(no subject)

[oyceter]

I adore California summers (yes, I insist that it is summer already). I love the warm to hot days and the sun and the cool night air. It makes me so aware of my skin and of the sheer joy of how it feels.

It's very interesting -- after reading Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses, I sort of came to the realization that I don't really use all five of my senses to the same degree. Er, I mean, I suppose that is rather obvious, but it wasn't something that I used to think about before. But I do more now, particularly after reading mrissa, jonquil and yhlee's posts on smell and scents and BPAL perfumes and realizing that I have no nose for scents. It's something that I would like to pay more attention to. It's also very obvious when I'm living with fannishly, who has a much keener appreciation for physical beauty than I do. And I've never really been a big music person -- I love music, I love the emotions it invokes, but I can't analyze it to the same degree that some people can, and I know my musical taste is very, very odd.

The scent one is particularly intriguing to me right now, especially since I'm waiting for my first BPAL imps order to come in and because I've been having a whole lot of fun playing around with fannishly's perfume collection (having a girly roommate is fun!). I don't even know what type of scents I will like, which made picking the BPAL imps very random and difficult. I'm not sure if I don't like musky at all, or if I just dislike the alcohol base on most perfumes. I used to think that I hated all perfume, but I think it may be that vaguely artificial smelling alcohol base, because I don't have this problem with essential oils or scented soaps and lotions. I do dislike a lot of scented candles, though, just because they smell too strong and too sweet. I particularly dislike the smell of vanilla when it's not associated with baking, just because it tends to be so overwhelming. And I very much cannot pick out different notes in perfume yet, much less different flower scents or anything (with the possible exception of roses, because I love roses). So I'm very much looking forward to the BPAL imps. I'm much better with food and cooking smells or nature smells... perfumes tend to confuse me a little. I like things like the smell of grass and the smell of pretty much anything cooking, of fresh coffee and of clean laundry. I suppose they are more life-smells than fancy smells, but now I'm totally intrigued by the perfumes and oils!

The thought that I have no real attachment to beauty is also very interesting, considering that almost everything I do is very visual. And yet, it's not the visual that gets to me the most -- the visual is merely how the information is conveyed in books and on the internet and on tv. I'm not very good at noting visual parallels or motion or whatnot, and so it often takes me multiple viewings to actually get a vid. It's always interesting reading yhlee's assorted tv posts because I'm generally a character-focused person, whereas she is very good at spotting visual motifs or visual foreshadowing or the like. I took a class on Japanese film just because I have no idea what the language of film is, and this is just really interesting that I don't pay that much attention to these things, given that I read a lot of comics and manga and watch a lot of tv. I don't know... I appreciate things like sunsets and beautiful architecture and the like, but it's not as ingrained in me as some other things are.

Music-wise and sound-wise, I'm completely awful at analyzing. I really wish I had taken a class on music theory or the like back in college. Even though I learned the piano when I was a kid (like all good Asian children, heh), I don't quite "get" music, if that makes any sense. I've taken singing lessons and such, and while I have a fairly good ear for tune, I don't really analyze music or listen to it on anything higher than a very instinctive level. I really wish people would talk about music more, because it's something that I wish I knew more about. jonquil and coffee_and_ink's posts on musicals and the like are fascinating because of this, as are yhlee's posts on music theory, which goes completely over my head.

The two senses that I pay a great deal of attention to, though, are taste and touch. The taste bit is probably not at all surprising to anyone who reads this LJ, given how much I talk about food and how much I love food. I love how things taste, I love the layers of them, I love how cooking different things together and in different ways brings out different flavors. I don't quite appreciate wine yet, but I think I am growing to more and more (this is all my dad's fault), and I totally get the cheese thing and how some cheeses taste clean and fresh (mmmm, goat cheese), and how some taste milky, and how others are strangely sharp yet sweet. And then there are the slightly nutty ones, and the somewhat sour ones, and then the layers of tastes. I love garlic. I love how herbs bring out flavors, and I love simply cooked meats and vegetables so that they just taste pure and clean, and I love food with just enough salt to leave the smallest impression that is sometimes there and sometimes not. This is the only time I really do pay attention to scent, when it's associated with taste. I don't know if I'm particularly good at tasting, whatever that means, but it's something I am very focused on (mmmmm, food) and something that I derive a great deal of pleasure from. A good meal is one of the very basic joys of my existence, and a sublime one is often remembered for years to come. Er, why yes, me and my dad will go around and talk about that meal we ate at that restaurant several years ago in France and how good that salmon was or something. Hee hee.

