Goodbye Norma Jean...

What a sad, sad day. The little surprise that I brought home was short lived as we found out today that our apartment complex doesn't allow pets. It takes a few to ruin everything for others and our little kitty meow-meow (a name i'm partial to as it's very practical and descriptive) will need to find a new home. Odds on favorite is that she returns to Dallas but if you are looking for a cat who seems to enjoy getting in between your feet, climbing your neck as you play video games, or sleeping in your lap as you get hungry and want to check the fridge give us a call.

Fancy Pants

Not winning any prizes for art photography anytime soon but here are some pictures of our new pieces that we picked up today from the frame shop. Had a little moment of panic when the tree frame's backboard was upside down (as annoyance at the frame shop grew) and then the big "Doh!" moment, we could move it ourselves. We're so special. Apologize for the flash on the second one, it was that or without the flash you'd have the pleasure of seeing me hanging upside down from the tree. Your choice. I figured you'd get the gist of it.

Pictures and the such...

A few pictures of the past couple weeks, Fright Town (thanks Brittany) and Brynn after chopping her locks at Revolution.

Naming contest

No matter what Brynn says we are not calling her our baby. Today we (and by we I mean that after much deliberation and leaning upon her husband) got a cat today. She's and her brother got dropped off at Bill's clinic when they were just babies and ever since the Fullmer's have been taking care of the precocious two. She's the baby and runt but has really taken to Brynn and is really laid back (aside from biting me on the chin...). Brynn is looking through cat names and it's probably going to fall on a girls name but we'll give you a shot. Any ideas?

They are just cracked out!

It's amazing at what the cell phone companies DON'T get it. No matter how cool the phone I DO NOT want to pay for data plan on a phone. It's not really worth the thirty bucks a month (a 30% increase in our plan) to squint down at the screen to check my email. I admit there are other features and apps that are more rewarding in their use of the internet but when a device has wifi built in and I can grab it for free in a lot of places it makes shelling out that much money less attractive by the minute. And it's too bad because there are a number of times (and whole lot more coming this holiday season) that I would have happily forked over the money needed to upgrade a new phone before my contract ends. The world of smartphones and their consumers are changing and the phone companies need to get real with it. I guarantee you that if they would make their plans more attractive (ala T-Mobile is right now with Project Black) that I would have something that told me the time, made phone calls, and played a few games in my pocket right now. And they would have my dough but instead I will reward companies who work for my dollar with my hard earned cash... or save money for school, whatever comes first.

From the first day of ASL 103

I find it odd that the fourth row down, out of only six is where the first guy sits. Only a handful are here in a room dwarfed by a sea of women but my choice to si the furthest up necessitates the question as to the feeling of my brethren. I wish I had a private way to post, to keep record of what's inside. going into a higher class (ASL 103) I have many misgiving of what is expected of me. As a CODA I fear that my ill treatment of a language that I was given will lead to may different hardships brought on by my neglect. Through a lack of use and the circumstances I have been in I no longer have the confidence that my hand will be able to overcome the bad habits they have learned, the lethargic nature which lulls them to sleep, that the fluidity of sign will be foreign, a stranger in their eyes.

Music

It's been a long year when it comes to the world of music. I remember talking to a companion of my about how our love of music would change post mission. That in the scheme of things it would take less importance as we were blessed with other things in our lives. In some respects that has remained true but little by little the hunger for new music grows. It's not that in that in the days past i've loved music any less but I can't say that I have it playing all the time absorbing the intricate details of each song until it becomes a part of me. I've been making headway thanks in large part to OPB radio's Livewire and In House, Saturday night is a great time to listen to radio. In particular i've tried to expose myself to Portland bands a little more because Brynn and I want to go to more shows but i'm of the mind that I don't want an unknown quantity. I need to know at least one of the bands before venturing forth and buying tickets (being poo' college students and all). One thing i've been drawn to is more of a country/folk aspect, twanging guitars and all. I heard the band Blue Giant the other day and though i'm not completely enthralled with them I did really fall in love with down tempo, easy going guitars. Which reminds me that I need to pick up Monsters of Folk which includes Portland's old M. Ward long favorite of mine. Speaking of music I just posted a very long archive of my old blog, the Wonderful World O' Magic. It was about the time (2005) that I really got into a lot of the music that i'm into today forming the basis of my tastes today.

