Preparing For Impact

Math and Science Night for Heritage School was last week. Organized by the Heritage PTO and run by Rob Walker (pictured in the last photo with Allison) it offered the kids in attendance some hands-on experience with science that supplements what they might experience in the classroom.

The big event for the evening was the egg drop. Kids could use pipecleaners and straws to create a design that would help their egg survive the impact of a 15-foot drop. I wandered over to the area as my traffic at the table to help kids make a hovercraft out of a balloon, CD and a little hot glue had slowed down. I found Ally trying to develop her design (see first photo). And had learned no one had yet produced a successful design.

Her idea was simple: to surround the egg with straws gathered at the ends so as to not let the egg fall out. Her first model fell apart right after the pre-requisite weigh in. We could tell the straws weren't evenly distributed around the egg and the ends were gathered too tightly, making the straws fold on the thin side. So we reassembled the design by evenly distributing the straws and using less tension on the ends.

It survived the second weigh-in and everyone who saw her design would stop, look and kind of half smile wondering if it would work. Ally of course was just so excited to see if her design would work she was beside herself. The last thing to decide was how to drop it. We discussed it and because I didn't think that the straws were thick enough to withstand a side impact, she decided to drop it vertically.

It was dropped and gravity did it's work. Landing on end at a slight angle it bounced off to one side. When the volunteer picked it up it had yellow egg on it and I was sure it had broke. But on closer examination, it had just landed in a pool of yolk and had not even cracked. Success!

I have never witnessed my daughter so excited by learning. As a parent, it was beautiful thing to witness. Even if the egg had broken she still had an infectious energy about her from problem solving and learning through trial and error. She was in her element.

This event comes at a time when we, as a district, will create our own design to prepare for the impact that 9.4 million dollars worth of cuts to our school district's budget will have. As parents we can no longer afford to sit idle, criticize others and hope the education that our kids will be good enough in the face of these tough times. It is time to take action and get involved. Our children's education and the budget cut design that is being created for the 2010-2011 school year is too important to crack and break upon impact.

Thank you Heritage PTO and Rob Walker and your numerous volunteers for hosting such a great and well attended event as Math and Science Night. I applaud these parent volunteers who know that their efforts can make a difference in education of our children.

I'm so inspired that I'm joining PACE as I am able, a district-wide parent advisory team that works to secure for all Medina students the highest advantages in education while continuing to focus on fostering educational opportunities that challenge highly motivated students. http://medinapaceteam.blogspot.com/

And what of Allison and providing her the element in which she will thrive as she enters her tough middle school (now junior high) years? It's hard facing the uncertainty that all of this creates. But the one thing I do know is that she needs me now more than ever. She needs me as her advocate. But how much more will she learn if, in my advocacy, I can lead by example and be even more of her role model too?

The New Complete Joy of Square Foot Lasagna Gardening

I've been reading up on gardening as of late, getting ready to plant my very first garden this spring. I've been reading "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. I own the 2005 edition, it was a gift. But honestly the designer in me thought it so poorly designed that I sought out the much earlier 1981 edition of the book that I like much better. The youthful Mel is much more informative and less preachy about the ease of it all. Though I must admit I occasionally I look at what ideas the older, wiser Mel has retained after all these years. Actually, I squint so as to get the information but not be distracted by the design.

What I love about Mel's 1981 edition, reminds me of the enthusiastic grassroots publishing like The New Moosewood Cookbook. Right down to the informative black-and-white illustrations. Like they are pen and ink doodles meant to instruct as well as illustrate. I find them charming in that they are direct, sincere, informative and homey. After all, you can't get more home than cooking or gardening.

Mel also kind of reminds me of Charlie Papazian, author of "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing 3rd edition" in that they both have removed the perceived complex barriers of their subjects to make it appealing to the masses. I'm sure Charlie's Rastafarian-sounding motto to just "relax and have a home brew" will be going through my head if I start to stress about the garden.

The other gardening book I've been reading is "Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces: A Layering System for Big Results in Small Gardens and Containers" by Patricia Lanza. I thought the main idea of the book was solid. But that the rest was just kind of standard gardening filler on plant types and such. But I really spent some time with it and found some great tips on vegetable plants and their specific needs that only a seasoned gardener might know. I've made many notes for the year using this book.

As the name of this blog post suggests, I'm going to combine the two ideas and create a raised lasagna bed of compost and peat moss built on wet newspapers and divide it into manageable square-foot squares. I'll plant only the seeds I need and relax and have a homebrew.

With all this reading and planning, I went out tonight to measure 4'x4' in the side yard where I want to put this new garden. And I had to laugh because it's so small. Best to ease into this I think. I can always add more squares throughout the year if I like. I'd rather it be too small to start with than bite off more than I can chew.

