Sunday: NatGeo and Organ

2013-09-19.

Sunday was fun: church service in the morning, and in the evening we had an inaugural concert for the newly finished First Baptist DC organ project, and in between we visited the National Geographic Museum to see A New Age of Exploration, an exhibit celebrating NatGeo’s 125th anniversary.

I noticed a few mentions of the Philippines in the displays: an 1898 cover about the islands shortly before the Spanish-American War, and a 1922 atlas marking the Philippines as a US territory.

We also played a few augmented reality Kinect games, exercising the right to “bear arms,” so to speak.

Back at church, the new organ was wondrous, rich and full in tone, with a pair of trompet en chamades in the English and French styles, and a variety of effects like a tinkling zimbelstern, harp, and convent bell. Our organist Dr Lon Schreiber of course got a standing ovation.

It’s going to be great singing under those pipes every Sunday. Here’s a video of Lon playing some Franck on the new organ before the recital:

Organ recital program in this tweet, InTowner story on the recital, more about the church’s organ project, the builders’ “Opus 2795” page on Austin Organs’s site, and my photos of the organ’s construction.

LADEE Launch

2013-09-07.

On Friday night, 6 Sep 2013, NASA launched LADEE, a small robotic spacecraft designed to study the moon’s tenuous atmosphere. LADEE was lofted into space by a five-stage solid-fueled Orbital Sciences Minotaur V from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, VA (which I had previously visited for the launch of Antares, another Orbital Sciences rocket). We watched the Minotaur launch from the roof in Fairfax, and I had my DSLR out to catch this 141 second long exposure:

Continue reading LADEE Launch

NJ/NYC Labor Day Weekend

2013-09-05.

Visited Amy’s parents in New Jersey for the long Labor Day weekend. First time driving the Fiat 500 up that far, and it performed admirably.

On Saturday we went to New York to drop by The Metropolitan Museum accompanied by Amy’s brother and his fiancee, taking the train in from Elizabeth Station. I’ve always loved seeing all the foliage growing over the older tracks at Elizabeth.

At the Met we viewed the Arms and Armor and Musical Instruments galleries, and an exhibit of 18th Century pastels. I really liked the lion and unicorn on this old American revolutionary powder horn.

On Sunday we went to church, had an outdoor barbecue with Amy’s family, and viewed a tape of her uncle’s roller coaster modeling days. We went home the next day, stopping at Walt Whitman Service Area to eat some Roy Rogers and look at the New Jersey merchandise.

Full photoset from the weekend here.

Selected Readings on Internet History

2013-08-29.

A Brief History of the Internet, from DARPA to the FNC, by the Internet Society.

Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think,” seminal 1945 essay on a future machine that could visually trace user paths through a network of hypertextual content.

The Hut Where the Internet Began. It was in the Philippines that the late Douglas Engelbart first read Vannevar Bush’s essay and conceptualized a future network of humans interconnected via computer interfaces. He also demoed the first mouse.

Also see: CBC’s 1993 news story on Internet:

A 1994 feature on “the infobahn”:

And a 1995 “how to use the internet” feature:

Meadowlark

2013-08-27.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens was almost ridiculously beautiful when we visited on Saturday afternoon.

We hadn’t been there for a few years (since we got the car in 2010). It was nice to see the Korean Bell Garden all finished.

Bees sipped from obedient plant flowers on the Potomac Valley trail.

And in Lake Caroline one could go out to the gazebo and look down at carp swimming around a giant snapping turtle with a moss-covered shell.

More photos here.

Hersheypark

2013-08-21.

It took a few tries but we finally got to Hersheypark, joining Amy’s dad for a day of roller coasters and other rides.

Continue reading Hersheypark

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

2013-08-09.

We were actually supposed to go to Hersheypark last Saturday but the forecast said 60% chance of thunderstorms, so instead we went south to Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW) for the day, about a 2h 30m drive. (And we ended up waiting out a bunch of thunderstorms in the parking lot anyway.)

Continue reading Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Waffle House

2013-08-05.

A few things you should know about me and Waffle House:

I only know about Waffle House because of Homestar Runner.
The closest Waffle House to me is 30 miles away in Dumfries, Virginia, so I don’t get to eat at Waffle House much, which makes it a momentous event when I do.
There is a specific terminology for ordering hash browns with toppings. My preference is “Smothered, Covered, Peppered, Capped.”
You can get a bowl of grits with cheese, eggs, and ground sausage on top. With the hash browns and coffee it’s a complete breakfast.

This particular Waflle House was really just a stopover on our Saturday trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Corpse Flower and Circles

2013-07-31.

We visited the Botanic Gardens on Sunday in hopes of seeing (and smelling) the famous Titan Arum “corpse flower”. Too late, alas, the flower had wilted and no offensive odors were to be had.

We also ate some grilled bison and salmon with wild rice and orange beets with fennel at Mitsitam Cafe and on the way in to the NMAI I got this photo of the dome:

Nothing I haven’t seen before on countless visits to that museum, but I love those circles.

Caturday!

2013-07-27.

Martha and Amelia are coming up on ten months of age now. They’re huge compared to when we first got them, and still growing, but cuddly and adorable as always. Pictures follow:

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