FORCE-FULL: Thursday was May the Fourth, and for our family, that's akin to a holiday, because it's Star Wars Day! For those who don't know, the 'holiday' happens because May the Fourth sounds like "May the Force ... " of Star Wars fame.) It just so happened that on that day we were helping host a teacher and staff appreciation luncheon. Naturally, we used a Star Wars theme for that ...
Darth Tater, Frylo Ren and the Spud Trooper stood guard at the start of the baked potato bar.
There were liquid refreshments. ...
We had a few fun signs around the room. ...
And some spaceships, as well!
The table was set with Star-Warsy items.
And light sabers lined the white board.
We had to have a few cookies, of course.
And vintage Star Wars Thermoses served as flower vases.
Meanwhile, down the hallway, CJ and Annabelle led a Star Wars singalong.
They played Weird Al's "The Saga Begins." Later that afternoon, the young Rebels caught a transport, and headed to the Safeco Field spaceport.
Sign and stuffie on hand, they hung out in the bullpen for awhile
And then they made their way around the concourse, running into some old friends ... and enemies.
They made sure to make time to watch the "Hat Trick" puzzle.
SPREADING THE WORD: This afternoon, I had an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite topics - NASA! - with a group of homeschooling parents. I prepared a quick PowerPoint showing just a few of the many, many ways to access NASA's vast resources. I started by suggesting signing up for NASA's Education Express weekly email, as it's always a wealth of what's hot and now at NASA, with lots of educational opportunities and suggestions.
I also suggested people sign up for NASA Science WOW!, another weekly email with a ton of resources delivered right to your inbox.
I also shared NASA's Educator and Student Current Opportunity pages on NASA's
website:
And, of course, I suggested people sign up to receive Jet Propulsion Laboratory's email. They often have programming and announcements of interest. We utilize JPL resources all of the time here at MPA. JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/signup/
I also suggested NASA Kids Club (https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html) as a 'safe' place to park your student if they want some screen time. There are games, videos, quizzes, and more about earth and space science.
NASA TV (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public) is another great resource. I noted that they do a good job of tying programming in with current events, be it Black History month or Women's month, and so on.
I also pointed people to NASA's launch schedule (https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/), because what's cooler than watching a rocket launch?! I reminded the group that LOTS of other people are launching rockets these days, too.
Of course, I had to let people know about how to spot the International Space Station from your own yard or wherever. It's as simple as visiting https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/, and checking the schedule or signing up for email or text notifications.
While NASA is known for space exploration and programs, I noted that they are a preeminent agency when it comes to earth sciences, as well. A good portal for that kind of info is: https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-earth-science-news
And last but not least, I shared NASA's fabulous Eyes on the Solar System website: https://eyes.nasa.gov/, which lets any of us be space explorers!
SPYBALL: A couple nights back, we watched a couple of short documentaries which were part of ESPN's super popular 30 for 30 series. The first was titled "Spyball." It was about a former Major League Baseball player, Moe Berg.
He was a Princeton graduate who spoke 12 languages, He was a wonderful defensive catcher with a great arm, and a not so great bat. But what he's most famous for from a historical perspective was that Berg was no ordinary ballplayer. After he hung up his cleats, he served as a spy during World War II, serving on spy with a top-secret mission and a license to kill I'd definitely suggest you check it out!
EMPOWERED: On Saturday, from 9 to 4:30 p.m., CJ and Annabelle had the opportunity to participate in Seattle Youth Empowerment Day. It was hosted by the Museum of History and Industry, in South Lake Union. When I saw a promo for it, I didn't hesitate to sign them up.
I'll let the kid tell you a bit more about the experience. Annabelle is up first.
