Collegiate

CAMPUS VISIT: Yesterday afternoon we headed to east West Seattle (yeah, I know that sounds weird) to visit the campus of South Seattle College, a school CJ is contemplating attending.

We arrived early, so we took the opportunity to stroll around the campus. We had a map, and that let us know there was a gazebo and garden on the campus' north end, so we headed that way.

We were pretty surprised to find there's an expansive Chinese garden there, specifically, Seattle Chinese Garden. This structure CJ's standing in front of is just exterior walls, which surround a courtyard. 

There's a pretty gazebo on site, and a super big carp art installation to the east of the courtyard.

The sign explaining it is a little worse for the wear, but we learned that a traditional Chinese tale tells of a carp that could leap the high falls of the Yellow River at Dragon Gate, and it would then transform into a dragon. 

The "Dragon Seeker" on site at South Seattle was made in Thailand, over 100 years ago. It was on display in Chiang Mai for years before moving to a private garden in Kuala Lumpur, and then all the way back to Seattle when the couple returned to the Emerald City.

Another piece of Chinese-related art work is on display in a plaza near the west entrance of the campus.

Made by Ye Yushan, it's a statue of Tang Dynasty era Chinese poet Li Bai. I thought it a little odd that the poem was about taking a jug of wine and drinking alone, but, oh well. 

Eventually we made our way to the board room of the college president for the Running Start presentation. The woman giving the presentation was a little overwhelmed. She said she usually has about 7 people for an orientation. There were probably three dozen there yesterday. Wonder why the sudden increase. ... 

Anyway, it's a nice little campus - kind of high school sized, in a way. It might make a nice spot for CJ to get his feet wet with a college experience. Stay tuned.

HEAVY STUFF: Tomorrow afternoon, 3:35 Pacific time, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral. On board with be an Arabsat 6A communications satellite, built by Lockheed Martin. The satellite will provide television, internet and mobile phone services to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.  It's kind of a Big Deal, because this is SpaceX's first use of its Falcon Heavy for a commercial launch. 

Towering at 230-feet, right now it's the world's most powerful rocket by a factor of two, according to Space X. The bad boy has central rocket boosters, and its engines will generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to a SpaceX Tweet on April 7.  

You might remember Falcon Heavy's maiden test launch back in February of 2018, when it launched a cherry-red Tesla Roadster with a mannequin named Starman in the driver’s seat.

Image: Shared by Elon Musk of SpaceX

By the way, there's actually a website where you can track that Tesla's space journey: https://www.whereisroadster.com/

As of 4/9/2019 at 4:26 pm, its current location is 219,789,644 miles (353,717,255 km, 2.364 AU) from Earth, moving toward Earth at a speed of 12,054 mi/h (19,399 km/h, 5.39 km/s).

Here's some video of it, not too long after it left its home planet.