Right brain or left brain?

Dana posted this quiz and asked her readers to let her know which they are, so I played along -- generally speaking, I love this sort of thing.

I found it a hard test, though. There were a few questions that I could have answered either way, just depending on the circumstances -- the one about whether you prefer to work alone or in a group, for example. For me that depends on the nature of the work. So I answered all the questions and got this result:

Which Side of your Brain Do You Use? Your Result: Right Side   The right brain however, processes from whole to parts. You see the big picture first, not the details. You are however not good at spelling, math, and science. Problem solves with hunches, looking for patterns. You are good at sports and writing. You have an imagination which is good because when you have imaginatin you tend to be more smart. You prefer working in a group than by yourself. You also like to read fantasy and mystery stories. You can also listen to music or TV while studying. You perfer having fun than work. You also think better when lying down! I am a right sided person many people are right sided so you are normal.
Left Side
Which Side of your Brain Do You Use? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Then I answered it again, changing those iffy ones, and got this result:

Which Side of your Brain Do You Use? Your Result: Left Side   The left side of the brain processes information in a linear manner. It processes from part to whole. It takes pieces, lines them up, and arranges them in a logical order; then it draws conclusions. You look at the details not the big picture. You use logic not imagination. The left brained person is a list maker. You would enjoy making master schedules and and daily planning. Learning things in sequence is easy for you. You are probability a good speller. Left-brained people memorize vocabulary words or math formulas better. You also use logic. When you read and listen, you look for the pieces so that you can draw logical conclusions. The left side of the brain deals with things the way they are-with reality. When left brain students are affected by the environment, they usually adjust to it. Left brain people want to know the rules and follow them. So basicly you are smart! Congratulations!
Right Side
Which Side of your Brain Do You Use? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Neither one of them really describes me.

I am a whole-to-parts, big picture person (Right brain), but I'm good at spelling and I love science and was good at it in school (Left brain). I'm sure that the only reason I did so badly at math is because of the way it was taught -- thousands of details and formulae and operations, and no big picture at all, and I love math games and playing with numbers (Right brain).

I love drawing up master schedules and making plans (Left brain) but I loathe working with details (Right brain). I always loved vocabulary word lists and I'm horrible with figures of speech (Left brain), but I love fantasy stories, fairy tales, and mysteries (Right brain).

I absolutely cannot listen to music or watch TV while studying or reading, or doing anything at all for that matter (except maybe fold towels) (Left brain), but now that they mention it, I do think better while lying down and that's my preferred position for reading (Right brain).

Do I prefer fun to work? Hm. I don't think so, but I think some work really is fun, and I do prefer the work when there's some fun involved -- "fun" for me being having an interesting conversation while working -- but it seems like everyone is like that; it just depends on how you define fun. On the other hand, I can have fun (read books with my children, have interesting conversations, listen to beautiful music, watch movies) in the face of lots of neglected work without it bothering me too much (Right brain-ish).

Do I want to "know the rules and follow them"? Lots of times, yes, especially when it's an area where there's received wisdom and I see no reason to waste time re-inventing the wheel. I read the instructions, and I hate instructions that are only pictures (Left-brain).

Problem-solving is a joke. Early on I learned that only Stupid, Irrational, Bleeding-heart Liberals follow their hunches and Smart Sensible People use logic, so that's the method I use, but because I'm so bad at details I always overlook important data and come to wrong conclusions. I see things in terms of patterns and more often than not my hunches are correct, so I'm trying to learn to pay more attention to them. For some reason my head and my heart are not on speaking terms with one another.

My favorite line from Henry V is "I and my bosom must debate awhile."

So, how about you? Are you Left-brain, Right-brain, or somewhere in the middle?

A Celtic monastery in Brittany

My friend Eleanor took these pictures recently and they're too beautiful not to pass on.

The early Celtic Christian monks were famous for their evangelism, and apparently thought nothing of taking Christianity to the "uttermost parts of the Earth". This abbey is a good example of a Celtic Christian monastic community that did just that. A group of them must have gotten into a boat, and crossed from Cornwall to Brittany, and proceeded to find the most remote spot they could get to. They did this so well that it wasn't even easy for us to find.

This abbey was first founded by a monk in the fifth century. From very rough and modest beginnings, it grew over the next 400 years to have a nice, classic Romanesque abbey church, which was (oh good grief, not again) destroyed by the Norsemen. Those would be my ancestors, argh. After the Norsemen had had their fun, the monks rebuilt. In about another 400 years the place was again demolished, this time by the Normans. Bad Normans! Same folks, really, as the Norse. One stone higher, responded the monks and built yet another establishment which lasted about another 500 years, and was them abandoned. Today it is owned by the Benedictines, who have not restored it to use, but are conserving it and have established a museum collecting its artifacts and history.

Be sure to visit Eleanor's blog to see all the pictures and read her comments on them.

Thanks so much for sharing, Eleanor!

Fun astronomy project

This was so fun and instructive I can't believe I didn't blog about it when we first did it.

