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My early years

My mum emailed me this recently and I thought I’ll put it up. It was certainly interesting to read about my early life of which I have very very vague and unexplained memories - so this does answer some of the questions I’ve got with what I remember. Before you start, for those that did not know, I was born hearing. The cause of my deafness is still not known. And yes I was extremely difficult - well - suddenly going deaf, sheer frustation in the lack of communication and all that which take over so I have much to thank for my parent for putting up with all that rage back then!

So, I started reading Silent Alarm and the first thing that struck me was how you, Joe have no real knowledge of the processes of your early years. We all have our own emotional memories, and memories of events, but I’m not sure you know why some of the things that happened, happened; and that is some thing you are entitled to know. So my dearest Joe this is your story. I will leave the emotion out of it, I’m sure now you are a father you will understand that the things that hurt your child hurt you, and I don’t need to explain that.

Just before you were three, in the summer you were slightly poorly and went to bed for about half a day with a slight temperature, this caused no alarm and you recovered very quickly it was only later that you seemed to ignore us when we talked to you , wouldn’t come when I called you but as you were always wilful to be honest I just assumed you were being an independent pain in the butt. Eventually it became fairly obvious that it was a bit more than that. A visit to the doctor diagnosed Glue ear and a small operation to insert grommets would solve the problem. I had no way of explaining this to you so I know you found the hospital visit very scary. I sat beside you and when you woke up I called your name and you didn’t respond - not a good moment. The doctors were confused but decided that maybe they should redo the operation, by this time you were not having it and I had to give you the pre-med at home to try and calm you down!

Again the operation was a failure and we were left in a place with no answers, no explanations, apart from a theory that it might have been a mild attack of measles, and no one offer any real constructive help apart from putting us on the NHS tread mill for assessment and education. You and I Joe went up and down to London to visit various experts who tested your hearing and IQ, needless to say they confirmed one thing, that you were extremely clever! These trips were a nightmare for both of us and I guess we probably upset quite a few commuters on their journeys home!

The local authority offered you a place in a nursery school in Watford for children with hearing difficulties so I duely dragged you over I think you lasted about four weeks before they told me that they couldn‘t teach you and the best place for you would be a residential school in St Albans . You were four years old …………..I told them to shove it and marched out never to return .this meant we had to find somewhere for you and this was why we ended up in whitchurch with you going to Bedgrove with Mrs Campball.

After that things calmed down a tad as we now had the support of the unit at school and apart from the constant visits to the ENT dept at Stoke Mandeville to get new ear moulds and hearing aids because you had thrown them away in the garden … I got very good at finding them! And the time when you wrote to your consultant to tell him off for not explaining things to you so we had an afternoon with him putting pretend grommets ito pretend ears! Life had some sort of direction until we got close to your 11 birthday I was told by the head master at Bedgrove that they were not going to put you in for the 11 plus and you would automatically be going to a school in Milton Keynes. I knew as did your teachers that you would pass the exam but the local government didn’t want to face the problem of how to teach you in the local grammer school, and they weren’t prepare to pay for you to go to Mary Hare . At around the same time there was a lot of talk on the radio about parental choice for schooling … nothing ever changes……..I was so angry that I phoned up Radio Four and told them your story they asked me to go up to London to be interviewed which I did, they then asked Aylebury County Council if they would like to reply, they declined . I got Mare Hare to let you take their exam even though they had finished the exam process for the year, which of course you passed and the local council agreed to fund you schooling without a fuss. The rest of course you know.

I had no guide lines there were no support groups, and I probably made mistakes but I did everything I could to fight your corner. The one thing I really really wanted for you Joe was for you to meet someone amazing who would be able to really talk and understand you, for you to have children, and most of all to be happy. Well sometimes wishes get granted you have the most amazing family Kat is simply the best as are Cadhla and Padraigh; so go on and be happy.

Love you all

Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Perfecting the art of being deaf

Reading this The Sickness of Deaf Awareness Week: Imagine A World Without Sound at Grumpy Old Deafies…I started to comment…but it became a blog post and so is trackbacked to the site as a comment instead.

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Imagine a world of silence?

Wonderful! It’s so peaceful and I don’t have to listen to the wife’s nagging anymore!

