I just watched CODA and it was ok. CODA stands for Children Of Deaf Adults. It’s about Ruby Rossi, a teenager who is the only one in her family who is able to hear. She helps her family run their fishing business, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They rely on Ruby to interpret for them, mostly her parents, all the time.
Ruby is a teenager wanting a life of her own. She has a beautiful singing voice and joins her high school choir. She wants to go to college, but her parents want her to stay with them to help them on their boat, catching fish, and, interpreting for them. Her parents isolate themselves from the community and depend on Ruby to interpret for them. There’s a scene when her mother tells Ruby, she wished that Ruby had been born deaf. This is emotional abuse and is NEVER ok. She is essentially telling Ruby she wanted her to be a completely different person. I know she told Ruby she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to relate to a "hearing" child. I think that feeling this way probably kept her from fully emotionally connecting with Ruby. I also believe a child of disabled parents should NEVER be their caregiver. It’s ok if the child “helps” out from time to time, but, it’s wrong to expect the child to do it ALL the time. It’s another form of abuse. I don’t think CODA was good enough for an Oscar. I watched it on Apple TV Plus. I wouldn’t pay $20 to see it in the theater. I will say the acting was very good. Marlee Matlin, who is unable to hear, was the first deaf artist to win an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1986, for her role in Children of a Lesser God, does a wonderful job as the mother. Troy Kotsur, also unable to hear, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, in 2021, for his portrayal of Ruby’s father. Let me know your thoughts on CODA. Thanks for reading. 😊 I just got done watching the two season series, Special, on Netflix. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s based on Ryan O’Connell’s memoir, “I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves”, published in 2015. O’Connell stars, writes and produces the series. It premiered in April 2019 and renewed for a second and final season in May 2021.
Ryan Hayes is a thirty-something year old man who has a mild form of Cerebral Palsy (CP) and who is gay. He is ambulatory and completely able to care for himself. He doesn’t need physical assistance with his needs. The first season shows Ryan breaking away from his overprotective mother, who raised him by herself. Ryan gets his own place and starts a new job as a blogger for an online publication called Eggwoke. In the very first episode, on his way to work, he gets slightly hit by a car. When people at work mistake his disability for an “injury” from getting hit by the car, Ryan goes with it, and is worried they will discover his “secret” (he has CP) for the rest of season one. Even though he is completely self sufficient, he struggles with embracing his CP. Ryan eventually “comes out” about his disability, which is a relief for him. And me. I was getting annoyed. I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. It is obvious he has some type of disability. I knew he has CP from the start. I grew up around people with disabilities and am able to tell what disability people have. In season two, Ryan realizes he has no friends with disabilities, so he decides to go to a meet up for people with disabilities. He meets a guy who is on the Autism Spectrum and is also gay. The group has a crip prom. He takes Tanner, a guy he hooked up with before. Tanner starts dancing, and does the “worm.”. The group gets annoyed. This is an issue for Ryan. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think Tanner was just dancing. On the other hand, I can see how his physicality could be irritating and insensitive. Throughout the two seasons, Ryan sleeps around a lot. I’m all for people with disabilities having sex, but, I think he is very promiscuous, perpetuating the stereotype that gay men sleep with a lot of people. He meets one man who seems really cool with Ryan’s disability. As they flirt and start having sex, it’s revealed that the man is a devotee; someone who has a disability fetish. Ryan obviously feels uncomfortable but has sex with him anyway. I think it would’ve been great, if Ryan would have told the guy to F off. It would have shown that people with disabilities have a right to say no and that they don’t have to be peoples “experiment”. In my opinion, the second season was better than season one. The writing was more developed and the characters were given more substance. I started becoming more emotionally invested in the story and wanted more. It’s too bad there won’t be a third season, because, I would have liked to see Ryan grow and have more mature relationships. I recommend “Special”, even though I hate the name. The word “special”, in terms of disability, has such a negative connotation. I think, however, the writers were trying to turn the word into a more positive, maybe, even funny, light. I’m not sure if it worked or not. “Special” is funny and empowering as it goes. I never thought I would ever see an insurrection at our nation's capital. I also never thought I would experience the worst president in our history either, but, I have.
Donald J. Trump, the 45th president, began his only term, January 20, 2017, with racist and xenophobic rethoric, saying that people coming from Mexico, are drug dealers and rapists. He banned Muslims from traveling to the United States. He said he would build a wall on the border and Mexico would pay for it. Trump constantly spewed his bigoted views, dividing the American public. White supremists felt free to openly show their distaste toward minorities. Some argue it’s their right to express their beliefs, however, harassing people and planning armed and violent rallies, is not freedom of speech, it’s hate speech. After four years of this pitting Americans against each other, Trump pushed his supporters even further, perpetuating far right conspiracy theories, such as Q-anon. They bought the conspiracy theories and all of Trump's lies. For instance, Trump told his supporters that the election was stolen by the democrats and that he’d get the results overturned and be president again. His supporters again believe this lie like all the other lies. Some would even go as far as invade our nation’s capital. On January 6, 2021, Trump told a very large group of supporters, to March to the capital and fight to get the election overturned. The group followed his instructions and went to the capital and stormed it, breaking windows and items inside. Some of these anarchists went through offices, messing up files and even, sitting at and putting their feet on desks. I admit I'm not very Ra Ra about the USA, except in sports, however, I was highly disturbed, watching the insurrection, live on cable. I watched the whole thing and I found myself angry. Angry, that Trump wasn't calling in the national guard or authorizing states' to send in help. Finally, it was Mike Pence who gave the go ahead for the national guard, three hours into the insurrection. Why did it take so long? It was reported that Trump seemed to be enjoying watching the mob overtake the capital. I believe this because I think Trump saw his presidency as a reality show, and got off on the drama he caused. This thought disturbs me even more because I don't understand how anybody can watch domestic terrorists and not feel upset by it. They attacked our democracy. They wanted to find and kill Representatives, Senators and even, the vice president. They violated house chambers. I felt violated. I didnt expect to feel so disturbed, but, I was. It’s sad. The whole thing. I think the saddest part is that the domestic terriorists believe they were doing a righteous thing. The fact that they believe trump’s lies, even when presented with the facts, is truly scary. Some of them are successful professionals, such as, doctors and lawyers, so they aren’t unintelligent. Then, how could they believe all the misinformation Trump constantly puts out? I really don’t know but I’m hopeful about the Biden-Harris administration. It’ll be so nice to hear intelligent and articulate people again. We won’t wake up every day dreading to hear what asinine comment our president tweeted that day. Thank goodness. Thanks for reading. Keep rolling!! Hi. I’m happy and relieved Biden won the election! We will have our first woman of color Vice President, Kamala Harris. When I heard that Biden won, I was excited and my dad and I drove around, honking the horn, like a lot of people. People were dancing and cheering, so happy. Biden won the popular vote by 5 million and won the electoral college 306 to 232.
