Toys that cause hearing loss this X-MAS

Hi there,

Feeling a little bit better but as soon as I have to go to bed the drama starts... as I cannot fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the night... anyway..

Today I came across an article that lists the top 20 hearing loss causing toys this Christmas:

At first place: 

1. Disney Cars 2 Shake ‘N Go! Finn McMissile, Fisher-Price, Inc. (124 dB)

At second place:

2. Disney Princess Play-a-Sound Follow Your Dreams, Publications Intl, Ltd. (118 dB)

At third place:

3. Hot Wheels Super Stunt Rat Bomb, Toy Quest (116 dB)

What do you think of this? What will you buy your children? When I look at this list I begin to wonder what is safe to buy at all!!? See the source from the original post CLICK HERE you will see many more toys listed. If you take a look at this list, is there an alternative to these toys listed? How about to buy something to craft, or Lego or simply a book? I like Lego but then all those little pieces on the carpet... and I triple over them.. it's not so appealing :P


I have not done my Christmas shopping yet but I will rethink some of the toys, possible gifts. What is your opinion to this? Feel free to share it with me. 


Thanks for reading,

Poetry Girl has a really bad cold

Hi there!!


I caught a nasty cold... so I probably won't post this weekend. This is just for your information that I will be silent but I'll try to be back soon :)


Countdown till Christmas & my birthday too.. I try hard to cheer up because of all the festive occasions but I can't .. :( I'm so not in the mood.. it's really sad. I feel it's getting worse and worse every year.. hmm

Safety for cochlear implant users

This one above is bizarre. I don't think I want to think about this here in the far future..


To read more from this pdf file about the recommended guidelines please go to this link. CLICK HERE.

It has listed a couple of guidelines on safety for cochlear implant users. I think this is quite interesting and you should take a look and read when you get the chance too. I heard that the Nucleus 512 is not that perfect as everyone has thought. For me it works well but some malfunction can occure. I only noticed a few times this strange disconnection from my device which lasted only for a fraction of a second, then everything was back to normal. This is strange but that was all. For me everything is relatively ok. It works fabulous and helps me to hear. The sound is what it was before. My brain has easily adapted to this new change. The Mickey Mouse voice disappeared :) Thank God and I thought I will forever have to hear that sound.


I hope you take your time to read the list. It's just 6 pages in PDF.


Thanks for reading!

A "Thank you" letter from Mr. Clarke

Hello my friends!!!

It's been a while ... I spent the past few weeks updating my two blogs, relocating the older posts and putting them all here. I have some posts from 2010 about my surgery and I have imported them all here in my blog "Bionic Poetry Girl". I want to keep them all in one place. That took me a while but now I'm done. I'll post a video soon, where I show you what changed. More soon :)

I have great news to share. A couple of weeks ago I sent Grame Clark a copy of my poetry book. Today as I checked my mail I saw this letter :))) It's from La Trobe University :)))

Oh my God!!!! I was so happy!! When I wrote my book I knew that I would be honored if Mr. Clark read it and he did!!!

 

He feels very touched to receive my book even more a poem that is dedicated to him!! I'm so grateful that I managed to send it to him. Thank you to everyone who has helped me to make this possible, my friends for giving me information where to try to contact him.

One of my dreams was after completing my book was to give it to him and it turned into reality. I feel honored that he read it as I wanted to honor him in return for his achievements.

Thanks for reading!

New season - new videos

Hello! 


In 2008 I joined YouTube. When I look back.. a lot has changed for me. Here's a little video, that recaps in short the past three years. I had more videos on my youtube account but some of them I have deleted. Though I still have them on my hard disk. 


I'd like to start and do regular videos again next year. Twenty-Twelve should be a special year. I'll keep all my three blogs. I am working on my own website. It's still in its "creation-process" so it will take me a while. I will post poetry videos and poetry on my blog and my Facebook page. So a lot of new stuff will come next year. I have so much more to share but in my next post :))


Thanks for staying in touch with me!
More is coming soon!


Sandra

Thank you to my readers

Thank You!
A big thank you to all of you who are following my blogs, who keep visiting my site. Know that this means a lot to me!! I cannot post very much at the moment as I have a few other things going on at the moment but you should read a post once a week. I'll do my best.


