"Cheryl's Birthday" Short Story

This is totally off topic for this blog but I wanted to share it anyway. I wrote this stupid (very) short story last night, inspired by a logic problem I saw online. Even with the solution it still took me 15 minutes to figure out. Apparently I'm not alone since a lot of people still find it confusing. The scenario in the question is also really odd, so it inspired me to write a situation in which a girl might be so coy about telling people her birthday. It's meant to be silly but also explain how to solve the puzzle. If you want to figure out the puzzle first, wait to read the story.

Cheryl's Birthday

    Two gigantic dorks walk into a high school classroom holding hands.
    “Where should we sit?” Says Dork 1.
    Dork 2 points out a girl wearing a “Bazinga!” shirt. “Let’s sit by her. She looks like as big a nerd as us.”
    They sit down on either side of the girl and ask her name.
    “Cheryl,” she says.
    “Hi Cheryl, I like your calculator, Cheryl. You’re my new best friend, Cheryl,” says Dork 1.”
    “No I’m not,” says Cheryl, scooting her desk away from him.
    “What’s your birthday, Cheryl?” Dork 2 breathes in her ear.
    “Um… Why?”
    “We want to give you a present.” Dork 1 winks.
    “No thanks,” says Cheryl.
    “Come on Cheryl, we really want to know your birthday.” Dork 2 leans in close.
    “Fine, if you can figure out my birthday with a stupid logic-puzzle, you can be my friends. But if you don’t get it, you have to leave me alone!”
    Cheryl writes down a bunch of dates and says, “I’ll tell one of you the month and one the day.”
    She whispers July in Dork 1’s ear, and the 16th in Dork 2’s.”
    Dork 1 knows that if she whispered the 18th or 19th, Dork 2 would know the answer because they appear once. But the day can’t be the 18th and 19th since they are not in July, so Dork 2 can’t know the answer because all the other numbers appear twice. “I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know too.” He says.
    Dork 2 knows that since Dork 1 knew that he couldn’t know the answer, May and June are out because they were the only months with a number that appears once. The only month left with a 16 is July, so the date is July 16th. He says “At first I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know now.”
    Since Dork 2 knows the answer, Dork 1 figures out that it can’t be July 14th because 14 appears twice. If it was 14, Dork 2 would still not know. “Then I also know when Cheryl’s birthday is,” he says.
    “Cool, we have a best friend now!”
    Cheryl gets up and says, “I changed my mind. I’m gonna sit somewhere else. You guys are way too nerdy.”
    Dork 1 looks at Dork 2 mournfully. “At least we know her birthday.”
    “Yeah.”

Picking up trash every day for a week

I'm really bad at this. I do stuff for my blog- take pictures, write notes- everything but write the actual posts. That's a pretty important step to forget. Anyway, a month ago I set a goal for myself of picking up trash every day (enough to fill my 5 gallon bucket) for seven days straight. “But wait,” you ask, “Wasn't your original goal to do that every day until the end of eternity?” Yes it was, but it turns out that it's really hard to do something every day when you haven't worked up to it. This was my attempt at working up to it.


At the beginning of the week I drew a chart with things I wanted to do every day (exercise, pick up trash, play guitar, write, practice German). I'm looking now at seven check marks in the “pick up trash” column, and it makes me really happy. It's hard not to feel crappy about myself for the empty spaces, especially the unmarked guitar column. I don't know if that's normal- to regret the things you didn't do instead of focusing on what you accomplished. Logically I know that I can't plan every hour of my life, nor would I want to. I believe that the more I fill out one column, maybe it'll be easier for me to make time to start filling in the others.



One thing I didn't expect of my experience was to feel bad about myself. Surely accomplishing something will make me feel good, right? Yes and no. I was proud that I was able to help out, but I started to feel like a weirdo. I imagined what the neighbors in my apartment complex would think when they saw me. I don't remember if I mentioned that my husband and I are on-site managers where we live and it's part of our job to keep the complex clean of trash. I wondered if they would think I'm weird for continuing down the block with my bucket and picker-upper. Like I was crazy and didn't know it wasn't my job to keep the whole neighborhood clean. Yeah, that's likely.. I'll admit it is a weird thing to do. I also didn't like the idea of becoming the neighborhood crazy lady. It's for that reason that for most of the time I've lived here, when I picked up trash I avoided the more populated streets. So far I think my paranoia has been proven unfounded. People only occasionally look at me strangely. Once I think someone thought I was the groundskeeper at the park and asked me where the bathroom was. More often than not I'm ignored. A handful of people have thanked me, which I appreciate a lot. I don't need gratitude but I like to know that others care about the environment (or at least how the neighborhood looks). I hope that the people who thank me will think about ways they can help out themselves.



