Friday, October 31, 2008
Paisley, Happy Birthday (belated)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!
Birthday Recap
Paisley had a fun birthday yesterday. Thanks for the cards, presents and phone calls everyone! We had to open presents in increments because there were sooo many, and because Daddy was only home for so long during the day, plus yesterday was our ward Halloween party so we didn't have much time after work. At lunch we opened a few that she loved! Then we had dinner and went to the ward Halloween party where we were the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2. It was fun. We had a clean sweep in the costume contest. Paisley won most original, and we won for the adults. Our car also took runner up for Trunk or treating (but we unfortunately didn't get a picture of that.) Then we came home and opened a few more presents. Then today we still had a few more to open so we finished off the present opening at lunch time. Paisley loved all of her new clothes and toys, but still insists on remaining 2. She is our cute big girl!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Buyer Beware AZODICARBONAMIDE (ADA)
Happy Birthday Paisley
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Pumpkin Carving
Last night we carved our pumpkin. We drew out a couple variations but decided to go with one that match the eyes on our trees. We thought he looked cute looking sideways, and Jason had a ton of fun carving him up. It was a very exciting FHE and Paisley really liked staying up past her bedtime to help.
Happy Birthday, James! (Sorry I'm late)
(Fortunately for all of us, I don't have any actual pictures of this happening.)
#10: Total existence failure (0/10)
You will need: nothing
Method: No method. Simply sit back and twiddle your thumbs as, completely by chance, all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms making up the planet Earth suddenly, simultaneously and spontaneously cease to exist. Note: the odds against this actually ever occurring are considerably greater than a googolplex to one. Failing this, some kind of arcane (read: scientifically laughable) probability-manipulation device may be employed.
Utter, utter rubbish. (But, that's what they said about destroying Ammonihah!)
You will need: a stable strangeletMethod: Hijack control of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York. Use the RHIC to create and maintain a stable strangelet. Keep it stable for as long as it takes to absorb the entire Earth into a mass of strange quarks. Keeping the strangelet stable is incredibly difficult once it has absorbed the stabilizing machinery, but creative solutions may be possible. Earth's final resting place: a huge glob of strange matter.
#8: Sucked into a microscopic black hole (feasibility rating: 2/10)
You will need: a microscopic black hole. Note that black holes are not eternal, they evaporate due to Hawking radiation. For your average black hole this takes an unimaginable amount of time, but for really small ones it could happen almost instantaneously, as evaporation time is dependent on mass. Therefore you microscopic black hole must have greater than a certain threshold mass, roughly equal to the mass of Mount Everest. Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader. Earth's final resting place: a singularity of almost zero size, which will then proceed to happily orbit the Sun as normal.
#7: Blown up by matter/antimatter reaction (feasibility rating: 5/10)
You will need: 2,500,000,000,000 tons of antimatter. Antimatter - the most explosive substance possible - can be manufactured in small quantities using any large particle accelerator, but this will take some considerable time to produce the required amounts. If you can create the appropriate machinery, it may be possible - and much easier - simply to "flip" 2.5 trillion tons of matter through a fourth dimension, turning it all to antimatter at once.
#6: Destroyed by vacuum energy detonation (feasibility rating: 5/10)
Method: This is a fun one. Contemporary scientific theories tell us that what we may see as vacuum is only vacuum on average, and actually thriving with vast amounts of particles and antiparticles constantly appearing and then annihilating each other. It also suggests that the volume of space enclosed by a light bulb contains enough vacuum energy to boil every ocean in the world. Therefore, vacuum energy could prove to be the most abundant energy source of any kind. Which is where you come in. All you need to do is figure out how to extract this energy and harness it in some kind of power plant - this can easily be done without arousing too much suspicion - then surreptitiously allow the reaction to run out of control. The resulting release of energy would easily be enough to annihilate all of planet Earth and probably the Sun too. Earth's final resting place: a rapidly expanding cloud of particles of varying size.
#5: Sucked into a giant black hole (feasibility rating: 6/10)
Method: after locating your black hole, you need get it and the Earth together. This is likely to be the most time-consuming part of this plan. There are two methods, moving Earth or moving the black hole, though for best results you'd most likely move both at once.
#4: Meticulously and systematically deconstructed (feasibility rating: 6/10)
Method: Basically, what we're going to do here is dig up the Earth, a big chunk at a time, and boost the whole lot of it into orbit. Yes. All six sextillion tons of it. A mass driver is a sort of oversized electromagnetic railgun, which was once proposed as a way of getting mined materials back from the Moon to Earth - basically, you just load it into the driver and fire it upwards in roughly the right direction. We'd use a particularly powerful model - big enough to hit escape velocity of 11 kilometers per second even after atmospheric considerations - and launch it all into the Sun or randomly into space. Earth's final resting place: Many tiny pieces, some dropped into the Sun, the remainder scattered across the rest of the Solar System. (This one will take 189,000 years to accomplish.)
