Atomic Visions

The pixelated banner at the top of this blog shows
how I might see an image made up of smooth lines.

As a kid I was obsessed with atoms. I marveled at how small they were, and how they made up everything in the universe. Also, I hypothesized that I could actually see them with my naked eyes because when I look around, everything I see is made up of tiny, shimmering dots, kind of like the static on an old TV set that congeals into pictures when tuned to the right signal.

Even as a kid I knew that my hypothesis was really just a fantasy. My pixelated vision is likely me seeing my retinas give out, cell by cell. While it's kind of cool to have this dot-matrix view of the world, that constant background shimmer makes me a little less sure of what I'm seeing as my cones gradually give out. But every once in a while, it's fun to pretend that I have superpowers.