Banjo's Recommendations: No. 016

'After Hours' DVD Packaging

@1985 Warner Bros. Pictures. All Right Reserved

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air

Howdy readers, as some of you may had noticed… I haven’t been on the list at Deafread.com this month. Though it’s unlikely this will make the Deafread list, as it’s not deaf-related. Instead, it’s about Christmas. This is the month of celebrating Christmas. It’s my favourite holiday of the year, definitely not a stressful time for me like it is for some families. Not trying to make excuses, but December is often my busiest month of the year due to the Christmas shopping, Christmas parties and more. I have quite a large family; at least it is according to today’s standards.

For children, it’s like a magical time. With Santa Claus being such a mythical character, many people may see it as lying to the children. It’s not really lying; it’s a way of giving a child hope and faith. Santa Claus once did exist, that was hundreds of years ago. The churches know him as ‘Saint Nicholas’. He didn’t have a sleigh and eight reindeers. Instead, he rode on a donkey and gave gifts to the poor. Therefore, that’s where the mythical character, Santa Claus originated. Often, I see children’s hope and faith vanishes once the discovery that Santa Claus isn’t real; which is not good. You see, I know Santa Claus doesn’t exist as a person in today’s world. However, I do believe that his spirit lives on for eternality. Only these people who has hope and faith in Christmas will feel the spirit. It’s kind of a pity that many of children quickly lose their sentiments for Christmas after the discovery. My parents love and celebrate Christmas, so do my family. My parents were responsible for instilling the Christmas spirit into us even after our shocking truth about the existence of Santa Claus.

Though Christmas is also a celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth, everybody knows this and we celebrate it every year. The name of this celebration, ‘Christ-mas’ should be pretty obvious, don’t you think so? What I find to be quite disturbing is how there’s so much politics surrounding the celebration. Recently, I made an observation and came to a conclusion. The people responsible for generating the politics surrounding Christmas are from the far right-winged Christian organizations. These people are making mountains out of molehills. What these people don’t understand is that these stores don’t define the meaning of Christmas. Buying gifts for each other for Christmas is a tradition, not a rule. The true meaning of Christmas is love, joy, peace and goodwill toward people.

Why do we have to make a big deal out of some stores who decides to use the word, “Holiday” instead of “Christmas” in their advertisements? In the end, all these people want are your money. They don’t give a hoot about if you celebrate Christmas or not, they just want your hard-earned cash. Even if they are using the word, "Christmas”… it’s still all about making money.

I believe the reason why a large number of Americans are finding it difficult to deal with the changes in their country is because it has became quite more diverse the last few decades. The old’ fashioned Christian, Caucasian Americans once were the majority, now that has changed. The minorities are now the majority. It’s quite clear that the Christians don’t hold as much power in the White House and the Congress like they used to. Heck, they just voted the first Muslim into office as a congressman. That’s a strong sign that America is becoming diverse despite the resistance. Wanting the world to stay the same forever is not going to happen and you know it. In fact, changes are often what keep the world going.

You could say the same thing about the deaf community; there are so many different types within the community. In fact, I would say there are several minorities within the minority. For instance, people fluent in ASL (American Sign Language) are a minority within the minority. So I’m a part of a minority within a minority. Kind of make you think about how complicated the minorities are, doesn’t it? The African-Americans and the deaf/Deaf are some of the most complex minorities around in North America. Once you read more of the history on both minorities, you may come to an understanding why I said this.

I’m starting to trail off the original subject of Christmas. Back to the subject and coming to a close of this particular blog entry. This will be my last blog entry for the year and I will be back to greet you in the year of 2007. There’s no way to describe my love for Christmas, it’s just something many people experience but cannot describe. It’s something you have to experience to understand. It’s almost like magic. Like I said, the spirit of Saint Nicholas lives on.

All of you have a very Merry Christmas!

… and a Happy New Year!

Finally, ASL in Jericho!

There's an e-mail being forwarded all over the internet, Shoshannah Stern is asking everybody to spread the news about her character, Bonnie on 'Jericho' finally being given the opportunity to have a scene only in sign language without voice over or simcom (simultaneous communication). As some of you may remember, I did a vlog on the TV show regarding her deaf character. I mentioned that strong clichés were written in for the deaf character. Shoshannah is fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). She was born and raised in a deaf family. As it turned out, Shoshannah has been encouraging the producers and the writers to add a more realistic version of the character rather than the version we've been given since the beginning of the season. Here's the circulated e-mail from Shoshannah.

Hello, dear family and friends!

This Wednesday, November 29, is a very special episode of Jericho for me. As some of you might know, I am a regular on this show, which airs on CBS at 8 pm Pacific time. There are so many people on the show, however, that there is so much ground to cover. I've been trying for a scene ONLY in sign language (no voice over or simcom) from the beginning. The writers and producers have been amazing and even let me try my hand in writing part of the scene! It will be aired THIS Wednesday. I don't know how much of the scene will actually make it because of time constraints, but I would LOVE if you guys would watch and help me spread the word! This is a big step for everybody within the deaf community and of course for my character, Bonnie. Please, please watch... or at least TIVO it! Feel free to forward this to whoever you think may be interested!

Love,
Shoshannah

I'm holding some high hopes on seeing a better portrayal of a deaf character fluent in ASL this Wednesday on the TV series, 'Jericho'. I hope that I won't be disappointed and that it will spread awareness among the filmmakers and producers in Hollywood. It's time for a change and the time is now.

Remember to watch 'Jericho' this coming Wednesday at 8p.m. ET/PT.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Something happened on Monday, September 25, 2006. It made a big entrance. Nobody saw it coming. What was it?

'Heroes'.

NBC had aired the pilot episode of the new TV series, 'Heroes'. Though I will let you in onto a secret, I already had watched the pilot prior to the airing. I managed to get my hands on a pre-air screener copy of the episode. 'Heroes' is a cross between 'X-Men' and 'Unbreakable', only without the costumes. At least that's the impression I got. It also has a touch of 'The 4400'. People in this show aren't highly skilled in using their special abilities; they just had discovered it.

When I first heard about the show, I was deeply skeptical that it was going to be an interesting series. I was glad to be wrong; the show is absolutely fantastic. I don't remember TV being this good in many years. I was complaining a few years ago that there were absolutely nothing worth watching on the TV and that the good shows were being taken off the air. 'Firefly' anybody?

• 24
• The 4400
• Battlestar Galactica
• CSI: Las Vegas
• CSI: New York
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Grey's Anatomy
• Jericho
• Lost, My Name is Earl
• The Office
  
• Prison Break
• The Sopranos
  
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
• Supernatural
  
• Veronica Mars

The list just goes on and on. A few years ago, I would have no problem saying that I prefer movies to the television series. Television was a poor cousin to the movies, but now that's changing. In fact, I've watched more episodes than I have watched movies this year. Especially when there's a great deal of poorly made movies being pumped out of Hollywood more than ever these days. Not only to mention the remakes, which I am getting sick of. Where's the originality? I sought for originality; the best chance you'll find originality in is the independent movies and the TV. I also believe that it's more expensive to finance a TV series nowadays. Not as many people watch a channel at once as they used to, there's hundreds of TV channels and when I was a kid, there were dozens of channels instead of hundreds. In my father's childhood, most TV antennas were able to reach only a few channels at the most. The world has changed a lot since then.

'Heroes' is the best new series this fall; at least it is in my opinion. In fact, this show's audience has been expanding ever since the first episode aired. Any TV executive would kill to make that happen. It's not common for an audience to expand significantly as they air the episode on a weekly basis. In fact, they are rerunning the episodes on the Sci-Fi channel. 'Heroes' has an ensemble cast, a very good one. Nobody's the same; all characters with special abilities are different and not so two-dimensional. I read that a writer is assigned to write one character's scenes and then mix them together through the rewriting process. I wish they would do this with other shows. The TV show, 'Lost' has been declining in quality. Perhaps they should follow the method used by the writers of 'Heroes'.

