Speed-Reading

This seems to actually be doing stuff. I started at a speed of 240WPM for a serious-ish book and 360WPM for a fun book. Since then the exercises have only been with an easy fun book, but I've gotten 408, 478 and 373 WPM. Not bad considering I have to be thinking about new stuff.

The big things they've done up to now are using your finger as a pacer by moving it under the line you're reading (move it across to the right, then pick it up [sounds obvious but I never thought of it] and move it to the left), posture/lighting (the book should be at about 45 degrees and the lighting should be diffuse and soft), and fixing regression (this is when you go back and reread things). Also they mentioned getting glasses that are right; my new ones should be coming any day now...

In practice, I've found that using my finger makes me liable to rush and then need to reread more... I'm so impatient. I'll soon get a handle on this... *crosses fingers*

So far, so good. My goal is 1000WPM for easy books. Why 1000WPM you ask? Because it's a nice round number. And I get an extra digit; that's pretty cool. For reference, Ship of Gold has somewhat more than 400 words per page. At 1000WPM that comes out to less than 3 and a half hours to finish the book; at 240WPM that comes out to just about 14 hours. I could dig on some speed...

Anyhow, I finally have a good deal of work to do for NASA. I have to learn Verilog so I can use FPGAs and I have to make a simulation of mirror stuff with x-rays. w00t!