Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Strange Ailments
Okay, so I'm hoping most of you know my mom is a nurse. And at one time, I did think about following in her footsteps. When I asked her about her job though, she proceeded to tell me about the wacky, gross and strange things she deals with. I won't go there in case anyone is delicate, but I went to the eye doctor yesterday and got diagnosed with something strange and I was beginning to think I had heard it all (okay, not all, but a lot). I have a BLISTER on my EYE! Now, many of you know I love the dentist. I am also extremely tolerant of the OB/GYN. But I am a terrible eye patient. I couldn't do contacts if I had too. The opthamologist even had to flip my eye lid to look around. He tells me, "You probably did this all the time as a kid." Using my prim voice, which I didn't know I had, I informed him "Why, I NEVER!" Anyway, with Thanksgiving coming up, I am grateful for doctors, medicine, eyes and vision and the people who serve in the military. (I know that last one seemed out of place, but the doctor was really patient and nice AND had served in the military. Which also reminded me of all my friends and relatives who have served. And I truly am grateful.) So, that's my update and so far my vision is just fine and my eye should be fine soon. Which I am so thankful for, because really, my eyes are probably my best feature. I hope that doesn't sound vain, the very thought makes me laugh, but I do love my eyes. Happy Thanksgiving all!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Stuff I got to have
Okay, I should have probably title the post "addictions" but that sounds so serious. And we all know I'm hardly ever serious. But I do have an addictive personality. I have problems with Halloween candy (thankfully most is gone and the rest is being carefully guarded by rightful owners.) I am addicted to my favorite TV shows (Biggest Losers, Heroes, and A.I. when it comes on.) I am crazy about my hubbie and have serious problems when he is not around for a couple of days. I can't live without music, quilting or reading. (Notice I didn't mention exercising. I really wish I could get addicted to that though. I just Do It!) But my latest addiction is Facebook. Now, I've been kind of scared to go to facebook b/c I equate it with My Space, and have heard that My Space CAN BE a dangerous place. You know, all those perverts trolling for children. And of course, the lonely looking for hook-ups and one night stands. NO THANK YOU! But, alas, I am easily swayed, especially by good friends. And best friends are the worst (or best depending on how you look at it.) Anyway, my long time friend, Ami, joined facebook and has got in touch with some of our high school friends. And I was envious. So, I joined up thinking I can quit at any time. Isn't that what all addicts say? Well, it has been a blast. I have found about 20 friends, in less than a week, from high school time. All my friends are special. These friends are especially special :) b/c they were around when I joined the church. I couldn't/wouldn't have made it without them. So, you can imagine how thrilled I've been to get in touch and reacquainted with these friends. Anyway, I had been kind of hoping to post a blog and play the 6 degree game (I think that is what it is called.) It's the theory that we are all connected or know each other if you trace the path through (example) your sister, who's boyfriend, who's father, who's coworker, etc knows Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Well, I thought about doing that for all the sets of missionaries who taught me. Because a lot of you guys are popular, know a lot of people, etc. And I have just been wondering if any of you know one or more of the missionaries who taught me. So, maybe another day, but for now, I am content with facebook. Watch out though, because there are also a lot of games and other what nots that can take up your time!
http://www.facebook.com/login.php
http://www.facebook.com/login.php
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
You must remember this, forgetting has it's benefits.
Okay, so you have heard about my memory problems a few times. I just found it timely that I ran across this article from the Wall Street Journal. My FAVORITE part is the last paragraph. And I guess I now have a reason I can accept for why I am supposed to have a journal. Anyway, here it is...
There's an old saying that inside every 70-year-old is a 35-year-old wondering, "What happened?"
What happened is that countless days, nights, meetings, commutes and other unremarkable events went by, well, unremarked. They didn't make a lasting impression on the brain or they were overwritten by so many similar experiences that they are hard to retrieve. In short, they've been forgotten.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Neuroscientists say forgetting is crucial to the efficient functioning of the mind, to learning, adapting and recalling more significant things.
"We focus so much on memory that forgetting has been maligned," says Gayatri Devi, a neuro-psychiatrist and memory expert in New York City. "But if you didn't forget, you'd recall all kinds of extraneous information from your life that would drown you in a sea of inefficiency."
