Synesthesia
I watched a fascinating documentary yesterday afternoon called Derek Tastes of Earwax. It was about people with synesthesia, the condition where your senses get mixed up in interesting ways. Most synesthetes perceive numbers and letters as being colored in some way. The title referred to one gentleman who “tasted” nearly every word that he heard. I was pretty sure throughout the film that I don’t have synesthesia, because most of the examples and experiments they showed didn’t describe me at all. Then they started talking about number lines, and people who perceive numbers and dates in three-dimensional space… and I realized that I do do that, to an extent. I have a very clear mental calendar that runs from Janary (to my far right) to December (where I’m standing, no matter what month it actually is). Neat.

“Every girl online is fat, ugly and unsexy. Here’s how to get over it.” Interesting article on being a woman and dealing with harrassment. I had a great discussion about personal conflicts (both online and off) on Saturday morning with my girlfriends. It turned out that pretty much all of us had been subjected to it. On one hand that’s depressing, but on the other hand it’s nice to know you’re not alone, I guess. Things have been mostly quiet on the troll front here, but there have been a couple blips of contact in the past few weeks. I’m happy with how well my strategy of ignoring them is working though. They don’t bother me. I just feel sad at people’s capacity to bear petty grudges and surprised at the energy they expend posting hateful comments that no one will ever see. Life’s too short to spend two seconds thinking about people like that. (Oh crap, I just did, didn’t I? Consider that the next year’s quota.)

Well, I survived. It was a stressful week. I spent several nights getting the TC website ready for the sale launch on Saturday morning. On Friday I rushed home from work to do an emergency house-clean before Jeannie, Chris, and Kurt came over for dinner. We had lamb shanks cooked in our new slow cooker and everybody had a nice time. Kurt really liked his Tintin jumper and, as you can see here, it fit perfectly! It’s just a little bit big, so I’m hopeful he’ll get another winter’s worth of wear out of it next year. After they left, it was back to the TC site for final preparations. (I would’ve pulled an all-nighter if not for the help of the Snook, who I really don’t deserve.) Saturday morning I dragged myself into the city to meet the girls at the shop, and then we all went out to breakfast afterwards. That afternoon the Snook and I went to Broadway to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was highly entertaining… but yeah, the story is really stupid. Sunday morning I joined Miss Fee and some of her running buddies to do the “Bay Run,” a 7km course around Iron Cove. I started out well, but by the 4km mark I was struggling to get my breath. My lungs just still aren’t 100%. Somehow though, I still finished in a really good time. Maybe I need to run with other people more often. I spent the rest of Sunday chilling out and listening to podcasts while I knit. It was just what I needed.

What Your Cat Thinks When She Rubs Up Against Your Leg. Yup. True.

Could the eagles have flown Frodo into Mordor? Fascinating little throwaway link from Kevin’s Indiana Jones review.

Weezer just won the Internet. That is the coolest music video of all time. I don’t even recognize all of the memes they reference in there. (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)

It’s 1:24am. The Tapestry Craft sale website is finished and will launch in less than eight hours. I need to sleep.

Bacon is good.

I’m just a little bit speechless right now. I’ve been killing myself this week trying to do all the normal sale website prep stuff on top of my real job – I was up past midnight last night – and this morning I logged in to Ravelry to see somebody complaining about the splash page on the site. They were upset that they couldn’t get to the site and order a pair of knitting needles NOW. I’m just flabbergasted. We used to keep the site up and running normally right til the sale began, but inevitably we’d get half a dozen emails the following week from customers who unknowingly bought the day before it started and were bitching that they didn’t get the discount. You really just can’t win. At least this way we cut down on the complaining, and it gives us a full day to test the site and make sure it’s ready. Plus I think it’s kinda fun and builds up a sense of anticipation towards the Sale. What do you guys think?