by Jan-Karl, as told to Dustin Glick – the artist

Click on the pic to see the full comic strip.

I was working on a new version of DeafPulse.com (yes, finally!) and saw this post from Gizmodo about AT&T bringing back the data-only plan for the deaf after killing the plan because people were complaining about how unfair the plan was.

Ha, one Gizmodo staff wrote this:

We wouldn’t usually call people douchebags lightly (ok we would), but when you complain that deaf people are getting special treatment when they’re offered a $27.99 non-voice, data-only plan for their iPhone, you’re one huge douchebag. A Colorado AT&T store was offering said plan for the hearing-impaired—since they get very little use out of a voice plan—but got slapped down by AT&T Corporate Marketing because people were complaining. The upshot? No more data-only plan for the deaf community.

Then they posted again that an AT&T rep told them that there was no such moves to take down the plan but that they plan to offer data-only plan in the near future.

Somebody made a nice comment:

I’m a hearing AT&T iPhone user, and it would totally piss me off if AT&T required deaf people to pay for a voice plan that they cannot use.

I was about to fire off a nastygram to AT&T based on the earlier article when I had a rare moment of clarity and decided to check for an update…

Good call for AT&T to bring back the plan!

So, I’d like to ask if anyone has bought iPhone and has the data-only plan? With this plan, iPhone can go back on my Christmas wishlist. :-)

I knew it. It was a matter of time before Gmail would integrate AIM in. About a year ago or so, Google signed a partnership with AOL and offer their search engine into AOL network.

Looks like I don’t need to use AIM client. The OS is all in the browser.

Saw this from a friend’s blog. I’m beginning to wonder why Asians are so good at skating? probably because our legs tend to be short and strong.

She skated like it’s nothing to her!

I found his biography while surfing around. He’s a 15 years old who describes himself as a tech-savvy teenager who once posted 5 consecutive days and each of the post made to the homepage of Digg.com, which is an incredible feat to me and he’s averaging 50,000 visitors a month. I’m only averaging about 2,000 visitors a month and would be a dream if my site ever gets dugged.

If I had the money and could live anywhere I choose to, the John Hancock Center would be the place.

Why? While it’s not the tallest building in the world, it is the tallest residence building in the world, meaning you can own a piece of room—-a condominium—-right there in the building. It also has the highest level swimming pool too at the 44th level. There is a very logical reason why it’s come like that.

A brilliant civil engineer named Fazlur Khan invented a structural technique called X-bracing that wraps outside around the building, resulting into a stronger structure and eliminates the need for inner support beam inside the building. Thus, you get a wide-open room without beams, perfect for people who are deaf like me.

It is truly an architectural icon with its angular lines and has the perfect “grey” color—not too dark, not too light. Batman would feel right at home here.

If you ever come to visit this building, do try to visit the Signature room instead of the Observatory where you can actually order drinks and enjoy the awesome views while sitting in a comfy chair, not waiting in visitors lines!

Wallpaper download link:

Not a very long ago, I start tracking what people have been searching that leads to my site. I put down 100 search terms below. There are more than 13,200 search terms.

You can go to this page to see full results.

1 The Death of Ivan Iiych story written by Leo Tolstoy
2 deaf in korea
3 wayne betts jr funny
4 "flat panel TV" "best time to buy"
5 whitetail snowboard
6 no sound from rebuilt mini ipod
7 Lenovo Opti Desktop PC
8 blackberry pearl cannot hear
9 cool quotes + This too shall pass
10 free calvin & hobbs snowmen wallpaper
11 significance of white blackberry pearl
12 sushi asl
13 wayne betts jr. deaf
14 honda civic ep hatchback review
15 auto life expectancy bmw 325i
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Does anyone know how long has the website been down?

He posted on his old blog that it would be up on October 26th, 2007. He’s definitely the top deaf blogger because if you type deaf blogger into the google search, his blog would come out first on top.

By looks of it, it appears that he forgot to renew his domain registration and that somebody has taken property of the domain. If that’s the case, hope he can get his website back without paying a lot for it.

Awesome! finally a website showing Google maps and captioned movies.

Looks pretty good to me and updated.

Kent Schafer, former student at ISD and now a webmaster at idhhc.state.il.us, sent me an article link to ISD’s increased enrollment number. It’s a refreshing news because ISD has been on the decline for as long as I can remember. It peaked at almost 500 students thirty years ago but now half the number at 252 students.

I was browsing around ISD’s website and read the letter by Superintendent Marybeth Lauderdale who was my old English teacher and an academic bowl coach.

She wrote:

I’m touched to see this example she used to explain that ISD isn’t really an institution. It’s a boarding school just like Tiger Woods’ learning center or Harry Potter’s boarding school. We had a conversation not too long ago and I was telling her that I watched Tiger Woods’ interview in a documentary video and I learned that he found a school called Tiger Woods Learning Center to provide a place for students with multi-cultural background and kids whose families couldn’t afford to send to private schools. So, that made me realize that deaf schools aren’t really an institution and are more like boarding school where students with similar background go to. She thought it was a great idea and used it in her Superintendent’s letter. Cool!

My alma mater, Illinois School for the Deaf, got published in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier about how ISD is seeing an increase in enrollment numbers. I think it’s got to do with the technology and more information available through the web.

ISD sees enrollment boom by Darrin Burn.

Rachel Sweigart heard the wrong words at the wrong time. Or maybe it was simply one word too many.

There wasn’t one particular incident at her high school in Somonauk, said her mother, Arliss. But one day, the normally stoic 15-year-old came home in tears and Arliss and Scott Sweigart knew it was time for a change.

