Alan Ritchson Is Da Bomb ... As Aquaman!

I'm not a fan of Smallville on WB-TV. Tom Welling's pretty looks made me roll my eyes. I like men who are tough, rough and hot. Throw some hair on their chest is a plus but not required.

Last night, I was flipping different channels and I stumbled upon an episode of Smallville where Clark Kent gets to meet ... Aquaman! I used to collect Aquaman when I was a kid. I like Aquaman and Aqualad (now Tempest) and its connections with the fabled, lost city, Atlantis was revealed in a series called The Atlantis Chronicles. Aquaman's distant relative is Kordax, he has blond hair, has fins and all that -- there was a legend amongst Atlantis on the ocean floor that ... if a person has blond hair, he has Kordax's Curse. Anyone who has blond hair is to be abandoned in the wilderness, but fortunately for Aquaman, he was rescued by a lighthouse keeper who raised him to be a decent man. Later, Aquaman learned that he is the Emperor of Atlantis. That's what happened in the comic book series, though.

But last night, I was startled to see someone whooshing by Clark Kent in Crater Lake -- suddenly, he stared at Clark Kent. I could not believe it. It was Aquaman, played by Alan Ritchson. The show poked fun at the references on the comics. For instance, Aquaman asked Clark if they should set up Junior Lifeguard Association (JLA) -- I grinned, it was indirect reference to the group called Justice League of America (JLA). Not only that, Lois Lane kept on saying about Aquaman, "There is something fishy about him." Now, that is a good punch line.

And there were some sexual overtones on this particular show. In fact, when Lois Lane was rescued by Aquaman, the camera slowly panned from his waist to his face -- what the fuck? They are trying to make me insane!

I was impressed with the introduction of Aquaman, portrayed by Alan Ritchson. Too bad, he showed up only once. But reports indicated that he'll be back sometimes in the future. And of course, Tom Welling, acting as Clark Kent, did not like it at all because it was stealing his female & gay fans as well.

Alan Ritchson, can I have you?

Cheers,

R-

Any Real Deaf Person To Represent Us?

On a general note, I received this from anonymous source. Nevertheless, this embarked upon an opportunity for me to ask something about Mike Higgins. Last summer, I observed him walking by with someone else. Someone told me that this guy is the SBG President. I flinched and said, "You kid me?"

My friend shook his head and smiled, "Goes on to tell you that much about the student body, is it?"

But again, I'm not at Gallaudet. I'm not part of student body any longer. But in the long run, I just hope that they will continue to choose a prominent Deaf person to run the University, not another puppet like Dr. Jordan!

Cheers,

R-

Greetings fellow senators and alternate senators:

We have a situation where I need your undivided attention. Before I begin to explain the situation, you all need to know the background information of what happened. When Dr. Jordan resigned as President of Gallaudet, the Board of Trustees acted to form a presidential search committee. This committee will be composed of 17 people: 6 board members, 4 faculty members, 2 staff, 2 students, one representative from Clerc Center, and 2 alumni. To make things clear, board members means board of trustee members, faculty means teachers only, staff means employees who are not teachers, two students include one undergraduate and graduate student, Clerc center is an employee from either MSSD or Kendall, and an alumni is one who graduated from the University.

Now those who attended to the meeting on October 12, you might remember the words of Vice President Hogue. He told you that President Higgins will represent the student body on that committee. We didn't have a problem with it. As of today, October 19th, I was told that the Board of Trustees wants two candidates to be the undergraduate student representatives. From the two, they will pick one to be the representative. President Higgins picked himself for the first one. He also picked Vice President Hogue for the second nomination. We feel that there is a problem with this picture.

Why is there a problem? The President appointed himself and Vice President without the consent of the Student Congress. They also did not even made this kind of information public to make sure that the students are aware and have an equal chance to be one of the possible representatives. Some students came up to me and expressed their concern about the validity of the procedure. So I met with the President and Vice President. After a long discussion with them, they have compromised where the Vice President is willing to give up his nomination and nominate me or a person of the Student Congress' choice instead. President Higgins is going to keep his nomination because he argues that he is the elected voice of the students of Gallaudet University. That claim, we won't challenge due to the compromise that he gave the opportunity to choose the second seat.

Now as for my decision about the nomination, I want to go through the Student Congress as the elected officials of the organizations and classes of the student body. I decided to open nominations for this position to any student at Gallaudet University that meets the criteria listed below. It means that I want you to spread the word to the people who are interested in running for the seat in the University Presidential Search Committee. The interview will take probably 3 to 6 hours. And attendance to all meeting is mandatory. We will have unofficial meeting on Friday October 21 noon. The location will be announced later.

