Saturday saw annoying encounters with both mosquitoes and wasps. Sarah and I were doing some yardwork at the House of Rock on Saturday to beautify the yard a bit. I bought a bunch of rose bushes and some mulch and we worked for a few hours (with great results!).

The mosquitoes… well those always hit me hard; but the wasp encounter was a special treat. There I was, digging a hole for a beautiful pink rose bush and I felt a quick stab in my back. I’d been working around roses all day so my first impression wasn’t ‘yellow jacket’ it was ‘thorn.’ I casually reached back to try and find the thorn that was lodged in my shirt but found none, so I continued my work. Moments later I felt another quick stab.

“Darn it!” I thought, and tried again to find the pesky culprit without success. Two stings later my hand found the wasp in my shirt.

Bee and wasp stings are really interesting. I think I’ve only been stung about 5 times in my life. Each one has been a dramatically different experience. The last time I got stung, I got stung on my toe as I walked through the yard with open shoes. That sting felt like I’d had my toes amputated with a rusty barbed wire chainsaw laced in death.

But this time the immediate pain was minimal – nothing more than a lightly lingering burning feeling. Each of the four stings were very mild. Unfortunately, the sting locations have since blossomed into itching welts of extreme discomfort. Oh well, I will continue liberal use of itch cream.

Every spring I get excited for summer. And every summer I forget the bugs.

Dear Inventors of Raisinets,

I strongly appreciate your contributions to mankind. Keep up the great work.

Yours,
Mike D.

I guess my claim to fame on this website, so to speak, is being the “geography and navigation” expert, mostly because I do a lot of competitive orienteering in my spare time.

I figured it would be fun for everyone to see how I spent about 45 minutes of my time yesterday, at the British Columbia Orienteering Champs in Sumas, BC.

I approached from the south and headed up the rocky hillside (the black specks are all distinct cliffs of various sizes– but in reality there were more rocks out there, just not “distinct” enough to be mapped). My GPS tracker shows that I went right by the checkpoint on my first attempt (the red circle is about 50m in diameter), and then I spent the next several attempts crawling all over that hillside… until I decided to give up and head to the finish. My first ever DNF!

On Sunday, Jesse, Sarah, and I hit up the brand new Science Center in Hartford. It was opening weekend for the museum and wow – it was crazy fun. I’m extremely impressed by Hartford. Our abandoned city really needs locations like this one to encourage more residents to visit their state capital. Now all we need is a major university plunked into the center of town and we’d be golden.

The Science Center is a beautiful building built over the I-91 corridor. If you’re driving north or south through Hartford the building’s impossible to miss. It has a beautiful wave-like roof and an overhanging diagonal glass wall that gives a glimpse into the building’s atrium.

The exhibits were a blast. First and foremost for fun was a relaxation game. Two participants would sit across from each other and put on headbands with sensors in the front. Graphs above each player indicate the brain activity of that particular player. On the table between them, is a long glass tube within which a ball is floating. The ball will move towards whichever player has more brain activity.

The goal is to keep yourself as calm as possible and get the ball to reach the other player.

HOLY FUN.

MSPaint dramatization

This has got me thinking about how I might create one of these games for the house of rock. I can’t imagine it’d be too difficult.

Other awesome exhibits:

The Geology of CT.
Helmet Testing (a-la giant hammer)
The CT River
Erosion
EXPLORE SPACE

Well done Connecticut Science Center!!! And Hartford, I’m proud of you.

Happy Birthday, Mike D!!!