REACH FOR THE STARS

Tonight Princess Pirate and I went to the library and met astronaut Dr. Dave Williams. It reminded me of a visit to her grade two classroom, and we asked him if he had ever come, since he was from the city next to ours and met his wife at our local pool. I wasn't there but my daughter had quite a few stories of how astronauts go to the bathroom, and even built a rocket from a milk carton.

Rocket ship inspired by NASA

Since my memory failed, I did a little google search. Turns out the local connection to NASA was not an astronaut, but an educator who did a great job named Brian Ewenson. It was quite an event, and it impacted me as a parent, as well as my kid. But she didn't remember much, so it was fun to go tonight and hear again about space.

The message of the night was really about planetary stewardship. This is a theme close to my heart, and link to a movie and an exhibit called Anthropocene that friends across the country have recommended to me.

Dave Williams was raised in the West Island, in Beaconsfield. He referred to another Canadian aquanaut, Dr. Joe McGuinness. He was a great speaker, and sure had an inspiring story to tell. His career started as a dream, when it was literally impossible for a child from Canada to become an astronaut. But it became possible, after he became an aquanaut, and then a neuroscientist and then an MD after applying more than once, and being told he might struggle, but graduating top of his class. So when the next mission for NASA was looking to sent a crew to study neuroscience, he was a perfect fit. I had actually heard him speak in a medical forum, about the culture at the Southlake Health Centre, where he was CEO for several years following Emergency Medicine at the Toronto trauma centre Sunnybrooke. He had also been diagnosed with cancer and came back from treatment for a second spacewalk voyage.

He travelled on the space ship Columbia in 1998.  I was able to see a launch space shuttle Discovery while on vacation with my family when I was 13 on January 12, 1986, so I remember the excitement was amazing. This was before the Challenger flight was lost in 1987 with first teacher on board, that still weighs on my memory each time a shuttle is launched. He lost friends on the final failed mission of the Columbia in 2003. His second trip, after cancer treatment, and that flight, was on a shuttle named Endeavor in 2017. He had four space walks totally over 17 hours and operated on animal nerves in space.

There was a lot of name-dropping, from Tom Cruise to Rick Hansen. I liked the term he picked up from Rick. Be a difference-maker!

"Each of us has the ability to make a difference."
--Rick Hansen

His life really was proof of this statement:

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
--Robert H Schuller

There were a plethora of other meaningful quotes.

"You can live a lifetime in a moment."
--Ted Rosenthal

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
--John A. Shedd

"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."
--Kurt Vonnegut

A few thoughts of the peculiarities of space: when they first arrive, their faces are congested and their legs provide the fluid, so that their taste and smell takes a while to come back. Blood in a surgery floats in a sphere not far from the field, so it's not hard to clean up. The space station orbits the earth every 90 minutes, with a sunset and sunrise every 45. They travel at Mock 25 speed, so 8 km a second to start, and continue to do so up in space, but it feels like they are moving slowly, like you see in the footage. There is statistically life on another planet, but this is our best one. We need to take care of it! If you want to see the difference, NASA has images of earth over the last 40 years for public access, and it's not hard to see the changes.

Take a look at his books: Defying Limits, and a series of four for kids that sound really fun (To Burp or Not to Burp).

Trying on a spacesuit, a little big

Our solar system

So thanks to Dr. Williams tonight for an inspiring talk and an autograph for a teen he inspired to believe that nothing is impossible, take care of the planet, and don't give up when others discourage you. Try again, dream big, and reach for the stars!

DECLUTTERING IN FOUR BOXES

I remember a show that had a very powerful story for those of us hoarders. They would take everything out the of the house and lay it one of four quadrants. I don't remember the name of the show, but I did find the basic idea on my first search page, with hopes to give it to my Princess Pirate to help her manage her room in the pre-birthday party at home, post-Christmas clutter that need to be managed on holiday before the daily grind of school and homework start again.

Here is the basic idea.
Take everything, and without getting involved in your stuff, put in one of these four containers/boxes/spaces on the floor:
1. Trash/recycling
2. Give away/sell
3. Storage (elsewhere than in your space)
4. Put away

I am actually pretty great at this, but where it falls down is getting to the put away stage, which takes a LOT more time.

In parallel threads:

Four boxes of liberty, to use in order!

1. Soapbox
2. Ballot box
3. Jury box
4. Ammo box

Four secrets to organizing information in your brain:

1. Don't focus on the detail
2. Chunk it down (group, like between hyphens in a phone number, or four digits of a credit card)
3. Don't forget the power of story (my favorite method. Think of  the mind palace mnemonic)
4. Find a single word for each thought. This is tough for me, but essential to great clinical decision making.

CHERPUMPLE

Okay, I had to look up Turducken when I heard it, but when you see it in print, it's a little easier to dissect and understand. It came up recently during an RBC ad campaign with the impossible to not recognize Canadian Jay Baruchel, who confused me by not aging a day in a decade, but has a voice so unique it is unmistakable. He uses the word Turducken in the context of investing, referring to a confusing and amusing "Turducken of savings" that he earnestly asks his RBC app, in search of more money to invest (I love how he reacts to moving too far away from his computer with headphones. Fabulous acting!)

Maybe it was because of a New Year's eve skit when two "hipster chefs" attempt in vain to stuff a beaver into a turkey into a moose (with a sprinkle of "KD dust"), but when I stumpled upon Merriam Webster's word  "Cherpumple", with it's outrageous photo of a perfectly executed example, I need to blog the thread.

From Copy Me That

In the spirit of Lewis Carol, who gave us the strange stories of Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking glass, concocting great combined words and referred to these words as "portmanteau" from the mouth of his character Humpty Dumpty. He also gave us such winners as "chortle" (chuckle and snort). These food examples follow a proud lineage of two meanings crammed together in one word.

I particularly like this list, with more authors that have originated terms we use everyday. I figured Dr. Seuss must have invented a few, but didn't know we have him to thank for the term "nerd"! Here are 86 others for fun. Wikipedia has a large collection also.

If that's not enough, you can even use an online generator to fuse your favorite words together and even make your love one's name partner with yours! Brangelina may be no longer, but the portmanteau lives on!

ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

my true love gave to me, four new year's resolutions.

For years, I have tried to set a resolution and do them daily. It always failed.

Now, I have learned of the "Tarzan method", which better suits a lifestyle like mine with an irregular schedule. Instead of doing the impossible daily chain, you start today (I hope you have the day off, but if you don't choose the next free day you have), and then, like Tarzan, you plan for your next day like he looked for his next vine to swing to. This way, you never stop moving forward, but you also won't fall off the vine immediately.

I like this with friends I see infrequently. We are always planning our next outing when the current one is underway or just finishing. That way a year doesn't go by before the next communion!