Nice article by a Duke student who met a group of Gallaudet students in Bahama over spring break.

“The learning process never ends, even on vacation.” by Megan Bode.

“My most important experience, however, had nothing to do with personal adaptation to an unfamiliar environment. On our first day in the hotel, we met a group of deaf kids across the hall. One of them, David, had some hearing, and was able to tell us that they were college students at Gallaudet, a school for the hearing-impaired. He taught us the American Sign Language alphabet, so that we had a rudimentary means of communicating. Clumsily using our hands, we made friends with the kids across the hall — inviting them over for drinks, playing games, and hanging out at clubs.”

It’s interesting that hearing people would have misconceptions about deaf people having some difficulty time to co-exist with their world. Of course we would find ways to get along, just a little patience and some open-mindedness are all it takes.

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I read everywhere and constantly.

I was just reading a book and to take some break from being on a computer 24/7. Then it occurred to me that it doesn’t matter what I do, I’m constantly reading—be it on signs, closed captioning, my pager, bytes on computer displays, fine print in magazines, instructions on food packages, everywhere.

I remember one conversation I once had with a girl. We were talking about how much we like to read that it was almost a must. Especially a must for people like us who couldn’t hear a word and where else could we get information? Reading, of course.

We would get so bored if we don’t have something to read. Like one time she explained to me that while she was waiting in a car, she and her mind got so bored that she was just dying to read something, anything. Guess what she ended up reading? the car owner’s manual that she found in the glove box. She also told me that each time she went to a grocery store with his mom, she would always take a magazine and read it while pushing a cart around and being engrossed in it with her elbows resting on top of handles and didn’t care what was being thrown into the cart. She would make sure that the shopping took long enough or she would pace it down so she could finish the whole magazine and put it back into the stands where she got it and quickly went back to the aisle to help her not-too-pleasant mom to load food items onto the belt. On every Sunday, she would steal her dad’s favorite newspapers subscription, the New York Times. Needless to say, she’s one helluva of a smart girl. All of those reading paid off for her.

I always thought that was a cool story and I did the exact same thing too. My dad liked the coffee at Starbucks so each time we went to Barnes and Noble, I would go straight to the bestseller aisle or new paperbacks to see what’s new. Ofc, I love magazines too and would take a few and bring to the table where my dad is enjoying his coffee. Even though my dad isn’t big of a reader himself, he was always willing to buy them for me and I would be happily reading in the car on way to home.

Whenever I’m going out with friends on some kind of a trip, I like to sit in the back, not in the shotgun seat, so I would have less distractions reading a book. One of the things about myself is that I kinda have this habit that I cannot go to a bathroom without something to read. Luckily I have a blackberry now so in case I couldn’t find anything to take with me, I can browse on my blackberry. So I make sure my bathroom has some variety of magazines and books, ha.

Now, it seems that I spend a lot of reading on the Internet. I guess it’s more convenient, free, and doesn’t take up any space but from time to time, I like to take a book and sit in a comfy chair and just read.

Ok, time for me to get back to my book. :-)

DeafPulse.com with Flickr images!

I’ve added Flickr images section to the Deafpulse.com. They all are automatically taken from Flickr that are tagged with ‘Deaf’.

I’ve also fixed Google News to show bubble tooltips and replaced MSNBC News with Technorati since there was something funny with MSNBC’s news feed.

After working on the website for about a week and receiving emails/comments from all of you, I decided that the emphasis will be on the news services such as Google, BBC, and Yahoo. I realize there is too many Deaf blogs out there now and I don’t feel right to decide what should be on the page or shouldn’t. So, there will be some changes to DeafPulse.com.

Something BIG is coming soon that is going to knock your eyes out.

Stay tuned!!

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DeafPulse.com – ASL vlog – in response to Teri Sentelle

And apparently, this is my first ASL vlog, hehe. I also talked about why I made DeafPulse.com

Teri Sentelle’s vlog on DeafPulse.com

Sushi!

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Beers heaven!

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Men’s health

As a globally recognized dermatologist and skincare leader, Dr. Diane Walder has devoted her career to enriching the lives of patients from all walks of life.

