MiceAge.com - Expedition Everest Ride Update

So, back in 2006, when we went to Disney World (link to photos), we got the opportunity to ride Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom during it's soft opening. Furthermore, we got the opportunity to sit RIGHT UP FRONT! Only THEN did we go have our character breakfast!

Well, here's a snip from Kevin Yee's post at Miceage.com about an apparent problem with the Expedition Everest 'big moment'.

 

Disney's Animal Kingdom Yeti stuck in permanent "B" mode.

The enormous Audio-Animatronic yeti at the end of Expedition Everest was deemed so important to the ride that a provision was made for when the robot broke; the creature would freeze in its spot, but strobe lights would create the illusion of movement, and the ride would not have to be shut down. Is the lunge a thing of the past? Reportedly, the yeti has been in B-mode for weeks and months on end now, supposedly because the concrete fountain on which he is mounted has become irrevocably cracked. Designers or construction laborers somehow didn't account for the repetition of such incredible forces, and now the figure cannot be used as designed. No word yet on what the permanent solution may be.

MiceAge.com - A different look at Disney...

MiceAge.com - Expedition Everest Ride Update

So, back in 2006, when we went to Disney World (link to photos), we got the opportunity to ride Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom during it's soft opening. Furthermore, we got the opportunity to sit RIGHT UP FRONT! Only THEN did we go have our character breakfast!

Well, here's a snip from Kevin Yee's post at Miceage.com about an apparent problem with the Expedition Everest 'big moment'.

 

Disney's Animal Kingdom Yeti stuck in permanent "B" mode.

The enormous Audio-Animatronic yeti at the end of Expedition Everest was deemed so important to the ride that a provision was made for when the robot broke; the creature would freeze in its spot, but strobe lights would create the illusion of movement, and the ride would not have to be shut down. Is the lunge a thing of the past? Reportedly, the yeti has been in B-mode for weeks and months on end now, supposedly because the concrete fountain on which he is mounted has become irrevocably cracked. Designers or construction laborers somehow didn't account for the repetition of such incredible forces, and now the figure cannot be used as designed. No word yet on what the permanent solution may be.

MiceAge.com - A different look at Disney...

M's New Game

Last night, C suggested I go into the living room to check out M's new game. They'd been on the piano for a while, so I suspected (correctly) that the game had something to do with music.

M has been learning to play from a very simple beginner's book full of easily recognizable traditional children's songs. She has been learning quite a bit about reading music from these books.

Her new game is to open up the book to a song she hasn't played before, place her right hand on the keys - thumb on C, I noticed - and then try to touch play the notes she reads off the page. And she did darned well! She'd almost always get the notes right, but she couldn't get the flow of the melody unless she already knew the song.

Why is this a game? Well, M thinks she's being tricky by having figured out the music reading thing. And I'm not about to spoil her sense of excitement. Afterall, she's well on her way into the basics just by way of self-teaching. For her, it HAS been a process of self-discovery.

So, I got in on her little secret too. Mom had been guidinig her on hand placement and note reading; I explained the rythym part of the notes. You know, how to count time for quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes, etc.

You should have seen the look on her face after I demonstrated this to her. You'd have thought I gave her the keys to the candy store.

I expect that, over the next couple days, she'll integrate both the note and the meter, and be off and running.

I should point out explicitly that M's first official music lesson is tomorrow afternoon... all this so far has been driven by her own personal desire to play.

So, later that evening, as M was doing her usual litany of bedtime-delaying requests, the exchange went something like this:

"Time for bed, sweetheart."

"Can I play on the webkinz website?"

"No."

"Can I cuddle in your bed and watch TV with you."

"It's the convention tonight. No."

"Can I work on my homework?"

"No. You're already done. I know."

"Can I read my email to see if grandma sent anything?"

"No. You have school tomorrow. Time for bed."

"Can I play the piano?"

"Nnnnnn.... <pause> ... Yes. Five minutes. That's all. Then off to your bed, okay?"

M squeals and skitters off. The plinking of melodies ensues. C turns to me and says, conspiratorially, "She'll use that one again, you know."

"Yes, I know." I whisper back to her, "If I'm going to have a chink in my armor, why not have it be piano? Homework and piano."

"I was going to give her exactly the same answer." she whispered back.

M may have been playing melodies, but the chord of harmony and unity, clear and sweet, reverberated in the kitchen at that moment.

Mindstorms Update

A while back, I blogged about the Tilted Twister [blog post here].

Well, we've been steadily building away at this project. We've got the mechanical assembly completed as of Labor Day weekend. With luck, in the next couple days, we'll be able to download the solver program and run the thing using a Rubik's Cube.

Stand by for photos and progress updates!

Happy Noisy

I keep thinking about this moment from last week.

When I came home from work, I could hear loud voices all the way from the back alley. The voices were clearly recognizable as the other three members of the Johnson family. They were all talking, passionately, at the same time. I didn't feel good about that; my radar went up.

You see, loud, passionate, simultaneous talking is often an argument or a dispute in process. That usually means I have to be some form of mediator. So I approached the house with a growing sense of dread.

