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Category: Uncategorized
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Back Home Again…and, Onward with the Z-Phones!
I’m back!
Lori and Karen Last week Tuesday, I headed down to Clearwater, Florida, to meet the Z-Team from CSDVRS. It turned out to be an overwhelming, intense, exciting, fun, brain-jamming week. I teamed up with Lori Koch from South Dakota, who took the position of Assistant Director of Sales. The two of us spent three days getting to know all the employees and soaking up the nuts and bolts of our jobs. Lori did a much better job of remembering who was who, but she had a head start, as she knew nearly half of the employees from her former job.
On Sunday, the Sales Managers from all over flew in and there were even more names to place with faces. On Monday night, we played a fun, team-building activity and then headed over to an employee’s house for dinner and a swim. We fired up the Z-340 videophones and took turns using them. I called home and connected with my kids. It was so neat to walk around in the backyard and introduce everyone to my family, including the ones in the pool. Wi-fi access rocks!
I was able to test out the new Z-100 software for PCs on my laptop at the airport. I called my mother-in-law and chatted with her using VCO (Voice Carry Over, using my own voice to speak directly). Just before boarding, I talked with CSDVRS Outreach Specialist, Dennis O’Brien (whom you might remember from his Obama vote) via my built-in laptop webcam. I closed the laptop to board, but once I sat down, I called him again. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that I was calling from the airplane before take-off.
The year ahead promises to be an exciting one with the Z-Team and I look forward to connecting with deaf and hard of hearing customers from all over. I will be covering Illinois and Wisconsin, plus nationwide with those who use VCO. I’m teaming up with Mike Finneran and Hope Turpin on the nationwide level.
I will be hiring Outreach Specialists in Illinois and Wisconsin and looking for VCO and Spanish Outreach Specialists as well.
For more information about the Z products or to learn more about our services, I would be happy to chat with you. If you, or someone you know is struggling with phone access at work or at home, let me know. I will help work to find a solution to your phone needs.
VP: karenputz.myvp.tv
Voice callers can reach me at: 888-657-8492
Twitter: DeafMom
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Breathe In… Breathe Out
I’m going nuts.
I’ve never been one who is organized, but one of my big, BIG goals this year is to have everything o.r.g.a.n.i.z.e.d. I’ve never needed it more than today, because I’m running around trying to find the flight info I printed and put in a “safe” place. I discovered that I left my phone at Panera Bread…
Sunday night.
I spent all day yesterday looking for it.
Why, oh why, didn’t my Mom’s organization genes pass on to me?
Why?
I’m bound and determined to conquer this state of disorganization. Even if I have to fly Alex Fayle out to Chicago. Speaking of Alex, check out the interview that he did with me recently:
Learning to Ask for Help: Karen Putz Interview
You’ll also have to go over to TechMama’s blog and check out: Looking for People Friendly Media Technology.
And then go hop over to Amy Derby’s place for a captioned video: Conversations with Strangers.
I’m signing off and dismantling my computer to make way for a new desk. I’m tossing out the folding table.
It’s a start.
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Jill Wood, Parent Extraordinaire
Yesterday, I finally had my first mammogram. A mammogram that I had been putting off for over a year.
“Have you had your mammogram?” Jill Wood, a parent of a hard of hearing son, asked me during an IM conversation a year ago. Jill had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and was about to begin chemotherapy.
“I haven’t had one yet, but I will,” I typed back. The doctor had given me the RX for a mammogram earlier that year, but I couldn’t find the paper. I just put the procedure on the back burner.
When I received the RX again this year, I told myself that I really needed to follow through with it. So there I was yesterday, dressed in a gown and about to haul my boobs over a plastic plate to be squished.
“Just a minute,” the technician said. “I need to get the larger plate.” She replaced the regular-sized plastic plate with the larger plate.
I rolled my eyes and quickly, my thoughts went to Jill.
I gotta tell her about this, I said to myself. She would crack up at the thought of hauling out a larger plate for my anatomy.
