Petition for Auslan 5 April, 2008

Australians are being asked to sign their name to a petition for more funding and support for Signing children, who currently exit the education system with poor communication and literacy skills.

As part of the education revolution the government is evaluating the funding needs of children with a disability (not that Deafness is seen as a disability by the Deaf community!). Auslan is a poorly funded area, yet so vital to so many children within Australia.

Please sign petition for Auslan. An online petition has been started, which will be presented to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

If you support Auslan (Australian Sign Language), please support the petition and sign your name at http://www.bilby.net/Sign/AuslanPetition.asp

Minister Gillard,

We the undersigned wish to voice our support for the following :

1. The recognition of Auslan as an Australian National Language.

2. Funding and support for Auslan as a priority LOTE (Language Other Than English) subject within Australian Schools. Auslan is important as a LOTE as it provides access to the language to the peers of children who need the language, and in the longer term, help raise awareness of the language throughout the broader community and thus overall quality of life for those who need the language.

3. Funding and support for parents and extended family members of Australian children who use Auslan to communicate, whether at a key sign or fluent basis. We believe that it is important to increase the support for these members of our community whose rate of adoption of Auslan influences the longer term communication and eventually linguistic capabilities of the children who rely on them. When the
adoption of Auslan, by family members and carers is limited and laborious, so too is the adoption of communicative capabilities and access to overall communication for children who need this language to communicate, especially within the formative years, so vital in a child’s linguistic development.

4. The funding of services, such as that of SignPlanet.net, which provide free and easy access to Auslan, as a starting point for those learning Auslan. We support “The development of web portals which will enable parents to participate in their child’s education” (http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au ). We wish to voice our support of the enhancement of web-base information, and courses that will support those, especially within rural and remote areas, learning Auslan to communicate with their children.

I saw a belt with something written on it 4 April, 2008

Do you think Levis came up with their name by swapping the first two letters of the Elvis’ name..?

Queensland Unplugged 2 April, 2008

Thursday, 3 April 2008 is ‘Queensland Unplugged Day’.“Every appliance that uses standby power is wasting energy, generating greenhouse gas emissions and costing you money.  Standby power may not seem like a big deal but it all adds up. If every Queensland household turned off unnecessary standby power, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the same as taking over 130,000 cars off the road!  If every household in Queensland turned off just one TV when not in use rather than leaving it them on standby, it would save enough energy to power 4,300 homes!”

Makes you think heh?  Go to the Qld EPA ClimateSmart website for more info on this (and other stuff):

http://climatesmart.qld.gov.au/get_involved/standby_power

The language of… 2 April, 2008

Guess what! I met a Deaf Japanese woman last night!! How exciting!!! My head is spinning with the mix of Auslan, English, JSL (Japanese Sign Language) and spoken Japanese. So far I know how to sign “arigato” (thank you) and “wakarimasu” (know/understand) in JSL. It must be equally confusing for her to watch me fingerspell a Japanese word in Auslan (because JSL has different finger spelling).

Earth Hour 27 March, 2008

Don’t forget Earth Hour this Saturday 29th March from 8pm-9pm your local time. I’m glad to say that my workplace is participating. There’s a pretty globe to look at which shows where individual participants are located all around the world (bit funny though how we’re turning out lights off for the event, but supporters are shown with lights…).

One way to get to know me 23 March, 2008

A work training course in communication skills used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as its basis. I therefore had the opportunity to undertake the personality test and came out as an ENFP:

Extraversion (vs introversion)

Intuition (vs sensing)

Feeling (vs thinking)

Perceiving (vs judging)

You know how when you read your horoscope, you think, yeah that could apply to me (but really it could apply to anyone); well this is more than that. This is so me!

One less car 21 March, 2008

I just bought a new bicycle!! So it’s good bye cheap second hand hot pink ladies bike, hello slick black new bike! It’s a hybrid. Any suggestions for names? When I had a hybrid in Melbourne I called it Trannie (you know, cause it was half this, half that).
I live for the day when commuting to work by car is as taboo as smoking in public, 10 minute showers and receiving plastic bags at the supermarket.

A big one 4 March, 2008

Following a poetry workshop on Saturday, it was a lovely afternoon of strolling around Brisbane – Thai meal in the Valley, checking out what’s going on at The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts (definitely not to be called “The Judy” I’m told) and the Brisbane Powerhouse.

Mum loves passing on newspaper articles related to things I might be interested in, and one of the latest ones was about a photographic exhibition going on at the Powerhouse, showing winning journalis-type photos. I wasn’t expecting to really get much out of it as I’m more interested in other types of photography, but I was moved by many of the pictures.

Some of the piccies showed physically impaired people in third world countries, a great shot of an ex-soldier who decided not to use an umbrella during a ceremony and had the rain bouncing of his medals, and a series of photos about a man who went to Zurich with his wife so he could end his life legally (this one made me cry).

While we were there at the Powerhouse, we checked out what else was going on. We could hear “Violinarum” going on, so entered the room. I would loved to have caught the expression on my face as I walked in to discover a violin much bigger than I expected…

Green 26 February, 2008

Cool as a tropical rainforest
You smooth my skin
And thoughts
Like a blanket
of soft smelling rain
That
Soaks into me,
Past my soul
Up to the back of my mind
Where
You appear
And I remember…
You.

“There is no substitute for quality” 22 February, 2008

What does that mean?? If it’s not quality, it’s crap. And I can’t think of another word for quality (in Auslan it’s just “Q”). So yes, the maker of the crackers I’m eating (I’m not going to give them free advertising by naming them) after a beer at lunch time are right, there is no substitute for quality.