zombie for 10 days. I slept a lot and had no energy to do anything. These 2 weeks were totally wasted.

Last Saturday my family and I watched M. Night Shaylaman's "The Lady in the Water" (I know it did not get rave reviews but personally, I thought the movie was quite good), and I munched on a pretzel. Next best thing to popcorn....I still feel some soreness down there but I will live.

Gallaudet BPN Protest Petition

There are 4,300 signatures and they need 10,000! I signed. NOT anonymously! If you are in favor of Jane Fernandes' resignation as Gallaudet's 9th president, SIGN the petition!!! IF you haven't already???

http://thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/654622934

Deafhood

What's your take on Deafhood??

I shared with a friend in CA that I found the term awkward. The core word, "hood", to me, refers to a certain time in a lifetime, a phase. Motherhood is the time in a woman's life when she is raising her children, but when her children leave home, the motherhood chapter of her life ends, and her life transits. Empty Nest Syndrome? Grandmotherhood? Career? Back to school? Among few instances. My friend listened to my take of the word and shared with people in her town in CA....and brought back some feedback. One person said it can apply in the same way as in a "brotherhood," as in a fraternity. I replied to my friend I accepted the concept when given in that context.

However, now I had time to ponder upon this...even with a fraternity, the time phase applies. A fraternity brotherhood is active during college years, however, often as is the reality, the brotherhood diminishes or becomes insignificant when the members graduate or leave college. The "hood" is gone. They reunite every few years and do some kind of ceremony or whatever, but go their separate ways afterwards. So...Deafhood remains an awkward, inappropiate word. I wonder how the heck Paddy came up with the idea to use "hood"??

It is not really a process as he describes if he insists on using the "hood" word. It would mean more like a "fraternity", a group of people sharing same views, ideas, values, goals and such. In that context, I would be comfortable about using the "hood". Otherwise, somebody will need to come up with another word if the key concept remains " a life process towards identity as a deaf person and reaching out to others towards unity."

Not that I am against the "Deafhood" concept. I absolutely agree with the part where the medical perspective of deafness needs to be removed, and to instill deafess as a life process, acceptance, and self-identity. It is only the word chosen to describe the process that is awkward to me.

Maybe I am just picky.

What do you say?

WHAT freakish species is THAT??

HELP! Can anyone identify the sharks my son caught in the surf at Doheny Beach 2 weeks ago?? The first one is a pup. Most fishermen on the beach said it was a Sand shark, and I thought it was a Bull because there is an estruary down the beach at San Juan creek where Bull shark pup nursery is...After Googling up an image of Bull shark pup, it is definitely NOT a Bull...So what species is it??

As for the weird looking one above...It looked like a cross breed of a skate (sting ray type of fish) and a shark...Not far-fetched considering that skates belong to the shark family. After some research, it seems to be a Sandskate Shark. The physical description seems to fit...Top half resembles that of a skate...Eyes on top, wings on side, the bottom has a tail with double dorsal fins (back) and caudal fins (side) and characteristic shark tail fin. Sort of like a centaur type species - half and half, but within the same species family, while a centaur sure is not!

My husband and I have been debating on the species of these fish. Help us settle our difference of opinions!

My son also caught a 4 foot Leopard shark - beautiful shark, but too big and unsafe for him to handle, so the line was cut off. Did not dare to unhook it...We Deafies value our hands! The tide took it back to the sea. Darn too bad I and my camera were not on the beach when my son caught it.

FYI - we are strong advocates of our precarious ecosystem...We did not keep these sharks - they were safely released back to the sea. Sharks provide essential role in the ocean ecosystem. They are the top predators and keep the ocean clean and healthy! On the sportfishing boat, they did catch some reef fish such as perch, sea basses among others and they did keep those and ate them for lunch.

Joey Baer's comments about deaf clubs

If you haven't viewed Joey Baer's ASL blog on the dying culture of Deaf Clubs, log on at joeybaer.com and click on the one with blue shirt, and "5 minutes" caption underneath. Interesting narrative on diminishing numbers of deaf clubs across the country. He resolves to resurrect these old days of deaf clubs, for us to toss aside the modern technology that took us away from personal socialization/interactions, and is the cause of changing landscape of the deaf community. He is right - technology HAS changed the landscape even though it brought us closer to the mainstream society and enable us to communicate with the public at large without language barrier which is great. The question is DO we want to resurrect the deaf clubs or accept it as part of a life cycle of a community? A beginning is a means of an end. Is it just time for the deaf club to die out? Or should we hold on to it Or just create a different kind? For me, the third is the logical option.

