9.22.05 Tidbits

Another Reason Why I Loved Bette Midler! Bette Midler poked fun at GW Bush at a fundraising concert for the victims of Katrina in New York:

I got a letter from the Republican Party the other day. I wrote back, ‘Go fuck yourself’ . . . George Bush is a fan of mine — he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.

Bingo!

Interesting Tidbits about CSD's 2004 IRS Filing: Someone emailed me to mention about few odd things that s/he found on Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD)'s 2004 Income Tax filing. Remember the entry I wrote about the salary figures of deaf agencies across the nation? Yeah, the same form that I mentioned about CSD's Executive Director Benjamin Soukup earned $729,596 in 2004.

An anonymous reader emailed me few things that I did not notice and requested that I do not mention hir name at all. I agreed. This is worth mentioning about possible discrepancies in that form. It is good enough to make you wonder what is going on within the walls of CSD in Sioux Falls.

• Page 7 - Payment of $105,417 to Tiffany Brown for consulting services. The only mention I can find of TiffanyBrown is that she was an entertainer during Deaf Expo sessions.
• Same page, $118K to R. Lytle.... who appears to be the Chair of the English Department at Gallaudet.
• Page 19 - CSD owes money on a $280K loan from a member of Soukup's family?
• Page 22 - Patty Kuglitsch, secretary, makes $140,634 per year for less than 5 hours work per week?

Now this piqued my curiosity. Anyone else?

New DeafGLBT Blogsite! I was mentioned earlier in the day that a new blog is dedicated to the Search for a new national organization for Deaf Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders. As it mentioned on its blog:

There has been an increasing questions against Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf and its function and how it is being run/operated. This is just a brainstorming blog to collect from deaf GLBT community where we could attempt to find the "TRUE" mission/goal for the right GLBT national organization whom belongs to GLBT community, not the Board. This probably could lead to a new national organization being formed. We reserve the copyright for any posting/discussion made in this blog.

Good idea. Let's make some kind of proactive efforts to work things out. Evidently, the RAD Board do not care much for others' concerns. They will go out to alienate and defame others as they did to me earlier in July.

Eww! Poor Kid! I felt bad for this kid!

A Surprise Entry On The Way! Suffice to say, in a short time, I shall unveil an entry that may surprise, delight and shake the Deaf Community. What is it? I cannot reveal what it is but it is going to make lots of people smile. That entry is going to be one of the coolest things that ever happened on this blogsite -- it is my hope that it will not be the last one.

Cheers,

R-

Virginia Board of Education Fiddles While VSDB Burns

The Blighting of VSDB: This is not surprising at all. The Staunton News-Leader has reported that the Board of Education has return the proposal to consolidate the Staunton and Hampton campuses to the General Assembly for further study.

Why? The General Assembly permitted the Board of Education to renovate a school for the deaf and blind up to $61.5 million. Board members studied four proposals by Tramwell Crow Co. and all four proposals went over the budget with Staunton leading at $94.8 million dollars.

I then checked the proposal by Tramwell Crow Co. and was horrified by the proposal. They proposed the destruction of Bass Hall, Darden Hall, Healy Hall, Strader Hall, Watts Hall, Byrd Hall, Stuart Hall, Bradford Hall (Infirmary), Peery Hall, Battle Hall, Harrison Hall, Swanson Hall and last, Superintendent's Home (see the luxury home beyond the playground)!

I probably have no problem with bulldozing Watts, Byrd, Peery, Stuart, Swanson, Harrison, Darden (despite the fact that it was my high school dormitory) to the ground but I cannot fathom the idea of people deciding to bulldoze Bradford, Battle Hall (which served as the social hub for Blind students -- use common sense, think they can socialize with Deaf students?), Healy Hall, Bass Hall and Superintendent's Home.

In fact, Superintendent's Home is one of the country's fanciest home for superintendents that serve the Deaf schools! One little folklore which I was told by many Alumni but was never confirmed -- the Superintendent's Home was paid by whom? The students at VSDB. How? The auditors by the state found that the Superintendent & Business Manager at VSDB once siphoned from students' accounts monthly to finance the luxury home. Needless to say, they were fired.

