CyberMike
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2013
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 0
Greetings!
My name is Mike, and I am dogmom's husband. I have heard dogmom relate to me many of the things that have been discussed and things she has learned here. We have no children, but we have our dogs, and I have my hobbies: RC aviation, electronics, keyboard/guitar, photography.
I was born to a 16 yr old girl who had German measles (rubella) during pregnancy. As a result I have a classic 'cookie bite' hearing loss, and I have an undeveloped right optic nerve. This gives me low vision in my right eye, which has a 'droopy' lid, but I have full color vision in both eyes, and my left eye is fine. What I do not have is stereo vision, and I have very limited depth perception. So how the hell can I fly radio controlled models? I've had this my whole life, and I have been able to develop insane cognitive processes to compensate. Also, I fly giant scale models. They're easier to see when they're big!
I have lived my entire life as a hearing person, and still do today with the help of hearing aids (GN Resound Canta7 Power BTE model 780D). I have always told other hearing people that I am 'half deaf' which specifically refers to my hearing loss, as opposed to cultural inclination. Many of the longer threads that dogmom has told me about over our breakfast, or while driving somewhere together, seem to be about the divide between the Hearing and the Deaf world. There seems to be a quest for bridging that divide, and many victims/heroes, successes/failures along the way. I see the fact that I am here as part of the answer to this because this forum, and the folks in the Deaf community have now increased awareness of its existence by one more 'hearing' person.
Dogmom and I are married and live together with our dogs. I am the quintessential geek. I am analytical to a fault as I am an engineer by trade and at heart. I am exceedingly literal, technical and detailed.
English is the only human language (I am a computer programmer, hence the clarification) I know. Recently, I started attending a very (think: pre-school-ish level) ASL class with dogmom. There are a number of reasons I committed to this, though it was done quite capriciously. First, it's part of my relationship to dogmom. She's made some significant overtures to me at great expense to herself in the past. Foremost among these is that dogmom (without me doing anything, really) took it upon herself to earn a technician class HAM radio license (I am general class KB9KEJ). So, I figure I will venture into one of her interests - the Deaf world, its people, and its language. I am curious about language as a tool for communication. I like to learn how things work. Lastly, I foresee a day when one or both us will not be able to hear well enough to easily communicate verbally. We will probably need pen/paper, but it would also be nice to have something more convenient. ASL may fill that gap, though I have no delusions about learning it well enough to convey everything I am thinking. The instructors did explain that learning ASL is more difficult than learning Chinese or Hebrew or Japanese - and I don't know any of those, either!
In ASL class, I feel like a helpless infant. It truly is humbling to have only the ability to recite the alphabet and count to 20 VERY slowly. Last session we learned to sign some colors and describe people by appearance and clothing in very basic ways.
I enjoy anything that consumes electricity, executes computer code, or burns fuel - especially anything that flies. I am adept at electronics, mechanics, and basic physics/chemistry. With what hearing I have, I have perfect pitch, and a very good musical ear. I don't consider myself a musician, per se, but I have innate musical ability. I was told by my adoptive parents (I was adopted as an infant) that the girl who gave birth to me was(is?) an aspiring musician. I have an audiologist who is a research scientist and comes to my home or office. I have known him on an off for years (he spent some time out of the audiology business to do pure research). I am well-versed in acoustic physics, electronic audio circuit design, DSP technology, audio synthesis, human physiology, and perceptive cognition.
I look forward to sharing experiences and learning together with all of you. Also, I think I should find out what dogmom has been saying about me! ;-)
- CyberMike
My name is Mike, and I am dogmom's husband. I have heard dogmom relate to me many of the things that have been discussed and things she has learned here. We have no children, but we have our dogs, and I have my hobbies: RC aviation, electronics, keyboard/guitar, photography.
I was born to a 16 yr old girl who had German measles (rubella) during pregnancy. As a result I have a classic 'cookie bite' hearing loss, and I have an undeveloped right optic nerve. This gives me low vision in my right eye, which has a 'droopy' lid, but I have full color vision in both eyes, and my left eye is fine. What I do not have is stereo vision, and I have very limited depth perception. So how the hell can I fly radio controlled models? I've had this my whole life, and I have been able to develop insane cognitive processes to compensate. Also, I fly giant scale models. They're easier to see when they're big!
I have lived my entire life as a hearing person, and still do today with the help of hearing aids (GN Resound Canta7 Power BTE model 780D). I have always told other hearing people that I am 'half deaf' which specifically refers to my hearing loss, as opposed to cultural inclination. Many of the longer threads that dogmom has told me about over our breakfast, or while driving somewhere together, seem to be about the divide between the Hearing and the Deaf world. There seems to be a quest for bridging that divide, and many victims/heroes, successes/failures along the way. I see the fact that I am here as part of the answer to this because this forum, and the folks in the Deaf community have now increased awareness of its existence by one more 'hearing' person.
Dogmom and I are married and live together with our dogs. I am the quintessential geek. I am analytical to a fault as I am an engineer by trade and at heart. I am exceedingly literal, technical and detailed.
English is the only human language (I am a computer programmer, hence the clarification) I know. Recently, I started attending a very (think: pre-school-ish level) ASL class with dogmom. There are a number of reasons I committed to this, though it was done quite capriciously. First, it's part of my relationship to dogmom. She's made some significant overtures to me at great expense to herself in the past. Foremost among these is that dogmom (without me doing anything, really) took it upon herself to earn a technician class HAM radio license (I am general class KB9KEJ). So, I figure I will venture into one of her interests - the Deaf world, its people, and its language. I am curious about language as a tool for communication. I like to learn how things work. Lastly, I foresee a day when one or both us will not be able to hear well enough to easily communicate verbally. We will probably need pen/paper, but it would also be nice to have something more convenient. ASL may fill that gap, though I have no delusions about learning it well enough to convey everything I am thinking. The instructors did explain that learning ASL is more difficult than learning Chinese or Hebrew or Japanese - and I don't know any of those, either!
In ASL class, I feel like a helpless infant. It truly is humbling to have only the ability to recite the alphabet and count to 20 VERY slowly. Last session we learned to sign some colors and describe people by appearance and clothing in very basic ways.
I enjoy anything that consumes electricity, executes computer code, or burns fuel - especially anything that flies. I am adept at electronics, mechanics, and basic physics/chemistry. With what hearing I have, I have perfect pitch, and a very good musical ear. I don't consider myself a musician, per se, but I have innate musical ability. I was told by my adoptive parents (I was adopted as an infant) that the girl who gave birth to me was(is?) an aspiring musician. I have an audiologist who is a research scientist and comes to my home or office. I have known him on an off for years (he spent some time out of the audiology business to do pure research). I am well-versed in acoustic physics, electronic audio circuit design, DSP technology, audio synthesis, human physiology, and perceptive cognition.
I look forward to sharing experiences and learning together with all of you. Also, I think I should find out what dogmom has been saying about me! ;-)
- CyberMike
Well, sign language isn't binary but fingerspelling is digital. 
Welcome to the forum.
