Finding Nemo

We went to the Sydney Aquarium last Tuesday, 21 April 2009.

MyGirl was overjoyed because the first animal she saw inside the Aquarium was a real live platypus.

We passed by one of the tanks where they had set up an anemone in the middle with several clownfish (Nemo and Marlin) and regal tangs (Dory) swimming around. Naturally, I had to take a picture.

As we went around, we saw sharks, jellyfish, and sea turtles. I have to watch the movie again to figure out what other animals we might have seen at the Aquarium that were also in the movie. There were a lot of beautiful animals to be seen there.

The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point, Sydney. It is close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and is one of the great icons of Australia.

The Opera House looks like a ship at full sail.

The saga of the Opera House actually began in 1957, when, at the age of 38, Jorn Utzon was still a relatively unknown architect with a practice in Denmark near where Shakespeare had located Hamlet's castle. Jorn Utzon (1918-2008) had just entered an anonymous competition for an opera house to be built in Australia on a point of land jutting into Sydney harbor. Out of some 230 entries from over thirty countries, Utzon's concept was selected.

Utzon's design was chosen. The problem was that his design was beyond the capabilities of engineering of the time. Utzon spent a couple of years reworking the design and it was 1961 before he had solved the problem of how to build the distinguishing feature - the 'sails' of the roof.

after three years of intensive
search for a basic geometry for
the shell complex i arrived in
october 1961 at the spherical
solution shown here

i call this my "key to the shells"
because it solves all the problems
of construction by opening up for
mass production, precision in
manufacture and simple erection
and with this geometrical system
i attain full harmony between
all the shapes in this fantastic complex.

jorn utzon

The completion of the project was neither fast nor easy. At a certain point, the NSW Government was tempted to call a halt due to the costs. Jorn Utzon actually resigned from the project and was not involved as the Opera House building was finally completed in 1973.

Christ's Message

The message of Christ is a message of peace
For this to occur, the hatred must cease
One has to forgive, one has to forget
God knows it is hard, but this goal must be met.

The message of Christ is a message of love
He died on the cross then returned up above
He told us to love with all of our hearts
Our brothers and sisters should be where we start.

The message of Christ is a message of hope
Without it I guess, it would be hard to cope
We hope to reach Heaven when our work here is done
But ask yourself now, has your journey begun?

The message of Christ was given to all
It is up to each one to respond to his call
Many a chance we are given each day
Look at Christ's heart, it will show you the way.

Take Me Out of the Dark

John Anthony Corapi was born in Hudson, New York on 20 May 1947.   He was a football star, an Army veteran, a financial advisor to Tropicana in Las Vegas hotshot, and a millionaire real estate mogul to the stars of Hollywood.  Then he became a cocaine addict.  He ended up homeless.

On 26 May 1991, Pope John Paul II ordained Corapi to the priesthood.

 

Father Corapi's journey towards Christ is an inspirational one.  

God works in mysterious ways.   Let us pray that we are able to recognize God's messages, that we always do God's will and that we are able to live our lives to the fullest.   

Hope that we all fare better than the farmer in this joke.

A farmer is in Iowa during a flood. The river is overflowing. Water is surrounding the farmer’s home up to his front porch. As he is standing there, a boat comes up. The man in the boat says, “Jump in, and I’ll take you to safety.”

The farmer crosses his arms and says stubbornly, “Oh no thanks, I put my trust in God.” The boat goes away. The water rises to the second story. Another boat comes up. The man says to the farmer, who is now at the second floor window, “Hurry, jump in. I’ll save you.”

The farmer again says, “Oh no thanks, I put my trust in God.”

The boat goes away. Now the water is inching over the roof. As the farmer stands on the roof, a helicopter comes over, and drops a ladder. The pilot yells down to the farmer, “I’ll save you. Climb the ladder.”

The farmer yells back, “Oh no thanks, I put my trust in God.”

The helicopter goes away. The water continues to rise and sweeps the farmer off the roof into the swiftly moving water. Unfortunately, he drowns.

The farmer goes to heaven. God sees him and says, “What are you doing here?”

The farmer says, “I put my trust in you, and you let me down.”

God says, “What do you mean, let you down? I sent you two boats and a helicopter!”

Happy Easter, everyone!

Let's Rock and Roll

"Auntie Z doesn't know how to rollerskate!"

This is what MyGirl announced last Saturday as she put down the phone right after her conversation with Z ended this afternoon.

'What?' I said to myself. 'Z doesn't know how to rollerskate? How could this be?'

My mind wandered back to the summer days we would spend downstairs on skates. 'We' included Eldest Sis, London Eye, Sister Deer and myself. Our roller skates were made of metal. They had special keys which were used to adjust the length and width of the skates and tighten them against our rubbershoes. We would set out at odd hours of the day. Most of the time it was really just the two of us, Sister Deer and me. Perhaps it was because we were the ones who needed the most practice.

