The Vertigo Effect

Actually, that's not accurate. The Vertigo Effect (as shown here at 0:56, and discussed here) is when you zoom in while pulling back with a camera, creating a shifting field of focus. I only use the term because it's the closest I can come up with for what I'm trying to explain.

Basically, here's the gist. I don't get sick that often. Usually less than once a year (and I mean cold-sick, not I-have-a-migraine-can't-go-to-work). I was sort of sick in June for about a week (in which I was sniffy and sore throated, but not badly enough to not go to work, which was a gyp), then got over it and infected Tanja, who was promptly sick for a month. Yesterday I had sore sinuses, and in the evening got a sore throat and a runny nose. I took a Lemsip and went to bed.

This morning at 6:38 am I knew I was sick. Was it that my symptoms had worsened? Yes.

But the real reason I knew?

I began to have Zooming Waking-Dreams.

Yeah, see why I called it the Vertigo Effect? Much catchier.

So what happens is thus: I wake up, but still feel exhausted. So I lie there with my eyes closed, and my mind wanders. As my brain flicks through subjects, occasionally I'll see a picture related to that subject. But as my mind moves on, my mind's eye will not. The picture will remain. And my mind's eye will zoom closer and closer to one insignificant part of the picture with little in it. And I don't mean I picture a scene and go into it, like a movie, I mean it's exactly like holding up a magazine and moving the picture closer until it fills your field of view. And in and in, and then it'll snap back to the full picture. Then zoom in slowly again. Over and over. The only way to break the cycle is to open my eyes, but as soon as I close them, back to the picture. To occasionally make it more infuriating, sometimes the picture will come with a bit of music or a line of spoken dialogue that will repeat over and over as the picture zooms in.

Drive you crazy? Oh yes it might.