You Learn Something New Every Day

You learn something new every day.

How many times have you heard that in your life? I have heard it so many times that I finally decided to research it. I decided to record the "something new" that I learned every day for a month.

One problem: I forgot to take notes after just eighteen days. This could actually be good news. I chose February for this experiment because it is the shortest month. Even still, if it was successful, that would be a really long blog post. (I know, I know. That's never stopped me before. I'm working on being concise here though.)

So, without further ado, here are just a few more than two weeks worth of new facts that I learned.

1-The college football powerhouses from the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and THE Ohio State University have never produced a quarterback who would start in the Super Bowl. The Delaware Blue Hens have now produced two: Rich Gannon and Joe Flacco.

2-After two nights of being home with my baby girl without my wife, I know she (the wife, not the baby) is a better and stronger person than I. Nothing can ever happen to her because I could not hack it as a single father.

3-The biggest deficit ever overcome by a Super Bowl winner is ten points.

4-Nothing new. Excuse: I didn't write anything down at the end of the day. The next morning I tried but couldn't recall anything noteworthy. It is impossible to say for sure whether or not I learned something new this day.

5-I am perhaps too serious about saving money. I caught myself worrying about a few dollars increase in our water bill until I considered how much we are saving because of my wife's brilliant idea to use cloth diapers for our baby.

6-I'm impressed greatly by companies who provide an envelope I can use to send remittance.

7-A kind word really can carry you very far. A customer commended me late in the work day, and I was flying high for hours.

8-There exists a version of "Your Cheatin' Heart" recorded by Louis Armstrong.

9-Someone creates individual sized microwave popcorn bags, and they're the perfect size for this individual.

10-Despite the ridiculous name, LL Cool J makes a tremendous Grammy host.

11-I learned what RSV is and that even my baby can get sick.

12-One of my best friends has never watched Boy Meets World. WHAT?!?!?

13-When a nurse can't hit an arm vein, a baby in the ER can be given an IV via a scalp vein.

14-Vince Carter has scored more points in the NBA than Larry Bird.

15-My wife has a lot more and/or a lot better Facebook friends than I do.

16-Nothing new. Excuse: My baby girl was in the hospital. I was distracted. It is also impossible to say for sure whether or not I learned something new this day.

17-Wayne Gretzky played twelve seasons in the NHL before he had a season with LESS than forty goals scored.

18-Only four NBA players have no-trade clauses in their contracts: Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett.

Some fun stuff there, but what does it prove? Do we literally learn something new every day? If this were an episode of Mythbusters, I believe the verdict would be "plausible."

I don't believe that the two days with no results prove the premise to be false. They can be written off as simple recording errors. Also, even if I had recorded something those days, I don't believe eighteen successful data runs proves the premise to be true. The CDC places average life expectancy at 78.7 years, or 28,725 days. The chance of a human learning something new each and every one of those days seems remote.

You may not know it, but I have a Bachelor of Science degree. I majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry. Though I'm not currently working in the field, I am a scientist at heart. I want to learn about and understand the world around me. Perhaps that has unfairly influenced me, but here is my opinion on this subject.

You may not automatically learn something new every day, but you can if you want to do so. As cliche as it may sound, all you have to do is pay attention. Like the great Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Take note of the people, places, and things around you. Stop, look, listen, and learn. (Seems like I stole that from somewhere...any ideas where?)

About my being concise, sorry guys. Maybe next time.

As far as the concept in question here, I will simply add one slight punctuation mark. I will change it from an observation into a suggestion. It could change your life for the better and make it infinitely more intriguing.

You, learn something new everyday.

Scripture: "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." - Proverbs 18:15

Quote: "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought." - Jonathan Swift

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