Yup.

I can't listen when I'm reading. I tend not to notice people talking to me. They find it amusing. Or frustrating.

The result of growing up with four making-lots-of-noise younger siblings is that I can concentrate in what I'm doing and filter out all the conversations and images around me, if I have to. But if somebody says my name, even in a whisper, I'll immediately hear it and respond. Very useful.

Interesting. I find it helpful to turn on some music I'm familiar with when I need to concentrate-- it seems to run along the barely conscious track of my mind so that it doesn't interrupt the primary track.

Me too. I pretty much tone out the music, but having it there stops my mind from wandering, which makes it easier for me to focus on what I am reading or working on.

Cleaning without being able to dance with the broom to the sounds of music is quite difficult, as well.

I love the image of Nilly sweeping and dancing.

I have my iPod on at work when I need to zone everything else out. It is the only way I can concentrate on what I am doing without distraction.

I can listen to orchestral music (or other music without any singing in it) while doing data entry or something else relatively mindless, but if I have to proofread or concentrate on my work, I have to turn off the music.

Of course, my friends and family have long since discovered that if they talk to me while I'm reading a book, I can't listen with any of my ears.

So very much this. Coming out from a book's spell is like coming up from under water for me--I am aware that people are talking, but it's a hollow blur of noise with no meaning until I stop reading.

Shoot, I forgot to say--Happy Birthday, juliana!!!

I can concentrate in what I'm doing and filter out all the conversations and images around me, if I have to. But if somebody says my name, even in a whisper, I'll immediately hear it and respond.

Nilly's brain is so fascinating.

I can concentrate in what I'm doing and filter out all the conversations and images around me, if I have to. But if somebody says my name, even in a whisper, I'll immediately hear it and respond.

I do that. I also usually wake up or snap to alertness immediately upon utterance of the word "Daddy".

Not to mention the supernaturally swift waking up that occurs when I hear a cat start to barf....

Speaking of barfing cats not at all, I signed up for unemployment today. MA has entered the 21st Century and now you just have to answer a questionnaire over the phone, and then call in every Sunday (for my letter of the alphabet, at least).

I can't listen to two things at once. I need to turn off the radio or TV when I pick up the phone. I'm also not all that great at processing stuff that I hear -- I need to see something written out if I'm going to understand it. There's a museum in Ireland (Cork, I think -- it's an old prison that they've made into a museum of how horrible the prisons were) where there are no signs, just an audio tour on headphones. I got nothing out of that. Just spent the entire visit totally frustrated with not being able to learn anything.