Nor do I have to listen to the bullshit that’s churned out by the RNID as usual…

£50 million and they are unable to actually employ deaf people in senior positions. Seriously I might as well go and be rude here. They can take their bloody campaign and stuff it up their own fucking arse. I’m sick and tired of being pitied. I’m not a fucking object to be pitied.

Hello?! I’m well educated, I do well for myself, I have a job, I’ve got a family, and amazingly enough they do very well in school, top of class and all that, both of them. One of them is in Irish speaking school even, so that’s 3 languages one is learning and if it was up to RNID, they’ll paint me as a jobless piece of shit that’s struggle and planning to kill myself all the time whining non-stop about the loss of my hearing from when I was 3 or 4. Oh and my extremely mild tinntius would be painted as something that’s extremely painful and is 24/7 and all that…

For fuck’s sake RNID get your fucking head out of your fucking arse. Being an organisation that is run by hearing people - they have no idea how much it piss off deaf people. Sure these people doing the PR stunt might be thinking they’re such great folks doing a “good thing” for us poor bastards but why can’t they just stop and ask themselves…where’s the bloody research into this? Why not…you know…ask the people they’re supposed to represent instead of being all “yippee dooyaa! we’re such good hearted folks, those poor basta….err..deaf people must LOVE us for doing this for them”

No I don’t. I think you’re a bunch of pricks for doing it. There ya go, that’s my opinion. You’re just raising money to pay for some overpriced staff that know fuck all about deafness apart from running a business that doesn’t actually employ deaf people at a senior level.

What’s worse is that they does some token gestures that keep some deaf people saying year after year “oh but this time they’re actually starting to listen! we must keep it up! Join RNID and increase our voice!” - no it’s sheer bollocks. They’ve had years to perfect the art of BEING DEAF to the people they claim to represent. Ironic that….

Edited: Tony have done a good satire song here

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Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is OUT NOW!

Get it while it’s hot :D Just click on image above.

Slow broadband? Want printed free CD’s? Get it posted to you.

And here’s a damn good reason why I use Ubuntu…

Many thanks to all the people that have done a lot of work on the latest Ubuntu release, they are simply just too many to name, but every one of you all have done fantastic work.

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Buying an tropical paradise…

I’m gonna be rich. So I’m looking for a tropical island that I can live on just like Richard Branson…here’s how I am going to be so damn rich so that I can say to all of you “screw you all! muhahahahaha”

From The Desk Of, Mr James Owusu.

The Regional Manager
Ghana International Commercial
Bank,Accra Branch Ghana.
West Africa.

Dear Friend,

My name is Mr James Owusu . I am the Regional Manager of Ghana International Commercial Bank, Accra branch Ghana. I write you this proposal in good faith; I am married with two lovely children.

I am a man of peace, and have sincere respect for human feelings and opinions. I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and I as the Regional Manager of Ghana International Commercial Bank , Accra branch Ghana it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city, Accra at the end of each business year.

On the course of last two years , 2006 business report, I discovered that the branch in which I am the Manager made 9.3million United States Dollars ($9,300,000.00) which my head office is not aware of and will never be aware of. I have placed this funds on what we call Escrow call account with no beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, so my aim of contacting you is to assist me receive this money in your bank account and get 30% of the total funds as commission.

There are practically no risks involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, it will be simply a bank-to-bank transfer, and all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of these funds who made the deposit with my branch so that my head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account under few working days.

If you accept to work with me I will appreciate it very much as you are the first and the only person I am contacting for this transaction send me an email as soon as you receive this message ,so that we can go over the details.

Thank you in advance and may God bless you and your family.

Sincerely,
Mr James Owusu.

err…where the feck is all my money now? My account’ve been cleaned out! And I see I’m subscribed to about 2,000 porn sites as well on top. Bah humbug…

Seriously though - most people would see the email above and think - surely no-one is daft enough to fall for it? But sadly yes there are always a sucker born every minute. Billions of spam is sent out - less than 0.01% probably responds to it - but those 0.01% = money and so keep the spam going - sending a billion spam email cost little and yes they actually make money off it.

I’ve got a decent spam filter where I don’t even get any spams delievered to me - however nothing’s perfect so sometime one or two get past. I then use the email client’s inbuilt spam filter to finish off the rest - for this I use Evolution or Thunderbird. And never every allow your email client to download images in emails - some of these that appear in spams is used to verifiy your email address.

