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The “Deaf” Globalization of Twittering

July 22, 2009 by Chris

A year ago, I’d have laughed in your face if you told me I’d be using Twitter on a frequent basis.

Heck, I would have asked you “what is a twitter?”

Now it is a big part of my daily activities — from finding out what friends are up to or hearing about hot topics, it has become the tool that the developers intended it to be — a microblog.

When my mom ranted a couple of months ago about where I find all this time to do Facebook, blogging, and tweeting, I just didn’t bother answering. Part of me knew she wouldn’t understand what I would explain to her. The bottom line…it doesn’t take much time or effort.

I recently wrote a new column for my regular place at i711.com and this column will focus on how these multimedia tools have replaced several mainstays in the deaf community — particularly deaf periodicals. (When I get the URL of the article, I’ll post it.) In that column, I explained how tweeting and updating one’s status on Facebook has replaced the way we receive news.

Remember how when Michael Jackson died, he nearly brought the Internet with him. We, as society, crave instant results. Instant gratification. As a high school teacher, I see that all the time now. My students want to know their grades now, now and now.

Jared Evans recently presented at the DCARA vlog symposium and was gracious enough to allow his followers to view his PowerPoint presentation. One story from his presentation stood out for me.

Just how powerful Twitter can be in the Deaf community.

Remember the Netflix dilemma?

Jared illustrated that in the days after the furor started, Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin joined the bandwagon with her Twitter following. Because of the ability to do searches in Twitter (#Netflix) and RT (retweeting), word of what Netflix said flew through space like the Millennium Falcon. In a week, Matlin doubled the number of followers from 5,000 to nearly 10,000. All because of RT’ing.

While we may have lost our ability to be patient and wait for news to come via TTY or from house visits from our deaf friends, we have gained a powerful tool that can be used to measure how news gets to us.

Heck, even now, I just got a tweet from a friend who’s at the National airport waiting for a flight to Oregon. *snickers*

Posted in That's so Deaf | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Abandoned Cats

July 21, 2009 by Chris

Last week I got a text message from my brother simply telling me to “check my email!”

I just checked that off as a silly thing. A couple of hours later, I opened my email and found this picture:

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Two widdle, cutie, little kittens! But there was nothing with the email. Just the photo. I replied to my brother asking what the heck that was. He never replied back.

Then he had the nerve to post 9 more pictures on Facebook of the kittens. I still didn’t know why.

Did my brother and sister in law go ahead and get two more cats? I had no clue.

Turns out they were abandoned by the mother cat under the steps of their townhouse! They don’t look to be more than 8 weeks old, and they’re cute.

The one on the left is called Lefty. And no, it’s not because of where he is sitting. It’s cuz of an eye problem the cat had (since fixed). The one on the right is called Spunky. He says it’s self-explanatory.

You gotta admit, they’re cute. They’re going to keep one of the kittens. I’m counting on them keeping Lefty. After all, gotta have a lefty in the family.

Posted in Extended limbs and appendages | 3 Comments »

Farewell, Frank

July 20, 2009 by Chris

Yesterday while I was driving home from the movies with a friend, she told me that Frank McCourt had died.

Instantly, my mind raced back to the picture of the little boy on the cover of the book he published, Angela’s Ashes. angelas_ashes

Frank McCourt was known for his wit and his prose. And he should be. After all, he taught creative writing in Stuyvesant High School for nearly 30 years. McCourt was not an immigrant. He was born in the boroughs of NYC but moved with his family to Ireland — the native land of his parents — during the Great Depression.

I clicked with his writing mainly for two reasons: his words glued my eyes to the page, and he grew up in squalor in the area of Limerick, Ireland — the birthplace of my maternal grandfather and half of my genes come from the green land.

After Frank’s book was published, his older brother Malachy wrote his own memoirs. His first, A Monk Swimming, was a play on words that I did not get until I read the book. The title itself is the mispronunciation of Malachy’s efforts to say “among women” from the Catholic prayer, Hail Mary.

One of my favorite quotes from Ashes is this:

I’m on deck the dawn we sail into New York. I’m sure I’m in a film, that it will end and lights will come up in the Lyric Cinema. . . . Rich Americans in top hats white ties and tails must be going home to bed with the gorgeous women with white teeth. The rest are going to work in warm comfortable offices and no one has a care in the world.

While there’s no “fancy” words here, this resonates with the common man and how they perceived the world and the obvious rift between the rich and poor during the years post-Great Depression.

Frank won the Pulitzer Prize for Angela’s Ashes, and his subsequent sequels, ‘Tis and Teacher Man carry on the literary prowess that Frank started with Ashes.

Yesterday, the literary world lost a nice old bloke.

Goodbye, Frank. Have a pint on me.

Posted in Oy! Life! | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Indianapolis!

July 14, 2009 by Chris

Last weekend my good friend Travis and I made a 1,100 mile weekend trip to Indianapolis to visit the King Tutankhamun exhibit that will only tour the United States once before returning permanently back to Egypt.

No, we didn’t see King Tut’s mummified body. We did see a lot of exhibits about his family and his tomb. We were forbidden from taking photos in the exhibit, but we did see the following:

  • King Tut’s canopic coffinette (where his insides were embalmed and stored for the voyage to the afterlife)
  • Tut’s golden sandals that he worn in his tomb
  • earrings (and other jewelry)
  • HUGE bust of Pharaoh Akhenaten (more on that later)
  • Funerary mask of Psusennes I
  • Coffin of Ahmose
  • Tut’s royal bed (made of wood and still intact after 4,000+ years)

Much more! About Akenaten — he was suspected to have been King Tut’s father, and he believed in monotheism — the practice of worshipping one god. That was against traditional Egyptian practice. After his death, his legacy was shattered from the records and he was “swept under the rug.” That’s one of the main reasons why experts believe King Tut’s tomb was intact — he was unknown because of his association with Akenaten. Fascinating story.

