Still waiting

Well here we are on National Straya, snag on the barbie day and no appointment.

To console me in my moment of nationalistic jingo, the higgledy-piggledy birds have been chortling their merry tunes out all morning. It is fitting that they might also be called Butcher Birds with their little blue-and-white-striped aprons.

Suppose we'll have to chuck another snag on the barbie, call everyone "mate", wear our hats with corks and discuss detention centres just to show how truly bluey we are around here, mate. And lubricated with ample quantities of VB. One's my limit.

"Strayans all are ostriches..." Sing it, mate! 

Bouquets and Buckets

Swimming at Victoria Park

Still splishing and a'splashing at Victoria Park.
Thought I'd better check Google Maps and hey presto - I can see something there in the slow lane. It could be me, if they've done an update recently.
Today back to ten laps swimming and 4 laps walking.

I figure the best time is about 8:30 AM - the pre-work swimmers have left for work and the mothers' clubbers, having despatched hubbie to the coalface, have yet to finish their lattes. And the filter has been on all night to dredge out yesterday's bandaids and other unmentionable artefacts. Ugh! Gives me an hour or so...

What's Happening?

At this stage, who knows.

Today I received a letter from a doctor I've never been to advising that an appointment has been made for me.

Seems strange and a bit bewildering that I can't get a reasonable answer to my request for info, but I'm approached by a perfect stranger offering to operate on me with little/no history.

Of course I can't speak to anyone - Xmas holidays.

Hmm

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Have your say about Disability Rights

Here's another questionnaire
http://www.disabilityrightsnow.org.au/

Go to Australian Shadow Report then Shadow Report Survey to complete the questionnaire

More Swimming News

Today 6 January
6 laps walking, 15 laps swimming. Yay!

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Microphone tip

This may apply to some hearing aids as well - I don't know

With your Cochlear Implant, freedom style you may have received an extension lapel microphone.

Here's a technique I have found to be quite handy, when out in the backyard - against cicadas, birds aeroplanes, wind and background noise.

Connect the lapel microphone to your speech processor - get your audiologist to show you if you don't know how.

Using a piece of velcro or sticky tape attach the microphone body to a chopstick on bamboo skewer, say 30cm long.

Now you can 'interview' your guests - this puts the microphone closer to them by 0.5m. I find the 'noise reduction' setting to be the most effective.

Also - too much wind? In the TV/video industry they use a fluffy microphone called a 'dead cat'. They don't exist in the size we need - 1cm x 2cm.

I have used a spectacle soft drawstring bag to good effect and will try a finger from a children's glove. This will fit better and be less cumbersome.

More tips as they come to hand...

Latest results just in

Now, today [9 December] I had the latest in my run of tests of this cochlear implant [still on number one, right ear] and my hearing experience with it.

The tests were as prescribed in CUNY sentences [Central University of New York]
in quiet and noisy situations

Results

quiet sentences 65dB SPL	100%
with noise +10%SNR	98%
with noise +5%SNR	27%

CNC words [consonant nucleus consonant]
Interesting link [word doc]

words	58%
vowels	84%
consonants	73%
phonemes	77%

Abbreviations

SPL - Sound Pressure Level

SNR - Signal Noise Ratio

Interesting Cochlear document link
Phonemes Wikipedia definition here
Decibels Wikipedia page here


Pretty good results apparently.
The sentences were easy, but context and lack of distraction helped.
Because I did so well with sentences and noise, Monica upped the noise an extra 5% and that was that. I was able to get a word here and then, but...

In the words section my results are about average that someone who has two implants might expect, so that's a pretty good result. However when I have number two maybe my increased capacity won't be as dramatic.

Well we'll just have to see.

Still Going

Tuesday
4 laps walking
6 laps swimming, faster

The pool is definitely better first thing in the morning. Too many dawdlers and suspicious people after lunch.

This blog goes 'round the world

Interesting places I have seen on the Traffic Feed - lower right.
Those with • I have been to, but not because of the blog or their contact.
Theres even a map! here

Belfort France •
Bilbao Spain •
Crows Nest  Straya•
Atlanta USA
Philadelphia USA
Houston USA
Texarkana USA
Sanata Ana USA
Washington DC USA •
Seoul Korea
Halifax Canada
Hong Kong China
Islamabad Pakistan
Honolulu USA •

Lutherville Timonium USA [Great name!!]