Many Superintendents repeatedly told me that that particular building is the one they envied the most. No Deaf school has a building like ours. Bradford Hall, the infirmary is simply gorgeous place to get sick, like it or not! It has these high windows that you can gaze at Blue Ridge Mountains on your left side.

If they proceed with this proposal, they intend to destroy one of two buildings that were named after Deaf persons. Ironically, many buildings were named after the fucking Governors and state leaders that has no problems of stripping money from VSDB over the years. Bass Hall was named after R. Aumon Bass, the Deaf person who served loyally for VSDB for more than 35 years.

Yes, we do have blind students and deaf students. Get this? We do not mingle. Not in the dorms. Not in the classes. Not in the cafeteria as well! In fact, we regarded each other as an anomaly on our campus that ought to be removed. Which is why many Deaf Alumni often said "VSD" and Blind Alumni do "VSB".

Now according to the proposal, it appeared that the Deaf students will mingle with blind students in the dorms, cafeteria and yes, school building! It is evident that the Board of Education and Trammell Crow do not know the ramifications of ASL development in school settings. You simply do not teach ASL to hearing students who are blind.

According to the proposal, they trumpeted that the enrollment probably will remain less than 200 in total for ever. There is no room for expansions. Nothing at all. And they expect the deaf students to mingle with these developmentally disabled students as well as blind students at all times. How many times should we struggle to educate the public that Deaf children are not in the same category with these multi-disabled students or blind students? Don't fucking put them altogether!

Suffice to say, the proposal sucks. If they intend to wipe out these buildings, fine with me. At least, I do not live in the state of Virginia. Besides, who wants to? I do not. But if they better not name the newer buildings after Governors or hearie fools or I'll be extremely pissed off.

You can compare the current Staunton campus with this proposal. Creepy.


But know what? Since the Board of Education returned the proposal to General Assembly for a "further study". Which means what? It'll leave a "cloud of uncertainty" on both schools for years to come. Which means what? The quality of Deaf Education will malign at VSDB as many Deaf schools like Maryland, Indiana, Model Secondary, California-Riverside, California-Fremont, Texas and Florida continues to rush ahead with changes for the better interests of Deaf students. No sane Deaf person wanted to send their Deaf children to VSDB because of this uncertainty that plagued the school for more than 30 years. Give it a rest, already.

But you should understand this ... Virginia is a conservative state filled with people who bickered amongst each other over money more than the quality of education, the General Assembly and the Board of Education will take many years, perhaps few decades, to shuffle and play the cards before they reach the final decision. This will interfere VSDB's goals to educate Deaf children and raise the standards. Comparing Virginia with many states' progress with Deaf schools, it tells me not to trust a conservative state to handle the quality of Deaf Education. They simply do not care nor refused to change to improve. Trust me.

This is shame -- but was I ever surprised that they did this? No, not at all. In fact, I joked with a friend few months ago that I predicted they would stall this for few decades. And it appeared that I am right. And the blighting of VSDB continues as of today.

R-

Billy Bean Still Sucks!

One of my favorite comic books was Amethyst. In Amethyst Mini-series #3, right after Amethyst finally stripped Mordru's powers for the time being and stopped Flaw and The Child from taking over Gemworld, there was a quiet moment where you could see Lord Topaz knelt before the ashes of his sons which were killed by Mordru.

Amethyst was ready to leave the scene when Lord Topaz muttered, "What about my sons? What do we do next?"

AS you can see Amethyst's blunt response in the image on your right. Suffice to say, Lord Topaz wept and did not appreciate her blunt response.

That's how I felt when I read Billy Bean's dumb book, Going the Other Way. I wanted to tell Billy Bean that Sam is dead, now quit moping around. Who is Billy Bean? He is former Major League Baseball player who came out of the closet a while after he retired from the post. He is certainly not the person to look up as a role model. Becaue he is fucking stupid. More on this in few minutes.

