Christmas Wrap-Up

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Reflective City by Matthias Adolfsson

It's time for a Christmas wrap-up.

We had two very Merry Christmas get-togethers this year - one at our house with my side of the family, and one at J's parents' house for hers. We're lucky (as always) to have our families and always enjoy seeing as many of them as possible over the holidays.

On New Year's Eve, the Spartan football team will play Alabama for a chance to be in the national championship game. Go Spartans!

All of us Ann Arborites, plus Laurie, went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was well done, I could follow along even though I can only remember the basics of the original movies (and that's all you need to know, by the way: the basics).

Links
Some very nice inlays by Larry Robinson.

If your metal lathe and mill is collecting dust on your workbench, here's a gyroscope project for you.

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The Malaise Weeks

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It's the middle weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, also known as The Malaise Weeks. (Not really, I just made that up.)

Let's un-malaise it with some fun stuff.


I love this - 75 hours of illustration in a 2-minute video.

Nancy sent me a link to this puzzle, saying she didn't want to solve it herself. I almost finished it, but have some errors, and I think I've spent enough time on it for a while. I was hoping it would work with the errors in it, but it doesn't. I am being a little cryptic in my description of it in case you want to try to solve it yourself. If you finish it, and don't know what to do with the results, let me know. Dad, get started...

Some of you know I'm a fan of Edward Tufte for his information-related graphics. Here's more of the same.

A rubber-band powered locomotive, made from laser-cut pieces. Cool!

It's always been a dream of mine to play the subcontrabass flute. It may be too late for me to put one on this year's Christmas List.

Christmas Vacation for the kids (and me!) start soon. Nothing busts the malaise more than a little time off work and school...

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Thanksgiving in Jackson

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Family, Food, and Fun
If I was trying to think of something to be thankful for, I'd go no further than Thanksgiving Day in Jackson, with a houseful of relatives, music, food, games, and gingerbread architecture.


M and K play a duet on the piano at Grandma's house.


K, M, and A ham (turkey?) it up, sombrero style.


J provided the materials for, and D, K, M, and A contributed to, this gingerbread house. There was an outhouse built at some point, but its structural integrity was called into question, and it was torn down. D has filed an appeal with the zoning board and the building inspector.


As Mom/Grandma would say, we're truly blessed with the family we have.

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Post #323

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Yes, this is post #323 of The DEB Log. If you thought the past 322 posts were great, then you probably haven't explored the internet much.


Are you missing some wasps? They were living in the outlet vent for the bathroom fan. I hope you weren't too personally attached to them, since they're all quite dead now.

Getting rid of the wasps wasn't too difficult, I've done this kind of thing before. The difference with this nest is that I had to go on the roof to get near enough to it to see what they were up to. Fortunately for me, they were pretty slow movers because of the colder weather. So what could have ended with welts and me running around on the roof to avoid wasps turned into me knocking them off the vent cover with a screwdriver and then stepping on them. May all your wasps be half dead.

This did require my going into the attic space to remove the ductwork I sprayed the wasp killer into, so, while it could have been worse from a "getting stung" point of view, it was a pain to replace the duct and put everything back together in the tiny space in the attic.


The Michigan State University Marching Band at UM's stadium for the MSU vs. UM game.
J and I went to the MSU vs. UM game a few weeks ago. The MSU band was there, as you can see. It was a nice night for football, although a bit chilly.

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I still run for exercise, and today I ran 6.1 miles, which is the farthest I've ever run at one time when a dog wasn't chasing me.

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Fun Links

Click on the arrows at the bottom of the screen to see a 365-degree view of a XB-70A's cockpit.

This is an interesting desk project - it doesn't look too tough.

Every writer has his own voice.

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K's Latest Musical Performance

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K gives the orchestra an A to duplicate at his recent concert.

K was the concertmaster at his 8th grade orchestra concert yesterday. He's downplaying his role, saying he just happened to be sitting in the front recently when their concert seating chart was created. He's so modest! It's a talented group and they played two pieces skillfully, both without a conductor.


