Today was a crazy day as far as the kids were concerned. Three kids needed to be at three events in three different parts of the county - at the same time.
Keke had a Math Team competition, and we were able to drop her off after arranging for a ride home with one of her friends. She competed in word problems, and she did all right.
Stewie had a regional Pinewood Derby event. As the overall winner of the Pack Derby, he got to compete at the regionals. He also did well. They only showed the results for the top three finishers in each class, and his name wasn't displayed, but his time was only .01 seconds off the third place finisher, so I figure he was right up there, too.
Beenie had his second Regional Spelling Bee competition. The winner of this competition goes to Washington DC, for the national competition. Ellen took Beenie to this round. The bee started off as last years did, with a number of people being knocked out, and the competition was quickly down to ten spellers. After that, the eliminations slowed, and several rounds passed before the winner was determined.
Unfortunately, Beenie spelled the last word beezoar, and was eliminated. But, he did come in third in the region, and that is something to be very, very proud of! The kid who won was the kid who has won the regional bee in three out of the four years he's been involved, so the competition was tough.
It's the last year for Beenie to compete in the spelling bee. Last year he followed up 2 years worth of second place by coming in first and moving on to the regional spelling bee. In a way that created less pressure as he's already been there. In a way it created more pressure - the pressure to repeat.
So, we were a little on edge last night as we sat down to watch the Middle School Spelling Bee. 26 entrants from grades 5-8 sat on stage, under the lights, and had to spell in front of an audience of parents and siblings. In each of the first five rounds, only a handful of kids got eliminated each time.
In the sixth round, all that changed, instantly. The round started with five kids standing, and the first three each spelled their word incorrectly. Then it was Beenie's turn. He got "monstrosity" and spelled it correctly. One kid followed, and he missed his word. That left Beenie to spell one final "championship" word to win the whole thing.
The announcer said "herringbone", and Beenie got a sly little smile on his face. I could tell as he started h-e-r that he knew he had it, and he was just trying to slow himself down so as not to make a silly mistake. r-r-i-n-g-b-o-n-e, and bam - he's the champion for the second year in a row!!!
I swore I was not going to get all worked up this year. Since he did this last year, I was good with however he did. I was wrong. When the kids started missing in round 6, my heart was pounding. When I hit the stage, I wrapped him in a big bear hug (much to his chagrin, I'm sure). So much for the cool, collected, dad.
Again, we're on to the regional bee, where the words are exponentially harder. We'll see what happens.
I tend to stress out at the thought of the Pinewood Derby. I am not a woodworker, so I figure the chances of me messing something up permanently are pretty high. This is made worse with the knowledge that I'm messing up something that my kid is making. That was the situation I found myself in earlier this week, as Stewie and I started working on his first Pinewood Derby car.
We talked about some simple designs he could use (that wouldn't require too much finesse on my part), and he told me exactly what he wanted. He wanted a car with a steep incline in the front, then a gradual slope from the top to the back of the car. Okay, I can do that. A little bit of sawing and Stewie doing some sanding, and we've got the basic shape.
Next comes the paint. Stewie wanted a red car with a pair of racing stripes down the middle. So, we busted out the art kit and he got busy with the painting. We ultimately decided on a silver racing stripe, and Stewie put it on as one full stripe, then I painted the thin red line down the middle that would separate it into two. Came out looking pretty nice, I must say.
Car is lookin' good!
The day of the derby we got there, got signed in and inspected and decided to add some weight to the car. Six nickels seemed to bring it to the right weight, and Stewie set off for his den heat. He finished second, losing by a hair to one of the other boys, but it was enough to get him to the finals.
The finals featured a number of really fast cars, and they were winning every race. When it came time for Stewie to go up against them I was surprised when he beat every car except one. Pretty amazing!! When the race was over, the Pinewood Derby Committee gathered behind closed doors and emerged a few minutes later, declaring the one car that Stewie lost to disqualified (they moved the axles to the ends of the car - a no-no). That meant that Stewie won the first Pinewood Derby he ever was in!!! The best part - using a design that he created.
Next stop - the district Pinewood Derby. (Which actually had Stewie a little upset because all he wanted to do was to go home and play with his car.)