Come to think of it, I don't know if the younger siblings ever learned how to skate. Do they even know how to ride a bike?

Back to the present... Z had called while we were in the middle of skating. Our skating arena stretches from our living room through the hallway to the dining room/kitchen and back. Acoustic Alchemy was playing on the stereo. MacGyver and GI were not at home. MacGyver had gone for choir practice while GI was at his cousins' house where he had slept-over the night before.

Earlier that afternoon, I had refused to play another game of chess with RD and suggested we skate instead. Fortunately he agreed. MyGirl's regular skates were at Cebu Avenue so I offered the RD's set of rollerblades while RD put on GI's old pair. It was a good thing our skates still fit after all these years. These skates are at least four years old.

This was MyGirl's first attempt at inline skates. Her regular pair at Cebu Avenue is a variation of the skates we used to have as children. We found this pink pair when she was only 2 years old but at the time that the boys were into inline skates. When we bought the skates, she was still very small. She started off with plastic Little Tikes skates.

When she grew outgrew those, she was ready for our pink skates. However, she refused to have the wheels adjusted to become inline skates.

Faced without an option of skates to use except RD's old pair of inline skates, MyGirl was willing to try this new contraption on her feet.

She was afraid she wouldn't be able to balance but I told her rollerblades were actually easier than roller skates. Fortunately, she was brave enough to try and before we knew it, she was off on her own.

I remember that the first time I tried to rollerblade was in Baguio. Z held on to GI while I went off and acted like a kid, making figure eights and all. I enjoyed skating and at that time decided I'd like to buy a pair of my own.

Eventually, we did buy rollerblades. GI was a natural. He learned how to skate backwards even before I did. RD eventually skated fast enough to call out, "Move over, slow pokes." And now, MyGirl has discovered how much fun it is to feel the wind brush past her face as she skates back and forth.

I end this post with a kidbit from when we first bought the skates. GI was 11, while RD was 6 going on 7.

New Super Hero -- 05 December 2004

GI and RD were rollerblading inside the house. When they got all sweaty, I asked them to put something on their backs. We use old cloth diapers for that purpose. After a while, GI got the idea of using his diaper as a cape. He sped through the house with the diaper fluttering behind him. "I'm the Caped Avenger," he shouted.

RD liked this idea and asked that his cloth diaper be repositioned as well. As soon as I finished the knot to secure his cape, RD rolled away and shouted, "I am the Caped Adventure!"

Bee Happy

I've come a long way from Norman Rockwell. As of this writing, there are 150 blog posts for 2008 (that was 15 for each month starting in March) and 33 blog posts for 2009. Blog posts are not as long as Norman Rockwell anymore, but hopefully still as interesting. Tags are topped with 99 stories and 77 pictures. There are 41 blog posts on MyGirl, 40 on RD, and 35 on GI.

RD made me promise that the next blog post would be on him so that he would be tied with MyGirl at 41 blog posts. (RD is SO competitive, I swear. He gets that from his father.)

Anyway, in order to hit two birds with one stone (so to speak), I am posting another poem today. When he read the poem in Moving Furniture and Shuffling Papers, I mentioned that I had written a poem to announce HIS arrival. He made me promise to write about that.

This one is about RD even if it was written before he was born. I wrote this on a card we gave Father on his birthday many years ago. We went up to Baguio that year to celebrate his birthday. On the way up, we stopped by the gas station so many times and I took advantage of each and every one, it wasn't funny anymore.

This one is for RD. (I love you, baby.)

23 May 1997

Dearest Father (aka Lolo G),

The time has come to let you know
All the bathroom stops were not a show
No need to worry, no need to doubt
Let us tell you what it's all about...
It may come as a surprise to you
But in less than eight months,
You'll have apo #2.

Happy Birthday!!!

Love,
Angels4Kids and MacGyver
"Kuya" GI

Slash-M signed on the card, too.
"Love you Father."

The Hallmark card said "BEE HAPPY ... IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY."

Am I Your Type?

I was shuffling papers again this morning and came across test results of RD back in 2007. We had his blood type checked when they drew blood for his CBC.

His blood type is A+, just like his father's.

MacGyver proudly shows off his blood type card and announces, "A+. It is the highest grade one can get."

I believe GI and MyGirl are also Type A.

According to this chart, Type O- is the universal donor and AB+ the universal recipient.

RECIPIENT	DONOR
	O-	O+	A-	A+	B-	B+	AB-	AB+
O-	x
O+	x	x
A-	x		x
A+	x	x	x	x
B-	x				x
B+	x	x			x	x
AB-	x		x		x		x
AB+	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x

My blood type is O. (I don't know my Rhesus factor.) I guess I'll just have to get blood from my other family members. Thank goodness my parents and all of my siblings are type O.