The busier and more distracted we are, the less likely we are to record memories in the first place. Keeping a journal can help capture more of those rushing days.
That was what prompted Jill Price to contact the memory experts at the University of California at Irvine in 2000. As she wrote in a book published this summer, "The Woman Who Can't Forget," Ms. Price could recall in detail virtually every day since she was 14, but she was mentally exhausted and tormented by her memories. UC Irvine scientists are interviewing more than 200 people who say they have similar "autobiographical" memories, but so far have found only three more.
Memories of singular, significant events -- say, last week's historic election -- are generally easy to recall; people typically store them in long-term memory with many associations attached.
Memories of mundane, recurring events compete to be recalled, and scientists say the brain appears to be programmed to forget those that aren't important. Neuroimaging studies show that it's the brain's prefrontal cortex, the area of complex thought and executive planning, that sorts and retrieves such "like-kind" memories. Researchers at Stanford University's Memory Laboratory demonstrated last year that the more subjects forgot competing memories, the less work their cortexes had to do to recall a specific one. In short, forgetting frees up brain power for other tasks, says psychologist Anthony Wagner, the lab's director.
Your Questions Answered
Columnist Melinda Beck answers readers' questions about advocating for a patient in the hospital, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and more. Read Health Mailbox.
A real-world example, he says, is having to learn a new computer password every few months: As your brain suppresses the memory of the old password, it gets easier to summon the new one.
In fact, forgetting is a very active process, albeit subconscious, neuroscientists say. The mind is constantly evaluating, editing and sorting information, all at lightning speed. "Your brain is only taking a small amount in, and it's already erasing vast amounts that won't be needed again," Dr. Devi says.
Much that happens during the day doesn't make an impression at all because our attention is focused elsewhere. Take your daily commute, says Dr. Wagner: "A heck of a lot of stuff is landing on our retinas as we're driving down the road. But if you were focusing on the presentation you have to give, you didn't perceive it and it didn't get stored."
He notes that people face such a constant cognitive barrage that they frequently fail to attend to information that isn't essential at the time. "I have two 4½-year-olds and I'm already thinking, where did those first four years go?" Dr. Wagner says.
Numerous studies have shown that when people are asked to focus on one thing, they can fail to notice others— phenomenon called "change blindness." In one famous test, when viewers are asked to count how many times a basketball changes hands in a video, roughly half don't notice that a gorilla walks through the scene.
Conversely, people who have remarkable memories for, say, sports statistics or who-wore-what to parties paid attention at the time and attached significance to it, while it doesn't register on other people's radar screens at all.
Are memories for events you didn't focus on stored in your brain nevertheless -- like unwatched bank-surveillance tapes? That's an area of much debate. Some experts believe hypnosis can trigger long-buried associations. But so-called recovered memories are also susceptible to distortion.
"Memory consists of billions of puzzle pieces, and many of them look the same," Dr. Devi says. "Each time you retrieve a memory, you're reconstructing a puzzle very quickly and breaking it down again. Some of the pieces get put back in different places."
What if you want to remember more about each passing day? One simple method is to keep a journal. Writing down a few thoughts and events every day not only makes a tangible record, it also requires you to reflect. "You're elaborating on why they were meaningful, and you're laying down an additional memory trace," says neuroscientist James McGaugh at UC Irvine. Taking photographs and labeling them reinforce memories too.
But remember that forgetting can be very useful, says Dr. McGaugh: "If you used to go out with Bob and now you're married to Bill, you want to be able to say, 'I love you, Bill.' That's why forgetting is important."
There's an old saying that inside every 70-year-old is a 35-year-old wondering, "What happened?"
What happened is that countless days, nights, meetings, commutes and other unremarkable events went by, well, unremarked. They didn't make a lasting impression on the brain or they were overwritten by so many similar experiences that they are hard to retrieve. In short, they've been forgotten.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Neuroscientists say forgetting is crucial to the efficient functioning of the mind, to learning, adapting and recalling more significant things.
"We focus so much on memory that forgetting has been maligned," says Gayatri Devi, a neuro-psychiatrist and memory expert in New York City. "But if you didn't forget, you'd recall all kinds of extraneous information from your life that would drown you in a sea of inefficiency."
