All posts by johncohn

Friday night – if a tree falls…

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I had a great experience today. At lunch time I met my friend David at the Vt. school for the Deaf in St. Albans to do a jolts and volts show for the kids there. Dave and I have done this a couple of other times in places across the state.. though this was our first in abut 4 years.. and our first in St. Albans. At this point , Dave knows most of the show and does it himself.. in ASL.. Dave can’t hear, but reads lips pretty well.. so we tag team on the presentation… basically I jump in when he’s about to electrocute himself. One of the interpreters helps me follow what he and the kids are saying.. after a few min, I forget that we’re not actually all speaking out loud.. it’s very cool. These kids were so in to science. They had already gotten some of the science concepts in class.. so they were asking all the right questions. We improvise for the few parts of the show that have sound.. I had a PC based oscilloscope program showing the sound waveforms on a video projector.. and I had one of Sam’s old guitar amps to shake the table to the sound. That way the kids can feel with their bodies.. works pretty well.

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near the end of the show, dave was hooked up to the vandegraaf and reached out and shocked me .. on purpose .. on the back… I was so surprised I swore loudly … I instantly covered my mouth in embarrassment.. A half a second later the interpreters were all laughing so hard they almost fell out of their chairs.. The kids.. thankfully.. didn’t notice a thing and were watching Dave..

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if a scientist swears in the classroom and no one is there to hear… did he really swear ?

nite all, nite sam

-me

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Thursday night – ides

Today is Idus Marti… The ‘ides of march’ .. A day dedicated to mars , the roman god of war. Its the day when julius caesar was murdered in the roman senate in 44 b.c.e. he was stabbed 23 times. The story is that Caesar had been warned by a fortune teller to beware the ides of march. According at least to Shakespeare When Caesar saw the same fortune teller on this same afternoon 2057 years ago he remarked ” the ides of march have come” to which the fortune teller warned ” ay, Caesar but not gone”

I spent the day looking out for I’ll omens. I balanced my towels on the towel rack, I arranged the soaps in the hotel bathroom. I shined my shoes in the correct order . I walked around my car just in the proper way to ward off bad luck . I spoke the right incantations as I began ride home from ny. Even so, I knew that good juju can only help so much. I know full well that when bad is going to happen, bad is going to Happen. That goes the same for good… Or for average I suppose

Hey.. I just noticed the ides have indeed gone . I guess it’s safe to go to asleep now.. At least as safe as it ever is

Nite all, nite Sam
-me

Wednesday night – pi day

Happy Pi Day everyone..it celibrated every year on 3/14 .. I was lucky enough to be in yorktown and freind renda offered me my choice of pies. Diane made gabe a pizza pie at home. I hope you found a suitably transcendental way of celebrating the day..

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I did.. I had a couple of good meeting in the the morning. then over lunch, I did a jolts and vots shoe for my buddy grant at his school in CT>. His dad took a few pics here

 

Then I headed back to watson for a few more very good meetings.. Afterwards I cruised the halls and caught up with a few freinds who were still there late (7pm). Ruchir wasn’t  there so I dropped by to say hi to his family. I got there just as Anika was finishing off her leprechaun trap for school . She even gave me a demo

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Rashi made some yummy dossas.. served with Golgapa juice.. Honestly.. I got so sick once eating golgopa from a street vendor  in Delhi (I know better now)  that I can’t really go near the stuff anymore.. even though it’s pretty tasty.

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I brought the Tesla coil in to show Isha and Anika .. they looked pretty funny taking pictures of it.. they were more fun than the lightening

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We finished the night by looking at Jupiter’s moons. Jupiter and Venus are near each other in the sky these past several nights.. very beautiful

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OK.. time for sleep.. more tomorrow. Happy Pi Day folks !

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

ps. Happy 50th Birthday to good freind Larry P ! You don’t look a day over 49 !

 

Tuesday night – other peoples pics

Not much up today.. busy with meetings.. then a drive down to Armonk. I just had a great dinner tonight with my freind dave and his very cool family…

Because I was working and or traveling.. I don’t have any good pictures of my own to account for my day.. but coincidentally, I received several pics from freinds/relatives .. so I’ll show those instead..

First one is from my friend Erin. She reached into the cash register at work and came out with a one dollar bill with guess what on it.. Sam is everywhere !

on my drive down I got these two very cute pics of my nephew jake on his way to boston. How cute are these ? I’m not sure if he or his folks got a sicount because he had to ly th plane.

And finally, freind steve sent me these pics from last year sometime.. I think he has better form than I do..

OK.. speakign of frm.. I’m goign to work on my sleeping form..
more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam
-me