Well everyone, after 4 and a half years, 9 total semesters, I am fully graduated. Boy, this was a journey. I had some really crazy classes, really fun adventures, and all sorts of fun and stress. You can look through the last 4 years of posts if you want to remember the fun. But this isn't a time to talk about all the old times, I already have. Today, I'm going to talk about the ending of it all.
Lets go back to the week before finals. This was when I had the last meetings of all my clubs. With my students for life club, we had a nice Christmas party where we listened to Christmas music, ate snack foods, made baby blankets to donate to the crisis pregnancy center that Brandi volunteered for, and were our overall goofy selves. I played Veggie Tales Christmas Silly Songs (Oh Santa and 8 Polish Foods Of Christmas) and Bob and Doug McKenzi's 12 Day of Christmas. Since we're like an unofficial Christian group (all the members just happen to be Catholic), everyone recognized the Veggie Tales songs, and then the older guys in the group thought Bob and Doug's 12 Days of Christmas was funny because of the "on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a beer." Good final time with them.
At my last filmmakers club meeting, I gave a going away speech as the last OG member. I gave a history of the club from the beginning, and how all the events impacted me and the group as a whole for better or worse. It was a really moving speech, and a great way to say fair well to the club that kept me from just being surrounded by engineers 24/7. At my Pokemon club we had a little pizza party, and I brought book marks for all the club members. These were official scholastic book fair Pokemon bookmarks my mom got to give to her students, but she said "no, my son and his Pokemon club will appreciate these more than my students," and they did. We played some Pokemon TCG, and then played smash bros and Pokemon Stadium. I dominated at the minigames, for the most part. There were some games where the input lag on the HDTV screwed me over, and I was like "I want a rematch, on a CRT. Lets go out to the smash players with their CRT's and play without input lag." Yeah, that's me. We didn't though, and I still won. Afterwards I tried selling some of my duplicate amiibo, but that failed. Oh well. Anyone want to buy Sonic new in box?
Finals pre-weekend I did what I always do, lock my self in my dorm and study like crazy. I did, for the most part. I only had 3 REAL finals considering that 1 final was a presentation (Tri-Z) and another was a guided discussion (Health and Wellness). Saturday I studied for Digital Logic, and Sunday I studied for Mechanics of Materials and History of the World. I probably should have divided them up more evenly since History and Mechanics were the harder subjects. Oh well. I ultimately did well in all my classes. My Tri-Z presentation went well, and I got my ISM challenge coin afterwards. That presentation was on Monday, my only test Monday. I did help my one friend study for digital logic on Monday. He somehow got a bootleg copy of the final from last year, and we studied off that. I helped him by showing him how to do those problems, and it helped me by having to teach the material.
On Tuesday I had Digital Logic and Health and Wellness finals. Digital Logic was one of the easiest tests I've ever taken. We had 2 hours to do the test. I was done in 45 minutes. It wasn't just because the test was almost identical to the one from the previous year, but because I was just so prepared. Boy, a 2000 level class is REALLY simple when you're used to 4000 (almost 5000) level classes. Then the discussion for Health and Wellness was really easy, just talk about the semester as a class. After the final some friends and I went to McDonald's to get Pokemon Happy Meals. Yeah, 3 college students, 1 a graduating senior, went to get Pokemon Happy Meals. We were a sight. It was great to hang out with them outside of a classroom setting. I'm going to keep in contact with them.
On Wednesday I had my Mechanics of Materials and World History finals. Mechanics I was confident, but kind of unjustly so, because I only knew about half of the stuff on it for sure, and the other half I kind of knew the general concept. Ultimately I think I did well enough considering that I got an A in the class. Whatever. In my history class I think I also did fairly well, even though I just kept cramming and cramming without much results. I went to the room an hour beforehand in hopes that it would keep me from getting distracted. It kind of did, but not really. I still got an A though. That night my friend since freshman year and I hung out to celebrate the end of finals and film a parody theme song for Pokemon based on engineering. I'll get that uploaded at the end of the week. Fun time.
Now for Thursday. On Thursday the only big thing was going to pick up my brother. He was getting a ride to about where my college was. OK, it was like 50 miles from my college, but closer than his college at the other end of the state. He and I did some packing, but mostly hung out. We watched a James Bond film until he passed out from exhaustion on my futon.
Friday is when the festivities really began. First of all I had to get my brother's ticket for graduation. I showed up to the ticket counter at about 9 AM, told them my name and how many tickets I needed, and then went on my way. My dad got up to my school around noon, and we were moving out my stuff. I was planning on checking out on Saturday, but because I didn't go through the necessary steps, I had to move out on Friday. Whoops. Oh well, we were able to get it all out and in the vehicles. Not long before I was all done my mom arrived after dropping my grandparents off at the hotel. She moved some things. After getting all my stuff out, I went through the procedure to check out and turn in my keys. I said bye to my dorm room of 2 and a half years. It was alright. After that we went to the hotel and picked up my grandparents for my honors college chord presentation. I graduated with honors and got honors chords to show it. There was a little ceremony where we were presented with our chords. It was a nice little ceremony, and my mom got to see the parents and grandparents of my one friend who is the cousin of one of her friends. It's a really small world. We met in calc 2, and by coincidence my mom found out that he's the cousin of some of her old college friends. Yeah, funny how life is. At the ceremony we have someone important to our college journey present us with our chords. I had my grandma give me my chords.
