About SomewhatSilent
SomewhatSilent is an international community blogging effort centered around d/Deafness, hard of hearing, etc.
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March 31st, 2006 at 9:44 pm
w00t! It’s a somewhatsilent survey as well
1- What are you doing this weekend?
Giving a 2 hour long lecture at a conference.
2- How do you describe your hearing to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?)
Online I tend to be more honest about how deaf I am. In person I usually say something like “I’m quite hard of hearing”.
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading?
Dark, full of distractions, something like a really busy bar with very loud music playing.
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading?
Well lit, quiet, sitting facing someone across a table in a nice restaurant.
5- What size/color batteries do you use?
675 (blue) batteries
6- What type of hearing aid do you have?
Siemens high-power ones, semi-digital but with volume controls (which I like, use and need)
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid?
I like most things about them except the size (they are big)
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too?
Cool on the right adults. Not something I’d risk myself despite my fondness for all things purple.
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to?
No way. I like *not* wearing them when I don’t have to.
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well.
Without aids: big trucks and their roaring engines; with aids: the evil clanking sound of knives and forks in a busy echoing restaurant or cafe.
11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability.
Being able to take off my aids and enjoy deep silence. I think that’s extremely funky and it’s one of the very positive things about being deaf.
April 1st, 2006 at 8:31 am
1- What are you doing this weekend? Prepairing for art assesments in college for monday and meeting Keith
*sigh 
2- How do you describe your hearing to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?)
yup! online im more straight about it! in real life I say nothing untill I really have to, tho in friday ill be getting my BIG aids so i wont hide it then!!
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading?
My art history lecturing room! low lighting high celings and people sitting behind me !! and not to mention the wandaring teacher!! AHHHH!!
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading?
Bright, airy, face on to the people I need to see or sitting in a semi circle.
5- What size/color batteries do you use?
Brown
6- What type of hearing aid do you have?
Now i have in ear ones that may as well be balled up tissue they useless but on friday Im going Bilateral big and nasty!
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid?
Currently nothing it dont work, but it small thats good i guess!
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too?
ABSOLUTLY!!!! I really want blue or purple ones
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to?
Nope I have to wear them full stop! I avoid it at all costs I hate them but with the new ons ill have to wear them I need to for college at least
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well.
Dog bark and car horns!! wierd eh?!!
11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability.
I was told the other I was like a superhero! My lipreading across college is like a super human power and I laughed out loud I thought that was great!! to me its just my way of communicating!! but that girl thought it was a super power!! crazy
April 1st, 2006 at 2:06 pm
1- What are you doing this weekend?
Sleeping until people on withheld numbers STOP ringing my phone long enough for me to wake up - but NOT long enough for me to trip over kim’s legs and get to the textphone. I’m tempted to build a PBX and block all withheld numbers on principle grrr.
2- How do you describe your hearing to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?)
I say I have a severe mixed hearing loss for which I wear a hearing aid. I tend to tell people in person quicker so they won’t get sniffy when I say “say again?”. I guess I only tell online people if it comes up, or if they’ve read my profile.
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading?
Trying to lipread a moving target (lecturer) or in poor or distracting lighting - especially that which is pointing in your face! I find it extremely difficult to have a conversation with a TV on in the background, even if it is muted - tends to frazzle me pretty quickly.
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading?
quiet, well lit and somewhere I can control where the person is sitting. My neck turns more one way(to the right) than the other after 12 years of having that as my ‘microphone’ side.
5- What size/color batteries do you use?
675 (CP44) blue tabbed ones. 1.4V usually Zinc-Air and preferably Rayovac brand. PowerOne brand don’t quite cut it with my hearing aid - even the ‘Cochlear’ approved beefy ones. Want to check out Lithium 675s for cold weather performance at some point.
6- What type of hearing aid do you have?
Entific (Now owned by Cochlear) Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) Classic 300. http://www.entific.com/BahaProductDetail.asp?ProductID=79 I have a black one - I am so goffik!
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid?
I’d like 15-20dB more gain please, oh and the ability to integrate induction loop pickup within the aid and not with one of http://www.entific.com/BahaProductDetail.asp?ProductID=83 . Or if I have to use a dongle like that, an off switch would be nice (I pick up everything giving off EM within 2m of me).
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too?
Absolutely - anyone who wants them. Same with earmoulds (if you have to have slimy things in your ears might as well be colourful ones).
