Tryptophantastic

The Game Neverending (GNE) changed my life, but I wasn’t looking for a game or new friends, just following related links after reading a short story. In a similar fashion, after a chance notice of a TED blog link while purportedly culling my RSS subscriptions, I embarked in the research ship Snowdonia to help form the Floating City in Thomas Dolby’s online alternate reality game. Barely familiar with his music three months ago, I now have a few albums (downloaded for free as game prizes), an autographed deluxe album, a couple dozen favorite songs, and more that in memories. Additionally, the experience culminated this last weekend in a show that wouldn’t have been as special were it not for the conditions created by the game. Allow me to explain.
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Katya wrote the following poem for school for a prompt of picking an emotion and describing it as a crayon color. While I thought the poem was interesting, I was intrigued more by the device she picked up and demonstrated at the end:

Hyper

Hyper is the color of Blazing Pink.

It sounds like an angry train.

It looks like an enormous blur.

It smells like chocolate.

It tastes like ice scream!

Hyper feels like air rushing by all around you.

Anyomous.

I’ll return to other blog posts soon, including detailing the continued exploration of the household’s cat-sized hiding spots.

I just came back from the heavily packed parking lot of Alton Brown’s book signing. Due to a babysitter malfunction, I went for the Q & A session, then tagged Mark at home to go to the book signing (though there were plenty of kids there, and AB insisted that all the kids get their books signed first, my kids apparently didn’t remember their yesteryear obsession with Good Eats).

Alton was memorable, witty, goofy, and friendly. Some bits:

One boy asked if he’d ever do an “outdoor food” episode of GE, as in camping food. Alton declared that he had done so many episodes outdoors, but the boy insisted this was for Scouts. So Alton promised he’d do a camping GE…with squirrels, how to pick one, how to skin it, how to stab a stick in its butt. “Welcome to scouting, son!”

Doesn’t ever watch Food Network, last watched tv three years ago. Says he’s reading sixteen books at the moment, current fave is Roald Dahl’s autobiography.

Someone asked if we should eat the koolicles (koolaid-brined pickles) at the NC State Fair, as tonight was the first night. After disparaging fair food up and down, he admitted that brine would kill most…things.

Wouldn’t touch the question of which Iron Chef was his favorite…

…but food that Challenger chefs have prepared and he wondered what they were thinking? Trout ice cream. “It’s what you think it’d be like but worse. Trout. Ice. Cream. Then put those words together. I think I even got a scale stuck in my teeth.”

Asked one woman why she took her glasses off to ask him a question. Then a couple questions later, he was told how handsome he was. His response was to suggest to the glasses lady that she loan her glasses to the second woman. But several women commented on how handsome he is. Guess geek is still in.

“Eating is about the people your with and the time you’re having, not about what your shovin’ down yer pie hole.” Didn’t have restaurant recommendations because he likes staying in (and presumably cooking instead). Love his realistic perspective of food.

Asked what food he’d eat for his last meal, he said he’d spend the last few weeks finding a Little Debbie truck and only taking a break to get a smoke, citing his experience being born and raised as Appalachian trailer trash.

When asked what he “really” thought about truffles, he reiterated that winter truffles were better than sex, that he’s had thousand-dollar truffles, and not thousand-dollar…oh wait, there was his ex-wife.

TV show parodies he’d like to incorporate into Good Eats: currently working on a Man vs. Food, Star Trek, and one “particularly loathesome reality show”

Favorite international destination has been Tokyo because the food is amazing. However, he lists the downside of Tokyo as the Japanese not knowing that the rest of the world exists, and eating up all the bluefin tuna, whales, and then what’s next? This prompted another question about the regulatory board of seafood and one of the few serious answers of the evening.

That’s all! Hopefully Mark gets me a good photo or sumptin’.