After the ceremony, we made our Christmas card photo with me in my graduation get-up and my parents and brother. After the picture, we went right to Costco to get them in so they would be ready the next day. However, since it was a really slow night, they said they would be ready in an hour. So we ordered our pizza and waited. For some reason this kid just walked up to me and started talking with me about Pokemon. I asked him "do I know you?" and he said "maybe, you look familiar." My mom found it very surreal since the kid dressed and acted like me at that age, and was very into Pokemon. I tried to be as uncreepy as possible, since he was like 10 years younger than me and I was a stranger, but I also didn't want to be all "go away kid." It was really weird.
On Saturday, it was the main event. It's all been leading up to this. I wake up, eat breakfast with my family, and get fully dressed for the occasion (freshly ironed gown, honors stole, 2 sets of honors chords, and hat with 2 tassels, one for my college and one for my university). We drive up to the auditorium to drop my grandparents and I off. I had to go check in. I found my way to the graduate area. After finding the right place for my college, I got my things and found a seat. I looked for friends to sit next to, but none of my friends had showed up yet. I'm really glad I brought my 3DS with me. After about 15 minutes one of my good college friends showed up. We talked for the other 15 minutes while we waited. Nothing super earth shattering, just some nerd small talk. I filled out the card for getting graduation pictures once those came around. All went well.
Well now it's time to march us out. I was expecting alphabetical order, but instead they called our names when we gave them the card with our names on it, which made it fun to sit next to friends, but hard to coordinate when to take snapshots of the event. I set-up a text to tell my brother to get ready when I was next. Before we walked into the auditorium I got my picture taken back stage. We walked out into the auditorium and got some speeches. They were nice speeches. The best was when the president of the university used the meme that surrounds him. It was great. I walk back stage, get in line, tell the people calling the names my name, and then walk out. I had my family cheer for me, shook hands with the university president while receiving my $100,000 piece of paper, shook hands with the dean of the engineering college while receiving my engineering challenge coin, shook hands with my professors that were there, and hug the lady that works in the admission office. It was great to walk. Afterwards I made some jokes to my friend, like when the president said "by the power vested in me by this institution, I now pronounce you graduates," when I leaned over and said "you may now kiss the diploma," and also when there was a 3rd "the third" I leaned over and said "that's the third third." Great ceromony.
So after the ceremony I was tasked with finding my family. I ran into the same friend that I filmed the engineer Pokemon parody with. He somehow got a ticket to see the graduation. I gave him a hug and thanked him for being there. In true style, he said "no problem bro, I'm glad I could be here." I found my family not to hard, and we took some pictures and went out to lunch. I invited my friend, and he came to say hi to my family, but he wasn't able to stay. My family liked him, and he liked them. At the restaurant he thanked me for the academic help and I thanked him for the "have some fun" help. Another friend to keep contact with. After lunch we went back to the hotel room and relaxed. I opened up my graduation cards later that evening.
Sunday was the last of the graduation festivities. We went to my student church, me dressed in my graduation get-up. Hey, I spent around $100 on this, so I'm going to get some wear out of it. I got recognized as a graduate as well as other graduates. After church we went to get some final pictures, basically recreating the ones I took as an incoming freshman, but with my cap and gown. After that I drove home, alone. The last thing of mentioning with regards to graduation is how I wore my cap and gown tor my other grandpa who wasn't able to make it to the graduation. He got to put my honors chords on me, and pull me around by them like a pack animal. Just some fun.
Man, this was crazy. It's weird knowing that I won't be going back to school at the end of my little break. Right now I'm working on fining a job, and my prospects seem OK.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Losing a Friend, a Difficult Blog to Write
Hey everyone, this is not an easy blog to write, and one I don't necessarily want to write, but to honor her memory, I must share this story.
So 1 week ago I lost my friend Brandi M. She was a wonderful person who was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. We first met in Students for Life, she was our vice president, and an active member in the pro-life movement, having founded and leading the local Young Professionals For Life group in the local area of our college. With her activism in the Pro-Life movement, it is almost befitting that the last time I and others saw her was at our Students for Life meeting just last week. It is really crazy to think that just 1 week ago we were all hanging out, talking about the pro-life movement in our local area and in the big picture.
