San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

Yes, you got it right. 99 years ago, the earthquake struck the town of San Francisco and from there, San Francisco did not fold. It simply altered the way it deals with designs, transportation system and so on.

There is an article about the reunion of survivors from the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, enjoy the article!

What truly impressed me is this gentleman, Herbert Hamrol, who is 102 years old -- he was 3 when it happened -- he vividly remembered the happenstance but not enough to understand the whole she-bang drama. But why impressed me? He is currently working at a grocery store as shelf-stocker in San Francisco.

Impressive for 102 years old guy!

Since I'm on the subject of San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, I'd like to remind people about Douglas Tilden. He was the sculptor who went to California School for the Deaf and his work on "The Mechanics Monument" which can be found in Downtown San Francisco in the intersection of Market, Bush and Battery Streets.

That monument and "Admission Day Monument" were the only monuments that stood unaffected by the Earthquake of 1906 while everything was destroyed. Coincidence? You decide.

It is kinda annoying that hearing people walk by unaware that this massive monuments were crafted by Deaf person! And for a long time, they claimed that we cannot function in the hearing world. Go figure.

R-

The Snapshot

Here is the snapshot of three bloggers. Kevin and kaybee looks good, don't they? I look like a hunchback or something -- my eyes seemed to be melancholy like Mordru up on the top corner of my blog, eh? Damn. I need to practice to smile better. One gal, years ago, told me that when I smiled, I scared her. When she said that, it reminded me of The Addams Family's Wednesday who were imprisoned in a cabin, forcing to watch the Disney movies. Then she came out to face the counselors and campers, then she smiled. One camper asked the counselor, "Make her stop to smile, she's scaring me!"

Three Bloggers

Cheers,

R-

Vee-TV

Gabe Leung mentioned that Ahmed works for SEE HEAR, a TV program. That was incorrect information. Ahmed corrected me that he is a presenter for VEE-TV (Y E S !! There is a television program called VEE!!)and Lydia works as a researcher for the VEE-TV production.

I checked the VEE-TV website -- I absolutely liked it!

You can see Ahmed's background in this profile. Great picture! Charming man, I can see why Melly goes flip over him.

You can see Lydia's profile as well -- too bad, the picture does not tell you that she is tall, about a foot taller than I am. Lydia is so riot. So funny.

After viewing the VEE-TV's website -- its style of format in production is similar to MTV's style. I like it.

I liked the AARRGH video clip, when Aysin made it clear that he does not have to be patient with this hearing person -- it reminded me of me! (Realplayer video only)

And this video clip was portrayed by Lydia as well. You can see how tall she is. And last Thursday night, Lydia signed a cool sign that caught my eye and I asked her what it is -- she explained that it is a new fad sign among the Deaf UK. It means, "C'mon!" I used it last night when Lydia cracked a joke and I said, "C'mon" in that sign. Lydia nearly choked on her drink. Oh, well -- at least, I tried!

I think I am going to try this with VEE-TV in London in matter of months.

R-

Oh! Party at DEEP

Well, so many things to say. So many persons to say "hi", so many to loiter. So many are heterosexuals. So expensive drinks!

You know, when I entered the club, I paid $4 for the damned coatcheck, the 5'10 caucasian with thick brown hair and goatee stared at me and smiled his shiny teeth. When he took my coat, he winked at me. I thought that was ... so cute.

I met Kevin McCaul. Here is the shocker, he is a foot tall than I am. God, I feel like this couple. Har har. Kevin is nice fella.

As much as I enjoyed the camaraderie, I'm not the fan of SO MANY PEOPLE -- mainly because it is difficult to maintain the conversation under the limited times with different persons. It became too distracting and stressful for me. Soon, I shall have some kind of one-on-one conversation with some faces that I met.

Regan and Kaybee looks da bomb! Same with Yingst, CMK and CK! The Deaf UKs arrived -- Melly got drunk so bad that she lagged on to tell me to inform Veronica that she loves her and wants me to mwah her as well.

I was turned off by three Deaf guys who walked up to Lydia, one of Deaf UK women who stood at 6'0 or so, and told her to kiss this guy. He did not ask, he TOLD her to. Thank God Lydia gave him the ugly look and said, "No thanks" in ASL while I say, "NO NO NO NO" in BSL.

Lydia and Ahmed talked about their production team in London -- I am mesmerized by that -- it may change my career in the making in a short future. Ahmed and Lydia urged me to come over in London -- Sarah, also of UK, signed clearly in BSL that she knew many gay bars/clubs and will lead me around ... with a wicked grin and wink. That is incredibly tempting.

Who knows, you may see Ridor leaving this continent for Europe, much to Berna and Rico's delight!

OH, yeah, Sarah, Tate's wife, looks glamarous as ever! That lady has something to tell me last night and I was pretty enamored by her stern comments about my blogsite, Tate looked good as ever. In fact, he's a hottie like before, probably marriage life suits him very well at this point! We all promised that we'd have a dinner together in a short time.

