I can’t think of anything else to write about and I only have a few minutes before midnight. I happened to have this picture on my iPhone so I’ll just throw this on the wall and see if it sticks.

Believe it or not, I took this picture from my deck in the backyard. These photo ops just kind of fall into my lap.

I just remembered that I forgot a couple days ago I promised to show you the last block.

This was my favorite block and it was the trickiest, too. Then after I got it done, I discovered it was about an inch smaller all around than all the other blocks. Apparently, when they put the pattern in the book, they put it at a smaller scale than all the other pieces. So I had to cut strips to make it the same size as all the others.

Thank God I saved this one for last because I probably would’ve given up if it wasn’t!

I was getting ready to go take pictures for a radio station at a concert tonight, and I found pictures I forgot I had; I never moved them to my hard drive! I took them at a cemetery near my house; they’re about a month old.

I haven’t mentioned my ears lately.

Except for that trouble I had a couple months ago, they really help me get through life a little easier and allow me to be much more independant than I’d be without them. I definitely wouldn’t have this job at the shelter without them.

But they don’t make me ‘hearing’.

I still can’t get my phone loud enough to suit me unless I use my earbuds and even then it’s not always loud enough. I do still have to speechread some. I still have to use captioning. If someone starts talking to me and we’re not face to face, if you flip a coin, you’ll have about the same odds of getting heads as I do at recognizing what was said.

Hunky signed up for Netflix a couple months ago.

These two subjects connect, I promise!

I didn’t really pay much attention to his Netflix until tonight. I went in and started rooting around in his queue, and wondering how we ever managed to get married.

Profiles to the rescue!

I made a profile for myself in his account and set up my own queue. (If you want to ‘friend’ me over there, you can find me by the email address above.) I filled out my preferences and rated about 100 movies. I had a blast going through the suggestions, then noticed something even more intriguing… streaming movies! I can watch whatever movie I want?! NOW?! Woo hoooooo!

See, a few months ago, I put another gem in my Gadget Queen tiara. I bought a cable that hooks my laptop to my 50″ TV. So, Movies NOW + 50″ TV = Dory’s happy dance commences!

I hooked it up and installed the software. I started up my first streaming movie (see title *points up there* and p.s. Hunky can’t stand that crap!) and got comfy on the couch.

I got real disappointed, real fast.

No captions.

No subtitles.

No happy dance.

I tried messing with the settings in the lower right hand corner of the video, like you do on YouTube. Nothing.

I went to the Netflix website. Here’s what I found:

Q:
Can I see subtitles or closed captions while watching movies instantly on my PC?

A: Foreign-language movies streamed to your PC, Mac, or TV have subtitles “burned in” to the video (“open captions”). However, we do not currently provide closed captions or subtitles for English language movies when streamed, although you can find them on most of our DVDs.
The technologies we use for streaming do not yet adequately support closed captions, and most viewers object to permanently visible open captions, which they cannot turn off, burned into the video stream for English-language content. We are working on delivering closed captions or optional subtitles in a future technology update, probably first for PCs and Macs, probably sometime in 2010, and later for various TV-connected devices as new firmware can be created and the devices updated.

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY?!

With all the crap developers come up with to make the Intar-Webs sparkle, they haven’t come up with this technology yet? Are you kidding me?

Maybe hearing people reading this don’t understand why I feel so strongly. Let me ask you this: how would you feel if, all of the sudden, all your shows were dubbed over in Greek?

I’m going to close with what I always say when a show I want to see comes on with no captions.

“Apparently, somebody decided that Deaf folk don’t really need to watch [insert name of stupid uncaptioned show HERE].”

I got so excited about my new iPhone showing up this morning, I completely forgot to post! So here it is, quarter after midnight, and this is all you get. I don’t know; I think you should ask management for your money back.

BloMe NahNuNahNu.