My personal favourite character would have to be Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese fella, and a close second is Claire Bennett. Hira who can bend time and space is a pretty interesting fella and I suspect we will see him becoming more of a serious character with some scars to bear. After all, we were given a glimpse of his character from the future. That's a clue. The great thing about this show would have to be the clues. Most of them are subtle and well hidden. The average viewer is likely to miss most of these clues, I paid attention to the show and I've spotted quite a lot of them. In the pilot episode, there's even a hint of what Hira may face soon, just take a look at the computer monitor in Hira's cubicle at his workplace. I believe most people missed this subtle clue, as it hasn't been brought up in any discussions I've had. There's also this particular symbol that keep showing up in some episodes. I don't want to spoil it for everybody; I'm just sharing a few details without severely spoiling it.

Claire, a beautiful young teenager and a cheerleader is a significant character. Her special ability is similar to X-Men's Wolverine. She is capable of healing her wounds and broken bones instantly. As you can see, the title of this blog entry is in relation to this particular character. Like I said, I cannot spoil the show for the non-viewers. I highly recommend this show and you can find out what the fuss is all about.

Before some of you accuse this show of being a rip-off of the X-Men, I have to defend the show by saying that it takes some elements from a variety of well-known franchises and made it their own. It is refreshingly fantastic, and I applaud them for successfully pulling it off. I know what I'm about to say is a cliché but I do believe it actually will make an interesting addition to the show, how about a deaf character with a special ability?

Remember to tune in at 9PM/8PM Central every Monday on NBC to watch 'Heroes'.

Out of the Blue - No. 015

Resonare: An Early Review

Last week, me and some other well-known deaf bloggers were invited to an early screening of Mösdeux's latest short film, 'Resonare'. It stars Chad W. Taylor, a fellow Canadian living California. He co-founded Mösdeux with Wayne Betts Jr. and the company is based in Roseville, California.

The objective of a short film is to demonstrate the skills of the young filmmakers. They made a powerful and successful demonstration with their previous short film, 'Vital Signs'. Clearly, 'Resonare' is an experimental short film. Like most short films should be, contain a simple storyline making it easier for the audience to follow. However, not many are made without dialogues. That's refreshing as far too many filmmakers often rely too heavily on the spoken/signed dialogues.

Very few filmmakers have made the attempt to film an entire film with no dialogues, or a foreign language. For instance, Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ'. The movie contained a dead language and not many could understand what was being said, and he's doing the same with his upcoming film, 'Apocalypto'.

As I promised to Chad and Wayne, I cannot share many details on the short film, as it would spoil the entertainment of watching a movie without knowing what it's all about. The story itself is rather simple which is what it's needed for a film of this length. I must applaud Wayne Betts, Jr. for a well-done job on cinematography. Not only that, the editing and transitions between shots was well done. Especially for a young filmmaker who's still experimenting with the art of film. The opening sequence, I thought it was well-designed and simple like it should be.

I enjoyed the film for its simplicity. I must say that a certain content of the story was somewhere strange yet humourous at the same time. I don't want to spoil it for everybody, but I do feel that I got what the object featured in the short film was in reference to. I hope many of you will get it. Oh, I must say that Amber Stanton is quite a lovely actress; she has been featured in quite a few Mösdeux productions. She wasn't given much to do in this production; she's barely a supporting actress. Chad gave a decent performance, but like I said, the story was quite simple and easy to follow, he isn't required to demonstrate a lot of emotions or anything extraordinary. He simply accomplished the task required as an actor.

Keith Wann, a child of deaf adults (CODA) and a well-known comedian among the deaf. He has a number of video footage of his comedian routines and more on Google Video. He was previously involved with some commercials produced by Mösdeux for HOVRS (Hands On Video Relay Service). Keith is quite a talented comedian; I have to say because of his knowledge of the deaf community and the hearing world. He took a 180-degree turn on this role, as it wasn't a role he was accustomed to, more of a dramatic role. Like some well-known comedians, they also are talented at demonstrating different emotions and characteristic traits. For instance, Robin Williams, an extraordinary comedian and he's one of the best dramatic actors today. If Keith Wann continues with taking on different roles, he will be able to achieve a lot more.

Oh yes, while I'm giving a highly positive review on the short film, I just have to give one tiny criticism... next time, get a better wig. As a movie buff, it made me smile to see such a bad wig because I saw it as a reminder that Wayne Betts, Jr. and Chad W. Taylor are still a couple of aspiring young filmmakers who are experimenting with the art of film.

Great job to Wayne Betts, Jr, Chad W. Taylor and everybody involved with the short film. The short film clocked in at 11 minutes and 46 seconds long. Though it may not be the final running time because they are still doing some last minute work on the audio. I send my best wishes to the aspiring young deaf filmmakers out there in the world to make a wave in the film industry. Wayne Betts, Jr and Chad W. Taylor are just the beginning of the wave.

Watch 'Resonare' on November 14th at www.mosdeux.com.

Predators Within the Invisible Minority

I know, I know... it's a subject many people consider to be old news. However, I have to disagree. It is an ongoing problem, it is still happening in some places and nobody's doing anything about it. I should know because I used to attend a school for the deaf.

For many years, I have never been a firm supporter of residential schools for the deaf. I've made that clear, no doubt about that. I personally don't believe a child should be away from home for 5 days a week. Children need to live at home with their families; living in a residence with house parents is not what I consider a healthy environment for a child.

There's a reason why dozens of children aren't meant to live together especially when the age range can be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager. House parents are often uncertified and unqualified to deal with personal matters especially molestation.

I was a day student by choice, but that didn't stop me from learning more about what goes on behind closed doors at the residence building. It's a subject you never speak of at the school because people strongly discourage it. In fact, I was once a peer helper and they even discouraged the students from discussing the past cases of sexual abuse. I once asked a teacher if there had ever been a case of sexual abuse at the school I attended. The teacher said that there have been cases then I asked for more details and the request was declined. Therefore, I was forced to do some research online and I managed to find some of the legal cases involving some cases. I'm grateful that we are able to access a large number of legal cases on the Internet in Canada.

As many of you people should be aware, teenagers are full of sexual hormones. If a teenager was basically raised by a series of house parent its whole life that person is more likely to have the wrong idea of what sex is about. It's the duty of the parents to have a bond with their children and to educate them about life. The house parents are just there for the money, nothing more. Many house parents are uncertified in these fields. I know there are some people who were born into broken and dysfunctional families, but you have to remember that sexual abuse is not a joke either. Yes, there are biological parents who abuse and molest their own children which is a horrific act of violation against one's will but that's another subject.

I'm a good friend of a former house parent; this friend of mine had some horror stories to share with me and some of these that I wish I were never told in the first place. Though we shouldn't ignore these because that'll only make us ignorant to the problems in today's residential schools. Deaf children are basically stripped of their rights and they cannot defend themselves from the monsters. They have no voice and I do know for a fact that quite a few schools imposes severe restrictions on what a student can use the Internet for. Especially when it come to instant messaging applications. It's quite a sad state they are in.

Anybody remember Jericho? It was one of the worst cases in the history of deaf education. It was like a sex club in there. This was a provincial school in the province of British Columbia. In fact, it's one of the factors in the shutdown of the school back in the early 1990s. Even worse, not too far from where Jericho is, there was another school that was just as bad or worse. It took place in the state of Washington, a newspaper in Seattle did a major coverage of it in the 1990s and they were unsuccessful in getting the stories verified but by the victims.

