Pinch an inch...

        As I begin my latest rant, I promise not to be one of those misty eyed "why me, I just wanna thin" blog posts.



The reason being, I am at fault and to blame for my current weight. Not Dave Thomas not Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, most certainly not those malasadas from the Feast. I alone chose to friend them to "break bread" with them. In this day of Facebook. It's only fitting they consider themselves unfriended.

240 pounds... That is what I weigh!.. I'm posting it for all to see.. What the hell you see most of it when you see me anyways. It is not my heaviest weight which I hold that number in my head as my mantra to never again approach. This week We began the biggest change. and I hope to keep the ball rolling with the school year approaching next week.



Sept 2, 2012: I will revisit this post. I will weigh within 200 to 210lbs!  I will be actively exercising everyday.. I will post before and after pictures then.. Failure is not an option!

Apocalypse

Earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism, governments turning on the people (I MEAN YOU WISCONSIN), pestilence, global warming and on and on...

How is a Parent supposed to raise their child in a positive manner when the thoughts of all these hangs on your head? My brother along time ago before he had a child of his own.. had a conversation with me in the manner that follows:

Joey: so Jimmy you gonna have kids some day?

Jimmy: what? and bring kids into the fucked up world? Why should they have to suffer?

Joey: meh...

For the longest time I agreed with him. Then on June 20th 2009 that train of thought on the rail of pessimism crashed.

“And he who gives a child a treat Makes joy-bells ring in Heaven's street, And he who gives a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom come, And she who gives a baby birth Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth.” John Masefield

Bring a precious child onto earth.. Isn't about adding one more human.. It's about adding a new POSSIBILITY.. This child may find a cure for cancer. This child may become a leader, an artist perhaps. but we don't really know our place on earth until the time comes. It's just the way it is and should be!

But don't worry too much. It just add wrinkles to our already flawed selves.

I know we're gonna do everything to give Hayden a chance to make the world a better place..

God would want it this way..



Amen....

I still thank the big man upstairs everyday for this beautiful little man! and the gorgeous woman who helped!!

If Your Gonna Be Unprofessional, At Least Do It Right!

     I normally don't do venting on my blog unless something really yanks my chain. Especially when it come back to haunt me. However in this case I figure I can rant in a way that the party remains unnamed.

     3 months ago I applied for a job at A social service agency in New England. This agency I've had known for a while through various people and were voted one of the top in the state to work for. So I applied through their website. It was "cold" application meaning just like handing your application to a manager at McDonald's maybe they'll look at it and maybe they won't. Maybe they'll have a position open for you maybe they won't .These cold applications are my least favorites. As a Job Coach for two years I know there is perhaps a 30% chance they'll call you back unless you really have a stellar resume that fits their needs.
     Boy, was I excited when within two days they contacted me to set up an interview. We exchange a few email and seemed like they had two positions open, Either one I'm well qualified for.  I was gonna be in town for the week so it worked out perfect. Having their own agency sign language interpreter! BONUS! So we set up for Tuesday morning. A week before the scheduled date the HR rep who I'll name Becky e-mails me to say, "our interpreter would not be available so I will contact our community interpreters and try to schedule again. I informed her I was available any time that week. She said she would let me know that night. A day goes by and no response. So Thursday comes and I email her asking her to forgo the interpreters and try just meeting one on one since I'm proficient in lipreading. No response.
     A week passes. I email her again to tell her I was still interested and that perhaps we could do a phone interview. No response.

Today! I received an email from Becky 2 whole months later..  I'm sorry for the delay our needs had changed at the time we were emailing and we currently have nothing available.

I kind of wished they had not responded. That they did not want me at all, I would not be sitting here typing this, instead spending my time doing something meaningful such as finishing my taxes.

If this "Becky" should read this, please use it as a learning tool!

Now, Readers. how would you handle a situation like this.
A) let it be,
B) contact the supervisor and log a complaint
C) write back and thank her for responding however withdraw your application.

Enjoy,

Joey

DEAF GAMERS WANTED:

 So after many Google searches. I've only come across  deafgamers.com. this is a cool little site which sadly seems to only focus on the the subject of captioning and subtitling in games. A novel approach. How about expanding as a place for gamers to hook up and join clans and such?

I beginning to become addict to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Especially the multiplayer part. I was a huge fan of Doom and Quake online multiplayers first person shooters in the past so naturally I assimilated.  Now I'm looking for Deaf and Hearing people to join me on Playstation 3.. If your rockin it! bring your "A" Game, watch out for the headshot though!


Get your Portable ID!