During my experiment I was curious if I would run out of trash to pick up. Unfortunately I didn't but I had to walk much farther from home. It became more of a chore to find stuff. I was sad that the trash kept coming back day after day, but glad that if I stuck to a relatively small area I could easily keep up with it. If I set my next goal at a month, I'm curious how far from home I would have to walk to fill the bucket. I'll save that for another time because this month is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and that's more than enough to focus on. For now I'm attempting to pick up trash every day for as long as I can, but sticking to around the apartment complex. It makes me sad not to do as much as humanly possible, but I'm trying to establish a habit that I can work up from.



Sorry that I haven't updated more. I'm a dreamer to a big extent, a doer to a lesser one, and a document-er to a very small degree. I'll try to keep you better informed. In the mean time, here's a picture of some trash. Enjoy or don't... please don't.

The "Don't think of..." Game

I came up with a game to help calm myself down whenever my brain won't shut up. There are endless projects and things I want to do so I get stressed about how I'll manage to fit all of them into my life. I think it's good to think things out as much as possible, but sometimes (like when I'm trying to sleep) I just want to distract myself. As I was driving and thinking about how annoying thought can be, it reminded me of a conundrum someone once told me: If you try not to think about something, you will think about it. The example he gave was a rhinoceros and immediately a rhino popped into my head (his horn poked my hippocampus). As I drove I tried to think of the silliest things I could, and my brain conjured up the images afterward. "Don't think of... hippies playing frizbee with onion rings." It made me smile and calm down. Maybe if your brain is misbehaving you can enjoy this game too. Here are some other things I came up with:

 

 

 

 

I drew all of them except the tomato-helicoper, David did that one and I inked and colored it in. His helicopter knowledge exceeds my own.

Baby Steps

On September twelfth I met my goal of getting my Etsy store back up. (And just realized how hard it is to spell "twelfth"). A couple days later I wrote a draft on here about how the store was up, but forgot to post it. So I'm late to tell you that I was late. I could beat myself up for not getting those things done on time but that wouldn't accomplish anything.

What did make me feel bad about myself was not meeting my original goal for this blog (picking up trash every day). I've only been doing it about every three or four days. No matter how good the excuse, I felt guilty whenever I didn't do it. I thought doing one simple thing every day shouldn't be hard, but it is. As important as I know it is to take baby steps, I got excited about this project and thought about all the other things I wanted to do. That quickly became overwhelming. It reminds me of my years-long struggle against bad posture. It sounds weird but at some point I forgot how to not slouch. I'd lock my knees and stand as upright as I could, but my back would start to ache and I'd devolve back into a slump. Later I read what I'd forgotten- don't lock your knees! If you let them bend a little your back won't hurt and you can stand up straight. It's the same thing with any sort of self-improvement. You have to give yourself a little room to bend or you'll wear yourself out. And don't allow your failure to keep you from standing up straight in the future.

To help myself succeed- because I'm not giving up on the goal- I decided to take even smaller baby steps (prenatal steps?). I'm giving myself the goal of picking up trash every day for just this week. After that hopefully it will become a habit. I joined that thing the kids call Twitter so I can post my progress on that and other challenges. I'm three days in so far and already I have to walk farther and farther from home to find trash to fill my five gallon bucket.

Here is a picture of some things featured on my etsy shop:

Here's a link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NoblePURSEsuits

And my Twitter: https://twitter.com/WC_Brandenburg

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

I had a particularly busy day recently in which I woke up tired from staying up late watching YouTube videos. I didn't feel up to picking up trash but decided to do it anyway. After doing that I felt good about myself and tried to do as many chores as I could think of. Whenever I do one activity and it leads to another, it reminds me of a book I read when I was a kid called "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". It goes, "if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk" and snowballs from there. I put a link to someone narrating the book. It's still just as cute as when I first read it.

 I was going to just tell you about my day, but I thought that would be boring. So I decided to make a comic out of it. I exaggerated a few things, but it's the idea that matters the most. Here it is:

That was a good example of a "Give a Mouse a Cookie" day. I drew a shorter one of a not-so positive action/ consequence chain which is annoyingly common for me.

Those are all YouTube things urging me to wake up, in case you didn't get it (I know, the best joke is one you have to explain, huh?) One of them is the Angry Video Game Nerd. He's become a hero to me. He makes hilarious videos where he reviews bad old games and he recently made a movie. David and I drove to L.A. to see it, and I'm glad we did. I'm amazed by how someone who lives in New Jersey could create something so many people are able to see and love. That is one of the best things about the internet- that creative and determined people can be seen and heard by audiences that previously would only hear what the mainstream media thinks people will like. People like James Rolfe (the Nerd) are what inspires me to try to make this blog as good as possible and reach as many people as I can. If he can do it, maybe I can too.