Though I have heard that the school has gone under a change of administration and a great deal of improvements were made in recent years. I hope it's for good and that they never let such an incident from taking place again under their watch.

If you wish to learn more of what happened at Jericho, more information can be found on the Internet or you can e-mail me and I will provide you some information on some Canadian legal cases and incidents that happened in some schools across Canada.

At one particular residential school for the deaf, the other students told me of one wheelchair-bound student who was violently abused on a frequent basis. He was anally raped and often attended the infirmary with a swollen anus. The nurse made attempts to protect the student, the administration swept it all under the rug. The nurse ended up resigning from her position. On some nights, he made attempts to escape through the window and crawl onto the ground in hope of escaping from some of the students who had violated his body against his will. He wasn't able to walk; he used all of his strength to crawl away from these monsters.

In many cases, male students were often molested by older male students and in some cases, female students. There have been some cases where they were molested by house parents.

At the school I attended, when I was a student at the secondary building on the campus; I was made aware of a series of activities behind closed doors at the residence building. One of them being a sexually charged version of 'truth or dare' game. There is several sexual abuse cases I know of that were never reported to the authorities. None of these cases should ever go unreported because it's wrong, just plainly wrong. No people should go unpunished for their crimes they've committed. The top reason why a victim doesn’t report is because of the fear of what would happen to them if it became public. Many of you know that other students because of malicious gossiping and backstabbing often target the victims. I don't condemn them for being scared but they do need the courage to report these crimes because these people may be hurting somebody else.

I'm not advocating the shutdown of residential schools for the deaf, though I do think it would be a great benefit if they didn't have a residence but that would only force the schools to shut down due to the low enrollment rate. If you want to save the schools from being shut down, you should take great measurements to ensure that the students are well protected from being abused.

I know this is a sensitive topic for many deaf people out there, but people need to realize that it is a problem and it shouldn't be swept under the rug. It has been tackled at some schools for the deaf but I don't believe many are making the efforts to ensure that their students are well protected. I'm not looking to attack people nor am I looking forward to being attacked by people. I just believe that people need to spread the awareness of these problems and that they need to be resolved now. I consider myself to be Deaf and I do take in how the others may feel toward some subjects but I don't believe in beating around the bush. People shouldn't be pretending that it's not happening. Nobody has spoken up for the deaf students, just like nobody spoke up for the deaf during the holocaust.

We may be known as the invisible minority, but our problems shouldn't be invisible.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on "THIS" side of the road before it goes after the problem on the "OTHER SIDE" of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his "CURRENT" problems before adding "NEW" problems.

OPRAH: Well I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DONALD RUMSFELD: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

ANDERSON COOPER/CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am for it now, and will remain against it.

JUDGE JUDY: That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the "other side." That's why they call it the "other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like the other side." That chicken should not be free to cross the road. It's as plain and simple as that!

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together in peace.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2006, which will not only cross roads, but also will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet explorer is an integral part of eChicken. The Platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^( C \..... reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

– Author Unknown

The Curse of Deafness in Hollywood

The upcoming film, ‘Babel’ is generating a lot of buzz. Alejandro González Iñárritu directed the movie and written by Guillermo Arriaga. To summarize the plot, two boys in a desert test the range of a rifle, it collides the lives of four separate groups of strangers instantly. This is a movie that is generating a lot of buzz in the film industry and may be somewhere controversial because of the politics involved. This movie involves Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Elle Fanning a sister of Dakota Fanning’s. I’m not going to discuss these actors, what I want to focus on is the deaf and mute character.

Yes, you read it right… deaf and mute. That’s what you’ll find in all articles and reviews on this upcoming movie. She’s a rebellious deaf Japanese teenage girl; it sounds like a role that a real-life deaf actress can perform. Only the actress isn’t deaf in real life, her name is Rinko Kikuchi. I can understand how they would prefer actresses who can hear and speak, as it would prevent any communication issues from occurring. Still, to make a character more authentic, an actual deaf actress would be better suited for the role especially when the character is ‘mute’ to start with. As much as it’s great to see a deaf character getting a significant role in a movie like ‘Babel’, but the real question I have is… why didn’t they hire a deaf actress to take on the role?

This reminds me of the controversy that surrounded the movie, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ because they had hired Chinese actresses instead of Japanese actresses to portray the Japanese characters. It’s kind of ironic, as it’s known that the Chinese and the Japanese people have a long-standing feud. Like I said, it’s about making the character as authentic as possible. Hiring a Chinese actress to portray a Japanese character can be problematic, as they look quite different. Yes, they do look different. Maybe they look all the same to some of you, but if you take another look, you’ll see that they don’t look the same.

It reminds me of how they hired Rob Lowe to portray a deaf man in the TV mini-series, ‘The Stand’. Even though he is deaf in one ear, but he is not deaf and while he is a decent actor, he did a poor portrayal of a deaf character in the mini-series. It seems like some filmmakers are too afraid to take a risk and hire a deaf actor/actress to play a role of a deaf character because of communication issues. If they actually hired one, they’ll realize that it isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Remember how Trudy Suggs, a child born to deaf parents, she’s a freelance writer who exposed an ad campaign by Saturn, the car manufacturer. I remember hearing about this in the late 90s’ or early 2000s’; it was quite a big topic among the deaf community. Saturn’s ad firm had hired a hearing woman to portray a deaf character in a Saturn commercial. That television commercial really ruffled some feathers in the deaf community. It was the proof that there were still prejudices in the media industry toward the deaf and people with disabilities.


UPDATE: Trudy Suggs left a comment here on my blog adding more details to what I had wrote on the 'Saturn' commercial featuring a deaf character. Below here is her comment left on my blog.

Stumbled across this website by accident - first, thank you for spelling my name right. :-)

I should probably clarify the Saturn fiasco; it's not as clear-cut as it seems here (unfortunately). What happened was that Saturn had a "Real People, Real Cars" ad campaign that featured REAL owners - not actors by any measure - and one of them was Holly Daniel, who claimed to be deaf. She never once told Saturn she was hearing. It was only after some deaf people who had gone to church with her or had her as their interpreter at LSU told me that she was actually hearing that the story became bizarre.

People in the Deaf community were furious that a hearing woman would not only fake being deaf, but also make $75,000 off it. So that was the issue, especially because she was NOT an actress nor did she tell the truth to Saturn. However, Saturn should have been more responsible in bringing her onboard.

Trudy, thanks for the clarification, I appreciate it.


I hope that a couple of aspiring deaf filmmakers will break out in Hollywood someday soon in a big way. Here’s a tiny hint… Mösdeux.

I truly believe that there are a lot of deaf people out there who has the potential to be great filmmakers and many of these are great storytellers to start with. Even though I’m a graphic designer, I do have an interest in the film industry and that I hope to make some short films in the future. Maybe even a full-length film. I’ve even made a few short films using 8mm and some other cheap camcorders back then when I was a teenager. As many of you know, I have a great passion for the art of film and storytelling. I have dozens of ideas of what could make a great film, though I’m not going to share them here, as that would be like giving free candies to the Spielberg wannabes.

I continue to find myself being disappointed at seeing deaf character portrayed by hearing actors/actresses. It’s just not right. A filmmaker may have the guts to take risks with their movies, yet they are so hesitant to add authenticity to their characters, it’s pretty obvious they are prejudiced when they are hiring performers who don’t feature any of these characteristic traits. Wouldn’t it make sense to hire a deaf actor to play a deaf character just as you would hire a blind person to play a blind character? To think of it, people who aren’t blind often perform the blind characters. Yes, some actors love the challenge of playing a character that is different from them in real life, like Jamie Foxx did an Oscar-worthy performance as Ray Charles, the singer in ‘Ray’.

