Summer Schooling

CLASSY: All this week, Annabelle is involved in a "Girls Who Code" summer 'camp.' It's online, of course (%#$@ pandemic). 

The organization works to close the gender gap in computer science careers. 

According to their website, "In 1995, 37% of computer scientists were women. Today, it’s only 24%. The percent will continue to decline if we do nothing. We know that the biggest drop off of girls in computer science is between the ages of 13 and 17." They report serving over 300,000 girls to date through their Summer Immersion Program, clubs, and college loops.

Girls who Code lists bravery, sisterhood and activism as goals that define their organization.

Annabelle has been learning about HTML and JavaScript. Her homework today included watching this video.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Wi2A8la3VQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

CJ had a class on Monday morning. I'll have him tell you about it.  

Monday morning, I took part in a brief virtual workshop hosted by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington.The 45-minute event  went over some of the customs and traditions of Japanese shopping and malls.

For example, we were taught about how in Japan, it's advised against giving cashiers large amounts of change (for example, $20). This can make it difficult for a cashier to give you change back. Another feature of Japanese markets is the vending machines, which often contain "seasonal products" like soup during winter and cold drinks during summer, and items not typically seen in Western vending machines, like toys. Japanese malls, in comparison to Western malls, are usually vertically-oriented instead of horizontally-oriented, and often have movie theaters at the top.

McMUSSELS: CJ also has a short report about an article he read yesterday in Science News. 

Yesterday afternoon, my grandfather gave me a magazine. He urged me to read To Save Appalachia’s Endangered Mussels, Scientists Hatched a Bold Plan, an article about a mussel conservation effort in the state of Kentucky. To begin, the article starts with an offbeat description of an emergency mussel rescue/surgery operation in a rural McDonald's parking lot in Kentucky. This seems like an odd spot to be doing important conservation work, but the researchers don't seem to mind. According to the article, "a single mussel can filter more than 50 liters of water per day, removing algae and pollution, including toxic substances dumped into rivers as industrial waste." This ability to clean up toxic waste is possibly the single most important reason for the presence of mussels, as well as a potential cause of them being an endangered species.

Finders Creepers

HIDDEN 'GEMS': As reported here recently, we finally tore down the wall between the kitchen and this view (photo taken from the kitchen on Monday).

At this point in our lives, we have torn down too many walls to count. And you know how you hear neat-o stories about people finding trea$ure$ or great mementos in their walls when remodeling? Yeah, we're not those people, unfortunately.

The former kitchen wall yielded a couple of curiosities. One was a beat up old Heidelberg beer box part, being used as a baffle of some sorts.  

The other surprise? ... Hey, what's that? ...

Oh HELL no! It's a petrified reptilian creature staring lifelessly out at us. >SHUDDER<

Wonder how long he'd been there - two weeks or 50 years? Not a pleasant place or way to die, that's for sure.

MUSIC MATTERS: Over the past week CJ has had the opportunity to visit two record stores, much to his pleasure. It was his first visit to one in months, due to damn COVID. And while the Novel Coronavirus 19 isn't going anywhere anytime soon in the States, CJ masked up and socially distance shopped at each place. 

He can tell you a bit about his recent acquisitions. 

In the past three days, I've bought two albums that I've wanted in my record collection for a long time. In the midst of this global pandemic, I opted to support local businesses by buying them from brick-and-mortar stores.

The first album was Bleach, the debut album of iconic Seattle band Nirvana. Bleach arguably serves as one of the foundational albums of the Grunge genre, and was the first recorded and widely-available showcase of Nirvana's songwriting and performance chops. The cashier at Silver Platters, the store I purchased Bleach at, told me that he had seen me pick up the album at least three or four times before during previous visits.

Also worth noting is that the issue of Bleach I purchased contains a recording of a full performance by Nirvana on February 9, 1990 at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The recording demonstrates Nirvana's live show pre-Nevermind.

This morning, my mother and I went to Easy Street Records in Seattle to get breakfast and purchase an album. In haste, I picked out Surfer Rosa by the Pixies. Surfer Rosa was the Pixies' first full-length album, and included Where Is My Mind?, their most famous song. The Pixies were a major influence on several major bands to follow, including Nirvana, Weezer, and Radiohead.

Also, shout out to Nonnie and Bops for CJ's Silver Platters gift certificate. You can see he put it to good use. 

Here's an exterior shot of Easy Street from my vantage point while waiting on CJ this morning. 

HOPPY DAYS: While most of our garden underwhelms, we do have to give props to the hops. They are growing like gangbusters. 

Looks like brewing with home grown hops is in Christian's future!

            

Fun and Games

LAKESIDE: On Friday, we took advantage of sunshine and a break in my work schedule and met Kennedy at a park. Specifically, Gasworks Park on the north shore of Lake Union. 

We brought along a couple of tabletop games, but nothing too elaborate, because we had to carry them a way, and we didn't want anything that had a bunch of cards that would blow away. That's how CJ and Kennedy wound up playing Pass the Pigs.

The photo above is what playing games with someone outside of your household looks like - outside, both masked and a tub of bleach wipes in the foreground.

While CJ and Ken played with plastic pigs. Annabelle managed to put together a rather complicated pirate ship kite. We brought it along because the park has a spot called Kite Hill.

Here's a far-away photo of the kids atop the hill. Unfortunately, the winds were uncharacteristically nonexistent on Friday, so they didn't catch any good air. 

But they did catch a *little* air.

HOME WRECKERS: In other news, the hole in the wall has grown substantially. On Friday, the kids and I removed several square feet of Sheetrock. 

Annabelle was still wearing her robe during the demo. 

GREENERY: Well, we finally have a couple dozen tomatoes growing on our rather pathetic plants. 

The ones on the 'chocolate' tomato plant have gotten color the quickest. 

PRINT VERSION: As previously chronicled in the blog a couple of days back, CJ and Annabelle recently won a cooking contest held by The Seattle Times. The story was online a few days ago, but on Friday the print version came out. So, we had to go buy a newspaper. I can't remember the last time we did that. 

The photo of the kids' creation was the biggest one on the cover of the "Weekend Plus" section. The story was on the pages inside.