In the Children’s Museum, we also saw some other exhibits — namely the Star Wars: The Clone Wars props, and the 43-foot tall glass tower made by famed glass sculptor/artist Dale Chihuly. See pictures:

Glass Tower

see-thru floor(this was the see-through floor that you could view from the bottom. Every piece of color is made from glass.)

dinosaurs at entranceDinosaurs at the entrance of the museum.

AnubisHuge statue of Egypt god Anubis on the outside of the museum

clockPendulum clock operated solely on water (it’s dyed blue in the photo) — vacuum operated that pushes water up and down to count the minutes and hours.

travisnmeTravis and me on the rotating seat looking up at the glass ceiling.

We didn’t get to see much of Indianapolis — but I saw Lucas Oil Stadium — where the Indianapolis Colts play football. It looks nice and clean from the outside.

We ate at two nice restaurants in downtown Indy, and I added 4 shot glasses to my ever-growing collection.

It was definitely a good weekend. If you ever want to see King Tut — go see him before October!

Posted in The Pleasures of Life | 4 Comments »

Familiar Smells and Tastes

July 7, 2009 by Chris

In order to curb midday cravings, I’ve turned to chewing gum.

A couple of days ago I browsed the candy aisle at a store and noticed something I haven’t tried in a long time — Wrigley’s!

WrigleysSpearmintGum-1913AI just had to buy it! So today I popped a stick in my mouth and I was awash with memories — instant flashbacks to my great-grandfather — “Pop”.  He always had this gum in his house and every time I went to visit, he’d always offer me a piece of spearmint or Juicy Fruit.

The wave of mint taste engulfed my mouth and I sighed in contentment and closed my eyes to think about Pop.

Childhood memories like that are always pleasant.

Posted in The Pleasures of Life | Leave a Comment »

True Colors

June 2, 2009 by Chris

Don’t ya hate it when people assume you go to a specific college? Well, make that a bit obvious…will ya?

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Posted in That's so Deaf | 10 Comments »

Did You Know?

May 16, 2009 by Chris

Last week, my place of employment was treated to a visit by the current Colorado Teacher of the Year and one of the finalists of the National Teacher of the Year –Susan Elliott.

Her presentation to the group of teachers who were watching was very inspiring — she empahsized the importance of adapting in today’s educational culture. Especially with technology taking precedent.

Then she led us to this video clip her colleague at another high school produced. I was so much in-awe of that video that I shared it with the interns I supervise for the U.S. Deaflympic Media Team, and I want to share this with my Internet friends…

And after you’re done, let me know what you think…

Posted in Banter and Tidbits | Tagged , , | 5 Comments »

A Big Shout Out — Dr. Shilpa!

May 14, 2009 by Chris

On Friday, one of my closest friends will march across the stage at Gallaudet University’s Commencement and receive her doctoral robes.

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Congrats, Shilpa! You’ve earned it! Me proud of ya! *hugs*

Posted in Oy! Life! | 4 Comments »

Leah — the Artist

April 16, 2009 by Chris

Last night, I had an improptu meeting for an organization I am volunteering my time with. The website launch of that company is scheduled for May 1 and we had to meet to fix the kinks in the system and I had to bring Leah with me. She had a horse to play with (same size as a plastic army toy soldier) and a book to read.

Being a restless 7-year old that she is, she got bored after 10 minutes. The nice people at Starbucks gave her a paper to draw on and coloring markers. Nice.

After that, Leah graciously gave her drawing to the barista and the barista proudly displayed Leah’s art on the bulletin board in the restaurant.

The going price is $5…any takers? Go to the Starbucks in downtown Silver Spring, the one next to Potbelly. It’ll be gone soon :-)

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Posted in Fatherhood, The Pleasures of Life | 4 Comments »

Perm’d Up — The Story

March 28, 2009 by Chris

I’ve been wanting to grow my hair long. No, not Fabio-style. Just longer.

But, not like this:

long-hair-2

I was looking for something like this:

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I stopped going to my usual barbershop in December. Switched to Bubbles, where they pamper your hair and one simple haircut costs you the equivalent of a night out with your significant other.

My hairstylist, Nam, has been working on my hair since then. In January, she told me to come back in two months. Yesterday I went in — for a perm.

Warning: Parental Advisory Ahead, Explicit Hair

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No one told me what perms looked like or what they required.

I just assumed they would put in some kind of chemicals and maybe roll up a few strands of hair in rollers and put me under one of these warming hoods (or whatever they’re called).

Guess what, my whole head was covered with rollers. Ow. I now have pity for every woman in the world who has had to put rollers on.

I’d like to become a honorary member of the Hair Rollers Club of America!

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The chemicals smelled like peroxide and hair dye. From the looks of it, the color of my hair didn’t change at all.

After 20 minutes sitting with Leah laughing at me about how the rollers are FOR women, I had more chemicals applied, and then the rollers taken off one by one and given a hair wash to rinse out everything.

And…viola! The new-look CK!

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I mentioned in my Twitter feed that I had curls for the first time in my life. It’s hard to see with this picture, but I have curls on the lower part of my head.

The price? You don’t want to know. Enough to feed 1,000 kids in Africa — I think.

Would I do it again? No. Once is enough.

Posted in Oy! Life! | 3 Comments »

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