Hearing Diary

I'm keeping a diary of sounds as I can hear them

Dec 2009	Listening to my iPhone via the direct to processor cable <link>
December 2009	There must be something about this summer and the lessening of the drought. The cicadas are deafening. When I could hear naturally they could make a sound, en masse, which was like a pneumatic drill being applied to your skull! Now it's like they're bypassing the skull, going straight for the auditory nerve!! I have to scuttle inside or turn off the apparatus!
12-23 Feb	In Byron Bay, we stay at the Clarke's Beach caravan park. It's on the edge of Byron town and also a long swathe of bush along the glorious Tallow beach. This means there are birds galore [butcher birds, currawongs] and lizards [water dragons and at least one GOANNA]. There's also crashing surf 24 hours a day and wind - the Pacific Ocean is RIGHT there. Needless to say there's a movie [link], forgive the background noise, I think it's worth it.
8 Feb	More frogs. At Mother's for dinner and I heard the 'clock' sound. I remember when I was in treatment [and staying there] I was often woken by the cacophony of frogs in full voice. Sounded like hundreds of them then.
29 Jan	I was walking down the street, a couple of doors down and I heard the "clock" sound of a frog in someone's front yard - I think they have a little fountain. The nearest creekbed would have been half a kilometre [thats a lot in frog kilometres] away. Ho do frogs know? Can they smell water? Meanwhile the golden crescent moon hung low in the western sky. That was the appropriate end of that day.
11 Jan	More Higgledy-Piggledy bird action. Those butcher birds love to get together and have a sing-song. movie
2008
23 Dec	We went to a movie. I used the telecoil to tune-in to the cinema's sound system. I could make out 70% of what the actors said. With practice I can see it getting better! [Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen, we thought the cast of GClooney, J Malkovitch, FMcDormand, BPitt was fantastic and the film hilarious!]
17 Dec	Screeching cockatoos sound like screeching cockatoos. I hear they have a baby or two in the tree hollow - wouldnt it be good if I could hear that?!
11 Dec	I could hear something - a voice. Was it coming from next door? It was over there, just beyond the armchair. I could hear a womans voice but I couldnt make out what she was saying. Was the sound coming from somewhere or being generated via radio signals direct to the implant? I listened more. It was chilling. I called my hearing consultant, she could hear it coming from the computer. I listened. That was a relief.
5 Dec	Today I heard cockatoos screeching as they flew over. There's a dead tree that has a hole in it in the park. Often there is a single cockie sitting in there looking out. Whistling is starting to sound like whistling.
29 Nov	Today I heard the famed higgledy-piggledy birds - that deserves its own page [link]
21 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and heard what my father had to say - he had to speak clearer than usual but it happened!
20 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and almost heard what my father had to say - still buzzy! Attempted to hear the butcher birds which were [apparently] in the park. Could not.
19 Nov	Wednesday Met a cochlear contact at the noisiest cafe in Sydney and lived to tell the tale! We spoke at length over coffee and cake and gave the implants a good work-out. Head still spinning!
17 Nov	Monday Speech-reading [lip-reading] class - having the implant actually helped, because I knew what the instructions were from the teacher - before I had to lip-read those TOO! Everyone still sounds like they're using helium.
16 Nov	WENT TO A MOVIE and used the T switch on the speech processor [telecoil] - I can hear at the cinema but couldn't understand - they were speaking french after all! Luckily there were sub-titles as a matter-of-course I called some friends using VOIP [headset, no telecoil], sounded like they were talking thru a towel [why do people do that?]
14 Nov	Went to town - the bus was very loud I heard the Checkout Chick at Coles! Can't hear usefully on the phone - tried an iPhone in town. I can hear the voice but not the intonation - sounds mechanical I heard rain [saw lightning, but didn't hear thunder] Heard the Qantas A380 taking-off over Leichhardt.
13 Nov	Attempted to hear Higgledy-Piggledybirds, perhaps too high-pitched Cant hear myself whistling. Couple of women talking - they talk at the same time!
12 Nov	Lisa Simpson voices Noise at the Rowers' Aeroplane Birds sound like a ratchet Tinnitus: Women humming, otherwise smothered by implant

Listening to Music

Well I've been trying listening to music via cable direct from iPhone to speech processor. Works well, except
• pitch of singers is 'not right'
• percussion is good but overpowering, rhythm is correct
• harmony (Beach Boys) is cacophonous

I can watch movies and podcasts where there is speaking and that works very well. Hardly need subtitles. Lip reading probably helps with those Ive watched.

