Thursday Fun

SING A SONG:  Here, finally, is some proof that the kids are actually in music camp this week!

They're attending a Monday-Friday afternoon session at the Southwest Branch of Seattle Public libraries with singer songwriter animator Morgan Taylor of Gustafer Yellowgold fame.

The group of kids (about 20, from ages 7-12) are working on original characters and songs. Their main character is a squirrel named Christopher Acorn. He's storing nuts, but the stash goes missing. That's what the song below is about. 

She's off camera (thanks, CJ! ;) ) but Annabelle is playing the electronic sounding instrument (specifically, a stylophone, a miniature electronic synthesizer invented in 1967, per Wikipedia).
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Blf1X8o6Xkk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
https://youtu.be/Blf1X8o6Xkk

Here's what the kids have to say about the camp so far, Annabelle first:

Starting on July 27, 2015 I started a 5-day summer camp called “Build a cartoon and musical world”, taught by Morgan Taylor, the singer-songwriter/artist for the “Gustafer Yellowgold” series. The camp included plenty of other kids, even though I didn’t count the actual number. The summer camp started with making a character and a song. Our first song was titled “Pig Up!” and was about standing up for yourself.  The character we ended up making was “Christopher Acorn”, a squirrel.

The story we settled on for Christopher was that he had his acorn stash stolen, so he goes on an adventure to find out who stole them. First he goes to a hawk, who tells Christopher it was the fox. In the end, the culprit turns out to be his sister all along. The camp has been fun so far and I can’t wait to finish our story. 

And here's what CJ has to say ...

On July 27th, we started going to a daily camp from 3:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M, which will last until July 31st, in the Southwest branch of Seattle Public Libraries run by Morgan Taylor, the artist and musician behind the Gustafer Yellowgold music videos. Morgan Taylor has played Gustafer Yellowgold shows all across the nation, including one we went to in Magnolia a while back. At camp, our goal is to create a story, drawings, and songs to represent our character and their adventures.

In class, the character we created was Christopher Acorn, a squirrel who lives in a stump and wishes to be a pig (as bizarre as it may sound). So far, songs we have written include "Pig Up", a song that goes into more detail about Christopher's desire to be a pig, "R.O.D.E.N.T", or "Rodent-Operated Daring Elementary Nut Training", which is both the name of Christopher's school and its anthem, and "Calvin", which tells a story about Calvin, a brown-feathered hawk who steals Christopher's acorns.

Recently, we each drew three-panel comics about something that happens to Christopher, beginning with the words "I woke up this morning and I could not believe my eyes.." Examples of different comics we drew included a scenario where Christopher wakes up to find that somebody has made him breakfast in bed, and one where he discovers that R.O.D.E.N.T's Nutball team has won in the regional competition.

So far, I've had fun in Morgan's class and wish to be able to see him again.

They each worked on some cartoons yesterday, too. Everyone was challenged to start with the thought "This morning I woke up and I could not believe my eyes ... " 

Here's CJ's panel 

And Annabelle's interpretation ...

MORNING ROUNDS: This morning's dog walking destination was Discovery Park. We didn't head for the beach, though. Rather, we explored a couple of interior loops. The first was Wolf Tree Trail, a new-to-us-one. Basically, it's paths through swampy areas. I was instantly regretting the fact we forgot bug spray.

Anyway, neat plants to be seen in the swampy area, including these with Jurassic Park sized leaves.

We also did the loop around the beaver pond, except there wasn't a sign of any recent beaver activity now, and no ducks were about, either. The pond looked super stagnant. Annabelle likened it to a golf course green.  

On the Waterfront

LOW TIDE: We took a stroll to the end of a road in Magnolia this morning. When we arrived we found it was low tide. The kids combed the beach while I stood back with the dogs, who watched them and worried that their humans were too far away.

MUSICAL: It was day three of the music and animation workshop the kids are enrolled in this Monday through Friday. CJ actually took a video of the song the group came up with today (about a hawk named Calvin who is accused of stealing nuts from a squirrel, Christopher Acorn. When I walked in the room, Annabelle was playing a solo on a little theremin-type instrument she'd brought along. It sounded good! CJ's video needs some heavy editing. Hopefully I'll be able to post it tomorrow.

SHIP SHAPE: When we came home from West Seattle this evening, we were thrilled to see an enormous Navy shop parked at the foot of our hill! And on board are at least a couple of Boeing Osprey. Sweet! We made a mental note to walk down the Garfield Bridge in the very near future. We would up doing it shortly after dinner.

Below, the ship kind of blends into the gray building in front of it. ... 

But we closed in for a closer look.

