I really enjoy the Great Courses CDs. They’ve taught me a lot during drive time.
French
Some advanced knitting techniques
knit one purl two?
Mnemonics. I learning memory systems and applying them to all sorts of applications: every country in the world in population order, the 408 birds in my state in taxonomic order, all of prehistory and history in chronological order … Basically, I set up the structures and then add layers of information on top of it. For example, I know all the countries and approximate populations, so now I am adding the capitals, locations and anything I hear about them. All the birds are in, so I’m adding ID and habitats, behaviour and so on.
I’m mostly using the Method of Loci (Method of loci - Wikipedia) but also memory techniques used by indigenous cultures who were totally dependent on memory for everything they knew. I am astounded how much I can memorise and then use in daily life. And it’s fun!
I’ve always wanted to play the cello. In less than two months I’ll be turning 70. On that day, I’ll begin teaching myself cello. Not giving any public performances in the foreseeable future.
The kittehs are gonna hate me.
That sounds incredible. What else are you going to memorize?
Thank you, Waymore. The countries, birds, prehistory and history are my main fields - each is infinitely expandable because of the methods I am using. What has stunned me is how my mind is finding patterns and asking questions in a way that would not happen if I did not have the mass of data in my head to play with. For example, Bangladesh is the 8th largest by population - larger than Russia - yet has had little impact. Why? And the European universities predate the Aztecs. I had never put these things in context before. I could go on and on about the fun I’m having.
I have also attached 130 people from history as my ‘ancestors’, people I am using as hooks for historical times and disciplines and ideas. I’m encoding the history of art and physics, astronomy, hundreds of archaeological sites, a method to remember names when I meet people and a few other things. My background is math / science so I was very weak in the humanities before this.
I have 20 experiments going because I am trying to understand the way indigenous cultures managed to memorise so much stuff, especially animals, plants, navigation, genealogy, laws … when they couldn’t write anything down. That’s my field of research. So I am mimicking indigenous memory methods.
The 20 experiments are here: http://www.lynnekelly.com.au/memory-experiments/
You should start an “ask me anything” thread.
I teach myself something by writing an article about it. I’m just finishing an article on the Patriation Debate, the process which resulted in Canada’s constitution being patriated on 1982.
Wiki article about it (not mine):
I’ve been teaching myself all sorts of cool things this summer, in the process of teaching the campers I’m counseling. The most fun has been 3D modeling and printing, followed by game programming in Scratch. Most recently, I gave myself a crash course in model rocketry safety.
Metal embossing. Birch bark weaving.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as birch bark weaving. Google showed me what it was. Wow!
Where do you get birch bark? I know about the birch bark scrolls of the Ojibwa, but didn’t know it was used in contemporary life.
Can you tell me more about this? Is it easy to work with?
I got sheets of it on Microsoft Campus - I think you have to soak them in water and weight them down to get them flattened; I was going to use them for writing weird messages but they just got side-tracked when I started making glass beads (and trying to teach some friends how to do it.
This leads me to what I am learning - making glass puddle (and of course, beads);
the only forms I have are of skulls and Hello Kitty. My microwave is now or soon to poisonous to cook food in,
Thank you - now I know that it is a commercially available product. Unfortunately, Microsoft Campus is a tad far from Castlemaine (near Melbourne, Australia). I assume I can get it somewhere here. How intriguing!
Hopefully Whatever4 will tell us more.
Glass beads sounds fun too. So much to try in this life!
I love this.
The Wiki article - and a modest amount of Googling - only describe it. How and where would one go to learn the method?
mmm
It is easy. Can you give me an example of what you want to learn - anything which can be sequenced - and I’ll get you started.
Right now I’m working on embossing a luminaria to enter in the local fair (clock is ticking:eek:), so birch bark is on hold. I probably won’t do anything with it, except for covering the support poles in the basement with the odd bits, for a few months. But happy to share info when I get to it.
I’ve gathered birch bark pieces for years. I’m lucky to have quite a few birches around where I live and when they shed I sorta help them along .
This year I had a large birch taken down in my yard (it HAD to be taken down, honest ;)) and I have a whole tree’s worth of bark to work with. 
Birch bark sheets are available online. Not too pricey. Can’t cut bark from a live birch without landowner’s permission. If done carefully, the tree won’t be harmed and the bark will regrrow. Bark from a dead tree may still be usable if it’s not too old.
Happy to craft-chat via PM if you’d like. I’ll let you know when I get to the weaving, but it’ll be a few months. Eye surgery looming.
I didn’t see the other post, so …
Fresh bark is ideally harvested in the Spring. It is so full of moisture it practically pops off the tree when you cut it. The next step is peeling away layers of the inner bark until the bark is the thinness you want. Start at a corner, pull up a few layers, and there you go. Take your time, maybe use something like a putty knife in the stubborn places. You can get quite a few sheets from one piece of bark. Once the peeling is done, you’ll have a pile of white bark and a pile of tan bark, hopefully all of them free of bloody fingerprints :rolleyes:. Ideally, place them flat and weight them down until they dry. I put them under a chair mat and piled assorted junk on it for weight. If you can’t do that, then roll the bark against the grain and tie it until it dries. This is easy-peasy when the bark is wet. (If the bark dries before you get it peeled :smack:, my sympathies. I read that a small wood plane might remove the dried (hard as nails) inner bark; and putting it in a sauna might soften it. Having neither, I’m going to try my palm sander.)
That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. Fair starts the 12th.
I’m curious about this as well, and I haven’t been able to find a decent description of specifically how one would do it. Would I be able to use it to memorize the major characters from Shakespeare plays? Or just for sequenced things, like the Shakespeare plays in order?
I would be happy to hear more about birch bark whenever you like. More important, good luck with the eye surgery.
Lynne