Be warned if you want to check out a video of his, there is a lot of swearing. Here's a good one:

Ocean Beach and Presidio Park

So far a lot of people really seem to like the idea of this blog. A couple people even said they were inspired to pick up trash in their areas. Your encouragement inspires me to keep going. If any of you have stories about your own experiences, please leave a comment.




In the last few days I haven't picked up trash much around here, but I did at Presidio Park. Last weekend my husband David and I decided to do something fun, since circumstances at work made it unclear whether he might have to work seven days in a row. Thankfully that didn't happen.



Saturday we went to Ocean Beach even though it was raining. There were a surprising amount of people there despite the bad weather. It didn't even occur to me to bring a plastic bag or anything to pick up trash. I'm still debating how often I want to try to clean up places that we go to for fun. It makes it hard to appreciate the beauty when you're scanning the area looking for trash. I'm glad I didn't go there with that intent because I was able to enjoy watching the dogs and their humans run around the beach.

Doggies fighting over seaweed.

Migratory bird sanctuary near freeway bridge.

I didn't pick up more than a couple plastic bags that day. I didn't even notice any trash until David saw a woman picking some up along the inlet to the San Diego river. I thought about talking to her and telling her “good job”, but only managed a friendly “hi” because I was feeling too shy. She looked like she might have been homeless, so I don't know if she was doing it to be nice or was just collecting stuff to turn in for money.


On Sunday David and I went to Presidio Park. This time I remembered a plastic bag to collect trash. We parked by the museum and walked around, enjoying the view from the hillside.

We hiked around on the trails. I didn't see much trash at first except for a few cans and a “snowy-egret” (That phrase comes from a time when my mom mistook a plastic bag in a field for a bird. She's gonna love me for mentioning that.) There was a dry creek-bed David and I had explored once which was sure to be filled with trash, but we weren't willing to explore it again. Last time we were there we discovered lots of... I won't say specifically, but let's just say there were a lot of discarded implements people would use if they didn't want to create more people.



In the parking lot the ground was littered with cigarettes. It felt like I spent more time bending over to pick them up than walking. I wish I had brought my reacher-grabber.

Where I found the most trash was of course where it was the most difficult or dangerous to pick it up. On the edge of a cliff overlooking the freeway, I used my ninja-skills to sweep a couple pieces towards me with my leg under the fence-beam. On another corner of the fence the ground was less steep, so I climbed under it. I got on my knees and reached under a bush with two-inch thorns to grab a beer can. Another can was buried so deep in the thorny branches that I decided to ignore it. David joked, “I thought you were dedicated.”



Towards the end of our hike I noticed a Skittles wrapper on the side of a hill slippery with pine-needles. I asked David to take a picture of me retrieving it because if you're gonna fall down a hill, you might as well get some funny pictures.

Taste the rainbow- don't trash the rainbow!... That's cheesy, forget I said it.

I escaped without incident and threw away the trash I'd collected. Only three things I saved for recycling.

I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and noticed trash in the sink. The bathrooms at the park are disgusting. When I was a kid, the stalls hadn't even reached door-having technology. Were they afraid of people stealing them or what?



I knew the nice thing to do would be to clean up the wad of grossness in the sink. I tried to talk myself out of it but I would've felt guilty if I had left it. I scooped it up and sprinted across the lawn to the nearest trashcan. Then I ran back to the bathroom and washed my hands. It felt like that scene in Peewee's Big Adventure when he's rescuing the animals from the burning pet-shop and keeps skipping the snakes. Finally there's nothing else left, so he scoops them up and runs outside to faint on the sidewalk.

Anyway... That's it. Don't forget to "follow" the blog if you want to read more Pee-wee references and trash-talk. Or talk about trash. (Pee-wee references not guaranteed).

The name of this blog comes from a common excuse most of us use when we want to make a difference in the world but feel like we can't: "I'm only one person." Well, guess what? Everyone is only one person. It wouldn't really be fair if some people were two people (Though I'd like to try that). Despite the seemingly small impact each of us has, humanity continues to advance at a mind-boggling speed, both technologically and societally. It's hard to understand how people working independently can create a chain reaction that leads to societal changes.


I wanted to create this blog a long time ago, but I'm pretty private and don't think my life is any more interesting than most. It seemed hard to justify. But there was a book that I read recently that made me realize how helpful this could be. (I know- when someone says they read a good book lately is when my mind often starts wandering, but bear with me.) The book was "The Power of Habit" By Charles Duhigg. What I learned was: 1) Creating one positive habit in your life can lead to more good habits and positive changes. And 2) Change on a societal level can only be accomplished when the leader is part of a social structure. The example he gave was Rosa Parks. She wasn't the first black person to be arrested for not riding in the back of the bus. The reason why people got upset was because she was so admired in many areas of the community of Montgomery Alabama. Black people and white respected and loved her, so when she was arrested it was seen as a great injustice. Some of her friends seized on the opportunity and boycotted the bus system. They circulated the call to boycott to the local black churches. A lot of the people attending the churches knew Rosa or her reputation in the community. When her friends decided to join the boycott, so did the friends of those friends. If anyone had refused, their position in the social group would have suffered. The boycott lasted 381 days until the city repealed its law requiring segregation on public buses.


