I can't believe how much time has elapsed since the previous entry. I've been really busy lately with work, VT, and doing my best to live a balanced life.
So what's up, and what's interesting? Well, we're more than a quarter through the new year, and I've been thinking that I need to re-evaluate my current strategy. I think I'm going to experiment with doing two vision therapy sessions a week.
Why? There are a number of reasons. My vision therapy sessions take up around 25 minutes, but it interrupts my other activities. There's a lot of opportunity cost incurred. Another reason is that I think I may be causing progress to retard by doing so much vision therapy. I'd mentioned this in previous entries. You need to give yourself time to rest and repair. James Blaha, on his blog, said that he began seeing 3d after a few sessions of his game Diplopia, and he would only do a few 20 minute sessions a week. Yet another reason is burnout. No, I'm not burned out, but having been actively doing vision therapy for four years, I have to come up with ways of keeping it sustainable. Burnout is why people quit things. It's why they quit diets. Almost all diets work, but all diets stop working when people quit doing them. The key is to figure out a way to keep yourself doing them. One way is a cheat day, so you're able to replace your will power 'reserves'--a way of treating yourself in a controlled way so your reserves don't run out and you then break down say 'fuck it man!' and eat everything in the world. Anyway, I have pretty high reserves, but I want to keep them high so I have energy for other things.
So doing around 50 minutes a week (once on Tuesday, once on Saturday) should perhaps help me get further faster, while allowing me to pursue other activities.
As far as progress... where am I? Well, it's been a month and a half since the previous entry, although I still do think of progress on a week to week basis. I have been noticing changes in my vision. In fact, it's something that I still think a lot about, especially as of late. I've been noticing, particularly yesterday, about how little suppression I have. Sometimes I notice it a lot when I pick myself up and change activities. I was sitting at a meeting watching people's double faces float past each other. I was sort of surprised by how little preference my brain had for each input channel. Each image might as well be equally as real as the other. Things are definitely changing still.
Anyway, an online buddy, Pasquale, reached out to me because I'd been quiet recently and wanted to check in. I want you, and everyone else to know that I have not given up, and that VT is on the forefront of my mind practically every waking moment. And perhaps it still will be after I recover stereopsis. It's just that instead of constantly thinking 'wow, these people's double-faces sure are distracting', I'll be thinking 'Wow, stereopsis is more amazing than I could have imagined.' Thanks for reaching out, Pasquale! I hope we can see each other at the next Hangout.
