Well, Duh

NY Ttimes article titled Just Another Face in the Crowd, Indistinguishable Even if It’s Your Own

It links, in the left sidebar, to a site with two face recognition tests.

I've always had a case of nerves when I am the one to pick someone up from the airport or any other event in which I am expected to recognize someone quickly and out of context. (Like not recognizing Amy when she was working at Carrows.)

Well, I scored really badly on the Famous Faces test. Really badly. I had no idea who most of the people were. They took away one of my clues (hair). I got some of them because they have distinctive mouths.

I did a little better on the Old-New Faces test. On that test, one twice views faces of 10 women then from another 40 faces, one picks whether the face was in the first set of ten. I get half the faces. Which is lousy. But I didn't pick faces that weren't in the first ten so my score was 75% which is the lower edge of "normal". Except that I tend to not recognize faces so it seems like I'd be likely to well on not picking wrongly.

I think, though, it might be related to my hearing issues. I tend to look at a person's mouth when they talk. Well, more like stare intently at the mouth. If I look them in the eye, for instance, I stop hearing what they are saying. So I rarely look at faces at all.

The little research I've done now suggests that I have "compensations" for dealing with "face blindness".

And the bottom line is: So what. There isn't anything to do about it. And even if there were, Old dog might be able to learn new tricks, but it just doesn't seem worth it.

I recognize Stacey. That's enough. :)

I'm in a mood

For the last few days I've had conflicting urges. One is to take my computer upstairs, and close myself in the bedroom until Judgement Day. It's the feeling I have sometimes that seeing another human being will cause my head to explode.

The other urge is to get the hell out of the house. I'm being driven by cabin fever.

It is very difficult to reconcile these two urges. Very difficult.

It is also somewhat familiar. It is a summer thing. When the weather is warm, that is, greater than 75 degrees F. When I am warm, I get cranky. In this condition, nothing is right in the world.

I'd rather be chilly than warm.

I've always heard that "old people" tend need environmental warmth. I've been looking forward to that because it would move me more to the normal range. But I've noticed the opposite case, the older I'm getting the less well I'm tolerating a warm environment.

Stacey will be lying in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin and I have the covers thrown off and the ceiling fan going. I'm tired of it.

I should be going out today. Cingular wants to change the sim card in my phone, but I think I'm going to change to Verizon instead. I should be going to the nursery to find out what kind of tree we have and to get recommendations for a tree expert to talk to us about the our tree. Is it a danger to the house, can we cut it back and get rid of the low branches, and, if we keep it, what should we be doing to care for it?

I should be working on the phone wiring, too. We have two landlines coming to the house and we want to get rid of one. But that means I need to cross wire the other to run into the office.

I should be doing my laundry.

I should be firing up the carpet cleaner Stacey bought to see if I can get rid of the urine smell/stains in the living room and guest bedroom.

I should be working on computer stuff.

And what I want to be doing is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Well, okay, I guess what I want to be doing is moping. ;)

Whatcha got?

I've been noodling the notion that one can tell what someone wants in their life by looking at what they have. It's really a powerful idea. And it's one I've believed for many years without having such a short way of saying it.

I have to be careful about it, though. I can easily give up my compassion under that philosophy.

When I think of this concept, I am always reminded of this wonderful Eleanor Roosevelt quote: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

One down.

Phone wiring is done.

phone number change

I've switched service providers and decided to get a phone number in the "right" area code.

858-761-1648

The old number will stay in place for a short time just to give a forwarding message.

Love.