Test - Don't worry. It's just a test. It will be here for a while.
VITAC, a leader in closed captioning in America recently launched a new campaign to heighten awareness of the impact of captions have on many people. It is called CaptionsON. Below is what they had to say on the subject of why captions matter.
Captions matter because captions are…Below are the findings in a market research. An analyst group called Decision Analyst, Inc conducted the survey in February 2008. I cannot say I am surprised about some of these findings. There is a lot of bad captioning on TV, especially in real-time. CNN, Fox News and more real-time networks are often below acceptable standards when it comes to the quality of captioning. You should see some of the errors they make on CNN. When they were covering the death of Charlton Heston, the captioning indicated that he had Always Ear Disease. It should have been Alzheimer's disease.Source: CaptionsON.com
- Free to viewers of television and the Internet.
- Accessible to individuals living in nearly every household in the United States.
- Professionally produced in the US by highly skilled stenographers and offline captioners. Stenographers transcribe the audio portion of a live program as it is being aired and send the captions across the country in seconds. Offline captioners transcribe prerecorded programming with 100% accuracy before it airs.
- An essential service for the over 31 million individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, giving them access to the audio portion of programming on TV and the Internet.
- A tool that improves reading and listening skills of children and adults by visually tying words with sound.
- A way to strengthen language and comprehension skills for those learning English as a second language, marrying the spoken word with the written word as well as reinforcing grammar and sentence structure.
- A great way to engage and exercise the mind by challenging the viewer to focus on reading, listening and comprehending in real time
- Able to enhance family time by not only allowing all members of the household to enjoy programming at lower volume levels but also knowing the added benefits captions are bringing to everyone – regardless of age.
Key Findings:It's a great thing that VITAC is doing. The more awareness they spread, the better it will be for us. By the way, to visit the CaptionsOn website, just click here.Source: CaptionsON.com
- Eight in ten TV viewers have been exposed to captions.
- 50% of those exposed to captions proactively turn captions on some percent of their viewing time.
- Less than 1/5 of them have seen captions online (17%).
- Less than 1/3 of them report having seen captions in TV advertising (31%).
- 70% of those who never use captions said they would turn on captions if they knew about all the benefits of captions. Among those who are under 45 the percentage jumps to 81%.
- But unfortunately 47% of those who responded, when asked if they were unhappy with the quality of captions, said “yes.” And 45% of that group said that they change the channel/turn the program off when they are unhappy with the captions.
Yes, that Oliver Stone. He is well known for tackling subjects no one would even touch with a ten-foot pole. Oliver Stone has managed to interview people like Fidel Castro and many other controversial figures around the world. Even the filmmaker, Stone is controversial. He has been arrested and charged in the past for drug uses and possessions and more. He has been criticized in the past for spewing out liberal propaganda and such in his movies. The thing about people tackling controversial subjects is that they will be criticized for everything they do.
The truth is, some people just invest too much emotions into the politics. The same could be said about Oliver Stone. It's a two-way street when it comes to politics. You say one thing, they will say one thing, and it goes on and on.
One thing that cannot be denied about Oliver Stone is that his movies spark off a large number of discussions among the people and we get to learn from each other. "JFK" is a good example of that. "JFK" did not offer any real answers, it was basically a guessing game based on countless pages of documents and theories spawned out of nothing over the years.
A few of movies of his were focused on Vietnam. I can think of a few off my head. "Platoon", "Born on the Fourth of July", "Heaven & Earth" and more. All of these movies, especially "Heaven & Earth" were controversial. Even "Alexander" was controversial because of Alexander's sexuality being a subplot in the movie.
I am not defending Oliver Stone; he is able to speak for himself. He is clearly a strong-minded independent thinker, no doubt about that. You can see that from the movies he have produced and directed in the past.
Right now, he is walking onto thin ice. He is the director of a new movie that is already starting to spark off a controversy. The movie is called, "W." Yes, just W. People wouldn't have a clue what the movie was. I was already aware of this for a good while since I often read the scoops on movies before they are officially announced to the public. That's how I knew about the title.
Now, what is the movie about?
Well, I'll give you a hint. Below is the cover of this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly.
