I took some photos of our deck flowers in the middle of the week, but I had to come into work today before getting a chance to download them from my camera. So, I think I'll wait until I do a few up-close (macro) shots and then post them.

In other news, I've been doing well walking this week. On the day when it was hot and muggy, I walked back and forth in the shaded part of where I walk. It is probably about 0.25 miles, so I did it several times until I hit my usual 40ish min, 2.5-3 miles distance. I have now worked through my 4 walking music mixes and have tweaked a couple of them when I ran short on songs or when the song was too slow.

Not much else happening. Lab work, home, reading, TV and movies.

Oh, speaking of TV...
... there is a friend of a friend of SeaQueen's who is on the reality show I Survived a Japanese Gameshow. I think it is on Tuesday nights at 9:00 eastern/8:00 central. It was hilarious. The participants had no idea what they were getting into, they just knew they were going to be on a reality show. They didn't know they were going to Japan, that they were going to be competing for $250,000 or anything. It is definitely more interesting knowing to watch out for a particular person.

And did anyone else watch the NASA special on Discovery the past few weeks? I thought it was really well done. Of course, HB and I have always been fascinated with space flight and NASA, so we were particularly enthralled.

See ya' later!

Posted by danielle at 10:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

This is one of those blog posts that I am putting up as a resource for the internet. Here's the story: I have been listening to the same playlist on my iPod for about 2 years when I walk for exercise, because I never bothered to find other music at the right tempo. Cut to a day about a year ago, when this post-doc came into a class we had together all excited, because she had found a website that would make playlists for running at a certain tempo. Well, I tried to find the same thing for walking and really came up short. I found a couple of blog posts about walking mixes here and here and somewhere else that I can't find again, but they weren't enough of the right speed and the types of music that I like. I also found instructions on how to get a software program to calculate the tempo for you, but if you use iTunes, it is kind of an annoying process to use MixMeister or to download software that won't work for every song in your library like beaTunes. So, I resorted to the old fashioned way of getting a bpm count for songs in my iTunes library.

Here's what I did: I took 3 songs that were the "perfect" pace on my original walking mix, I calculated the beats per minute (bpm) by listening to the song and tapping a key to the beat using this great website. And lo' and behold, they were 125, 126 and 127 bpm. I also calculated that one song that was almost too fast for me was 138. And thus, my range was born. 120-124 for slightly slower. 125-127 for perfect. 128-130ish for really-cooking power-walking.

And now, the list. It is huge. But I am typing it out here for posterity. And in case anyone comes along looking for songs for walking at a certain bpm rate/tempo. (like I had done, using google)

Warm-up and cool-down songs that I just like even though they are slow - very random/mostly new, or really old songs that I've always liked:
80 Celine Dion - Taking Chances
90 Marie Digby - Say It Again
90 One Republic - Stop and Stare
92 Crowded House - Better Be Home Soon
103 Rascal Flatts - Life Is a Highway
109 10,000 Maniacs - These Are the Days
110 Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
115 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
117 Crowded House - Something So Strong
118 Steve Winwood - Roll With It

Moving into songs that are a tad slow, but good for variation:
120 Elton John - Sad Songs Say So Much
120 Five for Fighting - 100 Years
120 Maroon 5 - Not Falling Apart
120 Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun
121 Bob Seger - Night Moves
121 Corrs - Even If
121 Corrs - Radio
121 Dixie Chicks - I Can Love You Much Better
121 INXS - Suicide Blong
121 Shania Twain - When
121 Sting - Fortress Around Your Heart
122 Corrs - Summer Sunshine
122 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary
122 Dixie Chicks - If I Fall, You're Going Down With Me
122 Dixie Chicks - Tonight the Heartache Is On Me
122 Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing
122 Gladys Knight - I Got To Use My Imagination
122 Phil Collins - Sussudio
123 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop the Rain
123 Depeche Mode - World In My Eyes
123 Dixie Chicks - Goodbye Earl
123 Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
123 Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop
123 John Cougar - China Girl
123 Shania Twain - Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)
123 The Beatles - Get Back
124 Bob Seger - Old Time Rock and Roll
124 Dixie Chicks - Tortured, Tangled Hearts
124 Faith Hill - If My Heart Had Wings
124 Martina McBride - Love's the Only House
124 Shania Twain - Love Gets Me Every Time
124 Shania Twain - I'm Gonna Getcha Good