On Tuesday November 24th we had the visitation and on Wednesday November 25th we had the funeral. I unfortunately had bad information and missed the visitation. The obituary implied that the visitation would be at the church, and when I got there they were having bingo, definitely not visitation for my departed friend. After calling a string of friends I got some directions to the funeral home. I got lost on the way, and while I think I made it to the right funeral home in retrospect, there wasn't anything saying that this was the visitation for Brandi and there was like an example book out. I thought "I'm not going to crash someone else's visitation." I wish I had good information, but the visitation is not what is important, the funeral is.
On Wednesday I woke-up, packed up my stuff to drive home for Thanksgiving break, and left for the funeral. I met up with the old president of Students for Life (my first president, and I think Brandi's as well), and we sat together. Not to much time later, her best friend and former president she worked with along with the current president of Students for Life arrived. It was a very nice service. There were some good readings, stories of Brandi, remembering her final days, and the other good but hard stuff.
After the ceremony, some of the Students for Life members and alumni met up before heading to the cemetery. What was really nice was that the former president and vice president of College Republicans also made it. While Brandi wasn't active in College Republicans, she and the president of the time started going to meetings to try to build collaboration between the 2 conservative groups (in addition to hanging out with the members that were in both groups). It was great seeing them again, even under the circumstances. Another notable person to show up was the regional coordinator for students for life. He's been to our meetings a couple of times, and I'm sure he knew Brandi rather well. Neither the College Republicans nor the regional coordinator were able to make it to the cemetery, but it meant a lot to us student for life members to know that they both made it.
The funeral was hard enough, but the cemetery was even harder. All us Student for Life members and alumni gathered together and formed a group to say our final goodbyes. All of us laid our hands on the casket together, all the while crying over the loss of our dear friend. We were some of the last people to say our goodbyes. After we left the casket, we all stood off to the side and group hugged as we cried. After the group hug broke up, we hugged each other individually, just passing from one partner to another. We were the last people to get in our cars. No one talked except for her best friend saying "thank-you" after the group hug. We were quite a sight, like something out of a movie. As we were leaving the cemetery, someone had written "BRAND ANGEL" on a piece of plywood on the other side of the fence in the trailer park neighboring the cemetery. That was nice to see.
At the luncheon immediately following the cemetery I was able to talk to the friends I haven't seen in forever about what they have been up to. It was a good hour to help me get my head around what just we just experienced. I really needed that because I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. I was glad I had that 3 hour drive ahead of me, because it gave me the time I needed to process everything that has happened. When driving home, I saw a bill board for pro-life activism, and that hit rather hard since she was so active in the pro-life movement. The world with not be the same without you Brandi, and we will all miss you.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
PS: If you would like to read about Brandi's journeys in the pro-life movement, you can read her blog here.
So 1 week ago I lost my friend Brandi M. She was a wonderful person who was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. We first met in Students for Life, she was our vice president, and an active member in the pro-life movement, having founded and leading the local Young Professionals For Life group in the local area of our college. With her activism in the Pro-Life movement, it is almost befitting that the last time I and others saw her was at our Students for Life meeting just last week. It is really crazy to think that just 1 week ago we were all hanging out, talking about the pro-life movement in our local area and in the big picture.
On Tuesday November 24th we had the visitation and on Wednesday November 25th we had the funeral. I unfortunately had bad information and missed the visitation. The obituary implied that the visitation would be at the church, and when I got there they were having bingo, definitely not visitation for my departed friend. After calling a string of friends I got some directions to the funeral home. I got lost on the way, and while I think I made it to the right funeral home in retrospect, there wasn't anything saying that this was the visitation for Brandi and there was like an example book out. I thought "I'm not going to crash someone else's visitation." I wish I had good information, but the visitation is not what is important, the funeral is.
On Wednesday I woke-up, packed up my stuff to drive home for Thanksgiving break, and left for the funeral. I met up with the old president of Students for Life (my first president, and I think Brandi's as well), and we sat together. Not to much time later, her best friend and former president she worked with along with the current president of Students for Life arrived. It was a very nice service. There were some good readings, stories of Brandi, remembering her final days, and the other good but hard stuff.
After the ceremony, some of the Students for Life members and alumni met up before heading to the cemetery. What was really nice was that the former president and vice president of College Republicans also made it. While Brandi wasn't active in College Republicans, she and the president of the time started going to meetings to try to build collaboration between the 2 conservative groups (in addition to hanging out with the members that were in both groups). It was great seeing them again, even under the circumstances. Another notable person to show up was the regional coordinator for students for life. He's been to our meetings a couple of times, and I'm sure he knew Brandi rather well. Neither the College Republicans nor the regional coordinator were able to make it to the cemetery, but it meant a lot to us student for life members to know that they both made it.
