MUTANTS: We have been neglecting our genetics class this week, as we'd been focused on getting the kids ready for their musical performance last night. Now that that's out of the way, today we refocused our efforts, watching the final video for Week 2 of "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution,"
Above, Annabelle depicts a genetic mutation in a fruit fly, resulting in one with tiny eyes. Below, again, we're dealing with a mutation. In this case, there's a recombinant - an offspring with a different combination of alleles from either of its parents.
Here we have a disease that attached itself to the G gene.
And here, Annabelle uses some memes to illustrate what the professor was talking about. "All your genome base are belong to us" is a take on the video game nerd meme "All your base are belong to us," a terrible translation in the 16-bit game "Zero Wing," a 1989 game.
In the bottom half of the doodle (above), a choir of angels (both made from lower case letter "c"s) sings while the upper case Cs proclaim their innocence (even though they were the disease carrying component).
And this is depicting a G linked to a disease.
And, finally, here is a sketch depicting the fact that when pink and white blossomed pea plants reproduce, the division of the offspring will be a ratio of 9 pink and 7 white.
My notes and CJs are a LOT less picturesque. In fact, they're picture free - but full of facts!
PENNED: CJ does lots of self-directed learning, and for the past couple of weeks, he has been working his way through the whole BrainPOP catalog. Today, he started watching their videos about English (writing and famous authors and books). While he was watching a video about poetry, I decided to have the kids write a poem about the Seahawks, using T-W-E-L-V-E as the first letter to each line. I jotted one down, as well. Can you guess who wrote which one?
To get to the Super Bowl
We had to work hard
Even against the 49ers
Leaving and winning the NFC Championship
Very hard
Even then, we must beat the Broncos
Together
We win
Everyone doing their part
Legion of Boom bucking Broncos
Victory shall be sweet
Excellence exemplified
Touchdowns, passes, and stuff of the like
Whether it be day or night
Eleven may not be enough
Louder, bigger, faster, stronger
Valor on-field and off
Enter the 12th Man
BETCHA: This afternoon Annabelle asked CJ if he thought she could balance a cup atop a dollar bill. He was skeptical, naturally. Within seconds, she'd set this up.
Interesting!
So how is it done? Any guesses out there?
If you want to know the answer right now, check out this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXfIRHoJu-o It's one in a series of videos by a YouTube user "Quirkology," posted by psychologist and author Richard Wiseman.
BREEZY: A Facebook friend posted a link to a neat-o animated map showing the wind speed all across the U.S. Check it out here: http://hint.fm/wind/
SHOW TIME: Today we had two main items on the agenda. First and foremost was get the kids' songs dialed in for the show tonight. Second was making treats to share this evening. The cookies and deviled eggs part was easy. You don't have to be in the correct pitch and tempo for those. ;)
At one point today, I wished the kids had picked less ambitious songs. Perhaps something by Everclear or Green Day - you know, something with two or three easy chords. But no, that was not their path. Instead, it was something a tad (well, light years) more ambitious for their public debut - Imagine Dragons and Pink Floyd.
It was cool that Rick and Kennedy were able to come to the show and serve as stage techs. :) They couldn't ask for more experienced hands!
Annabelle was up first, singing "Radioactive."
She did a great job. :)
CJ came up after with the even more ambitious 'Time' by Pink Floyd. Get this - we got to the performance venue a little early tonight, so we went to a nearby place for a quick snack and drink. While we sat there, what song of all songs in the history of everything came on? "Time," by Pink Floyd. The song CJ would be performing in a few minutes. Talk about Kismet. Crazy, isn't it? I mean, in the history of all songs EVER, that's the one on in the Shoreline diner? What are the odds? (Wait - sounds like a good math problem to us! Stay tuned!)
Here's a still shot of CeeJ, and here's his performance.
As he listened to it, he ran into the room and said he was embarrassed how bad it sounded. We told him not to fret too much - it was recorded on a crappy cell phone microphone.
I'm glad he cared how it sounded. That's the whole point. ...
At one point she got stuck and set it aside for a few hours, but I encouraged her to backtrack if need be and work through it. Within five minutes her troubleshooting paid off and she was the proud owner of a new bee bracelet.
PRACTICE MAKES SOMETHING: The kids had several music practice sessions today. They are scheduled to perform tomorrow night. Ideally, they'd be stone cold ready. However, I think some finger crossing is in order this go round. :/
I found myself repeatedly using sports analogies today as they were practicing. We talked about the point of practice (to try to improve), and how bad practice is probably worse than no practice, because it just reinforces bad habits instead of ingraining good ones. I told the kids the Seahawks certainly didn't get to go to the Super Bowl just because they wanted to. It took weeks/months/years of practice as individuals and then together, as a team.
