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Just when I think I must have seen everything the internet has to offer, along comes a video of a guy who carves a carrot into a clarinet. He plays it, and it sounds great to my unsophisticated MP3 tuned ears.

It reminds me of when I was a kid and in kindergarten or preschool or something. One day we took a field trip, which consisted of walking to some guy’s house. This guy took a stick off a tree and carved it into a flute or whistle or something like that. Blew me away. I always wanted to be able to do that, but to this day, I’m not sure how he did it.

Now, the thing you need to know about me to really appreciate this story is that I remember virtually nothing from my childhood. So, the fact that I remember this day at all is an indication of how deeply imprinted the experience was on my psyche. I don’t know why I remember that day out of all the days I’ve forgotten, but it really made a deep and lasting impact. I think the guy also braided some twine into a rope or something. I should really be able to do stuff like that. If a preschool teacher walked a bunch of kids over to my house, I’d have absolutely nothing cool to show them.

This ad from Toshiba is crazy.

I think I understand how they must have done it, but I’m overwhelmed by the amount of time and money it must have taken.

Check out this interesting interview with Veronica McGregor, the voice of the MarsPhoenix twitter feed. It’s amazing what they’re doing in terms of outreach and personalizing the missions for the public. I like that she is developing different personalities for each of the missions.