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Post by Cybermortis on May 18, 2014 16:27:56 GMT
This I didn't know;
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Post by the light works on May 19, 2014 1:04:37 GMT
My chief has a cochlear implant - but he wears a bluetooth hearing aid in his other ear. the problem he has now, is he had to retrain himself on how loud to talk when he is speaking to groups. he is also, understandably, very keen on hearing protection for firefighters.
Hearing loss does run in my family, though - but we haven't been bad enough to need hearing aids, so far; nor have we had such bad tinnitus it was more than an annoyance. (it is how I can tell my house is truly quiet - when it is quiet enough to hear my ears ringing.) but we do default to closed captioning on the TV (partly because the mixing guys always mix it for teenage ears) and I like to turn on just the center channel speaker for movies, because that brings out mostly the dialogue in the mix. - it would be nice if in their audio settings, they had a "grown up" setting that had a higher level of dialogue, and less soundtrack.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 19, 2014 15:03:12 GMT
we do default to closed captioning on the TV (partly because the mixing guys always mix it for teenage ears) and I like to turn on just the center channel speaker for movies, because that brings out mostly the dialogue in the mix. - it would be nice if in their audio settings, they had a "grown up" setting that had a higher level of dialogue, and less soundtrack. I have a similar problem going to the movies. While my hearing isn't horrible, after a number of years working around jet aircraft, it isn't that great either. I have a difficult time understanding the dialog in theaters. At least when watching a movie at home, I can adjust the sound system so I can understand what is being said. I have pretty much quit going out to movies for this reason.
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Post by c64 on May 19, 2014 17:46:30 GMT
The modern hearing aids are awesome. My mom owns a pair since last year. Technically, they are a miracle. But those have a very serious disadvantage. They cost more than twice as much a piece than all of the cars I had owned combined. So she rarely wears them because they are so expensive! My dad came back from surgery recently. His pacemaker had reported a bad battery and he has a whole new one now. He was told that his old one was extremely obsolete and he now has a 2 generations more advanced one. Seems to work well. He doesn't need to stop in the middle of the stairs any more to wait until his pacemaker adjusts. Also while he was "running on batteries" most of the time in the past, the new pacemaker can control the heart more naturally and rarely has to take over control of the heart now. Also the Pulseoxymeter I gave him isn't broken any more
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Post by GTCGreg on May 19, 2014 18:35:34 GMT
The modern hearing aids are awesome. My mom owns a pair since last year. Technically, they are a miracle. But those have a very serious disadvantage. They cost more than twice as much a piece than all of the cars I had owned combined. So she rarely wears them because they are so expensive! And the question is why? You can buy a 60" LCD TV today for less than a 21" (round) CRT Color TV cost in the 60's. And that doesn't even take into account inflation. So why does a hearing aid cost $3000? I hate to even imagine what your dad's pacemaker costs.
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Post by c64 on May 19, 2014 18:48:34 GMT
The modern hearing aids are awesome. My mom owns a pair since last year. Technically, they are a miracle. But those have a very serious disadvantage. They cost more than twice as much a piece than all of the cars I had owned combined. So she rarely wears them because they are so expensive! And the question is why? You can buy a 60" LCD TV today for less than a 21" (round) CRT Color TV cost in the 60's. And that doesn't even take into account inflation. So why does a hearing aid cost $3000? I hate to even imagine what your dad's pacemaker costs. That's simple. You can live without a hearing air just fine. So only if you are quite deaf, you get a cheap one from your health insurance. The pacemaker on the other hand, you get for free. That's legally bond healthcare insurance. If you pay ~€300 per month for health care over your whole life the moment you leave your parent's home or turn 25, you can get some good free stuff when you are old.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 19, 2014 18:55:04 GMT
The pacemaker on the other hand, you get for free. Free? Really? I hate to break it to you, but you and everybody else in Germany probably paid over $50,000 for that pacemaker. Of course, I'm sure installation was extra.
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Post by c64 on May 19, 2014 18:57:51 GMT
What I really hate is that if you change your health insurance company, they give you a present for free and you pay the same and get the very same benefits. If you are loyal, you get nothing.
And to cut costs, they stopped including dental work - except medical necessary work - and eyeglasses. Also if you see a doctor, you have to pay €10 for the first visit each quart, no matter if you are a millionaire or unemployed. Just to stop people from visiting the doctor too often. Now the health insurance companies have so much surplus that they can't think of what to do with it. So your gifts when changing your insurance company are pretty expensive nowadays. They could stop demanding the €10 fee or give you extra dental work, but they just won't.
