In Transition

BLUE MOON: We awoke to stunning photos from friends and pros from all over of last night's big lunar event.

Our 'lunar event' was a non event, as a thick blanket of clouds covered our skies. Sigh.

Here's a cool time lapse video of what it looked like over NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Ironically, my favorite moon photo of the day wasn't about the super blue moon or lunar eclipse. Rather, it was from NASA of the International Space Station transiting the moon. Such a cool shot!

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: It's been awhile since we've shared any news from that hard working Mars rover Curiosity. 

NASA shared a photo today that shows the rover on Vera Rubin Ridge, where it has been investigating for the past several months. 

Right behind the rover, you can see the start of a clay-rich slope scientists are eager to begin exploring. This week, Curiosity will begin to climb this slope. In the photo, north is on the left and west is on the right, and the rim of Gale Crater is on the horizon of both edges.

Poking up right behind Curiosity is Mount Sharp. In a press release, NASA noted "the mountain's base provides access to layers formed over millions of years. These layers formed in the presence of water -- likely due to a lake or lakes that sat at the bottom of the mountain, which sits inside Gale Crater."T

The image above is actually a mosaic, assembled from dozens of images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). They were all taken on Jan. 23, 2018, during Sol 1943.

HALFWAY:  This afternoon, Annabelle and I went to Queen Anne and picked up a donated bookcase, which we'll be filling with a bunch of great donated books, and then headed to the transitional house we're helping spruce up a bit.

There, we redecorated their big monthly calendar with a February header, and then turned our attention to a pay phone area where residents make their phone calls.  We recovered a bulletin board with some pretty paper and provided some custom thumbtacks we made out of tacks and cute buttons. We recovered the ugly simulated dark 1970s wood grain phone surround with pretty vinyl, sticky-backed paper with a print in weathered wood in pleasant colors. We used a teal washi tape on the edges, and installed a couple of cork boards for pinning up notes. It looked super cute when we were done! Sorry I don't have a good photo of it at the moment. I'll get one when we go back in a couple of days for the bookcase install.

CONFUZZLED: The kids and I 'attended' Khan Academy again today. We're using it for Algebra I, and on most days, really like it and have little trouble with what is presented.

However, today was not 'most days.' We really failed pretty miserably on our practice homework. We felt OK after watching the video, and we've certainly done conversions many a time but YIKES, the practice problems today threw us for a loop.


I told the kids not to panic. We've been a bit befuddled before and muddled through. We'll watch the video again tomorrow, take on some more practice problems, and figure it out (literally).

Such a Lovely Audience

WE HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY THE SHOW:  It was a dark and stormy Monday night. Sideways sheets of rain assaulted the city, while gale force winds turned bumbershoots inside out and took our breath away at times. But still ... The Beatles. We were willing to brave the storm.

We simply HAD to get back to where we once belonged, and on Monday, that place was Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle, to soak up a Sgt. Pepper's sing along. We're not just fair-weather Beatles fans and wouldn't miss it for the world!

I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about the event.

On January 29th, 2018, at the Moore Theatre, the Chris Friel Orchestra played the entirety of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Sgt. Pepper) as Sgt. Pepper's Sing-Along. Sgt. Pepper is a legendary multi-platinum album by 1960s British pop-rock band The Beatles.

Sgt. Pepper's Sing-Along revolved around the audience singing along with the band, helped by the lyrics to the songs appearing on a screen behind the orchestra. The band was composed of about ten people by my count, and included players with multiple different instruments. These instruments included, but were not limited to, drums (played by Chris Friel), a guitar, a bass guitar, and a keyboard.

Chris Friel, the leader of the orchestra, is a long-time Seattle musician who has drummed for multiple different bands. In the 1990s, Friel played with Pearl Jam for their demos for the multi-platinum album Ten, as well as the soundtrack for The Basketball Diaries in 1995. Friel also drummed for the bands Goodness and The Rockfords.

The Moore Theatre is a historic theater. The Moore was opened in 1907, and is the oldest currently operating theater in the city of Seattle. The Moore houses approximately 1800 seats, and is well-known among Seattle-area musicians and other artists. For example, the music video for Pearl Jam's 1991 hit Even Flow was filmed in the Moore.

