Tia, Mago Elf Liam, Nem-nem Niamh, Lil' Bug, and I. (kid names are aliases)
//By “Mago,” age WHAT?! As I write this. 11 years old. YouTube URL to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgCEiO0XryQ&feature=youtu.be
Original scratch project at: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/117727728/
Screen captured / ffmpeg encoded/looped by yours truly. You may download the video using this link.
//Mago: Dad, you know the “slow mo guys” on youtube?
Me: Yes, they’re stuff is–
Mago: So their fastest video yet captured at 320,000 frames per second, and created 9 hours of footage.
Me: Yeah, so I saw.
Mago: Maybe in a few years they’ll be like “Yeah, just a few million frames per second.” What if they could capture light in slow motion?
Me: To do that, they’d have to go faster than the speed of light, and even to approach a fraction of the speed of light would cause huge problems–you know that an object moving at the speed of light attains infinite mass. It would destroy everything.
Mago: So watch light from trans-dimensional stasis! (laughs)
//[I just found this in drafts, sitting here unpublished for years.]
On a ferry trip in CA, we were in choppy water with big waves lifting and dunking the front of the boat. Nem was fearful, and clung to a rail at a seat nearer the middle of the ferry. I was at the side of the boat, and a pod of dolphins came and playfully raced and leapt out of the water alongside and in front of the boat. I shouted “Dolphins!” and Nem immediately forgot her fear and raced to the side of the boat to see them. 🙂 One called out with a squeal, which Nem expertly imitated, and it called back to her.
//This is an unlisted post, meaning that there are no public links to it, and only those who have the URL can view it. Do not publicly post the link to this post.
Click any image to open the full 17 megapixel version, and save whichever images you want to keep. For example, right-click and “save as..” on a PC or Mac, and maybe tap and hold on a smart phone, but I don’t know whether it will save the full resolution on a smart phone.
//I hope that syndicated copies of this blog post show the image inline. If not, click the link to the original post (at home.ussins.org/~) to see the image. To show the larger, original image, you may then click the image in the blog post.
Mago’s misspellings in the caption are deliberate.
//Mago: Where’s my blue coat?
Me: It’s not in the knife display case, because we don’t have one. But if we did, I’d totally put it in the knife display case. After I stabbed it, over and over and over again.
Mago: Dad, I’m in a hurry, and you’re being silly!
Me: Hm, it’s not here–wait, is this it?
Mago: Yes.
Me: It’s not in the volcano, because we don’t have a volcano. But if we did, I’d totally throw it in the volcano. It’s not in my pants, because I don’t have any pants. But if I did . . . I’d totally put it in my pants.
//
Transcript for anyone who doesn’t receive the image:
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(5:38:09 PM) Nem: hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(5:20:17 PM) Nem: cai u can do it nou
(5:20:35 PM) Alex: ok
(5:21:31 PM) Alex: OH HAI!
(12:04:43 AM) Alex: hey hiya hi guys
(12:14:42 AM) Tia: done
(12:14:54 AM) Alex: good jorb!
(12:15:22 AM) Alex: I’m going to bed soonish.
(2:40:13 PM) Alex: Hi one sec k?
(2:40:54 PM) Alex: u need musix k thx bai
(2:41:21 PM) Nem: daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(2:41:36 PM) Alex: bunniesAAAAAAAAIIIII!
(2:47:25 PM) Nem: bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb why it not tiping bunnies?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!
(2:48:06 PM) Alex: It’s my random bunny interjector program. Every time you type a b, it rolls a pretend dice, and if it rolls a six, it replaces the b with bunnies. Which, coincidentally, it did just now.
(2:49:23 PM) Nem: but it not typing bunnies!
(2:49:39 PM) Alex: for you, you mean? No, that program isn’t installed on that computer. Only mine.
(2:50:16 PM) Nem: WHY!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? :’-(
(2:50:26 PM) Alex: lol i can install it. one moment.
(2:54:43 PM) Alex: Done. installed.
(2:55:20 PM) Nem: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀 😀 😀 BBBBBBBBBBBBBunniesBBBBBBBBunniesBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBunniesBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBunniesBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBunniesBBunniesBBBBBBBBB
(2:55:24 PM) Alex: 🙂
(2:58:15 PM) Nem: 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 bunnies bunnies bunnies bunnies bunnies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
(2:58:22 PM) Alex: Ha ha! 🙂
//After admiring a tortoise at the City’s (excellent!) “Sciencepalooza”, Mago decided to buy one with his birthday money. Tortoises are too expensive though, so we found a red-eared slider (turtle) locally in an online listing.
I thought a turtle would be less entertaining. Not this one.
“Turbo” is the name the original owners gave him because he deftly swims around. “Edward” and “Hall” are Mago’s additions. I’m now reconsidering my Mother’s caution (which I never shared) at naming our dog Moses (how I miss that dog!) particularly seeing we have an ancestor by that name. So, yeah . . . Cousin . . . meet your, uh, turtle namesake.
Turbo energetically fights his reflection in the glass (lighting conditions make it an excellent mirror–) apparently another turtle from his point of view.
Just now I’ve found that when I play music, Turbo stands up, pokes his head out of the water, and stays there.
He’s very young.
(And no, I wouldn’t name any child “Turbo.”)
//Mago’s idea: frighten people with a pop-up cardboard osterich in a doorway and sound effects. Me: “He’s into fitness. ‘Osterrreeetch..'”
— Alex and Tia Hall (@ussins) February 29, 2016
//Mago: “I put my phone in airplane mode and threw it. Now it’s totally wrecked! Worst transformer ever!”
— Alex and Tia Hall (@ussins) February 29, 2016
//Mago: “I studied robots for four years in school! Now I can speak robot! BEEP BOOP BEEP!” Me: “See? It’s a tonal language. Listen!”
— Alex and Tia Hall (@ussins) February 29, 2016
//“I love you baby,” I whispered to Nem, my cheek next to hers, while she was sound asleep at midnight. She stirred in a struggle to emerge from sleep, and didn’t manage to wake up, but said in her sleep despite sleep retaking her: “I . . . love you . . . too . . .”
That’s what she’ll fight through a barrier to say. This is that sweetest fruit of the tree of life.
//I learned long ago that the following happened much earlier this school year:
Apparently, Nem-nem can voluntarily appear to be genuinely very sad, and cry real tears. She’s also unaware this is a gift that many very highly paid actors lack. Somehow at school other kids have learned about this gift.
One recess, a boy in her class who is delightfully forthright and self-assured, perhaps even brazen, and who openly avows his crush on Nem–he was with her one recess, and either he asked or Nem volunteered to display this acting skill (I think Nem doesn’t even know to call it acting, either). So Nem voluntarily wept, with real tears.
Boy: Right now you are so cute I would do anything for you.
Nem, brightly: Then buy me a puppy!