spark

electric beat: scientific observations of the 5-year-old mind

Begging your forgiveness for the vertical video, I present a little 5-year-old scientific hypothesizing. Xander was playing the drums in our basement (note to self: get this kid some lessons, he is probably the most musical one of the bunch) and noticed the effect that his playing had on a nearby fluorescent bulb. The results are captured in the video clip above.

Age 5-6 is particularly interesting for its unique mix of the magical thinking of early childhood with the stronger logic that sets in after the "age of reason" (age 7-8). Kids at this age know a lot about very basic biology and physics, but give explanations for natural phenomena that reveal that they haven't quite connected all the dots yet, and rely heavily on imagination in order to understand the world. When my eldest was this age, I probably would have supplied the real explanation for the flickering light. Now, I generally hold myself back, having seen how kids can take their hypotheses to fascinating conclusions, and how they bounce ideas off of each other in order to form a more complete understanding of their environment. So when Xander suggested that our drum kit somehow stores electrical energy (bet you didn't know that!), I sat back and simply reflected his ideas back at him. He clearly knows that his drumming is somehow causing more energy to be supplied to the bulb, causing the flicker. What he hasn't figured out yet is why banging on a drum might have that effect. The simplest explanation for him is that these things are directly related to each other.

We showed the video to Griffin and Reese, who immediately said "he's wrong!", in a shutting-things-down manner reminiscent of Dana Carvey's John McLaughlin. I prefer not to throw about the W word, knowing that it rarely leads to productive discussion and often leads to fighting. I redirected: "it sounds like you guys have other ideas about why the light flickered."

Griffin stepped up: "I think the vibrations are making the light move and more electricity flow."

Me: "how does the drum make that happen?"

Griffin: "the sound waves vibrate the light, and when it moves, more electricity can flow."

Griff's idea was that the light wasn't sitting properly in its fittings, and when the sound from the drums vibrated it, it moved so that it had better contact with the electrical supply. Reese agreed with this hypothesis. Xander maintained that no, the drums themselves store and release energy. I'm wondering if the three of them will discuss this further in the future, and if they'll figure out ways to test their hypotheses. How does one determine whether or not a drum stores electricity?

the garden of your mind

Symphony of Science's John Boswell, the wonderful mind that brought us Carl Sagan autotuned into "Glorious Dawn" and (my favorite, with Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye) "We are All Connected", has created a brand-new and beautiful piece that was shared by PBS Digital Studios today: "Garden of Your Mind."  

Do you ever imagine things? Are they scary things?
Do you ever imagine things?
Things you'd like to have? 
Did you ever see a cat's eyes in the dark and wonder what they were?
Did you ever pretend about things like that?

Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind?
You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind.
It's good to be curious about many things.
You can think about things and make believe.
All you have to do is think -
And they'll grow.

Imagine every person that you see is somewhat different
from every other person in the world.
Some can do some things,
Some can do others.
Did you ever think of the many things that you've learned to do?

Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind?
You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind.
It's good to be curious about many things
You can think about things and make believe.
All you have to do is think -
And they'll grow.

Didja feel like going like that?
Let's give the fish some food.
Mr. McFeely!
I didn't order any whistles.
(that's what they call a bassline)
Didja feel like going like that?

There are so many things to learn about in this world,
And so many people who can help us learn.

Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind?
You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind.
It's good to be curious about many things.
You can think about things and make believe.
All you have to do is think.
You can think about things and make believe.
All you have to do is think -
And they'll grow.

Mr. Rogers just never stops being awesome. Thanks, Fred. Let's give the fish some food.

sunday brunch

A collection of interesting, fun, and/or thought-provoking things I encountered this week.

First, a shameless plug: I'm one month into a new 365 project.  What I learned from my last one was that I needed a more spontaneous, lighthearted assignment this year.  So I give you Play by Play, a 365 project inspired by my love of silly toy photography.  It kicked off with a week of Swiper the fox in the Dominican Republic (I love Swiper and he's easy to tuck into a camera bag while traveling), and I've stuck with my canine friend ever since.  That's him in the photo at the top of this post, having a sail on a rainy day.

Which reminds me of a John Stuart Mill quote shared by Terry Border today: "That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time."  So when I'm baffling neighbors by lying in the street taking pictures of toys floating in puddles in origami boats, I'm doing a public service.  

