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.

Back to the bacon vodka for a minute, my band is playing at a bar in Las Vegas in August that evidently makes a bacontini.

Also, I would love a BLT for lunch (but will have the lunch that I brought in my Totoro bento box featuring quinoa salad and succotash made w/ edamame and cherries from the market).

Happy birthday, juliana!

I think almost everything I do is done faster/better if I have music on. I do like to listen to music that I'm very familiar with. A) It gives me a tempo to work to. B) It blocks out other noises. C) My brain focuses on the music and my inner chatter/distractions are cut way down.

I'm this way, too. I think having some familiar noise on distracts the overy-thinky part of my brain and lets the rest of me get on with what we're doing. This may also be why I like having sex with Bugs Bunny or Star Trek on the tv. (What?)

Listening to two people at once is completely beyond me. Cannot do it. Listening to one person at once is sometimes beyond me. It drives my DH crazy, we'll be in the middle of a conversation and I'll suddenly realize that I'm not understanding the words coming out of his mouth, so I'll ask him what he just said and he'll start explaining the concepts and I have to tell him "No, what words did you just say? Say them again but slower?"

I have this problem all the time! I hear "blablablah Friday" and I say "What?" and they say, loudly "FRIDAY!". Oh, that clears it up. Thanks. I taken to just responding to what I think people said, and I know by their expressions if I got it right. Always amusing. Except for the guy I thought said, "Prozac chainsaw!" Still don't know what he really said.