My thoughts soon turned dark as I noticed a spot on one of the digital images that came up on the screen.
“Should I be worried?” I asked the technician.
“No, you have to wait for the doctor to review the images and they’ll call you within a week.”
I was driving home yesterday and thinking, “I gotta call Jill and talk to her.”
That night, I received a message from Barbara, another parent who knew Jill:
Hi Karen – I know you don’t read Listen-up every day but thought you would want to know that Jill Wood passed away on Friday, Dec. 26. I knew she’d taken a turn for the worse a couple of months ago but didn’t realize the extent. I’m very, very sad.
I sat there stunned. And I cried. I called Barbara for the first time and we talked. I emailed Helen, Jill’s friend and learned that Jill was doing well five days before and then took a rapid turn for the worse. The world lost a great woman, a great mom. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way because on the parent listserv where we met, many other parents felt the same way. You see, Jill was an incredible mom who greeted parent after parent on the list, sharing her thoughts, her feelings and all the things she learned throughout the years of parenting a son with progressive hearing loss. Her son sent my oldest son some Weird Al music and got him hooked on Weird Al videos as a result. So I bought a Weird Al video for Christmas last year for my oldest son and the kids just cracked up watching it.
Jill wrote with wit and wisdom and her personality shone through with every post she shared. I’m not kidding. Ask any parent on the listserv and you’ll see that this gal stood out and many learned from her.
Jill was a freelance illustrator who drew book covers. She shared some of her designs with me and I was blown away by her talent. Last October, when she first began chemotherapy, she and I wrote back and forth. She joked about doing reconstructive surgery and getting a set of perky boobs that would be the envy of everyone in the nursing home when she turned 90.
Yes, that was Jill, ever the optimist with a wisecrack. In one of her emails, she said she was off to get her “poison cocktails” and said that she was going to make her doctors insert a fancy drink umbrella on it. “At least I’ll get to catch up on some much needed sleep,” she joked about the side effects. I was about to leave for a cruise at that time, so I emailed back and said that I would have a Pina Colada in her honor, complete with an umbrella and send her a picture.
“Here’s the picture, as promised,” I wrote to her when we arrived back. I was in a swimsuit, holding a pina colada with an umbrella perched in it. “I wouldn’t send just anyone a picture of me in a swimsuit,” I joked. “Only for you, girl.”
So as I wait for result from the mammogram, I’m going to celebrate Jill’s life and dig out the Weird Al video for our trip up to Michigan. Here’s to you, Jill.
Jill and her husband Larry, in their funny slippers Donations in Jill’s name can be made to:
MD Anderson Cancer Center for IBC Research
Update:
After two mammograms and an ultrasound, the doc sent me home saying that all is fine.
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
A very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
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Color Me Blue–CSDVRS Blue!
It’s official, I’ve joined the CSDVRS team full time!
How did this come about? A few months ago, Dennis O’Brien (you know, the guy who voted for Obama, cough, cough) introduced me to Hope Turpin, who is the Nationwide VCO Manager for CSDVRS. I went to
work for Hope at the Deaf Expo and the ALDA conference, where I met the other members of the CSDVRS team. We had a lot of fun together and I really enjoyed working for CSDVRS for those two events.I was also blown away by the two “Z” products, the Z150 and the Z340. “The Z150 can handle VCO calls without having to use a second phone,” Hope explained at the Deaf Expo. I was really excited about the two products–it was like playing with new toys. I grew up avoiding the phone because it was physically impossible for me to understand phone conversations. I was even a late-bloomer to videophones–most of my friends were using them long before I was. I simply didn’t understand the amazing freedom that I would have with the videophone.
After working with the CSDVRS team, I knew I wanted more. I applied for a full-time job as a Nationwide VCO Outreach Specialist. At the same time, a position opened up for Sales Manager for Illinois and Wisconsin. As fate would have it, the moons aligned, the stars came out and that’s how I ended up being the Sales Manager for IL and Wisconsin as well as partnering with Hope for Nationwide VCO Outreach as well.