The orchestra teacher just returned from maternity leave, with the most recent orchestra teacher filling her position while she was out. The substitute did a great job preparing the students - they were in fine form.

After the show, at which the 8th grade choirs sang, there was a dessert reception, where there were more goodies than you could shake a stick at. Or a violin bow.

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Fun Links
How low can you go? Oktavists can go lower.

Simple, yet complex, company logos from 1940 - 1980.

Tomas Vitanofsky makes inspired sculptures from metal scrap pieces. Really nice stuff.

You can buy the plans to build Colibri. But making it is going to be a challenge most are not up for.

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Catching Up for the Fall

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Let's start this off with some cats. Here we can see Rigby and Mesko wondering why I won't leave them alone so they can sleep.

School started, and I stopped adding to this blog. Here are a few things that have happened in the last 6 weeks.

M

M is the sax player the to the right as you look at this picture.
M marched at the Pioneer High Homecoming football game, his first time doing so. They did a lot of practicing, and looked great.



M also went to the Homecoming dance with his girlfriend, whose first initial is O. They both cleaned behind their ears and dressed up. I promised M he was in charge of distributing pictures. If you want one, let him know...

K
K continues to play tennis twice a week with his Rec & Ed team. He's also back for another year of Math Olympiad. This year his class has 30 students, which is his largest so far. A few other parents and I grade the homework, and it's all we can do to get done before the end of class.

MATHCOUNTS has also started up again, so he's joining that group after school once a week. Add in violin and piano lessons, and he's got a full slate.


This is the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad mascot, Weso the Owl. I'm told that Weso is a girl, in case you're wondering.
Science Olympiad planning has started up again. The event will happen on May 14, 2016. We already have schools contacting us asking for more information, but there's a lot to do to prepare. This is our new website, and it will grow as we build it.

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Billy Joel at Wrigley Field

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Billy's fourth concert at Wrigley Field was worthy of some custom scoreboard configurations.

Last Thursday, J and I trekked to Chicago to meet up with Mary, John, and Cheryl. We converged at Wrigley Field, where Billy Joel was set to perform.



Before the show - the Wrigley outfield is now a sea of chairs.


Hey, I know these people!


We were talking and sharing family updates when Billy Joel band member Mark Rivera stopped in to say hi to John. They know each other from Ringo Starr’s tours – Mark is the music director for Ringo’s All-Star Band. He’s also the sax player for Billy Joel, as well as playing a few other instruments. He’s been around for a long time, and we recognized him immediately. I asked him to get a quick picture with J, who's a big fan of his.


Aren't these two lovebirds celebrating an anniversary soon?


This is Gavin DeGraw, the opening act, after venturing into the audience during one of his songs.


Now you can watch Billy play without having to be on the stage with him - a camera is capturing it all on video while he plays and showing it on the many giant screens.




During the song “Uptown Girl”, Billy brought out two of his famous friends, actress Jennifer Lawrence and actress/comedienne Amy Schumer, who danced with some others on the stage for a while, and climbed onto the piano for the big finale.


Most of the pictures in this blog posting are by J - she caught a lot of perfect shots, it was hard to pick just a few.


The show's about over, so everyone's playing their best at the front of the stage.

We took the subway to the stadium, but we didn’t take it back to the hotel – there were thousands of people stacked up waiting at the station next to Wrigley. We looked at a map, and headed for a different subway stop, farther up the line, hoping to find a relatively empty car to jump into. Instead, we saw a cab that wasn’t busy, so we waved him down and got a ride back that way. It wasn’t quite what we had planned, but we did get to see Lake Michigan at night and some of the lights of the city better than if we had taken the El.


Big thanks to John for arranging this and making sure we were taken care of as far as parking, directions, and other amenities. J and I had a great time and Billy put on his usual great show. A night we'll never forget!

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