Still, it’ll be nice if they would hire a deaf performer to portray a deaf character. I always know when I see a hearing person playing a deaf character on an episode of a TV series, or in a movie. Not many hearing actors are able to convince me that they are deaf. I will appreciate an actor’s performance as a deaf character as long it is convincing, but I’ve yet to see such a performance and I should know since I’m deaf and a big movie buff.

I do hope to see that more and more filmmakers will be starting to take a more serious note on adding authenticity to their characters in their movies and television shows in the short future. Even the deaf characters portrayed by real-life deaf performers are plagued to death with characteristic clichés. For example, lip-reading is often greatly exaggerated especially when they are able to read lips from across the street or they are portrayed as being incapable of understanding a serious situation therefore they are ‘protected’ and ‘sheltered’ by the hearing characters. Worst of all, they are often portrayed as being naïve.

One of these days, I hope to see the film industry becoming aware of the importance of adding authenticity to the deaf characters featured in movies and television shows.

Hopefully that will happen one day soon.

Banjo's Recommendations: No. 015

'C.R.A.Z.Y.' DVD Packaging

@2005 Cirrus Communication All Right Reserved

Superman Returns… in 2009

After the disappointing box office performance of the recent Superman flick released last June, I had some concerns that Warner Bros. May back out of their commitment to produce more sequels. It turn out that they will be able to turn a profit but it won’t be a big one. However, they are still confident that they will be able to generate a bigger profit if they were to make more sequels. Variety, a newspaper in Hollywood has confirmed that Warner Bros. And Bryan Singer has made a deal.

Superman is coming back in 2009. It seems like a long wait but it’ll be here before you know it. They have to keep the budget under a couple hundred million dollars; the last one was too expensive. Still not official, but it was estimated at $270 million. Titanic cost Paramount and Fox $200 million to produce. Brandon Routh, the actor who portrayed Superman in the recent movie, it’s likely he’ll be back.

Since we’re talking about sequels, ‘Saw IV’ is coming next October. Why am I not surprised? If these movies continue to be big moneymakers, they will keep on producing a new Saw movie on an annual basis. These movies where people are getting tortured, I just don’t see why people enjoy that. They are not scary, just disgusting. ‘Hostel’ was one of the most disgusting movies I’ve ever seen in my entire life and I definitely don’t plan on seeing the sequel. Horror movies aren’t what they used to be.

Back to the subject, here’s to hoping they come up with a strong storyline for the upcoming ‘Superman’ sequel, which will be produced and released in the year of 2009. I will be the first to admit that I was somewhere disappointed with the recent Superman movie, but it wasn’t a piece of crap like some made it out to be. Yes, it was too long and the storyline was weak but I still enjoyed it on some levels. I imagine that the upcoming sequel will be better; after all he did make a big improvement with ‘X-Men 2’.

I hope they’ll select a great villain, I can understand why they picked Lex Luthor since he was the most recognizable villain to the public but we’ve seen too much of him in the movies. Which villain do you hope to see make an appearance in the upcoming sequel?

Would you rather be deaf or blind?

Ottawa: An Experience

As some of you know, I attended a school for the deaf from grade seven to grade twelve in 2002, the year I graduated. I hold a lot of good memories from these years at the school along with some not-so-great memories. It’s just how life balances it out. Ernest C. Drury, a school for the deaf in Milton, Ontario of Canada. It’s a provincial school and they did have some major problems with how they handled the deaf education. That’s another story.

As you can see, that’s a truckload of chickens. It’s safe to assume the place they’re going to isn’t going to be a paradise. Maybe that was in bad taste, but you know it’s true. Nothing we can do about that. At least they taste good. This truck passed our bus on the way to Ottawa. What a year that was. It was back in 2000 when I was in the tenth grade. Wow, 6 years has passed by, has it really been that long? Time fly by quite fast, life is short. Especially when you hold these memories as if you experienced them the day before.

The person “mediating” is Kevin Small, a former classmate of mine. I’m not sure if I recall where I took this picture but I believe it was at a park we stopped at to have lunch. It was quite a long trip. It took us around six hours to reach Ottawa from Milton. Ottawa is the capital city of Canada and they have a lot of beautiful buildings and a rich history. They also have an awesome war museum. We stayed at a university dorm building for 4 nights; we had a blast over there even though we had some faculty members keeping their eyes on us. Some students got to perform pranks onto each other that week including one particular incident during a shower. Somebody nearly lost a liver as a result.

The blue-tongued girl is Katie Fisher, another former classmate of mine. She was on a sugar high at the time I took her picture. She was quite a bright girl; she had a talent for writing, something we shared in common. We’re still keeping in contact after these years; I do that with a lot of my former classmates. If it wasn’t for the Internet, I wouldn’t have been able to keep in contact with a lot of ex-classmates. Just one of the many reasons why to not take the Internet for granted.

Oh yes, this is priceless. The group of faculty members you see here were victims of a plan we had came up with to get our curfew extended. We bought this particular flag representing the city of Ottawa to honour the faculty members for their dedication and hard work on organizing our Ottawa trip. Or that was what we wanted them to believe and hope that they’ll extend our curfew by a couple hours. We were only able to get it extended by a half-hour or a bit longer. At least we got something out of it and the teacher holding the flag mounted it onto a wall in his classroom. Every single time I looked at that flag for two grades after that year, I thought of how we had came up with such a plan to extend the curfew by using the faculty members. I don’t condone using people to your advantage because it’s plainly wrong. It’s true, I was involved and I did regret it to a certain degree because we were deceiving a few people in order to gain from it. Well, we learn from our mistakes.

Yes, that is a car that once belonged to the evil dictator, Adolf Hitler. This was at a war museum that I went to in Ottawa. It was quite an amazing museum with an extraordinary exhibit on several wars Canadians were involved with. The car had a smashed window; I suspect it was done decades before it was brought to Ottawa. I can understand why somebody would smash Hitler’s car. To me, it was a piece of history and I have no respect for Hitler, but I do believe that some objects should be preserved and well protected and put onto display for people to look at. For me, it meant something to see Hitler’s car in person because it was a way of connecting with the past. People often find that by seeing or touching an object linked to an important event in history to be enlightening and an experience never to be forgotten.

I wouldn’t mind visiting Ottawa again someday; it is quite a beautiful city to visit. The city has a rich history and the federal parliament building is quite a beauty. Looking at the pictures isn’t enough, you have to be there to believe and be in awe. There are a large amount of historical buildings in Ottawa and they are nothing to scoff at. If you were to make a trip to Ottawa, you will never believe your eyes once you set your eyes on some of the buildings. If you think the exteriors are quite something, wait till you see the interiors of some of these buildings.

I’m glad that I live in a great country, which is Canada.

The Impossible Has Happened

Out of the Blue - No. 014

Bonjour! The Benefits of Zeroconf

Not too sure about what I’m referring to? Don’t worry about it; you’re not the only one. It’s still relatively unknown to the public. It’s a feature included with the software, ‘iChat’. It’s an instant messaging application developed by Apple.

I see it as a great benefit to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. The purpose of ‘Bonjour’ is to take advantage of the network within a small range like a building where all the computers are networked. Instead of using AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) servers, you use your own server to make your own instant messaging network. It will show all of the people connected to your network on the list.

I’m currently employed at a regional division of a media corporation. Naturally, we use Mac computers. When I started working, I did get to communicate with my co-worker but not on the level that I was hoping for. I went over some ideas on how to eliminate the communication issues from the workplace then that’s where ‘Bonjour’ came in. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was what I was hoping for since I’ve never used it. Once I turned it on and asked a co-worker to turn it on. My face was lit up like a child on Christmas because it was exactly what I was hoping for. My co-worker and everybody else were excited to learn of the feature. Now, everybody use it with each other. Even though they don’t need to, but they do. I’m very fortunate to be in an environment where people are willing to go the extra mile for each other.

