YTVotD

It's been a while since we had one, and I thought this was pretty cool. If you thought the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies were well-choreographed, check this out:



Sure beats the "Wave," homer hankies, or the Tomahawk Chop, huh? I still like the SJ Sharks chompchomp move though.

There's another less professional video here that shows some of the same cool moves.

Also, Happy Birthday Mom, and cousin Margaret! (And Bailey and Jones!)

Phun Physics

Thought I'd share some highlights from my new life as a teacher. I'm still amazingly busy but really enjoying myself and my kids!

My top 10 best stories / anecdotes so far

• Using Physics as an excuse to watch roadrunner cartoons and the Simpsons in class.
• Surprising and startling them with demos like "pound your hand with a hammer". I couldn't find a good video of this but the idea is that you put a large mass on your hand/arm (I used an 18 lb block of aluminum) and hit it with a hammer as hard as you can. It won't hurt... I promise!
• A student showing up for class wearing these. (Make sure you scroll down far enough to see the picture. Creepy, eh?)
• Physics aerobics! Try to stand with your heels against the wall and touch your toes without bending your knees. One of my students can... but it turns out he's a hyper-flexible waterpolo player. Can you?
• Outtakes from our water rocket launching project. Most launches went fine, but 3 rockets did explode on the launch pad and one took off sideways across the campus quad... right at the principal. No injuries, though!
• Stabbing myself with a fork attempting to do this demo.
• Walking around the room while they're problem solving and feeling like almost everyone is getting it!
• Playing with super-sensitive motion sensors. The kids really got a kick out of seeing a graph of their movements on a computer screen. We also talked about how motion sensors worked and I showed an incredible video about a blind boy from Sacramento who can actually echolocate! He's good enough at it to be able to skateboard, ride a bike, and walk without a cane... and he literally has no eyes. If you want to check out the video it is in six parts on youtube here. It's worth watching if you've got an hour (or even 10-20 minutes for the first parts).
• Students giving me links to weird websites/videos, like this one. I'm not sure why they thought I needed to see that, but it looks a lot like Banjo getting a belly rub...
• Lots of kids telling me that they like / love Physics!

Biking to the Beach

Over Labor Day weekend we didn't have any big travel-related plans, but we did head over to a beach near Santa Cruz for an afternoon of fun in the sun and hanging out on the beach. Alex and I decided to take advantage of the free ride home and bike one-way out to meet our friends on the beach. I've been wanting to bike from home to the coast for a while and this was a great day for it! Here's the route we took, which took us up on Route 9 above Saratoga and down the other side through beautiful and redwood-filled Big Basin State Park as well as the lush canyon of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park before we got to Santa Cruz.


Here's a couple pictures from our ride that Alex took. Our favorite part was the windy downhill into Big Basin where the road alternated between open views of the forest-covered hills and nice banked turns snaking through giant redwood groves before bottom out at the park headquarters, where we had a nice snack break.


Fortunately there were friends with a car, grill, burgers, and frosty beverages waiting for us there! Hope you all were able to celebrate the "end" of summer in good fashion as well, although it still feels like summer out here in CA.

P.S. - If you're not easily nauseated and don't mind intense biker-style rock music soundtracks, there are some YouTube videos of motorcyclists riding some of this route. This one is going uphill from Saratoga to the high point at Skyline Blvd (passing lots of tired bikers), this one is cruising through the woods on the western side of Skyline, and this one is good if you like Journey and bad video quality. Maybe I need some speakers on my bike so I can rock some Journey too while pedaling through the hills...