OOTM: After Action Report

Our team got a medal for Odyssey of the Mind. Also, a number of judges commented about my energy and how I made them laugh. We had a cool after-party yesterday with iced cookies. Yum. I think I ate every cookie. I can't wait to do it again.

Happy Trails: Bobby Crosby

In their attempt to make sure that none of my A's t-shirts contain current players, the A's have signed Orlando Cabrera to replace Bobby Crosby. See press release below:

Free-agent shortstop Orlando Cabrera has agreed to a one-year, $4 million contract with the Oakland Athletics, who also are closing in on a deal with veteran infielder Nomar Garciaparra, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney on Monday.

Cabrera, 34, will replace Bobby Crosby as Oakland's starting shortstop. Cabrera hit .281 with eight home runs and 57 RBIs and stole 19 bases for the White Sox last year.

The Athletics have had substantial talks with Garciaparra in the past 48 hours, and the player's choices are between the A's and retirement, the sources said. Oakland also is negotiating with veteran reliever Dennys Reyes.

If Oakland were to sign Garciaparra, Crosby could be moved to a utility position. Cabrera is a two-time Gold Glove winner at shortstop, having won the award in both leagues (2001 with the Expos and 2007 with the Angels).

In 1,572 games, Cabrera is a career .274 hitter with 105 home runs and 684 RBIs.

The Detonators

It was a rainy weekend, so we enjoyed a couple of episodes of "The Detonators." It's a show about demolishing structures. We decided to put the information learned on the show to good use in checking how large a wedge one needs to make in a cylindrical tower (like a toilet paper tube) to bring down the building. According to the formula, the size of the wedge, W, needed to bring down a structure like this is

W = D^2 / 2 H where D is the diameter of the structure and H is the height. We quickly measured our tube to learn that its diameter is 2" and its height was 8". Using the formula, it revealed that we need a 1/4" wedge or larger. To test the theory, we first cut a too small wedge in the tube and simulated the explosion by placing a block under the tube in the area where the wedge was cut out. Removing the block simulated the explosion. The theory seemed to work, the tube didn't fall. Next, we cut a larger wedge, one that was just a bit bigger than W. Redoing the experiment, we got the expected result--the tube fell.

Then we did another experiment. We chopped down the height of the tube. According to the formula, the old "successful" wedge will no longer work for the shorter tube. A test confirmed this. We then expanded the wedge and obtained a positive result.

Finally, we tried some building implosions. The one that we were able to simulate caused the building to fall in a particular direction by means of timed explosions starting in the direction you want the building to fall. To simulate this, we built a base of small blocks connected by tape. We then placed a sheet of wax paper over the base to enable us to pull out the blocks in a timed fashion. Finally, we built the building on top of the wax paper from colorful blocks. We also set up some nearby buildings that were not supposed to be harmed if the explosion went according to plan. This test was also successful. We triggered the desired chain reaction.

The one that we weren't able to simulate was an implosion of a building into its own footprint. They do this with timed explosions in the center of the building and moving outward. Despite many attempts to get the timing right with blocks, we couldn't do it. Still, it was very cool to put the principles of the detonators to the test on our small scale experiments.

Blockbuster!

My recent film, The Railroad Crossing of Doom, has turned out to be a Youtube blockbuster. It's had more than 100 views in the past week. Since I love the disaster genre, I'm starting on a follow-up, DHL Deathflight!, The picture above is a sneak preview.

Odyssey of the Mind

Today was our performance of "Candy Factory" in Odyssey of the Mind. MY role was "salesman", and I was the star of the show. The idea is to think of healthy sorts of candies and show how eating well and enjoyment go hand in hand (well sorta--I still like Kit Kats and donuts even though they're not all that healthy). Anyway, it was very exciting getting ready for the show. We did pretty well though a lot of my colleagues seemed to forget what they were supposed to do. I reminded them from time to time. The judges really enjoyed the show and laughed a lot at our zany antics. I really enjoyed it, and hope to do it again next year.

Little League

Today was the first day of Little League. It was just a practice, but I was excited nonetheless. This year (and perhaps for several years) I'm on the Red Sox. While I'd most prefer to be on the A's, the Red Sox are a good second choice. I hit the ball hard today and did well at fielding too. Baseball is great.