Youth Empowerment Day at MOHAI was an event for middle and
high schoolers about lots of different social topics. The first event featured
the final 2 poets in the Seattle Grand Slam poetry slam. They each performed
the 3 poems that lead them to representing Seattle in the San Francisco poetry
slam! The first three (perform by a man named Mercury) were about how people
with Autism are treated like objects and are taught to smile and not oppose
anyone. The second poet was a black woman who had a poem about how she’d like
to see marvel make a female black superhero called “Afro-woman” and how she’d
handle herself and not need a man or a sidekick. She talked about how at the
end of the movie, she’d want to see Afro-woman stand with an army of other
black women behind her, so that they’d never be forgotten again. Other events included presentations by organizations like Seattle
Foundation, Give Big, Storytellers for Change, and the American Cancer Society’s
Relay for Life. They talked about volunteering and how to get the word out
about issues you care about. During lunch, there was an activity fair where a
few charities and organizations like Teen Feed, which provides food and shelter
for homeless teens; Redeeming Soles, which takes donations of new shoes to give
to less fortunate people; and Days for Girls, which provides reusable feminine
hygiene products to girls who can’t access them in stores. The activity fair
was basically just walking around and collecting stamps for a “passport”. The
last workshop was about our table groups coming up with our own community
projects. The winner was a group who was going to make a women’s self-defense
course called “G-fence”. They even won 1,000 dollars to make their plan a
reality! The Youth Empowerment Day was fun and educational, too!
And here's what CJ had to say. ...
On Saturday, my sister & I attended the annual Seattle Youth
Empowerment Day, an event held at the Museum of History & Industry
(MOHAI) since 2015. As described on the official webpage for the event,
"During this day-long event, teens will learn strategies for making an
impact on issues that matter to them through engaging workshops,
hands-on activities, inspiring guest speakers, and will even have the
chance to win $1,000 in startup capital to launch their own non-profit
organization!"
At the event, of of the first
things we did with the other teens was participate in a strange sort of
icebreaker. We would each write some info about us on a sheet of paper
(our names, preferred pronouns, favorite color, favorite animal, and
grade), crumple the sheet of paper into a ball, and then throw the paper
into a circle that we had formed. We would then pick up the piece paper
that was nearest to us, and find which student it matched.
In
the icebreaker, a pink-haired boy named Michael got my piece of paper
and traced it back to me. I ended up with a piece of paper that belonged
to "Louise" (or some other name along the lines of that), a girl who
was slightly older than me. One of the first
actual events at the Youth Empowerment Day was a presentation by Youth
Speaks, an organization dedicated to poetry written by youths. The first
person from Youth Speaks to present was Mercury Sutherland, an autistic
transman and poet. In his poem, Sutherland drew awareness to the large
amount of hate crimes directed towards transgender people, as well as
decried "Tumblr self-diagnosis" (most likely referring to the large
amount of Tumblr users who self-diagnose with mental illness).
Seattle Youth Empowerment Day 2017 was a very informative and interesting event.
And the kids each came home with a nice swag bag.:)
MIX IT UP: This week is Teacher Appreciation week where CJ and Annabelle take some classes. To show our appreciation, we helped set up a trail mix bar in a small office there.
We had an outdoors/trail hiking theme, and decorated the doorway with boughs cut down from our cedar tree yesterday. The kids helped make signs for the event and helped set up, as well.
We had over 20 items people could choose from to make their own trail mix. Everything from peanuts and pretzels to dried fruit, popcorn, Goldfish, granola, Whoppers, M&Ms, coconut ...
It was a really big hit, and the recipients felt very appreciated. :)
COLORFUL: Today's random share is from over a week ago. We were at a restaurant and Annabelle found several black and white coloring sheets. She proceeded to make several versions of Pikachu, of the game Pokemon.
First up was unicorn Pikachu.
Next, we have classical pianist Pikachu!
And last but not least, was "Smokemon," because the date she was doing the drawings was 4/20, and that is a 'holiday' in the marijuana smoking 'community.'
She also made a Minion into Mario, of Nintendo Bros. fame.
STORY TIME: For the past five weeks, we've been involved in a special project. It involved going to Pacific Science Center one a week to participate in a program sponsored by PSC, the University of Washington, the National Science Foundation and Seattle Public Libraries - all favorites of ours!
There were a number of facets to the program, but the number one thing was we were given a Chromebook, a Hummingbird (motherboard), electrical components, and an empty box, and tasked with telling a story about our family using eletronics, art, and robotics.
