Head @ MindSay

I took Henry for a late night walk tonight.

I looked down at his cute little head and realized that it is shaped just like mine. His head is far too big for his body. It makes him even more endearing than the average fumbly stubby boddied two year old. When I took him in to the doctor for his 2 year old check-up, his head was in the 95th percentile while his body was only in the 50th. I keep telling myself that it is because I have given birth to a child genius and the head just needs to house his extra large brain.

It's amazing how the little things like that make you adore your kid even more. The little oddities they have inherited from you or the person you spend your life with. You find these oddities slightly annoying or barely tolerable in yourself but completely adorable in your child.

I love the way my kid says "uh-oh" when he drops something on the floor. I love the way he accidentally mixes his spanish words in to english sentences. I even love the way that he tries to get an extra cookie or cup of ice cream every night even though we've told him 400 times that he can only have one.

No one loves a child the way his mommy does. This I know is true. Henry taught me.

It's been a while since I last posted, and put any videos up on Youtube. It's been a very busy month, and very little of that has been music related. I went to the wedding of a very good friend, and it was one of the best weddings I've ever attended. We were very well looked after. Ferried around everywhere, so that we didn't have to worry about our alcohol levels :)

It took place on the Isle of Man. A highlight of the day was a tram that was hired out exclusively to transport us all to the peak of snaefell mountain. A bagpiper joined us. Together with plenty to eat and a sufficient supply of champagne.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was glad for the both of them that the event went so well.

I finally got back to doing a couple of cover songs. This one is another Coldplay tune called "Amsterdam". It featured on the album "A rush of blood to the head". This is one of my all time favourites of Coldplay. The vid just shows a collection of pictures. I admit I didn't spend much time on the vid, but the song was far more important to me :)

Check it out :)

There are a number other things I've been getting up to in the past month, though I'm not going to bother writing about it. It would fill several pages. I'm just going to crack on with the Youtube statistics.

I may have been neglecting my Youtube channel, but the numbers have still been increasing very well on their own.

I now have 806 subs. I was hoping to get to the 1,000 by the end of the year, but at this rate, it looks like it's going to pass that sooner.

Channel viewings are now up to 18,423. They are rolling along well.

Last, but by no means least. The total video views have inreased to 291,498. The 300k landmark is less than 2 weeks away now.

I've pre-recorded another song, and I'm hoping to make the video quite amusing. It is another song from the "Crash test dummies". I'm hoping I can put that up quite soon. Rather than wait another month :)

There is a good number of songs that make me happy but the following number is up there with the best. It's that old classic "Raindrops keep falling on my head". The one I grew up with was the version by BJ Thomas.

This song was famously used in the movie "Butch cassidy and the sundance kid". It's a really fun and happy song to sing.

A lot of people on Youtube found it quite uplifting. Some liked it so much, that they made their own version :)

Here is my performance:

I have had another two subscribers since my last post.

The total now stands at 349.

I am very close to having over 100,000 video views. That's a big milestone. This should hopefully clock over in the next few days. My channel views are also approaching a landmark figure of 10,000. It should be too long before that happens. Maybe a week or two.

The next song is a 70's classic from Bobby Goldsboro.

Dandruff's genes sequenced
By Maggie Fox,
Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First, researchers grew enough fungus to give dandruff to 10 million people. Next, they sequenced its genes. Then they found out that not only does an icky fungus live on your head and cause dandruff-- but it could be having sex. On your head. Right now.
(I guess that is where some people get those strange thoughts of 'voices in their heads' from.)

A team at Procter & Gamble Beauty said on Tuesday they had sequenced the genome of Malassezia globosa, a fungus that grows on the skin of between 50 percent and 90 percent of the population. It causes dandruff and a range of other skin conditions.
(If they are having sex on your head I don't even want to know what other conditions they might be suggesting.) :(

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said their study can shed light on ways to fight not only dandruff, but an infection that can threaten the lives of newborns.
(You don't want to shed any light on them while they are having sex. You might tick them off.)

"A complete genomic sequencing of a Malassezia genome opens tremendous opportunities for researchers to understand the interactions of fungi and humans," said Thomas Dawson, a scientist at P&G Beauty who led the study.
(Opportunities to find out what other kind of critters are having sex on our bodies ?) 

"It's amazing that the understanding of the genetic make-up of a microscopic organism can have broad implications ranging from human health to agricultural science."
(Agriculture, yes. Fungi having sex party's in our food.) 

The team at P&G Beauty, a subsidiary of the company that makes household products ranging from toilet tissue to shampoo, said M. globosa is capable of excreting more than 50 different enzymes that help digest and break down compounds in the hair and scalp.
(Does that mean they clean up after the sex orgies are over with ?) 

"The M. globosa genome sequence also revealed the presence of mating-type genes, providing an indication that Malassezia may be capable of sex," they wrote in their report.
(I guess that is what all that related scalp itch is all about)   :D   (The next time anyone asks you how long it has been since you had sex, just scratch your head and say "I just did".) :P

Other fungi can reproduce sexually, but this particular type had not been known to, Dawson's team said. This means it could find a way to evade dandruff shampoo.
(Having sex cancels the affects of dandruff shampoo ?)

They said dandruff can affect up to 90 percent of people, and that it has been known for more than 100 years that Malassezia can cause dandruff and eczema.
(And wild sex orgies.)

Malassezia fungi also cause systemic infections in newborns, and is related to some fungi that affect plants such as corn.
(Now they are having sex in corn ? I'm not eating corn anymore)   :O

The fungus joins organisms ranging from yeast to rice to human beings that have had their genomes sequenced.
(What are they going to go for next ? Crotch Crabs ?) 

Dawson's team said they grew 10 liters (quarts) of the fungus, "equal to the amount of fungus that would be found on the heads of 10 million people," the company said.
(What on earth would anyone ever do with or why would they ever want 10 quarts of dandruff ?)