I went to the Museum yesterday. I hadn't been in a long time because of tournaments and whatnot. So when I walked into the doors yesterday I was totally shocked that there were LOTS of people there. I walked up the stars and heard things like, "I think the eggs are this way," which I thought was weird, until I found out that the Carnegie Museum has an annual Easter egg hunt.
Apparently, these little kids get these clues, and near the thing that they're supposed to find, there are a bunch of eggs and they get to have one.
It was a little while later and I was setting up the Jurassic cart with a fellow teen named Cathy, when all these kids and parents start coming up to us and asking us where the eggs were. I didn't have any eggs with me, but then they started asking us if we had a souropod egg and asking us where the baby apatasourous was, and I thought it was really strange until I found out that that was what the kids were supposed to find.
Then, a couple of minutes later, Linda, the teen who's in charge of us starts bringing this HUGE basket of plastic easter eggs over with a stamp pad. Apparently WE were supposed to be handing out the eggs after we explain the souropod egg and the kids find the baby apatasourous. Inside our eggs, there were those cheap fake tattoos.
Let me just say that it was crazy. In an hour and a half, we got over 300 visitors. I explained what the souropod egg was about a million times, and after a while, my tongue got all messed up and I couldn't speak. I think I let a kid hold the egg and said, "here, you can have it"when I really meant, "here, you can hold it." I think I also started pointing at the egg and saying "this is a dinosaur" a couple of times, which got people confused. But I had never said the same thing over and over again that many times before, and I have to say, it takes endurance.
The egg hunt finished at around one, so we packed up and headed to lunch. There were A LOT of eggs left over, so we got to get some of the goodies that were inside the eggs. Brandon, who's in college and comes in every Saturday to help out, started tattooing himself with those cheap little fake tattoos. On one arm, he put a dinosaur, and on the other, he said we could pick the tattoo for him, so we all picked a butterfly. He put the butterfly on, and then after admiring it for a couple of seconds, goes, "the thing is, I have a date tonight." After laughing for a bit, the us girls of the program insisted that guys with fake butterfly tattoos on their upper forearms are much cooler than those that don't have them.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Book #4: Bitterblue
It's been a while since I wrote a book review entry. I wrote one about King Lear, but I didn't review the book that I finished beforehand: Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore.
This book takes place in the same world that Graceling took place in. It's a magical fantasy land where there are these special people who are called Gracelings. Gracelings are like X-Men; they have supernatural abilities.
Bitterblue was quite longer than Graceling and Fire. I enjoyed getting to know the world better and getting to see the characters again. There was really great imagery, for I could imagine the world really well, and I think that Cashore put a lot of effort into thinking about it, which is really good. I still think that Po, one of the main characters in both Graceling and Bitterblue, is amazing.
However, the problem that I had with Bitterblue is that it had the same theme as Fire had. A daughter trying to find out who she is after the death of her terrible father. Maybe I would have thought it better if I hadn't read Fire, but Fire is the best out of all three books.
The reason that the book was too long, I think, is because of the many plots. There's a lot going on in this book, from Bitterblue's relationship with her friends, from the politics of the world, and figuring out how terrible Bitterblue's father, Leck, really was. Of course, there's a lot more, but I don't think it was really that necessary.
The one thing that really disappointed me was Fire's appearance in the book. I really like Fire's character, but her role in Bitterblue could have been so much bigger, and it wasn't. She appeared in the last couple of pages, only to leave again, with little interaction. And the little interaction there was was mostly politics.
One thing that I really liked was the fact that the characters were discovering Fire's world as well. Fire and Bitterblue take place in the same world, but neither of the worlds know that the other one exists, so it was cool to see how Bitterblue found Fire's world.
4 starts out of 5
This book takes place in the same world that Graceling took place in. It's a magical fantasy land where there are these special people who are called Gracelings. Gracelings are like X-Men; they have supernatural abilities.
Bitterblue was quite longer than Graceling and Fire. I enjoyed getting to know the world better and getting to see the characters again. There was really great imagery, for I could imagine the world really well, and I think that Cashore put a lot of effort into thinking about it, which is really good. I still think that Po, one of the main characters in both Graceling and Bitterblue, is amazing.
