Author: trevor

5 Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMo 2016

trevor

I’ve said before on the site that 2016 has been a year of significant change for us. From the wedding to the move to the girls’ new school to the mess that is world events, 2016 has brought with it not only change, but a new resolve and determination to stop talking about the things that are important and actually do them. (I think that Hamilton: An American Musical has a lot to do with that, too, but that’s going to have to be another post, otherwise we’ll be here…

Changes

trevor
kids on first day of school

The change started in January. In short order, the girls’ parents were married, and only six months after I started on a new career path, so did their mom. These weren’t massive changes, functionally, but I could tell the kids felt it. A subtle shakeup to the background noise of their lives. Whistler and the Fish met those developments with excitement and an easy acceptance. Then, less than six months later, we decided to change not just little things, but everything. We decided to move. It would mean a new…

Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience Review

trevor

I have to admit, I felt some trepidation when I started seeing advertising about The Starfleet Academy Experience. It was vague and nonspecific. It featured cosplayers standing around posters written in Klingon. It featured Klingon-language versions of the front page on local free papers. And nowhere was there any firm description of what it actually was. In short, it seemed like it was promoting itself the way Star Trek as a whole has been in the past year: poorly. Still, the Star Wars experience that had rolled through the Canada…

Perfectionism, Projects, and Parenting

trevor
Perfectionism, projects, and parenting

I used to suffer pretty obvious perfectionism, through a combination of talent and insecurity. When I was in high school, if I couldn’t do something super well, I’d stop bothering to try. University was hard, and as you might imagine, my time there was less than illustrious. There are elements of perfectionism in my girls, as well. DD8, my Little Fish, is one. She will often bang her head against a problem until she either batters it down through sheer force of will, or melt down in the process. The littlest,…

5 Steps to Survive a 5:30 AM NASA TV Stream with your Kids

trevor
SpaceX Dragon CRS-8 on approach. Image via NASA.

We love space and science over here at Love Make Share, and we were very excited to get up really early and watch NASA TV’s live-broadcast SpaceX’s Dragon capsule being nabbed by the International Space Station. Without diving into a bottomless pit of discussion about the mission, it was important and cool for a few reasons: The Dragon’s ascent stage, the Falcon-9 rocket, finally managed a controlled landing on a barge in the ocean. Yes, a robot rocket lifted a robot spaceship to space and then landed itself on a robot boat. The Dragon…

Sunday Reading: Popcorn machine, Rocket Landing, Space Garden

trevor

Happy Sunday morning, folks! It’s about time to relaunch and revisit this feature and share some of the cool science-y, parent-y, and maker-y things I’ve stumbled on across the web this past week. Grab a cup of coffee and join me for some videos and articles that are sure to put a smile on your face. Adam Savage and Simone Giertz Make a Popcorn Machine – Tested Not reading YouTube comments is a great idea, but one on this video sums it up perfectly: “Simone is such a mess, I…

Important, but aimless

trevor

I’ve been spinning my wheels here for weeks. It’s not that I haven’t been writing. I have. Thousands and thousands of words. Actually kind of an embarrassing amount of writing. Like, I have the opposite of writer’s block and it’s becoming something of a problem because I’m constantly a little bit distracted by the things I’ve been writing. But I can’t hit “publish.” I can’t do it. And the reason why comes down to a real philosophical thing I’ve been struggling about with this blog. I’ve been trying to be topical for the past month…

Happy Birthday, Whistler

trevor
whistler-birthday-small

I had a much harder time coming up with what to say about my Whistler’s birthday than I had talking about the profound experience I had with my little fish turning 8. In the summer, we had a bit of time to enjoy the event, to consider and to reflect. Not so with Whistler. Her birthday came hot on the heels of the wedding, so her seventh was more of a throw-money-at-the-problem sort of situation than a moment of contemplation. I think that it was harder with Whistler’s birthday, too, because her development as a…

Many Roads Lead to Rome

trevor
droid make kids craft hot glue

True to the name of this blog, we frequently make things as a family. Often I’m part of the process, but when my eldest, 8, came to me the other day, I encountered a new angle that I hadn’t expected. “Trevor, I want to make a craft with you,” she said. “I need your help.” “Okay, little fish,” I said. “What do you want to make?” Her eagerness turned into despair. “That’s why I need your help. I don’t know what I want to make.” This is an experience I…

Dear Stupid Blanket…

trevor
kids blanket patches

This is the story of my eldest daughter and a blanket that she’s had forever. It’s an old Indigo blanket. The kind that’s rolled up in a fleecy log near the checkout and you, like fifty thousand other germy consumers, absent-mindedly run your fingers along it and think to yourself, “This is nice.” It’s the kind of purchase that makes sense in a compulsive way, when you don’t know anything about it other than it feels soft when rolled up like a burrito in the impulse-buy line. It’s awful. My…

Star Trek is more important than Star Wars, and here’s why.

trevor

The Force Awakens opens in less than a week, and yet I can’t help but be just as excited for the Star Trek: Beyond trailer that’s going to precede it. Part of this is just the kind of nerd I am – I grew up at a particular time in the ‘90s when there was no Star Wars except for the odd broadcast or the Special Editions, but there were two Star Trek series on television and movies in the theatres. Now, there’s tons of quality Star Wars entertainment. Just…

Stop motion film: J. Felix Faces his Fears

trevor
stop motion animation j felix faces his fears

The kids and I had a blast doing this one. The story of encountering your own insecurities and finding the strength to push past them to create something cool is one that resonates, I think, with people of all ages. Especially since my Little Fish is such a perfectionist — and a very sensitive kid, too — I saw a lot of recognition in J. Felix’s story that she had. The kids designed the Fears, they designed, directed, and assisted with the construction of the set (though I took it…