In this signed language video, I talk about my experience of sharing a sample of my interpreting and transliterating work and receiving unsolicited criticism on it. Haters tend to be people with no real names and no creative works of their own. All they do is shoot down others’ work and give nothing to YouTube. As an interpreter, I am courageous enough to share my work–imperfect though it may be–with the world so that people may see it, but I am not thick skinned enough to take criticism about it. I think there are things a person creates and is willing to share with the world but doesn’t want to allow responses on because they don’t want the criticism and they don’t need the praise. This is how I feel about the sample I posted yesterday.

As an assignment for the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies at Western Oregon University (WOU MAIS), I completed a videotaping of myself spending about 20 minutes interpreting a source text I had not heard before. I found my source text, Simon Lewis: “Don’t take consciousness for granted,” at TED.com. There is an interactive transcript that you can view by following the link above.

I would like to think that this is not a sample of my best work, but I am humble enough to accept that there are times when I am working in real situations that this is the best I can do with such an unfamiliar topic and fast pace.

Here are some facts about me and the circumstances under which this sample was recorded:

• The hearing speaker appears to be a 50-something-year-old white male from a foreign English-speaking country (South America, Australia, England?).
• I am a 44-year-old white American male.
• I began learning ASL when I was 21.
• I have 21 years’ experience as an interpreter and transliterator.
• I earned my RID CI in 1998 and my CI in 1999.
• I earned my RID NIC Master in 2010.
• I earned a Bachelor’s degree in 2003.
• This is my first recorded video assignment for the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies at Western Oregon University (the WOU MAIS).
• I recorded this in my own home using a tripod, camera that records HD video, laptop connected to TED.com, amplified computer speakers connected to the laptop, and both artificial and natural lighting. I set up all of the technology myself just before recording this sample.
• I had no audience for this recording; all that was in front of me was my camera and my home.
• My only preparation was reading the “About this Talk” and “About the Speaker” paragraphs before interpreting/transliterating the video.
• I planned before I recorded this to publish it on YouTube for a global audience, even though this was not a requirement of the course assignment.

I post this more for educational purposes than as a part of a résumé, but if a potential employer were to judge my work based on this sample, I would not discourage them from doing so. As I said, this may not be my best, but it is an acceptable sample of current work considering the circumstance listed above.

Do you have any questions about any part of this video or the making of it? If so, please leave a comment. I have disallowed further comments for reasons stated in the two comments I made on this blog entry.

This was a song I worked on translating with my then mentor, Jean Kelly, in 1994, and I performed it as the finale to a one-man show I put on San Diego in 1995. I was only 28 then! If you can’t tell, I sang & signed this song simultaneously– a hard feat because what I was signing was not the same as what I was singing. I signed it as ASL as I could while singing English. Do you like it? Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Or, if you would sign it differently, post a video response.

By the way, looking back I can see that I took this song too slow, and my singing and signing were a bit over-the-top. Oh, well!

P.S. “Over the Rainbow” was composed by Harold Arlan with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg. It is from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, and it was sung by Judy Garland in the role of Dorothy. Judy Garland was known for "Over the Rainbow" her whole life. My piano accompanist on this song was James Bianchi.

Thanks to YouTuber xkorijaidenx for emailing me about her video response to YouTuber soph1951′s vlog “What Exactly Is ASL?” Soph’s vlog was inspiring and liberating for me, and moved me to create this video response. I will leave it up to people who know American Sign Language to understand this video without captions or preface. It speaks for itself.

This is a creative interpretation of The Birthday Song sung in English while signed in ASL (American Sign Language). It is more a compilation of different ways people sign Happy Birthday in ASL than it is an answer to “how do you sign Happy Birthday in ASL?” It is difficult to sing these words and produce these signs at the same time, because the signs do not match the words verbatim— it’s like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time.

I chose these sign couplets with similar handshapes to create sign rhymes; for example, the line CAN’T-WAIT ARRIVE-BIRTHDAY BABY YOU uses the B handshape for all four signs, the line CONDUCT-SONG-BIRTHDAY, TUG-EAR-BIRTHDAY uses the “Closed X” handshape for both signs, the line THRILLED BIRTHDAY uses the “Open 8″ handshape for both signs, and the line HAPPY BIRTH DAY TO YOU uses the 1 handshape twice and the B handshape thrice. I saved the “regular” signs for last, as the last two lines are the two most popular ways to sign Happy Birthday.

I thank the deaf people from other regions from whom I learned the signs CONDUCT-SONG-BIRTHDAY and EAR-TUG-BIRTHDAY, and I thank YouTuber hippiesordo for the line “YOU BORN TODAY, WOO-HOO.” This song is dedicated to my ASL interpreter friend Paul on whose birthday I made this video.

Here’s me being, well, me! I had just got an HD mini camcorder so I could record videos in HD and fill up those widescreen video frames on YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr, and here I was singing a song off the top of my head, just playing around and trying it out.

I had intended to do a more rehearsed video that told people I was moving to HD. I had never intended this silly, off-the-cuff home movie for the public, but then I thought, “There’s no substitute for spontaneity!” and decided to go for it and post this one.

Enjoy the silliness– now in HD and CC!

Sums up how I feel about meeting my life partner, Andy, almost five years before the day I recorded this. From the Broadway musical On The Town, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green.

I posted this almost a year ago on our family blog via Flickr (no closed-captions), and at the time, I was critical of my own performance. Now, I just enjoy it. I hope you do, too.

…maybe. I’m thinking about it. I’m thinking and feeling about a lot of things, really– too much to tell you.

But what is the omer? The omer is a period of counting that is a mitzvah or “commandment” in the Jewish Bible. Jews are supposed to count the days from Pesach to Shavuot to mark the journey from Exodus (freedom from bondage) to Mount Sinai (communally experiencing the presence of God in a deep and miraculous way and receiving the Torah). It is traditionally a period of semi-mourning, reflection, and, among other things, not shaving or getting a haircut.

To tell the truth, I have never counted the days between Pesach and Shavuot; in fact, now I would have to think… ah, yes, today is the ninth day of Omer. But something the rabbi said, half in jest, about having “rabbinical permission to grow a beard over the next seven weeks” got me to thinking not only about growing a beard, but also about how I might seize upon an opportunity to have a religious experience. Or at least enhance the spirituality of my life for a while.

I’m at the point where I hate my beard. It itches, and I think it makes me look old, mean, and ugly. I took this photo now in case I can’t stand it anymore and I shave it all off. But maybe I’m also taking this photo as a way of reflecting more deeply on having some patience with this process.

It is difficult to sit with that which itches at one and makes one feel old, mean, and ugly. Like my kvetching. I complain. I do it several times a day, often without even thinking. Sometimes my first words in the morning are a form of complaint. This is something I would like to tackle during the next six weeks.

Even if I don’t keep the beard.