The busier and more distracted we are, the less likely we are to record memories in the first place. Keeping a journal can help capture more of those rushing days.
That was what prompted Jill Price to contact the memory experts at the University of California at Irvine in 2000. As she wrote in a book published this summer, "The Woman Who Can't Forget," Ms. Price could recall in detail virtually every day since she was 14, but she was mentally exhausted and tormented by her memories. UC Irvine scientists are interviewing more than 200 people who say they have similar "autobiographical" memories, but so far have found only three more.
Memories of singular, significant events -- say, last week's historic election -- are generally easy to recall; people typically store them in long-term memory with many associations attached.
Memories of mundane, recurring events compete to be recalled, and scientists say the brain appears to be programmed to forget those that aren't important. Neuroimaging studies show that it's the brain's prefrontal cortex, the area of complex thought and executive planning, that sorts and retrieves such "like-kind" memories. Researchers at Stanford University's Memory Laboratory demonstrated last year that the more subjects forgot competing memories, the less work their cortexes had to do to recall a specific one. In short, forgetting frees up brain power for other tasks, says psychologist Anthony Wagner, the lab's director.
Your Questions Answered
Columnist Melinda Beck answers readers' questions about advocating for a patient in the hospital, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and more. Read Health Mailbox.
A real-world example, he says, is having to learn a new computer password every few months: As your brain suppresses the memory of the old password, it gets easier to summon the new one.
In fact, forgetting is a very active process, albeit subconscious, neuroscientists say. The mind is constantly evaluating, editing and sorting information, all at lightning speed. "Your brain is only taking a small amount in, and it's already erasing vast amounts that won't be needed again," Dr. Devi says.
Much that happens during the day doesn't make an impression at all because our attention is focused elsewhere. Take your daily commute, says Dr. Wagner: "A heck of a lot of stuff is landing on our retinas as we're driving down the road. But if you were focusing on the presentation you have to give, you didn't perceive it and it didn't get stored."
He notes that people face such a constant cognitive barrage that they frequently fail to attend to information that isn't essential at the time. "I have two 4½-year-olds and I'm already thinking, where did those first four years go?" Dr. Wagner says.
Numerous studies have shown that when people are asked to focus on one thing, they can fail to notice others— phenomenon called "change blindness." In one famous test, when viewers are asked to count how many times a basketball changes hands in a video, roughly half don't notice that a gorilla walks through the scene.
Conversely, people who have remarkable memories for, say, sports statistics or who-wore-what to parties paid attention at the time and attached significance to it, while it doesn't register on other people's radar screens at all.
Are memories for events you didn't focus on stored in your brain nevertheless -- like unwatched bank-surveillance tapes? That's an area of much debate. Some experts believe hypnosis can trigger long-buried associations. But so-called recovered memories are also susceptible to distortion.
"Memory consists of billions of puzzle pieces, and many of them look the same," Dr. Devi says. "Each time you retrieve a memory, you're reconstructing a puzzle very quickly and breaking it down again. Some of the pieces get put back in different places."
What if you want to remember more about each passing day? One simple method is to keep a journal. Writing down a few thoughts and events every day not only makes a tangible record, it also requires you to reflect. "You're elaborating on why they were meaningful, and you're laying down an additional memory trace," says neuroscientist James McGaugh at UC Irvine. Taking photographs and labeling them reinforce memories too.
But remember that forgetting can be very useful, says Dr. McGaugh: "If you used to go out with Bob and now you're married to Bill, you want to be able to say, 'I love you, Bill.' That's why forgetting is important."
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Do your kids.......?
Okay, so as the mother of three kids now, I still have a lot more questions than answers. So, I thought I'd pose some of them to you. I won't remember them all, so I may add to this post a couple of times (I believe I mentioned my memory problems in an earlier post.)
Do your kids wait until the last possible nano second to go to the bathroom?
Have you ever figured out why?
Do you have love triangles in your home? Brother one and two love brother three. But brother one and two don't get along very often. Brother three is oblivious.
Do your children believe you love them, because I have one that doesn't?
Do your children always have to hurt one another when they play together?
