SELF PORTRAIT: Annabelle is always drawing. Last night, I noticed she was drawing a self portrait.
I love it! PREPPERS: CJ and Annabelle's education took place almost entirely in the kitchen today. Lots of math (measuring, timing, and more), lots of language arts (carefully reading recipes), and lots of manual dexterity (chopping, dicing, slicing, spreading, stirring, whisking and such). They had hands in making Chex Mix, a pumpkin spice cheesecake, Wisconsin wild rice stuffing, cranberries, two kinds of deviled eggs and more. Tomorrow it's 'just' the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, onion ring green bean casserole, and Katz's pastrami! ANNIVERSARY AND ANTICIPATION: It was 20 years ago yesterday (Nov. 20) that the first component of the International Space Station, was launched on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazahkstan. The ISS has been such a boon to civilization. The orbiting laboratory has been a multi-national effort, and science on board it has benefited the entire planet. (You can always read up on the latest ISS accomplishments on this NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/results_category) Speaking of awesome NASA stuff, we are counting the days down until Monday, when their Mars Lander InSight is set to touch down at noon Pacific time. Yesterday, we learned one of our favorite illustrators/comic writers, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal, will be covering the event live. Below, you can read his InSight strip in anticipation of the event.
While we can't all be at Jet Propulsion Lab during the landing, you can watch it all go down (in a controlled manner, hopefully) via NASA Live: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive In fact, if you want to learn more about InSight before Monday, check out the mission's final pre-landing update on Sunday at 1 p.m. InSight Mars Lander news conference Also, if you're in Seattle, both Pacific Science Center and The Museum of Flight will be hosting landing watch parties.
BANDITOS: Friday night, we headed south to Tacoma for a concert we'd been looking forward to, Twenty Øne Piløts.
Last time we saw them, we risked life and limb and our car, driving 8 hours each way in the ice and snow, in February of 2017. Though we hit some traffic on the way to Tacoma, this drive was a LOT easier and quicker than that trip, that's for sure!
Below, the kids give you their reviews of the concert. Annabelle is up first.
On November 16th, 2018, my family drove to the newly refurbished Tacoma Dome to see Twenty Øne Piløts for their "Bandito tour" stop. The concert was extremely different from their Boise, Idaho show that we had seen during the "Emotional Road Show" tour. The Tacoma Dome has been recently renovated, which provided us with a clean and comfortable venue for the show.
The show began with Max Frost, a solo artist whose songs mostly seemed to be empty lyrics layered over popular music. The chords were exact replicas of many notable songs, down to the tempo and additional effects. While his act wasn't very notable, the second opening act was AWOLNATION, who rocked the Tacoma Dome with songs like "Sail" and "Handyman". The sound during their act seemed a little quiet, though it was quickly rectified during Twenty Øne Piløts' act. Twenty Øne Piløts started with songs from their newest album, "Trench". They used the lights and equipment in the Tacoma Dome to their fullest, even having a bridge from the main stage to a smaller island in the middle of the crowd. The smoke effects did a great job of both setting the mood and ensuring that the lasers were visible. The entire crowd was participating in the singing of some of their most popular songs, including "Ride", "Stressed Out", and "We Don't Believe What's On TV".
The concert lasted multiple hours, with amazing stunts such as disappearing from the stage and back-flipping off of pianos. I even met some fellow fans my age at the concert, showing just how large the community of TØP fans is. I had a wonderful time at the concert and would gladly go again, though I found it a slight bit underwhelming compared to their Boise concert.
And here's what CJ had to say about the show.
As of the time I'm writing this (17 November 2018,) musical duo Twenty
One Pilots is currently on their Bandito Tour, to promote their latest
studio album Trench. Among the stops for the Bandito Tour was a
stop in Tacoma, Washington on 16 October 2018, at the city's Tacoma
Dome. I was fortunate enough to attend the concert, which was not my
first Twenty One Pilots concert. Previously, I had seen them on the
Emotional Roadshow Tour, on 8 February 2017 at Boise, Idaho's Taco Bell
Arena.
Before Twenty One Pilots began their set at 9
P.M, Awolnation began playing at about 7:45 P.M. Awolnation is a band
from Los Angeles, California, best known for their 2011 hit "Sail."
Twenty One Pilots began their set with the song "Jumpsuit," which was
the lead single from Trench. The majority of their setlist afterwards consisted of songs from Trench and Blurryface, with seven other songs being represented (two of which were covers: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, and Hey Jude by the Beatles.) For the cover songs, Twenty One Pilots brought out Awolnation back on stage to contribute to the performances.
