So Now I Know (Again)

There's way too many things I've read about/learned recently, some interesting and useful, others not so much. Whenever I go online looking for something, that path veers way off. 

Maybe, you know exactly how that goes. Especially the past couple of years (just saying). 

As most of you know by now, I like to share finds, whether new to me or not. This post contains some of those.

Some fonts are ink guzzlers . . .

OK, so that's nothing new and everyone who has ever printed something and is reading this post, already knows that the bigger and bolder the font, the more ink it will use and will not be the cheapest print choice. And, like with most things, size matters as well. The larger the font size, the more ink it uses and the more to be bought.

Surprisingly, one of the most popularly used fonts, which isn't the biggest or boldest in the group, is one of the biggest ink hogs — Arial. This font reportedly uses as much as 30% more ink than similar ones. That means that if it's a favorite of yours, you could be restocking ink cartridges or refills more often.

But there's workarounds and selecting another font can help, another long-time favorite—Times Roman, is reportedly more economical with ink use thanks to its thinner letters. If you're not a fan of this font, there's other choices — Calibri or Century Gothic are possible substitutes. 

Another way to select ink-saving fonts is to use ones labeled — Thin, Condensed or Narrow. It's a tip-off that since strokes are thinner, the font will use less ink; Helvetica Condensed uses less ink than standard Helvetica.

Studies by printing professionals (yes, there are such groups) have shown that the fonts named above use up to  30% less ink than Arial. Not only that, but they have been labelled as among the most ink efficient fonts. This example ↓ shows all three fonts at the identical point size. (In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page.)

Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned in 1931 by the British newspaper The Times and conceived by typographer Stanley Morison. It's become one of the most popular typefaces ever created. It's a default font installed on nearly all desktop computers. The Times used it for 40 years until 2004 when new production techniques and a format change from broadsheet to tabloid caused it to switch typeface several times. But, all those changes have been variants of the original New Roman typeface.

Century Gothic is a sans serif font created in 1991 for monotype imaging. Century Gothic is neat and readable. It's widely used for print material and headlines as it can be read from a distance and has delivered a 31 percent savings in printing costs over Arial. 

Calibri is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the modern style designed by Dutch type designer Lucas de Groot, and released to the public with Microsoft Office 2007.

And now, the next topic is decluttering.

But not in the usual way of thinking about getting rid of stuff, like I've been doing in recent weeks. Those boxes of stuff in the photo → were taken to a local thrift center last week. What helped with this process was following the process that once something went into the box and the box was filled, nothing came out, and the box was taped — out of sight, mind, and apt.

And, the same way that decluttering works for ridding us of physical things, like household items, it can also work for our minds. Mental decluttering is what older adults, aged 60 to 85 years of age need to do often according to recent research studies read about online. Cluttered minds are found to be common among older adults with a lot of accumulated life experiences, but don't we all? 

Why? 

Because, according to several studies, folks in this age group process and store too much information in their brains. This can lead to cluttering the memory with facts that are no longer needed, knowledge from years ago, creating distractions. The researchers found that overloaded memory can impair recall in older adults and account for age differences in memory tests.

By whatever name it's called, memory, mind or brain clutter. There are pros and cons.

What's a downside of remembering too much?

If what you want to remember is bound up with too much information this can slow down your memory processes. For example, if a place/person changes an address, older people can often recall older details. By comparison, younger folks suppress old information and replace it. Older brains can have a harder time doing so even when information is no longer useful. A lifetime of accumulated information and knowledge can lead to memory errors or reduced attention to detail. Aging also comes with reduced attention to detail as older adults can be distracted by competing thoughts when trying to remember something.

There's an upside to mind clutter.

Cluttered memory can be beneficial and knowledge retention helpful in what's called enriched memory. Decision making can also benefit from accumulated memory when older people are in positions where important decisions are needed. Accumulated memory and knowledge can help what seems like stored obsolete information is accessed to help with tasks that require creativity.

How to keep our brains healthy. 

It's as easy as staying physically active, still considered the best way to improve cognitive health as we age. Exercise is associated with brain health, including better blood flow to areas involved in cognitive tasks. 

Researchers who studied the effects of exercise on thinking ability in those over 50 including memory, alertness and ability to quickly process information found that physical activity improved all these skills — 40 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise as many days as possible. 

A 2020 study showed that a simple exercise, walking, could slow brain aging by up to 4 years. Previous studies showed it was an average of 10 years, but that required doing moderate to heavy exercise. 

Regular exercise I can manage by visits to the in-house gym here, heavier stuff not so much.

For those averse to or who can't exercise, the good news is that there's other options to keep the brain healthy and working well. It's sort of like flossing to maintain dental health, only it is brain flossing. Staying mentally active, trying new things, and being in mind-stimulating environments — as easy as taking a class, playing games, solving puzzles. That's why we're going to keep playing dominoes weekly.

That's enough this 'n that for now.  I'm going to watch some YouTube videos to learn a lot that's new to me — doesn't everyone do that?