How Well Do You Know Your ABCs?

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Today is one of those days that I said "Wow, today is Wednesday and I have nothing prepared.  What to do?  I have been absorbing all the hints, tips and tricks for finding topics found in the forum at Tribal Blogs.  I decided to utilize some of what I've read, and the result is today's post.

Jumbled Words

Now we've all seen this kind of thing before, but it seems there was an unsubstantiated study into how the human brain interprets words.  It takes the position that only the first and last letters are needed for us to translate the text.  Take a look at the following paragraph and try to read it like you normally would. 

"Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."*

So, did it make sense?  It seems fairly simple, and I think that the context of the sentence has significant influence our ability to interpret this.  As the "study" indicates it is because we do not read individual letters, but the entire word.

I tried my hand at a nonsensical jumbled word sentence.

The gnait tdedy baer csuemond smliy fsih form a snaagtnt pnod, and sqsetnelubuy tosfrenaemrd itno a pophatchyisc sraeil knlilig mtsoner.

Did your brain translate as you read?  What does it say?

Whether or not there have actually been studies done on this, it is still amazing that despite all the misspellings, we can still read it.  What are your thoughts and theories?

*http://dan.hersam.com/2005/01/27/reading-jumbled-letters/

Quote of the Week

Dood - Big Changes!

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me.  

- Author Unknown

The only person we can truly change is ourselves, and then only when we're truly ready.  Change is seldom easy, whether it is dreaded or embraced, whether it's by choice or necessity.  However, changing ourselves is an even greater challenge.

Life is Good

Photo Credit: Bob Fornal

When life hands you a bowl of lemons, you make lemonade.  

When life throws you a curve ball, hit a home run.  

When life catches you by surprise, smile, it can turn your day around.  

When life breaks your heart, cry and move on.  

Life is good.  Never let it get the best of you.

Written for Friday Flash 55.

The Restoration

This is a continuation of "The Rose Garden" written for Magpie Tales.

Gerald sat on the old, cement bench at the corner of the rose garden, his face streaked with dirt where he’d wiped the away the sweat.  Robins poked around through the garden looking for grubs where the soil was freshly turned. 

Gerald had moved into his parents’ house the year after his mother passed away.  That wasn’t his plan, since he had made his home in New York, and Louisiana is a thousand miles and a world away.  After coming home for the funeral, though, he kept feeling drawn back, feeling the need to stay and restore the house and gardens.  He’d put weeks of labor into the rose garden, and finally it was beginning to show promise.  Gone were the weeds and brush threatening to choke the life from the roses.  The yellow rose bush bloomed proudly on the anniversary of his mother’s death.

Photo courtesy of Magpie Tales

The old house wasn’t the only thing calling to Gerald.  Every so often he would find the old watering can sitting on the wall, even though he was sure he had put it away the night before.  When he had first surveyed the garden, he caught a glimpse of someone passing through the garden.  That person so strongly resembled his mother, that he called out, knowing it was impossible.  But was it?

Now he watches for her, talks to her, even though his brain tells him it’s silly, his heart tells him otherwise.

Over the course of his restoration, he had planned to replace the brick walkway to the gardener’s shed with stone.  His father had put that walkway in over 30 years ago, so his mother could walk to the shed without soiling her shoes, as she loved to spend a rainy afternoon working with her plants.  Some of the bricks were broken now, with the dirt coming up between them.  He had already painted and reroofed the shed, and he thought stone would give the garden an elegant finish.  

However, one evening as he looked at the different stone samples he’d picked up, he heard a faint voice upon the light evening breeze.  “Please leave the bricks," it said.  Gerald turned to see who had spoken, but saw no one.  He thought he was hearing things - but there it was again, unmistakable in it’s meaning, “please leave the bricks.” 

Needless to say, the old brick walkway remains.

Quote of the Week

  

Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.  

- African Proverb

As with many things in life, it's not where you end up so much as how you got there.