Oh, yeah, there were pictures taken -- in a short time, I'll get it from others and demonstrate it to the world how straight I can be -- not! But the odd thing is ... one hearing guy walked to me and one guy from Staten Island -- snapped a picture then walked away. We had NO idea who nor why he did that! At least, we look good to him, eh?

Oh, yeah, I was relieved to hear from some folks who said they read my blog and it brought them to smile often. That is the whole purpose of this blog, to make it entertaining for others to laugh, smile and roll their eyes at times. Or even a quick sign "FINISH" at your computer monitor is a great statement upon itself.

One odd statement by Ridloff, when I was ready to leave the club, he asked me whether if I enjoyed myself at the club -- I told him that I did. He said, "You lost some pounds, I noticed that -- try to do more, will you? I want to see you walking around when you are 90."

Well, I do not want to live that long. I rather to die by 75 if my body is starting to whine ... I mean, I do not want to live in a nursing home where someone has to wipe my bottoms and me drooling after 6th stroke. Or even with some disease like Alzheimers. If I am normal at 90, fine. Sure. But if I'm having problems by 75, forget it. I will whine like my Drandpa who kept on saying he wanted to die now, now, now for years until he was 92.
Basically, I had a good time at DEEP! Club last night. It was so nice that I finally left the club at 3 AM and went to G Lounge to refresh myself with gay men -- just to feel back to normal.

Oh, yeah, when I left the club, I picked up the coat from the same guy -- that guy did it again. He smiled and winked -- and not only that, when I grabbed my coat, he quickly touched my left hand and rubbed it so fast before letting me go. I was taken back by that.

Oh, gawd. Why the cute guy in wrong place?

R-

This Reminded Me ...

After reading this, I do not feel safe driving in Seoul, South Korea. At least, I do not live there. Not my problem.

But this reminded me of Korian "Koko" Thomas who is legally blind, he flashed his driver's license which he got it in his homestate, Texas. I was horrified because this guy really has very, I mean, very limited eyesight. He always bumped into guys (Is it because they are guys?) in the dorms and cafeteria. Even he was let go from Gallaudet football team because of his deteriorating eyesight.

I am always amused by Koko's theatrics at times but when he flashed his driver's license -- what was the state of Texas thinking about?! If he hits a pedestrian without seeing the pedestrian at all, and the cop pulled him over and asked him if he was "aware" that he hits a pedestrian -- Koko will say that he is NOT aware because he did not see him at *all*. Legally, he would be have to prosecuted with something if he knew or saw.

IN a way, he can get away with a murder on his hands. O-boy!

R-

Hearing People Wants To Be Deaf

When I was 10, my sister, Hedy, had a best friend who is hearing. I'll never forget her name. Her name is Sharon. Sharon learned ASL in matter of weeks, I'm not kidding. Sharon was totally into it. True biz, in 3 months, she could pass as Deaf person. Her facial expression was on the same par with Deaf children's rapid use of facial expression.

Sharon was upset that Hedy had to go to deaf school and stay in the dormitory for weeks, just like me. Sharon asked her parents if she could transfer to VSDB from the public school. Her parents said, "Only if you are deaf."

Hedy panicked and told me that Sharon had been trying to make herself deaf by trying to do stuff to her ears for days. Hedy just found out about it.

At that time, I was bewildered and thought it was crazy. An isolated incident, perhaps. But Sharon told me in ASL that she really wanted to be Deaf, she does not want to be hearing. She wants to be Deaf, honest! Mom thought she was nuts. I found it amusing. So does my Drandma.

Years later, the Internet came. We are able to exchange lots of information about practically everything, really. I stumbled upon a yahoogroup called "Deaf Wannabe" -- I was intrigued and joined the list. I became a lurker, I did not attack. It is not my position to do so -- but there are some Deaf persons that comes in and attack, they got banned so fast.

On that group, there are lots of information exchanging with each other on how to get hearing aids, on how to act like Deaf, on how to destroy your sounds ... but what really made me set back is that the majority of correspondents are from the United Kingdom!

I wonder why. I'm so glad that the BBC's See Hear is tackling this topic this week. I wish we have See Hear here in the United States.

Since the United Kingdom is not capitalistic society, it has a huge advantage -- it requires the equal broadcast for everyone else -- including Deaf people in the United Kingdom. So they set up the newsmagazine program every week called "See Hear", it is an equivalent to NBC's Dateline.

See Hear was not the original program by the BBC, in fact, it evolved from the first one that was broadcasted in 1950s. This, there and that -- See Hear became the permanent weekly newsmagazine on BBC since 1981. That is 24 years in the making. The majority of BBC's See Hear production team consists of Deaf persons. I know because I was there. Will ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX follow that pattern? Never in a million years.