So starting in January, I’ll be painting the nation BLUE and introducing people to phone access that they never before dreamed was possible.
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Tagged by Liz Strauss and Playing Along
Memes. I swore I wouldn’t participate in any more memes. But who can resist a game of Bloggy Tag? Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog tagged me to play along a fun game of sharing some deep, dark secrets. Of course, once shared, they’re not going to be secrets anymore.And here, I get to share stuff that’s all about me. Me. And me.
Please stop yawning. Here, have some Pepsi. Would you like a little rum with that? I promise to make it entertaining. Deep, dark secrets and all.
1. I once stole some lipstick from a store. On a dare. My friend Lisa, dared me to steal something from a local store. I chose a tube of lipstick because I figured it would be easy enough to slip in my pocket. Never mind the fact that I hardly wore makeup. You can imagine what happened. I got caught. Lisa snickered. I arrived home in the back of a police car and my father marched me right back to the store to apologize to the manager.
And Lisa? She became a cop right after high school.
2. I saved all of my notes and letters from the guy I had a crush on in high school. I brought up the box from the basement recently and was reading through them. My daughter came in and asked, “What are reading, Mom?” So I showed her. It was a paragraph describing my first kiss, from the major crush. Daughter rolled her eyes and went, “Ewwww, Mom.”
3. I went skinny dipping on my sixteenth birthday. It was at night, with a bunch of friends. We thought it would be fun to strip off the bathing suits and swim. We let the swimsuits sink to the bottom of the lake as we treaded water and swam around. My friend Jenny turned to me and said, “Someone’s coming!” So everyone scrambled to get their suits on. I couldn’t find mine. It was pitch black at that point. My friends took off to the guest cabin while I dove into the water over and over and tried to find the swim suit. I gave up and decided to make a run for the cabin. At that moment, my brother turned on the outside floodlights and caught me running buck naked down the pier.
The swimsuit turned up at a neighbor’s house five days later. Apparently it floated away.
Needless to say, it was a birthday to remember–and the first and last time that I skinny-dipped.
4. We have a ghost up at Christie Lake. His name is Mr. Eberhart. He died at the end of the pier, while trying to cover the boat during a storm. His story will be published in an upcoming book about ghost stories. Written by yours truly, who has experienced Mr. Eberhart leaving closet doors open during the night.
5. My last secret isn’t really a secret: I’m a major procrastinator. Here it is, a few days before Christmas and I don’t have my Christmas shopping done. The tree is still in the crawl space. I haven’t figured out the menu nor shopped for the food for the Christmas Eve dinner.
Can someone kick me off the computer?
How about you? Would you like to play a game of Bloggy Tag? You’re it!
Thanks to Tishia’s Thoughts for the Honest Scrap Award! It ties right in with this meme.
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I Survived a Drive-By Shooting
For weeks, I walked around with my Kevlar vest on. I knew that the guys with famous elbows from Men With Pens were coming over to my place on December 14th. I debated whether or not to tidy up the place, hide the dust bunnies and shove the clutter into a Rubbermaid bin.
Nah, I thought to myself. Gotta let it all hang out. After all, that was the whole purpose of having the hired guns shoot up the place. I simply tightened up my vest, put on my protective glasses and waited.
Check it out:
Drive-By -Shooting Sunday: Deaf Mom World
I knew I had one ace that they couldn’t touch– after all, the talented Harry designed the banner for this blog. I was really surprised to learn that Harry thought he could touch it up a bit:
“Well, it’s a nice sign,” James paused at the door, looking back over his shoulder. “It’s simple, clean, fresh looking and it’s clear what this place is all about.” That was a bonus in itself. He would have inverted the green and blue of the title of the sign for better readability, but beyond that, he liked the globe and the arrow that showed where this woman lived.
Then again, James was biased. And so was Harry.
Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t critique our own work. The drops of water on the globe seem a little out of place, and we would have removed that. The color scheme chosen to match the existing site is a nice choice, though, giving a welcoming effect from the start. Nicely done.