Public-service-wise, if you feel like being slightly less eccentric but still spreading some love, check out Kind Over Matter's printable free compliments and free positive thoughts sheets.  Fun! Maybe leave one on the community board in your coffeehouse or school?

Via Kind Over Matter's Friday Lovelies, I found this wonderful "warning" about self-portraiture.  It reminded me of my friend Heather, who is doing a self-portrait 365 project this year.  Also on the 365 front, there's a new Facebook group for 365 artists.  

I was reminded of Kind over Matter by her appearance on RecycleArt.  I wouldn't necessarily define all of the projects there as "recycled" - for example, using new pencils as sculptural materials - and some of it isn't exactly art - like these compost bins - but there's something for everybody.  I was called to check out the Simple Science demonstrations from Linda Dong.  Knowledge can (and should?) be elegant!

Just like I do every January in Virginia, I'm wishing the weather would commit to either icy/snowy or sunny/springy.  We go from scraping windshields to prepping the garden in the same day.  I've recently spent two afternoons cleaning up our flower beds and veggie garden, organizing the garage, refilling bird feeders, pruning shrubs, and generally getting into a springtime mood.  I'm ordering new Mud Gloves and a sieve for our compost.  I'm also telling myself NO MORE STICKS OR APPLE STICKERS in the bin.  We're lazy composters and never turn the darn thing, and those plus corncobs and unbroken eggshells make it to the bottom relatively intact.  Everything else has turned into beautiful moist humus, which I'm using to mulch the garden.  I'll eventually turn it under.  The warm weather has me thinking about seeds and pea fences and getting rid of some of the shrubs in the yard so that I can plant a dogwood and have a nice bench or two for reading on lovely spring afternoons.  

On colder afternoons, when I'm not taking pictures of ice, I'm enjoying a little Lenka, whose tunes I discovered thanks to Jason and Wendy Ward of Ward Photography.  

Photography leads me to remember to share that HandsOn Greater Richmond has a call out for photographers to document their community efforts.  I've signed on to volunteer and plan to choose one or two events a month.  

Photo lovers and science geeks and fans everywhere of beauty might enjoy this six-month-long exposure made by pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell.  

And finally, a beautiful thing you can create - Silk, a nifty interactive piece of fun that I learned about via my lovely friend Lynz, who always links to great stuff.  

Finally, while my back yard is lovely and ice is pretty, I've been wishing to be back on Sanibel Island lately.  I've had at least five or six recent dreams about shell collecting! Where do you want to be right now?

fyi: triops have three eyes

By way of giving a little more back story to yesterday's word of the day post, I'm republishing an entry from my family blog from 2 years ago today. 

**********************************************************************************************

I recently mentioned our latest music acquisition, TMBG's Here Come the 123s, which has been getting heavy play around here.  One of the heaviest in the heavy rotation is a catchy tune titled "Triops Has Three Eyes".  Sample lyrics:

Needles have an eye
Tornadoes have an eye
Potatoes have a lot of eyes
But triops has three eyes
Triops has three eyes

So, Griff approached me the other day:

Griff: "Mom, are Triops really real?"
Me: "No, they're a made-up creature.  They Might Be Giants sometimes sing about real things, and sometimes they sing about pretend silly things, and sometimes they mix both together.  Triops is a made-up silly thing."

Why did my spider sense not tingle?   Never, ever act like an expert unless you have definite, recent, first-hand knowledge of a thing. 

The next day I was watching the DVD version of HCT123s with Reese and up come the knitted hand puppets of John and John, telling us that the next song is about a real, ancient creature that actually has three eyes.

Oh, crap.  They're joking, right?  I googled it.  Yeah.  Triops has three eyes.  To be more specific, this "living fossil" has two compound eyes (think of the classic dragonfly eye) and one ocellus (light sensor).

