Trivial Pursuit

FUNHOUSE: CJ and Annabelle each had a few minutes to mess around with Photobooth software and camera in the school library. Posted here are a few of their creations. I've dubbed the one above "Leno."

And here's a Glow Bee ...

Up next is CJ in "Talk Two Much" ...

Lastly, it's "Tilt a Whirl." Actually makes me a little dizzy to look at it. 

HOUSE HUNTERS: This morning the kids and I went on a mission. A friend is moving to town and she needs to find an apartment. 'Cept it's hard for her to find an apartment because she hasn't moved here yet. And so, I reminded her I'm a Professional Mystery Shopper :) and volunteered to do a reconnaissance mission for her.

The kids and I headed down to the Des Moines area. We don't know those digs at all, so it was good for us to explore and learn, and it was more practice learning about maps and directions for the kids.

I gave the CJ and Annabelle some tips about what to look for while we were checking places out and they did a pretty good job. CJ, especially, took it seriously, jotting down notes about various pros and cons of places we saw.

Unfortunately, I don't think we found The Place today, so another hunting session could very well be in our future.

Q&A:  All day (and night) every day (and night) I am questioned. No, not in the "where were you on the night of August 18?" interrogation-type of questions. I'm asked for answers to questions on a wide range of subject matter. It's like I'm a contestant on a never ending trivia game show. CJ asks about 80 percent of the questions, I'd estimate.

Today, he was spitting them out at such a rapid-fire pace on our drive to LEGO class, I decided for 5 minutes I'd jot them down. They were:

"Can you tell the temperature based on crickets chirping?"
"How do slugs move?"
"How long has the Tootsie Pop ad been on?"
"Do you think we could use Mario Paint to do (a version of) 'Somebody that I used to know?' "
and last but not least,
"Back in the early days, 'gay' used to mean happy, right? Why did it change?"

Did I mention these pinball ponderings were all in a 5-minute span?

What does he think I am, the Human Google?

And so, while he was in LEGO class, I used the real Google to get the boy some answers.

Regarding crickets chirping as a temperature indicator, I went to what has to be an authority on the topic: the Library of Congress. On one of their Everyday Science pages they report the answer is "Yes!"

Per the LOC, "The frequency of chirping varies according to temperature. To get a rough estimate of the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37. The number you get will be an approximation of the outside temperature."

Well shut the door! How 'bout that?! One question answered.

Next up, how do slugs move? Well, according to Wikipedia and a handful of other sources I read, a slug "moves by rhythmic waves of muscular contraction on the underside of its foot." (Keep in mind, their foot is nothing like a human foot.)

Graphic: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Slug_parts.png

And in case you were wondering, you know that sticky trail the slug leaves? Well that mucus helps prevent damage to the slug's foot tissues. So there you have it, answer number two.

Third up, regarding the Tootsie Pop commercial question, I went straight to the source, of course. Per the Tootsie Pop people, the commercial featuring Mr. Owl, the too-impatient-to-lick spokesperson, first debuted in 1970. The kids watched the original ad, and then they watched a whole series of commercials (newer ones, as well as ones from around the world).

By the way, if you, unlike Mr. Owl, have had the patience to actually lick a Tootsie Pop all the way to the center, you can go to the Tootsie Pop Web site and download a (PDF) Certificate of Achievement called the Clean Stick Award!

And for those of you geeky types who love science (We do! We do!) there is a page devoted to The Licking Machine and Other Scientific Endeavors! It features scientific experiments involving Tootsie Pops. How fun is that?! You can even take a (virtual) factory tour of the Tootsie Roll/Pop HQ, which the kids both did.

As a sub-question on this topic, CJ also asked me if I thought there were any parodies of this commercial. I told him I was sure there had to be, since it was so widely known, and often parodies involve memes with a broad knowledge/audience. I wasn't a bit surprised when I checked YouTube and found a plethora of parodies (none of the ones I watched were particularly funny, IMHO).

And now, we turn our attentions to CJ's question about the infectious "Somebody that I Used to Know" song and making a Mario Paint version. I predicted in the car to CJ that someone had already taken that project on and that we'd find it on YouTube. After a quick search I found it here.

In case you're not familiar with the ditty, here's a link to the official music video for it. It's an interesting artsy concept (if you wait until about a minute in). Warning: If you do watch, you probably won't be able to get the tune out of your head.

And lastly, in regards to his gay old time question, that one was a bit harder to find a legit answer to and, unfortunately, the network security at the kids' school library would not let me find an answer to that question.

Per Wiki, "The word "gay" arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source.[1] For most of its life in English, the word's primary meaning was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy." Wiki goes on to explain (in great detail) how it morphed over the years to its current definitions and connotations. It's interesting reading.

COUNT BOEING IN: While SpaceX still waits to get Dragon to the ISS, meanwhile, other commercial space companies are gaining ground. Today, a NASA press release announced that Boeing successfully completed a second parachute drop test for its Crew Space Transportation (CST) spacecraft yesterday.

It's part of their effort to develop commercial crew transportation capabilities that could carry U.S. astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station.

The capsule (CST-100) was lifted by a helicopter to about 14,000 feet over the Delamar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo, Nev. Per NASA, "A drogue parachute deployment sequence was initiated, followed by deployment of the main parachute. The capsule descended to a smooth ground landing, cushioned by six inflated air bags. The test demonstrated the performance of the entire landing system."

More about NASA's Commercial Crew program can be found here: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html