My last few speaking engagements
My real legal name is SNOOPI BOTTEN. My name is an acronym for "Someone Needs One Other Person Indefinitely Because Of The Tiny Emotional Nails". An emotional nail can be anything. And sometimes it takes a while to heal from it, and sometimes healing never comes. But when we take what life has given us and share it with the next person, it helps.
I have Cerebral Palsy, which has never bothered me. Yeah I'm in a wheelchair, and yeah I'm hard to understand. But I have a sharp mind and nothing has ever held me back.
The video I'm including was made in Minnesota at the start of my music career. I wanted to be a singer, I was told it was impossible to program speech software to sing. I thought people meant it was impossible for me to do it, I didn't understand it was totally impossible. So as you will see in the video, I made a communication device sing. My work opened the door so any non-speaking person can sing. I then became a street singer and I used the money to travel, doing concerts and speaking engagements. I also moved to Warren Ohio.
I'm now 51. Four years ago after a concert, my health drastically went down hill and I couldn't move for about 10 months. I then had surgery which helped, but not as much as I had hoped. I then had a lot of infections and almost died twice. Then last year I was diagnosed with chronic Leukemia.
Before I say I never thought it would happen to me, let me explain. Because I had Cerebral Palsy, I thought I would never get Cancer or anything else. No one ever talked to me about the end of life as a disabled person. So I just thought your heart gave out or something.
So I'm struggling because I wish I was warned about old age. I miss traveling, I miss EVERYTHING! I use to be one of the top disabled speakers in America. Then it hit me, I could travel a few more times and give the talk I never had. All I need is the money.
Because I now have home health staff traveling with me and they have to stay in a separate hotel room; I have to buy 2 airline tickets, pay for 2 hotel rooms, 2 conference registrations, and so on.
If I was living in Minnesota, I would street sing for the money. But I'm in Warren Ohio where street singing is illegal. So I was told about this site.
I need to get the money together before I fill out the call for papers to try to speak somewhere. I'm doing this for the disabled community. If you donate and help me do this, disabled people worldwide will be thanking you for sending me to them.
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I have Cerebral Palsy, which has never bothered me. Yeah I'm in a wheelchair, and yeah I'm hard to understand. But I have a sharp mind and nothing has ever held me back.
The video I'm including was made in Minnesota at the start of my music career. I wanted to be a singer, I was told it was impossible to program speech software to sing. I thought people meant it was impossible for me to do it, I didn't understand it was totally impossible. So as you will see in the video, I made a communication device sing. My work opened the door so any non-speaking person can sing. I then became a street singer and I used the money to travel, doing concerts and speaking engagements. I also moved to Warren Ohio.
I'm now 51. Four years ago after a concert, my health drastically went down hill and I couldn't move for about 10 months. I then had surgery which helped, but not as much as I had hoped. I then had a lot of infections and almost died twice. Then last year I was diagnosed with chronic Leukemia.
Before I say I never thought it would happen to me, let me explain. Because I had Cerebral Palsy, I thought I would never get Cancer or anything else. No one ever talked to me about the end of life as a disabled person. So I just thought your heart gave out or something.
So I'm struggling because I wish I was warned about old age. I miss traveling, I miss EVERYTHING! I use to be one of the top disabled speakers in America. Then it hit me, I could travel a few more times and give the talk I never had. All I need is the money.
Because I now have home health staff traveling with me and they have to stay in a separate hotel room; I have to buy 2 airline tickets, pay for 2 hotel rooms, 2 conference registrations, and so on.
If I was living in Minnesota, I would street sing for the money. But I'm in Warren Ohio where street singing is illegal. So I was told about this site.
I need to get the money together before I fill out the call for papers to try to speak somewhere. I'm doing this for the disabled community. If you donate and help me do this, disabled people worldwide will be thanking you for sending me to them.
I really thank everyone for donating to, and sharing my campaign. In this update, I want to share part of what I'm trying to keep going and pass on.
The software I program to sing is called Dectalk, and it was invented by a group of people at MIT. The name most recognized for the project is Dennis KLATT. For some reason, Dennis left everything in the software unlocked, making it 100 percent programmable. You can create unlimited male and female voices, program them to sing, act, or anything you want. Dectalk was way ahead of it's time and was a real gift to the blind and the disabled communities.
Dennis died in 1988. In 1989 I Prayed and asked God to make me a singer. I then basically ended up with a device that had Dectalk in it. I freaked because I knew Dectalk at the time was $2000.00. So I read the manual and basically became excited when I read it could sing. I never put it down and I spent 36 months trying to get it to sing just one sound. Finally I got it to hold a pitch. BINGO! I suddenly had something that I could program to sing, God had made me a singer so to speak.