If you have any question relating to anything that is mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact me or see me tomorrow at SBG office from 3 to 5. I will be available after 12:30 pm. I will try to suit your needs and schedule. This matter is really important to the future of Gallaudet University. Please forward this E-Mail to your respective organizations and ask if they are interested. Thank you for reading. Don't forget to spread the word!

Noah Beckman
Speaker of the House

HEARING PROBLEMS, WE DO DO NOTHING!!

SouthPark ROCKS! I nearly died of out-of-control laughters after watching the last two episodes of SouthPark! The first episode talked about Kenny being brain dead and his parents trying to keep him alive whereas in Heaven, Satan waged a battle against the Angels who lacked the leader ... in Kenny! It was poking fun at Terri Schiavo! Priceless! Then the second episode focuses on the Global Warming which someone released the Beaver's Dam and flooded SouthPark, just like Katrina did to New Orleans. The ultimate issue was not about what happened, but to assign the blame. They decided to blame many as can be. Priceless! If I could, I'd have one massive orgy with Trey Parker and Matt Stone! Their wits made them very sexy in my book.

For the first time in ages, I finally get to watch defBef's favorite film, Hedwig and The Angry Inch. In fact, I met the actor/writer/director, John Cameron Mitchell last April 24, 2005 for his birthday party. John Cameron Mitchell is incredibly nice person. I got to chat with him for few minutes. He's extremely cool person. However, I finally understood why defBef loved John and his film. It is an unique film.

When it mentioned about the Berlin Wall -- I immediately had a flashback to my childhood era. To the time when I was 6 or 7, I noticed that the news frequently talked about the Soviet Union, Reagan Administration, Israel, Lebanon's Civil War ... the Cold War. Remember the Berlin Wall? I distinctly remembered asking my maternal grandmother, Drandma, "What's going on with them?" I pointed at the current events that talked about the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, Reagan, Gorbachev and all that shit.

My Drandma wisely said, "OH, THEIR HEARING PROBLEMS NOT OURS -- THEIR PROBLEMS! WE DO DO NOTHING -- WE KEEP OUT OF IT. WE ALWAYS GET ALONG FINE -- BUT THEY NEVER, ALWAYS ARGUE AND FIGHT. KILL EACH OTHER. NOT OUR PROBLEM. DONT WORRY ABOUT THEM, THEY DO NOT BOTHER US."

At that time, I felt bit reassured that should the Nuclear War occurs between the Soviet Union and the United States, the Deaf people would be spared by this, because we are not part of THEIR HEARING PROBLEMS! According to what my Drandma said, the logic dictated that only THEY will die, not me or my Deaf pals.

Well, I was only 6. So sue me.

Cheers,

R-

Films, RAD and Chlms

Two Films: Saw two films, The Child I Never Was and Starsky & Hutch. Nothing much to report, really. Totally uninterested.

Remember CMRA/RAD Fiasco? Last May and June, I warned about RAD/CMRA's management with 2005 RAD Conference. The decisions that were made by the RAD Board and CMRA Committees about many things has virtually left the organization with no cash to pay for deaf/blind interpreters/SSPs amongst few other things. In fact, the RAD Board forced the CMRA to cover the hotel expenses, conference fees for them as well as some top-notch CMRA committees. The result is that the money ran out, considering the fact that Grand Hyatt Hotel is expensive to start with. The RAD Board and the RAD 2005 Committee conveniently exonerated themselves of the financial mismanagement and left the CMRA to absorb the debts and clean the mess in the process.

What did I say in the first place? I warned y'all. When it comes to the plans with conferences, I am familiar with it. I used to be the Chairperson of Jr. NAD Eastern Regional Conference and I steered throughout the storms and guess what? We still had thousands of dollars left. Not only that the conference ended up having the largest group of delegates in years in 1991. How? Creativity. This particular group of 2005 RAD Conference Committee lacked an iota of common sense. And now, the CMRA has to deal with the mess that Bill Terrell and Ricky Drake, along with Bob Donaldson and Barbara Hathaway, has left upon the CMRA.

I knew of several committee members who said that they will absolve their hands when the conference ended, because they do not care about the organization whether if they owed or not. "Not my problem, it's theirs!" One word: Childish. But it reflects what kind of persons they are. Yeah, that includes Larry Gray.

American Greed At Best: Jesus Fucking Christ.

On A Bright Note: Here is the picture of my fag hag and her family. Great pictures is it?



