three quarters and a map

[harborshore]

Tagged by halflinen:

- List 7 habits/quirks/facts.
- Tag 7 people to do the same.
- Don't tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag 'whoever wants to do it'.



1. I can't sit on a desk chair like a normal person. I'm always curling up weirdly, sitting on one of my feet, kneeling on the seat, or tilting oddly. And I switch positions really, really often.

2. I read ridiculously fast. When I was a kid, other kids would think I was lying about reading as fast as I did, and so they'd make me read a page and tell them what it said. This is less about aptitude and more about diligent practice (or at least it's equal parts of both)--I was very bored in class in elementary school, so I'd leave a book open in my desk and tilt it open so I could read during class.

3. I own between 32 and 37 scarves. The uncertainty about the exact numbers is because I keep giving them away AND buying new ones. I also own about ten pairs of colorful/interestingly patterned/boringly monochrome knee socks. I have a scarves-and-socks problem.

4. When I have to go through painful medical/dental procedures, I recite "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" and other super-long Dylan songs in my head.

5. A strand of my hair can hold 56 grams of weight. This is unusually strong, they told me at the Children's Museum (I believe I was 11 at the time). So I have Good Hair? Or something? (On the other hand, I have Troublesome Teeth.)

6. I'm bilingual. (I know, you're all shocked now.) It's even more apparent at the moment, because I get to do my coursework in English this semester, so the spoken patterns are coming back as well (they always recede a little the longer I'm in Sweden). ETA: I should clarify--this makes my bilingualism messier, not neater. It's harder to keep the languages separate when I'm using them in, uh, close proximity to one another.

7. I had a hearing problem until I was twelve, when I somehow grew in a way that tilted my skull differently and allowed the channels (?) in my ear to become more open. Or that's how it was explained to me, at least.



Oh, I'm supposed to tag people, am I? Um, very randomly (and only do it if you want to!): novembersmith, blindmouse, erraticonstilts, fleurdeliser, torakowalski, lordessrenegade and jubella.

Comments

Random medical facts you don't care about for $1000, Alex.

[bayleaf.livejournal.com]

re: #7, from the (pretty spot-on) description, it sounds like a eustachian tube problem. There's three sections of the ear (outer, middle, and inner), and each has a slightly different function in the hearing process. The part of the ear you can see on the side of your head = the pinna, and it and your ear canal are to collect and funnel sound to your eardrum. The eardrum marks the start of the middle ear, which is an air-filled space w/ a series of 3 bones that act like a bridge across the gap. The purpose of the middle ear is impedance matching, which is to say overcome the difference in the way sound carries in air versus water. One side of the bony bridge (called the ossicular chain) is connected to the ear drum, the other to the oval window, which is the start of the inner ear. The inner ear is filled w/ fluid, and when a soundwave hits your eardrum and causes the ossicular chain to jiggle, it sets up a series of water waves in your inner ear. These waves make the ear send a signal to your brain saying you heard something.

If anything goes wrong in any of the three sections of the ear, you can have a hearing loss. These hearing losses fall into one of two categories: problems in the outer or middle ear mean sound isn't moved from one place to another like it's supposed to be; that's called conductive hearing loss. Problems in the inner ear result in an inability to detect sound and/or send a message to the brain when a sound is detected. That's called a sensory/neural or sensorineural hearing loss.

The middle ear is connected to the outside only by the Eustachian Tube. It's function is to equalize air pressure (which is why you hear a little 'pop' when you're driving up a mountain or in an airplane. The tube opened up and air rushed in or out to try to make the pressure behind your eardrum equal the pressure in front of it.) If, for whatever reason, the tube can't open, there is a pressure differential and the eardrum can't move efficiently, which can cause a hearing loss.

Although that kind of loss is generally mild, ET problems can also cause fluid to build up behind the eardrums, which causes a much more significant hearing loss. If the tube function improves, however, the problem goes away.

Er. Which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than you ever wanted to know about that. Um. Nice scarves?

Re: Random medical facts you don't care about for $1000, Alex.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

Dude, this was awesome! It also sounds a lot like how they explained it, except this time I understand (and your explanation was more thorough) because, you know, I'm not twelve anymore. It also explains why I got ear infections so easily (it took a lot less for stuff to build up). Thank you!