Feel like a reporter

Well update... cooler heads have prevailed (for now). As many of you know my connections run deep underground and one of those peeped yesterday that they actually knew someone who worked for HP and may in fact deal with customer service issues... so now I bide my time to see if we can get it resolved. All a brother wants is to get his computer fixed the first time.

Am I going to far?

Maybe. But in the end all I wanted to do was to get my computer fixed, to have no problems or worries whether or not i'd be able to get through with a session on the computer. Arrrghh. But I drew up the letter and will be sending it today. Much like the other guy's claim it's asking for a fair amount of money in order to restore the money we spent on this product. I think we know that machines fail, that is to be expected. But when under warranty we should hold companies accountable to their word, that in a year (or whatever the time frame) you have the warranty that aside from your own negligence things should be restored as is. No if, and, or but. Will keep you posted.


HARVEY BIRDMAN, my hotshot lawyer with AVENGER his legal secretary

I hate Hewlett Packard

Well somewhat ironic since i'm typing on an atrocity of an HP but consider this the last product I but from a company that outsources tech support to incompetent liars in India whose male managers call themselves Hilary, stick me on hold forever, and won't send me a stupid battery because I DO NOT WANT VISTA on my computer. That's right because all they want me to uninstall Windows 7, roll it back to Vista all so I can perform a battery check with their stupid program that crashes. Fact is that after spending a week in California this computer should have been running in tip top shape and there is no reason that I should have to run to Best Buy to fix a problem that still exists. After all the Geek squad even backed me up (writing me a little note for my records) and we know how much they know!
Ok that's the rant, onto happier things.
Started at SoccerPlex today and it's good to be working again. Just had too much time on my hands and I think it's going to be a nice fit. The owners having just taken over an established business seem to have a lot on their hands but from what i've seen things are real healthy and in fact growing which makes my previous experience valuable but also opens up possibilities for me to learn so much about the business side of things.
I think I may bring it to HP's attention though, with a nice little model letter I found on Gizmodo.

We made it our alright..... just barely

Muhahaha to our humble internet abode where we rest from our adventure at FRIGHTOWN the scariest place known (to reside in the Memorial Coliseum aside from Bill Walton's Locker.) It was a fun little excursion into Portland's darker side filled with wicked clowns, floor creepers, and giant cyclopes we made it out alive to give it a six skulls out of ten.
There were three haunted attractions. The first two were pretty freaky especially for Clifford who wet his pants almost :) Ok not really it was probably me who wet my pants. The scariest part was probably Clifford going through a curtain before me and the putting his hand out to grab me! Pretty freaky bowie.. The last attraction however was the lamest I've ever been too. It was very light and full of plastic, non moving monsters. It was very disappointing and made me wonder whose great idea it was and why no one told them it was LAME.
But on top of that they sucked us dry for twenty bones each (apparently their stupid coupons aren't valid on weekends) and made us wait in line for about an eternity and a half. The good thing was they did send people out through the line who would occasionally draw a shriek or two. As the Halloween season draws to a close (crazy!) I think we'll make plans to go to Milburn's Mansion next year (outside of Hubbard and winner of best old school website,) because they have Haunted Woods where my own creepy crawlies will make sure to take the spook out of me.

Clifford and Brynn

Good to be back

Got our laptop back... FINALLY! It was a bit of a surprise since it shipped the 21st we were counting on it getting here the 27th but we're not complaining. The computer still is carrying the little "consider replacing your battery" which merits concern (and a phone call on Monday) but one thing they seemed to repair was the jet engine that had become the exhaust fan. This thing ran so hot and blew so hard it must have been overheating but since I had seen laptop coolers for sale and had heard from others about HP's running hot I thought it was the norm. It's been an interesting experience buying my first laptop because i've always subscribed to the desktop power club but now that laptops have really closed the gap I thought it was time. Will I buy another HP? I don't know. Was not impressed with the customer service (especially since it was in India), I had a difficult time really communicating though we were speaking the same language.

They treated me as though I knew nothing and I had to call them out before repeating the same exercises over again (really doesn't anyone take notes there?)
We're going to a Haunted House tonight....so excited!

