These tips were taken from Deaf-intely Different and edited to my situation.

Tips on what it means to interact with a Deaf/deaf person:

1) When someone says to you, “I’m Deaf,” they do NOT mean:

a. I have no interest in talking to you.
b. Please go away.
c. I do not have the mental capability to understand you.
d. Assume that you can only talk to us through an interpreter.

It actually really hurts my feelings when people do that. I want to know what you’re saying. I want you to talk to me (in most cases). Me being Deaf does not mean that I have no interest in communicating with you, meeting you, or hearing what you have to say. I don’t go home and cry about it or anything, but it’s mildly disappointing to be brushed off, ignored, or overlooked like that.

Also, Deaf/deaf people communicate with hearing people on a daily basis without an interpreter. We know ways around it. Most of the time we get by without even having to write stuff down. Minimal amount of voice (or even just mouthing), gestures, pointing, facial expression and body language: It’s all a part of communication. Thinking you have to have an interpreter to communicate with me is silly. This is common sense! We don’t sit around all day long alone until someone comes along we can sign with or whatnot. We’re out in the world just as much as you are.

Side note: When you do take the time to communicate with me (even if it’s about something I don’t care about or don’t want to hear particularly), it makes me happy. It gives me faith in people. I’m a person to, so talk to me!

2) Please, when we ask you to repeat something, don’t say, “Nevermind.”

This may be my number one pet peeve. You wanted to tell us something; we missed it. It should not take that much effort on your part to repeat a line or two of what you just said. Dismissing us like that is really annoying.

3) Look at us when we talk. Lipreading is a pain sometimes, but it does help. Eye contact is a huge part of the Deaf culture. We know that you’re hearing and it’s a habit to be able to turn around and still talk. And if we remind you, don’t take it as us trying to nit-pick or call you out on something. It’s just a little reminder. We know you don’t mean to.

4) (and this is probably the biggest) Know that we appreciate when you take the time to communicate with us. We’re people too, and are not always treated as such. Most of my friends are hearing, it takes dedication to learn signs. No one around me signs, so I never took the full sign course. That’s okay. I don’t grumble about it. The fact that they accept me for who I am is one of the brightest parts of my life.

Lebkov

Lebkov has three locations; Leiden, The Hague and Rotterdam. I frequent them all, lately mostly Rotterdam due that I stop there for coffee and/or breakfast on my way to work. They serve mainly sandwiches, soup, salads and coffee.

Now about coffee you should know I drink only decaf, this makes a lot of place that serve coffee fall of the list for me. For the simple reason that almost all of them serve Illy Decaf. It’s not a coffee that makes one’s heart beat faster, figuratively speaking. Until recently their regular coffee was also from Illy but they have switched to a South American blend, which I read tastes good. In my opinion, you can’t have one of the best barista in the country and serve a mainstream brand of coffee. You need to get the good and unique stuff. They also started using a good cocoa powder chocolate for their chocolate milk. Which is very nice, because I always drink my coffee with chocolate. Now, if only they could get a good brand of decaf.

• BLT Sandwich: 5 out of 5 stars.
• Hummus with sun-dried tomatoes Sandwich: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Tuna Sandwich: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Decaf Coffee: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Eating in: 3 out of 5 stars. (They have benches instead of chairs, my feet don’t reach the floor. After 45 minutes I’m done sitting.)
• Free wifi

De Bakkerswinkel

De Bakkerswinkel opened last year in The Hague, I think. They have several locations in Amsterdam and other cities. I like eating their warm sandwiches, so no take away here for me. They change their menu every so many months so mostly I eat the same when going there. When they opened they had this amazing warm sandwich with chorizo and tomato jam. Sadly they never put it back on the menu nor do they sell the tomato jam anymore. This shop makes and sells their own jam and salad dressing but they do not sell the salad dressing in the shop at The Hague. I’m still bummed about that. My regular fare when I go there is grilled cheese sandwich with zucchini, ketchup and salad(with their dressing) on the side. As for coffee I do not know which brand they have, it’s another mainstream one that tastes less good than Illy.

