Shades of 1974!

...it's 1974 all over again...

Good grief... What weather we've been having. When CNN mentioned April 1974 in this story:

Experts: Severe weather across South could set tornado record

I remembered the one that hit Louisville, KY, but I was living in FL at the time.

Here's another page, April 3, 1974 - The Tornado Super Outbreak. Nearly 150 tornadoes hit 13 states! Google has more.

Tornadoes and hurricanes are nothing to laugh at what with property damage and loss of life.

Stay safe!

The Persistent 4th Grade Reading Level Myth

I came across this article, Born deaf, a Pinellas County girl starts school - and hears the school bell. Then one paragraph I read made me think "not again."

“Unfortunately, people who have hearing aides only, really can only get to a fourth grade reading level," said speech language pathologist Sarah Wilson. "You can't get very far in school with that reading level. Research has shown people with implants can go in regular classes, graduate from high school, go to college. So, the impact on education is humongous."

Those who have hearing aids only? Just WHERE do they get that kind of info? Either that's what the audiologist said at the interview or the reporter screwed up majorly in taking interview notes. There's plenty of those who have hearing aids and have gone through college and their reading level and English skills are pretty high.

Karen Putz wrote in her recent Barefoot in the Burbs blog It's Not What You Can Hear, It's About Attitude. Dang... Definitely attitude and then some!

Here's one more on the myth: A Permanent Breakdown in Communication. Some good points are made in there, but this line:

"Prelingually deafened children raised using ASL or another of the signed English systems (which keep trying to force ASL to be more like English) have roughly a 10% success rate at reading English (or any other traditionally spoken language) on grade level above the 4th grade."

I'm pretty sure the number is MUCH higher than 10%. I was reading at or above my grade level and was reading and devouring books pretty quickly. So much so that my two brothers complained at times that I was reading too much!

So let's quit stereotyping the so-called "fourth grade reading level" bull droppings myth. We're smarter than that.

You Have To Be Hearing To Say Yikes!

Seek Geo's Deaf? YIKES!! got me laughing a bit. Sure, I've had my share of people who have said "I'm sorry" when they find I'm deaf. Nothing to be sorry about. Let's communicate!

Two of the most oddball things I'd ever heard, and fortunately, I've only heard them said once...
- Heard from a friend who heard it from someone else - "If I touch you, will I become deaf also?"
- This was from a Christian Scientist mother whose son I was friends with. She thought deafness was caused by spirits or something like that. She asked me if she could cure me. I didn't laugh, just thought I'd let her try. She then puts her fingers in my ears after I take off my hearing aids, says something which I've mostly forgotten, one part saying something about deaf spirits. But of course, no hearing improvement.

I even had one person who took one look at my hearing aids, tapped them, and said "are these things on?"

Maybe I should have tapped the other person in the forehead and ask "Is your brain on? Good. Same here. Don't tap me and I won't tap you."

Why No Movie Subtitles on Flights?

It's been over 10 years since captioning was introduced. One place it has consistently never shown up is on planes. The airline industry keeps saying it's too expensive to add. How hard can it be to add in subtitle/caption support? Those little TVs and wall monitors can show the words. With some airline companies, the pre-flight instruction videos are captioned or subtitled. However, the movies aren't.

The circuitry is small and simple enough to be added to just about anything out there.

http://category.alldatasheet.com/index.jsp?semiconductor=CAPTION
http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/pic/caption/

More can also be found on Google. It's a simple matter to turn on the subtitles if there's any. But to deny others enjoyment of a movie while on a long flight?

With portable DVD players getting cheaper and better, let's hope the airlines take notice of this. Keep spare batteries with you as well. Long flights can outlast batteries at times. Same goes with laptops with DVD players. Oh, wait, the airlines have noticed this but don't want to throw any money at it. Too bad. They'll probably have more satisfied flyers if they did.

Funny Moment 5: Delicious Hot Pizza!

I worked at this local pizza place as a delivery driver and sometimes had to make pizzas in between runs when we weren't that busy as well as other tasks. This one day, these two older ladies, one of our regulars, came in for lunch. They shared a small personal pizza and wanted jalapenos on it.

Later, I asked my manager how the pizza was for them, and he said it was a bit hot but good.

Should have seen his eyes bug out when I told him I used two scoops instead of one.