screenshot, originally uploaded by natech.

Gotta love dark theme. It kicks ass.

Something happened that’s never quite happened to me before. Someone recognized me from my blog.

It happened when I was invited over to a friend’s place for BBQ. One girl I know brought her little sister who’s 16 years old.

“Hello, I’d like to introduce you to my sister.”

I said “I’m Nathan, nice to meet you.”

She made a little surprise look on her face. I thought, “what? something under my nose?” She asked her sister, “Is he the one who has a blog, www.ke5ter.com?” Her sister said, “Yes, that’s him.”

Then, she said, “Wow, it’s really you in person. I love reading your blog. I never thought I’d meet you.”

I was even surprised too, not really knowing what I should say but said “thanks, didn’t think it was that worthy to read but thank you.”

I looked up the definition of a celebrity. It simply means “a widely known person.” I’m still not widely known but that was a cool feeling, though. :-)

In my recent interview with Google, obviously, I need an interpreter, so in requesting for one, I didn’t say “I’m deaf, I need an interpreter for our interview, so please get one for me.”

Instead, I asked “Do you happen to be fluent in ASL? If not, then we’d need an interpreter.” Then, she replied, “Unfortunately I don’t. Is there a way I can help to find an interpreter for us?” I answered, “Not a problem, I will find one for us, thanks.”

There are two reasons why this is important. First, it further shows that ASL is a natural, legitimate language and that both parties need an interpreter, not just for a deaf person. Secondly, it shows that I’m independent, not like a baby that screams for milk. The interviewer has too many things going on and I do not want to add one more thing to her list that she has to find an interpreter. Plus, she never worked with a deaf person before so she wouldn’t know where to go to find an interpreter.

That is tip #2.

Not too long ago, I actually thought about getting a cochlear implant so I can start talking to hearing people and maybe on phone but I realize there are no guarantees that I would be able to carry intelligible speech and my past speech therapy didn’t go so well either. Also, I didn’t have a desire to hear human voices that sound more like “a croaking dalek with laryngitis.”

I just read this article – “Better ear implant hope for deaf” – from BBC News. Suddenly, I know why I didn’t want a cochlear implant. It’s those kind of technology advances that discouraged me from wanting one. Why? because if you got a cochlear implant today, chances that in five years from now, it’s going to be pretty much out of date, just like your computer that got old and slow. Younger generations will have better, more powerful cochlear implants than you do. I’d imagine that at a C.I. convention, people with C.I. ask each other, “what kind of cochlear implant do you have?” “Oh, it’s 2.0, pretty old.” “Oh, mine’s 82.435 version.”

Also, I hate the idea that if you got one, you’d be more successful and able to fit into the “real world” better. That’s completely untrue.

I’ve been born deaf, raised by Deaf parents, went to a deaf school, then Gallaudet University, transferred to RIT and graduated there. So, even if I got a cochlear implant, I’d still hang out with deaf friends anyway, because ASL is my natural language and the one that I understand most easily. Besides, what’s wrong with teaching ASL to hearing people? There’s a lot of people who are interested in learning ASL.

I understand that we’re a nation that loves to fix anything that’s broken but being Deaf doesn’t mean your ears are broken. That’s just who you are and I’m quite happy with the way I am.

For the next five days, I’m going to write a tip that I think will help a deaf person to succeed.

My first tip is “get your own interpreter.”

I’ve had a fair share of working with different interpreters. Some were great, some good, and some bad. Some were certified, some weren’t. One thing to keep in mind when you’re working with an interpreter, anything you said is going to be used against you. What I mean by that is hearing people will believe whatever the interpreter has spoken for you. And some of the translation may not exactly what you said but that’s what hearing people will hear and think that’s what you said. So, that’s why it’s important to work with interpreters that can really understand you and your ASL style.

There was one time during an interview. I had an interpreter whose receptive skill wasn’t as good and she had a hard time understanding me and I had to change my ASL style to more of a PSE (Precise Signed English) and that cost in a lot of clarification work and interruptions (wait, what did you just say??). So, the interview didn’t go exactly as smoothly and the interviewer probably saw that I was a difficult person to work with and that must mean I’m not an easy person to work with. Suffice to say, I didn’t get the job. From that moment, I learned my lesson. I will never let an agency or someone pick an interpreter for me. I’m going to pick an interpreter that I know I will work with well enough.

