A dream realized; Falcons forward to play for Canada at Deaflympics

Chris Garbacz, a native of St. Catharines, Ontario. He was recently featured in a few local newspapers in the Niagara region including The Standard and The Review. We used to attend the same public school though we are years apart. Still, I got to know him quite well as the deaf students often mingled during the recesses. Here’s an excerpt from the article from the local newspaper, The Standard.

When Chris Garbacz skates onto the ice for his country next month it will be the realization of a dream years in the making.

The St. Catharines Falcons forward has been selected to play for Canada at the 16th Winter deaflympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 1-10.

Garbacz, who was born deaf, first got the idea to compete for Canada when he was introduced at a young age to veteran Canadian deaf player and former Hamilton Steelhawk Mark Couture.

"I'm very excited," Garbacz said through his sign language interpreter Julie Lapensee. "The is the first time I've made the team and it's something I've always wanted to do."

Read more

On the webpage, there is a picture of Chris. I don't know if I have mentioned this before on my blog, but Julie Lapensée is my sister. Yes, she is an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter. I wonder how common it is for a sibling of a deaf person to be a sign language interpreter. I can imagine that it's not common, as I don't recall meeting any. However, I have met several interpreters whose parents were deaf. I imagine it is somewhere more common for CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) to take an interest in interpreting for the deaf.

Now, back to the subject. Chris Garbacz is one of the biggest hockey enthusiasts I've met in my life. He has a strong passion for the sport, just like it is with the Americans and football. It's our national pastime. I also happen to know Mark Couture, his wife used to interpret for some of my classes back then. Mark Couture is a big-time jock, he share a lot in common with Chris Garbacz when it come to sports especially hockey.

May the best be with him at the upcoming Winter Deaflympics.

Banjo's Recommendations: No. 017

'Say Anything' DVD Packaging

@1989 20th Century Fox. All Right Reserved

Being Deaf in the Real World

In this vlog entry, I make an attempt to demonstrate how a typical deaf person who is self-conscious about using its voice in public. A large number of people who were born deaf know how difficult it can be sometimes to make a simple request toward a clerk/employee in a store for paper/notepad and a pen to communicate. I hope everybody appreciate this video. You'll have to excuse me if my speech isn't fully understandable.

After all, I am deaf.

Another Shocking Twist!

Today, somebody posted anonymously with quite an interesting claim. The other day, I wrote about the possible reasons why Jane Mulholland was fired from the school for the deaf. It’s quite a shocking twist to the situation. Here’s the claim below. It also can be found in the comments section of my recent blog entry, 'Firing at deaf school is linked to land lust'.

At the most recent public meeting with the Oregon State Board of Education on the Mulholland firing, an apparently little known fact was presented to the state officials which apparently set them back just a bit.

It was revealed that the property for the Oregon School for the Blind was DONATED, and that a condition of that donation was that it remain a school for the blind. According to the source at the meeting, should an attempt be made to sell the property for any other purpose, the property was to be given back to the original family estate which donated it in the first place.

Things should be REALLY interesting if this claim is true, no doubt the state lawyers are staying up late mulling over that revelation!

Wow, that's quite a revealing claim. If this information turns out to be true then some state officials must be red with embarrassment. When this claim is verified, the land must go back to the original family estate, no matter what the state lawyers try to do. If they are going to force this school to shut down, they have to do the right thing and that's giving the land back to its rightfully owners even if the original owners are long dead, their family still are entitled to it.

It just keep unfolding more and more. It's definitely getting more interesting as we go along. So far, this isn’t looking good for the people responsible for the firing of Jane Mulholland.

David Fulmer's Deaf Faceroll

David Fulmer, a profoundly deaf man came up with an idea that may be the next DeafRead. Whoa, I'm not saying it will replace DeafRead.com at all. I'm using the name, DeafRead as a term to describe the popularity. He's working on a project with the same concept used at BlogFaces and Joi Ito for the deaf bloggers. David were inspired by the concept of 'Random Faceroll" found on Joi Ito's blog. I think it's a neat idea and I definitely will consider the idea of embedding it into my blogsite if it's made available to the public.

