I am long over-due for a check-in. Things are good around here, but it has been extremely busy. Amanda went back to work after the first of the year, and things have been extremely busy at my work. Add that to the general hectic nature of having a 3 year-old and a 3 month-old, and you have a recipe for exhaustion.
Aliza was an awesome baby for the first 3 months of her life. She was a pretty good sleeper from the beginning. She was almost always in a good mood. Then a couple weeks ago she started getting her first tooth. She became a little grumpy bear. She was almost always crying. If you held her and bounced her and walked around the house she might calm down. Things have been better over the last few days, but she still has her moments. It has been stressful.
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2 Weeks With The Newest Baby Bidwell
It has been an interesting couple of weeks for us. Two weeks ago yesterday we had Baby Bidwell #2. Everything went really well. I am so thankful that baby Aliza was perfectly healthy and Amanda has had a quick recovery. We got to come home on Halloween day, which meant I got to take Amelia trick-or-treating in our neighborhood that evening. She loved getting candy. We went with some of our friends and she had a great time with the other kids. I was walking up to the houses with her and at one point she stopped me and said, “Daddy, don’t come with me.” It broke my heart. She isn’t supposed to be this independent at not even 3 years old.
On Shaving
I have been shaving with a safety razor, shaving brush, and soap bowl for almost a year now. I wrote about it last December here. It still takes me longer to shave than with the five blade razors, but it is totally worth it. I have almost perfected the art of getting the right amount and consistency of lather on the brush every time. There is basically zero irritation. I rarely ever cut myself. These days shaving is bordering on being fun.
I am about halfway though my $10 pack of razor blades. I am on my second bowl of soap. So yes, the up-front cost is fairly high, but I have shaved for an entire year with a variable cost of less than $15. That is about what one 4-pack Gillette Fusion blades would cost.
I don’t mean to be that hipster guy who tries to convince you that you’re shaving wrong by using “modern” equipment . Over the years I have tried several different products and devices to make my shave better. More than once I thought I had the solution, only to find myself irritated and in more pain than ever before. Shaving old-school is by far the best my face has felt, and it is still working well a year later. I don’t think I will be experimenting with anything else in the foreseeable future.
Dusting Off The Blog
Well, well. I have once again let my blog sit idle for several months. I guess I only write when I have the motivation to write, and I haven’t had any for a while. For some reason I do now. I dusted off the site and switched up the colors a bit. I also got it to display properly on the iPhone.
It has been a busy few months. We have been trying to keep a very active toddler entertained, getting settled into the new house, and preparing for baby #2. We are only a couple weeks away from meeting our little girl. For posterity, I’ve been trying to capture what it is like to be a family of three. I know when Amelia came along it was nearly impossible to imagine what life was like without her in it. I read back on some of the things I wrote and it seems crazy to have an entire Saturday to do whatever I wanted.
I don’t know what life is going to be like with another baby in the house, but I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to fathom the “simple times” of only having a single child to tend to. It is going to be exciting, but I’m sure it is going to be a lot of work. I am going to try to commit to using the Everyday iPhone app to document the progress of my wrinkles, receding hairline, and gray hairs. And we will of course be taking plenty of pictures of our girls.
Do Not Worry, I Still Exist
It has come to my attention that I have not posted anything to this site for an extremely long time. It is ironic that when we are the most busy and doing things that might be worth writing about, we usually don’t take the time to sit and write.
Since March we have done a lot. We started shopping for a new house. We bought a new house. (That happened fast.) We had family come and visit. I traveled to Las Vegas for work. We moved into our new house. We cleaned and painted and stained and cleaned and caulked and cleaned some more and got our old house ready to sell. And we hopefully sold our old house. (That happened pretty fast too… thankfully!)
We’ve been in our new house for about 6 weeks now. It has been a crazy time which included a trip home to Indiana for a week. Each day we are getting more and more settled, but it still feels like we have a long ways to go. And it feels like there is a never ending list of stuff we need to buy.
We loved our old neighborhood. We had a great house with great neighbors. It was tough to leave but we were out-growing it. So far we love our new house, though our first few weeks have been an adventure. We are looking forward to getting settled in and back to “normal”. Nothing feels normal anymore with a 2.5 year old in the house with an extremely active imagination.
