Jingle Bells!

Below I've posted a series of 4 videos, two taken last night, two this morning. I posted them "technically backwards" so that you play them in order as your scroll down.

Day Care has taught Riley Jingle Bells, and I kept trying to capture her doing the whole song.

Part 4 is her special Holiday Message.

HO HO HO.

part 1

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

part 2

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

part 3

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

part 4

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

GO BIG RED!

From an Email I got. Predictions of next year's Husker Season with Bo Pelini as the Head Coach.

San Jose State -W- 77-0 Joe Ganz intercepts his own pass for a TD.

New Mexico State -W- 56-3 Bo Pelini pulls starters with 1:13 left in game for allowing first points of season.

Virginia Tech -W- 35-31 Bo Pelini tackles VT kick returner running down sideline to save the game for NU. Bo Pelini fined $10,000 by NCAA and must sit out 2 game suspension.

W. Michigan -W- 88-0 Tom Osborne reinstated as interim coach until Pelini comes off suspension.

Missouri -W- 42-7 Chase Daniel has 4 picks, (2 int, 2 nose) the second interception returned by a player with the name Bolini written by a Sharpie on the back of a plain white t-shirt. Bo Pelini was unable to be reached for comment after the game due to his suspension from coaching duties.

Texas Tech -W- 70-10 Bo instructs the defense to allow TT to score 10 points in the final minute to avenge 2004 game.

Iowa State -W- 93-0 Bo asks T.O. if he has the power to kick ISU out of the Big 12.Baylor -W- 4-0 Bo asks band if they had ever thought of playing offense. ESPN runs human interest story on the day. Defense holds Baylor to -56 yards with two safeties.

Oklahoma -W- 28-27 Bo sends busload of NU sorority girls to Oklahoma's hotel. When asked by ESPN to comment on the move by Pelini, Bob Stoops admits it was a good coaching move, and that he honestly should have thought of it first.

Kansas -W- 51-10 During halftime, Pelini tells his players "I'm thinkin' National Championship." Mangino tells his: "I'm thinkin' Arby's"Kansas State -W- 70-3 After the game Pelini rushes to the other sideline and yells at Prince for allowing him to run up the score.

Colorado -W- 69-14 Pelini has each player go over to the Colorado sideline and tell Hawkins that bowl cuts are out of style. Coach Hawkins goes to the locker room to cry it out and his son stays to console him most of the game.

Texas- B12 Championship -W- 34-21 Pelini sneaks into Bevo's stable and cuts out major organs, feeding them to his defensive players. PETA bans Pelini from the state of Texas.

Florida - NC Game -W- 45-17 In his halftime speech, Bo tells a story from his childhood, how an alligator killed his father and ran off with his mother and all he ever wanted was revenge. The Huskers respond by scoring 45 unanswered points.

Rocket Answer Number 2

Between you and me, it makes me giggle to read this aloud. Thanks to Jodie's Engineer friend Rachel for this answer.


First you would have to know the height of Big Jet when he dropped the soup, and the distance at that specific moment between Big Jet and Rocket and the elevation of Rocket. You would also need to know the maximum acceleration rate for each gear as Rocket ramps up his speed. And the maximum speed at which the ship can attain. After that, you are essentially solving an equation for a triangle. (vector analysis of Rocket's ship in the x, y and z direction and just the y of the bowl of soup assuming it is a straight fall.)

Set the two equations equal to each other--which is math for where the bowl and Rocket meet--then solve for time.

Otherwise, assuming Big Jet and Rocket are side by side and both the bowl of soup and rocket have initial speed of zero and linear acceleration ramping up to speed...

the distance the bowl travelled = 0.5*a * t^2 = 0.5*32 ft/s/s * 90 seconds^2 = 129,600 ft = 24 mi

Assuming the average speed of rocket is a linear average and Rocket's initial z speed is zero...

the average speed of rocket = 24 mi /90 seconds = 960 miles per hour

Meaning that if he started at zero miles per hour, he would be at 1920 miles per hour by the time he reaches the bowl.

