"New niches if I stay online"
I love blogging on here but obviously it's not enough, I have now started to really plan out that I will do with things, my other blog I will completely revamp and refocus it.The portlandpowerblogger one that is.
I would like to keep this blog just as it is but improve more and blog to it more, like twice a day or at least once everyday.
Having thought about things a little more I know I need a few more niches, if I can stay online that is what I will be aiming for and I think I found one or two that will be good. :o)
Nevertheless there is also an idea I have which will spark some controversy and yet it will hit on some real truths...more than I can say at the moment, but those it's aimed at will not like it!
Tough... :o)
It will be an interesting thing because the twist to it is crazy!!! :o)
Everything is going to change for me and I will make it the springboard I need to get OFF benefits and blog full time.
But they say "If you don't ask you don't get"
So..
I AM asking, can YOU help me stay online so I can get this controversial idea off the ground and running?
Can you help me stay online so I can blog more on this blog?
I will be doing far more on here from a deaf person's perspective and it WILL be unique because although I AM deaf, I am in the hearing world... :o)
Someone pointed out something about me that really made me sit up and take notice!
So... Can you help?
Labels: blog, blogging, deaf, personal, plans, thoughts
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Rob Sellen @ 3:15 PM, , links to this post
"How screwed up can it be?"
The silence is not golden at the moment for me I must admit!Somethings certainly not right with the way this seems and I would guess you would agree after reading about this...
I have posted before about the fact I made claims for disability help because of my deafness, now I have been turned down recently for jobs because of...you guess failing health and safety due to...my ears.
Now some of you know I DO hear things with hearing aids etc, but the problem is I can't hear where the sound, noise (possible danger) is coming from.
Not a good situation obviously, so I mentioned this to the benefit office and asked them to take it into consideration when deciding my "disability claim".
Ok they said...
Now I get another knock back...no sorry... your not "deaf enough" in a politer way.
As I said before...
How dare they!!
And the biggest cheek is... they say "sorry about that, but we will make sure you have a disability adviser" ??!!
Look... I am either deaf or I am not!
No giving me bullshit like that, it's "yes you are" or "no you are not".
Simple... no?
I can appeal...what again?
Thanks. :o/
Another three month wait?
Nothing I can other than that, what a stupid system when others out there fake it with "bad backs" and crap.
Then I am on the bus coming home and I see a mate, get talking and I told him of this and you know what he told me?
Them smack heads (heroin addicts) (names not being revealed ;o)) are getting "incapacity benefit"...!!
What? WTF is going on with this country?
Smack heads who are NOT forced to take that crap are getting MORE than me to live on!!
They can't work??...Most never have, never will.
Makes me feel like all the tax, Nat insurance I have put in when I was working, was for nothing!
So...it stinks, what can I do?
Any comments?
Labels: deaf, deafness, life, personal, thoughts
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Rob Sellen @ 8:21 PM, , links to this post
"What a lesson, at 5 years old"
I'll never forget the day and how it's influenced my whole life from there onwards and I was just a little 5 year old lad who was put on the spot and acted with an old head in a split second.So what am I going on about now? ;o)
It was a lovely day, we were all at school sitting in the hall for assembly, I gazed out of the floor to ceiling windows over looking the outdoor swimming pool, watching the shimmer of the sun on the water made me feel good.
I felt like I was anywhere but where I was until the headmaster stood on the stage and addressed us all, his voice snapped me out of my trance and I turned to face him.
"Good morning everyone" he said, "we have a special guest today who wants to talk to you all, so please welcome to the stage... (forgot the name?!) " as he motioned over to the man with his arm.
The man stepped up and slowly started to speak to us all while scanning over us kids "hello everyone, I am from the Royal National Institution for the Deaf, RNID for short and I believe there is a deaf child here today?"
"Dam" I thought... everyone turning to look at me, the man spotted me and ask me if I would like to stand up...to myself I thought, NO not really but slowly rose to my feet felling a little embarrassed..."yes sir" I said, I noticed the surprised look on his face.
