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ASL Word of the Day, Hope. As I was hoping in a previous post, Memofix retrieved most of the data lost on my broken hard drive. I now have access to the PowerPoint Presentation file I used to make my dictionary with the past seven years of cartoon ASL illustrations. As promised, I now post the alternative hand sign for HOPE in celebration. Almost losing my original work was both a frightening and expensive lesson in data storage.
The Memofix Data Recovery Service has completed its work on my broken hard drive which suffered from media head damage, excessive read errors, system area corruption, and file system damage. The fixed hard drive is now in transit on its way to me. I’m hoping it arrives in one piece, so I can make multiple duplicates of the data to ensure this crisis never happens again. I’ve posted below the first ASL hand sign I learned for Hope. The hard drive en route contains another ASL hand sign for Hope which I can now post later.
I’m working on new art for my dictionary’s Facebook cover to help point out the ‘Canadian dialect’ I put inside my ASL Dictionary. Below is the first draft. The cute chap holding the dictionary in his hand is doing the ASL Hand sign for Search/Look for. Behind him in muted colours are the signs for Canada, Province, Ontario, Toronto, and Dollar (the Canadian ASL version). When my hard drive is repaired I hope I’ll be able to add more signs specific to the Canada area.
The next hand sign on my list was Makeup. Unfortunately, each dictionary and video posting I went to showed a different version. I’m grateful that fingerspelling is always an option.
Drawing the ASL hand sign for Bridge was tricky. Each resource I went to would show a different position for the opposite arm and its hand. I finally went with my teacher’s instruction, and instead of drawing a fist, I placed the hand flat with the palm down. For the cartoon illustration, I looked for a character with an infamous moment on a bridge. I chose Clarence, the helpful angel from It’s a Wonderful Life who stopped George Bailey from his planned suicide attempt by jumping off the bridge first so George could rescue him, saving them both. Covering him in the snow of his first appearance, I also gave Clarence a ringing bell as a lapel to give him his wings.
The other ASL hand sign for Everything, refers to all that pertains to a specific subject. Ex. My new phone has everything on it. Keeping with the original inspiration for everything I drew a cartoon of the most flamboyantly dressed singer of The Village People, the Indian American. My dictionary has cartoon illustrations of Native Americans in the signs for Aboriginal, Medicine Hat, and Halifax. I based the details in their outfits on photographs of traditional garb, so I wanted the new cartoon to have a stronger connection to the band than the native culture. I followed the details of his simple costume, choosing the outfit’s brighter colors, and attached the YMCA text to the feathers of his headdress.
While working on drawing the ASL image for Each, I ran into problems illustrating the knuckles brushing down against the opposite hand. To get a better visual of the movement of the dominant hand, I put down my drawing pad and signed Each in front of the mirror. Unfortunately, what I should have done is also put down my pencil. As my right knuckles quickly brushed downward, they drove the tip of the mechanical pencil down into the heel of my left hand!
I screamed in pain as I dropped the pencil and looked down at possibly the only American Sign Language Injury in existence. Luckily the cut wasn’t as deep as it felt, but it still took a few weeks to heal. While it should be obvious to never sign with your hands full, I was an artist focused on my work and had to learn this painful lesson firsthand.
To better illustrate the story, I took the ASL cartoon hand sign for Each from the dictionary, adding the mechanical pencil and shocked facial expression. Needless to say, even now, signing the word Each still makes my hands nervous. True Story.
This year Hands On Travel placed a Facebook posting by local travel guide Alexis, who showed the proper way to sign France (the same sign for both American Sign Language and Langue des signes français). Sign language has always been more than just text. Each word visually illustrates a story. Knowing the history makes it easier to understand and harder to forget. When I went to add this information to my notes, I noticed a small error in my ASL cartoon for France with the dominant hand positioned a little too close to the face. I updated the 2013 picture and placed it beside the hints I got from Alexis’ lesson, including the tradition of the French handkerchief.
Back in 2013, as a class assignment, we had to tell part of a children’s story using ASL. I took from the story I wrote back in high school, My Grandma Has a New Boyfriend. My teacher, Charles McKelvey, was even nice enough to translate the rest of the story for me into American Sign Language. I thought my dictionary had covered all the words inside the story, but I seemed to have missed the sign for Pie. Taking the Grandmother character from my book (with a SUPERGRAN tattoo on her arm), I illustrated the double slice motion for this pasty dish.
With schools reopening again, I planned to return to the U of G’s Sign Club to refresh my American Sign Language. Sadly COVID-19 Guidelines have limited club participation to University of Guelph students, staff, and faculty. I can’t go. The best way to learn is still with a teacher, so with the University option cut off, I dipped into my savings and enrolled back in College. This coming January, I’ll be returning to Conestoga College’s ASL101, the course I failed in 2007. As a morning person, I am nervous about starting a nighttime online synchronous course, my first online course ever, but I have decided to continue my education and succeed where I once lost. I’m going back to school!
