greenhill-gs.uk

Shortly after posting this I will activate the site's first 'for real' blog. It can be accessed from the left hand menu - Blogs - then 'Kevin' in the sub menu. There will be a more prominent link on the main page in due course. I'm making this announcement in two parts again, this part being about the blog subject and why I am doing it. The second will cover the technical aspects of how blogging has been set up on this site.

Basically my blog is about hearing loss, wearing hearing aids and my next step along this path, now imminent, I readily acknowledge that I'm not the only person associated with this site who has such problems, I'm possibly not the worst case, or even the longest affected. I also wouldn't mind betting that there is more than one ex Greenhill student who has received special training in some aspect of this subject. If not audiology itself, perhaps specialist teaching for the deaf, lip-reading or signing etc.

So I don't claim to be anything special, other than someone who always been up front about his situation and never been embarrassed to talk about it. That brings me to the real main reason for this blog. Because of past experience I know it is very probable that there will be several visitors who are starting to get concerned either about their own hearing or that of someone close to them. They will be far too worried or embarrassed to talk to anyone about it, and will be quite needlessly making themselves very miserable. This blog might help a bit, if only by letting people know that it's not just themselves. Hopefully it will give them the courage to do something about it.

Many of you probably know more about blogs than myself. They are a sort of web site that slots in between fixed page sites, like the photo site, with pages that rarely change once they are posted -- and discussion sites which change all the time, with threads that eventually just drop out of view as new material is posted. I suppose a blog site could be considered as a specialist, very well organised, single author bulletin board which allows others to comment and express opinions. Journalists, politicians and activists of all kinds love them. They're a bit like a soap box but from the comfort of your own computer keyboard.

I don't intend this blog to run for ever, I will probably stop posting once this little adventure is completed. It really depends on everyone else. The blog allows input from visitors. The comments don't go public automatically, in fact they are held in quarantine until I decide what to do with them. I will obviously respect peoples wishes as to whether a comment is for posting or not. If people want to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer those, as well as follow the mini-series I have planned at the moment.

Like a lot of things on the web, where it ends up really depends as much on the visitors as the authors.

Kevin

Now I have explained what I think a blog is, back to the aspects that I am more comfortable with - how it fits in with this site and its members.

It looks as though it could be just another page on the site. Realistically most of the visitors will view, and use it, via the site. This is true in just the same way that many prominent bloggers have their blogs linked into newspaper sites. The software used to provide my blog (Wordpress) is a world favourite used by many professionals, and it effectively sets up a web-wide blog site for the world to see.

http://greenhill-gs.org.uk/wpkevin/
(Using this link will open the blog in a site wrapper, please try pasting it directly into your browser address bar, or view the link from the Blogs menu page)

As you can see from the URL above the blog is run from this site's web space but is completely independent of the site workings. Technically, other than space provision, greenhill-gs.org.uk uses the blog site rather than the other way round. It can of course be fully backed up by the owner, and moved to different web space if required. In short ,although this is a relatively tiny site we are, once again, providing members with the real McCoy as regards service and capability.

We can and will provide such a site (and help) for any member wishing to have a serious go at blogging. It's not much different to use than an e-mail client (once we've helped you set it up). The actual blog content is stored in a very basic, fairly standard, format. What it presents like on the screen, however, is an entirely different matter. There are literally tens of thousands of (free) "Templates" available on the web. These work rather like putting a different decorative front on your mobile phone, same buttons - different pattern. The same idea used in other areas of computing calls them "Themes" or "Skins". These are very easily changed by the owner and it is quite conceivable to have every member using a different template for his/her blog. For the foreseeable future however it makes sense for us to stick to one standard template for all members.

As ever on this site though, tell us what you want to do and we can probably arrange it for you.

Kevin

The template used for the site blog pages is called AllySpiral. It is the one that Ken is currently using for his Blog, and that is what it looks like out of the box.

I had some tidying up to do last night after seeing the customised version in public in different browsers. People writing program code sometimes leave explanatory notes or comments for themselves (or others) in particularly abstruse sections. These usually start // or /*.

I came across this last night. It made me laugh anyway

<?php // if you delete this the sky will fall on your head
endwhile;
?>


Kevin

Hi Kevin
Good luck with the procedure.
On the subject of deafness, when we had our retail outlets we regularly came into contact with people who were profoundly deaf, and relied on lip reading and sign language to communicate.
I once asked a lady if the sign language she used was international or if it varied from country to country.
According to her it is different from one country to another.
I have thought for a long time that an international sign language would be a very useful thing.
If all school children were taught how to sign in an international sign language, not only would they be able to communicate with the deaf but also with those with normal hearing.
With an international sign language, wherever you went on the globe, you would be able to communicate.
I had an Uncle who was profoundly deaf from childhood. Because of him, I learned to sign the alphabet and some of the everyday words as a young child.
It's such a simple idea and would help peoples of different countries to communicate.
Jenny

After my support of the Hearing Dogs charity at the HydroActive Challenge in Birmingham, i decided to support them a bit more regularly. I'm now the officil Friend of Edith, who has been taken from Dogs' Trust to learn to be a Hearing Dog. She seems to be quite a character.

