Breaking Down Myths – Most Deaf People Can Read Lips

Breaking Down Myths – Most Deaf People Can Read Lips

RJ Walters

From looking at my post counts here at RJsCorner I see that I am pretty much ignoring my number five pillar, breaking down myths. I need to pay more attention to that topic so this post will be about a deaf myth.

It’s true that people who are deaf sometimes can read lips but lipreading is in no way an adequate substitute for hearing. In fact, only 15% of the English language appears on the lips. So in reality, lip reading is nothing more than a guessing game.

In certain circumstances, I do get by with lip reading. For instance, if I am at a grocery store checkout I can lip read “Do you want paper or plastic bags”. But if I was asked “Did you see Dancing with the Stars last night”, I wouldn’t have clue. And then the usual “How are you?”s is easily lip read. In other words, if I can expect what a person is going to say I have a greater chance of lipreading.

Let me give you a little lesson in this. The letters “b”, “m”, and “p” look exactly the same on the lips. The phrase “buy my pie” just looks like the mouth opening and closing three times. I think you get the idea. Many syllables just don’t appear on the lips or tongue.

Let’s get some other obvious things out of the way. It is impossible for a deaf person to read lips in a dark room. It is equally hard to read the lips of someone with a big mustache. Another example is someone who is constantly moving their head, or even unthoughtfully looking away from the lip reader. You’d be surprised how many people don’t realize any of these things greatly hamper what lipreading skills the deaf person might have.

Finally, I want to give you a deep dark secret of most deaf people. We often fake it instead of really trying to understand. Since lip reading is a very tiring thing, sometimes it’s just not worth the effort. In those cases, we usually just nod our heads in agreement, or so the person thinks.

 The final attempt at the lesson for today is don’t expect a deaf person to really know what you are saying just because you move your lips. If you really want to get your message across, try an old fashioned paper & pencil approach. If you are tech savvy pull out your cell phone and fire up a speech to text app. Do whatever is necessary but don’t assume lipreading is the answer.

The Psychology of Insults

The Psychology of Insults

RJ Walters

You would not believe the number of things that come up if you google the word “insult”! They cover a myriad of topics about that word. And of course, you shouldn’t be surprised that they often mention the current Oval Office occupant #CO3. He does have the art of insult down to a T.

Many sources found from the search cover the psychology of insult. I imagine that Insult psychology has become a specialty degree now. Some other search results tell you how to react when you have been insulted. The Steve Job’s example of how to respond was covered in great detail. Some try to explain why people insult others. That seem to mostly involve insecurity and low self-esteem issues. That makes sense.

It is unfathomable to me how #CO3 managed to insult his way through dozens of others to get to the Oval Office. It is even more unbelievable how he maintains his base that way. The more he insults and lies the more they seem to support him. What kind of people are they???

Given the possibility, however remote it is, that #CO3 should survive until the coming political season, it will be surreal. I can imagine that the supply of “Insult psychologists” will be drastically below the demand. Any serious candidate would never even get involved in the coming madness without one on his or her permanent staff.

One of the ways the experts say to deal with insults is to just ignore them. Elizabeth Warren and several other recipients of recent tweet rants are already doing that. After all, the “Tweeter-in-chief’s primary objective behind his rants is to encourage reprisal. If he doesn’t get it, he will perceive the absence as a failure.

This-N-That Sunday

This-N-That Sunday

RJ Walters

This is the premiere installment of This-N-That Sunday and I have no idea where it is going as I write these words. I’m just going to fly by the seat of my pants so to speak. Forgive me in advance if it seems like a mishmash, but that is as it was intended to be wasn’t it? Let’s get down to business.

Global Warming

It is nice to see that the rest of the world is going ahead with their plans to confront global warming. Even though the political leaders now in charge of our country have deemed it “Fake News”. Many US businesses are addressing the issue and trying to figure out how to make a profit from it. One alarming thing about global warming is that the experts tell us that we will probably not know when we reach the tipping point until after it happens. That’s kinda scary, especially for our kids and grandkids.

The VA Hospital Problem

It seems that the VA hospital system has been in trouble most of my lifetime. They just can’t seem to figure out how to be good at it. Corruption and poor service is a way of life. I don’t know, maybe it is naivety, but I kinda think the solution is not that difficult to find, that is, if you put the political part of it aside. Fold the VA into Medicare. You don’t hear too many seniors complain about Medicare. It takes care of us and doesn’t flood us with the paperwork as private insurance used to do to me in my pre-retirement years. I know the folks who are against this solution say that vets have unique problems that are not addressed by a system for the general population, but I think that is a lame excuse! Just send them to a “specialist” in those areas. It’s like my family doctor doesn’t know how to fix all heart problems but she does know who to send me to.

Damian Hirst – Artist

I saw a segment on CBS Sunday Morning recently about a United Kingdom artist named Damian Hirst. I never thought of an artist being a multi-millionaire as he is. Most of the high price painting are sold after they are dead. 🙂 As documented at my site CrackingCreativity, I am pretty obsessed with the topic of creativity this year and this guy has it in spades. He is like me, kind of “out there” but I do love his choice of colors for his works. I haven’t done a lot of studying on the topic of art yet but I guess you would call his work avant-garde. Whatever it is, I Like it!

Would You Like To Be A More Creative Person?