The funeral was hard enough, but the cemetery was even harder. All us Student for Life members and alumni gathered together and formed a group to say our final goodbyes. All of us laid our hands on the casket together, all the while crying over the loss of our dear friend. We were some of the last people to say our goodbyes. After we left the casket, we all stood off to the side and group hugged as we cried. After the group hug broke up, we hugged each other individually, just passing from one partner to another. We were the last people to get in our cars. No one talked except for her best friend saying "thank-you" after the group hug. We were quite a sight, like something out of a movie. As we were leaving the cemetery, someone had written "BRAND ANGEL" on a piece of plywood on the other side of the fence in the trailer park neighboring the cemetery. That was nice to see.
At the luncheon immediately following the cemetery I was able to talk to the friends I haven't seen in forever about what they have been up to. It was a good hour to help me get my head around what just we just experienced. I really needed that because I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. I was glad I had that 3 hour drive ahead of me, because it gave me the time I needed to process everything that has happened. When driving home, I saw a bill board for pro-life activism, and that hit rather hard since she was so active in the pro-life movement. The world with not be the same without you Brandi, and we will all miss you.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
PS: If you would like to read about Brandi's journeys in the pro-life movement, you can read her blog here.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Amiibo Hunting and Final Loads of Free Crap Bash
(This is a little late. Events happened on September 11th 2015)
Hey everyone. Today is a rather dark day in history. In respect, all flags around campus were flown at half mast, and members of the military stood around one flagpole in reverence. As I passed that flag pole, I took my own moment of silence, and remembered how the world would never be the same after that day 14 years ago.
Coincidentally enough, this was also the day for my college's "loads of free crap bash" as I've come to call it. In previous years I've spent pretty much the whole day there, going to different booths, seeing what organizations are available on campus, and getting loads of free crap; pens, magnets, coupons, lanyards, and just out there stuff. It was great freshman year because that's how I figured out how to get involved, and sophomore year was kind of the same but to a lesser extent. But after sophomore year I know the clubs I had time for and could be in, so it just became about the free stuff, but I made sure to see everyone, and then last year I helped out with one of my clubs.
Well this year I wasn't able to have the level of fun I normally had. The bash was from 3-7, and I had class at the engineering campus from 4-6:30. This meant I would be able to wander around for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for my class. I also had class from 2-2:50 so that meant I wasn't able to help the clubs I'm in get set-up. Well, I was able to help my film club set-up some at 1:40 since their booth was right outside the building I had my class in, but not much. After the class I headed out with my singe sack and went grabbing. Most of the good stuff you have to play a mini-game for, and wait in line. While I enjoy the mini-games, I wasn't about to wait in line, so I just went to the open booths. I picked up a bunch of pens and magnets per usual, and a couple cups.
Instead of just listing it, I'll show a picture.
I have flyers, thunder sticks, a Frisbee, a hat, a micro USB cable, and some other things as you can see.
I was a bit surprised with how much stuff I got in the period of 30 minutes. I went to class, and the cool thing was that since this was the first week, and it's not a traditional learning environment, we were done at 5:15, which meant I could head back to the bash. Most people packed up, and I already got the good stuff, so I went to my Pokemon club and sat at the booth for 15 minutes. Then they decided to pack-up, so I went to my film club's booth and sat there for 30 minutes, and helped them pack up afterwards. They had balloons to draw the eye, and I claimed them. Lets see how long they last.
Another point of mention is Amiibo Hunting. Wave 5B I think we're calling it was released September 11th 2015, and normally I'm not able to Amiibo hunt the day of release because I had to work or didn't have a car. Not this time. This time, I went to Meijer at midnight to get what they had. I picked up Zero Suit Samus, Ganondorff, and Olimar. I was going to get 8-bit Mario, but something was wrong with my card so I was only able to get those 3. Besides, I was going to go to Target at 8AM to get Dr. Mario, so I'll try to get 8-bit Mario then as well. Neither store had many units available, so I'm glad I was there when I did. I was missing Bowser Jr. but I didn't know of a Toys R Us around my campus so I was going to let him go, but on Saturday I googled Toys R Us in my area, and I found one a couple miles away. I called them to see if they had Bowser Jr. in stock, and they did. I picked up Bowser Jr. and since they also had Smash Yoshi, I picked one of those up as well since all I can ever find is Mario Party Yoshi. It was pretty cool doing a midnight and store opening release. At Meijer people were just lining up and hanging out at the electronics counter, and at Target people were lining up outside the store. I was pulling in when they were handing out "line numbers," so I didn't get one, but I made sure I made it to the front of the no-number line.
Well that was my Friday and Saturday. It's weird that this will be my last "free crap bash." The closest thing I will ever have to this again will be a business convention and job fair, but it'll be professional instead of recreational, or maybe a convention, but the vendors charge for their stuff. But hey, Amiibo hunting was fun. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.
Hey everyone. Today is a rather dark day in history. In respect, all flags around campus were flown at half mast, and members of the military stood around one flagpole in reverence. As I passed that flag pole, I took my own moment of silence, and remembered how the world would never be the same after that day 14 years ago.
