Tuesday, October 13, 2009

the long weekend

unleaving
We looked at (but didn't manage to actually buy) flat screens, went for a long walk down by the river and another one around the reservoir, stopped by the farmers' market and bought lots of swiss chard, wandered through an enormous street fair, made lentil soup and apple tart and had some people over for dinner who brought their 8-week-old boy-girl twins.

I took a deep breath when I first saw them, tiny and sleeping inside their matching carriers, but, on the whole, it wasn't nearly as stressful as I thought it might be.

How was your weekend? And, (since I know some of you have already tried it and shared the results in the previous post's comments) if you have a few minutes to waste, why not take this fun and educational test,* which (thanks, Kym!) measures your ability to recognize and remember faces.

Predictably, I did fairly atrociously, scoring something like 65%, where the average is around 80%. But I was still pretty pleased with myself since, honestly, for the vast majority of answers I was just blindly guessing. How did you do?



*And, while they ask for your name, age, gender and email, of course, there's no reason (unless you really want to) to give them your real name, age, gender or email. Just make sure your age is over 18 and your email ends with an @ dot something or other.

34 comments:

Coggy said...

93%! Which actually makes sense. I usually recognize people, just never remember their names.

after iris said...

86%

Sounds like a lovely weekend, I'm glad meeting the baby twins was a more pleasant experience than expected.

My weekend was a mixed bag: dinner and drinking too much for a friend's birthday, watching Strictly Come Dancing (the UK Dancing with the Stars) and playing 'guess the plastic surgery procedure' at my neighbours, helping with a water station at the annual half-marathon. I gave water to a man dressed as sumo batman, a group of fluorescent fairies and about 12,000 other sweaty, breathless runners/joggers/stumblers.

EmmaL said...

82% correct!

RP said...

86%. I really, really suck at remembering names though.

I'm glad meeting the twins wasn't entirely stressful. Any weekend that includes apple crisp can't be all that bad.

I had my girlfriends over for a night of wine and good eats on the gazebo. We fired up the chiminea and my massage therapist friend came over with his chair setup to give massages to those who wanted them. It wasn't terribly enjoyable de-dog-crapping my yard and cleaning all day at 32 weeks pg. but the end result was worth it.

I'm really craving apple crisp now.

Anonymous said...

I got 86% too. There seem to be a lot of us with 86%. Thanks Kym!
allypally
PS Enjoy your chard!

leanne said...

92%. And my brain still hurts thinking about it. Like Rachel, I suck at remembering names though. Over the weekend I was at the grocery store and saw someone I recognized and at first couldn't remember where I knew her from. Yeah, she works at that grocery store (though she wasn't in her uniform at the time).

We also went to an indoor tropical garden (nice escape when you live in WI). And I made buckeyes. Chocolate and peanut butter. Mmmmm.

Melissa said...

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 70.
In other words, you got 97% correct.

I'm good with faces, terrible with names.

erica said...

94% Now if I could only remember the names that went with faces.

Lentil soup and apple tart sounds like a perfect Fall meal, and I think you were quite brave to come within 10 feet of twins.

Clarabella said...

97%, which comes in handy when you teach college. I've been teaching for 6 years & still recognize every student who's ever been in one of my classes. Whew, I'm going to end up running out of room one of these days, though.

Caro said...

86%, I'm rubbish at names though.

Azaera said...

It was thanksgiving up here in Canada, so we ate turkey dinner and sat around and talked and enjoyed having a three day weekend.

Aurelia said...

58 out of 72, so 80% and although I think it would be the same--I wonder if the results would be different for a mix of female and male faces.

Cause they all seemed more "male" than female, never mind the debate about baldness/hair/etc.

Glad the twin experience was ok, and going forward, I hope it keeps getting easier over time.

Unknown said...

I got 100% on the celeb one, and 97% on the computery faces one. I thought it was really easy. Maybe cause I teach and have to learn names fast?

jenniferk said...

I got 94% and I'm shocked since I always thought I was terrible at remembering faces. I guess the problem is that it's usually not quiet and I'm usually not focused when I meet people.

Serenity said...

Long term lurker here who has a resolution to comment more.

