Cleaning status

Hi all,

I have finished cleaning out my desk in under 1 hour. I feel happy that there is no clutter on my desk. I will do my dresser, tomorrow and I will report back to you on the status.

- Kyle Brooks

School finished!

Hi all,

Today was my last day  of school and here I am, at home! I am ready for the summer. I will be entering grade 12 next year, but I will not be graduating in June. My final semester starts September 2010.

I have a few things to do right now. I want to clean up my desk. Maybe I will start blogging every day. Please cheer me along! I will make another blog post today about the cleaning.

- Kyle Brooks

Should ASL Vlogs be captioned? My opinion

Hi all.

I have been watching ASL video logs, captioned and not. My whole opinion on the captioning issue is as follows.

Deaf people have been taking advantage of technology in order to use it to their own benefit. Examples include TTYs, closed captioning on TVs, etc.

Now, here comes new technology: the webcam / camcorder.

How should Deaf people use it? Some have chosen to make posts on blogs linking to their videos. These are called ASL video logs.

I have seen captioned ASL vlogs, and to be absolutely honest with you, I focused more on the captions than on the signing.

To me, that is OK for TVs where I can look at the captioning and the TV at the same time because the captioning is the only way to access the TV.

That is NOT OK for ASL vlogs for three reasons, which I will categorize here as Necessity, Economic and Dilution.

–

Necessity: ASL video logs are just a few of the primary ways by which Deaf people spread their language, culture and heritage. Is it really, truly necessary to caption them when we can just put up a separate transcript?

Economic: There is a problem with captioning your own ASL video logs, which is that you are biased. You have your own ideas and opinions of what you signed on the video log, but these are only your own. To resolve this bias, you could pay someone to caption your own ASL vlogs. Captioning is expensive in terms of time and resources, so you could pay quite a lot. Do Deaf people really have a lot of money in general? It’s one of the reasons that there is no charge for using VRS!

Dilution: The mental effort it takes to look at both the captions and the signing at the same time is so taxing. English and ASL are two different languages, with different syntax, culture, etc. Therefore, it should not surprise you that I pick the captions since I’m used to looking at captions on TV! This is an ASL video log, not a English video log, yet the experience is EXACTLY like that when I look at captioned ASL video logs. Due to the mental effort and the extremely unintutive experience of looking at captioned ASL video logs, the beauty and uniqueness of ASL goes down the drain. Some people choose to caption ASL video logs to help hearing people understand what they are saying. i feel that is a very misguided decision. Ultimately, due to the dilution of language (Are English and ASL separate languages? Why is this captioned if so?), it will be the Deaf community who takes the brunt of the damage resulting from one small speck of history.

–

In conclusion, I feel that I have made a significant point that other members of the  Deaf community will appreciate understanding. Small decisions have a veery big impact on other people, and ultimately it is your own responsibility to, before making decisions that seem small, analyze the impact on other people.

- Kyle

Deaf picnic this year and unusual customer service at Starbucks today.

Hi all,

Deaf picnic

Yesterday (June 10, 2008), I went to this year’s Deaf picnic. I really loved it. A few of my favorite things:

• More students are signing than last year
• The magic show this year was great. There was a different person this year, and he was absolutely great. I volunteered in one of his magic tricks, he put something (I do not remember what) around my head – I felt famous as the photographer was taking pictures of me.
• The games were absolutely great. Except for throwing the egg at your partner and back, the games changed this year. They were fun.

Unusual customer service at Starbucks today

After I entered my placement building, I was waiting for my interpreter. I got concerned that she would not arrive, so I asked a employee to call my school and see if she was sick. The employee told me to wait for my supervisor, but eventually my interpreter arrived. Al had not arrived at that time, so we went over to Starbucks.

At Starbucks, I got apple juice – get this – from one of the cashiers directly as I was sitting at the table waiting! Talk about great customer service. My interpreter said that the cashier probably knew that we go to Starbucks pretty often, and I ask for apple juice. The cashier even signs! Wow, just wow.

I couldn’t ask for more wonderful times!

- Kyle

Top 100 Award – Again!

Hi all,

I got yet another invitation for this school year. 2007/2008. I suspect that the sub jects that I show outstanding achievement in are English and Co-op. I feel happy this year, even though it is  ending for summer. I will go to the awards tomorrow night! I am excited! My interpreter will be there to interpret.

- Kyle