do you see what you see?

check out this link on visual perception:
http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/colourPerception/colourPerception.html

I'm still stuck on illusion #1 -- seriously, spooky!

Thanks amit for the tip!

maybe it is carma?

yes car-ma... i've been super busy lately and over the last 24 hours my car has forced me to take it a step slower. I thought I was having the most ridiculous 24 hours, but in fact, the end result has been a slightly more relaxed me.

here's the deal:
yesterday i left work a bit early to carpool home with my friend julie and to get home early to prepare for my dinner guests (mike and buddy were coming over for bbq so i could thank them for putting my grill together!). We got down to my car and i push my alarm clicker to turn off the alarm on my car and unlock the doors. the clicker is DEAD. hmmm. So, I open the door with the key (which felt really novel, you know to actually unlock the door...i haven't done that in years) and the alarm goes off, but i'm thinking that I can put the key in the ignition and the alarm will recognize that I have THE key and turn off. Not so. In fact, quite the opposite. My car turns itself completely off. I guess I had one of those alarms that when it is going off and someone trys to start the car it thinks it is being stolen so it turns off the starter. Which is, uhm great as an anti-theft device...but well, not so good for me at this particular moment. It turns out I need to turn the car alarm off using some switch that I can't find and tapping some combination... i have no recollection of EVER being trained on this part of my car alarm....as we quickly realize we aren't getting home in my car, we bum a ride from our saviour, Morgan! The upside is that we were legally able to drive in the HOV lane all the way home! yeah! and i didn't have to drive in traffic! double yeah! Dinner with smuga and buddy was great, we chatted, walked around the neighborhood and imagined all sorts of things....

So on sat, after walking to breakfast, Julie (saviour #2) drove me back out to Redmond to pick up my car -- thankfully I have a second set of keys with a working alarm clicker. With all the car stuff settled, I decided to get some errands done.

One of the fun things I get to do as a result of my remodel is laundry at the *laundromat*! yes! My washer and dryer are out of commission for the entire summer as my basement is completely revamped. Did you know that the laundromat doesn't take quarters anymore? You have to buy a special debit card with a smartcard chip. Seriously for $3! Anyways, so i am doing my laundry and I go back out to my car to get my lavendar softner and realize that I have LOST my car key! Really. This means I have to walk home, get my other car key and then walk back. My home is about 1.5 miles from the laundromat -- downhill home and uphill back. It is 85 degrees outside. ick! But alas, I make the walk home, get my keys and Kinsey (the dog who's with me for the weekend) and trek back uphill to my laundry and to retrieve my car....

net-net: as a result of not having the car for 20 hours I did a lot more walking. My body is tired, but I feel good. I would like to say that I am considering giving up my car, but i'm not. but i do think that adopting more walking would be a good idea. hmmm.

weather 98119 = rainy

i've been complaining to JB about the crap weather we've been having in seattle. Where is this sunshine people keep talking about??? He sent me the images below, which did completely brighten my day. I particularly enjoyed that it was overcast and hot and humid in his zipcode (DC).



weather in 98119 =

happy birthday sheila!

today is my sister's birthday. yippee. my mum is throwing her a suburbanite party tomorrow at their house complete with an ice-cream cake. I sent her the picture below as a well wishing..we've been suspicious about our cat's origin for some time and this picture defintely prooves his foreign origins.

MIT blogger survey....

i wished they had a free comment / feedback section so that i could add some texture to my answers! Maybe they will have focus groups...

anyways...



i do recommend completing the survey.

Blog on.

phew!

Thanks to a comment from Stephen i figured out how to fix my blog format woes -- just when blogger buzz posted a fix.

This means i won't have to update my blog format immediately, but it did get me thinking that perhaps that would be fun. So right now i'm sort of doodling redesign options. I found this page of color schemes (via Amitp) ... what do you'all think of Blix and Sevenest?

formatting gone haywire...

For those of you actually visiting my blog (i.e. not reading it via bloglines/RSS) you might notice that the formatting has gone a little bit screwy. It looks like, according to a post on the Blogger Status Blog and on Blogger Buzz, that the new blogger release of image hosting has caused some blog formats to go askew -- and mine was one of them. Now, all things considered my blog template is pretty much a hacked piece of code mangled further by me :) ... but i've sent an e-mail on to blogger support and so hopefully we'll be able to save my format...if not, i may actually have to re-do my blog format which i've been considering doing for months...but need something to get me to actually *have to* do it...

If you feel the need to see what my blog used to look like, check out the wayback machine :)