What activities do you lose yourself in?
Wow, i like this question and not just for the lyrics it brings to mind!
Listening to music (duh!)
Creating, editing or analyzing spreadsheets
Writing sql
Writing
Drawing
Research, especially if i like the topic
Listening to or watching anything with a pattern to it, such as MRI machines, a newton’s cradle, a metronome, waves in the ocean…
Watching/listening to something with absolutely no discernable pattern, such as a fire.
When I was 16 or 17, I went to the city with my boyfriend at the time and his best friend – we’ll call them M and D. We walked around a bit, and i can’t remember what exactly we were in the city for, but then we went to lunch. It was some futuristic alien themed burger place. We were standing in line, and i was just oogling all the stuff they had hanging on the walls, especially this one light…. when you looked at it dead on, it looked like a vertical line, but when you saw it out of your periphery, it was a martini glass or something. Anyway, there i am, just staring in awe, innocent as anything, right?
D walks up right in front of me, and I thought he wanted to stand closer to M so they could talk. D then grabs my face and turns my head to the side. I screamed like a banshee. I see a green alien dude, his face about two inches from mine. Laughter roared around me, because apparently everyone in the line saw this dude standing next to me like that, waiting to see how long before i noticed. I coughed from screaming so loud and then laughed my ass off. The dude in the alien suit came over, laughing, and apologized. I laughed even harder. The food was pretty good too. hilarious shenanigans!
Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.
Dear Laura,
Holy shit, dude, 100 fucking years! I remember when I didn’t think I’d make it to 25, much less four times that! A million questions in my head….I want to hear it all! what have you seen? What have you experienced? How have you changed? Did you enjoy your life so far? Are you healthy? Tell me all about the dogs I have later in life! Did I ever find another like Patch? Where have you lived? How many tattoos do you have now? Do you still have the lip ring?
How close are you to truly understanding? Were we – well, was I – right? about myself? about my core theories of the universe? Did you ever find that perfect frequency, or are you still looking? Did I ever finish those drawings, or are they still simmering in your mind? Have I gotten to see a perfect night sky yet? If so, what mysteries did it uncover for you? Are you still searching? Did you ever finish your books? Did I ever figure out The Point? I find myself wanting to ask “did we” or “are we” but there is no we, it’s just me. I’m talking to myself, like always, but this time, I was prompted to!
Anyway – retardedness aside, I want to tell you that I don’t know what you’ve been through after today, or what you have done or who you have become, but I know what you came from – I am what you came from. I want you to know that I am so incredibly proud of you. Hell, I’m proud of myself now for surviving this long, and you went and lived to see 100! Seriously, you fucking rock. Thank you for not giving up, and for giving me all those things I’ve yet to experience. i can’t say it enough: thank you, thank you, thank you. for being you.
Love, me
What is the last thing you learned?
That there is such a thing as predictive AI that can be used for forecasting based on historical data, but can be leveraged with smaller datasets. This perks my interest, for questions beyond what i can do with it at work.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
What a loaded question!
Technically speaking, all of my failures – real or perceived – have led me to success of some sort, and it usually involves learning something, which is a success in my book.
However, i digress. I’m assuming the prompt is asking for a specific example.
I lost my job back in 2008 or 2009, in the wake of all the financial nonsense going on. I tried to get a job. I applied, and applied. and applied. A couple of times, i interviewed. Customer service, sales, factory jobs. I tried everything i could think of. Nothing. I was unemployed for over a year, maybe close to 2. As a last-ditch effort, I called a local temp agency. Temp work was a last resort, because i needed something long term, but I was desperate.
Less than a week after my interview at the temp agency, I got a call. A day later, I walked into the building I’ve been working at for the past 15 years, held several different positions and now spend my days solving problems for people, which is great.
I have never been diagnosed with synesthesia. I just want to put that out there.