It should go without saying that I don't consider myself as admirable as Rosa Parks. I don't want or expect to be seen as a hero. I think social change more often occurs in this way without the originator(s) ever being known.


Now I guess I should get to my mission-statement. It may seem pathetically inadequate to battle the negative effects humans have had on the environment. But if my habit becomes someone else's, it could spread to wider societal change.


My plan is to pick up trash every day. I live in a fairly urban neighborhood so there is no shortage of garbage on the street. I have a five gallon bucket that I carry up and down the block picking up trash (with a picker-upper so I don't have to touch nasty things or broken glass). I've already been doing this about once a week for a year and a half, and manage to fill the bucket by the time I reach the end of the block (sometimes sooner).


I had the idea to do this a couple years ago when I still lived with my parents. I took my dog Johnny on walks, and when I remembered to I'd take a plastic bag and pick up trash. They live in a nicer suburban area, so it would've taken me all day to fill up the 5 gallon bucket. It might seem silly, but I'm almost glad I live in a trashier (literally) part of town now so I can help more. Of course I'd rather it not be there in the first place, but since it is, I feel the need to try to clean it up.

Near where I live in California.

First bag of trash I picked up when I lived at my parent's house when I first wanted to start this blog. If pictures of bags of trash aren't your bag, I've decided it's better to take pictures of the trash in it's (un)natural environment. I'll try to take pictures of places before and after I clean them.

Litter was always something that made me sad, so I tried not to think about it. Eventually I started to feel like I was as bad as the litterer by ignoring the problem. There must have been other people who felt the same way as I did and did nothing about it. They probably were busy too, or didn't want to sacrifice for something that wasn't their fault. People shouldn't have to clean up after someone else who was careless- people shouldn't be careless, but they are. There are assholes in the world and nothing will change that, but I think the majority of people aren't assholes. Most people wouldn't purposefully litter, but everyone has to deal with the consequences of those who do.


My goal with this blog is to see how much I can do as one person. My main focus will be picking up trash every day, but there are other goals I want to work towards that fit within the broader idea of "Only One Person." The other goals might not be things that make the world a better place, but will hopefully broaden my appreciation for the world, or allow me to see what I'm capable of. They might even seem silly or pointless, but I like having something to work toward.


When I thought of doing this blog a long time ago I wondered how I was going to think of new things to write about in regards to picking up trash. Then as I was reading "The Power of Habit", I realized how narrow most people's experience with the world is. People create habits that they follow throughout most of their days. Everyone has hobbies that they always go to because they make them happy, but think of what you could be missing. If doing the same thing consistently makes you happy I don't see a problem with it, but it can get boring. I have often thought of how many things are going on in the world, and I'm only experiencing a fraction of it. There are bands that I love that I didn't used to know, and I wonder how many are out there that I would love just as much. Most of them I'll probably never find, but I should still make an effort to seek out new experiences. Some of the new things I try I may not pursue further, but others could become new habits that will make my life richer.


The first goal, I've already stated. I've been picking up trash almost every day for the past week. It's been hard to motivate myself to do it because it's been around 90 degrees in the day time. Plus every day I have to go over to my parents to be with my dog Johnny while my parents are at work. He is 13 years old, and has incontinence issues and trouble getting up. I still love being with him, and since we got him pain medication he seems happy. But it's hard to do everything that needs to get done here when I need to go over there every day.

 

Me and Johnny when he was young.

Old Johnny enjoying a chin scratch.

I thought it would be interesting if I tried to set a new goal for myself each month. I just finished Camp Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) by writing 10,000 words in a month. It was really hard because I'm a slow writer, but it was good to know that if I give myself a deadline it's easier to achieve something. My goal for this month is to get my Etsy store running again (It's an online store for selling crafts). I put it on hold while I was on my honeymoon in Utah. Before that I didn't have a camera for a while, which is necessary for taking pictures of what you want to sell. If you want to look at the store, it's https://www.etsy.com/shop/NoblePURSEsuits  Here are some examples of things I want to sell:

 

 


Another goal I'm working on is more silly and definitely won't change anyone's world for the better but my own. I'm going to listen to every single song in my itunes library. That might seem like an easy one, and it is, but it will take a long time. I have 11,330 songs, the total time of which add up to around 32 days. A lot of them I've never heard because I used to download discographies of bands that I like and never listen to all the albums.

Thank you for reading this. Maybe if people encourage me I can encourage others. Hopefully to do something worthwhile like picking up trash, and not just listening to music. :)