Getting Ready

PROVISIONAL: The Great Eclipse is closer and closer, and we spent today getting ready. Packing, and laying in supplies, which included everything from gasoline and flat tire fixer to Moon Pies and Sunny Delite. You know, all of the essentials!

Christian and the kids will strike out for points south at the crack o' dawn tomorrow, while I hold down the fort here with three dogs. Not sure whose assignment will be more challenging. 

We have been reading traffic reports all week and they are ugly, at best. Fingers crossed and hoping for some sort of miracle. The forecast is promising at this point, for the 10:21 a.m totality event! 

This cool video does a great job of explaining the phenomenon and getting us amped up for Monday!

IT'S A SIGN: Yesterday, we went to Wal-Mart and scored a couple of treasures. We had gone there to pick up a cute little billboard that I know we'll use lots for our many events.

 Cute, isn't it? (And, apparently, effective. The Seahawks won last night.)

An impulse buy was this ...

because everyone needs a panda mask.

When Annabelle and I saw the bin of them in the store, I knew we were going home with one. They had a rabbit (kind of scary, its ears were too short), a yellow bear, some kind of dog, and some cute sloth masks. We came home with the one and only panda one left.

Turns out these "Maskimals" are kind of a thing - nearly sold out nationwide. The one we scored was only $19, but they're being resold online for $70. Yowza. I should have bought them ALL!!

Movie and More

FLY-IN MOVIE: This evening, we headed to The Museum of Flight for a movie. The show was outdoors, in the museum's huge Aviation Pavilion. 

The screen was huge - nearly as tall as the tail of the 787 it was next to!

We went in and set up our chairs ...

and then we walked around the pavilion a bit.

The kids had fun with the statues on site.

Below they're imitating "the shooter," who helps aircraft launch from ships.

 And here's CJ doing his best D.B. Cooper impersonation. 

They explored the new kids' play area, complete with an Alaska Airlines plane. 

 CJ tried to refuel the aircraft.

 And they learned they're a bit too big for the TSA station.

The time we were there made for some pretty lighting on the planes.

Have I mentioned how much I miss having a real camera? I was stuck with just my cell phone tonight.

But back to the movie. ... 

Spare Parts is a 2015 film directed by Sean McNamara,  based on the Wired Magazine article "La Vida Robot" by Joshua Davis, about the true story of a group of students from a mainly Latino high school, who won the first place over M.I.T. in the 2004 MATE ROV competition.

Here's a trailer for the movie: https://youtu.be/aozTwsSQ_sI

UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER:  Unsettling encounter this morning. The kids and I were checking out a park near our new house for the very first time - Skyway Park. 

Skyway Park is located in an unincorporated urban area west of Lake Washington that is bordered by Seattle to the north, Tukwila to the west and south, and Renton to the east. 

If you drive through the area, your first impression of the park's immediate surrounding neighborhood might be that it looks a little 'rough.' Litter, run down homes and run down autos were decidedly not few or far between.

The park, itself, however, is inviting. Skyway Park has 23 acres and has three baseball fields, an informal football/soccer field, a nice big playground, a cool looking picnic shelter, basketball and tennis courts, and a restroom. 

The park has wetlands (they were pretty dry at the present, given this summer's drought). The wetlands function as the headwaters of Taylor Creek, a salmon-bearing stream that passes through Seattle’s Deadhorse Canyon and enters Lake Washington, per a King County report. 

Today, the park was a tad eerie when we arrived; There was not a single other soul in the 23-acres. That gave me a bit of a pause ("Why is no one here enjoying the park?"), but we persisted with our visit.

We walked around checking out the ballfields and picnic area, and a nice playground. At one point, I noticed a young African American man in the distance enter the park on foot. He kept to himself, causally ambling through the parking lot. Meanwhile, the kids were playing and I was walking the dogs in circles. It came time for us to leave and as we walked back to our car, we were surprised to see two squad cars,(we hadn't seen or heard them enter the park), and two officers and the young man being questioned/detained. This is where things got weird for me. My first thought - and what I said aloud to the kids - is, "We need to stay here and make sure he's OK."