The songs played at the Moore ranged from the surreal (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) to the somber (She's Leaving Home). An interesting fact is that when Sgt. Pepper was originally recorded, it would've been very difficult to re-create the studio sound effects in any live performance. Now, over 50 years later, said sound effects are now easy-to-replicate.

Shortly before playing the song When I'm Sixty-Four, Nancy, the emcee, announced that Daniel, a man in the audience, was indeed turning 64 that day. The crowd proceeded to applaud for Daniel.

After playing the last song from the album, the orchestra proceeded to do an encore, culminating in Hey Jude, a song from The Beatles' White Album.

Believe it or not, the concert was free (!). We have Seattle Theatre Group's Education and Community Programs to thank.

MOON SHADOW:  Our hopes are high and our alarms are set, but we're expecting to be disappointed when it comes to viewing the super special, super blue blood moon total lunar eclipse early tomorrow (1/31) morning.

Here in Seattle, we're hoping to see the full moon fade to red between 4:51 a.m. and 6:07 a.m. PT Wednesday.

“Set your alarm early and go out and take a look,” NASA’s Gordon Johnson urged in a press release. 

According to Space.com, the super blue blood moon is something the U.S. hasn't seen since 1866. That's a long spell!

Below is a NASA map of potential viewing areas and their relative vantage points.

.

While clouds might, well, cloud our view her beginning at 2:30 a.m. NASA TV will have a live feed of the moon.  The NASA TV broadcast will feature views from the varying vantage points of telescopes at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California; Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles; and the University of Arizona’s Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter Observatory.

This particular full moon is special for three reasons: It’s the third in a series of “supermoons,” when the Moon is closer to Earth in its orbit, about 14 percent brighter than usual. It’s also the second full moon of the month, which makes it a “blue moon.” And then this super blue moon will pass through Earth’s shadow to give viewers in the right location a total lunar eclipse. While the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow it will take on a reddish tint, known as a “blood moon.”  A moon trifecta!

Seaside

IN THE (SEA)WEEDS:  Tomorrow afternoon we have an art installation to do. It involves trying to turn a school hallway into the Salish Sea. No big deal, ha ha.

To that end, for a couple/few weeks now, we've been working on a banner that speaks to how all Pacific Northwest dwellers are "Salmon People." 

Oh, and there's a giant Pacific octopus we have sculpted. For days and days, we built the thing out of expansive spray foam in a can, creating its head, and its body, and then shaping its tentacles out of foam pipe insulation, attaching suction cups and painting it all.

The installation also included some home made kelp. Enter green dollar store tablecloths and shower curtains, cut into strips and carefully hand stretched. 

Oh, and there was the 'stream' overhead, with the baby salmon swimming their way out into the world. Sorry, but I don't have a decent photo of that. :/

Of course, as I look at these pictures, I see all that is wrong and lacking in the execution, but their overall effect was less awful than what's shown here, mercifully.

All in all, a big and worthwhile project.

GAMERS: On Saturday afternoon, CJ and Annabelle had big fun just four blocks or so from home, at the Skyway library, being board game testers.

I'll let CJ tell you more about it. ... 

(Saturday), at our local library, my sister and I play-tested two board games, as part of the library's monthly board-game event. We were at the library for two hours, during which we playtested the following games:

The first, Mephisto, was a Boss Monster or Munchin-esque card game in which the objective wi to acquire the most "souls", obtained by slaying monsters in a dungeon. Weapons (typically) needed to slay the monsters are taken from the table, upon which their former space is replaced with the next card in the deck. After the deck is empty, each player takes a final turn before counting their number of souls.

The second, Conspire, is a more open-ended role-playing game in which each player, after a setting for the role-play being determined, would write a role. The role is then written in erasable marker on a sheet, which is then distributed randomly (most likely to somebody else). With the sheet that you would get, you would write three goals for the role given to you: One that personally satisfies, one that impedes somebody else, and one that helps somebody else. The role sheets are once again mixed, and distributed among the players (if you receive a sheet with roles that you wrote, it needs to be re-shuffled).

