meta-dad

And Now Our Moment of Zen…

metaDAD Essentials!

So if you have to buy a baby shower present and you’re new to the world of babies or are choked for an idea – I compiled and ESSENTIALS list of the good schtuff HERE. Stay tuned, I am working on an ESSENTIAL List specifically for Baby Shower Gifts as well.

And Now Our Moment of Zen…

Advice to young men from an Old Guy (on CraigsList, San Fransisco)…

Brushing and Flossing May Cut Heart Risk

When the kids are belly-achin’ about brushing their teeth, you can throw this tidbit at them. Because, you know, it is all about having “ammunition.” Actually, this is good for all of us.

This is the first time a direct link has been made between treatment for gum disease and improved circulatory function, which is relevant to some of the UK’s biggest killers – heart attack and stroke.” ~ Professor John Deanfield, from the UCL Institute of Child Health, Brushing Teeth Is Proven To Cut Heart Risk

Wired For Speech

I recently found a post on The Dilbert Blog, by (of course, Scott Adams) about his fight with an very rare affliction, Spasmodic Dysphonia. He lost his voice. Not just for a day or a week but – forever. Basically, the part of the brain that control speech – shut down.

The weirdest part of this phenomenon is that speech is processed in different parts of the brain depending on the context. So people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk. In my case I could do my normal professional speaking to large crowds but I could barely whisper and grunt off stage. And most people with this condition report they have the most trouble talking on the telephone or when there is background noise. I can speak normally alone, but not around others. That makes it sound like a social anxiety problem, but it’s really just a different context, because I could easily sing to those same people.” ~ Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog

Crazy! Really just click over and read the rest. I was thinking about this article the other night before drifting off. I think I was connecting it to a funny little *habit* my oldest son has developed. He likes to run through the words that he knows – aloud, in list form. It goes something like this, “Momma, Dadda, Pappo, Nina, Baby (everybody in the family), blue, book, et al.” It’s very cute to hear (of course). He says the list over and over usually in the morning when he’s just laying there in his crib.

Here’s my connection to Scott’s dilemma; his theory about SD is that the portion of the brain responsible for speech (in him) was fine but the neural pathway between his brain and his vocal chords was somehow severed. Now, I’ll point out the obvious (like Scott does in his blog entry), he does not have a medical background – and neither do I, for that matter but,  it seems like this same pathways are forged during early speech development, perhaps to a greater degree especially since the brain is developing in leaps and bounds as well.

My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords. (That’s consistent with any expert’s best guess of what’s happening with Spasmodic Dysphonia. It’s somewhat mysterious.) And so I reasoned that there was some way to remap that connection. All I needed to do was find the type of speaking or context most similar but still different enough from normal speech that still worked. Once I could speak in that slightly different context, I would continue to close the gap between the different-context speech and normal speech until my neural pathways remapped. More »

Quote of the Week

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.” ~ Truman Capote (1924 – 1984)