2/23/2007

There are people grumbling about Stan Lee becoming a “cult of personality” and so on. Excuse me - when has he not been a cult of personality? Can anyone say “Stan Lee Presents”?

They’re just jealous because “He’s Stan Lee … and they’re not.”**

**Quote from comments made by my husband, AJ.

sparta at 11:51 am

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2/12/2007

Field Trip to the Delta

So, the oldest son and I went on a field trip with the Marine Science Institute. This particular trip, the Delta Discovery Voyage, was aboard the RV Brownlee and involved a trip through the California Delta, which is where the Bay, the Sacramento River, and the San Joaquin River all meet.

It was raining and foggy. But that doesn’t matter; the Brownlee sails no matter the weather. So we arrived early - like by 30 minutes. I used the time to get some pics of the marina and dock areas.

This is the marina. There were some very nice sailboats docked there. I had to explain to Phil why they didn’t want people swimming there. First, swimming in the Bay? Um, no. Second, they wouldn’t see you and might back into your head. He grokked that.

This is a small pier. It’s purpose relates to fishing apparently because there is a cleaning station on it. It was nice and gave us a good view of the boat.

Here are two pictures of the RV Brownlee. The fog makes the pictures interesting, don’t you think? I especially like the first one. It’s my background right now?

This is a map of the Bay Area. It lists all the docks and marinas and boat ramps. See the red dot with the arrow? Yeah, that’s pointing to where we were. I just liked the map and thought it would be a nice edition to the post.

The Delta is very important to California. It provides water for 24 million people and the farm land of the Central Valley. They have to watch the salinity, though. Apparently the Delta is a battleground between the fresh water of the rivers and the salty water of the Bay. In the spring, there’s lots of fresh water because of the melting snow. In the fall, though, there’s not as much fresh water, so the tide brings in lots of salty ocean water. Luckily, they store extra fresh water for just that reason. In the fall and winter they add fresh water into the mix to keep the salinity at an acceptable level. Very cool stuff.

This is Plankton. No, not the guy from Spongebob, although that’s where they got the idea. No, this little guy’s name is actually a Copepod. His home is in the water of the Delta. Some of the kids got to collect water samples, and then the instructor put drops on slides. Her microscope had a special camera attached so everyone could see what they would see if they were looking through the eyepiece. The kids loved it - the little creatures were squirming or zipping around, and they loved looking at the help sheets and trying to ID what the critters were.

“Heave, ho!” “Mud!”

So here the kids are pulling up the dredger thing from the bottom of the bay. After they hauled up their glob of mud, the put it into some strainer things and sprayed the mud away with the hoses you see there to the right. What was left? Shells, rocks, fish bones - stuff. They liked that.

I don’t have any pictures of the fish activity. The kids got to catch fish form the Bay in this big net and then bring them up to the live wells on the boat to look at them. The boys especially loved this activity. My camera’s battery died. So I have no pictures of them cautiously touching the fish. Hehe. They got bolder as time went by though - even the girls.

Now, here’s the part I haven’t told you yet. Part of why we were able to schedule this trip is because we agreed to share the time with another group. They were a little short of kids; we were a lot short (there’s a minimum). So we joined this group of 5th graders from one of the other elementary schools. OMG! First of all, we had 13 kids with something like 9 parents. That’s 1.4 children per adult. They had 43 kids and maybe 9 adults. That’s 4.8 children per adult. You’d think that would be a good ratio, right? It wasn’t. The kids were very loud, obnoxious, and could not keep still. They were constantly talking, shoving each other, and making smart-a$$ comments. The parents in attendance as chaperones? Well, they weren’t good at their job, let me tell you. While the kids were doing all of this, they were having a grand ol’ time chatting with each other. Once in a great while, someone (usually one of the teachers) would say something.

Luckily, we didn’t have to intermingle. When they divided the group into 4 smaller groups, we got to be our own group. Then something was going on, and the instructors had to go up to the bridge to talk to the captain. In that short time, the room became unbearable. Our kids were talking, yes, but they were nowhere NEAR as loud. Some of our kids had to cover their ears. There was screaming and shoving and rude comments to some of our kids. “What school are you from?” “I’m actually homeschooled.” “Homeschooled? Why would you want to do that? Are you a loser?” One of the other mothers and I were about to step over, since the kid’s chaperone who was standing there listening hadn’t done anything, but luckily, R. handled himself just fine. He said, “I’m not a loser. But I do get to stay home and have whatever I want for lunch and do all my schoolwork however I want while you’re stuck in school all day.” Good for him.

