Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #261

WHAT I ENJOYED THIS WEEK . . .

  • Delivering a presentation on Laura Redden Searing, who was a Deaf reporter during the Civil War, and a poet. She interviewed so many soldiers and politicians that she is often mentioned in Civil War memoirs.
  • THE NAP I TOOK ON THURSDAY
  • I told you guys that in my Advanced Deaf Studies class we are assigned to create a transcript of specific class.es. The teacher liked my transcript; he was laughing at his own lecture and how I phrased his ASL into English.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

  • Planet Fitness purposely does not have scales with which to weigh yourself.
  • Andrew Clemons was a Deaf artist who could not find a job, so he invented sand art. It’s not that neon stuff you see at fairs. Check it out; that’s one grain at a time set in a jar — no glue, just pressure.
  • I am considering switching from typed reviews to video reviews. I would post them to YouTube reviews, which would still be shared here, to practice speaking on camera. Would my readers still follow me if I shared videos instead of text, or is that not accessible for you?
  • Rogan is a Deaf book reviewer. Recently, he wrapped up his 2023 in reading, and his post (has closed captions) is a hoot.
  • Both my father in law and Biscuit are watching the Super Bowl for Taylor Swift.
  • I accidentally had this post scheduled for PM instead of AM 😑

WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK

  • SE7EN (1995). I thought this would be horror, but it is not. More like gory-ish crime? I can see how it inspired aspects of Saw and Taking Lives.

GROUP ACTIVITIES THIS WEEK

  • Music Bingo Date Night — we didn’t win diddly!
  • The Valentine’s Day party hosted by my college’s ASL/Interpreting department. We had a competition to see which table could put together cupcakes and make them into one picture of an animal. We took 3rd place with a frog.

REACTIONS TO MY REVIEW

Reactions to my review of In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider: largely, we got off track talking about Pride and Prejudice and whether Jeopardy! exists in Australia. 🤣

FORTHCOMING WEDNESDAY REVIEW

SHOPPING AT THE LIBRARY PHOTO

35 comments

  2. Haha re your last review post being sidetracked. Sorreee.

    Love that your lecturer liked your transcript of his lecture. I bet it was entertaining. Loved that you liked your nap too.

    I would probably watch your video review if you posted it here BUT it would be difficult because I usually read blogs in a communal space, often while watching tv, so putting sound on would be difficult. And, I would have to remember the things I want to comment on as they wouldn’t be there on the page for me to check. But I would try as I think you would do it well.

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    • This is good feedback! Another blogger occasionally does video reviews, and I also find that I have to wait until I’m somewhere I can turn on the volume. I was curious to see what people would be interested in.

      I love that my review was “hijacked” for other discussions. That’s my favorite thing about books. My mom and I have our own little book club, and oftentimes, we make connections between the book that help us better understand our own lives.

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  3. I would try to keep up with video reviews, but I often catch up on blogs while I’m on the bus, so it would be harder for that. And like Sue I often scroll up to check something when I’m writing a comment, so I would need to rewatch the video to do that.

    Transcribing a lecture is a pretty good assessment task! I can’t think of an excuse to use it for my student, though it would at least mean that they showed up…

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    • That’s good feedback about where and when folks go blog hopping. I was under the impression you walked to work, but now I see you ride the bus. I’m jealous of Europe’s emphasis on reliable public transportation.

      Are you having issues with students not showing up?

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      • I mostly do walk to work, but I get the bus into the city centre or to the supermarket several times a week. Public transport is variable – I have very good transport links where I live, but that’s part of the reason I chose to live here. I have friends who live 25 minutes’ drive from me that I see once a year because they have such poor transport links – it takes me over three hours to get to their house on public transport!

        We’ve been having issues with students not showing up ever since covid. All our lectures are now recorded for accessibility, which is all well and good, but it means many students don’t bother turning up for in person sessions because they can just watch them back – thus missing out on all the in-person discussion, explanation, opportunity to ask questions etc.

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        • This past week I interpreted the International Students chapel, meaning after worship songs, they had international students talking about their experiences in the U.S. One young lady mentioned that something she misses deeply about home is reliable public transportation and walking cities.

          I can’t believe the students are allowed so many absences that you notice, especially in a nursing program.

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          • Technically all our lectures and seminars are mandatory because of the nature of the programme, so when we notice someone is a persistent non-attender they do get a telling off, but there’s not a lot else we can do about it! If they don’t engage at all the fitness to practice process kicks in, and we are getting stricter with that – but all their work is marked blind, so it’s not as though we can fail them for non-attendance.

