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the_siobhan) wrote2023-02-10 11:57 pm
Question of the Day: Umbrella Day
4 – Ice cream For Breakfast Day: Have you ever eaten ice cream for breakfast (or for any other meal)?
5 – World Nutella Day: Do you like Nutella? How often to you eat Nutella?
6 – Chopsticks Day: Can you eat with chopsticks? If yes, how often do you use them?
7 – World Ballet Day: Have you ever been to a ballet performance? If not, is this something that might interest you? Have you ever had ballet lessons?
8 – World Opera Day: Are you an opera buff?
9 – Read in the Bathtub Day: Do you read in the bath? Have you ever been reading in the bath and dropped your book into the water?
I have eaten ice cream for dinner. More frequently I have eaten potato chips for dinner. Nutella is great on ice cream (with almonds!) but other than that I don't eat it much. I honestly don't have a huge sweet tooth, so anything sweet is a very occasional indulgence. I can eat with chopsticks and own a few sets. (I find the Japanese style easier than the Chinese.) I have been to a small number of ballets and enjoyed them. I took ballet as a child and was thoroughly traumatized by the experience. I have been to much larger number of operas and thoroughly enjoyed them. I have a friend who at one time was very much into opera and ended up taking a lot of his friends to (performances? recitals? Not sure of the correct noun here.) and I was the lucky beneficiary on a number of occasions. Thanks to him I got to see the entire Ring Cycle and some modern composers who were fantastic. I may have read in a bathtub once or twice as an experiment but never really got the appeal. This might be partially because I am long and don't really fit in bathtubs very well.
10 – Umbrella Day: Umbrella or raincoat? Do you carry an umbrella or raincoat “just in case” if the weather looks doubtful, or do you take your chances? What types of umbrellas do you like? Do you keep umbrellas in different places, e.g. one at work, one in your car (if you have a car), to avoid being caught by unexpected rain?
So here's the thing.
I have a vestibular disorder, which means my balance is crap. Most people can kinda grasp what that means intellectually. Walking on ice is harder. Parkour is right out. Probably not doing any... gymnastics? Tightrope walking? But that's really it.
In real life it is way more than that. Vestibular is associated with hearing so loud noise make me dizzy. (concerts) Vision is part of how we orient ourselves in our environment, so lots of movement in my visual field makes me dizzy. (crowds) Ditto flashing or moving lights make me dizzy (that fucking Scotiabank movie theatre downtown, which is also LOUD and CROWDED). I can't chew gum and walk at the same time, I shit you not, something about moving my jaw like that confuses my sense of where my head is located in 3D space. (Talking and walking I can do, (I guess because it's less mechanical? No idea.) I went to some spiffy catered work event a few years ago and I couldn't have any of the free coffee or breakfast because there was no place to sit down. And the food looked really good too!) When it first happened stairs were hard because I could no longer trust my body sense of where my feet were but also looking down made me dizzy.
So anyway, lots of physio and it's mostly under control now yadda yadda, BUT, gravity storms are still an occasional thing. So it is always a thing where I don't like to carry stuff in my hands. (I have never carried a purse, I think purses are devices for ensuring that you lose all your possessions all at once) but also now I actually can't carry something that means my weight is not centred. And I really really need to have my hands free because I just might need to flail around like an idiot to figure out which way is up and where I am in three dimensional space, and I would rather not do that with a pointy object in my hand. This goes triple if I'm on a bus, because the way they move makes it just that more likely that I need to hold on.
So that is a long multi-paragraph way of saying "No I do not carry an umbrella."
Often, I will wear a hat.
**
Also I have been getting SO MUCH spam for something that will make me pee more prodigiously. Is that really a thing? I can see it being useful if I can just do it once and get it out of the way for the day, but other than that I don't see the appeal.
***
I spent some time with the Old Man today.
It was not good.[2]
I have spent the whole evening chewing the inside of my own head about this, and I think I need to talk to my sister about contingency plans. Because I may have legitimately hit the wall in terms of how much I can do for him.
***
[1] This will not last.
[2] Not getting into details because the man has the right to some privacy.
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The gravity storm thing is horrifying. I am clumsy enough as it is!
Also I have been getting SO MUCH spam for something that will make me pee more prodigiously. Is that really a thing?
I have been getting so much span in the past few weeks. Odd spam too, like someone in Cali is a poor parent and has signed up for things. The email (Clrue@aol.com) is consistent, but the places are maybe not real.
Prodigious pissing is doubtless something in the watersports community, and maybe people with prostrate issues. Seems weird,
It was not good.
Oh, that is not good.
My understanding is there are good patches and bad patches, and the cycle between them shrinks quickly.
I think contingency plans is worthwhile. If having cats has taught me one thing: you want to be prepared for the worst outcomes.
...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
All Asian countries all use different types of chopsticks. The Japanese, as they do with many things, make some that are artistic pieces, or at least nicely lacquered. I have several pairs, but they are harder to use. I suspect that in everyday life, and certainly if you go to an inexpensive restaurant, they just use ordinary ones.
If you are aware of specific other differences, please expound, I'd love to learn about it.
Re: ...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
But anyway, the chopsticks that Chinese restaurants use here are huge compared to the Japanese ones - thicker, longer and heavier. I have small hands and so I find them difficult to manipulate.
Re: ...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
interesting. most ppl prefer bigger ones bc find easier to grip. also lacquered ones being slick are harder to grip. also recall from somewhere that children start gripping nearer the tips (better leverage), but as you get older and have more control and refinement, you move your hands further back.
