I was reading an article directed towards clinicians about desensitization
treatments for panic-inducing specific phobias. One thing they mentioned is
that you put a definite time-limit on the exposure. Agreeing to the time
limit ahead of time with the patient is supposed to make the patient more
receptive to the exposure.

They gave the example of agreeing with the patient that the you-know-what
would stay in the terrarium, and the terrarium would only be in the room for
five minutes. As a patient, this would not be at all comforting, because a)
that means that there is a you-know-what in the OTHER room (what if it
escapes???), and b) the clinician is PERFECTLY FINE with the fact that
there's a you-know-what in a terrarium in their office ALL DAY, and
therefore can't possibly be sympathetic to how distressed I might be
feeling. This also implies that the clinician takes care of it and keeps it
alive, which makes the clinician EVIL and TAINTED because they are actively
contributing to the well-being of a you-know-what.

I think I need desensitization therapy desensitization therapy before I can
undertake phobia desensitization therapy.

As a follow-up to my recent post about childhood misconceptions, I recently rediscovered IUsedToBelieve.com. It's always good for a giggle.

I've noticed a lot of recent books have "A note about the type" in the back,
discussing the fonts used and their history. Is that a recent thing or have
I just been reading the wrong books?

I saw a house with Greek letters on it. Here. In Toronto. I didn't think
those existed north of the border. Scary.

From the Headlines That Don't Sound Quite Newsworthy file:

Newmarket Girls Approached by Man

A mixed blessing of living by myself is that when I buy a nice basket of
lovely ripe juicy Ontario peaches, there's nothing to stop me from eating
them all in one day.

They need to invent an international signal for "Sorry, downstairs!" For
when you accidentally drop something heavy on the floor of your apartment.

Someone should invent an online Quizilla-like quiz that determines your GAF
score

From the Ridiculously Petty Things That Amuse Me file:

Brazilian volleyball players' bras say "BRA" on them.

I'm sorry, but those Greek soldier guys in the medal ceremony are SO doing a
silly walk!

Kings of Infinite Space by James Hynes

This is a rather strange book because it is essentially a horror/zombie
movie. I've never read a zombie movie in a book before, and I really don't
think it's the best medium for this genre. However, it isn't a genre I'm
overly fond of either, so I'm not exactly qualified to comment on this.

The Body by Hanif Kureishi

A rather experimental sort of book about an older man who gets his brain
transplanted into a younger body. It is very short - only about 150 pages -
and because of that it doesn't go as deep as I'd want it to. The
protagonist basically lists what happens after he gets his new body and
hardly mentions his thoughts and feelings, as though it wasn't really
happening to him (which, I suppose, in a way it wasn't), and the book ends
just as things start getting interesting. I think this was a case of the
author writing less than he could have for fear of rambling on and on, but
it makes the book less interesting than it could have been.

I wonder how they invented rhythmic gymnastics? I wonder how people got into it before it became an Olympic sport? Imagine trying to explain it to people before it became well-known? I wonder how they thought of the whole ribbon thing?

I don't know if it's just thew ay they're editing it or what, but it looks like the Olympic marathonists are crossing the finish line and then waving and celebrating instead of collapsoing on the ground and throwing up.

Strange things I thought when I was a child:

- I thought that Terry Fox had entered into a sort of binding magical contract, and when he had finished running across Canada, cancer would automatically be cured. Since he hadn't made it all the way, I thought that in our yearly Terry Fox Run we were each running a little bit of distance until the distance across Canada had been covered, and when the sum total of all Terry Fox runs had covered the distance across Canada, cancer would be cured.

- I thought that when I grew up, I would be required to live in Hamilton and commute to Toronto. Living elsewhere or working elsewhere simply would not be an option.

- There are two holes in a toilet bowl. I thought that the small one at the front was for urine, and the big one at the back was for feces.

Somehow, I can't explain how, I find MSN more conducive to typos than ICQ. In ICQ I just automatically go back and correct my typos, and in MSN I don't. Even when using Trillian, MSN conversations end up riddled with typos, and ICQ conversations don't.

From the Bizarro Olympic Sports department: a relay consisting of a
ridiculous number of runners running ridiculously short sprints. Like a
50x10m relay.

There should be an option in The Sims to throw anything out. Anything at all, a painting, a couch, dirty dishes, anything. I know you can go into Sell mode and delete stuff, but the Sims should be able to pick stuff up and throw it in the garbage can. And they should be able to do this themselves, of their own free will, if they don't like a lamp or something.

Fw:

I wonder if a long time ago, like in the Middle Ages, everyone had foetal
alcohol syndrome?

The Havana Room by Colin Harrison

It's a thriller, and I enjoyed it! I think that's only ever happened once
before! It's the story of a Manhattan lawyer whose whole life falls apart
around him, and then gets entangled in what at first looks like a simple
real estate transaction, but turns out to be a complicated mess that I'm not
going to describe further because it would spoil the book. Despite the fact
that it's a thriller, there's a mystery element, so the reader can try to
put the pieces together before the protagonist does. The plot dances on the
border of cliche, but every time it looks like it's going to cross that
line, some unexpected element (fish? WTF?) is thrown in there to make
things more interesting. By the time I was 150 pages from the end I
literally could not put it down - I had to stay up an hour or two past my
bedtime to finish it!