BRACE YOURSELF: Big day for CJ. He's sporting a heavy metal smile tonight.
He's pretty uncomfortable, but he's being a good sport about it. Speaking of uncomfortable, yowza, orthodontia is expensive. ... HOT SPOTS: It was a warm one today, again. Upwards of 85, I'm guessing. To help beat the heat, the kids dangled their legs in water while eating lunch at the Locks this afternoon.
And this evening, we went down to a little rocky beach on the north shore of Magnolia. There were lots of ferries, sailboats and cargo vessels on the Sound tonight. CJ and Annabelle launched a small surfboard.
No surfing was done, but after a bit they managed to at least bob around in the water on it.
The mountain was out today, majestic as always.
NEWS FROM NASA: An email from our national space agency let us know about a new NASA Education program, 'Science WOW!' By signing up for weekly“Science WOW!” email, we'll be receiving science education offerings delivered “Weekly on
Wednesdays.” In the announcement, NASA told us, "Science
starts with a question, and so does "Science WOW!" Each week's message
kicks off with a science question and a link to where you can find the
answer. "Science WOW!" also highlights an awesome science education tool
each week. These featured resources will include NASA apps, interactive
games, 3-D printing templates and more!" Sounds great! We're looking forward to the first "Science WOW!" message, scheduled to be sent on Aug. 10, 2016. People can register their email address and be added to the list by visiting https://www.nasa.gov/education/sciencewow/. SO LONG, LITTLE LANDER: Sad news from the European Space Agency. The Philae lander, which touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014, is now in the big sleep, so to speak.
Adorable cartoon: ESA
The end came when ESA switched off the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on the Rosetta spacecraft, which delivered Philae to the comet. The instrument was used to communicate with Philae but, as Rosetta nears the end of its own life, it needs as much power available as possible.
Photo of Philae on the comet: ESA
Rosetta's days are numbered, as well. The spacecraft is expected to have a planned impact on the comet in September this year. Now, though, we must say farewell to Philae. And in two months, there will be another sad goodbye as the Rosetta mission ends. ONE MORE: The kids are still singing Weird Al songs nearly nonstop a couple of days after the concert. Today, they asked me to play this video. To the tune of Lorde's "Royals," it's called "Foil," and it's hilarious.
WONDERFULLY WEIRD: Last night, the dogs and I dropped Christian and the kids off at the zoo. You'd think they'd be there to check out the wild animals. Instead, they were there to enjoy the antics of Weird Al.
Here's a (too short) snippet from Annabelle about the event. ...
At the Woodland Park Zoo, as part of their ZooTunes program,
Weird Al Yankovic played a show as part of his “Mandatory Fun” tour. The show
included many classics, such as “Perform This Way”, “Party in the CIA” and, of
course, “The Saga Begins”, but it also included a few songs I haven’t heard
before, such as a parody of Piano Man about Spiderman. It was a fun concert
even though we were somewhat far from the stage. We brought our own chairs and
a blanket, so we were comfortable. It was great, because we had a view of the
stage from where we were. The show has fun and I would encourage you to go see
him, or see a concert at Woodland Park Zoo!
CJ had a bit more to say. ...
Rarely, our family visits the Woodland Park Zoo, which, as its name implies, is a zoo with several animals on display (however, several animals there are *not* from the woods). However, when we visited last night, we went to the property for another, very different reason. We were going to see "Weird Al" Yankovic.
According to their website at thezoo.org, the ZooTunes concerts at the Woodland Park Zoo is a tradition that has been going on for more than 30 years. Attending the ZooTunes concerts will supposedly help "save animals", though I don't understand how. At this year's ZooTunes event, there were around 9 different artists performing, one of which was "Weird Al" Yankovic, who performed on the 26th and 27th. Dad, Annabelle and I went on July 26th, and we stayed for about 2 and a half hours.
Before the performance started, there was a clip show featuring small bits of unrelated shows and media. This lasted for a bit before the show actually started. When Weird Al performed the first song on the setlist, "Tacky," a parody of Pharrell Williams' "Happy," he actually walked on the trail to the stage while performing the song, like he did in the music video. After he was done performing the song, there was another clip show, except this one was a little different. Instead of just random clips put together, the clips in this one had a common theme: Weird Al was in all of them. Afterwards, he performed "Lame Claim to Fame," which, according to Wikipedia, is a " Style parody of Southern Culture on the Skids." The concert was very fun, with several parodies of famous songs, but it's a shame that the Mandatory Fun Tour is going to end on September 14.
