I’ve seen my share of closed-caption typos, but I never remember them long enough to share since there are too many especially during live programming. It ain’t easy being a stenographer and I have high respect for them.
Codeman38 (who has a Proofreader’s Hall of Shame) points to I Am Error Happy, a site for closed-captions bloopers. Now, I’ll be motivated to watch for errors and report ’em. I love this kind of stuff, which is why I started the Gotchas. Man, I have about 150 of ’em to add to the list.

This year is coming to a close. It’s been a roller coaster of a year between having a baby, Paul getting laid off, getting the cochlear implant, and managing three kids. Health-wise, it was rough and I hope 2004 will be better and healthier.
I was invited to participate in a study that requires going to Southwestern twice a week at two hours each visit. That means about six hours of my time between the commute and the time spent there. The study involves free auditory training, something I need. But I just can’t sacrifice six hours a week when I’m barely staying above water. 🙁
Hearing-wise. People often ask how I am doing with the implant. This is what I say as of today:
I have adapted to it and use it as well as I did with my hearing aids. I still rely heavily on lip reading. New sounds or louder sounds I hear: the laundry washer and dryer from the living room when previously I had to be IN the laundry room to hear the sounds; hard-boiled egg buzzer; microwave oven beeping; Paul’s PalmOS alarm (just discovered this one yesterday); and the baby crying from more rooms than previously (sniff, sniff).
The doorbell is still a trouble spot. I can probably hear it when the TV is off, but when I am not expecting it to ring, I miss it.
The nuisances. I mentioned before that sometimes I forget I have it on or it doesn’t stay on because of my thick, curly hair. When I listen to music, I hook a cable to the behind-the-ear (BTE) device and the computer. I have to take the BTE out to plug it in since it’s small and not easy to find without looking.
With the hearing aids, I just put the headphones on, but it hurt sometimes as the headphones pushed the hearing aid harder against my ear. With the cable, it doesn’t hurt, but it pulls my ear down unless I use a paperclip like a lapel to hold the cord in place and taking the weight off the ear.
When I put the BTE on telephone, the buzzing sound is loud and awful, making it hard to hear anything on the phone even the dial tone. I have to adjust my head like a TV antenna to find a spot where the buzzing is not as loud.
Battery guzzler! The BTE takes three batteries as opposed to the hearing aid’s one. The body processor takes two double-A batteries and the rechargeables barely lasted 12 hours, so I had to change and recharge every day. The BTE batteries last about three days and aren’t rechargeable.
The one BIG plus! No more squealing or beeping. It was embarrassing whenever a person let me know my hearing aid was whistling. Oh, the person is means well. I was embarrassed that it was happening and I couldn’t hear it (sometimes it was high pitched or too soft for me to hear). More embarrassing was when I hugged a friend and it would squeal. No more of that.
With the hearing aid (before I got the digital ones, which warned me with a beep), when a battery was going bad, it would slowly get softer and sometimes I wasn’t sure if it was me or the hearing aid battery. With the BTE, it completely shuts off rather than gets softer. Can’t go wrong with that and you know the batteries are gone, gone, gone.
Have a wonderful holiday and may 2004 be peaceful and happy for us all.

A couple of weeks ago, I left for work… without the implant. It’s easy to forget putting it on because it doesn’t have those awful ear molds like hearing aids do. With or without the implant, you hard feel anything there. Plus, I went a few days without wearing it because I was sick and sound hurt my already poundnig head.
There should be a caution on the implant. “Warning: If you have thick and curly hair, the implant may or may not cooperate in staying in place.” Every time I put my hair up or down, I have to take it out while fixing it otherwise it falls out. On days when my hair is thicker because of humidity, it takes longer to get it to stick.
It’s scary when I am helping a kid in the bath as I worry that leaning over will make it just plop out. I did one stupid thing with the implant, but I’m too embarrassed to share. Move on to the next show and tell.

I read about Elliot in this article from the Denver Post. His mother is right about the statement that “deaf people can’t use regular phones or pay phones” being wrong. It was a blanket statement. There are still plenty like me who can’t use the phone… yet.
Anyway, the site talks about screening, candidacy, the device (he uses MED-EL), surgery, and all the stuff I went through except Elliot is an amazing and adorable toddler.

As one who uses a relay service to make phone calls, I prefer to connect with humans instead of dealing the mile long recorded-message hell. It takes a long time for the operator to type the entire recording and by the time it ends, the phone has hung up. 1-800-Annoy me now shares a few workarounds for going straight to a live operator. Is it no wonder Southwest Airlines is successful? They have live operators handling every call.