Unrelated to everything prior (unless you asked Euclid who'd probably just say "inherent, fuck off"), IO9 tipped me to this geometry game where you have to complete tasks like Level 1: Construct an equilateral triangle from the line segment AB. I'm stuck at level 11 (Level 11: Construct an angle on the given line equal to the given angle). Each level pretty much unlocks a new tool for manipulating lines and points and angles based on what you just solved, but I need to rotate some shit, and I don't know how. I have forgotten more geometry than I ever knew, it seems, but the fun of it is that you're basically making through proofs, just interactively.
If I were 15, this would probably be much easier.
I informed both my mother and sister this week that the Antilles chain of islands that includes Jamaica is volcanic, and part of the reputed reasons for the quality (and price!) of Blue Mountain coffee is that it grows in volcanic soil at great heights. Neither of them knew. I'm trying to work out how they got to Jamaican adulthood and never came across/pieced together/looked up this stuff, but then I realise, I'm trying to construct an angle on a given line equal to the previously given angle, and it takes different sorts.
At a social gathering after the funeral a few months ago, my sister said, brightly "Yeah, she has the fewest degrees in the family, but she makes the most money!" (Clearly we can place this on my career timeline). I exploded internally. The cheer with which she said I only had one degree stung. When I joke and say "well, we average two each" it's me saying it, and it's self-effacing. Not doing a second degree was possibly the bravest thing I've ever done. Postgrad was not an option in our family, it was our fiat.
A few days ago I said "well, I'm the least educated person in this conversation, so grain of salt" and my sister spluttered the conversation to a halt. "You...you're not! I mean, you didn't go past a Bachelor's, but you're educated! You know more than all of us!" and I wanted to cry. But the first statement, about the # of degrees, still hurt. Hell, it stunned me into defenceless silence, so clearly I was affected, whereas she was really dissing herself and the rest of my immediate family.
I didn't know I had this hangup.
Which reminds me, I need to find out the height of the tallest mountain in Costa Rica and see if they grow coffee on it.