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.

Gatsby

Tonight was the firstborn's Winter Formal at his school. The theme was "A Night at Gatsby", 20's attire encouraged.

He told me this, and I told him, "I've got a 3-piece you're going to want to use!!!" 3-piece works for most occasions, and fit the bill nicely.

His lady looked amazing. To hear her tell it, it took the better part of the day.

Oh, and she was quite impressed with how he looked. I told them that they both clean up pretty nice. (Truth be told, she always looks good)

The second picture is the only one I actually took, in the alley. The rest are pics of pics from what I assume to be a photo booth.

Of course, I had to ask him how it went. Naturally, the only acceptable answer would be, "Great!!!"

Getting my Saturns in a Row

For a change, at the end of last year, I had a few days besides the holidays off. I took the Friday before Christmas as my last personal day (the day after goody day, I wasn't going to miss that!!!), then I had scheduled my last two vacation days for the Monday and Tuesday between the weekend and Christmas day off. The kids are out of school, and the extended family always has interesting time conflicts or constraints for getting together for Christmas, so I figured with all those days off we should be able to get something going. In addition to family time and relaxation (read: playing more Runescape) I'd planned on getting some stuff done around the house. Those were my plans.

Of course, something always comes up, doesn't it??? On the Wednesday before all this I was driving into work, and on the transition ramp, and the transmission shifted down much firmer than usual. Strange. When I got off the freeway, it was acting like it was low on fluid, not wanting to connect and accelerate on the launches. Just a little further, just far enough to get to work, please!!! All the while visions of shot transmissions dancing in my head. On the very last stretch, the charge light starts flickering. Stranger still. When I got parked, I left her running and popped the hood. The A/C compressor and the power steering pump were spinning fine, but the alternator wasn't turning. Sounds right, but what's really going on here??? Shut it down, and checked the alternator. It turns fine, but I shouldn't be able to do that with the belt on there. No belt tension. Belt tensioner goes, belt has no tension and stops turning the higher draining devices. Not enough juice, and a computer controlled tranny acts up, at least I hope that's what it is!!!

Called up my dad, told him my tale of woe, and he agrees to help me out, getting baby towed to his place and swapping his truck with me. So, on my first day off, I end up going down to their house and putting a new tensioner and drive belt on me car, as well as doing an oil change while I've got it up on jack stands. A little battery charge, and it runs like it had never had a problem. Success!!!

All's good, right??? The next couple of days were spent getting the final presents bought and wrapped, and food for the extended family get together, which was going to happen on Monday. Monday rolls around, and we load up the wife's car (name really hasn't stuck, but I call her the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, and ode to National Lampoon's Vacation) and head on down. There's some traffic, and as soon as it eases up, I get to accelerating, and lo and behold, it feels like the transmission isn't hooking up, like it was low on fluid. Deja vu all over again!!! I pull off the freeway and find a car parts store. Checking the transmission this time reveals that yes, the transmission is actually low on fluid!!! I guess all the fluid slicking down the underside of the car should have given me a clue. Bought a couple quarts and filled her up, and headed back homeward with my fingers crossed. Made it about a mile back, and it was slipping again, so I pulled off and called triple A for a tow back home.

Here's where things get interesting. The tow truck shows up fairly quick, but refuses to tow the car back to our house!!! On account of our house is on a hill. Never mind that, just about every year for the last 18 that we've lived here I've ended up having some car or another towed home!!! I called triple A back, and they say they'll get in touch with dispatch and call me back. They don't. I call them again, probably 45 minutes or so later, and they say the same thing again. Same results. Sometime in there, my dad was picking up my nephew a bit over from there, and he swings by to pick up the rest of the family and the presents and the ham. Long story short, it was FIVE HOURS AAA STRANDED ME IN THE GHETTO before I was able to get towed, and the ONLY reason I was able to get towed was I told them to tow it to my parent's house. I think it was four times I called when triple A that they said they would call me back that they didn't, and finally I got in touch with one of the head people there. Not impressed, AAA. What good is it having an emergency roadside assistance plan if they won't tow you home??? I suspect that, since it was in one of those crooked 3rd world fiefdoms along the 710 freeway that the tow company there has a lock on all the business in the area and no one else is allowed to tow cars there. SO, that's how I blew day 2 of all my last vacation days of the year.

