I forgot to mention that Edwin ruined my watch. I had this cheap-o waterproof watch that I wore, but somehow, I gave it to him to play with, and he managed to set the watch up so that the hourly chime rings even when the hourly chime is turned off! So, now I can't have it in the same room where I'm sleeping. I can't even keep it in a room NEXT to the one I'm sleeping in. Thus it's effectively ruined. I am really confused. I think he has a very strange mix of Michael's genes and mine, because he seems quite able to completely control electronic devices with random acts, yet it's always strangely destructive! He does things that are theoretically impossible!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
So, so so much to say and so little time! Edwin's 6th tooth is just in the process of coming in, and he has stood alone for about 7 seconds or so, but he doesn't believe he can do this, so he has to be distracted in order to perform this task. He's taken 2 steps by himself. These are all unreliable events, so it will be awhile before they're consistent.
Last weekend, we went to see the synchrotron at Cornell!
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/Education/WebHome.html
And, in the process, there's a funny story to tell. It's not about Edwin, but I don't have any other good place to put this story.
So, apparently, you have to use alot of liquid nitrogen when doing this type of phyics. So, when you have an open house, what else would you do but set up various stations for the kids to watch demos?? I mean really, how many people want to walk around the dungeon??? (ME ME ME!!!!) Unfortunately, they didn't let us walk around the loop. Bummer. I really wanted to walk around the loop!!! But they let us see quite a bit! We got to meet the director and stuff like that. (The linear-particle-accelerator-operator is a person in my neighborhood!!!!) So, we went to the cool demos. I don't think I've really seen those liquid nitrogen demos before. Maybe I have at a museum, but I don't recall it. So, they had the standard frozen flowers, and we have video of Edwin crinkling those. That was all cool. The asian women wanted them to put in their hair. And they had apples. They let the apples sit in the liquid nitrogen until they were frozen, and showed how they could hit them with a hammer and they'd smash, almost like glass! So, I was intriguied. The floor was partially protected by plastic bags, so I knew that the smashed apples were probably safe to eat. In any case, what kind of germs would survive being frozen like that? hehehe I couldn't resist picking up a chunk and chowing down on it. I didn't ask, because I figured they'd say no. They weren't set up to give edible samples of the smashed apples or smashed marshmallows. But I found the apple meat to be very sweet and soft! It was kindof like those frozen popsicles you get in the grocery store that are very soft to bite into, but a little more solid than that. (I'm pretty sure those popcicles are frozen using liquid nitrogen.) I even gave Edwin a piece of apple, making sure his had warmed up to the point of being mushy. Then I gave a piece to Michael. We were in the middle of lots of other people, which strangely enough, made it easy enough to grab a piece of apple without being noticed. I handed it to him and said "taste this!! It's soo awesome!!!" He popped it into his mouth all at once, and unbeknownst to me, it froze to his tounge. Then, he clenched his mouth together and it froze on the other side of the apple chunk to the inside of his mouth. Meanwhile, I'm raving to him saying, "It's so neat, isn't it? It's easy to bite into it, not like what it would be if you froze an apple in your freezer at home, it's soft..." and he's going , "uh hummmm..." because his entire mouth is frozen shut, he's starting to feel some pain, and he's not sure if he's going to be able to talk at all by the time the apple warms up.
He didn't even tell me this until we were safely home and eating dinner. He said his mouth hurt, and I asked why. So, he explained... :) He hadn't told me while it was happening, because he actually couldn't. I don't know why he didn't tell me after he swallowed the apple though. Probably he was just too interested in all the stuff that was going on.
But in any case.... he felt a little stupid and a little like Adam (as in Adam and Eve), but as of last night, he still felt a little pain from the burn but he was able to taste again. He's pretty sure it will be fine. He tells a story of some famous physicist (?) who did something similar but much more risky... this guy figured out he could use dry ice to blow "smoke" out his mouth, and he ended up chipping all his teeth when he botched the stunt. I may be telling the story incorrectly, but in any case, Michael has all his teeth and his tounge is going to be okay!
Last weekend, we went to see the synchrotron at Cornell!
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/Education/WebHome.html
And, in the process, there's a funny story to tell. It's not about Edwin, but I don't have any other good place to put this story.
