Game Board & Double Bill

ON BOARD: For the past couple of months, we've helped create a bulletin board birthdays at the kids' learning center. Last month we had a Sasquatch skiing, the month before it was a scarecrow scene. This month, we struggled to come up with an idea, and finally hit upon basing it on the iconic Candy Land game.

I worked on making the game path (a whole bunch of colored squares), while Annabelle worked on characters. CJ did a lot of cutting out for us.

Below is a slightly blurry photo of the finished product. It measures about 6 by 4 feet, I think.

People's birthdays are listed on lollipops and fudge pops and the game playing pieces. 

DOUBLE FEATURE: Thursday evening, the four of us went to two movies. 

Initially, we were all going to go to Living Computer: Museum + Labs for their first Thursday documentary. However, a few days ago, I received an email letting us know Annabelle and a chaperone were invited to The Museum of Flight that same night for a free screening of "Hidden Figures," a story about women of color who worked for NASA as "human computers" back during the Mercury and Apollo era.  

So, Christian and CJ went to LCM, and Bee and I went to MoF.

I'll let CJ tell you about the movie they saw

 C♀DE: Debugging the Gender Gap is a 78-minute long documentary that, according to a press kit from the documentary's website, exposes the dearth of American female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gender gap and digital divide. To put it in Layman's terms, C♀DE is a documentary about women and minorities in the software and coding industry, and many of the problems they face in their work environment.

I went with my dad to see the film on what was probably my gazillionth visit to the Living Computers Museum + Labs. Before seeing the film, I was told that it would be about women in the software industry, but I was not prepared to be as inspired or offended as I was by the end of the film.

In the film, we are told that coding is all around us, in our cell phones, our transit systems, our computers, and even in things like pacemakers (C♀DE does not specifically list those devices. Those are just what comes to mind when I think of important things that use coding in the modern day). According to the press kit, by 2020, there will be one million unfilled software engineering jobs in the USA. However, a disproportionately large number of software engineers in the modern day are men. Several cultural stereotypes, mindsets, misconceptions, and plain bigotry have all gotten in the way of countless women and people of color who want to get in to the software industry.

One thing I learned while watching C♀DE is that during the 1980s, many girls in American schools developed a mindset that being proficient at math (and more specifically, computer science) made you unattractive, and that only being "okay" at math and computer science (somehow) made you more attractive. If I remember correctly, this dealt a significant blow to the role of women in the software and coding industry, the effects of which can be seen to this day.

Also, it is very, *very* easy to get offended by some of the things seen in C♀DE (assuming you are not a misogynistic person). For example, at the 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon in San Diego, attendees were told a misogynistic "joke" in the form of TitStare, a fictional app revolving around looking at creepy pictures of women's breasts. Perceiving ideas and concepts like TitStare to be funny is probably a result of misogynism in programming culture, which had just reared its ugly head to the public view.

C♀DE is definitely worth a watch, and, assuming the link is not dead, can be watched online at http://www.codedoc.co/watch-the-film/ (Possibly NSFW. Contains strong language and sexual references).

 You can also watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/8VVb6M8pTvE
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8VVb6M8pTvE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'll have Annabelle submit a review of "Hidden Figures" for tomorrow's blog post. I can predict with confidence that it will be a glowing review!

Mysterious

IT'S ELEMENTARY:  Yesterday we headed to the Pacific Science Center to see the ending-soon "International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes."

We bought our tickets, headed over to the area of the exhibit, and turned back around, in search of a refund. There was an hour-long line outside, in the (literally) freezing cold. We weren't expecting or dressed for that, so it was a no go.

What a difference a day makes. Many, MANY people had yesterday off due to New Year's Day falling on a Sunday, and apparently they all went to Pacific Science Center. Today ... crickets! We practically had the place to ourselves. Hooray!

The first part of the exhibit was about the author of the series. It featured some original ink-on-paper penned pages from early Sherlock Holmes mysteries written by Conan Doyle.