They do have the most yummy cakes there, all freshly baked. Carrot cake, cheese cake, and so on. Their soups are also very good. Next time I go there I’ll be having a sandwich with old cheese and soup. Giving the other sandwich a try.

• Grilled Cheese/Zucchini Sandwich: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Decaf Coffee: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Eating in: 3 out of 5 stars. (They don’t heat the place enough in cold months.)

Milly’s

Milly’s is fairly new and is currently closed for renovation, no re-opening date so far I know.

They have the best club sandwich, hands down. They also serve salads, soup, muffins and cake. The owner also has a bakery around the corner so everything is high quality and fresh. I can’t wait for them to re-open, I have been craving their sandwich, I also have been waiting to try their salad.

I won’t go into detail about the place itself as they are renovating. I do hope they manage to make the place bigger, it could only seat 10 people inside. They also did not heat the place in cold months, it was uncomfortably cold inside.

• Club Sandwich: 5 out of 5 stars.
• Decaf Coffee: 2 out of 5 stars.
• Eating in: 3 out of 5 stars. (They don’t heat the place cold months.)

Bagels and Beans

Lastly, no sandwich but bagels. Bagels and Beans is a Dutch born franchise that has been exponentially growing the past years in the Netherlands. They have an extensive menu of bagels, they got cakes, muffins, healthy drinks, etc. They regularly have a special bagel, think Serrano ham, chicken piri piri, etc. I have yet to try one. I usually eat light, just a plain bagel with natural cream cheese.

Their coffee is from Panama and one of the best. You can get your food and coffee to go, makes me wish they had a locale close to the train station. I mostly go here on my day off from work if I have nothing to do. Enjoy a coffee and read the newspaper.

The place is nice and inviting to sit and have a long lunch or work there. I like to frequent their place in bookstore Verwijs. Nothing better than enjoying lunch surrounded by books.

• Bagels: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Decaf Coffee: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Eating in: 5 out of 5 stars.
• Free wifi

If you want coffee only, go to Kaldi. Top of the line coffee from several South America countries. You can sit outside on the terrace during warm months, there are a few seats inside but I prefer take away or sit outside. They are a full fledged coffee store(also some tea). Most importantly to me is that they have a high quality decaf coffee. No competition. Their coffee is expensive but so is Starbucks and Starbucks doesn’t even compare to Kaldi’s coffee. I frequent Starbucks when I want a frappuccino or if I want coffee with plethora of things in it.

Believe it or not, with all the above places I still buy bread and make my own sandwiches at home. I would go bankrupt if I had to eat out everyday. Luckily I don’t drink coffee everyday, I can’t even make a decent coffee. Enough choices all around.

Picture on the right is a grilled chicken sandwich I made a while back. With spelt and sunflower seed bread and my own ceasar dressing.

It comes with the highly praised Hi-Tec-C ink, 0.3mm point. It is so popular that it’s constantly sold out at Jetpens. Well as soon as I started writing with it I disliked it, way to scratchy for my taste. I have a couple of G-Tec-C 0.4mm, so I put a black one in the pen instead. Much more to my liking.

I have been using the Pen Type-A daily at work, the high quality stainless steel body with a decent ink makes this pen way more better than a 200 euro Mont Blanc. The possibility to use different kind of inks and points makes this pen very versatile, especially considering the price.

I noticed a lot of other kickstarter project since then, all kind of pens using Hi-Tec-C. All of them get funded and sold out. Seems like there are a lot of pen geeks out there. There was only one other I wanted but it was already sold out. In any case the Pen Type-A will keep my interest for a long time and needs to get a good workout.

On a side note, the instructions that comes with the pen is nice, especially the warning that the makers are not responsible for you, for injuring or killing someone with the pen. Makes sense, we are used to plastic pens and trowing them at someone in annoyance.