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Post by c64 on May 19, 2014 19:01:34 GMT
The pacemaker on the other hand, you get for free. Free? Really? I hate to break it to you, but you and everybody else in Germany probably paid over $50,000 for that pacemaker. Of course, I'm sure installation was extra. And the problem is? I pay about €3000 per year anyway and don't have claimed much benefits I didn't had to pay for myself. My dad also had paid his share over the last 64 years!
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Post by OziRiS on May 21, 2014 22:16:47 GMT
Thanks for the video, Cyber Missed that one myself. I love that Adam is always so quick to give helpful advice from his own experiences, like the piece he gives on what to do when you say something and people go "what?". I think that whole changing the cadence of your sentence thing, instead of just repeating what you said in the exact same way is a solution that's so simple, most people don't even realise it's a solution at all. I just realised that I've actually done it for many years without really thinking about why, but my girlfriend and my brother - just to name a few - always say the sentence again in the exact same way. I don't have hearing problems, but what Adam says is completely true. Once your brain has tried to make sense of that string of slurred sounds and failed, it's almost impossible to reset, dial in and find the meaning in it the second or third time around. If that can be a problem for me, who actually has better hearing than I should have (I'm able to hear sounds both a little above and below the normal frequency range of the human ear), I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for people with hearing loss.
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Post by Cybermortis on May 21, 2014 23:09:49 GMT
Its funny, but Adam's comments about how he ended up walking around the house practically on tip-toes because he realised how much noise he used to make walking around reminded me of my Gran.
She had an operation for cataracts. When she was brought home she walked into the living room, stopped and stared. The family was, understandably, somewhat concerned about this and asked her what was wrong.
'The carpet'
*Everyone looks down, sees nothing different or out of place*
'What's wrong with the carpet?'
'It has a pattern...I never realised it had a pattern!'
She'd had that carpet for about fifteen years....
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Post by OziRiS on May 21, 2014 23:48:53 GMT
Its funny, but Adam's comments about how he ended up walking around the house practically on tip-toes because he realised how much noise he used to make walking around reminded me of my Gran. She had an operation for cataracts. When she was brought home she walked into the living room, stopped and stared. The family was, understandably, somewhat concerned about this and asked her what was wrong. 'The carpet' *Everyone looks down, sees nothing different or out of place* 'What's wrong with the carpet?' 'It has a pattern...I never realised it had a pattern!' She'd had that carpet for about fifteen years.... And then realised she didn't like the pattern?
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Post by the light works on May 22, 2014 1:10:00 GMT
Thanks for the video, Cyber Missed that one myself. I love that Adam is always so quick to give helpful advice from his own experiences, like the piece he gives on what to do when you say something and people go "what?". I think that whole changing the cadence of your sentence thing, instead of just repeating what you said in the exact same way is a solution that's so simple, most people don't even realise it's a solution at all. I just realised that I've actually done it for many years without really thinking about why, but my girlfriend and my brother - just to name a few - always say the sentence again in the exact same way. I don't have hearing problems, but what Adam says is completely true. Once your brain has tried to make sense of that string of slurred sounds and failed, it's almost impossible to reset, dial in and find the meaning in it the second or third time around. If that can be a problem for me, who actually has better hearing than I should have (I'm able to hear sounds both a little above and below the normal frequency range of the human ear), I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for people with hearing loss. my problem with that is somewhat different. I have trouble with certain people in the household who just start talking without checking to see if I am paying attention first - or doing something distracting like being in the bathroom with the door closed or watching a youtube clip with my headphones on.
