Synesthesia

Maria Mena was on Skavlan (a Norwegian/Swedish talk show) some weeks ago. And she has synesthesia.

Hers is not the same as mine, she can actually use it to make her music; by putting the right colors, corresponding to musical notes, together. I just associate a color to each letter in our alphabet and numbers. And to the weekdays and the months. I also have a strong visual perception of abstract concepts like years and weeks.

But by listening to her talking about it I managed to finally catch the name of this condition (even though I've known about it for a while, I've never managed to remember the name of it), so I wikipedied it.

On the top right corner of the English Wikipedia article there's an image illustrating how a person with synesthesia might perceive the letters of this word.

This is when I discover that my Grapheme → color synesthesia might be stronger than I thought. 'cause I found this image somewhat uncomfortable to look at.
All the letters are the wrong color.
(Which is fine if there's some aesthetic reason and the colors match, but this combination of colors was just a mess and to me without reason or order).

Maybe it's my ocd colliding with my synesthesia. ...XD

For those curious, this is how I perceive these letters:

Does this make anyone else uncomfortable like the Wikipedia image made me?
I find it quite fascinating that people with the same condition will assign different colors to different concepts (even though it makes perfect sense; we are different persons after all).


Oh, and while we're at the subject. Some weeks ago I was chatting with some friends (my boyfriend and my girlfriend's boyfriend) and I mentioned that I like some numbers better than others without knowing what determined if I like them or not. We wondered if the ones I like might be prime numbers, but when I reflected on this later I quickly discovered they were not (not exclusively).
Then, while researching synesthesia I got the idea that it may have a connection to the colors.
And it does!
I really like the red or otherwise warm-colored numbers. The blue ones are ok. The yellow ones are kinda special and fun. I don't like the pink ones and the white ones are neutral. And then there's 11, which is sort of a light beige-gray and one of a kind and (therefore?) my favorite of them all.

Then again, this doesn't answer why I like the ones I like 'cause I do not know why they got their respective colors...

(Isn't it weird how specific numbers got a different color than their contents? Like 10 being yellow even though 1 and 0 are both white. And 20 (being blue) is a greener shade than 2.)

So.
Synesthesia.
Anyone else?

In the Norwegian version of Itsy-Bitsy Spider the spider is climbing up "my hat", not some random water spout...

Muwahahaha.

I've been sulking around trying to find something good to blog about (life's pretty dull these days, nothing interesting to report) and now I have found something I want to rant about. So yes! I'm letting it out on the poor soul who for some reason is reading this.

I like to know what I'm getting into before I might, in example, spend money or at least time on something. So, I love how reviewing stuff is sort of an internet trend. Whatever you're considering; someone out there is reviewing it for you. Great.

BUT
(And this does of course not include everyone, I know of people and got close friends who are excellent reviewers. But they aren't that well represented at amazon, goodread etc.)

When I'm reading a bookreview, I DO NOT want to know what's happening in the book. I do not want to know how it ends. I'll actually read the book itself for that.

I want to know whether or not it's worth my time. Is the writer a good storyteller? Is the text well formulated? Are the characters well developed? Did you like the end (not what happened, just did it surprise you? was it fitting? or was it too abrupt or poorly done?)? How would you compare this book to other works by the same author? Is the voilence/sex/tragedy/jokes/relationships elegantly described? Would you recommend this book to what sort of reader? And do YOU consider it a good book?

Now. Is that so hard?
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btw. Amanda Palmer has recorded a new album (yay, hurray, woohoo!!) and I can't wait for it to come! September is usually one of my least favorite months, but now it can't come fast enough.
Since we're talking about one of my biggest idols (perhaps the biggest), I'm sharing the link to her kickstarter here: http://kck.st/GrandTheftKS in hope that some more people out there will support her and her new band. So there.
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I should do this more often, right? Just blog what's on top of my mind without judging it. I'm gonna share more of my dragons though, but I thought I should spread it in between other posts. Like spice. or something, rather than going on and on about dragon after dragon.

Yes. ... Merry May, everyone.

Cake icing and decorating set

It's the first month of a New Year and usually this call for New Year resolutions. This year I won't bother. I know that within the year I'll have forgotten about them and come next year I'll be writing the same resolutions over again because I failed to keep them.

Instead I want to reflect a little over the long term goals I have and the ones I've already fulfilled. Not the huge “I wanna be an astronerp when I grow up” ones, but the little ones.

In example. When I was younger (I'm talking toddler) I remember seeing my Mam fixing my Daddy's tie. To my four years old mind this was a really cute and romantic scene and I remember thinking that “when I grow up to be a wife I wanna be able to fix my man's tie”. (True story).

(I was also going to marry my Daddy, but he calmly explained why that couldn't happen. He also explained why Grandpa couldn't be my second choice as that marriage was out of the question too)

When I was around ten I remember finding a recipe on how to tie a tie and I practiced this knot over and over again. And I'm proud to announce that I can tie a perfectly ok tie. So there. Goal reached. Mission accomplished. (It's good to see that not all goals crumble to pieces).

I even saved Seb's neighbors the other month. The mother and the two teen sons were getting in their car. Both sons were dressed nicely in suits, ties in hands. And the mother came over to us asking Seb if he knew how to tie a tie, because father wasn't there at the time and they were going to some fancy event. Seb shook his head and said “sorry, I rarely wear ties” and they all looked disappointed. So I raised my hand, ahemed (that is now a word) and said “I can, I know how”.

I, a little curly filly (yup, I'm a horse now) from the forest of Norway, I too can be a hero.

(I know I've posted this song earlier, but it's relevant for this entry so I'm posting it again (plus: I love it so it's allowed to be posted twice).)



