Imaginary Line

Yesterday I heard myself say something havent said in decades

Draw an imaginary line

While saying that I drew a dotted line joining the opposite sides of a rhombus - parallelogram. When I explained the parallel lines, we agreed that the parallel lines meet at infinity, where there is a pirate.

When I said

Draw an imaginary line

My daughter said she did.
She did draw the imaginary line in her head.

We started with a triangle with unit area.
It was easy to say the parallelogram has 2 units area.

Then came a hexagon. 6 . Great.

Imagine the triangle doing a hop around each side. 6 sides. 6 units of area

We are learning surveying here. I remember high school problems where we had to split the random shapes into trapeziums. (I think I just figured why trapeze is called a trapeze. when it swings in either direction, it makes that shape. )

Then came a huge shape. We saw that it was symmetrical.
If we solve half the problem then, we will know the other.
We went around tracing the given shapes - triangle or rhombus into the half of the random shape and worked out the answer. Luckily, the answer was written but it didnt show, how that was arrived at.

We traced the actual shape on the back of the paper, so we could freely go about solving the problem. After having solved the problem, I recalled Einstein not being happy with just one solution but looking at the haystack for all the needles that mght be there.

We realised that there are other symmetries, so the problem could be solved differently. Finding alternate ways of solving a problem, is a validation of your prior solution.

We learned to not freak out at a big problem

 Divide and Rule.

Petit Collage My Crafty Toy Camera Kit

Petit Collage My Crafty Toy Camera Kit

A camera is a fascinating thing for kids and adults alike. This toy camera kit has pictures of how to go about making the flat cardboard into a toy camera.
The stickers are fun to add some color to your camera. You can get more creative by decorating the camera however you wish.
The best of all are the cardstock tiny blank photos that you cna draw however and give them to your subjects you photograph.
This is a cool toy. Kids take to it very easily. When you go to friends and relatives house, make some pictures of them before hand and look at the surprise, when you hand them pictures. Carry some crayons along and match the colors of the dress they are wearing that day. Call them that the picture is 'developing'.
One small hitch was that the closing flap at the back of the camera was on the opposite side of what is in the picture. We went ahead with it, and it still turned out fine as the up and down sides are unique and clear.
What a great way to make your kids more observant, cognizant of the threes rule and other framing tips of photography.

Moules frites

Tuna

I have never heard of Moules Frites. I have heard of Fish and Chips and had them at a Renaissance festival. If you spend some time in Ghent, this should be somehtign you try according to the NYTimes.

Ghent - A Travel Guide of Art and History: A comprehensive guide to the art and architecture of Ghent, Belgium (Cities of Belgium Book 5)

It is one of the 1000 foods to eat before you die.

Your Flight is Delayed

Passur "calculated these times by combining publicly available data about weather, flight schedules, and other factors with proprietary data the company itself collected, including feeds from a network of passive radar stations it had installed near airports to gather data about every plane in the local sky."

The rocket science of flight delay predictions.

Making Ropes

Ravenox Natural Twisted Cotton Rope | Made in The USA | Strong Triple-Strand Cordage for Sports, Décor, Pet Toys, Crafts, Macramé & Indoor Outdoor Use| by The Foot & Diameter (Multiple Colors)

What to do you associate ropes with?

Snakes
Climbing
Drawing water from a well
Lasso
Twizzler

Are you curious how they are made?




Did that make you dizzy? Isnt it like the tea cups ride?

Lenox Disney Showcase Mickey's Teacup Twirl

Now lets scale down this rope making a bit...

Topmix Tarmac

In terms of finding solutions, how to mould the problem to be a solution.

Concrete has been blamed for aggravating flooding.

How about concrete that can absorb the flood water?

This works great for future developments, but what about the current ones? 

Spinboard for ballet dancers

TurnBoard PRO (Official TurnBoard)

Its Practice

Icing Piping Nozzles Practice Drawings Board Cake Pastry Beginner Practice Paper Fondant Decorating Including 23 Popular Patterns

We were watching a video of huge number of people moving in formations , finally to make a flag. I expressed my amazement. /my child goes "Its practice".
I knew where she got that from.
I have told her many times that she's frustrated learning new skills that it takes practice. Parenting is filled with these daily diamonds.

