beach

I meant to just go out and get something for lunch today but then I decided I'd just drive to the end of the street to see where it led. I ended up at the beach so I felt compeled to drive along the coast for a while to absorb the rays.

Buffalo Bros Guitars

www.buffalobrosguitars.com

(Apparently a former grocery story building...
with a giant chicken on top!)

weather report

the subject of the daily weather report for Eugene in my inbox: "Another Bone Numbing Night..."

damn, too bad I'm gonna miss it. 

shouldn't winter be over by now?

sleepy

I keep waking up at 8 cause it's light out, but i'm still going to bed at 1, 2, 3. time for bed.

watch this...

Click here

warm warm warm

and great scenery

swimming anyone?

sunny sunny sunny

and beautiful. love the warm weather.

Border

Oregon thanks you.
Please come back soon.

Trunk space

Is not one of the features of a lotus!
Oh well, I wouldn't take another car over it.
And away we go...

quick getaway

Step 1: Throw random stuff you might want in bags...

Step 2: Dress for the coming weather (not the current 45 degrees)

Step 3: Drive... (yeah, blue sky!)

beacon

Nice view of the sunset from Beacon. There were bright orange and pink and dull purple clouds surrounding the sun. The sun was a massive half circle of orange fire. Somehow with all the shapres and colors the clouds seemed like they were worshiping the sun. 

typing

I like typing cause it's words coming out through my fingers.

more on faces

I like watching peoples faces when they're so suprised (or something else) by something that they can't talk.  It's really facinating to me becasue it's like you can read so much on their face even though they're not actually saying anything with words.

jumping rope

is relaxing to me

if you're a developer...

I think this phrase is only funny if you're a developer:

"attempting to checkout with out creating an account"

Paul said it while we were discussing a website. I heard it and repeated it back to him and for some reason we both started cracking up.

A little later I was trying to figure out what was funny about it so I told ben, and he kinda laughed as well.

I think it may be twofold. One, if you think you're checking out without creating an account you're only kidding yourself. You have to create an account. If you choose not to, you still are, you just can't ever access it again. (Great choice). Two, I think "attempting" made it sound like they could try but they wouldn't be able to, like it was some cruel joke on them that sent them into and endless loop of pages. (kind of what was happening since some of the code needed to be adjusted).

sound

Yeah! I fixed the sound on my laptop. That needed to be done for a while.

life is freaking exciting

(among other things)

making faces

We had to practice making faces while we were signing very small sentances in class tonight. Making faces is really funny to me. Not making them myself but watching other people. I have to try really hard not to laugh a lot. Mainly cause it's all confusing. People are trying to coordinate their faces with their hands and everything else and it just turns out to be so so funny. I litterally have to try not to replay these things in my head or I'll start cracking up when they've moved on to something else. At which point it's just embarassing cause it looks like I'm loosing it. (Which I very well may be.)

look what i found

Looks like the flowers in the front bed are making a comeback.

at least the sky is blue

why am i awake right now?

unpleastant dreams

Learning by Surprise

This is why I need to learn a foreign language in a foreign country:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=learning-by-surprise

landline phone

The only time I've ever had a landline phone is was when it came with internet access. First in my trailer with a 33k modem (that's a frightening thought). And then later with DSL. I never really used the landlines when I had them.

I thought of this because I was talking to Leah tonight. We were employing multiple modes of communication: phone then skype - chat and voice, plus some emoticon wars ;-) Part of the time we were just listening to each other type to one another. It's kind of like talking is one type of conversation and writing is another. 

At some point it came up that we started talking on the phone around 2002-2003. Which in retrospect is kind of interesting since we met in 1994. So we knew each other for 8 years before we started talking on the phone. 

We trained together for a year and a half but didn't really talk. We only started talking the last day before she left for school. Then we wrote a few letters and started emailing. Ok, I did most of the emailing. But then she does most of the calling, so I think we're even. 

So now we've been talking on the phone for the last 6 or 7 years with varying degrees of frequency (or lack thereof). But as for face to face time in the last 12 years, I'm not even sure if it would even add up to a month worth of days.

Tonight we made fun plans for the future. Last wednesday we shared our day over txt and voicemail. It's interesting to share your experiences with people who knew you back when. New people just don't quite get it.

trying new things

The good thing about trying something new is that you get to see all kinds of things that are out there. It expands you world and gives you a different perspective on everything, even things that haven't changed, because you have changed.

thirty something

when is winter over around here? I got off the plane last night and it was thirty something (degrees). and I had to scrape ice off the windshield and wait for the beast (my pet name for the bronco) to thaw before I could drive off. all the while sitting there in the cold. not that welcoming. kinda made me want to get on a plane back to cali.

yeah for sleeping in

and sleeping in my own bed. 

and trying new things.

technology

The iphone handily helped me find my way back to the rental car retun. I was able to take some surface streets after a missed turn (or two?), which helped since finding your way back to the freeway and then sitting on it isn't that fun in cali.  All the while it (the phone) kept me company with my favorite tunes ;-)

Everything worked out and I was just in time for everything (my flight) so there was no waiting around.  It was nice to sit down on the plane with nothing to do after the long day. By then even driving seemed like it took too much concentration.

