Is My Brain Being Rewired?

I've noticed lately that my attention span is shrinking, I get increasingly bored when I have to do something for more than 2 minutes at a time. I sometimes even struggle to watch a half hour, not very intense, TV show, which means trying to concentrate on important things like sermons and conversations with friends is a real feat.

Some would say that perhaps it's "baby brain" I've heard that can stay with you for years and years after pregnancy and kids and there probably is some truth to that. It's definitely hard to concentrate on a conversation when Aston is in the room wanting attention or doing something he shouldn't.

I mentioned my problem to Stuart who suggested that part of the cause may be due to my constant iPhone usage. I love my iPhone, it has so many fun apps on it I don't ever have to be bored, I can even play games with my friends who also have iPhones, (Words with Friends is a favourite at the moment).

According to this article by Nicholas Carr, as you spend time jumping from one thing to another on the web, a computer or iPhone your brain rewires itself to get used to quick topic changes and notice distractions. This is great when you need to find something quickly on the web but not so good if you need to read and concentrate on a big slab of text. This article in the New York Times says that only 3% of people can effectively multitask and actually process what they are taking in. They profile a guy who is always on his computer, iPad or iPhone and is so bombarded with information he forgets things and has missed really important emails and messages - I felt quite sad reading about him and his family.

So, I think it's time to take some action, I've come up with a few ideas to decrease the jumpy-ness of my iPhone usage, feel free to add suggestions.

1. I won't use my phone or the computer while eating with Aston, or when he's in the bath, or when I've said I will play with him
2. I've turned off the push notifications for my email, Facebook, eBay and Words with Friends
3. I won't use my phone while watching TV (unless it's live TV and there is a really long ad break - which doesn't happen often as we mostly watch things that have been recorded).
4. I will read long articles and blog posts slowly, I've noticed that I often skim read and my eyes rush to the end of the page before my brain has really taken in what I've read.
5. I think (although I haven't completely decided on this one) I shall deactivate my Twitter account
6. I will embark on an intensive Facebook friend cull
7. I will try to only check Facebook on my phone every 2 hours
8. I have started a Bible Reading Plan, that means I will read the whole bible in a year, to do this I need to read 2-3 chapters at a time so hopefully as well as getting to know God more I will also be increasing my ability to concentrate

Well, this was a long post but I managed to concentrate for the whole thing. Perhaps writing it while procrastinating at work made concentrating a bit easier (sorry Paul).

Who is in the tank? (2)

These little guys are Black Neon Tetra's they tend to stick together and seem to be a bit calmer than most of the other fish in the tank.





The majority of my fish are guppies, on the right you can see some female guppies swimming around, they are bigger and not as pretty as the male guppies. You can see a couple of male guppies in the photo below (sorry it's not a very good photo). They have big colourful fan tails and fins.



There are 16 guppies in the tank, 2
of them are babies - apparently female guppies are always pregnant! I hope these ones don't breed too often, I'm not sure my tank can cope with two many more fish!

My next goal is to take a decent photo of the two catfish and write a post about them. It may take a while as they are very good at hiding!

First water change

I've just performed a small water change, it's been 6 days since the fish were introduced into the tank and all the stats are looking good. Thankfully so are the fish! They tried to eat my fingers as I was holding the siphon in the water, it's a very strange feeling having fish nibble your fingers.

Fish stats
15/10
pH 10.4
NH3 0ppm
NO2 0.25ppm
Fish introduced

17/10
pH 9.6
NH3 0ppm
NO2 0.25ppm

21/10
pH 9.6
NH3 0ppm
NO2 0ppm
Water change

Ideally the pH could be a bit lower but 9.6 is ok, I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

I think buying the used gravel helped in starting off the biological filter. Ammonia levels at 0 mean that the fish waste had been converted to nitrite. Today's nitrite level was 0 which means the second part of the biological filter has kicked in. Yay for bacteria :-)

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Who is in the tank?

This morning I've been attempting to take pictures of the fishies - it's a bit tricky as I have an old digital camera that doesn't have a lot of settings to play with. I will gradually post some of the photos that look ok.

This little guy is a Southern Platyfish, he is the only one in the tank and is a funky red colour with a black splodge on his middle.

Fish - Day One

I set up the tank a few days ago, I was a bit worried that there wouldn't be enough time for the water to mature or cycle properly before I had to out the fish in. So, in order to help the whole process get started I bought some used gravel from the pet shop, the gravel should already be home to some of the bacteria needed to get biological filtration happening and give the tank a head start. I also bought a carbon sponge and added that to the regular sponge in the filter, the carbon should help to neutralise any toxic chemicals, a job the biological filter will do once it matures.

Above is the tank with no fish, the plant in the middle is a new addition today, it came from the same tank as my new fishies.

I think there are now 22 fish in the tank, most of them are guppies, 2 are really cool catfish (I need to do a bit of research to find out what types) and there are a few others I'm not sure of. Stay tuned for updates as I work out what they are.

Here are the fish in their bags waiting to be released. I let the bags float in the water for a while so they got used to the new temperature, then I put some of the water from the tank into the bags so the fish have a chance to get used to the new water.

Now they are all in their new home and hopefully happy. I don't have a photo of them as it's too dark to take one but I will upload one soon,

Fish!

Those of you who know me will know that I have a soft spot in my heart for fish, not eating fish, but any fish I can watch swimming around doing it's thing in the water. I have, at various times kept fish in a tank inherited from some friends years ago.

Earlier this year our last surviving goldfish Nemo died. Since then we have wanted to buy some more fish but haven't managed to her around to it. Last week one of my friends posted on Facebook that she had some fish that nobody wanted and she was thinking of euthanasing them. Knowing we had a tank sitting in the garage waiting to be filled again and not liking the thought of a few little fishies dying because they were unwanted, I offered to take them.

I thought it might be fun (and slightly nerdy) to document for you all the progress of my new tank of fish so, here goes...

Toilet training?

Today Aston asked me to change his nappy a number of times (even when it didn't need changing). He's never asked me to change his nappy before, usually he fights and protests when I suggest it but today he came up to me, said "change" and was quite happy to lie down on the floor and have his nappy changed.

We also had to change Baby's nappy.Baby is a Teddy that Aston has been treating like a baby- changing his nappy, giving him pretend baths, putting him to bed etc. I can't remember how it all started but now Baby gets five star treatment! Today at Nana's house Baby even went to the toilet.

A while after Baby went to the toilet Aston started to say "poo, poo" and ran to the bathroom, it seemed that he wanted to go to the toilet too. I put him on but nothing happened. I'm wondering if this means he's ready to start learning how to use the toilet.

I'm not sure I'm ready yet...


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Morning Conversation

Me: Aston, it's Sunday today, where do we go on Sunday?
Aston: Woo Woo
Me: no, we're not going on the train, we're going in the car. Where are we going?
Aston: moon!
Me: we're not going to the moon, we're going to church.
And what do we do after church?
Aston: lunch! Nom nom nom
Me: yes we have lunch and then what do we do after church?
Aston: Tah!
Me: yes, we see guitars at church but where do we go in the car after church?
We go and see Nana
Aston: NANA!


!


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