Remembering Krista

[tarasgirl06]

July 19, 2018:
View attachment 388340View attachment 388341
2019:
View attachment 388342
2020:
View attachment 388343

Always and forever a beauty.

 

[daftcat75]

DaftCat75 said "Otherwise, it's just vague flashes like shadows in my mind's eye. Like a line drawing with captions: "This is my best attempt at a Krista.""

We tend to learn in three major ways.
1) Auditory - Words including written or spoken
2) Visual - Pictures, graphs, charts
3) Kinesthetic - Touch, following forms, repetitive "hands on" actions
Each of us has one of the above which is primary for our learning, yet each of us will use all three to varying degrees.
I tend to be far more kinesthetic than many other folks.

Sometimes I think this plays into memory as well.
I have not yet found an answer to the question: If we are more visual do we mentally see images better in memories?
I have minor skills in photography and have sizable images of my former cats as art on my walls.
Of course I can react when I see them.
Yet being primarily a kinesthetic influenced learner, I find the strongest remembrances come when a familiar place returns feelings inside. These then move to the external and then flow within to be deep in the reconnections to my former felines and others.

Like sitting quietly at a desk, reading on the screen, and the thought of a strong head butt comes from nowhere. It then appears at the skin above the closed eyes and radiates as a growing circle with a wonderfully strong yet soft force back through closed eyes. You don't even ask which cat. How it radiates into you gives the answer.
Like certain samba music that I used to cat dance with my Turkish Van male. My feet move recklessly, and I feel his paws on each side of my neck as I turn and now he is there in my arms.

Possibly even those with visual artist strengths have their memories clouded, or I would say enhanced by auditory and kinesthetic influences that complete the picture more fully.

There is a condition where the afflicted has no mental imagery. This is called aphantasia. As you can imagine, this would have impacts on learning, imagination, and interpersonal social dynamics. There is also the opposite condition where one has an overly developed mental imagery. This is called hyperphantasia. I imagine it comes with its own challenges. It stands to reason that mental imagery (and the problems of too little or too much) exists on a spectrum. I would put myself closer to aphantasia than neurotypical. Hypo-phantasia?

I would also say that I am primarily a kinesthetic learner. In most cases, if I can't "see" the big picture, I don't get it. This is not the same as a visual learner. I used to take dance lessons. The teachers I hated the most were the ones who would demonstrate a pattern and say, "do it like this." Well, if I could do it like that, I wouldn't need you. The most effective dance teachers I had knew how to break down a lesson for all three kinds of learning styles. But mostly, they were the ones who could communicate to me how something was supposed to feel vs. what it should look like.

I would be curious to know if there has been any research attempting to correlate learning style with the strength of one's mental imagery. I would also be interested to know if *phantasia is at all correlated with autism. It seems aphantasia or hyperphantasia would both result in similar learning and social challenges as autism.

 

[tarasgirl06]

There is a condition where the afflicted has no mental imagery. This is called aphantasia. As you can imagine, this would have impacts on learning, imagination, and interpersonal social dynamics. There is also the opposite condition where one has an overly developed mental imagery. This is called hyperphantasia. I imagine it comes with its own challenges. It stands to reason that mental imagery (and the problems of too little or too much) exists on a spectrum. I would put myself closer to aphantasia than neurotypical. Hypo-phantasia?

I would also say that I am primarily a kinesthetic learner. In most cases, if I can't "see" the big picture, I don't get it. This is not the same as a visual learner. I used to take dance lessons. The teachers I hated the most were the ones who would demonstrate a pattern and say, "do it like this." Well, if I could do it like that, I wouldn't need you. The most effective dance teachers I had knew how to break down a lesson for all three kinds of learning styles. But mostly, they were the ones who could communicate to me how something was supposed to feel vs. what it should look like.

I would be curious to know if there has been any research attempting to correlate learning style with the strength of one's mental imagery. I would also be interested to know if *phantasia is at all correlated with autism. It seems aphantasia or hyperphantasia would both result in similar learning and social challenges as autism.

Complex. I for one am glad to be living in a time when these different ways of feeling and cognition are being investigated and the results shared with the wider community. With all the problems living in these times have, at least I for one am beginning to understand why I am different from some and also that it's not being "weird" or "lacking" but rather a member of a community that has its own talents, abilities, and advantages. We can look forward to more revelations as interest increases.

 

[bear]

I am far from being an expert on anything.

The information I provided about the learning types was a summary of a class for instructors I was able to take 50 years ago. The course stressed that using multiple tools leveraging different strengths could help the overall class learn better. A focus on just one would leave some behind. It seems at least one of you instructors understood the benefits.

Recently I completed a few online AQ screenings. A couple of the questions included:
* Patterns exist everywhere and I can spot them easily.
* If I try to imagine something, I find it very easy to create a picture in my mind.
* I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending.

You may be able to find out how which type of answer affected the results.

" I would also be interested to know if *phantasia is at all correlated with autism. It seems aphantasia or hyperphantasia would both result in similar learning and social challenges as autism."