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Post by OziRiS on May 22, 2014 9:56:04 GMT
Thanks for the video, Cyber Missed that one myself. I love that Adam is always so quick to give helpful advice from his own experiences, like the piece he gives on what to do when you say something and people go "what?". I think that whole changing the cadence of your sentence thing, instead of just repeating what you said in the exact same way is a solution that's so simple, most people don't even realise it's a solution at all. I just realised that I've actually done it for many years without really thinking about why, but my girlfriend and my brother - just to name a few - always say the sentence again in the exact same way. I don't have hearing problems, but what Adam says is completely true. Once your brain has tried to make sense of that string of slurred sounds and failed, it's almost impossible to reset, dial in and find the meaning in it the second or third time around. If that can be a problem for me, who actually has better hearing than I should have (I'm able to hear sounds both a little above and below the normal frequency range of the human ear), I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for people with hearing loss. my problem with that is somewhat different. I have trouble with certain people in the household who just start talking without checking to see if I am paying attention first - or doing something distracting like being in the bathroom with the door closed or watching a youtube clip with my headphones on. Ugh... My girlfriend does that all the time! She also has a bad habit of suddenly switching subject without warning, so I think she's talking about one thing when she's really talking about something completely different. Sometimes she'll even switch both the subject and the person she's talking to, in what seems to be mid-conversation or even mid-sentence, and without even turning away from the person she was talking to first and facing the person she's talking to now. It's like she assumes that everyone is paying attention to everything she's saying all the time, just in case something comes out that's aimed at them. Example: When you come in through our hallway, you come straight into our kitchen. From there, you go into our bedroom and beyond that is the downstairs bathroom. When our son came home from school yesterday, my girlfriend was in the bedroom folding some laundry and I was in the kitchen preparing potato salad for dinner. Our son goes straight through the kitchen, into the bedroom, sets his bag down on the floor and goes to the bathroom. When he comes back out, my girlfriend starts asking him questions: Her: "Did you have a nice day?" Him: "Yes" Her: "Did you eat all of your lunch, or do you have some left?" Him: "I have a little left." Her: "Go give it to the dog then." He goes to the kitchen to give the dog what's left of his lunch and while she's still folding clothes with her back turned, she goes: "Did you unpack your gym clothes?" Him: "No, not yet." Her: "Did you take out the trash, like you promised?" Him: "I never promised that!" And he's right, he never promised that. I did. Turns out that without skipping a beat, she's suddenly talking to me. She hasn't addressed me directly in any way, so both our son and I naturally assume that she's still talking to him. He's aware of everything she's saying and prepared to answer any question, because he thinks they're having a conversation, just the two of them. I, on the other hand, am not prepared to answer anything, because I also think they're having a conversation that I'm not a part of, so I don't immediately realise she's talking to me. I don't react and without even acknowledging that our son has answered the question, she gets mad at me for not answering and starts yelling at me. Problem is, both our son and I still think she's talking to him, so I still don't react and our son starts to get really confused and defensive and starts to yell at her that he's never promised to take out the trash and wants her to stop yelling at him. It's not until this point she realises that we're both confused and addresses me directly, though still yelling like I've done something wrong and still not telling the kid that she wasn't talking to him, so he can calm down now. This happens two or three times a week sometimes.
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Post by silverdragon on May 22, 2014 11:03:42 GMT
I have hearing problems... I am slightly deaf in one ear. Problem.... Doctor, Ok, now you tell me that, wouldnt it be a better idea to tell me WHICH ear I have a problem with?...
And does anyone know a for-sure method to stop idiot kids MUMBLING in the back seat when they know I cant hear them?... If I cant hear it, its not worth saying is it?... They have a problem with me not hearing them, and they can speak louder?....
No I cant wear a hearing aid. Its the "Mid range" of hearing I have a problem with. I can hear quiet, but I have problems hearing things in a noisy environment. Therefore, hearing aids will just turn the volume up on EVERYTHING..... I will be just as deaf, but louder.
My kids dont understand why I can hear exactly what they are whispering 20 ft away from me in a dead silent room, but I cant hear them above road noise in the car.
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Post by Cybermortis on May 22, 2014 11:40:47 GMT
My Mother used to have a different version of this, where she would start a conversation at the end.
Examples;
I was sitting there reading while Mum was watching Songs of Praise (A British religious TV show aired on the BBC on Sundays). Without warning I get; 'My God if you EVER take drugs I'll KILL you!'
I could only think 'What the hell are they showing on Songs of Praise these days?'
Best I could tell she'd been sitting there mulling over a conversation she'd had two hours before with a friend of hers. This related to what their daughter had been up to.
She almost did the same thing to me a year or two later, with 'If you EVER come home drunk I'll throw you out of the house!' (I was 15 at this point btw). Thankfully I'd heard the story from someone else in the family earlier. Basically a cousin had walked through the front door blind drunk the night before...as in walked through the glass panelled door at 2am and ended up in hospital. (He wasn't seriously hurt)
Another example was;
{I get back from College, walk through the door and put my bag down}
Mother; 'So, its decided then. Good, it will be good for you'
Me, after a moments pause; 'This is one of those conversations we had where I wasn't physically in the room isn't it?'
Mother, defensively; 'No'
Me; 'OK so we talked about this when?'
{Long pause}
Mother; 'This morning'
Me; 'Would that be 'this morning when I was doing my paper round' or 'this morning when I was walking to college?''