Here's my annual nice thing I'll say about the dog:
He is nice and warm when he curls up on the couch with us on those cold winter nights.
But, he drools all over my lap when I take him to the bank drive-through as he almost leaps into the teller window knowing they're going to give him a dog biscuit. So I guess it's even.
When I was working right after college I was able to head to New York City on several (borderline many) occasions. I would always pick up a copy of the Village Voice while I was there, just to get a feel for what was going on in the city and maybe find something fun to do. One thing that I saw often was advertisements for Blue Man Group. Unfortunately, whenever I was there I didn't have the time or the means to go see the show. Except for one time, when everything fell into place - that time, naturally, Blue Man Group wasn't performing.
The upshot is - I've never seen them, despite having had the means, motive, and opportunity.
Fast forward, ahem, 20 years or so, to last night. As a birthday present to Beenie (who is as into the Blue Men as I am, and also hasn't seen them live) we went to see Blue Man Group in Cleveland. It was, as I mentioned above, totally amazing!!! The sights, the sounds, music, action, humor, and social commentary. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Probably the two things that I first saw the BMG perform on tv/video was the Drumbbone and the Paint Drums. To give you an idea of the show, I'm adding a video that shows both of those pieces. The other thing you will notice in the video, that I was unaware of, is that they are accompanied by a live band. The band is behind what appears to be a metal scrim so you can't really see them unless they are lit properly. However, they perform under blacklight, and their costumes and instruments are covered in fluorescent paint, so that they look like cartoon/stick figures.
But...the best part of the evening was after the show was over. Beenie and I had already left the theatre, when he informed me that he had to make a pit stop before the hour long drive home. We turned around and headed back to the theatre, and were able to re-enter.What did we discover but the Blue Men milling about in the lobby, greeting patrons. Beenie was able to get in and have his picture taken with a Blue Man, who then wiped some greasepaint off his head, and made a thumbprint on Beenie's cheek. Way too cool!
I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson last night. His lecture didn't have a title (that I know of) but he said that by the end of the evening we would understand that this was The End of America as we know it. He actually talked about how the failure to focus on science leads to the downfall of the society as a world/intellectuall power.
It was a fascinating lecture, where he talked about the importance of science in the cultures/countries around the world. He pointed out that the "golden age of Islam" was from 800-1100 AD, and Baghdad was the scientific center of the world, where people of varied religions (including atheists) could come and discuss scientific and mathematical concepts. From this came huge advances in science and math, while at the same time in Europe, they were killing witches.
Here is a good video of Dr. Tyson talking. It's not the subject of the lecture I saw, although there is a lot of it that was the same. Like all his stuff, it's really good. It's an hour long (and there are a couple of commercials) but it's well worth your time.
After the presentation, it was announced that Dr. Tyson would be autographing copies of his book(s) in the lobby. I didn't have any of my copies with me (didn't think this one through), but decided to get in line anyway. When Beenie found out that I would be going, he asked me to ask Dr. Tyson a question for him. I told him that I didn't think I would get that chance, but had him write it down anyway. Here was that chance.
I got in the (huge!!!) line, and waited patiently. When I got to the table, I asked him Beenie's question - "If you were to send uranium into a black hole, would it spaghettify and cause a nuclear explosion?" Dr. Tyson told me that it would spaghettify, but it wouldn't cause a nuclear explosion. I then asked if he would autograph the question for me to give to Beenie. He said of course, and to make sure that I continued to encourage him in his scientific curiosity. He even volunteered to answer the question in writing on the paper for Beenie.
The thing I found the most interesting is what Dr. Tyson did next - he felt the paper. Determining the texture of the paper, he then selected the appropriate pen from the several he had on the table and signed the question. Very cool.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but finally purchased some Atra razor blades for the old Atra razor I got as a freebie in college (surprised it's not fallen apart with age!). The Atra is a (gasp!) 2-blade razor. I've been using the Mach 3 which is a, unsurprisingly, a 3-blade razor. Believe it or not, the difference between the two is tremendous. (Not so much the difference between 3 and 4.) Because I have an entire head to shave (and pumpkin-sized, to boot), I am concerned about the quality of the shave, and the Mach 3 blows Atra out of the water. But...the blades are at least twice the price. So, I opted to go back to Atra for at least a little while.
