Growing Up Deaf Update 4

Jamie and I were talking about the mumps when she was writing Mumps Can Lead to Deafness. I mention in Growing Up Deaf Part 1 and Part 5 about the diagnosis and how I lost my hearing. But she gave me a historical aspect that I had to check.

I have a paper from my doctor back then that my dad was "trying to locate record of MMR." I don't think it was ever found.

According to the Measles Vaccine Questions and Answers page, the mumps vaccine wasn't available til 1967. Neither was the MMR vaccine til 1971.

Seems I wasn't vaccinated in time. I'll find out the story sometime, somehow.

Funny Moment 6: Popcorn!

Some years ago, I was out at a computer show and was at the food counter to pick up a drink. A security guard was just leaving with some popcorn.

I couldn't resist.

"Ah, popcorn instead of donuts..."

I wonder what would happen if someone gave a bag of bagels to some cops.

Post-surgery Knees - Part 5

Whoa... It's been a few months since I last posted. Been a little busy with an online class and some other things.

I'm improving more here and there, though still using a store's electric scooter. One scooter I used ran out of power halfway through my shopping. I managed to walk to the front of the store to get a cart, take it back to the scooter, transfer the items and finish up my shopping. That was a little easier than I thought. One of these days, I'll do a quick bit of grocery shopping without the scooter.

A few weeks ago, the local area had about an inch of dry snow. I had to see if I could do it. After a little bundling up, I spent 30 minutes shoveling a path through the driveway and sidewalk without help. I had to stop once to rest. Then recently, we had a snowstorm which dumped about a few inches of snow. I managed to get half the driveway done, with Jamie taking finishing the rest. I did it again that morning to get the rest of the snowfall, again getting half the driveway done.

There was also this ASL dinner I went to between surgeries. I went back out there and had to stop a couple times to rest a bit. Getting my tray with food up the steps was a little difficult, but I made it, something I wasn't able to do last time I was there.

I'm getting there in terms of my endurance. It'll take time, though. Let's see how much of the lawn I can mow this summer.

Sherlock's Computer Nearly Taken Hostage

Not too long ago, I had a frantic request for help from Sherlock Steve. As it turned out, his computer was taken over by something called Security Suite Antivirus. Unfortunately, it's not a normal so-called anti-virus suite of programs. What this thing does is it just badly takes over the computer. It claims that everything you try using and running are infected. In fact, the programs that are "infected" are not. It's the Security Suite Antivirus saying these things.

Here's more on Security Suite Antivirus and how it's a scam;

Remove Windows Security Suite. Description and removal instructions
Windows Security Suite

Security Suite is ransomware. Meaning, it holds your computer hostage, allowing nothing to work, claiming it's "finding malware." It says you must pay the fee in order to get your computer back. This is similar to scareware, which runs and claims you're badly infected but doesn't quite take over the computer like Security Suite does.

Internet Explorer didn't even begin to work properly, not even allowing a new browsing tab. It kept going to Security Suite's webpage. Task Manager wouldn't work, neither would a CTRL-ALT-DEL, etc.

Next was to go into Safe Mode via F8. He had Admin mode, another account. That was one plus that helped make things easier. We followed the instructions on this page;

How To Uninstall / Remove Security Suite Virus ( Removal Guide )

Malwarebytes Antimalware found quite a few as did SuperantiSpyware, Spybot, and AVG. All four are free.

Sherlock got his computer back up and working the same day.

Post-surgery Knees - Part 4

It's been a little time since I last posted about my knees. I've had a couple milestones since then. I'm still swimming here and there and doing water walking.

We have an elliptical, so I'm just easing into the thing. It's tougher than it looks since I can only walk or tread on it slowly at the moment. Riding an actual bike will take a bit more time.

I managed to walk from the house to a friend's place, only stopping for a few minutes to rest, then walked right back home. It was a pretty warm day and I was sweaty by then.

I was also at Jamie's dad's place and managed to walk from his house to the lake. Getting there required me to walk downhill on a gravel and rock path. Fortunately, it wasn't too long a path. I wasn't able to go down it before the second surgery.

Funny Moment 4: Bark Goes the Microwave

But of course, some of us have dogs like I had some years ago. Man's best friend. Remember the egg I blew up in the microwave in a previous post? My dog loved eggs. This one egg didn't pop, but you could see it shake. I managed to get it out of there, but it was too hot for me to hold, so it went rolling rolling rolling...

...onto the floor with a bit of a pop...

The dog loved it but he first had to get past the hot egg, ears laid back.

Life's Little Musings

There's days that I wonder how things would have been different with me.

When I was adopted, mom was married to a highway patrol officer who died in the line of duty a little over a year later. I'm wondering how things would be different had he lived. Would he still be a patrolman? Would we still be living in California?

I started losing my hearing around kindergarten at 5 when we lived in Kentucky. Would I have still lost or kept my hearing if we stayed in California and adoptive dad not died? Things would have been totally different then.

Suppose I had not been adopted, kept by birth mom? I probably would be hearing. Would birth mom and dad still be married?

If I had been hearing, where would I have gone to school and college? Would I have been in the military?

Back in 1995, if I did not have that accident with the sign truck, I'm only guessing that my arthritis would not have gotten started and my knees would be in better shape today. Or maybe it would have had its onset delayed?

I'm also wondering how things would have been changed had I gone to MSSD and not gone to the School from Hell.

I'm wondering if it's possible to go back in time and check all the possibilities...

Back from the NAD Conference in Philadelphia!

