The internet. You never know who you will meet. I “met” someone the other day who was deaf. She was mentioning that our company website had removed the MoPix markings on the showtimes. (As a side we changed it because that had previously only indicated which auditorium had the technology, not which had the movies.) But through communicating with her, I ended up at her blog, and through her blogroll entering a whole new (deaf) community that I had never interacted with before.
It just amazed me as I thought about it. On the internet, you just don’t know
who is on the other side.
Could be black or white, Indian or American or African, deaf or musician (or both), athlete or in a wheelchair (or both), pretty or ugly. It does not hide intelligence or ignorance, linguistic ability, open or closed minds. It opens and levels the communication barriers in a number of ways.
Just a mind expanding thought on the internet.
billcreswell.words 
Heh. What happened is very rare, for both sides really! Hope you enjoy exploring our community. 😉
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I am deeply in love with the internet, and all those “mind expanding thoughts” are a big reason for it. Of those, meeting people you would never meet in physical life (the “real” in “real life” is becoming quite ambiguous in this regard) are one of the most important, to me.
My life has been relatively scattered so far. I have lived around half my life in southern Sweden, half my life in southern California, and just recently I moved to northern Norway. I have never stayed the summer in the same place I have gone to school that year and close friends have been difficult to come by. Of course I have had some very good and close friends, if only because its difficult not to when you go to school. In most cases I lost those friends during the summer when I lived on the other side of the globe (I lost every girlfriend I have had this way).
The internet has patched this up to a satisfactory degree, I have a number of good friends through the internet (I would say Bill is one of them) and I meet new people most days. The internet is one of the few constants in my life, and although I am generally averse towards constants, this is one that I cherish greatly.
As far as I know, though, I have never met any deaf person on the internet. I’m gonna head over to The Deaf Edge right after this.
(I really like your blog Bill, I’m gonna read through some of your other posts :))
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IMO, if the world is a matrix, then internet is a submatrix satisfying the human crave to enjoy, communicate, say, feel etc.
When i am not infront of computer, and imagine myself at the time i was online….everything seems virtual, false and hollow from inside.
Just like a person, near to death, thinking (recalling) the events during his life time.
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After 9 years talking to deafies on the net I have decided its high time that I get round to meeting them in real life.
Met 1 so far and next week or so may meet Kyle 🙂
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Closest that I have come is that the guy at the gym (who is not online) knows DeafPundit. But I have only been learning ASL for about 2 weeks now, so I couldn’t do much without a notepad.
Might be a good experience for me!
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