Inspired by the Ignite Seattle challenge and Bre Pettis’ blog posts, the girls and I decided to try our own egg drop experiment even though we couldn’t make it to the meeting on Tuesday night.
First I got out the shipping box I had received from Apple with my MacBook repairs and I let the two older girls create their own contraptions with those egg crate and blue foam packing materials plus lots of duct tape. I figured anything Apple was using had probably been proven effective in various drop situations.
I also thought it would be fun to use ordinary household objects. So Elisabeth and I stuffed an old baby bath sponge inside a Lego container. She packed the remaining empty space with washcloths. For a fourth experiment, I did a little reading online (while trying to research how to do the actual drop) and decided to try popcorn packed inside an empty (sugar) carton.
We didn’t watch Bre Pettis’ video until after we had dropped our own eggs. As always his creations and ideas are inspiring. He also included a simplified equation that could be used to calculate the speed of the egg. Since our drop was 8 feet, the egg reached a speed of 15 miles per hour on its way from our deck rail to the concrete outside our garage.
The girls made the suggestion so I made fried rice for dinner: we ate the three eggs that survived the drop.
For more details, please watch our video! The girls each describe their creations and then we discovered which ones would survive the fall…
I can’t wait to try this one again. It’s fun and educational. And as Bre suggests, a great thing to do as a group. Thanks to Ignite Seattle for the inspiration!
Our family spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon enjoying the Chinese New Year celebrations organized by Bainbridge Island Chinese Connection. Demonstrations of traditional dances (mostly minority cultures) by The Melody Institute and Peking opera singers entertained us on Saturday evening. On Sunday the lion dancers amazed us and we came home carrying the girls’ names written in calligraphy on red banners. Free food such as dumplings and ginger chicken noodles, face painting and a parade were all part of the afternoon festivities. Ted’s photos are here. Learn how to say Chinese New Year greetings (and see the mayor), watch the lion dance (and eat lettuce), and get a glimpse of other pieces of our island celebration in this video I compiled. Gung hei fat choi!
The One World Everybody Eats foundation is an outgrowth of One World Cafe in Salt Lake City, Utah. The cafe began with an epiphany by owner Denise Cerreta in mid 2003 to begin feeding people. With no experience in the restaurant business, she started with sandwiches and coffee at a small, downtown location. About 9 months later, she expanded her offerings to an all-organic fare with the help of excellent staff. Since then, she’s gained local, national and world-wide notoriety for her pay as you go prices, no menus, a living wage, minimum food waste and healthy meals all for community benefit.
The idea that clients eat what they can, choosing selection and sizes from healthy organic dishes, and then pay what they can resonates with me. I have been concerned about hunger and my most recent employment, prior to motherhood, was at a non-profit that offered food, shelter and other services to the needy. While living on Bainbridge Island, I have considered starting a baked goods catering company and donating the profits to charity. The island could be an excellent place to start a restaurant/non-profit and the “pay what you can” would help offset the increased cost of living here. I’d love to be involved in an organization such as One World Everybody Eats and I’m wondering if anyone here in the Northwest knows of any similar local ventures. I hope the Time article encourages others to consider starting and giving this gift to the community.
If the week between Christmas and New Year is a good time to announce a presidential campaign (by the way, my favorite post of Robert Scoble’s from his time with John Edwards is his Things I Learned and I noted this Time article too), then it’s a good enough time to announce our new family videoblog: Guinea Pig TV.
Why Guinea Pig TV?
Last year at Northern Voice I mentioned I was experimenting with videoblogging and I even included a couple quick clips in the presentation I gave. There were a few bumps in the road this year, but as soon as I could, I started learning with iMovie. After years of refusing to categorize my blog, I figured I would experiment with ultra-niche blogging. A videoblog about a talking guinea pig: how much more niche and specific can you get?
Education
Guinea Pig TV also allows the girls and I to grow and learn together. I had made a couple simple movies but Guinea Pig TV is challenging my skills with video, editing and music. The girls learn how to develop ideas, write a script and even in one episode practice the German they have learned this year. Kids can gain experience speaking in front of a camera spontaneously. They see the benefits of planning and flexibility along with the joy of sharing, all aspects of creativity. For homeschooling, Washington state includes computers in “occupational” skills. I’m sure the girls are learning skills they could use in the work force (after all people do get paid to make videos), but I think this has other educational values also.
Passion for Piggies
Finally Guinea Pig TV involves one of our family’s new passions of 2006: Chatterboy. I don’t think I’ve done an official post about our new pet yet. In August we adopted him from another family who didn’t have time for him. According to 4-H standards he is an “American broken senior boar”, but to the girls he is their favorite object of affection.
