You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

Hi Muhhammed and welcome to A2K!

Honestly, I could use planning and logical thinking right now even more than Spanish lessons. I would gladly exchange photo lessons for that but I'm afraid you would be getting the short end of the stick. Lack of planning and procrastination are the hallmarks of my life.

Welcome aboard!

nimh, I positively refuse to believe you have no skills.

You could teach other rats to read! You could star in animated films! You could teach us to cultivate tulips (my favorite flower, by the way). You could keep us perplexed and amused.

I see nimh as a sort of graceful lounger in this barter scheme - keeping us sane while we're doing other things. There's a value to that, and I think he should be supported for that ability - much as courts had musicians and artists and composers and women who were amusing.

We are going to have to do something about his addiction to graphs though.

nimh could be our Dorothy Parker!

nimh is the great organizational force, the one who steps in to identify common ground between warring parties, who isolates and explicates the important information, (sifter and winnower extraordinaire) (that's a reference to my alma mater), who keeps things on track with grace and good humor.

Any enterprise needs one of those.

And I like his graphs, too!!

Oh and er um anyone want to learn ASL?

I would LOVE to learn ASL, soz. I have a few books but I think a class would really be in order.

My college roommate was a deaf education major and so I did know a bit at one point in my life. The problem with books is that you don't get the expression that I know the language is capable of. It seems to be more reciting than speaking.

When I was in elementary school my best girlfriends parent's were deaf. They had a weird family shorthand that they used. I would beg dinner invitations to watch them eat with one hand and talk with the other.

ASL is a great language. I really and truly would love to know it.

Is ASL pretty universal or do different countries use different signs?

The reason I want to learn Spanish is for more practical reasons. It seems to be almost a business necessity these days.

And it is a beautiful language.

Different countries use different signs. One of the more confusing examples of that is that it's impossible for me to understand British sign language (completely different from ASL), but I get the basic meaning in French sign language without much problem (ASL is based on French sign language, with a lot of local color/ variation added since it was introduced quite a while ago.)

I miss being around Deaf people I know well enough to have a shorthand with. :-( It's so fun. Used to have meetings with my staff and a bunch of other people fluent in ASL, so we couldn't be so blatant as just signing (which we did during meetings with non-signers), and we'd go <lightning flash> and indicate everything that needed to be indicated. I remember getting really, really annoyed with E.G. during that era because he didn't know what my blatantly obvious infinitismal eyebrow raise meant (my staff did!)

And here I was thinking sign language was very Esparanto-esque. That is interesting that it would be easier to understand French than other English.

I can imagine that it is hard to not be around familiar signers. That eyebrow raise is exactly what I mean by missing the expression when trying to learn from books. Maybe I was tainted from being around people who were so fluent.

I thought of my childhood friend "J" when you had a question up about your little neighbor girl. I can remember J's mom popping her head in wondering why we were being too quiet!

Yes, I'm sure I could find something to trade for ASL lessons.

If it were actually possible, I'm really truly exactly in the market for a good portrait photographer. E.G.'s parents asked for a family portrait of us for xmas last year, I tried a few times (set it up, handed off camera to my mom or whomever) and it just never worked. (Hubby's caught mid-eye-roll, whatever.) So now they're (ack the shame) asking for one THIS year since I never (gasp) actually gave them the portrait from (implode) last year. (I did give them other stuff, but still.) So that is one thing I'm really looking for. (Cheap places are... cheap, and cool places are... not cheap.)

Finding a photographer that you love whose prices are "worth it" can be very difficult. No doubt about it. One thing to keep in mind -- the people who love you will love a photo of you; they will not be as critical as you will. Sometimes an eye roll is the perfect expression.

Avoid the chain type, budget studios. Their reputation is not riding on your experience, satisfaction or recommendations. Independant photographer's reputations are.

Aww ... thats nice. <blushes>

Unfortunately, I dont seem to be doing any of that at my work ... Well, the "grace and good humor" part, perhaps. On a good day. But its not really needed cause everyone here is pretty good humoured anyway. No warring parties to mediate between either, which leaves the "isolating and explicating the important information" thing - which I could be doing, should be doing even, but am not, really, mostly because noone seems to care one way or another anyway. Hm. <frowns>


In the days of kings and queens I was a jester
Treat me like a God, oh they treat me like a leper
You see me moving back and forth between both
I'm trying to find a balance
I'm trying to build a balance

(Thats just Atmosphere, a rapper, dont worry ;-))

Hi
hi,boomerang and thanks for welcoming
about your being interested, thats fairly good but my real ability is about situations not about general issues like having mass in your life any way i will give you a small example(you can count it as lesson one. lol)
if you are facing some body who has a plan against you then you have the following ways to act:
A) if his plan is good:
if his plan is good you have three main ways to proceed:
1- to face and prevent(the most popular and direct one)
2- to leave him act and take what he leaves behind (if you raise your right arm to hit me you will leave your righ side able to be attacked)
3- to press him forcing him to proceed with his attack before he is really ready.
B) if his plan is bad:
just relax and let him do it ( and he will regret himself)
but about organizing life i think i will try to find some one to you and me too in this.
a last caution: if you used those listed above use them on your own responsibility.
hi, sozobe
these languages about deaf people are really interesting i hope i will trade them with you some day
but untill now i have never learnt any thing about talking to them or behaving with them maybe because there are no lots of them around here but it seems interesting thing to learn
hi,nimh
i think you are of those guys that can concentrate in more than one thing that's why you aren't specialized mainly in one thing so it's only about you pick up some thing of those things you know and give it one more hour daily and after a month you will have some thing to trade trust me

http://webhome.idirect.com/~mikeha/namericans/wolfrobe.html


If you are interested Boom. Here is a picture of wolfrobe. And a website you can manuver through about native americans. you may be able to use some of the information on this site for little mo someday.
I am full of them and some other stuff. let me know, i will gladly send it / post it