New School

Image credit: NASA HQ

TOUCHDOWN: First thing this morning we watched a Soyuz capsule come floating back down to Earth, landing in a field of what appeared to be wheat. As much as I loved the shuttles, I must say, I love Love LOVE watching a capsule float down from space under the canopy of a parachute. I probably have a penchant for it due to childhood memories of Apollo mission splashdowns.

When I went to the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup last November, Astronaut Doug Wheelock described the differences between taking off and landing in the shuttle vs. the Soyuz. He said takeoff in the capsule atop a rocket was a much smoother, less jarring experience than a shuttle launch. Conversely, the shuttle landings were super smooth, while the Soyuz capsule's controlled crash is less comfortable.

In the photo above, the capsule is obscured due to the dust generated when they hit the ground in a remote area outside the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.

It was interesting watching the ground crew extract the three astro/cosmonauts from the capsule. I couldn't help but compare it to a Cesarean section producting triplets.

The trio looked happy to be back on Earth after 165 days in space. In the NASA photo by Carla Cioffi, you can see Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank, left, Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov, center, and Anatoly Ivanishin sitting in chairs getting their land legs back.

In other NASA news, today shuttle Enterprise flew atop a specially outfitted Boeing 747 over New York City. Naturally, that operation made for some amazing photo opportunities. The pic below is by Robert Markowitz of NASA.

Though Enterprise never flew in space, it was a super important part of the shuttle program.  Constructed without engines or heat shields, it was the first orbiter built, and NASA astronauts used it for performing test flights in the atmosphere. It was originally going to be named Constitution, but a huge and effective letter writing campaign by Star Trek fans changed the course of history!

Leonard "Spock" Nimoy was on hand in 1976 when Enterprise was introduced and he was there in NYC today, to watch it touch down, flashing the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" salute. Excellent.

Enterprise was moved to New York to be installed in Manhattan's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in the not too distant future.

NEW SCHOOL: Today marked the start of a new adventure. For about a year I've been on the email list for the Family Learning Program at Southwest Teen Life Center in West Seattle (2801 SW Thistle, near Chief Sealth High School). I've always been interested in the FLP, but it just hadn't jibed with our schedule - until now.

When perusing their spring quarter offerings, I saw that there was a Bollywood dance class offered at the exact same time as a Scratch programming class, both on Friday mid morning, when we had no other commitments. So, I signed the kids up and today was the first day of school, so to speak.

 We went a little early to allow plenty of time for getting lost. Mercifully, we had no trouble finding the place, and what a place it is. Yet another stunning, enormous Seattle park. Straightaway we noticed eight brand new looking tennis courts - all empty. We happened to have our tennis gear in the car, so we killed 20 minutes playing some pretty bad tennis.

The classes were scheduled to start at 10:45, and so we headed in the community center a few minutes ahead of time. We found the gym, where Annabelle's class was going to be held, and the computer room, where CJ's programming class was going to get underway.

CJ's class was all boys about his age, and he fit right in. :)  Annabelle's class was a mix of boys and girls, with an age range of about 3 years or so, and they looked like they were having all sorts of fun. We already found out that the Bollywood group will be performing at the NW Folklife Festival on Friday, May 25 (!) and participating in a flash mob somewhere in Seattle on May 26. Exciting!

They both really liked their instructors and their classes. In fact, CJ said to me, "That class felt like it was just 15 minutes long!" High praise coming from him. (The class was actually an hour.)

After the classes, we checked out the two playgrounds on site.

We're already looking forward to next Friday!

YET ANOTHER: Late afternoon, we drove down to Columbia City so that Annabelle could participate in a yoga class with her favorite "old"/longtime instructor, Nicole Koleshis.

Nicole was leading a Next Generation Yoga class, teaching others how to teach yoga to children, and she needed some kids' age 5-7 as participants. Annabelle was a more than willing.

As we were leaving, she was raving about how much she enjoys Nicole and yoga class. As I've said here before, it's too bad that weekly activity has fallen by the wayside for the past several months due to scheduling conflicts.

TITANIC: Tonight we watched a two hour documentary on the History channel, Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved, about the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. It was fascinating and educational; the kids were completely rapt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYTHING: It was on this day, Apr 27, 4977 B.C., that the universe was created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler.  

Game On!

JUST DANCE: We started our day out with a rousing hour of "Just Dance" fun. We are now the proud owners of "Just Dance 2" and "Just Dance 3" for Wii.

While it's not Cross Fit or anything near that, it's a good, fun workout. In fact, though we spent an hour going after it this a.m., just after noon Annabelle asked for another round. Excellent!

