very restrained optimism

Actually my first reponse was fairly unrestrained glee, but I'm trying to keep in mind that this is tentative. I just talked to one of my doctors (a nurse practitioner, technically) because I had called and left him a voicemail yesterday about my ongoing dizziness, sometimes pretty damn severe.

He agrees that the cold I got last weekend is probably making things worse, but he also believes, based on what I've told him, that there's a good chance that this is due to calcium deposits like tiny pebbles in my inner ear. He says there's an over the counter antivertigo medicine I should try (Bonine), and he has some exercises to fax me.

This isn't something I've ever heard of before, but in some ways it seems to fit pretty well. I haven't had any significant fever (maybe a touch from the cold), no other symptoms other being very tired (again, probably the cold plus some stress, and by now half the stress is worrying over this medical mystery - work is actually going quite well.) I do tend to move my head around a lot even when I'm sitting still, a habit I developed a long time ago to help compensate for slightly wonky hearing - it's easier if I look at who I'm listening to. Time will tell... I'm curious just what these exercises will be. I'm also relieved all out of proportion at the idea that someone has some idea what the hell is wrong with me - I know it's not a sure cure, but the scariest part of this to me has been the idea that's something wrong, and it's very vague, and no one seems to be able to tell me what's going on. For right now, at least, I can be optimistic.

found it!

I ran into a very interesting concept a while ago but couldn't remember where, and I was trying to explain it to ACat a week or two back with the scraps I still remembered. It's called the Uncanny Valley, and the idea is that our reactions to a robot (or animated figure, or presumably a doll or other visual depiction) depend on how true to human they appear. The closer to human the more appealing, you might think - but it's not quite that simple. It's very interesting, and I just ran into it again, though I'm pretty sure it's not where I found it the first time.

http://www.wordspy.com/words/uncannyvalley.asp


Anyhow, the context in which I was trying to discuss this with ACat was in relation to Michael Jackson. Look at some of the recent photos - I think he's fallen right into that valley....