However, the problem that I had with Bitterblue is that it had the same theme as Fire had. A daughter trying to find out who she is after the death of her terrible father. Maybe I would have thought it better if I hadn't read Fire, but Fire is the best out of all three books.
The reason that the book was too long, I think, is because of the many plots. There's a lot going on in this book, from Bitterblue's relationship with her friends, from the politics of the world, and figuring out how terrible Bitterblue's father, Leck, really was. Of course, there's a lot more, but I don't think it was really that necessary.
The one thing that really disappointed me was Fire's appearance in the book. I really like Fire's character, but her role in Bitterblue could have been so much bigger, and it wasn't. She appeared in the last couple of pages, only to leave again, with little interaction. And the little interaction there was was mostly politics.
One thing that I really liked was the fact that the characters were discovering Fire's world as well. Fire and Bitterblue take place in the same world, but neither of the worlds know that the other one exists, so it was cool to see how Bitterblue found Fire's world.
4 starts out of 5
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Driving!!
After school today, I got into a driver's ed car to have driving lesson with driver's ed Fred. I had never driven before.
I got my permit last Friday. I was going to write a post about how terrible the DMV is, but since everybody knows what an awful place it is, I didn't think I needed to. After I got my permit, I called the driver's ed school that I had taken driver's ed from and asked if I could have some lessons to learn how to drive. Cindy, the other driver's ed teacher, said that I should start out with driver's ed Fred and not with my parents so I wouldn't learn any bad habits.
I told driver's ed Fred that I hadn't driven before, so he took me up to Highland Park. Highland Park has a one way road that just goes around in a circle around the park. It was actually a really nice place to start out.
I started out going what Fred called "grandma speed," which was about five miles an hour in a twenty five mile an our zone. Thankfully, there weren't that many cars around, so I wasn't causing traffic or anything. The thing is, "grandma speed" actually looks like you're going really fast if you're just looking forward, and then you look to the side and realize you could probably walk faster than you're going right now.
After a few laps around the park, I was starting to get the hang of it, and I was going at around twenty miles an hour. We stopped and talked about the steering wheel and the hand-over-hand technique, and we continued on. Another two laps later, driver's ed Fred asked if I wanted to go out into traffic.
This was a terrifying aspect to me. I was driving pretty well in a two lane, one way street, with minimal traffic, and a few dog walkers. But going out into traffic..... That means there's more people, way more cars, and those drivers who think it's a good idea to tailgate a driver's ed vehicle. But I figured that I would have to go out there sometime, and there was no better time than with an instructor, so, I said yes.
Normal traffic seems like a very crowded place. There are cars everywhere. I don't think the regular drivers who have been driving a while realize how many cars there are. There were those times when I would get that feeling. I would ask myself if I was really driving an actual vehicle or if I was really just sitting at home playing Mario Kart. Though, I have to say, I'm a pro at Mario Kart. When I look back on this in the future, I'll laugh at myself because by then, hopefully, driving will be a piece of cake.
But, I think I'm missing the point I'm trying to make. I DROVE HOME!!!! I drove 5.5 miles (I looked it up on Google maps) without crashing or killing anyone!!! Within an hour and a half, I was driving!!! Actually driving!!! And I went up to 35 miles an hour.
I got my permit last Friday. I was going to write a post about how terrible the DMV is, but since everybody knows what an awful place it is, I didn't think I needed to. After I got my permit, I called the driver's ed school that I had taken driver's ed from and asked if I could have some lessons to learn how to drive. Cindy, the other driver's ed teacher, said that I should start out with driver's ed Fred and not with my parents so I wouldn't learn any bad habits.
I told driver's ed Fred that I hadn't driven before, so he took me up to Highland Park. Highland Park has a one way road that just goes around in a circle around the park. It was actually a really nice place to start out.
I started out going what Fred called "grandma speed," which was about five miles an hour in a twenty five mile an our zone. Thankfully, there weren't that many cars around, so I wasn't causing traffic or anything. The thing is, "grandma speed" actually looks like you're going really fast if you're just looking forward, and then you look to the side and realize you could probably walk faster than you're going right now.
