Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Author: Karen Putz

Speaking at the Social Media Breakfast in Madison

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Social Media Breakfast in Madison, Wisconsin this morning on the topic of Social Media in a Specialized Niche. A great group of people there! (Photo courtesy of Anne Rubens)

Here’s a summary of the event: Don’t Get in a Pissing Match with a Skunk

Photos from Bob at DiditDirect:

In the afternoon, Paul Stokes and I took off for the river and spent the afternoon barefooting with Jes Laing. Paul broke in his boat for the first time and we spent a few hours on the water. Needless to say, I’m pooped!

Jes does a toe hold:

Paul regrips for a 360:

July 18, 2012
Todd Hlavacek, Software Engineer

Tell me about your job, career, or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

I’m a software engineer. I knew back when I was a gangly teenager sitting in front of my Apple IIgs writing BASIC that I wanted to be in the computer field writing code. Ever since that epiphany, I worked my butt off to get in the field.

What is the best part of what you do?

Solving the world’s problems. Seriously, an analogy comes to mind here. Think of Michelangelo working on the Statue of David. He had a vision of what he wanted the statue to become. The result of his hard labor was a beautiful statue. It’s the same way I feel with my work. The best part of what I do is I get something in the form of written requirements for a “problem,” and I work using some or all of the skills I have to get to the end result — a beautiful statue written in software code.

What are some of the challenges?

Admittedly, in a field like this, my deafness would be more of a hindrance, but fortunately, technology has progressed to the point where there are engineers, hearing, deaf and even blind, who do work remotely. In order for them to do their jobs effectively as remote engineers, tools have to be utilized over the internet that I as a deaf engineer have benefited from greatly —

1. Instant Messaging
2. Go-To Meeting (similar to Microsoft’s old NetMeeting)
3. Video Conferencing where other call in, and I can call in using Video Relay from home
4. Smartphones — believe it or not — because now with the capability to text, IM and all on a smartphone, deaf engineers now can be a part of the “on-call” rotation with other hearing colleagues.

One challenge still remains — face to face brainstorming and design meetings where my presence is needed. I use sign language interpreting services for that.

As I tell people when they encounter a deaf engineer — “Being Deaf only means that we use a different language than English to communicate orally and verbally, it does not of and by itself mean that we can’t do the job that any able-bodied engineer speaking a different language than English can do.”

What was it like growing up/becoming Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing?

Gosh, this is both an easy and difficult question to answer. You see, I grew up with a deaf brother in a hearing family using Total Communication. My mom never subscribed to the “oral only” or “Sign language only” methodologies. She wanted to give my brother and I all tools from which we could utilize to be successful later in life. Little did we both know growing up that we both would later use speech and sign language at one time or another throughout our lives wherever applicable — at home or at work. I fought against one methodology and embraced the other.

So, while growing up deaf was hard, I was fortunate in that I had a mother who fought for me. I had access to other deaf/hard of hearing friends along with a good education. So growing up was good, but not easy. Today’s deaf/hard of hearing children have it far much easier, I’d think, with a wide range of activities, organizations, and the like out there.

What advice would you give a D/deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

I would say this:

Number one, play around with the activities that will lead to your calling NOW instead of waiting until college. Don’t just say, “I want to work with aeronautics” and sit and play games on your X360. Find out all about aeronautics, do activities, etc.

For example, I played with BASIC programming, along with other computer related stuff, back when I was a teenager — way before high school and through high school. I knew right then it was for me. I never changed majors in college. The first major I went into was the one I graduated with.

So, having stated that, if you are not sure but want to wait, don’t. Find ways to do these activities, whether it be volunteering for a not for profit organization, or doing self-paced study online (there are plenty of them online these days), or taking community college classes.

Number two, remember the saying: “All work makes Jack/Jill a dull person” and conversely, “All play makes Jack/JIll an unhappy person.” Find a balance in life between your pursuit of the calling and some play time. Don’t sacrifice your social aspect in your relentless pursuit of your calling. Don’t sacrifice your hard work by doing too much play time. You’ll live for 80+ years, so be mindful of that. You’ll find that your social life does in fact help you with your professional life, and vice versa.

Number three, enjoy life. Enjoy doing the work you want to do. The day you stop enjoying it is the day you need to take a second look at whether the calling is for you or not. I’ve been in this field for over 15 years now and I still feel the same excitement that I did the first day on the job. I love what I do.