When we were little, in a crafts class , we had to make stitches of different knid on a piece of white cloth. Here's a practice paper for beginners to  learn fondant decorating with different patterns.

Ballerina Unicorn

Bearington Dreamer White Plush Stuffed Animal Ballerina Unicorn in Pink Ballet Outfit, 14 Inches

I was surprised to find that this Unicorn is a Ballerina. Now thats too much pressure to be both a unicorn and a ballerina. With 'My Little Pony' most kids get introduced to the unicorn characters, where the preference for color moves to the preference of character that matches that color. For example Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and so on. This little ballerina reminds of you of the friendly Angelina Ballerina and still is unique with its pudge quotient ideal for infants.

How those pretty plates are made

Dixie Everyday Paper Plates,10 1/16" Plate, 220 Count, Amazon Exclusive Design, 5 Packs of 44 Plates, Dinner Size Printed Disposable Plates

The design walks onto a Dixie plate.

Something to show kids.

If they pay attention and learn that 600 dishes can be made in a hour, ask them how long does it take to make a dish with this machine.

After looking at this video, my spouse figured why we got some Corelle plates at a discount. The design was a little off. In a hurry? to get onto a Dixie plate?

Gymnic RODY Horse

Its fun to hop around on this.

Melkehjerter

Look guys it comes in hearts too! "Melkehjerter" pic.twitter.com/YZxjpODJZK

— Suzie Wilson (@suziewilson14) July 3, 2014

Kids loved it. Too sweet for me.

Glider Planes Fighter Jets - Fun Toys

Bulk Party Favors 8" Glider Planes Fighter Jets - Fun Toys -  Pk of 24 Gliders - Foam Glider Airplane - Fun Gift, Party Favors, Stocking Stuffer, Goody Bag Fillers, Carnival Prizes, Pinata Filler

These are colorful, interesting, simple yet captivating glider plane cutouts made of foam. Looking at these, I was reminded of thermocol.

Melissa & Doug Princess Design Activity Kit - 9 Double-Sided Plates, 4 Colored Pencils, Rubbing Crayon

This is avery fun activity kit. If you have ever shaded a paer on a coin and seen the mark or done imprinting of barks on a paper and felt the thrill of transferring the exact shapes of a thing, you will love this. And now no paper goes scrap.
Just place the paper in the center, when you move the crayon along on the paper, the outlines of beautiful princess are transferred onto the paper, which you then color to make a facsimile of the world known Disney princess following their uniform or you cna give them new outfits based on your creativity.
At first I wondered, if it was play dough based. Thankfully it is not. Its much more fun.

Crayola Giant Coloring Pages Spongebob Squarepants

Crayola's Giant Coloring Pages make for a great engaginf gun activity for kids. After having spent time on choosing the colors and the palette for the giant page, kids love to show off their beautiful creation.

Decorations that you can take home

3 JUMBO 33 Inflatable AIRPLANES/Jet/747/INFLATES/Birthday PARTY DECORATIONS Favors/Decor/RED, White, Blue/NEW in Package PLANE/TOYS by RINCO

Recently, a friend had a themed party of Airlines for her child's birthday party. I was amazed at all the inflatable planes hanging down the ceiling.

I was surprised to see my child walk in with one of those planes. How cool is the idea of sending decorations as party favors.

Atelic goals

It is important to have some some atelic goals too.

Sarah refers to the Rubicon myth in the article.

Once we were going up a mountain in a free style hike. Half way up, one friend felt very scared, we had to turn around. It is then I realised how difficult it is to come down than go up. I almost lost my perch once. But that day i learned how it is important to be safe too.

What is thru-hiking?

Anxious about missing something?

While talking to a friend, I realised I was gettling late to a group exercise. The matter was important enough to continue talking. Stretched to this limit, I realised I didnt have to fret too much as I could join the group in the middle and finish the moves I missed by replaying the DVD.from the beginning. I cant recall wher I read this, but how modern technology has helped art reach the masses. Earlier, you had to be at the opera to catch the music but now the storage helps you catch it even when you are not there.

