Exams done

Hi all.

I finished up on my exams. The exams, ordered by date, were as follows:

• Thursday Jan 25: Civics (period 1)
• Friday Jan 26: Family Studies (period 2)
• Monday Jan 29: Woodworking (period 3)
• Tuesday Jan 30: English (period 4)

Overall, these exams went great. I hope that I pass all of those exams!

On Monday, there was a meeting, which I will discuss in a later blog post.

How you get a sign name

Hello all.

A sign name is a special sign used to uniquely identify a person… like a name.

How do you get a sign name?

Well, there are two ways:

• Give it to yourself:
• Advantage: You don’t have to wait until a Deaf person gives it to you.
• Disadvantage: Your sign name that you give to yourself might overlap with another sign, or it may not be the best for you.
• Have it given to you by a Deaf person:
• Advantage: Since the Deaf person might know you very well, you will get a good sign name.
• Disadvantage: You have to wait for the day.

My advice on this to hearing people is to wait. It’ll be worth the wait because by then you have a good sign name already.

In case you are wondering, my sign name (which I gave to myself when I was young) is a hand near the arm’s opposing shoulder (you can use your right hand if you want), signing the letter K. Left hand -> right shoulder works for me.

Thanks for reading

Kyle Brooks

Don’t litter

Hi all.
Well, to start this off, I have seen litter among streets and inside schools. I do not like litter because it is
garbage. Garbage should not be placed just about anywhere: imagine if a home was littered!If you do litter, please try to answer all of these hard questions:

• Do you like seeing garbage? If not, why are you being irresponsible and hypocritical by littering?
• Would YOU like it if someone (even a stranger) wrote on a wall in your room? If not, why are you “letting” other
  people do this to you? Graffiti is tantamount to littering because other people doing so mess up your self esteem

Maybe by then you will be convinced of the value that using a garbage can brings, and will actually use one!!!

Thanks for reading

Kyle

Tubetorial: Do they caption their Internet videos?

Hi all.

Oh, if only I could say yes… Fortunately, I have sent a complaint to Tubetorial regarding that fact.

I will post correspondence from them until it’s all over, just like I did with PRHC.

Here is the full complaint (I will annotate to explain why I said what. Bolded text is the actual complaint, while non-bolded text is annotated):

–BEGIN
Kyle Brooks
Peterborough, Ontario
Canada

E-mail: cmpfixer@hotmail.com
Phone number: 888 823 5206
Website: http://allaboutbeingdeaf.blogspot.com

To whom it may concern:

I am sending this e-mail to you on the basis of a concern.

I am a deaf blogger. A certain Tubetorial video, “What Bloggers Need to Know about the Law”, located at http://www.tubetorial.com/what-bloggers-need-to-know-about-the-law/, does not have sufficient captioning for me to understand the video. Many other videos do not have sufficient captioning. I do not understand the video because I am deaf. I do not understand many TV shows because they are not captioned, and I get left out of the experience, so I end up switching the channel. (I’d complain, but I need some information for that, and when I watch TV, I am so concentrated in doing so that I don’t usually complain)

Captions are text presented on a video that allow a deaf or hard of hearing person to be able to understand the video and watch the video at the same time.

I feel this is unfair treatment to a deaf person and to the Deaf community as a whole. Would it be fair to a blind person if they could not understand what was going on because no one told them and refused to? Please immediately rectify this concern, or explain to me why captioning videos would be a undue hardship. “Undue hardship” means a severe burden: costly, extensive, etc.

Yours sincerely,
Kyle Brooks

END–

URRelay

Hi all.

I use URRelay a lot, and I must say that both the relay service and customer service are very good.

What do I mean by good customer service? I mean…. no holding too long for people, no technical support scripts used (they are bad because they are generally inflexible and too restricted), always takes people seriously.

URRelay customer service is very good in the above regards, and I give them 5 thumbs up!

The relay service offered by them is also very good and very professional. 5 thumbs up!

I suggest that you try and place a text call with them by going to their website and clicking on the image that says “Make a text call now! Go!”.

This is very useful when you do not have a telephone, or do but you forgot it (for example). You can just use a computer and a Internet connection to talk with someone. The only catch is that you will not be able to call internationally, although you can use Iowa’s relay service through the Nextalk.net software client by using the text call feature.

Overall, I think that they have done a great service to us Deaf people, and I think that they will be successful for years to come.

Thanks for reading

Kyle Brooks

Any questions to me?

Hi all.

If anyone viewing this blog has any questions related to deafness, please ask me with a comment to this post, with e-mail: me@kbrooks.ath.cx or by instant messaging cmpfixer@hotmail.com, and I will answer as soon as possible and/or make a post about your question.

Thanks

Kyle Brooks

All about my school

Hi all.

Since I’m going to school on Monday, I want to tell you all about my school.

I will not disclose the school’s name here in order to protect my privacy, and also to avoid making this post longer than it should be.

I’m in grade 10, and am grade rep on the Student Activity Council. I help out on the SAC sometimes.

I have many friends at school who I hang out with. Some of them know a bit of ASL.

One friend that I’d like to note here. Emily. I hang out with her almost everyday at lunch time, and I know her brother (Adam) as well. Both of them know some ASL.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Thanks

Kyle Brooks

About my group home

Hi all.

So, just wanted to talk about my group home as I am a bit bored.

The group home is located in Peterborough, Ontario as you may have guessed from my earlier postings. We have 8 residents (including me). I will not state the names of the other residents to protect their privacy and also so that I do not make this post longer than it should be.

This home has a large living room with a sizeable kitchen. The rooms which we sleep in are well sized, although I must say that my room at present is bigger than my room in my old apartment.

Recently, a new resident moved in to our home, who knows a bit of ASL. [1]

Thanks for reading this post

Kyle Brooks

[1] It will be exciting to communicate with the new resident.

I am getting a cochlear implant

Hi all.

Well, months after I made the decision, I am getting a cochlear implant.

Why? Because I want and need some form of hearing that hearing aids have not given me
When / Where? Good question. unfortunately, I don’t know. But I will tell you all when that information becomes available.
Did you consider the risks? Yes, I did. I am willing to endure them for some more hearing.
Do you think that cochlear implants cure hearing? Do they? No, they do not. I have received this information from multiple sources including this wikipedia article and all the sources and/or references from there. I warn you, though: The Nucelus Cochlear Implant book didn’t give me that kind of information – all it did was advertise on and on about the greatness of their cochlear implants.