"Ok nice to meet you and what's your name?" he asked...
"Rob" I aid sheepishly, wishing I could sit down and let him get on with it.
"Great well Rob, I am here today to help you as well as others with something I think you may find makes things easier for you" as he held his hands up and signed to me "hello Rob"...
I must have looked perplexed because he then asked me if I knew of any signing at all, when I shook my head he asked if I would like to try some and everyone else could try it too.
"No thanks" I said...
Shocked he ask me "do you feel uncomfortable about it or is there any reason as to why you don't want to?"
"No I don't need it, I can talk and if I start to learn that then everyone else has to as well, but if I talk only I have to learn it" was my reply, where this thought come from I had no idea.
"Well that's ok, we can all just try the very basics, the letters" as he held his hand up to show the vowels being signed, "you can all try this" he went on...
I sat sharpish...he noticed and thanked me for talking to him.
We all started to do the signing, myself very reluctantly as I felt singled out for this.
That man was not on that stage as long as he hoped, after the assembly the headmaster called me to his office, by now I thought I was going to be told off.
As I entered the office I saw the man also there sat with a bemused look on his face, "your speech is great Rob" he said, I thanked him, looked towards the headmaster in anticipation of a "telling off" which never came...
"Rob, I am proud of you, you showed an old head on your shoulders and everything will be done to help you continue the way you are, well done."
I was pleased to not get the telling off and not have to learn to sign.
I asked him to explain what he meant by old head on my shoulders! ;o)
"Two things happened today" he said, "one, YOU made the decision that will shape your life and two, you gained something from your friends that no-one else could have done, that is... understanding".
The man put his hand out for me to shake it and thanked me and wished me good luck...I shook it feeling like I had achieved something for me.
The very next day I noticed all of my friends were looking at me alot more when talking to me which helped me lipread them better.
It was not till years later I realised the significance of that day and exactly what the headmaster meant by that "understanding".
By me taking that stand and saying "if I have to learn that everyone else will have to too"
I saved all my friends some learning curve they wouldn't have wanted and THAT meant they knew without really realising it that they owed it to me to try harder with me.
And they did, they did ME proud...they helped me become who I am.
They helped me become part of the "hearing world".
THANKS to all of them and I know some read this blog, they may even remember that day. ;o)
That day will never leave me. :o)
Amazing how switched on we are as kids without even knowing it.
Any thoughts?
Labels: deaf, deafness, life, personal
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Rob Sellen @ 10:49 PM, , links to this post
"Do I think different..."
Following on from the last post here is the other question I have been asked."Do I think different because I am deaf?"
Interesting question and I had a good think about it...pardon the pun! ;o)
Let me ask you something... What's the furthest back you can remember?
How old are your earliest memories?
Most people remember being 4 or 5, some younger.
Well believe it or not I can remember being about 20 months old... I can easily remember being 2 - 2 and half.
Now I know this because I asked mum how old was I when "this happened"..or when were "there"? Now mum was shocked, and once she said I was about 2 I knew I wasn't mad!
Why?? How??
Well if you think about it I heard NOTHING for the first 2 and half years of my life...not a single sound!
So that meant my whole visual world was so much clearer and stronger also in memory mode too. ;o)
The smells and visuals from then were amplified.
Now I have to admit I do have sharp senses, apart from ears obviously.
Here's how I look at it...
You are most likely "normal" (whatever that is?), in the sense you have all senses working ok, so to simplify it I look at it like...
We all have 100% sensual awareness, and each of the five senses in perfect harmony would be...
- 20% perfect hearing
- 20% perfect eyesight
- 20% perfect taste
- 20% perfect smell
- 20% perfect touch
Well I believe there is NOT one person in the world with this!
Not one person has it all perfectly and never will!
Obviously with age that 100% drops anyway...each one at a different rate, and each of us in a different way.
But I believe with each of us it is unique so maybe yours would be more like...
- 21% hearing
- 21% eyesight
- 20% taste
- 19% smell
- 19% touch
Mine is something like...