My days consisted of waking up early every day, eating breakfast on the patio while watching the sunrise. Then we would go out to visit family, shop, drive around or to the beach. Of course I ate out more than at home. Especially fish and soup I could not pass up. The only junk food I ate was a salad at Wendy’s and hash browns breakfast at McDonald’s. I still cannot comprehend why McDonald’s in the Netherlands doesn’t has hash browns nor pancakes.

My second week-end I went to Curacao for three days to see my cousins and aunt. I barely slept a total of 10 hours those three days. Family meals, driving a round taking photo’s, a short walk in the city and before I knew it I was boarding a plane back to Aruba.

Three days after my trip to Curacao it was time to head back to the Netherlands, back to the winter cold. This year I’ll be living in the Netherlands for 12 years. It was the first time I could board a plane back here without a feeling of dread. While Aruba will always be home and where my family lives, the Netherlands has also become home.

Photos from Aruba | Photos from Curacao

I played tennis every week, more than once a week and more than one hour at times. I wasn’t really good, I was small for my age, thin, with no hint of muscle power. My peers always crushed me on court, I only won one game in my short 7 years career(mostly group lessons, from age 7 to 14) of tennis. That game I won is still very dear to me. 3 sets, one hour each. But I loved tennis and still love it very much. If it wasn’t due to health issues I would have never quit.

But I’m getting off track. What I learned and what I like about tennis is, it is not only a physical endurance sport, but it is an equally mental endurance sport. You are out on the court alone, facing your opponent, no team mates, no coach, no one to talk to. You can only draw strength form yourself and the public cheering for you.

Brian Phillips writes about the epic Australian Open Final between Djokovic and Nadal. His beautiful written article really drives the point across of how epic a tennis match can be.

Nadal and Djokovic battled for 6 hours in the Australian summer heat for the grand slam title. Six long, painful hours which they had only themselves to keep going. It was a battle of gladiators. I love most sports, but none, none can be like tennis. Soccer, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc. They are all team sports, with coach support and most of them with time limits.

So when I read a prose about tennis like the one written by Brain Phillips, that reminds me of what tennis really is, my heart swells for the love of the game.

This one was way more painful than the text one I got early 2009. Also way more bloodier, my sister started getting nervous when the plastic covering the tattoo kept filling with blood. But it wasn’t real that much. The healing process went without any issues, two weeks. Only thing is as you can see on the image of the finished version, on the stomach of the owl. that the ink didn’t stick under my skin, it looks like an under skin wound. Later today I’m going back to the shop to let them look at it and schedule another appointment to touch up the design here and there.

I’m still thinking about a design to blend the owl and text together making it kind of a half sleeve. I’m not one for flowers or too girly stuff. So I’m looking at patterns, etc. to come up with an idea.

Getting a tattoo is an experience on itself, I was comparing with a friend who also has a couple of tattoos how it feels and he feels the same. You take a lot of time to come with an unique as possible tattoo with personal meaning. When getting the tattoo it’s painful as hell sometimes and you wonder why you are such a masochist for pain and that you don’t want another tattoo again for a long time.

The first day you really need to get used to having a new tattoo on your body, it feels foreign. After a week the swellings is gone, it’s healing nicely and you are all giddy with the new tattoo and before you know it you start dreaming about the next one.

The website used to be in tables without any separation between content and presentation. The website was really slow on the school computers which run on Windows XP with IE8 as standard browser.

Old table based website

This was my first try at responsive design, learning along the way. It may not be mobile first or ‘real’ responsive, but it gets the job done. It’s still a work in progress, and I have a lot planned for this website.

I used Typekit for this project, I liked it so much I’m contemplating a subscription myself for my own websites. The paid versions are way more attractive than the free one I tried once.

My weblog has been very quiet last couple of months. The reason is that I found a job that actually requires me to leave home 4 days a week. Since early 2009 I have been doing freelance work while looking for a steady job.

With the current economy and my disability(deaf) you wouldn’t believe how hard it can be to get a job. I went to a couple of job interviews, while some companies had valid reason why they can’t hire me, I got some lousy reasons from others. At one place I applied for a non-payment internship specifically coding PHP to improve my skills for my CV. They said no because according to them I’m a “junior front-end coder”. That was the most baffling email I had gotten after an interview, ever. First I’m a medior front-ender and second I applied to code PHP not HTML/CSS.