Getting into the best paced songs for my walking speed (14.5 to 15 minutes per mile)
125 Commitments - Bye Bye Baby
125 Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Be In Love <-- one of my new favorite songs
125 Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'
125 John Mellencamp - Rain On the Scarecrow
125 Shania Twain - Man, I Feel Like a Woman ** This was one of the original songs **
125 Shania Twain - Up! **This was one of the original songs**
126 Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
126 Corrs - Dreams
126 Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself
126 Gary Numan - Cars
126 John Mellencamp - I Need a Lover
126 Kelly Clarkson - Gone
126 Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head
126 R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
126 Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much
126 The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (There Is a Season)
127 Commitments - Take Me To the River
127 Corrs - Irresistible
127 Corrs - Breathless **This was one of the original songs**
127 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lodi
127 Dixie Chicks - There's Your Trouble
127 Phil Collins - Both Sides Of the Story
127 Sting - All This Time
127 Supremes - Come See About Me
127 Train - Respect

Crankin' On
128 Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
128 Corrs - Angel
128 Fleetwood Mac - Say You Love Me
128 Huey Lewis & The News - She's Some Kind Of Wonderful
128 R.E.M. - The One I Love
128 Sheryl Crow - A Change Would Do You Good
129 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around the Bend
129 Cranberries - Dreams
129 Ongo Bongo (wasn't this Oingo Boingo?) - Weird Science
129 Shania Twain - Rock This Country
129 Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra
129 Supremes - You Keep Me Hangin' On
129 Three Dog Night - Joy To the World
130 Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
130 Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
130 Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun
130 Genesis - Invisible Touch
130 John Mellencamp - Shy
130 John Mellencamp - Rumble Seat
130 Martina McBride - Safe In the Arms Of Love
130 Shania Twain - In My Car (I'll Be the Driver)
131 Coldplay - Clocks
131 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
131 Ronettes - Be My Baby
131 Rooftop Singers - Walk Right In
131 The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
132 Doobie Brothers - It Keeps You Running
132 Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
132 Erasure - Breath of Life
132 Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup
132 Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink
132 Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
133 B-52's - Love Shack
133 Elton John - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
138 Shania Twain - What a Way to Want To Be **This was the original crankin' along song**

So there you have it. A sampling of my music tastes. Or at least, the ones that are the 'right' tempo for walking.

Posted by danielle at 01:21 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

and in large

These flowers were in a bouquet that was in the lobby of the church for the Variety Show. Since I had my camera and all, I couldn't resist taking a photo. I also took some pictures of the irises that one of the singers brought in (she is the one dressed in a kimono, if you look at my recent pics on Flickr). As a side note, she is an opera singer who performs with the Met in NY, among other places. Anyway, I guess irises are her passion, so she brought in a bunch. But my pictures all look like crap. Since they were in a bouquet, they are a little smushed together and just don't show off the beauty of them. But I did like these purple flowers.

As another side note, the powerpoint presentation I put together for the Variety Show has been well received. I am actually going to show it during coffee hour off of a laptop in the lobby. I've learned how to loop it and found a song to play during it through iTunes. Gotta love computers.

Hope you have a good weekend!

Note, I've walked 2 times this week and am hoping to get in more tonight and this weekend. We'll see how I do with that.

Posted by danielle at 11:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I sang with the band at church for the annual Variety Show. It was terrific! It was hard to hear how we sounded, so I'm hoping that we can get an mp3 of it. But we were told by people that it was amazing and awesome. So, I'd imagine it was good. ;-)

I put pictures on my Flickr account of us performing. Since they show our faces, they are marked private for friends and family; so, you'll need to log in to see them. They are pretty much what you'd expect people singing with microphones to look like....
... but you can see my fishy dress. And my jewelry (bracelet and earrings) that I bought on Saturday (the day of the performance) to go with my dress.

I was also the official photographer for the event. Yes, me in my dress and heels. Not quite the usual photographer outfit, but much more fun, I thought. I got assistance by someone so that I could have pics of me singing with the group. I gave her a brief lesson and away she went! I've had a lot of fun tweaking the lighting on the photos and making a powerpoint presentation of the good ones. I even put captions on all of the photos in the presentation that lists the people, the name of their act, and the original creator/performer of the piece. :-)

Posted by danielle at 05:45 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

This photo was taken through our front window. So, not as ideal as if I'd gone outside, but for some reason I didn't. I think because I wanted the angle that I usually see from the house.

and in large

and in large

Posted by danielle at 11:52 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)