6 months post switch-on - Cochlear Implant Review

It's now been six months since I was switched on with my third Cochlear Implant. Things are finally starting to go back to what I was used to with my first one, which worked well for 15 years before failing.

My results this time were this..

HINT (open set) Sentences at 3 months: 100%
HINT (open set) Sentences at 6 months: 98%

In background noise +10db SNR at 3 months: 92%
In Background noise +10db SNR at 6 months: 96%

In background noise +5db SNR at 3 months: 24%
In background noise +5db SNR at 6 months: 47%

CNC Words Alone at 3 months: 63%
CNC Words Alone at 6 months: 65%

CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 3 months: 82%
CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 6 moths: 83%

pretty much the same, except a big improvement in background noise, although at one month post switch on that 47% was actually 86% so for some reason I did better back at one month.

I have been practising a lot though. I've been getting audio books out from the library and listening to them - about two per month. At first I needed the book to follow along, but now I don't need that and can just listen to the book while working on photographs. I have to keep listening though, as it's so easy sometimes for my attention to wander and then I get totally lost and have to go back.

I've also bought and borrowed CD's of New Zealand Birdsong. I've been listening to those and relearning the sounds. I used to know them all with my original implant, and they're slowly coming back to me. It has paid off as I was out walking in the country on Saturday and I recognised the bellbirds. So I was thrilled.

I'm finally doing better with the TV as well. I can understand some without text and without the TV cable. With the TV Cable I can follow a TV program well without captions. Still - it's hard work - something to do with the way sound is compressed for the TV. I much prefer captions, but not everything is captioned here in New Zealand, and my last house sitting job had a TV with no captioning ability. In some ways that was good as I was then forced to use and listen without them, and I think that went some way in improving it.

Practise makes perfect.

Vintage Camera #1

I was given 3 vintage cameras last week. They had been sitting in my mother's wardrobe for nearly 40 years. Having sold her house the time had come to purge things she didn't need and I bagged the cameras. My interest in them is purely to do with my interest in all things photographic, however my mother had approached an auction house earlier to see if she could get some money for them, and was told they were worthless.



I have to disagree. They aren't worthless to me, and in researching them, I've found one of them to be very rare and worth quite a lot of money. However, I'm still not interested in selling - I love them for their historic value. Who knows, this may be the start of my vintage camera museum!

I've managed to find out quite a bit about two of the cameras, but this one, the oldest one has me scratching my head to it's make and year.



It looks very similar to the Wirgin 1935 Auta - but when it's opened up, there are marked differences..



You can look at the photo of a Wirgin Auta here

You'll see the body and straps and the same - it's just the lens that is quite different.



As you can see the shutter is a pronto made by the Gauthier company which was was founded in 1902 and started building shutters from 1904. Carl Zeiss who already had a stake in this company as in Compur took over the majority in 1932 - the end of competition in the shutter production in Germany . In 1957 over 3.000 workers produced up to 10.000 shutters daily and from 1970 Gauthier even took over the production of Compur shutters. More on the AGC shutters can be found here





This is the back of it.

The camera is in good working condition and I am going to try and source some film and try it out in the coming weeks.

I'm really interested in finding out what year this camera is and what it actually is. If anyone can help me it would be very much appreciated. I suspect it's circa 1935 through to 1945.

I knew there was a reason...

Tsunami!

While I'm housesitting, I do not have wireless broadband, in fact, at present I only have dial up. Very painful.

Which is why I'm sitting at Takapuna library using their broadband wireless system and catching up on blogs, and emails etc.. I'm at a window overlooking Takapuna Beach watching stormy weather blow over turning the sea green then blue, then gray, then blue again. The sea isn't calm, but it's not rough either.

I've been sitting here imagining what a Tsunami would be like as I'm looking out the window towards South America! I was at the museum on Sunday and learnt about a tsunammi in Japan that was 37 metres high that killed a lot of people a long time ago. I imagine that 37 metres high would wipe me out from my vantage point here.

Then my friend Lia messaged me from MSN...

'Did you hear about Samoa?'

'No' I said. 'I haven't had a chance to read the paper or look at the news yet.'

'8.3 earthquake, 100 people killed, Tsunami on Samoa and Tonga, and warnings throughout the Pacific.'