Per the Seafair Web site, the ship is Amphibious Assault Ship USS Boxer (LHD 4): "USS Boxer stretches 844 feet in length and is the largest of all amphibious warfare ships; resembling a small aircraft carrier. The ship is not only capable of conducting aircraft operations but it also capable of supporting watercraft operations in its well deck. This class of ship provides the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement by helicopter in addition to movement by landing craft. LHDs, like Boxer, have been participants in major humanitarian-assistance, occupation and combat operations in which the United States has been involved."

 The ship's so enormous, the Osprey, a tank and other vehicles on board like kind of small!

The white structures visible below are cranes in the Port of Seattle.

We could see soldiers working on board.

They appeared to be readying some flags.

Mount Rainier has been making itself known the last couple of days.

And we had to get a shot of a nearly full moon and the Space Needle.

PERLER PROJECT: The kids are already working on a thank you for their workshop leader, Morgan Taylor. They're making one of his characters, Gustafer Yellowgold, a creature who comes from the sun, out of Perler (a brand name) beads.

First, we had to find a good photo of Gustafer's head online, then we used a program to make a cross stitch pattern of it, in effect. And then, it was a matter of putting tiny, tiny beads in the right place.

The kids worked together, with CJ spending a lot of time picking out the right colored beads.

Here's the almost-finished pattern.

Once that's done, you take an iron to it and melt the beads together. 

Run Amok

TO BOLDY GO: Busy weekend here at MPA. One of the most memorable activities was attending 's Hello Earth's production of Outdoor Trek. Each year they stage an episode from the original series of Star Trek, and this summer it was "Amok Time," the classic where Spock and Captain Kirk end up in a battle to the death as part of a Vulcan mating ritual. 

Outdoor Trek is always great fun. The sets are sparse, but inventive. For example check out the 'bridge' of the USS Enterprise above. It's just some office chairs, but it worked!

And bedazzled hula hoops were used for low tech but hilarious transporters!

The orchestra was great, performing the familiar soundtrack music, as well as a couple of surprises, including a cool version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" during a set change. 

The fight scene was nicely choreographed, though poor Kirk came out on the losing end.

Fortunately, there was a happy ending for all. 

Apologies for the crappy photos. I was using my cell phone, and didn't take my good camera to the show because rain was in the forecast. Fortunately, the forecast was wrong.

The actors in Outdoor Trek said a few things that made us think this might be the end of their 'five year mission' (to borrow a Star Trek quote), and that Trek in the park might not be back next season. If not, we will truly miss it, but are happy to have had a chance to see it when we did.

HAPPY CAMPERS: Monday through Friday this week, CJ and Annabelle are attending a workshop with award-winning illustrator/songwriter Morgan Taylor, creator of the popular Gustafer Yellowgold series.

During the workshop, they are exploring multimedia comic techniques and inventing characters, creating narratives and writing songs. In Monday's session, after much discussion, the group came up with a character named Christopher Acorn, a squirrel. They also collaborated to write an original song, "Pig Up." I'll have to get the kids to sing that and I'll post it later. 

Here's a little sample of some Gustafer Yellowgold music. Pretty wild stuff!
https://youtu.be/DQuEEXtcGO4

BLUE MOON: The second full Moon of July is just around the corner and, according to modern folklore, that makes it a a "blue moon."
https://youtu.be/XyBp-EYrwTA

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for more.

Sailing

COME SAIL AWAY:  Last night, after making a frozen yogurt run, we took the long way home, around the 'horn' on the south Magnolia border. Glad we did. There was some sort of sailboat regatta going on. We stopped at one of our favorite beaches and watched the boats head for port. So pretty!

IT CONTINUES: More news an images from the successful New Horizons mission to Pluto continues to pour in. 

                   Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Some of the biggest news? Pluto has atmosphere. Check out the photo above - a 'farewell' shot taken by New Horizons as it zoomed past Pluto, shooting back toward our sun.

You can see Pluto’s atmosphere in the photo, the white ring against the silhouette of the dwarf planet. It was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on July 15, about 9 p.m. Pacific time. At that point, New Horizons was already 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto. The image was just delivered to Earth yesterday. Because of New Horizon's distance from home, it is going to take weeks/months for the data it captured to be transmitted, so stay tuned for more of the Pluto show!  

Other new photos of Pluto have revealed glaciers made of nitrogen ice creeping across its surface, hazes that come and go around the planet, and dark organic compounds raining down.

Also in today's Pluto news, this fun congratulations to the New Horizons team hit the Internet, featuring rock star and astrophysicist Dr. Brian May. 
https://youtu.be/PvOF5anPAwo

MEANWHILE, CLOSER TO HOME:  Buzz Aldrin has been busy on social media this week, which is the 46th anniversary of mankind's first moon landing. 