There’s a saying that you will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats. Given that my chances of convincing the spousal unit that we should have a nonstrange cat were nil, we compromised on fostering cats. I liked the idea of helping adorable kitties who were traumatized or unsocialized get a chance to find a permanent home, and Mark liked the idea that after a few months, he’d never see that particular animal ever again. Ok, I jest, but only a little.

So this new category will be a view into the challenges and benefits of cat fostering, demonstrate the progress (or potential lack thereof) of each cat, oh, and bear witness to the power of lots of gratuitous cute cat pics, amirite??

So given the choice of three cats who were all in need of a break from the shelter, we decided on Toffee Crunch because she had been there almost a year, and started off almost feral. She had also come to the shelter with a litter of kittens. All and all, a heavy load for a pretty young cat!

We started her off in the bathroom with the door closed, where she crouched in her litter box, and later in a corner on a huge sweatshirt I have. After we left the door open, she proceeded to new hiding spots over the course of a few days: under the dining table, inside our hollow electric organ, and currently underneath my bed. Lest you think how horribly traumatized she must be to hide so much, she is now coaxable out of these spots, and trades purrs for scratches and rubs. She just must feel more comfortable in enclosed places still.

Last night I was pretty frustrated because she had hid in the organ all day, but after the din of kids ended with their bedtime, I eased her out with kitty treats. We spent an amiable and quiet evening together, her kneading the carpet while I worked on a project, she occasionally begging to be petted and sitting squat on my fabric like any reasonable cat must. Perhaps with her under my bed now she’ll find her way to the infinitely more comfy bedspread tonight!

Now that you’ve made it through the large-font title, which my kids can see over my shoulder, I’ll admit to planning an at-home summer “camp” themed around Webkinz. Why? Because my kids love the organization and immersion of a planned camp, but such things are expensive. Also, they love Webkinz. [There are no hyperlinks, ads, or images to such creatures in this post. If you are a parent, you've probably already seen them too many already!] And I want your help!

I’m using the description of a local summer camp as inspiration: “Join us for a magical week of wonder in Webkinz-ville! Each camper designs and makes a miniature bed so their favorite Webkinz has a place to rest throughout the week. Throughout the camp, we learn how to make unique accessories, draw all kinds of popular Webkinz, and will have a blast with fun hands-on activities. At the end of the week, we perform a small play with our newly accessorized pals, with a cast of only Webkinz!”

I, however, have the added challenge of planning for a wide range of ages: 3, 6, and 8. The more complex activities can be done while the 3-year old sleeps.

Already planned:

1. Designing and making a quilt for their animal. They bought the fat quarters of fabric earlier on a whim. I’ve created a quilt graph paper PDF for them to color and design–we’ll probably do a 10×10 grid of 2″ squares. I’ll probably let them spend a little time sewing squares together, but assume that the majority of sewing will fall on me.
2. Choreographing a play at the end of the week, using whatever clothes and props we make earlier
3. Making a menu and meal in their Webkinz Restaurant ostensibly for the animals to eat
4. Taking their animals to play at the park

Still brainstorming:

1. Party games which explicitly use the animals for something.  Problem is, I’m not familiar with the online Webkinz games and gimmicks. I’ve checked out the party ideas on their website, but that still doesn’t give me a clue what the really cool things are.
2. Potentially one other craft, one that the 3-yr. old can participate in. A shoebox bed? Accessories like mini jewelry?

If you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll credit you when I use them. Stay tuned for updates of what we do…don’t let me get lazy!

I’ve mentioned before that even our small library has a children’s nonfiction section worth browsing, and that it’s kind of fun to look through the books there. Recently I found one of those library books that makes the transition between something you look at for your three week loan time, and placement on a wish list. “Glues, Brews, and Goos: Recipes and Formulas for Almost Any Class Project” by Diana F. Marks is a recipe book of sorts, and as such, its contents could be found in various places online, if you knew what to look for beforehand, but not all together with good explanatory information. For instance, for homemade volcanoes, it explains how to make four different types: Strombolian, Hawaiian, Vulcanian, and Pelean, and describes how each is characterized. For that reason and its completeness it would make a good background manual for science projects.