Coincidentally enough, this was also the day for my college's "loads of free crap bash" as I've come to call it. In previous years I've spent pretty much the whole day there, going to different booths, seeing what organizations are available on campus, and getting loads of free crap; pens, magnets, coupons, lanyards, and just out there stuff. It was great freshman year because that's how I figured out how to get involved, and sophomore year was kind of the same but to a lesser extent. But after sophomore year I know the clubs I had time for and could be in, so it just became about the free stuff, but I made sure to see everyone, and then last year I helped out with one of my clubs.
Well this year I wasn't able to have the level of fun I normally had. The bash was from 3-7, and I had class at the engineering campus from 4-6:30. This meant I would be able to wander around for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for my class. I also had class from 2-2:50 so that meant I wasn't able to help the clubs I'm in get set-up. Well, I was able to help my film club set-up some at 1:40 since their booth was right outside the building I had my class in, but not much. After the class I headed out with my singe sack and went grabbing. Most of the good stuff you have to play a mini-game for, and wait in line. While I enjoy the mini-games, I wasn't about to wait in line, so I just went to the open booths. I picked up a bunch of pens and magnets per usual, and a couple cups.
Instead of just listing it, I'll show a picture.
I was a bit surprised with how much stuff I got in the period of 30 minutes. I went to class, and the cool thing was that since this was the first week, and it's not a traditional learning environment, we were done at 5:15, which meant I could head back to the bash. Most people packed up, and I already got the good stuff, so I went to my Pokemon club and sat at the booth for 15 minutes. Then they decided to pack-up, so I went to my film club's booth and sat there for 30 minutes, and helped them pack up afterwards. They had balloons to draw the eye, and I claimed them. Lets see how long they last.
Another point of mention is Amiibo Hunting. Wave 5B I think we're calling it was released September 11th 2015, and normally I'm not able to Amiibo hunt the day of release because I had to work or didn't have a car. Not this time. This time, I went to Meijer at midnight to get what they had. I picked up Zero Suit Samus, Ganondorff, and Olimar. I was going to get 8-bit Mario, but something was wrong with my card so I was only able to get those 3. Besides, I was going to go to Target at 8AM to get Dr. Mario, so I'll try to get 8-bit Mario then as well. Neither store had many units available, so I'm glad I was there when I did. I was missing Bowser Jr. but I didn't know of a Toys R Us around my campus so I was going to let him go, but on Saturday I googled Toys R Us in my area, and I found one a couple miles away. I called them to see if they had Bowser Jr. in stock, and they did. I picked up Bowser Jr. and since they also had Smash Yoshi, I picked one of those up as well since all I can ever find is Mario Party Yoshi. It was pretty cool doing a midnight and store opening release. At Meijer people were just lining up and hanging out at the electronics counter, and at Target people were lining up outside the store. I was pulling in when they were handing out "line numbers," so I didn't get one, but I made sure I made it to the front of the no-number line.
Well that was my Friday and Saturday. It's weird that this will be my last "free crap bash." The closest thing I will ever have to this again will be a business convention and job fair, but it'll be professional instead of recreational, or maybe a convention, but the vendors charge for their stuff. But hey, Amiibo hunting was fun. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
My Summer Up North Vacation 2015
Well, my summer internship has come to an end. My last day of work was fun. I wore my red Hawaiian shirt and fedora, said my goodbyes to everyone, and left on a good note with everyone saying they'll miss me. Here's a picture of what I wore that day.
So last year I had a little break before we moved my brother into college. Not this time. No this time I pulled into the driveway, grabbed my trip bag, and we left on our adventure. For my DVD entertainment this year, I brought a Warner Brothers Oscar Shorts collection, season 1 and 2 of Dinosaurs, and the Pokemon Orange Islands set. This year I made sure I brought my camera so I could get pictures and video in addition to what my dad took. Also, there are way to many pictures to put in the post. Only select pictures were added. For all the pictures, click here to go to the myspace collection.
Day 1 was pretty low key. Basically our goal was to get to the northern half of the state. A big attraction was this knife store that we stopped at along the way. My brother is into black smithing and knives, so he was in his element. I don't have any pictures of that because it's a bit frowned upon to take pictures of the art for sale unless you were buying something, but let me just say it was art, and it had art prices. The main attraction we did was go to this mine pump museum. It had this giant pump that was used to pump water out of the mine. Here's some pictures of it.
It was really cool. They also had a little mine museum behind it. It had all sorts of old tools and equipment. Really awesome.
For more pictures of all the equipment, check out the myspace collection.
Then connected to the mine museum was a world war 2 museum. Again, here are some pictures.
These are not all the pictures. Click here to see them all on my myspace.
