Bob and Suzanne were up in the Bay Area this weekend, checking on a friend's family (long story, not mine to tell), and asked if they could stay with me. Ignoring the kabillion times Bob and Suzanne let me stay at their house and the desire to return the favor, I was unbelievably happy to have them stay at Krikitt Downs, my excitement not very well contained.

Suzanne has asked for suggestions for dinner. I had made a suggestion for a Malaysian restaurant I had never been to, but a couple joining us whom I hadn't met yet suggested an Afghan restaurant about a mile from my house, the restaurant, oddly enough, I wanted to originally suggest, but didn't. I don't know why I didn't, but I was happy to go.

Life happens, making Bob and Suzanne a little late, which worked out wonderfully for the six of us at dinner with the Dillers. Bea's aunt and Peter, were both early, allow Kris and I a few minutes to catch up with them before everyone else showed up. When Bob and Suzanne arrived, we were all BFF.

As much as I miss my friends, I have to admit that I enjoy the stories they have to share when we meet up: stories that are new and fun because I wasn't there to experience them in the first place

Take for example, Bob's current volunteer project: he teaches the application of science concepts to a class of fourth graders. Here's this Caltech grad, who knows a lot about just about everything in science (let's say 46 science subjects, the 47th being one too many), and can explain any of it in such a way that you understand it. That holds true even if "you" are a fourth grader.

I wish I had had Bob teaching me science in fourth grade.

He's currently working with them discussing the possibility of a manned spaceflight to Mars. He has his class thinking about all the things that have to happen to make that possible. The kids divide into groups to tackle the logistics of different parts of the mission: from lift-off to survival to investigation to return. dealing with air, food, water, recycling nutrients and wastes, etc. The lesson is about the application of science and rational thought in creative ways so different from the "memorize this fact" sort of scient learning that is so overwhelming in today's education. How to problem solve has to be the best skill to have, and the worst one taught.

Bob's class named their ship a great name: "Beyond." See? Ten year olds can be creative and brilliant when asked.

Bob happliy told us a new story tonight, too. A group of Techers were together doing something or other they weren't suppsed to be doing (a bonfire maybe?), when the police showed up. Most everyone left, but one person stayed behind. He was told to disperse by teh police officer, and yet refused to leave. When the officer threatened to arrest him if he didn't disperse, he still didn't leave. He was arrested. When asked by the court why he didn't disperse, he commented, "One person can not disperse."

The charges were dropped.

I love Bob's stories.

Megan, Mirabelle and Meter came over for lunch, busy after a hard morning of bargan shopping. Best part of the visit: discovering the umbrella opens on the push of a button.

Whee!

Since I made crepes for lunch today, we used up eggs 15 and 16. Over half way done!

While we're here, though, what is it about little kids and the dog crates that makes them so interesting? Mirabelle had the same fascination with the dog crates that Meter does. Of course, neither is willing to go INTO the dog crate, even when I head in first to show them how it's done. I have no idea why not.

I went to the Mischief practice today. My knee's been killing me, with my still being unable to go down hills, but the practice was at Baylands, which is close enough to home that I really needed to go. Unfortunately, I was five minutes late, and had a rough time warming up. My best part of the practice was the first 3/4 of my warmup lap. Sigh.

I did, however, take my new camera. It's an EXIM instead of my current Canon favorites. I bought it because it can take pictures up to 1000 frames a second. Of course, such speed depends on 1. being able to actually center the subject of interest properly in the frame, 2. being able to push the button at the correct time, because you have only that one second and 3. being able to live with some really tiny pictures. Although I can take 3k x 2k pictures for about 3 seconds at 30 frames a second, the 1000 frames a second pictures are around 200 x 100 in size.

Also known as tiny.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I'm still working on the 1 and 2 of that 3 item list.

I figure, once I manage to offload the images to my computer, I'll be all set. The documentation with this thing, though, hoo boy, CRAP.

I kept up with most of the practice, declining to participate in the huck drills. I had such a hard time with the five on five opening games, though mostly in confusion whether or not we were hot-subbing or only between points, that anything requiring all out sprints were just not coming from my legs.

As one of the last drills we did, we ran a zig-zag marking drill, where each player in a group (we split by gender) marked a disc that was thrown zig-zagging down two parallel lines of players, for a total of maybe 15 throws per set. I managed to tip three discs and actually handblock one, missing another half dozen by only a tiny bit. Oh, how I wish my arms were an inch longer. Of course, if they were an inch longer, I'd probably want another. Yeah. Of course.

Hey, everyone! Wow, we had more qualified applicants for our Director
positions than spaces! I'm delighted by people's enthusiasm in
pitching in, but also want to specially thank those that applied that
were not selected as Directors. I'd like to honor your spirit of
service and make sure that we have great ways for you to contribute to
the project.

With no further ado, I hereby present Hacker Dojo's Founding Directors
in no particular order:

1) David Weekly.

2) Kitt Hodsden.

3) Melissalynn Perkins.

4) Brian Klug.

5) Jeff Lindsay.


From each of the Directors I'll need your best email, phone, and
snailmail addresses for our legal filings. Please get that information
to me immediately. Oh, and your signature in blood that you're signing
your life away. ;)

Congratulations!

Cheers,
 David

Yay, me!

Instead of slicing them up and dumping them into my sauce, I tested each summer squash first.

Can't be too careful.