Notably,
at the mid-point of the show, Tyler and Josh made their way towards
"Stage B," a small stage in the middle of the Tacoma Dome. They
proceeded to play four songs on this stage.
In case you're wondering why the kids have yellow duct tape on olive drab clothing in the photo above, check out the video below. I was amazed by the sight of about half of the sold out crowd sporting their own riff on the look. . I've never been to a show where that has happened.
SPACE CAKE: We spent several hours this weekend working on a Birthday Dreams donation. The eight year old boy wanted a space-related cake, and reportedly loves "anything NASA," so we made a NASA cake. :)
After this photo, we put his name and an "8" on the front of the cake. And, for good measure, we made him some Space Shuttle cookies! We haven't made those in forever! It was fun!
ON EASY STREET: We celebrated Christian's birthday today, since he is working tomorrow, on his actual birthday. We started the day with what has become a birthday tradition in our family, breakfast at the quirky cafe inside Easy Street Records in West Seattle. All of the menu items are based on music/musician references. For instance, Annabelle had a Beck omelette, I had New Wave-os Rancheros, Christian had Reverend Horton Hash, and CJ had Blueberry Hill pancakes.
You can't be in a hurry when you go there, but the food was great, as always. Also, CJ walked out with Led Zeppelin II, so he was happy.
UP AND AWAY: We started our day by watching a rocket launch. This time, it was in Russia - a cargo mission to the Internation Space Station. This launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was even more important than the typical launch, as it is kind of a reassuring test flight that systems are in working order before the Russians attempt to launch humans into space again. Last time they tried that, back on , one NASA astronaut and one cosmonaut would up making an emergency landing back on Earth after The capsule launched today is carrying almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies. It's set to dock with the ISS on Sunday. The crew on board the ISS is going to have lots of unpacking to do, as yet another cargo mission launches tomorrow. Saturday's launch will be a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket with a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. It will launch at 1:01 a.m. (Seattle time) from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. If you're a night owl, you can watch NASA TV coverage online beginning at 12:30 a.m. The Cygnus capsule is scheduled for berthing on Monday, Nov. 19. SAVE THE DATE: Circle November 26 on your calendars. That's the day that NASA's Mars lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet. InSight is scheduled to land on Mars at about 12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET). Short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, the InSight lander is designed to look for tectonic activity and meteorite impacts, study how much heat is still flowing through the planet, and track Mars' wobble as it orbits the sun. "InSight will help answer key questions about the formation of the rocky planets of the solar system," according to NASA.
We received an email from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory today letting us know how the team will know when InSight makes its touch down. As it's happening, NASA's InSight team will be monitoring the Mars lander's radio signals using a variety of spacecraft, and Earthbound radio telescopes, to track what's happening 91 million miles (146 million km) away. These signals will be relayed to Earth in different ways, at different times. Due to this fact, NASA reports the mission team "may know right away when InSight touches down, or they may have to wait up to several hours." As InSight descends, the lander will broadcast radio signals called "tones" back to Earth. Engineers will be listening at the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy's facility at Effelsberg, Germany. Results will be relayed to Mission Control at JPL and engineers at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. The tones aren't much more than a "hello," but radio engineers will be able to use them to track key events during InSight's entry, descent and landing. For instance, when InSight deploys its parachute, there will be a shift in velocity, changing the frequency of the signal. Signals like these will let the team to know how InSight is progressing. Interestingly enough, InSight isn't alone during its journey. A couple of MarCo CubeSats are flying behind it. These briefcase sized spacecrafts will attempt to relay its signals to Earth. NASA says the MarCOs are being tested as a way for future missions to send home data during atmospheric entry, descent and landing. After a safe landing, InSight is scheduled to send an "I made it!" signal, using a tone beacon that the radio telescopes will try to detect. Seven minutes later, it will send a "beep" from its more powerful X-band antenna, which should be pointed at Earth. This beep includes slightly more information and is only heard if the spacecraft is in a healthy, functioning state. It won't be until hours later that engineers find out if InSight successfully deployed its solar arrays. In this video, Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains the critical steps that must happen in perfect sequence to get the robotic lander safely to the surface. For more information about InSight, go to its mission page: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/
TURKEY TALK: While folding laundry this afternoon, we watched an episode of a PBS series, "It's Okay to be Smart." This show is about science, the universe, and the pleasure of finding things out. The topic of the video we watched today: The Dinosaur on your Thanksgiving Table.