When we entered the exhibit, we were given mystery 'passports' of sorts. There were tasks to complete along the way, all of which (if you completed them properly) helped you solve a mystery.

Below, CJ and Annabelle listen to a message from Sherlock Holmes instructing them about what to look for as they toured various evidence and crime scenes.

This scene prepared visitors to hone their observation skills. Sometimes things are hiding in plain sight.

From there, it was on to the crime scene. There were clues aplenty, but some extraordinarily subtle.

The exhibition was super interactive and educational. We learned about everything from bullet trajectory to blood splatters.

Elaborate displays let us analyze footprint and drag marks.

And piecing back together a busted up bust of Napoleon helped offer more clues.

Following is Annabelle's review ...

Sherlock Holmes is having part of it’s international exhibition at the Pacific Science Center. The exhibit is about how Conan Doyle’s stories affected science and culture. The main part of the exhibit was meant to feel like Victorian London, which they achieved by making the exhibit pretty dark. It was very interactive, with a huge display for the “crime scene”. They had stations where you made a rubbing of a plant found at the scene, a stamp so you can compare the blood splatter to the type of wound it would have come from, and a cool contraption with rotating “shoe wheels” to see what the tracks leading away from the scene would have been caused by. It’s fun to try and figure out what’s wrong with the police’s report and what they actually got right (and, as in any good detective story, the police are usually wrong). It’s pretty fun to figure out what really happened, and it makes you feel like part of the story. It can be pretty dark (as in the plot, not the surroundings), so I wouldn’t recommend it to young kids, but it’s still fun. I would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries or is a big fan of Sherlock, because there are some easter eggs for fans of the originals, such as a character’s hat from one of his stories. It’s a great exhibit and I’m excited to see what Pacific Science Center has in store next.

And here's what CJ had to say ...

My family very frequently visits the Pacific Science Center, a scientific museum close to our house. Today, we visited PacSci (a common nickname for the Science Center) for their current exhibit, The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. In case you do not know, Sherlock Holmes is a character created in 1886 by Arthur Conan Doyle, an author and physician from Scotland. Conan Doyle was growing tired of clichéd crime stories found in "penny dreadfuls" and such, which were often cheaply produced and purchased, but usually extremely predictable and often following a formula. If I remember correctly, when Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes for his stories, he wanted to make something more original (for example: Having cases be different than what they first seem to be, having the criminal do something seemingly impossible, etc). Sherlock Holmes, in Conan Doyle's stories, is a private detective with an uncanny ability to infer several details about someone's past. What Conan didn't know is that over a century later, Sherlock Holmes would be, as the exhibit's website puts it, one of the most inspiring and influential characters of all time. At the exhibit, visitors go through a newly-made "case" where they must help Sherlock Holmes solve a case involving, among other things, a seedpod, a shattered bust of Napoleon, and a man who supposedly murdered his wife and daughter.

More specifically, a man from Richmond named "Mr. Persano", after inhaling poisonous fumes from a burning seedpod, allegedly murdered his family and proceeded to try and bury them at the river near his house. While the police department is reaching their presumptive conclusion, you have to help Sherlock Holmes get a better look into the scene, and from there, reach an informed conclusion.

For example, you can go to a nearby (fake, of course) slaughterhouse to get a look at various types of blood stains. You must determine which stain matches the spatter present at the crime scene. Afterwards, you can get a rubbing of a seedpod present at the scene, and try and match it up with seeds from other poisonous plants at a nearby garden. There is an odd track in the sand from Mr. Persano's house to the river, which the police determine to be his tracks from allegedly dragging corpses in the sand to the river. Strangely, Sherlock built a "stepping machine" composed of a wheel with several shoes attached to it, so you can make a track in the sand similar to the track in the sand at Mr. Persano's house. At the end of the museum, you discover that Mr. Persano actually did not kill his wife and daughter, and broke open the Napoleon bust at the scene using a garden tool. If I remember correctly, Persano was trying to get a badge inside the bust to prove something, and he sent his family to hide in the shed nearby, creating the tracks in the sand. As it turns out, the police's conclusion is incorrect. SOURCES: http://sherlockholmesexhibition.com/

Below is a link to a podcast all about the exhibition. 

https://soundcloud.com/pacsci/the-international-exhibition-of-sherlock-holmes-now-open

While at Seattle Center, I had to take some photos of the Space Needle, of course.

