Just wondering.......

[RickyMaveety]

Sounds like you have a higher ratio of cones to rods than most people. I feel for your friend with the UV sensitivity ... that would suck so much.

My little peculiarities have never resulted in much other than endless hours of entertainment. Because I seldom do things with only one eye open, and my color vision is fine with both eyes, it just hasn't bothered me.

About the only time it can be ... well, maybe a little annoying ... is when I am in a really scary movie and sort of peeking at the screen out of one eye, or when I am lying on my side watching tv ... like almost asleep ... and just open one eye to watch for a bit. Watching people's skin go all strange colors does tend to detract some from the film.

Other "oddities" are as follows:

Normal body temp for me is 97.2 F
I never had several of my permanent teeth, so my baby teeth didn't fall out in those spots
My skin does not react to certain enzymes and chemicals that normally damage skin, however, it is otherwise supersensitive
Several of my body chemistry values are way out of normal range (blood sugar is almost constantly in the 50-80 range, potassium is always low, cholesterol is ridiculously low)
Already mentioned the eye anomoly
I hear at a slightly broader range of frequencies than most adults
I heal from injuries very fast (in general)
and scar tissue, when it does form, is usually very soft and pliable.

And, no .... I don't have super human powers, and no ... I am not an alien. I just have a number of things about me that do not lie in the "usual" spot on the bell curve.

The body temp thing has probably caused me the most trouble. As a little kid, I could be a sick as a dog, and the school nurse would refuse to send me home because my temperature was 98.6F. If she had understood that I had a 1.4 degree temperature, the equivalent of 100F in any of her other charges, I would have been sent home in a heartbeat.

I learned early on that LIFE is not always very fair.

Originally Posted by nekokami

Ah. Much is explained.

I had a coworker once who could see into the UV range, and saw other colors rather differently from most people. He had to abandon his intended career in computer engineering after his first visit to a fab plant where he was exposed to the kinds of UV lamps they use for photoetching the silicon. The lighting was very painful.

I see unusually well in the dark (enough to startle people who see me reading with insufficient lighting), but also have no problem with sunlight. But a few years back I discovered that I don't have as much contrast perception in medium light situations as other people. We were all looking at some boats crossing a lake, and others could see where the wake was, whereas I couldn't. I think this has a negative impact on my enjoyment of my eink screen, unfortunately. A higher-contrast screen is one of the few enhancements that could push me into an early device upgrade.

[RWood]

My wife believes that a 300 Watt bulb provides about the minimum reading light level. I can read fine with a 60 W bulb. For the Sony 500 a 75 W bulb is better.

[UncleDuke]

200 w bulbs or sunlight

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by UncleDuke

200 w bulbs or sunlight

Take your sunglasses off, dude.

[tirsales]

Actually reading with a 7W energy-saving bulb ...

I'm 24 years old and read ... since I can remember. I know nobody who reads as fast as me (jupp, had this tested) which is good for learning. But it means that I have to re-read books quite often - I simply couldnt buy enough books.

I can actually learn/work with a TV/Radio/etc working - dont care about stuff like that. Whenever I am stuck (e.g. while programming) I watch some scenes or listen to the radio. I found to be more productive that way.
But I cant sleep with any sound. I cant even sleep while hearing my own breathing. So I always sleep using earplugs.

Oddities? A lot

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by tirsales

Actually reading with a 7W energy-saving bulb ...

I'm 24 years old and read ... since I can remember. I know nobody who reads as fast as me (jupp, had this tested) which is good for learning. But it means that I have to re-read books quite often - I simply couldnt buy enough books.

I can actually learn/work with a TV/Radio/etc working - dont care about stuff like that. Whenever I am stuck (e.g. while programming) I watch some scenes or listen to the radio. I found to be more productive that way.
But I cant sleep with any sound. I cant even sleep while hearing my own breathing. So I always sleep using earplugs.

Oddities? A lot

I can't do that .... because then I hear my own heart beating ... and for some reason that gives me nightmares.

Don't know why ... it just does.

[tirsales]

Thats why I use very soft earplugs. Softer earplugs means more comfort - and not hearing your own heart beating.
They arent filtering louder noises (e.g. I could hear the vacuumcleaner or my alarm clock) but are sufficient for normal noise (e.g. snoring/breathing, cars driving past the house, etc)

[WDecraene]

Also, hard earplugs deform your inner ear. Which is not good for a reason I don't know. Myself I use the classic 'boules quies' who are made of wax. I find them still the best.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

.... because then I hear my own heart beating ...

Wait until it is there ALL the time (mind, at least you know you're still alive and kicking ), plus a tuning fork and for good measure a whine.

Then travel in a car/bus/train where every little movement reverberates through your head. It stopped me jogging; every time my foot hit the ground there would be the echo of my heel then the toe [for each foot].

Try meditating, they say, I did and things got louder....

Now I can't wear hearing aids to bring in outside noise, those in my head have got louder and more intrusive....

Still, I'm alive and kicking....