Both of the kids agreed that "Word Crimes," a play on the mega hit "Blurred Lines," was their favorite song of the night. It really is pretty brilliant.
PUPPY LOVE: We have a new member of the extended family. His name is Pretzel. He's eight weeks old, and he's adorable. We met him today.
The kids rolled around on the floor with him for the better part of an hour. CJ for scale. ;)
I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the pup or the kids. :) When he's not busy playing, Pretzel just sits around being cute.
COMING THROUGH!:A Facebook post by the Hiram Chittenden Locks a couple of days ago let us know the estuary would have an unlikely vessel coming though this morning. Specifically, it was the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) ferry Sealth.
When it's in service, the 328-foot ferry can carry up to 1,200 passengers and 90 cars. Named after the Chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes who befriended early settlers in the 1850-60's and signed the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, the ferry dates back to 1982, and it was heading through the Locks to a dry dock, for some maintenance and repair.
Thinking it would be cool to see it heading through the channel by our house, first thing today, we hopped in the car, dogs in tow, and headed for the Locks, about 1.5 miles to our northwest.
We parked on the south side of the Locks and walked to the channels where the locks are lowered and lifted. It was a bit after 8, and we'd read the ferry was expected at 8:15. We heard a Locks worker tell a co-worker the vessel was expected "in about an hour," and we thought we were going to miss out. (We couldn't stick around that long due to an appointment a bit later). And so, we started the walk back to the car. As we approached the parking lot, the railroad bridge lifted.
At first, we couldn't see why the bridge was lifting. There wasn't a boat in sight. However, as we rounded the corner, we spied ferry Sealth in the distance.
Tugs were on both sides of it, and they were starting to push it toward the Locks!
It wasn't super fast, but soon enough, the ferry made its way under the railroad bridge.
First time we've seen a ferry there, for sure!
The blue sky and clouds helped make the scene even more striking.
And here, the ferry is being carefully piloted into the Locks for its trip to a dry dock in Lake Union or Lake Washington.
We're so happy to have been able to see the ferry's passing!
Another local with a camera took a video of the ferry passing under the Fremont Bridge (it's further east than the Ballard Locks.
WEEKEND REWIND: Saturday and Sunday, we had the pleasure of attending the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo.
Conveniently located at Seattle Center (less than two miles from our home), we were able to attend for awhile both days.
I'll let the kids tell you more about it. CJ's review is up first. ...
For a couple years by this point, my family has gone to the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, a geeky convention hosted in various places in Seattle. According to their website, The Seattle Retro Gaming Expo is an organization dedicated to creating a network of gamers in the Seattle area, and providing outlets for us to express our passion for all facets of the geek culture in general, and classic videogames in particular. At SRGE, there are usually several stations, often selling video-game themed art and other memorabilia. Sometimes, a particular station will be selling "reproduction carts", or a game that was never originally released or localized being put on a cartridge, usually having been translated beforehand. One station that stood out to me was a station actually advertising a new game for the NES, known as "Mystic Searches". Mystic Searches is going to be an action-adventure game set in a fantasy world. More can be read about Mystic Searches (and the documentary being made about it) at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1316851183/the-new-8-bit-heroes-new-nes-game-and-creation-doc/posts/1622766.
On our second day at SRGE 2016, Annabelle and I checked out a copy of Battletoads, the next-to-impossible-to-beat beat 'em up game for the NES. As with most playthroughs of the game, we did not make it past the 2nd stage, the "Wookie Hole", where we descended down a mile-long pit with everything and its brother trying to kill us. Sometimes, when trying to attack an enemy, we could end up hitting each other and wasting a life. But that is part of what makes Battletoads, well, Battletoads.
Here's Annabelle's take on the event. ...
Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, or SRGE, is a convention based
around- you guessed it- retro video games. The convention this year was held in
Seattle Center’s exhibition hall. The main focus of the expo was the
merchandise. You could buy games, plushies, Perler Bead artwork, and many more
geeky things. We bought a few Ken Griffey Jr. Games, and on the second day, Pokémon Stadium. There was also a large selection of
games to play. The expo had quite a few arcade games, but the main part of the
gaming section was the consoles they had. You could rent games at a table and
play them on the available consoles. We played games such as Katamari Damacy,
Ecco the Dolphin, Battletoads, and many more. It was a fun experience and I
think the weekend passes we bought were worth it, even if we only played
Battletoads on the second day.
THE KID IS IN: Sunday morning, we blanked our calendar to make room for a very special occasion, the induction of Ken Griffey Jr. into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Junior is the first player to go into the hallowed hall as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Regardless of the uniform he wore, he's arguably the best to have ever played the game. He was elected on the first possible eligibility ballot for him, with, by far, the highest percentage of 'yes' votes of any player, ever.
Of course, we had to have a little party for the occasion. We made some baseball cake pops (pictured below).
We also had a number of Griffey video games to play pre-ceremony.
The induction ceremony was wonderful and moving. We're so lucky to have had front-row seats to Ken Griffey Jr.'s career.
ON PATROL: A mixed bag for MPA today. The kids did math (for the first time in what seems like months), I taught them how (and why) to make a reduction sauce (teriyaki in this case), the dogs had a spa day. and, of course, we fit in some time for getting outdoors and hunting some Pokemon GO!
I promise this is not going to turn into the 'we-caught-this' Pokemon journal. But like so many other things in life, there are educational aspects to most everything, including Pokemon GO! For instance, CJ has researched the history and origin of the viral game. Here's what he has to share.
Chances are, if you've been outside in the past 2 weeks, you've seen several people staring down at their mobile phones while doing things like crossing the street or seemingly aimlessly walking around the block. In the past, these people were most likely texting, but today, they are most likely playing Pokémon Go. According to Wikipedia, Pokémon Go is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. Although Pokémon Go was first released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on July 6th, 2016, the concept of an augmented reality mobile game where you must travel in the real world to accomplish tasks in a competitive fashion dates back to at least 2010, with the announcement of Shadow Cities.
However, Shadow Cities ended up being unpopular, so it was closed on October 7th, 2013, with little notice. Niantic, a developer group inside Google, was working on a similar game known as Ingress. Ingress was released on December 14th, 2013. Players of Ingress will likely recognize multiple aspects present in Pokémon Go (and vice versa) such as the stops where you collect useful items (named "Portals" in Ingress, "Pokéstops" in Pokémon Go), and the usage of the phone's camera. Several of the Pokéstops in Pokémon Go are re-used portals from Ingress.
For April Fools' Day 2014, Google altered their Google Maps service to actually include an augmented reality system where you could catch Pokémon on the map and trade the Pokémon with other players. While this event only lasted for one day, it would set the stage for what would become Pokémon Go. Eventually, Niantic split from Google, and became their own San-Francisco-based-company. In 2015, Nintendo, owners of the Pokémon franchise, announced a partnership with Niantic, and announced Pokémon Go.
And Annabelle offers this explanation of how to play the game. ...
Pokemon GO is an app you can download for free on your phone. The game utilizes your GPS signal to place you on a map of your area. If you look around, you can see and capture your very own Pokemon! At first, you are introduced to Professor Willow, who tells you about things like how to catch your first Pokemon. By swiping your finger to “throw” a pokeball, you can catch your starter Pokemon- Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, or, if you walk away from those three, Pikachu! After the tutorial, you can walk around the map. One of the first things I recommend doing is finding a small blue thing on the map near you. These are called “Pokestops”. When you walk near it, it should grow to tell you you’re in range. If you tap on it and “spin” the image, you’ll get rewards! Pokestops refresh every few minutes, so make sure to come back!
One very important feature of the game is catching multiple Pokemon. Pokemon appear randomly on the map and you can tap on them to try and catch them! If it’s too strong or there’s something else you need to do, you can always run away, so there is no need to worry. When you successfully catch a Pokemon, it will be added to your collection and you are rewarded with candies of that Pokemon's type. You can use these candies to power up and even evolve your Pokemon to make them as strong as can be! At some point, you will be prompted to join 1 of 3 teams- Valor, the red team; Mystic, the blue team; and Instinct, the yellow team. The team you choose does not effect gameplay much, so choose whichever you prefer.