During my parents' time, it was a NECESSITY. These deaf clubs provided a support system. Deafies flocked to the clubs to rant and rave, to ask questions, to listen to advice on how to solve problems at work, with families, with children, with bosses, etc. It was a bloodline for the Deafies. They attended deaf clubs religiously. My time, as a young child, it was more social. Workshops. Celebration. Holidays. Sports. You get the idea. Within 20-30 years, it evolved. We had interpreters, relay service and increased awareness of the deaf. We had IDEA. We had Civil Rights laws. Now, it evolved again. What does a deaf club serve for us now? Seems to be uncertain. What is the "job description" of a deaf club? Sports remains a mainstay part of the club in most places. Referrals is another part in places where there is no state agency for the deaf. We have one here in Arizona, so our PAD (Phoenix Association of the Deaf) does not provide a referral service. Ah, yes, KODAs organization. A relatively new organization for increasing number of parents experiencing parental difficulties with hearing children and a support system for the KODAs. Deaf parents nowadays are more articulate with issues with raising hearing children, the issues they face as CODAs, thus needing an organization.

So, creating a new kind of deaf clubs may be unnecessary since it apparently already has evolved, but for the social aspect, it seems to become an irrevelant part of the deaf club culture. As for myself, I dislike going to deaf clubs solely for social functions due to the fact deaf people are notorious gossipers. I have had my fill of that in my youth and had experienced the destruction of idle gossip, so I avoid that like the plague. I believe many other Deafies feel the same and avoid deaf clubs for similar reasons. It is simply that there is more to life than gossip. I'd rather do other things. An organization is supposed to serve a shared goal by their members for the betterment or enhancement of their lives, not to gossip about others and to destroy others' reputations. That is my view of a deaf club.

So, Joey, you have a genuine passion to preserve the deaf culture which is commendable, but time has an annoying way of evolving, of changing, so the reality is not always accommodating. We STILL have deaf culture, but different from our parents' time. That is part of life. We need to re-define what a deaf club constitutes of and how it should serve the deaf.

Any comment, anyone?

Books!

I gotta start somewhere...And I thought I'd start with my Literacy Club. There are 4 women in our club, and all of us are avid readers, obviously! One is the designated leader ( not me, for sure, LOL), and at our first meeting, she set guideline that the books we read would be from the Pulitzer Prize list. We went through the list and elected to read "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert. The reason for choosing this one was the book was about a woman and it was written by a man. We questioned whether a man could "immerse" himself into the physiology of a woman?? And it was written in 1880s, and was quite a controversy due to the fact there were detailed sexuality in the book, but by our modern standards, the sexual exploits were quite G rated. My personal opinion was the book was excellent and the Pulitzer Prize award was appropriate. Sometimes such awards could be politically motivated such as the Oscars - not shared by the popular opinion of the public at large, but it was not the case with this book. The author earned the award. Summary: the book is about a country French doctor who married a young woman whose ambitions were unrealized when she moved into the country with her husband who was blissfully happy with the lifestyle. You guessed it - she started wandering. A version of "Vanity Fair" with Reese Witherspoon if you had seen the movie. The book was written in Old French context which was challenging to read - it was not an easy reading but immersing nonetheless! To answer the initial question whether Flaubert accurately understood women's physiology - by George, he GOT it! He was a gifted author.

The second book was "Gilead." The opposite of Madame Bovary...The author was a woman, Marilynne Robison, and the leading character is a man. Did Robison succeed Flaubert? At the beginning, it appeared to be another political Pulitzer Prize award....But that was disproved at the end of the book. The leading character was a priest who married a young woman and had a son with her. He was dying and started a journal for him. If you could get past the religious references, you will find the book quite enlightening and enjoyable. I read this book on my vacation at Doheny Beach while my boys were on a chartered sportfishing boat along the Southern California coast. To answer whether Robison was Flaubert's peer - yes, she was, indeed. She earned the award.

Now, we are reading Kite Runner. I haven't started reading it, but what I know about it is it is NOT a Pulitzer Prize winner...More like the New York Bestseller. Someone mentioned to the club's leader that it is a must-read, so we suspended the List. I will soon find out why it is a must-read and whether I agree with the opinion. It is about a group of people living through a war, mostly the children. War is not my favorite subject and something I don't care to know or read about, but the sypnosis sounded captivating, so I will give it a go.

Anyone care to recommend a book? We meet again next month.

What is this blog all about?

There are many deaf blogs popping up in response to the BPN (Better President Now) Gallaudet protests, and many of them are political and blogged by mainly males.

I thought we need a more diverse blog by the deaf. I created a chat blog for those who enjoys chatting or debating but have no means to pursue these pastimes, it being too busy to socialize outside the home, work odd hours, live in remote areas, not having a computer (unheard of nowadays, though...) or whatever. Some people actually "socialize" better via blog than in person. Such are introverts by nature! Like ME! Grin. I DO envy those extroverts. Sigh! So, this is the purpose of this blog. Purely and idly fun and intelligent. No cuss words and belittlement, please. We all can converse intelligently without either, don't you agree? I expect some nods...great!

My Profile

My Profile

Name: Cy
Martial: Married 14 years
Offspring: 2 boys, 14 & 13
Pets: Yorkshire Terrier, 14, Beagle, 10 and Boxer, 2
Occupation: Substitute Teacher
Leisure: Beach, camping, photography, scrapbooking and reading
Member: Literacy Club
Passion: Deaf Education, Enviroment, Animals, and Debate