I challenged the kids to try to improve their scores by being more precise with their movements. I explained to them that with dance routines, it's kind of like doing math with your body. Rhythm has to do with counting and the routine often has patterns that are repeated. Once I got them on board with that, they started to do better, Wii scoreboard wise.
ISLAND TIME: We did some math today (adding and subtracting meters and centimeters into the hundreds), as well as some geography. Today we were studying the "Midwest" states which, oddly enough, include places like Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana. How, by any stretch of the imagination, do those count as WEST states?

I told the kids, all I could figure is back in the old ole days, of the original 13 colonies and such, places west of, say West Virginia, were really pretty "westerny" and over time as the west became wester (?!) the east west became the Midwest.

That's some good learnin' there, right?!

SIGNED, SEALED: CJ got his post birthday thank you cards in the mail today. Addressing the envelopes took almost as long as making the cards, as he's a perfectionist when it comes to penmanship.

CLASSICS: An email from the Library of Congress reminded me that a selection of digitized classic books is available online for use by parents at home as well as by educators in classrooms and libraries.

Since CJ has a 'thing' about the age of, well, things - and the publication dates of books, in particular. Given that, I thought he, especially, might like checking out this resource. http://www.read.gov/books/ There are some pretty remarkable works worth checking out.

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM: Early afternoon we drove down to Sodo and stopped by the Mariners team store. I am putting together a Mariners themed basket for a charity auction to benefit a friend's severely disabled grandson.

Honestly, based on the prices on even clearance stuff at the Mariners' store, you'd think they'd just won the last 10 World Series. Yikes. No wonder it was just us and a dozen or so Japanese tourists in the place. :/

We did buy a sizable gift card for game tickets. It will go nicely with the great bobbleheads (Ichiro, Dave Niehaus and the 116 game season) we have collected, a plush Mariners' moose, a kids' hardback book about King Felix, some other game-day only collectibles, an autographed Alvin "Mr. Mariners" Davis card, some Mariners brand peanuts and Cracker Jacks, a baseball encyclopedia, some Safeco Field soil and more. I would bid on the basket for sure. :)

PUT TO THE TEST: This afternoon, Annabelle and I had a two-hour parent-child Microsoft Playtest on the Microsoft campus. We signed all sorts of stuff saying we wouldn't say a thing about what we saw or did, and so I can't offer any more details except this - our view as we crossed the 520 Bridge back to Seattle from Bellevue.

Not only is Playtesting interesting, you get great swag. Annabelle came home with an XBox game which she LOVES and I got an Amazon gift card. Nice!

Capitol Idea

IN OLY: We spent the better part of our daylight hours in or going to and fro Olympia, our state capitol.

The car time gave the kids a chance to do a lot of reading. They mostly studied up on Pokemon, read several "Time Magazine for Kids" issues and Annabelle's working on a book by Jane Goodall. They also spent some time using the PictoChat feature on their Nindento DSs (DeSes?) to communicate back and forth. Much more fun than just talking to the person sitting next to you in the car, right? ;)

In Olympia, I got to put some elements of the kids' recent geography and math lessons to the test. I had them help me with navigation and directions, and they did really well. I would also quiz them about things like, 'If we're on 14th Ave. and need to get to 22nd, how many blocks do we have to go?" It's so easy to work math problems in to everyday living.

We met a friend in Oly, and got to know our way around the capital and adjacent Lacey lots better. This was as close as we got to the capital today, though - pretty Heritage Park on the north side of it.

By visiting a state of Washington Web site when we got home, we learned that Heritage Park of Heritage Park was part of the vision of architects Walter Wilder and Harry White, who designed the state capitol. Their 1911 master plan for the Capitol Campus called for a park physically and visually connecting the capitol buildings and grounds with the city of Olympia, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. However, it wasn't until 1986 that planning for the park took place, and funding didn't get underway until 1991. Based on what we saw today, they're still working on the grounds.

CLUBBIN' IT: Imagine CJ & Annabelle's happy surprise this afternoon when a couple of packages showed up on the porch addressed to them.

The puffy Manila envelopes had a return address of a PO Box on it and no names or otherwise distinguishing marks. Oh, the intrigue!

They tore into them and found inside a bunch of Mariners' Kids Club swag! They each received a backpack, a hat, a t-shirt, a lanyard, a coupon book (with some significant Safeco Field savings), a baseball themed novella and more. Sweet! This is the first year I've signed them up for the Kids Club and what a deal it has proven to be (especially since I got it for around half off through a special one day only deal)!

