In the immortal words of Socrates, "...I drank what?"

Sight
I've recently been noticing how much I rely on visual metaphors. An example: my phonology book was talking about the "discrepancies" between an underlying and surface representation, and in parentheses said "(... or "distance" ...)" and it just clicked into place in my head. I of course understood 'discrepancies', but the use of 'distance' made it so much clearer (visual metaphor there, too!), so much more concrete (sense of touch metaphor, interestingly, seems better suited). The simple switch to 'distance' helped me 'see' what he was talking about instead of trying to understand it. I almost said 'trying to visualize it'. Furthermore (oops, almost said 'en plus'), 'distance' gives the in this case important concept of the degree of discrepancy - how far is it between where we started and where we end up?

I've noticed before that I do much better with visual stimuli, but I hadn't really considered my apparent reliance on visual metaphor, and I'm starting to wonder about the connectedness of the two. I mean, when you see something, the image in your mind is a reproduction, a metaphor even, for the concrete thing you are perceiving. I've never really tried to consider any of this in detail. It's interesting to me, but I don't know what exactly I will get out of it. I'm glad I have somewhere to put the thought, instead of just letting it fade away (visual, again! so cool). Have you noticed anything like this about yourself? Do you tend to use any sensory metaphors or figures of speech more often than others? Anybody use a different sense more? Sight seems so central to me, but I'm betting that's because I use it so often. I can't decide if that helps me or acts as a crutch - a crutch, meaning, I guess, that I rely on it so much that I would flounder without it. Does using visual metaphor so extensively cause difficulty in thinking outside that particular box? Perhaps. I think it simultaneously helps and hinders me. I wonder how I can test that?

I think this is one reason I'm so crazy about linguistics - so much of the theory is couched in the visual: geometry, tree structures, symmetry, etc. Now, I wonder, is it inherently easier to understand that way for some reason, or is it just put into those terms because the people coming up with the theories are relying on visual terms? Is there a connection between those two reasons?

Cool. Very very cool. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, or if there's anything to do with it. I think there is something to do with it, but I don't really know what. Fun.

Sound
On a completely separate sensory note, here are some songs I am listening to at the moment. It is completely eclectic, and I don't think I would recommend it in a mix. I blame House, M.D. for three of them.

Blame House:
Follow the Leader - Matthew Ryan (Heartbreakingly sad, beautiful beautiful beautiful)
In the Deep - Bird York (unfolding/rolling, slow, melancholy, pretty. Reminds me heavily of Mazzy Star)
Baba O'Riley - The Who (sweet)

Blame Me:
Lovely Day - Donavon Frankenreiter (light-hearted and wonderful)
Far Far - Yael Naïm
Young Soul - Yael Naïm (ok, this one, you can blame Apple. Not a fan of the MacBook Air, but the song is nice)
Life Less Ordinary - Carbon Leaf
Various Julie Doiron
Various Madeleine Peyroux

Blame ghazal:
Various Ingrid Michaelson (especially liking The Way I Am)
*blames*

ETA:
In fact, Into the Deep by Bird York is NOT what I meant. I had Into Dust stuck in my head, which, surprise surprise, is by Mazzy Star, which, I suppose, is why it reminded me so much of her. Woops! Into the Deep belongs up there, too, so we'll just add Into Dust - Mazzy Star. Good!

...Touch?
My hip has been hurting more the past week or so, for some reason. Why? Don't know. *sighs* Yoga is in my future.

So, I was watching House, and searching for random stuff from the show on wikipedia, and I found ( this ) under the entry for absolute pitch. SO cool. I kind of wonder what they mean by "European" (Indo-European, do you mean? I find this odd) languages, but the idea in general makes sense and I think it rocks. That is all :)

What have I been doing for the last forty-five minutes? Watching online crew videos.

