Strollerderby : memories

Morning News: Nominee Messes With Obama's Head

Madeline Holler — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Another nominee for an Obama administration cabinet position has pulled out. This time, it's not about taxes or investigations, just disagreement -- a difference of opinion. Judd Gregg says he withdrew himself from consideration because he "couldn't be Judd Gregg."

Fine, but here's the weird part: According to Obama, the Republican Senator Gregg reached out to Obama and asked for the job. He told them differences didn't matter. Why the180, Gregg?

When not dealing with fickle New Hampshire governors, the White House worked on a plan to buy up risky mortgage loans to avoid millions of more foreclosures. We can never decide if this is a good idea or bad.

Not a good idea: claiming you swam across the Atlantic Ocean when really you sorta cruised around in the boat.

In an effort to get re-elected (and to get his constituents laid), the mayor of Mexico City has committed to providing poor men over the age of 60 with all the Viagra they want. For free!

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania think they've figured out why sleep is important to forming memories. We'd tell you exactly why, except we can't remember (we're realllly tired!).

Here's a fact that's not at all hard to remember: the youngest child in the family gets away with everything. Everything!

Photo: blog.cleveland.com

Geek: Back Up Your Damn Hard Drives, Already!

Madeline Holler — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:33:00 GMT

Last year, a mom at the library storytime was telling us how she had been recently robbed. Insurance would cover the stolen guitars, the rings, and various electronics, including her laptop. Problem was, insurance wouldn’t and couldn’t replace the biggest loss: the digital pictures and videos of her daughters’ first two years of life.

This mom didn’t have many printed photographs. And she didn’t have any of her digital information backed up. Gone, gone, all of it gone. “How careless,” was my first thought. Then: “Crap!” We hadn’t backed up any of our stuff either.

According to a tech writer at Newsweek, Americans and Brits are the most negligent about backing up our data to some kind of external storage. So I'm thinking you need to do a little external saving too. I mean, is anyone still using film (besides my mom)? All those digital pictures just waiting to be wiped out by a computer virus. Think of it! The birth photos, babies first solids, how you caught her first steps on digital video, today's Halloween costume!

I know some writers and I am surprised – stunned, really – at how many novels exist in one single file on an aging and mobile laptop. Just think, a life’s work, all your memories and your entire music collection could just disappear during a quick bathroom break at Starbucks.

There are some solutions, the Newsweek geek says. Sharpcast will automatically sync your documents, pics and multimedia files to the company’s servers and any other machine you choose. There’s also Windows Home Server, which backs up all the machines on your home network. And Apple has Time Machine for Macs. Ugh. What a pain. Are you going to do it?

Oh, and another surprising fact. Half the people who have lost data in the past still don’t back up their hard drives. Hmmmmm. I wonder if the library mom does.

Crappy Parent? Maybe the Kids Will Forget.

Kelly Mills — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:12:00 GMT

Some researchers now believe people can and do repress traumatic memories, and they've identified areas of the brain they think are responsible. They also hope that in the future, we may be able to help people with debilitating memories of certain events suppress the trauma. Other experts think that really emotionally charged stuff is actually harder to forget, so suppression therapy might not be so feasible after all.

This is probably good news for horrible parents, whose offspring might have a touch of anger towards them later. But I've got a some mixed feelings about the whole thing. How do we know that suppressed memories don't continue to influence us in other ways? And while I hate the idea of folks being taken down by traumatic events in their past, I also think that our memories make us who we are, and there's some benefit to facing them and working through it.

Hey, Dr. Phil, watch your back. I'm after your job, mo fo.

Family Trips and Kids: What Moments Leave an Impression?

Karen Murphy — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:56:00 GMT

It's a sure bet that whatever memories you try to provide for your kids when you travel or go sightseeing, inevitably something entirely different will end up being locked in their memories forever. And maybe it's not what you intended at all. For instance we once took a midwinter trip into the Arctic Circle in Finland, and the outstanding impression left on both kids who were there was about the sledding. Serena remembers how when riding down the hill with me, my anal-retentive let's-not-go-too-fast-braking-boots kicked up snow in her face. And Nathaniel remembers how a certain tree looked on the hill. How either of them remember much beyond how so frickin' dark it was all day long is beyond me, but what about the reindeer sleigh ride? The candles in the snow? Eating melted cheese in front of a roaring fireplace? Dripping melted lead into a bucket of water on New Year's Eve to tell your fortune for the coming year? And from Ireland, all Serena remembers from our hike through the wild, rocky pony-studded lands of Connemara was the sound of some man, coughing. Which was repeated by both children amid peals of raucous laughter for the next five days.

My kids are not alone in this. I guess maybe they just need to ratchet the experience down to size, and remembering the Paris department store where stuffed animals "Mole" and "White Bear" were purchased and there was a huge Winnie-the-Pooh is likely going to make a bigger impression than seeing some huge metal tower, you know?

The important thing is, you're creating memories of some sort. Tips from this article to create wonderful travel memories for your children include:

1. Plan unstructured time.

2. Involve the kids in planning.

3. Ice cream.

So what if they just remember the time you sat in a cafe and watched the birds eating your crumbs, or that the littlest one learned to walk on the hotel steps during the trip. I think just about all experiences that kids retain from family travel is important, a part of them and your family lexicon forever. What travel memories do your kids have?

Family Project: Make a Time Capsule

Karen Murphy — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:07:00 GMT

You know it's a slow news day when a featured story is about a family finding a 50-year-old time capsule buried in their back yard while gardening, but the more I started thinking about this, the better the idea became. When I was little, I was always fascinated by the idea of time capsules. Old stuff from 100 years ago? Bring it! How did people live back then? What did they eat, what did they read, what did they think about?

Even more fascinating was the idea of living on into the future by leaving a piece of myself and my life for someone else to find. Ego! Hubris! Maybe, but also quite fun, like a Way Back Machine of your own: what things can you put in a box that will define you for future generations?

Kids will totally get into this idea, and will probably take it to levels far beyond anything you can imagine, but here are a few different ways to approach the concept:

1. The standard bury-for-fifty-years-for-some-unknown-person-to-open version. A few things are good to know about this. I never would have thought to seal the container with caulking, for instance, to keep out the critters. You can buy a kit or make your own; more ideas can be found here.

2. A family-only time capsule, set to be opened in five or ten years. It's fun to see how much everyone has changed in that time. Be sure you put in kids' art and writing as well as photos and things they say (maybe on a cheap digital recorder?); they'll love remembering what they used to be like.

3. An annual time capsule. Kids can change a lot in just a year, and it could be part of a family ritual, like for New Year's.

4. Letters to your child's future self. What bershon teenager wouldn't love to read all about your hopes and dreams for him from when he was an infant? This is the kind of thing you can keep adding to as time goes by.

What about you? Have you done this? What things from your present would you include to leave as evidence that you were once here, as an individual and as a family? What message would you include?