Stroke of Insight

Because some stories are just too good not to share:

(If the video won't play, go here to watch it on the TED site.)

The subject matter of this TED Talk is fascinating: a neuroanatomist experiences a stroke and gets to study her brain from the inside out. The speaker, Jill Bolte Taylor, is one of the most captivating I've ever seen. She moves fluidly from science to the spaces beyond science.

I'm musing on how the functions of the left and right sides of the brain, as well as how they connect, inform the way I write and the way I live.

(Thanks to Jenni Ballantyne for this link.)

How Cats Relax

Just in under the wire tonight for the fourth day of NaBloPoMo. I'll try to do better in the coming days, folks. But here, for your amusement, is a video of a cat getting a "massage." It really looks like the cat digs it. Just wait until you get to 2:02 on the video.

I sometimes give my 14-pound cat a few hearty taps on the hindquarters. My husband is afraid I'm going to hurt him and says, "He's not a dog!" I tell him that Gatwick likes it. Then I found this video which seems to put me in the running for being right!

Pirates of the Many Plots

I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean this week. It was the first of the double feature at the drive-in, so I figured what the hey? I vaguely remember seeing the first one and not hating it. I skipped the second, but no matter. These types of sequel franchises are always made to be self-contained, right?

We missed the beginning of the movie and were mostly to completely lost for the next two hours. I have no idea how much we missed, but figured it must have been a lot, either in terms of quantity or quality. By the end of the movie, James and I were still left saying, what the hey?

Apparently I'm not alone in my analysis. And it seems that seeing the whole movie may not have been much of a help. Here's someone who says it better than I could, because he's a ninja.

More Inspiration

One of my favorite moments is the man at 1min 13sec.

Fun with Video

My brother, who is a keen collector of odd online videos, introduced me to Glumbert.com, apparently run by a guy who is an even keener collector of such oddities. Some of the videos that David sent to me were downright disturbing, including a creepy montage of clips from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I mean, really, how can you make Mr. Rogers creepy? (Sadly, it can be done. But should it ever be done? I think we all can agree -- No. Okay, my brother wouldn't agree. But I'm still not linking to it.)

But here are some videos worth watching:

• All the President's Words (from Comedy Central)
• "I lost to Barry Manilow!" (from the 2006 Emmys)
• Crazy Frog Brothers (These techno-synching kids are awesome. You have to watch until the end of the video. What is the taller one swinging on? A rope? A curtain tie-back? Come to think of it, he looks like the pre-adolescent version of more than one of my teenage boyfriends!)
• Acoustic Outkast cover (This is bloody brilliant. The original version of "Hey Ya" is a lot of fun, but this cover is miles away from it and just beautiful. I tip my hat to Obadiah Parker, which is apparently a band, not a man.)