Longing

Monday. Darn. This is the view as I looked longingly outside. If you squint it looks like an impressionist painting. Sort of?

Spent all day in a meeting with the boss and the boss's boss and associates of the boss trying to figure out how to appease other bosses. I was wondering how I got to be in that place and how I get out.

Later, I went to a wonderful meeting of the Toronto Ornithological Society, my local diehard birder's club. I hadn't been in a while and it was great to be back and be greeted with many hugs and be able to talk about geeky things without shame.

We had a triple treat - a combined lecture by two scientists from the University of Western Ontario who described their research into bird song, physiology of high-altitude migration and their new facility with a wind tunnel for studying birds (AFAR).

They made a dry subject relevant for things I care about like conservation and undestanding and appreciating more about what I see and hear around me.

Some interesting facts:
- Birds, like people, learn they local dialect, i.e., their accent from their peers, not their parents.
- People burn fat from low intensity exercise, carbs from high-intensity exercise, So move slowly and you'll lose more weight :)
- Birds tend to return to the same area they were raised in to breed. And they select mates based on familiarity of their local accent. So, sadly, every green area we destroy also destroy local populations of animals and they just can't pick up and move like we can. :(

My brain's buzzing.