The other one that I think I really tend to pay attention to and didn't realize I paid a lot of attention to is touch. I didn't really think about it much before, but I think I am a fairly tactile person. I may not care that much about how something looks at times as long as it feels good next to my skin, and I don't buy clothes that have fabrics that I don't enjoy touching. If it's too itchy or scratchy or just feels too rough, I don't want to wear it. I could lie outside all day and feel the heat prickling my skin or the cool breeze, and I very often lie indoors all day on my very, very comfy bed with cool cotton sheets that warm to the touch and down pillows. I like being warm and cozy, and I like touching things. I find that when I go shopping, I like running my hands over all the clothes, just feeling the different textures. I like cotton clothes the best -- I like how clean cotton feels, how soft it can be and how forgiving it can be, I like how it just comes out more and more worn after several washings and dryings. I like textures and nappiness, I love silks and velvets, but not taffetas so much. I like the way skirts swish around my legs, and have I mentioned how much I like cotton shirts? I love the way wood feels when it's been worn down and touched often, and I love the warm squishiness of my rats' tummies and their fur and their little paws and whiskers. I like the way things feel on my skin. I think this is why I've been enjoying knitting so much -- it's so tactile. Going to a yarn store is so fun, and there are so many different kinds of yarns to feel and touch and rub, and knitting itself requires that yarn run through my fingers all the time.

I don't know... what do other people tend to notice?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's summer there. California only has two seasons.

You already know what I tend to notice, since you mentioned it in example: I am so smell-oriented that most things are subordinate to it. It's interesting to me to hear you say that you focus on taste because you're very interested in food (or perhaps the reverse causality?), because for me scent and mouthfeel outrank actual taste by far in dealing with food. Taste is nice -- taste is good -- I wouldn't give up taste. But it's the least important of the three. Taste tells me almost nothing new. I can smell not only how my breakfast is (good!) but how much of it is left on the desk beside me. This is one reason I almost never want to eat multiple servings of something I really like unless I'm really hungry: I've been smelling it for at least 10 minutes, more if I've cooked it, and that's enough.

[oyceter]

Oh, that is interesting! I usually only notice smell when I am tasting, and it usually only serves to whet my appetite, probably because my nose isn't as keen as yours.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I also have a very limited sense of smell, and I'm a very tactile/kinesthetic person. I grew up with a smoker, and I have really bad eyesight. I suspect that these things are linked to my focus on how things feel.

I buy clothes by texture. *g* I don't care how they look.

[oyceter]

Hee, yeah. I have really bad eyesight and I generally have some sort of sniffles or something.

[ladystarlightsj.livejournal.com]

The scent of lilacs -- that always means it's springtime. (goes out and checks lilacs for buds)

And could you drop me a quick email?

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

love the warm to hot days and the sun and the cool night air. It makes me so aware of my skin and of the sheer joy of how it feels.

Yes. I love it when the weather is like this. It's just simply a gorgeous feeling I would almost say it's a sexy feeling but it's mroe closer to feeling alive.

I want to say that I use all of my senses very exstensively. I'm not aware if I use one or to more so than the others.

On warm or hot days, I love waking up early in the morning, about 6:15 am, and being able to smell the beginnings of a warm day. There's just a certain scent to it. I can't quite pin it down but it's there and a few other people that I've asked notice it too. Getting out of the apartment, walking to the bus stop, my skin feels the weight of the air gliding along it. It's not heavy, it's just a silky feel. I walk with my eyes upon the sky, observing the hues and intensity change in the 10 minutes I walk. I always notice that starlings seem to call out more on warm days. A really piercing chatter that is not unpleasant.