THANK YOU: CJ got busy on some post-birthday present thank you notes this afternoon. I asked him to hand craft them featuring some shift JIS art, since he's such a fan of that avenue of expression. He came up with this face:

(｡◕‿◕｡)

That was the easy part for him. Then he let the whole folding paper, cutting paper, gluing paper process get the best of him for a bit, before rallying and figuring it out. His written sentiments on the cards were short but heartfelt. Tomorrow, I'll have him get the notes in envelopes and into a mailbox.

Mining the Heavens

TO BOLDLY GO: This morning was interesting, to say the least. Off and on, but mostly on, we spent well over an hour watching a press conference from The Museum of Flight. (You can see a video of it here: Planetary Resources presser. The presentation included a pretty cool trailer explaining who they are and what they hope to do. Their intention is to start mining asteroids for resources, including mineral$ and water (which is huge, for if humans are to push space exploration further, we need not only water to drink, but the hydrogen and oxygen within to both fuel our rockets and breathe).  For over 60 years, it's an idea that's been bandied about in sci-fi stories. Now, Planetary Sciences hopes to turn fiction into fact.

Bellevue-based Planetary Sciences says they mean business. They are well funded and plan to start launches withing a couple of years. It was made clear today they are not simply an ideas only or "paper company." The plan is to use robotic missions to harness resources on relatively near-to-Earth asteroids.

The press conference was absolutely fascinating - potentially a game changer/paradigm shift when it comes to space, the next great frontier. Listening, one couldn't help but conjure up images of a Klondike-style gold rush - people risking their fortunes and futures in hopes of cashing in on caches to be discovered. Exciting times, to be sure.

Of course just watching the action via the Internet wasn't enough. We wanted to get our piece of the pie, so to speak. So, we headed for the Museum of Flight early afternoon. We arrived a bit after 1 p.m. for what was advertised as a 1:30 book signing start time. It started a little after 2, but that's OK. We know how to kill time in line, and there's lots to look at at the museum. For instance, while we were there, we had to visit CJ's favorite map.

Here's a photo of Annabelle watching Dr. Peter Diamandis sign a copy of his book Abundance: The Future Is Better than You Think.  Just to Diamandis' right is Astronaut Tom Jones, a veteran of four space shuttle missions. He asked Annabelle what she wanted to do when she's older and without hesitation she said, "Be an astronaut." At that, Jones flipped open his book to the photo section and was kind enough to point out to Annabelle the female astronauts he'd flown with on missions.

DO THE PONY: This morning, thanks to a MPA reader (hi Undine!), CJ and Annabelle were thrilled to discover the existence of the General Zoi's Pony Creator, a cool, customizable My Little Pony Generator.

They each wasted no time in creating their own little ponies, complete with "cutie marks" on their haunches. Here's Annabelle's creation ...

And "brony" CJ's creation ...

Pretty fierce, no? That's the "Anonymous" clan's flag as the cutie mark, in case you were wondering.

SOUTH CENTRAL: The kids continued work in a book about geography that's very U.S. heavy. Today's lesson was about the South Central U.S. We learned all sorts of things today, including that the magnolia is the state flower of Louisiana.

We also learned that Magazine Mountain in got its name from when French explorers who were travelling through the area when a landslide occurred on the mountain. Apparently the noise from the landslide was so great that one explorer described it as the sound of an ammunition magazine exploding.

I tried to provide a fitting soundtrack as the kids worked. While they toiled on the state of Texas it was "Deep in the Heart of Texas." As they learned about Oklahoma, I relied on Rogers and Hammerstein's song of the same name, of course. After that, I thought I heard Annabelle say they were reading up on Kansas, so I played "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas (I know, a bit of a stretch). When I heard her talking about Little Rock, I realized she had pronounced it ArKansas, so I apologized and told them I didn't know any Arkansas-y songs. I need to look into that.

TO THE ARCTIC: I keep forgetting to post that last week we went to a members only 3-D IMAX preview of "To the Arctic" at the Pacific Science Center. The 45-minute documentary features beautiful photography and a haunting soundtrack by Sir Paul McCartney and Steve Wood. You can see a lovely trailer here, and "To the Arctic's" corresponding Web site gives you a good sense for what it's about.

You can read an article recently published by "To the Arctic's" writer and photographer Florian Schulz here.

The takeaway from the movie: Unless they miraculously adapt at an unrealistic rate, polar bears are screwed. Their ice is disappearing, and with their ice goes their lives. Naturally, many other species will be screwed, too, due to the whole domino effect.