Another role model for me would be my aunt on my mother's side. Whenever we were having some sort of big event or party she would be wearing her bunad and in her bunad-purse she would always keep band aids and a tiny sewing kit. So whenever you got hurt (during the run under the decorated tables or hide behind everyone's fancy coats in the rented wardrobe -games) or your clothes ripped, she would be there for your rescue. I have wowed to myself that when I “grow up” I will be Aunt Safe with an unlimited stack of band aids and other useful items. I already got band aids in all my bags and purses and I hope that when the time comes I'll be ready to save either my own kids or whichever nephew/niece/godchild or random kid in distress. (or grown-up, should that be the case)

Other goals for my life would be to learn to cook my family's traditional Christmas-dinner so that my kids can eat it sauce and all, and to stand on the top of the Eiffel Tower at least once.

I also wish I could play music of some sort so some day before I die I want to learn a music instrument. It shouldn't be too hard and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. I hear it takes no time at all to learn the ukulele so maybe that's what I'll learn, I dunno, either way I will eventually play something.

And I want to get better at knitting. Aaaand maybe I'll learn by heart the Rubik's cube, if I ever get the time. (All the cool grown-ups in my family have at one point known the Rubik's cube)

I think that in the end these little “trivial” goals are the ones that really matters. Who cares if I ever reach the “ideal” weight and status or the top of any career; I have band aids and I can tie a tie.

oh. I haven't blogged anything in a while, have I?

Well then, to pay up for the gap let me hit you with a long one:

Regarding my everyday life.
My baby brother just turned 15. I refuse to believe it.

I've been procrastinating stuff for so long. So I'm not really allowed to complain about the work amount; I've caused it myself.

And I have kinda been writing blog entries continually during the past month. But whenever I was finished writing a post I would proof read it and find it contained nothing but whining. And who would want to read a blog of meaningless whining? I wouldn't. So I kept it to myself and posted nothing.




Regarding my health.
My ears are my Achilles-heal. During the first four years of my life I suffered from constant (more or less) Otitis media (What a funny word! I just looked it up. For other laymen as myself we can call it an infection of the ear). Of course that time is over, but still, whenever I catch some sort of infection of the respiratory system (which is pretty common) no matter how small; my ears will be infected as well. It's never "Oh I got an infection in my throat, maybe my ear will be infected too?" it's always "Oh, an infection of the throat, here comes the ear infection!".

So. My throat's been hurting for about a week and I thought I was brewing something. Like "Oh no I'm about to catch a cold". But then came the ear infection so I guess I've been having a viral infection for several days without realizing that's what it was. It's over now though. I'm just waiting for my hearing ability to return to my left ear. My ears have done this so many times now, it shouldn't take long.

I'm really sorry If I infected anyone, I really thought what I had was nothing so I kept hanging around people.


Regarding our house (soon to be a very very very fine house).
We now have a kitchen. a kitchen lacking a table, chairs, a coffee maker and power sockets, but a kitchen still. There's no longer a huge hole where our old kitchen used to be, there's now a new kitchen. Finally we can use the oven, our sink and our tableware (in contrast to plastic and paper plates). Yay!


Regarding Music.
Florence + the Machine just released a new album and it's great. I still love the old one more seeing as the new one has no song as beautiful as "My Boy Builds Coffins" or "Cosmic Love", but it is truly great.

Nowadays I heart:







In other silly news.
I've been watching The Mentalist lately. I generally don't care for crime or police procedural at all, but the main character (Patrick Jane) fascinates me so I'm watching it. And so the other night I was dreaming and suddenly Van Pelt (another character in the show) said "ah, this isn't the crime scene like we thought, this is just a cover-up". And I thought "omg, that means...!" And I sat up in bed and turned on my light to examine what must be the real crime scene; my bedroom! Then it occurred to me what I was doing.
That was fun XD

K

Sorry. Tons of unrelated random nerdy rambling incoming. It's ok if you don't understand it all... :

When I was in junior high I used to walk around brainstorming words beginning with the letter K.

It was just a way of passing boredom. But now I have come to understand that I just simply love the sound of that letter. Hence names like Kio (my "real name" online) or Kei (the name of my protagonist amongst my original characters).

I just love those short K-names. And Japan got lots of them! What a lovely language! My latest anime-crush got the lovely name Kida. And with the correct honorific added he's Kida-kun and it just sounds great, doesn't it? Kiiiida-kun~

Speaking of Japanese voice-actors (...?). Kida-kun's voice is the very same voice-actor playing  Kira in Death Note, haha, and Tamaki in Ouran High School Host Club. This is actually kinda funny because Kira (this supercool, smart villain) and Tamaki (this shallow and kinda pathetic "prince") couldn't be much more different from each other.

And on another note: I think I know why I like Kida-kun. He shares some similarities with my Kei. They're sneaky and irregular in the same all-over-the-place kinda way. Only thing is Kida-kun's outbursts are more planned. He does what he does purposely. Kei on the other hand does it more accidentally.

Yes. I speak of fictional characters as if they actually existed and I knew them.

But I created Kei, so I do know him. In some way. And I'm weird so you'll just have to forgive this pathetic reasoning.

Some day.... I'll make something. A comic or a story or... And then you'll all get to meet Kei and his friends more accurately.  I guess he's just some vague thing I occasionally mention. Sorry for confusing you. It's just that to me he is very important (like a imaginary best friend or pet or hobby or idol, I don't know) and sometimes he just jumps out.

I'll shut up and go to bed now.

(Kida-kun is a character in the anime "Durarara!!" btw, in case you wanted to know. So far it's a fairly fun anime.)