To get the idea of what I'm talking about, just go here to read David's blog entry on the "Deaf Faceroll' feature of his. I think this is a great concept and should be expanded to the Deaf Blogosphere. The last time I checked, there are around 33 faces in the database including mine. It also features the familiar faces including Ridor, Kokonut, Jared Evans and more.

A lot has happened in the last few months and that wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for DeafRead. Heck, I wouldn't have known about David Fulmer if it weren’t for DeafRead.

Update: I just checked the Deaf Faceroll. I reported earlier today that there were around 33 faces in the database. Now it's 38, that's 5 more faces in just a few hours. I'm glad to see that it's already popular. If I were to make a suggestion, I would think DeafRead would benefit from this feature if David of Daveynin's Thing is willing to collaborate with Jared and Taylor of DeafRead to share this feature and allow as many bloggers to embed it into their blogsites if possible.

Firing at deaf school is linked to land lust

The controversy surrounding the firing of Jane Mulholland has swamped the Deafread site the last few days. Today, I visited StatesmanJournal.com which is a website based in Oregon. Jane Mulholland worked for the deaf school in Oregon. Anyway, a man named Forrest Anderson from Salem wrote a letter to the editior. Apparently this is a new twist I came across today, I guess things are just about to get even more interesting.

Firing at deaf school is linked to land lust
January 20, 2007

The firing of Jane Mulholland from the deaf school can be traced straight back to the land the school for the blind sits on. For years this beautiful piece of property across from Bush Park has been coveted by developers. My wife, Marie Anderson (who was blind), and the blind community of Oregon understood this and have fought this battle many times.

I believe Ed Dennis, the quintessential bureaucrat who is not responsible to the voters of Oregon for his actions, fired Jane Mulholland because she did not agree with his plan to transfer the blind children to the deaf school. He has not denied this. Now she will be replaced by someone who agrees with Ed Dennis. With the children gone and the buildings empty, the property will be open for sale and development.

The citizens of Oregon who own the blind school and its land didn't elect Mr. Dennis, but we did elect our representatives and senators who are responsible to us. It's time for them to stand up and be counted and let us know which side they are on -- the deaf and blind children or the developers.

-- Forrest Anderson, Salem

Source: StatesmanJournal.com

I can relate to this situation, though at the deaf school I used to attend, nobody got fired. We did have a land dispute and we lost. A large amount of our land property was used for sport activities and recreations. When I was a student there, a situation came up where a developer already had bought a large amount of the property without the school administration's knowledge. We fought and fought to get the land back, but we ended up losing the land to the developer. It was turned into suburbs for the seniors and the land has been greatly reduced forcing them to cramp sport fields all together. It was really unfortunate that we were forced to deal with this matter.

Let me remind you, this is just a letter in the Opinions section. It may be either true or untrue. Still, it's an interesting twist and knowing how the government can play a game of dirty politics to get what they want, I can't say I'm surprised when something like this happen.

A Group of Deaf Filmmakers Nominated!

Today, I came across an article at the BBC website. I just thought some of you would be interested to know that a film produced by a group of deaf teenagers has been nominated in the 'Mini Oscars'. The movie is called 'Lil' Red'. Kate Winslet, one of the most talented actresses around and director, Alan Parker will be judging the movie, 'Lil' Red'.

Deaf teenagers shortlisted in mini oscars

A film produced by a group of deaf teenagers from Belfast has been shortlisted in the Mini Oscars.

Holywood actress Kate Winslet and director Alan Parker will be judging the horror movie - Lil' Red - for awards which are announced next month.

The movie was made by the young deaf people working with The National Deaf Children's Society.

The short film has been nominated in the Best Horror category of the First Light Movies Awards 2007.

Read more (Source: BBC)

It's not every day that I come across an article like this. I'm glad to know that there are some ambitious deaf filmmakers out there around the world. Wayne Betts Jr., Chad W. Taylor, Gary Brooks and many more out there are paving the road and breaking down the barriers for the future generations of deaf filmmakers to come.

I googled up the movie, 'Lil' Red'. The search was unsuccessful, as it delivered no results. If somebody happens to have more information on the movie or have seen the film, please feel free to let me know by leaving a comment or e-mail me if you prefer to. My e-mail address can be found on the right side, though you will have to type it in manually. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I have to protect it from the spammers.

