Super Memo & Six Word Memoir
So, I’ve disappeared from the face of the internet for several days, no email, nothing. What have I been doing offline? SuperMemo! SuperMemo is a computer-aided learning program that allows you to review stuff you’ve learned as efficiently as possible, which efficiency maximizes the amount of stuff you have time to learn and remember. I discovered it last week via this article on Wired Magazine: Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm. I downloaded the freeware version, played around with it a little, made sure that I could use a Greek font, and then sprang for the latest version at SuperMemo.com.
 |
Good-bye flash cards! Actually, I’m a little sad to throw this box away. It’s been with me for years. It used to have the Greek alphabet lettered around the outside, but even Sharpie ink wears off eventually. Anyway, I’ve been spending the last few days typing all my Greek flash cards into SuperMemo. Before I could do that I had to learn how to greekify my keyboard. And I have to admit, SuperMemo’s user support files are not exactly SuperClear! Caveat emptor, but I’m really excited about the concept, and I’m willing to fiddle around with figuring out the idiosyncrasies of this software.
I just needed a little help from Zoe to fill in some of the blanks from my flash cards, mostly conjugating verbs I was unsure of. She sat and filled out the little cards, muttering, “I feel like I’m in high school, doing this! And couldn’t you have found something smaller to write on?” |
Six Word Memoir
Next! My friend Ivy at Kopiaste has tagged me for this meme. Hey, Ivy, this is my first tag ever! (Hmmm…should I enter the date in SuperMemo so that I always remember it? Such are the questions that occupy me these days.)
The idea is to characterize myself in six words. So, here are six words:
1. neurotic
2. obsessive
3. suspicious
4. irritable
5. loyal
6. analytical
And then, I gather, one tags other bloggers for the same meme. I wasn’t given a numerical quota for the forward tags, so I’ll just pick a few food bloggers I really enjoy without concern for the number. Uh….
Maria at Organically Cooked
Jo/Ioanna at Food Junkie Not Junk Food
James at The Cotswold Food Year
Atomic Shrimp at, er, Atomic Shrimp
PS For the Greek bloggers out there – now that I’ve got my keyboard set up for Greek, if you get misspelled comments in Greek that make no sense, it’s me! 
Comment by Laurie Constantino
Hey, I’ve got one of those stacks of index cards! Guess I better check out this algorithm you’re talking about! From the great distance of the blogosphere, it doesn’t seem like you’re accurately describing yourself. For one thing, you’ve left off funny. And clever. Also, the persona you describe on your blog doesn’t seem to be irritable – how could you post a soup recipe to save humanity if that were the case?
Comment by lulu
Thanks for the vote of confidence,
LoraLorouLorininimaLauren. But that’s the great thing about email and the internet: time and space to dissemble!Comment by FoodJunkie
Hi Ivy,
This is my first ever tag too! Thank you. I will have to tag other bloggers too. Does it matter if they already have tags?
Comment by maria verivaki
oh lulu, sorry, i can’t do this, i have no idea what i’m like, but i think that my blog is such an open book that i would really love it if YOU could 6-word meme me!!!!
Comment by lulu
Jo, I wouldn’t worry about tagging somebody who’s already been tagged. It must happen all the time. After all, if they were tagged on a blog you don’t read, you’d have no way of knowing about it.
Comment by lulu
Maria, hmmm…I’ll see what I come up with!
Comment by Ivy
Hey, there you really did it!!!! So you can even type in Greek, now. Lulu, as I said I only highlighted the bright side of my character and you did exactly the opposite, we can distinguish a lot of good qualities in you, girl.
Comment by FoodJunkie
I can’t believe I called you Ivy! Sorry Lulu…
Comment by lulu
No worries, Jo! I’m actually looking into finding a plug-in that will allow people to edit their own comments. I know there’s nothing worse than hitting that post button at someone else’s site and then screaminng, “No! That’s not what I meant! Give it back!”
Comment by lulu
Ivy, I usually feel like I’m faking my few good qualities. Maybe I should think of it as developing them via practice. Here’s a sample of my new Greek typing skills:
? ????????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ????. ???? ????, ???? ? ????????? ???? ????????????.
Unfortunately, I tend to learn sentences that are difficult to work into conversations…
Comment by lulu
Oh,no! It came out as all question marks! It looked fine when I typed it in! How are you Blogger people getting the Greek to show up in your comments?!? Never mind, I’ll have to figure out how it works for WordPress anyway.
Comment by Funky Grampa
I wish you joy with The Greek! I always capitalize it. Because it gave me such a rough time learning it. Because it was a rewarding skill to have.
Hopefully computer technology will speed and ease the process. I know all about flash cards and pen and ink exercises.
Comment by Laurie Constantino
On Blogger, I just type in Greek and it shows up. I do nothing special whatsoever. Thank goodness!
Comment by lulu
Thanks, Funky Grampa! After using SuperMemo for about a week, I can report that memorization continues to be dull and tedious and I suppose that will never change. BUT! I’m doing it with more confidence that the tediousness is being minimized and my knowledge is beng maximized, which makes me more willing to persist. Also, because of the way the algorithm measures time (i.e., by the day) there’s an incentive to use it daily so as not to distort repetition intervals. At the same time, there’s no guilt for only using it once a day, as opposed to studying as often as possible.
Comment by lulu
Thanks for the info, Laurie. I’m sure there’s something I can do about this on WordPress, after all, Food Junkie Not Junk Food is a WordPress blog.
Comment by Germán Salizar
Your already have the flashcard why throw them up, you only need to categorize and label them like every 50 or so, them you just use the software for traking purpouses. Well at least that the only solution and have manage to make, for not typing 60+ flashcards a day.
Comment by Lulu
Hi German! I suppose I could have done something like that, but I want to keep adding vocabulary for the software to track, so just entering what I had and going from there seemed like the easiest thing in the long run.