More poetry will come soon, most likely in my other blog "Can you hear my poems". Check it out. I'll post some poems there. It's been a while. I know. I am still writing poetry, not about my ear anymore but about other things. I like the diversity and trying out new things. It's really helpful when you think you have a writer's block.


Regarding my ear:
I still have / or better I had some sleepless nights and my tinnitus came back again. It was really awful a few days ago and this morning too... I don't think it's common but it got back.. because I felt a bit stressed. I need to slow down a bit and find my inner peace or simply improve my sleep. After my surgery last summer my tinnitus disappeared slowly but this month it came back.. which is strange to me as I thought it is going to stop forever. I was not that lucky.. but I think I know why it came so I need to change a few things and see if it is going to make an impact.


More soon!


Make sure you subscribe to get email updates about my blog. It's on the right, if you scroll down a bit after my profile description. This way you won't miss any posts and get it directly into your email account. If you subscribe then you will get an email where you just have to confirm that you want to get an email with my content as soon as I post something. It's up to you but I think it's a great way to keep in touch.


Thanks for reading and I hope you will keep hanging out with me and enjoy what I share!
Sandra

TINNITUS with a Cochlear Implant???!!!!?!?!?!?!?!??!?

Hi there,


It's been a while .... I know. I had a stressful week. I feel bit drained...


NANOWRIMO:
Nanowrimo took away my power and other things too. I will not finish nanowrimo in time.. I am stuck at 20,000 words and it's not possible for me to catch up to finish before December... I had to many days in between where I didn't write. I will continue on my novel but in my own pace and when all this is over I will continue to write. I have to many other projects where I'm working on at the same time, so that it's just too much.... and nanowrimo... well I KNOW I CAN write a book in a month. I have proved it 3x and this year it's just not the right time. I am working, I have family and other things that it's impossible.


TINNITUS:
Isn't it a bit unusual to have tinnitus after a cochlear implant? I've heard different stories so far on tinnitus after a CI surgery. Some day gets louder others say it disappears. Mine did disappear but it did come back.. it's not always there but sometimes it is... as this morning...


Here's a poetry video from my book. I thought to record it as it was right for the moment. That is how a sleepless night looks like.. sometimes.



What do you think? Isn't that a bit strange? Does anyone else has that "problem"? Feel free to share or discuss with me.


Thanks for reading!

Remember this?? When I passed out?

Do you remember this video?? I remember this so vividly ... I spent the afternoon updating links on my youtube videos. I added on two videos subtitles and posted a new one too. I'll write about it tomorrow or later. Than I came across this video again. I want to put this weekend closed-captions on that video here. It will take me some time as I'm bit exhausted right now from spending a few hours in front of my laptop, fixing this and that.


I remember this video. A few hours,.. I think one or two hours afterward this video was recorded I passed out and hit my head so badly first on the wall..... and then on the floor a second time .... (O_o) It hurt really BAD!! I was too foolish and didn't go to hospital. I knew I had a concussion but I was so sock of hospitals the few days before that.. that I didn't not go and stayed at home... in bed.


Right now everything is fine, I have my cochlear implant and hear great though that was really a challenging time. Next time (God I hope it does not happen again)... but next time if sth like this happens again I will immediately go to hospital. This is not something to underestimate!!!!


Thanks for reading!

Many books about cochlear implants

I have so many books about cochlear implant stories that I still haven not yet finished reading.... One of my friends who borrowed me one of her books was right when she said, most people do not want to read those books once their surgery passed by successfully. Why because it stirs up all those emotions once again.. It is a bit sad because I feel the same way, but I will read them. I have started one today and will continue reading slowly. It will take me some time as I am doing nanowrimo this year too, and many other things too but I get slightly overwhelmed by all the "tasks". 


It makes me wonder how other people think about that, in relation to my poetry book "Can You Hear My Poems". Do they think the same way? Do they get tired of reading those kind of books, just because all's over and they do not want to deal with all this all over again?


Hmmm..... I wonder. 

NANOWRIMO started .. (O_o)?

Yes it officially started... now there turning back. Everyone knows that I signed up for nanowrimo and they will track my progress.

