This has been a busy day so far. One huge task that we accomplished was getting KC's BrailleNote to work with a bluetooth cell phone, so she can access the internet when she's traveling. That involved a lengthy session with KC, Jonathan from HumanWare, and me. Since Jonathan is blind, I read the relevant sections of the phone manual, as well as whatever was displayed on the phone's screen.

Actually, we first tried to get the phone's infrared to talk to the BrailleNote's infrared. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't quite get that to work. Moreover, the way the phone's infrared works, every time the phone is powered up, the infrared would have to be restarted. That's fine for a sighted person to do, but it's a jolly pain in the neck for a person who can't see the screen at all. One little miscue and a person would be sent to the wrong menu, the wrong screen, etc., with no real way to determine what was going on with the phone.

So Jonathan suggested that we try to get the two devices talking to one another via bluetooth. He has the steps memorized for setting up the BrailleNote, so my job became a combination of reading manual excerpts, as needed, and of clicking responses to the prompts from the telephone when it got bluetooth signals from the BrailleNote.

To make a long story less long, it took us well over an hour of experimenting with the infrared and the bluetooth, but by gosh we got that BrailleNote onto the internet via that cell phone. :o) Now, as KC has only a limited number of minutes in her current cell phone plan, she's not going to be using the phone to download mail every two seconds, nor to spend eons surfing the web. But when she travels, it'll be nice for her to be able to download mail now and then and keep up with her correspondence.

And meanwhile, the whole time I was involved in this process, all I could think of was how amazing, wonderful, and beneficial this technology was. The phrase, "I live for things like this" kept going through my head. I really feel like if I can get the training to become a tech trainer for deaf, blind, and/or deaf-blind consumers, I would have found at least part of my calling in life. I think the hospital might have actually done me a favor by sending me back into the job-seeking category, because now I have all the free time in the world to pursue whatever training I'll need. I can think of far worse places to be in life than having an idea of something I'd looooove to do, and the time to be trained to do it.

I'm grabbing every available bit of literature I can find at any exhibit table manned by a company that appears to have anything to do with assistive tech or tech training. There's no such thing as too much knowledge, after all. ;o)

Last night, Kathy B, the other SSP working with KC, had to go back home. She couldn't get the whole week off from work, but she did manage to get down here for Sunday and Monday. We had another SSP come in to help us. However, she's relatively new to the concept of SSPing. She's worked closely with one deaf-blind person in her community, but I kind of think that's the only deaf-blind person she's worked with extensively. This is the SSP's first AADB convention, and she just felt overwhelmed. So she spoke to our team leader about it, and they mutually agreed that the SSP might have an easier time of it if she were working in a different situation. So the SSP will get a new assignment, and there'll be a new SSP teaming up with us starting tomorrow morning.

Anyway, it's time for me to turn in. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and there's going to be lots of techie stuff then, too. :o) There's a workshop on cochlear implants and assistive listening devices at 8:30 tomorrow morning, followed by visits to still more exhibit tables and a trip to a separate Tech Lab that's been set up. OOOO, I can't wait! :o)

The interview is online! The link is: http://www.examiner.com/a-154791~Technology_aids_deaf_blind.html
Here's the text:

Technology aids deaf-blind

PDF | Email

Meghan Shapiro, The Examiner
Jun 20, 2006 7:00 AM (17 mins ago)BALTIMORE - For the deaf-blind community, today?s technology spells independence.

At the American Association of the Deaf-Blind National Conference held at Towson University, several manufacturers displayed and promoted multiple products that bridge the communication gap between the deaf-blind and the general population.

Katherine Spears, 73, from Sacramento, Calif., who has been deaf-blind all her life uses BrailleNote, a product offered by HumanWare that enables the deaf-blind to communicate using a Braille keyboard.
The keyboard, which is also equipped with wireless Internet, lets the user surf the Web, download, use a word processor and even talk to others when attached to the palm pilot.

Spears said that she lives in a community where people do not know how to communicate with her, and that because of her BrailleNote, others can now understand her.