Over the years I've learned that Dennis wanted someone like me to be able to sing by using Dectalk, which was why he made it 100 percent programmable. However, the instructions were totally unclear. You had to understand linguistics, be very good I'm math, know how to read sheet music, convert music time into milliseconds, and you had to know a lot. I didn't care what it took, I was going to make it sing. 7 years later I became a singer.
What I love about Dectalk is, there is no end to this thing, you always find little things that you didn't know about. I practice 14 hours a day because I want to sing that bad. I know I've pushed the software far beyond what Dennis had in mind, but I just want to sing that bad. Dectalk truly is my voice.
Dectalk was once very popular in communication devices and many disabled people were using Dectalk to sing. Well, part of what happen was, it became too expensive for companies to put Dectalk into devices.
I feel Dectalk for the disabled is equal to a human voice, and if any person can open their mouth and sing, why isn't it the same with Dectalk? The human brain sends signals to enable someone to sing. All I do is write the signals to enable Dectalk to sing.
Companies are now backing away from including Dectalk in devices. I have collected different Dectalk languages, Dectalk versions, and so on. So even if a device doesn't have Dectalk, I have many, many ways of putting Dectalk onto a device. I even have a Dectalk SAPI 5, but my business partner helps with the instructions for installing because SAPI is over my head.
Blake and I both program songs. We do it because we both know this stuff is hard even though to us it's easy. If some song will help someone find who they are, or motivate them to use their device, it's all worth it.
In handing down the torch in 2017, maybe someone else will keep Dectalk alive. That's why meeting my financial goal and doing this end of life talk is so important to me. My entire life people have doubted my abilities. Dectalk has no choice, it has to do whatever I program it to do. So at the end of my life, if I can get enough people to understand that people like me have a disabled body but a clear mind, it might create a better path for the next generation.
Please share my campaign and donate if you can.
The software I program to sing is called Dectalk, and it was invented by a group of people at MIT. The name most recognized for the project is Dennis KLATT. For some reason, Dennis left everything in the software unlocked, making it 100 percent programmable. You can create unlimited male and female voices, program them to sing, act, or anything you want. Dectalk was way ahead of it's time and was a real gift to the blind and the disabled communities.
Dennis died in 1988. In 1989 I Prayed and asked God to make me a singer. I then basically ended up with a device that had Dectalk in it. I freaked because I knew Dectalk at the time was $2000.00. So I read the manual and basically became excited when I read it could sing. I never put it down and I spent 36 months trying to get it to sing just one sound. Finally I got it to hold a pitch. BINGO! I suddenly had something that I could program to sing, God had made me a singer so to speak.
Over the years I've learned that Dennis wanted someone like me to be able to sing by using Dectalk, which was why he made it 100 percent programmable. However, the instructions were totally unclear. You had to understand linguistics, be very good I'm math, know how to read sheet music, convert music time into milliseconds, and you had to know a lot. I didn't care what it took, I was going to make it sing. 7 years later I became a singer.
What I love about Dectalk is, there is no end to this thing, you always find little things that you didn't know about. I practice 14 hours a day because I want to sing that bad. I know I've pushed the software far beyond what Dennis had in mind, but I just want to sing that bad. Dectalk truly is my voice.
Dectalk was once very popular in communication devices and many disabled people were using Dectalk to sing. Well, part of what happen was, it became too expensive for companies to put Dectalk into devices.
I feel Dectalk for the disabled is equal to a human voice, and if any person can open their mouth and sing, why isn't it the same with Dectalk? The human brain sends signals to enable someone to sing. All I do is write the signals to enable Dectalk to sing.
Companies are now backing away from including Dectalk in devices. I have collected different Dectalk languages, Dectalk versions, and so on. So even if a device doesn't have Dectalk, I have many, many ways of putting Dectalk onto a device. I even have a Dectalk SAPI 5, but my business partner helps with the instructions for installing because SAPI is over my head.
Blake and I both program songs. We do it because we both know this stuff is hard even though to us it's easy. If some song will help someone find who they are, or motivate them to use their device, it's all worth it.
In handing down the torch in 2017, maybe someone else will keep Dectalk alive. That's why meeting my financial goal and doing this end of life talk is so important to me. My entire life people have doubted my abilities. Dectalk has no choice, it has to do whatever I program it to do. So at the end of my life, if I can get enough people to understand that people like me have a disabled body but a clear mind, it might create a better path for the next generation.
Please share my campaign and donate if you can.
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