So I'm posting this a bit late! Whoa... What a week... I was out at the NAD convention in Philadelphia, PA, with Jamie Berke. We took Amtrak from the Alexandria, VA, station to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. Then SEPTA to the Marriott Hotel, two stops away on the 13th Street station. It was pretty much a relaxed ride getting there.

The hotel's Grand Ballroom was used for events like the College Bowl, Miss Deaf America, the Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony, and a few others. They set up large screens on both sides of the stage and captioned the proceedings underneath the video of those on stage.

And whoo... This convention has been like a who's who here and there. I had the interesting pleasure of "bashing heads" with Google's Ken Harrington during the College Bowl, trying to answer the trivia questions. Ed Waterstreet was there as well, though I didn't get a chance to talk with him. I did have a conversation with Jack Gannon (Deaf Heritage author), his wife, and Yerker Anderson (World Federation of the Deaf) during a Gallaudet breakfast Friday morning. RIT/NTID had their breakfast Thursday morning. Current Gallaudet President Alan Hurwitz and his wife were there as well, and they were often seen walking around talking with others. RIT/NTID's interim dean Gerald Buckley was there also. Karen Putz was there as well. We talked briefly about the Steak and Shake case as well as other things. Meeting up here and there with NAD's Kirsten Poston was good, as well as attending her workshops. There's others I've probably forgotten.

It was good seeing some old friends here and there, including someone I'd not seen for about 15-20 years from when I lived in Louisville, KY. NAD will have their next convention in 2012 out there in Horse Cave, KY. It's not too far from Cave City, which has some cave tours.

Update: The NAD convention is actually in Louisville, KY, July 3-7, 2012. The Horse Cave event, DeaFestival, is this September 3-5. Somehow, I got my information screwed up...

The workshops I attended had some good information, some that I knew, some that I didn't. Jamie and I had our workshop on HR3101/S3304 and that was fairly well attended. Then the next day, COAT's Rosaline Crawford and Jenifer Simpson had their workshop on the same thing, but it was more on how the two bills are different, what needs to happen for the bills to pass, and how they fit into the National Broadband Plan.

ZVRS had an invite-only event that was pretty well-attended at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. Imagine being able to use VRS with your cellphone. That's exactly what the iZ is, but it uses the iPhone4. Limited, I know, but plans are being made for other phones to use it as well. I tried calling someone as well, but seems they weren't home, dangit. Amy Cohen Efron attended and she posted about it - ZVRS, AT&T, and Apple created iZ!

RIT/NTID also had an invite-only event where we had light foods and met the College Bowl contestants. Gallaudet had another invite-only event after the College Bowl. Jamie took a pic of Bob Weinstock there after someone poured some water or Gatorade or other liquid on him. Deafnation posted a video about it, NAD 2010: College Bowl Finals.

One landmark to visit when in the area is the Reading Terminal Market. It's a combo food court, grocery store, and gift shop, not to mention a candy shop, all under one roof. Amy Cohen Efron commented "I died and went to food heaven." It's literally foodie heaven. There's servers of Indian, Greek, Italian, Amish, and regular foods. Want to have a famous Philly Cheesesteak? That's where it started. That was one good sandwich. Only downside is that they close at 6 on Monday to Saturday, 5 on Sunday.

There's some other good restaurants in the area, and there was even a 7-11 across the street. A little walking time often got us to some of the good places around, including a gelato place called Capogiro and an Indian place called Bindi's. There was also Zio's Pizza along 13th Street which sold pizza by the slice. They had some pretty good stuff.

Other than the museums and City Hall nearby with easy access to the SEPTA stations, there's the large underground Mall underneath the Reading Railroad station which has FOUR floors of retail shops. The lower floor has two food courts. They close at 7...

The weather didn't quite cooperate much of the time there, It was over 100 degrees and rained part of the day on the last day. That heat wave made it hazardous for some people to walk longer distances for sightseeing. But the other good thing is that the entire hotel and area including SEPTA was quite wheelchair accessible for those attendees using wheelchairs and scooters.

Recipe: Pita Pizza

I've tried making my own pizzas using various things, but one thing that stands out is making it using pita bread after using flatbreads. You tend to fill up on the bread rather than the toppings.

- hummus or regular sauce
- cheese (soy, veggie, or regular)
- 4-5 toppings, spread around evenly
- top cheese

Heat up the oven to 350 degrees and cook for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted enough to your satisfaction. The pita bread will be a little soft or crunchy, depending on how long it was in the oven. I've put the pizza on foil squares. When removing from the oven, put it on newspaper so you don't lose it on the floor if the foil tears.

For a variation, open up the pita and put in some cheese and/or a topping.

Post-surgery Knees - Part 3

I'm feeling a bit more improvement here and there. We have an electric mower and there were some technical problems here and there in trying to mow the somewhat overgrown side of the house due to another mower that kicked the bucket. Normally, I don't do much except to make sure that the extension cable doesn't get mowed and damaged like it did one time, me sitting off to the side.

In this case, I was out there for about 20-25 minutes after resetting the electrical breaker box. Then I started mowing a few rows. No pain, just some stiffness on the left knee, which was expected. Later on, I used the edger in places.

Looks like I could get back to doing at least some mowing next year.

I did some grilling in the back yard's small brick grill with the help of Jamie's young son. He did a nice job in flipping some of the burgers and hot dogs and helping out in taking in the cooked items.

While watching the "See What I'm Saying" documentary at MSSD's Malz Theatre, I didn't use the wheelchair. I walked in, standing part of the time before the show, and standing much of the time afterwards, talking with others. That's pretty much another milestone right there.