'A portrait a week of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'
Dry weather means this little guy got a humidifier for his room. He picked the monkey and is super pumped about it.
Murmuration
Have you heard of this?
It's an incredible sight. Starlings utilize murmuration in defense against predators, such as hawks or falcons. A starling murmuration is especially fluid in motion and can occur in grand scale.
I bumped into this video and just had to find out what this was all about.
The starlings ability to do this in such large proportions has to do with their effective perspective range. Essentially, the ability of one starling to predict and read the behavior of another on the opposite end of the flock.
This article explains it well:
“Imagine a game of telephone: one person passes a message along to the next person, who repeats it to another, and so on. For humans, the telephone message loses information very quickly—that’s what makes the game fun. The first finding, by Cavagna’s team, suggests that very little information is lost in a starling flock. The second finding, by Young’s team, suggests that starlings “play telephone” with their seven nearest neighbors. Somehow they are able to process messages from those seven neighbors all at once, and this is a part of their method for achieving scale-free correlation.”
photos courtesy of design boom.com
Absolutely beautiful, right? Inspiring. I wonder if humans could communicate like this - would our world be more peaceful? More capable of empathy and interdependence? What do you think?
Nature is stunning. Darwin would sigh at their ingenuity, survival of the fittest.
Grandpa & the CMC
A couple weeks ago - I received a concise, unexpected text - 'Chels, I want to come into town this weekend - would that be alright?' - it was my Dad! Now I work a lot, but my Dad - well, works A LOT. He is incredibly driven and loves what he does. It's inspiring. But it does mean that our paths don't cross often.
I was so psyched and we had an awesome time! It was a short, sweet visit. We made sure to take him to Eli's for a BBQ lunch, snagged a Green Dog Cafe breakfast, welcomed him with a fantastic Paleo Polish Soup and of course, visited the Cincinnati Museum Center.
One of our X-mas gifts from Grandpa and Mimi this year were our passes to the Museum Center, quite possibly one of the best places to take kiddos in Cincinnati (next to the Zoo, the CAC and well - ok...there are a lot of great places). Especially on cold days.
Watching Soren with my Dad, is - incredible. It's a blast seeing him lead, explain and play - just like he did with us when we were kids. I know my Dad always enjoyed having kids, but it's so much more obvious how much he loves and cherishes his time with Soren and how much he must have when we were children.
So many grandparents tell me how incredible it is having grandchildren, but after watching my Dad - I realize just how lucky my brother and I are to have parents that embrace their role and cherish the challenges and joys of parenthood.
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'A portrait a week of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'
Soren with his drill set adorning both a safety vest and citrus juice mustache. He's become quite the chatter box these days and it's hard to snap a shot without his mouth in motion *wink. Love it!
Here is another just for fun. Pappa bought Soren his first RC car. It took a little practice to get the hang of the steering - but he did! He's instructing me on how it works in this photo.
Meeting Dr. Angelou
This past week has been epic.
Long, but incredible and inspiring.
Earlier this week I shipped off to Winston-Salem with 5-time Grammy award winning producer Elaine Lee Martone to record Dr. Angelou (stay tuned for this project - it's going to be AMAZING!). I worked with two phenomenal and empowering women, received priceless advice and wisdom and it's all still just settling in.
It was such a quick trip - fly in Monday evening and out Tuesday - but worth every plane delay and reschedule. I had great conversations and was dolled incredible industry advice sandwiched between an unforgettable recording and visit with Dr. Angelou (she makes the best beets!). I don't even know how to begin describing what this trip was like - or what it meant to me personally.
Our session couldn't have run smoother thanks to Evan Richey and his partner Charlene. They were fantastic. From driving ProTools to giving us tips on Southern courtesy before Dr. Angelou arrived. What a great team! (pictured left to right: Elaine Lee Martone, Evan Richey, Charlene, and myself).
I still can't believe this happened. I am pretty sure I seemed mute for this whole visit, but you just can't stop listening to every word this incredible woman has to say. Her wisdom and knowledge are invaluable - and her sense of humor! I have her chuckle on tape - it's the most genuine and joyful sound. Wow...