Alan Signs

Alan signed a speech to the graduating students of the Interpreter Preparatory Program. This was done in American Sign Language, and an interpreter was available to translate it to English.

I think the sound is a bit weak, you might need to turn the volume up to hear the interpreter. It seems that Google Video (as well as YouTube) degraded the quality, possibly so it could be downloaded in a smaller file. The original high-quality version was 143 MB.

I became friends with most of the IPP students when we met and got together a few years ago. I first met Pete at the GLBT Deaf Chat in 2005. The first email I can find of him on Gmail is in April, 2005, and it was an email regarding Evita. At that time, I knew him for two months. I met him in February, saw him again in March, at which point I asked him for his email address. Quite brave of me at the time. And yes, I did have an initial attraction to him. But I forgot to email him until after April, when I felt a piece of paper with his email address in my pocket.

I met Evelyn and Helle together at the Berkeley ASL Social, and again when Pete took both of them to the GLBT Chat. A surprise. I could see a great shock in Evelyn's face. I can't remember when I met Dee; I think it was at the Berkeley Deaf chat. I met Stephanie and Marlayne in the IPP room. There was another student I met in the IPP room who couldn't continue because she was still learning English as a second language. Her name was Yolanda. She stayed only one semester. I think my initial impression of her was she seemed to be very sure of herself, as she was already joining events and interpreting when first-semester are discouraged from doing so. Eventually, when second semester started, the course got harder, and the English reading, word-learning, and practice got more complex, somehow it was requisitioned that she drop temporarily to learn more English, and had the option to continue next semester.

This is cross-posted to my LiveJournal.