We started using Exploring Creation with Astronomy a couple of years ago. One of the first projects is to make a model of the solar system using balloons -- tiny ones for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Pluto, and larger ones for the rest. We were supposed to hang them from the ceiling in the school room in the proper order, and I thought that since we were doing a scale model we might as well hang them according to their relative distances. Our school room is one part of a large L-shaped area that has the dining room in one arm and the kitchen in the other, but I figured that if that area wasn't big enough we'd just hang them out into the living room, too.

So I went online to look up the information I needed. The site I found said that I should use an 8-inch ball for the sun, the head of a pin for Mercury, peppercorns for Venus and Earth, another pinhead for Mars, a pecan for Jupiter, a hazelnut for Saturn, coffee beans for Uranus and Neptune, and another pinhead for Pluto (or something smaller -- like a dot on an index card).

Now, in the scale model, one inch equals 100,000 MILES, so one yard equals 3.6 million miles. Turns out I couldn't possibly do it in my house. We gathered our supplies (I had taped all the "planets" onto index cards and labelled each) and went outside. I put our cabbage-sun on a cement block at one end of the driveway, and walked ten paces. That's where Mercury goes. Nine more paces, Venus; seven more, Earth -- 93 million miles from the sun. We have quite a large yard (about an acre) -- our driveway is about 130 yards long. We had to make three trips down the driveway and around our yard to get to Pluto. I had NO IDEA how big the solar system was.

We did it on a Saturday when everyone was home and we all had a blast.

Here's the site where I found this project: The Thousand-Yard Model: or Earth as a Peppercorn. This page, which I found while searching for the one I originally used, has all the same info plus a lot more.

This post inspired by this picture, seen at Facebook today:

Originally shared by Wimp.com.

Blogger is making some changes

and they're making it impossible for me. I don't know what the problem is, but they're not recognizing my username or password when I try to migrate my blog. I've had this blog since 2003, long before Google bought Blogger, so this is a legacy blog, as they call it.

I'm looking at other options, but if I can't resolve this, my blog at this address will die at the end of May. If nothing else, I'll just use Wordpress. I've already imported everything over there just to be sure I don't lose it, but this is still my blog home for now.

Babies!

Our bantam hen, Chocolate Chip, hatched a brood this week. She had ten eggs, but one didn't hatch and one died shortly afterward -- its fluff didn't even have time to dry. We discovered them on Wednesday (CC was very well hidden) and they looked like they were a day old. Thursday was their first day out of the nest, and these videos were filmed today. Enjoy!

The teeny chirps are chicks' noises. The hen squawks a little in this one, but you can hear her clucking in the next (bok, bok).




This one was taken just a few minutes after the first one. The chicks look like they're just standing around, but they're mostly napping. In this one you can hear our guinea hen in the background starting around 40 seconds. #1 Son was recording it on his cell phone and wanted to get a closer shot of the chicks with their eyes closed, which displeased Chocolate Chip.



The mama is less than eight inches tall, and the babies are under two inches. Adorable.

An Experiment in Audioblogging: Shakespeare's Sonnet 30

So I got this wild idea that instead of continually telling y'all you should read poetry aloud, I'd just read it to you. I haven't figured out how to get a plain audio file onto Blogger yet, so I made the sound file, then added some images using Window's Live Movie Maker, and posted it on YouTube. It's a little under three minutes long, of which about a third is the actual poem and the rest is me yammering.

The first image, in honor of National Poetry Month, is "Poetry" by Alphonse Mucha, part of his series on the Arts.



Eldest Daughter says I should have written a script or at least a cue sheet, because my discussion is so unpolished -- but that was part of the point of doing it this way. I'm not a professional. I love poety, but I don't really know what to say about it beyond "It was nice and I liked it," which is about as sophisticated as my second-grade book reports were. I'm just a regular mom, and hey, if I can do it, you can too!


Many thanks to Dr Taylor and my classmates, Anne, Julie, and Daniel, for their insights and encouragement.

Table talk at my house

Me: Well, I think we should be in The Guinness Book of World Records for holding the STRANGEST EVER conversation around an Easter Dinner table.

Elaienar: Oh, no, it's not strange at all. Easter is about the death and resurrection of Christ, and zombies are people walking around after they're dead.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

As my first offering for this year's poetry month, I give you The Paschal Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), which I read this morning for the first time. The version I came across was written in prose form (four paragraphs) but on my second reading I noticed the poetic structure and have taken the liberty of dividing it into verses. It's no wonder this Archbishop of Constantinople was called Chrysostomos -- Golden Mouthed.

Whosoever is a devout lover of God,
    let him enjoy this beautiful bright Festival.
And whosoever is a grateful servant,
    let him rejoice and enter into the joy of his Lord.
And if any be weary with fasting,
    let him now receive his recompense.

If any have toiled from the first hour,
    let him receive his due reward.
If any have come after the third hour,
    let him with gratitude join in the Feast.
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
    let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any have delayed to the ninth hour,
    let him not hesitate, but let him come too.
And he that hath arrived only at the eleventh hour,
    let him not be afraid by reason of his delay;
for the Lord is gracious
    and receiveth the last even as the first.