By now, you should also be able to challenge a gym! These are the large silver structures on the game map. The color of the gym corresponds to what team “owns” it. If you are on the same color team as the gym, you can train there by tapping on the gym and pressing the small boxing glove icon in the lower right corner. If you are on a different team, you can attempt to take it over by doing the same thing. To battle, rapidly tap on your opponent to deal damage. If you take over a gym, you can also place your own Pokemon to become the leader of the gym. If there is a gym with the same color as you owned by someone else, you can place your own Pokemon there to support it.
Pokemon GO has a fun premise and I would say it’s definitely worth the download. Beware, though, as it requires GPS, visual, and sometimes camera data, so it can drain your battery very quickly. If you have enough time and are willing to be out and about, download the game and “Catch ‘Em All”!
GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL: We got some exercise and a history lesson while chasing Pokemon this morning. Kennedy suggested some Pokemon hunting, and I suggested the Ballard Locks, as I'd heard there was lots of activity there. For those who haven't yet heard of the cell phone based game Pokemon Go, it's an app credited with getting gamers to take their action outside. Rolling Stone aptly describes it as
You look for the critters, catch them, train them and battle with them. What's different here is that it uses the real world to inform your game experience. The game uses your phone's GPS sensors to track where you are, and makes use of a stylized Google map as the primary game board. Your character moves in the game as you walk around in real life, and events and objects – known as PokéStops – are associated with specific locations in the physical world. In order to interact with them, you need to actually walk to a particular place, like, in the real world. You can look at the game world through your phone's display, which serves as a viewfinder that mixes reality with game objects. Hence the term "augmented reality."
Since its initial rollout on July 6th, the app already has broken every record for app based games, and if it doesn't already, it will soon have more daily mobile users than Twitter.
We headed for the estuary between Lake Union and Puget Sound. It's less than two miles from our house. We found it fertile grounds for rare Pokemon like Squirtle, VictreeBell, and a Dratini. This me very happy.
What also made me happy was that our hunt became a walking history lesson.
There's lots of construction on the north side of the Locks right now. Turns out the 100+ year old pump plant is getting a long overdue upgrade. It was really neat to get to see the century old parts, and read about their replacements.
Look at this worn-out workhorse, below. Amazing that for years, it was capable of moving 26,000 gallons of water PER MINUTE. I talked with the kids for a couple of minutes about trying to visualize that volume.
I really love that the construction at the Lock incorporated this cool opportunity to get a glimpse of the past instead of just doing it all behind tarps and fences.
And oh, yeah, there were boats at the Locks today, too. Wonder if they had any Pokemon stowaways.
We noticed that the boat bringing up the rear had a couple of probes on board, and its stern had the telltale "RV" in its name (research vessel). On our way back to the car, we noticed a full on art in the park session, with painters capturing the railroad bridge. We wondered if it's a regular event, if the group travels, or it was just an unlikely coincidence.
MOD SQUAD: Tonight marked the start of a project CJ has been obsessing over for months. He's hoping to squeeze 'hi def' quality out of a decades old Nintendo NES console.
He decided this mod kid (pictured below) was his best bet. They are new to the market and were in high demand (go figure), but we managed to score on the first day it launched.
CJ and Christian began dismantling the good ol' NES tonight, in preparation for the upgrade.
Please hold your breath, keep your fingers crossed and offer up good thoughts to the retro gaming powers that be that this works.
TOOTHY GRIN: This afternoon, the kids had dentist appointments. CJ was due for a panorama, and the office was kind enough to email me a copy. So how's that for a toothy grin? Unfortunately, he has all four of his wisdom teeth. Bummer. We were hoping he'd luck out and be missing some/all of them. No such luck. :/ Guess there will be some "David After Dentist" in his future. ROCK ON: This afternoon, we headed over the the kids' learning center for a bit. I had a meeting to attend, and they enjoyed an hour or so in the library, learning about rocks. There were dozens of specimens on display, and kids were invited to get a sample box and fill them up.