Stuffy X Games

As you know, I love to make up stories with my stuffed animals. This weekend was Stuffy X Games. The stuffies took turns doing crazy stunts--jumps, half pipe, and so on. The viewers were supposed to text in their votes for the best stunt. It was sort of like a TV show, so I would tell the viewers to text "A/1" if they liked the first contestant the best. It ended in a four way tie!

The picture above is of a stuffy named "roar". He's named that because I wasn't sure if he were a bear or a lioness when I first got him. I figured that since both creatures roar, that was a safe name for him.

Mario Kart Expert

While I've tried lots of things in my life, Mario Kart is the first thing that I'm so passionate about that I've become an expert. I get up early every morning to practice. Usually, this time is spent experimenting. I run through various courses slowly and then quickly to learn all of their tricks and shortcuts. In the evenings, I mostly play for real, trying to win. There's an online mode and I usually finish near the top of every race I enter. I've even surpassed Daddy (who seems quite good at video games) in skill. I'm an EXPERT Mario Kart player. Sure, it's not the most useful skill in the world, but it sure is fun.

Ring and Sing

I performed today in bell choir and children's choir. It was our most deluxe bell performance ever. We did kumbaya. Everyone had to play separate parts and keep time. It went really well. We got a big round of applause at the end. As usual, our press agent (Daddy) was on hand to record the proceedings. Check out the highlights here

New Toy

Check out this video of my newest toy, a magic eraser. It lets you write all sorts of interesting things on whiteboards.

Railroad Crossing of Doom

And now the sequel--railroad crossing of doom. This one features a soundtrack and professional quality sound effects.

Disaster!

Remember the golden era of disaster movies...Airport 76, Poseidon Adventure, and so on. Well, I don't. But I still think disaster movies are cool, so we made some this weekend. The first of the series is "Rock in the Road". Check it out here.



You will notice a whole bunch of home made special effects in this movie. First, the road is Oak Knoll Road in the Napa Valley. The aerial stunts are performed via Mommy's invisible thread. The pyrotechnics are courtesy of a scented candle. All of the sound editing and effects are homemade as well. Still, I think it's my most professional movie yet.

Blue and Gold Dinner

 

Earler this week, we had the blue and gold dinner at Cub Scouts. While I didn't win any awards for my pinewood car, I had a fun time. We played a whole bunch of bingo games, there was a slide show of photos of the studd we did, and I got a cool pinewood patch. Cub Scouts is a lot of fun.

Sick

nap
Originally uploaded by John-Morgan

I've been off and on sick this week. I missed school on Wednesday, then seemed to recover, but I was feverish today so I stayed home. My throat is very sore, I've got no appetite, and I'm very sleepy. I hope I get better soon. I don't want to be sick on a weekend day.

Super Bowl Champs

HERE WE GO STEELERS!
Originally uploaded by Andy M¢

It was a very exciting Super Bowl as Big Ben and the Steelers managed a glorious comeback over the scrappy Cards. I expected the Steelers to "win handily" (one of my favorite expressions at the moment), and it looked like they would in the first quarter. But the Cards clawed back and nearly took the lead at half before Harrison's amazing pick and return for 100 yards. Daddy and I were jumping up and down over that play.

It still looked like the Steelers had things well in hand in the third quarter until they fell apart with the safety and the huge reception by Fitz. But what an ending. Big Ben connecting with #10, Santonio Holmes, time and time again. The Terrible Towels were waving mightily as the Steelers took their records 6th Super Bowl (two of which I've seen in my young life.)

Go Steelers!

Pinewood Derby Results

 

The pinewood derby was held today. There were many cars competing in the race. There was also a lot of technology including electronic scoring and a computer that projected the results. Unfortunately, the technology was not the most reliable in the world. There were a couple of long breaks when the laptop with the results failed. Anyway, it was a pretty successful day for me. My car had several firsts and seconds in the heats in which it competed. The rankings are determined by average time to finish across all heats in which a car competes. My car managed to finish 5th overall. Not good enough for a trophy, but a nice outing nonetheless.

By the way, in the photo above, my car is the one on the left. It's got a green number 99 painted on it.

Pinewood Pregame

Saturday is Pinewood Derby day at Cub Scouts. My car is all built and painted. It just needs weights, wheels, and axles added. My inspiration for the car was a Hot Wheels car named "Little Red Roadster." LRR is a many time champion in gravity racing on the Hot Wheels circuit, so I figured this would also be an excellent pinewood design since pinewood cars are also gravity powered. One design modification I made was to replace the LRR design, which is gray with a stylized "S" on the sides, to a more traditional (and presumably faster) flame design on the sides of the vehicle.