He giveth rest to him that cometh at the eleventh hour
    as well as to him that toiled from the first.
Yea, to this one he giveth,
    and upon that one he bestoweth.
He accepteth works
    as he greeteth the endeavour.
The deed he honoureth
    and the intention he comendeth.

Let all then enter into the joy of our Lord.

Ye first and last receiving alike your reward;
    ye rich and poor, rejoice together.
Ye sober and ye slothful,
    celebrate the day.
Ye that have kept the fast and ye that have not,
    rejoice today for the Table is richly laden.

Fare ye royally on it.
The calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake ye all of the cup of faith.
Enjoy ye all the riches of his goodness.

Let no one grieve at his poverty;
    for the universal Kingdom hath been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he hath fallen again and again,
    for forgiveness hath risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
    for the Death of our Saviour hath set us free.

He hath destroyed it by enduring it.
He spoiled Hades when he descended thereto.
He vexed it even as it tasted of his flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he cried,
‘Thou, O Hades, hast been vexed by encountering Him below.’

It is vexed, for it is even done away with!
It is vexed, for it is made a mockery!
It is vexed, for it is destroyed!
It is vexed, for it is annihilated!
It is vexed, for it is now made captive!

It took a body, and lo! it discovered God.
It took earth, and behold! it encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art annihilated!
Christ is risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of the dead;
for Christ, having risen from the dead,
    is become the firstfruits of those that have fallen asleep!

To him be glory and power forever and ever.
Amen.

A Synchronicity of Dormice

This afternoon on the way home from church, we were talking about a list of 100 foods you have to eat before you die I'd seen online. "Is squid on it?" Elaienar asked. Well, of course. You can't have a weird food list without squid can you? Actually, thinking over it, it's not so much a weird food list as a regional food list. There were several Southern classics that aren't a bit weird -- fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, Moon Pies. Okay, that last one is wierd, but only because the recipe has deteriorated in the last half century. My daddy gave them up back in the 70s and I'm pretty sure that S'mores were invented to replace them.

After I mentioned that squirrel was on the list (I haven't eaten it, but some of my children have, in addition to possum, which wasn't on the list, and frog legs, which were), #1 Son shared with us his latest tidbit of bizarre information: The ancient Romans ate stuffed dormice. None of us had ever heard that before and of course we all thought it was pretty funny.

Then, after lunch while reading The Count of Monte Cristo, I came across this passage from chapter 61:

"...by-the-by, sir, do you think dormice eat [strawberries]?"

"Indeed, I should think not," replied Monte Cristo; "dormice are bad neighbors for us who do not eat them preserved, as the Romans did."

"What? Did the Romans eat them?" said the gardener—"ate dormice?"

"I have read so in Petronius," said the count.

Isn't it fun when things coincide like that?

I found of blog full of bizarre history that tells more about Romans and dormice:

Despite sumptuary laws forbidding the practice – dormice were an indulgence – they were fattened in gardens and kept in winter in a glirarium (a large ceramic jar) to prevent them hibernating (and becoming thin…). They were then cooked, stuffed with pine kernels, garum, and ground-up dormouse meat and pepper and were by all accounts delicious.

You can read the whole post here. I think I'll be spending some time browsing this blog -- any place that calls itself a bizarre history blog is definitely worth looking into.

Kind Maker of the world

This is the hymn we’re learning now. It’s in a minor key, which is of course perfect for a Lenten hymn, but the Amen resolves in a major key. The trick to making his hymn sound right is not to sing it too slowly.

Kind maker of the world, O hear
The fervent prayers with many a tear
Poured forth by all the penitent
Who keep this holy fast of Lent!

Each heart is manifest to thee;
Thou knowest our infirmity;
Now we repent, and seek thy face;
Grant unto us thy pard’ning grace.

Spare us, O Lord, who now confess
Our sins and all our wickedness,
And, for the glory of thy Name,
Our weaken’d souls to health reclaim.

Give us the self-control that springs
From abstinence in outward things;
That from each stain and spot of sin,
Our souls may keep the fast within.

Grant, O thou blessèd Trinity;
Grant, O unchanging Unity;
That this our fast of forty days
May work our profit and thy praise! Amen.

Words: St. Gregory the Great, 540-604; Hymnal Version, 1940
Tune: JESU DULCIS MEMORIA, pub. Aldernach, 1608

I’ve tried unsuccessfully to find a version of it on YouTube sung by a choir, but here’s an organ version of it, so you can imagine how it would sound sung in four-part harmony. [The video calls the melody “A la Venue de Noel.” I don’t know why the difference. I also think it’s bad grammar — seems like it should be du Noel. :-p ]



~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Okay, I admit that I posted this just so I’d have something dated February 29 — this is the third Leap Year I’ve been blogging, and somehow I’ve never posted on Leap Day before. But still, it’s a lovely hymn, and one that’s not nearly well-enough known. :-D