?The deaf-blind community is misunderstood, and this equipment has made a difference,? she said.

Dona Sauerburger, an orientation and mobility specialist who is speaking at the conference that kicked off Monday, said: ?The biggest obstacles in a deaf-blind person?s life is not necessarily communicating to a fellow deaf-blind, but communicating with the general population. The public has no clue.?

Sauerburger said the result often is deaf-blind people automatically thinking they are being rejected.

Whereas in the past there was little hope, today technology can make a difference, said Jonathan Mosen, product manager for HumanWare.

?There?s never been a better time to be blind,? he said.

mshapiro@baltimoreexaminer.com
--------
It's shorter than I expected, and KC's name is wrong (it should be "Kathleen" and "Spear"). But she did manage to get some of the salient points in there. (Just the interview with KC, had all the main points been included, would have doubled the size of the article. Ditto for the comments from the guys from HumanWare, and I'd bet from Dona Sauerberger, as well.)

Gotta scoot. More details later.

KC demonstrated the BrailleNote technology for Meghan from the Baltimore Examiner. With a USB keyboard and bluetooth Palm device with special software, KC can use the BrailleNote to communicate with sighted, hearing people who xan't sign. The hearing person can type on the USB keyboard and KC can read it in braille. With the PalmView program, the sighted person can monitor what they've typed. KC uses speech to communicate with hearing people, but she can type responses, which are visible on the Palm device, to a sighted Deaf person.

A BrailleNote with a QWERTY keyboard.

A BrailleNote with a braille keyboard. The insides are the same as the insides of the one with the QWERTY keyboard.

KC (left) shows Roma (right) her BrailleNote. It's like a PDA with a braille display. It has capabilities for email, address book, word processing, alarms and schedules, and more.

Roma's device is a Screenbraille; it's used by deaf-blind people so they can communicate with sighted, hearing people who can't sign or fingerspell. The sighted person types, and their words are displayed in braille. The deaf-blind person types, and their words display in print.

At the last convention in 2003, the opening ceremonies were capped by a visit from two Chinese dragons that danced through the auditorium, which the deaf-blind delegates were able to touch as they passed and after the routine ended.

This year, as our convention is in MD, we had a visit from dancing crabs. :o)

The priest saying Mass this morning, Fr. Cyril Axelrod, is deaf-blind. He's from England, and I saw his SSP using the British two-handed manual alphabet to communicate prior to Mass. He's the priest on the left.

So, it's 11:09; do you know where your fire drill is?

This campus (Towson University) is doing something we've never done at an AADB before. Well, at least we haven't done it since I began attending these conventions in 1990. We have a scheduled fire drill in all the dorms tonight.

The drill will start with building B. When they finish with that and begin letting people from building B back into their dormitory, then they will begin the fire drill in building C (my building). When we're on our way back into our building, they'll begin evacuating building D. And so on... I'm not sure how many dorms there might be besides B, C, and D. (I'm not all that sure what became of building A, either. LOL.)

In any event, goodness only knows how long it'll be until the alarm sounds in our building. So I'm sitting here typing an email while I wait for our turn to evacuate.

I've met my roommate, a nice interpreter from California who knows KC. Then again, everyone knows KC. :o) Under normal circumstances, we can't walk two feet during a convention without someone calling out for us to wait up, because their delegate wants to talk to her.

It's probably just as well that KC's not here tonight for this fire drill. She injured her back not long ago, and in fact she had to make sure that the doctor declared her fit to travel before she could make plans to attend the convention. So I'm not sorry that she won't have to drag herself down several flights of stairs to the exit.

I'll be taking my camera with me during the fire drill. That way, I'll be able to document the experience for both the blog and the photo albums that I'll be creating online when I get home. But I hope this thing starts soon, so it can *end* ASAP. I'm worn out and could really use a good night's sleep.

BTW, it's now 11:20 and I'm still waiting.
----
Midnight. Wouldn't you know it? They cancelled the freakin' fire drill. I could've been asleep an hour ago. Gaaaah. Good night!

