Blog Archives
What is Septopus?
Septopus came into my awareness as a weird word a coworker would use whenever he got bored at work. If a call came in and he was saying, “one moment while I connect you to…” and the caller hung up, he would say, “Septopus.” The more bored I got at work, the more I began to imagine who this Septopus was. Another coworker and I started making up things about Septopus with the coworker who started talking about him. With my love for advertising, I started creating mock ad campaign spots such as, “When you’ve got your hands full, an eighth tentacle is just one more thing to worry about. Simplify your life– with Septopus!” My friends and I would laugh hysterically, which is just what we needed to lift our spirits.
It was at this same time that I joined the social short messaging website Twitter. So I figured, “Why just send silly Septopus IMs to my friends at work when I could intrigue Earthlings everywhere?” So I started putting my IMs to coworkers into my Twitter “tweets” as well.
Little did I know until I Googled it that there actually was an episode of Home Movies called “The Septopus!” When I pointed this out to my coworker who had started the whole thing, he confessed that he loved that episode and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Septopus since he first watched it.
So, if you see me tweeting about Septopus (with the hashtag #Septopus), you’ll know what I’m doing– just having fun, breaking up monotony, and honing my copywriting skills. If you like Septopus, feel free to tweet about him with the hashtag #Septopus. Who knows? Maybe a worldwide chorus will sing his praises!
Open Letter to NPR Re: "Blogs Capture, Amplify Gallaudet Protest"
I have been an ASL interpreter since 1990 and have trusted NPR as my primary news source for more than a decade. Sadly, you shook my faith in your reporting last night when you made ostensibly “factual” statements about Jane K. Fernandes that sounded like they came right out of her administration’s Public Relations Office.
Dr. Fernandes couldn’t have described herself better than you did when you said, “She’s deaf, but some protesters don’t like that she grew up speaking and reading lips, before she learned sign language.”
Contrary to what Dr. Fernandes would like the world to believe, her late ASL acquisition is not what the protesters don’t like about her. Shame on you for being a mouthpiece for Fernandes! You should have done your homework and read that blog you reported about: ridorlive.com. Or, for primary source material, you could have read the many statements and open letters at gufssa.org. Read those, along with the blog entries syndicated at deafread.com, and then you will be qualified to report on what Gallaudet University faculty, staff, students, and alumni don’t like about Fernandes.
The statement, “Others resent the tough decisions she’s made as a long-time administrator,” sounds just like Fernandes, too. Read the rest of this entry