According to Buzz Aldrin, "The true value of ‪#‎Apollo11‬ is the story of innovation and teamwork that went into overcoming all the obstacles to land on the moon. That effort was driven in part by competition and scientific discovery and the natural need for humans to explore and push boundaries. The plaque we left on the moon reads: 

Here at MPA, we observed the anniversary by making rocket pops with Tang. 

https://youtu.be/Wf1kw5Yp9Ck

This Tang theme song will forever be burned into my brain: https://youtu.be/E-iRO0VpJqk

Science Centered

FOCUSED: We enjoyed some sunshine and fresh air at Seattle Center this afternoon, splashing in the International Fountain and the wading pool by Key Arena. But first, the kids each took a short right on a very high bike outside Pacific Science Center.

It is actually kinda sketchy feeling when you're on it, you can't see the rail, all you see is the pool about 20 feet below you! The is the first summer Annabelle has been tall enough to ride. She was very pleased to climb on board and take a lap!

We headed inside the science center and set about finding the temporary astronaut statue that's part of the Museum of Flight's "Astronauts on the Town" program. We found him or her by the Gemini capsule replica.

This one's called Extravehicular Activity. By artist Matthew Dockrey, its design was inspired by the original Gemini spacewalks. 
This afternoon, we had our final focus group/feedback session at Pacific Science Center. We've been part of this project for two years now, and our point of contact person thanked us for never missing an appointment.

Today, we were giving feedback on "The Studio" part of the Professor Wellbody’s Academy of Health & Wellness inside PSC. The theme there at the present is "Meet Your Microbes!" The exhibit features info about microscopic organisms that help us digest food, process vitamins, protect us from infections - and sometimes make us sick. A lot of the content features local researchers and physicians, which is cool. For instance, we learned all about Fecal microbiota transplants thanks to a video featuring University of Washington 's Dr. Elizabeth Broussard. 

At this station, we could zoom in on microbes to see how big (or small) they really are.

I really liked one station demonstrating that correlation and causation are not one and the same. For instance, a lot of ice cream is sold at the same time a lot of people get sunburned. Does that mean ice cream causes sunburns? No!!

The exhibit features a number of videos. One we took the time (a bit over 5 minutes) to watch was "The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome," an animation by NPR.

I found the video on YouTube, so I can share it hear. Its summary reads, "The next time you look in a mirror, think about this: In many ways you're more microbe than human. There are 10 times more cells from microorganisms like bacteria and fungi in and on our bodies than there are human cells. But these tiny compatriots are invisible to the naked eye. So we asked artist Ben Arthur to give us a guided tour of the rich universe of the human microbiome."

https://youtu.be/5DTrENdWvvM

KIND OF A BIG DEAL: We started our day by tuning into a Livestream press conference from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The topic at hand? Earth 2.0! Well, kind of. Maybe. But it's exciting, really!

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered what's believe to be a rocky planet orbiting a star that's just 4 percent more massive than our sun, and 10 percent brighter. In a 'habitable zone,' the rocky planet is about 1.6 times the size of Earth, making it a "super-Earth."  This planet, named Kepler 452b for now, is about the same distance from its sun as we are from ours. It's about 1,400 light years from us, however. 

                              
                    Shown is an artist's impression of Earth compared to Kepler 452b. NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle.

NASA is calling 452b "a bigger, older cousin to Earth." Our "cousin" has a 385-day orbit of its star. Interesting.

In case you're wondering, the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute has had 452b on their radar (so to speak) for awhile now, and have been watching for signs of life, using the Allen Telescope Array to check it for signals of artificial origin. To date, no such signals have been detected, per SETI.

LIME TIME: Today's produce picks included three cute little limes off our one and only lime tree!

Locks-n-Stuff

BOUNTIFUL:  We're finally beginning to reap the benefits of our months of gardening work. We've got multiple zucchini and so many cherry tomatoes, which the kids eat like candy. Sweet!

SOMETHING FISHY: For our morning walk, we headed to the Ballard Locks.  There were lots of fish moving through the ladders! Annabelle took this photo ...

 We stood atop the dam and watched the fish jump.

 We watched a few boats passing through the locks, including this tugboat ...

 and this one, out of San Francisco. Be glad you can't smell the diesel. :)

We took the opportunity to enjoy the multitude of flowers in bloom on the grounds of the park ...

and we also checked out a special guest, at the visitor's center, one of the "Astronauts on the Town," a fun visual celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Flight. 

In total, there are 25 unique, life-size "astronauts" stationed around town. Each began as a white fiberglass statue, then "transformed with paint, lasers, plaid shirts and other materials into a colorful new personality" per the MoF. 