Many things went wrong in the past few hours before the official start. I lost my outline that I made a few days ago, but luckily I used a mind map to make an outline of the story and the main points, the characters, scenes, anything relevant. I get too distracted on social sites, I have to reduce that. Although I managed my word count for the first day I am over 2,222 words. :) 

It was difficult to start but later it got easier. It's a lot easier when you know where your story will go. I even wrote poems inside. Yeah you know I cannot write no poetry in November, that's impossible and that would drive me crazy. I feel tempted to share the first thousand words but um... later perhaps ok? Or I'll feel jinxed and not write anymore .. When I am done I will share some parts. I have though some new poetry on my Facebook page.

Go to my Facebook page for more poems

I am not sure how often I will write here, probably 1-2 a week but not more. I'll need all words for my book. I wish I could just copy paste all from my blog to put into my story but that's impossible ... Need to write some more, to be a bit ahead of my word count just in case to be prepared for the upcoming days. 

Thank you for reading,
Your bionic PoetryGirl

Brainstorming

Hi there!!


Preparation... yes sort of ... Spent the past few days and about two weeks or more to read my story and to figure out if it's worth to continue it.


I wonder how more complicated my story can get towards the end. :)


And a few hours later afterwards... (I continued to write this blog later) I came to the conclusion yes it's worth. Yes it going to be a lot more complex and I hope I can kept it all together the whole story. There should be a revelation afterwards and a conclusion. Although I was tempted to write sth new but not this year... The other story has to wait a little bit.


Here are some notes that I took afterwards. Hmmm...


I have to say that I finished reading my story which I wrote last year. It was really thought at first as I am so out of this reading habit. Yeah that's bad, but I don't find the time to read at all. I always end up to do something else. At least now I have finished to read my book and I really love it. It has holes here and there but the whole structure isn't bad, the coherence either. I can follow and the scenes follow, the previous and so on.. It really fits together, one scene after the other, or talking about sth else then going back to where I stopped writing 5 pages earlier. It's so awesome!

Here are some notes that I took while I was reading. It looks a bit complicated but it's not that much. I still have an overview of my story. The story is not at all finished.. I can't believe it stopped in the middle, just when I reached my 50,000 mark (word count).



Anyhow, there's alot to do although I'm not quite in the mood... will write later!


Thank you for reading,
Your bionic PoetryGirl

What shall I say??

Hi there!!


What should I say?? I feel pissed, the usual thing but no it's not the PMS thing ;) No perhaps not pissed, more um... not quite quite myself. That is how I feel. There's so much I'd like to say but as this blog is public and almost everyone knows about it it's not even safe anymore :P


Anyhow, yeah I still write poetry... Here's a poem I found but I had to rewrite it again as the original version was barely readable.. I hope this one you can read.

I still have a few things to do this weekend... thank God I have a few days off so I will be able to finish hopefully everything on my to-do-list. I can't wait for nanowrimo to start. It makes me nervous but I am excited too. I am going to finish my psycho-thriller mixed with poetry of a schizophrenic poet. I couldn't have made it better, don't you think? :P At least I can still write poetry next month. I do not want not to write poems for a whole month. That would freak me out totally!!!!


I have some scenes where I could include some poems, from the poets perspective. I am a poet myself, in real life, and nanowrimo is not for poetry, it's more to write a novel a story, not poetry... so I will mix it and make it different. I think that is definitely something new! My plot and the whole story is quite dark. I'm not sure if anyone wants to read such a story but I want to write something different than from all the love stories with a happy end. Nah... it's always the same thing, I don't fancy that anymore. Let's write something morbid instead ;)


I think everyone's busy now with preparations for the upcoming writing challenge. I don't know if it's good to prepare or not, at least this year I want to try it. Last year I had 3 different plots for three different stories and what happened?? When Nanowrimo started I dropped all of them and started something new. AND... the year before.. I started a story a few days later I dropped it because I didn't like. (I already had some 6,000 words written at that time) I dropped it and started sth different... and had to catch up on my word count the first few days.. it was definitely not fun. So yeah.. anything's possible. I'll try not to be filled with many expectations except to just have fun and to write ANYTHING!


Thanks for reading!
Will write soon!


Your bionic PoetryGirl

Sandra