Not Really a Digest Post – Sort of an Apetiser

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By BitcoDavid

"A-S-L" signed with American Sign La...

“A-S-L” signed with American Sign Language, combined Image:Sign language A.svg, Image:Sign language S.svg and Image:Sign language L.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First off, last night’s ASL meetup went well, except that Marsha Graham was not in attendance. Marsha suffered a bad fall yesterday in the early part of the day, and broke her shoulder. She’s currently in the hospital, and the road to recovery looks long and difficult. In order to respect her privacy, I won’t mention the name of the hospital, but you can send your well-wishes and good thoughts here, to DeafInPrison.com, and I will be sure she sees them. Simply comment below, and I’ll forward any messages to her. Marsha has been a tireless advocate for both the Deaf and HoH communities, and the wrongfully convicted prison population. She has been a wonderful asset to DeafInPrison.com and has been invaluable to me in my effort to learn Sign.  Let’s show her that we appreciate all she’s done.

One individual at the meetup however, was someone whom I hadn’t yet met. His name is Paul. He asked me if I was an engineer. I stumbled through signing back, “How did you know?” He said, “I read your blog.” It was awesome! Imagine that! somebody reads my blog!

Moorbey has honored DeafInPrison.com with an award nomination. We are the proud recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you Moorbey for the respect. It is mutual.

versatile

The Versatile Blogger award – Thank you Moorbey’z Blog. There are many great sites throughout the Blogosphere – tireless workers struggling to bring you the truth. Moorbey’z Blog is one of the best.

The Rules:  Thank and link back to the person who awarded you. Nominate 15 bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award and include a link to their site. Drop 7 pieces of info about yourself.

So, Here’s mine.

  1. I’m an auditory learner. When given information orally, I have an almost eidetic memory. Reading is my second strongest learning method, but I can usually repeat information I have learned aurally, word for word. It makes Sign very difficult for me, because although much of the information is imparted aurally, the bulk of what you learn, is obviously visual.

I tend to look at the world in X-Ray. It’s hard to explain, but when most people look at something like a car, they see 4 wheels and a box. When I look at a car, I see gears, pistons and pulleys. It’s true with everything. You see a vacuum cleaner, I see a motor, an impeller and pipes.

June supervises the boys and their friends, To...

June supervises the boys and their friends, Tooey and Eddie. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was a Leftist before it was cool. All the stuff that people think is new – like Feminism, racial and class equality, Environmentalism and animal rights – have been my fight for decades. Sometimes, it’s disheartening because it seems like we’ve made so little progress, and it’s taken so long. Other times, though – I can see how far we’ve come, and I feel good about it. For example, I can remember when it was actually surprising to see a Black doctor or a Female lawyer. I can remember when all women were June Cleaver, and all Blacks were Fred Sanford. We have made some progress.

I hate the word consumer. I far prefer the word Citizen. Where the former is castrating and countermining, the later is empowering. If you must use a word in reference to commerce, use the word customer. The customer is an essential element in the transaction of business. The consumer is simply a sheep. Cattle for the slaughter.

English: Ian Anderson and Martin Barre, Jethro...

Ian Anderson and Martin Barre, Jethro Tull in concert, Chicago 1973. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s the thing about being old. I’ve seen Jethro Tull, the Airplane, the Dead, Yes and the Who. I saw Genesis with Peter Gabriel, in New York at the Beacon Theater. I saw ELP when Keith Emerson did his flying Piano bit. I saw Elton John right after he got back from the former Soviet Union. My only regret is that I wasn’t at Woodstock. My parents wouldn’t let me go. OK, so kids nowadays have iPads and Wiis. But, if you haven’t seen Pink Floyd – the real Pink Floyd – you haven’t seen anything.

Everybody complains about being married, but I like it. I wouldn’t trade one minute of the life I’ve shared with my wife, for anything. She’s a wonderful woman and I love her.

When I was about 5 years old, my dad took me to see How the West was Won, in Cooper Cinerama. From that point on, I’ve had an ongoing love affair with cinema. I love movies. Even the bad ones. I just love movies.

15 Nominees:

Life in Color with Closed Captions (http://withclosedcaptions.wordpress.com/)

Lockup Reform (http://lockupreform.com/)

End Solitary (http://stopsolitary.wordpress.com/)

A Public Defender (http://apublicdefender.com/) – A lawyer that can write? Yup.

BitcoDavid’s BoxingBlog (http://bitcodavidsboxingblog.com/) – Sorry, shameless self promotion.

C’mon People or Sheeple? (http://menantum.com/)

Carpenter’s Cabin (http://lascrucescarpenter.wordpress.com/) – Misbehaved Woman’s hubby.

Donnatella’s Space (http://lady6x.wordpress.com/)

Undergrad Woman (http://pinkystanseski.com/) – Still waiting for a piece, Pinky.

Thought Snax (http://thoughtsnax.com/) – A bit different, but generally a fun read.

Just Cruisin’ 2 (http://cruisin2.wordpress.com/) – Cars, Dogs and some other stuff.

Femineach (http://feimineach.com/)

Any of Glenn Langohr’s sites (http://audiobookprisonstories.com/) – Glenn is an amazing asset, and an awesome writer. His story is one you need to learn about. While the rest of us were talking about prison life, Glenn was living it.

Solitary Watch (http://solitarywatch.com/) – James Ridgeway is the Granddaddy of this whole movement. He’s been writing about prison reform and solitary confinement since most of us were still in Garanimals.

Lipreading Mom (http://lipreadingmom.com/) – Be sure to check out the upcoming Stop Hearing Loss Bullying video from Lipreading Mom. BitcoDavid is editing it, as you’re reading this.

English: Medication used for obesity. Orlistat...

Medication used for obesity. Orlistat and sibutramine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lastly, there’s this. Suppose you wanted to lose those love handles, and diet and exercise just weren’t working fast enough. So, you decide to try something like Xenedrine, or any of a dozen different OTC weight loss aids. Now, suppose you’re on parole. Did you know that products like that can make you test positive for amphetamines? It’s true, and you could end up violated, all because you wanted to shed a couple of pounds. The jails are chock full of guys who ate poppy seed bagels, or took a decongestant, or ate some Xenedrine.

Yet the companies that market these faulty tests continue to push them on the public, and authorities such as P.O.s and even bosses, continue to believe in their accuracy – at the cost of your freedom and livelihood. Know this. You always  have the right to demand a blood test, administered by a medical professional.  Breathalyzers and piss tests are horribly inaccurate,  and all the more so when administered by inexperienced law officers and employers. Do yourself a favor. Say I want my doctor to give me a blood test.

Well, don’t forget to drop a line for poor Marsha, and Peace. Out.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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