The next day we did some more traveling. We drove through one of the small towns that has a shipping port just to see some freighters. I think we saw one. But my main thing was the videogame store they had. Oh it was cool. The first thing when you walk in is this table with PS2 and OG XBOX, with a couple gamecube games sprinkled in as well. I spent some time digging through that and found some games. Then they had modern as well; PS3, XBOX360, PS4, XBOX ONE, Wii, and Wii U. They also had a small selection of retro, but you could tell that that wasn't the focus. They also had table top games and sports memorabilia. My dad and brother went into the store with me and they had fun "watching Sheldon in the comic book store."
Once we got to the area we were going to stay, we did some "lets see if there's anything to do around here." We found a city park with a small deer enclosure. They marketed having an albino deer, and the normal deer were not really afraid to come up to the fence. This made for some great pictures and video.
For even more, click here.
Later that night we tried to see some bats that took over an abandoned mine shaft. There's this mine shaft at the top of a hill that went dry, and bats took habitat of it. The city put a fence and barricade around it to protect the bats and people wanting to see them. On a good day the bats fly out at dusk and it looks really cool, according to the welcome center lady. Well it was windy that night and bats don't like wind apparently, so it was a bit of a bust. We did see some wild turkeys on the road. The place was cool anyway, and here's a picture and video.
That was most of what we did on day 2. Day 3 was when we had fun and when we arrived at college. But before arriving, we went to a saw mill museum some miles before the college. The guy who ran the place is a carpenter and mad these really beautiful wood pieces. Again, no pictures because art, but take my word, they were gorgeous. Really nice dining room tables and rocking chairs, and some other things as well. Then there's the mill tour. It showed you the life of a log, one which I traced in this video.
After that, we hit the road again and got to college. We checked into our hotel and rested a little bit, them moved my brothers stuff in at his dorm. We went to Walmart to pick up the stuff he forgot. There wasn't much, but whatever. This was the same Walmart that forgot they had PS2 games for sale last year. Some of the games were still there, like the Grand Theft Auto collection, but nothing I was interested in.
It was a rainy day so we couldn't do all the cool outdoor stuff they have around his college, but we did a bit of a "historical points of interest" vehicle tour lead by my brother who fulfilled his history requirement with a history of the area class. That was pretty cool. The only picture we got from that was a picture of this cool church.
After the mini tour, we went to this mining museum. That had a lot of cool things and showed what kind of shops and jobs one would find in a mining town. One of the things was what a school room would be like, and a hilarious list of "rules for teachers" was showcased. Like this is what a teacher is expected to do back in the 1800s. They had the list for sale in the gift shop, and since my mom is a teacher, we had to get her one. Check out some of the pictures from that.
Even more over on myspace.
After the mining tour, we went to a rock and mineral museum. I'm not a geologist, but I can appreciate cool rocks and minerals, and since the main characters from Steven Universe are named after minerals, I made sure to look out for them.
These are just the Steven Universe characters I could remember. There are even more awesome minerals on myspace.
There was also this really cool "florescence" display where you go into a dark room and it shines a black light on different minerals to show off the pretty colors in addition to a 15 minute video that explains why they are like that. This exhibit was next to the "elements in your everyday items" and what rocks we get them from. Having worked in an engine plant, and since many of the examples were from cars, it was pretty cool to see where the stuff comes from.
One thing I really liked was a big fossilized dinosaur bone, a meteorite, and moon dust. Like, all the gems and minerals they showed were "common." By that I mean the rock and mineral are relatively easy to come by, just not with the size of the crystals they showed. Fossils, while not the most common thing on earth, are just animal remains with the organic material replaced with minerals. I've seen and held small trilobite fossils before, and while cool, nothing super spectacular. This specimen however was like the femur of a T-Rex or some other big Dinosaur. Like, when you think dinosaur bones, this is what you think of (unless you're an archaeologist). Then there was the meteorite. Since like only 1 in a billion actually hit Earth, they are exceptionally rare, so that was really cool. I've seen a small piece of meteorite at a space museum, but it was like half the size of a postage stamp. This thing had to have been the size of a baseball. Then there was the moon dust. There wasn't much, but not much was ever brought home, so this is something I've never seen in person. That was really cool. Here are the pictures.
More fossils on myspace
After the rock and mineral museum, I went to the local videogame store at his college and bought a couple of PS2 games. I bought this racing game that Saint, Sudden and I will lets play and some jampack demo discs. I noticed a boxed PS2 modem for sale for $20 but decided to pass on in for now, do a little research and what not since accessories are not my strong point. Turns out a new in box PS2 modem goes for about $45. There was some box damage, but it was still a great price. I also picked up a controller extension cable for practical use, and it was a great end to day 3.
Day 4 was pretty low key. We said our goodbyes to my brother and left for home. We got gas at a Native American Reservation and it was quite cheap.
We didn't do any sight seeing because we already saw the sites, so we were able to get farther south than we did when heading north. The motel was a nice little place. Nothing like last year though when they said "key's in the door." Dad and I went to a restaurant and they had a candle in a mineral. Since we went to a rock and mineral museum yesterday, we were wondering what kind it was. Since it was restaurant table decoration, it couldn't be one of the thousands of dollar minerals. We eventually figured out it was a rock salt mineral. My dad suspected that and to be sure he licked the tip of his finger, put it on the candle rock, and tasted his finger. It tasted salty, so it's rock salt. On day 5 we packed up early from the motel and drove strait home. No points of interest this time.
