Geek On The Mountain

Should we assume the being elderly is accompanied by wisdom or should we assume that it is more of a handicap? Should older people have lots of common sense, or should they be treated like kids who just don’t know any better? I know the true answer really depends on the person you’re dealing with, but it seems as though in general society should expect one or the other.

Case in point. I was waiting in line at a store the other day. There was this old lady in front of me (in front of the person in front of me anyways) who was at the pickup window. Once her transaction had completed, she just kind of turned sideways and then proceeded to slowly open up her purse and try to find a spot to shove her checkbook into. She was very slow. It probably took her 20 - 30 seconds to finish and then finally move out of the way. Had she just taken two steps forward, she would have been completely out of the way. As was though, she blocked 75% of the window.

To me, it just seems like common sense to move out of the way. One might reasonably assume that sometime in the first 65 years of life a person should pick up on that. As such, it seems reasonable to tell this person to get the hell out of the way since they should know better.

On the other hand, some older people start to lose it a bit. She may not have even realized that she was in the way. One might consider her mental state to be somewhat equivalent of that of a child in regards to this situation. She just doesn’t know any better. It’s best to just give her some time without saying anything and she’ll be on her way.

Mind you, when I mention telling her to get the hell out of the way, I don’t really mean saying those exact words or just shoving her out the way or anything like that. I’m really thinking of just a polite “excuse me” or something of that nature. Naturally, you could argue that saying something or not saying something could apply to either case depending on what kind of person you are, so maybe it’s better to say how would you think about it?

Would you expect the person to have some common sense or would you think of them as not knowing any better? Should people in general think one way or the other?

(Now watch as I get one or even no comments since I’ve actually asked for feedback… )

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I got to thinking about serial numbers the other day. What really struck me was the name itself. Serial. The word essentially means “one after another”. Since, when assigning serial numbers to objects, you each number goes to one and only one object and you generally use the numbers one after another, this makes total sense. But why serial? Why not “sequential” or maybe “successive”? Suddenly, it occurred to me. Something came before the serial number…

The parallel number. Clearly, when people first tried to start assigning numbers to things, they went about it all wrong. They began assigning numbers in parallel. They probably just called them “id numbers” or something like that. Parallel number is clearly a retronym. It must have quickly become apparent, however, that this would not work. Say there is an issue with object with the number 239. You go to find 239, only there are 4 of them, yet only one is the one you’re looking for. So they abandoned the system and called the new identifiers “serial numbers” in order to distinguish them from the old. It all makes sense now.

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Given our (humans, that is) vast amount of knowledge, we tend to put things into categories in order to keep it all straight. Of course, the things that go into these categories don’t always fit quite right. But in order to cut down on the complexity, we generally need fewer categories rather than more.

This is something I’ve understood for some time now, but as time goes on I feel like I understand it better and better. I was thinking last night and it occurred to me that as I was growing up, I didn’t really get it at all.

Take the simplest example possible…..politics. (Read the article)

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I don’t really put much thought into things. I don’t think I ever have. This is kind of funny because -I have plenty of time at work to do so. I’d guestimate the load on my brain is about 20% - 30% on average. There are times when I actually have to troubleshoot/fix something and I’m really paying attention to what’s going on for a measurable period of time, but for the most part little thinking is needed. This leaves me free to think about whatever I want. Or rather, this leaves me needing to think of something least I go crazy while I wait for the day to end. Given, work isn’t the best place to really concentrate on something anyways, but I still waste most of that time. I end up singing to myself or even explaining things I already know to myself conversationally. It can be entertaining at the very least. When I try, I can think through something decently enough. I mostly thought of what to write for this post while at work the other day for example. I just usually don’t.

My real point with not thinking about things though is that I end up not always fully understanding situations. I don’t necessarily think of others overly much because I don’t really do a whole lot of the thinking thing. It all works out in a wonderfully mediocre kind of way.

I think this habit is related to my detachment to things. I’m not sure if it’s a cause or an effect exactly. I tend to detach. It’s a coping mechanism I suppose. I tend to end up taking it to an extreme though and I have a tendency to end up detached from important things like say, Milenka. That happens and then I don’t even care if she say moves out even. I’ve done that as long as I can remember though. My parents divorced when I was 8 and I don’t really remember caring all that much about it. It’s easier to detach if you don’t think much about things I guess. Of course, in a way, not thinking about things causes some level of detachment on it’s own.

