Learning methods

In the Cabin Pressure episode “Limerick”, Arthur is trying to learn the phonetic alphabet using the spot check method of revision. Being requested to name a random letter on demand wasn’t really working for him.

Well, when I was learning the phonetic alphabet for my Cabin Pressure fan fic, guess what?

I didn’t enjoy the spot check method of revision, either.

However, I did notice that when it came to G-T-I (the plane’s call sign), I could always remember Golf, Tango, India. (Or when they call her G-ERTI: Golf Echo Romeo Tango India).

It dawned on me that learning the letters as parts of words made sense.

Juliet, Alpha, Mike, Echo, Sierra…

Tango Alpha Mike Alpha Romeo Alpha… easy.

Alpha Papa Alpha Charlie Hotel Echo… also easy.

Golf, Uniform, India, November, November, Echo, Sierra, Sierra… easy peasy mac and cheesey.

You get the idea.

If you had asked me to just reel off the alphabet, there wasn’t any way possible that I would remember it. By associating the letters with words, it makes much more sense.

Think about it:

If I know Apache is Alpha, Papa, Alpha, Charlie, Hotel, Echo, it’s easier for me to remember what P is when I can put it in the context of a word.

Amazingly enough, it works for Arthur, too. *grin*

It got me thinking, though.

Some people learn by repetition. Some have to get creative.

I tend to do a little of both, while the boss favors the spot check method.

If that doesn’t explain my whole panic attack from a few days ago, I don’t know how else to describe it.

(alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf, hotel, india, juliet, kilo, lima, mike, november, oscar, papa, quebec, romeo, sierra, tango, uniform, victor, whiskey, x-ray, yankee, zebra)

Summa cum laude and I can’t read a headline…

I seriously pictured Nine (I don’t know why him specifically) doing some sort of raiding in a jail with Bin Laden. And I don’t even know what the fuck that’s supposed to mean. I think tumblr has destroyed my brain. Too much time with the fan girls, speaking our pidgin language and thinking/writing in British English has completely ruined my command of American English.

——

“Okay, this was an adorable story! I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for writing :D”

I took a correspondence writing course waaaaaaaay back when we lived in Ohio. For the children in the audience, a correspondence course was when you snail mailed your homework to your teacher. Online courses didn’t really exist back then. Plus, with writing, it kind of made more sense - she could underline, write corrections, etc. and make it easier to understand the notes.

Anyhoo… I found the course’s notebook, filled with the writing assignments, my turned in homework, and the teacher’s comments. (That class is where “Scott and Kate” came from, and maybe one day, I’ll suck it up and make it public.) I went back and read all the assignments (write from the antagonist’s point of view, do a character study of your main characters, blah, blah, blah…). I’d forgotten how much work it took to flesh out realistic characters, but looking back at how it all came together, it was worth it.

All the reactions to my assignment were high praise. Such high praise that it pissed me off to where I basically accused her - in my final review of the class - of blowing smoke up my arse. After she chewed me out for being a complete dick to her, she reminded me that her one CONSISTENT (and pretty much only) complaint about my writing was the way I tend to write in choppy sentences. I had no idea I was doing it back then, but I’ve discovered since that its my voice. It’s just who I am when I write. Whether or not it’s on my blog or in fiction.

Fascinating.

I’m still amazed that I’m getting positive feedback on my fan fic. (I still feel ridiculous admitting that.) People are favoriting my story, giving me kudos, following my story (which is pointless - it’s all been uploaded - but sweet nonetheless), and most importantly, favoriting ME and following ME. Not my story. ME. As a writer.

Dude. It blows my fucking mind like you don’t even know.

I guess in a way, I feel like people are being kind. That I don’t deserve the praise. That I’m a completely shitty writer. (See? Choppy sentences.)

Once day, I’ll accept that I can write, and that people aren’t just blowing smoke.

But it ain’t gonna be today…

WE’RE GETTING A FOURTH SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Survived my first week at the new job.

It’s been a rough transition - he’s not the kind of person I learn well from, but it seems like we’re figuring out how to communicate with each other.

Eh. It’s a job.

It’ll do while I’m killing time and continuing to work on the Get My Ass To London While NOT Working For A Large Souless International Company Plan. (GMATLWNWFALSIC for short…)

——

In other news, Sherlock Series 3 picks up filming the 3rd episode at the end of this month. I believe it’s been confirmed that the US will get Sherlock on PBS in 2014, but there’s no UK air date yet.

I’m really curious because the three hints we were given for this season were rat, wedding, bow and the episode titles are “The Empty Hearse”, “The Sign of Three”, and “His Last Vow.”

We know for a fact that “TEH” (*snicker*) is about Sherlock’s return to John and that it’s not going to go well. They showed some of “Three” at Comic-Con so we know it has to do with Mary Morstan and John’s wedding. We know that Mary leaves John at some point in ACD canon - but I can’t remember how - so hopefully she leaves in “Vow”. Like John’s last wedding vow because he never gets married again. (Although that’s not true in ACD canon.)