Well, we're here! We arrived at about 2:30 PM or so. (When I double-check the time stamp on some photos I took, I'll have a more accurate guess-timate of what time we really got here.)

The first person I saw whom I know was Krista, a deaf-blind delegate from Delaware. She's here with a group from HKNC (Helen Keller National Center). It's good to see her again. I was hoping she'd be here.

I'm slated to work with KC (delegate) and Kathy B. (SSP, or Support Service Provider... in other words, Interpreter/Guide) again. I'm looking forward to it, as we were a good team in San Diego at the 2003 convention.

Once I went through registration, I still hadn't seen any evidence that either KC or Kathy B. was here, so I called Kathy's cell phone. It turns out that KC is with Kathy now, and they'll be arriving tomorrow.

So tonight I can be a floater SSP and just help out where I'm needed. I haven't got a set place to be besides dinner tonight, the team meeting afterward, the "Welcome" social, and then breakfast and Mass tomorrow.

Gee, I only have 5 things on my schedule between now and lunchtime tomorrow... so glad I "haven't got a set place to be", or I'd have an even longer list of appointments to keep! :o)

Kathy B. and KC will call me when they arrive tomorrow.

I'm heading to dinner. I haven't eaten since breakfast, unless you count one chocolate-covered donut at about 12:30 PM. I'm ravenous.

We're on the way! Melinda's driving, Joe J's riding shotgun; Rich P. and I are in the back seat. Melinda's being a wise-aleck and swerving, jolting the brakes, etc, to make Joe laugh.

Today, I'll be heading to AADB. I'll see what I can do to post to the blog during the convention. Right now I'll send out a test post to make sure that Blogger.com's post-by-email feature is allowing me to attach photos. Here's a shot of Stanley grooming Captain's head. :o)

Ya know, I'm getting tired of dreaming about my freaking ex-employer. Bad enough they used to haunt my waking hours. I'd rather not see them in my sleep, too.

I know the mind processes stuff in dreams that it hasn't finished working out during waking hours. After three nights in a row of seeing that place, I'm tired of it and I'd like it to Go Away. I hope my subconscious or whatever it is gets through processing unfinished thoughts soon, so I can dream about other, better things.

OK, rant over. I just needed to get that out of my system.

How ironic is it that my TransPASS, purchased in advance at a discount as one of my employee benefits, arrived in the mail today?

Well, at least I get to ride SEPTA as much as I please in June. That'll come in handy if I find myself getting temp assignments. Yeah, I'll be reactivating my registration with the temp agencies I was working for. Hopefully I'll find something full-time before long, but who knows?

Actually, this saved me a call to my former employer's benefits department. I know that the money for the June TransPASS was already deducted from my paycheck earlier in the month. So if the June pass didn't arrive, I was going to ask for a refund of the purchase price of the pass.

Good. At this point, I think I'd rather have the TransPASS anyway. I can get a lot of use out of that thing.

I can't help but wonder how they're faring at the front desk today. Actually, today shouldn't be all that bad. Tomorrow, however, will be another story entirely. Not only will there be an unending procession of patients from 6:15 AM (no, that's not a typo) until 4:00, but there will be dozens of charts that need to be prepped for Tuesday (Monday's a holiday). Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are extremely busy days, without exception, because those are the days when the most doctors are in the clinic seeing patients.

Last Friday, the temp PSR worked until 10 PM getting Monday's charts ready. And that was WITH a full compliment of staff at the front desk. Tomorrow, the temp has the day off and the front desk will be shorthanded to boot. Someone's going to have to find time to prep Tuesday's charts, in among the time spent checking patients in and out, doing the billing, and manning the phones. I hope the pointy-haired-manager who is my ex-boss's boss is there until MIDNIGHT prepping charts. It would serve her right for not at least waiting until the vacationing employees returned to work before dropping the ax.

