November 7th: Anosmia

I've finally updated yesterday, now I have to start from scratch for today, 7th of November.

I've decided to talk about anosmia - which is the lack of a sense of smell.

This may seem pretty random, but I am in fact anosmic.  Which is pretty much the only reason why I know about it.

Don't get me wrong.  I can enjoy food, and I can taste stuff.  In fact, flavour is 75% smell, and 25% taste.  So when you eat, you're mostly smelling, and I'm just getting all taste.  So in a way, I can taste better than you smelling-people, because I'm not confused by scent.

Somewhat embarrassing life story time!  When I was little, all my friends would completely over react whenever there was a bad smell in the air.  Normal little kid's "OMG EWWW" kind of reaction.  This continued on until I was about 12 or 13.  At this age, I had an experience which is burnt into my brain for many reasons.  There was a girl that was always picked on by people for whatever reason they could find.  She pulled out a permanent marker, which apparently smelled pretty bad.  You know how every classroom had the ADHD ringleader asshole who stirred everyone up?  He decided to go on and on about this smell for about 20 minutes, resulting in everyone in the class walking out because it was so gross.  The only people left in the classroom was me, the girl with the pen, and the teacher who called me a very mature young woman for not picking on the girl.  I wasn't trying to be nice, I just couldn't smell it.  It's interesting, because even now, that girl that was picked on still gets picked on by a lot of people, but she's become a complete bitch and learned to deal with it, by being mean to everyone else.  And that ADHD asshole?  I've been dating him for nearly a year now.  Funny how things turn out. 

When I was sick, I refused to take painkillers because of my throat (another long story), so the parents would either crush it up in honey (before they believed me about the extreme discomfort honey gives me) or they would tell me to block my nose and swallow it.  I never understood this, because it did nothing at all for me.  I now get why they would say that.  Because for normal people, you can't "taste" when your nose is blocked.  Really, you're doing nothing BUT tasting, you just can't smell it. But it didn't work for me :(

Whenever I was sick and didn't feel like eating, my parents would always say, "food never tastes good when you're sick, because you can't taste it".  It always tasted normal to me, but I've seen how badly my family reacts to food when they're sick and they can't "taste" it.  I just laugh at them now.

Also, this bit is a bit gross, but it gives you a clearer picture of what I'm trying to say.  A kid in primary school (elementary, for the Americans) crapped his pants in front of an entire auditorium of 10-year-olds.  Everyone else was grossed out by the smell, which I imagine was putrid by other people's reactions.  The worst part?  Rather than smelling it, I could taste it.  Yeah, that's right.  I can taste it when kids poo their pants.  Isn't that disgusting?






AAAAAAAAAAAANYWAY
  Have a picture to break it up a bit.

This continued on through my life.  I was embarrassed by it.  I thought that I just wasn't doing it right, or I hadn't learned how to smell things.  Or that I had a really weak sense of smell or something.  Either way, it never crossed my mind that I DIDN'T have it.  I didn't think it was possible.

 I think it was about grade 10 or 11, and I was about 15.  Dani-Q probably doesn't realize this, but she was one of the first people who made me take notice of my disability, indirectly, of course.  The conversation wasn't about me at all.  She used the term "mouth-breather" as an insult.  People laughed about it and thought nothing of it.  I thought about it a lot though.  I didn't think that there was anything wrong with breathing through your mouth.  I mean, it's far more efficient, you get more air, faster.  And it's not like there's any benefit to using your nose.  And that's when I realised there WAS a benefit to most people.  That's why it was an insult.  It's like saying their too stupid to use their god-given (it's just a phrase, I'm not being religious) gift of a functioning sense of smell.

I probably was overthinking it WAAAAAAAAAAAY too much, but it made me realise that if I still hadn't worked out how to recognize smells by then, it wasn't going to happen.  I just assumed I was a freak of nature,  that no one else would have it. 

I continued on in life, with my parents and friends testing me out until one by one, they started to believe me.  But people still didn't really believe me, because they hadn't heard of anyone else not having a sense of smell.

I was reading a book one day, last year I think.  I came across a word I'd never seen before, and that doesn't happen too much.  I looked it up, and found out that  the word - anosmic - refers to a lack of the sense of smell.  A  little more research, and I found that there's plenty more people like me.

When its a condition right from birth (or I assume mine is, since I don't remember even having it) it's classified as congenital anosmia, which sounds like an STI.  I think its the "genital" bit.

As my research has indicated, there is no apparent cause, and no cure.  Websites talk a lot about the dangers of no smell, because we can't tell when there's a gas leak (which isn't true, I could TASTE it when the barbecue's gas cylinder was leaking), or when there's a fire, or when food is spoiled. 

