Category: Mago Elf Liam

Trampoline Static (voice recording with Mago)

Alex / / Alex, Audio, Mago Elf Liam

I think I recorded this last summer.

Jumping on the trampoline, we discovered that if you have a static charge and slowly approach another’s nose with your finger (provided you’re in a dry climate like Utah?), that you’ll hear invisible static bursts jumping rapidly from you to the other person while your finger is still relatively far away – the bursts rapidly increasing until you get close enough to discharge all the static electricity.

The crummy little 16 Mhz recorder I was using doesn’t capture the whole range of the audio, but if you listen closely in this you can hear these increasing static micro-bursts at the lower sound wavelengths it could capture.

[audio:http://home.ussins.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/002_B_001_RAH_SP.wav-Mago-trampoline-static.mp3]

Download MP3 (1.4MB, 1.5 min.) – 002_B_001_RAH_SP.wav-Mago-trampoline-static

What sweeter fruit than this?

Alex / / Alex, Mago Elf Liam, Nem Nem Niamh, Songs

Reading in bed, I heard Nem-Nem and Mago in the kitchen arguing over apple slices.  After a while Nem came in and sat on the bed.

Dad, Mago didn’t let me have all the apples.

What happened?

Mago wasn’t sharing, and I wasn’t sharing.

How many apples are there?

Three.

What can you do?

She pauses, then says unhappily:

Share.

How?

I have three apples, and Mago have one.

Nem fills her mouth with an apple slice and starts chewing.  I ask:

But how does that work?

I hold up three fingers.

If there are three apples, and you have three apples,

– I put back down the three fingers

– there aren’t any left for Mago. What can you do next time?

After a long pause, then frowning, Nem says:

Mago have three apples, and I have one.

I hope there would be enough for you both.  But what can you do now?

After another long pause she says:

Hugs.  Kisses.

I have tasted the fruit of a tree which is sweeter above all.

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The fruits of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the Appletree

This beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly have I bought
I missed of all but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the Appletree

I’m weary’d with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest awhile
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the Appletree

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the Appletree

From the Mouth of Babes

Alex / / Alex, Mago Elf Liam, Nem Nem Niamh

Me: Well, you guys did it!
Mago: Did what?
Me: You made a long, hard hike and saw a beautiful, rare arch.
Mago: Rare?
Me: It’s the only one like it in the world.* And I think God made it beautiful, so that we could see it.
Nem: Yeah, Heavenly Father and Jesus are beautiful, because they make everything beautiful.

*This is a safe generalization, as it may technically be true, but is probably generally false.

Princess shoes, Bakugan search

Alex / / Alex, Mago Elf Liam, Nem Nem Niamh

Recently, Nem-nem was very delighted to have me take her shoe shopping when I thought (mistakenly, I now learn) we were looking at all of her shoes and she didn’t have the shoes she needs. (But she’s outgrowing what she has quickly.)

At the store, she lit up, running from shoe to shoe, saying “Oh, look at this one!” – and settled with assorted “princess” (deliberately so branded) shoes.

On the way, Mago spotted a Bakugan he came to want, and was disappointed I wasn’t buying it.

He’s kept it in mind since, and decided today that he wanted to go buy it with money he earned. But the day grew too late with other activities before we could get to the store. I told him maybe I could go buy it with his money after bed time. The problem is.. while he clearly remembers the specific one among many, I’m not sure I do.

So, as we headed in to the house for bed time, I asked him to remind me what the Bakugan looks like. He says:

“I can’t actually demonstrate to you what it looks like. Unless I show you on paper”.

Mago couldn’t draw the Bakugan, so we tried a web search and found it. Says he, looking at a product search result for the Bakugan:

“According to someone, it’s four stars. According to me, it’s thirty-eight stars.”

Rocket 8A3 (SketchUp model)

Alex / / Alex, Art, Mago Elf Liam

I’ve been playing with Google Sketchup.  I suggested to Mago he could draw a rocket and I could model it.  He drew out a complete kind of Art Deco design in 20 seconds flat (the entire concept apparently arrived for him in an instant, and watching him describe it with his hands, it seems like he could sculpt the thing with sufficient materials and help).  I tweaked and added to the design in 3D with his approvals along the way (though it came to a point where I understood his design in ways I hadn’t before, and I’m going to redo a version closer to his design).  The below links to an animation of various angles of it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/narfnarfsillywilly#p/a/u/0/H1vJPMs45Sw

As you may have noticed, this is replete with a ridiculously insecure steel tube chair and jumbo Atari 2600 controller to steer the rocket.  The chair, controller and afterburner fire are all taken from models in the Google 3D Warehouse.

You can download the SketchUp file here to have a closer look. To see the different angles in SketchUp, click the tabs with scene names above the display area.

Drawings etc. by Mago, May 2010

Alex / / Art, Mago Elf Liam, Pictures

Here’s some artwork Mago did using a painting program on our computer.  He’s also described and named these, which you’ll see in the captions.  The captions also link to full size images.

[svgallery name=”2010-05-Mago-art”]

Also, here is something he created at pbskids.org.

I know I had several other creations of his lying around in files somewhere, but can’t seem to find them at the moment.  I’ll post them if I do.

A technical digression.. [spoiler]New rule: don’t upgrade unless you know you need to.  I’m in a habit of automatically upgrading WordPress plugins when prompted to via the dashboard.  The new upgrade to the SimpleViewer Gallery plugin (sv-gallery) stopped displaying galleries, and stripped down adjustable settings (how to designers decide it is better not only to automate everything, but to completely prevent users from manually setting anything? Are not the science fiction stories about evil robots taking over the world warning enough?). It took me a few hours of frustration before this dawned on me (both that it was an upgrade and a broken one).  Fortunately I had an old copy of the plugin (this and so many other experiences with data gone bad (or missing!) – this is why I back up everything). I deactivated and deleted the plugin, uploaded the old one, put the settings back to what I want – and blammo! Everything back to normal. So: Do. Not. Upgrade. Unless you have good reason to believe that not upgrading may be the cause of problems. But keep backups – whether you upgrade or not.[/spoiler]