All of us in my generation who went to King St. Baptist were pretty fluent in sign language - we used it to communicate during the sermon when we all sat together in the gallery. The theory was that we wouldn't be found out - my father realised what we were up to after about a fortnight but he was very inconveniently seated with the choir on the tenor side and had a lovely view of our antics.

Rosemary

Hi Kevin -

Hey - I'm back in the land of the living now..... having spent several days in the land of the leprechauns, that is! The trip was to see our two grandsons over there, of course - but we didn't dare mention it before we left in case Inspector Morse said "Please don't leave the country" and confiscated the passports!

What a magnificent job you've done there old son - and I mean that most sincerely.
In fact, perhaps I ought to go away more often, and thereby hold you back less!
I'd been dwelling on the blog theme while I was away, and wondering what to do about the original header, which just doesn't look right within our Greenhill site's theme, does it?. You have solved the problem beautifully by simply making it white and letting all the border flow into it. Well done, that man:-)

As for content, this is quite serious stuff of course, and in my opinion exactly right for blog content within the site - not really Greenhill School stuff per se, but very much the experiences of One of Us, and (I suspect) of great interest to many who will visit this site. May I be the first(?) to commend you on grasping the bull by the horns in this way and writing about the subject?

I can see that I need to find myself some interesting subject to blog about now.....
...or at least find some "volunteers" who have something to blog about....

Finally, our very best wishes for the happy and successful outcome of this procedure of course

Hi Jenny and Rosemary,

on a couple of occasions in the past I have been tapped on the arm by a person who has tried to sign to me, presumably for assistance in some way. In those days I suppose it was fairly unusual to see a youngish person wearing two powerful aids, and they must have assumed that I could sign. I must admit to feeling very inadequate and thoroughly ashamed of myself when I couldn't help. Equally so because I still haven't done anything about it. People who have worn aids for a considerable time are always aware of just how much and at what rate their hearing is deteriorating. At each step along the way you at least try to see that your subsequent step is also covered. Since using my first aid it was obvious that there would need to be continuous technological development if the power available was going to keep pace with my rate of loss. This latest development of the bone anchored aid has been a great relief for me and has been just in time. The two alternatives I had considered were a formal course in lip reading (I intend to blog on that in due course) and/or signing. In this case it would be a fall-back provision for myself, rather than a means of helping others. Now that I have the time I may well still go down this path, that is if I can reduce my web activities a little.

Some time ago there was a program on TV about an apparently quite bitter squabble going on regarding the increasing divergence between UK signing and the USA version. The general gist of the presenter was much as Jenny has said - It would be a wonderful thing if they could all agree to use the same system, which would be the obvious and logical thing to do. As I remember though both sides had very valid points, a result of different local needs and preferences.

The USA system tended to be based on miming and re-enactment methods which are quite intuitive and comparatively easy to learn. The signs could possibly even be guessed at by untrained people. On the other hand the UK version seemed to use quite abstract signs which were harder to learn and almost impossible to guess at. The main advantage was that it was much more adept at expressing abstract concepts and ideas than the USA method. It claimed to provide a fully functional conversational language capable of accurately expressing a much wider range of content.

Horses for courses?


Kevin

Hi Kevin
One of the signs I remember was running a finger diagonally across the cheek.
It denoted the mark of a scar on the cheek and meant a bad person.
It's a shame that English speaking countries can't come to a compromise and teach both ways of signing where differences occur.
After all, in the spoken language there are lots of different words that have exactly the same meaning.
Deaf people are hard of hearing not stupid, and the majority would be more than capable of learning extra signs, just as hearing people learn extra words.
Jenny

Orville the Duck wrote:It's a shame that English speaking countries can't come to a compromise

Hi Jenny,

one of the huge advantages of signs is that they are not restricted by spoken language. Some emperor way back imposed the "Chinese" character symbols over most of the far east by conquest. China itself had many different spoken languages and Japan and all the smaller countries were forced to join in as well. The symbol for say 'man' was always the same, it is just that different languages said different sounds when reading it. Great for administration systems. Different nationalities could write to each other even if they did not understand each others language.

The same could very well apply to an international set of language signs.