The Namesake movie review

I just did something today that I have never done before. That was to attend a movie screening. Thanks to a cool girl I met recently, her name is Ally Burguieres. She works as a movie critic for her school newspaper at Georgetown University, so she gets to go to movie screenings and for free! Guess where the movie screenings were at? None other than the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) building in Washington DC, the sorry organization I’ve been leeching off from on my Linux server. The irony was that it was free too but in a different sense. The only difference was that I cannot put the movie on pause for my bathroom breaks.

Out of all movies that are out there, the movie turns to be “The Namesake” about an Indian boy who has an identity crisis with his name that is not even Indian.

Before I even start, I have this firm belief that if you are deaf and unable to hear what characters are saying and that there are no subtitles, there is absolutely no reason to go to movie theaters. You’d be clueless as to what the movie is talking about and you can slowly feel your ten dollars being drained away unless you think cool special effects justify the ticket purchase, which some of my friends did with Star Wars movies. It’s almost as same as buying a glossy hard-covered book with blank pages. When you finally do get out, your understanding of the movie isn’t that much better than you step into the theater before. “Light saber fights were so awesome!” “Um, why did Anakin turn into Darth Vader?” “Uh, no idea.”

But she gently informed me that this movie, the Namesake, might have some subtitles since it follows an immigrant family from India, settling into the city that is the most diverse city in America and home to millions of immigrants, New York City. In spite of that, the family moved during the 1970s and they were among the first group to migrate from India so the husband and the wife only had each other to support, then they had a son which they named Gogol. They spoke Hindu, thus, some English subtitles were shown.

The name, Gogol, is a Russian name taken from a short story author, Nikolai Gogol. It is his book that has miraculously stayed in the father’s bloody hands after he survived a devastating train accident which left him in a full cast and unable to move for a few weeks. After having recovered, they left India to live in New York City with his wife and soon thereafter, they have a first-born son and they decide to name him Gogol after the Russian author, to remind how lucky and blessed their life are and to be holding a healthy baby. Obviously they did not think about the social effects that the name may bring to the boy and his life.

Sloppily dressed in a navy baseball shirt with a number 83 on his chest, Gogol, acted by Kal Penn who was made famous from the movie, “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.”, shows what it takes to be an American. He dates a white girl, plays loud metal songs, rebels against his parents, smokes a joint and of course, hates his own name. Even his sister is equally American, spraying colors in her hair, sporting both bright and dark lip colors, and wearing fishnets on her legs. Later in the movie, it would have to take someone’s death in the family to finally realize what does it mean to be an Indian and sheds a baseball shirt with a white saree.

Kal Penn tries his best to portray as an Indian-American but his limpy body prevents him from looking like an All-American guy and resembles nothing like those model bodies in Abercrombie & Fitch cover magazines. Even in a few nude scenes, his body actually reminds me of Gandhi’s. Sad to say, Kal Penn’s fate, to me, may be already and forever sealed as a slacking college Indian whiz who smoke marijuana joints.

The movie takes us through different phases of life that we all may have experienced at some point of our life. It is a movie that reminds us that we aren’t the only ones experiencing life’s struggles and that all the immigrants who came to America, from the pilgrims to Englishmen to Germans to Italians to Irishes to Chineses to Purples and lately, Indians all experienced same things when they arrive at a new land with little of what they have. The movie moves mostly in a chronological order with a few flashbacks linking to the name of Gogol and ends with a feeling that is touching and that life shall go on.

Although the movie title says “the Namesake”, it doesn’t necessarily revolve around the name but we can see how the story is developed behind the name and how they resolve together to overcome obstacles they face in life—unknowns, hardship, death, infidelity, and family/cultural values.

If you found yourself covered in blood, barely able to move but you see this book that spells “Gogol” that stares directly into your eyes, you cannot help but bound to feel that you are meant to survive, to live and with that, you damn better live your life with a purpose. That’s exactly what the father did and in the end, the son finally understands and was able to accept his name, Gogol, for the reminder of what it is.

When she and I got out of the theater, I thought to myself, hey, that wasn’t too bad, with its limited subtitles and my lack of ability to hear but I could understand the movie and managed to make some reflections of my own.

