For Your Own Amusing Thoughts

While I'm off to the gym to work out, I'm attaching an article written by Thomsen Young regarding the growing phenomenon of Deaf Bloggers.

On another subject, Alex Abenchuchan is right on this subject. After a heavy workout, I have this insatiable appetite for drinking lots of H20. It is becoming my drug choice these days.

However, back to the subject, the article will be featured on SIGNews.org, administered by Communication Services for the Deaf for December/January edition.

I think it is decent. Yes, they got my location wrong. But nevertheless, I'll be back in the City sooner than you think. Har har!

Written by Thomsen Young

For the technology aficionados, the world has been transformed by the power of the Internet, especially with a new concept known as blogging, or blogs. Within the last few years, there has been a rising popularity of blogs within the deaf community, yet, something quite different or unexpected has occurred. Deaf blogs are beginning to unify the deaf community in an unprecedented way.

There's Ricky Taylor's "Observe But Do Not Interfere", David Evans' "Sound Off! DeafView from the Left Coast", Keri Ogrizovich with "The dream you are living is your creation...", Meryl K. Evans' "Bionic Ear", Mike McConnell's "Kokonut Pundits" and about a hundred and forty known deaf blogs on the internet.

Only a handful of 'web logs' or blogs existed during 1998 and most of the bloggers knew each other and would refer each other by linking their own sites to other people's blogs. The media didn't take notice of blogs until 1999 when Rebecca Blood wrote a book called The Weblog Handbook, in which she explores the rapidly growing trend through a collection of 34 essays. By late 2002, there were over 750,000 users posting blogs on the Internet. While there is no exact date of when deaf bloggers began developing blogs, it is reasonable to assume that soon after 1999, deaf blogs began to pop up.

The purpose of blogs is that it can be use by virtually anyone, any age, anywhere, all the while presenting various topics and issues that the writer feels is important to address. Experts estimate that there are close to ten million blogs, with a recent Technorati portal reporting that about 12,000 new blogs are being created daily at about one per 7.4 seconds. Keri Ogrizovich is one of these 10 million bloggers. Her blog, "The dream you are living is your creation..." presents a more family-oriented blog where she keeps her friends and extended family in touch with what is happening in her life, starting with the birth of her son, Lochlan. Keri explains that her interests in blogging came about from a friend who also blogged about her family as well as her pregnancy. "I had just found out I was pregnant. A friend blogged about her pregnancy experience and I enjoyed reading her blog on her pregnancy so much that I wanted to do the same. It was also a
good way to share my experience with family and friends."

Yet, Keri still wanted to share her pregnancy experience with everyone, specifically deaf women, because, "our society has a medical view of birthing whereas it is not. It is a natural part of life. Unfortunately, many women do not realize that they have choices when it comes to birthing. Women, more specifically, deaf women are not educated on natural birthing and how the epidurals used to relieve the labor pains can be dangerous for them and their babies, as well as most likely leading to a C-section."

David Evans and Mike McConnell write about political savvy topics that range from captioning to opinions about the French riots to Netflix. Evans, a resident of Los Angeles, Calif., believes that there are pros and cons that blogs bring the deaf community closer or further away from each other. "The deaf blogs I've seen so far are, for the most part, rather personal. They do bring people together in the sense that those who enjoy reading, writing, and being online are brought together and able to connect to one another...the ideas or topics bandied about may filter down and benefit the entire community eventually- who knows?"

McConnell, a native of New Mexico, believes that deaf blogs brings the deaf community together. "The Internet is a powerful communication medium, whatever the source of information that is passed on whether its e-mail, instant messenger, video-phone, blogging, or personal web pages, both deaf and hearing communities benefit greatly. It actually brings people a little closer enabling them to understand each other better." McConnell uses Blogger.com, a free hosting internet website that give step-by-step instructions that makes it simpler to self-publish on the Web.