I am still finding it hard to believe that Eddie is with Stacey. I guess when I see them in person, I'll get used to the fact that they are together.

Anyway, I love this picture -- what Jon did was nuts. Jon is 6'6 tall and yet, he throws Zoe that far ... too freaky for me to handle.

You know, Matriarch Abrams is the mother anyone else would love to have. This woman moved the mountains and rivers to make sure that Chlms and Stacey gets what they needed in life. You know, Chlms once told me that her mother flinched when I verbally cussed at things in front of her. Chlms could not believe that I did in front of her. Well, Chlms is my fag hag, which means what? She is my confidante. I share pretty much everything to her, including my sexual conquests. So her mother was sitting on the dining table watching me giving Chlms the details of my sex life. At that time, I did not know her mother was actually watching what I was saying.

Later, Chlms told me that her mother could not believe that she "allowed" a guy like me to say in her house but that's OK, I'm cool in her book.

As for Patriarch Abrams, what do you expect from a country, rugged man from Arkansas? One time, he walked around me and poked me in my stomach. I winced and told him to stop. He muttered something I could not see nor heard. Matriarch Abrams could not believe what she heard and told Chlms and Stacey that he just muttered, "Pillsbury Boy".

He did it in very affectionate manner which means good thing, I guess.

When an opportunity arises, I'll head back to Arkansas just to aggravate the Abrams clan, just for heck of it.

Cheers,

R-

More Stuff To Talk and Ponder

DeafSinglesConnection: Discrimination? My roommate was surfing this website, Deaf Singles Connection a while ago. He grinned and said, "Did you know that this particular website discriminated against gays and bisexuals?"

I shrugged because I did not care about that, though. He said, "They limited only to heterosexuals." I was surprised and surfed a little on it. It is apparent true. It is not gay-friendly.

Umm. I stumbled upon some profiles which indicated that they are hearing ones looking only for Deaf persons. Interesting ...

Gallaudet Football: I learned that a certain well-known TV sports cable company is currently doing a documentary on Gallaudet football team this week. Apparently, Gallaudet has caught this particular company's attention after rolling to a 6-0 start. As soon as I get the information whether if they will be on tube, I will let y'all know. I'm confident that Coach Ed Hottle will keep the players' ego in check with two games to go.

Rene Portland Has To Go! Last week, I mentioned about Rene Portland, the Women's Basketball Coach at Penn State which drove many players who are Lesbians or perceived to be Lesbians off her teams. Rene has refuted the comments and denied that she discriminated. She claimed that Jennifer Harris was lazy and detrimental to the team -- never mind the fact that Jennifer Harris was the starter for Penn State 22 games out of 30 and was the 3rd leading scorer on the team.

It is nothing new with Rene Portland -- when she gets cornered by an accusation related to homophobia, she went on to attack one's integrity. That is what she has been doing for the last 25 years at Penn State. The culture of homophobia at Penn State has to stop. There was a rally organized by the students at Penn State who called Rene to resign. I agreed with the students. It seemed to me that if Rene said something about African-American or Jewish, she'd be immediately fired on the spot. But with gays, no problem, you can stall and dance around it.

You Think Cochlear Implant Is Cool?: Philip forwarded the message to me with a link to this picture. Gruesome. I have no desire to hear a sound, nor put things in my head. If you wanted to be borg-ized, it is your right to do so. I believe it was Christian who told me that he reads an article from Georgetown University which mentioned that if all Deaf people gets the implants, they are not qualified to be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act ... eventually, that is! I cannot find the article but it was said that if we have implants, we cannot demand the use of interpreters et al. I guess that is what they wanted all along.

Hat tip to Philip.

Regarding Bitch Session: This Friday, October 21st, is the deadline. Let's be hilarious instead of malicious. It is disheartening to post such unflattering but yet so angry comments towards certain few. If you have a beef on someone else, be creative with words.

Vienna for New Years Eve?! Thanks to Rico, a dear friend of mine from The Netherlands for the link. In Vienna, Austria, the organizers will host the New Year's Eve Bash. From what I understand, it is the largest of its kind in Europe. Hundreds of Deaf youths will flock to Vienna for three-day filled with parties on December 29 - January 1. After seeing the premise where the Bash will take place, I am determined to find a way to go to Vienna!

In order for you to view the advertisement, press gebardevideo and wait for it to load in order to watch two cute guys talking in their own language about the bash. Rico, if I'm in Vienna for these parties, will you be so kind enough to be the gracious host with me?

