Racism

Lack of empathy & compassion for those who are "different" is the culmination of indoctrination (or even worse) an upbringing fostered on misdirected rage: "If I can't have the things that make me happy, I'm going to take your happiness from you."

As long as people believe that they are "different" from "other people", there's potential for racism. The trick is to realize that different doesn't always mean something is better or worse - sometimes they're just different. That's how racism works - thinking you're better.

The Music In My Head

I need to confess something. I really do enjoy music, and I have continued to do so as I've grown older. When I started making You Tube Music playlists, I initially thought I would just curate some 80s & 90s themes & it would be job done. With the pandemic happening, I also needed something constructive to do & in my opinion it was a worthwhile hobby. TSIMH is an acronym I came up with for "Today's Song In My Head" because I was tired of typing all of that out on Twitter, plus a hashtag saved valuable texting real estate. TMIMH (see blog title) became larger collections based around themes.

Also - I'm actually considering playing my keyboards again.

The separate volumes Milk Crates & Screen Jams was me attempting to catalog the music I had grown up with. Sometimes that proved very difficult. I hummed many themes for years with no lyrics or reference point but the melody in my head. Maddening. Film & Television scores ended up being at least searchable once Google came around. Forever grateful for that.

As far as my playlists, I have now settled into a monthly release cycle for #TMIMH. It will continue to be a digest of all of my #TSIMH social media posts. If you happen to discover a new artist, that's great! Thanks for listening & enjoy.

TMIMH Landing Page 🎧

iOS Live Captioning

#Apple is releasing an accessibility update to iOS - live captioning; this is excellent news as it means there are now 2 major OS platforms improving their captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. There's also Google with their "Live Transcribe" on Pixel phones, including the work they've done on Tensor AI and improving the UI.

Link to Mobilesyrup story.

 

Shopping For Smartphones

Until last year, I wouldn't even LOOK at a smartphone if the specs didn't state "3.5 mm headphone jack". This is because I've been hard of hearing my whole life and it's been a challenge finding a phone that I can even carry a conversation on. But I digress - Bluetooth Low Energy (BT LE) has been a game changer for me.

I understand why people want headphone jacks because of convenience - I wish my Pixel 5 actually had one - and folks like Juan Carlos Bagnell will tell you all about how LG phones had high quality DACs and my G7 One has GREAT sound on wired headphones.

I'll have to take your word for it as far as "lossless quality" etc, I miss out on all that. However with the BT HAs I can hear details I've never been able to make out before in songs, songs I've listened to my entire lifetime, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Bluetooth Hearing Aids + Pixel 5

I spent quite a bit of time researching between iPhone 12, a Samsung something or other & a Pixel 5. For reasons other than photography (Bluetooth & hearing aids) I was debating getting an iPhone.

I already had an Android (an LG) but having access to Bluetooth with a new hearing aid purchase and 'streaming' audio was really tempting. I learned it was possible with a modern Pixel & that influenced my decision for 2 reasons: 1) I'm already in the Google ecosystem (thanks to a gmail account invite) & have been for years. 2) Due to a compatibility layer being built into #Android10.

I have included a link for more info if you're interested:

Watch on YouTube:

The breakdown for hearing aid compatibility on various models at the time went like this:

PIXEL HEARING AID COMPATIBLE MODELS
PHONE MODEL	HAC RATING
PIXEL 5	M4, T3
PIXEL 4a5g	M3, T4
PIXEL 4a	M3, T4
PIXEL 4	M3, T4
PIXEL 4XL	M3, T4
PIXEL 3a	M3, T3

In a perfect world, you'd pick a phone and it would have a rating of M4, T4. That just means that when used with a hearing aid (either directly on-ear or through the tele-coil), the call should* be clear and free of radio interference.

 *However this is not a perfect world. The Pixel 5 comes close, though. 😉