Daddy is mostly concerned with the speed engineering elements of the design. He found a website with advice for maximizing speed. Here's one odd little tip--it turns out that sanding the axles is helpful. Since the axles are nails, there is some scoring on the side of each near the head, presumably to help them stay nailed to whatever it is they're nailed too. However, this scoring creates additional friction, so sanding it down produces more speed. Of course, we're also going with carefully applied graphite. We also learned that the optimal weight placement is just in front of the rear axles. Mommy bought a bunch of weights and a very precise scale, so we can hit the weight max exactly. Wish me luck!

Odyssey of the Mind

I'm participating in a program called "Odyssey of the Mind." It's sort of a creative thinking and problem solving contest. My team, which consists of kindergartners and first-graders had the task of thinking up something to do with getting people to eat healthy foods. Since I myself do not much like to eat healthy foods, this topic was a challenge. Anyway, we came up with a candy factory that makes healthy candies from things like veggies. Fortunately, for us, we only need to do a mock-up of this factory rather than create a fully functional factory.

We each worked on different aspects of the job in terms of the design. The part that I seized upon is one of the most important aspects of the business--sales. I figured that the factory would be pretty useless if we can't sell the product. So, for my part, I set up a sales table, and am creating a sales costume. When asked what was the most essential thing for a sales person, I quickly hit on something super important--a name tag. All salespeople have name tags, so naturally, this is key. Mom asked me what name I would put on the name tag.

Ax

I answered. There seemed to be no particular reason why I thought Ax would be a good name. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this class. I like coming up with creative solutions to problems, especially problems related to business.

Latrell Sprewell Situation

I experienced a Latrell Sprewell type situation today at recess. Latrell, if you'll recall, got into trouble for choking his basketball coach. Well, anyway, I was playing basketball with my "friend" when there was a dispute. My "friend" decided to "settle" the dispute by choking me, which landed him in the principal's office. I was unhurt but upset. Yeesh. I hate school.

My Virtual Life

One of my Christmas gifts was the Wii game Mario Kart. It's the best game ever. You race around as one of the various Mario characters (my fave is Yoshi) in a variety of vehicles. In addition to the usual pitfalls of racing, there are a variety of things you can pick up and fling at the other drivers including banana peels, turtle shells, and lightning bolts. I've managed to improve a lot and unlocked a whole bunch of new characters and courses while racing. I'm very proud of my driving skills. Mommy worries about what my REAL driving will be like since my favored approach is never to take my foot (thumb) off the accelerator.

Ice Skating

 
This weekend I got to go ice skating--twice. On Friday night, the whole family went out to an ice rink in Civic Park that they put up for the holiday season. At first, I was pretty unsteady since it's been about two years since last I skated. I clung to the walls of the rink as I slowly made my way around. I got better as the night progressed and was happy enough to hold Mommy and Daddy's hand as they glided me around.

The next day, my friend Katie called me up to see if I'd like to go with her. Absolutely I wanted to. Ice skating is a little scary but also lots of fun.

Kite Flying

 
A couple of weeks ago it was a very windy day. Daddy was hiking in the foothills and came home excitedly reporting that it was the best wind in a long time. So we packed the car with family and kites and headed up into the foothills. At first, the idea was to climb to the top of one of the hills to take advantage of the wind, but there was so much wind that it was excellent kite flying weather even at the bottom of the hills. We each had a kite. Mine was a ladybug, Mom's was a fish, and Dad's was a combination of Elmo and Cookie Monster.

It was an amazing day. I reeled out almost all of the thread for my kite. It was higher than the nearby mountain. Mom had good luck too. Her fishy flew nicely though not as high as my ladybug. Daddy was not so lucky. The Elmo/Cookie Monster kite was too wimpy for the wind. It got blown to smithereens not long after it got aloft in the strong wind. Kite flying is super fun!

Here's a link to the kite flying photo album.

Kite Flying

And a slideshow

Sack Attack

Yesterday was the last day of football. It was rainy and out team only have 8 guys. This is just enough since 7 guys play at a time. I really prefer to play defense to offense, and I think I found my most preferred position on defense--pass rushing specialist. I'll line up on the ball or some yards back and then run as fast as I can at the QB. While I didn't manage any sacks yesterday, I screwed up a whole bunch of plays by the Titans, the best team in the league. I love to cause problems in the backfield.