When I shop for groceries or clothes that's when I'll use smell, taste and touch. Of course I don't taste my clothes. But I have found that I can't stand the scent of silk knits. I don't know what it is about it that makes me move onto the next item. It leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.

I think I have a pretty well educated sense of taste in the sense that I savor things and am able to describe things fairly well and to possibly even pick out ingredients. Cheese is always a big favorite right now I'm going throug a pahse of eating a Swiss Gruyere Comte aged about 15 months. It's buttery with a slightly nutty taste. It's excellent on a fresh baguette with ham. Heaven. I could go on but now I'm hungry. ;o)

[oyceter]

Yeah! I adore California ^_^.

And I love gruyere so much! Especially melted on bread, or in fondue, or just by itself. I think it's so interesting that something like cheese can taste like nuts, but it really does!

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Wow, it is eerily, how much my relationship with the sense of touch is like yours. I can sign under every word you wrote about it. The necessity to feel good in the clothes I wear – including the feel of fabric – just yesterday I bought a linen tunic because it felt so right on me. The sheer enjoyment of wearing skirts because of the feel of it, etc.

Other senses – I think I perceive world in a combination of senses. I cannot distinguish one or the other as more or less important to me. Visuals are important, but I often don’t pick up important details, and don’t remember people’s faces from the first meeting. Sound is important, but I don’t get music on a very deep level, however I like and enjoy it. Scent gives me the strongest memory, but I cannot distinguish the faintest hues, and I am used not to rely on it due to allergies. Taste is good and strong, and memorable, but I don’t taste the world as such, so it usually goes to basic divisions. I do love cooking and eating a lot. ;)

Overall I think every sense adds something, and often I cannot remember whether it was the sight, scent, sound or anything else that got me this or that image. Occasionally I perceive poems as having colours, or another mix of senses occur.

[oyceter]

Yes, I love skirts! Well, I love the fifties-style circle skirts that swish around your legs and have layers of fabric under them. Mmmm.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's summer (shudder)...

I too am a touch person, though having my hands slapped, hard, repeatedly when I was a kid ("Don't touch that!") has made me apprehensive, and I tend to be a furtive toucher.

[oyceter]

I always feel a little bad running my hands through things in department stores, but... that's why they're on display right?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I love to touch them and SMELL them. The smell of new cloth, of new anything, is enchanting.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

I am a very visual person, I think. I love the interplay of colours in my garden flowers, and am particularly fond of intense hues, often quite strikingly contrasted. For example, one of my patio barrels last year had a combination of dark purple osteopernum, a kind of daisy, along side of bright orange day lilies. They practically glowed and I loved the colour combination. I have a rather poor sense of smell, and prefer scents like lavender, and lilac that I find easier to identify. I am constantly amazed at how many shades of green there are, and how subtle the shadings can be.
I love to taste things too; I enjoy cooking and tasting my food as I make it. I prefer the savoury to the sweet, and if I have to choose between salty and sweet, I take the salty. One of my favourite taste sensations is a juicy ripe fig, spread with a really good bleue cheese. Fabulous. My mouth is watering now..

[oyceter]

Oooo, that sounds so lovely! I wish I had a garden -- I've got a little patio garden right now, which is more several pots of plants than an actual garden.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

It's amazing what you can grow in pots. My apartment building is basically 5 apartments built around an enclosed patio. I started small, and have gradually taken over the patio (my neighbours love it that I do). I grow tomatoes in big containers (like big planters, or buckets, or whatever). I planted a couple of pole bean seeds in the half barrel I have a clematis in, and they grew up the clematis and across the rose trellis. I have a lot of herbs growing, a fig tree in a big planter, and even an apple tree. You can get plants meant for containers, and it's a lot less work than digging up a plot of land! I'll post some of my pictures from my patio garden so you can see what I mean.

[oyceter]

Pictures! Yay!

I'd love to have a patio garden like that, except I'm lazy and constantly forget to do things like actually take care of the plants =(. That's how my last batch of mini roses died, sigh. Well, that and the nasty spider mites.