MY STUDIO HAS A LOT GOING ON
ME and my boss only have a handful of years between us, which is something we're not talking about. What this means is that he listens to all those early 2000's albums which ring out to the roaring early 2000's when we came of music age. Morcheeba, Macy Gray, Ian Brown. Not that I don't love this daily nostalgia, sometimes it gets too much. I have to tag out from time to time. Plus, there is a reason I measure drawing time in terms of how many episodes of Angry Chef's Shoutie Angry Kitchen it took, all right, I need to get in the zone and hearing the pleas of a man intensely emotional over risotto is basically the only way it's going to happen.
Unfortunately our studio's this massive communal love fest so at any any one point someone will be giving me some very meaningful critique over my shoulder that I have absolutely no way of hearing. Because they haven't gotten used to the whole deaf thing yet they take one look at my headphone-less ear and chat away, wait for me to make some twitch of agreement and wander off. Most of the time this is harmless, but once I looked back only to realise that our Creative Director had assembled two 7" high shelving units on his own and bought everyone lunch. I mean, he could've been trapped under those things and I would have had no idea. He wouldn't have gone to Costa and we'd have spent the afternoon trying to de-corpse the air-con vents, which some helpful sod built into the floors* like they thought people wanted an air-conditioning unit that doubled as trap for all of our snacks and usb sticks.
Unfortunately our studio's this massive communal love fest so at any any one point someone will be giving me some very meaningful critique over my shoulder that I have absolutely no way of hearing. Because they haven't gotten used to the whole deaf thing yet they take one look at my headphone-less ear and chat away, wait for me to make some twitch of agreement and wander off. Most of the time this is harmless, but once I looked back only to realise that our Creative Director had assembled two 7" high shelving units on his own and bought everyone lunch. I mean, he could've been trapped under those things and I would have had no idea. He wouldn't have gone to Costa and we'd have spent the afternoon trying to de-corpse the air-con vents, which some helpful sod built into the floors* like they thought people wanted an air-conditioning unit that doubled as trap for all of our snacks and usb sticks.
WOAH MY COMPUTER'S BUILT IN SPEAKERS GO PRETTY LOUD HUH
SINCE headphones are out for me and my poor, crippled ear, my housemate's got to find out that I listen to MIA's BAD GIRL at 6a.m while I do yoga. I am sure she appreciates it.
I HEAR YELLING AND I'M NOT TURNING ROUND IN CASE IT'S A FIGHT
IT'D be weird to make an announcement that I've got reduced hearing, wouldn't it? do people really care about this stuff? I had a friend tell me she enjoys hearing all the little everyday stuff people do on tumblr and facebook even if she doesn't reply to it, but my experience of these things is that I'll tell people and by the time everyone's caught up, I'll be fine and the whole process'll have to be repeated.
Case in point: a large portion of my friends still think I'm vegetarian. I was vegetarian for about a year and a half when I was 14. I don't have too much of a problem with this since it means I get morality points for having the most ethical meal at the dinner table even if I am eyeing that steak filet, but I do feel like it's a little unfair. Guy, have I ever once been surprised that you didn't turn up dressed in a Boxcar Racer t-shirt and streaky black hair? Besides, if we're basing facts about current me based on the preferences of me as a 14 year old, I'd like it if we forgot that I'm too old and mature now to talk about Super Saiyans.
So between this and the fact that the amount I need to wear glasses is directly inverted to how much I remember to wear glasses, this leaves me is having a few solid weeks where I've been walking past people I know like they've got a scarlet letter on them. I know this isn't new, I get blanked by people all the time that're totally oblivious, but there's something more unsettling about not seeing or hearing someone because you're absorbed in your own thoughts or got headphones on and when you genuinely can't.
Case in point: a large portion of my friends still think I'm vegetarian. I was vegetarian for about a year and a half when I was 14. I don't have too much of a problem with this since it means I get morality points for having the most ethical meal at the dinner table even if I am eyeing that steak filet, but I do feel like it's a little unfair. Guy, have I ever once been surprised that you didn't turn up dressed in a Boxcar Racer t-shirt and streaky black hair? Besides, if we're basing facts about current me based on the preferences of me as a 14 year old, I'd like it if we forgot that I'm too old and mature now to talk about Super Saiyans.
So between this and the fact that the amount I need to wear glasses is directly inverted to how much I remember to wear glasses, this leaves me is having a few solid weeks where I've been walking past people I know like they've got a scarlet letter on them. I know this isn't new, I get blanked by people all the time that're totally oblivious, but there's something more unsettling about not seeing or hearing someone because you're absorbed in your own thoughts or got headphones on and when you genuinely can't.
PPFFFCCCHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTT
THAT'S pretty much all I can hear while you are talking unless we are in a completely silent room.
ADDENDUM: I am not going to kiss or fight you, I'm just staring at your lips in a vein attempt that I don't have to say 'what' every 30 seconds.
ADDENDUM: I am not going to kiss or fight you, I'm just staring at your lips in a vein attempt that I don't have to say 'what' every 30 seconds.
IT'S BEEN TWO WEEKS I DO NOT KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE
BECAUSE my school was a state school, I learnt some swear words in year 6. Because it was a state school in the quaint English countryside, these swear words were in British Sign Language. I'm not sure why we all learnt them, since it's fairly obvious when a 10 year old is being a dick. They could be speaking moon-speak. They could be underwater- not the shallow nice bit where Nemo hangs out at, we're talking the part where there's fish that're essentially waking nightmares, the depths of water that mirror humanities deepest despair kind of underwater, and you could know when a 10 year old was being a dick. But we did and now I couldn't ask someone if they were all right or needed help, but I could tell them to fuck right off.
Great.
Great.
* These vents grills can fit: usb sticks, trail-mix, weight-bearing screws from my desk, chip forks, wire coat hanger hooks. They can't fit my panic stricken sausage fingers down, or wotzits.