Iconic eye candy.

So Long, 2016

SABERS UP: Friday evening, we headed to Seattle Center for a special send off. It was time to say goodbye to Carrie Fisher, who passed on Dec. 27, 2016. She was a phenomenal author, actress, comedienne, and fearless advocate for people with mental heath and addiction issues. Fisher was most famous for portraying Pricess Leia in the Star Wars franchise movies. That's how I first met and fell in love with her. :)

Friday evening there was a light saber salute to Fisher at (fittingly) Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. We got there about 7:15 and milled around until the moment of silence at 7:30 p.m.

 Even the Stormtroopers had a memorial set up for the princess.

 At 7:30, the crowd of about 150 grew quiet for a time of reflection and remebrance.

 Shortly after, it was sabers up time to celebrate Fisher's life.

It was a sweat, sentimental time, with people of all ages coming together to celebrate a bright light and brilliant soul.

Members of Garrison Titan, Washington's 501st Legion, were on hand. We've seen them everywhere from the Museum of Flight to Safeco Field over the years!

TO THE ANIMALS: We had a few free passes for the Woodland Park Zoo we had to use before the end of the year, so on New Year's Eve, that's where we headed.

We entered at the West Gate, which meant we saw penguins first, as they're right inside the gate.

They didn't seem to mind the cold of the afternoon.

From there, we wandered toward the Tropical Rain Forest. Almost instantly, we encountered a jaguar on the prowl.

 It was energetically stalking around its enclosure.

This lovely creature was pacing the entire time we watched. I wished it had more room to roam, to be sure. According to the zoo's website, they have a male and female jaguar; because these animals are naturally very solitary, they are rotated in the exhibit so you will not see them together.

In the wild, they eat deer, peccaries, monkeys, tapirs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, small rodents and domestic stock. Amazingly, they can survive on anything from herd animals to insects. At the zoo, they eat beef, mutton, chicken, rabbit, beef knuckle bones and commercially prepared feline diet, ground meat and vitamins.

In the wild, jaguars live about 11 years; in zoos, it's up to 22 years in zoos. So, a longer, but much different life, I'm sure, in captivity. 

Here are a few things Annabelle had to say about our zoo visit: "The jaguar was prowling the exhibit, and it was beautiful! It was making loops around its enclosure, and it was almost posing for photos. After that we checked out the other exhibits in the tropical rain forest area, including monkeys and very brightly colored birds. The other notable thing we saw in the jungle area was the Gorillas and the zoo’s new baby gorilla Yola. She was very playful and was walking around the enclosure the first time we saw her, but was curled up in the corner for heat when we walked around the second time."

This lovely gorilla was laying right up next to the glass, but avoiding eye contact.

Meanwhile, the one pictured below was facing the glass, looking at everyone and heavenward.

 Out of nowhere, a little gorilla appeared. It was baby Yola!  Yola is a Hausa name that means "firefly." Her mother is Nadiri, one of the gorillas at the Seattle zoo.

We didn't cover a lot of ground at the zoo. We sent more time in front of just a few exhibits. One pretty thing we saw in the Rain Forest exhibit was the golden lion tamarin monkey. It was hard getting photos, as the humidity in there kept fogging up my lens!

Outside, we loved watching a sloth bear clamber about. 

 He even stood up on his hind legs for a bit. He looked like an oversized Muppet! 

 One more gorilla (parting) shot. :)