Needless to say, it was super fun.
So, how do you put a story in a box?
After our very first meeting, right away we began
thinking up ideas for our diorama. Our talk almost immediately turned to
politics, because our family talks about politics a lot. We found
ourselves talking about the proposal to build a wall on our country’s southern
border and how distasteful our family finds that idea. As we discussed more
about this, we realized that politics alone wasn’t a personal enough topic to
tell a family story.
However, because we had been talking about a wall, we then
thought about another wall that was a fun family story. Specifically, in 2013,
our family went all the way to London to see Roger Waters, the lead singer of
CJ’s favorite band, Pink Floyd, perform their concert “The Wall” in Wembley
Stadium. We realized we could share the politics we discuss and an amazing trip
we took by recreating the concert in our diorama.
We used actual photos of Wembley Stadium for the background, and we wrapped our box in a world map as the story is about travel and world politics. We purposely made the audience very diverse, and choosing the sound clips was a fun creative process, starting with a sound byte about building a wall today, and the lightning and thunder symbolize trouble or a storm that is brewing in world politics. We included some actual Pink Floyd music clips, and a clip of former president Ronald Reagan urging another nation to tear down their wall, which we find somewhat ironic nowadays.
Naturally, we had to build a wall, as that was a central feature of the concert we saw. Ours was out of LEGOs. We had to snip and sand off the little LEGO nubs on some of the pieces, so we could build a wall that would stand when we wanted it to, and fall down at the right time.
Our biggest challenge was making the pig, quite literally fly. You may wonder, “Why a flying pig?” but the flying pig balloon is a staple of Pink Floyd concerts. We talked about adding more elements to use more of the hummingbird components, but in the end realized that what we had here told the story we wanted to tell. https://youtu.be/y2Mp754acB8 A diorama we created using a Hummingbird motherboard. It tells the tale of our family going to Wembley stadium to see The Wall performed a couple of years ago, but it's also an allegory for present day politics. The flying pig is a Pink Floyd icon; we thought it only fitting that it broke the wall down.
By the way, the kids were caught in a 'windstorm' last time we went to PacSci. Fortunately, they survived unscathed.
SMALL BITES: Sunday morning, we were invited to meet for breakfast by Kennedy and Abby. They suggested Dim Sum (which translates to small bites, according to sources I read online).
We had never "dim summed" before, but were game to try. We met in Seattle's International District. They scouted for places that could seat our party of six, and we wound up at the Purple Dot.
Oh my. SO delocious! Seriously, every single bite was wonderful. I'm really not sure what all we ate, but it was all good and we can't wait to go again sometime!
It was so much more fun than going out for a Sunday morning breakfast of biscuits or pancakes or some similar, familiar fare.
SURPRISE FIND: Trying to avoid traffic in Greenwood a few days back, we were detouring through random residential streets. All of the sudden, in the middle of a bunch of single family residential homes, we happened upon this structure.
I'll let CJ tell you a bit about it. ...
On my birthday, we went by the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism,
located in a residential section of the Greenwood neighborhood.
According to their website, the purpose of Sakya Monastery is to share
and preserve Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture. The Sakya Monastery
does this through teaching and practicing traditional Tibetan Buddhism
and by upholding Tibetan customs and traditions.
The
Sakya Monastery caught my attention because I have a fascination with
Shar-Pei, an ancient Chinese dog breed, and the Monastery is Chinese in
origin. I would like to visit the Monastery on some weekend.
WHAT IS THAT?! We were down in Des Moines (a bit south of Seattle) this weekend and saw a statue from a distance that made us pull over and get out of the car to check it out. From a distance - and up close, frankly - it looked like a large fish attacking Albert Einstein.
So, it turns out that wasn't what it was. Rather, it's a statue called "The Great Catch," by artist Richard Beye.
Not understanding what, exactly, we were seeing, we were happy there was a plaque at the bottom statue explaining it.