That’s exactly what I did when I got an interview with Google. I asked one male interpreter to see if he could interpret but he was busy so he gave me a personal reference to his friend who was an interpreter too. She turned out to be one of the best interpreters I’ve ever worked with. She had a B.A. degree in English and an MA in professional editing and writing, so I knew she wouldn’t have a problem translating ASL into a high-level English. Also, she was straightforward; she asked right away if I had any materials, anything that will help her translate and during the interview, she asked for clarification instead of just making up words and made sure it’s not me, it’s just that it needed to be interpreted accurately. Not meant to sound sexist but she was a good-looking lady and all of my interviewers were males. She put us at ease and we were having a good interview, just talking, asking questions, and sharing my experiences.

Results? I got the job.

And recently when I was in Mountain View a couple of weeks ago for an interview, I did the same thing again, I personally picked an interpreter I knew and she was good too. The interviews went pretty well, I’m still waiting to hear something from them.

One thing you should be thinking about when you want to get your interpreter is attitude. It’s probably the most important trait for any interpreter to have and ourselves too. There are some interpreters who think they know it all about ASL, some just come for money like it’s just a day’s job without really wanting to help a deaf person to succeed, and some won’t admit mistakes, putting the blame on us. You don’t want to work with those kind of interpreters.

Personally, I think all interpreters should be certified, attend deaf workshops, carry memberships with different deaf organizations and stay in tune with the deaf world.

So if you have an interview coming up, you might want to think about getting your own interpreter.

This is just going to be a little note of what I usually handle with my gmails.

First of all, gmail is the best web email app around, bar none. It’s light, efficient, fast, and you can check emails anywhere with an access to the internet, on computers or mobile. On top of that, you can search through your emails, which is really what separated it from other hundreds of email services. It also actually check for new mails for you so you don’t have to keep refreshing the page. And there’s no annoying flashing graphical ads that seem to take up half of your screen. Who ever wants that!?

Now, I rarely use archive, I just leave them in my inbox but all of them is marked read or in a light blue background from a white background color. If I get promotions, advertisements, or any non-personal emails, I delete them. Remember, when you delete, it’s going to stay in trash for 30 days, so no worries, if you ever need them again, just find them in the trash. Because I think 30 days is long enough to know that you don’t need them anymore.

Well, you might ask why I don’t bother to use archive? well, I kinda let it archive itself when it goes into the next page and I like to keep having a glance at my current messages on the first page; maybe I might spot some emails that need a reply. I try to mark all of my emails read so that the number of new emails stay at 0 next to the inbox label so it’s easy for me to know if I got a new email or not.

Lastly, this is more of advice, don’t delete your personal messages, keep them or archive them, because in 50 years from now on, you’re going to want to read some of ur old emails and remember the days. Some of your friends or family will be no longer able to email you anymore, so it’s going to be what you have of them. That’s what I said to my friends to convince them to switch to gmail. :-)

I’m going to email to my grandmother after this.

For over 3 years since I started using wordpress as my blog engine, I’ve made a mess in my folders so I’m gonna clean everything up and slap on a new design as well.

Please pardon the mess while I clean it up. Thanks.

Saw this from Kottke.org.

Sign Language in matchbooks.

Isn’t that awesome?

I’m going to make one for myself. :-)

Ben Franklin said that. The more I read about him, the more I admire him.

I think my hiatus days are over. I’m back. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy. I was in California for almost two weeks. The first week was attending NADC – National Asian Deaf Congress and met lots of people. Attended some workshops too. Learned about taking on leadership roles. We do need more leaders, that’s for sure. So, hopefully, something will happen.

Second week was attending interviews with Google. I got interviewed for this position on ‘Assistant Webmaster’; it went pretty well and is definitely something I want to do. I told them I wanted to learn Python, which leads me to this:

I’m going to overhaul this website to be Django-powered, which is a framework based on Python. It’s going to be a challenge but it said if you nail down the basics, the rest is gravy. Well, I hope so.