Each player gets three tokens, which, when one is played, would suddenly make a certain statement true in the setting (with some exceptions. For example: You usually can't use a token to make a statement that would immediately end the campaign).

SUCKER: At this point, we've probably all seen so many 'flashmob' videos. But I'm still a suck for them. I especially love the classical music/orchestral ones. 

Smart Cooks and Cookies

SOMEONE'S IN THE KITCHEN: The kids' culinary adventures continue. On a recent night, they put a new-to-us chef's torch to use. It worked like a charm for indoor S'mores!

We've wanted a torch forever, it feels like. We watch a lot of "Chopped" and similar competition in the kitchen shows, and they're forever using these little things. I suppose we need to make creme brulee or something soon. I'm not even sure what that is. ... 

TOUGH COOKIE: This week, Monday through Friday, we're helping with a series of many special events at a local learning center as part of a Reading Week celebration.

Yesterday's main attraction was Detective "Cookie" from the Seattle Police Department.

Annabelle was waiting for the officer out in the parking lot, to make sure she got a parking spot, and to escort her into the school.

I've actually known of Detective Cookie for years. I've seen her name associated with a weekly chess club in Seattle. It meets every Saturday at the Rainier Beach Community Center, from noon to 2 p.m. It's super popular and positive, as told in a Seattle Times article last June.

We thought Detective Cookie was going to read a book but the detective (her real name is Denise Bouldin) had other ideas.

She did share a quick poem (as the day's theme was "Poem in my Pocket"), but she opted not to read a book. Instead, she shared her life story, and an interesting one it is. (She should probably WRITE a book!)

Bouldin grew up in the projects in Chicago, and had many harrowing stories to share about living there with her six siblings and single parent mother. She navigated through countless scary scenarios and worked hard to her possibilities open. As a high schooler, she met a police officer who worked at her high school, and admired him and his work. That set her on a trajectory where she could picture herself in a similar role. 

Fast forward more than 35 years ... that's how long she's been with the Seattle Police Department!

Some of the highlights from Detective Cookie's life story include her work as a model, days spent as a "Soul Train" dancer, and she was honored to be invited to work security for President Barack Obama's first inauguration. She said that was the coldest she's ever been in her life, but she was also clearly very proud of that distinction.

Bouldin is being honored in Seattle with a city park named after her. The Detective Cookie Chess Park is in Rainier Beach, a neighborhood where the detective has worked for years. The park features a public art sculpture titled "The King and Queen of Rainier Beach." The sculpture, two large metal chess pieces that glow with a soft purple light at night. It was designed by local artist Peter Reiquam.

Photo: Seattle Office of Arts & Culture

Oh, in case you're wondering, Detective "Cookie" earned her nickname as a kid, due to her penchant for snatching cookies at every opportunity.

Fun and Games

WHAT'S THAT RACQUET?:  We're still getting to know our new-ish neighborhood, and one thing we did this weekend was visit the Tukwila Community Center. 

It's a really beautiful facility, with a nice weight room, a big gym, classrooms, and a racquetball court!

Last Thursday, the kids and I scored four new racquetball racquets for less than $5 apiece, and Sunday morning we booked the court online for a one hour midday spot. It only cost $5 for the hour for the four of us. What a deal!

It's the first time Christian or I have played racquetball since the 1980s, and the first time ever for CJ and Annabelle. It was a little rough at first, but we got lots better as the hour wore on.

I do have to report that I won the award for being nailed by the ball the most times. By FAR. Over and over and over, seemingly every body part. Oh well, comes with the territory. We're looking to going back and getting better.

CLASS FLASHBACK: A week ago Sunday, Annabelle participated in yet another great Amelia's Club event at The Museum of Flight. 

I'll let her tell you about it. ... 

On Sunday at the Museum of Flight, I took a class on what it would be like to take a flight from Boeing Field to Paine Field. We started by looking at the weather conditions today and seeing if the heat would create updrafts or the fog would make sight impossible. My group’s calculations determined that due to the low-pressure air that usually results in wind and rain, that day wouldn’t have been a good day to fly.

