Deaf Dish - ASL vLog / Blog

This is belated post  . . .  should I have it posted right after my latest vlog on Zen story in ASL (7/2) before going to camping with the deaf folks in Oceanside, CA last week.

It is not too late!

Anyway . . .

Dear Deaf Dish readers,

I have decided to take a short break from v/blogging especially when it comes to helping someone launch her new v/blog site. I also have been really busy dealing with the children being home full time (they stay up late than its usual bedtime, no school), visiting certain places, camping, AND going back to work to teaching CAHSEE (CA HS Exit Exam) at CSDR summer school.

Remember, I am not a superwoman! :) 

I am certainly getting burnt out on everything, especially when it comes to web development, v/blogging, and commenting.

Not to mention, the blown out omni bulbs!

Do not worry, yes, I intend to post sporadically, even in the dark at best before hitting the road for East — our annual Cape Cod family vacation after completing the teaching assignment.

Yup. it's 3K miles each way (every year since we moved here in CA from MD, five years). My family and I will be celebrating Skye's graduation with our Right Coast folks in the metro DC area sometime in early Aug before being out to the Cape.

Okay! It's time to get going . . .

Be back soon! Dunno how long!? If someone throws in something controversial, I may be prompted to react to — sooner than planned. Who knows!

Until then, have a splendid HOT summer!  

Ah!

Four more days before Christmas, I have not got my husband a gift yet. 

First time this year I am behind in Xmas gift shopping! So many things going on lately – flying out to the east coast, gatherings, dealing with Granny’s death, my daughter turning 18 and so on – all that in three weeks.

I realized it would be really hard to celebrate Christmas this year, because Granny was supposed to come visit with us in CA this month. Poor her! Two days before she passed away, she told my sister she wanted to get better so that she could travel (in tears).

Anyway . . .

Oh God, I am such a big mess. I have been pouring many gallons of tears for several days now.  That explains no vlogs!

Anyway . . .

My mind wanders. What a nightmare.

Anyway . . .

Yes, it is a rambling post!

Anyway . . .

Okay, I find my way.

Anyway . . .

Being married to Bill for eighteen years plus a couple years in relationship, it is getting harder every year to find a meaningful gift for him. I gave him about everything  — an expensive Stratocaster electronic guitar (my first Xmas gift to him), Gucci watch, KitchenAid Professional Series Mixer, a full set of Henkel knives, Monte Blanc pens, and so on, not to mention all other special occasions such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries,  Father’s Days. They were meaningful – related to his interests such as music, gourmet cooking, and writing. I looked back and realized I spent a fortune on gifts for him.

Supposedly, he was worth every hard-earning penny, however I noticed the price of gifts for him decreased every year as our family grew — from 800 dollars first year to about 150 dollars last year. He got a JBL Creature speakers plus some stuff for stocking. $100 for a “big” gift, $50 for stocking. 

Stocking?

That’s our favorite part of gift exchange each and every year. We always compete who gets the best and most creative stuff for the same amount – EVERY SINGLE YEAR!  That affords us to get something  personal and humorous. We always look forward to opening stocking gifts – the last Xmas morning ritual. That holds true for my children, too – nothing like what Bill and I usually get for each other!

This year? I have no idea!! Four more days!

Sigh!

Umm . . .

Now you see why I set up a poll to see how much people will spend on a holiday gift for their significant other.  I am quite surprised with the result (so far). Most readers voted for either $200, or none, but plenty of love.

Plenty of love?

It is very true.  I remember I created some homemade gifts when I was so poor – lets say I was broke after spending a lot of money on Xmas, many birthdays, and special occasions within three months – Skye (Dec. 19), Dillon (Jan 11th) Bill (Feb 2nd), Dahey (Feb 11th), and Chance (Feb. 28th), and Valentine’s Day. Money do easily dry up those months.

Anyway . . .

Whenever I was broke, or ran out of time, I always came up with some creative last minute gifts. But this year? I seem to run out of unique ideas! 

Ah! 

I remember this particular homemade gift that he enjoyed the most — a love coupon booklet that could be used throughout the year. It was fun!  Also, I remember this cool and thoughtful gift I created for him on a Valentine’s Day about three years ago – dyed a piece of white paper in tea and then burned the edge of its paper  to make it look like an old document. I wrote down a special message in calligraphic style, and then stuffed it into an empty wine bottle. And I left it afloat in hot tub for Bill to discover upon his entry.  Cool?

Ah! I do not have much time left for gift shopping. I could not shop online since the last shipping date for Xmas delivery was yesterday … shopping this weekend? Crazy!  I do not like to shop for last minute gifts and end up giving some lame presents.

Umm . . .

Am thinking up of some possible fresh and creative ideas . . .

Umm . . .

Gift certificate? Nah! Maybe concert tickets to one of his favorite bands?  Not such a bad idea! We have not gone to concerts for ages! The last time we went to the concert together was the Earth Day at Merriweather Post (Columbia, MD) played by Violent Femme. What a great time!  That was . . . umm … 2000 . . . I think so! I bet he would love to go to concert again!