'Shit!'

I logged onto immediately to our TVNZ website

I look at Samoa - devastated by this and really feel for them.

Then I read about small waves reaching our coastlines, and police asking people to leave Takapuna beach with the civil defence warning still in place...

'Coastal tsunami monitors in the North and South Island have recorded waves three or four times larger than normal.

Civil Defence says there is still potential for waves up to one metre across New Zealand for the remainder of Wednesday. People are being warned to avoid the beaches and any activities on or in the water.

"There is still an ongoing threat of strong currents affecting coastal areas. People should remain clear of beaches and refrain from boating activities,"

I haven't seen anything untoward while I've been sitting here. However, I think I'll leave now and go and find somewhere inland to have some lunch and get on with my day. Besides - I've added 3 blogposts to my blog today and don't want to bore you for a while!

Booklist - My first 50 Books since 1 March, 2009

Books I've read sice 1st March, 2009... I'm using a rating of 1 to 10, where 1 is bad and 10 is great!

1. Marley and Me by John Grogan - Non Fiction
My rating - 10

2. Don't Postpone Joy by Peter Taylor - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

3. Dreaming of Jupitor by Ted Simon - Armchair Travel
My Rating - 7

4. Still Missing by Scott Bainbridge - NZ Crime
My Rating - 7

5. Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child - Fiction
My Rating - 8

6. Accusation - A Wife's Story - NZ Crime
My Rating - 10

7. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner - Autobiography
My Rating - 8

8. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - Fiction
My Rating - 10

9. Zone 22 by Tig Hague - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

10.My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picault - Fiction
My Rating - 10

11.Heart Full of Lies by Ann Rule - True Crime
My Rating - 7

12. Getting away with Murder: The Jennifer Beard Enquiry by Mark Price
NZ Crime - My Rating - 5

13. A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and its Aftermath by Jeannine Cummings
True Crime - My Rating - 10

14. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time by Mark Haddon - Fiction
My Rating - 10

15. Look me in the Eye: My life with Aspergers by John Elder Robison
Autobiography - My Rating - 10

16. Salem Falls by Jodi Picault - Fiction
My Rating - 8

17. Run for you Lives by James Patterson - Fiction
My Rating - 10

18. Daddy's Little Earner by Maria Landon - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

19. The Secret Life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Fiction
My Rating - 10

20. My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

21. Debunked by Richard Roeper - Non Fiction
My Rating - 8

22. The Whole Truth by David Baldacci - Fiction
My Rating - 10

23. Persuader by Lee Child - Fiction
My Rating - 10

24. Gone tomorrow by Lee Child - Fiction
My Rating - 10

25. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Bryne - Fiction
My Rating - 8

26. Broken by Shy Keenan - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

27. Under Two Dictators - Stalin and Hitler by Margarete Buber-Neumann
Autobiography - My Rating - 10

28. Twilight by Stephanie Mayer - Fiction
My Rating - 10

29. Missing by Susan Lewis - Fiction
My Rating - 8

30, Agatha Christie Reader volume 3 by Agatha Christie
Audio CD - My Rating - 8

31. Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray - Fiction
My Rating - 10

3. The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan - Fiction
My Rating - 7

33. Through a Glass Darkly by Donna Leon - Fiction
My Rating - 7

34. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman - Fiction
My Rating - 10

35. The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen - Fiction
My Rating - 10

36. Beyond Ugly by Constance Briscoe - Autobiography
My Rating - 8

37. Dewey - The small town Library Cat by Vicky Myron - Non Fiction
My Rating - 10 (But I like cats)

38. Escape by Carolyn Jessop - Autobiography
My Rating - 10plus - wow!

39. Torn Apart by James Patterson and Hal Friedman - Non Fiction
My Rating - 10

40. What is the What? by Dave Eggers - Autobiography
My Rating - 8

41. Monsoon Rains and Icicle Drops by Libby Southwell - Armchair Travel
My rating - 10

42. The Secret River by Kate Grenville - Historical Fiction
My Rating - 7

43. Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler - Fiction
My Rating - 9

44. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown - Fiction
My Rating - 7

45. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott - Autobiography
My Rating - 9

46, New Moon by Stephanie Mayer - Fiction
My Rating - 10

47. Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington - Armchair Travel
My Rating - 4 ( he way it was written and English used was terrible!)