Now negating air friction is a serious error in this calculation. Ask a physicist dot com says that a human free fall reaches terminal velocity within 400 yards. So depending on how much the bowl of soup weighs, and the cross sectional area of the bowl perpendicular to the earth, it is probably reasonable to assume that the bowl reached terminal velocity within seconds of its descent. And if the bowl was falling at a a constant speed instead of continually accelerating 32 ft/sec, then Rocket would have much less distance to clear before catching up with the bowl.

And if Rocket was travelling laterally at all (as it seems to be in the description below), then the cosine of the angle time his speed would be fully dedicated to making up the x distance between him and the bowl. So the absolute speed of Rocket would end up being the square root of his vertical speed squared (in the case above 960 miles per hour) plus his lateral speed squared.

Rocket Answer Number 1

I've asked several people to answer the Rocket Question. Here's the response from Matt, one of Jodie's co-workers.

Okay, so disregarding wind resistance, it would fall just over 40000 meters, or 40 km. If you include wind resistance, it would much less of a fall. Assuming they catch the pot just above ground level, this puts the start point in the Stratosphere, which extends to 50km. This is the region where weather balloons fly, and is even above the ozone layer (for reference, most airliners don't fly above 20km, auroras form at around 100km, and the ISS orbits between 360 and 430km).

The other factor is can Rocket catch it. Well, in order to be able to launch, a rocket must be capable of producing more acceleration than what gravity is exerting, so his engines must be capable of producing a minimum of 9.9m/s worth of thrust. In this instance however, gravity will be working in his (?) favor, in addition to his engines which we already stated must be capable of producing more than 9.8m/s acceleration.

The Little Einsteins Physics Question

A prize to whoever figures this out.

OK... we have a kid’s show Riley watches called Little Einsteins. In one episode, the kid's Rocket has made a batch of rocket soup for Grandma Rocket. But it's stolen by Big Jet. They finally catch big jet, and scare him, and he drops the rocket soup while hovering in the sky. The soup begins to fall.

Now, with Rocket it takes a while to get up to full speed. You have to pat hands to get up to speed from Adagio, Moderato, Allegro and then Presto! Presto is full speed for Rocket.

So, here's the timeline of things.

Big Jet drops the stock pot of Rocket soup.

The kids slowly ramp up Rocket until he hits Presto! Full speed. To go that fast, it appears they travel in a straight line, parallel with the earth, as the pot of soup hurdles towards the earth.

(I assume) they make some sort of quick, rounded turn and catch the pot of Rocket Soup just a few feet off the ground. Hooray!

How fast and how far does Rocket have to travel, if the pot of soup drops for about 90 seconds?

How fast and how far does the pot fall?

According to Wikkipedia: ignoring air resistance, an object falling freely near the earth's surface increases its velocity with 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s or 22 mi/h) for each second of its descent. Thus, an object starting from rest will attain a velocity of 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s) after one second, 19.6 m/s (64 ft/s) after two seconds, and so on, adding 9.8 m/s to each resulting velocity.

So, 9.8m to the 90th power?
32 ft to the 90th power? One mile equals 5,280 feet.
I'm not good enough at math to figure this out and Jodie refuses to indulge me. HELP!

I think strange things about children's shows.

I’ve been meaning to blog this, but I’ve been rather busy. A few thoughts passed through my head while watching My Friends Tigger and Pooh with Riley over Thanksgiving. Has anybody ever given any thought to the psychological challenges that the characters in the 100 Acre woods face? Let’s consider:

Winnie the Pooh

Upon first glance, it’s obvious that Pooh suffers from an addiction to Honey. He has pots and pots of the stuff stashed all over his place. He’s frequently abandoning his friends so that he can dip his paw into the golden stuff. Where does he get all this honey? (more on this later.)

And the more I think about it, I think Winnie the Pooh might be a little retarded.

Tigger

Again, this one seems fairly easy. Tigger is ADHD. He’s always bouncing all over and perpetually cheerful. But, why is Tigger so happy? Is the T.I. – Double Guh-ER overcompensating to cover some deep dark secret or childhood trauma?

Piglet

I feel sorry for Piglet. He’s paranoid and scared of everything. He’s practically a shutin. What is the source of his fear? Maybe he’s afraid Tigger will pounce on him?