Oh, and composting. That might be a whole blog entry unto itself. I haven't quite figured out best to do that yet. I see the benefits though.

Seeds are ordered and should arrive soon. Stay tuned ... and have a homebrew.

A Sign of Spring

Forget crocuses, spring is a tuned-up bike. It hasn't had a tune up since I bought it over ten years ago at the Century Cycles Rocky River store. And I plan to do some riding this spring and figure I better take care it accordingly.

After the tune up at the Century Cycles Medina location, the guy was nice enough to tell me that it was a nice bike for it's range and that Raleigh doesn't make them like that any longer. They are heavier with more features for comfort and a lower-quality component package.

He said they also marveled at the shape it was in. I have always kind of babied it knowing I had the responsibility that came with justifying having spent more than I should have at the time.

I remember the liberating feeling when I got the bike. I rode as far as I could one day. I had to call Jill from a pay phone to come pick me up near dark. That was how euphoric I was and how completely I misjudged. I rode from Parma to Peninsula (and not quite back) that day.

D Turns Seven

Danny actually had two parties for his seventh birthday. He had this bowling party that you see here with a few of his friends, and then a small family party later that day. Thanks to our friends the Gladdens for suggesting the idea of a bowling party at "Ghost Alley" formerly "Kolony Lanes" in Wadsworth, which is where this was held.

Apparently the building and bowling alley have been in Wadsworth for quite some time. I found it well run in better shape than Wadsworth Lanes. The owner and staff bent over backwards for us and our party. We had a great experience overall and I recommend "Ghost Alley" to anyone interested.

I've never seen boys so excited together. It was everything I had to keep them all off the lane surface at one time. And if one of them picked up a spare you'd think they just won the lottery. A cheer would rise up from their lane. They we so happy for one another.

The photos show the gift and cake segments of the party. Mostly because I don't like to use a flash and they were somewhat still. At first we see Danny in party hat and glasses opening a Game Stop gift card flashing a knowing smile, then his mouth open in shock at receiving a "20 Questions" electronic guessing game. Turning seven sure is sweet.

I Love Maps

Wow. This contains all the functionality that I only dreamed of creating the hard way when I wanted to start MedinaMultimedia.com. And it's free. I initially wanted to do a series of my favorite hikes that incorporated audio, photo and video, that I could then share. Stay tuned for some cool mapping to take place here.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

"Robert McGarr,

Per your request, we have cancelled your account, domain [robmcgarr.com, medinamultimedia.com], terminated the billing and deleted the site from our server.

We hope that if we can ever be of service to you, that you will allow us to serve you again. Thanks from all of us at 3Essentials Hosting."

From General blog images

This shows how it was for me to structure that first MedinaMultimedia.com flash piece on the New Year's Day Bike Ride. Everything was timed off the mp3 audio. But what really makes all this crazy is that all of this was sequential. So, if I wanted to have a photo up a second longer or rearrange the order of photos, it would require retiming the audio or renumbering all the photos accordingly. Not very intuitive to edit.

The columns from left to right are seconds on the timeline, the original photo source number, the transposed flash timeline value, the slideshow photo number, audio description and photo description.



It's true, I shut down MedinaMultimedia.com. Mostly because the hosting was going to cost me another $212.00 for another two years and it lacked my interest to support it. Though it only had a short run, I count it as a personal success. And just wanted to share a few things I learned from the project.

Be realistic.
I put all sorts of crazy pressure to produce as much as I could and to make MedinaMultimedia.com seem not so stagnant. Producing content from scratch doesn't come easy and I take my hat off to those who make it seem so consistently easy. The reality of the situation was that the project was set up to be fueled by my ambition and/or available time. Both of which would fluctuate wildly. It didn't take long for my unrealistic pressure to get the better of me.

Have fun and don't take yourself too seriously.
Sure, I selected subjects that interested me. The whole of the project could have been helped by being playful and lighthearted. It's something that I now try to build into this site. So if I'm not having fun with what ever is in front of me, I just need to stop and switch my interest to something else.

Find like-minded people.
I've had great fun meeting new friends or reacquianting myself with old ones as a result of the site. Many people were more than willing to take a look at the site and give me their two cents. But more important, were the ones that helped me see my work from a different point of view either creatively or technically. I just hope I have the opportunity to return the favor.

We never stop learning.
It could be argued that one of the main reasons I created MedinaMultimedia.com was to teach myself web skills. And I certainly did that. I had to learn how to record my own audio, take my own photos, and produce a final piece -- editing all the way. I learned how write Flash ActionScript many times over and how to place Flash on a page. I learned how to use a content management system, how to write cascading style sheets and hypertext markup language.

I've still got a long way to go, but the basics are behind me. And ultimately this knowledge helped me move into the position I now have at my day job. That alone makes this project worth it's weight in gold.