Finally - whenever using any online services - there are two ways you could do this: IF it’s just a temporary thing - one off access - then never use any real email addresses - first of all use BugMeNot to see if there’s a username/password you can use. If there’s nothing then use a “throwaway” email address - this is a temporary email address that is just created to get emails but does nothing more - Mailinator is excellent for this - you just make up an email address ie - idontwanttobespammed@mailinator.com and then go to Mailinator and type in the username part (idontwanttobespammed) and you get immediate access to the inbox of that account and see what’s there. Nothing more to be done really.

And now we end with the honorary Monty Python spam song…

Monty Python - The Spam Sketch

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Stalking freaks

This man stalks me. Even copies the same theme as me. Hence the new look. If you meet him in a street…scream and hit him with your handbag. If you don’t have a handbag, you should. Nick one and avoid the police and then hit him. Don’t forget to return the handbag. Avoid police again while you’re doing that.

Have a nice day.

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Personal Attacks

I get fan mails. Yes I do! Here’s a really really beautifully written and ever-so-lovely one from Andy Arthur [/sarcasm]:

It’s nothing to do with your antics in the BBC and everything to do with the nasty message you posted in Deaf Wales you fucking piece of shit. That’s the first and last time you step on my toes professionally asshole.

I was invited to that group because I am trained in assisting disabled people into IT and I have experience in setting up online forums. I was in that group in a professional capacity you walking lump of excrescence and now you have fucked me up professionally all over fucking Wales. I am getting copies of your emails to those people libelling me and when I get them I am going to sue you to death you cunt.

This is not about stupid fucking websites any more you’ve damaged my image in Wales for no good reason.

I’m also going to contact your employer and ask him if you have been using companty property for the purpose of bullying Mervyn. I have in any case encouraged Mervyn to go to the police under the Prevention From Harassment
Act 1997.

You’ve gone too far this time Jones and I’m going to teach you a lesson.

My “nasty” email he’s talking about is from the Deaf-Wales mailing list. The mailing list is for deaf people in Wales (and anyone that’s involved with deaf people/in deaf culture/deafness in any way whatsoever) to talk about anything affecting them in Wales. Andy is from Cornwall. Which isn’t in Wales. It’s in England. Nor is he Welsh.

It started when someone posted about the HEFB clause 14 (4)(9) and RNID to Deaf Wales. Andy posted a few emails telling people in Deaf-Wales that it’s irrelevant to them and that they should keep it on localised topic. A few people then posted to Deaf-Wales telling him that it is relevant since it would affect people in Wales and frankly it’s “their” mailing list. Andy is there as an invited guest (by one of the member - MM). Andy continue to tell people that they are “wasting” their time and to keep it localised

I then posted my email stating basically that the mailing list is for people living in Wales - it “belongs” to them, and the HEFB Bill will affect people in UK, which includes Wales and Welsh people are more than entitled to discuss whatever they wish, and that it’s not for an English person that don’t live in Wales to dictate what should posters in Deaf-Wales should talk about.

This is just like if I as a British bloke (or if you’re an Australian reading this I am aware the correct term is whining pommy bastard :-)) joined a mailing list for Australians and I then tell them that they should discuss this or that - I’ll get kicked out faster than the speed of light and what’s more I’ll agree with that kicking.

Hell, here’s one from the moderator of Deaf-Wales which say it better than me:

> So while we are all putting our rights on the line I think I have a right to ask that you keep the forum on topic.

No you do not have any right. Andy you do not even live in Wales, and I’m not sure where you profess to have this right from? Quite frankly I find some of your posts demeaning and patronising. You are not respecting those people who live in Wales to create the space they want to, and if you really must think you have the right to be here just to sit back and let it happen instead of jumping in at every possible opportunity. You do not know everything, despite the illusions of the contrary, and let people in Wales create their own space.

You did not create this group, thus don’t even know the intentions behind it. Yet you seem to be qualified to make all sorts of representations as to what this group is or is not. Since you do not live in Wales, you have little / no right to be here, and I will remove you if you’re causing disruption for the sake of it.

Sarah as a Welsh person living in Wales wanted to bring this issue to the group, so let her.

