We all know that one person who struggles with their hearing. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you think of someone who is dissatisfied with the way they are hearing, an Audiologist can change that. It doesn’t matter where the hearing aids were purchased or if hearing was evaluated at another clinic.

Making the investment in better hearing is a big leap with a great deal of trust placed on the provider. Sometimes we make wrong decisions and that’s when it’s time to pivot and turn. Never accept inadequate resolution or disappointment. Make arrangements for a second opinion to set up for a good experience.

Not all hearing aids can be adjusted in every clinic. If that is the case, it is still possible to show what needs to be changed to develop a better outcome. This may require that the original provider be involved. Don’t be surprised if a repeat hearing exam is also needed.

We are all unique. An individual’s ability to hear and understand can heighten or limit results. There are instances where a hearing aid is not enough. Assistive technology or accessories added to the hearing aids can often make communication easier and sometimes these add ons are exactly what is needed.

We all have different lifestyles and abilities which makes it critical that expectations are realistic. An Audiologist should set you up for success, even if it’s taking baby steps. Turning on hearing aids is not the same as flipping on a light switch. Adjusting to hearing aids is a complicated process. We hear with our brain, and retraining takes both time and patience.

If you or someone you know has made the investment in better hearing, and are less than satisfied, seek out another provider. There are Audiologists that would love to meet you.

You are a dude on some planet killing endless hordes of mutants. If you need to know more than that then you an’t gonna like this game. Savage Studios’ S.C.A.R (Which stands for Simulating Carnage And Rockets) is an action shooter where you basically just kill tons and tons of mutants. There is no backstory or objective given. Just kill or be killed!

All that is clear about S.C.A.R is that you are not on earth and the inhabitants absolutely do not like you! There are different levels that need to be completed in a certain order. Once one level is beat the next one is unlocked and the main hub. There are several different weapons you can find and pick up during the game, and also health and armor power ups. Different guns have different special features too like homing and rapid fire. You also have a nifty grapple hook that will help you get the higher places. You don’t really love lamp or anything, but you do have a double jump ability and if you hold the shift button you could dirt ahead quickly which helps you get away from enemies and also can be used up to three times to go a long distance especially over a cliff.

One thing you need to know about S.C.A.R Is that it is INSANELY DIFFICULT! Seriously unless you’re a hard-core pro it’s shooters you’re not gonna get very far without dying a ton of times. Basically the point of the game is to survive as long as you can, then brag to your friends about how far you got this play through. The save feature is your friend here!

I realized quickly into S.C.A.R that there is no point trying to kill all the mutants because they just respawn forever. What you have to do is kill a certain amount and the door to the next area will open. So basically running is also your friend here! There are a ton of health pick ups around but honestly it only delays the enevitable. When you die the game likes to make fun of you as well, I was called a useless slug and some other choice things for losing miserably. But at least the game provides an awesome heavy metal track to listen to while your being massacred!

S.C.A.R Is hard as hell, unforgiving, and downright hectic! At least If you get a cool grappling hook! I give it 3 1/2 baby dragons.

If I haven’t scared you off yet and you still want this crazy complication of carnage and chaos (hows that for alliteration?) then you can buy S.C.A.R on Steam for only $4.99! Go ahead, challenge yourself and your patience! It’s your funeral 🙂

Black Restaurant Week LLC, the organization responsible for celebrating the flavors of African American, African and Caribbean cuisine with a series of regional cultural events, celebrates five years of service. The mission: feed and fuel the cultural famine – especially with an emphasis on reviving and saving the black restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic – and educate consumers on the abundance of cultural cuisines and dispel ethnic untruths.

Midwest Black Restaurant Week will include Chicago in its nationwide tour and the palate-pleasing showcase begins on Friday, July 24 until Sunday, August 2.

Participating restaurants include:

Truth Italian – Bronzeville
Taste 222 – Fulton River District
Haires Gulf Shrimp
Taylor’s Tacos
Brown’s Soulfood Restaurant
FruVe xPress Juicery
LaDeeDa
Dock’s

In 1989 Guayaquil, Ecuador telephones were always problematic. During the rainy season they were so problematic that they would just stop working for weeks at a time. You got used to it. No, really, you got used to it. At least, I did. And it did prepare me for a handful of years later in 1995 Mexico City when landline telephones were a problem there too. 

Once while visiting Gringolandia (the USA), I tried to call home in Mexico City. Unable to reach anyone, not even the always-on answering machine, my Sherlockian instincts surmised that something was afoot. Enlisting the help of an American telephone operator, she enlisted the help of her counterpart in Mexico City, who still couldn’t get through. Apologetically  the Mexican operator gave me the verbal equivalent of the Latin American “what can you do” shrug, saying, “there’s always a problem during the rainy season.”

No kidding. In my six years living in Mexico City I noticed that in Third World countries landline telephones went out during the rainy season. So since the rainy season in Mexico City could last for up to 6 months, this was an ongoing, ‘pebble in your shoe’ problem. 

As for paying the landline telephone bill, that was just as convolutely problematic. First, the bill for the landline service was due the month before the service. The mercurial rules about how and where to pay the bill changed constantly, resulting in our home landline frequently being cut off. Or out of service, with the reason why on full view at the street corner, where spaghetti-like strands of telephone wires flapped outside of the telephone junction box in the wind and rain.

But be careful America, what you call the Third World. For whether it was in the City of Chicago, or smalltown Western MA, many a customer’s sub-strata internet infrastructure goes “down” during the rainy season here too. 

And given the current fiasco of American politics, isn’t this a Third World Banana Republic too?  

***

On a dark and rainy-season Mexico City night, I tried to call my friend who lived in a brand-new apartment building a five-minute drive up the hill. I dialed, then dialed again, ten times to no avail. Mysteriously the line connected me to two strangers’ homes. Amusingly it repeatedly connected me to an automated message in Spanish. “Dear Client, the number you have dialed is no long (a) in service, (b) available, or (c) or both.” I gave up. 

The following morning on the very first try I reached my friend. So startled to hear her voice,  I completely forgot why I needed to speak to her.

***

When our daughter lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina landlines were even worse. A new telephone line was impossible to get for love or money. Throughout the city, stripped and peeled landline wires danced in the breeze, like fraying Christmas decorations hung by long dead Eva Peron. 

So when you had possession of a land line and moved, you literally took your landline with you by stringing the wires from the old place to the new place. If you didn’t do this you didn’t have a telephone access period. 

No wonder the few apartments for rent with a landline were easier to rent no matter what the condition.

***

For some expatriates, life without a landline telephone was better. When Ingrid lived in the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s, she didn’t have and couldn’t get a telephone. As she said, “Actually it was rather wonderful. No nasty ringing at the wrong time of day or night.”

As for other shortages of toilet paper, something Americans have recently endured? If she saw a line she said you just got in the line, you never knew if it might not be something you needed at the end of the line. She also learned to take a brown bag lunch whenever she went to the bank, given doing anything at a bank could take all day. It was also a great way to make friends.  

***

After living most of the 1980s abroad, we moved back to Gringolandia to live. Talk about your culture shock. No one haggled, except the seller of the house we bought. Prices in stores were the price. 

Stumbling over the town’s library, my husband and I ran inside. I wanted to get a library card–for all those books in English that I’d missed over the past 8 years abroad–my husband wanted to use the pay phones to get the services turned on in our new home. 

In the time it took for me to get a library card my husband had gotten the electrics and telephone service set up. What a delightful difference!! And we didn’t have to “tip” anyone to do it!