I want to remind you to check out my latest project. It is a one-year journey to become more creative. I am willing to bet that we all need more creativity in our lives. Just click on the widget that is always on the right side column of every page of this blog.

See you next Sunday for another mish-mash. Eventually, because of this new topic, I just might be able to clear all the orphaned Post-It notes off my very cluttered desk. 🙂

Two new categories here at RJsCorner and another blog at CrackingCreativity! We certainly do embrace change, don’t we? I’ll have more to say about that in some posts next week.

Setting The Foundation For Techie Saturday

Setting The Foundation For Techie Saturday

RJ Walters

Here we are at a new Saturday and a new category here at RJsCorner. So, I thought I would use this first post to tell you why I chose this topic. The general view of us senior citizens is that we resist change, particularly things technology related. It is perceived that most of us don’t have cell phones and we have no idea how to use computers. Lord forbid trying to get us to understand how automated home systems work!

To that view of us, I say “BUNK”. Yeah, I admit that some of us might fit that description, one of them is occupying the house with me, but there are many of us who are still in the learning mode and willing to tackle something new every day. We might not seek out the very latest technology thing but we don’t shun them when we see how they might improve our lives.

Getting back to this new “Techie Saturday” explanation, I am going to give you a weekly lesson on the tools and apps that might improve your life, or at least give you have some idea what your kids and grandkids are talking about.

What makes me qualified to be your techie guru? Over the years I have had more Apple computers than I can even count. I will also quietly admit that there were a few years in there that I was, due to a corporate edict, a Windows guy but my heart and loyalty remains Apple. I am on my 6th cell phone. I played around with Android but finally went to an iPhone and never looked back. iPads are constantly by my side to jot down notes for post ideas or to just ask Siri a question that popped up in my mind. I had to wait until I was almost forty for the PC/Mac to be invented. After it was, I spent hours and hours programming my first computer, which was a TRS-80, to control the lights in my bachelor pad apartment. From the get-go, I totally immersed myself in the techie world.

Because I am deaf, I might not be up to par on music things and social media is to some degree still somewhat unexplored for me, but for the rest of it I keep up with the daily news and read a couple computer magazines every month.

Ending this initial post, come back on Saturdays with your questions and your learning hat on. I’m sure there are even some of you out there who can school me on some of these topics. I actually look forward to that. 🙂

Not Mine To Carry…

Not Mine To Carry…

RJ Walters

I’ve learned a valuable lesson in the last month or so. It is a lesson that I embarrassingly should have learned ages ago but was just too stubborn to accept. Much of my, and I’m sure many other’s depression, is from letting stuff weigh me down that is really not mine to carry.

There are dozens of stories every day about the idiocy taking place in the current Oval Office. I used to worried about it as if I could actually do something about it. I know from the first amendment that it is the responsibility of the press to carry the reporting load and I salute them for doing it so well in spite of all the trash-talk lies about them being “enemies of us people”.

For the last couple of weeks, I have basically ignored all news about the extreme narcissist in the Oval Office. I know from personal experience that if you really want to diss a narcissist the thing to do it to pretend he doesn’t exist. His whole life is about bringing attention to himself.

I still see the headlines about this guy in my daily feeds but I have not once in that period of time clicked beyond the headlines. He is no longer in my life, at least until I see something about the “i” word.

I have been a political junkie for 50+ years so it is just too hard to skip that topic entirely. I will continue to read and talk about the other branch who’s role it is to be the checks and balances for the executive branch. Of course with the current leadership in the Senate stalemate is almost guaranteed but at least the House will once again be trying to do their job. If and only if the GOP Senators grow a backbone and seek another leader will they be able to do the same. But that is a story for next Monday’s political post…

In 2019 I will work hard to shed of the feeling that I need to carry dead weight of other’s incompetence. It is simply not mine to carry.

Letting You In On A Little Secret…

Letting You In On A Little Secret…

RJ Walters

For this “Seeking Wisdom” Thursday I am going to give you some of my personal wisdom. Unlike some person we all know, I don’t think I am perfect but I have gleaned a fair amount of wisdom during my years on this earth. Much of it comes from the mistakes I have made, but isn’t that where the really valuable wisdom comes from?

I am letting you Millenials, and anyone else who cares to hear it, in on a little secret. No matter how old you get, you are still a forty-year-old but stuck in a decaying body. It doesn’t matter if chronologically you are in your seventies, you still think and sometimes foolishly act like you are forty.

Why forty? Well, that is the age where, in my wisdom, you become fully adult, if you ever actually become a full adult. 🙂 The teenage years of making stupid mistakes actually extends well into the twenties. After that, it is a learning process to find what the world and your place in it is actually about. By the time you are forty, you should have pretty well gotten all that stuff down. Of course, the years after that pile on the wisdom but forty is the point that your body starts on its long downhill grade. So you lock your mental psyche on that year.

I was never much of a Mark Twain fan but when we visited his hometown in Hannibal Missouri years ago I came across the words in the featured image above. Personally, I know not a day passes that I don’t feel young.

So, the next time you visit a nursing home, or other places where old people hang out, remember all those folks see themselves pretty much the same as you. You insult them when you baby-talk them or just plain ignore them. A lesson in empathy when it comes to old people is to go out of your way to say hi and recognize their presence. Why? Because someday, and sooner than you think, you will be the one on the receiving end of that transaction.

That is enough of my wisdom for now. I gotta go replenish my wisdom bucket now. 🙂

What do you think?