Love and Rockets

THE GIFT OF ART:  As I've posted here multiple times before, we're active in a neighborhood "Buy Nothing" group, swapping goods and services with our neighbors all with no money involved.

Yesterday a woman in the group posted that she'd found out a great friend of hers had been abandoned by her husband right after moving cross-country to Alabama. The friend was down, of course, and our neighbor wanted to help bring a few smiles. Our neighbor said she and her friend periodically joke that some day they'll be old ladies traveling the country in a car full of cats, and asked if anyone in the group would draw a picture depicting that adventure.

Annabelle was up to the challenge and produced the above artwork, in full color on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. The woman was THRILLED. I hope it makes her friend feel a bit better.

We are always encouraging Annabelle to share her art. Last night, we were at a restaurant and Annabelle and another woman happened to be wearing the same hoody - one that says "Team Unicorn" on it. They complimented each other on their great taste in clothing. :) Then Annabelle and I started talking about what sports a team of unicorns might play. We laughed about what could, and couldn't work in soccer, and Annabelle produced this drawing.

She signed it and then went and found the woman in the unicorn hoody and gave it to her. Boy, was that woman thrilled. She said 'thank you' to Annabelle repeatedly, and even offered to buy her ice cream.

Later, the woman reciprocated, giving this drawing to Annabelle.

Pretty sweet!

ELEMENTAL: Yesterday, we learned there are four new elements on the periodic table. Previously, they were known as elements 113, 115, 117 and 118. Today, we learned their provisional names by watching a video from The Scientist. https://youtu.be/3CVy_fRJE_w

ROCKET SHOP: We continue working on refurbishing a rocket play structure. Yesterday the kids and I gave it its second coat of paint. Today, we applied a few stickers.

Everything's better with NASA!

Next stop, Mars!

This and That

   Photo: NASA

NEW DIGS: Yesterday, astronaut Jeff Williams got to explore a strange new world - the latest, innovative expansion module just added to the International Space Station.

Back on April 8, BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, was launched in the 'trunk' of a Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon rocket. It arrived at the ISS two days later, and was installed on May 16.

For the next two years, experimental BEAM is set to demonstrate the overall performance and capability of expandable habitats. NASA projects the ISS crew will enter BEAM between 12 and 14 times during its stay. (At this point it's more of a walk in closet than an additional bedroom.)

Williams and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka entered BEAM for the first time on June 6. They collected air samples and begin downloading data from sensors on the dynamics of BEAM’s expansion. Williams reported BEAM looked “pristine,” and noted it was cold inside. However, there was no evidence of any condensation on its inner surfaces.

Back on May 28, we watched BEAM undergo expansion. It was a bit like watching paint dry. Nothing happened fast or dramatically. But it was also compelling in its own way, knowing history was being made. Here's a MUCH condensed version of BEAM expanding.

https://youtu.be/aciRYFKdaRU

It kinds of reminds me of watching good ol' Jiffy Pop popcorn on the stovetop.
BENCHED: A week or so ago, we picked up a free, 'in distress' park bench from a member of our "Buy Nothing" group on Facebook. It was rough, to be sure, but we saw its potential. Our bench is the front one in the photo below.

Christian and CJ took it completely apart. We used a wire brush to scrape rust off the metal legs and back.

 So. Much. Sanding.

We bought new boards for the seat, as well as new hardware to fasten them to the legs and back.  

Yesterday, we put it all back together and stained it. It's a beauty now, and headed to a community garden on Queen Anne hill. 

SYMPHONIC:  This afternoon, CJ and Annabelle were able to sit in on a couple of special presentations from a small traveling group of Seattle Symphony musicians.

The first half hour was "The Science of Sound." The last half of the presentation was all about hands on with instruments. I'll let Annabelle tell you all about it. ...

Today, a couple of presenters came to our school for a symphony workshop. The workshop was pretty short, but great for kids. Most of the workshop was compromised of teaching kids about how instruments and sound waves work. Since I already knew that kind of stuff, that part wasn’t that exciting. The part I liked, however, was the part at the end where we made our own instruments out of PVC pipe, funnels, hoses, and other objects. Many of the instruments actually sounded pretty good! It was fun, even though mine didn’t work. I’m very happy our school is doing more hands-on stuff!

BEATING THE HEAT: Sunday it was 90 F or so. Hot enough to make us head for Seattle Center and the fun fountains after dinner.

We started at the International Fountain, which always has a fun soundtrack to go with its water "fireworks."

And we wound up at the wading pool between The Vera Project and Key Arena. The dogs were interested, but didn't go in.

SPECIAL SPEAKERS: This morning, CJ and Annabelle had a chance to learn a lot more about a remarkable non profit organization thanks to a pair of guest speakers visiting their "social issues" class. I'll let CJ tell you more about it. ...

