Learn Something New Every Day

After making the time to take a picture every day in May, I started thinking about all the 5 minute projects that I could begin each day in June.  I’m a huge fan of 30-day projects.  They’re just the right amount of time to explore new ideas, and they’re far more practical than New Year’s resolutions because you actually can remember them and want to try them.

Trying to take a picture every day was a lot of fun, and I’ll try to find a way to share my project with all of you.  In the meantime, here’s June’s project:  take a few minutes to learn something new every day.

baby-at-computer

This eager kid says it all, don’t you think?  I’ve been so eager to start this next challenge.  Would you care to join me?  My all-time favorite website… and this is embarrassing… is Wikipedia.  It’s an online encyclopedia overflowing with gobs of really cool bits that readers actually contribute to.

Do you ever have moments where you ask what something is?  But then do you quickly shrug it off and quickly move on with what you’re doing?  I do that all the time.  I wonder about trees, foods, places… For loving Wikipedia so much, I’m not very good at using it.

So this month I’m challenging myself to take a few minutes to learn.  It’s a simple way to make learning a habit – perfect for our Simpler Life Series, wouldn’t you say?

Here was my June 1 Wikipedia search:  red-winged blackbird

These fellas are everywhere around here, and they’re one of the few birds I can identify.  (I’m still stumped by these weird birds in Berlin.)  Or at least I thought I could identify red-winged blackbirds.

red-winged-blackbird1

They’re constantly hanging out with these guys.  I figured they were just good pals.

red-winged-blackbird-2

Nope.  Those are the females.  No wonder the males are so friendly, huh?

So here’s to another 30 day challenge!  I’d love to have you join me.  Think of all the randomness you could impress your family with at the most random times.  I can see it now.  Awkward silence.  Then you blurt out the not-so-cool ingredients in Subway’s bread or bamboo clothing like the considerate Christine is talking about on Simple Savvy.

I’d really like to know what you all do when you have questions about stuff.  Do you keep track in a little notebook or drop everything to find an answer?  You could just forget about it, and that’s okay, too.  I am up for interesting must ask topics to look into.  …well except I’m kind of thinking that today I’ll look into Subway’s bread.

(Images from Flickr and Wikipedia)