Before I run off the subject, I want to emphasize that I did not buy Billy Bean's book -- I refused to. Because of what happened three years ago in the District. What happened is that I learned that Billy Bean was to give the lecture and autograph at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Downtown DC, I decided to call the store to request an interpreter. They said that they'll provide one. When I came in a week later, no interpreter was in sight. I was annoyed. I approached the BN staff who gave me the routine bullshit turnaround. I decided to email Billy Bean to show how much disappointed I am. Billy Bean finally responded ... 10 MONTHS LATER with cheap-assed paragraph. That was a major turn-off. Of course, his response was such a retard one.

Now back to his book, how did I get to read it? My roommate mentioned that he bought it few years ago. I decided to read 245-page book, it was such a fucking torture to read the book filled with paranoia, narcissism, naive and delusional.

I play sports in high school. I made it clear to the players that their homophobic remarks were not necessary when I was in high school. I was 21 when I have had enough of being in the closet -- I was honest with my friends and even with my family. Why? Because I'm sick of dealing with people making these crude remarks in my face. By being honest with myself, I could turn the tables on people and make sure that they do not do that around me.

Billy wrote that it did not strike him that the homophobic slurs and jokes in the locker rooms do make a negative impact on men who are in the closet -- What? He never thought about it?! That indicated what? Billy is neither naive or selfish, he may lack common sense as well. It is always about himself. He wants to please others in order to enrich himself with the opportunities.

When Sam died, Billy went on to whine about how lonely it was for him -- I'm like, "Whose fault was it? Yours! You asked to hide everything -- even, Sam loved you but you also forced Sam to hide for you, fuckwad!!" He cannot complain how lonesome it was -- after all, he had the resources to get around -- he lived in West Hollywood! He cruised guys in BALLYS' locker rooms! He lived not far from Hillcrest! He visited Castro District from time to time! And he had these opportunities to figure out things on his own. He chose to bury himself under the sand and when Sam died, he whined for a while.

And he found a sugar daddy to contend with before he retired -- then he decided to come out of the closet. Go figure. What a guy! Suffice to say, his life was pretty much, in my opinion, was waste of time, trying to please himself all the time. It is all about him, himself and his needs. Jeers to his book.

In my book, Billy Bean is a loser, no question about it. Anyone who has courage to be honest with everyone and attempts to reduce homophobia in the locker rooms are, in my opinion, winners. Billy failed.

What a narcissistic prick.

R-

Gil Lentz & Few Tidbits

Gil Lentz Victim Of Sleep Apnea: I learned that Gil Lentz died last Monday morning at the age of 48 in Fremont, California. It was said that he died of Sleep Apnea. He was quite popular figure at California School for the Deaf at Fremont. He coached football at CSD-F for 13 years, captured the respect from many hearing and deaf opponents by winning many games despite the limited resources and/or numbers of players. It was said that he also refereed for public high school basketball games in Bay Area as well! Gil enjoyed basketball, football and golf.

Why did I mention him on my blogsite? Well, he once coached at VSDB in late 1970s - early 1980s, he was the assistant coach under the legendary animated Head Coach Rocoo DeVito. Gil once emailed me about 5 years ago that he considered Rocco DeVito to be the one that influenced him to coach very well at Louisiana School for the Deaf and at California School for the Deaf at Fremont after he departed from VSDB.

Rima Cornish, herself an alumni of CSD-F, mentioned, "I love him becuz he loves children and people. He always love being there for us... We have our own moment of him letting me joke with his football players. I always choose to visit him over my damn boyfriend. I have wonderful memories with him when it comes to weightroom with his football boys, he usually not let any girls get in but me [so] we always get chance to pick on the players with variety requests. [We ended up] Enjoy our laughs together."

Gil Lentz is the brother of well-known ASL Poet in Ella Mae Lentz, also from Bay Area.

For further information about Gilmer Lentz, click on this memorial website. Rest in peace, Gil.

