13 Thursday: Do You Believe in Magic?
1. I don’t know how to make faces with computer keys, but I can see the hidden images in Magic Eye Art. Can you?
2. When it comes to penning old fashioned letters, I’m like the carpenter who builds things all day but never gets around to building or fixing things in her own house. But this year begged to be recorded and shared. So I wrote a Christmas letter, the first in quite a few years.
3. You can make your own snowflake HERE. (Sorry, I have forgotten where I found this.)
4. Eight is my favorite number. I like making 8’s and looking at them. I like the double loop shape and I especially like writing 88. I thought I had discovered my attraction to 8’s in 1988, but then I found this photo of me taken with my sister around 1965.
5. Although I hate public speaking, I’m still living without a net, which means without the help of anti-anxiety meds. I’m thinking of this because I have two poetry readings this weekend. I better stock up on some Bach Flower Rescue Remedy.
6. My niece, Chrissie, came from Massachusetts to live with me when she was a teenager in 1987. At the time, she needed a fresh direction and I was recently divorced and renting a big farmhouse with roommates. Chrissie, a blogger, wrote a post via a prompt from Blog Fodder, titled “Tell Us About Someone Who Has Changed Your Life.” She wrote about me and those days. You can read it HERE.
7. When computer generated art first came about, I was frustrated because I couldn’t see the hidden pictures. After about a year of missing out on the fun, I decided one morning that I wasn’t going to get out of bed until I could do it. It took about 20 minutes of focused un-focusing before I succeeded. Once I did, I felt hugely accomplished and as though I had discovered a natural psychedelic.
8. Have you ever closed your eyes while riding in a car when the sun was out and the car was speeding by trees? The light show you get is not so unlike magic eye art.
9. Meditating is a lot like how you view the magic art, except you keep your eyes closed. To meditate you have to focus past the thoughts in the forefront of your mind. Once you do, your mind will drop down to a whole new place that you weren’t aware of before.
10. I’m so sensitive that just putting on sunglasses can sometimes make me feel altered, like I’m stoned on a foreign substance. ~ The Road to Destiny, from “The Jim and Dan Stories.”
11. Remember the fortune-telling Magic 8 Ball? 
Ever wonder what that liquid was that the answers floated around in? THIS is how you take a Magic 8 Ball apart. (I can’t tell if it’s a joke or not). And THIS (scroll down) is a list of all the movie and TV scenes in which a Magic 8 Ball has been used.
12. According to Thomas Fuller, 17th century historian, “Seeing is believing but feeling’s the truth.”
13. Did you know that TRUTHINESS was recently awarded The Word of the Year by Miriam Webster? And can you hum the tune to Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do you Believe in Magic?”
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here. Are you still humming?
December 14th, 2006 8:36 am
I love #6 – LOL
My TT is up too.
Have a great day &
Sending love your way!
December 14th, 2006 8:37 am
love the magic 8 ball! especially when i shake it until i get the answer i want! haha! happy tt!
December 14th, 2006 8:41 am
I had heard the news about the word “truthiness”, and I was wondering who was saying it so much that it became word of the year. I’d like to see what a professor writes on your paper if you put it down as a word in an essay.
Magic 8 balls are always fantastic! And the snowflake activity is fun, fun!
Happy Thursday to you!
December 14th, 2006 8:56 am
Some great links you have! I used to love playing with a magic 8 ball! 🙂
Happy TT.
December 14th, 2006 9:20 am
i was obsessed with my magic 8 ball as a kid! obsessed!
December 14th, 2006 9:30 am
Oh man, I am totally obsessed with the number 8. Before I got married, both my first and last names had 8 letters in them-I thought I was in heaven! 😛
December 14th, 2006 9:34 am
Perhaps you love the number 8 because when turned on its side it becomes the symbol for “infinity”.
December 14th, 2006 9:41 am
Ha! That’s so funny. I had that in my draft about 8 on its side being the symbol for infinity, but I took it out because I couldn’t find any online correlation for that and I began to wonder if I had made it up!! 88888888888888888888888888888888************
December 14th, 2006 9:45 am
Regarding truthiness, did you know that you can download a fake dictionary page from http://www.colbernation.com and print it out. It includes the word “truthiness” and has Colberts face pictured there. He suggested printing it out and attaching it the dictionaries at your local schools and libraries. Well, he almost suggested it.
December 14th, 2006 10:20 am
I can hum it to myself 🙂
December 14th, 2006 10:27 am
Great links 🙂
December 14th, 2006 10:56 am
88 is a very special number for me, it’s my only son’s birthyear!
Your niece wrote a wonderful post, you certainly are a special person!
Happy TT, can’t read that Magic Eye Art , must try again!
December 14th, 2006 11:29 am
I didn’t get a Magic 8 Ball until I was in my 20s. A few years ago, my husband and I were invited to a big gala for the local historical society’s anniversary. The invitation included a request to bring an object for a time capsule that they were going to bury after the party, so I donated my 8 Ball. The woman accepting items for the time capsule complimented me on my choice.
December 14th, 2006 12:19 pm
This is like a GREAT “SHOW & TELL” Colleen…Great Fun!
The eightball disection was fascinating..(lol)…
I oove making the sbowflake, too!
And your niece’s post about you and that time in her life, was quite wonderful…!
