Somerset Academy's Science Fair - 2009

We went to Somerset Academy's Science Fair on April 22. We were more fascinated this year than the prior years. The parents ...err, the kids did a wonderful job. There are many science projects that are quite amazing. From the 3rd grade and up, the science projects are open for awarding.  Last year, David won third place for the 3rd grade level. This year, he was not that fortunate and was quite disheartened by it. Now he really has to learn how to accept things like these. We were not really able to prepare ahead of time for a topic that can 'wow' the judges but I believe his project was a really nice one. Better luck next time.

Some photos from the experiment.

From Missy's 'Density Stacker' project:

From David's 'Which Coin Drops Fastest'  project:

Jingle Bells by David and Missy

A little dated now but I really want to put this up even when the kids said it was kind of embarrassing. This was on Dec. 26 during Gail's (Edna T.'s daughter)  birthday party done in their house. 



Jingle Bells from Ariel Magno on Vimeo.

David and Missy Dancing the Cha-Cha Slide

December has always been a month of going to parties and get-togethers. Last Dec. 13 was MRH's 6 Central's Christmas party so off we went there.  I have been enjoying my Lumix DMC-LX3, mostly shooting some videos with it and the party was a good way to test it's capabilities. I already signed up with a free Vimeo account but haven't decided yet if I want to get the $60 per year premium membership for unlimited HD uploads with a 2GB weekly file size restriction. Right now, I'm getting by with a once a week HD video upload with a maximum 500mb file size, roughly a 3-minute video thus a clipping is usually needed.  I've read that 'youtube' has HD uploads now but I still have to check it out.

I thought I can do some serious editing when I came across a free MOV to AVI converter without compression called MP4Cam2 AVI Easy Converter v2.79 but the audio was not syncing properly and the delay was like at least 10 seconds. So much for thinking it was a goldmine but I'm sure there's a way to fix it. I just need to explore it more.  Anyway, here's a sampling from the LX3's night scene capability. As usual, the HD version can be seen only by clicking on the link and when you want to view it full-size.

6 Central's Christmas Party-2008 from Ariel Magno on Vimeo.

So Long Summer

Summer is just too hot here in Florida and vacation plans are usually on hold until it's winter unless we're going to the mountains out of state. David and Missy's usual summer activities are going to the mall, swimming, watching a movie, going to Chuck E. Cheese and just playing video games. A few days before the school started, Aug. 14 to be exact, we brought them to Wannado City in Sawgrass Mall. They've been there a few times and the place even had become a regular school field trip venue but we as a family hadn't been there for quite a long time. It's a nice place for kids their age as they explore grown-up jobs but in a perspective suitable for their young minds. They have become doctors, firefighters, police, pilots, etc. in the past and now they tried to be dentists, archaeologists, paleontologists, candy makers, jewelry makers, ramp model (for Missy anyway) among others. They didn't want to be actors and just opted to watch a show but Missy was chosen to be a part of a circus act. It was a long day but we did enjoy the time as a family in Wannado City.

Missy on the ramp video.