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by RWood

In my childhood my Father would go to the local bookstore on Friday after work and buy a few paperbacks -- Matt Helm, Doc Savage, and the like -- and proceed to lie on the couch for the weekend and read them one after another. I got the Doc Savage and that type of book after he finished them and what was left went in paper shopping bags for my Uncle to read later. In an average weekend my Father would finish 3 to 5 books, watch (read or sleep) a baseball game or two, spend one night playing bridge with another couple, and (seasonally) tell me to go out and mow the lawn or shovel the sidewalk. (The last part was a bit of a problem when we lived in an apartment for a few years.)

I still have the Doc Savage books in a box in the basement.

Interesting, neither of my parents read, other than newspaper and the occasional magazine. I've never seen them with a paper- or hard-book... and my mother was a teacher!...

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by tirsales

Thats why I use very soft earplugs. Softer earplugs means more comfort - and not hearing your own heart beating.
They arent filtering louder noises (e.g. I could hear the vacuumcleaner or my alarm clock) but are sufficient for normal noise (e.g. snoring/breathing, cars driving past the house, etc)

Oh gosh .... I can't even lie on my side with a pillow under my ear and not hear my heart beating. For years now, I have slept sitting up ... partly to help with breathing, but also so I don't hear that thumping from my heart.

It's not the sound that I hate really ... it's just that it always triggers this one stupid recurring nightmare (which is so simple and not scary that I can not understand why it makes me wake up screaming).

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Wait until it is there ALL the time (mind, at least you know you're still alive and kicking ), plus a tuning fork and for good measure a whine.

Then travel in a car/bus/train where every little movement reverberates through your head. It stopped me jogging; every time my foot hit the ground there would be the echo of my heel then the toe [for each foot].

Try meditating, they say, I did and things got louder....

Now I can't wear hearing aids to bring in outside noise, those in my head have got louder and more intrusive....

Still, I'm alive and kicking....

OK .... well, if I lived in your body with my nightmares, I would not get a lot of sleep. I guess I should just be grateful all I have to so is sleep sitting up.

[nekokami]

I've had the body temp problem, too. Mine is usually about 97 flat, except when I've just had a hot shower. The only other peculiar parameter I know of is my blood pressure, which is always very low. (Only occasionally so low that it causes concern, though.)

I've always had some "ringing" in my ears, enough that I never understood what people were talking about when they discussed it, since it's always there. But last year I had a bad sinus infection and temporarily lost some of my hearing due to blockage. Just as the brain can sometimes "manufacture" input when one is in complete darkness, my brain decided to make something out of the white noise and absence of noise my ears were passing along. The startling thing was that my brain decided I was listening to... new original music as played by the Count Basie Orchestra. Or Mozart-ish stuff, with a full symphony orchestra. Or Bing Crosby. Not that I have any objection to any of these, but I was rather startled to find that my brain was able to compose this much detail on the fly, particularly the complex bass lines, which I'd never thought I paid that much attention to. It was a little freaky, but kind of fun, too. Since then, I've worked a little on actually composing a small amount of instrumental music from scratch. Nothing worth sharing at this point, but it's something new to be doing.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I've had the body temp problem, too. Mine is usually about 97 flat, except when I've just had a hot shower. The only other peculiar parameter I know of is my blood pressure, which is always very low. (Only occasionally so low that it causes concern, though.)

I've always had some "ringing" in my ears, enough that I never understood what people were talking about when they discussed it, since it's always there. But last year I had a bad sinus infection and temporarily lost some of my hearing due to blockage. Just as the brain can sometimes "manufacture" input when one is in complete darkness, my brain decided to make something out of the white noise and absence of noise my ears were passing along. The startling thing was that my brain decided I was listening to... new original music as played by the Count Basie Orchestra. Or Mozart-ish stuff, with a full symphony orchestra. Or Bing Crosby. Not that I have any objection to any of these, but I was rather startled to find that my brain was able to compose this much detail on the fly, particularly the complex bass lines, which I'd never thought I paid that much attention to. It was a little freaky, but kind of fun, too. Since then, I've worked a little on actually composing a small amount of instrumental music from scratch. Nothing worth sharing at this point, but it's something new to be doing.

Oh .... sorry, but that is so neat!! I never met anyone else with a low "normal" body temp. Finally!! I don't feel so alone.

I have rarely ... very rarely ... had audio halucinations when I have been sick. In fact, there have been times that I did not realize I had a fever, until my ears started making up input. However, I have never had orchestral hallucinations ... mine are just VERY LOUD VOICES saying a word here or there. There was one time, just me and the cats, middle of the night ... I'm in bed reading, when I hear a loud HELLO! right next to my ear. It really made me jump! So, I got up, went into the bathroom and took my temp. 105 degrees (F of course).

I was sort of hoping it would be 97.2 and one of the cats would have suddenly started talking .... oh, man ... the money I could have made off of a talking cat.

[slayda]

My mother ran 96.8 degrees. None of the doctors would believe her either. Maybe it's a woman thing. I definitely did not inherit it.