Rabbit

I rather identify with Rabbit. He’s clearly Obsessive Compulsive. He’s got to have everything in order, and his garden must remain impeccable. Plus, Rabbit is prone to fits of anger and rage. One would think the gardening would allow him to find some calm, but it just serves up more stress and anger. I like Rabbit.

Eeyore

Wow, all of these are really easy to diagnose. Everybody knows Eeyore is clinically depressed. His tail is tacked on with a nail. Does it hurt Eeyore? Maybe he takes the pain of his tail so that he feels any emotions at all.

Kanga and Roo

Kanga and Roo appear to be the only normal, healthy family. But where is Roo’s father?

Christopher Robin/Darby

In the original tales, the 100 Acre Woods were visited by a young boy named Christopher Robin. In the latest incarnation, it’s a young girl named Darby, who together with Tigger and Pooh form the Super Sleuths.

Where are these kid’s parents? Who let’s them roam around the woods all day long without a care in the world? And why are these two kid’s only friends stuffed animals that live out in the wild?

Perhaps CR and Darby are supplying Pooh with his Honey.
and P.S. What is Pooh doing on Christopher Robin's lap?

Anyhow, these are the things I think about. Someday I’ll tell the story about how I’m trying to do the math in regards to Rocket’s flight speed while trying to catch a falling pot of Rocket Soup out of the sky that falls for 90 seconds.

This means that, ignoring air resistance, an object falling freely near the earth's surface increases its velocity with 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s or 22 mi/h) for each second of its descent. Thus, an object starting from rest will attain a velocity of 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s) after one second, 19.6 m/s (64 ft/s) after two seconds, and so on, adding 9.8 m/s to each resulting velocity.

So if Rocket soup falls for 90 seconds… Ah the math is too much.

(What the heck is wrong with me?)

First Santa pic!

Well, here's Riley's first photo with Santa. We'd been preparing her for a day before... "What are you going to ask Santa for?" "What does Santa say?" She was pretty psyched to go see Santa.

We arrived at the mall just before 11. Santa was just leaving for a 5 minute break. I guess even Santa has to go potty. We walked right up to the front of the line, and then about 10-15 kids filed in behind us in about 2 minutes.

I kept my eye out for Mr. Kringle, and when he came down the escalator, I pointed him out so Riley could watch him. She watched and he came up to say hi. Then she got really nervous.

Santa sat down and we put Jackson in his arms. Riley didn't want to sit with Santa. We told Santa how Riley and Jackson had been really good, and Riley wanted a Dora game. Santa tried his best, but Riley wasn't having it. We got two pictures taken, and they both turned out like this one.

I'll give Santa credit though, he tried to get Riley up next to him, while smiling the whole time, just in case she calmed down for a nano-second so that his helpers could take the picture. He's a trooper, that Santa Claus.

Oh well, at least she wasn't screaming her head off when the picture was snapped.

Jodie kept talking about how Santa used to be free, and parents could take their own pictures. $20 or so for two 5x7s. "It's capitalism, honey," I explained. "Why shouldn't the malls make some money?" She just kept saying... "It's not fair. It used to be free."

Merry Christmas, everyone. Please have your Master Card or Visa ready.

Jackson's first Photo session, Holiday Style

These first three are all 8 x 10s that we'll hang in this order, left to right. J and I weren't planning on being in any pictures, but these turned out so nice.






If you look close here, you'll see big sister giving Jackson the Bink.

She so blonde!

So smiley.

So Loving. (she's kissing him)

Finally, some pictures

I took a lot of pictures over the last two weeks, and here are some of the better ones... These are from our brief T-day trip to Grandma Donna's house, and a few from around the house.

Ah, My two Kids.


Happy Jackson!

Bath Time

with Big Sister Riley Helping






He was all twisty.

Hey ladies!

Gotta love the look on her face



Grandma and Jack


Fooling around because the Husker game stunk.

Bath time at Grandmas, photo by Darlyn






She insisted on going out in the snow, but we didn't have gloves for her.
So I gave her mine.

Taken this morning... He's getting better about holding his head up.


Also on a side note, Jackson is a week away from being two months old, and he's already nearly too big for 0-3 Month Clothes.

Also, he seems to react badly to formula. He usually pukes it back up soon after. We've learned this the hard, and stinky, way.