Trump is refusing to concede. As a matter of fact, he’s claiming he won the election. Absurd! Many of his supporters are completely convinced of this. He riles them up by perpetuating conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. Many of his supporters are white supremacists. He encourages them to be violent toward anybody who doesn’t agree with him. On August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, North Carolina, an Unite the Right rally, that followed a klu klux klan rally in July, was going on. This concerned locals, who, showed up to counter protest. They were attacked by James Alex Fields Jr., when he deliberately drove into the crowd, killing Heather Heyer. Trump’s response was incredible. He said there were "fine people" on both sides. How can that be? Easy. Trump is racist. Many of his supporters feel it’s totally okay to display their racism out in the open. I’ve seen so many videos of white people yelling at people of color to "go back" to their country. This shows how ignorant they are. When they’re presented with facts, however, they deny them. They get their information from news outlets such as Fox News, and One American News Network, which, don’t report the truth. These networks, especially, OANN, are far right wing and, only "report" pro-Trump stories. Trump and his supporters don’t believe in science. He has lied about the seriousness of Covid-19, saying it would go away with warmer weather. He suggested injecting people with a disinfectant, which, resulted in some people drinking bleach. He has not only politicized masks, and social distancing, but also mocked people wearing masks. Trump held rallies with hundreds of people crowded together. No masks. No social distancing. Many caught the virus from these reckless rallies. It’s sad Trump put his supporters in such dangerous situations. He is also refusing to give Biden access to classified information, and, to the covid task force. Trump is still doing nothing about Covid-19. He doesn’t care and is irresponsible. Denying Biden access to information, could mean more people could die between now and January 20th. It’s really scary and sad. Trump is so jealous of President Obama, he has eradicated everything that Obama put into place, including, a "playbook," Obama and Vice President Biden created on how to deal with a pandemic. It’s been a chaotic 4 years under Trump. He’s always fighting with and firing people, lying and perpetuating conspiracy theories. He has divided the country to an extreme, where, people hate people simply because they have a different perspective. I’ve never seen this type of division in this country before. Joe Biden, of course, is the opposite. He wants to unite the country. He believes in facts. He wants to get Covid-19 under control. He has said he’ll listen to the scientists. Biden will bring professionalism and decency back to the presidency and his administration. Most importantly, Biden will bring back Hope. We need hope. We need a president who cares about the American people. We need healing. We need to come together. I believe Biden will be that president. I’m looking forward to January 20th, 2021, when Biden is inaugurated. Thanks for reading. Until next time. 😊 Hello. How are you? I’m fine. The Coronavirus pandemic is really scary. I’ve been staying in for about 3 weeks now. My personal care attendants have no symptoms and use gloves and masks when they are helping me.
Hi. How have you been? It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”
Hey all. It’s been a while since I posted. How have you been? I’ve been well. Busy. I went to Vegas in June to be with some friends who were going to see lady Gaga. I’ve seen her in concert and she was great but I’m not a fan. About 2 months before, I got a bad cough then, a bad cold. I saw my doctor 3 times, asking for antibiotics. Each time, she said no. That I didn’t need them. So, I went to Vegas, sick. I had fun but would have had lots more fun if I was well.
MORE COMING…… HELLO. HAPPY 2019! Hope you had a nice holiday season and new year.
Hey everybody. How you doing? I’m good. My chair was at the shop, CHME, last week getting a seat elevation system put on. I hate my wheelchair shop. They originally said it would take a few days to put it on. They took it last Monday. My dad went to the shop, in foster city, and picked it up on Friday but by Thursday, I was impatient. I left a few messages. Nobody got back to you. So I waited on hold to talk to a human being for 45 minutes and they couldn’t answer my question, transferred me to another department and they said the technician left for the day. It was 4:40pm. The tech never got back to me.
On Friday, I get a massage from CHME that my chair was ready and would be returned to me Monday, unless I wanted to pick it up. I couldn’t use the loaner chair they brought me. Uncomfortable and no chin control. My old chair, with chin control, veers to the left and scares me to go outside. I fell of the sidewalk once because it veered and I couldn’t stop it. My dad went Friday and picked up my chair. Luckily. I’m very thankful. So now my chair is able elevate about a foot to standing people’s eye level. The mechanism is called iLevel actually. It’s really neat and weird to be at eye level with people. I’m not used to it. Part of my feels like I almost “don’t belong” at eye level. I could read into this A LOT. I won’t bore you with my analysis! I made a video demonstrating the iLevel. The link is below. Hope you watch the video. Please Like and Subcribe to my Karyn Laura’s Channel. Help me get 100 subscribers! Thanks for reading. Keep rolling!! |