I do, however, think that there is a blending of the sensory systems. It only makes sense – they are all being processed in the same organ with the same backbone of memory and experience and worldview and bias. Just because the input is from one type of sensory neuron doesn’t mean that the other senses don’t have an interpretation of said input.
Some of my observations:
Deeper sounds are wet.
Deeper sounds are cooler colors, but mostly blue or purple.
High pitches are sharp like a needle.
High pitches burn.
High pitches are bright yellow or white.
Fragrances that have a strong base in flowers are pastel-ish yellows and greens.
Fragrances that have a strong base in earthy, musky tones are deep blue or deep green.
English or writing is blue.
Math or chemistry is red.
Physics is black.
The number 4 is green.
The number 3 is red.
The number 1 is black.
The number 5 is dark blue.
Now, this may very well be a “yeah, everyone knows that” thing, but i don’t know that everyone knows that, and i’ve never really had an in-depth conversation about the color of sound.
I know that wavelengths probably have a lot to do with this, but i do not feel like researching that right now, but it will be the topic of an upcoming rabbit hole, I’m sure. I am curious if this is a “yeah, everyone knows that” type of thing though. If so, cool – but why don’t people talk about it? And if it is ubiquitous, why?
Just some randomness for your Sunday.
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
“I never really thought of myself as someone overly interesting, but it occurs to me that that is a single (and possibly biased) opinion that may not be shared by everyone.”
What are three objects you couldn’t live without?
That depends. Are we talking “live” as in survive? to continue to exist as a being on this planet? or are we talking “live” as in, I have all of the elements needed for survival, but what do i need to really enjoy my existence? Important distinction. I will answer both.
For the first – A frying pan, a wooden spoon or spatula, and a knife of some sort.
For the second – a pen/pencil, and some sort of substance to write on. The third would be some kind of animal (preferably canine in nature) to talk to.
That’s the thing. life, as complicated as we make it, is really very simple when you boil it down. To survive, i need tools to prepare food or construct shelter. To enjoy my life, i need the ability to write, and a companion.
it really is that simple.
for the record – my father once told me that the human hand is the most sophisticated tool that god ever made. I have two tools to help me with survival built in to the “me” that is trying to survive!
What experiences in life helped you grow the most?
Well, that’s easy…. The painful ones.
Heartbreaking loss? Taught me that I am strong, even when I don’t feel like I can be.
Betrayal? Taught me the grace of forgiveness and the art of discernment.
Abject failure? Taught me that everything in life is an opportunity to learn.
The thing is, the good things in life – the shit we live for? They are beautiful, but they don’t help us grow and evolve as people. Think about it. Any time you get better at something, it’s only because you failed at it before but kept trying. The only reason you stopped (insert addictive behavior) is because you realized that it was destroying you/your family/your life. The only reason you know you are strong is because you’ve had to be. The only reason you’ve grown as a person is because you’ve experienced pain.
Do you believe in fate/destiny?
I don’t know.
While the romanticized idea of having a fated partner in life or a destined purpose for your time on this spinning rock is enticing, i kinda don’t buy it. There are far too many variables in a given day (much less a lifetime!) for there to be a single destiny for every single person, and for things to work out in just such a way to make that a reality.
In thinking about this, I had a thought that perhaps it’s more of a probability of probabilities. There’s way more than this, of course, but let’s assume that your life has 100 different ways it could play out. in 90% of them, you are what society would consider successful. let’s say that in 30% of that, you’re a photographer, 10% a teacher, 10% you’re self-employed. But in 50% of that 90%, you’re a doctor. So, that’s a 45% chance of you being a doctor, vs 27% for a photographer, or 9% a self-employed (insert random thing here).
I, like most people, am a big fan of the idea of free will. The ideas of fate or destiny don’t really jive with that. Because fate or destiny is based on the idea that if something is “meant” to happen, it will, and you can’t stop it. That’s deterministic. So – best of both worlds, right? Probabilities. Life may stack the odds in favor of one thing or another, but the choice is ultimately yours.
A Peculiar Cerebral Tangle 