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The Tall Muse

DucLy — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:15:32 -0500

Interestingly, myndology has a one ring bound flash card type name "The Tall Muse". I didn't get the title until now!

Duc Ly

looking at me strangely

daveterry — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:01:28 -0500

I've done this many times. I bring a study book, highlighter and pen. I'll highlight the study book and write in the margins while I wait for my meal.

I went to a very crowded Korean restaurant once. Ordered and then took out my book. Meanwhile everyone was talking all around. Some were laughing others deep in conversation. I buried myself in my book, pulled out the highlighter and started going at it. I tuned everyone out. It was very noisy.

Suddenly, I became somehow aware that things had grown quiet. I wondered if something outside had drawn everyone's attention. I briefly looked up only to discover that everyone was looking at ME. They had this strange look in their faces as if I was from Mars. I felt very uncomfortable, ate quickly and left.

...dave
insomnia cure

It's good to hear

JWhitt — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:23:08 -0500

someone else's experience with their children's different learning styles. My son has AD/HD and I would agree with him being a kinetic learner (plus the impulsivity issue which led to the eventual diagnosis). We do not have the means to home school so I have been blessed with being able to send him to a small parochial school where he has a little bit of latitude.

Unfortunately, in the "real world," not everyone is going to be understanding in this form of learning. I think I just might suggest doodling to his teacher as another coping mechanism to keep him occupied while other kids are trying to learn. (Spinning would end up with him launching projectiles - definitely a no-no!)

Notes

shris — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:37:29 -0500

Hi.

On those long calls where I don't have to say anything, I take notes. That is, I try to write/type what people are saying as they say it. I'm not fast enough to go verbatim, but I can generally get the gist of what each speaker is saying on the page before the next guy gets too far for me to catch up.

This serves several useful purposes for me--
one, it sharpens my attention on what's being said,
two, it's very easy to boil it down to action items later for broadcast meeting notes,
three, it's documentary evidence of what we did and didn't talk about,
four, it's easy to reread later, triggering the memory of what actual words were used,
five, it proves I was paying attention,
six, it helps me learn the voices and names of the participants.

It only works when I don't have to talk much--I can't talk and type at the same time sensibly and it's hard to keep after.

My memory stinks now and such 'conversational' notes have saved my bacon a couple of times. It's tiring to take notes like that, a little hard on the hands, but as long as I only have to do it for one meeting a day I'm OK.

Doodling is more fun, but it doesn't help me remember. I tune out my ears when my eyes are engaged, sometimes, so doodling a picture of something unrelated has the potential to get in the way of listening for me. I save doodling for the parts of the conversation that really don't apply to me.

For me, if it isn't written, it's extremely difficult to remember. Writing it myself makes it much easier, because I've thought about it twice at least--listening and understanding the message, then translating the aural message to my own words to type or write down. I'd rather type than write because I've got better speed typing. Anyway, reading it again later (to extract action items, for example) adds more repetition of the words, reinforcing the memory.

One thing I've noticed is that it's harder to 'tune out' inputs when I haven't had enough sleep. I'm having a very hard time today taking a WBT class while DH is in the background talking to a customer. My sleep was interrupted 3 times and it takes a very focused will to pay attention long enough to pass the WBT quizzes. Without major effort, my eyes slide across the page and the words don't even make it into the brain. Ugh. I need a nap.

The other thing that happens when I haven't had enough sleep is rambling. I think I'm rambling, so I'd better stop. :)

shris

Conference Calls

Metropolitan — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:47:27 -0500

So doodle! I've created some very intricate stuff during interminable calls, which are actually kind of nice since there's no demand for visual attention between caller and callee.

Give it a try - I'd be surprised if your attentiveness didn't increase.

Kinesthetic-visual AND ADD

tootru — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:04:33 -0500

That's me!

Weird - I can go to a restaurant were there's tons of stuff going on and get just immersed in a book.

If I'm doing maths, though, I need near absolute quiet - especially if it's algebra and not geometry.

Though I do find that classical music (or any music sans lyrics) does help the concentration on some days.

Conference calls are absolute awfulness for me - I listen and listen and listen - and never remember a thing.

Simple explanation for this phenomenon

jonglass — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:21:42 -0500

Believe it or not, there is a simple explanation for what you described, and your professor experienced....

It turns out that there are different ways of learning, assimilating information/knowledge. Some people are auditory--they absorb what they here, and taking notes can actually be a distraction for them. They would rather sit, and hear (even eyes closed). Others are visual learners... they need to see to understand. Reading, or watching demonstrations works best for them.