It was really interesting. We encourage you to check it out!
THE FIRST: This morning, after listening to a couple of algebra lectures and finishing a test, the kids and I tuned into the National Air and Space Museum's Facebook Live event for our history lesson. The talk featured Dr. Peter Jakab, National Air and Space Museum's chief curator, talking about the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I this month. I asked the kids to write about two things they learned from today's webinar. Annabelle's insights are up first.
Today I learned that during World War 1, the Fokker tri-plane was one of the most popular planes at the time in Europe. The Fokker tri-plane used three short wing sets as opposed to one or two longer sets, granting it greater maneuverability and control. This came at the cost of making the plane much slower, though it made it especially convenient in tight conditions or close-range dogfights. It also became the Red Baron's plane of choice, due to its accuracy.
Also, today I learned that plane engines in World War 1 were only rotary engines, meaning the entire engine spun around a central shaft. While this did get the planes off the ground, it also had the rather unpleasant side effect of frequently hurling engine parts off itself. This would frequently be a problem during dogfights, which eventually lead to the production of the Radial engine.
CJ's takeaways are as follows. ...
Today I learned that World War I was often referred to (especially before the start of World War II) as "The War to End All Wars," in reference to its virtually unprecedented scope and level of destruction. In contrast to the vast majority of previous wars in human history, where spanning multiple continents was a rare occurrence, nearly every continent was involved in World War I in some way. In addition, World War I saw the first significant usage of tanks and aircraft in warfare, which enabled vast amounts of destruction and death to occur in battlefields.
I also learned today that women were involved in World War I to a larger extent than is widely known. For one example, many women worked in factories, assembling parts needed for machines in the war. A notable branch of an army that employed women was the British Empire's Royal Air Force, notable for employing Florence Green (the last known World War I veteran to die.)
LUNCH LIFT OFF: I had a medical appointment midday. The kids waited in the car while I was indisposed. I left them with homework, including watching the SpaceX launch just after 12:30 our time today. On the pad from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida was the Es’hail-2 satellite. Per a SpaceX press release, "Es’hail-2 also features multi-transponder Ka-band capacity, providing business and government sectors with secure communications across the Middle East and North Africa region. In partnership with leading service providers, Es’hailSat will offer a portfolio of broadcast and VSAT services to support business growth. The spacecraft’s multi-mission architecture will enable Es’hailSat to respond to demand for the fastestgrowing applications in the Middle East and North Africa, including content transfer, broadcast distribution, enterprise communications, and government services." We learned that the satellite is a geostationary transfer orbit. In other words, it's not orbiting around our planet. It will be fixed in one spot in low Earth orbit.
This mission is another feather in the SpaceX cap, as the first stage of the Falcon 9 in today's launch has been used just months ago, for the Telstar 19 VANTAGE mission in July 2018. And as it went down in July, today, the first stage nailed the landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
You can watch a replay of the launch below. Liftoff launch actually happens about the 22 minute mark in this video.
FRANKIE: An email from the Library of Congress today alerted me to the fact that our national government now has the first Frankenstein movie archived and restored. Go, America! ;)
But seriously, it's a super interesting story about where the film has been for over 100 years prior. I would encourage you all to read a Library of Congress article entitled The First Film Version of Frankenstein, Newly Restored!
Just a couple weeks ago, we went to a fascinating lecture about Frankenstein at MoPOP. One of the speakers there was Leslie S. Klinger, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, H. P. Lovecraft, Frankenstein, and the history of mystery and horror fiction.
There, we learned so much about the Frankenstein lore, so when the email today came about the first ever motion picture being available for viewing, we were super interested to see it.
SOUPER DAY: Today was the day. The day we helped host a fund raising luncheon for we weren't sure how many people with we weren't sure how much food. That's not stressful, at all. ;) I'm going to go ahead and guess that we had well over 120 guests - maybe 150 or more. And I know for certain that eventually there were over THIRTY different kids of soup offered up for diners. Wow! Without a doubt, I will contend we had the best 'restaurant' in Seattle - or perhaps the state or region or country - today between noon and 1 p.m. It was amazing! Something for every palate and dietary restriction. The kids and I left home at 7 a.m., our car packed to the GILLS with crockpots, soup stock, serving implements and more. It took us 1.5 hours to reach the event site, on Queen Anne hill in Seattle. Seattle traffic is so awful. :( Once we reached the site, we got busy right away. We had to rearrange most all of the tables in a cafeteria/commons. Each table got a table 'cloth,' heart cards, a card collection bag, special napkins (in heart shapes), a vase with handmade tissue paper flowers, crackers, and more. Fortunately, we had lot of help getting the tables ready from some students. Meanwhile, parents were tremendously helpful organizing the soup donations. The intake involved labeling each with its name, its donor and ingredients.
