Banjo's World

In this vlog, I have a message to both the deaf and hearing people who participated in the campaign to save the TV series, 'Jericho'. In the vlog, I share some of the details and facts that some may not be aware of. The vlog is subtitled, but for whom these who don't want the subtitles on, just turn it off by clicking onto the 'CC' logo if it's on. For the letter template and addresses as mentioned in the vlog, go here.

By the way, in the beginning of the vlog, you will find me playing a little game with you. The real message of the vlog will not start until after the 'Banjo's Vlog' title come up. I'm just trying to have fun with my viewers/readers. So if you want to skip the beginning, just drag the arrow till you reach 1:19.

There's also something else I want to mention. I recently added a new feature to my blog. It's from the website, 'Plugoo'. You can see it on the right side at the bottom; it's titled 'Talk to Banjo'. You can have a live conversation with me if you want to.

Just thought I'll let all of you know about it. I'm going to try it out as an experiment to see how well a blogger can interact with his readers/viewers. I hope the results will be good.

Have a good night.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (International)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (USA)

224 pages, 152 minutes.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

251 pages, 161 minutes

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

317 pages, 142 minutes.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

636 pages, 157 minutes.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

766 pages, 138 minutes.

All the page numbers mentioned above are in reference to the Bloomsbury edition. 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' is the longest installment in the novel series yet it's the shortest movie of all 5 movies produced so far.

Something's not right.

While I think most of the movies shouldn't be any longer than two hours, but there are exceptions. For instance, 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, James Cameron's 'Titanic', Harry Potter movies and more. For the 'Harry Potter' movies, the longer, the better.

However, many movies shouldn't be longer than two hours like I said. That goes for 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. The new one has a running time of 168 minutes! That's too long especially for a movie about pirates.

What I don't understand is, why is the new Harry Potter movie the shortest of all considering the fact that the novel it's based on is the longest of all? It's pretty obvious they had to make a lot of heavy cuts but one do have to wonder how heavy the cuts were if it's this short. I remember reading an article; it was an interview with the director, David Yates. He said he has filmed at least three hours worth of footage. Still, I think 138 minutes is too short. Keep in mind that the running time more than likely include the end credits, which is probably around ten minutes, long or more so it is really less than 130 minutes if I turn out to be right.

What a lot of people may not know is that all of the Harry Potter movies except 'Prisoner of Azkaban', there are a large amount of footage that was left on the cutting floor and I mean a large amount. This is where my theory comes in, I believe there are plans after 7th movie is produced and released to re-release all of the movies with extended running time. What I'm saying is it's likely that there's at least forty minutes worth of footage to be included in a future edition of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.

The first movie, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' has plenty of deleted footage that wasn't featured on the DVD. The DVD had around 25 minutes worth of deleted scenes. There are some that I know that weren't included on the DVD; at least one scene involved the character, Peeves. There were also more footage involving Voldemort, they didn't include because it was found to be too frightening for young children. I imagine they will go ahead and add it in a future edition.

Well, all I can say is that I hope Warner Bros. will surprise us with extended editions of all of the movies because that would be like Christmas all over again.

Nuts Online, an online store that sells... well... nuts. They have decided to join the campaign to save the TV series, 'Jericho'. The best part is that they're taking advantage of the word, Nuts. The word was used back in World War II by an American general in response to the Germans. At least that's how some people tell the story. There are some that says otherwise. Go here to check the site out. The reason why they're using the word, 'Nuts' is because of what happened in the season... err... series finale. I can't really share many details because it would just spoil everything for the people who have yet to watch the show.

So, for these who want to take advantage of this opportunity, go ahead. CBS will get the message if you send them roasted nuts. So far, they have managed gather the orders with a current total of around 12,800 lbs of roasted nuts to ship off to CBS. That's a lot of nuts, I'll say!

It's amazing how big this campaign is getting in such a short period of time. The more we do this, the better chance we will see CBS caving in for a renewal of the TV series, 'Jericho'. If not, all we can hope for is for a different TV broadcaster to pick up the series.

Keep up the hard work, which has been quite impressive.

EDITED: I took out the inaccurate information on the word, 'Nuts'. Hatip to Kokonut Pundits for the correction.

For every fan of the TV series, 'Jericho'. As I announced earlier, CBS has decided to cancel the TV series. This show features a deaf character in a recurring role. I am asking all of the fans of the TV series to write a letter to Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President of Programming Operations at CBS. CBS need to be told that we don't want this show to be taken off the air.