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to?
Arguably I don’t /have/ to wear them ever, so yes. I often turn it off/take it out when I’m at home and not needing it. I can’t understand speech without it, so if someone doesn’t sign I usually put it in.
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well.
My high frequencies are relatively good, so beeps and whistles aren’t bad. My problem is even the sounds I hear relatively well, I don’t reliably hear them when I’m not expecting them. It’s like I’m not wired to process much of the noise I hear - my brain just sends the data to the bin as it were.
11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability.
Being able to switch off is always a bonus. I don’t think I could be sane if I couldn’t switch the noise off.
April 2nd, 2006 at 10:24 pm
1- What are you doing this weekend?
I did nothing. Bought a new computer game and played that but bascially just enjoyed the fact that I don’t have school until Tuesday and no homework due until Thursday… its grand!
2- How do you describe your
hearingvision to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?)I usually end up explaining it the same way. I can see big things very easily but no details. The sharp edges that things are supposed to have I don’t see. My night vision is a little funkier. Ya know the static you get when you go to a tv channel you don’t have? I see that at night (photophopsias- light blobs) and with shapes sort of behind that… My colors are off too. I cannot tell black, brown or purple apart unless they are right next to each other, even then its a little hard.
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading?
I’d imagine that dimly/poorly lit rooms would be the hardest. LIke a bar.
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading?
I dunno. The idea enviroment for me to read is in a clearly lit room with the light coming from the side and falling on to whatever I’m trying to see…
5- What size/color batteries do you use?
N/A
6- What type of hearing aid do you have?
N/A I do however have heavy duty bifocol glasses and my 30x reading glasses. They rock.
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid?
The color on my glasses (the frames) is chipping off and I need to get new ones, but am a little broke and my eye doc has a 4 week waiting period for appointments….
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too?
I like them. But I like color. I think you should do whatever makes you happy.
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to?
I don’t wear my glasses if I don’t have too. However if I ever want to see something I need to wear the damn things….
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well.
I like trees. I love fall when everything is smattered with color, then the trees look blurry to everyone and I’m not alone.
11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability.
My eyes have taught me to focus better than most sighted people. There are things that I shouldn’t be able to see that I can because I can force my eye to focus on it. Thats kinda nifty. I read things better than my mom who has perfect sight. *smug smile*
April 4th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
barakta-
“It’s like I’m not wired to process much of the noise I hear - my brain just sends the data to the bin as it were.”
It sounds like it doesn’t send it to /bin, it sends it to /dev/null!
(Not sure if you’ll get that, but I know sara will)
April 4th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
karen: I was going to type /dev/null and decided no one would get it here - I guess I was wrong.
In fact it is probably more accurate to describe my speech processing like a network connection which has some dropped packets. Depending upon how awake I am I can cope with various levels of error/missing data.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:04 am
*grin* Good way of putting it.
Sometimes I hear sounds, but my brain doesn’t process them. Peripheral awareness that “sound exists”, but what it is/what it means/how it’s important to me? Hah.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:40 am
*is lost in fog of incomprehension” LOL – Natalya, you were right about at least one person here not getting it
April 5th, 2006 at 11:35 am
make that 2 people, and i am a computer nerd, or so i thought :p haha!
April 15th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Hey all,
Sorry..have been so busy the last few weeks working and apartment searching (too early too speculate)..so allow me to jump in for the questionaire:
1- What are you doing this weekend? Hmm…continue to finish up some artwork for my clients as usual and maybe get WarCraft for my Mac…hmm..tempting!
2- How do you describe your hearing to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?) I’d tell them that I’m hard of hearing and have to read lips.
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading? Nightclubs with blasting music or echolating walls with fading lights. And of course..while driving..can’t talk when I drive much..quite a bit of a challenge.
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading? With plenty of light and reduced background noise.
5- What size/color batteries do you use? size 675..
6- What type of hearing aid do you have? BTE Starkey..they’re okay..I prefer the older analog aids..more powerful than ana/digital versions.
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid? Sounds a wee bit diluted. Less bass.
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too? color? No thank you. But if I had my choice..it’d be black or flesh toned. Black is perfect which matches my glasses.
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to? I wear them almost all day and night but I take them off a bit after 11:30pm..silence is bliss.
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well. The whistling of the teapot..
11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability. Funky part? I sleep very well without my hearing aid.