Counting tricks / counting by instinctDecember 22, 2007
Something that I realized a few years ago is that there are some tricks to counting a small group of items much quicker than one at a time. For instance, how many X's are there on the next line?
XXXXXX
The only way to really know is to count them one by one, but if you let your instincts take over and just glance at them, your brain should be capable of coming up with the number 6 most of time. Apart from raw instinct, one trick is to use grouping, such as "how many sets of three does there look to be"? If there looks to be two sets of three, then you're dealing with 6. If there looks to be one more than two sets of three, you have seven, and if there looks to be one less than two sets of three, you have five.
Seven: XXXXXXX
Five: XXXXX
As for 1, 2, 3, and 4, you should be able to tell just by looking at the group of items.
For sets larger than 7, it gets more difficult, but with practice you can guess the size of sets less than 15 items about 40% of the time, and be at most one off 90% of the time.
Try these:
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
For the bigger ones you can't really rely on counting tricks, you just have to use your "jedi" instincts and make the best possible / most likely guess.
A mental paintingOctober 30, 2007
I had one of those deep thoughts today that come now and again, the kind that sends a bit of a tingle down your spine... what brought it on was contemplating a relative of a church friend who is near to dying, and as is not uncommon, the circumstances are quite sad. But as I sat there, a mental picture started forming that rendered itself like a painting -- two paintings side by side, actually.
Painting #1, on the left: You have this dark blue backdrop, very rich, and in the foreground there is a woman dressed in flowing white robes. Gravity has been somehow set on its side so that she is falling towards the right side of the painting. Rather than there being "ground" along the right edge, there is this bright white surface, a membrane, that shifts and flows a little bit like water and a little bit like fog. It is slightly transclucent, but not enough to see below the surface, and this woman is practically splashing into it. She is on the verge of being totally submersed, sucked under. She is near death, at the very tipping point between life and the mysterious unknown, and her face reads of great sadness and fear. She struggles not to be taken.
Painting #2, on the right: In this painting, the white shifty surface is on the left, but from this vantage point it is much more translucent. You can clearly see the woman on the other side, and parts of her have already come through. What couldn't be seen from the other side was that here are green, rolling fields, a bright blue sky, and crowded around the girl are her grandmother and grandfather, her aunt, and many other family, some from decades past, all crowding around to welcome her. They would be crying tears of joy if there were tears here, but there are not. Instead, they are radiating, only wishing that the woman could be reassured what awaited her.
Do what you don't want toSeptember 8, 2007
Sometimes I play a game with myself when I feel like I've been procrastonating for too long. It goes like this: What do I absolutely dread doing at this very moment? Ok, I'm going to go do that. But it doesn't stop there... as soon as you're done, you ask yourself the question again and then go and do that thing, and so on and so forth. After a few hours, a very pleasant sense of relief and accomplishment ensues!
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