I’m back and I’m going to do my best.

Finally found something good to post. Ha, this is funny.

I realize I haven’t blogged much lately. I don’t want to say that’s because I was busy, which I was but I want to stay committed and try to write as much as I can. Anyway, some updates that’s happened in the last four weeks.

I flew to Illinois to visit parents the first weekend of May as I hadn’t seen them since Christmas. It is painful knowing that time is going by fast and my parents are growing old faster than you can say medicare. My mom’s already a senior citizen and chances for her to become a grandmother are pretty slim since I doubt my finger is going to be bearing jewelry till well after I’m 30 and that’s still four years away, then probably a few couple years more till I’m ready to have kids. So, my mom could be 70 before she can finally add one more word to make it compound. For now, I gotta bear with her for still calling me a baby boy.

While I was there, we went to deaf expo in St. Louis, which was my third trip to a such event. First one was in Chicago, second was Virginia, and now this city home to the Gateway Arch. I wonder why do they still call it a Deaf Expo. It should be called as a battle of VRS services because there are like 8 different VRS services invading 90% of the convention space. Also, I noticed that their booths kept getting larger, more colorful like one VRS company looks like they come right out of Wonka’s Chocolate Factory with their purple setups, and another company thinks they could be as cool as Apple company with their brushed metal design and shadowed lights. Then, I realized something, we’re just like cash cows. The more cows they could register, the more money they can make. That’s what we are to them. Seems like pretty much of our Deaf economy is based on how many minutes we use VRS, then those minutes are billed to the FCC, which gives out paychecks. So we still live on the government’s welfare, either directly or indirectly.

On that Sunday, my parents and I had a brunch with the Chances and one lady who recently lost her husband. It has become into a sort of tradition to have a get-together with them whenever I come in town. Tom Chance was my dorm head supervisor at Illinois school for the Deaf and I was under his wing from 5th grade to 8th grade. He is one of my role models and he carries a certain class that reminds me of Cary Grant. He is also known for making the best martini in town and has a wine cellar in his own basement. I was especially honored when he gave me his favorite light blazer that didn’t quite fit him anymore. I don’t remember feeling this honored. I immediately recognized the blazer because that’s the one he would often choose to wear to award events or graduations at the end of year. The feeling I got was like getting Michael Jackson’s white glove or Elvis Presley’s favorite leather jacket. Something like that.

To this day, I haven’t worn the blazer yet, still waiting for the right occasion but you can bet that when time comes, I’ll wear it with class and integrity that he has always showed.

The interesting thing now with the Chances is that their daughter has adopted two kids from Korea, and I remember I was a little kid when my parents and I attended her wedding. Now, they’re raising two Korean-American kids so I wonder if I had something to do with that.

Before I knew, the weekend had gone by and it was time to go back to DC. The last two weekends, I went on two bachelor’s party, which was accompanied with lots of beers.

to be continued…

Got this email from a friend. My alma mater, ISD, is one of the semi-finalists that could win $25,000 dollars from Expo, the maker of dry board markers. The one that has the most votes will win, so it needs every of your vote.

Click here to vote!

Hello Everyone!

The Junior High science room needs your help and it won’t cost you a thing- just a few minutes of your time! The science room is a finalist to win a $25,000 classroom makeover from Expo markers!!! How do we win? With your votes! There are five finalists from across the country- the classroom with the most votes will win the classroom makeover.

That’s how you can help! Please go to the link below and place your vote for my classroom. In addition- you can forward this to your home email and also use that email address(es) to vote. (One vote per email address). And also important is to send this on to your co-workers, friends, family, every one you know and ask them to vote also!

If you have students- please encourage and permit them to vote also!

(I’ll put something in the announcement papers).

Thanks for your assistance- your vote could make the difference!!!!

— Sherry Humphries

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Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

I made an interesting discovery tonight that there are a number of well-known, both fictional and non-fictional, characters that were orphaned. I find this personal because I was also an orphan myself before I was adopted by Deaf parents that I couldn’t imagine not having them as my parents.