But overall it was a most excellent trip. 

California Highway 23

this road is so not as fun in a toyota "whatever this is" car. it's a 4 door yaris by the way and it's really not that bad of a car. except it's totally not a lotus and this road was made for a lotus.

relay race

today I had to get up at 7:30am, which is still like the middle of the night if you ask me. by the time I had my morning meetings and came back after lunch I was about to pass out in the conferance room. unfortuntatly there was still another 3 1/2 hours of meetings to go. It was like a relay race and I was the baton.

Gonzales Rd sunset view

Having a blast

Why is everyone sitting inside??? It's so nice out here with the sun warming my back as I eat my sandwich. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!

superhero

I'm like a superhero. I just went into my closet and changed into "business woman," lol.  I like my outfit.

Gross!

I forgot how bad So Cal tap water was ;-P

channel 4 news

Weird, the news people on TV here look so much older after 3 years.

SciAm MIND: Feb 09

I was reading this on the plane today:

http://www.sciam.com/sciammind/?contents=2009-02

Found these two articles very interesting:

• Placebo Effect: A Cure in the Mind
  
• How to Avoid Choking under Pressure
  

I also read Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking" which was pretty amusing. I like her "laugh at your problems" approach to life. 

flying sunset

I saw sunset from an airplane today.  There was a deep, wide, red semicircle sliding down under a layer of clouds. Pretty spectatular. 

*silent* Go Fish!

...except it isn't really silent when you're laughing hysterically.  I was trying not to but I was laughing so hard there were tears running down my face.  So was the person next to me. Totally fun.  

We had these cards that the teacher brought in that had different people drawn on them or shapes, colors & numbers. We had to desribe them by signing. I think it was the confusion and the faces people were making that made it so funny.  That class is awesome.

Evan wins his UFC fight in London!

TKO, Round 1, 2:13.  

Go Evan! (he trains at our gym) - UFC 95 - Results

You can download the fight for $1.99 on ufc.com.  You can see Ben in the background and hear him yelling at Evan too.  Fun ;-)

saw the stars on lorane

I saw the stars on Lorane Highway tonight.  So so bright.  Really beautiful out there.  Lots of sparkling ones. 

glowing embers

today at sunset the edges of the clouds glowed like the embers of a burning fire when you blow on them

warm warm warm

I went out without my coat on. This is exciting people! Love the sun.

quesadilla's inspired by brian

I made quesadilla's tonight. They were made with corn tortillas and habanero peppers (cheese of course) and salt on top.  I used the frying pan and not the microwave. Yum! 

I get excited now every time I use the stove.

You know what's really exciting? There's unlimited new stuff for us to find. Awesome.

Yeah for rolling!

I love jiu-jitsu.

Getting Creative

(which doesn't take much when you've pretty much never cooked anything before)

Oddly enough what brought this about was the idea that I had some spinich in the fridge I needed to use up before it wilted and got scummy. (That description may be a bit graphic. I just grossed myself out.)

migration

Today I was driving back home along NW Expressway and off to the left there were all these small little clouds bunched up together right over the mountains along the entire horizon.  The sky above that was cloud free and it looked like this highway of clouds, like a great cloud migration with all these little coulds swimming north.

it's cleaning day!

got up early, specifically so I could clean. it's going great. clean, clean, clean. exactly what I wanted.

speaking of cleaning. I got this email from susie today:

i didn't have enough space to load up all of my new program, and i moved all my videos to an external hard drive, then i was looking for programs to delete. and then . . . by chance? (the angels were yelling at me?)  . . . i emptied my trash.  and voila i had 57 extra gb! a good lesson for me. (i think i'll go clean out my closet now.)

For some reason I empty my trash all the time (at least on the computer, lol). Daily I'm sure. Somtimes more than once.

it's february

Yeah, I'm sure everyone's aware of this already, but it's february. I somehow didn't realize it till I was booking my flight. Somehow it was still January in my mind.

warmer

It was a little warmer today. Whenever it gets over 50 here I can feel a change. I no longer want to suck my hands into the sleeves of my jacket. And I can roll the window down while driving and not get cold. It's so nice. Makes me excited for the summer. It's gonna be so awesome to go driving with the top off again. Feeling the wind in what little hair I have is an interesting sensation.

Today was the first time I've been asked by a gas station attendant to see the engine (of the Lotus of course).