You know, I thought I'd feel worse than this after losing the job. Which, as should be clear in the past couple months' worth of posts, I have felt was only a matter of time before it happened. Maybe the long amount of advance warning that I was a dead PSR walking helped to soften the blow. Maybe the latest bout with depression (yes, I've been to the doctor) is actually playing in my favor, as one of the hallmarks of depression is my near-inability to feel anything, good or bad.

But maybe I'm not as upset as I expected because that this job's stress was the direct reason why I've felt so sick and missed so much work time since March. And that source of stress is now gone. No more spite brigade searching for things to complain about. No more Doctor Evil complaining about my phone message, while finding a nearly-identical message from my colleague to be perfectly acceptable. No more feeling that I had to be perfect, every day in every way, so there'd be nothing for them to pick apart. No more feeling that no matter what I did, someone'd find a fault in it anyway. No more politely declining offers of help because they were motivated by the desire to tell the rest of the department, 'Look, she can't even handle her own work, I have to do it for her". No more limiting myself to asking questions of only certain people because the rest of them would tell the world, "She's so stupid, she didn't even know ___". No more staying until 7 PM on a Monday, Tuesday,
or Frid

Is it any wonder why I was getting migraines? Why I threw up at work and got carsick on the bus on the way there and/or on the way home? Why I missed more sick time in the past two months than I've ever missed in my life, minus the short-term-disability I was on when I dislocated my kneecap?

No freaking wonder they went through three people in six months, prior to hiring me last year. If the other three people had to put up with this nonsense, I can't blame them for bailing. That is, *IF* they actually bailed, rather than getting hounded to death and fired.

And no freaking wonder that instead of being as upset as I'd expected I would be on The Day After, the primary emotion I'm able to generate feels more like relief.

Well, they did it. The ax dropped today. My desk is cleared out and I'm on my way home.

It's odd. I figured I would have until at least Friday before being told of termination, which I've expected for a while now. Why? Because we are short-staffed due to two (count them, TWO) people on vacation, we have a a brand new manager who's been here for less than three weeks, AND the temp PSR we have had helping us since we're short-staffed has Friday off. Friday is one of our heaviest workdays because we have at least five doctors who work only on Fridays. That's on top of the two or three docs who are there more than one day per week. Friday would have been a zoo even with me there. It's going to be a bleeping nut farm now for sure.

And the boss two levels above me, who is a female version of Dilbert's pointy-haired manager, did this to herself. The loose filing is backed up halfway to the ceiling (did I mention we're short-staffed?) and it will be coming in in droves over the next two days.

And now we're -- oops, I should say THEY'RE going to be short *three* people. During which time I hope my ex-two-levels-above-me manager curses herself roundly for firing me a few days too soon. She couldn't have timed this worse if she'd sat down and PLANNED a way to ensure that my departure would be disruptive to the workflow.

I feel sorry for the new manager, my former immediate supervisor, who is a genuinely good person and doesn't deserve to be stuck in the middle of this. To her, to her predecessor, to the records room employee, and to some of the doctors (MAM and GYD spring to mind), thanks. To the spiteful ones, doctors and non-doctors alike, My goal is to forget your names, what you looked like, and the havoc you've wreaked on my physical, mental, and emotional health for all these months.

Tomorrow I'll file for unemployment.

If only we'd get 777 in an Atlantic City casino instead of in an arcade! This was good for the bonus of 424 tickets at Dave & Buster's. :o)

Oh, and one more thing.

For years, I had a stock answer when someone asked, "How's it going?" It was, "So far, so good".

Then came the day I got the news that I was being downsized. For the next few weeks, I just couldn't bring myself to answer "So far, so good" when it feel like things were good at all. So my new response was, "I'm hanging in there".

Since that time, I've used "So far, so good" when things are going at least OK and "Hanging in there" when things aren't so great.

Today I have begun using yet another alternative, since things don't feel like they're even a little bit good and I'm certainly NOT feeling like I'm hanging in there. It's "Argh, don't ask!"

Just so you know, it's probably just a matter of days before I get pushed out of this job.

