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September 5, 2010

Lee Ward: 09/05/2010 — Easy way to feed the hungry

Lee Ward The Independent The Daily Independent Sun Sep 05, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

ASHLAND — A few weeks ago, I interviewed a woman but, as usual, the conversation wandered. She told me about a Web site that sounded like fun. It’s called freerice.com. It offers a variety of quizzes in several topics. For each answer you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to feed the hungry.

Ten grains of rice might not sound like a lot, but it adds up. If you get addicted to it, that is.

If I like an online game or activity, it’ss not unusual for me to get addicted, but this is a great site to get addicted to. Not only are you contributing to a worthy cause, you can brush up on some of your basic skills and maybe learn something.

The first time I got on freerice.com, I assumed there would be just one category for me to play: vocabulary. Not that my vocabulary is huge, but being a writer, I thought that would be the only category for me.

As I explored the site, I realized there is a second writerly category for grammar. Suddenly, my quiz world doubled in size. I enjoyed that for a while and I guess I got brave. I saw a category for famous paintings so I thought I’d try that out. The site displayed a famous painting and asked you to name the artist who created it.

The first painting was a very well-known piece of art by Vincent Van Gogh, so I continued. I missed a lot more questions in the art category, but it wasn’t embarrassing. In fact, I recognized a few paintings and many of the ones I wasn’t familiar with were easy to figure out because the artist’s style was obvious in the work. Some, of course, I guessed at because I didn't know any of the artists offered as possible answers. Surprisingly, I began to recognize the styles of some of the artists I didn’t know, so guessing became a more dependable way of scoring some rice.

The site also offers geography questions; one asks you to identify a country on a map and the other tests you on world capitals. I’ve never excelled in geography, but I thought I’d look at the map. I did much better than I expected I would, even if I couldn’t pick out all the countries whose names end in “istan.”

Feeling very cocky by this time, looked at the math section. Should I? Why not? Maybe it would be good for my brain. But I’m not suicidal. I stuck with the pre-algebra category.

I tolerated the numbers for about 10 minutes and I got a few on them right, even if I was counting on my fingers sometimes. Then, I ran across some fractions. My brain froze for a few seconds, but I recalled that I needed to find a common denominator. I wasn’t so bright when it came to decimals or working with negatives, but when I saw numbers in parentheses, I surprised myself by remembering to work the math inside them before working the math outside them.

For most people, working a few simple math problems is a breeze, but not for me. My brain freezes and my eyes glaze over when I have to deal with math. It’s more than a dislike; I think it's a mental block, maybe even a very specific learning disability. My mind just doesn't process numbers the way most brains process numbers.

But I don’t mind taking quizzes and missing a few, especially if I’m exercising my mind, and even more especially, if it’s helping to generate food for those in need.

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