Run, mouse, run!

I spent three hours today going through a series of tests that included making shapes with blocks, reading off names of colours by ink colour rather than the word printed on the page, reciting back stories I'd heard, matching shapes, and the like. Basically it was a series of intelligence and cognitive tests. I feel like a mouse that's been let out of its maze. I'll get the results in a week or two, but the preliminary results were interesting, and it might help me ultimately do better in daily life and employment. I scored very high in verbal intelligence, within a couple of points of the old IQ test I took before junior high school, and in the 99 percentile of the population, but there's an indication that attention is an issue, and it's affecting my working memory. Years ago I was diagnosed with the non-hyperactive form of attention-deficit disorder based on a much less rigourous test, and I think she felt confident that I still show signs of that and could benefit from treatment. Although my working memory and processing things into practical, working solutions was normal, there was a huge discrepancy between that and my actual intelligence, so I definitely have room to improve there. She'll score the rest of the tests and I'll get more detailed information soon. But I suspect I will be going back on medication. I can definitely tell a difference without it, and things were harder not merely because they progressed in difficulty, but because I was having trouble concentrating at times. There was one test, the last one of the day, where you had to press the space bar on computer when a letter that was not X came on the screen, which sounds really simple, but was hard at times, given the speed, and a natural tendency I have to press buttons maniacally (this is also an issue in my field of vision tests, where I see reflections in my glasses and wind up treating the button like a joystick at times). Another hard one was reading a page of colour-related words not by the words, but by ink colour, except for the ones in boxes. So for example, the word 'red' might be printed in blue, and you would read aloud blue, unless it was in a box, and then it would red. Other things were relatively easy. But apparently I am better at auditory comprehension than spatial relations, or so it seemed when it was over.

Listening to

Kansas, Point of Know Return

Just got home from playing the game and discovered that my air conditioning is, in fact, leaking again, so I put a bucket in the spot that it's dripping on, and I'll have to call them tomorrow, which annoys me. That's less than a week after it was supposedly fixed, and the fifth time in ten years this has happened. Don't get me wrong, I like my apartment, my complex, etc. But I'll have to find another place for the big tub of Yule tree because it simply can't go in there; everything else I had in there won't ruin, but that would. Mind you, I hadn't even gotten the stuff back in there yet.

The game was good. We went right into it this time (last week we visited for a couple of hours first, and didn't actually do much). Today two of our characters were attacked by warlocks who tried to kill us and our children, but it all worked out. But both of us are tainted due to wounds by their daggers, and one of my other characters shares this because she is magically linked to the one injured, meaning she also received the injury and taint, miles away at her home. Ah, Call of Cthulhu, you have to love it. Our game master has drawn on the games Werewolf and Witchcraft for some of the stuff we saw today. There are several game systems adapted and integrated into our game, because our game master is just that good, and it's one reason we've been playing for so very long (24 years!), with such a rich story, various player and non-player characters, children, etc.

I drank too much soda today and sat too much; my feet have swollen, so I'm going to prop them up and let them rest on a couple of pillows until they go back to normal size. I also left some cream cheese over at my friends' house, which is unfortunate, as I would have liked to have had a bagel this evening. But I've eaten plenty in (fairly healthy) game snacks--cashews, string cheese, and berries.

I must remember not to go into work tomorrow; I'm off due to some cognitive testing I have to undergo. It lasts for 1 1/2 hours in the morning, then there's lunch, and then another 1 1/2 hours after lunch. We'll see how that comes out. I'm not sure what to expect. I need to double-check the time it starts; I think it's 10:30 am and ends at 2:30 pm. If the weather's nice, I might be able to go for a swim. It's supposed to be partly cloudy at the beginning of the day and then go into afternoon or evening thundershowers, so I'm not sure. But I can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning, at least. And I'll be across town near Beaumont, so I may see about going to Masala's Indian buffet for lunch, since I get a break. I also need to work on a book review before the end of the month, so tomorrow or Tuesday, and there's also some stuff to do over at my friends' house.

Okay, I've checked the news, I've done a few things here. I think I'll just get some rest and recharge the laptop and me as well. Good night.

An interesting test

Harvard's Project Implicit has an online Presidential Candidate test that measures how positive or how negative you view the presidential candidates. Mine rated high on the 'more positive' side for Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton was way down on the 'more negative' side, with John McCain even lower (which surprised me a little bit; I actually thought I liked McCain better than Clinton). It was pretty interesting. It has you choose one key for positive words or the candidate that you're supposed to choose for that segment. Another key is used for negative words or one of the other candidates. I had a little trouble with hitting the wrong keys, but who knows, that may have been subconscious, which seems to be what they were studying.

Test

Let's see if this shows up.