I spoke to the new manager this morning. The same complaining people have not stopped, which I figured would happen. One in particular, the doctor I ranted about in a post some weeks ago, specifically brought a message I took to the attention of the new manager. It was from a person requesting a new-patient appointment for her daughter. Because this doctor doesn't normally see new patients, we have to take a message with the pertinent information and leave it in a special folder in the doctor's inbox.

I took the message. I put it in the dr.'s inbox. At the time, I noticed another message from the SAME PERSON dated four days earlier, taken by the other front-desk person who works with me.

My note had info that hers didn't have. Her note had info that mine didn't have. Both mentioned that the patient's family doctor (mentioned by name) had spoken to OUR doctor about taking the patient on.

Our doctor complained to our manager that my note didn't have enough information in it. HELLO... She already had the same info four days earlier in the other note, PLUS according to the other note and mine, our doctor had already been apprised of the situation by the patient's own doctor. *AND*, what's more, our doctor did agree to see the patient, and the appointment was made yesterday.

I was able to document the fact that the older message existed because our message pads have carbon copies of all messages and we save them for several months before shredding them.

I got my old message pad that included messages from May 8, and turned to the copy of my message. Then I went through the stack of old message pads until I found my colleague's old pad containing her May 4 message. I put both pads on the manager's desk.

Next up: I have been having migraines, most decidedly stress-induced, at least once or twice a week for the past month. I called out sick about two weeks ago, and got sick again on Wednesday. It's two separate "occurrences", apparently, and that might count against me. I want to know how the F a person can be penalized for actually being freakin' SICK. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow anyway, so I will get documentation that I am seeking treatment from him for migraines. (And acid reflux, since I woke up a few nights ago to find that there was... how can I describe this? Digestive backwash in my esophagus. Yuck, I know. If you think READING it is gross, try LIVING it.) If nothing else, it should prove that there is, in fact, a medical issue going on.

After I had the meeting with my manager, I went in the rest room and vomited. I suppose that's better than the alternative form of digestive rebellion that I've occasionally experienced due to stress. I don't think I can handle this stress anymore. If the health system lets me collect unemployment benefits, I might actually survive this whole experience with the remnants of my sanity and what's left of my digestive tract intact.

Geesh, even the Hell job at the Nameless Nationwide Department Store didn't actually bring on active nausea. Migraines, yes. Barfing, no.

I've had it with EVERYthing right now. Honestly HAD it with everything. The only reason I'm even attempting to eat this sandwich right now is that if I don't, the headache might come back. I've seen enough of those this week, and I know that not eating can cause them to happen. That goes double for the fact that I might as well have skipped breakfast, considering that it didn't stay around long enough to actually provide nourishment. If I get nauseous, at least all I have to do is, um, let my innards jettison unwanted material and the nausea will go away. If the headache comes back, heck only knows how long it'll last.

So anyway, if I have bad news to post regarding my job status in the next few days, don't be shocked. *I* will be shocked if I DON'T have bad tidings before long.

Oh, I love the internet. Love love love LOOOOVE the internet.

This afternoon while I was at work, out of nowhere I got an earworm. It was a song I haven't heard in quite a while: And the Glory of the Lord from Handel's Messiah.

I had the song on the brain in a major way, to put it mildly. And, having looked up "earworm" online a couple years back, I remembered reading that one way to get "rid" of an earworm is to listen to the song completely, from start to end. So for that reason, and also because I just plain like the music, I had a major need to listen to the song. The more time passed, the more I neeeeeeeeded to hear the song.

Hours passed. 5:30PM arrived. I came home from work. And my need to hear the song continued, unabated.

Unfortunately, do I own a copy of it that's easily located? No. I have a cassette tape with selections from Messiah on it, somewhere, but no clue where the tape has gotten to. Even if I'd found it, I'd have to play the fast forward/rewind game until I tracked down the song ON the cassette.

By 9:30 PM, I was ready to climb the walls for the lack of a way to listen to this song. And then the idea crossed my mind, "I wonder if there's a way to listen to the song online? SURELY someone's uploaded it to some web page somewhere."