Trench Warfare

I have to say that lately I've been seeing a disturbing trend effecting our Deaf community. It's probably not all that new however it's taken on a new life due to the popularity of Vlogs. I'm gonna express what I feel is just my opinion as I refuse to take sides on because I feel it's a cultural equivalent of Deaf on Deaf violence.

With the onset of HR 3101 bill being pushed to pass, the formation of Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) and the National Association for the Deaf's (NAD) strive to reach new and youthful audiences. it has created a type of warfare much like gangs. Everyone wants a piece of the streets.Everyone wants to be the next leader in a movement they compare the the Gallaudet University "Deaf President Now" movement.

Enough already people! We have a chance in front of us to catch up where we're 10 years behind! How many people still have TTY/TTD ? I'm guessing maybe 5 of my readers still actively use it (according to Deafread I get about 100+ per post). How many of you surf Youtube? I bet nearly ALL OF YOU used it from one point or another. Thankfully Google is working on technology to eventually caption all Youtube videos. Now that's a national recognized brand. Your local news station has 100's of video's posted on-line at any given moment. With all certainty not one of them is captioned!

Why am I ranting? Well a certain Vlogger DeafASLVlogs whom's page I frequent just egged herself. Literally to make a point towards NAD including the words "I am a person with a disability"  She made some good points and even had me thinking, This was until Jeff Rosen from SNAP!VRS who serves as general council and is deeply regarded in the Deaf community got into a bit of a flaming war on her website over he comments towards NAD.

Stop the train! let me off!
Here we are, two important people who are making an impact in our community wasting their time fighting over the words of NAD which yes clearly could have chosen better lingo to use. Meanwhile we're struggling to get Republicans in favor of HR 3101. We all need to make a concious effort to put down our cultural guns and get this bill passed. If we don't we're gonna continue to be set back 10 years.

Taxi!

Joey

Its friday!

Whooo! It's Friday!  

Gonna celebrate the lovely Francesca's birthday tonight at Kabuki. A guy's gotta get his iron, vitamins and mercury in the form of sushi. Maybe even a Sake Bomber or two.
for the weekend, I thought I'd share with you guys an awesome video a friend had posted on Facebook for the the movie "See What I'm Saying" written and directed by Hilari Scarl. The video is written for the film by the rock band Powder..
    




Enjoy!

Joey

Three things I'm thanksful for,

Here's just three things I'm thankful this morning,
1) Maxwell House South Pacific Blend: This is coffee for those who cannot tolerate the robustness of inferior coffee say "Chock Ful O' Nuts" and the strength of a fresh ground bag of Starbucks "Sumatra" blend.  It has a smooth flavor and with a little half-n-half and one half a package of Sweet-n-low it's all good!

2) The "Stop and Pour" feature on my coffee maker. Seriously the genius who thought of this deserves a spot in the hall of fame! We all know Americans are impatient folks. Well especially when it takes 6 long minutes to brew our coffee. It's perfection when you can pour your first cup while the rest is finishing up.

3) A sleeping child: It's nice to have a little time to catch up on your blog, even if it's categorized as a rant. I have a little time to post before the day officially begins and my lil' monkeypants wants to rule the kingdom :)

Today is Superbowl Sunday, My prediction? Saints 36 Colts 27
Please have fun and drive safely !!

Enjoy
Joey

getting creative:

A fellow blogger recently posted a great post on what we do with our hearing aids here. Some people think outside the beige box! While I'm not the bravest artist and paint all over mine with day glow colors. I'd take a moment to present my artistic vision of what hearing aids should have! (blackberry camera so sorry for poor quality)

Die Hard: with a Venegance!

Call me paranoid, but the timing of my virus couldn't have been worse. I finally hitting my stride on the HR-3101 issue and suddenly I'm shut off from the net. They can't silence me!

All kidding aside, let's get serious for a moment
 Mr Szoka of the Los Angeles Times! I salute you not only did you story here show you delved into a topic your probably not qualified to write about. Your own newspaper proved our point! on the front page of the January 27th online edition there was a video of a bomb scare  

In this day an age of technology and terrorism, this is an absolute vital piece of information to a citizen, especially late breaking and up to the minute. Now Mr Szoka please proceed to turn off the volume or cover your ears and watch the video and then report how much information you successfully obtained from it.

Information is worthless if it cannot be conveyed across channels. We Deaf citizens simply lack audio channels. Our point is not to force companies to foot the bill or to drag down business. I gave huge compliments to Google Auto-Captioning of youtube videos on my twitter feed. Interestingly enough if you did your homework, Ken Harrenstien the lead engineer behind Google's Auto-Caption is in fact Deaf himself. I wonder how long we would have had to wait for this technology if we had not taking matters into our own hands?

I don't mean to sound militant. but here's another cold hard fact!

