the usual hodgepodge

[mamajoan]

Ruthie, 99% asleep, was rooting around looking for the nipple and couldn't find it. In her sleepy daze she murmured quietly, "uh-oh!"

As I was buckling Isaac into his carseat this morning he announced, in tv-game-show-announcer voice, "You're...my...MAMAAAAA!!!!" (LOL) "Yep, and you're my Isaac boy!" replied I. "And I love you a really lot!" he continued. Whereupon I was almost all set to melt into a puddle of ooze, but then he added, "And I love grandma a REALLY REALLY lot!" *facepalm* ;)

Speaking of Isaac, today was a red-letter day for him: he dressed himself completely, from head to toe! Meaning, he removed all of his pajamas (including pull-up) without any help from me, and put on underwear, pants, shirt, sweater, socks, and shoes, all by himself. Plus his jacket when we were ready to leave! woohoo. He's almost ready to start supporting me! ;)

Did I mention that I was annoyed with Blue Cross for not canceling my account? Long story short, they kept sending me bills even though I had repeatedly notified them (in writing) that I now get insurance through my employer and wanted to cancel my coverage with them as of July 9th (the day I was officially made permanent here). That finally got sorted out. And then yesterday, to my surprise, I got a check from them! A pro-rated refund for the rest of July, which I had paid for in advance. I hadn't expected to get that money back, figuring they'd probably just keep it and laugh at me. ;) So that was a nice surprise. Unexpected money is always good.

Speaking of annoying money-related things, I know I mentioned that I was having issues with Wainwright Bank. Here's the latest: they sent me my checks for my new account, and at first I thought they had printed the account number wrong, but I double-checked and it was correct. HOWEVER, they did fail to send me all the correct check numbers. I got four sets of checks, numbered 101-130, 131-160, 191-220, and 221-250. Yep, that's right, they didn't send me 161-190. I stopped in this morning to talk to them about it and the lady said that was very odd, she never heard of such a thing before, yadda yadda and then said she would make some calls but that if I didn't hear back, I should come in again when I'm almost done with that second set of checks, and they would print me up a new batch. I don't see why they can't just do that now, but OTOH, I imagine it'll take me a LONG time to use up the first 60 checks so whatever. I can't be worried about it now. Incidentally, the main reason I went into the branch today rather than call? To deposit the check from Blue Cross. Because I STILL have not gotten my ATM card from Wainwright. Siiiigh.

In other news, I don't think I mentioned that as of last weekend I accomplished my goal of reading 25 books in the 6-month period from April 16th through October 16th. Actually, as of this past Sunday I had read 26 books, and I'm now about 1/3 of the way through Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon, so it's looking like I might make it to 27 by the 16th. I am pleased. :) Those last two books, incidentally, were The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, who is my new goddess, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which I read for the bookclub that mofic started up. I enjoyed it a lot. I have been telling people that I found it extremely engaging and incredibly moving. :) Highly recommended.

I've also been thinking about a post that plaidder made recently about some of the books I've read recently, notably Octavia Butler's Kindred and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart. plaidder said some interesting things about themes of slavery, particularly sexual slavery, in fantasy novels along the Kushiel lines; and I have been wanting to post in response but, you know, who has time. Still, it's interesting stuff to think about and it occurred to me that the Naomi Kritzer series I've been reading, starting with Freedom's Gate and Freedom's Apprentice, addresses some of those themes as well. So, uh, this sentence shall serve as a placeholder for more on that. sigh.

In unrelated news, playoffs begin tonight! (Okay, they began yesterday for those wacky National League folks, but whatever.) My mom and metafrantic are going to tonight's game, sigh, pout. ah well. I'm not all that jealous. It's going to be freezing. ;) GO RED SOX!

And in closing, let me just say that I have a headache, no thanks to boniblithe for posting this link. I've been staring at it for ages now and I cannot see the woman turning anything but clockwise. Which way do YOU see her turning? How the hell does this thing work?? edit OMG!!! Now that evil_macaroni gave me the hint, I can totally see it! Now I can see her going either way! Totally freaky. I'm going to have nightmares about this shit.

Comments

[evil-macaroni.livejournal.com]

Clockwise. I tried to see it the other way (one person suggested looking at the shadow on the ground) but I couldn't do it. *shrug*

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! that totally works! Now I can make her go either way just by watching the shadow for a moment! Totally freaky.

[thinking-lotus.livejournal.com]

When I watch her, she switches every so often. But then I have that mixed hemispheric dominance thing and usually I can consciously reverse optical illusions or see them both ways simultaneously.

This one is weird for me because it seems to switch on its own as I'm watching and then I look away and back again and it switches again. Sometimes it just stops and starts again.

I think I had better stop looking at it.

Clearly something is very wrong with me ...

