The Technology of The Ball Drop

    Tech Tuesday is a place for all things technology.  Here we will discuss both low tech and high tech thing-a-ma-jigs.

  

Image found here: 

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/new-years-ball-drop-1606862641.jpg

Image found here:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7842085/Millions-ring-new-year-ball-drops-Times-Square.html

 The end of the year is a big thing, every single year. People make resolutions and look forward to a reset. I think that the end of 2020 is an even bigger thing. We have all joked about what a dumpster fire 2020 has been and we feel as if the change of the calendar year may be just what we need to change the crazy chaos we have been feeling this past year.

    When the ball drops on New Years' Eve, I know it will bring many of you a sigh of relief and this is why today's post will be all about that ball. You have all heard of the ball, right? The big lighted sphere that drops every year in Times Square, in New York City? If not, where have you been? Anyway, I digress.

    Ever think about why dropping a ball down a flag pole was something anyway? In the 1800s, time was important to the shipping industry and the navigation of ships. Captains aboard those ships relied on an instrument called a chronometer in order to calculate their positions. Often, these would be a little off, so a captain, Robert Wauchope, had the idea of a ball drop on shore to signify a certain time each day that would help nearby ships set their chronometers. Cities built these fancy timepieces and the ball drop idea began.

    The actual ball drop in New York City to commemorate the new year first happened in 1907. The seven hundred pound, five foot diameter ball was made of wood and iron and had one hundred 25-watt incandescent bulbs attached to it. Artkraft Strauss, a sign company built it and for most of the 1900s the sign company was in charge of that ball.

    In the 1920s the wood was replaced with iron, making a four hundred pound full iron ball. In 1955, that iron was replaced with aluminum. It was much lighter at one hundred and fifty pounds and had more lights, a total of one hundred and eighty.

    The lights on the ball were traditionally white. But for a bit of time in the 1980s, it was red and had green lights on the top to represent an apple and the tourism ad theme of "The Big Apple."

    In 1995, the ball got a makeover with added aluminum skin, twelve thousand rhinestones, new strobe lights with 180 halogen bulbs and computer control. The new tech ball only dropped a few times because of the changing of the millennium in 2000 and the need for an even more special ball that year.

    The redesigned ball for ringing in 2000 was a Waterford Crystal and Phillips lighting collaboration. The new ball was made completely of crystal and had the latest of lighting technology, but again that ball didn't drop more than a few times because the ball was again redesigned in 2007.

    2007 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the ball drop and it was definitely appropriate to again redesign the ball. The old halogen and incandescent bulbs were replaced with newer and brighter Phillips Luxeon LED lights. A total of 32,256 LEDs to be exact. There are now 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles, which cover the twelve foot diameter ball. This high technology weighs in at about six tons and has a color palate of about sixteen million vibrant colors.

    Up until 2008 the ball was set up and taken down each year, but it now is a permanent fixture at One Times Square atop a flagpole of The Times Building.

    *If you would like to learn more about the history of the ball drop, I found lots of info here:

https://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-new-years-eve/nye-history-times-square-ball#:~:text=HISTORY%20OF%20THE%20NEW%20YEAR'S,to%20signal%20the%20New%20Year.

    *I also found the wishing wall amazing.  Here you can make New Years' wishes and they turn them into a piece of confetti to be rained down on New Years' Eve participants in Times Square.  I wrote one for this year, but you will have to wait until next year.  Read about it HERE.

Christmas Cheer Via a Christmas Star.

      Media Mondays is a place for all things media.  From social media to news media we will cover everything concerning communication.

So.  This week something is happening in the skies that hasn't happened in nearly 800 years.  We will be able to witness Jupiter and Saturn being the closest to each other they have been since the middles ages.  This is called a "great conjunction of planets" and I am super excited for it.  Because this is happening so close to Christmas, this is also being labeled The Christmas Star.  Now, isn't this something to bring a little cheer to your season?  I find it no coincidence that this little miracle is happening now in the middle of a very weird year with the pandemic and all.  I am going to think of it as a special little gift from the heavens to us, showing us the eternal love our Creator has for us all.  The heavens have been a big part of the Christmas story too, remember the wise men being lead by a star to see the Savior in Bethlehem? So, Merry Christmas. Who knows if this was what happened for that great journey, but it's fun to think about, isn't it? Get out there and see for yourself today, December 21st.

    Maybe you don't know this about me, but I am super into all things celestial.  Looking up at the night sky is one of my favorite things.  I can tell you lots of useless information about the universe and beyond, and you can bet I will be out in the cold on Monday to see this phenomenal occurrence.  An extra bonus is that there is also a meteor shower going on at this time and that is an added bonus to this little gift on the Winter Solstice.  (Yea for the days starting to get longer!)

    Seeing this is a Media Monday post, if you would like to read more about the Christmas Star here are a few articles that I liked:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/12/18/how-when-and-where-you-can-see-christmas-star-planets-then-shooting-stars-on-the-solstice-this-week/?sh=727672625348

https://www.space.com/jupiter-saturn-great-conjunction-2020

https://www.wbtv.com/2020/12/20/are-we-about-witness-star-bethlehem-this-christmas-week/

Also, I am a slacker so here are a few Flashback Friday Pictures that could have been published last Friday:

Last year in our matching pajamas.

..

