the following was posted in a livejournal by a friend of mine named Mauvis, who I never really talk to, but was/is a fan of my comic. It's people like him that give me faith in everything else. People say don't sweat the small stuff, but it is the small things that make life worth living.

yesterday I went to my photo 1 labs for the first time and it was kind of funny. We have an interpreter that comes with us because we have about 9 hearing-impaired students in our class of 30. So here we all are, in this medium sized darkroom with all 30 of us and the lights go out (we are developing our rolls.) Just imagine what its like for the deaf students. They have just lost half their most important senses. They can't see or hear. So there's almost no way to communicate with them. We are supposed to be taking our rolls of film apart and winding them on the developing rolls but there's no way for the deaf students to know its their turn except by gently pushing them in the direction of the teacher. Me and this one deaf kid accidentally shot using TMAX instead of TRI-X so we had to sit out but they made us stay in the darkroom anyways. I think after 15 or 20 minutes he started freaking out and asking for someone to turn on the light. He was crouched down in a corner next to me. I don't think anyone heard him but he wouldn't have been able to hear any responses anyway. The lights couldn't be turned on until everyone was done with their film or they would be exposed when the lights turn on. I was bored and saw this faint glow coming from a temperature indicator thing so I started waving it around in front of him. He laughed and took it so I got another one and we started copying each other's motions and doing other silly stuff. This made him laugh profusely and I laughed too. After about 10 more minutes the lights were turned on and the next process of developing was started. I finally got to leave cause I'm switching to photo II but i'll miss those deaf kids. They're really something else.