Watching these other kids, boys and girls, interact together made me realize what a good choice we made in homeschooling. And when Phillip was working together with his fellow homeschoolers, it made me feel even better. Our kids worked together very well, each helping the other, sharing. They assessed what each other’s strengths and weaknesses were - with no judgements - and put those to work FOR them. They actually finished the activities early and got to look around at other things and do extra as a result.

I have someone who keeps asking whether or not AJ and I will put Phil back into “regular school.” Well, if there is some great advantage for him to gain by doing so, sure. But otherwise, I think we’re all happy with the way things are.

And we still get the advantage of great field trips like this one.

When we got off the boat, we were drenched - I mean, prune fingers! - and starving! I called AJ who said that he and the youngest were hungry too, so we stopped by McD’s and grabbed some lunch for everyone and took it home.

This week we’re going to a Cartoon Drawing Workshop and a workshop/presentation on the Iditirod. Should be interesting.

sparta at 6:05 pm

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The Doomsday Machine

So, Saturday night was the local airing of the remastered Star Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine. I haven’t seen this episode in years - and it was on very late. Did I miss it? No! Thanks to our wonderful DVR and the quick fingers of my sweetie - who granted had more than a little self-serving interest in doing so - it was recorded for me so I could watch it last night at a better time!

Now, you can tell good story writing when someone has seen the episode - knows the ending - and is still into the story and concerned about the characters when they watch it a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. That is true with TDM.

As much as I would love to discuss it here, I don’t want to post any spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen it - and wants to. Although, I will tell you that Ripley doesn’t die at the end.

I’m sure it will be on again - if I have advance notice I will post it. But I will say this, if you are missing ST:TOS, check your local listings. Apparently it’s made a huge syndication come back and is showing on a lot of local channels.

What’s your favorite ST:TOS episode? TDM is one of mine, as is City on the Edge of Forever.

sparta at 1:13 pm

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2/10/2007

Jumbo-Post

I can’t use Multi-Post (that being -uhem- in use by another blogger), so I’ll use Jumbo-Post instead.

Snow Storms

For my friends back East, here’s some ideas on what you can do with all that lovely snow you’ve received. I mean, try to see the good within the bad, and all that.

You could let your artistic talents take flight - like this guy.

Or maybe you could pull out a chainsaw and get fancy with ice like this.

But if you’re really, really serious, you could start on your deranged mutant killer monster snow goons….

Zombie Pride Day

Gummi bear? They’ve been in my pocket. They’re soft and warm.

Men and women from all over Spain gathered in Madrid to celebrate ‘Zombie Pride Day’ and to pay tribute to George A. Romero, director of ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ I didn’t see any other mentions of this story - or how things went with their parade and all. I haven’t found any story on how it even got started. If anyone has any information, I’d be interested in hearing it.

Superbowl and Prince’s Half-time Show

Yes, I was happy the Colts won. I’m not sure why - because I mean, come on, they were up against the Bears. Maybe it’s because Ditka wasn’t there. Of course, if it was Ditka vs. the Colts, he woudn’t need the other Bears.

As for Prince’s Half-time show. Nice. I was a fan of Prince’s in the ’80s. Not perhaps the Mega-Fan my friend was, but a fan nonetheless, so it was good to see him out there doing his thang. He’s still who he is - doing what he does. I respect that. Okay, he’s gone through some Wacky Phases now and then, but I think we all do that in our own, albeit more subtle, way.

And for those complaining about the whole phallic shadows behind the sheets thing - um - jealous much? Heh heh. Seriously, Prince has always had a flair for the overtly or covertly erotic; I don’t think that will ever mellow. Anyone signing Prince to do the show knew that; anyone about to watch the show should’ve known that. CBS and the NFL haven’t received any significant complaints. I think some people just like to whine and draw attention to things because they have nothing better in their lives to do. (turns rant to off)

Field Trip

The oldest son and I went on a field trip yesterday. It was pretty cool - and it brought into focus some things that I knew were true, but it’s different when you know something vs. knowing and SEEING it in a “real-world” example. I’ll post more when I have the pics uploaded!

How is everyone else doing?

sparta at 6:42 pm

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2/6/2007

Where were you 13 years ago?

Well, if you know AJ and I pretty well, you were probably getting ready for / attending our wedding (depending on what time of day you’re reading this and what time zone you go by)!

That’s right - today is the hubs’ and my wedding anniversary - 13 years. Poor guy is at work, so it’s not entirely a fair match - but I still beat him in posting:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

And to all our friends who were at the wedding: Thanks (and we never did find that hood ornament)!

sparta at 11:17 am

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