Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Survival

During my frequent ruminations about the pros and cons of adding to the Short and Sweet family, I started to ponder about the meaning of the phrase, "surviving the first year". When The Little Madam turned one, I had technically "survived the first year".

But let's think about that one.

Sure, I survived in the literal sense; otherwise this would be a blog from hell (that's assuming only Christians go to heaven).

But how much of me survived? Of my brain cells, not many.

So what can I do to slow my mind's downward slide into moron-ity? How can I ensure the survival of what's left of my brain?

  • crossword puzzles - never been any good at 'em, unless they were the ones in the children's pages.
  • computer games - these and me have never mixed, and are even less likely to now that the grey matter is not as agile as it used to be.
  • blogging - in theory, writing is good for the brain because it gets both hemispheres working. But it's easily to blog mindlessly.
  • evening classes, in anything - that's in competition with sleeping, eating and telly-watching.
  • eating fish - if it involves food, there's a good chance I'll take it on. But I don't like tuna and eating fish and chips every night might just turn me into a pimplier and fatter smart person.
What do other people do to prevent their intellect's extinction?

8 comments:

Jon said...

I'm a voracious reader, that helps

eating 'natto' with breakfast, which is fermented soy beans. some say it's like eating vomit, but if you grew up eating Chinese, it probably wouldn't phase you

fish is good, but i prefer raw or broiled....even if broiled mackerel makes my apartment smell

sadly, i'm still horrible at sudoku....you'd think the fish and reading would help

Watson Woodworth said...

I could buy Chomsky books until he's a wealthy capitalist but it won't get me reading them. What gets my brain going is the peer pressure of hearing smart people talking to each other on Public Radio.

Unknown said...

work?

Ms Mac said...

Sudoku. And reading. And making it my mission to find pictures of gorgeous men taking their shirts off on the internet. You gotta have a little balance, you know! ;-)

LK said...

I agree with the reading one, that is huge. Also, I know you are a movie buff and there are some amazing and educational films out there to watch, ones based on events in history or the doco styles like Inconvenient Truth.

Finally, if you enjoy the web then start surfing Wikipedia, it's amazing how much you learn. Pick a new figure from history every visit and then see where the journey takes you, click on as many links as you can cope with. I confess, I can easily waste half a day doing this but I thoroughly enjoy it.

ps. Like the new look.

Determinist said...

You can join a reading group/book club. You can join a writing club - there is one in Wellington - web page is www.kiwiwriters.org. Painting, sculpting, athletics and so much more - I have no idea why anyone is ever bored.

Anonymous said...

Me watch tv to get smartness..

Violet said...

jon: hmm...I don't remember eating anything that horrible-sounding, except maybe for thousand-year-old-eggs which are truly the blue cheese of Asian cuisine.

nigel: hearing smart people talking to each other would probably just make me feel depressed!

the editter: yeah, maybe. I've been thinking I'd like to get into technical writing/editing/documentation field, but I fear it's way too late for me to start something new...

ms mac: I can certainly do the reading and have a go at Googling beautiful men, but I'd be useless at sudoku.

nyx: web surfing - the advice just gets better and better!

determinist: I never said anything about being bored. I just don't have the energy to do all those things I once called hobbies.

happyandblue2: I can tell ;-)