Below is CJ's rock box, and following is a brief explanation of his rock gathering experience.
Today, in the school library, there was a little table with several groups of rocks on it. Lloyanne, the school's librarian, was running the station, and she had collected the rocks on various geological trips through Washington and British Columbia. She gave us a box with several squares in it, to put the rocks we picked out in. I picked out 7 rocks, including opalized petrified wood, fluorite, jasper, quartz crystal, petrified wood, agate, and soapstone. My personal favorite was the fluorite, as it had an unusual shape and pretty colors. My least favorite, however, was the petrified wood. Although petrified wood sounds interesting on paper, in reality, in my opinon, well; it looks kind of bland. Lloyanne told me that I could continue rock collecting at home, numbering the rocks I collect and putting them in my box.
And here we have Annabelle's box.
Here's what she had to say about it. ...
Today at school there was a summer reading activity about
rocks and minerals. We were supplied boxes by the librarian and she had some
really neat rock specimens for us to take home! The one I got that was my
favorite was some Lepidolite, and I also chose things like Serpentine, Quartz
crystal, Fluorite, and others! It was fun seeing the different kinds of
minerals and learning about them. I think this was a great summer program!
AND THE LIVING'S EASY: Look at them. Above and below, CJ and Annabelle, floating without a care in the world. How great is that? That was their reality for a few days last week as they enjoyed camping out with family in the Southern Willamette Valley.
While I convalesced at home post CYBORG SURGERY (sorry, I can't but help type that in all caps, because I kinds LOVE the idea of a bionic part), CJ and Annabelle were lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality and company of their extended family at a campground near the Dorena Reservoir.
I'll let them tell you a bit more about it. CJ's up first. ...
For a very long time, my dad's side of the family has gone camping in the Baker Bay Campgrounds, which is located near Lake Dorena (my family usually just calls the campsite Dorena). Over the years, I have become somewhat familiar the Baker Bay Campgrounds, as I have been there for nearly every year of my life. This visit, however, was a special one. This year, my dad was not with me on the camping trip, just Annabelle & I for most of the trip. This was because of my dad needing to take care of my mom during most of the trip, because she just had invasive hip replacement surgery.
Prior to visiting camp this year, we stayed at our grandparents' house for 4 days. I had visited this place several times before, and I enjoyed staying there as usual. At my grandparents' house, I especially enjoyed swimming at their house, which was very fun. At Baker Bay, I enjoyed my visit, as I usually did with my earlier visits (except for that one time I got a disease, but let's not talk about that). Sometimes, it felt odd without dad there, because he had been with me at camp for every previous year. My family members at camp helped us stay comfortable and have fun at camp.
One of the highlights of my trip was going biscuiting behind the "Party Barge", the nickname for my grandpa's boat. If you are biscuiting, then that means you are gliding on water at high speed on an inflatable object (shaped like a biscuit). It was and is always fun going biscuiting, and wiping out, or falling off the biscuit, is not much to fear. One time, I went on a boat ride with the little kids at our camp. They went biscuiting, and when Annabelle and I went biscuiting on that ride, I wiped out once, to show the little kids that wiping out wasn't scary.
And here's Annabelle's account ...
Camping this year was an interesting experience for me,
because it was my first time going (for the most part) without Dad. It was interesting
having our own tent and making some decisions on our own. The thing about
having our own tent meant we had to keep organized and know where our stuff is
without much assistance. We also entertained ourselves most of the time instead
of being told what to do. As for what we did, we had lots of fun! We went Biscuiting
almost every day. Biscuiting is when we sit on an inflatable “biscuit” and we
are pulled by the boat at a fast speed. Some of the older kids even have “biscuit
wars” where they try to knock each other off. We also talked around the fire
quite a bit. It was nice to be able to enjoy ourselves, even if Dad
couldn’t be there. On Wednesday, Dad did manage to make it, and then we had fun
with him too. All in all, it was fun for our first time alone!
Of course, what made it all so comfortable for the kids was having multiple members of their Dad's family on site. I'm so glad they got to get away and enjoy the annual trip. Take my word for it, it was *much* more fun than what was going on at home with me post-op.
The intrepid campers, roughing it with their port-ably powered gaming devices.