It was a good way to end the summer. I had fun, saw some cool things, did some cool things, and watched some DVDs I can never find the time to watch. This will probably be the last time I will be able to help my brother move in. It was fun while it lasted. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
So last year I had a little break before we moved my brother into college. Not this time. No this time I pulled into the driveway, grabbed my trip bag, and we left on our adventure. For my DVD entertainment this year, I brought a Warner Brothers Oscar Shorts collection, season 1 and 2 of Dinosaurs, and the Pokemon Orange Islands set. This year I made sure I brought my camera so I could get pictures and video in addition to what my dad took. Also, there are way to many pictures to put in the post. Only select pictures were added. For all the pictures, click here to go to the myspace collection.
Day 1 was pretty low key. Basically our goal was to get to the northern half of the state. A big attraction was this knife store that we stopped at along the way. My brother is into black smithing and knives, so he was in his element. I don't have any pictures of that because it's a bit frowned upon to take pictures of the art for sale unless you were buying something, but let me just say it was art, and it had art prices. The main attraction we did was go to this mine pump museum. It had this giant pump that was used to pump water out of the mine. Here's some pictures of it.
It was really cool. They also had a little mine museum behind it. It had all sorts of old tools and equipment. Really awesome.
Then connected to the mine museum was a world war 2 museum. Again, here are some pictures.
The next day we did some more traveling. We drove through one of the small towns that has a shipping port just to see some freighters. I think we saw one. But my main thing was the videogame store they had. Oh it was cool. The first thing when you walk in is this table with PS2 and OG XBOX, with a couple gamecube games sprinkled in as well. I spent some time digging through that and found some games. Then they had modern as well; PS3, XBOX360, PS4, XBOX ONE, Wii, and Wii U. They also had a small selection of retro, but you could tell that that wasn't the focus. They also had table top games and sports memorabilia. My dad and brother went into the store with me and they had fun "watching Sheldon in the comic book store."
Once we got to the area we were going to stay, we did some "lets see if there's anything to do around here." We found a city park with a small deer enclosure. They marketed having an albino deer, and the normal deer were not really afraid to come up to the fence. This made for some great pictures and video.
Later that night we tried to see some bats that took over an abandoned mine shaft. There's this mine shaft at the top of a hill that went dry, and bats took habitat of it. The city put a fence and barricade around it to protect the bats and people wanting to see them. On a good day the bats fly out at dusk and it looks really cool, according to the welcome center lady. Well it was windy that night and bats don't like wind apparently, so it was a bit of a bust. We did see some wild turkeys on the road. The place was cool anyway, and here's a picture and video.
That was most of what we did on day 2. Day 3 was when we had fun and when we arrived at college. But before arriving, we went to a saw mill museum some miles before the college. The guy who ran the place is a carpenter and mad these really beautiful wood pieces. Again, no pictures because art, but take my word, they were gorgeous. Really nice dining room tables and rocking chairs, and some other things as well. Then there's the mill tour. It showed you the life of a log, one which I traced in this video.
After that, we hit the road again and got to college. We checked into our hotel and rested a little bit, them moved my brothers stuff in at his dorm. We went to Walmart to pick up the stuff he forgot. There wasn't much, but whatever. This was the same Walmart that forgot they had PS2 games for sale last year. Some of the games were still there, like the Grand Theft Auto collection, but nothing I was interested in.
It was a rainy day so we couldn't do all the cool outdoor stuff they have around his college, but we did a bit of a "historical points of interest" vehicle tour lead by my brother who fulfilled his history requirement with a history of the area class. That was pretty cool. The only picture we got from that was a picture of this cool church.
After the mini tour, we went to this mining museum. That had a lot of cool things and showed what kind of shops and jobs one would find in a mining town. One of the things was what a school room would be like, and a hilarious list of "rules for teachers" was showcased. Like this is what a teacher is expected to do back in the 1800s. They had the list for sale in the gift shop, and since my mom is a teacher, we had to get her one. Check out some of the pictures from that.
After the mining tour, we went to a rock and mineral museum. I'm not a geologist, but I can appreciate cool rocks and minerals, and since the main characters from Steven Universe are named after minerals, I made sure to look out for them.
Amethyst
Rose Quartz
Opal
Ruby
Sapphire
Pearl
Garnet
There was also this really cool "florescence" display where you go into a dark room and it shines a black light on different minerals to show off the pretty colors in addition to a 15 minute video that explains why they are like that. This exhibit was next to the "elements in your everyday items" and what rocks we get them from. Having worked in an engine plant, and since many of the examples were from cars, it was pretty cool to see where the stuff comes from.