Gingerbread Family

 

Greetings from the gingerbread family. Yesterday, I went to a gingerbread house making party at my friend Alan's house. I made a cool house with a nice family too.

Packers Update

 















I'm in flag football for the first time this year. It's a lot like real football. We have practices before every game, we call plays, and so on. My team even has a great nickname--The Packers. The only problem is that we never win. We haven't won a game all year! We almost made a big comeback last weekend. We were down two TDs at half, but managed to get into a tie before giving up the winning TD late. I was having a bad time around halftime, but was happier later. The picture above is where I got the ball. Gained about 3 yards.

More photos here.

Bells and Chimes

Yesterday I performed as part of the bell/chime choir in church. I was a chime person. I got interested in this idea when i saw my friend Katie practicing the chimes after choir practice. The chimes seeme pretty interesting, but I was a little scared I would screw up in playing. Eventually, I decided it looked like too much fun to miss out on, so I joined. We had a very good performance today.

Defeat

I hate to lose. I just hate it.

Last night, I went to my Cub Scout den meeting. We did a lot of fun things, but, at the end, there was a relay race contest. There were three teams and the job of each team was to sweep up a bunch of leaves and put them into bins. The parents were in charge of the sweeping while the kids were in charge of the bins. Sadly, my team finished last in this race. It made me very sad. In fact, I hid in the corner of the room to be sad by myself until I felt better. I really want to WIN all the games I play. I hate finishing last.

Disappearing comments

I know a number of you had a problem with disappearing comments. Daddy tried to fix this by modifying the comment code to requires fewer passwords. Hope this improves things.

Victory!

 

Obama is our new president! This was great news. We had a little celebration including a toast and a balloon toss. I'm sure he'll be better than Bush.I made a little blue chain with the words

Obama, Obama wins!

written on the links to celebrate.

Politics

It's almost election day. I hope Obama wins. I'm also rooting for the defeat of Prop 8 in California. To add spice to the evening, we did a politics pick-em contest. Here's my predicted electoral map:

Traffic

This Sunday was a big weekend for traffic--but just in the world of Hot Wheels. In the morning we did a traffic photoshoot. Note the hand-made jersey barriers dividing the road. I really liked these.



The afternoon revisited the traffic idea. Daddy and I watched the extended chase scene from the second part of The Matrix. While I generally don't like movies, this scene was quite exciting. We then set up the jersey barriers and a bunch of cars a trucks to recreate that scene as well as making up our own scene. This was very really fun. I can't wait to do it again!

[Aside: A little inside baseball about the connection between the chase scene and Mythbusters courtesy of the source of all knowledge--Wikipedia:

"The freeway chase scene was filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. Producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways just for the movie (Which was later used by the Mythbusters in testing several myths). Portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube connecting Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was done in old aircraft hangars on the base as well.

The city of Akron was willing to give full access to Route 59, the stretch of freeway known as the "Innerbelt", for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as "the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long".MythBusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks."]

Happy Halloween

 

Happy Halloween everyone. This year, I was a tiger. Mommy did the cool makeup. I got to hold the sing for the class in the Halloween parade at my school. I also got a whole bunch of Kit Kat bars in my Halloween basket. Afterwards, we went to a paty at my friend Katie's house. Hooray for Halloween!

Trefethen Photo Shoot

On Saturday, we went to Trefethen winery. Mommy and Daddy said I was perfectly behaved while I was there. I spent the bulk of my time taking pictures of the weird Halloween stuff as well as the usual wine stuff.



I discovered that I loved the reflections made by my flash off the glassware. Above is a nice reflection shot.

Check out the latest Aidan photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/aodhanmorgan/

Ninja

by sabbiesab

Inspired by the Mythbusters ninja special, Daddy and I have been playing ninja warriors in the living room lately. Because a ninja's hands are so lethal, we each carry a couple of big soft pillows to protect against any accidental deadly blows. We then battle around the living room jumping and making ninja poses in between brutal strikes.

There's also a sumo variant of this game. In the sumo version, some pillows mark the outer edges of the "circle" in the living room. Each of us grabs a giant pillow and tries to push the other person out of the circle using the pillow.