I wish the cable was cheaper!

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Going Swimmingly

Monday
4 laps walking
6 laps swimming
That's enough increase on distance, now to work on speed and stamina

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Swimming Sunday

4 laps walking
4 laps swimming
I swim breaststroke - I never learned to do freestyle properly and drink too much of the pool.
It's best when it's a beautiful blue sky day with not too many people [particularly lane nazis]. I love seeing the sun glistening on the blue water and little swallows weaving around the air.
Magic.

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Swimming at Victoria Park

Friday 4 December
Swam three laps, water-walked three laps. Kicked off from the end of the pool but the non-functional orientation device and closed eyes meant I was leaning one way or the other, or going deeper instead of toward the surface. Need goggles for visual orientation clues. Breathing out underwater. Still, three swimming laps, not bad.

Thursday 3 December
First time at the pool for so long - last time was at Jabiru [Kakadu] in 2005. No underwater, needed earplugs.

Swam two laps at Victoria Park pool, water walked two as well!!

View Larger Map

Ocean swimming on Saturday 28 November
[here]

2010 Deafness Forum Educational scholarship now open

A scholarship is available for post-secondary students who are deaf, deafblind, have a hearing impairment or a chronic disorder of the ear.

Applications - click the link below

2010 Deafness Forum Educational scholarship

I Can Hardly Believe it!

Today I read Kate Locke's blog entry about her recent trip on a plane. She tried the plane headphones to see if the audio loop worked. Guess what? Thats right!

Later, I thought "I wonder..."
[You can see where this is going can't you?]

I tried the headphones I sometimes use when using Skype, and they worked. Well, on the side with the implant anyway.
Keep in mind this is a device which is primarily designed for speech and is not really anything to write home about in a musical sense. But it worked.
Then I thought "hmmmm..."

I tried the iPhone headset and had a similar outcome. Sound. Not pure unadulterated sound but sound nonetheless.

More developments as they come to hand, or ear, or brain.

Momentous Occasion

Today I swam in the ocean. The Pacific Ocean. The Big Wet.

You might not think this to be such a big deal but it is, for me anyway. It is the first time since early 2002 and probably late 2001 that I have swum unhindered by ear plugs or other ear related paraphernalia for at least 7.5 years.

Of course I have swum at Byron and Bondi but always with ear plugs and careful not to get this or that ear wet. This is not a worry any more.
At first I had the grommet to contend with (right ear). Then bone necrosis and operation stuff on the left side. Now the only grommets I have to watch out for are the surfing teenage kind!

Where did this marvellous occasion occur? At Newcastle Bar Beach. It was a beautiful hot morning and when I emerged from the water I turned around and saw three dolphins out beyond the surf! Do you think they'd been watching?

Later we went to the fantastic Newcastle ocean baths, a deco masterpiece. I walked one lap (hard) and SWAM breaststroke back (no dolphins in the pool). A sense of achievement later and it was time for a celebratory latte.

A perfect morning.

YouTube captions

YouTube, part of Google have introduced a technology which enables automatic speech recognition [ASR] which was developed jointly by the University of New South Wales.

What this means is that captions can be added to existing videos on YouTube, the online video website.
You could even have a script in a text file, to accompany the video footage and the system would synchronise the two.

I can see how this would be a boon for captioners, TV stations [I'm looking in the direction of the commercial channels here], anyone who produces video and needs to provide captions for those of us in the deaf world. Oh yeah, thats the same world as your world.

More
http://youtubeaublog.blogspot.com/

Better Hearing Australia [Sydney] Now Has a Blog!

It is located at
http://bhasyd.blogspot.com/

Check it out!