My Brain

I want to talk about my brain. Okay? There's stuff I want to make clear, and stuff I want to get off my chest.

The other day, Tim and I got into a little argument. He told me about some woman on Fox News who acts dumb. Then John Stewart revealed, on his show, that she's a fake. Tim told me she plays dumb to make herself more likable to Fox viewers. In reality, she has a degree from an Ivy League school.

Tim described some of the stuff she says to viewers. She'll say she doesn't understand something. Then she goes and looks it up. Hearing this made me feel very uncomfortable because it reminded me of myself. I told Tim this. It sounds like me on my blog! I sometimes talk about my lack of intelligence. I often go to look things up. And guess what....Well, I didn't go to a fancy Ivy League School. But I do have a graduate school degree. I'm heavily-educated.

We argued about it. My feeling is even if someone is heavily-educated, it doesn't mean they're going to know EVERYTHING. Everyone is ignorant in some areas. From what Tim was saying, I could admire this woman. I like people who can admit they don't know something. But Tim insists she's being fake. That's a difference story. I don't like people who are dishonest. If she knows stuff and pretends not to know....then I'm not at all impressed.

I know I sometimes mention my lack of intelligence on this blog. I'm not lying; nor am I playing with false modesty. There are some areas where I feel I'm slower than most other people. I think the main issue is with memory. I learn stuff, but then it seems to exit my brain. I think the only way to get something to stick is for me to learn the same thing repeatedly. I have done a TON of research for this blog. I have learned so many new things. Unfortunately, not that much has stuck to my brain. I look at the names of people I researched a while back. Sometimes I remember very little about them. If I do remember stuff, it's usually become I had encountered the information multiple times.

This morning, Tim made a joke about my short term memory. I'm constantly losing things. My catch phrase in the family is, Have you seen my book? This morning I put down the laundry basket, and less then a minute later....I asked Tim where it was.

With my blog posts, I get very frustrated with my memory. What happens is I spend the morning writing about someone. It usually takes me 2-3 hours to do a post. Then several hours later, I'll ask myself who I wrote about. Lately, I sometimes can't remember! How sad is that? I have to really think hard before I can remember it. My excuse, though, is this. I'm usually dealing with three people a day. I have the person I'm researching. Then everyday, I proofread a post I wrote a few days ago. Then there's the entry I'm actually posting that day, and people are commenting about him or her.

This past year or so, I've REALLY been exercising my brain....probably more so then I ever did at school. I'm hoping all this exercise will IMPROVE my brain, and not fry it somehow.

Anyway, back to my intelligence. I have my weaknesses, but I also have my strengths (AKA where I allow myself to brag).....

1. I'm very motivated to learn. I think that's important. I'd personally rather have that than a high IQ.

2. I read very fast. This is a huge gift to me. I can zip through a book, website, etc when I want to. Books that might take other people months to read will usually take me less than week.

3. I write very fast. This is the reason why I can write 10+ page blog entries in one day. I used to write novels and screenplays within 2-4 weeks. I do sometimes take over an hour to write an email, but that's because I keep changing my mind about telling someone something. I write...delete....write...delete...write.....well, you get the picture.

4. I have a VERY active imagination. I think my dreams alone can prove this.

5. I have a fairly good long-term memory. I think this happens more with personal stuff. I'm good at remembering stuff from the past. Sometimes. I'm extremely impressed with my Australian trip reports....that I remembered all those details weeks after it all happened.

As for my weaknesses besides memory....

I feel sometimes I have a hard time comprehending things. I often have to read things multiple times in order to understand stuff. And sometimes I STILL don't understand it. I sometimes don't understand what you guys are trying to tell me in comments. I usually say this. I hope you don't think I'm being rude. I kind of prefer honesty to fake politeness.

I'm also pretty awful at spelling...although the Firefox spell checker helps me hide this.

Anyway, I know I'm not special in any of this. I think we ALL have our strengths and weaknesses. I just didn't want any of you to think I was like this woman on Fox. I'm not trying to pretend to be someone that I'm not.



P.S-I'm also being completely honest when I say I wrote this post DAYS before Anonymous offered his/her criticism on my David Bland post. I guess it was just a matter of perfect timing. It was almost like his/her comment was a trailer for this post.