Please save Jericho from being nuked off the air!

If you want to let CBS know, you can write a letter or use the template below.

Mr. Kelly Kahl
Senior Exec VP of Programming
CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd St.
New York, NY 10019

To Mr. Kelly Kahl,

I wish to express my disappointment with the cancellation of 'Jericho'. This TV program is beloved and cherished by many TV viewers including the deaf and hard of hearing. 'Jericho' had a large range of strong characters with depth instead of one-dimensional characters including a well fleshed out deaf character, which is rare to be seen on the TV and at the movies.

The show is also unique because of the post-apocalyptic theme surrounding the humanizing stories featured on the program. It would be a great loss to see the TV series fade into oblivion because it wasn't given the chance to prove itself. Today, most TV programs aren't given the chance. They often get canceled within a few episodes. Some were lucky to stick around like 'Seinfeld' which wasn't popular till the third or fourth season.

I know many will be happy to see 'Jericho' stay on the air instead of getting nuked off the air after a great season, which also ended with an exciting cliffhanger. Please give 'Jericho' a chance to prove itself by keeping it on the air.

I hope that my voice has been heard and that it will be taken in consideration. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,
(Your name here)

Bad news, the CBS recently revealed its fall schedule. Apparently 'Jericho' has been cancelled for good. The show featured a deaf character in a recurring role. I'm disappointed that this show has been cancelled. The show was starting to get really good. For God's sake, they had a big cliffhanger in the season finale. Actually, it's the series finale now that it's not coming back this fall.

There isn’t much for me to say on the subject and when it’s cancelled, it’s cancelled. Another good show gone down the drain along with Firefly, Angel, Veronica Mars and more.

Curse you, CBS!

I think people who read Lantana's recent blog entry, 'Variety Is The Spice of Life' are taking it the wrong way. I certainly hope people won't take this the wrong way either.

What I believe Lantana's saying is like the expression, give the mouse a cookie, it'll want a glass of milk. In today's America, people are like that now. They get a cookie, they ask for a glass of milk to go with it. If one thing is wrong, they go overboard and act like it's the end of the world and make all sort of ridiculous demands.

It's not about the rights... it's the attitude. Too many people today act like they are entitled to whatever they desire for. She isn't talking about the rights; she is talking about the attitude, which is common in my generation. I can vouch for this because I've seen it happen quite often and I find it to be quite embarrassing.

Here's an example,

A deaf person sign into a hotel, find that the TV lack a captioning decoder.

How do you resolve this situation?

1. March down to the lobby desk and make demands?
2. Walk to the lobby desk and request a TV with a captioning decoder?

After viewing Oscar's 'Worst ASL Vlog' bit. I thought I’d join in and have some fun. This is my first attempt at making the worst ASL vlog possible. If you thought this ASL vlog was terrible, then I accomplished the mission! Feel free to heckle me at my expense.

My whole life, I have been told so many times that I’ve lost count about how fortunate I am to have a family capable of communicating with each other. They even have commented that it is as if I came from a deaf family. Everyone else in my family is hearing; I’m the only deaf person in the entire family. Sure, I have wished on several occasions that there were some people in the family who were also deaf so I wouldn’t be the only one. Who hasn’t? My parents and siblings are all able to sign. One of them is also a professional ASL interpreter. One of my nieces is also well versed in signing, as she grew up with me in the same household for her first few years. All of my nieces can sign.

Going back to when the family doctor diagnosed me with deafness at the age of one and half. Naturally, my parents reacted with shock and sadness. When it comes to the parents, it’s a perfectly natural reaction to the discovery of a disability that they are unfamiliar with. They did everything they could to get the help they needed for me. The family doctor we had at that time was not too well educated on the subject of a deaf child’s needs. He recommended that my parents to not sign with me and use the oral method instead. Like most parents, they took the doctor’s advice. They did everything to get me to speak; they even took me to a speech therapist for a few years, a weekly trip to the city of Toronto for an hour’s worth of session. Same lesson every single week, she tried to teach me how to speak the types of the farm animals she showed me. Being taught to say the word, ‘cow’ every single week is not fun. It’s dreadful. In fact, my father often dozed off in the room because he was tired of watching a repeat of the lesson every week.