I’ll try to do better about checking in on the blog. I go back and forth on whether having a “journal” on the internet is something I really want to do. As you know I enjoy writing, and it is basically a tree in the woods deal. If nobody reads it, does it even matter anyway?
The Spambots Attack!
I’ve posted a few times in the last several days on this blog and I have been bombarded with spam comments. The robots are getting a little more sophisticated, but are still easily identified. And of course, every comment is followed by a link to some random malware-filled website. I will not be including those links.
This was on the Sergio tree post…
“Heу! It іs my 1st сommеnt hеre tο ensure іLast year there was a spam bot that would write a few words and then quote part of the post. It resulted in some hilarious comments. Unfortunately I don’t have any samples of those to share, but here are a couple of the recent ones. They can be very flattering.
i reсently wantеd to аlloω for an eаѕу shοut out and say I trulу enjoy eхamining your blogѕ.
Do you rеcommenԁ all othег blogs/wеbsitеs/fоrums that
reνiew the same subjects? Τhanκs!”
This was on the Sergio tree post…
“You can definitеly cаll at your ѕκills inside thе paintings you’re writing. The arena desires for more passionate writers as if you who aren’t аfraid tο mentiοn thаt they bеlіeve.”At least I think this next one is supposed to be a compliment…
“Thіs web pаge is my sucking in, rеally good ѕtуle аnd реrfect subject themе.”And one of my favs…
“Deferenсе to writеr, ѕomе eхcellent entropy.”I have excellent entropy, so I have that going for me.
Better Use Your Tree-Iron
A young Sergio Garcia captured our attention as he played this shot from up against a tree as part of his back nine charge on Tiger at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. His run and jump up the fairway was an iconic image for golf fans. He would end up losing to Tiger by one stroke that weekend, but we were sure we’d see him at the top of the leaderboard at majors for years to come.
This week at Bay Hill Sergio found himself playing another shot from the trees. This one was a bit more precarious. He showed he still has guts. It has been 14 years. His career hasn’t lived up to the expectations. Not even close… but he sure is fun to watch. Shortly after that shot he withdrew from the tournament, illustrating that some of the reasons for his struggles over the years might be related to his poor attitude.
Just like Sergio’s first famous tree shot, Tiger came away with the win this weekend too. Tiger has shown a few glimmers of his prior dominance since his 2010 downfall. He’s started out strong the last couple years, but hasn’t had anything to show for it. A lot of people think this is the year he will make his big comeback… but they said that last year too. We'll see what happens at The Masters.
This week at Bay Hill Sergio found himself playing another shot from the trees. This one was a bit more precarious. He showed he still has guts. It has been 14 years. His career hasn’t lived up to the expectations. Not even close… but he sure is fun to watch. Shortly after that shot he withdrew from the tournament, illustrating that some of the reasons for his struggles over the years might be related to his poor attitude.
Just like Sergio’s first famous tree shot, Tiger came away with the win this weekend too. Tiger has shown a few glimmers of his prior dominance since his 2010 downfall. He’s started out strong the last couple years, but hasn’t had anything to show for it. A lot of people think this is the year he will make his big comeback… but they said that last year too. We'll see what happens at The Masters.
Don't Hit The Snooze Button
It's Monday morning. Did you use your snooze button today? I did. I'm an avid user of the snooze button. Maybe I should stop blaming my restless 2 year-old for my daily tiredness and start blaming myself (or my alarm clock).
➡ Don't Hit The Snooze Button | slate.com
➡ Don't Hit The Snooze Button | slate.com
How Our Brains Make Memories
The human brain is one of the most complex and enigmatic systems that exists in the world. The fact that we all have a functioning one attached to our shoulders detracts from the impressiveness a bit. Scientists have poked it and prodded it and run electricity through it and we still understand very little about the specifics of storing and recalling memories. Our own human brains seem incapable of understanding the complexities that govern itself.
Long term memories are formed when our brain creates a network of neurons that all fire together in a consistent sequence. It has long been thought that once this network is formed we are able to gaze upon the memory, but it is essentially read-only. We are not manipulating the construction of the network, and therefore unable to change the memory after it is formed. This is how we would presumably want it to work. Sure, memories can fade and certain details can be lost over time, but we don't go in and change components of the memory just by calling it up in our brains.