After that, we moved on to a mock plane in a small hangar where we did some safety checks to make sure it was ready to fly. This included testing for loose screws, checking for oil leaks, and making sure controls in the cabin were all operational. A few tests the plane didn’t pass were having drips of oil behind 2 of the 3 wheels, a bird’s nest blocking the air intake, and a fuel sample that wasn’t the correct color.

Finally, we went to the simulators to attempt to fly our calculated route to Paine Field and back. Each simulator held 2 people and we traded spots as the “pilot” when we turned around to head back to Boeing. The simulator was a little difficult to control, and by the time I got the hang of it time was almost up, which made it position the plane for landing. Other than that, we hit all of our landmarks and didn’t crash the simulated plane, so it was pretty successful. The class was interesting, and I learned a lot about how much planning goes into a flight. You really can’t just get in the plane and fly!

TOY STORY: Sunday afternoon, we took a field trip to Everett (and Mukilteo - hi G&G!). One of our stops was at the greatest toy store in the Pacific Northwest, Bobakhan. 

I would like to own 80 percent of what's in the store. Or live there. Or both.

We browsed and found a couple things to add to our collection. And we appreciated the store's collection, and clever ways of displaying it.

That said, we weren't big fans of *everything* they have on site. 

Yes, Jar Jar, We're talking about you.

Playing Catch Up

FERRY NICE: On Sunday, we made a quick, last minute trip over to Bremerton to pick up an item. We drove around the south end of Puget Sound and up its southwest end on the way there, which took about an hour and 10 minutes. On the way back, timing worked out so that we could catch the ferry at Bremerton and ride back to Seattle, a trip that's just under an hour. It was a night time crossing for us, and while we didn't have the pretty Sound/water views we would during a day trip, we had some nice night time views, and sparkling city lights.

BAKERS: Recently we had a problem with too many bananas going brown. CJ and Annabelle to the rescue! Without any adult intervention, they made some tasty banana bread! 

GAMERS:  We've been playing a number of tabletop games lately, and I'm on a nice little winning streak. 

Games have included Munchkin, Exploding Kittens, and a new-to-us one, Blueprints.

It's a fun game where you use dice to construct structures. The difference colors of the dice represent different building materials. You earn points based on how well you use the materials.

We liked the game. It was quick to learn and play, and we'll definitely play it again.

WORK: A couple of days ago, we caught an interview on NPR with Gray Brechin, geographer and founder of the online archive The Living New Deal, a wonderful resource all about Work Progress Administration projects. 

The WPA "did just about everything," Brechlin said during the interview on the program Here & Now, hosted by Jeremy Hobson. "It built roads, sewers, water systems, airports, zoos, libraries, city halls. It's all over the country. It's just that you don't really notice it," Brechin noted.  (You can listen to the archived interview on the WBUR's website: http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/01/16/wpa-us-infrastructure).

According to the Living New Deal website, The Works Progress Administration (WPA)  produced 651,000 miles of highway, 124,000 bridges, 8,000 parks, 18,000 playgrounds and athletic fields, 84,000 miles of drainage pipes, 69,000 highway light standards, and 125,000 public buildings (built, rebuilt, or expanded), including 41,300 schools.

Here's what CJ had to say about listening to the interview. ... 

Today, I listened to an NPR program about the New Deal, an important piece of American history. The New Deal was an elaborate program implemented by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, designed to fix a moribund economy.During the New Deal, two agencies were created: The Work Progress Administration (WPA), and the Public Works Administration (PWA). From 1933-43, there were over 13,000 New Deal projects all across the country, including, but not limited to, freeways, the Statue of Liberty ​Visitor Center, the San Antonio River Walk, and much more.

The New Deal is estimated to have created about 8½ million jobs, while, according to Forbes, ~$50 billion was spent by the federal government on the New Deal itself.

During the NPR broadcast, they actually played a tape from 1937 of Franklin Roosevelt speaking at the dedication of the Timberline Lodge, in Clackamas County, Oregon.​
One New Deal project I found interesting was the Statue of Liberty Visitor Center. The Statue of Liberty Visitor Center was designed to improve the experience of guests travelling to the Statue of Liberty.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the New Deal was unpopular among the wealthy. For example, longtime media mogul William Randolph Hearst was a vocal critic of the New Deal, as it posed a challenge to his wealth (the New Deal had a progressive income tax).