Way To Go, Christian! A friend of mine, Christian Burke, played on a flag football team consisted of Deaf players called "Aerial Attack". In its national tournament for deaf teams, Aerial Attack has dominated the 8x8 and 4x4 fields in the last two years -- they are heavily favored to win their third consecutive championship. But they did something remarkable recently -- the team, Aerial Attack, just became the first Deaf team to win a game in the United States Flag And Touch Football League National Tournament. Pop quiz -- which one is Christian Burke?

Hurricane Rita Marches On! In the open sea, Rita is building its power before it reached the Gulf Coastal -- let's hope that the residents of Galveston has common sense to leave the city. The last time, the hurricane plowed through Galveston -- it left 8,000 people dead. Including the scores of people who wanted to see the hurricane up front. It happened in 1900. However, I just learned that with 2 1/2 months left to go, the hurricane season is far from done. And it only has 4 names left! They are Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma! I'm not sure how it works when they ran out of names, though.

For your own amusement -- some of my friends' names will be featured as Hurricanes or Tropical Storm.

In 2006, Chris.
In 2007, Erin, Karen and Wendy.
In 2008, Paloma.
In 2009, Kate and Larry.
In 2010, Karl, Paula, and Richard.

Congratulations, DeMya Walker! Sacramento Monarchs won the 2005 WNBA Crown this year, denying Connecticut Sun from winning the title in two years. Lindsay Whalen, Sonny Wasilowski's favorite girl from Minnesota, was non-factor in all 4 games.

DeMya Walker is the first Virginia alumni under Coach Debbie Ryan to win any championship. DeMya Walker's chances to win the national championship at Virginia was ruined by Tennessee Lady Volunteers when she was a freshman. Long story. But anyway, DeMya is 6'3 post player who can do everything else and more. She is agile, finesse and fast player who led Virginia in blocked shots. This year, she averaged 14 points and 5 rebounds per game in 27 minutes at Sacramento Monarchs.

Way to go, DeMya! Hope her winning the WNBA Championship rub off on the Curse that seemed to plague the Virginia teams from winning the NCAA Championships!

Cheers,

R-

Rita Is Coming!

It is interesting to note that the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida selected the name of Rita for the newest tropical storm which is now travelling westward ho towards Texas.

Rita is currently located in Bahamas Islands and is now harboring 70 MPH winds. Many said that it will head straight to Texas -- it may hit Houston, the city where the majority of evacuees from Katrina's wrath in New Orleans. I think it is hilarious but c'est la vie!

But I'm not certain whether if Rita is going on that path -- know why? Because it is mid-September, the planet is now slowly moving north-er as the sun goes south, the jetstream is bound to move flexible -- if the jetstream stays its course, Rita goes straight to Houston. If it moved north, look for Rita to hit New Orleans or somewhere else.

I thought it was amusing that they chose the name, Rita. Know why? I'm not talking about Rita Ribera. Yeah, her brother looks like Mr. Joe Camel -- he may be the offspring of some camel but who cares? Let's back to the name itself.

In '98 or '99, at Gallaudet's Ely Center, there was a booth sponsored by Student Body Government on Valentine's Day -- you pay $1 to fill out the form and you'll get the names of opposite sex that matched with your types. It is so heterosexual, is it? So I complained to Rayni. She had this evil grin I loved the most. She said, "Why don't you fill out and put it in women's box and see what happens next?"

I needed a new identity -- there is no way in Heavens or Hell that I'll put my real name on it because men at Gallaudet would be so upset to find my name on their Top 10 list. We saw a well-known woman named Hilly Owens walking by -- I stole her last name. Now, the last dilemma is the first name. Rayni and I came up with Rita. Know why? My name is Ricky -- take the first letters out. My last name is Taylor. Take the first two letters out. You get Rita Owens!

I did the deed.

A week later, I was amused to see some people on my list -- among them are: Brian Morris, Raymond Merritt and Jesse Thomas. I cannot remember who the rest are. Suffice to say, I tried to keep it quiet as can be. Rayni, she has a lethal mouth to start with. The rumor exploded like a wildfire that Rita Owens was me.