Deaf for a Day

I can’t say that in my wildest dreams I could have imagined what the loss of sound would mean to me. In some degree I have always had contact with the Deaf community ever since I was born because my father grew up Deaf. I’ve met many of his closest friends, been to potlucks, watch movies in closed captioning (and subsequently got in trouble for turning the off). My dad is my hero, someone I admire very much and not because he had to overcome very difficult challenges but because when it comes down to it, he is the best dad a son could ask for. In reality I never saw Deafness as a barrier between communicating with him though it provided many experiences unique to growing up as a child of a deaf adult (coda). There were times where I was able to enjoy the music as loud as I wanted, sneak up on him, and wonder what magical powers he possessed in order to catch me doing something I wasn’t supposed to (still in awe today). But from the perspective I gained in a short twenty four hours I can see what one might not have the opportunity to share in and at times it makes me sad. Not because one is limited in the ability to enjoy life even if they are Deaf but because there is so much I would want to share with them, to make them understand precious things that I value in my life. I don’t why it is that some people are called upon in this life to be Deaf or hearing, rich or poor, Caucasian or black but it the grand scheme of things it’s what we personally make of our lives that matters. Who we are and what we mean to others that will be remembered. It is up to each of us to make our mark upon this earth with the time we have upon this mortal plane. With that I would like to share a few of the observations I made while spending my day Deaf.

First and foremost one of the things I lost was the ability to easily communicate. This is the desire I think of every sentient being, to commune with others of a like mind, to share in thought and feeling the challenges that life present. A while back I was sharing with my dad a few of the things I had been learning in my Deaf Studies class when I asked him about his thoughts about his Deafness. One of the things he mentioned was that in his life he had not had much of a desire to hear things but that hearing would allow him to do some things better and that communicating was the most prominent thing that he wanted. Speech plays a big part of my daily life and in the lives of those around me. As soon as I wasn’t able to hear what my wife said I began to realize that I in fact had lost one of the tools that I needed to access the support of those around me. It became readily apparent in the car when again and again we couldn’t because of the barrier of Deafness share simple things. Because we haven’t had much time together my wife, Brynn, doesn’t know much American Sign Language (ASL), so as she dropped me off at school we were limited to a brief exchange of culminating in one of the few signs she has down (both in signing it and reading it), “I love you”. This would be one that we frequently came back to as we spent the many hours together trying to make sense of what one another’s gestures and body language. I could not bear it. I had chosen this particular day for many reasons and among them was that it would afford me time to spend at home with my wife and that we could share in the experience of being Deaf. This is something that my dad, along with millions of others have to deal with on a daily basis, it is their reality. Yet the strain of out not being able to bear our souls to one another was weighing down upon us and grew increasing frustrating and though we couldn’t talk, I could see. One exchange during dinner was particularly disheartening because we weren’t able to simply recount our days, something that has become a habit whenever we sit down to eat dinner. Now granted, being able to bless the food in ASL was really special because it reminded me of the very sacred experiences where I was called upon to interpret at church and being able to show that to Brynn was very special. As dinner progressed and I tried everything; finger spelling, sign, writing, gesturing, what would have taken maybe a minute or two progressed to a seemingly all night affair, through dinner and games communication crawled at a snails pace as we searched for the best way to bond. Ultimately we gave in and watched a favorite TV program of ours, “Flight of the Conchords”, because even though we subscribe to Netflix and are able to stream thousands of movies through our television very few of the movies are subtitled (typically foreign movies). In fact a while back when in ASL class, we had been shown the website for the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), I noted that one of the posts linked to a letter that the NAD had sent the company in hopes of calling them out on the lack of captioning and options that are currently being offered for Deaf people to receive the full value of their Netflix subscriptions. This is something that I personally have encountered in the past when showing my dad how great Netflix was and the things that could be done the deal breaker was the fact that the site does not caption the movies that it streams, and that is a shame in this day and age. Because of this we watched our DVD of “Flight of the Conchords” because our present options were limited. Even then from my past experience with the show what I viewed was only a shell of what I had known. Flight of the Conchords is a band as well as a show and most of the humor is in fact derived from the music that the duo creates. There are subtle nuances to how the music interplays with the acting and music that really make the show dynamic and as we watched (because I had asked Brynn watch an episode with no sound) a lot of the humor was lost in translation. After only two episodes I had grown somewhat weary of missing out on whole lot of what was being voiced and played through the speakers.

