Entertaining

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING: Thursday means music and LEGO classes for the kids. CJ built the nice ride above, while Annabelle worked on more pixel art.

Between music in the morning and LEGOs at 2 p.m., we did some math and ran some errands and hung out in the library. About 1 p.m. a parent announced there would be math games in one of the classrooms down the hall. Intrigued, we wandered down and found several board games to choose from, including the classic Milles Bornes (French for "thousand milestones"), which I haven't played in probably 35 years and which CJ and Annabelle have never played.

After today, CJ has still never played it (he chose to go back to the library and do some math games online). Annabelle and I gave it a go, though, along with three other players (all under the age of 12). I fumbled my way through it and, truth be told, didn't enjoy it all that much. I didn't like how much of the game hinged upon having to draw the right card which could come on your next turn or never. The poor kid playing next to me never even got to lay a single card down and get started because he never drew a green light. Brutal. He was a good sport about it tho - mad props to him.

MOISTURE FESTIVAL: As rain cascades in sheets from the sky, it seemed an appropriate night to attend the Moisture Festival.

Held at Hale's Palladium in Ballard (just 5 minutes from our home), it's an old school variety show and new school freak show. ;) Presented as a variety show, each act has a 3-15 minute window in which perform. The festival runs for about 3 weeks, with entertainment changing for each show.

The evening's long list of talented performers at our show included AJ Silver, a world class trick roper with bullwhip artistry. The kids both named him as their favorite act. There was also Bill Robison, a physical comedian; Dana Smith, a "circus arts as accident,"; David Deeble whirlwind display of exotic skills laugh-out-loud commentary;  Eric Schwartz, a really funny dude; Kevin Joyce,  host of the variety show Big Night Out on the Seattle Channel; Lelavision, a couple from Vashon Island combining with home made instruments and performance art. The kids also LOVED Rubberband Boy , from New Zealand. He's the holder of The Guinness World Record for facial contortion and they were thrilled to get keepsake rubber bands from him. We enjoyed Sara Felder, a solo juggler and comedian, and we all appreciated Tank Karo  a dancer turned aerialist who was a wonderment on the trapeze. The house band was Doc Sprinsock and the SANCApators and the emcee was the wildly entertaining Kevin Joyce. Of course, CJ wound up being a part of the show on stage.

The Moisture Festival couldn't be any more awesome or entertaining.
 

CHARACTER: Lately, CJ has been semi obsessed with Shift JIS and ASCII art. Per Wikipedia, "Shift JIS artwork is created from characters within the Shift JIS character set, a super set of ASCII intended for Japanese usage."

Who wouldn't be ultra interested in THAT?! ;)

CJ spends 30+ minutes a day trying to create faces and other artwork using characters. Here's one of his recent creations, the "ROFL-copter."

   ROFL:ROFL:LOL:ROFL:ROFL
                 ____^___
    L         /               \
  LOL===               [] \
    L         \                  \
                 \__________]
                        I     I
                     -----------/

Nice work, CJ!

JUICED UP: Last night while watching the news, CJ learned that Starbucks is using extracts from  cochineal, a bug native to Peru, to color its strawberry drinks. The color, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is extracted from the bug's skin and body, and Starbucks is hardly alone in using it to enhance food color.

For whatever reason, though he's not a Starbucks consumer and he's probably unwittingly ingested a fair amount of cochineal himself in his life, CJ was incensed. He declared, "This madness must be stopped and I am going to help in it. We can't let them get away with this!"

And so, the 8-year-old activist did what he could. First, he hopped online and signed the "Starbucks: Stop using bugs to color you strawberry flavored drinks" petition on Change.org. Then, he took to Facebook to warn his friends of the insect peddling, writing, "Hey, friends, help me stop what Starbucks is doing. They are using Cochineal (a species of Bugs) to color their Strawberry drinks. This must be stopped. Do it for health. Do it for anti-gross!"  And he posted a link to the petition.

Christian and I both told CJ that we'd both personally rather ingest the bug derived coloring than artificial coloring, and that we weren't so stridently anti-cochineal, but that we respected his passionate feelings and actions regarding the topic. Never too young to be an activist. :)