By the time I barely turned three, I was throwing temper tantrums all the time. Literally several times a day, I’d start screaming and point to what I wanted. My parents would try to understand what it was that I wanted. The barrier was so thick between my parents and I; I still loved them to death but I really was frustrated with the problems we were having. Just imagine the frustrations my parents had to deal with because they weren’t able to understand their own child. That had to be hard for them. I imagine any parents would find it difficult, but I do know that a great deal of parents gave up too soon. My parents didn’t, they stayed on track to achieve their goals.

Meanwhile, the doctor passed away and a new family doctor was assigned to my family. Everything changed; my parents decided to change their goals. It was obvious to them that the former doctor did not give them the information they needed on how to raise a deaf child. They signed up for courses in sign language. I was then enrolled into a program for the deaf at a public school at the age of five. It was a place where my development and acquiring of sign language was truly accelerated due to the open environment we had. After a while of being at the school, my teacher came to the conclusion that I was already well educated after such a short period of time, a series of private lessons were set up while the other children were in other classes.

Over the years, the communication system in my family was greatly improved. My parents spent the summer vacations working with me on literacy lessons several times a week. They never tried to get me to speak, just sign. Yes, they did have a local speech therapist see me on a weekly basis for years, but I was fine with that, as I did want to learn how to speak. The speech therapist was pretty friendly; she never scolded me for anything. All she did was encourage me to speak; she could sign. She’s not one of these who cover her mouth with a paper sheet whenever she tries to teach me a word. Don’t you hate it when they do that to you? They think it helps, but it doesn’t. A lot of deaf folks know what I’m talking about; they’ve probably dealt with these people in the past.

In the fourth grade, my homeroom teacher used ASL (American Sign Language) as a teaching instrument. Before I had her, all of my teachers used a form of SE (Signed English). They were all good teachers, I won’t deny that but ASL was definitely a whole new experience for me. She was a great teacher, she taught me so much about literacy, math, the history of the deaf and much more. The school was a wonderful place for the deaf children because of the teachers were devoted to giving them the education they deserved. The only problem is, the school only went up to the sixth grade then it was graduation time for them.

After my graduation in the sixth grade, I was given a few choices about what I wanted to do from that point on. I chose to attend a school for the deaf because I was deeply interested in attending one for a very long time. It took at least an hour to reach the school from where I lived. Yes, I had the option to live there or attend as a day student. I made what many would consider to be an outrageous decision; I chose to be a day student. It was my decision because I didn’t want to leave home. I don’t regret the choice I made, it was worth it. My parents were happy that I made the decision; they drove me to the school every single day. Yes, that’s right, they did. The definite proof that my parents cared enough about what I wanted, and they made it happen.

The experience of attending a school for the deaf was a tremendous difference from what I experienced at the public school. The classroom environment I had before was limited in that it was a specifically designed educational program for a few students. We had interpreters through most of the day for other class subjects. At the school for the deaf, all teachers were capable of teaching by signing instead of using interpreters. A large number of them were also deaf.

I’ll be the first to admit that there were some big flaws in the educational system at the school; it’s a big crack that a lot of deaf students fall through. Socially, it’s great, but educationally, it could be better. A lot of students also feel unmotivated to learn more and that their parents aren’t involved enough. That’s another topic I’ll have to cover someday for these who are interested.

As I mentioned in the first sentence at the beginning, I’ve been told on many occasions that I’m fortunate to have a family who signs. I do appreciate these compliments and positive support that I receive from my friends and people I know. Still, it doesn’t make me feel better because it leaves me knowing that there are deaf children out there whose parents show no interests in signing or are disappointed with their disability. Deafness is a disability, but it shouldn’t be viewed as a handicap. Deaf children are capable of doing what they dream, not even the sky is the limit. It’s beyond that.

At the school, I have gotten to know a lot of them. For these who are unfamiliar with deaf issues, you may be shocked to learn that some parents don’t bother learning how to sign with their children. In many cases, they take the doctor’s advice, which is usually the oral method. For children who were born deaf, it’s more likely to be highly difficult. Hard-of-hearing children are radically different from the deaf when it comes to acquiring the spoken language of English. A deaf child cannot hear, even with a hearing aid, they will find it incredibly difficult to comprehend spoken words. Hearing aids are amplifiers, which is the downside, the more you amplify a sound, the lower the sound quality goes.