Betsey Clark

Moving furniture and shuffling paper are either hereditary or contagious. It is a known fact that Mother does both (and at the oddest hours of the day, too).

Slash M once emailed Mother, as if speaking on behalf of the furniture in the house, something to the effect, "It is 3 am. Don't move me, I'm happy where I am." Yet in spite those (in)famous lines, Slash M has found himself moving furniture as well. And I, myself, am guilty of perpetually shuffling papers. The objective, of course, is to clean and clear. However, being the pack rat that I am, I think I just end up shuffling papers.

The other weekend, I found my old math notebook. Yes, it was a grade school notebook with the instructions of how one is to get the square root of a number. What can I say? I knew that one day I would have kids of my own. If they needed to know how to get the square root without a calculator I doubt if I would have known how to do it without my old notes! (Well, I've typed it out in this blog so I can toss the notebook now.)

Anyway, among the shuffled papers, I found a small strip of wrapping paper. It was Hallmark wrapper with Betsey Clark design. There is only one person I think about when I see Betsey Clark. That person is London Eye.

London Eye absolutely LOVED Betsey Clark.

In my mind, Betsey Clark is this old-fashioned country girl with wispy blond hair tied by a ribbon on the top of her egg-shaped head. She wears a duster and an apron, and has oversized shoes (clogs, actually).

I guess I should have know that all of those look-alikes could NOT have been named Betsey Clark. Also, the signature at the base of the illustration clearly indicated that Betsey Clark is the artist.

I honestly don't know why, but as far as I was concerned that little girl WAS Betsey Clark. I simply didn't really consider the fact that Betsey Clark was actually the Hallmark Greeting Cards artist.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what I found -- "Betsey Clark, lived in Amarillo, Texas. In the early 1960s she began work at Hallmark cards, producing greetings card designs which depicted her so-called Whimsical Waifs. These soon caught the public's imagination. Later, various dolls featuring her characters appeared, to the delight of both children and adults. Additionally, the German company of Goebel were commissioned by Hallmark to produce a series of Betsey Clark figurines for collectors. She died in 1987, but her enchanting characters live on. "

Square Root

I learned how to get the square root of a number without a calculator in grade school. I have never really tried to figure out the logic of how the method works. All I know is that if I follow the steps to the letter, I manage to get the square root of a number as if I had picked up a calculator and pushed that special button.

1. First group the numbers to be calculated in pairs from right to left


2. Think of a number (A) whose square is nearest the first group of digits on the left. Write that number on top of the square root sign above the leftmost set of digits


3. Calculate the square of A. Place the answer right below the leftmost set of digits just as you would when doing long division


4. Subtract the result of Step 3 from the first group of digits


5. Multiply 20 by the number/s on top


6. Bring down the next pair of numbers (as you would when doing long division)


7. Think of a number (B) which when added to step 5 then multiplied by the same number (B) would give a product closest to the resulting number in Step 6. Write that number on top of the square root sign to the right of any number already there.


8. Repeat steps 2 - 7 until all sets of digits have gone through the calculations

Let us try this with an easy number --> What is the square root of 484?

Grouping the number 484 by 2's results in 4-84. We all know that the sqare root of 4 is equal to 2. So A=2 and that goes on TOP of the square root sign.

Then, as in division, we put 4 under 4, and get its difference which is zero.

Step 5. We multiply 20 by the number on top of the square root sign. 20 x 2 = 40.

Step 6. We bring the 84

Step 7. B = 2 such that 42 x 2 = 84 which is great because that means we're done since 84 - 84 = 0.

In conclusion, the square root of 484 is 22. That was simple enough (I hope).

Here is a more complicated number. What is the square root of 106,276?

Grouping the number 106,276 by 2's results in 10-62-76. The closest square root to 10 is 3 (since 3 x 3 = 9). So A=3 and that goes on TOP of the square root sign.

Then, as in division, we put 9 under 10, and get its difference. 10-9 = 1. We're in step 5 now. Multiply 20 by the number on top of the square root sign. 20 x 3 = 60.

Step 6. We bring the next set of numbers down to get 162.

Step 7. B = 2 such that 62 x 2 = 124 which is closest to 162 without going over. (163 x 3 = 489, way over 162!). So now there is a 3-2 on top of the square root sign, and a difference of 38 when 124 is subtracted from 162.

Step 8. We repeat the steps and calculate 20 x 32 = 640. We bring down 76. This time, B = 6 such that 646 x 6 = 3876.

Fortunately the example is a perfect square. And the square root of 106,276 is 326.

That concludes our lesson for the day.

(No, I'm not quitting my day job just yet. Soon though, I'll think of an alternate career ... probably not as a Math teacher, though.)