the mind is a weird freaky thing

I just read an article about prosopagnosia- a very rare disorder wherein the sufferer can't recognize faces, anyone's face. In some extreme cases, this includes the person's own face, their mother's face, their lover's face, anyone's face. Prosopagnosia isn't only restricted to folks with injuries and lesions to the brain. Some folks are born with it. For those folks who are born with it, it seems that is the only disorder that they have (well, besides the discomfort of not being able to socially interact with people very well because they simply can't remember faces well enough to greet them on the street- even people they see every single day).

I can't imagine what it must be like to walk around all day and be surrounded by a sea of unrecognizable heads only to go home. Or to only be able to recognize that it is oneself in the mirror because of one's hair or dress.

What is also very interesting about this is that some cognitive scientists say that this is evidence that the brain is less connected, and more compartmentalized than one thinks. I don't know how this fits with evidence of the plasticity of brains and the ability for the brain to overcome some disorders as a result of injury or lobotomy. Plasticity would suggest that the brain may be less compartmentalized than one thinks. Or maybe I am thinking about this wrong. Maybe the better analogy is that the brain is filled with a whole mess of highly skilled and adaptable workers who work in different departments but when one department closes down, those workers may move to another department.

Interesting. The mind is an incredibly weird and freaky thing.

winter season

Am home with a cold today. Ahh...the joys of the winter season.
Another thing about the winter season is that it is linked with a lot of different kinds of holidays and festiviies.

In my family, we do things a bit old school and celebrate the winter solistice. It is an old Chinese tradition. Basically, it means we get together with extended family and have a nice dinner. I'm sure there are traditionally other things associated with it, but we can barely manage to get our act together enough to do dinner.

It is also the season to chop down evergreen needle trees, bring them indoors for the sole purpose of decorating them and putting them on display. My husband, of Eastern European Jewish background, with a rabbi grandfather, has his first ever pagan winter solstice tree (aka Christmas tree in the States and European countries). He seems okay with it. His brother, on the other hand, is very much not okay with it. I can understand his brother's unease with Christmas. I worry a little that I am taking my husband away from his culture. As a second generation Chinese-American, I grew up with Christmas as an American holiday, much like July 4th and Thanksgiving. So to me, it isn't much a religious thing as it is an American thing. Also, it doesn't feel like I am violating my sense of cultural identity by participating in it- it isn't celebrating the birth of some culture that traditionally has done much to destroy my culture.

I am tired.

Last month was overwhelming. This month didn't start off too hot either.

I went away to California for a conference. I dislike business travel more and more as I get older. Found out that a conference proposal of mine was accepted (it was part of a symposium proposal). Great but it means a lot of work between now and April. A friend of mine, and also my old roomate, passed away. He died of bipolar disorder by committing suicide (it is still hard to type out those words). I had too many guests in for my two bedroom apartment. All that socializing sucked out what little energy I had left after dealing with jetlag and my friends death. Then found out that my husband was no longer going to be working come January (I misunderstood and thought it was end of January for some reason). On Nov 29th, I thought, how much more can we fit into this month?

A friend of mine told me that there is a southern American tradition of saying "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" first thing in the morning on the first day of the new month. I woke up and forgot. The first thing I said was something like, "Sorry, sweetie, did I wake you up?" to my husband. As I went through my day on Friday, Dec. 1st, I kept looking up at the sky to see if it would fall down. Well at about 1:45 in the afternoon, I found out that the father of a professor I work closely with had passed away. sigh.

I'll remember to say "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" next month. I think this month is shot. maybe since, it is the first day of the new year, the good luck will last all year!