Work smarter.
When I think of all the time I spent trying to find a better way to program/script something, I ache. I must have tried countless ways to script a basic Flash slideshow, never quite getting exactly what I wanted. There were constant technical tradeoffs. I should have bought Soundslides from the beginning and not worried so much about the technical hurdles and just focused on the creative work. That was really what I wanted to focus on anyway.

There's also financial smartness to consider too. Everytime I would announce to my coworker Jon that I spent more money on a new piece of software, he would roll his eyes just a little inside and then suggest a few ways that I might be able to something similar for free. I scoffed at this at first, but I have yet to spend a dime on this site and I think it looks pretty darned good. The Picasa slideshows were his idea and they work great.

Some Backyard Pruning

From General blog images

We had another tree taken out recently. We hated to see it go. The above photo shows the damage at the stump level that we were worried about. You can see the cavities coming into the heartwood from the top and left. Further troubling is the dead wood in the center. I know the water travels up the trunk on the outside of the tree, but that's a lot of dead heartwood. Anyway, I'll sleep better when the 60 mph January winds blow knowing we've done everything we can to make ourselves safe.

Writing Our County History

From General blog images

In this new podcast episode we hear an interview from June 2009 with local history authors Caesar Carrino and Judy Totts (pictured). They both have published books on the history of Wadsworth and Medina County respectively. It's an interview packed with interesting facts, details and conversation that you won't want to miss as we take a closer look at our own local history.

The End of an Era

Dad retired this fall after owning his own business for 47 years. He called a couple weeks before he closed the doors to see if I wanted any tools for around the house, drills and such. I didn't want any tools, but the only thing I kept thinking was that I wanted to take the photos you see above. Somebody needed to remember.

So here's how I choose to remember: A 2001 scene where lunch was midday break and so much more. And I could tell that Dad and his right-hand man Don Crano were happy to have me working for a couple months to liven the place up for a while.

Don and I were eating lunch today. That's not to say that we went someplace special but that we ate simultaneously in the same room. He reads the paper and eats his meal that comes in a microwaved box and I eat whatever is in my bag.

After a while Dad usually joins us. And the conversation swings one way or another. You can tell they have this down. Don’s been having conversations like this with Dad for 36 years. I suppose that one knows the others scope of knowledge enough to tailor what is said. The topic is whatever is of interest.

Generally it's something informative: local history, computer technology... whatever. Today Dad chimes up and says “Hey, I saw that PBS train show the other night.” Trains are an area of expertise for Don and his knowledge is deep as it is wide. He is a model railroader and has a great grasp on Akron history, which includes, of course, commerce by rail.

They immediately launch into a discussion that goes something like: “I didn't understand that the P1100 was so big. They said that the wheels are six and a half feet in diameter on those things.” “Yep, and the drive shafts were just as long. And they were configured this way because they needed a certain amount of clearance.” I love to hear them talk about things mechanical. They talk of principles that can be applied in a certain way that demystify the questions known and unknown in a plain way. Talking to them you believe that with a little engineering and know-how, you can improve upon anything.

But my ears didn't perk up until Dad started talking about his own railroad experiences. I've heard him talk of the fact that he laid railroad track before. But I never bothered to understand why, or how really.

He got the job because Mr. Beeching was an electrician for one of the railroads. Dad described himself as someone who was a bit small to be doing that kind of work. The other employees were foreigners and much larger in brawn and stature.

He laid the track from Akron to Kent and a stretch from Akron to Barberton. The Kent track included a stretch that went through a swamp. He could hardly pull a single railroad tie himself. As planned, a train had gone through previously and thrown the new ties off to the side for the crew. The same ties that along the Kent line that they had to now pull out of the swamp to lay.

Their stories always were littered with details like the fact that the rails that Dad laid were in 22-foot sections. That the rails needed to be drilled with three 7/8”-diameter holes on each end. There were six spots to drive railroad spikes on a tie but they only drove three. Dad's capacity to recall details after all these years was impressive.

In the end, they usually try to wow me. And sometimes I'm even wowed. Today it was that how Dad saw a train gets back on track with just a crew of 10 or so men. He tells the story just as amazed as when he saw it happen with Mr. Beeching one day. Giving credit where credit is due saying that he doesn't know if he could have figured out how to do that as quickly. It was obvious that Mr. Beeching took dad under his wing a bit and was displaying the spectacle that was his profession.

Don launched into five minutes about how its currently done. In a manner that would make you stand and sincerely say “No. Really?” again and again. Just shaking your head.

I read a John Gladden column last night. And if I can take some liberty, he reminded me that the building Dad owned and worked in has only whatever meaning we give it. So if right now it's a bit sad, it's only because he's not there and the equipment is gone.

It's good to remember all of this. I also think it's also good to move on. So I'll look forward to seeing Dad this weekend at home.