Busy day, as I’m taking Monday off (YAY COTTAGE TIME), and as I stopped by some overpriced food places on the way into work (it was time for my quarterly tea splurge, and things spiralled from there), I don’t have much time to write here.

I had a wee outburst on Twitter yesterday about people who can’t be bothered to learn things (the result of encountering too many TL;DRs in one day) and was challenged by a follower because I seemed to be discriminating about people who have limitations that might prevent them absorbing and comprehending information. I wasn’t talking about that, although I completely understand the concern; Twitter, of course, is not great for conveying full meanings sometimes, especially when the user is a bit ragey. I was talking, as is my wont rather often, about people who just don’t give a shit about learning at all. I’m never going to understand Graham’s Number in a meaningful way, but there is lots of stuff that I can/want to learn.

But, as people who know me have undoubtedly noticed, I’m not always a great listener and get distracted and fidgety very easily. It’s incredibly annoying, the latter especially so as it’s almost (but not actually) Tourettic because it’s a compulsion I don’t really have control over (I am working on this, and also my defensiveness about it). My former boss used to tell me to take up smoking to use up all the excess energy and fidgetiness. But I can’t afford that, either financially or healthwise.

My brain seems to function better when there is background noise; I wrote my dissertation in din-filled cafés and at home, with ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or other frequently viewed things on in the background. Music I can sing along to is not good, some instrumental stuff is okay, best is stuff to which I don’t necessarily need to pay attention because it distracts me from what I am actually supposed to be working on.

However, these days I have been taxing my brain a bit more on new material. My work for the last week or so has been of the mindless, repetitive variety, so I’ve upped the educational podcasts stakes because I have slightly more brain to use to absorb new things. So I signed up a membership to Radio Lingua’s ‘Coffee Break Spanish‘ (they had a sale on because Andy Murray won the US Open – how nerdy is that?). So, for the last couple of days, I’ve been talking to myself in a language that I previously only knew from ‘Sesame Street’, being taught by Scottish people who speak it with a Castillian lispiness I will probably never encounter in real life (and will make Grouchy Phil laugh his little Venezuelan heart out).

Additionally, Melvyn Bragg is back on the airwaves/bandwidths (?) this week, so this morning I am learning a bit about cells while I take care of some much-needed inbox and harddrive tidying.

I will probably still throw in some Bowie later when I’m coming up with a list of tasks for my minion to take care of while I’m away, mind.