Decision Making

If you are being given options to decide, look out for the ones that are being taken off the table by the option giver's premature decisions. Disparate Impact Doctrine.

Fast forwarded decision making

Literally

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”
― Shannon Alder

— Landmark Forum (@LandmarkForum) February 28, 2019

Surgeon who burned initials into livers of two patients fined £10,000

Body Language and gestures

I am amazed at Melinda Gates communication skills of bringing to life the situations she is describing. her hand movements make it so easy to imagine all the concepts she is explaining.

Alternates

When you find that your university is not in the list of your favorite newspaper subscribers, thats not to say that your university does not have access to it at all. They might have it through some other system. Go with the assumption that a database is limites and not current.

When pedestrians come out of a parking spot and you in the car at a blind turn, wonder if another such car got the person to the refuge of a parking spot.

To Vaccine or Not

Family Shots

Defying parents a teen decides to get vaccinated
Scientists working on ways to swap the needle for a pill

I find it interesting that you need to retake vaccines, if you get a new immune system. My dad ahving seen his friend's daughter with polio, asked me to vaccinate my kids. A stranger in Costco asked me not to.

Once Upon a Farm Baby Food

Once Upon a Farm Organic, Cold Pressed, Refrigerated Stage 2 Baby Food, Variety Pack, No Added Sugar, Preservatives or Additives, for 7+ Month, 3.2 Ounce (Pack of 16)

Jennifer Garner dishes up organic baby food https://t.co/bUsrnNKhCE

— livecitizen (@livecitizen1) February 12, 2019

Some learnings

real change - for example, when President Obama was in office, when LBJ was in office to enact the Great Society measures or Obamacare - came from having numbers and assembling coalitions

people process policy  and "taking the leverage away from our chief negotiator, giving something away for nothing."

Who Eats What?

Who Eats What?: Food Chains and Food Webs (Let'S-Read-And-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)

As I was expalining the cover page of the book, my daughter caught something I missed - that the small fish eats plants. So once we start giving them an idea of whats happening, kids get engaged enough in the book to make their own observations.
The fun part is the bidirectional food chain, where first you go big sharks eat medium fish who eats a smaller fish who eats plants. To make the other visualisation easier, there is a picture of a wren in a hawk;s tummy, of a caterpillar in that wren's tummy, a leaf in that caterpillars tummy. You get the idea. Similar fun and informative picture with a shark who has a tarpon inside him and so on....

It must be the Poha

Poha Thin

We want to have some savory snacks lying around. So, when we have the case of munchies, we will have taken care of that. Poha is one of our favorites. It is very quick to make. But sometimes my spuse wants to expand his menu of things that he can make. he followed my intructions to the T. The final product was too dry. I blamed the yellow lentils that he used which might have soaked up the oil not leaving enough for the poha to cook.



This time I tried and it still the same. It must be the poha right. How can I forget cooking? Well, I heard that swimming and cycling are two life skills that you never forget, once you learn them. But so should be cooking??

If you are curios, there is a thick pha too just like different sizes of cosucous. 

You dont know what its going to be

This week, I had to use up some marinated chicken and gongura (sorrel leaves).
the Menu was easy to decide - Gongura Chicken
With some whisper on the phone, finally the cooked leaves were fenugreek leaves. When it was time to taste the curry, I realised it was bitter. I added some coconut powder to pacify it. With yogurt, it was ok to eat it. The next day it actually tasted good.
We still have gongura to fend off with. For that I made Gongura Egg pulusu

P90X DVD Workout

Day 1- Kenpo Cardio
I moseyed into the gym room, thinking I will do some yoga for my troublesome trapezius muscles which now know how to behave. There were three men ( and no boat ) doing the P90x and I just joined them. I have heard of p90x a long time ago from a colleague.

Day 2 - slept 12 hours from all the awful body pains. I expected to be sore in the morning, but it was about 29 hours after the exercise that I had the body aches.

