these eyes

so there are actually other people who see this static. it's called "visual snow". i only see it in the dark but according to that website, there are people who see it all the time. i do sometimes experience those increased afterimages or trails though. they seem to float up and down for a while, longer than they should according to what i read about persistence of vision and the sensory memory in my cognitive psych text. i find these trails quite fascinating. and do you sometimes see a black spot that seems to be in the centre of vision wherever you look? i do and it seems like i'm not alone.

and you know what's funny? i made a disclaimer in the post below that i wasn't on lsd. the visual snow website indicates that phenomena associated with visual snow also occurs in people who are on certain drugs, including lsd. =O

in other news, i'm sure by now you must have heard or read about the austrian man who locked his daughter up in a hidden cellar in his house and fathered seven children with her? in the papers today, lydia gouardo, a french woman, describes how she suffered a similar ordeal for 28 years, but what blows my mind is what she says at the end of that article and i am immediately ashamed of myself for not wanting to wake up in the morning sometimes, for wishing death or wasting my life away in despair.

Barely literate, unemployed, she hides her burn scars under long-sleeved clothes - but says she is happy to have survived.

"When I think of what I've been through, I wonder how it's possible. Every day when I open the front door, I take a deep breath.

"I live from day to day. But I love life. When people complain, I say life is beautiful," she told RTL.

"I am fighting back now. When a bill comes through the door, I am happy. I am here, I exist."

what grace she must have to say such a thing. those such as her, they are our real-life everyday heroes.