Long-term learning plans

So back when Wordle became big, and I discovered Worldle and started the geography project, I was also doing the CliftonStrengths evaluation at work, which offers suggestions for how to leverage your strengths to get more out of them.  Long story short, one of the ways to make use of what I'm good at to help achieve goals while also avoiding some of the pitfalls is to plan out what I want to do so that a) I don't get bored with something and b) I don't try to do too much at once.

I'm really good at trying to do too much at once.

Anyway, now I have a list, partly scheduled and partly on an as-I-have-time basis, of stuff I want to learn.  There's kind of a lot.

The realization that I know next to nothing about the Global South outside some general world history partly drove the development of this list, but there's also a lot of hobby-type stuff that I have plateaued on because I haven't taken the time to learn some of the skills I want to have.

So here's the list:

• History:
• Africa (2022)
• Carthage
• Social/political development of major populations
• Native American history (2023)
• Miami/Shawnee
• Iroquois/Mohawk
• Major events & people
• Social/political development of major populations
• North/Central America/Caribbean (2024)
  
• Canada - general history
• Central America - general history
• Mexico - general history
• Caribbean - general history
• Aztecs
• Mayans
• United Fruit
• Federal Republic of Central America
• Major events & people
• Puerto Rico
• Social/political development of major populations
• New York
• Major events & people
• Regional events & people
• Indiana
• Major events & people
• South America (2025)
  
• Incas
• Simon Bolivar
• Nazca lines
• Major events & people
• Social/political development of major populations
• Asia (2026)
  
• South Asia - general history
• Southeast Asia - general history
• Southwest Asia - general history
• East Asia - general history
• Major events & people
• Social/political development of major populations
• Australia/New Zealand/Pacifica (2027)
  
• Major events & people
• Social/political development of major populations
• Antarctica (2028)
  
• Languages
• Yiddish (2023)
  
• Latin (2028)
  
• Dutch (2024)
  
• Mandarin (2026)
  
• Spanish (2025)
  
• German (2027)
  
• Swahili (2027)
  
• French (2024)
  
• Russian (2025)
• Esperanto (2028)
  
• Piano
• Review notation & musical terminology
• Music theory
• Raindrop Prelude
• Memories of Green
• Clair de Lune
• Linus & Lucy
• Moonlight Sonata (full) 
• Guitar
• Recognize & play basic chords
• Learn chords for 3 Christmas carols
• Silent Night
• Joy to the World
• What Child Is This
• Trombone
• F above middle C
• Calculus
• Derivation
• Integration
• Common formulae
• Square roots
• Chemistry
• Common formulae
• Common reactions
• Tree identification
• Progression - 5/15/25 local trees
• Rock identification 
• 5 common rocks
• Most locally common rocks
• Local rock formations/strata
• Geography
• World countries
• World capitals
• Territories, possessions, major cities
• Languages, currencies
• Writing
• Prose editing & revision
• Poetry composition forms
• Yoga
• Progress through app's beginner & intermediate levels (currently beginner 2)
  
• Knitting
• Felting
• Steeking
• Sweater construction
•  Sewing
• Fitting
• Crochet
• Patterns
• Lace
• Quilting
• Advanced piecing
• Full-sized quilting
• Candy making
•  Soft caramels
  
•  Gardening
• Troubleshooting problems
• Consistent yields
• First Aid
• CPR
• Woodworking
• Lumber selection
• Sanding/finishing
• Composting
• Develop hot compost
• Bird ID
• Progression 10/20/30 local birds
• Astronomy
• Calibrate & use telescope
• Identify all the northern hemisphere constellations (currently 17/39)
  
• Learn to swim
• Tai chi

There is a lot!  Most of these topics I already have books for (or in the case of the languages, an app).  Most of the languages I just want to get through the app content, but I'd like to get conversational in German and Spanish.  For the most part I've paired up languages with the area of historical study for the year, but I started doing French this year because we want to visit Montreal at some point.  I remember more from the 12 weeks I took it in college than I realized I did.