Cheers,

R-

10.19.05 Tidbits

New Orleans To Palm Springs! The NAD Board has decided to move the 48th Biennial National Conference from New Orleans to Palm Springs on June 29-July 3, 2006. Palm Springs is famous for its brutal hot weathers during the summertimes. It is also the vaction spot for rich, famous persons and gay men.

On another note, why move it to Palm Springs instead of staying in New Orleans to help out with its local economy? The reports said that the city will be back to normal in March. The Conference is to be held in June and July.

Try This! I'm curious to know where the readers of this blog are from. Feel free to add yourself on it -- be sure to press return after 6 or 7 words because the post itself will expand itself if you do not press return. Otherwise, have fun doing this for me.

Wilma Is Category 5: In less than 24 hours, Wilma has gone from 75 MPH to 175 MPH, making it the dangerous storm on the same level with Katrina. Let's see if it will hold itself as it rolls onto Florida. Stay tuned.

Amusing Message Board: A certain friend told me to check the message boards about Nigeria Scams Using IP Relay. Some are offensive. It makes you wonder about the ethics on Communication Assistants'(CAs) part. Know what? When Deaf people asserted their rights, hearing people often viewed it as a "chip on our shoulders". That is cheap observation. If you do not like the fact that we assert our rights, get the fuck out of my face. Not only that, it is scary to know that the CAs are talking amongst each other about our information.

I would highly suggest the readers not to use the IP-relay.com ever again. Because they are talking and possibly using your sensitive information against you. For instance:

Seriously, some of you relay users don't even appreciate what you're given. And the ones of you who have been spoiled all their lives by people who took pity on you and did things for you just because you had "special needs" just sit there and whine and curse at us in your ASL gloss (which is actually sometimes pretty humorous) and complain when the fact is you're getting a free ride and need to be quiet.

Another example:

Seriously, how do you get the sheer guts to COMPLAIN about a service that is FREE??? For the price you pay for it, you're lucky if even HALF the words you type even make it to the person you are calling.

Some of the messages that were said on that board is very alarming, to say the least.

R-

Review of Audism Unveiled

Guestblogger: McFly

Today was Enrichment Day at Gallaudet. For those of you who are unaware, it's an annual program for students, faculty, teachers, and staff on important current academic affairs' topics. Gallaudet hosts Enrichment Day to enrich themselves and the students in the exchange of knowledge. Gallaudet showed the movie "Audism Unveiled”.
 
Let’s talk about sensitivity.
 
The original movie, called “What is Audism?” was better and it was powerful. It actually moved people to tears and validated many deaf people’s pain of living with audism. This movie was too strong for the Gallaudet Administrators. I wonder what Kweisi Mfume, a well known and respected civil rights leader, would say about this?
 
A few years ago, Dirksen Bauman had his undergraduate students make a movie about the term audism for a semester project. The students labored relentlessly over this movie, blood, sweat and tears. They put their hearts, souls and pain on the line to create this beautiful movie in order to convey an imperative message. The students did this to make a difference and to contribute towards the betterment of deaf people’s lives. The students were responsible for creating this entire movie, from research to interviews, from start to finish. The Gallaudet Administrators had “What is Audism?” watered down to today’s movie “Audism Unveiled”.

Today's showing of “Audism Unveiled” was not the entire work of the students. It was the work of censorship.
 
To add further injury to insult, they had a speech and language pathologist Jimmy Lee open the movie.  Poor Jimmy Lee, shaking like a leaf while trying to sign.  It was appalling to see a speech language pathologist open this movie of a sensitive and long overdue topic, no offense to Jimmy Lee. It's akin to having a white person open a discussion about black oppression and racism. It showed lack of common sense, which tells me whoever made the decision to have a speech language pathologist open this movie has her/his heads so far up Dowanda Creek- it’s past the point of no return.
 
Too gain even more injury to insult, some hearing people who came to watch the movie were verbally talking during the movie.  I asked a hearing friend what they were saying, my friend said they were discussing lunch plans. It was a long discussion of lunch plans. Holy mother of Paul!

Deaf people used to get beatings on the hands with rulers when caught signing. They participated in the behavior of audism during the movie.  I'd say we slap these rude and ignorant hearing people with rulers on their mouths.

It was hard for me to take the Gallaudet Administrators seriously today. In the movie, Dwight Benedict talked about the DPN movement, the trust being violated and the damage it caused. I think our trust in the current Gallaudet Administrators has been violated. A violation we will not forget. We will continue to work on eradicating audism so there will be no need to show movies like “Audism Unveiled” in order to convey a message of our pain.