Recognizing New Music Tuesday, August 16, 2016

So I’ve had some fun music recognition over the last few months.

The two songs – Charlie Puth’s “We Don’t Talk Anymore” and twentyone pilots’s “Stressed Out”.

After leaving a mapping session one day, and driving home while listening to 97.5, I heard the words “We Don’t Talk Anymore” on the radio. Granted, I missed part of the speech sound, but I recognized it right off the bat and was singing along to the “We Don’t Talk Anymore” part.  It was so cool…first time I’ve heard that song!

As for twentyone pilots’s “Stressed Out”, I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it.  I used the Shazam app to tell me what song was playing.  Since then, I’ve caught it on the radio multiple times and instantly recognize the songs, INCLUDING the alternative versions of it (Tomsize Remix, Live Version).  Nine times according to Shazam.

One night I was at work, and we had the radio on, and I came back to my coworkers and instantly recognized “Genie In A Bottle” by Christina Aguilera.  Of course I was excited!

Loving the Naidas!

July 16 and 19th…Harmony, Car Accidents, and Surgeries Monday, July 23, 2007

July 16th – two readers/their family members from this site had their surgeries! I hope they went well (I know one of them did!)

I finally got to order my harmony as well…but it’s going to take a 2-week turnaround to get it. At the rate Advanced Bionics is going with this, I won’t get it in the mail and activated till I return to school in September (which will make Mandy happy!)

July 19th – I hear a car accident for the first time with the cochlear implant. And from a block away. I was hanging out on the far side of the parking lot after work, talking to my boss as we usually do after every shift, when we hear this noise (which I didn’t know at first, but due to the expression on her face, I quickly figured it out). It sounded like a loud firecracker, due to the “boom!” that I heard. Pam says that the noise we first heard was probably the screech of the brakes, and then we looked up in time to hear the crash (she saw stuff flying through the air, I didn’t).

I was the first one to respond to the accident scene while Pam called 911 on her cell. It makes me sick that not one person who witnessed the accident stopped to help. The woman was bleeding, and her head hit the windshield, shattering it. To make the situation more interesting, the woman who hit her, left the scene and didn’t return till like 7 minutes later. I heard her car before I saw it, and was thinking “holy cow, somebody’s car really needs to go to the shop”. It was making clunking/chugging noises (half of the hood was smashed in).

I’ve never heard a car accident, not even with the hearing aid. I heard it distinctly with the cochlear implant, but my hearing aid did not pick it up at all. But Thursday was a really bad day overall (my friends/coworkers know why, and I thank everybody for their support and love).

Finally, I love meeting people with cochlear implants at work. It’s always fun to run into guests who have a cochlear implant, and then find out we have the same doctor. What I like more is hearing their stories about their implant experiences, especially if they’ve gone bilateral. 🙂

WE GET THE NEW WALKIES TOMORROW (TUESDAY) AT WORK! Must bring my various cables so I can plug it in directly into my cochlear implant and find out which one works the best…that’s going to be a fun experiment…I can’t wait! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

I finally uploaded a video clip of me playing the piano – “The Gypsy Baron” by Johann Strauss. I’m still working on finding my other audio clips of my piano playing…or rerecording them as a video, but I’m out of practice, my piano needs to be tuned, and the humidity makes one of the major keys stick.

Those Beeps And Those Birds Thursday, July 12, 2007

The more time I spend at work, the more I’m amazed by the sounds that I can hear with the cochlear implant.

For one, the registers are so loud. You can hear the beeps halfway across the store. I can hear the beeps of the register as far back as Infants. The odd thing is, when I used to be up front as a cashier, it didn’t seem that loud. But to get to infants, you have to walk through girls, boys, then half of infants. The screech and squeaks of the cart wheels. And the kids, and some of the “interactive” toys that we have. I’m not even going to get started on that topic.

I spent a good bit of time this morning listening to my fellow teammates frequently asking my team lead questions via the walkie. “i need more gray dots.” “i’m done with ____. what do you want me to do next?” “okay, i need you to go over to ____.” “what’s your location?”. I was amused, yet surprised by how much my team lead gets interrupted by people all day.

Not to mention I accidentally locked my keys in my car when I got to work this morning. I had to call my mom but I had to put it on speakerphone, and had a short conversation with her, as I was heading in the door. I really need to find a phone that will actually work with the cochlear implant and the hearing aid, and still have the same functions as the sidekick (email/qwerty keyboard), yet not have the whole world hear the conversation.

Yesterday, I hung out with Jenni, and I got to play with her birds. It’s the first time that I’ve been around birds since I’ve gotten the CI (except for this spring).

It was interesting to note the difference between listening to her bird speak with the hearing aid versus the CI. Obviously, you can’t lipread a bird, but the CI allows you to hear what the speech sounds the bird is trying to make and comprehend them. It was an…unusual experience in terms of listening practice. And technically, she wasn’t a good one to listen to, because Jenni says that Harley mumbles.