I wish them the best on winning the award, as they've been short listed in the 'Mini Oscars'.

Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Closed Captioning (CC) has benefited the deaf and hard of hearing community tremendously. I remember my early childhood when my family didn't have closed captioning on our television set. I had to ask my parents or siblings what was being said. Or I just left it to my imagination on what was being said which surprisingly worked quite well for me. You can do a lot with your imagination when you aren't given a lot of choices. When I was around 5 or 6, my mother was told of a device that enables the TV to display closed captioning. So she and my grandmother drove to the U.S.A. and bought the device as it was cheaper there at the time. I was told about the device but I didn't fully understand the concept because it was new to me. I already had begun to learn how to read and write before that. The day I came home from school, I saw a black box on the top of the television set and then looked at the screen. I was speechless and excited; I finally understood everything that was being said on the television. This was before they started requiring analog television sets to be sold with the CC decoder device built in.

I don't take the amazing technology for granted because it has done a lot for me. Even the hearing folks are benefiting from watching television programs with closed captioning turned on. It's amazing how much a hearing person can miss out by just listening, a lot of hearing people find themselves startled at first to learn how much they've been missing by not reading the captions. Not a lot of people know this, but it's a fact and has been proven in some studies. The largest audience in North America is the hearing people learning English as a second language. I bet you didn't know that one, eh?

Nowadays, quite a few things have changed. We didn't have high definition television sets when I was a kid. Nor did we have the DVD format. They developed the captioning technology for the analog (NTSC - National Television System Committee) televisions and VHS tapes. They designed it to encode the captions into line 21 of the vertical blanking interval of the picture on the television. This is where the issue for the HDTV (High Definition Television) comes in. Quite a lot of HDTV sets lack captioning when you use the video inputs that use either DVI (Digital Video Interface) or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). The same issue is common with component inputs. Analog and digital televisions are interlaced while HDTV can be both interlaced and progressive. When you enable the progressive mode on a HDTV, it often cannot display the captions. This is common with progressive DVD players when they are in the progressive mode. From what I know, there are no laws requiring HDTV displays to be equipped with it.

The last couple years, the major studios coined a new term called, 'SDH'. It stands for 'Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing'. This is becoming more common on the DVD format. For example, Buena Vista (Disney, Touchstone, etc) uses the SDH symbol instead of the CC symbol. Actually, it's both captioned and subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing but they don't use the CC symbol on it for some reasons.

Now we have two new high definition formats called HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) and BD (Blu-Ray Disc). Most of the HD-DVD/BD titles will not be captioned; instead they will be subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing. They include everything they normally do with CC including sound descriptions. While some of these subtitles are not perfect, but the best SDH style I have come across so far is from Sony. A movie I watched recently, 'The Covenant', not a great movie but the picture quality was astounding. Anyway, Sony distributed the movie and the SDH style resembled the traditional CC style, which I was really pleased with. So far, Fox is the only one that puts the CC symbol on their BD packages. I don't know if it's really the traditional CC since the HDMI input on my HDTV has no CC option, which is why the high definition formats are using SDH instead. It's because a lot of HDTV displays lack captioning in these video inputs.

Now they even have digital closed captioning, which I haven't figured out yet. From what I know, it works only on the digital channels, so I'll have to fool around with that someday. If any of you people are knowledgeable about these digital closed captioning, feel free to leave a comment.

I encourage all of you to embrace the 'SDH' as it's the new captioning method for the high definition era.

Out of the Blue - No. 016

Please... No More Karaoke For The Deaf!

Every time I go to the YouTube website and enter in the word 'deaf' as a keyword to browse the latest video clips. There is one particular video clip that I'm getting sick of.

Can any of you guess which one it is?

The 'Torn' routine by a comedian named Johann Lippowitz. I did find the routine to be highly amusing at first only to find it to be quite tiresome because of the repetitive uploads to the YouTube website. It has been repeatedly dubbed as 'Karaoke for the Deaf'.

