Blueman

Last night I made the wonderful discovery that Linux handles Bluetooth streaming to HAs, way better than Microsoft ever did.

 The setup I have is quite modest by modern standards, which is why I suppose Microsoft decided not to support it with an upgrade to Windows 11 from 10. Just fine by me — 11 is garbage in my opinion. Mint likes it, however. Mint has handled everything I've thrown at it, hardware wise. The hilarious part about all of this - the entire Bluetooth stack is enabled by a USB key. That's it — the motherboard has no built-in support.

 When I attempted to stream audio to my hearing aids under Windows 10 a couple of years back, it would sputter, staccato audio. Unlistenable & unusable. I'm here to inform you, early in the A.M. I tried connecting the HAs to the PC again using the Blueman-manager widget provided by the Mint developers. Activated the hardware handshake and the name of the product popped up in the list of available devices. Right click, connect and PAH! It WORKS. I now have access to higher fidelity audio on my PC than I did previously. 

 Thanks again, Linux. 

Privilege

There is a level of privilege normies take advantage of daily, and quite frankly we're in the way of them having a good time. Haven't you learned that yet?

Triggers

In lieu of speaking with a psycho-therapist, I've been working on myself. It is possible I'm carrying "childhood trauma" from 1) being undiagnosed autistic and 2) hearing impaired. I am trying to identify triggers, or pain points in my life that have contributed to how I react to things today. I say react, because there are times I feel absolutely tranquil. That only happens when I don't have to interact with normal people.
* People who dismiss mental health under the guise of toxic positivity, or even worse religion (pray the disability away) - wishing on a miracle from a saviour which will never happen. BTW If I ever find out who sent Jehovah's Witnesses to my apartment, you're going to get a stern talking to.
* Ableism - too often there is dismissal of the issue entirely by the normal person. It doesn't affect them, so how can it possibly affect others? I have been nailed by this one so many times, I've lost count.
* Quit minimizing the trauma. By that I mean when I tell you that something has changed in my brain and I feel "broken", don't tell me to "grow up" or "just find another job". If I wasn't struggling, I would be doing those things already.
* The level of disrespect and rudeness displayed by people is on the rise. Was questioning myself whether I was becoming agoraphobic. I don't think that's what it is. I think people are just plain fucking rude these days.
* Emerging from a period of anxiety thanks to the COVID epidemic took time. I'm better now but still broken.

No Faith

I have no faith in corporations anymore. Absolutely zero. I say this as a hard of hearing person who has given up trying to work with "normal people."

Your Bong

♪ And you can tell ev'ryody
This is your bong
It may be quite stinky
Now that's it done
I hope you don't mind
that I have to grind
Some more wacky Kush
How wonderful life is
With Weed in the world ♫

(Apologies to Elton & Bernie.)

PSA

The remaining piles of dirt, gravel, ice and snow on the ground has an official term: Snirt.

Healthcare

Any government that demands taxes from their populace and doesn't provide healthcare has no business in government.

Normies

I seem to recall years ago, being asked why I was just sitting in place, staring off into space. Apparently I would do that quite often - I still catch myself doing this. Wasn't until many years later it clicked, that it might be related to this "autistic behaviour" I display from time to time. It seems to me that allistic folks - normies - are often unable to sit quietly with their thoughts. Perhaps hearing people MUST have some noise in their environment, or they go mad.

Following that, people seem to look at me like I'm the strange one for just sitting quietly, not bothering anyone?

I'm With Stupid

"You don't look deaf."

And I didn't think you looked that stupid, but here we are.

Fatigue

I'm thankful I have a partner who understands when I am beginning to struggle with "Listener fatigue."

I used to be better at (I think so, anyway) listening to long conversations, or even several short, quick conversations. It takes a toll when I must focus on lipreading, non-verbal cues, gestures, and policing the conversation (if necessary). Now, it's either my patience or energy wearing out before the talking is done. I don't think it's something I can really control, aside from my handling of the situation.

Either way, it's a chore.

Self Image

Have you realized you have never seen your actual face?

Mirrors are an inverted image. The lighting environment can change your appearance as well. Modern smartphone cameras photos are computationally composed. Lenses can also have distortions and imperfections.

I don't think it's possible to know what you actually look like.

Audiogram

I had a hearing test and fitting today. In 2 years, I've lost about 25 dB in both ears. My last test was in 2024, so that would be considered a significant drop. Whee!

ICE Out, Now.

Video of the arrest showed Paredes being chased down, tackled, and arrested by multiple armed officers.

Other protesters, including the person filming, can be heard shouting "he's deaf" and "please don’t brutalize him."

One officer responds, saying "I hear you" to the person filming the video.

 

I knew this was going to happen. I.C.E. are the Stasi guard all over again. The disabled will be always be targeted as people who are "less than". I hope you're proud, MAGAts.  

KYMA news hosted the video that I sourced above.

 

Humanity

Disabled people don't want to be treated like everyone else. We want to be treated like we are disabled. It's not our fault others define "disabled" as "less than human".

Venues

If you're the kind of person who steals accessible parking spots and seats because "nobody was using it", you're a SPECIAL kind of asshole.

#DisabilityRights 

CBC news investigates arenas and event venues for compliance.
 

Exceptional

We Canucks are now finally able to shake off the myth of "American Exceptionalism" (thanks to Trump) and just be ourselves - a proud people who grew up believing it's important to treat others right.

I now believe that Canada was the one who was exceptional the whole time.

You cannot be an exceptional country whom just exploits and invades everybody all the time.

ODSP & OW

"The number of people on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) who are also experiencing homelessness has shot up 72 percent since 2019, according to a new report from human rights organization Maytree."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/odsp-ontario-works-homelessness-9.7053376?cmp=rss 

Success

I've had this post sitting in my draft queue for over 2 years. COVID-19 gave me a chance to reflect on what is really important: a home, food, access to basic hygiene like hot water & soap, reliable transportation & an appropriate job.

As a teen who grew up in the 1980s, where shopping malls were the congregation place for like-minded peers on the weekend, I couldn't really comprehend that I was being programmed. I think we did that because it was mostly to feel a sense of 'belonging', to think that spending money on things I didn't really need was normal. We all did this when hanging out. We were being taught to spend money.

Consumerism is a fallacy that we've accepted that measures individual "success" with how much money we earn. Advertising companies would have me believe it's not enough to update my phone every two years (or less!). Every year, a better camera, a faster chip set, a bigger screen, and don’t forget - more and more expensive. The phone has obsolescence built-in, in order to keep generating a profit. That's not progress, that's servitude. I'm not even mentioning the environmental impact and e-waste.

Everywhere you look, there's advertising. It's infected every media format there is. The CEOs will tell you "advertising pays for the features", however that's just because that is the easiest way to get your attention - diverting it from something that is important to you.

Imagine being able to exist without someone trying to sell something to you. Isn't that a nice thought?