This all ties in to memory as well. I have trouble remembering things. I do have trouble with things from say a day or two ago, but it’s present on a longer scale as well. Sometimes Milenka will bring up something that’s happened in the last 5 years from when we’ve been married and I don’t have a clue what she’s talking about. It kind of hurts her that I don’t really. Anyways, I know little about human memory, but my theory is that the more you think about something the better you will remember it. This makes sense on a lot of levels. This is what you’re doing when you’re studying for a test. Of course, after the test, if you don’t think about (or use) any of that stuff then you’ll find even 6 months later you’ve forgotten a good portion of it. My earliest memory is fuzzy and has something to do with a plane made out of legos from McDonalds and being in the car afterwards playing with it. I have no supporting memories to give it a timeframe other than before I was 8, but I do recall when I was younger having some reason to believe it was from when I was maybe 3 or 4. I’ve always thought of this when I think of my earliest memory, and that’s the only reason I really have any recollection of it. It’s as if memories lose strength over time and when you recall them some of that strength is added back and you remember for longer. Of course, some memories have such strong emotional ties that their strength starts off so high that you’ll probably never forget (and if you’re that attached to start off with you’ll undoubtedly reflect back on them from time to time anyways of course). This has been my experience anyways. I suspect that this is something that is fairly true, however.

My point here, of course, is that I tend to not remember things because I don’t reflect back on them. I tend to wonder how much better off I would be if I were to at least take a moment from time to time to reflect back on what had happened. I’d say it’s a good idea and that I’ll try it out, but it’s hard to say if I’ll actually get around to it or not per se…

I’m hoping the blog here will help out with this as well. I think it will serve as a good memory jogger. To those ends, in the sidebar you’ll now find an excerpt from entries from the same date in pervious years (that is to say, it will show back more than one year but there’s nothing to show at this point). It required a plugin (we’re using movabltype here..) called OnThisDay that adds a MT template tag with the same name to hand this. I was googling for things like “show entry 1 year ago” and such and I finally stumbled across the MT plugin directory that sixapart maintains and found it there…. That would have been a good place to start I guess

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I actually have a 3 day weekend that I didn’t create myself….the first of the year. I have today off because it’s good Friday. It’s one of those holidays that I don’t celebrate and I suspect most people don’t exactly but we get off anyways. If memory serves, Jesus died or something so we all get the day off. It’s kind of like veterans day in a way, only we don’t get that one off…. I forget the whole good Friday thing every year though… I’m just not a big Jesus freak so I never really bother quite completely remembering. A day off is a day off though….

I just have to manage to stay productive during my time off. I’ve actually not been totally incompetent the last couple of days and I’ve managed to get some stuff done around the house and such. I’ve managed to retain some motivation and do the same today so far pretty much. Usually in the past when I begin a good trend it falls apart over the weekend when I’m lacking other structure. Hopefully I can keep on going this time.

I’d like to use the weekend to get caught up as much as I can on “projects” around the house that I never really do but said I would. That way when the new week starts I can do my daily stuff around the house and then be done and use the rest of the time to do something more for myself (yet still productive).

It was also a year ago yesterday (surely not by the date but by relation to when good Friday falls) that I got my tattoo. I more or less immediately meant to get another one, but I still haven’t gotten around to it. Or rather, I’m still not sure what I’d actually like to have done and I like to put some thought into things quite so permanent. For those who don’t know, the image on the left there is my tattoo and it’s on the inside of my left forearm. It is a dragon wrapped around a the Chinese/Japanese symbol/character that means strength (or power, as the Japanese I occasionally work with tell me)

The meaning is something to the tune of “true strength comes from within”, which sounds stupid to me when you just say it. It’s a broad statement that has about the same impact as “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” and other such statements if you don’t bother to put any thought into it. Depending on how you want to look at it though, it can mean a lot. I could probably go on for too long about the philosophy behind it as I see it, but the gist is that the strength you have to do anything comes from within you. You might think you derive strength from a person, even, drug, or whatever, but it really comes from yourself. The key, perhaps, is to summon said strength without those other catalysts. It’s not necessarily easy but not impossible either. But now I’m moving beyond the meaning of the original statement. At any rate, it’s something I truly believe, even if I don’t exactly practice what I preach.

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