Honestly, the biggest challenge of the day was figuring out how to plug 30 crockpots into about 5 outlets, I kid you not, and to not trip all of the power all of the time. We brought multiple power strips with built-in surge protectors from home. That probably helped some. We did blow a couple of circuits, but honestly, for an old school with weak wiring, I consider that #winning. The event ran from 1 to 2. It was standing room only. So many people! There was musical entertainment (including a number of young kiddos singing "This Little Light of Mine"), and a nice video about volunteering for Teen Feed (where we help head up serving a hot meal once a month).
GAMEY: We've been playing many a board game lately. Lots of UNO, some Sequence, some Chrononauts, FLUXX, and more One thing we finally did was finish a game of Ticket to Ride. It's a game where you build railroad lines across North America. It's a BIG board and takes a long time to play, but it's really fun. Especially when you win, like I did last go round. :) We also (finally!) played another round of Dungeons and Dragons this weekend, with Kennedy serving as our Dungeon Master. We did fairly well, thanks to Christian having earned a giant elephant (Stampy), which was very helpful in battles.
PREPPERS: We're still in full on getting-ready-for-Empty-Bowls mode. For the record, Empty Bowls events are held all over the country. The idea was started in the 1990s by Lisa Blackburn and John Hartom. In an effort to counteract the negative news about hunger and poverty in their community in Michigan, Hartom, a high-school ceramics teacher, challenged his students to make 120 ceramic bowls, which they used at the first Empty Bowls. The even was held at their school, and a suggested donation of $5 per bowl was used to raise funds to fight hunger. This is the fourth year we've helped chair the event at a local public school in Seattle. In years past, we've offered about 20 different types of soup (thanks to volunteers' contributions), and sold handcrafted bowls made by art students. Usually, in just one hour, we feed about 150 people, we raise around $700 for local homeless- and hunger-focused charities, and we take about 12 gallons of soup to a homeless 'tent city.' I'm hopeful that tomorrow will be similarly successful. Fingers crossed and wish us luck. It's going to be a busy day. ...
Image: tru TV RUINED: This morning, we worked on some algebra, including taking a look at intervals where a function is positive, negative, increasing, or decreasing, and interpreting features of graphs. We also did a little learning about run-on sentences and mitosis (separate lessons, in case you were wondering!). And we handcrafted some tissue paper roses. An eclectic educational mix, I'd say. This afternoon, we had to go get the oil changed in a car. Usually that's a D-I-Y project around here, but I saw a Groupon to have it done for cheaper than we could do it ourselves, so off we went. While in the waiting room at the auto shop, we couldn't help but notice an animated show about how inaccurate most accounts about the gladiators during the Roman Empire are. The cartoon also touched on how inaccurate the movie "300," about Spartans, was. We found ourselves wondering, "What the hell is this that we're watching?!" Curiosity piqued, CJ hit the Google and found out the name of the show was "Adam Ruins Everything: Reanimated History." The particular episode we happened upon was from season 2, "An Ancient History of Violence."
As it turns out, the cartoon was an offshoot of a 'real live' Adam Ruins Everything program. Truth be told, we hardly ever watch TV. When we do, it's mostly sports, with Food Network competition shows a distant second. We really don't watch any network TV to speak of, or any kind of series. We learned the "Adam Ruins ..." shows are broadcast on tru-TV, a previously unknown-to-us station. The network describes the show as a program where "host and investigative comedian Adam Conover embarks on a comically inventive yet unrelentingly serious quest to reveal the hidden truths behind everything you know and love. Tackling topics ranging from the workplace and voting to forensic science and security, he gives you not just fun facts to share with your friends, but information that will make you see the world in a whole new way. If knowledge is power, then Adam Conover will have you laughing all the way to the top." Once we got back home, we tuned in to tru-TV and caught a live action episode of "Adam Ruins Everything." Interestingly, it was about mistakes Adam and crew had made on earlier episodes. While some might find that off-putting, I was actually glad to see that the show cared if/when they made a mistake or false claim. That's refreshing in what feels like a 'post truth' society.
We'll definitely be checking out more "Adam Ruins ... " in the future. So glad we got our oil changed this afternoon. If not, we may never have heard about the educational series!