Cochlear implantation is a different issue, and I do take issue with the idea of 6-month babies being implanted. It’s not an ethical solution; that is the problem. How do you know if a child is deaf at the age of six months? Doctors who are familiar with deafness would tell you that hearing tests aren't always reliable. Even with hearing tests, they are not completely accurate. If the child is hearing, you’ll be destroying the residual hair cells inside the ear. I know for a fact that there are audiologists who feel this way about screening a baby’s hearing ability.

Yes, I know that the studies have shown that the earlier implanted, the better the progress is. Still, the hearing tests aren’t completely accurate. Babies do get ear infections or a condition inside their ears; it’s not rare either. If the baby weren’t deaf, you would be making a severe sacrifice by going with the surgery. It is a choice that the parents are entitled to, but it shouldn’t be used as the first option. It is an expensive operation and a big commitment from the parents is basically required. Just be careful with the choices you make. Cochlear implantation is either the best choice or the worst mistake you could make for your child. Remember, I’m emphasizing on problems surrounding babies, not toddlers or children. That’s a different subject.

One of the reasons I believe the parents resort to the oral method is because they don’t feel like they are able to make an adaptation to the deaf child’s environmental needs. Parents often unintentionally force their children to adapt to their environment instead of theirs. The strain put onto a child isn’t good for their mental health. As being a former peer helper at my school, there have been some clients I counseled whose parents were like that. They do feel a lot of pressures and frustrations toward their parents and it’s usually because of how they communicate in the household.

Deaf children need something to fall back onto in case the results of oral method turn out weakly. Sticking to just the oral method is a recipe for an out-of-control disaster in many cases. As I mentioned earlier, deaf and hard-of-hearing are different from each other. Very different, I have to emphasize on that difference to ensure that the parents get it. Hard-of-hearing are much more capable of understanding spoken English due to the residual hair cells they have.

I firmly believe that children be allowed to acquire more than just English. That’s how I was raised and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. If it weren’t for my parents and my family, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Communication being made the top priority in a family is the best first step to a bright future of success you can make for a deaf child.

After all, it’s the parents’ choice on what they wish to do with their deaf child. I’m just sharing some of my experiences and hope that they will take their time to think it over due to the consequences that may occur as a result of their choices.

The parents should put their children’s needs ahead of their needs.

As many of you may be familiar with Ben's blog, 'Der Sankt Speaks'. In a recent blog entry titled, 'How Insulting!’ somebody under a pseudonym (fictitious name), 'Deaf Philosophy' posted a lengthy comment, which I thought was well thought out. S/he appeared to be coherent (able to speak clearly and logical) and clarified (less confusing and clearer) where the real issue lies. I copied and pasted the whole comment from Ben's blog. What I hope this will achieve is to clear up the confusion about the ongoing issues in the deaf blogosphere. 'Deaf Philosophy’ why it's never a wise idea to treat your readers with disparages. I have never treated any of my readers in such a manner even if they complained which they rarely do. In fact, I rarely get denigrated (unfairly criticized) on my blog or through the e-mail. I occasionally get fan mail if you can believe that. By addressing your readers with deference (humble submission and respect), the readers will make their reverences (deep respect).

Deaf Philosophy Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

This “guy” misses the point. I think he just wanted to boost his own self-esteem and ego by telling the world that there are people who think he uses fancy words.

My experience and approach is completely different. If someone said they don’t understand the word/idea I just used, it means that *I* failed to communicate effectively. What I do is change the word and idea around to help the person understand what I mean. Many times I don’t understand people and that includes people of all levels of intelligence and even non-english users.

Even people with a Ph.D degree have a hard time understanding my writing and I did not use any “fancy” words. I’m in philosophy, I don’t go for fluff in my writing, I just get to the point. If people want to do flowery crap in their writing, that’s fine but those people will lose their audience and message easily. I wrote a heavy metaphysical paper for my anthropology class and I was asked to use less metaphysics even though ALL the words I used were pretty straightforward.

A language is used to convey your “message” effectively, what would be the point of speaking latin to only english users and then tell those people to look it up in a latin dictionary? I applaud those people who always ask people what they mean and what they are trying to say regardless of worrying about looking stupid. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers and the guy gave a stupid answer, even a dictionary won’t help anyone understand what you are trying to say clearly.

This happens all the time in philosophy, a room full of philosophy professors will still ask each other what they mean, what they are trying to clarify and so forth.. so we have this problem on all levels anyways.

Source: 'How Insulting!' - Der Sankt Speaks