Rachel will soon attend the Illinois School for the Deaf, and she will be one of 46 new high school students there this year. There are 63 new students overall.

“Deafness is a low-incidence disability, if you want to call it a disability,” said ISD Superintendent Mary Beth Lauderdale. “Very few people have it. Fifty-three percent of deaf students are the only deaf kid in their school. They are looking for other kids like them.”

The Sweigarts recently visited ISD and Rachel was impressed, but told her parents she’d think about it. By the time they got back to their town about 30 miles south of Dekalb, she’d decided to go.

The Sweigarts did not know about ISD. Public schools are supposed to inform parents of deaf or hard-of-hearing students of all the options for their children, but Ms. Lauderdale said it sometimes doesn’t happen.

“The dad got on the Internet and typed in ‘deaf school’ and found us,” she said.

ISD is allowed by law to passively market itself — brochures in audiologists’ offices, for instance — but it cannot recruit.

The school is more than equipped to handle the influx of 63 students, said Director of Student Life Randy Shearburn. Thirty years ago, the school had close to 500 students. With the new arrivals, it now has 252. ISD is searching for a new algebra teacher, Ms. Lauderdale said.

So, if it wasn’t for the Internet, the Sweigarts wouldn’t have found out about ISD. The web is the way to go.

I wrote a blog about my experience at ISD. You can read it here.

Someone linked my blog to her ‘Stumbleupon’ and she described that she and her husband own a coffee shop in Greensboro, NC!

I am born deaf in Japan. I came to USA for achieving dream since I found out that Mss. Heather who is deaf was honored as miss America. Now My husband and I own a cozy coffee shop for 2 years. I teaching American sign language and my husband teaches Japanese language at coffee shop. Also, I am looking for people who love to enjoy vacation, and share information how to get 3 things, money and time and health for vacation.

Written sometime in 2002., “Back to the Future” was my fave childhood movie about a young guy who goes back in time with a flying car. The best chilldhood movie ever made.

When the 747 Boeing finally put its wheels on the ground, I made a sigh of relief and stretched out my legs, finally moving after 4 hours of immobility. The plane slowly crawled as it looked for a gate to hug. Gazing through the window and thinking quietly, I wondered if this was really where my ticket stub stated. “Incheon, Korea. Arrival time: 3:37 pm.” If so, I had traveled roughly 7,000 miles from the other side of the world, 14 hours non-stop flight straight from Chicago, U.S.A. The plane paused and I waited to see if it finally stopped this time. Indeed, it stopped and passengers started to get up. I got up and reached for my North Face backpack in the overhead and stood impatiently as the line slowly made its way out of the plane. My hands began to sweat as I held my backpack and with almost every step, my heart started to beat faster, then into a pounding rhythm. I took a big breath and focused on where I was supposed to be going.

Any doubts of actually being in Korea were immediately put away when I saw the airport signs in Korean and couldn’t understand any of them. I followed a crowd of passengers as my guide to the baggage claims area and waited for my luggage to emerge. As I looked around the huge void and noticed that the airport wasn’t as crowded as many of the major U.S. airports were. I had expected a full traffic of people but here, only passengers were waiting to pick up their luggage.
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I’d like to share the passing of my grandmother who died peacefully at one o’clock am, Sunday the 18th of November, 2007.

“Madeline F. Kester, 77, of Chatham, IL died Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at St. John’s Hospice. She was born February 3rd, 1930 at Friedheim, MO to Ben and Edna Moore Kayser. She married Harold Wilbur Kester in 1948; he preceded her in death in 1999 as well as her parents, 3 brothers and 3 sisters.

Mrs. Kester, a registered nurse was last employed at Memorial Medical Center where she worked for 18 years. Prior to becoming a nurse, she worked 15 years at the Warren-Boynton State Bank in New Berlin, IL. She graduated from Perryville High School and Perryville School of Practical Nursing, Springfield College, and St. John’s School of Nursing. She was a Member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chatham and a Memorial Medical Center volunteer.

She is survived by her son H. Wayne (wife Pamela) Kester of New Berlin, grandson Nathan Kester of Mountain View, California, and sister Nell Kieninger of Pocahontas, MO.

Her family will greet relatives and friends from 9 am, until time of services at 10:30 am Tuesday, November 20 at St. John’s Lutheran church, 1225 N. Main, Chatham. Revs. Clarence Rogers and Thomas Philips officiating. Burial at Chatham Memorial Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chatham or the American Heart Association.

Staab Polk Memorial Home, 201 S. Main, Chatham, IL is serving the family.”

She was a dear grandmother to me who gave her unconditional love and support. I thank her for all my success.

Right now, I’m sitting in a hospital room watching my grandma on her deathbed and it won’t be very long before she’s not here with us anymore. This hospital is pretty nice; it has a flat panel tv and a wifi. With a wifi connection and my awesome faithful macbook, I can do prettty much anything like doing my work or typing this entry.

My grandma suffered a massive stroke last Saturday night and my mom asked me what’s exactly a stroke, so of course, I turned to Google to seek out some answers. Here’s what I found:

Stroke is a type of cardiovascular disease. It affects the arteries leading to and within the brain. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood (and oxygen) it needs, so it starts to die. Xarelto can cause strokes as well, if you or a loved one has been affected by this drug check out the class action info and see if you could have a legal lawsuit against xarelto.

So that results in a brain damage and brain’s the most critical organ that controls everything in our bodies. Once we lose that, we’re not that much different to a vegetable. (more…)