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

It's definitely weird -- I can only see her as clockwise, unless I concentrate and look at the shadow, and then I see her going counter-clockwise. But even then, a couple of times I've seen it switch back to clockwise on its own while I was watching it! Freaky. I had better stop looking at it too.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what happens to me - at first, I thought it was some kind of joke becasue to me she was obviously turning clockwise for a few turns and then shifting to turn counterclockwise.

I'm left-handed, left-footed, left-eyed and left-eared, although my handedness is the least dominant of all those - I can write (albeit messily), golf, shoot pool, etc., right-handed if need be, and I've always played guitar right-handed. So I guess there is mixed dominance at the brain/body level.

[mofic.livejournal.com]

IIUC I see you turning anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise, depending where you are from). And can't see it any other way. But I'm not sure I get it. Is it just a trick question? Because when I say she's turning counter-clockwise, I mean if you were above her looking down she'd appear to be turning counter-clockwise, but if you were on the floor looking up, she'd be going clockwise, so I don't really think clockwise applies at all. In any event, I see her turning to her left....

[mofic.livejournal.com]

I said "IIUC I see you turning..." but I meant I see *her* turning. I didn't actually think it was you, Joan.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

It's not a trick question, but I guess it is an optical illusion or something along those lines. If I look at it in a certain way, I can see her reverse direction so that she appears at first to be turning one way (as you say, to her left) and then the other way (to her right).

[mofic.livejournal.com]

I can't make her turn to the right, no matter how hard I try. Now which one are you calling clockwise? To the right? Does that mean I'm hopelessly left-brained?

I was just explaining to my kids the other night about Jaynes's Origin if Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind and why I think it's an intriguing idea but wrong. See what you'll be doing in a few years :-).

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

LOL. I think you ARE hopelessly left-brained since you're getting bogged down in the definition of what clockwise "means." It doesn't matter. Let's say that clockwise means turning to her right, or that it's "clockwise if you imagine looking down on her from above." The point is that (for some of us) if we look at her in a certain way, we can see her switch from turning clockwise to turning counter-clockwise.

For me, it only works if I watch the shadow of her foot and imagine that when it sweeps from right to left it's either doing that at the bottom or the top of the imaginary clock. (this is hard to explain!) So let's say I am seeing her going clockwise; the foot going from right to left is at the bottom of the clock. I try to imagine that I'm seeing it at the top of the clock instead. Then when I look back up at her body, she's suddenly going counter-clockwise.

Obviously, this stuff is very individual and probably my explanation makes no sense to anyone but me. :) That's why I find this kind of thing so fascinating -- not just that I can see her reverse direction with a little effort on my part, but that some other people can too, while others can't!

[mofic.livejournal.com]

LOL. I think you ARE hopelessly left-brained since you're getting bogged down in the definition of what clockwise "means."


LOL! You have a point. But I thought the definitions did matter because it's a test - if you see her turning clockwise you're a right-brained person and if you see her going counterclockwise you're left-brained.

I didn't actually get your explanation. Do you have the ability to switch so she seems sometimes to be twirling to the right? Because I only see her twirling to the left, although I certainly have the ability to call that either clockwise or counterclockwise and make an argument for either :-).

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Okay, I see your point about the test. So I think that yes, from the point of view of determining whether one is left- or right-brained, clockwise and counter-clockwise refer to how she would look from above. I.e., what you call twirling to the left is counter-clockwise.

And yes, my point indeed is, that I (and others commenting here) have the ability to switch so that I see her twirling the other way -- regardless of what you choose to call that. I see her twirling to the right most of the time, but with a little effort, can see her twirling to the left instead. It's not a question of redefining what you *call* her direction of motion. It's a question of actually seeing her reverse direction.

[mofic.livejournal.com]

t's a question of actually seeing her reverse direction.

I can't do it! Wah!!!

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

I can't make her switch directions, either. It is always clearly clockwise to me. On the other hand, I just made my partner look and she is always clearly turning counter-clockwise for him. Not only do we disagree on which direction she is turning, but also on which direction she is facing. So when I think she is facing toward the back of the screen, he thinks she is facing us, and vice-versa. It's a little freaky.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

I only see clockwise, unless I look down and away and just keep her in the outer edge of my vision. Then sometimes I can see her going the other way and when I turn back to look at her full-on it looks counter-clockwise.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

OK, this is cool. I can make her change directions by starting a descent into a meditative state if she's turning counterclockwise and then, when she's turning counterclockwise, I can usually but not always make her change again by thinking deliberately in words or talking to my partner.

[victoriacatlady.livejournal.com]

The shadow really does help. My preferred direction is definitely clockwise, however, and if I'm not very careful, she switches back into clockwise turning even before she's finished one counterclockwise circle.

That's odd, though, because I would have said I'm very much a left-brained thinker. I *do* usually think in words, which would go along with your saying you can make her turn clockwise by thinking in words.