Now, I know not everybody work with a Mac computer in his or her offices. There are applications for the PC that uses the same concept. I believe the concept is known as ‘Zero Configuration Network’ or ‘Zeroconf’ for short. There’s one PC freeware named ‘Hamachi’. This is available for downloads on all platforms including Linux and OS X which would be a great benefit to workplaces with both Mac and PC computers.

I hope this will be a big help to some readers of mine, especially these who work with a reasonable number of co-workers in the same room. I would know because I benefited from it in a big way.

Au revoir!

C'mon Hollywood!

In this vlog entry, I decided bring up the subject of how most of the major film studios caption/subtitle only the movies instead of the whole contents (special features) on the DVDs. I hope it'll spread awareness of how serious this problem is.

Overanalyzing the Hedge

A while ago, I watched a movie titled ‘Over the Hedge’. I really enjoyed the movie; it’s a computer-animated movie from DreamWorks. It’s about a raccoon that cons a group of friendly animals into helping him steal food to repay a bear that he ripped off at the beginning of the movie. Even for these without children, I still strongly recommend it due to the hilarious moments in it.

However, some people have a tendency to overanalyze a movie and make up conspiracy theories these days. Recently, I went to a website to browse at some movie reviews. This website is for Christian readers. Often, I tend to find the “negative” reviews by the readers to be amusing as they often seem to be misguided when it come to being Christians.

For instance, a reader reviewed the movie, ‘Over the Hedge’ and found it to be extremely offensive. Some people overanalyze everything they read or watch. That’s when you know they are terribly blinded by their faith to the point where they start manipulating it. That’s when they become extremists. The excerpt below is the review I mentioned.

Negative - This movie is subtle seed planting by anti-Christians. Go to the official site for the movie and watch the clips you may have missed at the theatre. Did you all miss the following?

#1) the turtle “Vern” says “It’s not like he (RJ) can walk on water or anything!” RJ proceeds to walk over the water in the pool. I take offense to Jesus being mocked in a children’s film.

#2) Catholics may take great offense to RJ’s comment “the altar where they worship the food.”

#3) The Steve scene is an abomination — one animal bows down in worship to “the hedge”…

In addition to this, there is a place on the site to see what is in RJ’s golf bag, and there is a VooDoo doll in it. Isaiah 45:23 - for every knee shall be bowed to me. This is an offensive movie; get the cute fuzzy animal stuff out of your heads and judge this movie by it’s content.

My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 1
—Constantine, age 20

Here’s one that I found to be amusing due to her fear that their children will be desensitized as a result of the bear’s death threat toward the raccoon.

Negative - I took my 2 sons to see this movie and was disappointed. The bear was pretty fierce and threatened repeatedly to kill the racoon, using that word several times. Desensitization begins early! The humans were portrayed as stupid and mean, while the animals were smart and lovable. God defines family as a husband, wife and children. This movie reinforces the current cultural propaganda that a family is made up of whoever moves into the house. There were several mild expletives, but then, curse words are curse words, no matter how mild. It could have been a good movie, but was ruined by pushing the line too far. We won’t see it again.

My Ratings: Offensive / 3
—Melinda, age 41

Source: ChristianAnswers.net

Some people are just too paranoid these days. In fact, I would say the cartoons from the old days were more violent. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were always in danger because of Elmer Fudd kept on hunting them for dinner. Tom and Jerry, they weren’t exactly angels either. I enjoyed these animated shorts a lot and yet I’m not violent or desensitized toward the society. I believe it’s how you raise your children and how people behave around them.

The Internet has all types of people including perverts, prudes, extremists and some are just plainly out of their minds. I don’t mean to attack Christianity, but I do believe that a large number of Christians are misguided and don’t stay true to the principles and teaching of the religion. Instead, they abuse the living daylight out of it. No, I didn’t say the majority; I said a large number, which could be in the millions. It seems like a lot of religions are having problems with their followers not practicing their religions as they have committed to.

Some people go too far with their faith.

To the Board of Trustees...

Educationally Flawed

In this vlog entry, the quality of deaf education, the problems surrounding it and the ideas of what can be done to bring a solution to these problems are discussed. Feel free to share your ideas and opinions on the subject.

Banjo's Recommendations: No. 014

'Beyond Silence' DVD Packaging

@1998 Miramax/Buena Vista Home Entertainment All Right Reserved

My Identity: Misunderstood

To this day, I find myself astonished that the deaf community continues to be one of the most misunderstood minorities. I believe it’s one of the most misunderstood minorities in North America and around the world. It’s due to the lack of awareness among the society.

Yes, the Internet has brought so many deaf and hard-of-hearing people together. It has done us a lot of good. Yesterday, I witnessed something amazing on the Internet. It wouldn’t have been possible to achieve ten years ago. Some of the deaf bloggers communicated with each other using their computers, laptops, and mobile devices and doing a live report on the Gallaudet arrests. The live report was being published in Los Angeles while the reports were being submitted by several bloggers via their mobile phones or laptops from the Gallaudet campus in Washington, D.C. That’s on two entirely different coasts with a range of 2,700 miles between them, yet all of them were communicating with each other and publishing new information from every few seconds to a couple minutes.

Unfortunately, the news media outlets often get their stories all mixed up. I see it in nearly every deafness-related article they publish in newspapers. They often lump all of us into one category, which send the readers the wrong impression. Journalists often try to put themselves into our shoes and walk in them, then come to a conclusion. Usually it’s the wrong one. I don’t often believe the news stories I read to be completely accurate. There’s always more to a story that they print. They often leave out the details that I would consider important. They just keep on using clichés in their articles. Just like I said, it’s the lack of awareness. There are 30 million Americans and 3 million Canadians with a degree of hearing loss. For most, it’s not a big issue as they are often minimal and weren’t born with it. The severe deafness occurs at a far lower rate in comparison. These who were born with hearing loss or became deaf during their first 5 years are more likely to hold deafness as an identity.

I do believe that we are often misunderstood as a minority. People unfamiliar with people who have a cultural identity associated with their deafness tend to assume that they represent the whole “hearing impaired” community. It’s one of the worst misconceptions around. We do not represent every single living deaf and hard-of-hearing individual living on the soil of North America. Nor do we share all the same interests, beliefs, faiths, opinions and more. It’s an identity that we hold close to our hearts because of our language, ASL (American Sign Language) and that we understand each other, especially when it come to the frustrating experiences of being in families that doesn’t sign. I must say that I’m grateful that my family believes that communication is the key to keeping a family together and that includes signing. Not many families are willing to adapt to a child’s disability. As you may remember, I had written a blog entry a few months ago, it was titled “The Importance of Communication”. It’s one of my personal favourites.

I have to admit that I’ve had some resistance to the concept of Deaf Culture, which would had been shortly after I graduated from the school for the deaf. I had my reasons for having issues with the concept as I had a very difficult year as a senior due to a big change in the administration and how they were handling all of the educational programs and the problems surrounding it. That year nearly made me lose all of my faith, and it wasn’t helping that I was going to college. Mind you, I did love college on so many different levels in comparison to high school due to the advantages of acquiring a better education. However, I did miss having deaf friends in my classes because we all understood each other and we would always have a good laugh. It was a big change for me to adapt to, and I would talk with some hearing students, but it wasn’t the same.