#3: Pulverized by impact with blunt instrument (feasibility rating: 7/10)
You will need: a big heavy rock, something with a bit of a swing to it... perhaps Mars
Method: Essentially, anything can be destroyed if you hit it hard enough. ANYTHING. The concept is simple: find a really, really big asteroid or planet, accelerate it up to some dazzling speed, and smash it into Earth, preferably head-on but whatever you can manage. The result: an absolutely spectacular collision, resulting hopefully in Earth (and, most likely, our "cue ball" too) being pulverized out of existence - smashed into any number of large pieces which if the collision is hard enough should have enough energy to overcome their mutual gravity and drift away forever, never to coagulate back into a planet again. Earth's final resting place: a variety of roughly Moon-sized chunks of rock, scattered haphazardly across the greater Solar System.
#2: Eaten by von Neumann machines (feasibility rating: 8/10)
You will need: a single von Neumann machine. Method: A von Neumann machine is any device that is capable of creating an exact copy of itself given nothing but the necessary raw materials. Create one of these that subsists almost entirely on iron, magnesium, aluminum and silicon, the major elements found in Earth's mantle and core. It doesn't matter how big it is as long as it can reproduce itself exactly in any period of time. Release it into the ground under the Earth's crust and allow it to fend for itself. Watch and wait as it creates a second von Neumann machine, then they create two more, then they create four more. As the population of machines doubles repeatedly, the planet Earth will, terrifyingly soon, be entirely eaten up and turned into a swarm of potentially sextillions of machines. Technically your objective would now be complete - no more Earth - but if you want to be thorough then you can command your VNMs to hurl themselves, along with any remaining trace elements, into the Sun. This hurling would have to be achieved using rocket propulsion of some sort, so be sure to include this in your design. Earth's final resting place: the bodies of the VNMs themselves, then a small lump of iron sinking into the Sun.
And finally, the best way to destroy the earth!
#1: Hurled into the Sun (feasibility rating: 9/10)
You will need: Earthmoving equipment
Method: Hurl the Earth into the Sun. Sending Earth on a collision course with the Sun is not as easy as one might think; even though you don't actually have to literally hit the Sun (send the Earth near enough to the Sun (within the Roche limit), and tidal forces will tear it apart), it's surprisingly easy to end up with Earth in a loopy elliptical orbit which merely roasts it for four months in every eight. But careful planning can avoid this.
This is impossible at our current technological level, but will be possible one day, I'm certain. In the meantime, may happen by freak accident if something comes out of nowhere and randomly knocks Earth in precisely the right direction. Earth's final resting place: a small globule of vaporized iron sinking slowly into the heart of the Sun.Happy birthday, James!!Monday, October 27, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES #22
Today is the day!! I can't believe what a fine young man you have grown into. Every time I talk to you and every time I watch you is a payday as a parent. Thank you for your righteous choices and for being our son. I love you forever and hope your day is everything you want it to be (even if we aren't there with you)!!
Enjoy the cake, I have been told its calorie free ;)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Christmas Exchange
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Happy Birthday, Leslee!!!
When thinking about what to give you...something that would be new and exciting, I decided to delve into the past and give you something you already have! How's that for re-gifting. I give you: Belize City.
Belize City is the former capital of Belize. The new capital, since 1970, is called Belmopan, which was established when British Honduras was given a new name. Belize City was founded in the mid 1600s by British lumber people who cut down the mahogany trees. Before that, it was a little Mayan town called Holzuz.
Belize City is the nation's principal port and its financial and industrial hub with an unofficial population estimate of 70,800 people. It is frequented by cruise ships that moor off-shore. It was nearly entirely destroyed in 1961 by Hurricane Hattie, and as recent as 1999, almost the entire town has been leveled by fire. There are improvement projects all the time, but many of the British colonial era roads and infrastructure are all that's there.
The city itself is divided in half with a river running through the middle. It has two airports, a multi-campus university, colonial heritage parks and museums,
Belize is a very attractive travel location in the Caribbean. You can see the lovely scenery pictures and the very clean, clear air. It is a subtropical climate with the July being the month with the most rain, approaching 30 inches. The temperatures vary widely from 50* at night on the coast to almost 100* during the day in the interior. The official language is English, though the article that reported that indicates that this is what is taught to the school children, but perhaps not spoken by anybody else.
Belize became independent from the British Crown in 1981, and except for an occasional border spat with Guatemala, it has enjoyed peace and prosperity.
Enjoy!
Lewis
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Our Spook House
We had a very fun weekend pulling out our garden, using our dried up corn stalks as decorations and decorating our front porch to get ready for Halloween. I saw some cute ways to decorate pumpkins so Friday we gathered supplies and yesterday we made some cute pumpkin crafts. Paisley loved painting the pumpkins. We have our cute lights on a timer so when it gets to be night our porch lights up with spooky Halloween lights. We wish you all could come trick or treating to our very cute, spooky house!! (Beware the trees are watching you!!)
