See and hear no evil

Last night, while waiting for a bus in downtown Austin, a blind man was sitting next to me. I looked at him. He probably heard my breathing. I can't hear but can see. He can hear but can't see.

How would I tell him something? Fingerwrite on his belly? It'd freak him out if I touched him without saying a word. And how would he tell me something, even if he managed to understand that I was deaf? If he was blind all his life, would he know how to write? He got some training, I'm sure. Is teaching a blind person to write like teaching deaf people to speak?

"People tell me I have a clear handwriting, as clear as a mountain lake. They tell I have a beautiful handwriting, as beautiful as a newborn doe or a freshly showered Angelina Jolie." *holding up a barely decipherable sign*

That's why I don't get too mad at hearing people for asking dumb questions about us. ;)

A recent convo with Emilio, a friend in Italy.

2:13:11 AM x: damn
2:13:26 AM x: the more i hear such things the more i want to leave here
2:13:42 AM x: cant find such stimulation here
2:13:42 AM dabamoor: not much hope for deaf ppl there?
2:13:49 AM x: it is not about hope
2:13:53 AM x: it s about stimulation
2:14:00 AM x: most ppl here are happy of what they r doing
2:14:09 AM x: most my friend got a mercedes
2:14:13 AM x: i mean deaf friends
2:14:16 AM x:  a mercedes, an audi
2:14:18 AM x: a bmw
2:14:32 AM x: many advanced cell phones
2:14:38 AM x: how?
2:14:41 AM x: just be a dependent
2:14:49 AM x: working 20 or 40 hours a lousy job
2:15:04 AM x: and buying things thru discounts for the disabled ones
2:15:19 AM x: that s fucking boring...no life excitement
2:15:26 AM dabamoor: haha it d be funny if bmw and benz offer discounts for the disabled
2:15:31 AM x: they do
2:15:34 AM x: 30 per cent
2:15:38 AM x: that s pretty high
2:15:39 AM dabamoor: really? wow
2:15:47 AM x: if i recall it correctly
2:16:04 AM dabamoor: hearies prolly wonder why so many deafies drive bling bling cars.. 
2:16:10 AM x: def
2:16:15 AM dabamoor: "the children of silence are dealin drugs now"
2:16:16 AM x: international deafies too
2:16:18 AM x: haa
2:16:28 AM x: u might met up a deaf who works at a factory
2:16:31 AM x: who s got a bmw

I lived in Austin 5 years ago. It was a trip. Living with strippers, graveyard shifts at TSD, dealing with a psycho, etc., etc.. Now I'm back, interning for the next 2 months.

It was 104 degrees today but it was dry heat, so it's all good.

Harp! The source of the protest's naysayers' fixation:



The picture is from Tower Clock. Funny how a simple sign, just one of many hurriedly scrawled that afternoon, could discredit an entire movement...at least in the eyes of some people.