For a bunch of years I worked for the US Postal Service as a data conversion operator. Basically we sat at a terminal and saw images of letters, packages, etc on our screen and we would enter the data necessary to have a machine down in St. Louis or Madison or St. Paul spray a bar code on it and send it on its way.

The computer recognition of handwriting grew over the years and we got what the computer couldn't read. I think it was about 900 pieces of mail an hour, and we got a break every hour to walk about and do eye exercises and maybe stretch. Finally it got to a point where the computer skills we had helped program, eliminated our Data Conversion, or as they called it Remote Encoding Center and consolidated it into another part of the country. Six hundred jobs were lost in that decision; some relocated to stay with the postal service.

I figured that I had looked at two million pieces of mail over the years. We had to get our error rate down to two percent or less, I think. We would be tested on twenty five random images and our keystrokes and decision making skills were called upon in those brief moments we saw the image. The actual letter was in any number of cities. Each hub was a place mail was brought and then distributed to regional areas.

I learned a lot about long and short term memory. There are a lot of zip codes in my head, although they are in the part that is hard to retrieve unless there is an association. Driving through Wisconsin, I can remember most every town, and a few zip codes.

I don't remember specific pieces of mail, except mass mailings, and of course, holidays. The reason I share this is as an example of what is in my head, lots and lots of numbers, city streets, countries, and of course those zip codes.

Writing can be a helpful tool to sort through this mountain of facts the internet dishes out. Headlines from several sources, the stock market stories, international relations, news; or some like me are weather people, seeing the charts and fronts and temperatures and how much rain and lightning strikes and blizzard warnings and highs and lows and the time the sun rises and sets and average temperatures and records and you get the picture.

No more dependence on the weather people, although it is refreshing to tune in to the local news, weather and sports. What a haven for sports people, NFL players and NCAA stuff and Super Bowls and play offs and drafts and World Series and Stanley Cup and World Cup and Nascar and you probably are getting glazed eyes.

The emails and Facebook and Hulu and CNN and sending ecards and I am exhausted. I was outside this afternoon painting a small building and it felt good. I was in our garage with a hammer, tearing down an old shelving unit and that felt good too.

My point is that it is an exciting time to be alive. I can learn about mechanics online or go to a Wiki and learn something, my favorite is the Library of Congress in terms of facts and history and photos...

Maybe your brain is full and that is a good thing, like some I know who love crosswords or jigsaw puzzles. I have a weakness for Pacman and Tetris and even Gem Drop but I am not a gamer. I am more a monopoly or risk kind of person, checkers or chess, that sort of thing.

I am thankful for the ability to learn, and an understanding how I best learn things. I am also learning a lot from other hubs; as varied and unique as anywhere. Perhaps it is this weariness that keeps me from reading other hubs as often as I could. We are kind of like the BORG from Star Trek, melded together into a growing dynamic organism of writing. A community of writers; who would have thunk it.