Recently when I was chatting with my SIL, I made a comment that was highly suggestive of someone with a distinct lack of mental capacity. It prompted my SIL to respond with, “Are you blond?”
I was mightily offended by her comment - although I might have dyed my hair red, I’m sure the dying process didn’t destroy that many of my brain cells. My brain capacity has always been my pride and joy and the possibility that it might be declining from lack of use or advancing age has prompted me to pick up activities to stimulate mental activity. One activity I have resumed is playing Sudoku.
When a large part of my day involves being in the company of a person grunts and babbles by way of conversation, I guess it’s not hard to see how my brain might be rusting from disuse…
It would also be interesting to note that some aging Chinese maintain their clarity of thought by engaging in the passtime of playing Mah Jong. Although I’ve never been particularly fond of the gambling aspect of Mah Jong, I find the game thoroughly entertaining. So much so that I took immediately to the computer game version of Mah Jong Solitaire.
Although I don’t really enjoy gambling, even around Chinese New Year, I do look forward to playing Mah Jong. I’ve always thought it would be nice if they had a computer game version of Mah Jong that lets you play the 3 or 4 player game without having to gamble. As they say, “ask and you shall receive”, so I did locate one version that lets you play online against other human players for free. And if you think you’re a Mah Jong player to contend with, like the character from Kung Fu Mah Jong, you can enter tournaments and compete for cash prizes for a nominal entry fee of $1.
Now gambling I don’t like, but competitions? Aye, I can do that.
The other thing I’ve noticed, even despite the fact that I blog, is that my vocabulary is diminishing. Sometimes when I’m talking or writing something, there will be a word on the tip of my tongue that can’t quite find its way out. The most alarming thing is that this is happening more and more frequently. One way to overcome this is to start writing again - not just blogging but really writing. Well, at least that will have another benefit - A Writer’s Papyrus has been rather quiet of late so perhaps this will help bring it back to life. Who knows, maybe I’ll finally get around to writing that novel I keep talking to much about…
With all these activities, I’m sure I’ll get the brain back into gear again. That said, looking after a little caveman hasn’t been completely without development for me. I do believe I have picked up a few more Hokkien words that I never would have learned otherwise. Maybe, just maybe, it might be possible for me to pick up enough Hokkien in the course of raising my son that I might actually be able to hold a conversation in Hokkien. Well, we’ll see…
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May 24th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
[...] part of my initiative to expand my vocabulary and train my brain so it doesn’t rot away, I’ve signed up to receive a A Word a Day in my mailbox. The plan is to write a post each [...]
June 4th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
[...] main reason I was hunting high and low for Sudoku was part of my “keep the old brain active” plan. After that I thought any general puzzle games would be useful, too - not that the [...]