I'm SPACE...tial!

Really, I am! I passed the quiz and everything! Michael showed me this website called Galaxy Zoo.
Here is what they say in their introduction: "Welcome to GalaxyZoo , the project which harnesses the power of the internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies. By taking part, you'll not only be contributing to scientific research, but you'll view parts of the Universe that literally no-one has ever seen before and get a sense of the glorious diversity of galaxies that pepper the sky.

Why do we need you?
The simple answer is that the human brain is much better at recognising patterns than a computer can ever be. Any computer program we write to sort our galaxies into categories would do a reasonable job, but it would also inevitably throw out the unusual, the weird and the wonderful. To rescue these interesting systems which have a story to tell, we need you."

Well, I took their quiz. I got 12 out of 15 correct. Michael was looking over my shoulder and said he thought I got a couple of clockwise and anti-clockwise galaxies swapped. He got a 14 out of 15. There is a tutorial before the test, which was really cool, so if you are interested in helping identify this enormous wealth of information into their proper categories give it a go!

::::::::::::::::::::America's Gateway:::::::::::::

I get on a theme and I suppose it must run it's natural course...(like it has it's own will, or something). Anyway, you will see a lot of blending in my next SEVERAL layouts for our vacation album. I have the hardest time trying to tell the story with one photo. It can be done...I did it once! It turned out to garner me several lovely comments, but the single photo layout is really an elusive muse for me so I will revisit it when the prompting comes again. For now, I am pleased to play with such things as "hard light" and "color burn" for blending photos into the background. Here is my first pages from Ellis Island called: "America's Gateway"




<sub>Text: Ellis Island was the first stop in our trip to New York. We got on the ferry in Jersey City, New Jersey. We chose to take the audio tour, which was great for us to go at our own pace and the kids could have control over something at the same time. We were all fascinated with the process and how scary it must have been to come to a new country.


Photo Cluster: Nancy Comelab,
Vintage Background: Nancy Comelab
Alpha by Christina Renee
Fonts: DB Michael /DJB JENB2 by Darcy at the Digichick,
Texas Hero/Jane Austen</sub>


:::::::::::::Ratatouille::::::::::

I forgot to review this movie that we saw last Saturday. The film was such fun. The short film that precedes the main film is hilarious. There are no words, but the foleys sure did an amazing job on sound effects. It has to do with an alien learning to use his tractor beam. It has all the things I like...a crazy plot...funny looking aliens...and great animation.
Ratatouille was great. The characters were all well thought out. Brad Bird is a spring of continously amazing material. I love the character of Gusteau, who is the chef that Remy the rat, reveres, and comes to him as a figment of Remy's imagination. There is a revelation in the movie about another character and Remy asks the figment accusingly why he didn't tell him the information before. The figment responds something to the effect of "I am a figment of your imagination. Since you didn't know it, I didn't know it, either."
Peter O'Toole did a great job voicing the very thin food critic Anton Ego. The scene when Anton eats a dish created by Remy and it reminds him of his childhood is a gem in this film.

I highly recommend a trip to the theater for this one!

::::::::::::::::::Orthodontist Appt>:::::::::::

I need to get the kids up now. Rachel has an early orthodontist appointment. She loves to go. She sees the orthodontist as a place where they put cute multi-colored bands on her braces. I saw it as a house of pain. Interesting how different perceptions and perspectives can be...huh?!

Smiles from me and a cute smile from Rachel and her pretty new bands, later!

Back to the Future:

<sub>Simply Irresistable Kit by Gina Cabrera, Font: Jayne Print


Background paper from an Ad Challenge Freebie by Katie Pertiet, A Day at the Zoo Monogram (Modified) by The Shabby Princess, Vintage Frame by Katie Pertiet, Leather rose trim from Gypsy Rose Elements by Michelle Coleman, Font: Jane Austen/ DB Michael, Cardboard element by Linda Gil Bildal, Staple from Softly Softly by KSharonK</sub>

:::::::::::::::Excerpts of things:::::
that struck me as HILARIOUS in my reading, so far:

The Phantom Tollbooth
pp. 104 & 105

"Well," said the boy, "in my family everyone is born in the air, with his head at exactly the height it's going to be when he's an adult, and then we all grow toward the ground. When we're fully grown up or, as you can see, grown down, our feet finally touch. Of course, there are a few of us whose feet never reach the ground no matter how old we get, but I suppose it's the same in every family."
He hopped a few steps in the air, skipped back to where he started, and then began again.
"You certainly must be very old to have reached the ground already."
"Oh no," said Milo seriously. "In my family we all start on the ground and grow up, and we never know how far until we actually get there."
"What a silly system." The boy laughed. "Then your head keeps changing height and you always see things in a different way? Why, when you're fifteen things won't look al all the way they did when you were ten, and at twenty everything will change again."


:::::::::::::::::Back to the Future:::::::::
The kids watched the all three Back to the Future movies. Michael and I would interject with the fads we participated in during the 80's. They also thought it was cool that Michael J. Fox was the voice of Stuart Little in the movies and that Christopher Lloyd was the voice of Hacker from Noah's favorite educational cartoon, Cyberchase.