My favorite comic character is Batman. In fact, I’m wearing a Batman t-shirt right now, heh. He’s my favorite because first, he doesn’t possess any superhuman powers. He’s a mortal human being just like you and me. Instead, he relies on his intellect, physical prowess, mental toughness, knowledge of science and technology, and build gadgets to enable him to do the job he needed to do. The last part is especially important because I make use of technology to bypass communication barriers as a deaf person. If it wasn’t for technology we have today, well, I couldn’t imagine, we’d probably be as dumb as next dog.

Anyway, I found this interesting article that discusses people who were an orphan.

1) Batman. His parents died when he was a young kid.
2) Superman. His home planet got exploded and the Kents family found him on a farm.
3) Spider-Man. Raised by his uncle and aunt.
4) Harry Potter. His parents were killed by the evil sorcerer Voldemort when he was a baby.
5) The Great Moses. His mother left him in a basket on the Nile river. Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him.
6) Romulus and Remus. Taken care by a she-wolf. Went on to found the city of Rome.
7) King Arthur. Pulled the sword out of the stone and ultimately became a king.
8. Cinderella. Every girl’s favorite fairy tale.
9) Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz.”
10) Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
11) Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Pip from The Great Expectations.
12) Anakin Skywalker, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
13) Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings. His parents, Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck “went out boating on the Brandywine River; and [they] were drowned, and poor Mr. Frodo only a child and all.”
14) Alexander Hamilton. An illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, George Washington’s most trusted aide, co-author of The Federalist Papers, the country’s first Treasury secretary and of course, the face of the ten-dollar bill.
15) Dave Thomas – adopted as a baby, never met his birth parents. Went to become the founder of Wendy’s fast food restaurant.
16) Leo Tolstoy – lost his mother when he was two, and his father when he was nine. Often regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists ever.
17) Faith Hill – adopted as an infant. The only female artist to have three consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums chart.
18) Edgar Allan Poe. His father left the family and his mother died from tuberculosis. One of the America’s most well-known writers.

Output.

First, I’m going to share a little story I learned in a math class that led me to the idea of outputting. I remember one of the beautiful things about mathematics was this concept called a function.

One time I was sitting in a math class and the teacher was explaining what does a function mean and that we will start using f(x), not y anymore. He drew this simple picture on the blackboard. It looked somewhat like a bin that you put something into it (input) and something would come out (output). So, the bin is like a function. You insert a number into the “bin” and it undergoes some kind of transformation, actually a function, and a new number comes out. Isn’t that wonderful? It can go backwards too, so you can go either way. I thought that was the most simple thing about mathematics and make the problem appear less complicated. This process concept can be applied to many things, for instance, like ourselves.

We especially as deaf people need to OUTPUT more. It doesn’t matter what that might be. Writing, blogging, vlogging, signing, coding, painting, drawing, publishing papers, building websites, so on. There could never be enough output. It doesn’t do any good if you’re doing nothing or making no output. If you have something to share, tell. Don’t be keeping things to yourself because uh how could other people know? It’s even better if you could put on some kind of medium like papers, blogs, pictures, or vlogs because they are reusable and you don’t have to be telling stories over and over. That’s old. In the past, it costs some money to publish stories. Now? it’s nearly free! Anyone can publish.

It is my prediction that in the next few years, we will possibly see the greatest growth in the deaf community ever. No longer do we have to depend on someone to produce media for us like major newspapers. We can make our own news now. We finally have a way to share ASL vlogs easily and it’s spreading like a wildfire. A person doesn’t have to find a deaf person to learn ASL. S/he can look at ASL videos and learn. It’s a little strange to meet a person who has learned some ASL but never met a single deaf person before! Of course, the best way to learn is to hang out with deaf people. The more people learn ASL, the better it will be for us. They will be more likely to support us and respect us as a linguistic culture. They will seek ways to help improve education for deaf kids, bring better accessibility and build more technology.

The only way for people to know more about us is by outputting. Go write something, make vlogs, arts, publish research papers, anything. That is how we advance as a society.