You Can't Take The Sky From Me

Another "Looking Back" post I could do at any time would be from Christmas last year. This won't be that, but in passing I'll mention that I did get a new Ipod touch 5th generation, case for the same, and the DVD set of Firefly. If you're not familiar with Firefly... I dare say you haven't spent near enough time on the interwebs. I've heard of it for years, but other than knowing that it was a short lived sci-fi series that was supposedly THE BEST SHOW EVAR and having seen some pictures of Serenity, (and knowing that it spawned the big screen release "Serenity") knew not much about it. Had my wife wrap it up, and write the tag "To: Daddy & the rest of the House Nerds". Going in cold, I have to say, it truly lives up to the hype!!! I've been taking my time, and am only up to the 6th episode because I'm trying to make it last. I have since picked up "Serenity", too, so I've got that to look forward to. Don't get me wrong, I really like my new Ipod, but I LOVE Firefly!!!

So, if you follow this blog, you know I often put something on my water cup, then use the same cup for a week or so. The last one I did, I put the second part of the line from the episode "Safe" that goes, "Today we were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!!!" Most everyone who saw it was greatly amused.

At the end of last week, I put this design on my cup, from the pilot episode. This has also gotten positive reviews. A few weeks back I came across the pair of toy dinosaurs pictured that have built in voice boxes that recite this dialogue. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!!!"

In other amusements, I took the most famous Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff comic and modified it a bit & put in on a T-shirt. I took the last two frames off, took a square from the left bottom and repeated it in a stripe on the bottom, and put the last line of text under it, as well as modifying the text in the first two panels to be more work friendly (AND work related!!!) It's a pretty lame comic, but most everyone who reads it laughs like crazy!!! My older boy got a white shirt with red sleeves that he plans to add Dave Strider's broken record logo to. If you're keeping count, that will make six Homestuck themed shirts in our house!!!

Life Hack ... MY PANTS!!!

You may have seen around the interwebs various "life hacks", little tips for making this or that easier or more organized or cheaper. I happen to enjoy checking them out, although I don't seem to implement many of them. The one I can recall having done that worked very well was getting a couple of large carabiners, then hooking several plastic shopping bags on each one to make a lot fewer trips from the car when coming home from the store. Worked great (except when you'd forget to take them back to the car), then the nanny state of L.A. outlawed plastic bags.

Anyway, here's my little contribution:

I had a pair of pants (Calvin Klein, no less!!!) that are still in good shape, except the fly had broken. It would not latch in the full upright position, and would usually be at half mast, no matter how many times you'd zip 'em up.

My solution: I put a key ring through the tongue of the zipper, then once I zip it up, loop the ring over the button before buttoning!!!

Looking Back III: 13 Shots from LACMA

Back in last October, my firstborn had the option for some extra credit in his art class for visiting one of a few local museums. We opted for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In case you ever wondered, outside is where several of these cool art deco street lights go to die. If you look close, you can see where it looks like there is either a wedding wrap up or photo shoot going on.

Paid our admission, then went to head in. There's an escalator going all the way to the top of a four or five story building, and go to head in. Closed. Went down a level, and it's only open to a private party. Not making much of a first impression.

Finally back to the ground level, and there's an area we can actually get into!!! First thing is a long, twisty... wall. OK. Next thing was a wall with plastic panels, red, green and white, with florescent light tubes behind 'em. Once again, OK.

Third thing we came to, paydirt!!! Finally something awesome!!! Chris Burden's "Metropolis II".

So, that's something I took the most pictures of. Large format, with a ton of tiny details. Very nicely done!!!

Obligatory selfie in some of the mirrored detail...

And an overhead shot, including the boy. Since it was nearly Halloween, he was wearing a good deal of his Vriska costume. That was part of the assignment, get a picture of yourself with one of your favorite exhibits. In case you haven't figured it out, it's got a couple of conveyor ramps up, four wide, for Hot Wheels type cars, then they split into separate tracks and gravity race down, as well as having some train tracks running through. There's an area inside where the operator can squeeze in and run the thing. Wasn't going when we got there. I asked the docent if I could get in and play with it. She said no, but they do run it a couple times a day, which we'd already missed. There's a few videos of it going on the Youtubes.

Attempted to go to the building across from it, and it was closed to the public, too. A bit farther down also yielded nothing we could get in on. The opposite direction had an exhibit of South Pacific-Polynesian artworks.

The ones pictured here seem to use a lot of actual human skulls, the first shot looking like someone fashioned them into whimsical key chains!!!

Up a level from there, they had a nice exhibit on German Bauhaus art. I think I enjoyed this part of the museum most.

One more shot of the student with some art. Another part of the assignment was to talk to someone who works there about their favorite pieces, and why. He did, but they were closing up and we didn't get to go check out what the girl said were some of her favorites.

On the way out, around the side, there was this odd one, several yellow tubes suspended from an overhead frame. Interesting, but it struck me as probably being pretty grubby, with everyone walking through it.

So, how did he do on the assignment??? He is already doing quite well in the class, so he didn't really need it that bad, which is a good thing, because he was supposed to turn in the receipt for admission as another part of it. Guess I missed that part, because I tossed it out.

Parents can be so irresponsible.