July 13, 2012
Top Ten Deaf Folks on Twitter

Of course Marlee Matlin is number one! What fun to be among this cool group of deaf folks:

To Ten Deaf Folks on Twitter

July 11, 2012
My Hands & Voices Family

I’m back home after five amazing days in Oregon for the 2012 Hands & Voices Leadership conference.

We started off with our board meeting:

Hands & Voices has grown from four chapters to chapters around the world.

We opened the evening with a team building exercise to see who could build the tallest tower out of noodles and tape, with a marshmallow on top. Hilarious fun!

The conference was located next to the beautiful Columbia River in Hood River, Oregon. Breathtaking!

There are times when my heart gets tired of “battles” among communication choices and the constant advocacy which comes from this field. But at the Hands & Voices conference, my eyes settled on a three-month old baby in the arms of her parents–one look, and passion and purpose comes flooding back. If we can support just one family on this journey, we have given back.

Today, I’m up at Christie Lake, surrounded by five teenage boys. Four of them in this picture are students from Rochester Institute of Technology. All four are from different educational backgrounds and experiences. They’re the results of the “choices” we make as families raising deaf and hard of hearing children. But as I watched the boys crack jokes, laugh and talk about everything under the sun, I realize the bottom line– as parents, professionals and deaf/hard of hearing adults in the Hands & Voices family, it comes down to the same thing: we all want happy, well-adjusted kids.

And it’s so much easier to navigate the journey with the support of one another.

June 27, 2012
Solution for Knee Pain: Tommie Copper

I woke up early one morning before a speaking gig a few weeks ago and I couldn’t get back to sleep. For once, I didn’t feel like reading or writing, nor did I want to get out of bed. So I turned on the TV. Well, there’s not much on in the wee hours. I came across Montel Williams talking about a Tommy Copper compression sleeve. I was intrigued, because the owner/inventor, Tom Kallish, created this product after a devastating waterskiing accident left him in chronic pain.

I had my ACL reconstructed last December and in the middle of the rehabilitation process, I developed a rubber-band string of pain over the knee. This pain only happened when going up and down the stairs or doing squats. In physical ~~torture~~ therapy, the therapists felt it was a tracking issue and the solution was to tape my kneecap over to the side. This took pressure off the tendon/ligament and provided a little relief.

I needed another solution, and I couldn’t get the Tommie Copper thing out of my mind. After a few tweets, the company sent me a knee sleeve to try out. I also wanted to test it on the water as well.

After the first day, I didn’t notice much difference, but I welcomed the additional support that the sleeve gave me. By the second day, there was an improvement. I could go up the stairs without having to hang half of my weight on the banister. By the third day, I was sold. The compression sleeve was very comfortable to wear and I often forgot that I was wearing it. As the days went on, I noticed a marked improvement in the pain when going up and down the stairs.

Yesterday was a real test– I forgot to put the sleeve on and left the house. By the end of the night, my knee was aching after hitting the stairs. The sleeve is back on this morning.

A big thank you goes out to the Tommie Copper gang– thank you for a great product! It’s a product I’m definitely recommending to folks who are experiencing aches and pains.

Tommie Copper Knee Sleeve

And last week, during a filming for the documentary, I’m Fine, Thanks, I wore the Tommie Copper knee sleeve buried under a humongous brace. I crawled out on the boom for two barefoot runs for the camera– and I had no pain while bending the knee.

Now, if Tommie Copper comes out with a tie dye or water design, I’ll be stylin this summer!

April 11, 2012
Missin Dad, One Year Later

Hard to believe that a whole year flew by. Today was a great day, bittersweet with memories. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise:

In one of the last few conversations with Dad I told him to send me some glass calm water. On the day he passed away and the day of his funeral, the water on Christie Lake remained calm all day long. And this week, The water was rough all week long. But today, it was calm all day long.

Later in the morning, a red-winged blackbird landed on the bird feeder:

We ended the day with a trip to the cemetery and each of us shared a favorite memory. We had some good laughs as we recalled our stories. My own favorite memory was of the one and only time that my Dad waterskied around the lake. My kids were surprised, as that was something they never knew about their grandpa.

April 7, 2012
Operation Precious CARgo

I was bummed to miss the baby shower for Operation Precious #CARgo last night, but I had a lot of fun gathering the baby stuff for expectant military moms in the Chicago area. Chevy supplied me with a cool Sonic, a compact car that was great on gas.