After a few laps around the park, I was starting to get the hang of it, and I was going at around twenty miles an hour. We stopped and talked about the steering wheel and the hand-over-hand technique, and we continued on. Another two laps later, driver's ed Fred asked if I wanted to go out into traffic.
This was a terrifying aspect to me. I was driving pretty well in a two lane, one way street, with minimal traffic, and a few dog walkers. But going out into traffic..... That means there's more people, way more cars, and those drivers who think it's a good idea to tailgate a driver's ed vehicle. But I figured that I would have to go out there sometime, and there was no better time than with an instructor, so, I said yes.
Normal traffic seems like a very crowded place. There are cars everywhere. I don't think the regular drivers who have been driving a while realize how many cars there are. There were those times when I would get that feeling. I would ask myself if I was really driving an actual vehicle or if I was really just sitting at home playing Mario Kart. Though, I have to say, I'm a pro at Mario Kart. When I look back on this in the future, I'll laugh at myself because by then, hopefully, driving will be a piece of cake.
But, I think I'm missing the point I'm trying to make. I DROVE HOME!!!! I drove 5.5 miles (I looked it up on Google maps) without crashing or killing anyone!!! Within an hour and a half, I was driving!!! Actually driving!!! And I went up to 35 miles an hour.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Book #5: King Lear
I know I didn't do a book review for my fourth book. Maybe I'll write about it later. But right now, I'm talking about King Lear.
King Lear is apparently regarded as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. I don't know what to think about this. It was certainly good, but I don't think it was great, and I'll tell you why.
I liked the premise of the play. A senile King wants to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, and decides who he's going to give his land. He does this by asking his daughters to show him their lover for him by flattering him and one of the daughters refuses, because, you know, that's not what love is. He ends up banishing her and banishing his dearest friend Kent for standing up for her. Over time he starts to realize who really loves and he also looses his mind at the same time.
So I don't have problems with the characters and how they change, though I did think it was gross when Regan and her Cornwall were clawing out Gloucester's eyes. It's the ending that needs work.
Everybody dies.
Now I realize that this is a Shakespeare tragedy, so everyone has to die. But I didn't like the way that they died, and I didn't like the reasons that were given for their deaths. In the fifth act, when everyone's dying, someone comes in to tell Lear that Regan died, and then moments later, Goneril commits suicide, and it's just very fast and I don't like it. Lear dies from a heart attack, which, is probably the most understandable of all of the deaths, because he's old. But then Gloucester dies for the same reason, which is lame. The suicides are just strange because Goneril didn't need to commit suicide. Sure, she just had poisoned her sister, but she also did some very mean things to Lear, so I don't exactly think that she died because she realized she was in the wrong and was too grief-stricken or something. But she just dies. Edgar kills Edmund and that's fine, because Edmund deserved it, but then there's this weird moment when Edmund tries to save Lear and Cordelia. This, like Goneril's suicide, doesn't make any sense, because it's not like he repented or anything. He, like Goneril, is too evil.
And then, after everyone's dead, Albany (Goneril's husband) asks Kent if he would like to rule the kingdom with him, but he declines and says that he's going to commit suicide too so he can be with his master. So the only people left are Albany and Edgar. Two out of 15 people in the story survived. Seems like over kill. Shakespeare really does like to kill people. And I guess I don't mind it as long as he gives a good reason, and in this play, he didn't.
King Lear is apparently regarded as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. I don't know what to think about this. It was certainly good, but I don't think it was great, and I'll tell you why.
I liked the premise of the play. A senile King wants to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, and decides who he's going to give his land. He does this by asking his daughters to show him their lover for him by flattering him and one of the daughters refuses, because, you know, that's not what love is. He ends up banishing her and banishing his dearest friend Kent for standing up for her. Over time he starts to realize who really loves and he also looses his mind at the same time.
So I don't have problems with the characters and how they change, though I did think it was gross when Regan and her Cornwall were clawing out Gloucester's eyes. It's the ending that needs work.
Everybody dies.