Some people asked me if the rumor was true. I confirmed that it is. Brian was not happy because in his views, I wasted "one" line of his list -- since he's straight and back then, he was desperate for a woman. He feels that me being on the list ruined his chances.

Jesse was a good sport. He cracked jokes about it.

Yeah, for a minute, my name was Rita Owens. It was interesting to read the names of straight men who matched with my preferences. And now this Tropical Storm is Rita. Interesting ... but why did Rayni have to tell someone about it? It was certainly a big news on the campus when someone found out that Rita Owens was me.

Cheers,

R-

As Expected, RAD & CMRA Did Not Pay the Interpreters & SSPs!

When I heard that the RAD and CMRA claimed that they will compensate the deaf/blind interpreters and Service Support Providers (SSPs) $25 per hour by working with the deaf/blind conference participants within a month after the conference ended on July 23, 2005, I knew they will never do that. And I warned a friend that s/he will never be compensated. Or it will take years for them to get the pay from the corrupted RAD or CMRA organizations.

Well, I got alerted by someone else that the coordinator of Deaf/Blind services could not get ahold of Bill Terrell, the RAD 2005 Conference Chairperson, and RAD 2005 Committee to finalize and issue the paychecks to more than 40 people who worked as interpreters and SSPs during the conference.

"the coordinator of deafblind tried to reach bill t and others they avoid him! damn! guess we will never see the money! fuck them!" One disappointed interpreter said to me via the IM.

It is September 19, 2005 -- 56 days has passed since the end date of the conference. The Deaf/Blind Interpreters and Service Support Providers were robbed by Bill Terrell, Ricky Drake and RAD Board. This is the reason why I believed that the RAD organization is not legitimate from day one. They simply cannot hold a honest nor meaningful conference for anyone else without resorting to the powerplay and corruption practices within the organization.

"Did you know that I'm amazed that RAD ran on its own with its fractured bylaws for nearly 30 years?" One person who observed the meetings commented to an interpreter who relayed the information to me a while ago.

As you can see, I was right. I knew the interpreters and SSPs won't be paid because it is their typical characteristic to do things like that unless someone provoked them to do something about it. Like me writing an entry about it, they will run around and do something about it. Just wait and see.

Shame on RAD, Bill Terrell, and Ricky Drake for reneging the agreements to pay the bill. Pay up the bill as agreed, you faggots.

UPDATE: Jeffycito wrote an entry on this subject. Excellent one.

R-

Sunday Is Always Good To Relax

On Sunday afternoon, it was warm outside -- not so hot, not so cold -- Jason, Gus and I embarked upon a drive to Center City in Gus' white convertible Mustang. It was always nice to sit in the back and feel the winds going against me. I immediately remembered the song that Disney's Pocahontas sang the song:

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know

You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know ev'ry rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of a mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun-sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down then you'll never know
And you' ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For wether we are white or copper-skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
Need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the earth and still
All you'll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Of course, I can relate to this song. You cannot judge me because I do not conform to the society's ideals. I will not apologize for not being heterosexual, I will not apologize for not cowering before hearing people's repeated patronizations. I will be true to myself, my life is mine!

As Gus' white convertible Mustang approached Downtown Philadelphia, I was enamored with this building with a pyramid on the top, Mellon Bank Tower seemed to stand out along with the glassy buildings -- for some reasons, when Gus pulled into Center City, I quickly thought of Lily Tomlin's performance on a film called All of Me with Steve Martin. Lily told Steve that she would like to transfer her soul into an eagle so that she can shit on some people that she disliked. I liked that attitude of hers.

Abandoned the convertible Mustang on a street in Center City as usual and headed down for one deaf organization's meeting. The meeting was cancelled because not enough Deaf people showed up. Told one fella to bring food the next time, it always works. Deaf people always showed up for free food and drinks. Ask folks in DC, New York and Los Angeles!

I observed something interesting and explained the rationality of this phenomenon to Jason. He grinned about my logic. I noticed that in the gay communities, unattractive gay guys could not get any attention in gay bars, clubs or bathhouses so they turned on to set up the organizations and try to lead them to get some kind of attention for themselves. I mean, they are trying to show that they harbor some kind of intelligence inside their brains despite the fact that they are so eww to look at.