December 14th, 2006 12:23 pm
I was reading this and the local tv station came in to talk about how slow things are. The whole time I had this song going in my head!
December 14th, 2006 12:50 pm
I spent $20 on a magic eye poster and could not see it for a long time. Once I got rid of it, I started seeing them all over the place.
December 14th, 2006 12:56 pm
Awww…. love that post from Chrissie! She does have a great aunt 🙂
Oh, and that picture from the sixties, I simply adore that one. I’m a freak when it comes to old things.
I created a snowflake even if I hate snow 😉
C U at mt crack me up party, we’ll have a giggleton!!!!
December 14th, 2006 2:11 pm
The Magic Art makes me dizzy sometimes. 🙂
And Magic 8 balls are truly wonderful things.
Thanks for the memories.
December 14th, 2006 2:40 pm
I have a magic eye pic of the Rotunda at UVA, and for weeks i went cross-eyed trying to see it. Once i did, it was no problem!
And just type a colon : and a parenthesis ) and that’s all you need to know. 🙂
December 14th, 2006 3:59 pm
I have a difficult time with stuff like Magic Eye Art…I once heard that people who are nearsighted have a hard time seeing the images embedded in the art. Don’t know if that’s true or not but there may be something to it.
My 13 are up.
December 14th, 2006 4:23 pm
~~ The Crazy Eight Ball!! ~~
Ohh…I can remember having one of those when I was in Junior High…my sister, brother & I jus’ all thought we were The coolest ’cause we had one!! Whooo…I think I saw one not too long ago at a thrift store down the Blvd. — didn’t pick it up, tho.
December 14th, 2006 5:02 pm
I can usually read these 3-D images but NOT on a computer screen for some reason. The only reason truthiness is getting so much attention is that “Truth” has fallen by the wayside.
December 14th, 2006 5:13 pm
Colleen I am supposed to be making dinner and I have been “lost” over in snowflake land making snowflakes! Thanks! (I am too easily distracted)
December 14th, 2006 5:21 pm
I’m so glad you enjoyed making snowfakes, Deana. I had a blast with it too.
I agree, Tabor. I think the word sprang from the way the Bush administration has acted. Say something is true and therefore it must be. Very authoritarian and not “reality based.”
This is for Carmen. My first: 🙂 Now how do you turn it right way up?
December 14th, 2006 7:11 pm
I was having so much fun on the make your own Snowflake and then I saw my 12 year old self and cracked up!! Nelson, my husband says I look boy.
December 14th, 2006 7:27 pm
My favorite number is 5. I don’t know why, but it is. You are a kind aunt. My mother took in my two cousins after their mother died and their father was a dog. They lived with us for a couple of years, so my mother was raising 5 kids with a husband, my father, who traveled 3 weeks a month, at least.
December 14th, 2006 9:57 pm
We spent hours asking the magic 8 ball questions as teenagers!
Do You Believe in Magic was my favourite song in Gr. 7. I seldom see those Magic Eye pics.
My fav. and lucky # has always been 8.
I’ve used Rescue Remedy a lot at one time.
No one writes real leters anymore..I received just today an 8 page letter from an old friend!!
December 14th, 2006 11:11 pm
I read your neice’s piece. What a wonderful experience for both of you. She’s especially lucky.
I used to work in 888 Seventh Avenue. A woman who sat near me was always on the phone to Latin America. We began referring to our building as O-cho, O-cho, O-cho becasue we liked the way she gave out our address.
December 14th, 2006 11:34 pm
God bless you, Rick!
December 14th, 2006 11:34 pm
Now that song will be in my head all evening. Great list, and the snowflake is way too much fun.
December 14th, 2006 11:39 pm
Hi Colleen. Here via Michele today!
Great Thursday 13 list. Loved the snowflake thing – good fun… And yes, I can do those Magic Eye things, it would be terribly fustrating if I could not!
December 14th, 2006 11:47 pm
C – 8 on it’s side = infinity, is a mathematical symbol 🙂 Well it’s not really an “8” – it’s a lemniscate. It’s also known as a mobius strip. My favorite version of infinity though is the ouroboros – or the symbol of a snake eating its own tail – which has also been drawn in figure 8 style… My favourite number is 4 – but that’s neither here nor there….
-TL
December 15th, 2006 1:14 am
I loved reading your niece’s recollections; they made me want to get on a Greyhound and run away to Floyd, too. You are so blessed and fortunate to have such a LARGE and wonderful family.
December 15th, 2006 11:09 am
C – forgot to mention – tea leaves, #13, magic eye paper, and the rune Sigil/Sowelu. Runes are my favorite divination tool. I love runes! They’re so tactile and actually – cold – if they’re the stone kind – which mine are. You can tell when one is first in your hand for sure. Wake up! I’m a rune!
Another fun tactile thing – Playdoh!!!
December 15th, 2006 5:54 pm
I really liked this List. yes I can see Magic Eye. And when I was in Basic Training, my MTI kept an 8-Ball on his desk and every morning when I would clean his office I would ask it if “today would be a good day”. It always was.
December 15th, 2006 10:39 pm
Great magic 8 story, Jake. Thanks everyone for all the great comments and for playing along!
December 16th, 2006 10:20 am
So much interesting stuff here. For whatever reason.. 6 has always been my favourite number.. and I have no idea why. How wonderful that your kind ways, good heart and open arms became a home for your niece. Bless you.