I was goofing around on the internet today, like you do - and I stumbled onto some linguistics problem and solution sets from competitions for word nerds. Well, I went down that rabbit hole but good.
Essentially, they set you up with a few pieces of information, and you use that to move forward and solve a series of questions. It's almost like math. You have to find patterns, apply logic... I'm not great at them, at least - not in just glancing and intuiting. But they are fascinating, and I think if I were to apply myself, I could get decent at them. Just something to keep my brain going.
I've got your glottal stop right here. |
As an example, they showed a series of names, dates of birth, genders and countries of origin - each of them was given an Italian Immigration Code. You had to, based on this table, figure out the parameters they used to create the code, and any exceptions to rules.
They then reversed it - they gave you three codes, and you had to give the person a viable name, date of birth, gender and country of origin.
I actually did reasonably well on that. I would have scored myself at about 70% on it.
Anyway. It was a massive rabbit hole, but super fun.
Even with that little time suck, it has been a productive day. I got a haircut this morning. It's a liiiiiiiiiittle too short, but it'll grow. It also needs some heavier duty product. That said, I think it's a good cut, and a step in the right direction. One of these years, I will master my hair.
I cleaned up one of the rooms out of the five I need to get ready for the tribal elders' visit at the end of September, and I made vast headway on another. I have two bags of clothing to take to Goodwill, plus a few odds and ends. I have made peace with the fact that until I have a bigger house, or a storage shed, my butler's pantry is the garage. I don't love it, but I am at peace with it.
I spent a fair bit of time out in the back yard with the Doodlebug. I even managed a little nap, which was delightful.
Dinner has been eaten, laundry has been piled in the front room, awaiting some kind of disposition.
Tomorrow, I will undertake a Trader Joe's run. I also need hat boxes. Or a hat rack. Or both. Basically, there are a ton of hats up in this joint, and I need to wrangle them. I'm planning to head over to my friend's house and spend some time catching up. It's gotten to be a weekend thing, and it seems to work for us.
It's all about balance, they keep telling me.
So there's that.
Back to ridding the manse of dog hair, and ridding my neck of the small post-haircut fragments.
ae
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