Donations came in from all over. My mom and two sisters bought a sleeper, toys, and stuffed animals. Various friends tossed in diapers, wipes and other items.

Debbie from Geneva crocheted owl hats:

Tasha from Plainfield crocheted baby photo props (think Anne Geddes):

Jeanne from Romeoville sewed baby blankets and donated a sleeper too:

More blankets and baby items from the girls from ICODA:

This was such a fun project! Thanks to all who contributed– you made a difference for expectant military moms!

March 23, 2012
The 2012 EHDI Conference and Henry Kisor

Last week, I drove down to St. Louis to join the Hands & Voices gang at the EHDI Conference. It had been several years since I attended an EHDI conference and because I work in early intervention as a Deaf Mentor, I have a heart for this topic. I’m one of three mentors in Illinois and one of the first trained groups. The first child I worked with is now thirteen.

When I attended my first EHDI conference in it’s infancy, I was only one of a few Deaf and Hard of Hearing participants at that time. At this conference, wow! Everywhere I went, I met up with old and new friends. The conference has truly grown from the early days and the grand ballroom held around 1,000 people for Hands & Voices board member Christine Yoshinaga-Itano’s keynote opening presentation.

At Hands & Voices, one of our most requested presentations is Supporting Families Without Bias. We put together a Part II of this presentation that goes even deeper into the topic. When I first founded the Illinois Hands & Voices chapter back in 2003, I was often thrown in to “this camp” or “that camp” based on how I communicated or how low the lines were on my audiogram. Eventually, more and more people embraced the spirit of Hands & Voices and began to understand my passion for our mission, “What works for your child is what makes the choice right.” What I’m most grateful for during my years with Hands & Voices is that I’ve met so many wonderful families from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. My kids have grown up with kids who cue/speak/sign/combine/whatever works and they’ve made some lifelong friends.

At the EHDI conference, I had the pleasure of sitting down to lunch with Henry Kisor and his wife, Debby. Henry and I met several years back when he was working at the Chicago Sun-Times as a book editor. I first discovered Henry when I read his memoir, What’s That Pig Outdoors and I enjoyed his frank outlook on life. I interviewed him for the Hands & Voices Communicator: Henry Kisor, Mystery Author Unveiled. I like to hang around Henry because he tells me nice stuff like, “You’re a natural writer.” I would have lunch with him every week if I could.

During the last night of the conference, Hands & Voices hosted a dinner for everyone involved in state chapters. When I first joined the board of Hands & Voices, there were just four chapters. We sat around a table and pondered simply how we could share our mission with others. Today, we have expanded worldwide and nearly every state has a chapter.

Back at my first EHDI meeting, we all fit around a single table during our Hands & Voices dinner. At our dinner last week, we had 75 of us seated around several tables. As I worked my way around the room taking pictures and meeting new people, I took a few minutes to talk to a two-and-half year old boy sitting at a table with his father. The father and I talked about how his family became involved with Hands & Voices. The little one and I talked about the noodles he was devouring on his plate.

And that’s what keeps me going year after year– the little ones.

March 14, 2012
Greg Pereira, Delivery Driver

Tell me about your job, career or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

First of all, I work two jobs. I serve both the hearing and deaf population. I am currently a full-time delivery driver for Markwell in Miami, Florida. I drive a van from the offices in Opa-Locka as far south as Homestead and as far north as West Palm Beach. This covers roughly around a 100 mile range. I deliver cases of staples, nails, stretch film, and other supplies to warehouses in the area that are involved in woodworking, upholstery, bedmaking, furniture, flower farming, and lobster trapping. Markwell is an industrial tool and packaging distribution company that is family-owned. Yes, my family owns the company. My brother is a part-owner as well as my father and I came aboard about three months after my brother bought the company. Think I got the job because my brother is the owner? Think again–I had to earn this opportunity. I come from a hardworking family of businessmen–my brother was a longtime Verizon executive who rose through the ranks from his outstanding sales work. He earned every bit of his promotions, so when I went to work for him I had to earn the job. After some time in a trial basis, I became an employee of the company (not an owner) and I earned it because I worked hard and did what I was asked to do. It took some time to find a role, but it has been solidified by the fact that I have a safe driving record and I love to drive, so deliveries have worked out for me. I also do projects on the side. Another reason that I earned this job is that sales have been in record numbers since I started delivering for the company, mainly because of my willingness to drive anywhere.

