Had a great time at my cousin Jelissa's wedding on the weekend, so great to see all of my extended relatives again, we really do have an incredible family!
An aging pet
After 10 good years of being with us, our border-collie/lab is starting to show some serious signs of aging. Her back leg is very arthritic, and she spends a good deal of time crying, but our vet has given us some good meds for her, so we're hoping we'll be able to keep her for a while longer. Yesterday we had a little photoshoot, just the two of us. She's such a beautiful dog!
Songs to run to
I have always been an avid runner, and except for long swimming stints, I usually hit the streets/ trails several times a week. When I'm not running with my running pals, I usually have a playlist going on my iPod. I've gone through my favorite albums and found songs that are between 150-170 BPM, the ideal tempo to run to, and I thought I would share them.
Running to a beat is much more exciting than just running along with something upbeat but at the wrong tempo. It almost becomes a dance at this point, and really helps me get into the run. The changing tempos cause my stride to change every 3 minutes or so, and that seems to prevent repetitive strain from using exactly the same muscles throughout the run.
I highly recommend giving it a try, now that the weather is getting nicer. So here's the list!
BT is my fave, and a bunch of tunes from his album "This Binary Universe" are perfect, they are 12-14 minutes long, and just a great droning way to run. I've probably listened to these tunes 1000 times.
-"All that Makes Us Human Continues", "See You On the Other Side", "1.618", "Dynamic Symmetry"
Mutemath is also great- from their album "Mutemath"
-"Picture", "Without It", "Noticed", and "Chaos"
Other random ones:
-"Davyan Cowboy" and "Oscar See Through Red Eye" by Boards of Canada
-"Must be Dreaming" and "Psychobabble" by Frou Frou
-"Have You Got it In You" by Imogen Heap
-"I Feel it All" and "Past in Present" by Feist
-"Nattappet" by Detektivbyran (super fun)
-"Lorelai" by Fleet Foxes
-"Strawberry Swing" and "Lost!" by Coldplay
Spring break starts!
Kids are on Spring Break, they're going to have to put up with a lot of Dad's mini projects, thank goodness for digital devices to keep them occupied!
New phase begins
Last Wednesday marked the last day of my full time employment with Wine Studios in Japan. I spent the better part of 5 years as an audio engineer, sound designer, voice coach, voice artist, boom operator, dialogue editor, sound dude, and primarily composer!
It was an incredible ride, together with Josh Friesen, we made music/ sound for well over 350 different songs, stories and animations for the Grapeseed ESL curriculum. We got to work with animators from Disney, local voice artists that are heard on the radio/ TV daily in our country, and were priveleged to fly to Japan and spend a good deal of time in one of the most beautiful film studios/ soundstages.
The whole experience as moulded me into a composing machine, utilizing the latest and great technology to be able to create music at the speed of thought. I had to edit so many tracks of dialogue for animations/ stories, that I can spot a "p" plosive and remove it faster than you can say... well... plosive!
I am excited to be moving on and devoting more time to photography and video, but I will miss all of the friendships I've made over the past 5 years, as well as the mochi. Sweet sweet mochi.
Photography and video has become such a big part of my life, and the next phase will involve bringing all of these skills together to help others with their creative visions, as well as increasing the creative content that I throw at the world.
Many thanks to Josh for getting me on board, and to my boss Joshua in Japan for being such an amazing man to work for. This job has brought me so much and I am grateful!
So long, and thanks for all the fish!!
Baby Micah is born!
Finally getting to blog about my new dude, born Sept 3 at 2:31 PM. He came over 2 weeks early, but still managed to weigh in at a whopping 8lbs 13 ounces! (which is actually the lightest we seem to make em). He's number four of our brood, and seems to fit right in. He's sleeping well, eating well, and changing every day.
This whole childbirth thing never gets old, even by the fourth one I'm still blown away by the experience. Becca was amazing again, and maintained such composure throughout the birth it was incredible. It was by far the most literal Labour Day weekend she's ever had!
The other kids are rising to the occasion, and there's usually a battle over who gets to hold him. He's never going to be short a baby sitter! Here are some pics of the latest addition to the loves of my life!
Beautiful Becca