That’s basically what my email which was posted on Thursday January 17th, 2008 was about and what Andy is so…hmm…annoyed about…with me…for saying the same thing - but the moderator’s email was posted before mine (although I did not see it when I wrote my email - if I had I wouldn’t have bothered emailing since the above said it all)

The kicker? Much much later (a month!) and completely irrevelant to the above I posted to Deaf-UK-Tech (an wholly different mailing list on completely different topics) a wee joke about a new RNID member joining the list. Andy then posted to Deaf-UK-Tech attacking me for that and as group policy of the mailing list does not allow personal attacks, I emailed directly informing him that my email was plainly a joke, however for his benefit I would send another email advising that it was a joke just in case anyone else didn’t get it. I sent the another email to Deaf-UK-Tech as promised.

I should point out that while Deaf-UK-Tech is usually unmoderated but Andy’s emails to Deaf-UK-Tech are moderated due to the fact that it’s not the first time he have attacked other members of the group so I didn’t allow that one email through. I got the nasty email above as a reply as a result. It was sent on Friday March 21st 2008 - just over a month later from the events from Deaf-Wales…jeez what a long time to keep stewing over something…

Well all I can say is…if Andy is so professional and so experienced and so wiser blah blah as he claim to be…I fail see it above - it’s certainly not a professional email.

Finally for Mervyn - I’ve only ever engaged him in the sense of if he argue one side, I’ll argue another and vice versa - this isn’t “harassment” - it’s called an online debate and Mervyn (aka MM) does this with many many other people) - your last line in the email “You’ve gone too far this time Jones and I’m going to teach you a lesson.” could be considered to cause alarm - is more along the line of harassment really strictly speaking since it’s a threat against me.

Personally my concern is if Andy have done the same to anyone else and managed to frighten them - throwing out claims of suing and legal threats can look scary to anyone else after all. Please note that this is purely my own personal view and does not mean that he have done it to anyone else.

My advice to Andy? I suggest reading this article about controlling anger - it might help? Sending emails like that is just silly and not professional.

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Mud is fun

before

before…

The Aftermath!

The Aftermath!

I’ve no idea what is it with Draco (the dog) and mud…as soon as he find a large “puddle” oozing with mud, he’ll immediately jump into it and roll around. He was actually much more muddier than in the photo…I encouraged him to take a swim in the lake by pretending to throw something into it ;-) It at least wash off the worst of the mud.

My son doesn’t look happy in photo…I assure you all that he was enjoying it a lot!

This was a 10.6Km trail (6.6 miles for you imperial folks) around the lake.

Draco is well worn out (a rare state to get him into…he have far too much energy sometime(!))

a well knackered dog

He’s bigger than this…but he still insist on coiling up tightly on the front seat. The Wife™ does tell me I must clean the car afterward…fair enough…next time I’ll get a car with brown seats then.

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Quick blahs for 2008-04-02

  • @fgaughan: i read it all from my Evil Genius trademarked secret volcano lair. #
  • @alisonb: Check the link in GOD to stopeugenics on summary - it’s broken #
  • @alisonb and others - if you can - always get external hdd with firewire. Don’t use up cpu and is faster. Beats usb anytime. #

Quick blahs for 2008-04-01

  • @alisonb: are you affected by the adsl outrage @ eclipse? Just checked service status and there’s an outrage if you are. Gotta love 3G a … #
  • @saltbar: no i do mean outRAGE :-) i get asked that all the time #
  • @alisonb: eclipse say it’s being fixed and some customers can reconnect now. Give it a try. I can’t but ymmv #
  • @alisonb - i wish. Working on documents instead. Downtime is good at that! #
  • @alisonb - might be a bigger problem but they should explain what. Got internet now though :-) #
  • Don’t have an allotment and no plans to. Ideal garden for me is grass and trees etc. That’s it. No flowers. #
  • A garden is for having fun in not screaming at kids "get off the flowers!" bugger that :-) #
  • @deafpower - Nope. Plenty of allotments i’ve seen are treated as 2nd garden with flowers etc. Think flower shows! #
  • oh yeah my gran turned hers into a herb garden. No vegs! Smell fantastic though :-) #
  • @alisonb - correct that’s why it took them so long to fix…it’s not worked on by real geeks ;-) #

Quick blahs for 2008-03-31

  • @capyboppy: no…err oops #