We stood within eye and earshot - closer than where I took this photo - until the young man was put in the squad car.

True confession: I was taken aback at my own reaction to the situation. I think once upon a time, I might have thought, "Oh good! Glad to see police get a 'bad guy' off the street," or "This is none of our business, we need to go." But today, my overriding though was fear for the young man's safety, given there were two armed Caucasian-appearing officers, one young man of color, and no one (except for us) around as witnesses. These are the times we live in. 

I could see the female officer watching us intently, and got the impression she wished we'd move along. Instead, we stayed and watched and listened as they asked him his name, the male officer mentioned something about a warrant. I told the kids I was so glad the young man was not resisting arrest, and also noted that that, alone, wasn't necessarily enough to ensure one's safety in that situation, based on way too many videos we've all seen.
My reaction really surprised me. I wonder at what point along the way my mind flipped to the thought that the officers were the ones to potentially fear in that situation. The thought was unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and disconcerting.

I know there are LOTS of good cops out there. The vast majority I'd like to think. But thanks to the proliferation of cameras everywhere, we've seen, graphically, that there are a whole lot of ones to fear, as well.

Not our normal trip to a park.

In happier news, following are a few park shots. 

There were some neat metal signs telling about wild- and plant-life one was likely to see in the area. 

And the kids mostly enjoyed the playground ...

Except, when she attempted to go down the slide, Annabelle called out, "This slide has a fatal design flaw." 

I kid you not, at that very moment, I was standing reading this sign.

Annabelle explained that the tightness of the corkscrew and shape of the metal made it hurt when she went down.

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD: There's going to be a Really Big Deal Total Solar Eclipse next Monday (8/21). Here's a link to the official NASA Website all about it: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

Forty

LONG LIVE THE KING: Yesterday and this morning, our art curriculum consisted of paying tribute to The King in confectionery form. Specifically, sugar cookies with fondant, with Elvis-related images carefully painted atop. 

A friend of mine was born on the day Elvis died. She turned 40 this year, which means Elvis Aron Presley has been gone for four decades. 

Wow.

I'll never forget hearing the news. 

It was a sweltering hot day in Southwest Washington. My sister and I were playing ping pong in the semi-basement garage of our home when we got the devastating news.

Today, I was thinking about that day and that year, and really, '77 was seminal in my life.

A humble peanut farmer became president of the United States.

And 1977 was the year the first Star Wars movie came out. Talk about a game changer. 

That year, David Bowie's album "Low" was released. 

Tracks on it included the haunting "Heroes."


And then, come August, Elvis Presley died. 

Devastation.

Forty years. Gone in the blink of an eye.

But enough of me reminiscing. Back to the cookies. ;)

SMART DREAM HOME: This afternoon, the kids attended a workshop at Living Computers: Museum + Labs. 

The challenge was to take a dollhouse and turn it into a 'smart home.'  

I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it. 

At the Living Computer Museum today, we participated in a 2-hour workshop, titled the Barbie Smart Home workshop. As described on the Living Computer Museums + Labs' official website, "In this 2-hour workshop, student teams wire-up a doll-sized smart home to come alive at night. Learn what it takes to merge good interior design with predictive sensors, circuits, and Javascript programming in this program for 10-16 year old students."

Annabelle and I were the only 2 students in the class, thus essentially making it a private tutoring session. Using a device known as the micro:bit [sic], I managed to hook up multiple devices to a dollhouse to turn it into what is known as a "smart home".

For example, I was able to program an LED to turn on when its sensors (located on the micro:bit) were in the dark. I was also (with trial and error) able to get a speaker to play a ditty upon the front door being opened.

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

Today at the Living Computers: Museum + Labs, my brother and I took a workshop called “Barbie Smart House”, which involved programming multiple functions for a toy house. We used a Micro-Bit Brand Micro Controller to program things like switches, motors, speakers, and lights. In my toy house, I included a speaker doorbell, a servo motor ceiling fan, and a light-sensing LED that would turn on when it was dark.

