DIY Halloween: Melon Brain

The site says even vegetarians will want to dig into this brain.

Science Project Idea: Tabletop Linier Accelerator

This simple project would make a great science fair entry. It demonstrates energy transfer using magnets and ball bearings.

So You Want To Coach Basketball

For any would be basketball coaches out there.  Here's a link to the wikipedia entry, more than you'll ever need to know about the game.

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m) high hoop (the goal) under organized rules.

What fun are organized rules anyway?

Quote of the Day

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.  Henry David Thoreau

I suppose here's the risk of posting too many "quotes of the day".

Laughter and Love

Denise posted this in the comments, but its worthy of a full post. Te amo mucho me amor.

Lover, family, and friends........today why don't you laugh so hard it hurts! Let all the other stuff that you allow to preoccupy your life go......laugh, be happy, celebrate life, and truly enjoy!

I was recently confronted with the statement "you will/could never understand....."

We don't always have to understand everything.....but we do have a choice on whether or not to be happy. I choose to laugh!!!! I choose to smile, forgive, and move to a happy state of mind.

Today we all should laugh, giggle, jump, clap, dance, and most of all love.

Happy Laughter Day all!

Global Handwashing Day

Thought one of our regular readers would especially appreciate this funny awareness day.  The initiative encourages people to wash their hands with soap at the "critical occasions".

My beautiful husband shared a passage from one of his birthday books ("Zen Guitar") with me early this morning. The words of the passage are very insightful and we discussed how our own great fusion dances daily.

"A band is not merely a collection of individuals. Its essential character must be for the whole to exceed the sum of the parts. When the right people get together, be it in music, or sports, or business, or marriage, or intimacy, or whatever....a kind of spiritual fusion takes place. This fusion can not be manufactured. It simply happens from the chemistry of nature. Most groups have no chemistry. Like a random collection of molecules, they don't combine to make anything special. Every now and then, though, two hydrogen molecules will collide with one molecule of oxygen. The resulting mix takes on character far beyond its basic elements. So it is with human beings as well. Human chemistry is not a science. No one knows how this magic happens. But when it does, we feel the presence of something divine, and everyone who's there knows it. Cherish this chemistry....You are on to something big."

WOW~ what a thought to have such a deep "spiritual fusion" with someone. Every day I feel that collision of molecules take place in my heart for Mark.

Thank you Amor for sharing such an inspiring passage with me......had to put it on the blog so others can be aware of this collision for themselves. Talk about self-enlightenment! Find your matching molecule and rejoice in it's happy collision.

Besitos,

Denise

Oblique Strategy: Listen

Here's another oblique strategy that Denise was teaching Isaac this weekend. 

Listen to the quiet voice

As noted earlier, these are often self-evident, and often waiting to be written down.  It seems these would make for an interesting blog, "Oblique Strategy of the Day".

Oblique Strategies - Our Adventures in Problem Solving

Isaac, Denise and I were practicing math word problems this weekend, trying to discover how to solve more complex problems.  The subject is neither easy to learn or teach.  Perhaps the Zen would teach that they are impossible to master, but worth every second of time practicing.

However, I discovered this random thought generator, which is meant to enhance creativity.  The initial authors comment that the thoughts are "intellect catching up with intuition," and often become self-evident upon reflection.

This one reminded me of our own problem solving revelations.  What great fun!

What are the sections sections of?    Imagine a caterpillar moving

Game: Forbidden City

This game has to be downloaded; however, may be worth it for the experience.  

IBM took three years developing the environment to match the detail of the actual city.  They collaborated with the Palace Museum to "celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history."

Neutron Joke

A neutron walks into a store and says, "I'd like a juice please."

After the clerk gave him one he asks, "how much will that be?"

"For you," the clerk says, "No Charge"

A discussion regarding neutrons here.  Isaac and I had a discussion yesterday about particles and the Large Hadron Collider.  However, the collider accerlates and collides protons not neutrons (at 99.99% the speed of light).  It also makes for a cool T-Shirt, thanks Mom.

Happy Birthday (yesterday) Michael

I was thinking you might enjoy a day at the Sustainable Living Roadshow in Austin.  I know I would.

Looks like they even have a children's section sponsored by Greater Austin Garbage Art.

Happy Birthday Michael!

Boondock RVing

I'm not sure we're ready to totally give into the nomadic lifestyle; however, seeing the country from an RV or, maybe more appropriate in our case, a pop-up trailer, sounds compelling.

MIT: Street-Fighting Mathematics

This online course hopes to teach quick problem solving and estimating skills.  Although this one seems to require a bit of calculus knowledge, perhaps it can be adapted to help the kids learn an innovative method for solving problems.  Plus another example of free course work available from the United States' most prestigious universities.

Here's the ambitious course description

This course teaches the art of guessing results and solving problems without doing a proof or an exact calculation. Techniques include extreme-cases reasoning, dimensional analysis, successive approximation, discretization, generalization, and pictorial analysis. Applications include mental calculation, solid geometry, musical intervals, logarithms, integration, infinite series, solitaire, and differential equations. (No epsilons or deltas are harmed by taking this course.)

Photo-Sensitive Pumpkin

This article demonstrates an LED circuit for a pumpkin which contains a photo transistor to detect the ambient light level, and turn the LED off during the day time.

Sounds like a good weekend project after a visit to the local pumpkin patch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVER!

What a grand day! We celebrate the birthday of my beautiful Lover.
In my culture we sing a traditional morning birthday song called "Las Mananitas." It is truly a great day to sing and honor my gorgeous hubbie.
http://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/mananitas.htm


Las Mañanitas Lyrics:
Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David,
Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti,
Despierta, mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció,
Ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió.

Que linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte,
Venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte,
Ya viene amaneciendo,
ya la luz del día nos dio,Levántate de mañana, mira que ya amaneció.

Translation:
This is the morning song that King David sang
Because today is your saint's day we're singing it for you
Wake up, my dear, wake up, look it is already dawn
The birds are already singing and the moon has set
How lovely is the morning in which I come to greet you
We all came with joy and pleasure to congratulate you
The morning is coming now, the sun is giving us its light
Get up in the morning, look it is already dawn.

Wishing you a fantastic birthday parade Lover! Hope your week is filled with love, laughter, happiness, family, friends, and CAKE! We will celebrate in full birthday party mode when Isaac comes home!

Te Amo Birthday Boy!
;) Denise

Dream Captcha

Wondering if you guys would get this one? Makes me laugh anyway.

Also an oddly appropriate quote for the day.

Let me advise thee not to talk of thyself as being old. There is something in Mind Cure, after all, and if thee continually talks of thyself as being old, thee may perhaps bring on some of the infirmities of age. At least I would not risk it if I were thee. Hannah Whitall Smith

The Art Of Flag Pulling

Isaac had a breakout game this weekend in flag football.  After a weekend full of defensive practice with his Dad and the neighborhood kids; he made 6 tackles, including one for a game deciding safety.  

Here's the rest of the set.

These pictures are not mine, but taken by Isaac's mother.  Thank you Grandpa Jim for forwarding them to our attention.  Otherwise, you would be stuck with a boring text description.

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

View Larger Map

Here's a version of this "slave spiritual" from Roger McGuinn's Folk Den.

I didn't realize that Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  Study of the ruins of Jericho combined with carbon dating have confirmed the timeline, around 1550 BC, for the Biblical account of Jericho and Joshua.

From the map you can see how Jericho's strategic position near the Dead Sea and the Jordan River made it an important city in the ancient world.