A neuroscientist had a theory that memory is malleable, and has been able to demonstrate it through experimentation. He is basically saying that when we access a memory we also risk altering that memory by inadvertently weaving in elements or changing details based on other related memories or a multitude of external factors. Once we are done thinking about it and want to commit that thing back to memory, it is forever changed and our initial copy is gone. We have no conscious way to know the memory changed because in our head the neurons that “held” that memory have essentially been re-wired. We will be just as confident, if not more1 confident, of the new incorrect memory as we were of the old one.
This memory manipulation especially affects “flash bulb” memories. This is when you say things like, “I will never forget exactly what I was doing the moment I learned about the September 11th attacks”. As we access the memory it gets changed, but our confidence in the accuracy of that memory only gets stronger.
This is a scary thought. To a certain extent the way we perceive our own self is made up of false information. We are making decisions based on incorrect facts that we think are true. Most of our conversations involve recounting stories from our past. Most of this stuff is filled with lies that we don't realize we are telling.
However, it may not be all bad. There might be a reason for why things work this way. We might be changing our memories for our own good.
➔ How Our Brains Make Memories | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine
Long term memories are formed when our brain creates a network of neurons that all fire together in a consistent sequence. It has long been thought that once this network is formed we are able to gaze upon the memory, but it is essentially read-only. We are not manipulating the construction of the network, and therefore unable to change the memory after it is formed. This is how we would presumably want it to work. Sure, memories can fade and certain details can be lost over time, but we don't go in and change components of the memory just by calling it up in our brains.
A neuroscientist had a theory that memory is malleable, and has been able to demonstrate it through experimentation. He is basically saying that when we access a memory we also risk altering that memory by inadvertently weaving in elements or changing details based on other related memories or a multitude of external factors. Once we are done thinking about it and want to commit that thing back to memory, it is forever changed and our initial copy is gone. We have no conscious way to know the memory changed because in our head the neurons that “held” that memory have essentially been re-wired. We will be just as confident, if not more1 confident, of the new incorrect memory as we were of the old one.
This memory manipulation especially affects “flash bulb” memories. This is when you say things like, “I will never forget exactly what I was doing the moment I learned about the September 11th attacks”. As we access the memory it gets changed, but our confidence in the accuracy of that memory only gets stronger.
"Nader, now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, says his memory of the World Trade Center attack has played a few tricks on him. He recalled seeing television footage on September 11 of the first plane hitting the north tower of the World Trade Center. But he was surprised to learn that such footage aired for the first time the following day. Apparently he wasn’t alone: a 2003 study of 569 college students found that 73 percent shared this misperception."Basically… a lot of our memories are false. Our brain is continuously manipulating them as we access them.
This is a scary thought. To a certain extent the way we perceive our own self is made up of false information. We are making decisions based on incorrect facts that we think are true. Most of our conversations involve recounting stories from our past. Most of this stuff is filled with lies that we don't realize we are telling.
However, it may not be all bad. There might be a reason for why things work this way. We might be changing our memories for our own good.
“…editing might be another way to learn from experience. If fond memories of an early love weren't tempered by the knowledge of a disastrous breakup, or if recollections of difficult times weren't offset by knowledge that things worked out in the end, we might not reap the benefits of these hard-earned life lessons. Perhaps it’s better if we can rewrite our memories every time we recall them. Nader suggests that reconsolidation may be the brain’s mechanism for recasting old memories in the light of everything that has happened since. In other words, it just might be what keeps us from living in the past.”This article is worth a read.
➔ How Our Brains Make Memories | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine
- Because we have just recalled this memory it will feel fresher in our mind and we will believe that we successfully extracted every detail, when in actuality we have only further obscured the truth. ↩
It's Time For March Madness
From the Wikipedia entry for “March Madness”...
March Madness is a popular term for season-ending basketball tournaments played in March. March Madness is also a registered trademark currently owned exclusively by the NCAA. The genesis of the term may be derived from Canadian politics; the fiscal year for the Canadian and Japanese governments begins on April 1. In order to be spared budget reductions, program and agency administrators and politicians, realizing that they had budget money remaining, begin to spend funds during March as though they are “mad” (crazy), and such spending to stave off budget reductions became known in Canada as “March Madness”.Hmmm. I can't think of a more boring origin story for the moniker that we associate with the most exciting sporting event of the year. Leave it to Canada. Either way, this should be a fun year to watch the tournament.
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