In the words of Harley: “ha-ha, ha-ha”

oh the voices on the radio Monday, June 25, 2007

(listening to walkie chatter)
Me: J, that sounds like S talking on the walkie.
J: It is.

I’m starting to recognize more voices at work. It’s scary, since vocal recognition is NOT and never has been a skill that I have. Yet, I’ve successfully learned to identify my TL’s voice, and now I’m picking up on learning other voices throughout the store. I wish I could understand what they are saying, not who is speaking. But first things first.

Good news, I found out we’re getting new walkies in August probably. And they come with 3.5mm headphone jacks, so I can use my own DirectConnect cable with the walkie. Or I could use my own FreedomLink. I’d have to get one that is monaural, because if I was walking around with a stereo headset, I think I’d make people mad because it would look like I’m listening to “music”.

Work and Music Listening Games Thursday, June 7, 2007

Wow, my blog is at 9,992 as of this posting. I wonder who the 10,000th visitor will be!

Back at work. it’s going supremely well. I absolutely love my job, and my “teammates” on my team. Communication is so much easier with the cochlear implant, especially around noisy equipment. And with the job I’m doing, it’s awesome being able to hear the beeps on the PDT (the hand-held scanner that I use for my job), because the different beeps tell me a message from the computer. I love being able to hear it, as it makes my job so much easier. I remember struggling to hear it with the hearing aid, especially in a noisy environment. And with the Spanish-speaking customers who speak English as a second language, it definitely helps in catching those little speech sounds that sound slightly different.

Today, while eating lunch with Jenni and Matt, I thought I heard music playing, but wasn’t sure if it was my hearing aid being weird. I couldn’t hear it with the cochlear implant (either that, or it was focused on other noises, I can’t remember). Finally, after hearing it several times, I asked Jenni if she could hear music, because I wasn’t sure if my hearing aid was freaking out. Turns out somebody’s cell phone was going off in their locker. We heard it at least 4 times in 15 minutes…annoying.

Lastly, if you’re on facebook, there’s a ilike music challenge. It also exists on ilike.com for those of you who aren’t on facebook (but you should be!).

What’s super-awesome about this is that it plays a 35-second clip of music, and asks you either what artist plays that song, or what song it is by that artist. You have to pick from the list, and you get more points the faster you answer.

Right now I’m at the level of Music Genius with 5,505 points, with 580/1,584 (36.6%) with an average response time of 3.9 seconds. Earlier, I was at 40%.

There’s no better feeling for me, than to recognize a song or an artist, and clicking on it right away. I also like how it gives you the choices between 4 similar sounding bands (i.e. Louis XIV, Hot Hot Heat, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy or for another category, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who). I also practice deductive listening by listening for female vs. male voices, or other characteristics that I know of in different bands that I listen to. What’s funny to me is that I’m getting the spanish ones right, that I’ve never heard before.

It’s been great listening practice, and a lot of fun! I’ve also discovered a bunch of potential new artists to listen to, so I made a trip to the library and got a stack of CDs, and have a list of artists that I want to listen to.

Get Your Hands Up! Wednesday, April 25, 2007

I’m in the PPL lab working on my website for my web design class, rockin’ out to my iPOD as I’m coding away. I’ve been on a hunt for new music to listen to, since I’ve been getting bored with music lately, as there isn’t THAT sound that’s catching me.

So I picked Fergie’s “The Dutchess” album, since I haven’t listened to it yet, other than “Fergalicious” and “London Bridge”.  I have no idea what tracks are on this album, so I’m not even paying attention to it.

“get your hands up (x8)”

It caught my attention that I could understand the words faintly in the background, at the beginning of the song.  I picked up my iPOD to find out what song it was, and it was “Get Your Hands Up”, which I haven’t heard before.

It’s not even listed in the lyrics online, as it’s “background” lyrics, but I understood it clearly, and on my first time listening to this song, without even paying attention to it.

To fellow students at school (and to people online), I’m more than willing to sit and talk with you or answer any questions you may have about the cochlear implant. I really appreciate those of you who come and ask me questions about it, and I hope I can help you in any way!

I promise, I don’t bite. 🙂

Every Breath You Take Friday, April 20, 2007

At this very minute, I’m riding along in the car on my way to Buffalo, music blasting my eardrums out. In the midst of the din, the words stick out.

“Is this ‘Every Breath You Take’?” I ask.

“Yes it is,” says Lauren.

However, we’re having an argument over who sings this song.

It sounds like the version I have, and if it is, it’s the one with Christina Aguilera in it.

We’ll find out when we arrive and I can dig my iPOD out of the trunk.

I am super-excited, because I can’t hear the music very well due to the loudness/distortion of it, yet the thing that stood out the clearest was the words, which helped me to identify the song.

That itself is amazing!

Now let’s see what sounds Canada and Niagara Falls brings!

Musical Playgrounds! Sunday, January 21, 2007

This was one of the coldest weekends ever where I had to do photo shoots outside. Brr.