Having a deaf friend is incredibly different from having a hearing friend. I’m not saying that they are better at being friends; I’m just saying it’s different. I have hearing friends, but I don’t often discuss deaf-related topics with them. For instance, it’s like a graphic designer discussing the difference between process and spot colours with a tax accountant. You cannot expect a tax accountant to understand the concept because they don’t deal with it on a daily basis. Having deaf friends add more to your character and your life experience.

I don’t expect everybody to understand why some of us choose to remain deaf. We are given choices, and we made them. I’ve already adapted to being a deaf person, and I don’t plan on changing that. If there’s a pill that cures deafness, I would be hesitant to take it because I’ve already been deaf my whole life. To think of not being deaf is just hard for me to imagine. It is a life-changing experience and it may radically change my personality and my identity. There is a movie that makes a good example of what I’m saying here, it’s called ‘At First Sight’ starring Val Klimer. He portrays a blind man who is operated on to have his eyesight restored. Later into the movie, he begins to resent his ability to see and went back to being blind as a comfort. Mainly, because blindness is what he identifies with. Just like I identify myself with deafness.

It’s a concept that I don’t expect most people to understand. That is why I believe we are one of the most misunderstood minorities. Remember, we don’t represent every single deaf and hard-of-hearing individual. We are all individuals and we have our identities, not all of us share the same identity. In my experience, it has been a wonderful experience despite a few years of hard times in between. I don’t believe in criticizing people for their choices, that’s the best part about living in a free country, you get to be who you want to be.

I consider my deafness to be part of who I am. I don’t know what I would become of if I were to lose that part. For you, it may be different. Not everybody are the same, everybody’s different in their own ways. We are often forced to adapt to the world instead of the other way around. I believe it builds character. I was at a crossroad a couple years ago, and I chosen to stay true to myself and I believe it was the right path to go on. I just can’t go the other direction pretending it’s not there. It’s a part of me.

I just can’t live my life with a lie.

Deconstructing the Truth at Gallaudet University

Over the last couple weeks, there has been a wave after wave, well… more like a series of tsunamis surrounding the situation at Gallaudet University. It’s the only university for the deaf in the whole wide world and it’s in Washington, D.C., the capital of America. I’ve chosen to stay quiet on the subject since it started back in May when they made the announcement on selecting Dr. Jane K. Fernandes as the new president of the university in January 2007. Though there have been some rumours that she’s supposed to be inducted into the presidency position within a few weeks. At first, a lot of people in the deaf community quickly dismissed at the students’ complaints of the selection only to make a sharp U-turn. Now, it has resulted in a massive protest and is gathering a lot of support from all over the country.

My reasons for staying quiet on this were because I wanted to learn more about it before sharing my opinion. Second, I’m not a student or alumni of Gallaudet University. So, it made sense to me that I was to avoid discussing the subject till now. I consider myself to be a Deaf person, and people I know consider me to be one too, even though I don’t often use the capitalized D when I refer to myself. It’s just a habit of mine, and I do have an open mind on many controversies surrounding deafness; for instance, cochlear implants. The thing I love about living in a free country is the right to make a choice. I made the choice to be myself, nothing else. I don’t lie, I don’t manipulate the truth, and I don’t twist the truth to satisfy the others or myself. I know when I see a person with a political agenda, and I find it repulsive when a person will do anything including manipulating the truth to satisfy one’s agenda. That’s a major flaw I found in a lot of political pundits, politicians, government parties and more.

There have been a lot of misconceptions floating around the blogosphere surrounding the controversy. Especially the one where they say she isn’t Deaf enough. I believe this one was taken out of context and twisted around to reflect the students badly. Deaf community continues to be one of the most misunderstood minorities in North America. Yes, there is diversity among the deaf; nearly all of the deaf children are raised differently from each other. Some grow up orally, some grow up taught in ASL (American Sign Language), some use SEE (SEE1, SEE2), PSE (Pidgin Signed English), SimCom (Simultaneous Communication, also known as Total Communication), Cued Speech and many more. People had come up with hundreds of methods in educating a deaf child.

I’ve been able to make some direct contact with a few students over the last few months regarding the controversy. I even had a video conversation with a friend staying in the Hall Memorial Building (HMB) shortly after it was taken over and went into a lockdown. I did obtain some interesting information and speculation from that video conversation alone. Some that may have not even gotten reported at all. This already has made the news all over the USA. Yesterday, the Gallaudet football team came together and aggressively expanded the lockdown’s status from a building to the whole campus. This move attracted a lot of media attention as a result, it’s not everyday that you hear about a university being taken over by the students as a part of a protest.

People’s education are being interfered with, I have no doubt in that part. It is true that the students, faculty members may have committed civil disobedience. However, as in many historical events that took place in the past, people felt they had no choice but to disobey a civil law. In fact, the bible even advocates for civil disobedience in order to obey God’s laws. I don’t condone these actions, but I’m not going to condemn them either. If you find this confusing, wait till you read all of the reports by the deaf bloggers. There are so many different perceptions and contradictions. It can be quite confusing when you read all of them. It’s not easy to choose to what to believe in when you aren’t there in person. I don’t believe everything these people say including the bloggers opposed to the protest. They are mostly speculations and opinions. But they are valid to start with; they show how people feel about the situation.

It should be obvious that I don’t personally know the incoming president, Dr. Jane K. Fernandes. Though, that hasn’t stopped me from reading many of her statements, video interviews and more. There are a lot of people who learned ASL at her age; she didn’t learn ASL till she was in her early 20s’ and yet are far more proficient. While that’s not a valid reason why she shouldn’t be the president. There are other factors to take in consideration too. Judging by the video interviews and candid video footage with Fernandes featured in it; it appears quite clear to me that she has a stutter in her signing. A strong leader should be charismatic and be well liked, be viewed as a leader. It is important that a leader possesses people skill. If you don’t have that skill, you are dead in the water. Despite some people claiming that she did a lot of good for some places she was once employed at in the past, it doesn’t mean she’s going to cut it as a president at the university.

Unfortunately, I did get to watch her analyze the situation and compare it to the movie, ‘The Perfect Storm” back in May. It was somewhere baffling, especially when she didn’t know half of what she was saying in that video clip. A leader should know what s/he is talking about and with a strong confidence, rather than looking all shaken up and nervous. I don’t see how it’s possible to defend this woman, she may be a good woman at heart, but she isn’t a firm leader. Not only that, the leader has to be a good listener. Both Fernandes and the current president, I. King Jordan hasn’t been listening. Instead, they’ve been attacking the protesters, even with lies. The public relations representatives have spread a good number of lies regarding a few incidents that took place. I even have a few high-resolution images of these incidents.

Yes, pepper-spray was used on some people. I know because it was used on somebody I happen to know, they didn’t use a powerful type, but it was enough to make some back off. From what I know, a lot of security guards are often untrained in dealing with a protest. This applies to pretty much every college and university. As far I know, no students have gotten violent with the guards. Though, they did resort to passive-aggressive tactics at times. Especially when they were taking over the Hall Memorial Building. Though it still didn’t call for some people to get pepper-sprayed. It is the responsibility of the guards to remain unprovoked when they are confronted in this manner. The only time the guards should take action against a protester is when one makes the attempt to cause physical harm.

Like usual, there’s always a few bad seeds on both sides. On the side of the protesters, a few went somewhere a bit too far. For instance, one protester took the liberty of pouring apple juice on a stage getting some onto the president and the others. I condemn these for taking it too far. Throwing liquids that can stain a person’s clothing is just plainly wrong and provoking. Yes, some did scream at the president and disturbing some events. Though you must remember that this was a protest, and they felt they had to send a message. This was one they chose to use. Still, nobody laid a finger on him. That’s what everybody has to remember here. As always, there’ll be some choices they make that we won’t agree with.

