I've alway been fascinated with how people learn. Why is it that some people seem to pick up on languages really easily and others (namely myself) don't seem to get it? I believe a good amount of it is simply the way you are wired, some people are better at it naturally. Some of it is the way my brain has been trained over the last ten years of being in consulting and IT. As soon as I start to hear information my brain attempts to put it in boxes, define them, and make connections between the boxes. It must be why I need to have a white board in my office when discussing things, I'm constantly drawing boxes and connections. I believe even have a rows of stick figures on my board right now with lines connecting them.

I figure I'd be a very good mechanic if I took the time to learn about engines, it's the same pattern.

Languages are far too anarchic to be nicely put in to boxes. No boxes and flows, no remembering by me. Yes, languages inherit from other languages and there are basics like Latin that are roots for many rules of language. Yes there are rules in English like "I before E except after C" (although I heard they are thinking of scrapping that one) but those aren't really rules, they're suggestions. How are you supposed to learn something if the rules keep changing or being ignored? It used to drive me nuts trying to learn French by memorizing the 'rules' first and then attempting to apply them.

The only reason I understand English is because I'm constantly bombarded by it, not because I have any sort of aptitude. I couldn't tell you what a hanging participle is, but if I read a sentence I can tell you whether it is grammatically correct. Sadly it's a binary sort of ability, either it is correct, or it isn't. I couldn't tell you exactly what is wrong with it.

Of course since I have no grounding in rules for English I have to wonder why I'm so pedantic about them. If my understanding comes from constant references then you'd figure I'd be faster at accepting regional differences and new ways of speaking. I still wince whenever somebody in southern California says "Uh-huh" instead of "You're welcome".

Kat is studying for her first test so we are back at the coffee shop, her decrying the lack of highlighters in her bag and me with the laptop. She is planning on acing the tests so studying is a requirement. We had to leave the house so she could get some studying done, which I can completely understand. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm all about avoidance of temptation. Staying at home means there are things to distract Kat from studying, like playing Warcraft. One of the reasons I bought the Mac Air is (other than being really cool) that it isn't powerful enough to play any interesting games. That way when I'm using it I have removed some temptations. So Kat could either sit at home and constantly resist doing things she would rather be doing, or we can leave and remove the temptation. Thus here we are. Of course now we have to resist desserts. It's a dangerous world out here.

Part of her studies are about nutrition so it was doubly funny when she ran in to an article in the Economist about fried butter. Now not only does she dislike the idea on a visceral level, but she can dislike it on a molecular level. She's trying to explain to me about ionic and covalent bonds but all I can think about is ionic vs. doric vs. corinthian columns. I'm not going to mention that to her because it'll mess up her studying and that would be bad.

I've been looking in to using surveymonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/) to gather information from customers but I cannot get past the name. I keep having this image of a closed room with statisticians in lab coats, clipboards and thick glasses at one end and a horde of monkeys at the other end. What could possibly go wrong?

Had a moment of weakness on Friday. I was standing on the beach just as the sun was starting to make enough light to see, shivering from the cold. For some reason I had decided shorts and a tee shirt was a good outfit to wear for 6:30 in the morning, it wasn't. So there I stood with all my gear looking at the ocean and thinking "Damn, it's cold!". I almost didn't go in. I finally sucked it up and went in, and it turns out the water was far warmer than the air and it was good.

I think I disappointed the guy in the picture. He was waiting for some carrion.

The standing invite I have out now has ten people on it, and I find maybe two (including myself) show up. That's fine. I don't expect other people to show up, but I use them to motivate myself to get my ass out of bed at 5:30 in the morning.

I still haven't bought a surfboard. Kevin Six and I went out to buy one last weekend, it is always good to go out with somebody who really knows their stuff. He skimmed through the used ones on sale muttering to himself, no good, no good, good but too expensive. There weren't any that met the good and cheap criteria. We even went to CostCo, since they sold surfboards earlier in the year. They were all gone. So I am still without a surfboard and just using the boogie boards. Kevin mentioned that I should wander by garage sales and any surfboard eight feet in height and $50 in cost could be considered a good one. The search continues.

I did see a used surfboard with green camouflage, not sure what that designer was thinking. The camouflage was on the top of the surfboard, so it won't be confusing sharks and it'll really stand out if you look down from above (unless you are caught in a seaweed jungle). Maybe the pattern was meant to be ironic, it's really anti-camouflage.

I'm writing this in the coffee shop while Kat and her theatre group are having a post-mortum of the show they put on. It is also the last meeting they will have as a group since four out of the five of them don't want to continue with the 'collective'. I'm sitting sitting as far away as possible. Things rarely end cleanly. I'm hoping I'm wrong about that.

It is also filling up with gay men and their little dogs. At least they are all well behaved ... the dogs, not the men. Okay, I take that back. Time to start stuffing muscle relaxants in to little pieces of meat.

Kat is still enjoying the massage courses. She was naming off all my muscles the other day, I'm always impressed with that because that kind of information never seems to stay in my head. I must have a filter that labels it 'not important' as soon as I hear it and shuffles it off to the damaged section of my memory. Same place that foreign language information is sent.

October is here and it is going to be busy. The latter half of the month is going to be full of things to do, including the short cruise. I'm still debating on whether to try and see as much as possible on the ship, or just sit on my ass for a few days and relax. I'm thinking the relax bit. Our friend Kevin has been adamant that no matter what happens he wants a fruity drink with a little umbrella in it. We've decided we have to hit up a dollar store and stock up on little umbrellas so we can throw then in everything he drinks.

Those of you with gmail accounts may have seen strange emails showing up in your inbox. Seems gmail will send emails that seem to be addressed to you, to you, even if they aren't exact. I have sent plane tickets addressed to Phillip Dean back to people (she had a son named Phillip Dean) and I know that Branpford House needs the parapets and rear wall repaired (mostly to "hack off loose render and to renew as necessary", hell who doesn't need that?).

This morning I was sent congratulations on taking up the responsibility as Dean of Philosophy at JDV (the Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religion). Seems somebody from Institute Mater Dei was interested in a visit, how exciting! To top it off I received the "Minutes of the Philosophy Faculty Council Meeting" which ended with:

The meeting was over by 4. p. m, with tea. (my emphasis)

That's the way to run a meeting. I'm moving to India and taking up philosophy. Namaste.

By the way, while looking up 'namaste' on the web I found out that Yoga is dangerous to Christians. You've been warned. I didn't get 1/3 of the way through that rant, and that site is Not Safe For Work if you work in a secular environment.

P.S. The meeting Kat was at did end quietly. I knew you were worried.