Kevin

Hi Kevin
Exactly the point I was trying to make, with the added idea of everyone including those with hearing, being encouraged to learn the signs.
It would mean that all the peoples of the world would be able to communicate regardless of their language.
Did you know that the Chinese symbol for unhappiness is apparently, 2 woman under one roof?
Although with the present trend towards same sex partnerships that may no longer be suitable.
Jenny

KDrons wrote: Because of past experience I know it is very probable that there will be several visitors who are starting to get concerned either about their own hearing or that of someone close to them. They will be far too worried or embarrassed to talk to anyone about it, and will be quite needlessly making themselves very miserable.

Hi All

Kevin's blogg was both brilliant, sensitive and timely (in the sense that people of our age are losing some of their hearing abilities). I have worn hearing aids since the second form at GGS and so feel able to contribute something to this discussion.

Regarding the embarrassment factor, there is really no need to feel embarrassed by the fact that you are losing your hearing to a greater or lesser degree, it's a biological fact of life that this happens as we get older. Peoples' greatest fear re wearing a hearing aid is that others will assume that they are stupid as well as deaf. Now to be honest, I can't recall an incident in my life where this has happened (I've only been thought to be stupid when I actually have been, which to be honest again, happens more frequently than I like to admit). When you have worn a hearind aid for a few weeks you will forget that you are using one. You will receive a sharp reminder when you dive in the swimming pool or take a shower.

Cosmetic-wise a hearing aid is not detrimental to looks i.e. if you are attractive you will remain attractive even wearing one. This of course could change if you chose to use an ear trumpet as opposed to a hearing aid.

If you are an analogue hearing aid user and are about to obtain a digital one on the NHS, ask the audiology clinic if you can hang on to your analogue aid as well as receive a digital one. Plead with them if you have to, I had no trouble keeping mine. The reason for this is that the digital NHS BTE (Behind The Ear) models tend to have 3 minor problems :

(a) There is generally no on/off switch. (b) There is no volume control. (c) There is a sound threshold above which the aid shuts off until the sound level drops below the threshold level.

Regarding (a), to switch of the aid you have to pull the battery compartment partly open and consequently risk losing the battery. Regarding (b) if your deafness varies from day to day, it's usually worse when you have a heavy cold, you can't increase the volume yourself. Finally, regarding (c), if you attend a 60's night or a classical music event then the volume of sound is guaranteed to shut off the aid then restore it again repeatly thus spoiling the music. If you have retained your analogue aid you can substitute it for the digital one until the musical event is over.

Having said the above re digital aids I think that they are excellent especially if you have the type which has surround sound cancellation. In a noisy atmosphere e.g. a popular pub or school reunion you can often hear better than a person with far better hearing than yourself.

To make a final point re hearing aids, I find the biggest enemy of them is sweat or in the case of ladies, perspiration. Walking, dancing or gym are activities certain to to set my aid whistling away or even to just shut down.

Finally, best wishes to Kevin for his operation.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

thanks for joining in. Visitors are going to take a lot more notice of what several contributors say, rather than just myself.

StuVaud wrote: Peoples' greatest fear re wearing a hearing aid is that others will assume that they are stupid as well as deaf. Now to be honest, I can't recall an incident in my life where this has happened

I agree that I don't recall any adverse reaction to my wearing aids, in fact quite the opposite. People in general actually like the idea that others consider what they have to say is worth listening to. Also that others are prepared to go to a little trouble to hear it properly. For most of my career my attitude has been based on - if they don't know, they can't help, and most people want to.

I was really cheered by your comments on digital aids. Although digitals are acknowledged to be much better than analogues in many respects, I heard that there were drawbacks for very long term users like myself. It seems we can actually have difficulties adjusting to the much better quality of sound provided. It doesn't seem to have bothered you in the slightest

I'm still on technically on analogue but I think the distinction is getting a little blurred these days, with a lot of digital know-how spilling back in to hybrid analogue systems. My aids use the "open battery to switch" method as well. Very inconvenient. I guess it is because the actual switch is used more and more to select different modes of operation (signal path ?) and they don't like it getting mixed up with raw battery power ( 2 mA @ 1.3V Wow).

StuVaud wrote:To make a final point re hearing aids, I find the biggest enemy of them is sweat or in the case of ladies, perspiration. Walking, dancing or gym are activities certain to to set my aid whistling away or even to just shut down

Did you know you can actually get waterproof aids (splash proof in reality). They are made by private firms but the NHS will fund them for young children so as not to deprive them of school pool/swimming sessions etc. Very considerate in my view. They draw the line though at sweaty old men wanting to keep in time to "Light my Fire" at BodyPump , so I had to buy my own. They work pretty well considering the circumstances.


Kevin