When I heard he was coming to San Francisco, I figured it would be fun to go see him. Contrary to Neil deGrasse Tyson at San Jose Center for Performing Arts, his talk was a bit more technical, and explained the concept of spacetime in a way that most people could grasp.

However, about half the talk was also more metaphysical, mostly with his sidekick (whom I didn't know), Robin Ince, who I just found out, is actually a comedian. I wasn't as much of a fan of his part which I thought detracted of other things Brian could have shared with us.

That being said, it was still a good evening, happy to have gone to see him with Jennifer:

Some of the locations were schools with art teachers, others were art studios, and others still were private residences:

those were school student projects (not for sale)

interesting art that uses google maps approximate 3D projections as source for paintings

studio in los gatos

cool animated jewelry art

They had lots of volunteers helping to try and fix a bunch of things. Some were harder than others. They were surprisingly well equipped and went from fixing weed wackers to clothes:

we tried the CD player we had and that skips sometimes. Sadly it was nothing obvious, so we didn't succeed

fans are more of my league

multiple typewriters

other volunteers helped with clothes

and of course bikes

It was nice to see all those volunteers being able to help people out.

Given the wind, people went to a dicy slope to try and launch from the side of the lake. It made things a little bit better, but it was still mostly against the wind:

Most lanterns were stuck at the launching point, how silly:

had never been to levi's stadium before

it's both small and big

the trucks had fun shells

a bunch of them

They had those 3 events:

Head to head races, which were maybe fixed a bit, or not

2 wheel balancing for points

Freestyle for points

too much fun = flat tire

It was definitely worth going once, although by the end, we felt like we got it, and probably don't need to go back. Still, we enjoyed it (outside of the cold wind for Jennifer).

Once at the top, there is a small visitor center. It used to be a radar site to detect invasions, and was eventually shut down and left to rot. Eventually it was re-habilitated close to its original aspect and turned into a small park with nice views.

The 4 peaks of the bay area, Mt Umunhum, Mt Hamilton, Mt Diablo, and Mt Tamalpais.

The park is actually a very short walk, but the viewpoint is good on a clear day. There are a few signs you can read and an audioguide you can get on android:

Mt Hamilton across the bay

Old radar building that was used to detect potential enemy planes coming from the pacific

Respect to the native americans who used to live here

He had lots of fun slides, it was a great evening (about 2H)

the slide that can't be unseen, why 'pluto' is called 'pluto', and it's still not a planet

he called it 'Murrrrrica's Eclipse, becuase no other country got to see it ;)

that's why it's called a 'U'fo

he's asking everyone 'please use your phones and take pictures next time you get abducted'

sucks when aliens can't drive

he bought that book and read it for fun :)

flat earth is making a comeback

we escaped judgement day many times

why more babies are born during full moons: because people have more sex during full moons :)

supermoon is bullshit

Germany has more cool stuff on their money than the US does

no comment

still no comment

Several slides on Ligo, which I knew about, because I enjoy following that stuff :)

agreed :)

He finished with Saturn and Cassini:

awesome backlit picture of saturn

Cassini had to be destroyed to ensure it would not mistakenly contaminate one of the moons with earth microbes

They come in a container that has food:

they were quite small when we got them

they quickly grew

After a week or so, they turn into chrysalis and stay that way for over 2 weeks. Those weeks are not very eventful:

they make a shell and drop what their used to be their head

we then cleaned the gooey hair and install them in the growing kit

after much wait, the first butterflies finally got out

when they get out, they don't fly yet, they need time for their wings to harden

Sadly one of them had a shell that did not open right, got stuck while trying to get out and broke both its wings and a leg :(

once I confirmed that the poor thing even had a broken leg and was apparently bleeding through its broken wings, I ended its suffering

Over the next few days, the other ones came out too, the last ones just in time before our trip. We went to release them before flying out:

Within a few minutes, most of them had flown off. Sadly the weather is not ideal for them anymore as nights get cold and rain was in the forecast, but we hope they make it.
All in all, it took 22 days from when we got the shipment with baby caterpillars to setting them free.