Posts by Hannah
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I tend to think of my social aptitude being inversely proportional to the number of people in the group. So one-on-one is best, me with 2 others ok and more people in the group the worse it gets. However it does also depend on the sociality of the other people - if there are extroverts in the group I shut up, whereas I can actually find myself asking polite questions of people who are even shyer than me.
Only recently have I realised that considering how tired I feel on the drive home from a social outing, that socialising is a stressful event, and I need to lie down in the quiet for 10 minutes when we get home to feel back to normal.
The weird thing is that one of my hobbies is roleplaying - and I can be quite an extrovert when I am in-character, but when games is over and people start talking as themselves again, I go quiet once more. I thinks its about giving a performance.
I was just reading an article in New Scientist (3July2010) about personality types, bascially that its not a person's genetics that determines personality, its about the environment cues. People who are physically strong & attractive tend to be extroverts. Interestingly, it says, giving people a more attractive avatar in Wow made them more gregarious in the game, and this effect carried over into the real world (for a few minutes).
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I've just started taking "Tru2U Tart Cherry Juice" which a friend who was imsomniac rates very well - calls it the sleepy juice. It has natural melatonin in it, which sounds like it may be of help to you. Take a glass before bedtime of juice (before brushing your teeth - it is, as labelled quite tart). Can be bought in concentrate form online from a Chirstchurch outfit via their website.
I grew up near Waikumete and like the old cemeteries for the sketching potential too - usually no-one around and some neat combinations of forms and lighting and overgrown wilderness. Shame you have to watch out for the needles these days.
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Ping said a wee while back, that the kids in school who get the raincoats "they do look chuffed to have a little black raincoat with a silver fern on it"
But the police school safety advisors are telling us not to to put the children in dark coloured raincoats, as drivers (especially when raining) find it harder to see little people in dark colours. Surely the raincoats should be yellow, or fluorescent; or would that make them so uncool that they're not worn?
Must admit when the walking school bus at my local primary was suggesting we buy fluoro orange sunhats to make the kids more visible, hence safer, I thought they looked naff and didn't get one.
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Regarding frock coats etc that others were wanting, my mother-in-law flicked me this website a few weeks back, which I took to drooling over. http://www.sharpe-designs.com/dragonesque-clothing-cloaks.htm It's English based, selling gothic/witchy style clothing, and has a few good coats. Obviously someone is picking up that some sectors want this sort of stuff. If only there is a NZ outlet.
Last week I was looking at sewing patterns (in the costume section of the pattern books) for a good long coat, and found one of Matrix Nero's long black swirling coat which I couldn't go past. Couldn't picture it in any other colour than black though. Now just got to make time to sew it, but at least it will fit me. -
My brother is profoundly deaf, born in 1964, affected by the Rubella epidemic of the year before. My family was living in Whangarei when he was diagnosed, around 3years old. Being deaf explained all sorts of behaviour, like screaming hysterically when the nice young doctor swooped on him from behind while talking to him - my brother had no idea it was coming, so was justifiably scared.
When we shifted back to Auckland it was to live in Kelston near the deaf school. From what my mother says, back then, everyone at School for Deaf was expected to speak. Sign language was not allowed in the classroom. Children who signed had to sit on their hands.
Hearing aids at that stage were the size of cell phones, kept in the shirt pocket, with a cord to the ear plugs. My brother stopped wearing them because it got in the way of playing, and it only may the few noises he could hear louder (only a few of the hairs in the inner ear grew) and not actually increase the legibility.
It was partly due to that epidemic that things changed, partly because there were so many more deaf than usual, and also because the disease was indiscriminate of the victims. Not just poor people were having deaf babies, but professional, literate, educated parents did. And they stood up and fought for their rights to have sign language recognised as a separate language and part of the culture that was necessary for the deaf.
Expectations changed - parents who were told they should be thankful their daughter could work in the supermarket after leaving school turned around and said that if her siblings could go to university, then why can't she?
Now as adults, there is a crucial shortage of interpreters. I think they get 10 hours per year and that would need to cover doctors, lawyers, weddings, visit to the school to talk about the kids progress etc. The advent of faxes and then texting made a huge difference in incorporating deaf into society. A section of our community who had previously ignored all telecommincation devices became avid uptakers of the new technology, which I don't think the Telco's had thought about, or expected.
And just think, it took 40 years for sign language, to move from out of the deaf schools and become an official language in this country.