Learning
🙂
I decided to start my memory training by learning a Person-Action-Object list for two-digit numbers based on the Dominic System. This is a popular way of memorizing numbers that balances speed of memorizing a number against the speed of memorizing the system. You could memorize a long number faster if you grouped it into three-digit image chunks instead of two, but covering all the combinations of three digits would give you 1000 images to learn instead of 100. Before that I looked into how I could memorize numbers based on a place value system, but that approach had issues to work out that would slow me down, so I put the idea on hold. I also dipped back into Lynne Kelly’s wonderful Memory Craft to remind myself of the central role of characters in her system. I love the book so much I decided to relisten to it.
Nature
😎
I saw the solar eclipse with my family. For the last eclipse in 2017 my brother and I visited our sister to see it. This time we visited our parents. We went to a nearby park again, where there were other families, some serious photographers, and a lot of raucous birds. We were approached by some bold ducks who were hoping for food.
Like last time, the weather made me nervous, though by that point I was mostly resigned to whatever happened. The sky was mostly cloudy, but there were patches of blue. When totality happened, it started behind a cloud, but the cloud soon moved away, and the eclipsed sun was visible for a beautiful couple of minutes. Then another cloud moved in.
In 2017 I leaned in to the surreality of the experience. This time I was struck by a sense of serenity, despite all the noise of cheering families. The heavenly bodies were just gliding their majestic, silent course through the sky while the rest of gaped in awe.
Taking a walk during the partial phase was on my bucket list for last week, so after totality my brother and I took a stroll around the park.
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People
🙂
We spent the rest of the week on my sister’s wedding and catching up with old friends. Sunday we had dinner with my old high school friend John and his wife, who I’d met briefly in my trip down in November. I got to ask them my burning questions about how they met, what John was doing in AI, and how they ended up at my parents’ church. Wednesday we drove through a very green Arkansas over to Tennessee where the wedding would be. I’m jealous of the south’s early spring. Thursday we spent a relaxed day with my sister Abbie and her fiancée Colleen, where I got a tour of their very thematic house that inspired me to get back to my own decorating.
Friday was the reception hall decorating, the wedding rehearsal, and the dinner, where I had a nice time catching up with acquaintances from my sister’s life. And Saturday was the wedding with interesting Celtic themes, particularly handfasting, a literal tying of the knot. But the part that stood out to me was the statements that Kate the officiant had solicited beforehand about why they were each choosing the other. The wedding was the first time they’d heard each other’s answers. I’d love to see that in more weddings. We rounded off the day with dinner with our extended family, a reunion we hadn’t had in years.
Congrats to gaining a brother-in-law!
Thanks, Linda, though it’s actually a lovely sister-in-law, Colleen.