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June 2004 July 2004 Back to HOME |
| July 23, 2004 -- What's your name, again? |
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During my college years a new guy had just joined a club my friend and I belonged to, but I couldn't remember his name.
"What was that guy's name?" I asked my friend. "Tree." she said. "Tree? Are you sure? That can't be right." "Yes, Tree." She explained to me that she always used a word association to remember names and she had made a mental note when he was introduced that his name was a sort of plant. Tree. It's a good system, but apparently she needed a word association for her word association. The type of plant she was supposed to remember was not a tree, but a bush, which would then have jogged her memory of his name, Butch. |
| July 22, 2004 -- What's your name? |
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Raymond writes in his blog,
"Names are a major issue for me. I've tried writing names down, using memory tricks, or playing association games, but I just can't seem to find an effective strategy for remembering who everybody is... [and] there comes a point in time where it becomes more than slightly uncomfortable to ask 'eh... who are you, again?'" This reminded me of an incident from my past. Walking home from school one day, I ran into a girl I had met only once before, "Hi Sharon," she said. (My name is not Sharon.) I realized that she didn't remember my name but I was too embarrassed to correct her and I didn't want to embarass her either, so I just let it pass. I figured I'd probably never even see her again, we didn't have any classes together, I never saw her at school. What harm could it do? Well, as it happened, we became friends and we did see each other again, in fact, many times. And each time she called me Sharon. And each time it became even more impossible to correct her. I wasn't really comfortable with the situation, but I didn't know what to do. Having not corrected her the first, second, or even third time we met, I obviously couldn't, several months into the friendship, say, "Oh, by the way, you've been calling me by the wrong name all this time." Well, this went on for almost a year until the inevitable happened. We met a third person, who happened to be a mutual friend to both of us. "Hi Linda, Hi Sue," he said. "Sue? Who's Sue? I thought your name was Sharon." "Sharon? Your name is Sharon? I thought it was Sue. Oh no, I thought, as I saw them both looking at me questioningly. So I said the only thing I could say, "Some people call me by my middle name." (My middle name is not Sharon either.) |
| July 17, 2004 -- Name game. |
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The waiter at the restaurant says to Raymond "Hey, How's it going?"
Raymond responds,"Oh hi, Mike, I thought I recognized you from school, but your name tag says Chester, so I wasn't sure." "Yeah, since I got in late my boss said I had to wear this other apron and use a different name today." Say what? Gee, I never thought of that punishment. But what a fun idea. Never mind those silly "time outs" and "restrictions," I think this is the way to go, the name change punishment. "If you don't clean your room, we're going to have to call you Estelle today." "Apologize to your sister right now, or we'll change your name to Fred." "Okay, I've had it, three days of Poindexter for you." |
| July 09, 2004 -- One year later. |
Pip and Purr have been with us for one year now.
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| July 08, 2004 -- I'm being straightened out. |
My ligaments are slowly being stretched back to where they should be. I just need to wear this thing for 8-10 hours a day. But, with that, plus the physical therapy and exercises, I seem to be making progress. Instead of holding my arm at a jaunty 22 degree angle I am now down to a 3 degree angle. I can even get it to a zero if I push on it. So, as my physical therapist says, "We're getting you straightened out." And so I guess she is. Hopefully, after another week of wearing it, I can send this expensive torture device (which my insurance won't cover) back before another monthly rental fee is due. |
| July 07, 2004 -- He can run up to 35 mph. |
"The name 'giraffe' comes from the Arab word 'xirapha' - the one that walks very fast." "Excuse me, Tour Guide, Which of the animals is the giraffe?" "Oh, You can't miss him, he's the one walking fast." I don't doubt they can walk very fast, but that just isn't the first identifying feature that comes to my mind when I think of a giraffe. It seems like an animal with such an obvious, unique feature would have a name making reference to that feature. I mean, don't a lot of animals walk fast? What's the Arab word for "the one with the long neck"? |
| June 20, 2004 -- Happy Father's Day. |
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Happy Father's Day.
We're off to Disneyland. |
| June 16, 2004 -- Life drawing 101. |
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Raymond has decided to spend at least one day a week at the zoo drawing the animals, so he also brought along an extra sketch pad for me when we went last monday.
As we were drawing the rhino a family with a young boy (perhaps four or five years old) came by. Seeing me with my sketch pad and Raymond with his, the little boy pulled at his mother's sleeve, "I need paper, mommy." She fished a small, 2 X 3 inch note pad and pencil from her purse, and he was happily drawing pictures of the rhino as we left. |
| June 8, 2004 -- Happy Birthday. |
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Click Here * |
| June 7, 2004 -- Smile. |
I saw Bette Middler on the Today show talking about her daughter's pre-prom party. What's a pre-prom party? It's when the kids and their dates and their friends and their parents all gather together before the prom and EVERYBODY TAKES PICTURES!
So we went to Kimberly's pre-prom party.
Raymond, home for the weekend, said "I brought my camera, too, so we'll really be able to take a lot of pictures." Kimberly looked up suddenly, "What? You're going, too?" "Well, yeah." Of course she forgets that two years ago when it was Raymond's prom she was right there with a camera saying, "Isn't this fun?" - click, click, click So the prom pictures are now organized and ready for viewing, and yes, we did take a lot! So, here are some of Kimberly's Prom Pics. (Trust me, there are many more.) Kim - [Note the photographers in the background.] |
| June 6, 2004 -- She started it. |
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Patches, who really doesn't like any of the other cats, often starts to growl whenever she sees another in the room. Sitting next to her this afternoon, Raymond started growling back.
"Raymond, stop agitating the cats." "Well, she started it.", he said. I really thought we had outgrown that argument by now. |
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JUST A NOTE --- My first blog entry was June 6th, 2003. I've been blogging for a whole year now.
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