We had the absolute pleasure of seeing him in person in September of 2012, during a Museum of Flight event. He told an absolutely captivating account of his spacewalk. What an experience that was! That day Leonov also shared an emotional account of his close friend Yuri Gagarin's death, and how Gagarin was unfairly blamed for the accident.
Above is a photo I took of him (and his daughter, who translated for him) on that fantastic occasion.
In addition to being an astronaut, Leonov was a diplomat, a writer and an artist.
Note: Yes, I see that his name is spelled Alexey on the placard above, but everywhere else I've seen it, it's Alexei, so not sure what was up with that.
SEEING IS BELIEVING: Presently via CJ's psychology course, we're learning about how our senses affect us. Recently, we've watched two really interesting videos about individuals who see using input other than their eyes.
First, we watched a short video about a gentleman who uses a device on his tongue to help visually interpret the world around him. As he explains near the start of the video, "Your brain is what sees, not your eyes."
Check out this video about the Brainport Vision Device. It's pretty remarkable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNkw28fz9u0&list=PLAC1C3F4A365958A8&index=6&t=5s
We also viewed an episode from the series "Extraordinary People" about Ben Underwood, a boy who lost his eyesight to cancer as a toddler. Underwood managed to develop a way to 'see' using echolocation. It's fascinating. (The episode can be seen here: https://archive.org/details/youtube-TB_yrWppP0c.)
The show was filmed 12 years ago, when Underwood was 14. We were curious how he was doing now. I pictured him touring from city to city, as a motivational speaker and teacher of his echolocation method. I suggested CJ Google "Ben Underwood echolocation."
About 10 seconds later, CJ reported devastating news. Just two years after the episode aired, the cancer that stole young Underwood's eyesight ended up killing him. We all felt so sad upon hearing this, and kinda wished we weren't so darn curious by nature.
Here's a short Sacramento Bee video, narrated by his mother, about Ben's life. In 2014 her book about Ben, "Echoes on an Angel," was released.
SING SONG: We continue to try to learn hiragana, characters used in Japanese writing. CJ's professor suggested a couple of videos, including this one. ...
Watching it, I asked, "Why does she have to sing it so damn fast?" I mean, if you're a beginner, speed is not your friend.
Then there is this version. It kind of sounds like a club remix song.
I do think this song is more manageable and might help a bit, so we'll be listening to it some more.
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