"Legend of the 'Big Catch: Long ago, a beautiful young maiden fell in love with a handsome fisherman. To her dismay, the Wicked Witch of Puget Sound fell in love with him too. The Wicked Witch cast a spell and turned the maiden into a fish. For years, the sad fisherman searched all the waters of the Sound looking for his maiden, to no avail. One day, while fishing at the Des Moines fishing pier, he saw a big fish in his net. He knew it was his love. He pulled her up, kissed her, and she was transformed back into his beautiful maiden. They were married and lived happily ever after."
ORGAN-IZED: Monday morning, we took a field trip to one of our favorite destinations, the lovely Paramount Theatre. Our reason for visiting was the Paramount's annual/ongoing silent movie series.
I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about our visit.
On the morning of 24 April, my family went to the Paramount
Theatre, (a historic theater for plays, and, to a lesser extent, films)
for that day's Silent Movie Monday event. At the Paramount Theatre,
Silent Movie Mondays are events where the theater plays various silent
films, with a live soundtrack (as in, played by humans along with the
visuals).
First, we were introduced to Tedde
Gibson and Paul Hansen, the musicians present at the Silent Movie
Monday. Tedde Gibson played a large Wurlitzer organ,
which was literally connected to the walls. The Wurlitzer organ has
several "sub-instruments", like a regular piano, as well as something
that could make flute sounds. Paul Hansen had various Foley-studio esque
objects, that would allow him to make various sound effects.
The
first of the films we were shown, "A Portal for Fools", was actually a
new film, created in the style of of classic silent films. A Portal for
Fools was a story about a girl building a portal to another point on the
planet, only for her and a friend of hers to get lost in the portal.
Two of the girl's friends have to go looking for her, which culminates
in a Scooby-Doo-styled-chase scene where they try and find each other. A
Portal for Fools was made for a contest, in which students aged 20 and
under could make a silent film for a reward of hundreds of dollars, if
they succeeded. A Portal for Fools was apparently last year's winner.
The second of the films, "The Battle of the Century",
is a classic Laurel & Hardy comedy from 1927. For several decades,
the film was thought to be lost (save for the climactic pie fight),
until 2015, when most of the rest of the film was found. The
Battle of the Century was one of Laurel & Hardy's first shorts,
before they knew each other very well or were famous. The short starts
off with a boxing match, evidently set up to look like "The Battle of
the Century". Laurel, one of the opponents in the match, ends up losing,
to Hardy's dismay. Hardy seeks insurance, and the insurer tells Hardy
that if Laurel has an injury, Hardy can pocket the insurance money.
While
in the city, Hardy takes a banana peel, and throws it on the ground,
hoping that Laurel will slip on it. However, a chef slips on it instead,
and the chef throws a pie at Hardy. This starts a legendary pie fight
that everybody in the city takes part in, including the mayor. This
turns out to be the actual Battle of the Century.
Annabelle weighs in, as well ...
Once a year, the Paramount theater has a field trip for
schools to go on a tour of the theater and see their Silent Movie Monday
feature. We didn’t go on the tour, but we did enter the theater with a group
from our school to see a student-made film from a local elementary, and an old
(surprisingly complete) Laurel and Hardy skit. The student film was about a
young scientist girl creating a portal, which her over-eager friend decides to
jump into. The scientist girl hops in after him on a rescue mission, as her
other friends wonder why he hasn’t shown up for lunch. They discover her
missing and the portal activated, so they too join in on a rescue mission. What
ensues is a comical chase scene where all 3 groups routinely miss each other
while running through hallways and asking a (very angry) woman where their friends
are. Eventually, they all literally run into each other and leave the alternate
world. After a thorough scolding from the scientist, they all agree never to
jump into random portals again. The second silent
film we were shown was a Laurel and Hardy skit that recently had the majority
of the film found and restored. It was titled “The Fight of the Century”,
starting with two boxers fighting in the ring. The crowd is pumped for the
popular favorite to win against a comically stupid opponent. However, as the
idiot’s coach shows him which hand to punch with, the idiot actually knocks out
the favorite with a punch to the face! The entire crowd leaves when the idiot
goes down for 2 seconds. Later, the stupid boxer and his coach are walking down
the street when they bump into a pie shoppe owner, slipping his entire tray of
whipped cream pies. The pie shoppe owner decides to throw the pies at them in
spite, but ends up missing. The pies hit other innocent people, and what ensues
is the real fight of the century, with about 30 people in a huge pie war!