I read an article once about how a restaurant had to be evacuated once, because all these people were becoming sick and vomiting and passing out because of a smell.  When people got out their gas masks to check it out, it was just an anosmic kitchen-hand cleaning out the freezer with chemicals.  I laughed at that.

Something else that I DIDN'T laugh at - a man was kicked out of the police force for being anosmic, he couldn't smell drugs or alcohol on a person he was trying to arrest.  I can see why it would be a problem, but I don't think the guy should have LOST HIS JOB because of it.

Another issue with no sense of smell - you can't tell when you smell.  I'm constantly telling my friends that I won't be offended if they tell me I smell, because I won't know otherwise.  This of course, causes issues when I get people to help me buy perfume and deodorant, and this conflicts with someone else's opinions.  I can't make my own decision, so I have to rely on the outcome of their dispute.  Which sucks.

When you look around for information, there's a lot of stories about people "coming out" to their parents about their condition.  It may not seem like a big deal, but parents don't know about their child's condition until the child itself is aware, and the parents usually don't believe their child. 

There's also a type of anosmia which happens after an illness, or a blow to the head, etc.  They experience loss of appetite, massive weight loss, depression, and lowered sex drive, among other things.  I find it strange that people have trouble adjusting to a part of my everyday life.

There's not much else to say, except that I may from time to time ask people to describe smells.  Which makes them very confused.

Even after I knew I couldn't smell, I still couldn't get used to the idea that everything around me had this extra dimension that I can't appreciate.  I was tripping so hard when I found out that bread has a distinct smell.  It really doesn't look like it would smell, since it's so plain.  Also, fruit.  I was very surprised to find out that strawberries, oranges, and bananas had a smell.  I think it's because they're usually served cold, and warm/cold is about as far as my smelling distinctions go.  I can't explain it well, but "cold" smells are chemical-like, or unnatural.  "Warm" smells are natural things, like food and feces (long story of how I found that out).  When fruit is served cold, I always assumed it wouldn't smell as much as it would if it were room temperature.  Now that I think about it, that makes no sense whatsoever.  But that's just how I think. 

So, bread, fruit, hair, and grass. I really can't imagine HOW these things could possibly smell.

And don't say "it smells the same as how it tastes" because that's not true.  You're just smelling it and confusing it with taste.

Right, I only have a few more words before I make today's minimum word count.

I was just looking at the website NeverSmell.com because it has a "personal stories" section on there, and it reminded me of something else.  You know in school how you had to write stories about how something looks, sounds, tastes, feels and smells?  They suck.  Lucky I was good at bullshitting.  Also, in science classes, most recently biology, we often had to identify things by smell.  I think one of our experiments depended entirely on how bad something smelled after a certain period of time.  Other people were gagging with the test tube about a metre away, and I pretty much shoved it up my nose and didn't react.

Well.... I think I'm sick of typing now.  I've got my psychology assignment tomorrow, so I'd better get some sleep.

My total word count is now 14, 488.

2nd of November, part 2: Oh dear God, we have maple syrup!

That's pretty much what I said as I went through the cupboard looking for breakfast.  There's a reason for this.

I'm allergic to honey.  Or I'm allergic to something that's in honey, and honey-like substances.  As soon as it hits my mouth, I'm reaching for the nearest sharp object to scratch the inside of my throat with.  It makes it so itchy, and it feels like my skin is crawling with bugs.  However, maple syrup doesn't do this to me.  Actually, when I had a mouthful of straight maple syrup, I wanted to claw my throat out, but in small doses, its fine.

So of course, I guard the maple syrup jealously.  My sister is allergic to cow's milk, so she has soy milk.  No one touches that other than her, so I should be able to have my fuckin' maple syrup.  Especially since we have honey and golden syrup and all this other crap I can't have.  But no, maple syrup has to be the hot commodity in my house.

So that's why I was surprised to see that we had it.  Awesome, we have maple syrup, now I'll find some pancakes and have breakfast.  Guess what?  No fucking pancakes.

Nevermind, I'll make some.  So I'm cooking, and its not working.  I've discovered that our non-stick pan is no longer non-stick.  Every pancake I try to make ends up looking like a scrambled egg, so I give up.  The dog had a pretty good breakfast this morning, and I settle for a glass of milk (and a whole lot of crap to clean up).

So that's been the last hour or so of my life.  Now, I'll continue on from where I left part 1 of today's post.

Now, I was talking about the Sims.  When the first one came out, all my friends played ti all the time, and I didn't really care.  After everyone was over it, and it was in the clearance bin. I got it, and played it. And loved it, I think.

Same deal for the second one.  I couldn't afford it until it was on sale, which was like 2 years after everyone else got it.

The third one, however.  By this point, I was working at a toy store (I won't name it, just in case. Bad things happen when you say where you work). So I got to pre-order it, getting a staff discount on it.  It was supposed to come out in like February 09 or something, and it got delayed about 3 times.  But when it eventually DID come out, I got my copy.  Since I pre-ordered, I got a special edition, that came with a plumbob USB.  The plumbob is the little green diamond thing over the sim's head, in case you don't play the game.