A visit to a career event in Amsterdam was my lucky shot. I gave several places my CV and turned out that Rotterdam College has a program that promotes hiring people with disabilities. I have been working there at the schools magazine editorial since September and just got my contract for the rest of the school year. My job ranges from coding websites, social media, data processing for articles and whatever my colleagues need help with. I’m also at the disposition of the other departments.

I’m very happy with finally having a steady job, working freelance is a pain with clients who don’t pay on time or don’t pay at all. I have great colleagues and it’s nice working at a school, lots of people around and just the college feeling. If fate was different I would have kept studying until getting a doctoral degree.

I enjoy waking up every morning and traveling one hour by tram, train and metro to work. Sometimes I’ll go to my favorite deli; Lebkov and grab a chocolate latte before taking the metro. On the train I read everyday from my iPhone, Kindle or hardcopy and before I know it I’m already in Rotterdam.

29 November 2011

Last week I stayed home from work, a little cold that drained all my energy. I was reminded I don’t have the energy of a 100% healthy person and that I need my rest to keep up. Lesson learned, sleep more in the week-ends.

I’m currently finishing my first project at work and hopefully I’ll be able to show it within two weeks. While I’m no Dan Cederholm of HTML and CSS, I tackled this project alone, implementing CSS3 and media queries. Ethan Marcotte’s “Responsive Web Design” was unmissable while reading up for this project.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.” -Steve Jobs

The world has lost one of its greatest visionary. Take a moment and think on how much influence Steve Jobs has had on the technology you use today, because Steve Jobs dared to think different.

That day I didn’t have any classes and it was the period I discovered the Harry Potter books. I was home alone lying on my bed reading book 2 or 3 I think when my phone started ringing. It was my cousin who lived close by calling and telling me to turn on the TV. I asked what channel and she said whichever one. As soon as the TV was on I was the WTC Towers, heavy dark smoke rising from both of them. I couldn’t imagine what could have caused that scene. Soon after the news channel showed a repeat of the planes hitting and I was left wordless. After a moment I began telling my cousin(which whom I was still on the phone) that most people should be able to get out if they weren’t on the impacted floors. I didn’t even finish my sentence when I saw the South Tower starting to collapse. I cried, I had never cried before while watching the news. The faces of New Yorkers, scared and shocked, broke my heart.

The rest of the day after that is a blur, I don’t remember if I went out, only that I was glued to the TV and internet. I do remember the next day I had to get up early for classes. I used to commute with the train to Utrecht where I attended college, I lived in Arnhem back then. I was at the train station before eight in the morning, slap dap in the peak hour. You could feel it in your bones that the world had changed, you just knew it was never going to be the same again. Every newspaper, on the stands, in people hands, in the train, was covered with the burning towers. Even though commuters went hurried about their way, there was an eery feeling in the air.

This sounds a bit macabre: When I became deaf in 2007 I noticed that my brain could remember all daily sounds. Apparently when losing one sense your body compensates in all possible ways. Music I heard over and over again, voices of my family, basically all sounds I heard uncountable times were embed in my brain. I can also still remember how the jet engines of the planes sounded, the explosion when they hit, the rumble of the Towers collapsing and the sound of bodies hitting on the lobby roof from the adjoining buildings. Those horrible sounds that could be heard in news broadcasting, I never forgot them.

I cannot imagine how it must be for everyone who where there on that day. 9/11 changed the world, it took many lives on the day itself and still does till today with a war still going on. It gave politicians munition to use fear to get what they want.

A year later I flew to Aruba with a layover in Miami and was finally face to face with the reality. I had to take off my shoes, my belt, patted down, take my baggage through the scanner, the whole security nine yards. This how we would live from now on.

Now 10 years later, two wars, several more attacks around the world, adaptable as we humans are it’s like we never new different.

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn) There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn) And a time to every purpose, under Heaven -The Byrds