They will play in SF next week. Umm… Should I surpise him with both airfare and concert tickets? 

Risky?!?!? Babysitting situation???? I do not think so. 

Umm … Any suggestions? 

Mind you . . . 

Whatever my talent, his gift will surely be warmly received this Christmas.

May you have a great Christmas this year!

Just a brief note to let you know why I had not posted or replied comments since Nov. 30th Dec 2nd.  

Today, I drove past several neighborhoods on my way home from work, and saw many houses being nicely decorated for Christmas. I mumbled silently to myself, “Oh, no! It means telling fibs to my young children about Santa, North Pole, elves, and etc. time and time again.”

Christmas contains a large collection of fun and whimsical stories — plenty of white lies!! I do not want to ruin or ban them from the household. So, I had to tell them they are for real including Santa Claus Naughty or Nice list. You know I have ten children. They grow up too fast and I want to let them have fun, be innocent, and young for as long as possible!!! So far I have four young children still believe many made-up stories told by my husband and me, even their older siblings. They have a great time!

Sigh!

I always feel guilty about lying to them, however whenever they begin to suspect or ask difficult questions, I tend to tell the truth right away. I always make sure they understand not to see Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy as any different from a character of fictional stories, fairy tales, or a person in plays or movies. A game of pretend. What’s more, my husband and I always tell them that we are their helpers and will continue to be!

Father Christmas climbs Rapunzel's hair to deliver her presents.

Guess, I have to continue passing “well-intentioned” untruths to my kids for next 8 — more or less years. My last baby, Tristan Niall is not even one, yet! My first six kids learned the truths at the average of age eight. My third child, Donovan Sloane actually believed in Father Christmas until he reached the age of 12! He refused to let his older sister and brother spoil the Santa plot. When the truth came out, he was heartbroken, however he was perfectly okay with it after asking many, many, and many questions. He loves fantasies, amine, animations, and game developments. That explains the delay!

When I thought of all the make-believe characters and classic fibs such as bed bugs, nose growing, and etc. my husband and I told my kids as I drove home, an idea popped into my head — creating a poll on top classic fibs!

I remember this one vivdly — at Maryland School for the Deaf, my classmates and I went on a field trip with many other classes. I saw a girl (I do remember who!) telling a guy that if boys "do that" , hair would grow on their palms or fingers. He actually jumped out of the seat, and looked at his hands before a bunch of kids. They bursted into laughters and teased him all day long knowing that he did it. Oh, poor thing!

Anyway, as a teacher, I think this fib, "My dog ate my homework!" is the most classic one.

 

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Off the point . . .

My four “new” interpretations on Resonare will be posted soon. After having an interesting debate with Rene Visco regarding which film genre Resonare is actually belonged to, another insight developed. I will include it in next vlog. I have to redo taping my ASL- verision exposition. The original clips of the last three interpretations were lost during the crash. My computer wiped out (ate) them. Yes, it is true! LOL! Anyway, I am not in mood to produce vlogs for a while — only writing for now! 

Guess what? I give up hand coding my website, even though it is really the way to go. After spending many hours on Riverside for FSSA website using wordpress, I am addicted to that great blog tool — especially for its the convenience of keeping the whole site updated without opening several files. I love it!

So, I decided to convert my personal website including all the comments and emails to a new site powered by wordpress. I used Halocan for comments. It was a pain in the neck going to their website to check and approve comments, and so on. Many readers emailed me and left a comment where I do not frequent there to check. I realized I missed or did not reply many comments via Halocan and emails. That was one of several reasons why I changed my mind about using automatic web logging programs. Having comments with the posts is the way to go! It should help me be more responsive to comments.

Believe it or not, I transcribed all the emails including date and time into comments using Excel, and then transferred it to database. It was a laborious task, however, it was successful! Videos! I finally figured it out how to post videos via wordpress. I found a great plug-in called vPIP. It's highly recommended for you bloggers who want to include videos with your blog without going to YouTube or Google unless you want to free up your web space.

Right now, I am looking for a plug-in, spell checker. I seem to have this persistant problem, typos! Well, I usually type without loooking at the monitor or doing it in haste. Let me know if you know of an excellent plug-in for editing.

Happy blogging!

Sorry for not posting an entry … I am so darn busy feeding the Riverside for FSSA blogsite new information. There will be a new vLog posted tonight.

Still no vlogs? I apologize! . . . Still I suffer having eye problems, a swelling in my left eye, and some speckles of bloodshot in my right eye for the past several weeks now. The left one is the worst . . . This starts out as a bump that looks like a small insect bite and will swell within an hour to a substantial, red, soft, puffy lump that almost pushes up my bottom eyelid. It will be a little itchy, but not painful. Within several to about 12 hours, the lump will fade a little bit but it will reappear next day. It seems to happen every time I return to work after a long break. It has something to do with the dust in my classroom. An allergy or a hypersensitivity reaction is certainly a possibility, especially since it "itches" and is red and resolves on its own. What am I an eyesore! So, there are no new videos ( Yes, I am vain!). I hope to resume vlogging VERY SOON!