Apparently during filming 3,000 pies were used. That’s a lot of baking! The
silent movies were hilarious, and even more so with the accompanying organ and
Foley sound effects. I love watching silent movies at the Paramount!
The L&H movie is available on YouTube via several posts. This one looks to be one of the longer ones, so maybe it's most inclusive. It's a fun watch if you have 15 minutes to spare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_OUL8hzNx8
SOLIDARITY WITH SCIENCE: Saturday morning, we left the house around 10:30 to head to Seattle Center. From there, we caught the Monorail to Westlake park, where we planned to join the Seattle March for Science, one of over 600 marches around the world in support of science and scientists.
We got ot Westlake a little before 11:30, and the parade didn't start until 12, so rather than stand around, we decided to start walking up Pine street toward Capitol Hill, the parade's genesis.
We walked and walked and walked some more, all up hill, and before we knew it, we were at the parade's starting line!
We were happy we got to walk the entire route and experience the entire event! Above, CJ and Annabelle stand near the starting line, with Seattle Police Officers leading the way. Below is the banner that led the march.
We stood for awhile along Pine, watching the people and their signs pass by.
Both genders and ages were well represented.
We appreciated the time people took to make posters and share sentiments important to them.
Below is a look down Pine, heading toward downtown from Capitol Hill.
We crossed over Interstate 5 on our way up Pine to the event's start, as well as on our way down, as marchers.
Galileo was represented at the march!
Let's take a little break in here to let CJ tell you a bit about his march experience.
Back on 21 January 2017, I participated in the Womxn's March,
As with the
Womxn's March, my family made various signs to march with. My sister
carried a hand-drawn sign, featuring a unicorn scientist. My sister's
sign said (if I remember correctly) that science is true, no matter what
you believe. My sign had two signs. One of them said that science are
not "Alternative Facts", and the other side featured Mr. Spock,
explaining that science denial is illogical.
All
kinds of groups were at the march, from Socialists (specifically, this
fringe "Socialist Freedom Party") to Satanists (specifically, a local
chapter of the Satanic Temple). At one point in the march, a reporter
had a short interview with my sister (embedded).
Next up is the People's Climate March, to be held on 29 April 2017.
And here we'll take a quick break to share Annabelle's march impressions. ...
The Science March in Seattle took place on April 22nd,
also known as Earth Day. We went to the start of the march at noon and marched
until 1:30. According to Google Maps, we walked 2.8 miles during the march
(Probably closer to 3, walking to and from the car). The signs we saw were
awesome and I loved seeing the creative sayings and puns people came up with. I
saw many signs that said “I’m with her” with a picture of the Earth (A
reference to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign) and signs about climate
change and how real it truly is. I dressed as a unicorn and held a sign with a
scientist unicorn on it saying “Science doesn’t care what you believe”. The
march was held in pouring rain, but we kept marching on. It was super fun, but
I still can’t believe we have to march for this stuff.
Below, the kids make the turn from Pine to Fourth Avenue, where we started heading north toward Seattle Center.
We were happy to see Paul Allen's Cinerama had March for Science messages scrolling on its marquee.
Along the way, Annabelle's unicorn costume caught the eye of a KIRO 7 reporter.
After about an hour of walking, we found ourselves at Seattle Center, the end of the road for the march.
Annabelle found a couple of other unicorn-minded people there.
There was an enthusiastic band, and they even played the "Bill Nye the Science Guy" theme!
This was a sight we saw on our way home. Even Science Marchers need some cash, it seems. :)
All in all it was a great day. We talked to lots of interesting people and we're glad the steady drizzle didn't dampen the spirits of thousands of pro-science people at the local event!