But... as I made my way across the back yard, closer to the house, I could start making out details of the interaction. It was passionate, and loud, and excited, sure. But boisterous. Happy. Laughing. They were having fun. I was buoyed immediately.

As I came through the door, I was pounced upon:

• M hugged me and gave me a piece of paper. As I looked at the paper, I slowly realized that M had written a page of original sheet music for the piano. There was a melody, with note symbols. There were lyrics. It was a complete - if somewhat inaccurate - representation of sheet music
• R was in the middle of a goofy outburst. He stopped mid-sentence, whirled around like the Tazmanian Devil and proclaimed "Neither Mom nor I have had our meds today! So whoo whooo whooo beware!" and laughed (almost) maniacally for theatrical effect.
• C, standing at the kitchen, mid-laugh herself, looked at me sweetly, and said "he's right. No meds today."

"Thanks for the warning. I'm glad to know. I can adapt to that!" I said as I kissed each person in turn.

And adapt we did. R got some extra room to be out-of-control, but he was still held to a behavioral standard. C got love and respect even as she processed information at a much reduced rate from normal.

We're not perfect. We're, all four of us, works in progress. We work to figure it all out and to create harmony amongst ourselves. Some days, we do it gracefully. Some days, we fail to achieve harmony at all. And in between are days where we achieve harmony in that clumsy or fleeting way that reminds me of the sports phrase "winning ugly."

On this particular day, it was "winning ugly." But we won. That's the ultimate goal.

Wienermobile Visits the Neighborhood!

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was in the neighborhood last week. I discovered it as I drove home from work, parked just outside Coopers Coffee on Stark, near SE 61st.

So as I coasted down the hill toward home, I phoned C and asked that the kids be waiting outside in the alley as I pulled up -- we were going to chase down the Wienermobile!

As luck would have it, the Wienermobile was still parked at Cooper's by the time we got there. So we got our pictures taken, looked the thing all over, and had a good laugh before heading home.

As we drove home, I shared with the kids how the people running the Wienermobile get the job, and what it's like. Essentially, Wienermobile staffers are recruited to the job by other Wienermobile staffers from people they meet doing the job. Once hired, you sign on to drive the Wienermobile around the US, from event to event, for one year.

M's reaction? "That's cool. I want to drive the Wienermobile when I grow up."

And you know what? That would be just like her to actually do it, wouldn't it?

Went Fishing!!

It was about 7 o'clock in the morning on Labor Day Monday. I was all snuggled up next to the lump in the bed that I knew contained my wife somewhere, when the door to our room opened and my Mom's voice quietly said, "Nolan? They're going out on the ocean this morning. Do you want to go fishing?" I was up and moving even before she finished the sentence. All I needed to know was that somebody in the neighborhood was hitting the beach with their dory and I had the chance to go.

It was a great morning. The surf was relatively calm and the weather was great. Dad and I were going out with JJ on his boat. JJ is a neighbor at Pacific City, and one of my high school PE teachers. We were planning to fish for bottom fish. Me? I didn't care. I was going !

JJ still launches his boat old-school style. He drops it on the beach, but he rows out through the surf, rather than using his outboard motor to power through the surf. It was a great way to get out onto the ocean. Skillful. Elegant. Finesse.

We didn't go too far before we dropped in the lines to see if anything was biting. JJ worked the fish finder pretty actively. A few minutes near the rock turned up no fish moving, so we moved north.

Eventually, we got into some fish off Tiera Del Mar. It was a quiet day overall, with a lot of our compatriots fishing a half-day for three or four. By the time we headed in, after about four hours of fishing, we had eight in the boat and had put four or five back (the ones we put back were out of season)

As for me, I made a couple of really klutzy casts at first (to the embarrassment of my Dad, I'm sure!) and hooked rocks on the bottom much more often than I hooked fish. But it was fun.

We were motoring back in, all three of us standing abreast at the console. JJ turned to me and said, "how do you like the boat?"

I felt the delight rise up from my heart and said back, "this is a nice boat. What a great day." I guess there must have been a gleem in my eye or something, because he took me by the shoulder and scooted me over to the center.

"Take the wheel," he said. Aim us for between the Cape and the rock. I use that green meadow on the hill as my target. Squeeze the throttle lever to get it to move. You'll want to adjust the speed as you feel it. Go as fast as you can without slamming the bow on the swells."

I'd helmed a dory before, but this was the first time I'd ever been tall enough to see over the console! Of course, that meant it was the first time I'd ever run one; all the rest of my experience was trolling-speed but a little technical. This time I was running it in!

Once we got into the shelter of the Rock, JJ took over, and set up for hitting the beach. He radioed in to see if someone could do a surfer-check on the beach. Nobody answered back. So we worked to spot heads and blasted the horn to let people in the surf and on the beach know we were heading in.

Then, match your speed to sit on top of, or just behind, the top of a swell and follow the water right up the beach as far as possible. The wave rolls back, and the dory is landed.