In my travels today, I found a yet-to-be completed playground. I ran across it last year when I was out doing photo shoots. Back then it was just a pile of dirt and construction materials, and I’m amazed at the transformation it took, since I didn’t expect it to be a playground.

This was a playground of sounds. They had this spinning metal ornament on top of the tower, that was wind-generated. The harder the wind blew, the faster the “footsteps” were. It sounded like a helicopter mixed in with a plane, but I couldn’t separate the planes flying overhead from it at first. First things first, my photo assignment before I could play.

When we came back about an hour and a half later, we stopped at the gigantic cymbal that we walked through on our way out earlier. The pathway runs through the middle of it, and it’s about 6 feet high. I hit it with my tripod, and it caused a tremendous reverberation. Unfortunately, poor Ed was right in between the two, and I was on the outside. He came out, a bit shaken. I’m sorry!

Then there were these poles built into the ground, and you could stand at one, and talk to the other like telephones…cans and a string. I had a conversation with Ed through the system, from about 30 feet away. It was loud and clear, a bit tinny though.

He also found these gigantic xylophone pipes built into the concrete walls, but we couldn’t really hear anything or figure out how to make it work. It may not be done yet.

Then I wanted to climb up the steep climbing “logs” to get to the top of platform where the slides were. Bad idea. It was icy and covered with three inches of snow, so I slid down 1/3 of the way up. Ed tried it, and was able to get to the top using the railings on the wall next to it to pull himself up. Then I came right behind him, and made it.

The next surprise was at the top. It was a rotating pole, but it had two protuding tubes, sticking about 8 feet up in the air, ending in a bowl-like shape, like a stretched out trumpet. You put your eyes to the viewer in front of you, sticking your head in between the two pipes, and you could rotate the platform to see the world like a bug does, plus hear sounds from a distance away. I couldn’t hear anything, and the visuals were just so distorted by the spray-paint some punk left on the viewfinder.

At that point, Ed was ready to leave due to the cold, so he climbed back down the wall, while I decided to take the slide (I’m such a kid at heart). It was the BEST playground slide I have ever been on in my life, and there are plenty that I’ve been on (I just can’t resist).

I was screaming through the whole slide, as I shot through it. I was launched from the end, flew across the snow and ended up getting snow up my jacket and down my pants. I was so surprised by it that I just laid there on the snow, laughing as my jeans got wetter and colder from the snow. Ed was wondering what the heck was going on, because he heard me as he was climbing down, and I was screaming, and all he saw was me shooting out across the snow.

It was so much fun that I scampered up to the top, like a mountain goat, and launched myself down the slide again, shooting right across the snow. I should have gotten a video…next time!

Tiger Hockey Friday, January 19, 2007

Oooh, Tiger Hockey tonight with Jen G. We picked ringside seats, first row, right next to the home team.

Sounds I Discovered
– the “thuck” of the body pads of the hockey players, when crashing into each other.
– the skrrriiiiiiiiiich of the skates across the ice, as the players did side stops (aka Snow Showers, thank you to Patrick of the Corner crew).
– the “tink” of the puck hitting the ice after the ref dropped it during a face off (or maybe it’s the sticks hitting each other, either way, it’s high-pitched).
– the following words in announcements: “and his wife Carolie”, “Tigers”.

We lost 4-3 but it was a good game that went into sudden death overtime. There’s another one tomorrow night, but I have a field trip/photo shoot all day.

Video Games And The CI Saturday, January 13, 2007

As a gamer chick (severely reformed from the marathons of my youth), who never really paid attention to the music and sound effects in the game, my perception has been blown away in the last few days.

I’ve just started playing The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess (gamecube version), that I got from Tim and Janet for Christmas (many thanks!) and I have been blown away by my discoveries.

I can hear the richness and detail in the footsteps of my character, Link. I can hear the sounds from his travels: rustles, whispers, creaks and groans that the world offers me. I could hear the differences in his footsteps, whether they were normal, or fast. I could hear the ticking of the bomb. I could hear the whizz of the sword as it sliced through the air. The sword makes so many different sounds, depending on what kind of motion you make. I can hear enemies creeping up behind me, and turn around to kill them. I hear the animal noises from the animals both in the village and the forest.

It feels like I’m actually there in the world, that I am Link, and hearing it for myself.

I play with both the cochlear implant and the hearing aid, and I can tell the differences in where the sound is being picked up, the quality of it, and the duration of the sound.

People talk about surround sound and high definition sound and the full theater experience. That’s what I felt like I was getting with the CI, even though I just have a regular TV from the mid-90s, nothing fancy.

I’ve played Zelda for the Nintendo NES, Game Boy, Super Nintendo (my favorite), and Gamecube, and this one just blew me away. Maybe it’s just the game that has this extraordinarly rich sound, but the fact remains that what I could hear was different in both ears.

Now I want to go back and play the other games and see if I get the same results with the sound effects.

I felt tears welling up, because it was so beautiful. Sound really does make the whole experience, whether it is a movie, tv show, music, or even a video game.