Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A Reply to Intolerance

It should come as no surprise to the readers of this blog that I subscribe to a Yahoo list for people who wish to be deaf. Though that list I came across this link to the See/Hear message board.

The post is about a soap opera in the UK called Holby City which had a storyline on the 17 May 2007 episode about a deaf wannabe. Well needless to say some people are vocally against us and had something to say about this episode.

However, the reply I made is to the aforementioned See/Hear message board.

I'll reproduce the original post and my reply here for clarity:

Original:

It was a scary reminder that these people still do exist, and have in the past as a few of us will remember used and pretended to be deaf on these boards.

Within Holby the girl had to go into hopital (as you do with it being a hospital drama) her new boyfreind thought or was uner the impression she was deaf..she had done her level one and thats it.

She bought a hearing aid of the net and wore it, comments beign that people looked at her differently, she got free bus passes and more help.

lt was different for Holby to cover something like this, and I don't know if they covered it as well as they could have..problem with throwing something like this in the wider eye of the public is that it's going to give people ideas.

By Jippers (U1364431) 5 days ago.

My reply is:

I don't see what the problem is.

Are people so uptight that they can't let people make the decisions they want? How would you feel if the hearing world expressed disgust and claimed that all deaf people were mentally ill because they weren't immediately having cochlear implants implanted and undergoing intense hearing and speech therapy to function?

It is a hearing world, after all.

It's also an intolerant world, too.

How does someone becoming deaf (for whatever reason) impact anyone other than them? Surely there are concerns that they should be aware of for family and workplace but it's their responsibility.

It is not your responsibility to live their life for them.

I suspect the veracity of claims that people "become deaf" for the exclusive reason of drawing public funds. It seems a long way to go in order to obtain a bus pass or public assistance whereas it'd be arguably easier to simply pretend to be deaf instead. Pretending to be deaf in order to obtain public funds, however, is fraud.

Of course, I expect this post to be largely ignored and criticised but whatever; has to be said.


I want to let my reply speak for itself.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Opportunity, take two

This week has been exceptionally busy at work. Meetings every day. At the start of the week the week looked grim. Yesterday I was ALLLLLMOST ready to take a job doing the same sort of work five minutes from our flat. Today I'm glad to work there since they saw the light and will do things the easy way instead of making me do a lot more work.

So today I learn that my part in this massive project is far easier, I get to work from home tomorrow (I was supposed to do so on Wednesday but had a meeting!!), I get to leave work 20 minutes early and get home 35 minutes early, and when I get home there's an advertisement in the mailslot...

The advertisement is for a place called David Ormerod. They sell digital hearing aids and they have a sale until the end of May. This made my face light up! Horray! I can use this to tell Casey (for example): "So I'm going to book an appointment to work on the goal you suggested." - "What goal, Marie?" - "To be a deaf person, like you suggested."

Ha ha. Now that I have work and regular income it wouldn't burden Casey (too much?). I want to discuss this with hir cos it's driving me mad.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Opportunity

I have an opportunity at hand and it's slipping away.

[ Not posting the large back story here so bear with me. ]

Last night during dinner Casey asked why I'm annoyed with hir DJing [in Second Life, from our home]. I said that I'm not annoyed by it, but rather I just don't like sound! I was stunned by hir response:

"So become a deaf person."

There you have.

I didn't say anything like "Yes!!! I DO WANT THAT !!" - I chickened out and it depresses me. Soon, however, I plan to bring it up. Casey now knows that I do not like sound and I can press that "button" to provoke a conversation about it. I think this is my choice.

But there's one thing holding me back: Fear. I love Casey with all that I am and really am afraid to lose hir. One friend said that I should be at ease with talking to Casey about anything without fear of abandonment. She's right but I'm not at ease with this topic and a few others, but that is probably just "normal" relationship communication problems.

Yes, Sean, I know I should just do it. But it ain't that easy for me. In good time, it'll be done.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Going crazy

More and more I'm considering using earplugs when I'm outside. My threshold for noise is dropping and I no longer get much joy from music (which is probably a sign of worsening depression).

Unfortunately using them at work is not an option since my employer knows me as a hearing person (that and they'd SEE the earplugs!) and at home I'm not sure I can get away with yet.

Either way, I spend a lot of time commuting.

So what's stopping me? Well, nervousness. It's a change and I am resistant to change, even when it'd be for the better. I also worry about people seeing my earplugs and becoming offensive after I do not respond to them.

Something to overcome. I think this coming week I will try to do the commute home leg with my earplugs, except for a taxi home should I take one. Many of the drivers know that I can hear...It'd be odd and I'm not prepared for that yet.

To the cheeky bitch on the train

Hey lady,

Ever think that there's a reason I have my iPod's volume turned up? Maybe because I don't want people like you talking to me. Maybe I don't want to hear the train's noises "full blast". Maybe I don't want to hear.

Anyways, next time, lady, I'm going to give you a couple of the earplugs I carry instead of complying with your asinine requests. But hey, you certainly know how to make a shitty day worse.


You suck.

P.S., next time you aim to be a twat in public make sure you do it equally to everyone, like the guy who had his iPod just as loud as mine.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Technology and The Secret of Earplugs

So I think I've figured out earplugs. The ones that Casey bought me used to hurt my ears a lot so I wasn't using them at night to sleep. However last night I think I figured it out! It's so obvious: Don't put them in so far. This morning my right ear hurt a little but not much and it was gone within 15 minutes of removing the earplug. Not disturbing to sleep at all! Yay!

And on to Tech! I bought a BlackBerry 8800 on Saturday. After I bought it I read this on Wikipedia:


BlackBerry devices are also extremely popular in the Deaf community, allowing people to message each other very easily.[citation needed]


I laughed. A lot. :)

Anyways...I like this model however I wish I knew to wait for the 8820 (which has built in WiFi). This model has a built in GPS receiver which means that with Google Maps (or BlackBerry Maps) it's unlikely that I will be lost again! Yay!!