Good old Google. No sooner did I enter a few terms into my favorite search engine, than I located this page:

http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/743

They give permission to download the music on their site for personal use, for free. HOO-freakin-RAY! That's just what the doctor ordered!

I downloaded And the Glory of the Lord and listened to it a few times.

My earworm is gone. I'm all better now. *PLUS* I now have some MP3s of selections from Messiah, to boot. Which I got for free. Legally. Within minutes of my clicking "search" on google.com.

Did I mention that I love the internet?

P.S. "And the glory, the glory of the Lord, sha-aa-all be-ee-ee-ee re-ve-eal-ed..."

Uh oh. I'd better listen to that MP3 again. ;o)

To: The world in general
Re: Hyphenated last names

OK, that does it. I can't withhold my question anymore. WHY is it that people with short names never hyphenate them? Do we get patients in here with easy names, like Fox-Day? NO. Of course not. The people who hyphenate their last names have to be the ones with about two zillion letters in BOTH halves of their name. I can't use examples of real patients' names, obviously, but I can think of some surnames of people I know (or know about) that could serve as equivalent examples of what we are dealing with on a daily basis at the front desk.

Imagine asking someone who is making their first appointment in your clinic to spell their last name, and hearing "Alabrudzinski-Radivojevic" come through the telephone. "That's hyphenated. Alabrudzinski HYPHEN Radivojevic". You think it's impossible for names like that to exist? Believe me, it isn't. I know.

So here are some rules of thumb for you people out there who are thinking of hyphenating your last name.

First of all, if the combination of names has more than six syllables or 20 letters, DON'T COMBINE NAMES. Pick a name and freaking stick with it, but don't try to stand with one foot in both camps. There are only 26 freaking letters in the alphabet, for Pete's sake. Why should someon's last name have more than that?

Second of all, listen to this programmer when I tell you that many, MANY software programs will allow a maximum of 20 letters for a surname. So what's going to happen? Your name will be truncated, that's what will happen. This will, and I do mean WILL, cause problems. For example, it's a colossal PITA to have to search online for doctors' referrals without having the EXACT patient's surname as it exists in the computer system. So of course, here I sit typing in "Alabrudzinski-Radivojevic" into the Navinet system, and no referrals are found. Why? Because letters have been truncated from the patient's surname in the Navinet system, and therefore I should be searching for "Alabrudzinski-Radivo" instead. Well, how in blazes am I supposed to know this? So time is wasted calling the primary care doctor and asking them to create a referral, when in fact they have already done so and the problem is that we can't FIND the thing.

Then there's the other bugaboo regarding computer software: not every system accepts hypens. Some programs will give an error message to the data entry peon who is trying to enter a hyphenated name into their computer system. So what's a peon to do? They might use a space (Alabrudzinski Radivojevic") or they might run the names together as one word "Alabrudzinskiradivojevic"). Did I mention that if you don't know the exact way that a name is spelled in the computer system, some search functions will return "no results found" when you try to search for it? So if you insist on combining surnames like this, PLEASE try to keep track of whose system spells your name which way. This will save countless amounts of time for yourself and for whomever you're doing business with.

Last, have you ever tried to write a 30-letter surname on a receipt? Have you? Well, you haven't lived until you have received a copay from Alpharetta Alabrudzinski-Radivojevic, and have had to handwrite a receipt for said patient. Including the fact that you have to fit her entire name into the amount of space that's physically alloted for a NORMAL length first and last name. Yeah, right. Good luck with that one. It can be done, but not if you actually want to be able to READ the name without employing a magnifying glass.

Anyway, so that's my take on hyphenated names. My blood pressure will, I hope, return to its normal level at some point later today, after I've recovered from dealing with the Hyphenated Name from H*ll.

Disclaimer: All three of those names exist: Alpharetta, Alabrudzinski, and Radivojevic. However, to the best of my knowledge they do not all belong to the same person. Thank goodness. If this combination matches the actual name of someone living or dead, then A) it's a coincidence and B) they have my utmost sympathy.