Known as one of the most notorious deaf bloggers is Ricky Taylor's "Observe But Do Not Interfere," popular, in part, due to the high shock value of this blog. In an e-mail interview, he acknowledged that his blog was not really intended for the deaf community, but rather one that is willing to share experiences. "I think my blog, unlike many others, is brutally honest in almost everything else." Ricky Taylor, who currently lives in New York City, goes on to explain his perspective of other deaf blogs on the Internet. "It irritated me to read many blogs written by deaf people that talked about their menstruation cycles or new pants that they just bought at JcPenneys. Why can't they say something interesting about ... say, politics, lifestyle, sports or even ... sex? I guess you could say that I'm a fan of shock value. I try to touch different bases that might jolt readers to respond or not."

Whether we want to admit it or not, deaf blogs are showing strong support in unifying the deaf community in an unprecedented way on the Internet. Evans concludes: "But aside from rare instances, I don't think blogs and blogging necessarily speak directly to the deaf community- I think blogging and blogs transcend deafness, and allow the readers a chance to listen to various individuals on their respective soapboxes. Also, blogging is fairly new. As blogs mature across the board, it may evolve and have more of a sense of accomplishing something positive."

Not bad, eh?

Cheers,

R-

Tavis' Interview with Craig T. Nelson

Thanks to PJ, I was able to read the transcript between PBS' Tavis Smiley's interview with Craig T. Nelson who acted as the father of Tyrone Giordano's character, Thad Stone in The Family Stone.

It is intersting that Craig did not mention Tyrone at all. Initially, PJ and I misread that it could be the "fellow" that is Ty but apparently, Craig was referring to "Jack", whom I believe, is Marlee Matlin's interpreter -- from what I understand, he is CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). He could have taught the fellas how to sign, not Ty himself. I'm not certain about that, though.

Either way, the interview seems to indicate that Craig enjoyed his unique experience of being the parent of "deaf child".

[snipping the transcript that was taken from pbs.org]

Tavis: Let me come back as I promised I would to "The Family Stone.” There's a character in this movie who is deaf. And everybody on the set of course had to learn sign language to – (moves hands) I'm acting stupid, doing stuff that I don't know what I'm doing over here. So everybody had to learn sign language to make this happen.

Nelson: I'm with you on that.

Tavis: You knew where I was going, didn't you? I have heard from some friends of mine that you had a little trouble, challenge with the sign language stuff.

Nelson: Well, I thought I was coordinated 'til it came to...

Tavis: This does not count.

Nelson: (laughs) Yeah. Well, I was in the trailer and I was rehearsing on my own, which is a big mistake. And I got a little too...

Tavis: Wait, hold up, hold the phone. I want to just know how you do this. How do you rehearse sign language by yourself?

Nelson: What you do is, you stand in - you read it first, and then you've got with a sign language expert, Jack, who's assuming that you're a semipro, and that you know basically what you're going to do, and you're not gonna hurt yourself. So they let you go. And I'm old enough to be let alone in my trailer now.

So I go in and I'm looking in the mirror and I’m trying to figure out how I can talk and do this at the same time. And I put my finger in my eye, and I realized that I'm probably going to need help, you know, like a medic. And, so I'm really embarrassed about it. And actually the first person I see is Luke Wilson, who you don't want to tell anything to, because it gets spread. In five seconds, everybody, “you okay? Are you going to sue?” Yeah. What am I going to sue for?

Your confidence is basically - but the interesting thing is that for me, in watching the actors and watching the experts do sign it, there's short hand involved, it's a whole language in and of itself. And you just don't go to a different country and the sign language is going to be the same. It changes, and much like our slang does. So, but they have cutoffs.

So, you're doing it thinking that, hey, how does this look, and they're looking at you like, when are you going to get finished with this? You know, cut to the chase, whatever that sign is. So, I just barely, I just basically went and did my own. I figured, what the heck. The family's been together long enough. They know what I'm doing.