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            • Don’t colleges do allow failure for non-attendance. At the just school where I taught we had to report attendance daily online. That report was somehow connected to financial aid. Students who aren’t attending don’t get more government financial aid because they’re considered a poor investment.

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  4. I enjoyed the Andrew Clemons story, that would be fiddly work! I don’t know how I feel about video reviews – more pressure to get hearing aids! – but I’ll give them a try.

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    • It sounds unanimous that folks would have a hard time having the right place to watch a video review, so I’m sticking with text reviews. I was just putting my feelers out there. Maybe I’ll do one ONCE in a while, just for the practice, but we’ll see.

      Andrew Clemons made several of those sand art pieces UPSIDE DOWN. There is no glue, just pressure and placing one grain at a time. Some of them are now a big blurry because the sand has shifted, and there are only a few in museums. He invented this artform because no one wanted to hire a deaf man.

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  5. Jealous of that nap you took on Thursday! Love your little frog too.

    I’m a fan of the posting youtube links via my wordpress blog, so I would definitely watch your youtube videos – sounds like fun. Also very interesting about Planet Fitness! I’m surprised a gym of all places would do this, but I don’t believe much in weighing oneself anyway (what’s the point, a big poop will change it anyway)

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    • I was on a massive struggle bus, and that nap was like turning myself off and on again.

      Can you guess whose idea it was do pick a frog out of all animals?? 😀

      So far, most people have said that the read reviews while in public places, which makes it a challenge to watch a video review. I understand that. I, too, find myself waiting to watch your video reviews, which I hadn’t considered when I wrote this post.

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  6. Yay for naps and cupcake frogs! What an amazing artist Andrew Clemons is! Sadly, most of the time I probably would not be able to watch a video review for various reasons. But I might be able to pull it off if it has closed captions.

    On a side note fyi, when I moved my blog to a new hosting site, the post subscriptions did not transfer, so if you had one, I’ve been posting but you won’t have gotten any notice of it.

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  7. Hey! I’ve seen the movie you watched! I watched it at at a friend’s house when I was 12 and then got in so much trouble and was never allowed back to that friend’s house!

    I would watch a video from you because I like you and your reviews but in general written reviews are easier for me. Both in the way my brain works and the fact that watching a video immediately attracts the attention of my children!

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    • I was happy to see SE7EN because there is a meme of “What’s in the box?!?” that I’ve seen forever but did not know. I love that the friend was booted for life. That’s some strict parenting, LOL.

      Consensus is that I’m going to stick with text reviews because folks can’t watch videos when they typically blog hop (in public, on the bus, etc).

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      • I mean, I probably wouldn’t be thrilled either if one of my kids watched Seven at that age but I don’t think I’d react so strongly. It just taught me not to tell my parents what I did at other people’s houses!

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        • My first experience with that kind of thing was a sleepover just two miles away at which the birthday girl, age 12, informed us we needed to walk to the corner at a certain time because she was going to buy cigarettes and pot. How do some children go so wrong??

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          • Did you go??? I remember sneaking out at a sleepover around that age because it started to snow and we wanted to play in the fresh snow! I still have never told my parents!

            It’s unbelievably sad to me when kids that age are already seeking after alcohol or cigarettes or whatever. Because that doesn’t just happen out of the blue one day. One of my goals as a parent is to help my kids be kids. I want them to enjoy childhood while they are still children.

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            • We did go to the corner, but the person only had cigarettes, so they bought those. I did not smoke them, but several girls did. It just tells me that parents need to start taking to their kids younger than they think. The statistics on when children first encounter drugs, sex, alcohol, etc. trend surprisingly young.

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              • Would it have been easy for a group of kids to buy cigarettes at that time? The rules in Canada have been quite strict ever since I was a kid so buying cigarettes would have required an adult or a fake ID.

                We’re starting to have some of those conversations with Pearl, not because it’s an issue yet but because I want her to hear things from us first rather than elsewhere. It feels a bit weird, like we’re introducing these concepts to her but I want her to hear about such things from us first and know she can talk to us about them.

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  8. Fun about the cupcakes!

    I saw Seven in the theater! Back when I was young and watched anything. Traumatic! No thank you, Older Laila says.

    I would watch a video but it would be something I’d circle back to when I had time to watch it and listen to it. Reading a blog post fits in easier to my schedule. But you do do! It’s your blog!

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