With apologies to Shakespeare I think when he said that it is most important to look at yourself honestly it logically follows that if you’re giving advice, you damn well better be following it.
Well it’s not exactly like I fell off the wagon.
For a while there I just wasn’t studying new topics in a big way. Sure I keep up each day with the new news: how about 10GB 1” micro drives for cell phones?
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,107422,00.html?SKC=storage-107422
Excuse me --- that is small stuff. To be honest, my brain hasn’t been challenged to take on a major project such as say, learn a new language. Like many of us, I did the New Years Resolution thing. Unlike some, I usually stick to what I say I’m going to do (even when it starts hurting). If you’re new to the name of doing what you say you will --- I got some great news: If you make a promise to yourself or someone else and it becomes painful, the mouth quickly learns to become a self sealing entity.
The odd thing (for me) is my next major thing isn’t IT related. I have decided I am going to become reasonably fluent in reading and speaking Spanish. I guess writing will become the next logical step afterwards.
It is my approach that is typical of Tcat but isn’t typical of the world. First, a confession: – My personality style is both damn lazy and very short on patience when the results column is coming up a bit short. Given that I want to satisfy those two traits I have to find “outside the box” ways of getting things done, without looking for something for nothing.
So for more than 30 years I have been an advocate of learning while sleeping. If you are of the belief that because you are sleeping you are somehow “temporally dead” you can either stop reading this now or go get a bit more information.
I started this game in life with a carbon microphone and a reel-to-reel tape deck. It served me well back then. However technology changed life (BIG TIME). And in this entry I’m detailing how I am moving on the Next Big Learning while sleeping.
Really it is a combination of technologies, all really interesting.
I’ll start with my MP3 player. It is from SanDisk. It weighs in @ about 40 Grams (About 1.5 ounces), with its single AAA battery. While it’s mere 512MB can only hold about 18 hours of instruction I can stick upwards of another 2GB of flash memory in the side while adding approx. 4 grams of weight. That RAM takes me to over 60 unique hours of instruction. This is more than a typical class week of a boot camp or nearly double the regular working hours of a week (assuming 100% productivity).
Now the 18 hour thing of 512 MB works out really well because that is what the player is rated for on a single AAA alkaline battery. However I’m an eco friendly guy so I went to Radio Shack and get a modified version of the Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable battery system. They say a single charge lasts 4 times longer than an alkaline and it can be recharged in 15 minutes. So now I got a solid week worth of instruction with no batteries to buy or chargers to haul around.
Total investment (so far) about $100.USD
Now the i-Pod like ear buds that came with the SanDisk may be fine for the Greyhound @ 30 K FT (Southwest Airlines) for daytime learning and I’m not thrilled at the idea of rolling around in my sleep getting tangled up in sound cord. I have always said “go to Radio Shack” for a pillow speaker. Well it turns out Sharper Image has a similar just more expensive offering too.
Well in my digging into tech 2006 style I found @ http://www.dreamessentials.com/a_relax_pillowsonic.aspx , which is a stereo version and flat as a bug in a rug for $20. Trust me, its great. I’ve added about 30 grams to my backpack for my road warrior days.
To complete the tech tour and major brain upgrade I am happy to receive input. Google fails me, completely and utterly. This is because while the most fantastic http://www.wordsgalore.com/ (freeware, several languages) works perfectly while sitting in front of my laptop, however seems to stutter and struggle with making working MP3 files. While I will put in time to see if I can fix Words Galore remember I said I’m pretty focused about getting hash marks in the win column, QUICKLY ?
Google shows me commercial offerings starting @ $40 --- for young children who will interact with the computer (and I want to sleep). Moving up the wallet draining offers what I am looking for is hovering about $250-500 USD. It appears instant gratification (3 days by postal mailing) isn’t cheap.
eBay to the rescue. I found new from an established seller the same 8 CD set that was $400 as a 2005 edition (updated and used) for less than $30 delivered with insurance. Now we are talking a total investment that is doable on a teacher’s salary.
Back to the MP3 player. RIP the CD’s cheer to MP3. Plug in the USB V2 cable. The MP3 player wakes up and becomes a removable disk drive. 10 minutes of Copy/Paste. Like a magician, a week worth of training in a package not much bigger than the Zippo lighter I packed in the Army.
Isn’t technology wonderful?
No, I have not gone to the trouble of “time warping” and burying the data in subliminal format (yet). This is the first week of the New Year. Funny, but it took time to research the best shortcuts for a major brain upgrade, 2006 style.
I can tell you that even without the subliminal format I began to have dreams about my brain upgrade on night 3. Right on time for me! What I found so funny was: the dream incorporated the fact that the data was not subliminal. The dream was making it OK to be back in the Army and learning this “new” way. And I must be getting old: the women in my dreams we’re way cuter than the one’s I remember from the Army. Let me think about this till next time…
Tcat
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