At one point today, I noticed CJ doing some odd stuff with this head/mouth and so I had Annabelle go get a mirror and hold it up so he could see what was going on.
They'll certainly practice more tomorrow before the evening's show. Here's hoping things magically come together...
Meanwhile, I'm neck deep in cookies to take to the event, which is why today's post is super short. I'll be glad when Thursday is over.
RIVETING: This afternoon, we took a field trip down to The Museum of Flight. It's been too long since we've been there, and every time we're there it's a) enjoyable and b) we see something we've never seen before.
As soon as we walked in today, I noticed that the movie "Space Junk" was playing (in 3D!) in less than an hour. We bought tickets to see that (just $4 apiece), and then spent 50 minutes wandering about. We almost always head to the WWI and WWII wing, but today, we veered the other direction, heading for the Great Gallery, which we tend to visit least often. As we headed that way, I remembered that the Museum's recently-acquired Electra was now on display there.
We'd watched the gorgeous Electra fly in back on Sept. 20 of 2013.
How that silver bird gleamed in the sun!!!
It's one of only three of its kind still in existence, and this one has been restored to look just like it did when Amelia Earhart flew it on her final voyage.
Now, its wings are clipped and it's a museum piece. A super shiny museum piece.
It makes for an excellent mirror.
Here's CJ, studying a map of Amelia's final flight.
It's impossible to get a good shot of the whole plane, so here's an iso of part of her tail.
After the Electra, we made our way back to the refurbished theater. We were the only four in attendance for the 2:50 showing of "Space Junk."
If you don't care about anything ever getting off planet, this movie would not interest you in the least. If you are interested in spaceflight and exploration, you'd find it all extraordinarily unsettling. I won't go into great detail, instead, I'll just share the trailer (http://youtu.be/-hl28A9NfU4)
One of the major events the movie covered was the February 10, 2009, destruction of Cosmos 2251 & Iridium 33. It marked the first major collision of two satellites in Earth orbit. The operational Iridium satellite was destroyed, as was the non-working Cosmos. As a result of the collision, there are more than 100,000 pieces of debris in low Earth orbit (LEO). If you've seen the movie "Gravity," it gives you a good idea of just how awful space debris can be for those trying to work and live in LEO.
HAWKING: Everywhere you go in this town, the Seahawks are front and center. Such was the case on the way in to the Museum of Flight.
There are billboards next to the highway ...
(I couldn't help but notice the WA. state, King County and city logos on this billboard. Our tax dollars at work? I love me some 'Hawks but ...)
ONE AWAY: This weekend we were in full on Seahawks mode, what with the home team being just one game away from the Super Bowl.
We had a houseful of friends over on Sunday, and suffered our way through four quarters of tense football. It wasn't until there were 22 seconds left in the game until I felt not miserable. And a minute or two later, I felt great. Seahawks to the Super Bowl, for the second time in their history!
LOOMING: Today, Annabelle finally broke out the Rainbow Loom she received for Christmas and set about learning how it works.
Christian helped her a bit and before long, she was cranking out bracelets. She was Most Pleased.
WAKE UP CALL: Today was a huge day for the European Space Agency. For the past 31 months, their Rosetta - a comet-chasing spacecraft - has been in slumber.
Launched in 2004, Rosetta is headed for a meeting with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta went into slumber in June of 2011, operating on solar energy alone. Today, per schedule was wake up day!
Graphic: European Space Agency
Naturally, there was a fair amount of excitement surrounding waking up a spacecraft after a 2.5 year slumber. Needless to say, ESA officials were thrilled when Rosetta woke up exactly as scheduled.
If Rosetta connects per plan, it will be the very first space mission to rendezvous with a comet, land on a comet’s surface, and the first to follow a comet as it swings around the Sun. To me, that sounds like trying to thread tiny moving needle! As of today's Rosetta is about 9 million km from its target.
Upon wake up, @ESA_Rosetta's Twitter account declared, "Hello, World!"
Here's a short video about Rosetta's wake up call.
GAME ON: This afternoon, we finally got around to trying out one of Christian's Christmas presents, Star Trek Catan.
COMPLICATED game. The set up and learning curve took us about an hour.
We finally hit our stride, and CJ was today's victor.
RALLY TIME: I'd known for a couple of days about a Seahawks rally set to take place at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle today.
Naturally, I was interested, but we have a lot on our plates right now, and I thought maybe taking four hours out of our Friday to travel to and fro and enjoy the festivities might not be prudent.
Yeah, well to heck with prudence. It's the Seahawks playing in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP. How often does THAT happen? Only twice in my lifetime. "I think we better do this," I reasoned. That, and we live IN Seattle. For most of my life that was not the case, and I'd only dream about being able to attend events like this. If we didn't go, shame on us, right?
