North of the Stupid Line

Do you want to know what I want for Christmas? Here’s my wish list, feel free to send me something! )

DVDs
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, DVD Collection (Seasons 1-7)
Star Trek Voyager, DVD Collection (Seasons 1-7)
Mystic River
Shrek
Shrek 2
Spiderman 2

Books
Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn

CDs
Greatest Hits, Robbie Williams

Miscellaneous
Iriver 20GB MP3 Player
Creative Labs Webcam NX Pro
George Foreman ‘Junior’ Clear Lid Grill

My fame knows no boundaries; I’ve now been featured in a Danish magazine called Kommunikationsforum – Artikler – Videoblog ??? fremtidens weblog?!

The relevant bit says:

Desuden giver videobloggen nye muligheder for handicappede. Rob Wilks, som er d?v, publicerer for eksempel p? sin videoblog North of the Stupid Line indl?g, hvor han kommunikerer p? tegnsprog.

which roughly translates to:

Moreover, videoblogging has created new opportunities for the handicapped. Rob Wilks, who is deaf, has published videoblogs on his North of the Stupid Line blog, in which he communicates in sign language.

How lovely! I’m handicapped! ;o)

I was getting bored with the old look, plus I’ve started to use Mozilla Firefox on a regular basis, and the old look looked terrible. So here we are, I hope what you will perceive to be a more professional-looking website and blog.

I have also created a HTML version of my CV for prospective employers who are interested in taking me on either as a Trainee Solicitor or Paralegal – please feel free to have a look and to ask any questions should you have any.

If you have any comments, just let me know.

After securing a lipspeaker for a training contract (tc) interview (iv) tomorrow at such short notice, I was just thinking how difficult it can be for Deafies to book communication support at such short notice. How many Deafies have had to cancel or lose out on opportunities for this reason? What would have happened if I couldn’t go to the iv because of lack of communication support? What redress would I have under the DDA 1995? Would I be able to challenge anyone? Probably not. Perhaps the interviewers if they refused to postpone the iv. Wouldn’t postponing the iv make my application less favourable to them?

More to the point, why do interpreters (terps) have so much power over Deafies? If they don’t turn up for bookings, there is very little redress. I know one instance where a Deafie was booked to have an operation on the NHS; terp didn’t turn up, so operation was postponed for a further 4 MONTHS. How ridiculous is that? Don’t terps realise that they’re playing with Deafies’ lives? FFS.

Deafies need to get their act together and fight for more accountability from communication support agencies.

I got some wonderful news today. You all know that I have now started my LLM in Law & Employment Relations with the University of Leicester. Well, what most of you didn’t know is that it costs ?2,950 per year.

The Snowdon Award Scheme have been absolutely fantastic and awarded me ?2,500 per year. £2,000 per year will be used to pay towards the tuition fees, and £500 per year towards the residential weekends. I’d like to express my thanks to everyone involved in making the decision to award me with this, plus the administrators who are dealing with the award’s distribution. It has made life tonnes easier for me financially. I was also awarded a Postgraduate Bursary of £1,000 by the University of Leicester, towards the tuition fees, and £500 by the Cambrian Educational Trust for Deaf Children, which I will use to purchase books and other materials.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!