W00T!

I’d love to get my hands on one of these… maybe when I retire…

Roland ASD MDX 540

Finding Where Kids Can Eat for Free

Heard about this site from On the Money on CNBC…  If you’re looking for a place to take the kids for dinner, check out this site which lists places which have free meals for kids, based on your zip code.

http://www.kidsmealdeals.com

Wanna learn about Copyrights and Fair Use?

Check out this video… I found it to be quite funny and impressive the amount of effort it took to create it.

Speed Reading with EyeQ

Saw an infomercial on a speed reading course called EyeQ  (www.eyeq.tv).  I wonder if works as well as they advertise.  It would have been SO USEFUL to speed read when I was in school!!  Is it worth $14.95 + (3 x $83.33 payments) = $264.95?

Butterflies in DC!! — now with photos…

This time of year is especially crazy for our family… in addition to Pilgrams-Invaded-America Day and Jesus’s Birthday, 4 out of the 5 people in our family have birthdays in October. Pile on top of that family weddings x2 and a classmate’s and friend’s birthday parties… oh and Chinese school on Sundays.  Getting a free weekend is a rarity indeed, and this weekend was one such day.

We decided (my dad and I) to take the kids to the Smithsonian museum of Natural History to check out the exhibits. They always love looking at the animals, especially in the Mammal Hall.  So we picked up grandpa and were on our way.  Mommy was off doing errands.  [Update:  Photos are now available online here]

We drove downtown (although I prefer to Metro it when possible) b/c my dad was convinced we could easily find a parking space if we just circle slowly.  We did that for 30-40 minutes with no luck.  Finally I dropped off the kids and dad at the front of the museum, and went to park the car.

We checked out the new ocean exhibit, which now takes the space that the old dinosaur hall used to occupy. Frankly I didn’t get to look around too much. 3 young kids with short attention spans will do that… turns out they aren’t as interested in reading the signs and displays as I am.

We also saw old animal skeletons and the bug zoo. Apparently the Insect Zoo is sponsored by Orkin (the exterminators) — go figure.

But the star of the day was the Butterfly exhibit. It looks pretty new.  There are some insect and factual displays about how flowers and butterflies live together in harmony. But the cool thing is the Butterfly garden — I’m not sure if that’s what it’s actually called, but that’s what I call it.

They have a completely enclosed “tunnel” filled with various plants and about 300 butterflies.  Most of the butterflies are sitting on leaves or sipping juice from trays of old fruit, but they also fly around all about you. They might even land on you.

To get in, you need tickets which are purchased just outside.  They cost $5 for kids (2-12 yr, I think) and $6.50 for older kids (prices may not be exact, but it’s close). We paid and were on our way in. They give you a small orientation which goes over the basic rules…

• Don’t touch the butterflies
• Don’t step on the butterflies
• Don’t touch their food
• Make sure you check yourself for butterflies hitching a ride on your clothes before leaving
• etc.

They even offer you a laminated card with pictures and names of the various butterfly species to help you identify them. Then they let you in.  It is super humid in the butterfly garden, and quite warm. 85-90 deg F probably. Every minute of so, a blast of water vapor is shot into the air adding even more humidity.  You will sweat.
Lauren was concerned at first. She thought the butterflies might bite and didn’t want them to land on her.

Nicholas copied her and wanted to be picked  up.

Thomas on the other hand was really eager to have a butterfly land on him (which is allowed, just don’t proactively touch them).

We tried standing near where all the butterflies were. We tried holding our arms out.  We tried standing still like a statue.  But nothing was working.

All around us, butterflies were landing on other people. Landing on their clothes.  Landing on their backpacks, etc. Lauren had one land on her head. One landed on my hand… which was holding my camera – sorry, no pictures of that.  …but none for Thomas.

Poor Thomas… we were in there for about 30 minutes, and when we were about to give up, one landed on Thomas’ sleeve. I said, “Hey Thomas, there’s one on your arm” He was startled and flinched.  It flew away, and he never got to see it.
Oh well.

It was a great day, and the kids seemed to really like their close encounter with the butterflies. I’d recommend it for anyone with kids who enjoy nature!

Later I asked Thomas what his favorite part of the day was. He said when he got to see the bees making honey (the Insect Zoo includes a bee hive which you can look into thru plexiglass). …He might of had a different answer if one of those darn butterflies landed on him.

[Update:  Photos are now available online here]

Top 10 Animated Disney Movies

With three little kids in the house, I’ve seen just about every modern animated disney movie at least a dozen times, not to mention all the ones I used to watch when I was a kid.  Does that qualify me as a critic?  No – but hey, this is my blog and I can do what I want.  Based on quality of animation, music, story and overall enjoyability — IMHO, here’s the top 10..

1. Aladdin — Outstanding music, humor, animation and story. What’s not to love?
2. The Lion King — Beautifully animated, best contemporary music, great characters, but the story could be better
   
3. Robin Hood — Outstanding characters, excellent story, great music… 1973 animation.
   
   
4. Sleeping Beauty — Classic animation, great story and by far the best (near perfect) classical music. Love the magic!
   
5. Beauty and the Beast — Outstanding animation, story and humor. Good music overall.
   
   
6. Finding Nemo — Great animation, story and characters.  There was music?
   
7. Mulan — Very good animation. Great story and humor. Good music, but not superb.
   
   
8. Cars — Great animation, characters and story. Looks beautiful on an HD TV when upconverted!
   
9. Monsters Inc — Outstanding humor, characters and animation. Story is pretty good, but seems rushed at the end.
   
   
10. Toy Story – Beautiful animation and great music. Story is so-so IMHO. To Infinity and Beyond!!
    

Chosen pic…

One of my photos on Flickr was chosen to be included in some guys article on a Night at the Baltimore Aquarium on NowPublic.

whoo-hoo…  (is that how you spell it?)

No big deal, but hey, I can be famous for 5 seconds if I want…  When the kids get older, a night at the aquarium sounds pretty cool actually.

My very own airplane??

I’ve always wanted to get a pilot’s license.  It’d be a bit tough/impossible to fit it into my schedule now… but maybe someday. Then there’s the whole issue of not having a plane.

There maybe hope on the horizon…

Meet the Icon Aircraft A5.  Light-sport aircraft.  About $139,000 and expected to be available in 2010.  More pictures are available here and include shots of the cockpit and a compact version (wings folded).  WOOT!

Don’t have $2000? Try the $50 version…

Here’s another inspirational TED Talk, this time researcher Johnny Lee from CMU shows what a $40 Nintendo Wii remote and $10 worth of additional home-made hardware gets you.

• An electronic whiteboard
• A dual touch interface
• “Virtual-reality-like” 3D graphics interface

Apparently he got attention by posting some videos out on YouTube, and after a week over 1Million viewers saw his work!  What’s not to love?!?

Here are his YouTube videos and his website where you can get his software to play with…

and

Where did your ancestors come from?

No, I don’t mean your parents, grandparents, or even your great-great-great-great-great grandparents… I mean 60,000 years ago!  I was watching this TED Talk from Dr. Spencer Wells who has been working on a project with National Geographic to build a family tree for all humanity.  It’s called the Genographic Project.

You can even participate yourself if you like by purchasing a test kit, which takes a DNA swab sample, then they run the test and use the anonymous data to add to the overall database of data points.  The kit costs about $100 and most of the money goes to some non-profit cultural preservation activities.  Check out that TED talk for details…

Purchase a test kit here.