What's more, my friend Angela informed me that she and her son Reese are growing Triops in their home.  Apparently you can buy them in a little kit like Sea Monkeys.  One online order later and a trip to the grocery store for distilled water, and guess what we're going to do?  Stay tuned for our own triops adventures...

word of the day 93/365: whim

boiled: 24 white eggs + 4 brown eggs
cracked: 11 white eggs
dyed: 19 whole or only-barely-cracked eggs
we've got a lot of eggs to eat

...and in not-entirely-unrelated news, I only just discovered that the correct lyrics at the end of the Jefferson Airplane song are "feed your head," and not "treacle-head," as I had been singing for, oh, let's say 25-30 years.  In my defense, "feed your head" isn't in the Louis Carrol books to my knowledge, and the dormouse does talk about treacle.  To my detriment, I thought for the first 10 years or so that treacle was related to excrement, perhaps because I couldn't imagine anything but water or sewage in a well, and thought living in a treacle well sounded like a horrible thing, and not appropriate tea party conversation at all.  Back in my defense, it would certainly explain why poor Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie were so very ill.   Living on treacle.  Pity. 

More whimsicle fuckery: I am, or at least was, a Peep purist.  WTF is a Peep purist, you ask? So glad you did.  A Peep purist is a person (I'm the only one I know but I'm sure there are others like me out there) who will only buy the classic yellow chick Peeps during the spring.  No marshmallow snowmen, no out-of-season chicks, no sugar-dusted hearts or jack-o-lanterns, and absolutely, positively, NO bunnies or those horrid neon blue, purple, pink, orange, or green chicks they have nowadays.  A travesty, I tell you.  Classic. Yellow. Chicks.  Or nothing. 

So, it turns out that a Peep purist should not go shopping with three young children if she would like to leave the store with her Easter candy principles intact.  I reached for one package of Peeps (I will not call any of the other imposters by that name), and left with two packages of yellow chicks, one package of purple chicks, one package of pink chicks, and - oh, Peeps, I'm so sorry - one package of green marshmallow bunnies.  I am a traitor to my own values.  What a treacle-head.

word of the day 20/365: resonate

Piano guts, as seen at the end of a long day in which I didn't pick up a camera until 7:30pm. Not much resonated with me today, but I got to the end of it.

word of the day 12/265: proud

Oh, Chopin! Once I could play this music so beautifully, and I cried every time, it just sang through me. I was reminded of it today when I heard Ingrid Filter play the Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor this morning on Performance Today.

I was, once, so proud of how well I could play, and took great delight in it. I was never bound for professional performance, though; I lacked discipline, and I also felt intensely private about music, to the point where I couldn't bear to take on a new, more strict instructor during college, and snuck into practice rooms alone on quiet evenings instead. To this day, I'm loathe to play or sing in front of people, even (especially?) those I'm closest to.  I'm horribly out of practice and sometimes wonder if I'll ever sit down and work on it, if I'll ever be good again. I hope so.  It was something that was all mine, that felt like a collaboration between these composers and me.

Più mosso is the Italian for "more movement" (and not, as my husband just commented, "Proud Mary").  In music, it gives the artist direction to pick up the tempo.  While the musician in me lies dormant at the moment, I'm feeling like my photography is taking the directive and moving more quickly. I'm not sure how to sustain it - it's requiring a lot of time and attention, and it's striking all sorts of obsessive strings in me. I'm struggling again with that lack of discipline and the desire to share what I do while simultaneously feeling like it's a private thing, not good enough to send into the world. It's getting hard to focus on the moment-to-moment stuff because I'm obsessing about the long view.

All day I've been hearing the Heather Small song "Proud" in my head.  Maybe instead of focusing on how good I used to be at one thing or how good I want to (and fear I won't ever) be at something else, I should answer Heather's question: "what have you done today to make you feel proud?"

My answer:  I comforted a little girl who missed her mama. I plugged through a day on which my creative and physical energies were sapped.  I made the image at the top of this post, using editing techniques I had never used before. 

I'm trying to keep Heather's words close:

I step out of the ordinary
I can feel my soul ascending
I am on my way
Can't stop me now
And you can do the same

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

 

(Griffin is taking a break from the 365 project today.)

take me anywhere

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Recent favorite video over here. I'm charmed by the way tilt-shift photography makes the world look like an adorable miniature. My two-year-old love the boats and 'copter. The music by Megan Washington has joined my frequent playlist, too.

3 delights

fluff, originally uploaded by theloushe.

{delight number one}

En route to a friend's house, I caught the middle of a piece on Performance Today and was so intrigued by it (and amazed that my children, who have recently rebelled against NPR, sat quietly during the drive) that I actually remembered to google it later, even without writing it down. Ha. Turns out it was a recording of poet Matthea Harvey reciting a new work inspired by and interwoven with Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 5, as part of a collaboration with the Miró Quartet at this year's White Pine Festival, which was held two weeks ago.