I really want to test drive one of the SC's, just to see what they're like. Maybe that's a bad idea though. We all know what happened when I test drove a Lotus last time ;-)

Although I will be in Cali at the end of the month so if the T.O. dealer has one I'm all over it.

I think I've spent enough this month on brakes/service to deter me from trying to get a new one.

new new new

Ok, check it out: https://www.nineplanetsdesign.com/

The new site is live. All CSS (no tables), except for the forms which I'll do later. It's 2:59 am and I should probably go to bed now.

Same basic design but: wider, new background, updated colors. Move of an overhaul of the code than the design but I think if you compare to the old site you'll see it looks more up to date.

paint the sky

Eugene has awesome sky paintings...

Humongous puffy, bright white clouds;

Darker, heavy, rain filled clouds in shades of gray.

Sparkly wet roads and glowing grass blades

shimmering in the sunlight beaming through the clouds.

I love driving during sun breaks.

we made sushi

It was easier than I thought. I think I'm going to get one of those roller things and make some myself!

Oh yeah, and I brought this Chai Spice cake from
Sweet Life that was really, really good.
It was a random choice but it turned out to be a good one.

I spelled aesthetics right!

without spell check. that's impressive. i surprised myself.

dimmer switch!

I got my car back last week and when I turned on my headlights I thought something looked odd about the display (speedo and tach), but it was daylight so I didn't pay much attention. 

Then it got dark.

The lights were out on the display and I couldn't tell how fast I was going (except for kind of knowing by what gear I was in and what the engine felt like.

So I made an appointment to have them check it out and went in not knowing how long I'd have to be waiting there.

Turns out, not that long at all.  It was the dimmer switch, that I didn't know existed. It's hidden on the steering column behind where you put the key in. They figured it out in a few minutes.

Back when I first got the car I didn't know for about a year that you could lock or unlock the doors without the remote.  It seemed like their should be a way I'd just never seen one and there wasn't much need to go looking. Then one day I saw this switch, hidden in front of the shift knob. Guess what it did!  

They sure stick some buttons in some crazy places on this car. Maybe I should read the manual to find out what else I don't know about my car.

coming soon...

Started this a couple months ago but then got busy. The Nine Planets site needs an update as it hasn't received one since I build it 4 years ago. Coming soon: a wider screen, all CSS version! It was a good opportunity to try an all CSS site. Learned a lot in the process.

yeah for getting caught up

and I mowed the lawn too

tree hugging

There's some trees holding up a jeep that must have fallen off the road on Fox Hollow near the peacocks. People are rolling off Fox Hollow left and right.  They put up big arrow signs on the turn where that honda rolled off last month. There are some turns that you really have to slow down on there. Expecially with the leftover gravel they put on the roads when it snowed. They cleared most of it off a while back, which is nice beacuse it sounds like someone's shaking a rattle when I drive over it in the Lotus. But there's still some left and it's easy to slip on.

Territorial Highway

Sweet! Click to see it bigger.

Certain places are just waiting to be photographed. This is one that I've noticed before. There's this pile of moss covered junk on McBeth that's on my list too. I'm waiting till it's warmer and I can go on the motorcycle. 

i'm popular in idaho...

I got two separate emails from this group of my clients who were all referred by the same person.

"PS - Were your ears burning on Super Bowl Sunday?   We watched the game in Idaho with Jill & Mark and Winton & Sheryl.  We were thinking of you! -Marc"

"Just a note to tell you that we really like your responsiveness.  I saw Sheryl (Jill’s sister) and Art (her dad) last week and they were all singing your praises.  Thanks again for getting us back on track. -Mark"

It's like a chain of referrals, up to 5 now, and it covers three states (california, idaho and now new york).

inbox is organized

ready for tomorrow. a few less phone calls would be nice. a little less hectic, a little easier to get stuff done. we'll see.

work is nuts!

nonstop. crazy. can't get a break.

I guess I'm not complaining. I have the opposite problem as a lot of people right now. 

Full Moon

full moon rising just above the horizon,

big and orange and bright.

ascending above one dark cloud into a clearing

to shine for a moment, then sliding up 

and disappearing behind another.

Briggs Hill Rd

Jake wins his fight in Corvallis

Big party, no sleep.

the anti-homework

I just logged in to pay my phone bill. I have one minute of talk time this month. This week has been the opposite of last week when I tried to call someone everday like Mel had said. This week I have talked to no one on the phone (except for work). I did leave a couple messages and received several as well. But no actual phone conversation that wasn't for work. 

bjj

It was fun watching Ben, James and Matt roll today. Sucks not to roll but I have been taking a lot of notes lately that I think will help me out.