Tavis: I suspect that there are probably families where that happens, though. I'm sure somebody will get a kick out of it.

Nelson: I'm sure they do.

Tavis: I'm sure they will, yeah.

Nelson: The fellow that was teaching us sign language is very good. He's born of deaf parents, and yet he speaks. I mean, he's got a voice. And so, he's very interesting. It's a whole - that's a whole other world that you don't get not only involved with, but you don't see, you don't become part of, because we make it separate. It's like, deaf? Whoa.

Tavis: See, you've addressed now the funny side of trying to learn how to do this stuff. Did anything occur to you? I assume it did. Anything occur to you on the serious side of this equation about what it means to live a life where you're...

Nelson: Yeah. Being able to express yourself visually and tactfully. And without this modification of sound. And it's fascinating, because the resonance that we hear oftentimes influences - when you listen to a great actor, Olivier or Richard Burton comes to mind, because he had that mellifluous voice and that tonality. And it's not used so much anymore.

It's substance and quiet, you know. But, with those guys it was that sound. And it became like music. So, their hands in expressing themselves are so wonderful to watch, because you get a whole sense of personality. And it's a whole different - it's reality of understanding and trying to get into another person, which I just found interesting.

[snip the transcript]

Great job, Tavis.

Confidential to RT101: Please. Get. A. Clue. I represent me. I do not represent the Deaf Community. I try to entertain others. Yes, I'm being compared to Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern and I find that amusing and felt honored by that. Howard Stern RULES! Case closed. Go and whine about something else. You're good at that.

Cheers,

R-

12.20.05 Tidbits, Part 2

VOTE for Observe But Do Not Interefere

2005 Deaf blog Awards to vote for me in three categories:

Best Eavesdropping Entertainment Blog
Best Politics Blog
Best Deaf Blog

* * *

NewsFlash from CSD Headquarters in Sioux Falls: I was alerted a while ago that at Communication Services for the Deaf, 15 employees were laid off on December 15. Basically, they were offered with two choices: "voluntarily accept the layoff and receive two weeks' pay plus cashed out vacation time or be laid off regardless."

From what I understand, 15 staff were laid off out of 60 projected layoffs.

Of course, inquiring minds want to know whether if Benjamin Soukup, Patty Kuglitsch, Randy Gerloff, Jim Skjeveland, Dr. Phil Bravin and Ann Marie Mickelson will get pay cut with their six-figure salaries?

I mentioned about their outrageous salaries last August. You can read this entry.

Please remember, the one you just saw is based on 2004 Fiscal Year Budget -- I'm sure 2005 is not much different, really. Last year, the "executive officers" had the 2004 tax return of $2,126,478. CEO Benjamin Soukup has not earned less than 590,000 dollars in the last 3 years for the total of $2,022,826.

Enough? Let's compare CSD with American Red Cross, the CEO at American Red Cross made $450,000. the CSD CEO Benjamin Soukup made, in 2004, $729,596.

So? CSD's total revenue was $74,889,067. The American Red Cross' total revenue was $3,065,541,356. Yes, you got it right -- three billion dollars! While I am on that subject, the CEO of ARC's salary was .01% out of its total revenue whereas Benjamin Soukup's salary was .97% out of its total revenue!

What does it means? Simply put, CSD's pay for CEOs outpaced any non-profit organizations in terms of pay scale for non-profit organizations.

You decide.

Ooo! Joel Osteen's Naughty Wife: I always had a funny feeling that I saw Joel Osteen at some gay bathhouse before. But that is not the issue here.

Why Jane K Fernandes Must Not Be Gallaudet President, Part I: Check Jeff Carlson's link which was published last September.

Good Thing It Failed! It was reported that Stalin wanted this experiment to happen, but it did not. This just made me wonder -- what if this experiment was a success?