And Annabelle had this to offer. ...

Before using his famous “drip” method of painting, Jackson Pollock worked for the WPA as part of their Federal Art Project in 1938-42. At the very end of this time period, he painted Male and Female, an abstract painting depicting two very stylized people and a colorful patterned background. This painting seems very similar to the style of artists like Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso. Pollock was under psychoanalysis when it was made, and it is believed that his therapists encouraged him to use painting as a means of treatment. In 1943, Male and Female was displayed in Jackson Pollock’s solo exhibit “Art of this Century” in the New York art gallery. The painting is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Pictured: Male and Female 1942 Oil on CanvasPhiladelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA73.1 x 49 in, 186.1 x 124.3 cm

The Library of Congress has a great collection of WPA Art Project posters on it website. Check them out here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=wpapos
Here are a couple ...

MEANWHILE, ON THE SPACE COAST: We'll be watching this afternoon to see if a scheduled launch takes place. I'll let CJ tell you about the mission we're tracking.

Today, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is scheduled to launch SBIRS Geo Flight 4 for the Air Force, using an Atlas V rocket. The rocket is scheduled to launch at 7:28 P.M. EST (4:28 P.M. PST) tonight, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

SBIRS is described on the ULA's website as follows:
A PDF on the ULA's website includes multiple interesting and informative images. For example, on page 2, there is a map of the United States, in which states that any of the mission's equipment came from are highlighted in blue.

SBIRS, considered one of the nation's highest priority space programs, is designed to provide global, persistent, infrared surveillance capabilities to meet 21st century demands in four national security mission areas: missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness. The SBIRS team is led by the Remote Sensing Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, with Northrop Grumman as the payload integrator. Air Force Space Command operates the SBIRS system.

Walk This Way

STREAM STROLL: Yesterday was super sunny and downright warm, and we took advantage of the lovely weather to check out a spot we've been wanting to visit.

We often travel Oakesdale Avenue down from our hill, and have seen pathways on both sides. On the west, is the Black River Riparian Forest and Wetland. Per the city of Renton's website, the land "is home to more than 50 species of birds, including one of the largest great blue heron colonies in the region. The site is a complex ecosystem with an abundant wildlife habitat. The Black River Riparian Forest and Wetland is a year-round bird watcher's paradise and provides an oasis and a unique view of nature within Renton's city limits."

On the east side of the same roadway is Waterworks Gardens, a public park next to King County's South Treatment Plant. That doesn't sound too lovely, but it's actually quite pretty, and super serene. Per the King County website, "This is a place where art, technology and nature join in a unique way. Along with trails, public art, native plants and wildlife, the ponds and marshes of Waterworks Gardens filter and clean stormwater from the treatment plant's 50 acres of roads, parking lots and hard surfaces."

So, we walked the ripariantrail on the way south, and the waterworks on the way north.

Likely given the time of year, we didn't see anywhere near 50 different kinds of birds, nor did we see a single heron. We did see a number of mallards, and a couple of other waterbirds, along with a chickadee or two.

The east side of the trek proved more interesting on our visit. Waterworks Gardens was really quite lovely, including this pretty mosaic oasis, the Grotto.

 Not quite Stonehenge, these monoliths were part of the art installation.

During our nice stroll, this sign (below) was a random diversion. 

We were walking along the quiet waterway, which was also bordered by King County's South (sewer) Treatment Plant, when we encountered the sign below. 

What, pray tell, is Pokeman? Is it a game involving thrusting a stick at some poor guy?

Oh wait, no, I'm guessing it's 

You know, that fun game you play via an app on your phone. 

I'm sorry, but this sign ... in such an out of the way and nondescript place. It was just INVITING people who weren't otherwise doing so to fire up their apps. 

Bizarre.

Did I mention we only saw two other people on the trail?

I have to guess it's a warning to their employees, perhaps?