Big thank you to AMC Theatres for carrying rear window captioning and open captioned movies. AMC captioned movie information is here and NCAM/Motion Picture Access (MOPIX) info is here.
Yesterday was the first time I attended a movie with rear window captions. I’ve been to open captioned movies twice at AMC Grapevine Mills. The nearby rear window theatre I went to last night was AMC Valley View in Dallas.

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One student had never talked to Santa and she’s nine-years-old. Deaf students talk to Santa through sign language. According to the article:

Before he saw Santa use sign language at school, first-grader Michael Shoemaker never really understood his significance to the holiday.

Isn’t there more to the holiday than talking to Santa?

Lyrics Magic is a music player for Windows Mobile devices that displays lyrics while the song plays. It supports Rmp, Mp2, Mp3, WMA, Mpa, Ogg, Midi, and Wav files. To view lyrics, put the same-name lyrics (.lrc) and text (.txt) files into the same folder as the music files.
While I’d love to try this, the problem is that I can’t find any lyrics for the songs I like. 🙁 Most of the songs, I believe, are from newer groups and singers I don’t know.
You can learn more about it from this article. Search for lyrics here or check Google’s search results.

Mark Cuban’s entertainment company, 2929, Entertainment is hoping to change the ways movies are distributed by releasing first-run films on DVD the same day they hit theaters as reported in WSJ.com – Will ‘Bubble’ Burst the Movie Business?
Low-budget movie, Bubble, will be available on DVD and digital cable on the same day it hits the theaters.
‘course this scares producers and movie theaters because it could kill the movie going biz. Even though I rarely go to the moves, I don’t want the experience to disappear for my kids, other family members, and everyone else. Furthermore, it hurts the economy and employees for movie theaters to go out of business.
The other issue… will these be captioned? If so, it’ll help those who are deaf, hard of hearing, and others that rely on captions enjoy seeing the movie at the same time it comes out instead of waiting a few months before it comes out on DVD with captions.
Where would grown ups and kids go for a date other than a restaurant? Kids are not old enough for bars and all grown ups don’t want to go to bars.
Where’s the middle ground?

I can’t imagine how different my life would’ve been had instant messaging hit the scene while I was a teen. Sure, I discovered online chats in my late teens, but it was no where like what you see today as explained in Hearing Instant messaging reaches out and touches deaf people.
My family discovered Prodigy before I moved away for the first time to Washington, DC. We used the service to email and stay in touch with each other.
I also met Paul online through a bulletin board system (BBS). Back then, I hated to tell people how we met because it felt geeky and embarrassing. Today, it’s no big deal. He moved to Washington, DC about nine months before I could join him. We stayed in touch by chatting as his modem connected with my computer. Unfortunately, my roommate at the time had to have call waiting and we were constantly disconnected. That doesn’t happen with the current tools. We could’ve saved a bundle of bucks on long distance.
I envy the kids today as they have all these tools at their beck and call. But then again, I might’ve not gotten out enough if I had these tools.

Deaf woman finds homes for deaf dogs has an interesting statistic that I had never heard before. According to the article, “deafness is more common in dogs with white (or merle-patterned) coats.” Apparently, Dalmatians are on the top of the list with 10 to 12 percent born deaf.
My dog, a beagle, who passed away last year, literally lost his hearing overnight due to an ear infection. This didn’t happen until he was about 12 (he was 13 when he died) and it completely changed his personality. He became an aggressive and scared dog as he didn’t have one of his two most important sense to rely on anymore (the other being the sniffer).
My daughter wants a dog, but we hardly have a backyard anymore or the time to truly welcome a new family member. It’s a shame since she’s almost 12 and it’s a good time for her to enjoy a dog before she takes off for college.

Kids make fun of each other. That’s an accepted part of childhood and growing up. It’s unbelievable what kids in 6th grade say nowadays. Words I’d never heard people say until at least high school. No matter what I do, I can’t prevent my kids from learning things too young. As a parent, I do what they can to enjoy their childhoods as long as possible, but fuhgettaboudit. They learn from their friends. Too well, I’m afraid.
In high school and maybe even middle school, some boys would say to me, “I want a fig newton” without using their voices. If you don’t get it, slowly say it in the mirror and read your lips. They also said, “O-live oil.” Funny.
They also made fun of my religion probably more than my deafness, which was kind of nice in a weird way because they didn’t see me as deaf as much as a person with a different religion (and most have a religion).

Since the state of Texas had a special offer on Captel phones for its residents at $99, I got one. It’s great for making calls, but receiving calls are a pain.
Making calls: Just pick up the phone and dial the number while ensuring the caption button is lit up. You can also hear the person speak, something that I’ve never been able to do in the past as it would just be TTY beeps from the operator. It’s a wonderful way to practice listening on the phone since the captions follow the person’s voice and speeds things up if I figure out what the person says.
There is still a delay between the person speaking and the words appearing on the screen. After all, typing is slower than speech. But I recommend the phone for those who like using Voice Carry Over and plus it helps those with a cochlear implant practice listening on the phone with help.

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Last Friday, I did something out of character. I spontaneously drove to downtown Dallas to join the UpYourBudget Treasure Hunt. I wrote about it here and here. From a deaf perspective, I ran into two challenges.
One, if you find the UpYourBudget sticker, you have to call the number on the sticker. I figured my chances weren’t great, but it never hurts to try. After all, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. The second one: a complete stranger stopped me on the street and started talking. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand him. It was an uncomfortable situation. Finally, I just had to walk away from him while he kept on talking. I hate doing that, but I had to get out of the situation.
When I go shopping, I don’t like it when sales people start talking to me especially when they’re behind me. While in high school, I was trying on clothes in a store and Mom was there with me. Apparently, the sales person was trying to talk to me from the other side of the door. I heard talking, but it didn’t sound directed at me.
Mom came to my door and realized what the sales person was doing. She explained the situation. The gal admitted that she thought I was a snob for not responding. So I’d rather they didn’t approach me. I know where to find them if I get to the point where I need help.

Since Tuesday was election day in the U.S.A. and I saw this article from New Zealand that talks about deaf on juries. Sign language interpreters are making it possible for the deaf to do jury duty.
I remember a few years ago reading about a court that had technology so a deaf jurist could read the text. That’s my kind of solution. I’ve been called to jury duty about five times or so and got out every time because of my deafness. No, no, I’d be glad to do my patriotic duty. The court didn’t have a way for me to follow along, so they let me go.
This is where some say I should learn sign language. Then all the court would need to do is bring on an interpreter and it would help in other situations. Well, first of all, getting an interpreter isn’t always an easy process.

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