Brokeback Mountain Smashing Success: It was reported few days ago that the film, Brokeback Mountain, was released only in 69 theaters across the nation and ended up No. 8 on the Top Ten earning list with 2.4 million dollars out of 69 theaters. And it was mentioned that many theaters in Middle America has been flooded with calls about the film being shown in the area. The distributor said that they'll increase the distribution to 400 theaters starting in January. Xians, you've lost the war. Go fuck a sheep!

Confidential to McWeenie: 1,300 hits in a day for the Deaf Community is a record? Try mine. I hit more than 1,900 hits in a day twice or thrice before. So fuck off, coward. McWeenie, you are purely coward for deleting people's comments. Only ones that agreed with you will be kept on. Goes on to say what kind of person you are.

Cheers,

R-

12.20.05 Tidbits, Part 1

MTA Transit Strike: For the first time in 25 years, the NYC subway has come to a halt. TWU Local 100, an union who did the transit strike on MTA that enraged many capitalists including Mayor Michael Bloomberg who complained that by setting up the strike, New York stands to lose $400 million per day and its tax revenues up to $12 million. The Mayor and MTA asked the Court to fine the union $1 million per day for disrupting the transit system.

See the pattern? Your lives are not important, money are important. What do I think of this? I think the cost of living in New York is pretty high. Most people who worked for state, local, federal governments and the non-profit organizations earned less than the ones who works in for-profit organization. The gap between these two is growing at an alarming rate.

I think the Transit Workers Union was justified to do something about it. Enough is enough. They proved that by doing the transit strike, the capitalism gets rattled. People needs to realize that beneath the coat of capitalism, there are humans who needs the earning base to survive in this city.

You can find the blog which Transit Workers Union addressed the points which the MTA and the city government chose to ignore.

You can see the pro-comment about TWU local on this blog. And you can see the malicious comments against the Union by DowntownLad. DowntownLad also rightfully attacked that gook ho, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, for trying to get involved in a city they do not even live in. You can see why I enjoyed DL's postings. He is blunt as can be. And I love him for that.

As for Deaf Bloggers who had to improvise their ways in the city due to the TWU strike, you can find this and that to satisfy your curiosity whether if it pissed them off or not.

Bad Santas on Rampage: This is amusing.

Virginia Cavaliers 7-1!: Today, they routed Marshall 67-35. Again, Lyndra Littles and Sharnee Zoll netted the first time in UVA history to have two players to hit for double-double. Sharnee Zoll had 11 points and 13 assists while Lyndra Littles had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

It is nice to know that the team is determined to make a statement despite the fact that they are very young team. Only in time, they will pull few surprises against the teams. I'm hoping that the team gets to knock Duke and North Carolina.

It is entirely possible that Virginia Cavaliers is better than No. 1 Tennessee Lady Volunteers. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out on this one. Virginia played George Washington in Washington, DC and led 36-23 at the half, they never trailed at all, okay? Not only that, they led as many as 22 points before substituting liberally in the second half, but nevertheless won 66-53.

As for Tennessee, they played at George Washington and won 59-43. But Tennessee trailed as many as 10 points and was up by 5 at the half, 34-29. And in the second half, Tennessee steadily expanded the lead to win the game, 59-43.

I have the guts that it could be the year that Virginia Cavaliers gets to shock someone else.

I'm a fan of Coach Debbie Ryan for the last 18 years. In fact, when I approached her, she instanteously knew who I am. What else is new? I'm sure she sighed at the fact that I was harsh on her in the past when the teams struggled.

Oh, yeah, here are the pics of me with Coach Ryan, Lyndra Littles and Sharnee Zoll. Cool, is it? I need a major haircut, obviously. And I still work out, thank you very much.

Cheers,

R-

12.19.05 Tidbits

Anyone Else?? Anyone who had bad experiences of dealing with Dr. Jane K. Fernandes can submit their stories to me via the e-mail at Ridor9th@gmail.com. Why do I need this? We need to document the evidences that Dr. Jane K. Fernandes is not the suitable choice to replace Dr. I. K. Jordan as the next President of Gallaudet University.