Now, what is the real reason why Fernandes refuse to resign? This reason should be obvious to everyone; it’s the money. It always is. Of course, she isn’t going to admit that as being the reason because that’ll make her look like a greedy leader. The job also comes with a lucrative retirement income. The current president of Galluadet University is one of the highest paid presidents in the USA. From what I recall, it was at least $800,000 a few years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has already passed a few more hundred thousand dollars by now.

This protest has proven to be no small fest. The last time I counted, there were 17 tent cities in the USA, excluding the tent cities in Washington D.C. There is one in Canada and one in Denmark. For these unfamiliar with the tent cities, they set up tents and stay there to support the protest at the university. This is not a small protest-taking place at a university; this is a nation-wide protest taking in several states. It is their right to protest. Right now, they are interfering with the students’ education by having a campus lockdown. The protesters are not willing to back down till their demands are met. Two simple demands and everybody can go back to their daily routines. One being that Fernandes resigns from her position and other being that there are no reprisals for the protesters.

Truthfully, I believe that the only way to resolve this situation is to have the incoming president surrender her position. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices to achieve peace on the campus. There should be no reprisals for the students, faculty members and everybody involved. Hundreds, maybe thousands have been to the campus to protest along with many more protesting in their own cities all over the country. Personally, I don’t believe the university can afford to terminate all protesters’ education and there would be a shortage of educators if the faculty members involved were all fired. There are a large number of students involved, and the amount of tuition fees they could lose from terminating the protesters’ education.

They are loud and clear on what they want from the Gallaudet University administration and Board of Directors.They are loud and clear on what they want from the Gallaudet University administration and Board of Trustees. They should try to resolve this situation before people start getting hurt.

Too loud and clear that one cannot pretend to not hear. Even the deaf can hear.

Jericho: My First Impression

In this vlog entry, I share my impression of the new TV series, 'Jericho' and what I think of the deaf character featured on the show. I also share my opinion on the clichés and characteristic traits of the deaf character, Bonnie.

Out of the Blue - No. 013

Nothing but Praises

Wow, I just cannot believe how great the responses to my first vlog were. Quite a large number of people sent me all sort of messages with nothing but praises. Nearly left me speechless to see quite a large audience who are deeply interested in vlog entries. Not only did I get great responses from this blogsite, I also got a lot of them from some deaf forums where I posted the link to my vlog. Not only is it a great concept, but also it’s even greater when we are able to subtitle these video clips. Google Video has done a great favour to the deaf and yes… the hearing too as well. After all, quite a lot of these people are “signing impaired”.

I’m also deeply grateful for the existence of DeafRead.com; they’ve done a great service to the deaf & hard-of-hearing blogosphere by unifying all of us and reach out to where no men has gone before. DeafRead.com is an amazing success as far I am concerned. There has been a few websites where the same goal was made but failed for some reasons. I believe the reason why it’s a successful site is because they made the html codes allowing any sites to list the latest entries listed on DeafRead. A lot of credits must be given to them for paving the road to expanding the blogosphere with a strong sense of diversity.

I want to thank all of these people who took the time to give me some constructive criticisms about my first vlog and I appreciate them very much. I’m going to take these and work on them for my next vlog. I don’t know when, but I hope it’ll be soon. I’m thinking of covering just one subject, but I don’t know which one yet. Till I posted it, I had absolutely no idea what a big deal it would be among the blogosphere. I showed it to a co-worker yesterday, this co-worker isn’t a signer and she ended up being blown away by it. I believe a lot of hearing people would find themselves blown away by the signing especially when it’s subtitled.

Oh yes, some people asked me about subtitles and how I made them. It’s quite easy to make. There’s a PC freeware for it, it’s known as “Subtitle Workshop”. Click here to access the page. There are some for the Mac, there’s one named “Miyu”. I haven’t gotten around to using it, so I’m not sure how easy it is to use. I have several, but I’ve used Subtitle Workshop on several occasions, mainly to tweak some subtitles I’ve downloaded. Just to remind you, Google Video recommends that you save your subtitles in either two formats, SRT (SubRip) or SUB (SubViewer). I hope that was helpful enough for most.

Have a grand day.

Welcome to Banjo's World

My first vlog entry and used to introduce my readers and the new readers to my new blogsite, 'Banjo's World', formerly known as Banjo's Space at MSN Spaces.

Battlestar Galactica Frakkin' Rock!

Originally posted on April 27, 2006

‘Battlestar Galactica’, the reimagined TV series is such a gem. Prior to the airing of the mini-series back in 2003, I was familiar with the original TV series. I never watched an episode of it, but I was aware of it. They also released the original onto the DVD format as a part of the big promotion for the new series. I never bought the set due to the clunky packaging design. I hope they will re-release it in a standard DVD packaging shortly so I can watch them. I’m sure the costume design and special effects are badly outdated, but it has to be popular for a reason. It has a large cult of followers.

So far, I’ve watched the mini-series and the first nine episodes from the first season. I got to say, I am impressed. The special effects are unbelievably amazing for a TV series. Sure, I’ve spotted some imperfections in the special effects on the series especially when they show the robotic cylons, and I swear they use the same shot of the flight fighters several times already, but you have to think of what a burden the financing situation rest on a TV series like this. Just amazing what they have been able to achieve so far.

Character development is also a crucial part of keeping a TV series going. If there were no character development, the show wouldn’t last. Far too many shows have been killed because of that flaw. One may say that the show features far too many characters, maybe there are a couple too many but I believe it’s what keep the show going. As you know, special effects is no longer a factor in keeping a show alive, it’s always the characters that does. ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Lost’ has a large amount of characters, and ‘Lost’ is quite popular with the TV audience these days. ‘Veronica Mars’ is on a low-rated TV network, but that may change when WB and UPN merges into the CW this fall. ‘Veronica Mars’ is a personal favourite of mine.

The storylines are enough to keep me hooked. Good storylines are also crucial in my opinion; they keep the show fresh and interesting. I do have my concerns about how many seasons this show is capable of, but it’s a natural concern to hold because I’m familiar with how the quality of most TV series declined in their last few years. All I can say is that I hope that the chance of that happening is quite dim because I want to see this show rock everybody’s socks off.

‘Battlestar Galactica’, I’m looking forward to watching the first part of the second season as soon I’m done with the first season. I’ve been told that only half of the second season is now on DVD, I certainly hope they will release the other half soon.

‘Battlestar Galactica’ frakkin’ rock!

Digital Sketch: Mad-Eye Moody

Why Does the Media Industry Get Blamed?

Originally posted on April 26, 2006

There are so many activities you can do to keep yourself entertained instead of entering the world of boredom. One of them would be the media industry; they provide entertainment to the public. There are a large variety of concepts in the industry. The media industry is incredibly powerful; they’re everywhere you go, even in the public washrooms.

The movies are obviously my favourite part of the industry, as you can tell from reading my blog on a frequent basis. They can be found to be quite entertaining and something to pass the time by. I will be the first to admit that there are more awful movies being pumped out of Hollywood than the gems are. It has become a standard in the industry to provide mediocre and horrific movies, it is part of doing business. They want to make big bucks, but they don’t always succeed at it because they do blow a large amount of it on advertising their products quite often. Still, that doesn’t justify the blaming game.

