Jim Burns

It's great to go birding with Jim Burns! Love the book!

--
David

Rattler

I almost stepped on its head, but Aster saved my life crying "Watch out!" Never jumped so high in my life!

--
David

Paul

For the best, voice-broadcasting guide ever

--
David

Check out Aster's pictures

Now my 12-year-old is an aspiring wildlife photographer. btw, I think that's the hybrid.

David

Kelsea's hip hop poses

David

natural history of the senses

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
this book is "gushing" with descriptive words and phrases, purely designed to fill the senses.


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Ramachandran's brief tour of human consciousness

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers by V.S. Ramachandran

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
summary: freud was wrong, we're just all jelly heads.


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after Chaos my mind is now mush

Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
my mind is now mush


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How to read literature like a professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Why did I spend countless hours and $$ for a degree in English when I could have just read this book?



David


View all my reviews.

Starbucks with my 11-year-old daughter

i rewarded my daughter with a "starbucks" this morning. it's sorta our thing. she doesn't get anything high in sugar unless she really earns it.

she ordered a vanilla creme frap and i ordered a tall espresso somethin-er-other.

we sat down to enjoy. i found this to be a perfect opportunity to philosophize freely about everything that didn't matter one single bit to her.

dad: "what's your purpose in life?"

daughter: "i don't know. i'm only 11."

dad: "well, you can't just go through life every day wondering what's going to be on the next hannah montana, can you?"

daughter: "i don't, dad."

dad: "so what's your future? what will you fight for? you've got lots of choices. end poverty. end child abuse. end hunger. human rights. women's rights. the environment. help find a cure for cancer. what will you do? a daughter of mine needs to do something, not do nothing. what do you wish for the world? what do you think the world needs?

daughter: "i think starbucks needs smaller cup sizes. how much caffeine is in your tall?"

dad: "too much."

Do vampires exist?

Son: Do you know vampires could exist?

Dad: No, they couldn't.

Son: Yes, they could because mosquitos suck blood. There's no reason
why vampires couldn't have evolved to suck blood and... [long
explanation about how vampires might have evolved alongside humans].

Dad: OK, but the real questions is, "Do vampires produce sperm?

Son: What? I don't know.

Dad: I mean, "How do vampires reproduce?"

Son: By biting people's necks.

Dad: That seems pretty effective to me. Don't you think evolution
would have concentrated on that and pretty much done away with sperm?

Son: Dad!

David: I'm just saying that if vampires did exist, they wouldn't be
going around making out with high-school girls because they wouldn't
have the balls.

Son: You're embarrassing me.

Dad: Sorry.

what i learned at origins

i'm nothing but an insignifant spec on a pebble of a round, pale blue
planet in an expanding, flat universe.

i might of never happened had carbon molecules not come in closely
to each other and reacted to form a replicatable existence that
eventually produced all life.

also had life not eventually produced the primate, and had that
primate not had gone through trial after trial, almost foing extinct,
then i might not be able to think about all this now.

there was a certain dark theme at origins, which may or may not have
had to with the existence of actual dark matter or the string that may
hold all of this together.

a sense of mischief throughout the event could be felt, because there
was work being done there that, while grounded in science, would send
a strong message to the world: science is back.

it was really never gone. research has continued into the origin of
humans and the universe. but its significance has laid dormant
awaiting a revolutionary resurgence.

Sent from my iPhone

Couldn't believe my luck

Somehow, I got a press pass to the Origins Symposium at the Boulders resort in Phoenix, an event with some of the top scientists in the world

Boulders 4/4-5/09 11:06 PM

gilbert riparian birdfest

eatin pizza, birdwatchin, seein raptors

kids played bird bingo

kelsea and torie both got bingo, thanks to finding a verdin and a
snowy egret

kelsea lookin at avocets

torie spotting a ring-necked duck

aster trying to spot a green heron

walking the dog

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