I would think Temple Grandin would be the most fun person to present with this question. She may also know of any research that has taken place.
===
Why would studying animals give you a much greater understanding of autism?

Grandin: Autism helped me understand animals because I think in pictures. Since animals do not have language, their memories have to be sensory-based instead of word-based.

5 Questions: Temple Grandin discusses autism, animal communication | News Center | Stanford Medicine

 

[daftcat75]

There was a social media challenge the other month to search your photos for “concert” and post what you find (because people are missing live music. Me? I’m not missing crowds yet.)

This is what I came up with:

July 20, 2018:

Someone’s upset I left for a Keith Urban concert without her. Waiting by the door to give me an earful.

 

[tarasgirl06]

There was a social media challenge the other month to search your photos for “concert” and post what you find (because people are missing live music. Me? I’m not missing crowds yet.)

This is what I came up with:

July 20, 2018:
View attachment 388447
Someone’s upset I left for a Keith Urban concert without her. Waiting by the door to give me an earful.

Having been in the music biz, it's "been there, done that ad nauseum" on the party scene, and I've been to a lot of events, so I don't really miss the scene too much. But Krista looks like she might have liked to go along?

 

[daftcat75]

Having been in the music biz, it's "been there, done that ad nauseum" on the party scene, and I've been to a lot of events, so I don't really miss the scene too much. But Krista looks like she might have liked to go along?

Can you imagine?! I have never seen her outdoor style. I don’t know if she would appreciate lawn seating. If she would run across the whole lawn or park in one spot. But I know that she would run around from group to group getting all the loving. She was more dog than cat when it came to meeting new people.

 

[daftcat75]

 

[tarasgirl06]

THAT, my friend, is the famous Silent Miaow:

The Silent Miaow
And yes, you can find it on Bezos' site but I try not to give him any more cause for overweening greed and egotism than he already has.
As to the venues, Krista seemed quite relaxed and at home in the bleachers, so I would suppose she would have loved the concerts as well. I took my mom to see "CATS" twice, BTW. We loved it both times.

 

[bear]

Casper would make a similar clicking noise the last two years of his long life.
The best I could guess was his top saberteeth (his were not canines) would shift behind his lower teeth. Then he would open slightly, dragging them upward as his lower jaw realigned to the rear. This would give two or more clicks depending on how the teeth drug across each other as he realigned.

 

[daftcat75]

Casper would make a similar clicking noise the last two years of his long life.
The best I could guess was his top saberteeth (his were not canines) would shift behind his lower teeth. Then he would open slightly, dragging them upward as his lower jaw realigned to the rear. This would give two or more clicks depending on how the teeth drug across each other as he realigned.

Krista was toothless at this time. After years of piecemeal extractions for tooth resorption, she finally got the remaining ones proactively removed in November 2019. Best I can guess is that it's bones in her jaw that were clicking. Or maybe it's air/gas in the joints like knuckle-cracking? But it's odd that this was the first and only time I heard this. Granted, she passed just a few weeks later.

 

[daftcat75]

July 21, 2018:
The Keith Urban concert night was a long one for the both of us.

And then it was back to work later that day. For the both of us.

By evening, we were both beat.

 

[daftcat75]

July 22, 2020:
View media item 423667
This is a big deal because this was her just a month before.
View media item 423507

 

[daftcat75]

July 23, 2018:

2019:

 

[daftcat75]

July 24, 2018:

2019:


2020:

 

[daftcat75]

July 25, 2018:

Blep!

2019:

 

[daftcat75]

July 26, 2018:
The cat wall before the Katris. Before arthritis caught up to her, and her ruptured eardrum in Jan 2019 temporarily limited her mobility, I often fed her in odd places like this one to provide her variety. If it was raw food, I was most often feeding her that on the kitchen counter for practical reasons (easier cleanup of any flung bits.)

2019:
In 14 years of caring for her, I forgot to leave the seat down less than a handful of times. Mostly because Cabbie before her had me trained well.

 

[tarasgirl06]

July 26, 2018:
The cat wall before the Katris. Before arthritis caught up to her, and her ruptured eardrum in Jan 2019 temporarily limited her mobility, I often fed her in odd places like this one to provide her variety. If it was raw food, I was most often feeding her that on the kitchen counter for practical reasons (easier cleanup of any flung bits.)
View attachment 389389
2019:
In 14 years of caring for her, I forgot to leave the seat down less than a handful of times. Mostly because Cabbie before her had me trained well.
View attachment 389390

It's a really nice cat wall. And the OWNER can eat wherever the OWNER wants to eat, right?

 

[daftcat75]

If I could find this in a high enough resolution, I would totally blow it up and make a poster print out of it to replace The Singing Butler on the cat wall. He could be relocated. But I have only ever seen a low res image of this.

 

[KittyCatCove]

It's almost impossible to read this thread without tears flowing. I am very sorry for your loss.

Krista is so much like my Patches.