For more information on See Hear, you may go to this website. You might learn how to fingerspell in British Sign Language for "SEE HEAR". Enjoy.

R-

Eric Berndt II

Thanks to Dolphin's website for broadcasting Eric Berndt's letter to NYU students.

Eric was the one who asked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia if he sodomized his wife?

What Eric wrote made me a lifelong fan of his daring to challenge the impotent homophobe's antics.

Read the letter:

Fellow Classmates,

As the student who asked Justice Scalia about his sexual conduct, I am responding to your posts to explain why I believe I had a right to confront Justice Scalia in the manner I did Tuesday, why any gay or sympathetic person has that same right. It should be clear that I intended to be offensive, obnoxious, and inflammatory. There is a time to discuss and there are times when acts and opposition are necessary. Debate is useless when one participant denies the full dignity of the other. How am I to docilely engage a man who sarcastically rants about the "beauty of homosexual relationships" (at the Q&A) and believes that gay school teachers will try to convert children to a homosexual lifestyle (at oral argument for Lawrence)?

Although I my question was legally relevant, as I explain below, an independent motivation for my speech-act was to simply subject a homophobic government official to the same indignity to which he would subject millions of gay Americans. It was partially a naked act of resistance and a refusal to be silenced. I wanted to make him and everyone in the room aware of the dehumanizing effect of trivializing such an important relationship. Justice Scalia has no pity for the millions of gay Americans on whom sodomy laws and official homophobia have such an effect, so it is difficult to sympathize with his brief moment of "humiliation," as some have called it. The fact that I am a law student and Scalia is a Supreme Court Justice does not require me to circumscribe my justified opposition and outrage within the bounds of jurisprudential discourse.

Law school and the law profession do not negate my identity as a member of an oppressed minority confronting injustice. Even so, I did have a legal point: Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Lawrence asked whether criminalizing homosexual conduct advanced a state interest "which could justify the intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual." Scalia did not answer this question in his dissent because he believed the state need only assert a legitimate interest to defeat non-fundamental liberties. I basically asked him this question again - it is now the law of the land. He said he did not know whether the interest was significant enough. I then asked him if he sodomizes his wife to subject his intimate relations to the scrutiny he cavalierly would allow others - by force, if necessary. Everyone knew at that moment how significant the interest is. Beyond exerting official power against homosexuals, Scalia is an outspoken and high-profile homophobe. After the aforementioned sarcastic remarks about gay people's relationships, can anyone doubt how little respect he has for LGBT Americans? Even if no case touching gay rights ever came before him, his comments from the bench (that employment non-discrimination is some kind of "homosexual agenda," etc.) and within our very walls are unacceptable to any self-respecting gay person or principled opponent of discrimination. The idea that I should have treated a man with such repugnant views with deference because he is a high government official evinces either a dangerously un-American acceptance of authority or insensitivity to the gay community's grievances. Friends have forwarded me emails complaining of the "liberal" student who asked "the question." That some of my classmates are shallow and insensitive enough to conceptualize my complaint as mere partisan politics is disheartening. Though I should not have to, I will share with everyone that I am neither a Democrat nor Republican and do not consider myself a "liberal" except in the classical sense. I hope that we can separate a simple demand for equality under the law and outrage over being denied it from so much dogmatic ideological baggage. LGBT Americans are still a persecuted minority and our struggle for equal rights is still vital. 4 out of 5 LGBT kids are harassed in school - tell them to debate their harassers. Suicide rates for them are much higher than for others. We still cannot serve in the military, have little protection from employment and other forms of discrimination, and are denied the 1000+ benefits that accrue from official recognition of marriage. I know some who support gay rights oppose my question and our protest. Do not presume to tell me when and with how much urgency to stand up for our rights.

I am 17 months out of a lifelong closet and have lost too much time to heterosexist hegemony to tolerate those who say, as Dr. King put it, "just wait." If you cannot stomach a breach of decorum when justified outrage erupts then your support is nearly worthless anyway. At least do not allow yourselves to become complicit in discrimination by demanding obedience from its victims. Many of our classmates chose NYU over higher-ranked schools because of our reputation as a "private university in the public service" and our commitment to certain values. We were the first law school to require that employers pledge not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Of Scalia's law schools that have "signed on to the homosexual agenda," our signature stands out like John Hancock's. We won a federal injunction in the FAIR litigation as an "expressive association" that counts acceptance of sexual orientation as a core value. Those who worry about our school's prestige should remember how we got here and consider whether flattering those who mock what we believe and are otherwise willing to fight for appears prestigious or pathetic. We protestors did not embarrass NYU, Scalia embarrassed NYU. We stood up to a bigot for the values that make NYU more than a great place to learn the law. I repeat my willingess to discuss this issue calmly with anyone who respects my identity as a gay man. I have had many productive talks with classmates since Tuesday and I hope that will continue.

Respectfully,
Eric Berndt