The poem describes a group of girls imprisoned in a glass factory, who stare out at the world through a wall made of glass hands ("the pine trees in the distance like bonsai in tiny finger terrariums") until they simultaneously conceive the notion to make a glass girl.  I was reminded of parenting, how each of us has limits on our existence, how each of us strives to mold our offspring into wonderous creatures, and yet how it is still surprising to us when the way we have created them enables them to transcend our own limits.  Ms. Harvey recites, "they don't question that she is alive, walking, gesturing, but no one imagined that she, with her new glass eyes, would be able to see the glass lock and the glass key."

Please give Miró and Matthea a listen (the quartet begins at 21:45 on the first hour of June 29th's Performance Today broadcast).  Does it remind you of your own parenting journey?  I'm reflecting on how I have done things my parents taught me but that they could not do, and how my own children will go farther than I can - or wish to.  I may not go where they go, but will remain, like the girls in the glass factory, forever changed and inspired by my experience with them.

{delight number two}

Intergenerational differences often pop up in the form of race relations.  While most of us really do believe in equality under the law and generally living by the Golden Rule, each of us is also a product of our own environment and own time, and social change does often come more awkwardly to one generation than it does to a younger generation born into the time of change, who will never have known what came before.  Jay Smooth describes the USofA as in a "new place" between the Promised Land and the injustices of the past.  He describes how steps forward can make us feel comfortable making jokes or slinging epithets without stopping to consider how those words affect other people.  

Nearly a year ago, JS posted a video titled "How To Tell People They Sound Racist."  Notice how he says they sound racist.  Not they are racist.  Paramount to his how-to: separating the "what they did" from "what they are".  Good to remember while addressing your friend who feels comfortable sharing with you that they hope "those people" don't move to their neighborhood, or your granny who persists in specifying the race of every person of color featured in her stories.  You can bat away their responsibility-dodging protestations that they're not a racist by letting them know, as JS says: "I don't care what you are; I care about what you did."

Worth mentioning that Smooth's style reminds me of ZeFrank...who I now see is both quoted and linked in the sidebar.  

{delight number three}

Oh, double-header here.  Being reminded of ZeFrank sent me back to his site, which brought me to Hard Times::Hole and My Milk Toof.  Everybody say awwwwwww!

What's delighting you?

feeling good

I've had this guy in my head all morning (with apologies to Nina Simone, who is wonderful, and Muse, who are pretty cool, but I'm in more of a Buble place at the moment):

 

I also got a copy of David Burns' book in the mail yesterday. Way, way back in college I diagnosed myself with a generalized anxiety disorder, but then did absolutely nothing about it, and now that I'm in my 30s and have three children and all the worries and responsibilities and wacky hormones to go with them, it's time. My friend Andrea finally suggested the book enough times to get me to look into it (also thanks to Kristin, AKA Anxiety Girl, who lists Burns among her favorite panic/anxiety authors and who always comes across as one zen mama). I'm hoping to beat things back enough via vitamin D and CBT to get back on track in my pursuit of chill, and avoid starting meds. The thought of anxiety medication is, in itself, an anxiety trigger for me. Beautiful irony there.

In other feel-good news, I had a chance encounter at a stoplight today, during which I had a brief minivan-to-minivan chat with a friend.  By the time the light was green I had a warm glow and what sounded like a serious invitation to talk about starting a homeschooling co-op.  Just to go all woo-woo on your for a second, that particular stop light has really, really good mojo.  I get interesting thoughts there all the time, and that intersection is surrounded by very cool local businesses and a great playground. 

Incidentally, the other book I received in the mail yesterday was Linda Dobson's The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child.  What was that I was saying about anxiety? *gulp*  I do think everything has been leading me to this, and the only thing stopping me is me. 

One last good feeling for this post: today, supposedly, finally, I'm receiving the uber-fabulous lens of my dreams that I've been waiting for forever.  I know, you're looking at the link, thinking "that's it? Lens of her dreams, really?" Just trust me, that lens is what I need at this moment in time.  And also at this moment in time, I'm eagerly awaiting UPS's knock at my door.