My second job is with ZVRS as a Z Associate. My job is very simple, I just install the wonderful Z phones we have and I do some sales work as well. I also enjoy working with customers and meeting with new people. I worked for 6-7 years in human services (working in group homes and private academies) and I decided I wanted to change my career and have always been interested in working in the videophone business. I work with great people and the job is a lot of fun!

What is the best part of your job, career calling?

The best part is I get to work the front lines with both jobs and talk directly to the customers. I get to listen to a lot of feedback and generally the customers are very nice and we exchange questions and answers, for the purpose of growing a good working relationship. Another great part is I get to explore parts of places I have never visited since I am on the road often. For instance, I did not know South Florida had a lot of farmland. Tourists don’t generally associate South Florida with farms, but there are a lot–and areas west of Homestead have flower farms where the supplies I deliver ensure the survival of the plants that are growing there. The best part is that the farms have been thriving since Hurricane Andrew hit back in 1992. Andrew destroyed Homestead with 200 mph wind gusts that took about several hours, but it left a lot of rain in the area which strengthened the soil and allowed the crops to flourish. One of those things in South Florida if you are a longtime resident like I am, to think about how something so powerful can eventually help in the long run. Another part of the job that stands out for me is my co-workers. In Miami, there are many people that are living there for a long time and do not speak English. The warehouse guys I work with do not speak English well but we work well together because we found ways to communicate through gestures and a lot of patience. I learned Spanish while living in Colombia back in the 1990s and I was able to communicate in Spanish with them even though I am not fluent.

What are some of the challenges?

To know me is to REALLY know me. I speak so well that hearing people assume I can hear out of the left ear which is completely deaf. I’ve had hearing people come to me and start whispering in my ear for no reason. I say, “This is my bad ear.” They go around to the other side and start whispering into my hearing aid. “Nope, this is also my bad ear.” They get puzzled then I tell them not to worry, I can lipread and I can read Spanish well. I do get feedback from other customers who compliment me on my ability to speak so well. I also am told they are surprised I can drive a van. I often say, “I don’t need my ears to drive..all I need are my eyes that tell me what my hands should do with the steering wheel.” Another challenge is the language barrier. In Miami, there is a large influx of immigrants that mainly speak Spanish but also speak French Creole (those from Haiti) and my hearing customers often do not speak English. However they understand the routine I do for deliveries but sometimes they do not have much patience trying to communicate with me. The best approach that works for me is to just be patient with them myself and show them what I am trying to say to them so this way communication is smooth. Patience is also a virtue when it comes to doing home visits with customers who have a hard time understanding instructions. I myself am not 100 percent ASL. I use a mix when signing to customers and generally they understand me well. The best way is to show customers what to do–I have found they learn much faster this way. On the other hand, I was the same way growing up, I learned better when people showed me what to do as opposed to receiving verbal instructions.

What was it like growing up Deaf/Hard of Hearing?

I am the oldest of all the Pereira cousins, brothers, sisters. Being deaf was a full time job and it still is. I lost my hearing at 4 years old. Why, I do not know. I do not remember myself hearing. But I wear a hearing aid on my right ear. Have been this way since I was a little boy. As was the case in the 1970s, 1980s growing up there was no captioning on TV but I liked sports, action movies, and cartoons. But when television wasn’t around, I turned to books. As I did not learn to sign until I was 12, I learned to speak first and I found I could not follow family conversations so I turned to books to keep myself occupied. My grandparents had a library row full of Dr. Seuss books and those were the first books I could read. Reading then became a passion that took up a lot of my time growing up. I also lived out of the country for a long period of time at different times. I lived in Mexico during the late 1970s and in 1988 I moved to Colombia. Colombia was where I had to learn on my own, to grow up quickly. I did not have a choice. In Colombia, the high school kids I went to school with were neat dressers and looked up to their parents as role models and were very mature and polite people. Down there it was also a wide gap between the rich and the poor, and Colombians took their studies seriously. Family values were the same generation after generation. The more things changed, the more things stayed the same. I picked up Spanish quickly simply by reading, however verbal communication was difficult. On the other hand, I went to the American school and all the friends I made treated me with a lot of respect and I wasn’t the “deaf guy” in school, I was one of the guys. There was no bullying. I wore uniforms every day. On the other hand, Colombia was going through the worst period of violence in their history and I had to be extremely careful about what to say to people there, this is still a trait I follow today when talking to people, I often think of what to say before I say it. I was an American living in Colombia and it was a dangerous time, but I enjoyed my experience growing up. I fell in love with soccer and I adapted living there. Going to school there was wonderful, but I did not have sign language interpreters. Believe it or not, I did not need interpreters as I chose to adapt to having notetakers and I studied every night.