This guy came in and while Matt and Ben were rolling. He was on the sidelines "coaching". They started joking that they found their new coach and it was a good thing he came along. The guy kept talking so Ben told him to get in the ring and show them what he meant - so he did.  It was pretty sad. He rolled with Matt for like 5 minutes and was stuck in the triangle from every possible position the whole time. Either that or the arm bar. But Matt said he was afraid of breaking his arm after he smelled the alcohol on him. So he just tied him up the whole time. That guy is going to be sore tomorrow. There was a lot of struggling going on. He tapped several times but then kept crawling back in Matt's guard like he wasn't done. Ben kept yelling out the same coaching advise the guy had been giving them. It was kinda funny. After a while they just told him that his time was up cause they wanted to get back to training.

Yeah, I got my car back

...although I could have bought another car for the price of this service. I'm not even going to post it. Lets just say it was expensive. 

At least I'm keeping busy at work so I can pay for it. As long as I'm not so busy I don't have time to drive. That wouldn't be worth it.

Busy, busy, busy.

ipod & a jump rope are great companions

I like to jump rope with my eyes closed so I can just disappear into the sound.

Lorane Highway by Motorcycle

freaken awesome sunset ride
the peacocks were really squawking it up on fox hollow
more pics here...

I'm excited for it to get warmer so I can ride all over with my camera. It's easier to stop on the motorcycle and easier to find space to stop when you're not trying to park a car on the side of the road. I have several spots in mind that I want to get pictures.

It's really not motorcycle weather yet. At least not for me. It's kinda cold. The jacket is warm enough, but the fingers, they need something more. It was fun anyway though. 

panic button

Work...

Sometimes I wish there were a "scream" button on my keyboard. Something I could press while I was on the phone with somebody who was "describing" something to me (the kind of describing where they give you lots of irrelevant information) and I'm being simultaneously ambushed by several instant messages (with complicated questions) and trying to save whatever work I was doing before I answered the phone.

Said button would let out a voluminous scream (except the person on the phone couldn't hear it). In theory it would be kind of like the whistle on a teapot, where once you reached a certain level it would open up to let off some steam.

I miss my car. Definitely worth the extra shipping to overnight the new brakes (either that or wait another week!). I want my car back.

I'm this lazy...

I'm not sure this is really that funny, so much as it's just embarrassingly analogous to things we have done ourselves. 

the moon

the moon is hanging out just over the rooftop of the neighbors house. it's a half moon, yellowish orange.

playing with css

css = cascading style sheets

I added a background pic to the blog and made the opactiy of the content area 80% (black)

css makes it easy to customize. fun. i love customizing stuff.

i made something good

I made it Friday night and several times since then. I'm not know for cooking but there's no cooking involved in this, which is why I was able to discover it. I made and sat down to eat it and was pleasantly surprised.  

Although there's no cooking involved per se, there's rice. I make the rice in a weekly batch in my rice cooker, so it's always ready to go. I have to say this has been one of my better purchases. The problem with cooking rice on the stove - or, really, my problem with cooking rice on the stove is that I would forget about it. I would go back to my computer and then not remember I was cooking it till I could smell it, which meant it was burned on the bottom (burnt rice smells like popcorn). So thanks to the rice cooker, there's no more burned rice.

So here's what I made. It's kind of a enchilada bowl kinda thing.

So I take a bowl and put a corn tortilla on the bottom, then grate a little cheese over it, then another tortilla and a little more cheese. Then put some rice on it and some beans.  Microwave that for two minutes. 

In the meantime cut up some tomato and get the following out of the fridge: two kinds of salsa (if you like hot the stuff from cafe yumm is awesome) and sour cream. When it's done in the micro, just throw a little of everything on top and mix it up. It helps to cut the tortillas with your fork, which is easy to do after they've been zapped.

This is great if you're lazy and like mexican food. 

When you never cook, anything you make seems pretty impressive. So while this may not sound like anything to some people. It was very exciting for me.

front brakes

OMG... Front brakes for the lotus cost $1100 including parts & labor!

On the up side, I made it to 45k miles on one set (seems wrong).

On the down side, I hit metal (why didn't someone warn me).

I got the car serviced at 35k miles and they say I had 50% left on the pads.  And 10k miles later it's all gone. Literally - all. I heard scratchy sounds last time I drove it so I gave it a break after that.

I was already going to get an oil change so I conveniently had an appointment to take the car in this morning (noon is my morning).

I drove from Santa Clara into downtown (15 min ride) and only used the brakes 5 times (lots of downshifting) because the right side brake pad is gone (crunchy metal sounds).

Don't let the $45,000 price tag fool you; this car is expensive. $600 for a set of rear tires that wear out every 7,500 miles. $150 for an oil change. $1100 for front brakes - just the fronts.

I probably have about 5,000 miles left on the rear brakes. So...

But honestly. I don't care. It's worth it to me. I LOVE my car. Driving another vehicle is not the same. Not even close. I'd still drive my car if it were ugly, because it drives sooooooooooo well. Totally sticks to the road; there's nothing like it. The good looks are just an added bonus.

what are you doing?

