Spin Control

Which way is this girl spinning?

The New York Times had a blog entry about this image that puts to rest the notion that the image of the spinning dancer is a test of right-brain, left-brain dominance. It's merely an optical illusion and you-- yes you--- can control which way you think the dancer spins.

You need a healthy imagination and an ability to stare at her hips and butt, rather than her breasts. You can control her spin by imagining the top thigh line or the curve of her hip on the leg with the pointed toe.

When her toe is pointed to your right, you can make yourself “perceive” that her right hip is pointed toward you and she starts spinning in a clockwise position. When her toe is pointed to your left, you can “perceive” that her left hip is pointed toward you and and she starts spinning counterclockwise.

I can get it so that she sort of lazily swings back and forth in front of me, never turning her back.

What's really funny is the conspiracy theorists on the New York Times blog who are convinced that there is no illusion at all, but an animation of a dancer randomly changing her spin.

Heave ho!

My latest project in my own angst-filled life is what I am starting to call the Great Purge. I want to get rid of the clutter that has accumulated in the 13 years of my adult life. I also need to figure out why it accumulates in the first place, but no one wants to hear about that.

Paper: I hate shredding, and the loud noise and all the floaty bits of paper, so all those credit card offers and 15-year-old bank statements just keep piling up. Fortunately, I discovered that there are places that can take care of that for you (and yes, I called to make sure they still exist).

Random electronics: I have obsolete and broken appliances and electronics that seem to pile up. I have a radio/CD player/tape deck that I never use. (However, if I get rid of it, I have nothing to play the tapes I never play.) I use my boombox from high school more often because of its simplicity and its ability to get radio stations, but the tape deck on it is busted.

I have an upright vacuum cleaner that lets off some light smoke when operated. I need to get a new vacuum cleaner, and I'm a litte disturbed that someone who hates cleaning as much as I do will own three vacuum cleaners by the end of today. (Long, boring story and this post will already be too long.)

I have a bondi blue iMac. The iMac, historic and cute as it is, is going to the recycler as soon as I back up the data. The Palm Pilot has recently been gathering dust, but I am thinking of pressing the Palm Pilot back into service, because I am frightfully time disorganized as well.

Clothing: I am having trouble figuring out how someone who wears the same damn thing to work every day and hates to shop has accumulated so many clothes. I see a trip to Goodwill in my immediate future. I think it's because I've remained about the same size for a number of years (I'm not bragging about that --- that is starting to change in an upward, non-positive, direction recently, but that's for another post).

I have treated my clothes like I treat my vehicle --- I take care of it until it completely breaks down (I recently threw away a few go-to shirts that I've had since college and high school because of the fraying edges), but I guess I have to be a little more brutal about getting rid of clothing. It's just too bad that those hippie-skirts that I wore in high school are starting to come back into fashion....

I am actually a little disturbed about how all these little bits of things that impeded on the parts of my life that I enjoy more and find more important. I'm starting to throw a little money at the problem, as they say, so The Great Purge may also refer to the bank account.

don't know much about history?

This post serves two purposes: one is was just a way to push down the posts, so that the first thing that people see when they get to this blog is NOT two animated gifs.

The second is to just make an observation. As some of you know, I love the Lovin' Spoonful as much as, if not more than, the next guy, especially when we see clips like this:

And this:

And while I would have loved to see them perform live, I don't understand the people on YouTube who make comments like, "Life was so cool in the 1960s and early 70s." Or "Why couldn't I have been born in the 1950s, so I could enjoy this music?"

I guess it should be a good thing that people these days have no clue about the draft, or about the threat of nuclear annihilation? Well, maybe all that stuff made the music good, I don't know...