Today, we encountered this lovely statue, Aboriginaut. 

Per the art project's Web site, this particular astronaut's design was "based on cave drawings of astronomy by Aboriginal cultures of Australia. The symbols on the suit depict the sun, the stars and the moon along with symbols representing travel." 

If you follow our blog, be prepared to see many more of these Earth-bound astronauts in the future, as we hope to visit a number of them. 

THREE MORE:  This afternoon, we watched three humans (one Russian, one American, and one Japanese citizen) hurtle off Earth, destination International Space Station.

Fortunately their flight went mostly OK (one solar array failed to deploy, per early reports I read, but one was enough to get them where they needed to go).

A BIT OF A HIKE: We stumbled across a video today by people who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and made a compilation using one second of video from each day of their journey. In all, it's 2660 miles in just over three minutes. What a trip that would be. Makes me want to blank five months (maybe six) on our calendar and give it a go. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styiDn7YKhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styiDn7YKhE
>

Of Pluto and Pixels

TURN UP THE STEREO:  Had to love the headline on a NASA press release I received in my inbox today: 

Rock Star/Astrophysicist Dr. Brian May Goes Backstage With New Horizons

Why, yes, I do think I'll read that!

From watching a New Horizons press conference last week, we knew Brian May was at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Maryland. Turns out his visit was more than a fly-by. Dr. May spent a few days with the team and has been named  a New Horizons science collaborator by mission principal investigator Alan Stern. Here he is walking the halls with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.

Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Below, Dr. Brian May discusses the latest images of Pluto and Charon with members of the New Horizons GGI team.

Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Henry Throop

The NASA powwow happened to coincide with May's birthday. He called his visit “the best birthday gift ever.”

One of the things May did while visiting with the team was create the first known stereoscopic image of Pluto. (To fully appreciate it, you'd need to be wearing special spectacles.)

In stereoscopy, a 3D illusion is created by using a pair of 2D images, with each of the images representing two perspectives of the same object, with just minor deviation that equals or nearly equals the perspective that a pair of human eyes would receive in typical binocular vision.  

                                 High quality stereo image of Pluto assembled by Brian May. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

May has been fascinated with stereoscope images since he was a child. In a NASA video, he explains, "Stereoscopic images are fun, they are very real they make you feel like you're there, but they also give you a lot of information because you can get heights from this and you can get the whole shape of the mountain ranges, you can establish the depth of the craters, and the rilles or whatever, you know... " 

You can check out the special NASA "Pluto in a Minute" right here!
https://youtu.be/E-zurr9PHKg


You can also read more about Brian's visit with NASA and New Horizon on Brian's Blog: 
See Dr. May's images at http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianss...


PIXELS: Last night we took advantage of free sneak preview passes (from Sony) to see "Pixels," a flick that's been on CJ's radar for years now. 

He first learned of it when he saw this short by Patrick Jean from 2010, about New York being invaded by 8-bit creatures: https://youtu.be/SxX_bVluflo

Fast forward a few years and there's a full fledged, big-bidget Hollywood work up on the theme.

https://youtu.be/XAHprLW48no

Following is a short synopsis from CJ. SPOILERS AHEAD 

On July 20th, 2015, I went to see a special preview of Pixels, a movie that will not be released to the public until July 24th. Pixels is named so because it is themed after older video games, which have graphics made out of pixels. Most of the games shown in the movie are from the late 70's and early 80's.

At the start of the movie, which is set in 1982, Will Cooper, a future President of the United States, goes biking with his best friend, Sam Brenner, who is a champion at Pac-Man. They visit a local arcade, and Sam gets a Chewbacca mask from the claw machine, earning him the nickname "Chewie". A short while later, Sam goes up against Eddie Plant, a rival whom he must beat at Donkey Kong in a tournament. a MC who is present at the tournament informs the audience that the competition will be recorded and sent up in a space probe for aliens to discover. Eddie wins at the competition (using cheat codes).

Over 30 years later, Will is now president, but it appears that aliens misinterpreted the content in the probe as a declaration of war. The aliens send attacks in the form of 3-dimensional versions of classic video games, such as Galaga and Pong. Will has to team up with Sam and Eddie to stop the aliens from destroying the planet.

I know this plot sounds silly and/or bizarre, but Pixels was a good movie. If you are interested in retro video games, then I would recommend watching Pixels.

Having seen Pixels last night, we had a hankering to get our hands on some joysticks and buttons, and tonight we headed to Full Tilt's Ballard location. There, Ms. Pacman awaited us. Annabelle was thrilled she got to level three for the first time ever.