I got a new contract (work) so I got exactited and wanted to dance on my mats. 

Except Ben was sitting there working...

Hmmm. Whatever, it's my house.

I cautiously walked in and started skipping and hopping around on the mats. This was met with a look of confusion (more like a... u r crazy, is something wrong with you look). So I explained and then continued my dance and handstands. Isn't this how they celebrate at every company?

note to self...

Do not ride motorcycle in winter if you will be coming home after dark in 35 degree weather. 

Freezing.

Not like normal freezing.  Like painful, painful freezing.  The rest of me was ok but my fingers felt like they were burning off; burning with cold. Very, very unpleasant.  I almost pulled over just to warm them up but it probably would have been futile so I just sped up in hopes of getting home quicker. My fingers have never been this cold, not even in snow.

I clearly do not have winter riding gloves.

stats on the homework

30% of the phone calls I've made or received this month have been in the last week.

Which means 30% of the calls were made in 20% of the time.  So there's a definite increase in volume. Especially from the prior week when I'd only talked on the phone twice (non-business calls). 29 minutes that week and 229 this week, so that a significant increase.

I've definitely had some interesting conversations that I wouldn't have if I hadn't done this assignment. 

Considering my personality, I'm not going to try to keep making a call every day.  I really only planned to do it for this week, just for the experience. And to break my habbit of not making calls. Sometimes it's good to do things just to get out of your comfort zone.  That was the idea for me here. Things always seem more scary when you've never done them before, or don't do them often.

Yesterday I called Leah and told her I was calling her because it was my assignment, not cause I wanted to.  She thought it was pretty funny. I was all stressed out from work so I didn't want to call anyone I just wanted to regroup (by myself). But I also wanted to just have the experience of calling like that so I did it anyway. I knew she would not take it wrong so it made her the right person to call.

I like to do things just to see how I'll react to the circumstances. It's like an adventure in self. That's what I like about tournaments. I don't really care about wining & losing so much as I just like to see how I'll react when I get out there on the mat with someone I don't know. You don't know what they're going to do and you don't know exactly what you're going to do either. So it's an experience.

I will try to still make some outgoing calls of course. I think it's probably "good" for me, whatever that means. I'm just going to do it when I feel like it not cause it's an assignment. But at the same time I'll continue to stretch myself cause I like doing that too.

breathe

I'm so glad it's the weekend. This week has been nuts!

You know your busy when...

Stuff you did earlier today seem like it was done yesterday.

Even if technically it was yesterday in my case, but still within my "day".

iPhone Contacts

for some reason I didn't realize that you could assign a photo to all the contacts in your phone. not till someone took a picture of me yesterday after adding me to their phone.  so now i've assigned pictures to 9 people in my phone, just for fun. now I want someone to call me... except it's 1 am so that probably won't happen for a while. 

anybody awake out there?

ok, I'll wait.

homework - day 3

since you asked for an update... I didn't call anyone yesterday. we'll come to think of it I think I attempted one call but it wasn't picked up (you know who you are ;-|   lol). but I was quite social in person that day. while at bjj I gave someone my contact info and apparently looked friendly enough that someone else came up and started talking to me. Which maybe doesn't sound like much but I often avoid eye contact with people which gives the impression that you want to be left alone. I'm very good at being ignored. At this point it's more of a habit than a conscious decision. Probably just thinking about my homework made me conscious enough that I looked more open. 

thinking about things too much and forcing yourself just makes them hard. and can make you self-conscious and weird feeling.  so that's why i didn't force it yesterday, but it doesn't mean I gave up either. I think I had a lot of good social interaction yesterday. and today I called two people!! actually, I called 4 people and left messages with two and talked to two. Both of the calls where I talked to people are instances where I definitely wouldn't have before. But since it was "homework" it seemed like a good time to practice. And it wasn't that hard, or awkward or anything like that. 

Oh and called I talked to one other person too. But that call had a purpose so it doesn't count as much. But it still does count cause I often hate calling people even when I have a purpose. Mostly when I don't know them that well - which is usually.

get off your couch people...

"Studies of humans have revealed that exercise can improve the brain’s executive functions (planning, organizing, multitasking, and more). Exercise is also well known for its mood-boosting effects, and people who exercise are less likely to get dementia as they age. Among those who are already aged, athletic senior citizens have better executive function than do those who are sedentary; even seniors who have spent their entire lives on the couch can improve these abilities just by starting to move more in their golden years."

"...Exercise also improves sleep quality, a pile of studies suggests. And immune function. Is there anything it can’t do?"

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-ways-to-boost-brainpower

finally a break

This week has been non stop!
didn't even get to drive the last two days ;-(
thought I might explode if I didn't
do something today.

feel much better now ;-)

busy, busy, busy week

not even a chance to drive the last two days (sad). i have had interesting conversations though. and I'm getting a lot of stuff done. speaking of... i better get back to work.

