synesthesia

slowly have i realized that i am blessed with a perceptual experience with interesting symptoms and no side effects. several years ago i noticed that, while i watched basketball through a window, my mind was creating noises to accompany the bouncing of the ball that i saw. at some point, i learned the word for this. i think it was when one of my sister's described how numbers have color, for her.

What i learned today is that the word synesthesia describes the class of conditions, of which my visual-aural and my sister's number-color experiences are distinct types. My favorite encyclopedia describes the latter as "Grapheme-color synesthesia" but doesn't have such a fancy name for my variant. That encyclopedia has interesting links at the end.

The bouncing ball will test whether you have my variant. I experience it a lot while using computers, because there are often visual events with no sound, either in the user interface or in banner-ads on web pages. Another instance is watching the turn-signal of the car in front of me at a stop light.

It's a pretty neat condition. And since it "runs strongly in families", i'm curious to know whether my other relatives have variants. feel free to post a comment or email me (even if you're not a relative...). Maybe at the next family reunion, we can have a volleyball match between the dyslexics and the synesthetes.

Have and Have Not

Winter has come to Kansas. This is my first here and i find it amenable. We have a fair helping of cold, but nothing a good coat, a scarf, and a knit hat can't handle. And we get snow occasionally, snow thick as comforters-- not the thin 200 flake-count sheets that asheville gets. And not the six feet that i heard chicago has. I've always wanted to have so much snow that i could dig tunnels.

In these past months i have not been blogging. It's basically a journal and whenever i start a journal, things go well for a while but fall off after a bit. so expect another post within, oh, a halfyear.

instead, i have been finding various ways to keep myself occupied. books, movies, happy hours with other college hires from work, driving sabado on the namesake's day, and this week finally i have begun going to capoeira. there's a good group in KC, about 25 minutes from my house, that has classes four days a week. someday i'll tell you about capoeira, one of my passions. if you're curious now, though, search youtube for "capoeira".

Also, there are the chores. It's good my parents made me do them when i was a kid, so i know how and don't mind. it helps to make lists, so that when i'm done, i can cross them off-- that simple action is nearly enough reward. This weekend (sunday is my day for chores), i have a particularly large number, what with tax-filing and my shoes what want polishing.