Suicidal Cat: My sister, Lily, has a white, puffy cat that seems to be suicidal these days. She sat on the middle of the road -- I had to yell at her to get off the road each time I visited her place. She won't budge. I tried to scoop the car closer to her -- my sister said the cat is still next to the car -- then I slowly rolled by, she refused to move -- it took someone else to get out of the car to remove her around. Maybe she's tired of the Taylors' clan?

Elton John Should Not Turn It Down! It was such a mistake for Elton John and David Furnish to turn the offer from American media for 10 million dollars to cover their wedding. If it was showed, it'd make an impact on Americans' attitudes that the sky won't fall if gay marriage is legalized in this country!

The Rise of Darth Vader: I'm not a fan of Star Wars when it comes to novels. But last Friday night, I skimmed the Star Wars' novel about the rise of Darth Vader -- the period that happens right after the Revenge of Sith took place. I was hooked on it. I may end up buying it to indulge my thoughts.

GW Bush Is Amazing When It Comes To Compassion: GW Bush actually authorized the government to spy on us all when it comes to terrorism. Where is freedom of privacy? Please do not use this excuse to say that freedom comes with a price -- that is what Nazism is all about!

I watched 60 Minutes last night about this particular Muslim who had no ties to the radical Muslim organizations but that does not stop the CIA from abducting him and flew him to different places -- Afghanistan, Morrocco, Jordan, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Macedonia and Egypt to torture him. The CIA agents also taunted him that he will never be found. Nobody will ever know that he existed because the CIA is going to make him nonexistant. But when the CIA made a mistake, they simply dumped him in Albania with hopes that he'll be killed by someone else.

My question is: Why? This is not freedom. This is not what the Americans are all about. Yes, the terrorists are monsters but again, so do ours. Please do not act surprised or shocked if someone decided to bomb the American city eventually. In fact, this particular victim was asked by his son who did this? The father responded, "Americans."

Of course, this will fan such hatred amongst the Muslim Youths. We gloat about our freedoms but do not care about theirs, even if they are in Spain, Italy or Germany. Condeleeza Rice refused to comment on this subject but she also mentioned that rendition is part of the "war on terrorism". By her translation, she was turning the accused ones to the countries to be tortured whereas she can say that the United States never engaged in any form of tortures but are willing to turn them over for few hours, days or months. It does not exonerate the United States from claiming that they do not torture, they knew these countries that did not ratify with the Geneva Convention on torture -- they were apostate for doing the rendition in the first place!

It was such a noble for GW Bush to admit the mistakes. It was so comical, really, for him to claim for months and suddenly, admitted that it's all based on a lie, really. Now, with the reports coming out that Dr. Germ of Baghdad, Rihab Taha, has been released from the prison with *no* charges (Where is the due process for all, remember GW Bush claimed to free Iraqis and to restore justice and peace to Iraq but continues to deny the due process for many!) at all. Rihab Taha was imprisoned for 2 years and suddenly, she is free.

Bush argued that Iraq "is the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East." If he wants to defend that, then act like one! Stop tortures, imprison people for years without any due process and spying on people. It ain't democracy at all.

Where Is Xians' Compassion? Thanks to Neil for telling me about this article. This is perfect example of Xians who claim to defend the "sacred marriage" from gays by destroying gay people's lives. It is amazing that Xians actually claimed that the current law will not "discriminate" gays, they claimed that it protects the marriage itself, not discriminating. It is shame, really.

Confidential to Kurzetard: Get a therapist. You really need one more than I thought.

Cheers,

R-

"I Need A Fork!"

At Regal Short Pump Cinemas, about an hour northwest of my parents' house, has an open caption of The Family Stone, despite the fact that they showed the film at very unorthodox time -- early mornings or very late night showings. The Regal Cinemas probably felt that showing the open captions will not make money. This is the classic example why capitalism failed Deaf people in general. They were quick to tell me that not many Deaf people showed up at the showings "anyway!" -- I was quick to point out that their unorthodox times made it DIFFICULT for anyone to show up on a consistent manner. But they won't listen.

