This is for the birds

A while back, I posted a bird photo that I was really excited about. And somehow, with that photo, I became obsessed with photographing birds. Why birds? 1) there isn't much other animal life around to shoot. Not even squirrels, really. Which seems weird. 2) Because it's a challenge. They are kind of hard to photograph if you want to get them in flight, so it seemed like an obvious choice.

Since that first photo, I have added a few more:

In the process of taking all these bird photos,* I have found another answer to "why birds". They are kind of fascinating. I never really noticed before, but different birds fly differently. Some keep their wings extended and glide, others fold their wings back and kind of cannonball through the air. And their wings are different--the angles they use when they fly, the way the feathers are designed and arranged and layered, how far the wings spread. Their tails are different too. And then it was interesting to see the colors and the details of the feathers and there is so much to notice about birds! And now I am paying attention and it is pretty darn interesting.

I kind of feel silly that I never noticed any of this before** but I'm glad that I ended up there in the end.

*I have not identified any of these birds so feel free to do so. Picture 4 and 5 are the same bird, by the way. I love how his (her?) feathers blend in so well with the tree bark.

**I probably did notice that they fly differently, but it never really registered as a conscious thought until now. When you think about it, it's obvious, but I just never thought of it until recently.  

Post-Presentation report

Since I have mentioned it a couple of times (here and here, not that you should go back and read about it) and since someone left a comment wishing me luck (thank you for that!) I thought I'd report on how the big presentation went.

Some things I learned:

1. Never volunteer to present at a conference you haven't attended.

2. It's a terrible thing to make people who are presenting and are already nervous drive miles and miles up a winding mountain road with no guard rails or anything on the side that goes off down the mountain.

3. Historians and archivists are REALLY different. I probably should have known this, and theoretically, I did, but wow. They really are different.

4. I never want to be an academic. Although, I already knew this. Academic conferences are not like professional conferences. 

But, the presentation did go well. I got there and saw the room, which was not an auditorium or stage*, and there were people in the audience who were as old as my grandma and how can you be scared of your grandma? So that calmed me down a lot. I managed to keep the 'um's to a minimum, which was good, because when practicing I kept stumbling over my words. And the chairman at the end of the session made me sound really really smart. (Modernism didn't cross my mind once, because, yeah, not a historian or academic). My co-presenters were super great to be in a group with and it was nice to make some connections that way. 

The best part, though, is that I'm done. No more looming deadlines, no more panicking about whether I'm up to snuff. It is over. And, once I was done, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of mountains. I never tire of mountains. It was a great way to celebrate my mental freedom ("No more presentation to stress about! Hooray!") Enjoy my celebration!

*There is a reason why I was envisioning an auditorium, and it is not because of my ego. It is because I attended a similar conference earlier in the year and it did have an auditorium. The brain fills in the unknown with what it can, and in this case it was something much scarier than the reality.

Font Caution

And this is why you have to pay attention to the fonts you choose. Especially when looking at lowercase r's and n's. Because, while it looks like this podcast title is talking about derrieres, it actually says 'controlled buRNs'. Not the same thing at all.

Things confirmed

Today, I have confirmed that I hate public speaking. Again. I don't know why I keep doing this, because in all of my public speaking engagements (which are not many), the result is the same: intense anxiety leading up to said engagement. I believe this now qualifies as insanity, by the purported Einstein definition.

I also confirmed my suspicions that water is not stronger than a magnet and will not detach the iron particles that are clinging on for dear life. (Believe it or not, I have seen sillier studies that actually got funding).

It is confirmed that finding a new doctor is almost as bad (or maybe it is just as bad) as practicing for a presentation and both are very easily placed on the procrastinate list.

So, there you have it. Some new facts for your life.

My kidometer is nearly full

In the last four days, I have played with 15 of my 23 nieces and nephews. I played Ping-Pong Cootie with #18, watched puppet shows being put on by #11, enjoyed #19 singing her babies to sleep (and she informed me that her dolls are babies, and she is a doll). Number 12 told me about Mixels, 15 moved in to manhood by helping his dad mow the lawn, and number 22 and 23 did all the cute work. Numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7 let me show off my work to them, and we had a good conversation over dinner, along with their mom. Number 14 was full of hugs, 9 and I chowed down on watermelon together, 17 shared his amazing Nerf gun abilities (along with his siblings) and his amazing talent for drenching himself at a water fountain and for running sideways. Number 21 was mostly just adorable. He had fun learning to shoot his Nerf gun, enjoyed hammering his lasagna with watermelon, showed off his skipping abilities, and was generally just fun company.

So now my kidometer is topped off enough to tide me over until July. It's a good world that has kids in it.