Yep, you guessed it right. It's startling to see Josh Brolin in the role of George W. Bush. First, I will say that he doesn't strongly resemble the actual president, George W. Bush. However, you can tell whom he is supposed to look like. Josh Brolin is a fine actor and I believe he will give a good performance. I must note that Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush looks rather young, but does bear a strong resemblance to the actual Laura Bush.
Here is a close-up shot of Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America.
A picture of Josh BrolinSource: Wikio.com
Oliver Stone is promising that the movie will be a fair, true portrait of the man. However, people are already accusing him of trying to influence the election even though George W. Bush will not be running for president. But I don't blame them for being wary of Oliver Stone's promises. However, the truth can be like swallowing a brick. I think that is what they are mostly afraid of seeing. But it could be the other way. The only way to know that is to see the movie and decide for ourselves.
Personally, I don't believe George W. Bush is a monster or anything close to that. Just misguided. Terribly misguided. I also suspect him of being used as a puppet at times. I do question some people's motives when they involve God in their decisions. For instance, President Bush involved God in the decision on the invasion of Iraq.
Some people just aren’t meant to lead.
This movie, "W." is definitely going to gather more buzz and spark off a lot of controversies this coming fall when it's being prepared for an early 2009 release, unless they suddenly decide to release it before the election. A rumour has it that Oliver Stone is trying to get it ready by November. We shall see about that.
It has been a slow week for me. There is nothing to report at the moment, although I do have a situation with Canada Post. The local post office seems to be screwing up a lot lately. It started happening a few months ago and I even mentioned it to the people behind the counter at Post Canada. Signed a complaint and all that. So far, not much has been done about it.
So I decided to send an e-mail to the customer service at Canada Post. A couple days later, I got a response. First, below is the letter I sent.The last few months, I have been having problems with Canada Post's services. I place online orders on a frequent basis.
You can see that I showed my displeasure with the quality of their services in the letter above. I could have been worse, but it's important to keep your cool and be tactful in your approach. However, it is important to show that you are serious and say it loud and clear, not with a whimper. I think I got their attention this time. They said they opened an inquiry at the local depot.
What I suspect is that the deliverer is not even coming to my door. I know for a fact that in all of the orders I have made in the past few years, they deliver the parcels between 8:00 to 9:00 am in the morning. Then all of a sudden, nothing came. I had to pick them up all of the times.
I pay to have these parcels delivered to my door. In fact, I leave my signature on the door. They always took the signature in exchange for the parcel. I do resent having to pick my parcels up on a frequent basis because of the incompetent deliverer. In fact, I have checked around with some local people and they are experiencing the same problem.
Here's the best part. They don't even issue a notification card of when the parcel is available to be picked up until 1 to 4 days after the parcel is sitting around at the local post office.
How do I know this? Simply, because I get e-mail notifications from your website to let me know when to expect the package or if I was carded for a pick-up.
The mailman usually brings the notification card to me the day after or 2-3 days later. Why is it his responsibility to notify me when it should have been the deliverer's responsibility to give me the card the day s/he attempted to deliver it?
It's simply inexcusable and completely unprofessional.Hello,
Thank you for your message to Canada Post.
I hope this will result in better quality of service and that the deliverer will actually comes to the door and leave a card if I am not there to answer the door.
I can certainly appreciate your concern and would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused.
I have opened an inquiry, which will be sent to the local depot responsible for delivering the mail so that they can advise the delivery personnel to always attempt the delivery and to always leave the delivery notice card. Your customer number is XXXXXXXX and your case number for this inquiry is XXXXXXX. The depot does not normally follow-up with the customer for these types of issues unless they require additional information.
Should this re-occur, please feel free to contact us again.
Regards,
XXX XXXXXXXX
Customer Service
Yep, I finally bought my own domain. I also decided to replace the blog template with a new one. For these who have me on the blogroll, you may have to change the web address from my old address to banjosworld.com.
I don't have much to blog about at the moment. I just wanted to let everybody know about the change here at Banjo's World.
Have a great day!
Some of you may have watched the movie earlier tonight on CBS. If you haven't watched the movie and don’t want to read anything spoiling the movie; Then I suggest that you hold yourself back from reading this. Also, I have to emphasize that this blog entry is not about the cochlear implants. It is about the movie and what I thought of it.
Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin play the leading roles in this TV movie. I just finished watching it on CBS. It was quite an emotional roller coaster ride. So were the Hallmark commercials. All of them were basically short films with a touch of heartwarming story to each of them. Hee hee.
Anyway, back to the movie. This kind of movie is rarely made. Tonight, this movie was aired to millions of viewers. It may open up some people's eyes to a whole another world that some of us live in. I reckon that quite a few bloggers, both deaf and hearing will be talking about it for the next few days.
The controversial subject of cochlear implants is not the focus of the movie. It is a subplot, which entails the struggles within the couple's marriage to unravel both emotionally and politically.
As many of you know, the deaf world and hearing world are two whole worlds apart. Many of us share a role in both worlds. The husband is a hearing person and he is married to a deaf woman who he truly loves. Their son, Adam was born hearing. He went deaf when he was a few years old. One day, the father becomes interested in the technology of cochlear implants after bringing Adam to the emergency room. A doctor made the suggestion that he should consider the surgery. He was hesitant at first.
After a while, he started making a few decisions that doesn't settle too well with his wife, Laura without any prior discussions. Therefore, their marriage begins to struggle. The parents of Laura's are both deaf, her father holds a lot of pride in Deaf Culture and even wrote a book on it. I can see some people jumping the gun to label him a Deaf militant. Truth is, I don't feel comfortable using these labels to describe people. The thing is, I don't see people with labels on their foreheads. I see them as human beings. All of us have our flaws. We have our opinions. Everybody is different and unique in his or her own ways.
What I really liked about the movie is how they made every single character appear human, simple and plain. They don't make anyone out to be a heartless monster. The movie itself is neither supportive of nor against cochlear implants. It is because it is not the focus of the movie. It focuses on the political and emotional clashes between the couple that are acting in what they believe to be the best for their son.
I do have to mention a few flaws that I had spotted in the movie. For instance, the signing isn't always fully shown. In many instances, they are cropped off and they used a narrator to do voiceovers for the non-speaking characters. I realize that it may put some people off because they used the same voice for some characters. So I can see why it may be confusing.
Myself, I would have preferred that they subtitled the signing rather than doing voiceovers. Although, we all know how some people just cannot stand reading subtitles. As ridiculous and ignorant that may had sounded, but it's true. If you ask me, I think some people are just taking too much for granted to appreciate life.
Also, one thing bothered me about the movie. Why didn't they ask Adam if he wanted a cochlear implant? The parents nearly destroyed their marriage because of their political differences. I wonder if the screenwriter even thought of this during the process of writing the screenplay, which was based on a play. Really, just think about it. The boy is eight years old, I am pretty sure the boy would have been able to answer the parents' question.
A friend just mentioned the same thing to me. Great minds think alike, I must say.
My biggest disappointment was how they ended it. I felt that it was rushed and rather abrupt. That's Hollywood for you. They usually go for the happy ending. I wonder why they chose to end it the way they did. At least they showed that it is important to keep a family together and that love triumphs all.
Overall, I did enjoy the movie despite its flaws. You will be able to buy the movie on DVD this May. This movie really hit close to home for me at some points during the movie. This is one of the best portrayals of the Deaf culture I have seen in a long time.
It's a good website to check out. They tell you all of the problems associated with captioning and more. As I mentioned earlier today about captioning issues with HDTV and high-definition media/video players such as Blu-ray and HDTV receivers.
They will tell you what you need to know and have the sources to back it up. It is amazing how much power the corporations wield when it comes to passing accessibility laws. They always try to find a loophole to weasel their way out and make excuses. Corporations always send their lobbyists to the government buildings and put the pressure onto the politicians to make some changes. For example, before the digital TVs came out, the government only mandated that analog TVs with a screen size of 13 inches and above must be CC-ready.
Then they had to make a few things once they started selling HDTV displays. Today, the standards are still incredibly weak. We need to start mandating the media/video players including DVD players, Blu-ray players, HDTV receivers and more to be CC-ready. It shouldn't be just the TV sets anymore. Even portable DVD players with built-in LCD screens should be able to display CC.
It is sickening that many people are still living in blissful ignorance while we are fighting to break down the barriers. It is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to get what we want because not enough people are backing us up. Enough is enough. This needs to stop falling onto deaf ears. No pun intended.
Equal access for all.