My score - average - 82%. Once they gave me 6 to memorize (in 20 seconds) I totally stopped paying attention. MUCH better with the one on one stuff.

I am happy the twin experience wasn't awful. I am with erica- I think you're very brave.

xxx

Furrow said...

As you know, my weekend also involved twins. I haven't taken the test, yet, but I'm going to guess 74%.

Meg said...

I got 94%...not bad. :) I love that stuff.

still life angie said...

96%--I'm pretty good with names and faces.

My weekend was fine--nothing too dramatic so to me that registers as good. Glad the twin meeting was easier than imagined...sometimes the anticipation of those things is worse than the actual event. At least for me.

K @ ourboxofrain said...

97%

It sounds like a good weekend. We were away for part, home for part, and fighting a child who decided he didn't want to nap for the whole thing.

Betty M said...

89%. So not bad. Think I did worse on the blurry ones.

At the weekend we met the world's most uninspiring architect who will not be doing our reno.

Life in Eden said...

Umm, 99%. Huh. Nice to know some part of my brain still works. But I think that is the only part.

Glad you had such a lovely fall weekend. Is it wrong of me to say, but you sound, well, happy. :-)

Bea said...

97%.

I also have the college-teacher excuse - I've had lots of opportunity to practice learning faces and names. Do you suppose one's interest in blogging is correlated to one's face-recognition ability? (With you as the exception that proves the rule?)

Julie said...

94% - I'm the same as some of the posters above - I can remember your face, but not necessarily your name.

Anonymous said...

94%

Christy said...

OMG I didn't know I had this problem. Holy crap. 56%.

painted maypole said...

i HATE our 2 HD televisions, because we never actually watch HD channels or have an HD video player, and so the picture is ATROCIOUS on every thing. hate hate hate it.

but I have no strong feelings. none.

Sarah said...

I got 96%, and I'm great with names too. For all the good it does me. No obvious reason, I'm a sahm with a high school diploma and 5 years in the military for my "education". Not surprised at all, though, my dad is the same way, & would probably score higher still. One of those people who could bump into someone they went to kindergarten with, 60-odd years ago, and remember their names, their parents' names, which street they lived on what Dad got them for their birthday that year. In the end, it's more creepy than happy. Based on my dad's life, I feel like his ability to remember so much in the past, with such crazy detail, really interferes with his ability to focus on and enjoy his day to day life now... because it just can't compare with his memories of being younger, and theoretically happier. It's sad, and ongoing frustration for us. Plus, he's so used to his memory being entirely spot-on, it's almost impossible to convince him that he's remembering anything wrong.

Wow.. think I just uncovered one of the great mysteries of what's up with my dad, just typing through all that! Sorry to do it in your comments, but maybe you'll be interested in that reaction. I'll have to send him the link. It will make his day to do well on that kind of test. And it's my fervent hope to not end up like him...

Sounds like an amazing weekend! Lovely that being with the twins was less upsetting than you'd feared. And once again, you've piqued my interest in Swiss chard.

niobe said...

@Sarah: I'm fascinated because L has a similarly spookily accurate memory. He told me once how he can visually recreate the past and check for any details he might have missed.

@Painted Maypole: So, tell us how you really feel. : )

Unknown said...

I'm glad it was ok seeing the twins. It can't be easy.

B said...

I scored 92%

Which goes to show that the problem of me forgetting people is my memory, not bad facial recognition (an excuse I offered myself when feeling guilty each time I'd forgotten someone).

Eek

Anyone like to swap brains?

Christine said...

i got 99%!! i'm sort of shocked...i thought i was really bad at faces. guess not.

Jen said...

81% which I guess isn't very good campared to most of the people here. I don't think I'm very good with faces and I'm awful, just awful with names.

Sarah said...

Wow! I don't know if Dad could pull that off.. but I've never asked him how he would describe his recall. I recreate things, in my head, in the air - most often maps of locations - but not with that level of accuracy. Though, I've never tried it like L describes it. And my Dad got 97%. LOL.

Rachel said...

72 out of 72. 100%! I've always been rather good at quick memorization, so I guess I can't say I'm super shocked, but it's always pleasing to get a 100% on something. Fun! Thanks for sharing it.