Happy Birthday Huskies

CAMPUS VISIT: Saturday morning presented a bright blue sky, which meant no way could we stay inside. There were so many choices of places to go and things to do, it was hard to pick just one, but we settled on Husky Fest at the University of Washington. We figured it would HAVE to be a pretty big whoop-ti-do, because how often does the UW turn 150 years old?

Right off the bat, we met Harry the Husky. I must say, that is one fine looking costume, even up close.

Harry was at the kids' activity tent. There, CJ and Annabelle crafted very festive headbands which they wore all day as we toured the campus.

With bright blue skies and the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the campus was visually stunning during our visit.

Though it doesn't show in these photos, Mt. Rainier looked majestic rising to the south of Drumheller Fountain.

One thing that DOES show up though is the crane that's part of Husky Stadium renovations.

 

The College of the Environment had a bunch of neat displays, some inside Johnson Hall, others outside in a courtyard. At an astronomy table, we picked up all sorts of NASA swag (DVDs, posters and such). Sweet!

At a booth with a demonstration of the typical rainfall distribution patterns in the state, CJ and Annabelle were invited by *the* chief climatologist of the state of Washington to participate in an experiment. By doing to, they learned which spots in the Evergreen state get the most annual rainfall.

The climatologist told us about CoCoRaHS, which is the acronym for The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. We'll definitely be setting up a rain gauge in our yard and contributing our data for science.

One science professor had a neat-o display - it was a couple dozen mirrors mounted to a wood plane which was tilted just so to catch the sunlight. The rays then bounced off the mirrors and burned up items on a mid-air barbecue grill. Nothing like the smell of a melting GI Joe. :)

Just north of the Mary Gates building, we came across some sidewalk chalk artwork. It explored themes of evolving communications and computation. We took this photo featuring an abacus, calculator and personal computer, for Grandpa R, a UW math major.

Inside the Mary Gates building, there's a gorgeous view of the study area from the first floor landing.

In the building, we toured the (very small) Living Computer Museum Exhibition. It wasn't big, but the kids got to see a couple of vintage computers, including this Digital Equipment Corporation microcomputer: the PDP-8/e. They also got to use a big ol' teletype. They thought that was pretty cool.

Just before 1 p.m., we headed over to the Physics and Astronomy building, hoping to catch a planetarium show. It was a great opportunity, because normally the planetarium is only open to school groups, by reservation only. Happily, we got in on the show, and what a show it was! The universe in hi-def! 

After the program, CJ rushed over to the presenter to ask him about the hardware and software used to run the show. Imagine our surprise when the man told us that we could access it with our PCs at home. It's a Microsoft Research product called WorldWide Telescope, and I'd encourage you to check out the Web site!  

Our last stop on our campus tour was breathtaking Suzzallo Library. Named for a former UW president, the oldest part of the library was build in 1926.  It had been expanded several times over the years and the structure is stunning before you even set foot inside.

Once inside, the grand staircase is a sight to behold.

I wanted to see the storied Graduate Reading Room on the third floor of the library's western front. Its dimensions are 250 by 52-feet, with 65-foot high ceilings and every inch of it is impressive. Oak bookcases are topped with hand-carved friezes of native plants. The timber-vaulted ceiling is stenciled and soaring leaded windows have stained glass panels  reproducing Renaissance watermarks (per Wikipedia).

There is a hanging glass globe at each end of the room. The globes have the name of European explorers painted on them.

Annabelle grabbed a book off the shelf about Pacific Northwest fish and started browsing.

All in all, it was a wonderful outing; we saw so many gorgeous spots and learned lots, to boot!

MY LITTLE BRONY: This weekend CJ declared his desire to go to Toys R Us to spend some birthday cash. Unfortunately, there's no longer a Toys R Us within 10 miles of us - the closest one is Bellevue. Given that, we decided to make an Outing out of the trip. Christian found a park not too far from the Toys R Us - Bellevue Downtown Park. It's a 20-acre oasis featuring grassy expanses.

There was also a 240-foot wide waterfall that drains into a reflecting pool.  Pretty!

I'm happy to report, CJ was able to find the toy of his dreams at Toys R Us. He was initially super embarrassed to tell us what he was after, but finally broke down and blurted out, "I'm a brony!" I had NO idea what that meant, so he had to explain. Apparently a brony is a boy who likes My Little Pony. LOL.

Meet Princess Celestia ...

STRAWBERRY: Since it was so nice out, we spent some time in the yard today. The kids blew billions of bubbles ...

and Kirby enjoyed some sun.

We went on a two-park walk this afternoon. Unfortunately, the fun was cut short when CJ had a little scooter wipe out and he wound up landing mostly on his face. :/