{Notable silence}
Me; 'I think I'd like to have this conversation again, this time when I get to say something when I'm, you know, actually in the room and not your head'
Then there is the classic Mum moment;
'You remember {insert random name(s) here} don't you?'
'Who?'
'You remember'
'No, I really don't'
'Yes you do. You've met them'
'And I was HOW old at the time?'
'About three'
'And how many times?'
'Twice'
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Post by c64 on May 22, 2014 12:02:10 GMT
And then realised she didn't like the pattern? Been there! My mum can't see very well. This is not new, she has an option in her driver's license which was issued in the early 70s, that she is not allowed to transport "strangers" - whatever this means. This is not a standard option for a driver's license. As far as I know, this is absolutely unique. And recently, her eyesight turned a lot worse. She can't see anything when there is not enough light. And the staircases of my parents house don't have proper wiring for decent lights. There is just one lamp at one end of the U-shaped staircase. So I had bought lots of very powerful, waterproof and extreme flexible LED stripes, installed a tiny but powerful industrial PSU into the lamp and literally wallpapered parts of the ceiling with thousands of tiny LEDs. Also I had installed new lamps in some rooms, my dad had bought a lot of the most powerful LED lamps he could find. And guess what. I had to replace all the carpets because my mum refused to have visitors any more because they might see how worn the carpets are!
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Post by OziRiS on May 22, 2014 12:08:21 GMT
Then there is the classic Mum moment; 'You remember {insert random name(s) here} don't you?' 'Who?' 'You remember' 'No, I really don't' 'Yes you do. You've met them' 'And I was HOW old at the time?' 'About three' 'And how many times?' 'Twice' My mother-in-law does that, except she does it with people that she just assumes we all know but none of us have actually met or even heard of. Me: "I need a new lawn mower." Her: "Karen's husband Kent has a new one that he bought by mistake. Maybe you can get it cheap from him." Me: "Karen...? Karen who...?" And she'll get angry too: Her: "Yes, KAREN!!! From down the street in number 28!!! The skinny one with the lazy eye!!!" Me: "Never met her..." Father-in-law: "I didn't know there was a Karen on our street..." Her: "You're all idiots!!!" Turned out "Karen" was someone who'd just moved into number 28 two weeks earlier who she'd met at the grocery store on the very day of this conversation. She had litterally only known this person for about 4 hours before this conversation took place and still, she expected every one of us to know who she was talking about.
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Post by c64 on May 22, 2014 12:09:46 GMT
My Mother used to have a different version of this, where she would start a conversation at the end. Examples; I was sitting there reading while Mum was watching Songs of Praise (A British religious TV show aired on the BBC on Sundays). Without warning I get; 'My God if you EVER take drugs I'll KILL you!' I could only think 'What the hell are they showing on Songs of Praise these days?' Best I could tell she'd been sitting there mulling over a conversation she'd had two hours before with a friend of hers. This related to what their daughter had been up to. She almost did the same thing to me a year or two later, with 'If you EVER come home drunk I'll throw you out of the house!' (I was 15 at this point btw). Thankfully I'd heard the story from someone else in the family earlier. Basically a cousin had walked through the front door blind drunk the night before...as in walked through the glass panelled door at 2am and ended up in hospital. (He wasn't seriously hurt) Another example was; {I get back from College, walk through the door and put my bag down} Mother; 'So, its decided then. Good, it will be good for you' Me, after a moments pause; 'This is one of those conversations we had where I wasn't physically in the room isn't it?' Mother, defensively; 'No' Me; 'OK so we talked about this when?' {Long pause} Mother; 'This morning' Me; 'Would that be 'this morning when I was doing my paper round' or 'this morning when I was walking to college?'' {Notable silence} Me; 'I think I'd like to have this conversation again, this time when I get to say something when I'm, you know, actually in the room and not your head' Then there is the classic Mum moment; 'You remember {insert random name(s) here} don't you?' 'Who?' 'You remember' 'No, I really don't' 'Yes you do. You've met them' 'And I was HOW old at the time?' 'About three' 'And how many times?' 'Twice' My mum does both versions! And when she changes subject and you fail to follow, she calls you schizophrenic.
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Post by OziRiS on May 22, 2014 12:17:28 GMT
My mum does both versions! And when she changes subject and you fail to follow, she calls you schizophrenic. I'm guessing she also does the bit where she suddenly cuts into the middle of someone else's conversation with something completely random and obscure? For instance, you could be in the middle of a discussion about local politics and she chimes in with: "I bought bananas on sale today", reminiscent of some 4-year old who decides she hasn't been given enough attention for a while. Sound familiar?
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