I have been wondering why they aren't checking the website before they upload the file? Before you upload a file to a website, it's your responsibility to ensure that it hasn't already been uploaded. There's nothing more annoying than browsing through dozens or hundreds of the same video clip through several search pages.

Here's the video clip.



This is the clip that you cannot avoid at all on YouTube. There are approximately fifty clips of the same routine by typing in "deaf, torn" and one hundred and sixty clips when you enter 'deaf karaoke'. I'm sure more than a merely few hundreds of the same video clip has been uploaded only to be deleted later.

It's quite annoying that people are continuing to upload this very same video clip every single day to the YouTube website.

Please... no more karaoke for the deaf!

The Ignorance Towards the Deaf Drivers

It's quite amazing how many people out there are ignorant when it come to issues involving the deaf. I was surfing the internet the other day and came across a particular thread on FreeRepublic.com in relation to a ruling made by the 9th Circuit in California. The judge ruled that the deaf and hard-of-hearing shouldn't be discriminated against by the UPS (United Parcel Services). Apparently people continue to be unaware that there are a large number of deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers out there. Here are some excerpts from the thread.

What these people at FreeRepublic.com don't get is that UPS had no evidence or studies to back their claims that people with hearing loss posed a danger to the public and considered a liability to the company. The people at UPS were unable to prove their claim, that’s their fault. Therefore, they have to give the deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers the opportunity, as long they are capable of being professional truck drivers.

Don't give me that nonsense about the 'Forced Whisper' test given by the Department of Transportation for truck drivers. Trucks are already noisy to start with and a number of truck drivers wear earplugs. Though some of them claim that they are able to drown out the noises and hear the "important" noises. I don't buy that argument at all; it's just an excuse for them to wear the earplugs.

YTK: Many deaf people drive safely, especially with some accomodations to their disability, as the article mentions...

Invisible Hand: please, can we reason above the jr high level?

Being physically capable of operating a vehicle doesn't qualify one to be a professional operator, any more than being able to swing a bat qualifies one for a profession in baseball.

That's quite ignorant of Invisible Hand to say such a thing. Not only to mention disparaging. Here's a crude comment made by a member named Capt. Tom.

Capt. Tom: Didn't you hear those police sirens?

Didn't you hear those fire engine sirens.

Didn't you hear her screaming not to backup.

Didn't you hear them blowing the horn? etc.

Capt. Tom must really think he's quite a clever fella. Chances are he don't know a deaf individual with a driver's license.

SJSAMPLE: ADA - Full Lawyer Employment Act.

Worst law EVER.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is incredibly important and protect the people with disabilities from discrimination and more. Yes, some people may abuse it but it's still a great benefit for many. A large percentage of Americans are disabled in one way or more, just google it up and you'll be startled to learn how many are.

Hoodat: "Driving deaf is a serious safety issue."

AngrySpud: You'd think so, but it's not true. I grew up with deaf parents, uncles, cousins, and assorted family friends. On average, they're safer drivers. I suppose their other senses are more acute. My dad drove for 50 years without a single accident, and my mom has been driving for 50+ years with just one accident (as a 4-year-old, I distracted her).

In any case, what's the difference between a deaf driver and a hearing driver who is listening to a loud radio? And finally, you don't see many deaf drivers chatting on cell phones, do ya?

AngrySpud seems to know what s/he is talking about. Thankfully because there were quite a lot of ignorant comments made. It's a pity that people continue to assume such a thing about the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

If you wish to read more of the thread, just click here. Just a bit of advice, don't get all emotional and worked up because you aren't going to succeed at changing their minds. Everybody's set in his or her ways, which is really unfortunate. It's a pity that we are continually burdened with the task of educating the public of our deafness and what we're capable of. This isn't the only thread in relation to the deaf drivers that I've came across. There are many more out there on the internet.

On the bright side, we are legally allowed to obtain a driver's license regardless of what opinion one may hold.

Snow? What Snow?

This has been quite an unusual winter so far. From what I can recall, we've only had snow once and that was back at the beginning of December. Though a bizarre snowstorm back in the middle of October did hit us, which is incredibly rare to start with.