These first two are rather simple to both understand _and_ accomodate in the classroom. The last one, however, is somewhat more complicated to grasp for the auditory and visual learners, and worse, most difficult to adapt education methods too--this third is the kinetic learn. they must _do_--be in constant motion, so to speak. These are the "hands-on" people. They are also the people who tend to pace while studying, and doodle while on the phone or taking notes. Often, they like to draw pictures to explain things, rather than words (a way of making "kinetic" notes) As you can well imagine, having a classroom full of pacing, doodling kids would make teaching difficult. ;-) Hence, this last style of learning is the least-accomodated in the classroom. My personal suspicion is that many AD/HD kids are actually kinetic learners, who are frustrated with the typical classroom approach--listening and reading.

Personally, I'm an auditory learning, with a slight bent also towards the visual. My 14yr old daughter, on the other hand, is _massively_ kinetic! One thing she loves to do is listen to music on her mp3, and spin... often while _reading_! We home school, and have been allowed to let her fully utilize her style of learning, but I'll be honest with you, it's _quite_ disconcerting to me to watch her.... "in action..." ;-) But she is a fountain of knowledge, and more so, is an artist extraordinaire! She draws and paints, and does sculpture, and plays the piano, etc. So, doodlers of the world, untie! loosen up, and feel free in your style of learning/gaining/retaining information. :-)

-Jon

Distracting the chorus in your mind

Metropolitan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:43:26 -0500

Yes!!! I found the same thing, all through high school and college. In classes where I was doodling and then stopped, my grades dropped. Distracting the latent daydreams in my head by drawing on the back of my notebooks gave my rational, listening mind the ability to be rational and, well, listen.

The positive side was that I had art to share, some of it, and decent grades. Also moved pretty quickly from cheap ballpoints to more well-made ones, and then to drafting pens (this was years before I discovered fountain pens).

A professor's validation

JWhitt — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:48:31 -0500

I am a doodler, too. One of my undergrad profs noticed that while I doodled away in his class, and looked otherwise uninterested, I still was getting very good grades. He explained that for some, doodling can keep your scattered subconcious busy so that you are able to concentrate on what's really at hand. Same thing for other "quirks" like spinning, humming, munching while studying, etc. Not sure if that's true or not...
JWhitt

doodling validation!

kmorris — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:02:47 -0500

Cool. I'm very artistically challenged, but I've always been a doodler. Waaaaay back in high school, we were asked AFTER a week long discussion of Beowulf to turn in all of our discussion notes. EEK. Mine were complete doodles, only a sentence here and there. The teacher made me turn them anyway. She made no comments on them thank goodness, and luckily it wasn't part of the grade.

Even to this day, notes from meetings are very liberally interspersed with doodles. Mine are mostly geometric. But I do switch between red and black ink pens. It's pretty funny to go back and look at doodles made by such a verbally oriented person.

ahhh, this website is so good for personal quirk validation.

Thanks for the review!
-kmorris

Using tabs

Anonymous — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 15:08:43 -0400

There are blank sticky tabs you can use that are made by Avery, Dennison and such like that can simply be attached to whatever pages you may have -

I have been using a Moleskine journal for some years and have made my own tabs, which have been more than useful:
*Addresses (originally printed on plain white paper, cut to size, and tipped in with double-sided sticky tape);
*Miscellaneous other information (includes websites I want to look at, the date my notary commission expires, what is my current cellphone model number, what nutritional supplements I currently take, etc.);
*Notes (this is where I generally do my journaling);
*Medical (this is where I track my doctor visits, prescriptions and dosages, etc.);
*Pwds (Passwords, websites with their various personal ids, etc.);
*Travel (This is where I put the record locators for various trips, as well as the itineraries and other travel-related information; activities planned, day trips, etc.); and
*Books (my booklist - favorite authors, current and new releases in which I may be interested, whether they are available and reservable at my local library, and crossed off as I buy and/or read them, etc.)...
Anyone can make a list of the things that are important to him- or herself and break up the book accordingly. The categories above are what worked for me. Now I am looking for templates to use to tip in as I did above.

images

Hanna — Fri, 3 Aug 2007 18:48:09 -0400

I don't use tabs a lot, but I'm gonna think about it next time I organize my papers. The one thing with tabs I have is this:

LINK

It's folders for my collage images. Loooove it! :-)

[03 Aug 07 - linkified ~Sara]

I have their small pocket punch

emoore — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:45:10 -0400

but hadn't seen the tab punch (http://www.franticstamper.com/mcgill.htm). It looks spiffy indeed.

Filing

zyzzyva57 — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 06:52:25 -0400

Use numbers for tab file names

(1) This way you do not have to worry about constantly shifting for alphabetical order
(2) Using a Google spreadsheet, Col 1 are numbers, Col 2, topic; Col 3 sub topics, and so on (columns can be added or deleted)
(3) This way you can sort on columns regardless what number is on Col 1
(4) Word and Excel do this even better

If that as useful as it

bruisedpeach22 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:57:11 -0400

If that as useful as it sounds, wanting to marry it wouldn't be unnatural.

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