48, The Lost Boys by Brent W Jeffs - Autobiography
My Rating - 10

49. The Caller by Alex Barclay - Fiction - Thriller
My Rating - 10 Audio Book - 8 CD's

50. The Covenent of Genesis by Andy McDermott - Fiction - Action
My Rating - 10

(I'll put my next lot of 50 books up in 6 months :) )

Reading.......

I've always read a lot. And somehow, I learnt to speed read. This was apparent when I was about 11 years old and read the Lord of the Rings in one weekend. That was the whole three books. I didn't do much else though!

My love of reading has never waned. I love the smell of new paperbacks, and I used to buy all my books. However, I can no longer do that as the price of books here in New Zealand has become prohibitive. Between $25 and $35 for a paperback. Some sort of tax I believe that the government receives, which I think is terrible. Books are educational and should not attract any government tax whatsoever.

I recently rejoined my local library, and have a system which is great. I go to the books stores with a pen and paper. Browse in the sections in Borders that I love. Write down the books and authors that I wish to read. Then go home and log into my library website and order the books online. They email me to tell me they are ready to pick up, and when I pick those up, any books that aren't in the library system, I put in an order for them to buy them, and they then also go onto my library list and I get to be the first person to read them when they come in. Not a bad system.

I recently started a book list and I want to read 1000 books in 5 years. I started 1st March, 2009. Today I finished my first 50 books so I'm well on the way.

Reading is not that easy for me now. Both my balance nerves have been destroyed and now I deal with a condition called Oscillopsia. Basically, when I move, everything moves with me. Much like watching the world through a digital camera with no image stabiliser. If I concentrate too hard while everything is moving, I get 'seasick'. Sometimes quite rapidly. I cannot watch car racing or any 'moving' computer games for this reason. If I do, the seasickness will happen within about 15 to 30 seconds, and I will be sick for about 12 hours. Very much not worth it.

If I try to read while moving, the letters jump off the page - it's impossible. So to read a book, I have to prop my head in a certain way and make it immobile for the duration of reading. The best place is in bed with my head immobilised on a pillow. Like any disability, you learn to deal with it, and live with it, and work out ways to get round it. There are still lots of things I can't do, but reading was not one that I was going to give up.

Now that my house is sold, and I'm waiting for my new house to start building, I have quite a lot of time on my hands so am reading much more than usual. However, some of my reading is audio books - I'm teaching myself to listen with the implant. Initially I had to have the book with me to help me follow, but I'm now able to follow a whole book without the need for written material. That's a real improvement!

I'll sign off here for now, but will post up the first 50 books I've read in the next blog shortly...

Word Mispronunciations!

I've always done it. Right from when I was young. I still do it now. Mispronounce words. You know as soon as the word has left your mouth, and people look at you with that strange look on their face, that you committed that terrible sin of not saying a word properly.

You get mixed reactions. It could be....

The rolled eyes. Those are the worse. It's confirmation that not only do people think you might be stupid, they now know you are.

Or you get the blank stare. The 'Is this for real' look' Same explanation as above.

Then you might get derisive laughter. These are the people who not only know you're stupid, but now want everyone else around you to know as well.

I read a lot. I always have. Just to give an indication of how much I read - I have read 14 books in the last 14 days. I don't usually read that much, but I'm on a roll at the moment. What this means is I learn a lot of words, and their context, but I might not have actually 'heard' them before. Then I might decide to use the word, often with disastrous results. I should really learn to use the KISS approach!

Anyway - not all mispronunciations are embarrassing. Particularly when you're with good friends. I was telling my friend how I've just read this amazing book. It was called Escape, by Carolyn Jessop. It was about a splinter mormon group who practised Polly Gammy (polygamy) and how she escaped from the cult wtih her six children. As soon as I said pollygammy, I knew I had committed that dreadful sin of mispronunciation.

Fortunately my friend laughed then explained how to say it. Then she said gammy was a leg with a limp. I then explained that's right the book was about people with multiple legs, all with limps! Our imagination went wild and we had a big laugh about it.

I wish all people would treat mispronunciations this way. It's much more fun and can be downright hilarious.

Oh yes - the book is a great read - I fully recommend it!