Mood: Bored, bored, bored... but too lazy too do anything about it.
Currently listening to: Mambo Italiano - Dean Martin

Well... i've got nothing for today's post.

Nada.

Zilch.

Squat.

Rien.

All i did today was wash the cars with my brother (accompanied by ska and swing music on a bright sunny day), exercise, and laze around at home for the rest of the day watching HBO and the BBC.

Addendum: Met up with Leonard for mamak for a short while. Too short a while as whiles go. *sigh*

This should be an ideal situation for most but i can't seem to appreciate that fact because, dammit, the lethargy is KILLING me!!!

*sigh*

And now, to make matters worse, my brother's managed to snag a job as 'Santa's photographer' and before you start snickering you should know that he's making around RM60/evening for 6 hours work with a 3 hour break in the middle.

Dammit.

I just hope he has to dress in some silly elf costume.

Hrmm... this should normally be a great opportunity to write about my opinions on any mildly thought provoking subject or even do some written introspection but... its just not worth the trouble.

Lethargy is, like, 'teh ebil'.

Instead, i think i'll just do some quizzes accompanied by half-hearted comments.

I blame Tedy.

You Are a Liberal Republican

When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you. That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights. You're also not so afraid of big goverment, as long as it benefits people and not politicians. You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes.

I think not.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

Oh, the irony of coupling this quiz with today's post...

You are 80% Libra

I guess so...

Your Element Is Air

You dislike conflict, and you've been able to rise above the angst of the world. And when things don't go your way, you know they'll blow over quickly. Easygoing, you tend to find joy from the simple things in life. You roll with the punches, and as a result, your life is light and cheerful. You find it easy to adapt to most situations, and you're an open person. With you, what you see is what you get... and people love that!

Meh.

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connect to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

I don't FEEL like a damn visionary at the moment...

Right, one news article and i'm outta here. Random websurfing beckons.

Blind man can 'see emotion'

Article here.

A COMPLETELY blind British man had been shown to possess an apparent "sixth sense" which let him recognise emotions on people's faces, British scientists said in research released today.

The 52-year-old was able to react to pictures of human faces showing emotions such as anger, happiness or fear, the researchers said.

The man, identified only as "patient X", has suffered two strokes which damaged the brain areas that process visual signals, leaving him completely blind.

However his eyes and optic nerves are intact, and brain scans showed that he appeared to somehow use a part of the brain not usually used for sight to process visual signals linked to some emotions.

When researchers from the University of Wales showed the man images of shapes such as circles and squares, he could only guess what they were, and had a similar lack of success determining the gender of emotionless male and female faces.

But when presented with angry or happy human faces, his accuracy improved to 59 per cent, significantly better than what would be expected by random chance, with similar results for distinguishing between sad and happy or fearful and happy faces.

He was unable, however, to tell apart images of animals which appeared either threatening or non-threatening.

Brain scans showed that when the man looked at faces expressing emotion, it activated a part of his brain called the right amygdala, which is known to respond to non-verbal emotional signs.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggested the man was able to process information gathered by his eyes in a different part of the brain from the visual centre.

"This discovery is... interesting for behavioural scientists as the right amygdala has been associated with subliminal processing of emotional stimuli in clinically healthy individuals," said Dr Alan Pegna, who led the study.

"What patient X has assisted us in establishing is that this area undoubtedly processes visual facial signals connected with all types of emotional facial expressions."