What’s so cool is that I get to see a movie that hasn’t been released in theaters nationwide and free too!

DeafPulse.com now with YouTube ASL videos feed!

I got so inspired by watching “Through Deaf Eyes” on the PBS channel that I decided to come straight home from a friend’s place to finish working on the addition of YouTube ASL videos. There was a big bug to be worked out with Internet Explorer browser to make those video thumbnails to be rendered ok.

The link: DeafPulse.com

One new feature is the “bubble tooltip” that will appear when you move your mouse over the news title item. It’ll give a short description of the news so you don’t have to click through to read it. Just FYI, not each of them has one, like Google News so I am working on that now.

Someone suggested adding more news feeds, so I’ve made three more news feed. They are BBC news, MSNBC news, and ASL from Google News. Let me know if you find them useful. Thanks, CK!

The documentary about “Through Deaf Eyes” got me really inspired that I’ve never been more proud to be Deaf. I value our language, ASL—-I cannot imagine not using the language—-and know that we can do much anything but hear. President King Jordan made a point that there are different ways to be deaf and no matter what the technological advances there may be, deaf people will always continue to exist. Marlee Matlin also made a good point that since she can speak pretty well, why cannot she use it? it is a skill as much as she can act well. She never meant to offend the deaf community or to show that she thinks she’s better than us. She does have a beautiful ASL with strong expressions that I was a little surprised she can speak well too. For example, while King Jordan likes to speak for himself, his ASL isn’t really that smooth or fluent. His style is more SEE so it wasn’t a big surprise that he can still speak well.

I’ll be waiting for this PBS documentary to be out on torrents so I can download and save it forever. Gotta love Vital Signs too. Loved his ASL storytelling. It is art. Someone ought give them an award.

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Harry Potter star Emma Watson has reportedly refused to sign.

Potter star refuses to sign up for final films.

Haha, is she playing hard to get or what? how typical of girls. Well, I don’t blame her. Ever since I saw her on the screen for the first time as a young precocious girl, I knew she was gonna be hot, in the same sense that Natalie Portman is now.

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Deafpulse.com!

I did it!

I’ve created a Deaf news aggregator website showing different feeds from popular news search sites and Deaf blogs. It’s called Deafpulse.com!

It’s such a relief to finally get it to be released, though it’s somewhat still raw and in beta. I’m quite satisfied with the design. I might make another CSS file for those who prefer whitespace over dark. I’ll be open to suggestions that you think should be on the feed. And If you like it, spread the word! Thanks.

Also, I’m already working on the next version to include ASL videos, images, and most popular posts, so it should be pretty dynamic and useful.

Ok, time for me to go to bed. I’m exhausted but weirdly happy. I’ll come back later to check the progress/status of this new website, whether you find it useful or not. I’m excited!

New Deaf RSS feed aggregrator website is coming soon.

Just want to put this on the record and to give myself extra motivation to finish working on the new Deaf RSS website. It’s gonna be great! If you are looking for cleaning service websites, visit www.weblaunchlocal.com for more info.

I’m burning midnight candles as of this moment.

Stay tuned!!

Kottke.org’s first post

Jason Kottke’s blog just turned 9 years old. His first post was on March 14, 1998, so that is quite a long time! He’s like my blog idol and when I saw his first post, it’s exactly why I started this blog and to develop my web development skills too.

Why

I decided I needed to start writing things down. Because I forget. Because I think better and feel better when I write. I used to write often but got away from it. So here it is again. But you ask: “Jason, why not keep a private diary?” Because I’d never keep up a private diary…I need to force myself to write this. So, I made it into content. Since it’s content, I feel obligated to keep it up-to-date.

See these games I have to play with myself?

posted a link about how Deaf people prefer to be called deaf or hard of hearing, not deaf-mutes or hearing-impaired. He also mentioned about how Deaf people are using YouTube to communicate with their first language, ASL.

It’s true. I do feel better when I write. Gotta keep blogging!

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Finn Mac Cool’s Irish Pub

Happy St. Patrick Day!

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7.3% alcohol in a beer bottle.

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