Ellis at his favorite place in Green Bay
The National Railroad Museum.

My favorite tradition at IHS
Hoodies for all!

Baby Z with Santa at Ellis' preschool.

Ellis with Santa.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's.

A favorite place to visit:
The Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI.

Thirsty Thursdays: A Bright Spot in These Dim Times

 Thirsty-Thursdays are a place to talk all things thirst. Thirst can be actual, physical thirst and direct us to the subject of tasty drinks, but it can also drive us toward a mental thirst, the thirst for information.

    Life has been a bit different the past nine months or so. Work has been really different for me the past nine months. This school year is the most challenging I have faced in my nineteen years of teaching. I am learning lots of new technology things to keep my classes ready to go fully online at any moment, and I am also trying to find new ways to motivate students, who already have a hard time being motivated.

    Let's be honest here, I, too, am having a hard time being motivated. See, pre-covid, I had a lot more going on outside of work. I don't consider myself the most social person, but I am realizing more and more that I need a social outlet. With the whole idea of "social distancing" I am not getting even the little amounts of social interaction that I crave and need. I have gotten into a rut. I have hit my snooze several times everyday. Recently, I have gotten in the habit of just setting my last alarm out of my four pre-set alarms. It feels silly and a wee bit pathetic. I am just not motivated to get up and get going like I usually am. So, I totally get my students' lack of motivation, but I also realize that they need to be motivated or we are going to lose a lot more graduates than we usually do.

    So, basically there are reasons we need a little bright spot here and there. One of my co-workers has created "Thirsty Thursdays" for us at work. Here, we can visit her stash of flavor syrups to add to our sodas to celebrate the end of days with students(See Fridays are student free). It's the clean version of cocktails at work. I look forward to this every week. I don't know how this little thing brings so much light, but it does.

    What is my drink of choice, you ask? I love a extra dirty Coke Zero. I add coconut and half and half to my Coke Zero and instantly I am on some beach somewhere enjoying a "mixed" drink.

Seeing it is December and I love Coca Cola, I think you need a little bright spot that can be found within Coke's yearly Christmas Video. Enjoy:

    Coca Cola has been in the business of Christmas Advertising since the 1920s when ads featuring Santa appeared in popular magazines. Most recently, the ads often feature polar bears and are amazingly cute. These cute commercials started in the 1990s. I love how they are often family themed and overall just plain fun. Enjoy a few now:

    If you need a little bit more of a pick me up, be sure to do what Coke would tell you and "Have a Coke and a smile."

Be As Little Children

 

Writing Wednesday is a place for me to write whatever I want to write.  

Pic found HERE

So.  You have seen A Charlie Brown Christmas.  If you haven’t, please go take the next thirty minutes and watch it.  You will not be disappointed.  

In the short animated flick, Charlie picks a tiny scraggly tree. This choice is a little rebellion of all the commercialization of Christmas.

I’m not sure if my mom was making the same protest.  I think I remember her saying a few times that she felt sorry for the trees that didn’t get picked(we usually cut down our own tree at a cut-your-own-tree place).

This tree isn’t as spacious as others my mom picked through the years.  She explained to us that she liked how the space allowed for more room for her ornaments.  True, these trees made for lots of room, as evidenced by the next picture.

Look at all the room for all those ornaments.  In fact, if the tree could bear the weight, you could put small children or small animals as ornaments in that tree. 

Some may gawk at these silly little trees, but they were a family inside joke.  We would often pick on my mom about them and carry on about our silly “Charlie Brown” trees.  To be honest, it wasn’t ever the decorations that made christmas for me.  I don’t remember a whole lot of those ornaments, but I do remember the time we spent around the trunk of those trees and the time we spent together going and picking them out.  I remember how we would wake up early and my parents wouldn't let us go into the living room until a certain time.  I remember how we would first go into the hallway where the stockings were hung on the stairway edge and discover our first surprises.  Funny thing, I don’t remember any of the trinkets except the fact that there was always some sort of yummy chocolate in those stockings.  I remember how my family always would hide my last present, the big one, the one I was waiting for, the only one I really asked for and by the time they showed it to me, I had given up hope to get it. Funnier yet, I don’t remember many of those big presents either. 

You see, Christmas isn’t about how perfectly you decorate, it isn’t about the presents you receive, and it certainly isn’t about a perfect tree. Christmas is about memories, it’s about traditions and it is most certainly about spending time with loved ones.

May we look past all the decor and the pressures to have a perfect holiday and just take in all the magic that is Christmas.

I may or may not have a little bit of my mom’s taste in trees, by the way.

I’ve been calling our tree the “Ghetto Tree” this year.  It is the top of a blue spruce Reuben cut down in our front yard.  I was mildly joking when I said we should use its top for our Christmas tree this year.  Reub thinks it is great and we don’t need to go buy a tree as long as the needles don’t fall out.

Truth is I actually do love it, even if it curves far away from the wall.  I love that it reflects this cool gray color from the blue needles.  I love that it was once a part of our yard.  I love that it was free and that we made most of the decorations on it.  I love that it sits in my home, where we now are creating traditions for our own children.  I love that the magic of Christmas is reliveable as I watch my kids being excited. 

May we all become children again(I’m the littlest one on Santa’s lap).  Search for the light.  Search for the magic.  Search for peace, joy and comfort.  That is the true message of the season. Find the reason for the season!