Do your children feel overly burdened simply because they need to unload the dishwasher?
What is the average number of times you have to ask your children to do something?
Be back later...the one that was really puzzling me, I have forgotten.
I Remembered one...
Do your kids eat butter (or something equally yucky) by itself?
Do your kids wait until the last possible nano second to go to the bathroom?
Have you ever figured out why?
Do you have love triangles in your home? Brother one and two love brother three. But brother one and two don't get along very often. Brother three is oblivious.
Do your children believe you love them, because I have one that doesn't?
Do your children always have to hurt one another when they play together?
Do your children feel overly burdened simply because they need to unload the dishwasher?
What is the average number of times you have to ask your children to do something?
Be back later...the one that was really puzzling me, I have forgotten.
I Remembered one...
Do your kids eat butter (or something equally yucky) by itself?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Only two hours, if that!
So, I've been thinking about something my former trainer (I'm out of sessions) wanted me to do. She wanted me to log all my food intake on this really cool site for the Body Bug. It is a wonderful calorie counter, BUT, since I cook a lot of our meals, requires me to sometimes type in recipes to get the calorie count. I know it would help with weight loss, but there are only so many hours in a day. And maybe you can relate, but most of the things I do for myself are limited to a two hour period, if I'm lucky. That happens to be Perry's nap time. BUT, Peter is usually still awake or only sleeps an hour. SO, here is a sample list of MY activities that I have to squeeze into a two hour space.
SHOWER
Bills
Sewing (Christmas is coming, and, of course, I'm behind.)
Christmas shopping via the Internet
Reading (Fun and Church stuff)
Preparing a lesson
Cleaning
Calorie counting
Exercising
Napping (These are VERY RARE, but I have to be truthful)
Phoning people, if I want to be uninterrupted.
Blogging
Pondering
And sometimes this is the only time I get for lunch
How do the rest of you do it? If you know me at all, you know one of the first things to go is cleaning. Now, my house isn't usually a pig sty, but 9 out of 10 times if you were to spontaneously stop by, there would be laundry on my couch and dishes in the sink. I would apologize profusely, but would be so glad to see you that I would soon forget my embarrassment. (Unless it was underwear day, then I'd be embarrassed longer.) Thankfully, if I need a shower during "my time", it means the exercising is already done OR that well, er, uh, I decided to skip it. The bills have become more time consuming lately simply because I am trying to keep better track of where the money goes. Did I mention this is actually homework for a class I am taking, Financial Peace University? And all the other stuff is purely selfish, but like I said, it's the only "my time" I get. And truthfully, I know that there is more I try to fit in that time, I am just so darn forgetful all the time. Have I ever express how grateful I am for sticky note? Well, I just used half an hour to blog, so now I'd better hit the shower. YEAH! That means I was good today and got the exercising in too.
SHOWER
Bills
Sewing (Christmas is coming, and, of course, I'm behind.)
Christmas shopping via the Internet
Reading (Fun and Church stuff)
Preparing a lesson
Cleaning
Calorie counting
Exercising
Napping (These are VERY RARE, but I have to be truthful)
Phoning people, if I want to be uninterrupted.
Blogging
Pondering
And sometimes this is the only time I get for lunch
How do the rest of you do it? If you know me at all, you know one of the first things to go is cleaning. Now, my house isn't usually a pig sty, but 9 out of 10 times if you were to spontaneously stop by, there would be laundry on my couch and dishes in the sink. I would apologize profusely, but would be so glad to see you that I would soon forget my embarrassment. (Unless it was underwear day, then I'd be embarrassed longer.) Thankfully, if I need a shower during "my time", it means the exercising is already done OR that well, er, uh, I decided to skip it. The bills have become more time consuming lately simply because I am trying to keep better track of where the money goes. Did I mention this is actually homework for a class I am taking, Financial Peace University? And all the other stuff is purely selfish, but like I said, it's the only "my time" I get. And truthfully, I know that there is more I try to fit in that time, I am just so darn forgetful all the time. Have I ever express how grateful I am for sticky note? Well, I just used half an hour to blog, so now I'd better hit the shower. YEAH! That means I was good today and got the exercising in too.
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