SciAm: A Pictorial Evolution of the White House Web Site

This is actually funny:

http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=white-house-web

They start out with bland and then get worse and worse for several years. As ben said, it looks like something you would have found on geocities.

melissa's homework

Melissa gave me a homework assignment yesterday. She said I had to call someone every day. 

Yikes

Every day? Like every, every day?  But I don't call people. (That's the point.)

It was already 8pm and I'd been running around all day from the time I woke up to when I just got home from asl class. I was driving back thinking it was getting late and I was going to totally mess up and not call anyone. 

I didn't want to. The thought of calling someone everyday is actually rather terrifying. I'm not even going to get into that. What I am going to say is that I got home and was walking down the hallway and I got the spark, the thought that I should just scroll down and dial someone (iPhone) so I did.  

That's really the best time for these things, right when it hits you. If you wait then you think to much and nothing happens.

So, Yeah for me ;-)   i probably seem pretty silly here, i don't care.

Every day seems pretty often to me. But I'm gonna do it for the practice. She I have to call people even if I have nothing to say, which seems really confusing to me. But like I said, I'm gonna do it. To put it in perspective, the last time I called someone for no reason was Mel and it was a week and a half ago. And the time before that was probably, um, like last year, maybe december, maybe not. I'm pretty sure it was less than 6 times last year. So that sould make last year's record really easy to break. (ha ha?)

Anyway, this should be interesting.

i love asl class

I like the teacher. She's friendly and funny. We have to play goofy games but it's fun to learn.

We were going over a list of words and she told us she has lots of "oops" stories. Where people sign the wrong thing, thinking it's something else.  She told us another one at the end of class. 

Her ex-husband wanted to ask her mom (who's deaf) if she wanted some pizza. He tried to sign "want pizza", except he didn't know how to sign pizza, so he made up a sign. Unfortunatly for him it was the sign for vagina. Not the right thing to sign to your mother in law.  Her mom gave him a funny look and told her to have a talk with him.

orange notebook

I ready through my orange jiu-jitsu notebook several times this weekend. It has all my notes from several seminars and a couple classes I took where I actually took the time to write down what we did. 

I should take notes more often. I kept reading over the stuff and going, "oh, yeah".  I think reading over it will help and maybe I'll be able to remember it while rolling next time. I actually have a lot of good info in there.

sunny with a chance of semi's

To my cousin...

Last night I dreamed we were somewhere, maybe a family gathering and we got in the car to get something to eat.  You were telling me where to drive and you had me stop somewhere and then take another couple turns.  We rounded this bend, which was like a 180.  There were a lot of hills and valleys, we were in a valley with dessert hills, very high, around us and there was also a ledge off to the side.  We didn't drive that far and then suddenly all the cars around were stopping because there was a huge semi halfway in the ditch with half of it sticking up above the road. 

It was bigger than a normal semi would be, so the end of it was sticking up really high into the air. We weren't sure what it was at first but then I realized. You were not very interested with it because you were thinking about the food ;-)  

The end of the it was kind of swinging around and I had to do a few evasive maneuvers so the end of it didn't break off and fall on us. 

The funny thing was it didn't seem at all scary.  It was just like if you're walking through a living room and there's a table in the middle so you walk around it. Even though eventually I had to crawl out of the window of the car which was hanging over a ledge and walk around the edge of the car - with my hands - to get back to land.  And yet, like I said, totally not scary, and zero effort.

The day was really bright and sunny and seemed like it would have been warm if I actually felt weather in my dreams. 

I'm remembering a lot more of my dreams since I moved my bed the last time.

get lost easy?

Did a little more research and found this...

If you know you have prosopagnosia (face blindness), you may be surprised to discover that you may also have some of these commonly related conditions as well.

• autism/Asperger's Syndrome
• topographic agnosia (place blind) Do you get lost. A lot? Even in your home town? Even though you've lived there your entire life? Get a sinking feeling when people tell you "you can't miss it" because you know you will?
• central auditory processing disorder (yeah, it's not bad enough to have problems recognizing people, but there are a host of auditory disorders that you might have, too)
• Executive Function aka Executive Dysfunction. If you're chronically late, disorganized, bouncing checks, paying late fees, messy, or people are telling you that you're "not living up to your potential", you may have Executive Function problems.

Nice package... get lost easy, can't tell faces apart well, and get confused listening and reading.  

I don't have Executive Function problems. I make a lot of lists. I would so fall apart if I couldn't make lists.  Well, I wouldn't fall apart but I would never know what I needed to do next so nothing would get done. Lists are good ;-)

And I don't have autism or Asperger's.  I'm not bad at empathetic thinking. I think I'm pretty coordinated.  They say lots of "nerd" types share similarities with Asperger's.  I wonder if there are neurological similarities between the two. 

