Ifferjenn Independent

Taken on my cameraphone during a photowalk with John. Photoshopped just a little to get an artsy effect.

This past weekend, we strolled down to the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championships, which happened to be on Lake Quinsig. I didn’t know very many of the schools there, and no one who was actually racing, so I got a bunch of cool pictures of I-don’t-know-what. This one was taken from the judges’ island, which was the only place anyone noticed I was there taking pictures.

Worcester Police’s Boat Garage on Lake Quinsig

Okay, so I was going to have a picture for today, but I’m just now getting them off the camera. Why? Well, I’ve turned into a full-fledged geek this weekend. Not only did I upgrade the memory on the Wii (then figured out the only reason it wasn’t saving the GameCube games was that that save cartridge was in backwards), but I took apart a laptop completely. Why would you do that? Well, if you want to replace the fan on a laptop, apparently you do so through the keyboard. Which means every single component has to be taken out.

Oy!

I’m most impressed, however, that despite a stripped screw that had to be drilled out, I got the whole thing apart. Even more impressive, I got the whole thing back together. With only seven screws left over! And, and, AND everything works!! Well, the hard drive needed to be replaced too, and after pounding the stuck screws with a hammer and screwdriver, that got changed, and windows was re-installed.

And all the little geeks lived happily ever after. The end.

Two things I found out with my last post:

1. If you leave WordPress alone overnight it logs you out. But it doesn’t actually tell you that you’re logged out. You just get this on your screen:
   
   But note how they don’t say what you don’t have permission to do. So you can happily type out your blog entry and weep when you hit “Publish” and it sends you to the log in screen. Then you can write a worse blog entry. Which I’ll say happened, just in case you didn’t like my writing.
2. I learned how to screen capture on a Mac! Since there is the annoying lack of a “Print Screen” key.

I didn’t actually lose my entire entry because I didn’t log in. Just the paragraph after the quote due to HTML fail. Which somehow resolved itself. But trust me. The first time around, that paragraph was awesome.

On the ride home, I was listening to the radio. For me, listening to the radio is either a very active thing, or a very inactive thing. Most of the time, I’m not really paying attention, just using it as background noise. Then something will happen unexpectedly in the song, and I’ll be confused. This song in particular had a weird siren thing going on in the background, at which point I thought the cops were following me. They weren’t.

This time.

But it reminded me of going through the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD with my therapist. For inattentive ADHD (mine), you should exhibit 6 of these 9 criteria:

1. Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities.
2. Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities.
3. Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
4. Often does not follow instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions).
5. Often has trouble organizing activities.
6. Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn’t want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
7. Often loses things needed for tasks and activities (such as toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools).
8. Is often easily distracted.
9. Often forgetful in daily activities.

I exhibit all 9, just so you know. But for most of them, I’ve developed ways to cope. The music thing is  a perfect example. When people are talking to me, I can generally follow them most of the time. But I’ve also learned to watch them when they talk. That way, I am not only having the auditory stimulation, but also the visual stimulation from their face. Bonus points if they talk with their hands.

The radio seems to lack this visual stimulation, so it’s much easier for me to get distracted. This is harmless enough when I’m listening to music, but so much more frustrating when I’m trying to catch the traffic report. You see, the highways I drive on are generally at the end of the report…unless there’s a rollover or something else going on. So I have to listen the whole time. But usually a shiny car drives by, and next thing I know, they’re onto a commercial.

On the other hand, music actually does help me concentrate more. When I’m working, I need to be listening to something I’m familiar with. It helps to occupy my brain a little bit, and tame the easily distracted elf who runs my brain. That way, the Very Serious Elf can get some work done. And if there’s a paper to be written, I bust out the classical music, and the Very VERY Serious Elf takes over. My theory is that classical music is more regimented, so there’s less chance of a surprise.

Unlike this song. Where that little background ditty in the last verse distracts me every. single. time.

Yay! I finally got to meet my new nephew, Liam, after a month. He’s a very sweet, quiet, tiny baby. I love him already.

My first experiment with swapping out a sky. For the record, it was in the 50′s and rainy this day. And I’m not sure that this was MIT’s crew…