Now I realize that this is a Shakespeare tragedy, so everyone has to die. But I didn't like the way that they died, and I didn't like the reasons that were given for their deaths. In the fifth act, when everyone's dying, someone comes in to tell Lear that Regan died, and then moments later, Goneril commits suicide, and it's just very fast and I don't like it. Lear dies from a heart attack, which, is probably the most understandable of all of the deaths, because he's old. But then Gloucester dies for the same reason, which is lame. The suicides are just strange because Goneril didn't need to commit suicide. Sure, she just had poisoned her sister, but she also did some very mean things to Lear, so I don't exactly think that she died because she realized she was in the wrong and was too grief-stricken or something. But she just dies. Edgar kills Edmund and that's fine, because Edmund deserved it, but then there's this weird moment when Edmund tries to save Lear and Cordelia. This, like Goneril's suicide, doesn't make any sense, because it's not like he repented or anything. He, like Goneril, is too evil.
And then, after everyone's dead, Albany (Goneril's husband) asks Kent if he would like to rule the kingdom with him, but he declines and says that he's going to commit suicide too so he can be with his master. So the only people left are Albany and Edgar. Two out of 15 people in the story survived. Seems like over kill. Shakespeare really does like to kill people. And I guess I don't mind it as long as he gives a good reason, and in this play, he didn't.
Friday, March 1, 2013
I Knew That Before It Was Popular
I'm not exactly a hipster. But I do know a lot of hipsters. So here I'm going to explain why I think hipsters always say "I knew that before it was popular."
I think it's a sense of possession. We humans like to own things, and I think that if you own something that nobody else owns, it's very special. It's especially obvious when you're young. That doll that your mother made for you was even more special than the one bought from the store. That awesome treehouse that you have in the back yard is the coolest thing ever.
But hipsters own something that is available to the public. They listen to music that everyone can access on iTunes or whatnot, but everyone doesn't, because they don't know about it. So this makes the music special. It's their own very special music.
Then the music becomes popular. This is the most terrible thing that can happen from the perspective of a hipster. Now that the music is popular, it's not as valuable anymore, because people know about it. And then it gets played on the radio (not even the best songs on the album, just a select few, which personally bugs me) and it's lost its magic. Then the hipsters stop listening to it because it's lost its value, and then they have to go find music that nobody knows about and then the cycle starts all over again. And whenever you hear that song from that band that nobody knew about six months ago on the radio, you shake your head because you knew it before it was popular and now surely their music is going to be really bad from now on because fame is going to go to their heads. It's tragic, really.
Oh, and then there are those people who call themselves "fans" of the band even though they only know the one song that's being played on the radio.
Because I am sort of a hipster, I am going to say a few things:
I knew Imagine Dragons before they were popular.
AND FOR GOODNESS SAKES I KNEW OF MONSTERS AND MEN BEFORE THEY WERE POPULAR. I STARTED LISTENING TO THEM LAST MARCH OR APRIL. But I still listen to them even though they're well known now because their music is really good. Though I still believe that Little Talks is not their best song.
I think it's a sense of possession. We humans like to own things, and I think that if you own something that nobody else owns, it's very special. It's especially obvious when you're young. That doll that your mother made for you was even more special than the one bought from the store. That awesome treehouse that you have in the back yard is the coolest thing ever.
But hipsters own something that is available to the public. They listen to music that everyone can access on iTunes or whatnot, but everyone doesn't, because they don't know about it. So this makes the music special. It's their own very special music.
Then the music becomes popular. This is the most terrible thing that can happen from the perspective of a hipster. Now that the music is popular, it's not as valuable anymore, because people know about it. And then it gets played on the radio (not even the best songs on the album, just a select few, which personally bugs me) and it's lost its magic. Then the hipsters stop listening to it because it's lost its value, and then they have to go find music that nobody knows about and then the cycle starts all over again. And whenever you hear that song from that band that nobody knew about six months ago on the radio, you shake your head because you knew it before it was popular and now surely their music is going to be really bad from now on because fame is going to go to their heads. It's tragic, really.
Oh, and then there are those people who call themselves "fans" of the band even though they only know the one song that's being played on the radio.
Because I am sort of a hipster, I am going to say a few things:
I knew Imagine Dragons before they were popular.
AND FOR GOODNESS SAKES I KNEW OF MONSTERS AND MEN BEFORE THEY WERE POPULAR. I STARTED LISTENING TO THEM LAST MARCH OR APRIL. But I still listen to them even though they're well known now because their music is really good. Though I still believe that Little Talks is not their best song.
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