Gotta love Asian martial arts.

Mom's Birthday

 

While Mom's birthday was a while ago, I just got this picture off my camera. Mom was away back east for her birthday, but Dad and I made her this nice chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Mommy!

Church Concert

 

I gave my first church choir concert today. We sang the "kick-off" song for the service. Because there were so many of us--kid choir, church choir, a 5 piece church band, and so on, they had to move the location to the Wesley Center, which has a stage. As usual, Daddy was on hand to act as paparazzi. Naturally, I mugged for the camera.

CNN Graph

 

I was fascinated by the graphs they had of people's reactions ot the debates on CNN. In fact, I was so fascinated that I started making my own reaction graph. Just like CNN, I divide the sample into men and women and monitor their reactions. Daddy is the man in the sample and Mommy the woman. As you can see from the graph, Mommy is more volatile in her reactions--just like the women on CNN.

tiger

 

Yesterday, we went out an hit golf balls in the back yard. I pulled out my trusty 3 wood, which I used to good effect last time we were out on the course. Initially, we were trying to hit Daddy's chipping target, but this soon gave way to something much more fun--hammering away at the ball. I hit some of my longest shots ever (with wiffle balls). I managed to whack a couple of them out of the yard, and put one on the ROOF of my play structure. When I would really hit a ball hard, it would make a cool zooming noise as it came off the club and zinged through the air. Daddy, who does not like to hit his 3 wood, said that I can now hit mine further than he can hit his!

Fore!

Proposition 8: No!

We've been battling some annoying yard sign guys the last few days. They put up signs on the corner of our property (without our permission) indicating that folks should vote yes on Proposition 8. Every time they put up a sign, Daddy goes and takes it down (he voted no on Prop 8 by mail). So far, we've hauled down 2 signs. Who knows how many of these things they're going to put up.

Voting is kind of interesting. Since Daddy votes by mail, I helped him fill out his ballot. Mostly, we agree on what to vote for. He picked Obama, which I thought was good. He also voted for himself for a Walnut Creek City Council seat. I don't think he'll win though.

Pigskin Pick 'Em

Over the last bunch of weeks, the whole family has been competing in Pigskin Pick 'Em. On Thursday, there is a guy who writes a "crystal ball" column who predicts the NFL games. All of us make picks too to see if we can beat the "expert." I like to do a bit of research for my picks. I ask who is home and who is away. I also ask about the records of each of the teams. The research is paying off. I won by a mile last week and I'm in a position (with a Denver win) to win again this week. The crystal ball guy seems not to be all that good. He's in last place this week.

No Joy in Mudville

As you know, I adopted the Red Sox as my favorite team in the playoffs. They have a lot of cool players including former Oakland Athletic Mark Kotsay. They also have Jonathan Papelbon, who I like to pretend to be when I'm pitching. I was really hoping that they would get to the World Series. Things looked good when the Sox led 1-0 early yesterday. But the Rays pitched too well and the Sox missed too many bases loaded situations. The 8th inning was especially disappointing. Daddy and I were jumping up and down and cheering for the Sox to get the key hit they needed with 2 outs. But that hit never came.

Go Fightin' Phils!

Remembrance: Tadpole

Last week "Tadpole," who turned into a frog after about a year, died. It made me very sad. He didn't have a very long life. I wondered why he died. Too many crickets? Too few crickets? The wrong kind of crickets? Too hot? Too cold? It's impossible to know.

But I sure will miss him.

Comeback!

Last night may have been the most exciting baseball game I've ever seen. The Sox, who I am now rooting for with the elimination of the A's, themselves faced elimination. Down 7-0 in the 7th, things looked bleak. Amazingly, they came all the way back and won it in the 9th to pull out an improbably 8-7 victory. There was lots of cheering and high-fiving and jumping around. What a game!

Debate Analysis

As you know, I've been watching the debates with my Daddy. Tonight, we decided to make a graph of McCain buzzwords. I listened carefully for the following: maverick, my friends, earmark, and reform. In fact, I was so interested that I timed bathroom breaks for when Obama was speaking so as not to miss any.

Here are the results:

maverick: 0
my friends: 11
earmark: 6
reform: 0

Conclusions: 1. Clearly, we are all McCain's friends. 2. Debates are more interesting than you might think.

Guesstimation Jar 2

Guesstimation Jar 1