I thought I'd drop that information out on the interwebs, so I tweeted this:
Well, now. Yes, your new ultra-fancy 4-blade razor with extra batteries and gold plating and diamond-encrusted handle may be the new standard in head shaving, but you missed the point. I'm sacrificing the quality shave in favor of the price.
Let's look at the price, just for kicks.
Atra Plus - 10 blades - $11.49 - $1.15/blade
Mach 3 - 5 blades - $12.99 - $2.60/blade
Fusion - 8 blades - $26.99 - $3.73/blade
Fusion Pro Glide - 8 blades - $33.99 - $4.25/blade
(prices from drugstore.com - comparable to what I pay locally)
As you can see, instead of sympathizing at my cost issues, Gillette wants me to buy blades that cost almost twice what I was using, and almost 4 times what I switched to. Of course, they are a business, and their job is to make money, so what else are they going to suggest? But I was a little ticked. Although this isn't why I was tweeting this information, what I think Gillette should have done (what I would have done if I was in Gillette customer relations) would be to offer to me:
Coupon for Mach 3 blades
Coupon for ProGlide blades
A ProGlide razor
I don't think any of these are unreasonable, as they put coupons (and razors) in all those "back-to-school" boxes. In fact, that's where I got my Atra razor, my Mach 3 razor, and my Fusion razor. Just sayin'.
And yes, I've tried the 4-blade Fusion. While it's nice, I don't see a huge difference between that and the Mach 3. Certainly not worth the price.
Since it's World Cup time (yay!), I guess I should report on how Blue Albatross FC did this fantasy season. If you'll recall the last time I reported on the status of the team's performance in the English Premier League, we were (temporarily) in first place. True to form, we dropped back to third (gasp!) the following week. There we sat for the next couple of weeks, although we managed to climb up into second place going into the final week of competition. Surprise of all surprises, we pulled out of the week scrabbling up into the number one position, and that's where we finished this year's EPL campaign!
Now, as for the Champions League, and the Europa League, well, we didn't fare as well there. Finished 6/23 in the Champions League (although only 13 points separated 4th and 7th places), and finished 2/7 in the Europa League. I consider those to be pretty good, as I really don't have a good handle on who the decent players are in those leagues (especially the Europa League). And, for the record, these rankings are for the leagues in which I was participating. Overall, I finished thusly:
English Premier League: 491,826 out of 2,322,686 with 1,975 points
Champions League: 44,015 out of 349,293 with 543 points
Europa League: 1,232 out of 52,013 with 593 points
It was a good campaign, and I look forward to signing up again in the fall.
And, yes, Blue Albatross FC is represented in the FIFA World Cup Fantasy League. Wish us well!!
It's been a while since I posted, so I'm taking the easy way out. Twice. That's right...it's a video two-fer. But be warned, one of 'em will make you cry.
Mandalas: Buddhist monks making a mandala over a 6-day period
I've had a passing interest in archery for a while. I even was shooting with a club in Cleveland for a couple of years. I'm not very good, but I have fun, and maybe my techniques are improving a little bit over time. So, when the local Rec Center sent flyers out to the schools announcing that they would be offering an archery class, I was very excited. So were Beenie and Keke. Beenie had shot before - up at the club in Cleveland for a while, but Keke was very excited to learn to shoot.
So, we've been doing this since the fall, in a series of classes that run for about five or six weeks at a time. For this past session John, our instructor, decided that the kids would be shooting for the prize of a gold, silver, or bronze arrow. (As I am the only adult in the class regularly, John lets me just shoot, but works with me on my technique when I ask him. The focus of the class really is the kids.)
The idea was this, John would keep track each week of how many arrows each kid shot into the gold circle(s) in the target. Each kid would get one point per gold, and he would make a note if the shot landed in the middle 'x' ring. The person with the most golds would get the gold arrow, the second most would get the silver, and the third most the bronze.
Long story short: at the end of the course session John totaled up the scores and Keke came in third!! She actually tied with someone, but she had more 'x' shots which John used as the tiebreaker. She won an actual arrow (bronze in color) that hangs from a signed framed certificate she can hang in her room. She is very excited!!