I felt one of the objectives of this project and paper was to help us to visualize what the daily interactions of a Deaf person with the world at large. For me personally that includes using the phone, riding the bus, and going to class most days of the week. It means spending time with people who are not as patient or loving as my wife and who may not have the time to slow down and communicate with me. This is why I made sure that the time I spent Deaf would be one that included a necessary excursion into the outside world. I do have to admit that I choose to go to my Deaf Studies class on this day because I wanted to be able to have to rely upon the use of Sign Language as my main mode of communication and because there are interpreters who use ASL and my teacher is Deaf I knew that I would able to successfully accomplish this endeavor. Luckily I had a guide in how to act Deaf in the classroom, Chewy. I had observed him at time throughout this term and had gleaned some ideas of the things that a Deaf person would need in order to set themselves up to be successful in the class. Above all else would be the need to receive information both from the teacher and the students. I had observed that Chewy always sat in spot near the front where he could see both the teacher and the interpreters who communicated the students and teachers remarks to one another. He also was very attentive moving back and forth between interpreter and teacher, which I cannot say that I am. In my experience I often doodle between taking down notes and sharing in class because it helps me to concentrate on the speaker while occupying some truant part of my mind. In doing so I rely upon the one thing that I would not have in being Deaf and that is the ability to hear speech. I made a few mistakes though the course of the night including being one of the last ones there because when I arrived there were few seats available and the ones that were open towards the front did not provide the best view of my teacher as he signed. Often he found his way towards the computer and behind the monitor when he presented a new slide and that would obscure his signs. I don’t think I will pay a dear price for it in the long run but if this was the situation that occurred week after week I am not sure how I would be able to keep my grades up and receive the information that I needed to succeed. I also suffered at the hands of my greatest weakness when it comes to knowing ASL and that is reception of signs. Growing up I never was able to fine-tune that because my dad is able to speak. That is one of the reasons that I have chosen to take this class is because I feel in order to overcome this weakness I need to expose myself to as much sign as possible and a variety of people who sign. Because as I have found out in a short twenty-four hours, communication is everything, it is how we interact with one another and the world and if I can help facilitate communication between the hearing world and the Deaf world I think the world will be that much better. We will have access to one another’s souls and be able to share what is special about each one of us.

Snooty people

So I haven't posted in awhile because our laptop was acting out and we had to send it to the company to be fixed. So all we have is our iPod which is really annoying to type on but I figured I would suffer through it since it's still going to be awhile till we are reunited with our computer again.
This week has been a great one so far... I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off which isn't good for our funds but it's been good to have a lot of time with Clifford. Monday we visited some art galleries which was really fun and in the first one we bought two prints! Our first pieces of art! It was a larger store and the workers were pretty snooty which made me want to change my mind and not buy anything. Since we weren't buying several hundreds of dollars worth of stuff we got crappy service and had to wait forever for someone to check us out!
Tuesday we went out again and explored Lake Oswego. They are a bunch of fancy pants too!! We ended up going to ikea and Clifford saw the magic of it!! He was won over by the 50 cent hotdogs! We didn't buy anything but got some good ideas.
Wednesday Clifford "went deaf" for a class project. It's been really difficult since I don't know much sign. I really sympathize with the deaf and loved ones of the deaf. It's so hard to communicate. Also we watched tv with the sound off and closed captioning which really shows how much sound plays a huge part. It's been great to walk in different shoes but I will be grateful in ten minutes when he can hear again!
I went to the temple with my dad again yesterday! It's been great having him come because it's really gotten me motivated!! I had a goal to go more since we live like 5 min away!
We've made friends with a family in our ward. They were new the same Sunday we were! They are a lot of fun and we've been having game nights with them on Sundays. They have a darling eight month old girl and she really is sooooo cute! We played the Beatles Rockband and she was singing (or making noise haha ) along with her mom and dancing! She just wanted to be a part of it and it was soo cute!
Well I think that's all we've been up to!

Quick hits

While our laptop is vacationing in California we are stuck using Brynn's iPod to pump out a few tasty morsels here and there.