I don't have a lot of "bucket list" piano pieces, and at the moment I am working on re-memorizing the first movement of Moonlight Sonata.  That is about 2/3 of the way done.  It is both amusing and annoying that the passages I get stuck at are the same ones I got stuck at the first time I was learning it, 25 years ago.  What will slow me down more than anything on learning new things is that the more I play, the more I compose, so my piano time can easily get sidetracked into writing music.  This isn't the worst problem to have, but I would like to learn the handful of pieces I have on my list.

Of all of them, the swimming goal will be the most logistically difficult - adult swim lessons at the local Y are only open to members, and they cost $78 a week on top of the membership.  They are supposed to be building an aquatic center near us, but I don't know if/when it will be completed, or if they'll offer adult lessons when it is done.

July updates

It's been hot and dry here, so the garden and the pond have both required watering.  The garden is producing, though.

Mid-July harvest: beans peas, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and not-quite-ready corn.

I suppose the pond is, as well; the fish are getting bigger, and the water hyacinth have been multiplying.

Pond with water hyacinth; there are fish in there somewhere

The sweet corn is not as visually impressive as the popcorn, but it will probably be ready for real by the end of the month.  The test ears were edible but still a bit babyish.

Sweet corn

The first butternut squash is on the vine; I don't know if I'll get as many as last year with the dearth of rain.

Butternut squash

Despite the dearth of rain, the tiger lilies are doing better than any previous years thus far, which is nice, since my zinnias are not doing that well this year.

Tiger lilies

In non-garden news, I started the Yiddish course in Duolingo.  It's been fascinating as someone who speaks English and studied German for several years, since they are all Germanic languages, to see how they've evolved similarly and where they've diverged.

Despite the heat, after about six it's not too bad for walking if the humidity is not too bad, and we went to a new trail last weekend.

Mid-July sunset.

Hopefully we get more rain soon; I have a lot of tomatoes coming on, and I'd like to get at least four batches of salsa out of them this year.

June updates

So after a month of not doing anything with the geography after doing a 100% completion 3 days in a row (so no practice, no review), recall for countries was 99% and for capitals 83%.  Not bad!  I should probably decrease the testing interval to help with retention.  Countries are easier because I can use spatial memory to help with them.

Also I need to learn Turkey's new name.

Garden is coming along.  I have some extra random sunflowers, probably related to squirrels.  The radishes have all been harvested, and the corn's had its first round of nitrogen fertilizer.

Garden ca. late June

 

We lost all the pond fish this winter with the dramatic temperature swings, so after cleaning up the vines that were sucking all the water out of the pond, we got some new fish.  Last time we got two koi and four comets; this time we got four of each.  We had about thirty fish in the pond before, so hopefully in a year or two we'll see them start to multiply.

New baby fishes

Geography

So last week I decided I want to learn all the countries and their capitals. This was partly inspired by Worldle and partly because I'm reading a book on the history of Africa, and my knowledge of that continent is woefully thin.

Good news: this process has not been as onerous as anticipated. After 10 days, I've been able to list all the country names and all but 5 of the capitals (all in Africa, because a) woefully ignorant of the geography and b) Africa is huge). I want to see if I can repeat the countries for a couple days before I check the continents off on my list, and I don't know what I'll need to do for long-term maintenance of the information, but it's definitely progress. After I've got the capitals down, I'll move on to map locations.

 

Initially, the only continent I could fill in all the countries in was South America. This surprised me, other than it has the smallest number, because after Africa, South America is probably the continent I know the least about.  Since I have a fairly spatial memory, the continents where I do know where or what region a country is located were easier for me to ramp up quickly. Once I start working on the map part, it will probably help with long-term retention.

If this is something you'd like to try for yourself, my process has been pretty simple. First, I made a spreadsheet with a sheet for each continent and made lists of all the countries and their capitals. Then I made a worksheet on another tab to print and fill in, and I made a sheet to track progress in each category. I filled in what I could for each continent, then checked it against the spreadsheet lists, filling in what I missed in a different color. Writing by hand helps me learn things, so repeating this process daily has been useful.