Archive for August, 2008

The Space Needle

It was made for commemoration of the Seattle World Fair in 1962. It is 500 feet tall. It’s the Space Needle!

There were many ideas for the structure of the building. Some were balloons, some were wacky, some were weird, some were about the same as the one today. The first idea came from a man called Edward E. Carlson drew his interpretation of the building while drinking coffee in a coffee house! There were many spherical ideas until one person changed the ball into the UFO.

They had set the deadline for starting to build the building for June of 1990, but it passed. It then went to September, November, and finally December. Only a year and a half left!

Then they bought the land, which was hard because of the fact that many people thought that their idea was rubbish or that it would not work. But with the successes of Germany and Japan, they soon agreed. So Edward and his group bought the land for a pretty small price. But there were only 13 months until the fair!

They filled a 30 feet by 120 feet hole with cement, which was one of the largest cement filling attempts of the time. They built it quite quickly, and soon it was done, just in time for the fair.

Today, it is still a landmark, a symbol of Seattle. I loved it, and it was the thing that I was the most looking forward to. The height of the sculpture was awesome. We also bought some souvenirs in the SpaceBase, the gift shop. We also looked at the SkyCity revolving restaurant, which was both appealing and amazing. I had thought that it would be an entire moving level, but it turned out only to be a static room with a moving ring near the windows that the customers would sit. Unfortunately, we did not eat there.

To me, I think the shape is very sturdy and straight, and also flowing a beautiful. It’s height amazes me, and the structure is also very detailed.

The Skyline of Seattle
The Skyline of Seattle

Emily looking through a telescope on the O-Deck
Emily looking through the telescope on the O-Deck

The View of the Experience Music Project from the Space Needle
The View of the Experience Music Project from the Space Needle

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The US Womens’ Volleyball Team: Scrimmage!

On August 1st, I went to see the USA Women’s volleyball team play scrimmage practice.

Little could be heard over the blaring music and the many chatting people. The many, many people there. The stadium, the Haas Pavilion at Berkeley, was nearly jam-packed with the fans of the US Womens’ Volleyball team playing scrimmage half-on-half. The team was led by the Chinese legend “Jenny” Lang Ping, otherwise known as the Iron Hammer. She had led the Chinese to many World Championships and even some Olympic medals. It was said that when she spiked, it was so powerful and so fast that there was very little chance that the opponent could capture it. Therefore, her fist would come down like a hammer, hence the name.

It was soon 5:00. It was scheduled to start. But instead of playing immediately, they started with a set of running around, stretching, practice hitting, etc. With just that, it took up thirty minutes of the time. Then, finally, they started to play. The ball flew from left to right, here to there. Their scores were very close. There were two men up there too, teachers, to help the team that was losing.

During time-outs, they would throw some mini-volleyballs around for the fans to catch. It seemed that they were ignoring us, for they only threw a couple at our side and a lot at their side.

The US volleyball team would go to Beijing the next day, so This was their last scrimmage. There were some mistakes and some awesome hits, and they are truly very great. The players were:Ogonna Nnamani, Danielle Scott-Arruda, Tayyiba Haneef-Park, Lindsey Berg, Stacy Sykora, Nicole Davis, Heather Bown, Jennifer Joines, Kim Glass, Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Kim Willoughby, Logan Tome, Cassie Busse, and Tracy Stalls. They are averaged about 6ft0in, an they are all very good. Some, like Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, have already gone to the Olympics on the team many times. Likewise, some are coming for the first time.

In my opinion, I thought that the tallest, Tayyiba Haneef-Park, was the best. She served well, spiked fast, blocked steady, and one time she, when the ball was about to go out-of-bounds, she kicked it at the last moment with a flying gymnastics-soccer kick that made the ball fly back to safety. Everybody was cheering after that.

It was truly a great time. I got signatures in the end, and Mom even got Lang Ping’s. Quite a line and quite a squeeze, I must admit, but it was worth it. I had a fantastic time and a great memory to last, hopefully, forever.

Here is a pic of some of the members of the team(click for larger version):

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