urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire The Journal of Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire 2010-02-19T22:40:09Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire:205392 2010-02-19T16:31:53Z 2010-02-19T22:40:09Z Jonathan Coulton, "Chiron Beta Prime." Yesterday, I was demonstrating to a friend of mine (who finds my fascination with ASL charming, if odd) that I can now sign "Behold! For now I wear the human pants!" My grammar is a little wonky, but I'll be seeing Judi in a few weeks, so right now I'm just working on getting the signs committed to muscle memory.<br /><br />A Deaf gentleman about my age saw me signing, and got very excited. He came over, and signed, "You know ASL?" (In the case of signs that I don't know myself, but whose meaning was evident from context, I'm including them to form actual sentences.)<br /><br />I signed back "A little." Emphasis on "little."<br /><br />He asked what I knew...so I showed him. Around the time I hit "working in a mine for our robot overlords" and "did I say overlords? I meant protectors," he started to look, well, dubious. Like there was a chance I <i>thought</i> I knew some ASL, when really, someone was messing with me.<br /><br />Then I signed "The Turtle can't help you."<br /><br />His eyes widened, and he proceeded to finger-spell "<i>IT</i>?" I nodded. He made an "S" sign, followed by a gesture like putting on a crown. I nodded again. He got even <i>more</i> excited, especially since now he knew I actually understood my messed-up assortment of signs. He had me teach him "robot overlords," and he taught me the sign for "weird."<br /><br />ASL and Stephen King: bringing the world closer together. The best part is that, for once in my life, I can legitimately say that the Turtle <i>did</i> help us.