Day 3 - Kenpo Cardio
Heard about Tony H.

Day 4 - Workout with Tony only up to 30 min
Some research on Tony H. So inspiring.

Day 5 - Killer 10 min ab workout  Didnt last it all. But if 10 min is too short, we can repeat the exercise right.

Day 6 - Kenpo cardio workout - 141lb

Day 7-  Burn 600 Calories in a 60-Minute Workout With Jeanette Jenkins only 34 min of this and 6min on elliptical - 140.5lb
JJ has verve. I enjoyed this workout a lot. I loved how JJ prepares your body first so it gets plaint to do the kicks in the coming moves. She stacks exercises too, so you feel like you ar eprogressing and not taking the easy way out.
slept 10 hours.

Day 8 - Kenpo cardio workout - 139lb
I am wondering what makes a workout work. With martial art based workouts, there/s a mythical enemy/demon may be fat that you are bustin with every move. In so many of the moves the recipient is an imaginary punching bag, but you get it all out. There's a story where you lift your legs and kick at the miscreant in any direction - front, back, side.

I enjoy working out, but beats me why I didnt start this earlier. I have always seen that dilly-dallying exercise doesnt yield results.

The plateaus, oh my goodnes.. its the hysteresis of our bodies. It always seems to know what is the bad weight to go back to. Jettison already.

Its strange, I used to think I dont have time.

Day 9 - Upper body plus abs - 138.3 lb

Could feel the effect in the arms

Day 10 - Cardio, 15 min Ab ripper

Felt too sleepy by 3.30pm

Costco pizza party and weekend. But could feel the core effect through all of it.


Day 11 -  49 min of Core Synergistics 141lb

 Celebratory lunch

8/2/2019
6 months into the M,W, F - P90x or Insanity workout and slowly yoga and pilates added into the weekend, 10 min jump rope in the morning. Down by 12.5 pounds.
Now I can do 12 side plank hip-hops. 20 pushups. hang on the pull up bar for 20s.

What is your fitness game?

I used to be able to do a halasana. I was single then and now I have mommy tummy. When Tony Horton says roll over in P90x3, the middle part of my body has no give. Instead of wincing each day, I thought I will practice. Thats how I adde dyoga and practiced halasana every day. I was able to rollmy body over almost.

I added the 10 min jum rope after reading that Danica pretty intense does exercise twice a day.

Spiky dinosaur

This newly-named dinosaur had an extravagant neck. But why? @sciam https://t.co/tjsFGwhdNK

— Riley (@Laelaps) February 6, 2019

Organic Bitter Apricot Kernels

Organic Bitter Apricot Kernels(1LB) 16oz, Natural Raw USDA Organic Bitter Apricot Seeds, Vegan, Non-GMO, Gluten Free, Great source of Vitamin B17 and B15

Apricot Kernels for Cancer: The Real Story of Laetrile https://t.co/Pp5hEA40GI

— livecitizen (@livecitizen1) February 4, 2019

Spot It! Disney Frozen - Alphabet

We got this as a gift a while ago. Finally it took off. The fun part of this game is that, even little kids jjust learning to recognize alphabets can play this game. Older kids gravitate towards images and finding the right words.

To add challenge to the game, I am timing it. It was 7 min 40s in forst round. Asked for 7 min in second round. In third round asked both kids to work together. Its down to 5 min 40s. Now we are trying for 5 min. Cooperative speed game Vs Competition. You can play it either way.

Its 4 min 13s.

All I hear is .. what do you see?.. Boots.. Boots.. Y.. Y..

3 min 21s

Darwin's Worms

The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms

Charles Darwin and earthworms — Science Learning Hub https://t.co/3r1TRNpt29

— livecitizen (@livecitizen1) February 3, 2019

Whats the opposite of wind?
Earthworm.
"As a by-product of their movements, worms deposit new soil on the surface, causing whatever was on top to slowly submerge. Thus, whole monuments may be buried over a period of decades."https://t.co/ciFgpS50R6

— livecitizen (@livecitizen1) February 3, 2019