Created a JAWS Gadget for viewing OPML Outlines.

On another note, today was a very odd day for me, I fainted during class. Not in class, but when i went to get some water after feeling nauseous. I've never fainted under those circumstances and don't know exactly what happened. I remember getting up to get some water, exiting the classroom and waking up on the floor in the hallway with a tremendous headache.

In the hour that followed, I had a distinct blindspot in the upper right portion of my visual field. It was fun to be able to look at a persons face and see only their right portion of their face, but still see the entire head, it was just as if that portion of their face didn't exist and i mentally filled in with skin tones, but quickly got to be annoying when I realized it practically killed my ability to read and comprehend what I was reading as I could only see one word at a time and only when the word was not directly in front of me. I had to go back and forth often just to understand a sentence, which basically meant I wasn't going to be able to get any work done until it cleared up.

Afterwards, I had and still have pains in my knee, hip and right side of my face, which, I assume are my points of contact when I hit the glazed brick floor, it also hurts in the right side of my jaw when I bite down.

I later felt very tired and had to go to sleep. I stayed in bed for a few hours damn near unable to move when I finally awoke.

Among the first things in my mind after waking up on the floor was the amazement that no one had seen me, or if they had, they ignored me. The very least I'd expected was a "hey are you OK?" type gesture. I would think that someone passed out on the floor in the middle of a hallway in a major university would be pretty much out of the usual.

I almost went to see a doctor or someone to make sure I was OK but i'm pretty much back to normal now. I don't think i experienced any memory loss, except for the actual event of losing consciousness, and if I did experience memory loss, how would I know? I just hope this was a one-time thing. It's as if my brain segfaulted and forced a reboot.

But while i'm on the topic of memory, i've found the subject matter more and more interesting lately. There are some who theorize that the process of remembering is such that all things perceived are stored and remembering is the process of selective retrieval, that everything you experience is and will remain in your brain for as long as you live. The stronger the memory, the stronger the link between the neurons involved and the more easily the memory is retrieved. The other theory is reversed, that everything that is stored can be retrieved and that storage is selective, i.e. that somewhere along the lines a memory is either sent to long-term permanent storage for easy retreival, or it remains in short-term memory until it is replaced with another memory. The truth probably lies somewhere in between the two theories.

Memory is an interesting thing. I've read stories about people who can literally remember everything they experience. You can point to a specific day and time and they would be able to recite exactly what they did at that moment. If they were told to read a list of words, they could reproduce the list of words perfectly on the spot, regardless of how much time had passed. For such people, it's a huge burden, for example, they would have difficulty reading poetry because the words would bring back meaningless memories. Remembering everything makes it difficult to put weight on that which should be remembered and that which shouldn't, important events are hidden among useless memories.

While an overactive memory could be a burden, I sometimes, actually quite often wish my memory were better. If i've learned anything in the past few years, its that my memory cannot be trusted. I cannot recall facts when asked to do so on paper or remember test dates. I sometimes can't even talk because I can't think of the words I need to say. I will linger on a particular word i've said a thousand times before, frustrated with having forgotten the word, i can't think until the word comes to mind or I look it up in a dictionary. The same goes for names, I don't even know why I bother asking peoples names when I know i'm going to forget it 10 seconds later. I've gone days, weeks, months even, talking and socializing with people, who for the most part are strangers to me, I can recognize them and know how to talk to them and what to say, but their name escapes me.

It's especially frustrating for me. I have a tremendous ability to learn. I can learn anything if I devote enough time and energy towards learning whatever it is that needs to be learned but for the life of me, I cannot recall the information when tested. I can master anything in practace but cannot perform in a test-like setting and as such, my grades have suffered horribly. It's frustrating to struggle through school in subjects I'm fully confident and competent in.

Anyways, i've probably said too much. So, i'll leave it at that. I'd like to get in the habit of doing some serious writing, but don't want to maintain a blog and I hate to post such ramblings here as they are so off-topic and interest few, if any people. Perhaps, i can start a new section on my website with a series of writings on various topics. There are a number of things that interest me that I feel should be expressed in written form from Artificial Intelligence, to Foreign Policy to Science Fiction.