Music Monday | Bon Iver

Another artist where I could have posted a number of songs. This is the song, though, that made me fall in love with Bon Iver's music.

Nature And Stress

First, Kahn stressed out his participants by giving them a series of math tests. Then he placed some people in front of a window overlooking a grassy lawn with trees, others in front of a large plasma television screen displaying the lawn in real time, and still others in front of a blank wall. As expected, those in front of the window experienced the quickest drop in stress levels, as measured by their decreasing heart rate. Participants also spent far more time looking out the window and at the plasma screen than at the blank wall. But the researchers found an unexpected result.


“Surprisingly, the blank wall and the plasma screen were no different in terms of stress reduction,” said Ruckert. Their study indicates that gazing at an authentic natural space reduces stress, whereas a digital replica of nature soothes only as well as a boring blank wall.

I dig these types of studies. Read the rest of the short entry from Wired Magazine here.

Music Monday | The Arcade Fire

I could post about any of their songs, but I'll go with this one for the way it fills the moment.

From The Bowels Of My Brain IX

Let's  get it started    in heeeeeeere.

Running, running and running, running:

>> "For your convenience" means you're about to be inconvenienced.

>> "With all due respect" means you are about to be disrespected.

>> "We're unable to make it" means your party sounds lame.

>> "Please listen as our menu options have recently changed" means we changed our automated voice response menu options a year or two ago but it was really annoying to change them so now we don't feel like updating the pre-recorded message.

>> "To make a long story short" makes your story longer.

>> Based on a lengthy study and in-depth statistical analysis I have determined that 79% of the time someone writes "lol" they are lying. This is assuming you still believe "lol" means "laugh out loud" instead of the definition I've adopted; "A response used to acknowledge that something is either funny or an acknowledgment that someone attempted to provoke laughter or provide amusement"

>> Billion dollar idea: Bananas that don't bruise.

>> And I wouldn't even know how to spell bananas were it not for Gwen Stefani.

>> One of the many great things about From The Bowels Of My Brain is that you get to relearn your Roman Numerals.

>> Whoever wrote the ABC song should've made the whole L M N O P section a little easier for the children.

Until next time, peoples. Gohead doyur thang.

Hey Dada

Kessler has gradually started to say "Dadadada" and "Hey Dada" enough as a response to seeing me that we think we can confidently say that's what he's saying. While he doesn't understand what it means that I'm his dad, it's still pretty fun.

Hey Kessler.

Music Monday | The National

"We're half awake in a fake empire. We're half awake in a fake empire."

Music Monday | Fleet Foxes

Bath.

Kid Conversations

Kid dialogue is the best.

I guess we've gotten to the age where a lot of our friends have kids. And those kids do say the darndest things. The things I laugh at the most on twitter are 140 character kid stories. Like when @sarah16 tweeted this a few days ago. Or this, when @McKieDJ was tucking his seven year old in to bed.

Then there's the kid dialogue that I get to witness in person, like when Ashley walked into the kids' classroom at church on a cold morning and was greeted by a six year old with, "Pssst. You have a red nose." Ashley couldn't quite hear her and said, "Huh?" The girl, in the loudest whisper she could muster said, "You have a red nose!"

Well one night during dinner at the beach with Ashley's family, our 2 year old niece, Livy, provided some fun kid dialogue.

She chugged her cup of water, set it down abruptly, looked at her mom and sweetly said, "More water."
Heather said, "What do you say?"
Livy said, "More water."
Heather said, "No, what do you say?"
Livy, still calm, said, "More water."
Heather firmly said, "Livy, what do you say?!"
Livy said, "MOOOOOORRRRE WAAAATERRRR!"
And we all laughed uproariously.

Eventually she did say "peese" and she wasn't trying to be defiant. It was a lot of fun to watch her brain process it all. She let out the cutest giggle when we all laughed.

Kessler isn’t saying much more than “blababababwa” or “EeeeeOooo!” now, but I’m pretty excited about the endless supply of comedy he'll provide throughout his toddler and elementary school days. After that he'll probably just be annoying and have stinky armpits ( I jest. I jest).

Music Monday | Mumford & Sons

Cold is the water

It freezes your already cold mind

Already cold, cold mind

And death is at your doorstep

And it will steal your innocence

But it will not steal your substance

But you are not alone in this

And you are not alone in this

As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand

Hold your hand

And you are the mother

The mother of your baby child

The one to whom you gave life

And you have your choices

And these are what make man great

His ladder to the stars

But you are not alone in this

And you are not alone in this

As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand

Hold your hand

And I will tell the night

Whisper, "Lose your sight"

But I can't move the mountains for you