That's the whole package.  It came with the game, USB, and other free shit that I pretty much ignored.

And that's the USB.  The crystal part is like the lid of the USB, and the actual bit you stick in the computer is the pointy bottom part.  It's so cool, that people are amazed by it, even before I show them it's a USB.  The bf was talking with Dani-Q about a movie once, and I put it on this USB to put on her computer.  When she saw it, I thought she was happy that I was giving her the movie... No, she was amazed by the USB itself.  She didn't even know it was from the Sims 3, she was just amazed at how cool it was.  I get that reaction a lot with this USB.

Anyway, the post today wasn't about the USB, it was about the Sims in general.

For those of you who don't know, the Sims is basically a life simulation.  You make a family of Sims (people) and build them a house.  They get jobs, fall in love, have kids, die. All the usual things people do in real life.  They gain skills, which make them better at their jobs, they get more friends, and all sorts of stuff happens.

The games have made a huge jump in quality from the first game to the third. The third one has added in personality traits, such as kleptomania (where your sim steal stuff from other sims), charismatic (where all their social interactions are better recieved by other sims), and all this other crap I can't think of.  But it's always fun to put really strange combinations of sims together in a house.  You can get evil kleptomaniacs, who walk around talking to themselves, stealing, and scaring people.  You can make fitness freaks, who constantly work out.  Any combination of traits, you can make it. 

I can understand why people don't like the games.  They probably think that rather than sitting at home, making little virtual people exercise, why not go out and exercise, and socialise, and live yourself?

It's all about CONTROL.  I play because I can't go out and do this myself.  I can't build the perfect house, force my perfectly crafted family to do everything according to my plan, I can't even just go out and get a job like they do.

I like the fact that I have complete control over these virtual people.  They do whatever I want.  They only live as long as I want.  When I'm sick of them, I just put them in a room with no door, and they starve to death... Ok, I haven't done that yet, but I've been tempted.

Honestly, the actual game isn't the best part for me. The reason why I keep coming back to the game is the house-creating aspect.  You build the house.  You choose the floor coverings, the wallpaper, where the lights go, where the doors and windows are. You put in all the furniture, you decorate it with paintings, ornaments, or even art that your sims did themselves. You can put in pools, gardens, playgrounds, balconies, all sorts of stuff.  You can even put in stairs and build multiple levels.  I love it.  I build houses, then save and quit the game even before my sims live in it.

I was the same with Rollercoaster Tycoon, another game I was addicted to.  I didn't like the actual playing part,of getting my guests to ride on the rides I built.  I just liked designing the park itself, and doing the pathways, and creating perfectly symmetrical garden mazes and making food courts and stuff.  Then, I would just demolish it and start building again.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that.  I don't know why, since I don't have any interest in designing houses or theme parks or anything like that in real life.  I just do it in computer games.  That's why I should never get my hands on Sim City.  I'd spend the rest of my life trying to create the symmetrical, most efficient city possible. I saw a video about a guy who did that.  He called his attempts at the perfect city by different Latin names, and his video has  weird chanting music.  It's pretty creepy.  I think if I was given the chance to do something like that, I totally would, and no one would ever see me again. I'd barricade myself in my room, and my parents would have to create a flap door they could slide a food tray through, otherwise I'd die and my room would smell bad.  I don't think that would be good.

I just did a word count of today's posts.  I'm currently at about 2700, counting both part 1 and 2.  And it's only 11am.  Sweet.   I'll go for 3000 for today, then give it a rest.

I was just made aware of the fact that it's Tuesday.  I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but in Townsville, Tuesday = Cheap Tuesday.  Or for some people, it's Cheuesday.  Che-Uesday, in case you couldn't work that out.  Cheap Tuesday means that all the young ones go into town and get smashed on $9 jugs of Fruit Tingle (Blue Curacao liqueur, vodka, lemonade, raspberry cordial and ice cubes, according to google), then they party on down to the places with $2.50 cocktails.  Considering the fact that drinks are normally $5 or more, this is a pretty good deal.  It's also the reason why Uni lectures are mostly empty on Wednesdays.

So, yeah.  I just realised it was Tuesday/Cheuesday.  I'd love to go out, but I think my friends are pretty intent on pretending to study.  They don't actually study, they just say they do, and end up watching Glee and coming with my friend and I on Maccas runs (yeah, you know I'm talking about you).

Well, I'm approaching 3000 words right about now.  So far, November has been easier than I thought.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm in competition with one of the most competitive people I know, Dani-Q.  Especially since I'm challenging her in a domain that up until now has been exclusively hers; blogging.

This brings my November total so far to 5130.