A Madison gathering!

Somebody make a big sign that says [size=18]"A2K GATHERING."[/size]

Soz, I doubt any of us is gonna have much trouble communicatong with nods amd smiles ... hell, we all pretty much know exactly what any of us is likely to SAY in ant given situation ... But while there are no surprises likely there, it's gonna be a thrill to WATCH us say ther things "We Always Say". :wink:

That's an interesting take on it, timber.

Poofity poofity hair! Cute pic!

I'm known for lipreading accents, as soon as I nail 'em down. I can be squinting at someone, then ask "Are you from Germany?", he/she will own up to it, I say "OH!!" and it's clear sailing after that. Usually. I don't think of Canadians as having an accent per se -- spent a lot of summers in Canada with relatives as a kid.

One thing I like about the idea of having a terp is just that it makes me a lot more relaxed -- if I miss something, I can just look at the terp. And then what happens, paradoxically (sorta) is that since I am more relaxed, I actually do better with lipreading. Relaxation and letting all of the cues wash over you and come together is how it works, when it works.

I like the idea of meeting some of you beforehand a lot. Not sure if that will be a possibility or not... still not sure when we will be arriving. And while that is likely to help, there are aspects inherent to groups that make things treacherous. I can be in a group with E.G. and several good friends and still have a terrible time. I can control the situation to some extent -- where I sit, lighting, and asking that people not speak over each other (I'll be bossy about this, unless it's a private sub-conversation) -- but there is still a lot of tennis-match-style head-whipping and missing things. (Looking to the left while the person on the right says something, whip over to the right but too late, meanwhile left replied, whip back to the left... etc.) It's all what I see -- I get no assistance from auditory channels at all -- and there's only so much you can see at once.

Hmmmm...

Haven't decided yet, but thanks much for input. (And I have a feeling I'll be able to read a twinkle in Swimp's eye jest fine...)

By all means, bring on the terp. Its likely to be hugely entertaining for the whoever fills the post, and no doubt provide A2K an enthusiastic recruit. 'Less they run screaming from the building.

Well, of course, bring your friend, if that's what you want. I do hope you won't refer to him/her as a "twerp" while we're in company, though, it could be really embarrassing for us all.

(That Soz sure is a strange girl . . . )

hehehehehehe

Bossy is verra verra good, sozobe. It'll all make a lot more sense when Setanta calls ya boss then :wink:

ya shoulda heard my eyes roll when Setanta told me the 'twerp' thing last night. the elastic just about snapped.

Bossy is very good, Boss. Even as a hearing person, I usually miss at least half of what's going on in a group situation. It always seems like at a long table there is one conversation going on at each end and maybe a third one in the middle. It can be very frustrating if you are on the fringes of them all.

I sometimes get hysterical blindness and deafness reading through the political forums, but the doc says it isn't anything serious. Where is BoGoWo on our second T.O. gathering anyway?

Only because your doctor is very laid back and thinks nothing is serious. To the rather less relaxed, your loss of senses (if not of sense) is quite serious indeed. If I may, I'd like to refer you to my jester: he is not so cavalier (no relation) about such matters of personal import.

He is also quite serious about matters of personal export, but he won't let on unless he's sure he can trust you.



Oh, wait. This isn't a digression...

Sez who?

Digress away. (Sez soz.)

We'll see if you still think bossy is good after you've seen me in action. I'm tendin' toward getting the twerp just now. We'll see. (Will probably be someone who is also a friend, and it might be fun to see if we can get him or her laughing so hard she can't sign. I used to do that to 'em all the time in class. He/ she is up there on a stage next to the professor, 2-300 people watching, I make a really dumb joke, poor twerp collapses in giggles. Heh. I'm eeeeeeeeevilllllll....)

psssssssst, mr. patiodog. Do you think you could be so kind as to determine if one of your classmates would be available to be hired as a dogsitter on Thursday and Friday evening? Please and thank you. Mr. Bailey and Miss Cleopatra thank you.

personal export? is that anything like farting?

On the subject of problem with our senses.
***********************************
A little old lady goes to the doctor and says, "I can't stop passing wind. Luckily, it doesn't smell and they are always silent. As a matter of fact, I've passed wind twice since I've been here in your office, but you didn't even notice."

"I can help you," says the doc. "Take these pills and come back next week."

The next week, the lady returns. "Doctor," she says, "I don't know what you gave me, but now my farts reek."

The doctor says, "Good, we fixed your sinuses! Now let's work on your hearing."

Hmmm... Would that require talking to them? I'll see if I can throw up a few flyers. No guarantees, though, on homecoming weekend. (Really, I've never lived in a such a rah-rah, go State U. kind of place. It makes me a little nervous. I mean, first time around we all dug being Banana Slugs and all, but we didn't, like, camp out for Ultimate tickets...)

Have you been to a game yet? The band kinda subverts the whole rah-rah thing.

But yeah, football is big in Madison.

Do NOT talk to me about the Packers, though. Sigh.

Football to me is a series of committee meetings punctuated by short and violent bursts of violence, usually with little discernable results. My interest does not expand beyond the occasional SportsCenter highlight.

Phhhtht.

(That said, the sum total of my football watching this season has been a five minute stretch in which I saw Donald Driver be wheeled off the field in a stretcher and then Ferguson [forget his first name ] crumple in a heap after doing something horrible to his ankle or something. I just have this continuing, masochistic, unreasonable love for the Packers.)

Huh.

Well, perhaps I should explain that I get very nervous among any group that appears to be thinking as a unit. I've been to NBA playoff games in Portland and Seattle, and I just end up looking at the foamingly jingoistic athletic supports (phhht!) around me with loathing and contempt. And that's among the 15 or 20 thousand folks who can stuff inside an NBA arena, and at their level of fandom. So stick me in the Saturday Madison football traffic, with everyone wearing red and the thoughts "Badgers -- Beer -- Badgers -- Sausage -- Cheese -- Badgers -- Cheese Curds --" and so on written plain as Portuguese in Porto across their faces, and my near-pathological misanthropy flares up. And football is really boring when you don't have a dog in the fight. Now, basketball, there is a sport...