Netflix!
According to Tech Crunch blog post

Netflix ended the fourth quarter with approximately 12,268,000 total subscribers, a 10 percent jump compared to end of the third quarter of 2009. Net subscriber change in the quarter was an increase of 510,000 for the third quarter of 2009.
The company earned $30.9 million, or 56 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009. That compared to $22.7 million, 38 cents per share, in the same period of 2008.

The title of the post? "Nearly Half Of Netflix Subscribers Now Watch Streams Online"

That's super, cool,  awesome if your hearing! You see, Netflix doesn't provide captioning and or subtitles that are actually already on the commonly rented DVD. They claim it's difficult to produce, furthermore it's due out this year after much protest from the Deaf community.

This is what HR 3101 wants to guarantee us the creaters of the original ADA act of 1990 probably never imagined 6 million people watching movies on their computers.

Requires every provider of Internet access service and every manufacturer of Internet access equipment, unless it would be an undue burden, to make user interfaces accessible to individuals with disabilities. Requires that apparatus that receives or plays back video programming and has a picture screen of any size be capable of decoding closed captioning, transmitting and delivering video description, and conveying emergency information.  (Source)

Earning 30 million dollars in one quarter, does adding closed captioning or subtitles to their streaming content qualify as an undue burden? 

Now Mr Szoka, Like you I can type a long winded rant. Unlike you I make sure my facts (if any!) makes sense and are not just industry centered!


Have a good one you all !

Joey

With my head spun around.

Slightly off axis this morning, I decided to go completely off topic..
    It's funny I'm a New England bred son, you could say Yankee's and I'll hurl a couple explictives at you. I eat my clam chowder white and it's the only acceptable way. I love quahogs and if you don't know what they are your not from around here. Though people tell me I have no "Bawston" accent I do occasionally through the word "wicked" In my sentences.
  In my life leading up to know I've lived

Mass: It's home period!
Conn: Mom hated washing the soil off my pants something about "red clay". Too many Yankee fans
Rochester NY: Great place for family, no so great place for sunbathing. Very transient Deaf Community.
Iowa: Don't ask!
Phoenix AZ: My current home, great place for sunbathing not so great place for clam chowder

 Perhaps now that I'm without a job, not having much luck in my applications.. Being a firm believer in following where God guides me. It's time to return home?
That much remains to be seen,

Joey

New Year, New Job?

          Some of my readers may already know, I was laid off by the State of Arizona recently. After nearly 3 year working at Phoenix Day School for the Deaf they decided that I was expendable in lieu of the fact my salary is not even paid by them (I am paid out of a contract with the state's Vocational Rehab) They still have not been able to explain this to me.
         Am I gonna cry? No, am I gonna whine? No, I took a deep breath ask for a steady hand in guidance from God and realized at this stage of my life it's time for me to go places. For me to obtain a career job, something that will support me and my new found family. It's a new year, a new decade, a new job! Now if only there was an automatic job-application filler-outer thingamajig

Happy New Job Year
Joey

Parenting

During the course of this blog, as I shape and mold the topics I want to write about. One clear topic that clearly has formed in my head is parenting. I know I may be new on the whole subject being the proud Papa of a 6 month old. So I will not go in depth about it or in any way criticize people's parenting skills. I certainly would not want to be on the other end of criticism. To start off this topic. I feel it is best to pay homage to the parents who have created who I am today. I grew up in a small town, values were the norm and my parents were excellent with them. My dad worked for UPS until his retirement. He currently still works part time as a van driver for a hospital. my Mom a former secretary and eventual housewife/craftaholic was active in our special needs system. Hell in my opinion she pretty much built the special needs system from the ground up. I still think my greatest advocate and teacher of advocacy is my mother.

My dad taught me that hard work, even if its not always what you want to do is vital, his bosses rode him constantly how to do this and that in terms of efficiency. Though he always took the time to properly care for his customers and often and christmas we "reaped" the rewards in form of gift baskets and cookies.

By far the single greatest value my parents taught us? On most given nights we will all come home from our respective whereabouts and sit around the dinner table and enjoy a meal that my mom would cook. We would have real conversations and they would listen and occasionally dispense with advice, warranted or not.
I feel today we have a lack of "Listening", We as families need to sit around a table for 30 minutes enjoy a meal and just listen. I know we don't live in a Brady bunch era, hell even the Simpson sat around the table from time to time. Perhaps if we started to act more like the Simpson our children will start opening themselves up. I hope that when I'm in my retirement and Diana and I enjoy visiting our children and grandchildren they will have absorbed the same values that my parents have passed on to me.

                                                                                                      Sedona Arizona 2009
For my parents who I love with all my heart
Thank you!