I do feel like I need to "learn" certain types of social etiquette but that may just be because I haven't been in situations where I learned it already.  Some people think it's supposed to come naturally but I think they're mistaken and you get it from your experience and if you don't have that experience then it's confusing.

I don't think I have a problem I just like understanding things and I do that best by researching, analyzing and writing.

Brain fog

Leah sent me this link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

3 of us took the test... I got 31, she got 16 and the other person got 15.

From the website...

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

This made me think of Daniel Tammet (see saturday's post), so I started reading about Asperger's which had a link to Auditory Processing Disorder: 

APD is recognized as a major cause of dyslexia[5]. As APD is one of the more difficult information processing disorders to detect and diagnose, it may sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD, Asperger and other forms of autism, but it may also be a comorbid aspect of those conditions if it is considered a significant part of the overall diagnostic picture. APD shares common symptoms in areas of overlap such that professionals who were not aware of APD would diagnose the disabilities as those which they were aware of. APD can also be confused with Language Processing Disorder. Unlike APD, LPD is more specifically a problem associated with the linking of words, both written and spoken, to semantics (meaning) and someone can have both APD and LPD. Unlike those with LPD, those with APD can usually get the meaning of language from written words where those with LPD show problems with both heard and read words, demonstrating that the basic issue is not an auditory one.

People with APD intermittently experience an inability to process verbal information. When people with APD have a processing failure, they do not process what is being said to them. They may be able to repeat the words back word for word, but the meaning of the message is lost. Simply repeating the instruction is of no use if a person with APD is not processing. Neither will increasing the volume help.

People with APD have a disorder processing auditory information within the brain. The written word is a visual notation of verbal language, thus Auditory Processing Disorder can extend into reading and writing. As a consequence, APD has been recognised as one of the major causes of dyslexia.

There are also many other hidden implications, which are not always apparent even to the person with the disability. For example, because people with APD are used to guessing to fill in the processing gaps, they may not even be aware that they have misunderstood something.

Persons with APD often:

• have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally; cope better with visually acquired information
• may have trouble paying attention and remembering information when information is simultaneously presented in multiple modalities
• have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally; need to hear only one direction at a time
• appear to have poor listening skills, and need people to speak slowly
• need more time to process information.
• develop a dislike for locations with background noise such as bar, clubs or other social locations
• prefer written communication (e.g. text chat)

This I totally relate to.  It's weird, but it's like you hear it but don't understand. You know the words but they don't turn into meaning, it's like they're floating in a fog in your head.  If it's something I know about this usually doesn't happen or maybe I just don't notice because I guess the correct meaning.  Hearing or reading about something I already know about is easier. But reading about something I don't know about is way different. Even if I know what all the words mean. 

For instance I read this sentence like 10 times before I could figure out what it meant: "APD shares common symptoms in areas of overlap such that professionals who were not aware of APD would diagnose the disabilities as those which they were aware of." Actually I tried reading it several times, couldn't figure it out, then came back and tried again later after my brain calmed down and finally got it. But I had to look at one word at a time with a couple seconds inbetween each in order to try and get the sense of what it meant. 

I think this is a really badly worded sentence but I think more sentences seem like that to me than they do to other people. At least this how it seems to me.

APD indicates "auditory" but I looked at a bunch of websites and APD and the reading problem thing often go together. It's more of a language processing disorder.

Maybe this is why there are no words in my dreams? 

It explains this post I wrote a couple weeks ago about not understanding when they explain things in jiu-jitsu and sucking at geometry because I can't remember strings of words.  And the fact that I get confused by the questions Paul asks me. 

And why I use sound effects while I'm talking cause I can't remember the right word. Or I'll use the wrong word sometimes because I know there is a right word I just can't get it to come to my mind so I'll pick the closest one, even if it's a little off, just so I can get the thought out. It's not like I don't know it's not the right word. But trying to come up with the right one can be exhausting and it's not cause I have a bad vocabulary.

And the fact that I often hear lyrics in songs the same way you would another instrument. Not at words but as a voice, with a voice being just another instrument. I can hear the words if I think about it but I often don't because it takes more concentration and effort.  I could hear a song 50 times and not know any of the words or what it was about.  If I think about it I will "hear" the words. If you wanted me to remember the words in a single verse then I would need to listen to it probably 100 times (or more) and also say the words right after they did, out loud in order to help me remember.  

So I can't sing along to any songs because I can't remember the words to anything except for two or three words in any given song. But that works out just fine since I can't sing anyway ;-)

rain, rain, lots of rain

It sounds nice outside

patterns, language and numbers

Daniel Tammet Interview

This guy is really interesting.  Not only does he see and feel numbers, but he's really good at languages. He learned Icelandic in a week! He says languages are easier for him to learn, in part because he sees patters in things. I can definitely relate to learning things by seeing the patterns in them, but cleary not the way he does. Patterns are cool! I'm going to read his books.

