My kids get mad at me when I can’t remember some event which they remember vividly. I tell them over and over that my brain, much like a hard drive has limited capacity. Everything that comes into my brain must be evaluated for retention or deletion. That is, I tell them that if I keep that memory, I have to throw something else away! I also explain that it could be dangerous especially when driving. What if I throw away the part of my brain where I store how to drive a car? We could end up in a ditch just because they wanted me to remember Justin Bieber is no longer dating Selina Gomez. This doesn’t go over well with them but it is the best way to explain how I just can’t remember anything else. When they ask me when the coliseum was built I ask if they can name the seven layers of networking? I have to remember that for work. Work could care less if I know who is dating who and if my family wants to live off my income I better remember work stuff first. Someday maybe we will figure out some way to increase our capacity with a brain transplant or maybe some near-line storage which will allow me to retrieve these rarely used facts. When they ask I could say, give me a minute I will retrieve that for you. Then in a minute or so the fact will appear in my memory I can tell them the answer and then wipe it. This would save me a lot of eye rolling and exasperated sighs. Then again I would probably just fill it with useless facts about music and computers and still be useless in a teen conversation!