We've spent the past week parading around Portland as Brynn and I
 have had time together. Our intention was to go on a gallery tour this Monday and see what priceless works of art that are adorning this city
but it was no sooner than our first real store (we had been in a few before this one but it's the kind of place that sells seventy five dollar pillows, Owen Wilson serves as a picture frame's model, and old ladies who shop there drives a Mercedes that look like the Batmobile) than we had in hand our first pieces of art. That's right, we own art crazy! But let me tell you about service, if we are buying something for a significant amount of dough I expect someone to be there immediately. For such a high end place (they sell little "handmade" pumpkin pins that look as though a kindergartener had painted them for a whooping eighteen bucks) they ought to have at least a little bell. Yeeesh.
I also kidnapped Brynn and drove her off to IKEA where apparently dreams are made out of. I have to admit that going in I remained convinced that it was all some plot by the Swedish to brainwash our women by selling the trendy furniture but they may be onto something over there. Granted the room by room thing is cool at first (gets old by the second) i really dig the prices. Even has Wally World beat in some cases which is always a bonus. Not to mention they won me over with their cheap hot dog meal. Two bucks, two dogs, drink and chips... Who could ask for more?
Been spending the better part of twentn four hours Deaf for as part of research I need to do for a paper. Been a very interesting day with a few important details that have stuck out. One is the loss of communication with others and primarily with Brynn. It's hard because our interactions today have been limited to simple gestures and "I love you" signs. Any more than that and the process becomes laborious and stressful. I am eager to communicate but I can see between fingerspelling and teaching simple signs the strain that is put on Brynn. At times I've wanted to call it quits because all i want to is connect with her and then I can see on some level what my dad may feel like. Where there may not already sophiticated language in place simple feelings, ideas, and meanings get lost in translation. Lucky for me in eleven hours it's all over with but i cannot help but think of those who can't just simply remove their earplugs and again listen to the radio or share about your day. Maybe when I have time i will post the paper.
Got a job at Soccerplex which I'm really jazzed about. They called after in landed the job as a sandwich artisté at Subway (who convniently forgot to call me for over a week, making it easier on my concious to bolt) and it looks like I will in part help build a program. Hopefully this will give valuable skills for the future not to mention getting me back into the game i love so much.

It's like that.

Well of course like any personal blog this one has fallen into the cycle of neglect, wherein the owner decides that taking a day or two from blogging wouldn't be to bad until those days turn into weeks and weeks into month. The guilt building, memories fading. It's like that. But i've taken the positive approach on this sucker considering it's value not to the outside world but rather to my family. On an immediate level it's a way for us to share a little of what's going on with our lives but I think it's real value is two fold, one; for our children and grandchildren this will provide a meaningful way for them to understand our lives at this point. There is no other generation that has been able to be so open with others and record so much as ours. It will only get better. The second point is that it acts as sort of a pensieve (nerd alert if you know what that is) culling through the choice parts of memories and emotions and being able to recall them with vivid details that time often robs from us.
So on with the show!
Couple things have happen like the mundane (I really love school, my classes, and the possibilities that this will have on our future) and the really traumatic. This last week I lost my job over at Portland Indoor and I really don't know why. I've taught kids in some kind of sport since I was seventeen. I won't lie but I am really confident in what I do and the abilities I have to control a class and carryout the lesson plan. Which is exactly what they said was missing. What puzzles me is that the previous week we talked about my progress and I felt that all week I had really done my job the way I thought they wanted it done but when I went into the office Saturday I got suckered punch. I still feel it today and I think it was a mistake, not that I am biased or anything. A couple things have been running through my head ever since including how I am going to provide as a husband (though we will be helped in the coming months my my financial aid return), bitterness at not apparently measuring up (to some kind of standard that I still don't understand), the desire to prove them wrong that I am better than what they saw, apathy at looking for another job (because I won't lie that this new open schedule leaves plenty of time for study and goofing off), fear at the current job market and somewhat narrow job experience. All in all, it's a steep learning curve but most of all i'm hopeful. I think if anything the gospel has taught me that in everything there is hope. Paths that we may think will lead to happiness and security will ultimately need to be abandoned for the way the Lord wants you to go. And with that i'm secure.
Our ward is still wonky after the redrawing of the stake boundary lines and the reorganization of the whole ward (they released everyone though each member of the ward is still carrying out their old calling until a replacement is found). Two weeks ago was the first meeting and then general conference hit leaving us in suspense as to what will happen Sunday. Right now all we technically have is a Bishopric, a Relief Society President, and a Young's Men president. Weird wild stuff.
One of the blessings of living in Portland has been the realization of how close we are to the Portland Temple. Today we went with Bill and took through some of the names from my mom's side of the family. Right now my great grandparents are ready to be sealed and I had the pleasure to take Papabuleo's name through. In time our whole family will be connected, welded link by link, into an eternal family.