Thursday, January 19, 2023

Thoughts collected for Thursday

1.  Palliative Care vs. Hospice Care = I attended an online workshop on Tuesday about caring for the elderly.  One section was on how to help people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers.  The palliative care info came near the end of the day.  If you are interested, ask me about it.

2.  Alzheimer's Facts
 = Get information for free from the Alzheimer's Association.

3.  Idiom of the Day
"Coloring outside the lines" is an idiom that means not following the rules, thinking creatively.  It invokes an image of a child who does not fill in the pictures in a coloring book in a conventional manner.  I ran across it in a book I was reading, so I looked it up to share here.
4.  How big is this number? = A million, a billion, a trillion — hey, that's a whole lot.
  • 1 million seconds is about 11 days.
  • 1 billion seconds is about 31.5 years.
  • 1 trillion seconds is over 31,709 years.
5.  Word of the Day = tril·lion /ˈtrilyən / number = a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012).  INFORMAL = a very large number or amount.  Example:  "Humans consist of trillions of cells." 

6.  
Book I'm reading
 

Peace ~ by Tucker Shaw, 2002, young adult, 144 pages
    Discusses past and present peace leaders and movements alongside quotes about peace from around the world, with a focus on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  Is it possible to live a peaceful life in a non-peaceful world?  This is a thought-provoking view into how we think about peace in today's world.

7.  Another delay = Because of more construction delays, I won't be moving into my new apartment in our new building in February, as we'd been told.  That gives me more time to sort my stuff.  

8.  Death and dying
= Pope Benedict died recently at 95, and a nun named Sister André died Tuesday in Toulon, France.  She was the world’s oldest documented living human, having lived 118 years and 340 days.

9.  Sister André = I learned that about Sister André from Jan (who writes things).  Jan wrote:  "I would appreciate not living until I’m 118."  I'm almost 83 and not planning to die soon, but 118 seems awfully long to live.  According to the New York Times, when Sister André had Covid a year or so ago, she said, "I’m not afraid of dying."  Neither am I, but — like Jan — I also would appreciate not living until I’m 118 years old.

10.  Lucile Randon = Born on Feb. 11, 1904, Lucile Randon worked as a teacher, a governess, and a child care provider before becoming a Catholic nun in 1944.  After she became a nun, she took the name "Sister André."

1 comment:

Helen's Book Blog said...

When I was teaching world history to high school sophomores, I had a section on demographics and did a bit on "how much is a billion?" since the world had just reached 6 billion. I loved all the versions of the explanation you included here as they helped students (and me) understand the difference between a million and a billion.