For example, look at Larry Kramer, Bob Donaldson, Barbara Hathaway, Ricky Drake, Bill Terrell, Bruce Carroll of FagPatriot, Jeff of NorthDallasThirty or even, Andrew Sullivan of his AndrewSullivan.com! Need more? Check the officers of Capital Metropolitan Rainbow Alliance in D.C.!

Before you could jump on me -- yes, I'm overweight but not as bad as Whale Fatterson -- but I'm not unattractive. And I seemed to have many opportunities to play with a lot of men as well as making friends just easy as committing a sin. I can always lose weight -- in fact, I'm working on it -- and when I achieve the goal, it is safe to say that, despite my modest efforts, I'll look good than the rest of the above, like it or not! I attend the local gym at Ballys -- imagine this! But I do not share the information with you because it is none of your business, simply put.

But the whole point is that, there is a pattern of unattractive gay guys taking the routine in order to get attention for themselves without relying on their looks. Why? Because they simply could not score a guy in the gay bars, clubs or bathhouses with their appearances -- saying that their looks do not matter is full of shit, trust me! Maybe they did score at some peep shows -- I mean, you can't see a face when you are using the glory hole (work not safe)!

When I explained this to Jason, he grimaced with heavy fits of laughters and said, "Y-E-S!"

I went to the local gay bookstore on 12th Street and Pine Street -- I stumbled upon the latest issue of The Advocate -- this particular "hot guy", Emory Etheridge, was featured in this issue. It mentioned that thousands of gay men like Emory has conquered Crystal Meth. But guess what? Emory is HIV Positive. Whose fault was it? His. I do not think the magazine should promote Emory as a good example -- he is what is wrong with the community. It also featured with Chris Beckman (barf!) who said that he was addicted to Crystal Meth. Emory and Chris should not even get a profile of their own in the magazine. What a trash.

I enjoyed watching the gay guys doing their stuff at Woodys Bar's Country Western Nite later in the evening. Somehow, Jason and I had a conversation about HIV Positive guys. I mentioned that I knew of a friend who told me that one time, he dumped the guy after he told him that he's positive.

My friend said that it does not matter if he's prejudiced or ignorant, the point is that it is safe and better to dump him than to deal with any kind of risks. I thought it was interesting to see his point of view.

But my friend complained that the HIV Positive guy turned on my friend and said that he was bigot, ignorant, prejudiced and so on for doing that to him. I can agree wtih my friend -- I do not think he is bigot, ignorant or prejudiced in terminating his date with the poz guy. It is his prerogative to terminate the date/relationship because having the cocktail drugs to pop in everyday isn't funny -- it is his life to decide, not the other way around! Would you date a leper if given a chance? Same idea.

Of course, the persons with HIV/AIDS should be treated with respect and dignity -- but certainly not all persons, because there are some people out there who are out to infect the innocent or naive people on purpose -- some are barebacking, trust me, I know. I already encountered the instances where guys refused to have sex with me because I insisted to wear a condom. These made me lose respect for people who are irresponsible for their own actions. Maybe that is why I'm cyncial these days when it comes to gay people trying to do some noble intentions. I'm like, "Yeah, right, like I care!"

Do I care? Not always. I care about my friends, my family (they are nuts, no question about it!), few bloggers as well ... I'd love to have a partner someday, but do I trust a man? I don't know. My feelings are pretty mixed on this subject. Maybe my expectations are too high, but men certainly are pigs. Or dogs. Because of repression, they learned how to lie and cheat upon each other. But they are still responsible for their actions no matter what. Again, not everyone is the same but

Anyway, saw this cute guy at the bar. Approached him -- we ended up talking bit too much and we exchanged the information in order to get in touch with each other sooner than you think. Ahh, yeah, Mike is cute. And yes, he's hearing. Then I went home later in the evening. Overall, Sunday was a good time to observe in Center City.

Cheers,

R-