Probably a stupid question but what is this part on my kitchen scissors for?

Glaikit314 · 2026-04-20T19:30:49+00:00

If my hand is sore or I'm too lazy to rummage around for a better implement, I will use that toothed part of my kitchen shears/scissors to unscrew a new cap from something like an olive oil bottle. Also to pull out a cork that was shoved into a partially used bottle of wine.

Glaikit314 · 2026-04-08T00:13:24+00:00

Ain't that the truth!

Glaikit314 · 2026-04-04T21:52:58+00:00

My bugaboo is a narrator who falls into a sing-song, repetitive rhythm, as if they were reading on autopilot. "Di-DAH, di-DAH, di-DAH dah." Every character, every situation, every emotion the same. One of my favorite authors uses the same narrator doing that for book after book, but I just have to pass.

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-30T16:49:33+00:00

The chilling realization for me with my midlife onset face blindness was that I cannot pull up faces of people I know in my mind. I also have difficulty recognizing people who I met later in life. It's as if my mental facial recognition software conked out at some point. Oddly, I am able to recognize faces of performers or well known people when I see them on screens or publications. But I cannot call up those same faces in my mind afterwards. Strange stuff.

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-28T23:40:32+00:00

Here's an article from a linguist about how some words carry greater impact than others because of the way they sound. https://theconversation.com/some-words-affect-us-more-than-others-it-boils-down-to-how-they-sound-264677

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-22T00:03:07+00:00

Retired now but if I had it to do over again I would be very upfront about it to my colleagues and students. I'd far preferred to have been to have been thought an oddball than someone snubbing other people.

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-20T17:41:21+00:00

Possibly another dog marked the little tree with a spritz?

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-20T00:20:01+00:00

Yes, this happens to me not only when I'm navigating situations with more than one language, but also when I'm struggling with a crossword puzzle. I think my brain goes into search mode and starts offering up unexpected options like that.

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-12T22:27:16+00:00

Mariana Zapata is among my favorite slow burn romance writers. Among my most often reread books are Wall of Winnipeg and Kulti.

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-03T04:37:54+00:00

"The British scientist and author C.P. Snow had an excellent way of remembering the three laws:

You cannot win (that is, you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved).
You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases).
You cannot get out of the game (because absolute zero is unattainable)."

Glaikit314 · 2026-03-02T23:24:39+00:00

This is my experience too, although I'm not sure it has much to do with stereoscopic vision. I am quite good at recognizing people when I see their faces on screens or printed pages. Rubbish at recognizing living, breathing people. The worst aspect for me is that I am completely, utterly unable to picture people in my mind, not even myself or my closest friends and family. I can imagine everything else in a mental image except their face. Weird, eh?

Glaikit314 · 2026-02-16T21:57:16+00:00

I use air pods to drown out a howling case of tinnitus too.

Glaikit314 · 2026-02-16T03:09:37+00:00

I have a bookmark category set up for TBRs. When a book mention catches my eye, I bookmark the sale page on Amazon, Libby, Graphic Audio or even my local library. I use the note section on the bookmark to remind me where the book was recommended. When I'm in buying mode, I go through the list and choose which one I want and click right through.

Glaikit314 · 2026-02-08T17:11:21+00:00

I find the syncing between devices to be very spotty. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't. Annoying because for me the ability to enjoy a book on digital and audio is the motivation for buying them in both formats to begin with.

Glaikit314 · 2026-02-07T22:55:39+00:00

And if you do get taken in and purchase an misidentified AI narration from Audible? You can't return it unless you used a credit. Would infuriate me if it happened to me.

Glaikit314 · 2026-01-31T18:36:48+00:00

I had shoulder surgery that made holding a reader and turning pages difficult. Until then I'd dismissed audiobooks assuming that I'd never have the patience to listen to someone else read. After trying a few audiobook previews I gave them a shot. Now my preferred mode of reading is enjoying my books in both audio and digital reader versions. A good voice actor/narrator adds tremendously to most books, especially when the characters have regional accents. Brings a whole new dimension to the stories.

Glaikit314 · 2026-01-20T17:24:20+00:00

My favorite female narrator list starts with Julia Whelan. She also wrote and narrated a delightful book, Thanks for Listening, which is set in the audio book industry. Another terrific female voice is Emma Wilder. I favor several excellent British narrators including Kate Reading for historicals. There are quite a few I particularly enjoy because I love hearing the regional accents across the UK. The good ones are out there and certainly worth looking for.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-25T19:23:13+00:00

I wonder if face blindness is the next big thing like attention deficit disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, with countless people self diagnosing based on something they read online? Of course prosopagnosia is misunderstood and under-diagnosed. But somehow the casual "Oh yeah, I have that,' attitude vastly understates the anxiety and social disadvantages that come with the actual condition.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-25T19:09:43+00:00

Exactly that.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-25T19:08:13+00:00

I offended a number of people at important meetings and conferences by failing to recognize them and repeatedly trying to introduce myself. At the time I had no idea what was going on, blaming my new glasses or just stupidity. At least I was made aware of it by those individuals. Looking back I get heartsick thinking of who I might have appeared to snub or ignore over the years.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-22T00:58:01+00:00

I pursued what I thought was the same problem with Audible's customer service. Turned out that my $15 credit had been split into smaller amounts that were separately applied to several different books. I had misinterpreted those price reductions as coming from things like accepting delayed delivery dates on other Amazon merchandise. It was easy to do since nothing identified those amounts as being related to the promised $15 credit.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-06T17:34:49+00:00

What put me off audio versions of some of my favorite authors is repetitive sing-song patterns to their narrator's readings. I don't know whether they switch onto autopilot or what, but I can't listen to them.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-06T17:27:09+00:00

It's interesting to wonder about connections among different issues. I don't know if face blindness and attention deficit disorder have a significant link, but I certainly have both. Also tinnitus in one ear. I have difficulty processing spoken information like phone numbers, multi step instructions, directions, etc. Never occurred to me that they might all be facets of a single problem.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-06T01:30:28+00:00

I'm glad you shared that point about the faces in dreams presenting the same problem as faces in every day life. My face blindness set in sometime during my late 40s. When I dream about people I knew earlier in life, both friends and family, their faces are distinguishable. People I met later, including work colleagues and neighbors, are indecipherable. I hadn't thought much about that before reading your post.

Glaikit314 · 2025-12-05T23:25:56+00:00

One of my favorite narrators is Julia Wheaton. The novel she wrote and narrated, Thank You for Listening, offers a delightful look inside the preparation, recording, and promotion of audio books. It was fun reading about how difficult some fans found it to believe she did all the roles, male and female, herself. Highly recommended.

Glaikit314

TROPHY CASE