Category Archives: life

Project Noah – wildlife sightings

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Project Noah is a great modern website made for tracking and documenting (photographing) wildlife. It is about scientific identification of organisms. it’s fun to just cruise the site and see all the photos of the amazing creatures that share the planet with us. the community on Project Noah is top-notch as well, very helpful people eager to help you identify that weird looking bug you snapped. it features geo-tagging as well. check it out! there’s some beautiful beings out there!

Project Noah

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Pictured here is a Puerto Rican Tody (Todus Mexicanus) photographed by Karla Morales. Her caption follows: “This tody is endemic to Puerto Rico island. Despite is scientific name.I It is commonly known as “San Pedrito.” Is my favorite bird, hard to photograph. It can be seen throughout on the island preferably in forests. Eats insects.”

dreamlog 20130423

last night’s dream was interesting, and was fortunate enough to actually remember some of it.

i was in some kind of cave with a large room, with some kind of center stage. people were around it and praying or meditating. there was a man in the middle leading it seemed. when that was over i was lead out the cave thru a long hallway, which broke out into what now seemed like a kind of department store. my departed friend, joe, was showing me around now. the first thing noticed was some large display that was a hologram. it had a symbol on it, like a “T” and “S” intertwined, with other oriental-looking symbols around it. looked pretty neat. then we walked over to a table with t-shirts on it. i liked one shirt that had a print of a knight’s helmet with angels wings. for whatever reasons it said “redskins” on it (i dont even like football) and when i asked joe what he thought of that shirt, he simply shrugged and said, “eh.”

then, in another part or another dream, it was as if we were arriving to the united states via a ship, the big arrivals you see in the old movies: lots of people happily gathered, walking down that big ramp off the boat. i was with my buds mikey, dj, and robert, pretty happy to see each other. we were walking and the path turned into this extremely narrow “bridge” – but it wasn’t even as wide as our bodies, we had to straddle the bridge and inch our way across. it was kind of scary and it was a far, far ways down into water or trees. we slowly moved, i was the last of us, and someone behind me kept pushing and rushing us. i kind of bumped my frenz ahead and eventually made rob fall off 🙁 it also felt like we were ants for a while. when we got to the end, i stood up, but was drafting around aimlessly (kind of felt like a gyroscope controller going nuts) and had to “turn off the controller” to stop myself from falling. hah.

there was a third part or dream, will post it up later. g’nite.

the importance of talking to your baby

the difference in total words heard by babies and its effects on their development is startling. for quite some time we have known there exists a gap in academic levels between children in the 3 main socioeconomic classes (poor, working-class, professional). and many theories have been suggested, too much lead? lack of self-control? high-stress? lack of reading? studies from the recent decades has shown that the answer may be easier than thought: talking.

Another idea, however, is creeping into the policy debate: that the key to early learning is talking — specifically, a child’s exposure to language spoken by parents and caretakers from birth to age 3, the more the better. It turns out, evidence is showing, that the much-ridiculed stream of parent-to-child baby talk — Feel Teddy’s nose! It’s so soft! Cars make noise — look, there’s a yellow one! Baby feels hungry? Now Mommy is opening the refrigerator! — is very, very important.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/the-power-of-talking-to-your-baby/

The studies show that poor babies may only hear about 600 words per hour, while working-class babies might hear 1,200 words/hour, and professional families around 2,100 words/hour. “by age three, a poor child would have heard 30 million fewer words.”

Why such a difference? It may be as simple as the fact that those parents were not aware of the importance of talking to their babies. They may have less access to the latest information, books, and rely more on family and friends for parenting advice.

heard somewhere else something somewhat similar: talk to your kids like they are twice in age, talk to a one yr old like he’s two, a three year old like they’re six, four:eight, etc.

goo goo, ga ga!

sherwood forrest faire

we went to the sherwood forest faire and had a blast. it was outside of austin in mcdade, tx in a nicely wooded forrest like area (ya think?). they did a very good job of being in character and i couldnt help but imagine we were in a real-life everquest. we saw jousting, puppet shows, robin and maid marian, and drank mead. here are some flics.

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compost

we started composting a few weeks ago. its kinda fun and interesting to see the compost forming. a bit of a challenge too, at first put too much scraps and got lots of bugs, but after balancing out with lawn clippings and leaves, the bugs are gone and it doesnt smell bad at all. we’re hoping to start a garden soon. y’all have any tips for composting?

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the compost tumbler we got at home depot is the YIMBY brand one. it’s decent, and good for urban smaller backyards. it has a sliding lid cover, and has two sections, so you can start a new batch while the other side is composting. it comes with the stand that the barrel can rotate on, but it doesn’t have a rotating crank handle, you gotta spin the barrel directly (not a big deal). check it out here Yimby Tumbler Composter

 

dream about our departed friend russell

we had a friend, russell, from high school who toured in the army and had started a family. unfortunately, he ended up taking his own life during a depression or PTSD. a few weeks later, he visited one of my dreams, and these are the notes:

had a dream about/with russell. we were in some house that was having some kind of garage sale with all kinds of items. they also had some items that russell had made, pieces of art, drawings, sculptures, etc. i picked up some items he had made: a small brown kneeling horse with his name etched on the bottom, a curved shape drinking glass (clear with teal/turquoise lines), a small sketchpad, and also a small baby onesie clothing. upon check out amelia said suggested not getting the onesie cuz it was kind of sad. afterward i asked a lady (owner of house maybe) if she knew russell closely, because i wanted to say a few words to her in private. we went into a room and sat down, and i said how i was an old friend from high school, and how russell was such a fun guy, always joking, and was going to be greatly missed. as i was speaking to her, she disappeared and i was speaking alone. but as i finished i put my hand out and felt someone shake it (russell)

then, i was with russell in my car going to some kind of company party. i had 2 cars and needed to drive them both back. so i hesitantly asked russ if he can drive the car2go back for me. he got on the car2go (smart car) but it was like an mini AT-AT (from star wars) with long legs, and he rode on top like a horse. obviously it looked funny. he was horsing around on it, i saw a small pit/puddle and said ‘dont fall in there’ – of course thats what russ exactly did, on purpose, fell in the pit and flipped the car. i said how are you going to get out now? but the car mimics your momvements so he just backed himself climbing backwards and the car followed. later tim (sapling) offered to stick the car2go in his truck bed and take it home.
later dream: was at some party at a house. it was over or we were ready to go. i kept finding everyone’s cell phones, and was walking around returning them. outside on a patio amelia was playing a card game at a round table. as i got closer, it was some kind of trivia game (based on what they were saying) mixed with what looked like coup forré (milles bornes). i said it looks like coup forré when i saw the cards. someone asked what is coup forré and i explained, mentioning its actually called milles borne. they said they knew it but what is coup forré. we said its like the super remedy card in the game and explained a bit. as this was happening, in the back of the backyard was a car that wouldnt start (another smart car) and so they were trying to tow it or something. this car2go also had long AT-AT legs and they had put some kind of boot on the back right leg- looked liek a yellow metal cylinder cage with a ball or spinning tire. and so the car started to slowly move. as it moved towards front i saw that it was gonna hit the patio overhead wooden beam, and sure enough it knocked it, i said watch out! and the wooden beam fell with a loud thud as i woke up.