This is actually about all issues related to hearing loss.
I have always wondered what would have happened if I had gone deaf without any support. I am beginning to discover that now. I went deaf two years after I was married in 1986. My now departed somewhat new bride was there to help me with the transition into a world of silence. We learned sign language together so that we could be there for … Continue reading For The First Time…
This post like many, came to me in my daily morning shower. Over the past many years I have come to realize that I am a “morning” person. Most of my creative juices come during the first five or six hours after awakening each day. Before I got out of my shower, I had already formulated the storyline for this post. I usually try to … Continue reading Until It’s Gone
I talk frequently here at the new RJsCorner about my deafness and autism. Many of the posts are about how I deal with all the obstacles that are a result of those two conditions. For this post I am talking about one of my superpowers that wouldn’t exist without both my deafness and my autism. That superpower is when I am In The Zone. When … Continue reading In The Zone – My Superpower
If you live in a retirement community, especially if it is also a Lifecare community, you have got to get used to the frequent presence of ambulances. Especially, if you are like me, and happen to face the delivery/pick-up entrance of the facility. I have heard many comments from future retirees about not wanting to live with only old people. There are a few alternatives … Continue reading RetComLife #14 – You Have Got To Get Used To The Dying…
If I were a bird, I would be a very rare sighting indeed! I am not “one among many” in most regards. Let’s look at this a little further. I am deaf. That makes me a rather rare character. According to the statistics, less than 1% of the population is without ANY hearing. I went deaf at about 40 years of age. When that happened, … Continue reading If I Were A Bird…
I don’t know if the people who invented it knows how valuable text messaging is for the deaf. It is a Godsend. It eliminates the need for that 100-year-old technology that the TDD provided. The problem is that very few businesses do texts as a normal part of their customer service. That adds to the stress for those of us who are deaf. With my … Continue reading There Is A Tool, But…
Sadly, there are many Vietnam vets who are stuck inside their war experiences throughout their life. I’m not one of those, as I flunked my draft physical due to hearing loss and therefore avoided that tragic consequence. Where I am stuck in that time is the music I loved. When the 1980’s came around I was losing my hearing at a pretty rapid pace and … Continue reading I’m Stuck In the 1960’s and 70’s
Sometimes I cling to the margins with my fingernails, and sometimes I stomp on them with both feet. I haven’t been in the mainstream for so long I don’t even realize what it is anymore. I have been deaf for going on thirty-five years now and believe me that requires some serious margin clinging. It just amazes me how the mainstream has no idea of … Continue reading Deaf People Cling To The Margins
The above photo was taken at the 2019 Mississinewa Battle Reenactment. When I took the picture my heart sunk just a little and sadness overcame me. This is not the first time that has happened. In fact, I have felt the same thing hundreds of times in the past 20 years or so. In my youth I very much enjoyed music. It was not until … Continue reading Life Stories – The Sound Of Music
This post is a continuation of a couple of weeks ago where I tell you about the labels I have put on myself during my life. Some were beneficial and some were not. If you missed the first post click here. In 1986, just before my 40th birthday I labelled myself a married man. Just as I had completely given up on the idea of … Continue reading Labels We Attach To Ourselves – Part 2
I thought I would use this Saturday’s post as a little lesson in deafness, mine at least… 🙄 When I started my engineering life in 1970 I had at least some functional hearing in my right ear. It was enough for me to pass in the hearing world. Ironically, my first assignment was about measuring sound and that involved an anechoic chamber as shown above. … Continue reading Deafness = Sounds of Silence… Nah
I have come to realize that a significant portion of my viewers come through the WordPress Reader and therefore have never seen my About pages. Knowing where I have come from is pretty important to understanding my daily posts. So, I am with this post sharing my About bio. About Me I am an Independent thinking highly functional person who is deaf and has some … Continue reading About Me…
I am a list maker and planner, that is who I am, and due to my Aspie traits I put logical thinking above most emotions. In that regard, I realize that I will very likely outlive my wife by possibly several years. She is seven years older than me and in precarious health. When we moved to our current homestead twenty years ago she made … Continue reading Considering My Options For Future Living
Because of my Aspie traits I have lived a good portion of my life feeling I am alone in this world. No one else seemed to see the world as I did. So, when in college in the 1960s I came across the words
I am a rock I am an island ... And a rock feels no pain An island doesn't cry.Continue reading “I Am A Rock, I Am An Island, I Am An Altruist”
Ok, I will admit that this post is really not about fake news, but it is about untruths that seem to be so prevalent in the world today. That is what this post is about.
Continue reading “FAKE NEWS!!”
From my “Introduction to Journalism” class I took in college I learned that the headline is the primary reason most stop and read an article. I learned that lesson well it seems. 😏 I’m not saying that having Aspie traits is awful, in fact I think they have enriched my life in more ways than they have hurt. But I am saying that another condition combined with Aspie traits makes life almost impossible at times. That is what this post is all about.
Continue reading “There Is Only One Thing Worse Than Being An Aspie…”
The myth in the title above is surprisingly not that uncommon among our population. I have come across it many times in my life. But this particular myth is not limited to just those who can’t hear. That is what this post is all about.