I don’t know… “Vow” is written by Moffat, so it’s going to be… Moffaty. (Buy stock in Kleenex now. The Sherlockians are going to lose their minds. Guaranteed.)

BUT, BUT, BUT!

Benedict mentioned several months ago that they signed on for series 4, but that was quickly squashed by the powers that be. Moftiss et al have announced that series 4 has been commissioned, but of course there’s no way to give us an estimated air date…

Fuckers.

——

Other than that, I’m still getting favorites/kudos on my Johnlock fic. Still working on the Cabin Pressure fic from hell. Still obsessing about writing my next Johnlock fic.

I need to buy suits again. I don’t like suits.

I definitely need to hose out and air dry my ruck - it smells lovely after the Challenge. (I may have forgotten to empty the bag after we got home… WHOOPS.)

I think it’s a three patch problem

Since a huge part of the GORUCK Tough family believes that what happens at the Challenges stay at the Challenge, I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow of what happened.

I did get a lot of questions about why I chose to go into the ocean fully clothed a while ago. All I could say at that point was there are a lot of Challenges where people wind up in water. I wanted to make sure my moisture wicking clothing would wick moisture, I wouldn’t get blisters from walking in wet socks and shoes, and what the ruck would do in water (hopefully outside of drowning me).

Well, this is why.

——

Yesterday, I went to The Dirty Girl mud race to cheer on a friend from the UCMB. I thought I wouldn’t be in good enough shape to do it, but judging from some of the competitors, I could have/should have joined in.

Well, I will next year.

While I was waiting for them to get out of the woods and into the part of the race I could see, I decided that I wanted to run the Manchester Road Race with a friend from elementary school and do a Zombie 10K with my gym buddy. (I’ve discovered that this sort of thing is better with friends.)

I’ve become one of “Them”... I never, in a billion years, thought that would happen. I played volleyball in high school and was in the Marching Band, but I’d never consider myself particularly active. (Marching band is hard work, Peanut Gallery, so don’t even go there.) I guess I can consider myself active now.
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My friend in Belgium turned me on to a VPN program that lets you watch BBC shows as they air. This is huge to me because it looks like we get edited versions of Top Gear here (it’s like they cut out certain sections for the US audience) and today, Top Gear has Benedict fucking Cumberbatch on it. If I waited to watch it here, I’d have to wait an entire week. That’s just not acceptable when I have the power to watch it today.

Obsessed much? Or impatient?

Flip a coin.

——

Also… MY FIRST DAY OF WORK IS TOMORROW.

I never thought I’d be so happy to see a Monday in my life.

Aggressive Scrabble and jello underpants.

OK… let me preface this by saying HOLY. MOTHER. OF. FUCK.

L.L. Bean does free concerts over the summer and they’ve had some pretty big names. This year, I was clued into the fact that Matt Nathanson was playing there on the 4th. I’m not a die hard fan, but I have a few of his albums and I really like them. They’re good background music because they’re kind of slow and chill. But, yeah, nothing I’m going to know 100%, as opposed to, I don’t know, like R.E.M. (I will always think of that guy in Cleveland who was so impressed that I knew every single song R.E.M. performed that night.)

Not only is Matt an incredible musician, he’s pretty hilarious in between songs. (I took notes! I don’t know why, but I’m mostly glad I did. You’ll see why I say ‘mostly’.)

Before he sang “Run”, he pointed out that it’s normally sung as a duet and that it’s about “an aggressive game of scrabble - the kind where you lock yourself in a hotel room and don’t come out for three days.” However, when he sings it by himself, it’s more like playing solitaire. (I think the family friendly version was a bazillionty million times better than what he could have said!) I will never be able to look at a game of Scrabble the same way again.

I was trying to use the notes app on my iPhone to keep track of the set list and make some notes. I was more successful with some notes than others. I *think* one note is supposed to say “look back at life, regret punches you in the face”... but I have no idea what that means, or what the point of it was. It must have seemed really deep at that particular moment.

While talking about “Room @ the End of the World”, he said that L.L. Bean was definitely where you wanted to be for the zombie apocalypse. He’s not wrong.

Another WTF note: “jello underpants”.

note to self: CONTEXT!

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It was also an amazing day because after 10+ years of “knowing” her online, I finally got to meet E in person.

It’s so weird to see someone in person for the first time and fall into conversation easily because you’ve followed their life over the years, and vice versa.

I don’t think that feeling will ever get old.

Dog bless teh interwebs. Srsly.

——

Sound check:
Faster
Car Crash
Under Pressure
Wedding Dress
To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts

Setlist:
Mission Bells
Mercy
To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts
Modern Love
Run
Laid
Still
Detroit Waves (featuring The Doors’ “Break on Through”, Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black”, and “Amazing Grace”)
Sky High Honey
Room @ the End of the World (featuring Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”)
The Boxer (Simon and Garfunkle cover)
Car Crash (featuring U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”)
Wedding Dress
Faster
Under Pressure (Queen/David Bowie cover)
Come On Get Higher