Getting to Know Your Machinery,

it's still Christmas, and a Vocabulary Quiz!

Ready?

You know about my magazine problem. Well, my most recent guilty pleasure is the National Geographic special, Your Brain: A User's Guide. You may keep your comments to yourself right now, and thank me later. As for my own machine, I know it pretty well. I even have images of it to share with you so that you can see the inner workings of your second-favorite blogger.

 I made it through Chapter 1 of the User's Guide, "The Learning Brain." I really did. All I'm going to pass on to you is from one little sidebar, but if you want me to talk at you about axons and dendrites, I'd be more than happy to oblige. In the meantime, here are the tips the guide proposes for how to learn more efficiently:

- learn a new language
- listen to classical music
- do puzzles
- eat healthy foods (hold, please, the pizza man is here!)
- walk, jog, or cycle to keep that heart pumping blood up to your brain on a healthy basis

There you have it. The other interesting thing that I learned is that we are more intelligent today than we have been in the past because the world we live in is, get this..."more interesting" than the world of the past. Hmm.

On the Christmas front, I'd like to share an image of a truly heartfelt, thoughtful gift that I received from Amanda:

This, my loyal readers, is The Chain. Each link represents a day remaining in the school year. Certain links are emblazoned with inspirational words, which I have been hanging on my fridge:

I plan to liberally re-post my original image of the chain so that y'all can see the school year winding down, like I do. This time tomorrow, it will be exactly half over. It's simultaneously easy to believe, and hard to believe.

Now for the vocab. You may have noticed that this blog is not-quite-bicoastal. It is composed in Nevada and Indiana. I suppose that makes me a Battle-Born Hoosier. Is there a word for not-quite-bicoastal? Biregional? Bibiomal? Bistatial? Hmm.

This post has been about more than one thing. It may have been better to have broken it into two posts, but I treat my blog fodder like I treat my brain, with a use-it-or-lose-it attitude.

How can we pass along the cheer of the paper chain, before it gets lost in the grind?