The sad part of reality is that the media industry especially the video game developers and film producers often get blamed for the violence in our society these days. Parents set up lawsuits against the media industry for what their children did. The media industry includes a large number of established industries such as television, magazines, newspapers, advertisements and more. The reason why parents try to lay the blame on the industry is because they cannot handle the responsibility of their children’s horrific actions against the society. It is easier for them to blame someone else other than themselves. The parents have a legal and moral obligation to be responsible for their children till the age of eighteen, and they often ignore the importance of educating their children about life and responsibilities. Especially when their children are in their teenage years, for many, it is a hard time to go through with all the changes both emotionally and physically. The minute it becomes too late to take action with a child’s personal conflict is when they commit a murderous act; for example, a school shooting. The parents’ reaction to a school shooting on several occasions resulted in a multi-million dollars lawsuit. Of course, all or most of them ended up being dismissed from the courtroom.

To err is human, but to lay the blame on someone else is more human. It rings true when the parents attempt to lay the blame onto the others for their children’s actions. It is dead-on wrong to blame someone else for something that you know you are responsible for. Children are responsible for their actions too, but they do look to you to guide them through the journey to adulthood.

You would think that some parents would have an ounce of common sense when it comes to watching movies. If a movie has a warning label on it saying it’s not suitable for children, that’s exactly what it means. It doesn’t mean anything else. Yes, it is your decision on what to allow your children to view and what they can’t. That’s your responsibility, and if you see signs of the negativity from the movies influencing your children, take action, don’t blame the movies, and blame yourself. You allowed them to watch it in the first place; the movie producers don’t come to your doorstep and beg you to let your kids watch their movies. It’s all up to you; you have the absolute power when it comes to what movies they can watch in your household. The movie ratings are there for a reason, it’s to suggest what inappropriate contents are featured in the movie and how age-appropriate it is. God forbid you allow your children to watch ‘Debbie Does Dallas’! My father once said to me, “These parents whose blame the media industry should realize that the parents should be the one to be blamed in many ways because they are supposed to take care and watch over them”. I agreed firmly with him on his opinion, the media industry shouldn’t be blamed. It’s just business, nothing personal.

Peer pressure is common among all schools, and they can be a powerful influence on your children, mostly negative. As I grew up, my parents educated me on the dangers of some certain activities and the fact that they are illegal. They didn’t want to see me fall victim and ruin my future by getting involved. Thankfully, I was given the information I needed and I resisted the peer pressure, which is surprisingly easy to do if you know what to do. Education is the key, and having the parents commit to guiding their children through their life greatly increases the chances at being successful. Life is short, but children grow in a flash and will be out of your grip before you know it. So don’t wait, spend time with your children and teach them about life.

The media shouldn’t be blamed for the violence happening in this world. Violence is everywhere. You don’t need the media industry to cause problems; people already are doing a good job of it. We aren’t exactly a peaceful society; we have rapists and murderers on the roam every single day traumatizing and killing the innocents. Long before we had violent movies, Romans used to watch gladiators fighting each other and being eaten by the lions. The horrific wars between the American Natives and the American settlers, the slavery in Egypt, the two World Wars and many more barbaric events to go over in the history books.

The media industry is not responsible for the violence in our society.

It’s us.

The Existence of Spirits in Today’s World

Originally posted on April 23, 2006

There are so many different mysteries and phenomena that are still unexplained in this world. Spiritual activities continue to be one of the most unexplained mysteries because there are no physical evidences, and this is still just a big theory today. To many, it’s real and they’ve seen it. The reason why I’m sharing this with you is because I strongly believe in this subject. I believe I have seen so much that I could barely explain and I have no way of proving it. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Many people don’t want to believe in ghosts because they have a fear inside of them. Or they’re just skeptical due to the lack of experiences. Human beings have a tendency of being afraid of subjects that they don’t have a strong grip on to understand. It may seem to some people that I have more courage but I know that courage is being the only one who knows you’re afraid. If somebody who has a fear of ghosts saw some of the things that I have seen, it would really turn their hair white. Some of my stories about my early childhood are featured here. These experiences did make a big impact on my whole life just because of what happened in my childhood. As far I can remember, I was just 3 to 4 years old when these paranormal activities began occurring in my bedroom. I know this kind of strangeness wouldn’t happen to most people when they are young. It’s either that or they just keep it to themselves.

It took place in the middle of the night, I was sleeping gently in my bed; all of a sudden, the ceiling light in my room came on causing my body to react by waking up. I looked around; I knew that nobody was up at the time. My family wouldn’t dare to play tricks like that on me, as that would be a cruel practical joke to play on a 4-year-old child. I got back into the bed after turning off the light, then a few minutes later; the light came back on its own. Naturally, I began to get scared a bit. My eyes suddenly widen and looked at my closet door as it began to open slowly and that terrified me so much. I felt the urge to panic and ran to my parents’ room. I pounced onto their bed to wake them up. I dragged them by hands to my bedroom. They quickly inspected the room by their eyes. They proceeded to tell me, “It was just a bad dream”. At that time, our communication wasn’t as fine-tuned as it is today, I and both of my parents just had began to learn sign language, naturally I was already far ahead of my parents.

After being tucked back into my bed and my parents went back to bed, I was still terrified by what I had seen. My father already had shut the closet door wide shut and turned off the light. Shortly after dozing off, the light came back on once again. I turned my head to look and I saw an image on the ceiling, it has been burnt into my head forever and I’ll never be able to push it out of it. The image appeared to be an icy blue face. I recognized the face; it was one of the illustrated faces from a childhood toy of mine. It was a Ghostbusters Proton Gun; it had some slide images that you could project onto a surface. You could make the jaws of the characters featured in the slide images move. The face was moving its jaws but I wasn’t sure if it actually said something or not due to my deafness. I do believe that the spirit may have made the attempt to communicate with me; it wasn’t a success. Through the next several years, I’ve encountered and experienced a large number of paranormal activities, but I kept it to myself because I didn’t believe my parents would believe me after what happened in my bedroom that night.

One day in the year of 1993, everything changed. The first sibling in the family had been staying in a hospital in the city of Toronto for three months. My mother stayed in the city to keep her company as any loving mother would do. My father stayed home with me and my other two siblings. During my mother’s absence, it isn’t very common for my parents to be apart for more than a night or two. One evening when he went to sleep in his big empty bed, something strangely happened. It was as if somebody was walking onto the mattress in a slow motion. Suddenly, he felt a set of hands rubbing his feet and they slowly went up to his knees, he saw with his own eyes, the skin on his knees were moving as if they were being rubbed. Quickly, he exited his bedroom after being spooked by the experience. After a while of being awake, he decided to go re-enter the bedroom and go back to sleep. He couldn’t go through with it as it had reoccurred. The same activity started night after night in the bedroom, he ended up sleeping onto the couch in the living room.

The day my mother came home from Toronto, she was heavily exhausted after all the stress of being in the big city for months. She decided to take an afternoon nap while my father was out doing errands. My father did not inform her of what had happened to him in the bedroom. He was too worried his own wife wouldn’t believe his story. Shortly into her nap, the same paranormal activity occurred as it had to in my father’s experience. She was startled and terrified. In fact, it was a more amplified version in comparison to my father’s, her legs were being pulled and lifted into the air screaming for help. My older brother and his friend immediately ran to the room and aided her out of the bedroom. They had caught a glance of what was happening to her, they were also terrified. My father instantly knew he wasn’t just imagining it as it had happened to his own wife in the very same room. In fact, they ended up sleeping onto a mattress on the floor in the living room for months before finally being able to sleep in the bedroom in peace.

One of my sisters also had some particular experiences, one evening when she had some of her friends sleeping over. They were all sleeping except for my sister; she saw a sphere entering her bedroom that had a glowing green aura around it. It was floating in the air and heading toward her. It stopped into a corner and frozen while still glowing for a few minutes or it may had felt that long to her and only had been a few seconds instead. Being terrified can make the time seems slow or fast.

I think I’ve shared enough stories for tonight. I wouldn’t want to be held responsible for keeping you up at nights.