GLs Highlights

My Hectic Summer

Well, I don't know about you, but this blogospheric silence is downright creepy. There are fewer new blog posts right now than a guy from Arkansas has teeth! (my blog included)

Anyway, enough about other people not posting often enough *ahem* ;-) I've had the most crazy summer ever. first off, helping out at Ft. Nisqually, but most of you know about that already. By the way, a great big "thank you" goes to the Pollock family for putting up with Jonny and I for five days, I really appreciate it!

After that, just a lot of running around, cleaning house, stuff like that. And just this week, I went to a Mariners baseball game (they lost 4-0 to the Red Socks), Cleaned all the upstairs windows in the house (as well as killed a few wasp nests which I do have pictures of) and after finishing the windows, romped around in Matt's woods at his house. whew! try saying all that in one breath!

Here's the pictures of us cleaning the windows. It may not seem like a bid deal, but we have a larger-than-average house I guess, and there are a lot of BIG windows upstairs, so for us, It is a big deal. Check 'em out:

This is Jonny's idea of safety when attacking wasp nests with chemical spray: Spray for the nest, an umbrella for the spray fallout(which is toxic when in contact with skin), overalls and dorky glasses for the stingers. Of course, he didn't want a harness or anything because we all know that falling from 18 feet in the air and breaking your back is a lot less scary than getting stung by a wasp ;-)

The nests... covered in spray.

Fastest aerosol-spray-can in the west.

-Graydon L

MRM: The Dark Knight

at 9:30 AM

I just watched The Dark Knight last Friday, and I must say I was amazed by it. Read on...

The Dark Knight (2008)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written by: Jonathan Nolan

Starring Cast: Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Heath Ledger (the Joker), Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two Face)

Supporting Cast: Michael Cane (Alfred Pennyworth), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Gary Oldman (Lt.James Gordon),

What's it rated?: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and menace and some language.

Genre: Action, Crime, Superhero Synopsis: as the Mob is about to be crushed under Batman's and new DA, Harvey Dent's feet, a new criminal mastermind rises to power: The Joker. Soon, Batman realizes the sacrifice he has to make in order to defeat the Joker and another new adversary known as Two Face.

My Take: Wow. If you have watched, and enjoyed Batman Begins, you are going to fall head over heals for Dark Knight. The very first scene shows the Joker's true personality, deceptive, cunning, and... funny. I was absolutely thrilled at how, contrary to most action movies in which the arch-villain is serious, horrific, and terrifying, the Joker has a dark sense of humor that actually provides the film's comic relief! I couldn't believe how truly funny the joker was... while being bone-chillingly creepy. Downright creepy.

Although the trailers and clips already released before the official debut of The Dark Knight, highlight the Joker vs. Batman scenes, Harvey Dent and Two Face almost have as much to do with the story as do the other stars. The consequential flip-back-and-forth-between-characters style makes the entire film so suspenseful all the way through that you can't help but jump out of your seat in many parts of the film.

I've also heard talk of awarding Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for his work in The Dark Knight as the Joker, and I must say, he shouldn't get one... he should get two... dozen.

Overall, very cool, which is not very normal for a sequel.

Story: 10 out of 10

Humor: 10 out of 10

Action: 10 out of 10

Suspense: 10 out of 10

Overall: 11 out of 10 :-)

-Graydon L

Creativity at my house...

at 4:57 PM

Most people's idea of creativity is pretty mundane; drawings, paintings, play-dough, maybe a Lego set or two. But at my house... well, creativity usually includes a gigantic mess, and sometimes a lot of tape... check it out :-)

This is one of our favorite projects to create: and inflatable tent. This particular tent is comprised of two bed-sheets taped together with two fans at one end blowing air inside, thus inflating the contraption and also blowing cool air on the occupants (Jonny and I). as you can see, there are several volumes of an encyclopedia set around the edges of the tent. These are to keep the outside edge on the ground and to keep the cool air inside.

A view from the door of the occupants. We ran some power bars inside so we could have a lamp and radio plugged in. You can see the fan back behind Jonny, it dosen't look like it's moving, but it's still working away to keep that thing inflated.

This is the latest of all our inflatable tents. It's powered by two small fans, and one gigantic fan (forground) which can just barely keep the roof over our heads. It's made by taping five sheets together to form a "box" and leaving three holes near the bottom for the fans.

We also made some ping-pong padles so we could play ping-pong on our school room table, which is just aobut the size of a real ping-pong table. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, and there's no more room on Mom's digital camera.

-Graydon L

How to instantly puree a bird

at 8:15 PM

My Mom just got an email from her brother (my uncle Rick). He built a bunch of airplanes for some airline and now volunteers at an airplane museum where he keeps his own airplane.

Here's the email:

There we were, In a 1954 Cessna 180, 1500’ eastbound over the second narrows bridge in Vancouver, just clearing the Harbour control zone. We were on our way back from a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach at Gilles Bay, Texada Island with some friends. Suddenly I noticed a seabird ahead. It was a cormorant. A sea bird normally found on or under the water or flying low. I said to Pauline my wife, “What’s a cormorant doing way up here?”
We were on converging courses, and he was slightly higher than us, so I descended slightly to increase the margin. He started to descend also, so I increased my rate of decent and yelled “Watch where you are going!”
With that he dove abruptly and we hit with a loud bang. The windshield was immediately covered almost 100% with the remains of the bird and his last meal. (Which I later found out to be herring) The cowl doors were blown open and damaged. I informed the Harbour tower of my situation and told him I would divert to Pitt Meadows airport since it was slightly closer than Langley, and had wider and longer runways more suitable for a blind landing. He gave them a call to give them a heads up and shortly I switched to them and headed directly towards Pitt Meadows. They asked if I needed any emergency services and I said “Not likely, but let’s see how the landing turns out.” I was cleared straight in but couldn’t see ahead so requested and was granted an angled approach so I could see out the lower corner of the windshield for the approach. I descended to just over the threshold and then straightened it out, and then completed the landing using my peripheral vision on the sides of the runway only. It wasn’t too difficult actually. My time flying the Tiger Moth at the museum was a benefit since you fly that from the rear seat with your passenger and engine ahead.
Anyway, I have a bit of work to do fix the upper cowl again. We just finished a major restoration of this airplane last spring.
Enjoy the photos attached, and keep an eye out for those suicidal birds!

-Rick

Here's some pictures that he took! prepare to see your lunch again :-P

That's my aunt Pauline behind the plane. Oh, and that red stuff all over the front of the plane is blood and bird-bits