So, apparently, you have to use alot of liquid nitrogen when doing this type of phyics. So, when you have an open house, what else would you do but set up various stations for the kids to watch demos?? I mean really, how many people want to walk around the dungeon??? (ME ME ME!!!!) Unfortunately, they didn't let us walk around the loop. Bummer. I really wanted to walk around the loop!!! But they let us see quite a bit! We got to meet the director and stuff like that. (The linear-particle-accelerator-operator is a person in my neighborhood!!!!) So, we went to the cool demos. I don't think I've really seen those liquid nitrogen demos before. Maybe I have at a museum, but I don't recall it. So, they had the standard frozen flowers, and we have video of Edwin crinkling those. That was all cool. The asian women wanted them to put in their hair. And they had apples. They let the apples sit in the liquid nitrogen until they were frozen, and showed how they could hit them with a hammer and they'd smash, almost like glass! So, I was intriguied. The floor was partially protected by plastic bags, so I knew that the smashed apples were probably safe to eat. In any case, what kind of germs would survive being frozen like that? hehehe I couldn't resist picking up a chunk and chowing down on it. I didn't ask, because I figured they'd say no. They weren't set up to give edible samples of the smashed apples or smashed marshmallows. But I found the apple meat to be very sweet and soft! It was kindof like those frozen popsicles you get in the grocery store that are very soft to bite into, but a little more solid than that. (I'm pretty sure those popcicles are frozen using liquid nitrogen.) I even gave Edwin a piece of apple, making sure his had warmed up to the point of being mushy. Then I gave a piece to Michael. We were in the middle of lots of other people, which strangely enough, made it easy enough to grab a piece of apple without being noticed. I handed it to him and said "taste this!! It's soo awesome!!!" He popped it into his mouth all at once, and unbeknownst to me, it froze to his tounge. Then, he clenched his mouth together and it froze on the other side of the apple chunk to the inside of his mouth. Meanwhile, I'm raving to him saying, "It's so neat, isn't it? It's easy to bite into it, not like what it would be if you froze an apple in your freezer at home, it's soft..." and he's going , "uh hummmm..." because his entire mouth is frozen shut, he's starting to feel some pain, and he's not sure if he's going to be able to talk at all by the time the apple warms up.
He didn't even tell me this until we were safely home and eating dinner. He said his mouth hurt, and I asked why. So, he explained... :) He hadn't told me while it was happening, because he actually couldn't. I don't know why he didn't tell me after he swallowed the apple though. Probably he was just too interested in all the stuff that was going on.
But in any case.... he felt a little stupid and a little like Adam (as in Adam and Eve), but as of last night, he still felt a little pain from the burn but he was able to taste again. He's pretty sure it will be fine. He tells a story of some famous physicist (?) who did something similar but much more risky... this guy figured out he could use dry ice to blow "smoke" out his mouth, and he ended up chipping all his teeth when he botched the stunt. I may be telling the story incorrectly, but in any case, Michael has all his teeth and his tounge is going to be okay!
Friday, June 08, 2007
Ok, so there's 911. Now, he's become a computer whiz, too. First off, apparently 911 was NOT his first phonecall. The first phonecall was an innocent one, though. Pam (at work) let Edwin play with her cellphone and he auto-dialed Pam's husband. Pam hung up while the call was being placed, so her husband called her back. No biggie. But, technically *that* would be his first call.
So, at my work, Michael had the great idea to lock my keyboard and let Edwin try to figure out my password. That was fine. No problems. Then, up at CAM, where Michael is the sysadmin, I figured I'd try the same stunt! I was doing work at one terminal, while Edwin was trying to break into the terminal next to me which had been locked. Apparently, if you hit like alt-shift-backspace or
control-shift-backspace or something (it's not an obvious set) you can force someone to log off. And he did. And Paul (who'd been logged on doing jobs) sent a 'nasty' email around complaining about people not being polite and so forth. Danielle (who will be living at CAM until Aug 2 when she defends) explained to him what had probably occurred. He then sent an apology email out, as did Michael, but not before starting a huge amount of traffic on the CAM email list about what the rules are for appropriate use of the system!
So, at my work, Michael had the great idea to lock my keyboard and let Edwin try to figure out my password. That was fine. No problems. Then, up at CAM, where Michael is the sysadmin, I figured I'd try the same stunt! I was doing work at one terminal, while Edwin was trying to break into the terminal next to me which had been locked. Apparently, if you hit like alt-shift-backspace or
control-shift-backspace or something (it's not an obvious set) you can force someone to log off. And he did. And Paul (who'd been logged on doing jobs) sent a 'nasty' email around complaining about people not being polite and so forth. Danielle (who will be living at CAM until Aug 2 when she defends) explained to him what had probably occurred. He then sent an apology email out, as did Michael, but not before starting a huge amount of traffic on the CAM email list about what the rules are for appropriate use of the system!
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