If you read Insanity, here’s an update… I started to feel better last weekend… then Monday night, I get hit with the crud. Ay yi yi!
Insanity
My adventures of being pushed to the brink of insanity began in March 2003 on a sunny day around lunch time. On Fridays, I worked at home and this was a typical Friday except I was eight months pregnant.
While making the bed in my room, Paul entered and scared the hell out of me. One glance at his face and I began crying hard. I knew he had been laid off from his job. Little did I know this was the trigger of many hellish days in the next 18 months.
Design and Function of CIs
At first glance, this article looks like a scientific article that might not interest some of you (I admit such articles bore me and I’d rather read about it in a newspaper story or non-scientific magazine.). It starts off:
“Ludwig van Beethoven was 28 years old when he first noticed a ringing and buzzing in his ears. Soon he was unable to hear high notes from the orchestra; speech became indistinct. By 1802, four years after the first symptoms, he was profoundly deaf.
“Beethoven fell into a deep depression. He describes this period in his Heiligenstadt Testament, meant to be read after his death:”
For me there can be no relaxation in human society; no refined conversations, no mutual confidences. I must live quite alone and may creep into society only as often as sheer necessity demands…. Such experiences almost made me despair, and I was on the point of putting an end to my life?he only thing that held me back was my art … thus I have dragged on this miserable existence.
That describes how I feel up to the despair
Implant Recall
Advanced Bionics has issued a recall on unimplanted cochlear devices because the moisture in the circuity might cause them to malfunction. This is the second recall for the company since July 2002. About 440 devices are being recalled.
US company, Cochlear, is enjoying an 18 percent stock increase in Australia as a result. In August, the company had reported a disappointing full year net profit of $36.7 million, down 37 percent from the previous year.
Sydney Morning Herald
ABC News Australia
Bloomberg
ENG Postponed
Had to postpone today’s ENG as I’ve been sick (yet again) over the weekend. Still had the sinus infection from the surgery that never went completely away. Then, I was sick with some virus after I started taking antibiotics for the sinus infection. Pretty rundown and obviously in no shape to face the ENG. So pray I’ll be tip top by November 1. No excuses!
Nicaraguan Deaf
It’s not often I come across a story about deaf people and sign language in other countries. I remember when I saw Four Weddings and a Funeral, I enjoyed watching British sign language. Though I don’t know ASL, I could see a difference. It’s like when I am lip-reading and I recognize someone has a unique way of saying things. Sometimes I recognize the accent and others I don’t, but I know it’s from parts far away.
A linguist is surprised when she travels to Nicaragua and experiences the birth of a new language when she expected to see a well-developed sign language. People interested in language, deaf culture, and culture will fancy this article.
ENG
I am having an ENG (electronystagmography) on Monday as the next step to determine why I have dizziness and vertigo. As I’ve previously mentioned, it’s been a problem for many years. It was noticeable in high school, I believe. It has gradually worsened.
I used to be able to ride roller coasters. The last few times I went, I blacked out (not lose consciousness, but everything goes black) on the upside down ones and I got lightheaded on the others. Shame I’ll never get to enjoy a ride with my kids.
The ENG is “a measurement and graphic recording of the changes in electrical impulses created by your eye movements during different conditions. These conditions include changes in your position, voluntary and involuntary eye movement, and thermal (warm and cool air) stimulation of the inner ear. Electrodes will be attached to your forehead and around your eyes and the test takes 1 1/2 to two hours.”
Fun!
NAD Gets a New Face
National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has redesigned its Web site. It looks good, but as a member of the Web Standards Project… I can’t help be disappointed it uses tables for layouts instead of CSS. On the bright side, the site looks good in 
. Read the news item to get details of what has changed. [ Link deafnetwork ]
Captel
Have learned about a new device called Captel (captioned telephone) and debating whether or not I should use the Texas STAP program to try to get one or use the program to get a Sidekick II whenever more are in stock.
Captel “displays written, word-for-word captions of everything the caller says.” However, I am not sure how accurate the system is as I haven’t seen a demo. I’ve emailed the company who promptly replied. In asking how the captioning is done, the rep replies:
“When making a captioned call using the CapTel phone, the CapTel automatically connects to the captioning service. The captioning service is a separate center from the traditional relay center. At the captioning service, a specially trained operator transcribes everything the other party says into written text, using the very latest in voice-recognition technology. At the traditional relay center, the operator types what the other person is saying. At the captioning service, the operator revoices what the other party is saying. When using CapTel, the operator can be thought of as “invisible,” so to speak, because the captionist does not have any direct communication with either party.”
In asking if there is an on / off switch so that hearing users can use it, she replies:
“The CapTel phone can be used with captions or without captions. When the light above the caption button is lit, the phone is ready to make a call with captions on the screen. When the light above the caption button is off, the phone can be used without captions, or in other words, as a regular phone. People who use the CapTel as a regular phone may need to adjust the tone control and the volume control accordingly.”
To see a demo, go to the availability page and click on your state. Contact the individuals from that state to find out where you can see a demo.
Danger! Danger!
Sidekick II has sold out! -sob- I want to get one especially with the latest news from the company that makes them. Thanks for Joel for sending me the news item.
Danger, Inc., provider of the hiptop Wireless Solution, has incorporated improved its hiptop2 (also known as T-Movile Sidekick II) wireless communications device that will make it more useful for the deaf and hard of hearing users. The hiptop device (also known as the T-Mobile Sidekick) has gained popularity within this community for its messaging capabilities.
Based on feedback, Danger? new hiptop2 device includes a more powerful vibration motor than in previous devices. Danger also added software support for recurring or persistent notifications (notifications that repeat until acknowledged by the user).
Danger has also worked with MCI’s IP-RELAY.com and GoAmerica to create two Internet relay applications ? Wireless IP Relay.com, and Sprint Relay Wireless, powered by GoAmerica ? that will be offered at no charge via the on-device catalog. Danger’s catalog enables wireless carriers to offer third party applications and content to users for download on an ongoing basis.
To use the Internet relay applications, the user downloads the application to the hiptop/Sidekick, and selects the new icon to connect with a relay operator and make relay calls. The calls are standard relay calls with the operator and hiptop user interacting as they would from a computer, but with the convenience and freedom to make relay calls from almost anywhere.
<Meryl salivates>