Continue reading “Myth – Deaf People Have No Intellectual Capacity”
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 … Continue reading Breaking Down Myths – Most Deaf People Can Read Lips
I want to continue on from my 10 Pillars post of last week with a personal story about the second pillar which is “You are not alone”. As I have mentioned before I want deaf in 1988 at the age of forty-two, but I had been hearing impaired for years before that. I lost hearing in one ear during my early college years in the … Continue reading Coping With Deafness And My 10 Pillars
I know I have been more stressed out in the last 22 months than I probably have any time in my life. It is stressful to see the possible annihilation of our democracy unfold before your eyes. It is pitiful to see the Oval Office occupied by a compulsive liar, cyberbullier, and narcissist. I couldn’t have imagined that possibility just a few years ago. I … Continue reading Listening To Your Favourite Music…
“You are not alone” is one of my Ten Pillars of life. The thought is that no matter what adversities you face, there is always someone who has had them before you and they can help you learn how to cope. Asking for help is a hard thing to do for many of us. We just don’t want to admit to ourselves that we sometimes … Continue reading The Cutting Room Floor
I like old cars and I am kinda proud of passing on some of my experiences in life here on RJsCorner. Yeah, there are things, actually quite a few, that I would like to have been different but even the undesired things are an important part of my life’s experiences, that looking back have made me who I am. If I hadn’t been deaf I … Continue reading Turning Back the Odometer…
On my post a while ago entitled “Life’s Lesson” I said there were ten things that I have learned in my life that I aim to put forward for your consumption here on RJsCorner. It is important to me and I kinda think it should be important to each of us that when we come across myths about living, we should do what we can … Continue reading Breaking Down The Myths About Deafness
Because I am deaf I have a game I play quite often when I am around people, especially those I don’t know. In my early years of deafness before closed-captioned TV was widely available is when this thing started. Since there was no sound to what I was seeing I made up my own storyline. It would have been interesting to discover how closely my story … Continue reading Imagining Their Stories…
Yesterday’s post was all about spin and how we too often try to reimage something because makes us uncomfortable. It was primarily about the fact that we need to dispell the myth instead of just re-naming the condition. Today I want to talk about why this topic is so important to me. As I have often said, being deaf is a major part of my life but … Continue reading Dispelling Myths vs Reimaging
Too many times we simply don’t like the name for something and to fix that we give it a new often indistinguishable name. Don’t like the word retirement, give it a new name. Give it a more positive spin. Call it the third trimester of life. Maybe that will offset the negative connotations associated with this time in life. Spin, spin, spin… On a lighter … Continue reading Reimaging, Spin, Spin, Spin
I know one of the reasons that we have the current incompetent in the White House is that too many white men are afraid of becoming a minority. They are afraid of what will happen when their say is no longer the dominant one but instead one of many. For the most part white men have been dismissing minorities for decades and don’t want that … Continue reading What’s It Feel Like For a White Man To Be A Minority??
I realized that it has been quite some time since I put out a post primarily about deafness. But the title of “chapter 92” is kind of made up. 🙂 This particular chapter is the result of an episode on the CBS News – Sunday Morning about being in an anechoic chamber. First off the program mentioned is not really about “news” but more of like … Continue reading About Deafness — Chapter 92
The title above may seem strange coming from a deaf man but I really do think we have to stop using sign language interpreters for public announcements. Its time to move on to better ways. Way better ways… The facts show us that the ASL interpreters who are often behind a public official announcing something is understood by less that 20% of the people who … Continue reading Stop Using Sign Language Interpreters…
This post is part of my continuing study of the Autism spectrum and particularly Asperger’s Syndrome. I am stuck between two worlds in my life. I am a deaf man who lives almost exclusively in the hearing world but neither the hearing world or the deaf world considers me a homeboy. I am seldom around other deaf people so I can’t speak for them but … Continue reading Caught Between Two Worlds….
I wanted to pen a post on a topic most of your are probably unfamiliar with and that is closed captioning. I’m pretty sure most of you have at least a basic idea of what that is but for those of us who are deaf it is a lifeblood of keeping up with keeping up with the world. Without CC our world would be a … Continue reading About Closed Captioning (CC)…
I have freely admitted here that I suffer bouts of depression, especially in the winter months. I just can’t seem to shake that to any significant level anymore. It is just a part of me now. I was a “thoughtful” kid who dreamed a lot but it was not until I went deaf almost 30 years ago now that depression on any level creeped in … Continue reading I Think I Would Be Better Off…
I seem to be ignoring my creative side lately in favor of other things. I promised myself I would not do that so I will make an effort in the coming days to bring it back. I believe that variety is the spice of life, no I don’t mean that in a sexual sense, but I also believe that creativity is a big part of … Continue reading My Creative Side…
I want to forewarn you that this post is going to include some ranting and will probably offend some people. I am sorry if that offends you but I need to speak my mind on this topic. People who don’t come here often probably don’t know that I am deaf. I went deaf about thirty years ago from a congenital disease. Before you ask, no … Continue reading Celebrating Our Disabilities and Our Personal Failures…
They say that deafness is a hidden handicap in that it is not an obvious affliction. Maybe I should wear a sign 🙂 . Sometimes when I tell people I am deaf it doesn’t seem to get through to them. What many do is to apparently just speak louder. For those who I have difficulty reading their lips,and that seem like most people, I hand … Continue reading Maybe I Should Wear A Sign…
In fact, Raven tells Oprah that she rejects the notion of labels completely in all areas of her life. “I’m tired of being labeled,” she says. “I’m an American. I’m not an African-American; I’m an American. “The remark seems to catch Oprah off guard. “Oh, girl,” Oprah says, shifting in her chair. “Don’t set up the Twitter on fire… Oh, my lord. What did you … Continue reading Don’t Label Me …
RJ's Corner 