The actual programming was a lot like another programming language me and my brother have used called Scratch. The system allows you to easily program by putting blocks of code together like a puzzle. The Micro-Bit was set up in a way where we could simply download the program and it would almost immediately work. The only bad part was that CJ and I were the only two people to sign up! That did, however, give us a chance to go at our own pace and get lots of help from our teacher. It was really interesting to learn more about smart homes and how to make one on our own!

Shine On

TRIAL RUN:  With the REALLY BIG ECLIPSE less than a week away now, we decided to do a test run of our solar viewing glasses this morning.

Mercifully, I ordered them weeks ago, as people are scrambling trying to find eclipse glasses now.

We checked the sun out a few times during the same time frame that the eclipse will happen on Monday, August 21. 

Here's hoping for clear skies and awesome vantage points for all!

GELATINOUS: Today, one of our projects involved some edible art. 

Specifically, we were making some Elvis-themed cookies for a friend who was born on the day Elvis died, forty years ago, August 16, 2017.

I decided to try to do a series of black and white Elvii through the ages cookies for her. I have a go to sugar cookie recipe, and could make marshmallow fondant in my sleep BUT, I recalled my friend and her family are vegetarian, and I knew that my standard marshmallow fondant had gelatin in it, which makes it no bueno for vegetarians, as standard marshmallows have gelatin in them, and gelatin is made of "a protein obtained by boiling skin, tendons, ligaments, and/or bones with water. It is usually obtained from cows or pigs," per PETA (not a fan of gelatin). 

So, what to do, what to do? 

Off to the Google, to find a vegan recipe for fondant! 

I read several before settling on one that looked like it had been around for awhile and it seemed feasible.

Only two problems: The recipe called for agar agar and glycerin. Believe it or not, those aren't in our pantry. 

The Interwebs told me I could find Wilton branded glycerin at a local craft store, which we did. Agara agar, on the other hand, could be had at Asian markets, so we made a trip to the great Asian grocery store Uwajimaya. We've been to their flagship store in Seattle's International District several times. Today, we went to their Renton location for the first time. 
We were happy to have a reason to go there, and are so glad there's a Uwajimaya close to our new home.

Ingredients in hand, we came home and made fondant using the new-to-us recipe. It turned out just fine, mercifully. But still, I was wondering just what the glycerin and agar agar were.

I had the kids do some research. First up, CJ writes about glycerin. ... 

Today, for the first time, we used Glycerin while making cookies (for a friend's birthday). According to the Wilton bottle of Glycerin we used, Glycerin "restores consistency of icing colors". According to Pioneer Thinking, glycerin is "a neutral, sweet-tasting, colorless, thick liquid which freezes to a gummy paste and which has a high boiling point. Glycerin can be dissolved into water or alcohol, but not oils. On the other hand, many things will dissolve into glycerin easier than they do into water or alcohol. So it is a good solvent."

Glycerin is not just used for baking. For example, one popular mixture that involves glycerin is nitroglycerin (an explosive liquid).

According to Wilton's website, a single can of their glycerin costs $2.29.

Annabelle researched agar agar. ...

Agar Agar (also known as simply Agar) is a type of seaweed used in place of gelatin. It can be bought in many Asian markets and most stores with a health food section. Agar Agar is frequently used in vegan recipes as a thickener. Agar Agar is strange, as according to OneGreenPlanet, (http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-agar-agar/) it contains no calories, sugar, carbs, or fat, but it is a good source of fiber, calcium, and iron. Many recipes can be made with Agar Agar, as it can be substituted for gelatin one-to-one.

Fortunately, our fondant seemed to turn out OK.

I'll likely post some photos of the cookies tomorrow. 

Living & Loving Computers

IT COMPUTES: We had a fabulous Friday last week, enjoying a long field trip to Living Computers: Museum + Labs.

