I won’t be posting too much for the next few days. I caught a summer cold on the Fourth, and trying to recover from it. But I did do some hearing loss statistical research and have some info to share from the symposium….more later when I’m up to it.

Everything went well at the symposium, which was held on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 in San Leandro, CA.

DCARA’s Community Building is very nice. It is across the street from the San Leandro BART station. My husband was delighted with the location. He took our daughter to San Francisco for the day, while I was at the symposium. They visited Japantown and Chinatown. He was happy to learn new ways of getting around, because we’ll return to SF at the end of July.

By the way, we also liked our hotel (Mariott Courtyard Oakland Airport).

After the symposium was over, we visited Whole Foods Market in Oakland. The store was selling ostrich eggs! So we got a chance to touch it and hold one. It was really something to experience.

Apparently people buy them and boil them for one hour, and then crack the egg and eat it like regular boiled eggs.

So, anyway, over the next several posts, I will share with you my impressions of the DHH V/Blogging Symposium. 

Thanks to DCARA and the presenters for putting it all on. As I understand it, it was also streamed live on the Internet.

I’ll be out of town attending a blogging conference for DHH people, for a few days. It is a subject of interest for many DHH people, and I hope to share what I have learned when I get back.

One of the things I hope to share is links to other great DHH bloggers and resources.

Oh, before I forget, I hosted a DHH party here recently, and one of the conversations we had was about hearing aids and how bad we are at taking care of them. If you have a funny story about how you lost or broke a hearing aid, please email it to me. You can send it to me at: ruth_6572@hotmail.com

And finally, Nanci Linke-Ellis, who is a DHH captioning expert, will have a webchat about future captioning technology tomorrow evening. Please go to the webchat site at: www.hearingloss.org

You will need to look for her name and click on that and you’ll go straight there. Be sure to compensate for your time zone. It will start at 6 PM California time.

I happen to know Nanci. She’s a lovely lady.

You don’t need to be a member for this, or register. Just follow the instructions when you arrive at the site.

Enjoy “listening” to her.

I am totally convinced that our cat, Princess, knows I have hearing loss.

If there is something going on, or she wants something, she will bump me, pull my hair with her teeth, or even bite me gently. This is while I’m asleep. I usually can figure out that she wants to get out of our bedroom (door was closed), or wants a scratch, or there’s an unusual noise. 

She only bothers my husband in the morning if he doesn’t get up for work. She will hear the alarm clock and bump him. 

Anyway, last night, she was very aggressive. She woke me up at least three separate times. She clawed me quite hard, really pulled my hair hard, bit my hand deeply, and bumped me seriously.

I got up a few times and walked around and did not see anything. I even woke up my husband to see if he could figure out what was going on. He also got up and found nothing amiss. 

Needless to say, I did not sleep well.

The next morning I came down and greeted my sister-in-law and her daughter. They had stayed overnight with us, because we had to attend a family celebration. They had slept downstairs in two pullout sofabeds that we own.

I complained to my SIL what happened, and she figured out in a flash what happened.

Her daughter has two children, one who is seven months old. Her baby son woke up three times during the night and cried loudly, loud enough so our cat could hear him upstairs.

We find it interesting that the cat only bothers me and no one else.

She seems to know only a woman comforts children and babies during the night, and so bothers me about it. She also seems to know that I don’t hear well, since she often comes and “tells” me when something is going on. She also knows how to differentiate between me and hubby.

She’ll come and let us know when it’s time for bed every night. She’ll also sit and stare at us with resigned patience if we don’t respond immediately, or even meow very loudly. She’ll then accompany us to our bedroom for the night. She always sit at the corner of the bed on my husband’s side, like a security guard.

I guess we don’t need a hearing dog.

How would you like to have a hearing aid implanted in your molar? 

Yes, I mean a tooth. This particular type of hearing aid is only for someone who is deaf in one ear, like actor Rob Lowe is. This is in the research mode though, and they are looking for suitable candidates. As I understand it, it can be removed from the molar for whatever reason.

For more information, take a look at this link: http://www.sonitusmedical.com

DCARA, the deaf counseling/advocacy/referral agency in San Leandro, CA, is having a free v/blogging symposium on Saturday, June 27th, 2009, from 8 AM to 6 PM. 

