Monday, April 27, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

Word of the day: Umheimlich

Umheimlich is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.

Because the uncanny is familiar, yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance within the experiencing subject due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted to, yet repulsed by an object at the same time. This cognitive dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the object, as one would rather reject than rationalize.

You ever feel like this?

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter

The good today:
Watching the kids hunt for eggs and Naomi jumping up and down when she found one.
Naomi making two bunnies dance together.
Ben playing with the toys the Easter bunny brought and getting so excited about his new clothes, and making a great card for my dad.
Both kids singing happy birthday to my dad and helping to blow out the candles.
Ben being such a good sport even though he was sick.
My folks having such a good time with the kids today, and kick-ass ham.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

a sketch of better things to come

I picked up Ben from school and he was thrilled. It was drizzling, and while he was waiting by the car for me to unlock his door, he drew a smiley face on the passenger window and he pointed it out to me proudly. I never imagined when I was told that he was autistic that we'd ever get to this stage, an unprompted doodle clearly identified - a face that is smiling at me in the glass and the smile of the artist himself, it was a wonderful moment. He is doing so well and I am so damn proud of that kid.