What advice would you give a Deaf/Hard of Hearing person who is looking for a job, career, or calling like yours?

One of the things you must understand is that when you look for work, employers are looking for somebody who has the intangibles. Experience is one thing. The other thing is showing them you have those intangibles. What do I mean by intangibles? Intangibles are this: having a neat appearance, having a positive attitude, having a clean record (driving, criminal, etc). The other thing is you have some skills that make you talented–things that people just don’t teach. The other and most important thing is discipline. Discipline is taking the same approach to work every day with positive results. Do not be discouraged if you get turned down for a job, there are others that are waiting to be filled. I cringe sometimes when deaf/HH people think they have been turned down due to their deafness and sometimes dwell on this. People, regardless of who and what they are, get turned down at times. The best thing is to move on and keep looking and finding that job for you. Yes, a job is hard to find with the economy being in a slump, but the important thing is never to give up and keep on looking as hard as you can. Even if you find something that pays less than your previous job, take it! You will always find that you can work your way up and be back to the level you were before, even if it takes some time to get there. The job you have may not be the calling you expect it to be, but sometimes the calling comes in unexpected places. Since I work as a driver, I had to have a clean driving record. Driving takes an enormous amount of discipline. It’s not as easy as it looks. I have been doing this since I got my license at 21. Miami is known for having lots of careless and aggressive drivers, so I have to be able to concentrate 100 percent of the time I am on the road. Trust is also very, very important. Be honest. This is a virtue you MUST have. Employers can turn down anyone they feel they are not going to trust. It used to be they could hire anyone and train them on the spot but this is not happening anymore. Times have changed where there are more stringent requirements a job seeker has to go through. The most important thing is to be patient and have a positive attitude, and be honest with yourself.

February 29, 2012
Turning a Bold Vision Into Reality

During a lunch break at the International Center for Deafness and the Arts, I was talking to one of the teen cast members and asking her about her dreams. “I want to be like Marlee Matlin,” she said. “I love her on the show, Switched at Birth.”

The teen went back on to the stage to rehearse for Nunsense. As I was sitting in the lounge, my eyes caught an essay written by a very young Marlee Matlin. It was posted on the wall next to several pictures of Marlee during her time at ICODA. Marlee began her acting career as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Her original costume was now enshrined on the wall.

“If I Was A Movie Star,” Marlee titled her essay. Here is the rest:

If I was a movie star, I would ride in a limousine.

When I go out of the limousine, I would give everyone my best autograph and I would let people take my picture! OOhh, when I am on the stage, I would give everyone my best smile!

I would have a huge house which would have mirrors all over. I would love when people would write me letters. I would love to send them back but it’s hard to write to all the people.

I would love to meet all movie stars! They are so nice!!

I want to make movies all my life.

Here’s my autograph:

Signed: Marlee Matlin

I sat and marveled at the letter. Young Marlee Matlin had manifested every single thing written in that essay. Every. Single. Thing. And more. Her bold vision had morphed into reality. Nine years before her Oscar moment, Henry Winkler told her to follow her heart and not let any barriers stop her from achieving her dreams.

She was the youngest person to ever win the Academy Award at age 21. Many people wrote her off as a one-time-wonder. But Marlee held fast to the dreams that she envisioned. And today, she has four Emmys sitting on a shelf in her beautiful home (I’m sure there are mirrors on the walls) and she’s emerged from a limousine over and over.

Perhaps anyone reading Marlee’s essay back then might have thought it was an impossible goal. An impossible dream. Randy Gage, in his post, Goals That Work, says:

So if you have a bold vision, the bold goal will seem believable to you. If you don’t, it won’t. It’s just that simple. So as to whether you achieve a goal you don’t really believe – I don’t think so. Once in a while circumstances will conspire to drag you over the finish line. But almost all the time, you need a strong belief in a goal to have a real chance of achieving it.

What about you? Do you have a bold vision you want to turn into reality?

February 27, 2012