I'm colour deficient, a.k.a. partially colourblind. The other day Anas came over to my place for the first time and thought it was funny that I had pink curtains.
"WHAT. I haz pink curtains? I thought they were gray! I tried to keep my room gray-white-red"
It's not the first time something like this has happened; it makes for some forehead smacking from time to time. I even had the nerve to take visual art for O levels and got totally slaughtered when it came to painting and had to rely on my pencil drawing to save my grades.
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When you first tell people that you can't see colour very well, somehow the first question that invariably pops up is: "Ohhhhhh so what colours can you not see?"
Eh bro, you should be setting viral PSLE questions sia. The kind only those Mensa one can answer. Fantastic question. I help you modify with all the variations k:
"Eh blind guy, so what objects you cannot see?"
Eh bro, you should be setting viral PSLE questions sia. The kind only those Mensa one can answer. Fantastic question. I help you modify with all the variations k:
"Eh blind guy, so what objects you cannot see?"
"Aye leg amputee, which toe you cannot feel?"
"Hello is this LTA? You will lower MRT or bus fare next month?
Ok, I do know that I'm red-green and mildy blue colour deficient because my doctor told me so, but I like to mess around with people, so I just go: "If I know, I won't be colour deficient already".
Polite right.
Usually, the next 5 minutes will be spent answering "this one what colour". I don't mind that I'm colour deficient and that you're making a fuss out of it, but I'm 26 now and going through the same motions gets old. It's not even a good conversation topic anymore. The only upside is that I get better night vision!
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I remember my first encounter with colour deficiency back when I was in kindergarten. I didn't know it then; I only knew I was colour deficient when I turned 11. Anyways, in between imagining myself marrying the girl seated opposite me, I was deciding on how to colour my "a day in the kitchen" masterpiece.
"The teapot shall be red!" said one voice in lil' Khing's head.
"The spoons shall be blue, chicks dig blue spoons" said another.
"And the plates shall be that special blue colour in the corner of the crayon box!" declared another voice in his head, though it also wondered why there was a need for light blue, dark blue and that special-looking blue.
I reached for what I thought was red, but paused because the crayons in the compartment beside it looked red too and every other compartment seemed to have a different colour. I grabbed a crayon from each of the "red" compartments and held them up against the sun to get a better look. They both looked like red, but the shades seem slightly different somehow. I randomly chose one anyway and proceeded to fail to colour within the lines of the teapot.
I'm not sure how or who told me, but in the end the teapot was green and the plates turned out purple. I did get the spoons blue but the chick didn't dig it and never asked for my hand in marriage so I'll count that as a minus. I didn't dwell on not getting the colours right for too long because it was moulding period soon and the plasticine wasn't going to shape itself.
A few years later in Primary 1, we had a colouring listening comprehension test - listen and colour accordingly. My leaves were brown, the tree trunk was green and I coloured the sky purple. For my efforts, my teacher failed me and told me off for trying to be a clown. I was more puzzled than pissed - who swapped the papers?
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Finally when I was 11, a routine health check in school led to the discovery that I was indeed unable to see the full spectrum of colours. It was totally unexpected because all we were worrying about was the pubic hair check part. I failed the Ishihara Colour Test spectacularly and basically got one card right.
Being me, I was pretty nonchalant about it, but it shed light (heh heh) on incidents passed. Just as how you can't understand how my world looks like, there's actually quite a bit of colour in my world already and it never occurred to me that I was lacking something.
The thing about lack is; you never feel you're lacking until you know you can get more. #deep
I'm gonna get me one of these when I feel a lot richer!
So apparently, my world is less saturated and different colours are a lot more similar than they are to you. That explains why I always tend to over saturate photos when I edit them; I have to consciously under saturate them now when I try to insta something richer in colour.
My rainbows have always been yellow and blue - just two colours. It's a shame because I've seen really beautiful rainbows - I've seen three circular rainbows orbiting the sun on a clear blue sky against a snow mountain; the outer rainbow ring you had to physically turn around to see. I've seen huge, abnormally thick rainbows. I've even seen the origin of a rainbow, literally coming up from the gorund (nope, no pot of gold, sorry).
I'd love to see the world in full (or your) colour, even if it may sadden me that I've spent 26 years of my life in non-HD. I'm not the guy who settles for less because it'll hurt to go for more. That's another thing about lack; we only really lack when we convince ourselves that lack is enough. #deepdeep
--
Finally when I was 11, a routine health check in school led to the discovery that I was indeed unable to see the full spectrum of colours. It was totally unexpected because all we were worrying about was the pubic hair check part. I failed the Ishihara Colour Test spectacularly and basically got one card right.
Being me, I was pretty nonchalant about it, but it shed light (heh heh) on incidents passed. Just as how you can't understand how my world looks like, there's actually quite a bit of colour in my world already and it never occurred to me that I was lacking something.
The thing about lack is; you never feel you're lacking until you know you can get more. #deep
I'm gonna get me one of these when I feel a lot richer!
So apparently, my world is less saturated and different colours are a lot more similar than they are to you. That explains why I always tend to over saturate photos when I edit them; I have to consciously under saturate them now when I try to insta something richer in colour.
My rainbows have always been yellow and blue - just two colours. It's a shame because I've seen really beautiful rainbows - I've seen three circular rainbows orbiting the sun on a clear blue sky against a snow mountain; the outer rainbow ring you had to physically turn around to see. I've seen huge, abnormally thick rainbows. I've even seen the origin of a rainbow, literally coming up from the gorund (nope, no pot of gold, sorry).
I'd love to see the world in full (or your) colour, even if it may sadden me that I've spent 26 years of my life in non-HD. I'm not the guy who settles for less because it'll hurt to go for more. That's another thing about lack; we only really lack when we convince ourselves that lack is enough. #deepdeep
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