On June 7th, two spokespeople from Agros International arrived at our Social Issues class. Agros International is a non-profit organization that, according to their website, their mission is to to see rural poor families own agricultural land, attain economic self-sufficiency, realize their God-given potential, and pass on to future generations the values and resources that enable them to flourish. You may have heard stories of non-profit organizations donation food and resources to villages in need, hoping to help them get out of poverty. The problem is making sure the village properly manages those resources. Agros, in contrast to other non-profits, will give the community the food and resources, and stay with them for about 5-9 years to help strengthen and stabilize the community, and eventually get the community to a point where they can operate independently from Agros.

During our class, we had the chance to ask the spokesperson, Kelly, multiple different questions. One question I asked Kelly was how long she had been working at Agros International. Kelly said that she actually had only been working with Agros since October, apparently making her one of the newest people to work with them. I also asked Kelly about the ways she has been working with Agros. She said that she had been working as a spokesperson, as she was doing right there, and her primary job was as a "grant writer and enforcer." This apparently means that there is a certain group that Agros notifies with progress monthly about advancements in the village. However, being a grant manager means that Kelly has to make sure that Agros also notifies the group about bad things that happen in the village. Lastly, I asked Kelly is Agros would assist a village post-independence if the village was having serious problems. Kelly summed up her response as "Agros helps, but we are not a safety net."

I enjoyed Kelly's visit to our classroom. Visit https://www.agros.org/ to learn more about Agros International.

Tilt

GAMERS:  On Friday, we took a field trip to Tacoma to attend the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show. It's always big fun. 

We arrived at the Tacoma Convention Center just after noon, when the show's doors opened. 

Up first in the exhibition hall were some brand new pinball games. 

 The KISS one was certainly colorful.

 And the Game of Thrones machine was attractive droves of fans.

 There were a couple of (new) Star Trek pins.

After perusing the latest and greatest, we made our way over to the classics. Along the way we ran into what was billed as the world's largest pinball machine, Hercules by Atari, from 1979. A pool ball was the pinball. It was hard to even get it out onto the playing field, it was so heavy!

We saw a number of great old machines we'd never seen before. Several of them had a very 'mod' look about them. Check out Beat Time, obviously a bit of a riff on The Beatles.

Loved the artwork on the Faces game!

Crescendo was pretty groovy, too.

Isn't this bumper below a beauty?

 CJ's favorite pinball machine of the day was Big Ben.

 He went back to it multiple times. 

 I loved the bumpers on a pin called Butterflies.

 And who wouldn't want some Flower Power when playing pinball?

We always love checking out the space-related games, of course. Skylab is a classic!

 Mars Trek was new to us. It was an unforgiving game, reminding me that NASA engineers always say, "Mars is hard."

  The game below preceded the movie by a number of years.

There were plenty of sports-themed pinball machines, as well. 

Knowing he was in the hospital at the time, I lingered over the Muhammad Ali one for a long time thinking about The Greatest. 

 Sadly, he died later that night.

This hockey themed machine was a beauty!

       

At the end of one row, a wildly psychedelic themed machine was in pieces, unfortunately. Loved the graphics on Time Fantasy!

And you can't have a pinball show with out a Pinball Wizard to play!

There were video game arcade cabinets, as well.  Bagman was a new one on me.

 CJ and Annabelle really enjoyed this old game.

CJ waited to play Donkey Kong. And waited, and waited and waited some more. Turns out the guy playing the game was a "professional," or so he told us.

 CJ eventually settled for Donkey Kong Jr.

Speaking of CJ, I'll let him tell you a bit more about the show.

The annual Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show is an event in Tacoma, Washington, which, according to the event's website, features over 400 pinball and arcade machines from the 1950s to today, tournaments, world record high score attempts, vendors, seminars, guest speakers, raffles and prizes. The event ran from June 3 to June 5, and we went on the first day of the event. Compared to last year's Pinball & Arcade Show, there were several more pinball machines this time, with most of the arcade machines put in back. As I mentioned previously, some of the pinball machines are very old, dating back to the 1950s, while some of them were produced very recently, such as the Star Trek Pro machine and KISS machine. At the show, one of the pinball machines was Atari's Hercules, which was apparently the largest pinball machine ever made. However, Hercules is notorious for requiring constant maintenance, making it undesirable to keep at most arcades and events.

6/6: This day marks two anniversaries of note. Most notably, it is the anniversary of D-Day. We watched a short PBS video about the event. The kids' eyes were pretty wide when they heard how many men were lost that day.

June 6 is also the anniversary of the Great Seattle Fire, a very not great event. 

This photo shows the start of the Great Seattle Fire, looking south on 1st Ave. near Madison St.