- 14% hearing
- 24% eyesight
- 20% taste
- 21% smell
- 21% touch
- 25% hearing
- 8% eyesight (light + darkness)
- 22% taste
- 22% smell
- 23% touch
All 100% sensual awareness.
This is what we WORK with, our brains are relaying all this together with the actual experiences we have and they are also unique to each of us.
It gives us awareness, not intelligence.
This sensual awareness starts at birth, we learn as we go and yet no two 1 year old babies will have the same awareness, never in a million years!
Mine started early, as will blind people or other sensually handicapped person.
So in fact YES I think different BECAUSE I am deaf... ;o)
My senses feed unique levels of information and my brain tranforms this info to unique thoughts in accordance with my senusal awareness.
Just as they do with you or anyone else....you ARE special, unique!
That's the clearest way I can see it, and hopefully it makes sense.
Hopefully I have answered it to the satisfaction of the asker, feel free to comment below...
Any thoughts? (Pardon the pun!) :o)
Labels: deaf, deafness, general, life, senses, thoughts
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Rob Sellen @ 11:49 AM, , links to this post
"If I wasn't deaf..."
I'd call my family one by one on the phone first!I had a couple of interesting questions from a reader and I will address them one by one in the next few post...yes one post per question, they deserve that much seeing how interesting they were.
So thanks to the reader for these very interesting questions...and no I did not mind you asking one bit, in fact I am glad you did. ;o)
The reader didn't want me to mention them so I respect that.
The first was :
"If I wasn't deaf...what would I do?"
Now this is an interesting question which I have of course thought about but not more than a few times really.
I enjoy what I have... ;o)
But here it did get me thinking because if several things, one day with the way technology going it may happen!
Also if I share this with you, maybe just maybe some of you will have a few extra things and places to go with the nice weather and holiday breaks...and it may well spark a bit of the "hhhm I take that for granted" thinking... ;o)
Which is always good... ;o)
But there is something I need to say because I do believe this...
The real question would be :
If I woke up tomorrow morning and didn't need to put my hearing aid in and it was the traffic noise that woke me up...could I cope?
I would be in shock I imagine... :o)
Nice shock though... ;o)
Supposing that was the case, I would try and phone my family but here lies an issue I HAVE thought alot about.
I lipread, now I also hear so say you were facing me and talking to me, I could hear your voice and lipread your words, but cover your lips with you hand and carry on talking I now only hear your voice...see there is just a voice, like listening to the radio for me.
I need to lipread and that is something I would need to undo a little and by that I mean I would literally have to learn to hear words clearly, actually make sense of that voice.
Is THAT doable? I have no idea at all.
Looking forward to finding out if it is, if ever I do get that moment which in all honesty I doubt I will.
But there ARE things I could immediately experience as it's all now clearer and louder.
Listening to the birds and actually hearing the real difference to each call, bird.
Laying down in a long grass and listening to the silence interrupted by crickets and grasshoppers, ah the memories of that... see I have heard these things, but when you are a kid you do hear better.
But here are a few things I would listen too...more often!
Sitting on the beach and listening to the waves gently slap the shore under the moonlight.
Going to the woods to hear the sounds of nature, the birds and everything else.
Taking the kids to the funfair to hear their laughter.
Listening to the kids sing their little songs.
Tales around a campfire.
The sound of the water and fish tail splashing when fishing in a quiet spot.
The owls at night.
Sweet nothings whispered into your ear by a loved one!
(Just feels great, do they ever really say things?) ;o)
The sound of music!
The beautifully played music of the lone blind busker...Don't just pass them by! ;o)
The sad but romantically heart poking sound of the lone violin.
The deep haunting bellow of the whales.!
The sound of SILENCE!!! There is alot of answers in that there!
Most of all I'd just appreciate what I gain more. ;o)
I'd apprecaite what I can share with others, that's experiences, priceless..
Labels: deaf, deafness, general, life
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Rob Sellen @ 6:44 PM, , links to this post