However I made it a priority to check it out because my good friend, Ty Giordano performed in this film. Despite the fact that the reviews of the film was not bad nor good, I still had to check it out because I wanted Ty to succeed. Anything to contribute that for Ty is good, in my opinion. And you should do the same.

I was not disappointed with the film. Ty performed as a deaf, gay character named Thad Stone. He was one of five siblings (with Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Reaser) coming home for the Holidays with their parents who were performed by Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. Oh, yeah, Thad has a boyfriend who is African American. Practically, everyone signs in the house including the cute boyfriend of Thad.

I was impressed with Rachel McAdams' conversations with Ty. In one scene, when Amy talked about Meredith Morton's quirky habits of clearing her throat loudly, Thad was intrigued as Amy signed, "TRUE BIZ" to indicate that she was telling the truth. You do not see that in films these days.

It appears to me that Ty made others look good -- I mean, the actors/actresses' signs did not seem to be crispy at all. Even Diane, Craig, Luke and Dermot! I was jealous that Ty got to sit on Luke Wilson's lap -- that ought to be me. But again, I probably would break Luke's legs. And seeing Ty touching the hand of Dermot Mulroney (whom has VERY nice ass that I saw on another film) just fucking enraged me. ;-)

I loved the scene where Sybil Stone (Diane Keaton) actually threw the fork at Thad's dinner plate to get his attention -- I had to snicker because I hadn't seen a film where someone does the little things that pinpointed the Deaf/hearing interaction tendencies. It was nice to see ASL/spoken English transcend with each other in the household. At least we did not have to deal with cued speech or cochlear implants, really.

I thought Ty did a great job of acting as Thad Stone. I still find it hard to believe that he TRUE BIZ acted as a gay character. I know he told me that he does not see any problem with it at all -- I certainly understand that but it is still amusing to know that a fella that I knew from college days acted as one. That is his job as an actor. And damn, he's enjoying himself as much as can be. I would be if I was in his shoes.

The Family Stone is drama-comedy film that will delight your hearts, even in the end.

Good job, Ty!

Cheers,

R-

Me & Virginia

Yesterday in the afternoon, I failed to drag my parents to the Robins Center for a game of Collegiate Women's Basketball between Richmond Spiders and Virginia Cavaliers. That is alright, at least, I get to go by myself.

The last time I saw the Cavaliers in action was when I was in New York. They defeated Long Island 76-59 but it was such a sloppy game. At that time, they had players like Brandi Teamer and LaTonya Blue.

This time, the Cavaliers does not have Brandi Teamer and LaTonya Blue at all. What a difference! The quickness of Cavaliers' perimeter defenders were astonishing. Sharnee Zoll is so quick with ballhandling skills. In fact, Virginia roared to a 16-2 lead with 15 and half minutes left to go in the first half.

But again, the Cavaliers has only one senior. In fact, 8 out of 12 players are either Freshmen or Sophomores. After taking a 14-point lead, they squandered the lead to 4. The team regrouped to expand the lead to 10 at the half, 31-21.

In the second half, I enjoyed watching Lyndra Littles crashing the boards and taking baskets for her own. Suffice to say, Virginia Cavaliers routed Richmond Spiders, 66-45 to improve the season at 6-1.

After the game, I get to meet Tanzania Williams, the sister of Tamika Williams, a former player at Connecticut. It was good to see Coach Debbie Ryan once again. Then I finally got to meet the dynamic Sharnee Zoll and Lyndra Littles. Talked a little -- Did not realize that Sharnee Zoll has gorgeous eyes. Lyndra Littles was easy for me to lipread and follow what she has to say. Needless to say, there were pictures taken. It shall be posted one way or other.

Go Cavaliers!

Cheers,

R-