I told the kids 'round 9 am we could go to the rally if they rallied and got stuff done this a.m. that we needed to. That was all they needed to hear. By 10 a.m., we'd knocked out a complicated genetics lecture, they'd tidied up 'round here, and and I'd baked 3 batches of cookies. Good enough, we were out the door.
We rode to the rally in style - via monorail! We parked by the Queen Anne McMenamins, walked to Seattle Center, and made our way to the monorail.
I was surprised there weren't more rally bound passengers. A couple of businessmen on the dock ahead of us made sure CJ and Annabelle got on first and urged them to take the front row. How very kind.
They had a great view, and chatted with the driver.
After a quick, 2-minute ride, we stepped off the monorail at Westlake Center, right next to the plaza where the event was being held. One of the first things we saw was this sweet car. I think it's so funny, the kids spontaneously posed like this in front of it.
It was about 11:45 as we made our way to the plaza, with the official program start set for noon. The place was already packed and I started sizing up a good spot for us. I saw the climbing structure and told the kids we'd be headed for that.
Above, you can see CJ in the white jersey, perched atop the climber. Meanwhile, I was busily scoping out a spot we'd actually be able to see the stage despite the thousands and thousands on hand. I zeroed in on a park bench adjacent to the press pool. That was as good as it got, I thought. I staked out our space.
It was a good call. We could see the stage just fine, not to mention the colorful crowd.
There were people way up high, on the building adjacent to the plaza.
And there was a good crowd gathering across the way, on the Westlake Plaza balcony.
During the show, the jungle gym filled up with young Hawks. :)
It was fun looking 'round the crowd. Loved these signs about Marshawn Pinch from the Seattle Aquarium, a hermit crab with a Seahawks' shell.
We listened to the Blue Thunder (Seahawks drumline) and the SeaGals perform. There was also a contest between a young Seahawks fan and the lone Niners fan in attendance.
The Niners fan lost, big surprise. ;)
Steve Raible, the voice of the Seahawks, served as the master of ceremonies. He opened with the obligatory (and hopefully oft-heard, come Sunday), "TOUCHDOWN, SEAHAWKS!!!!"
Raible introduced and interviewed a number of Seahawks alumni. Here he is talking to Hillary Butler, who played for the Huskies AND the 'Hawks!
And how cool was it to see Norm Johnson, the Seahawks' you-can-count-on-me kicker from their early years. Below, Johnson poses for a selfie with Raible! Epic!
I learned today, Johnson partnered with Dick's Brewing Company to produce the tasty 12 Man Pale Ale. One of the business partners of 12 Brands, LLC, Johnson was smart enough to secure the trademark of the 12 Man Pale Ale a couple of years ago.
And how I loved seeing my favorite Seahawks of days gone by, Manu Tuiasosopo! The Tuiasospo family has become a NW sports dynasty!
We also got to hear from certain-to-be-first-ballot Hall-of-Famer Walter Jones!
The official program ran about a half hour. Right afterward, CJ and Annabelle were interviewed by KOMO TV.
It was so funny, CJ screamed, "Let's go Hawks, let's DESTROY the 49niners!" into the mic. It was as guttural as I've ever heard him!
The segment showed a lot of sights and sounds from the rally, but KOMO reporter declared her "personal favorite" Annabelle's wings. :)
I haven't been able to find a link to the video online, but we did happen to catch it on the 6 pm news and I grabbed Rick's phone off the desk and quickly filmed it. You can't hear the TV very well, you can mostly hear me screaming at CJ to come see himself on the TV and then CJ freaking out that he was on TV. ;)
I love hearing Annabelle's explanation regarding her wardrobe choice. It was in the "Duh, Ralph" vein.
The ride back to Seattle Center included a number of the same passengers as our trip to Westlake.
We took advantage of a few photo opps at Seattle Center. For instance, we had to get a photo of the 12th Man flag top the Space Needle.
The kids were hungry post-rally (all that cheering apparently works up an appetite). Rather than eat at the Center, we headed back to Magnolia. The kids had a fro-yo lunch at Menchie's. Annabelle left some artwork in our wake.
I simply HAD to take advantage of Starbucks' offer for 12 cent coffee for 12th Man fans. When I walked in, the young man working the counter asked if I wanted a Seahawks coffee. I couldn't help but wonder aloud what a Seahawk tasted like. "Salmon, perhaps?" I mused, figuring you are what you eat, and surely Seahawks eat salmon.
The coffee didn't taste like salmon, but it was delicious. Certainly the best 12 cent cup of coffee I've ever had.
Oh, and we worked on genetics and music today, too. It wasn't all about silly football, I swear.