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Deepest Hole in the Word for McKay Lambert
For your birthday, I give you the deepest hole in the world. It's called the Challenger Deep, a special place in the Marianas Trench. You can see on the map that it is kind of in the middle of nowhere. How anybody found that, I do not know.
However, it was discovered by a ship called the HMS Challenger, a British survey ship, on a cruise it took to discover things between 1872 and 1876. The current known depth is 35,827 ft, which is deeper than Mount Everest is high at 29,035 ft. In 1951, another HMS Challenger with super-cool stuff on it made the 'official' discovery. In 1960, this little boat in the picture below, called the Trieste, went all the way to the bottom of the Deep for a look around. It is called a bathyscaphe. It isn't really a submarine, it just goes up and down. The pressure at the bottom of the Deep is 1,075 times the pressure we live in on the earth. That means that if you lived in the Challenger Deep, a one pound potato would feel like it weighed over 1,000 pounds. That's a bunch of French fries.
Only three things were found at the bottom: a type of fish called a sole, that grew to about a foot in length, some small shrimp, and diatomaceous ooze. (Sounds like the stuff that goes in your swimming pool filter.) This ooze is created from the shells of small multichambered animals that have been dead for millions of years and have sunk to the bottom.
This was a surface and air warfare battlefield during World War Two. I wouldn't be surprised if there were boats and planes down there somewhere, also.
Party Hearty!
Uncle Lew
Happy Birthday McKay
Monday, October 13, 2008
5 minutes after the end of Game 4
'Tis the season
Well it is finally so cold here, even in the house, that it is time to get out the footy pajamas. Luckily we have a pair from last year that still fits, as we didn't expect to be wearing them so soon in the year. Paisley was very excited to have them on because she loves to zip herself up.
P.S. Just for general knowledge, a lot of the time when I ask if I can fix her hair she replies "No, I like my crazy hair" so don't blame me for her look!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Emergency Preparation
I love the spooky Halloweeny look! Thanks, Stef.
I am currently in charge of a "Get Prepared" initiative in our ward. I invite all of you to join me in getting prepared or, for many of you, to finish getting prepared. I will be doing the following things:
- Making individual 72-hour evacuation kits for each family member.
- Making a family emergency supply kit for emergencies isolating my family at home.
- Building a 3 months supply of food we like.
- Making a Pandemic Flu Supplies kit.
Target has backpacks on sale now for $5 - $8. So go by as many as you need now. The backpacks were actually located in three different places in the store where I bought mine, so be persistent in locating them.
I am gathering orders for the following items. If you would like to add your order to mine, I'll save you money on the shipping costs:
Order forms for:
- 100-hour smokeless and odorless candles. Cost $3.00 dollars, no shipping costs.
- Windproof/Waterproof matches or just Waterproof matches. Cost $2.95 for one box of 25 matches for the combination windproof/waterproof matches. Cost 50 cents for one box of 50 waterproof matches. Shipping is currently $.86 per order, not per box.
- 3-day emergency kits for one person if you want to just buy one already “mostly” finished. Cost is $54.95 + shipping which is currently $3.00. This cost will go down as people order more.
- An all-in-one hand-crank flashlight, wavelength radio and charger. Cost is $12.00 no shipping costs. The charger part is an adapter that looks like a car adapter. If you cell phone can be charged in the car, it can be charged with this charger.
All of these items can be viewed at www.beprepared.com. They are products sold by a company called Emergency Essentials.
To get started, first of all, get organized. Get yourself a manila folder, a large 9x12 envelope or even a three ring binder to keep all of your information together.
Second of all, get yourself some containers or a designated spot for items. I'm using my Target backpacks for our evacution kits. For my Family Emergency kit and my Pandemic Flu supplies I’m using large boxes right now. For my 3-month food supply, I have a spot in the basement where I put boxes of food.
Make gather what you have, make an inventory and decide what you are going to need.
Let me know if you want anything. I love you, Martissa
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Hey Lewis
Monday, October 06, 2008
Don't we look good?
Guess who is going to run Diamond Valley with me?
Sunday, October 05, 2008
James's Birthday
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
James Spencer Birthday
Happy Birthday James!!
For your birthday, I give you the 2nd game of this season's baseball playoffs. It's the top of the 5th and the Cubs are beating the Dodgers 2-0 in Game 1 of their series. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that this isn't a surprise because the Dodgers are 0-6 at Wrigley Field. I suppose you'd also be interested to learn that this is where the first night game was played with the introduction of electricity to baseball.
Have a nice day, and give one up for the Babe!!! (oops...his team didn't make it...oh well)
Love,
Uncle Lew