"The proud have forged a lie against me...

...but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart."


Verse 25 dtg "twentuh-five"


Two fingers up on my left hand. Index and middle finger - but, to be honest? It could be any two digits. After all, each digit actually counts for "one" the way I'm counting it on that hand.


On my right hand, however, it is a different story. For one thing, I start with my digits OUT, and pull them IN to activate their value. For another thing - unlike my left hand - on my right hand, each digit is NOT worth the same amount. My thumb is worth one, my index finger is worth two, and my middle finger is worth four. Therefore, seeing I need "five", I keep my middle finger down (as is was for "twentuh-four"), and pull in my thumb.


By the way, for the record, here is why I changed the way I count on my left hand:


If you really need to, you can count to 1023 on two hands, using binary finger counting; and I used to use binary counting on both hands. When, however, I recited Psalm 119, using binary finger counting on both hands, I found I had to pull and hold down my index finger all the way from verse (decimal) "sixty-four" to (decimal) "one hundred and twenty seven" (in Base Thirty Two, those numbers, respectively, are "twentuh" (20 dtg) and "thirtuh-zed" (3z dtg)). What I found was, that that is a long time to have to hold your index finger in that position.


Then, it occurred to me that if I combined counting from zero to decimal 31 ("zed" - z dtg) on my right hand, with five on my left hand; I could still get to decimal 192 ("fiftuh-zed" - 5z dtg). And that was STILL more than I needed, seeing Psalm 119 only had decimal "one hundred and seventy six" - 176 verses. In Duotrigesimal, that is "fiftuh-gee" (say "gee" with the "hard" "g" sound - 5g dtg).
(By the way, I know this is different, but that is what I am - with a capital "D"; and I love being that.)


Therefore, if I am counting verses on my hands as I recite Psalm 119, I use binary finger counting on my dominant (right) hand, and conventional finger counting on my non-dominant (left) hand. That is why I have two fingers up for "two" on my left hand (which, remember we are multiplying by decimal "thirty-two" to give us "sixty-four") and my middle finger and thumb DOWN on my right hand for four plus one, which equals five. Add them up, and you get decimal sixty-nine. I HOPE that makes sense, but if not, it might help to go to the beginning of this blog and work forward from there.


Blessings! Love!

Daniel!