Our impetus for the trip was taking my dad there for a visit for the very first time. 

 It was a visit overdue. Vintage computers are in my dad's DNA, it seems.

When we arrived, we headed to the museum's top floor straightaway, for that's where LCM's oldest working computers are on display. 

Below is the first console you encounter when entering the cold room, where the big ol' super computers are on display. 

 Below is a photo of another big main frame computer. The white duct is air conditioning to keep the machine's circuits from overheating. 

 My dad was in his element in the main frame room. He had a chance to speak to a number of Living Computers employees who had extensive knowledge of the computers he worked on back in the day.

In the photo above, there is a squarish something or other  right by CJ's left knee... 

Upon closer examination, it looks like some kind of circuitry cake. 

Out on the main floor upstairs, there's so much to look at. We checked out the DIY computer kits of decades ago.

Though most of our time was spent upstairs with the good ol' stuff, we did check out the main floor and its attractions, as well. 

In the quiet art lab in the museum's SW corner, we took a silent  moment to pay tribute to Microsoft Paint, which is on its last legs, per reports. 

 CJ drew a picture of our dog Laika, for posterity.

Interestingly, the museum has a Barbie-themed display right now. It has evoked strong feelings.

 The museum gives people a place to share their thoughts. 

Some were pretty positive ... 

 while others were not as glowing.

Honestly, I'm in the not-as-glowing camp. I'm of the '70s version Barbie. 

The poster below, also on display at the museum, is just one reason why I'm not a Barbie Girl ...

Awful. But grateful the history is being shared, and so thankful Living Computers: Museum + Labs is doing so much to encourage everyone to embrace STEM. 

In fact, the kids are signed up for a workshop there this week, on how to wire a Barbie Dreamhouse with electricity. :)

Here are CJ and Annabelle's reviews of our recent LCM visit.

CJ is up first. He concentrates on a very narrow part of the museum's collection ... 

The Apple II (stylized on earlier models as the "Apple ][" was a series of computers produced by Apple Inc. (one of the largest technology companies in the world), then known as Apple Computer.
The Apple IIs were successors to the Apple I series (a very obscure computer that initially just came in the form of a bare circuit board). Apple II computers would have a 17-year production run, from 1977 to 1993.
The Living Computers Museum + Labs has two different Apple IIs (an original Apple II and an Apple II Plus), both located on the second floor. The first of them has a copy of Zork I (an iconic text adventure game), in which you attempt to explore a fantasy world and go on a quest.
At the start of my Zork playthrough, I attempted to go through a forest. After breaking an intricate egg with a golden canary inside it, I managed to find a white house outside of the forest. After breaking into the house (through a slightly ajar window), I ate some peppers that were on a kitchen table.
I was able to take a sword that was mounted on the wall. Shortly afterwards, I learned that the peppers made me sick. I tried to bloodlet myself with the sword, thus killing myself.

And here's Annabelle's take of our Friday. ... 

Living Computers: Museum + Labs is a museum located in South of Downtown (SoDo for short) that specializes in technology and vintage computers. The main attraction to the museum, however, is that all of said computers are functional! On Friday, my family (including my brother Ken) took our grandparents (including our grandfather, a math major who has worked with many of the computers at the museum) to the museum for the first time, and we all had a great time! My grandpa even got to go into the basement storage and see some computers that weren’t fully functional yet.

At around lunch time, my mom, grandma, and brother Ken all went to a local Asian market nearby called “Uwajimaya”. My brother Ken got us bowls of Bibimbap, a Korean dish with rice, vegetables, egg, and meat served in a hot cast iron bowl. The dish is served immediately after being cooked, so it is extremely hot. After a rather large lunch, we went back to LCM and looked around the lower floor, which includes more recent computers and technology, such as a VR (Virtual Reality) space where you can select a program and use the supplied HTC Vive headset. It was a very fun day and if you ever stop by Safeco Field or SoDo with some free time, you should definitely visit Living Computers!