mind boggling indeed

[jeca_pereca]

yesterday i saw this girl i know who has been deaf since she was born. a couple of months ago she had surgery where they implanted a device in her head that allows her to hear for the first time in her life

Comments

[j_u_d_i]

That must be so weird. Especially now that we live in such a noisy world. Constant beeping blipping honking screeching. I hope the girl can cope! I wish her lots of luck.

[boyinstatic]

even in places we consider quiet, there's so much background noise we've learned to block out... right now there's AC blowing in my left ear, computers humming all around, low frequency street noise leaking through the windows...
the unstoppable hum:
http://www.raaf.org/Electronic_Works/Electronic1/UHum.html

[jeca_pereca]

i know! ever since i started thinking about all this i keep paying more attention to various sounds. i think we ignore about 95% of the sounds we hear as irrelevant. but that comes from years and years of training. hopefully she'll be able to get around all this much faster!

ps. i just saw you on newbury -- you were having coffee and i waved but i don't think you saw me.

[boyinstatic]

oh no! i didn't see you. i'm usually fairly clueless to people around me, but especially so on the street. sorry!

[jeca_pereca]

oh no problem, i figured you were deep in thought or something. i am sure you are still under the influence of your european tour : )

[jeca_pereca]

she works in the lab like i do, and her huge revelation was that *everything* makes noise. you start something, it beeps, you end something, it beeps, the constant hum of the refrigirators and the a/c system. crazy! i pay so much more attention now to all the various noises.