Here's my favorite, no idea who the team is, but it feels like being in the boat, albeit going in the wrong direction! The cox has a great voice contrast, motivating and driving, and then relaxing but still alert. Nice. Nobody can do it like P or T, though. God, I misssss! And it's a racing start. Be still my heart. Nice reach on the stroke, from what I can see. Can't see the rest, but the oar heights look good, too. And I can kind of hear the glide on the approach. And that beautiful, synchronous *click!* Eeeee...

I found US Rowing's crab safety video as well, which was funny, and a vid of coxswains rowing which was hilarious, but I think I've only got ... wow, I guess, three rowers who read this?

Was sort of surprised by the overwhelming predominance of men's crews in rowing vids, I don't really know why I didn't expect that. Hmph.

I should probably find something less adrenaline inducing if I want to go to sleep soon...

So, I played around with that band name/album name thing, where you click for a random article from wikipedia to get your band name and album title, and I suppose you could keep clicking for track names, but I got one that was happy-making:

Band Name: Museum of the Portuguese Language
Album Title: Sonic Screwdriver

How much does that rock? I would say that rocks a lot. Probably in an Indie sort of way. I didn't know there was a museum of the Portuguese Language. But 'Sonic Screwdriver' kind of makes my night.

Here's a nice quote, since I've been so whiny and pessimistic lately. It's from a Sally Potter film, called "Yes", that I saw at the Dunedin Film Festival in 2005. It was amazing, and I convinced myself to buy it and it was definitely the right decision.

The last line of the film:

But even that's not true
It's really all about your point of view
Depending where you're standing on the earth
And in the end, it simply isn't worth your while
To try and clean your life away - you can't
For everything you do or say is there, forever
It leaves evidence
In fact it's really only common sense -
There's no such thing as nothing, not at all
It may be really very small
But it's still there
In fact, I think I guess
That 'no' does not exist -
There's only 'yes.'

This is delivered by the Cleaner, played by the woman who played Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and Jude in Bridget Jones' Diary. She's fantastic in this film. Kind of awkward, but in a completely fitting way, and she delivers it perfectly. It gives me goosebumps.

Am obsessed with this song at the moment, and I have NO idea why.

Except, that, you know, it's pretty. And catchy.

The pretty on youtube.

Also listening to:

Feist's Mushaboom, the title of which kind of sucks, but I like the song. Hmmm, also by Feist, My Moon My Man.

And, a cover of Rihanna's Umbrella by Scott Simons because of this lovely mcsheppy sga vid by spacedmonkey.

And random Muse videos on youtube...

God this is such a weird mix.

Testing use of apostrophes:

fuck. nope.

Testing use of backslashes:

no.

Huh. It brings up a "quick find" window. Ooo! and I can use quotation marks. WTF? and question marks!

Anybody tell me what"s going on?

Bah! And I can"t use the arrows to scroll!! Nooooooo! That was my favorite!

Leaving for Germany in... 5 hours.

ETA:
Testing? //// '''''

weeeee!

Took a page from the John Sheppard Book of Computer Repair. Sometimes turning it off and then turning it back on really does work :)

Am glad to have my arrow scrolling back. Hope I didn't just jinx it.

Happy Solstice to all, just in case I don't have internet again until the 27th.

Plans for next year: Mix swapping party.

We FINALLY (woohooooo! *other ecstatic and celebratory noises*) have internet at the apartment. Holy mother of escargots, that took a long, long, long time to work. Four weeks. More. A little more. I'll have to tell you the story. But not at the moment. Oh my god I'm so excited. This means I don't have to go breathe in the smoke from other people's cancer sticks whenever I want to use the internet, and only stay for two hours, and buy coffee or wine just so I can have access to the web. Oh god that's amazing.

Heee :D


Granted, there's still the problem that I need a cable to be able to use it, when it should be wireless, but I feel like that's perhaps a problem for tomorrow/later.

Pandora!

can you tell I'm useless with technology?

( Further Instructions from K )

aletheia_ineu

( Love For My Wifey )

Eeeee... I need to practice doing this shit so I don't forget all of it... yay!!!