The temperature hasn’t been as cold as they should have been. Perhaps this is the 'Global Warming' we're being warned about all of the times? This isn't the first time I've heard of such a thing. A few years ago, some scholars and scientists argued that if we don't change our ways, we would transform our climate from 4 seasons cycle to 2 seasons cycle. They said that we wouldn't have spring, summer, fall and winter anymore. We'll have a wet season and dry season instead. In the province of Ontario, the ski resort industry is suffering. If people don't see snow, they don't go skiing. That means no money for the ski industry.

Earth is still a largely unexplored planet. There are so much that we have yet to learn especially in geography and the climates. I do believe that we are contributing quite a bit to the environmental problems even though the water bodies are responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gases but what people don't realize is that we are adding more to it. You see, Earth was supposed still contain every drip of water here from day one but that's obviously not happening here because of the damages we're causing to the ozone layer.

Why the need for politics? Global warming shouldn't be taken lightly and why are people working so hard to 'debunk' these claims? You see, they may be theories... but quite a lot of claims are based on unproven theories. Global warming has been spoken of for decades and it began to get more attention in the last few years in comparison to the last few decades.

In fact, I remember having more snow in the city when I was a child. Much more snow than we get these days. It also used to be much colder. My father told me that when he was a lad, they used to get much more snow and they had public skating sessions on frozen rivers and ponds. We don't do that anymore because they're never thick enough to skate on safely. Now the puddles aren't even being frozen most of the times during the winter the last few years.

Today, I came across an article and it's said that this year will be the hottest year on record. To think that this winter was pretty lukewarm, obviously it's just the beginning.

A combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record with far-reaching consequences for the planet, one of Britain's leading climate experts has warned.

As the new year was ushered in with stormy conditions across the UK, the forecast for the next 12 months is of extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge.

The warning, from Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, was one of four sobering predictions from senior scientists and forecasters that 2007 will be a crucial year for determining the response to global warming and its effect on humanity.

Read more (Source: The Independent)

People have been warned. They need to start taking better care of Earth or we'll pay the consequences which is going to be severe and probably irreversible if we don't do something within a few decades. We don't really have fifty years, it should be now.

From the 100% post-consumer recycled DVD sleeve of 'An Inconvenient Truth', there are ten things you can do to help stop global warming.

• Change a light: Replacing one regular bulb with a compact fluorescent light will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
• Drive less: Walk, bike, carpool or take metro transit more often. You'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don't drive!
• Recycle more: You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
• Check your tires: Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!
• Use less hot water: It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).
• Avoid products with a lot of packaging: You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
• Adjust your thermostat: Moving your thermostat down just 2 degrees n winter and up 2 degrees in summer could save around 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
• Plant a tree: A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
• Turn off electronic devices: Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when you're not using them will save thousands of carbon dioxide per year.
• Be a part of the solution: Learn more and get active at ClimateCrisis.net

Did you notice anything startling? Yes, the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air every year seems pretty startling. But what I found to be even more startling is the amount a tree can only absorb over its lifetime is a ton. That's 2,000 pounds over many decades. Trees live longer than we do. Think about this... there are 6 billion people living on Earth; 300 million in the U.S.A. and 30 million in Canada. It's believed that we put thousands and thousands in pounds of carbon dioxide from our house into the air. By not driving, every mile is a carbon dioxide saved. So imagine a person driving 10,000 miles a year, that's 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. The amount of cars out there every second of the day, it's just a big headache to think of how much they are putting into the air. Yet most of us haven't planted any plants or trees in our backyard. Not only that, we are also destroying a large amount of natural forests in order to make room for new commercial and residential zones. So, how are we really preserving the Earth if we are destroying the natural resources to start with?

We are putting an excessive amount of carbon dioxide into the air and we aren't planting enough trees and plants to absorb the carbon dioxide.

I don't know about you but my family recycles, use energy-efficient bulbs, plant trees and plants in both the front and back yard. We even have a green recycling bin for our organic wastes (fruits, vegetables, meat, certain food types, paper towels and more). This isn't the time to get political about our environment. All of us need to wake up and be conscious of the damages we're causing to our planet. We have to think of our future generations and the consequences they will suffer because of our ignorance.

Global warming is real; now is the time to take action and help stop the global warming!