of all the things…

I have a weird mental block about symbols. I have “learned” the on/off circle/dash thing so many times, and yet I cannot remember it.

Here’s how it goes in my brain:

Okay, one is a circle, and one is a line. Like binary! Totally logical. One means off, one means on. Right. Aaaaaand I have no idea which is which. On and off both start with ‘o’ so that’s no help. But a line could mean stop, like a barrier, and the circle could mean it’s open, so the circle would mean ‘on.’ Or maybe it’s the opposite, like the circle means the circuit isn’t connected, and the line means it is, so the line means ‘on.’

[Seriously, Josie beeped at me yesterday and I was so confused. ‘Aren’t you off?’ Apparently not.]

I am also baffled by the full moon/new moon symbols on calendars. I look at them, and I can convince myself that the empty circle is the new moon (because it’s empty, right?), and the black circle is the full moon (it’s filled in! it’s literally full!). But then I’m like ‘wait, no!’ The black circle is what you *see* on a new moon — darkness instead of the moon! And the empty circle is the full moon, because it’s not empty, it’s just white on a white background!

[I have googled when the full moon is in a month to figure this question out. Multiple times. I still can’t remember which symbol is which on the darn calendar.]

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.