It also contains several recipes for each “type” of brew, and while one may have an obscure ingredient, the others might be made with ingredients you already have. Overall, it’s an eye-opener to what things are possible with basic chemistry and mixing around the home, and a good go-to idea book. Even for categories I thought I understood, it offered refinements and corrections of things I hadn’t done optimally. But to quote Levar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it–look for it in your own library first.

Chapter headings:
Clays and Doughs
Salt Map Mixtures
Papier-Mache
Plaster of Paris
Glues and Pastes
Paints
Natural Dyes
Bird Food and Bird Feeders
Crystals and Crystal Gardens
Non-Newtonian Fluids and Slimes
Bubble Solutions and Bubble Frames
Volcanic Actions and Other Chemical Reactions
Invisible Inks
Soaps
Candles
Recycled Papers
Dried Flowers, Potpourri, and Pomanders
Breads
Edible Art
Dairy Products
Treats the Students Can Make
Miscellaneous

I’ve been doing my exercise inside this summer because I’m such a humidity-phobe, but surreptitiously eye the runner lifestyle. A couple of my friends have used the Couch to 5K system, which is a running guide to progress from being a new runner. James at spotifit has started creating playlists for this purpose; one uses the beginning of each song to switch from running to walking, and vice-versa, instead of using a watch as one would otherwise have to do. Unfortunately, Spotify (the music-streaming service used to create the playlists) is currently Europe-only, but Americans now get rdio.com! If you’re familiar with last.fm, it’s similar, but with increased music availability for streaming.

Anyway, as playlist creation is rather fun, and the system is easy to work with, I started trying it out on rdio. I’ve created a sample list for about the second run of the second week, but couldn’t resist the siren call of everything being a They Might be Giants song, with the energy TMBG has. You can stream it here if you’re a member (if you want an invite, let me know). You’ll note that my walking songs are a little shorter than they maybe should be. That’s just a short TMBG song or album for you.

1. The Guitar (3:48, warm-up walk)
2. Why Must I Be Sad? (4:08, brisk walk)
3. Twisting (1:55, jog)
4. Sleeping In The Flowers (4:30, brisk walk)
5. Destination Moon (2:27, jog)
6. How Can I Sing Like A Girl? (4:26, brisk walk)
7. Subliminal (2:45, jog)
8. Spiraling Shape (4:24, cooldown/walk home)

If you’re familiar with TMBG, you’ll notice a trend with the songs, in that they’re from only 4 albums. I hope rdio is still building up the music database. I also hope that the 3rd party tools available for Spotify will also be developed for Rdio (including tools to convert a playlist from one service to another).

Playing with ice and kitchen gadgets makes a nice respite in July

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Grab a few small bins or large disposable food storage containers and freeze water ahead of time for a fun summer activity getting wet and “sculpting” ice. This is one that is perfect to start the night before, but with minimal effort either then or the next day.


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Even if you never try any exotic kitchen chemistry, chances are your kids ask to make goop, or play with baking soda and corn starch, or even mix all the ingredients in your cooking shelf together. If you’re like me, you’re content letting them use your good measuring devices, or scrounge for clean recyclables, despite constant food coloring stains in your cheap Tupperware knockoffs, and having to take time to find everything they might need. I decided this summer that a set of plastic labware would be a modest investment in repeated kitchen chemistry experiments, as well as a good beginning to reading measurements, estimating, and lab protocol and safety!

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Katya, of course, wanted to paint a dolphin on her shirt

Background

Proper batiking requires melted wax and chemicals, neither of which are good for children. But kids still can have fun watching their design “resist” the dyes using gel glue. Younger kids might enjoy creating a freehand, random design best, and thus won’t be frustrated if their slightly clumsier hands cross colors over their lines.


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