Final day off I spent driving down to my parents house (thanks, AAA, there's another hour and a half of my life wasted, could have been doing this in my own driveway) and cleaning all that fluid off the best I could. I suspected one of the cooler lines to the transmission, or the filter, or one of the shaft seals. I was right about that, it was leaking around the filter, which on these Saturns is a spin on, much like an oil filter. Got a fresh one and much fluid, and she was back on the road!!! A little troubling is some of the noises it makes on acceleration, kinda a "nnninnng nnninnng niiinnnng" as it goes, but it feels and drives the same as it always has. Fingers crossed again.

Long story short, of all the days I had off, Christmas was the only one I was able to do much relaxing on!!!

The Bat Cave

Here's the thing we did on the first day of 2014. We went up to the Bat Cave!!!

Bronson caves is what they're actually known as, and they've been featured in several sci-fi and western movies, as well as countless TV shows and a Jim Morrison photo shoot. We went there years ago, probably around ten or so now. Thought I'd done a post on it before, but I couldn't find it.

It's a really short hike up there, and there were a TON of like minded people there today!!!

It's a nice scenic area, great for taking some pictures!!! Both my wife and younger boy brought along their Christmas presents, and were snapping pictures with them.

The cave itself... actually a tunnel, or series of tunnels. There's four portals.

Since you haven't gotten much of a workout hiking up there, there's plenty of little side trails going off to the sides!!!

Also right in the area is the Hollywood sign.

Just a ways up from Camp Hollywoodland!!!

Up by the end is another trailhead, that leads up to a much better view of the sign.

Interesting artwork!!!

And a naturally occurring half pipe!!!

And there's the boy and mom, taking selfies!!!

Instant Karma

Happy 2014!!!

SO, today we went out to the Bronson Caves in Griffith Park for a little hike. Also known as The Bat Cave, where they filmed the old TV series, as well as many other shows and movies. You can also see the Hollywood sign from there, too. It was pretty cool. My youngest already posted this, so it's mostly copied and pasted from his stream. More pictures and details to come, but now this!!!

The point of this post is to tell how we CHEATED DEATH!!! On the drive home, this guy in a mini truck gets in the right turn lane next to us, then when the light tuns green, he goes straight and cuts back into our lane! I lay on the horn, and the guy just gives us the finger. OK, whatever. Drive on.

A few blocks up the street, he’s still ahead of us a ways (no doubt exceeding the speed limit), when a car pulls out turning left across his path!!! He locks up his brakes, which makes all kinds of smoke, but there was no escape, he hit the back end of the other car and spun them out, doing extensive damage to both the cars. With catlike reflexes and expert skill, I manage to thread the needle between the two cars!!! My son saw the guy’s license plate go flying off when he hit!!! Of course, he was the only one with the foresight to get any pictures (on his new, my old Ipod).

Instant Karma!!!

Looking Back II: Jury Duty

Back in November I had my annual jury duty summons.

I had rescheduled from when I'd originally gotten my summons. That had fallen on the weeks that I had for vacation. I wasn't paying close attention, and almost missed the week it was. Turned out to be the week of Veteran's day, so of course the courts weren't open on Monday. On my first call in day, I was told not to come in. Same for the next two, and I figured that I'd end up skating since it was a short week. No dice, I had to go in on Friday.

For a change, it was at a different courthouse than I usually get assigned to. I usually look forward to jury duty because there's much photogenic in downtown. Not so at this one!!! The one main thing nearby was this giant chair. I know I've seen it before, but I'm not sure if I've gotten a shot of it before.

There's the courthouse in the background of the third shot...

There was still a bit of good architecture around the area for the photographing...

I'm pretty sure that just a block up from there is where I caught a shot of Fred Flintstone, but it was almost to the time we were told to be back by. I think I spent more time looking for the post with that picture than anything else for this post so far...

From a distance, the Ritz Carlton where we'd had a work Christmas party a few years back.

One nice thing, the parking was on site. Two levels down, there's a pigeon!!! What are you doing down here???

...And a shot on the wing!!!

One of my favorite shots, the train in the rear view!!!

The rest of the shots are from the drive home. Another nice thing, the weather was pretty good for taking pictures!!!

Love the downtown architecture!!!

First time, I didn't get called for a jury. Usually I end up on a panel, then getting kicked off because the prosecutor doesn't like me!!!

Pink wedding gown, anyone???

Hey, there's a cat on the roof over there!!!

Finally, a decent shot of the dragon gateway going into Chinatown!!!