Nice Rig

Only in Oregon. Or maybe just not in California.

Really? Nice Rig. By what standards does a Lotus qualify as a rig?

Actually, I think it's fun to hear the different things people say about my car.  This guy knew how much it cost and that carpet was optional. 

But seriously, if you said, "Nice Rig" in california I don't think they would know what you're talking about. Not that this was the only guy I've ever heard it from. There's been one other that I can remember.

So here's a first...

I get this email last night:

Time: 12:59AM

From: ***@yahoo.com

Subject: e mail address is correct

Body: i looked at it again and u r wrong

What?

It appears that the guy is replying to something, but I've never emailed him anything.  I do a search of his email address in my gmail account and find it in one of the attachments. So I figure out that he's someone that filled out a "free info" form on this one website. So I decide to be nice and email him back to try and figure out what on earth he's talking about, since he appears to be mid conversation with someone.

(As a side note, it's always nice when people email and say things like. "I can't get this page to work." Like I'm supposed to magically know what site they're talking about out of the hundreds that I work on. On top of that, what does "to work" mean.  You can't get what to work? You have to tell me what you're trying to do. And then you need to tell me what happens when you try it. Then I have something to go on.)

Anyway, I email the guy back saying, "What is this in reference to". Then, this morning, I have an angry voice mail from him! It's too bad you can't hear his voice but here's a transcript:

my name is ***

you sent me a message about my email

I signed up for some of your information

a free trial

and after I typed everything down

you sent me that it was an error

that for one thing that I had sent to you people before, which I had never done

and you said my email address is wrong

(starts to get really irritated here)

which I... I checked it, I looked at your own typing and you had it right

I don't know why you would say it was wrong when it was in fact right

I know my email address

(hangs up)

So after this I realized what the problem is.  The first time he filled out the form it said (the page said, not me): Thanks for signing up but we already have your info. It checks the database before a new lead is added so that there are no duplicates.  He said he never filled out the form before, yet I looked his email address up in the database and he did in fact sign up in 2007. 

So I guess he tried filling the form out again and this time he got an error message that his email address was wrong. Well, it only checks formatting. So if it told him it was wrong, it was. Like he put a space in it somewhere and email addresses don't have spaces. Or left off the @yahoo.com part. Or something like that. It happens all the time.

I just find it highly amusing that he's acting like there's some person sitting "behind" the website, reading over the form info he submits and typing messages back to him when he does something wrong, like there's some army of elves that work behind the scenes 24/7.

Lets start here: "which I... I checked it, I looked at your own typing and you had it right".

This must be in reference to my reply to him by email.  Of course I got your email address right, I just hit reply. And what, I'm the same "person" who told you it was wrong earlier? What on earth is his concept of the internet? 

Maybe he and Ted Stevens can figure it out together.

This was definitely a first. I'm definitely not going calling him back. If he's comfortable enough to use the internet and think that it talks back to him, I'm concerned that he won't believe anything I say.

these guys enjoy getting their picture taken

They all looked up when they heard me coming
and then they ran right up to meet me.

(Ok, they were probably just hoping for some extra food.)

SciAm: Sculpting the Impossible: Solid Renditions of Visual Illusions

more...

Phase II

I don't actually know what that means.

Driving was good; it always is.  I stopped by the store on the way home.  I decided I should vary my diet a little. I pretty much eat rice/beans for lunch and dinner (and I'm not awake for breakfast).  I got a few different things so I can try something new. 

Stormy said you can get that hot sauce from Cafe Yumm by itself if you ask them for it. I love that stuff.  I'm gonna do that.  Earlier today I got Hibiscus Cranberry juice. That's good.  Edamame make a great snack; I'm eating them now. Maybe I should organize my refrigerator.

dreaming or awake

Ever have one of those days where it seems like you're not sure if you're dreaming or awake? Kinda seems like that today. Can't figure out why. The whole day just seems weird. 

Right now I feel like I should be doing something but I can't figure out what. Or like I'm sitting on a time bomb that's about to explode, only I don't know where so I can't get away.

Maybe I'll go drive; I didn't drive today.  I drive every day.  Yeah, I totally need to drive.  Slowly though, there's been either light snow or several layers of frozen fog on Fox Hollow for the past week, and that's in the middle of the afternoon.  Somebody flipped their Honda there a couple days ago, just past the big farm.

Jiu-jitsu was good today though. I got exactly what I wanted out of my class with Harold.  

I'm sore from last night. Rounds and rounds with big people.  I can feel the soreness when I breathe.  We had to do 30 push-ups every time we couldn't pass someone's guard or if they passed ours.  And I kept picking big people to go with.  So there was a lot of pushups.  Many of us did several hundred. It was torturous... and fun ;-)