Re: ...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
I do recall somebody telling me that in their country there is a class difference in how chopsticks are held - holding chopsticks near the tip is the mark of a peasant, while a "refined" person would hold them closer to the ends. Of course now I can't remember who told me this so I have no idea what culture I'm talking about.
Re: ...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
´holding near the tip’ peasant or child. certainly japan, but probably other countries too. in montreal, all the best sushi restaurants are run by vietnamese
Re: ...differences between Chinese and Japanese chopsticks
I'd never noticed the differences before (rarely go to Chinese places, and foodhall-type places use the same wooden disposables I'd noticed were smaller than my chopsticks at home (the top on the wiki image) that I hate.
I assumed the disposables were short because they were cheaper.
I prefer the disposables. I have some plastic lightsabre chopsticks that are useless.
I'm pretty bad at chopsticks, especially with rice.
But I am charmed to know there is a vulcan grip.
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None of us stays caught up. Still, a nice feeling while it lasts.
Thank you for explaining vestibular dysfunction.
Don't know about World Whatever days, but to answer: 4 – Ice cream For Breakfast Day: Have you ever eaten ice cream for breakfast (or for any other meal)? Exactly as asked, no. However, have sometimes inadvertently, as after having an ice cream, didn't feel hungry for the next meal so didn't eat it. 5 – World Nutella Day: Do you like Nutella? How often to you eat Nutella? Never. 6 – Chopsticks Day: Can you eat with chopsticks? If yes, how often do you use them? Yes. A few times/month. Were going to make sure we taught the kids as part of their cultural heritage, but like many things we were 'gonna' just didn't happen as higher priorities. They'll learn like I did, when some time in my teen years, just felt it was more appropriate to use them when having Asian food. 7 – World Ballet Day: Have you ever been to a ballet performance? If not, is this something that might interest you? Have you ever had ballet lessons? A few. Lessons? Nope. 8 – World Opera Day: Are you an opera buff? You mean that thing where people who can't act are clunking around the stage, singing in a language I can't understand? 9 – Read in the Bathtub Day: Do you read in the bath? Have you ever been reading in the bath and dropped your book into the water? Rarely, but I do. Once actually had a stand to hold the book, but rarely used it, and lost it years ago. Somehow is supposed to be so relaxing and/or sensuous, but doesn't feel all that special to me. Probably have dropped the book into the water, but don't specifically recall when.
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It tends to flare any time I get a cold or something though, and that is a pretty regular occurrence with having two kids (aka pathogen vectors) in the house. :/ So although it’s mostly okay these days, I never know when it will go from annoying-but-okay to Five Alarm Bullshit. I don’t often find other people who deal with varying ongoing vertigo as well.
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Honestly my biggest problem is that the nerve isn't 100% dead - certain things trigger it to start sending garbage information and that's when I fall down.
The riding sounds really interesting and I'm definitely keeping that on the backburner for whenever I'm in the position that 100% of my income isn't going into the house. In the meantime yoga really helps.
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Is there any kind of treatment where they can just kind of… fry the nerve and take it out of commission?
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You know that is something that had genuinely never occurred to me. I should ask.
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So they told me.
(Similar problem here.)
Also super interesting about riding. I'm a former equestrian and we're still trying to figure out if this is post concussion syndrome with cervical involvement from ten years of falls, so I'm specifically *not* riding. Makes sense, though, the movement. Best therapy so far has been vestibular rehab, which is similar. They put Sidney Crosby in some kind of orbital machine, but us plebes don't get that kind of star treatment.
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The Thing proved somewhat amenable to diuretics, but my kidneys promptly went on strike and started throwing rocks at my ureters. So my neurologist tried a low dose of Effexor (venlafaxine), which appeared to stop the thing more or less in its tracks. (Fun fact: Effexor withdrawal produces a variety of symptoms within 18-24 hours after a missed dose, including... nausea and dizziness...)
Anyway, I'm interested that they found a specific cause for you, even though it sure as hell sucks (loud noise? in what universe is that fucking fair to an old punk??)
It's really hard for my partner to understand how something like "talking to me in low tones while standing in the wrong place in the room for my hearing aid to pick up" or "sitting at the wrong angle to a wall in a restaurant with super-bouncy acoustics" can make me almost uncontrollably grumpy and fragile because of the effect it has on my cognitive load and subjective balance, covered with that faint frisson of nausea. Stupid fucking ear design, Eddie Izzard really called it on that one.
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I went through a short period in my youth of only eating with chopsticks, because forks are annoying and my parents refused to let me use my fingers, so we compromised. I keep a set in my bag because you never know when you might need them and also they serve nicely as hair sticks. I always thought the difference between chinese and japanese chopsticks was that chinese were flat and japanese were round/pointy, but after reading the comments now I don't know how true that is.
Your ballet story is something. Always put the kids on the stage with no audience first, geez. Although it doesn't solve everything. When I lived briefly in New Jersey, I spent two weeks in some small New Jersey town working lights for a dance school end of the year recital. It was classes from three year olds up to high schoolers. The teens did several dances including an amazing one in heelies, and the three year olds did a very basic set of moves to 'Bob the Builder' (ohh, I don't have my Bob the Builder icon here!) and they came and practiced on the stage several times and still the first actual show some poor toddler vomited on stage when the curtain opened.
I keep old magazines for reading in the bath but I really only take a bath once a year or so.
On the umbrella thing, when I first moved to Portland for college, I bought an umbrella. Turns out no one who lives in the Pacific Northwest ever uses an umbrella. A lot of people seem to HAVE them but they only seem to come out if you're gonna be, like, watching a parade or something? I don't know. Rarely. Most of the time I just put my hood up on my hoodie.
Sorry about the old man. Oldness is difficult.