Keep the brain alive: what you don't use you loose

It is said that to keep one’s brain alive, i.e. not get Alzheimer disease, one must keep exercising it.

My wife is currently taking a Physics unit at university and is asking me to help her understand it because I did Physics before. I am surprised by how much I still remember and how much I have forgotten. I still remember principles, and have forgotten a lot of equations. E.g., I can’t remember the quadratic equation. It is disappointing that the brain puts aside information that it does not need or use on a regular basis.

Learning and education is not something that anybody can take away, but what you don’t use does goes away by itself with time. It is up to us to keep our brain and our memories alive by exercising it.

Telemarketing

How many of you have ever been called to be offered some specials on house alarm installation?

What did you tell them?

Do you realise that you’ve just revealed to the other guy on the phone, whoever and wherever he is, that your house is or isn’t equipped with an alarm?

Here is a tip to stop them bothering you all the time: I was being called by some major Telco every week until I told them I was eligible for their concession rate. I never heard from them again.

Saturday lunch, improvised curtains, car service, attachment

It was great to have Hammy for lunch on Saturday. We had curry, and I know the curry will taste different to Hammy, but for me this is how curry ought to taste because I grew up have curry tasting like that.

I was also impressed how a tidy teddy bear in a tin box could my 4-year-old daughter, Sophie, so happy. She is taking it everywhere she goes. She even hid it somewhere and took it to school with her.

We have improvised some curtains with blankets, and this works well. It takes less time to feel comfortable when we put the heater on.

Yesterday, I lost half a day of work because the kindy school teacher called me around 11:00 to come pick Sophie because she has runny nose. She had no runny nose in the morning, and I did not see any runny nose in the afternoon. I am wondering if it is that little amount of toothpaste on her shirt that made the teacher thinks it is something else.

Any way, I use the afternoon for having my car serviced. The car runs a bit better now. I spent an afternoon with my daughter.

I also feel that my 1 and half year old daughter is developing some attachment to me these days. She used to cling to her mummy all the time, especially at night times. Now she seems to feel ok being with me, which allows time for my wife to do her studies.

Quiz

A new car manufacturer advertises that their
car can go "from zero to sixty in 8 s". This is a
description of
A) average speed.
B) instantaneous speed.
C) average acceleration.
D) instantaneous acceleration.

Dangerous drivers are also rude

This post may not change anybody’s behaviour or save lives. But I have to shout this one loud:

Do not follow the car in front to closely: leave 2 sec distance. This is done by counting 1001, 1002.

Do not overtake and then show the finger to the drivers who drive within speed limit.

The freeway is not for slaloming lanes. The 2 second distance is not for cars to move into, maybe it is.

No naming names

Hammy, you commented that I should be naming and shaming some people. Well I have decided not to write full names and company names on my blog.

I think it is not a good thing to shame people in public because:
I don’t want other to do the same to me,
I don’t want to antagonise people,
I don’t want be get sued,
I might 'use' the ‘service’ of those people in the future.

SiteMeter

I’ve just added site meter to my blog. A site meter records how many people visit this blog. It wasn’t too hard to setup, given everything was automated for us. I did not have to play with the html. However I am a bit concerned to have given my blog’s password to SiteMeter. Well, I can change it later.

When I say I was relieved not to have to play with html, it shows how often I forget that I am a computer professional and have been web programmer. I am not doing much html stuffs these days.

I think it is always interesting to know how many people read my blog.

Let’s try the public transport

I wanted to try the public transport today.

I left home at 6:30, walk to the bus stop, the bus came at 6:37, changed for the train at Bayswater, waited for the train for 4 min, reached work at 7:10. By car I would leave the house at 6:45 and reach work at 7:00. So if I take the public transport I loose
50 min (40*2-30) per working day.

Is it worthwhile to take public transport? The fuel cost and the bus ticket come to about the same, and I lose 50 min.

In my case, I think it is not worthwhile to take the bus.

I will try going to work by bicycle when the warmer seasons are here.

What’s an extra hour per day for?

I have found that by just moving house I have gained 1 extra hour per working day in my life. I don’t have to drive around town during peak hours to drop and pick up the kids at childcare/school anymore because I now live at walking distance to those services.

1 extra hour is great: I use the extra hour to rest, do nothing, walk to pick up the kids, but I still have to think how to make better use of my time. Ah, I use it to earn money, because I now work 30 min more per day.

Brick veneer house

The real estate agent said: brick veneer that’s how all houses should be for Perth weather. Some brick company convinced us double brick is better just to make us use more bricks in construction.

Well, I find it hard to maintain a constant temperature in a brick veneer house. It gets cold and very cold at my new place. The temperature drops to 12-13 C inside the house in the morning. At my old place I would be surprise if the temperature goes below 16 C if no heater is on, with a little bit heating I can maintain the temperature inside at 20 C

If you hate feeling cold, a brick veneer house is not where you would like to live in.
I don’t know yet how it will feel like inside the house on a 40 C summer day.

My first blog

This is my first post, more to come later.