Visit this link: www.dcara.org. You will see information about the v/blogging event, including a video, and a printed version of what is being said. Information is also available in PDF format.

Ms. Zupp is in charge of this symposium, and you can ask her questions via VP at 866-760-3442, or email her at: LaRonda.Zupp@dcara.org. She also provides information about where to stay.

It is expected to be a big event, with well-known DHH bloggers coming in to demonstrate the power of video and regular blogging to any DHH person who attends.

Optional lunch is being offered for $5, sponsored by the San Francisco Deaf Club. Following the symposium, there will be an evening entertainment event, which includes wine and cheese, for $25.

For those not comfortable with signing, there will be CART services and interpreters. CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation, or informally, live time captioning.

So, don’t be afraid to come, even if you don’t know ASL.

It’s a worthwhile event to attend, because you’ll learn how to improve your v/blogging skills, and find out why v/blogging is so popular with DHH people.

Donations would be nice for DCARA. There is a donation button on the website.

Just make sure your eyes are working well, if you plan to attend.

I found out this morning that I passed the course.  

So now I’m pleased to be able to help others who have issues or concerns about hearing loss via this blog and a planned, future book.

It’s an important subject, because the number of people with hearing loss is expected to rise dramatically for the coming years. 

But what’s even more interesting and wonderful, is that there’s been a great increase in technology and help, for those with hearing loss.

In fact, life has never been better than now.

Why? Well, for starters, we have videophones now. If you have a documented hearing loss, you can get a videophone for free. Along with that, you can get video relay services, where you can have a conversation with a relay operator, who in turn, will relay your comments to anyone you desire to speak with in live mode. Some of them even can throw up numbers and words on the screen, if you can’t understand something. Zooming is even possible to see lips up close, if you depend on lipreading.

And if you want to see your DHH friends, no problem. You generally can converse with them for free and see them as well. I will cover this subject more in detail later on.

There are lots of companies where you can order hearing loss related devices, such as vibrating watches, flashing signals, amplified phones, etc. It’s a booming industry.

You can even request a hearing dog, usually given to you for free.

There are lot of exciting opportunities for DHH (deaf/hard of hearing) people. There are cruises, travel clubs, educational opportunities for DHH people using notetakers, live-time captioned movies and lectures. There are clubs, parties, advocacy groups for all kinds of DHH related issues. You can literally pick and choose what DHH lifestyle you want to live.

But the most important thing of all is to join a group, or club, that is composed of people who have hearing loss. What they can give you is support, understanding, information, and lots of laughs.  

I’ll be covering all sorts of DHH related subjects for the next several months.

Oh yeah, life is good for us DHH people.

Lately there’s been an uproar in the DHH community about the availability of captioned movies, particularly those coming out from Netflix.

There are at least two search engines that will help you find captioned first-run movies in local theaters.

One is called Fomdi, http://www.fomdi.com and another one is Captionfish, at: http://www.captionfish.com

However, it is best to visit the website of the particular movie theater chain you want to visit. A good movie chain theater should have OC information listed somewhere on their screen. For example, Regal Cinemas lists their OC movies link at the bottom right of their main screen.

Really, it is better to go to your movie theater website, than to depend on search engines for captioned movies.

May we all enjoy the wonderful OC first-run movies coming out for Summer 2009!

I know I did better than 90% on the final exam. But I have to wait for official confirmation from the Washington DC headquarters.

After I get confirmation, I will start work on the book proposal.

Since I want to take a break from studying, let me give you one statistic.

Did you know by 2030, there will be 78 million people with hearing loss? The number is rising because people are living longer. The number of those with eye problems will also rise, for the same reason.

Our upstairs bathroom faucet started leaking over the weekend. We thought we would have to call in a plumber and rip out a wall to stop it.

Luckily my husband figured out what was wrong with it. He had to make two trips to the hardware store, where he was able to get new parts and professional advice. It’s now all fixed for a nominal price. I’m just happy we didn’t have to shell out a lot of $$$$.

So! I expect to take the exam sometime tomorrow. I am doing a last time review of the course material, and then I’ll take the examination.

After that I will post more often and start work on the book proposal.

Wish me luck!