Guinea pigs are excellent first pets, easy for a young child. They need only food and water once a day and he is happy to eat vegetable scraps for treats. Changing the cage is probably the biggest challenge we have had so far; finding a bedding that is absorbent, odor-free and not tempting to Chatterboy’s taste buds is harder than it seems. It is also the only task where Abigail needs my help. After taking care of frogs, fish and butterflies, we are enjoying having a pet who is communicative, cuddly and fun to feed.
Two other funny links: the amazing Guinea Pig Song video (I wish I knew who made this) and The Bad Guinea Pig List So there are plenty of people who love cavies and have computers, but as far as we can tell, our Guinea Pig TV blog is the first guinea pig videoblog.
Music Note
I must note that I am grateful to Derek K. Miller for allowing us to use his music, in particular Meltdown Man which is the theme for Guinea Pig TV.
The Episodes
So far we have six episodes on the blog but I’ve also posted video to blip.tv and YouTube (yes, under “Guinea Pig TV”). I may post occasional episodes to this blog, julieleung.com, but for most of the time I will post to guineapigtv.blogspot.com and also blip.tv and youtube.com
We’ve been creating shows since Halloween, when someone gave us a small plastic trick-or-treat basket, instantly inspiring the first episode. It took me a while to edit the video and put it up on the blog. My favorite episode is still that first one: Trick or Eat.
Abigail wrote and filmed Episode #6 Prince of Piggyland by herself, and I put it together under her direction. She was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia – and the Christmas gift of small statuesque guinea pigs – to give her pet new titles and to chronicle them in video and pictures.
Even if you are not a fan of guinea pig videos, I hope you’ll take a peek. And, to slightly change this Tim Bray quote, I can hope that what Tim said about Northern Voice might also be said about Guinea Pig TV: it probably won’t blow your mind but it might fill cheer it up a little and it definitely won’t stress you out.
After I wrote our holiday letter I realized that I had a number of pictures in my Flickr account to accompany the summary of the year. So here are a few excerpts with the photos and explanations. I’ve also added at the end some pictures that I like from the year.
The girls waited with banners to welcome their grandparents.
A-ma and A-yeh’s arrival
Ted’s parents sold their home in Pennsylvania, drove across the country and moved to the small town next door.
Susan sang carols in a quartet.
“Almost-Aunt Susan”
Julie’s brother proposed to his girlfriend, whom our daughters now call “Almost-Aunt Susan”.
Apple raspberry pie I made for Thanksgiving from a Martha Stewart recipe (discovered while waiting at the dentist)
Time with family
Thanksgiving was our big holiday of the year, hosting Julie’s mom, brother and sister along with Ted’s parents at our home.
This picture of chicken pox is my most viewed photo ever with more than 2000 views…(are people using Flickr to make a self-diagnosis?)
Health
The girls earned their immunity from chicken pox, two of them recovering in time to wear Easter dresses over their scabs.
The three sisters in downtown Poulsbo.
Growing girls
Abigail passed through levels of swimming lessons. Michaela jumped off the diving board and Elisabeth was fearless in the water. Our girls also have enjoyed soccer, dance, pottery and piano lessons. More than what is visible, we cherish the amazing changes in their minds and hearts.
New families joined our homeschool group this year: we are grateful for more companions in the journey.
Chatterboy
This fall we adopted a guinea pig. In 4-H terms he is an “American broken senior boar” but to our kids he is simply their beloved pet and the star of Guinea Pig TV.
The three flower girls
A wedding and an anniversary
Our friends Chris and Ponzi invited all three daughters to be flower girls, and Julie was a bridesmaid at their December 9th wedding. It was a fun wedding and a great reminder – we celebrate our 15th anniversary in a few weeks.
More favorites from 2007
Giving a keynote at Northern Voice was an honor I’ll always remember. Speaking at SXSW was exciting. We also enjoyed going to Gnomedex as a family.
I like this picture because it was a challenge. We watched these butterflies develop from caterpillars and then let them go.
“Preparation” is the title I gave this photo, and I like the way this picture from the Fire Station speaks about the work and mindset required.
Our trip to the salmon hatchery was one of many adventures with our homeschool group this year. A tricky picture, trying to focus the camera on a fingertip of a child.
2006 was the year I cut my hair. A big decision. Symbolic of the year of changes and taking risks. My graph may be the reverse of Darren’s hair care graph, but I think I like the shorter ‘do even though it’s sometimes hard for me to recognize myself.
The weather this year has been memorable. This photo too was a challenge and I think I lost my memory card due to the wet. But who can resist the calendula blooming in late November, covered in snow, bright orange amidst the ice.