My husband also commented about the water drop when he first saw the banner, but I like it. I love how it symbolizes my favorite place to be– out on the water at Christie Lake. It also reminds me of my waterskiing memories. So that water drop is staying.
I was happy that they left me mostly intact and that I didn’t have to head to the hospital for major surgery. Unfortunately, the clean up will have to wait until after the holidays, so the readers will have to deal with the clutter for a while.
I’m just very, very disappointed in James and Harry. They came dressed from head to toe in black and wore ski masks.
I didn’t even catch a glimpse of a naked elbow.
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The Mom Song–A Guaranteed Belly Laugh
Every once in a while, I’ll get a ditty sent via email (thanks, Kim!) that I like to pass along to readers. This one is so, so good, that I think even the Dads will like it:
(It’s captioned, and it’s hilarious!)
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All I Wanted Was a Captioned Video
I woke up in a great mood this morning, but now I’m grumpier than hell.
It actually started weeks ago.
Lauren came home from school with the news that the Project Arrow class was going to see “A Christmas Carol” in Chicago. I talked with the teacher and she agreed to arrange for an interpreter for the performance. Lauren wasn’t too happy about it, because we saw the play a few years ago with two interpreters and she didn’t enjoy it.
“It’s just not fun looking at the stage and then looking at the interpreters, Mom!”
Yeah, I understand.
So then Lauren came home with the news that the theatre couldn’t get an interpreter for the performance. The alternative was for Lauren to attend and read off the printed script. Another alternative was for Lauren to attend the play on the weekend, when the performance was interpreted.
Lauren wrinkled her nose at both alternatives. I didn’t blame her.
She asked the teacher if she could stay home and view “The Christmas Carol” on DVD. The teacher agreed.
Which leads me to the reason why I’m grumpy.
But wait, let me back up a bit and explain something. Our home library is in Plainfield, but we use the Naperville library for our main library. So there I was today, looking for the captioned copy of “The Christmas Carol.” Looking for captioned copies of any DVD in the non-fiction section is like hunting for diamonds. The large majority of non-fiction videos are not captioned or even subtitled. I grabbed three videos for myself, one was captioned, the rest were subtitled. While I was browsing in the DVD section, a librarian came by and asked me if I needed any help.
“Can you help me find the captioned version of ‘The Christmas Carol?’” I asked.
It took her but a few minutes to find the DVD. I took it to the counter, along with some other non-fiction DVDs I had wanted to see. Non-fiction–because according to the library rules, reciprocal borrowers (that’s us–because we pay taxes to the Plainfield library, even though we live in another town) can only take out the non-fiction DVDs.
As it turned out, “The Christmas Carol” was parked in the fiction section. Which meant it was a no-no.
I explained the situation to the librarian. This was for school, you see. I explained about the play, the interpreter situation, the agreement with the teacher that we’d view the captioned DVD while the others headed downtown.
“I’m sorry, you can’t take it out. You have to go to Plainfield library. Or, for $100, you can rent the fiction videos for a dollar each all year long.”
Let’s see–a hundred bucks and I could take the video home that day.
“Is there someone else I can talk to, a supervisor, who might make an exception?” I wanted to know. “I would be happy to bring the video right back on Friday.”
The supervisor turned out to be the librarian who helped locate the DVD. She called the Plainfield library and learned that they didn’t have the captioned version of the video.
I pleaded with her again.
“Do you know anyone in Naperville who can come in and check this out for you?” she suggested.
So I thought of my friend Betsy. My friend Nadene. I envisioned them dragging themselves to the library, braving the cold weather, all so we could see a captioned DVD of a play that we already saw years ago.
I sighed. I could see that the two librarians wanted to help. But the rules stood in the way. The ironclad rules that don’t bend for access, captions or not.
So I left the library in a grumpy mood.
Update:
Speak Up Librarian: Naperville Library Insensitive to Deaf Needs