One thing I really liked was a big fossilized dinosaur bone, a meteorite, and moon dust. Like, all the gems and minerals they showed were "common." By that I mean the rock and mineral are relatively easy to come by, just not with the size of the crystals they showed. Fossils, while not the most common thing on earth, are just animal remains with the organic material replaced with minerals. I've seen and held small trilobite fossils before, and while cool, nothing super spectacular. This specimen however was like the femur of a T-Rex or some other big Dinosaur. Like, when you think dinosaur bones, this is what you think of (unless you're an archaeologist). Then there was the meteorite. Since like only 1 in a billion actually hit Earth, they are exceptionally rare, so that was really cool. I've seen a small piece of meteorite at a space museum, but it was like half the size of a postage stamp. This thing had to have been the size of a baseball. Then there was the moon dust. There wasn't much, but not much was ever brought home, so this is something I've never seen in person. That was really cool. Here are the pictures.
After the rock and mineral museum, I went to the local videogame store at his college and bought a couple of PS2 games. I bought this racing game that Saint, Sudden and I will lets play and some jampack demo discs. I noticed a boxed PS2 modem for sale for $20 but decided to pass on in for now, do a little research and what not since accessories are not my strong point. Turns out a new in box PS2 modem goes for about $45. There was some box damage, but it was still a great price. I also picked up a controller extension cable for practical use, and it was a great end to day 3.
Day 4 was pretty low key. We said our goodbyes to my brother and left for home. We got gas at a Native American Reservation and it was quite cheap.
We didn't do any sight seeing because we already saw the sites, so we were able to get farther south than we did when heading north. The motel was a nice little place. Nothing like last year though when they said "key's in the door." Dad and I went to a restaurant and they had a candle in a mineral. Since we went to a rock and mineral museum yesterday, we were wondering what kind it was. Since it was restaurant table decoration, it couldn't be one of the thousands of dollar minerals. We eventually figured out it was a rock salt mineral. My dad suspected that and to be sure he licked the tip of his finger, put it on the candle rock, and tasted his finger. It tasted salty, so it's rock salt. On day 5 we packed up early from the motel and drove strait home. No points of interest this time.
It was a good way to end the summer. I had fun, saw some cool things, did some cool things, and watched some DVDs I can never find the time to watch. This will probably be the last time I will be able to help my brother move in. It was fun while it lasted. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Meeting my Nephew
Hey everyone, I'm now Uncle Pokematic, because my older cousin had a son, and I got to meet him yesterday because he, his wife "K", and son "JJ" came to the US. See, my cousin majored in Japanese in college and lives in Japan, where he met his wife and now they have a son. This is the first time K and JJ have been to the US. And my cousin knows I knows I like Pokemon, so he brought me these, Pokemon crackers.
They're so cool. I'm going to be the envy of my Pokemon League. Thanks guys.
Well now comes the time when we have fun with JJ. We were at their hotel room and JJ was playing on the bed, trying to figure us out. We bought him some gifts for his first birthday; 2 thick page books, 1 a Thomas the Tank Engine book and Goodnight Moon, a Thomas the Tank Engine stuffed animal that's about as big as him, and a red beanie baby dog that was started by my grandma/his great grandma. He liked the stuff and began to get used to us.
Now it was dinner time. We went to a fish restaurant that was close to their hotel, and a Meijer. My mom realized we forgot to get him goldfish, so after I put my order in I ran to Meijer to get goldfish. But first there was some funny thing, I forgot to look what I wanted to eat. The waitress came and I was like "oops, forgot to decide on something." I chose a cheeseburger. After ordering I ran over to Meijer and first looked at the videogames to see if they had any Amiibo I didn't have or if they had Pikmin 3. They didn't. Then I went to the crackers to look for goldfish. It was buy 2 for $4, so I got regular goldfish for JJ and flavor blasted goldfish for Uncle Pokematic. As I was walking out of the aisle, I realized that maybe I should see if they had baby goldfish, they did, so I exchanged the regular for baby. It was perfect for his little hands and mouth.
So now I'm back at the restaurant, goldfish crackers in hand. I sit down and visit with my uncle because at that point my brother was playing with JJ. Not to much longer after I got back did our food arrive. As Jules says, "it was a tasty burger." After visiting and eating, my brother and I switched places so I could play with JJ. He really enjoyed drinking my water from my straw. He also enjoyed moving my plate around so he could get a good look at it; but I had a hold of it so he couldn't knock it off the table. He stuck his hand in my ketchup. Good thing I was done. He just wanted to try ketchup, so I dipped one of my fries in it and let him have it. He already had enough plain fries from my brother, so he wanted one with that red stuff I dip mine in. He was interested in my bracelets, so I let him play with my paracord bracelet, but I pulled it away when he wanted to start chewing on it. I know where my bracelet has been, and months of not washing it means it was dirty. Yeah.
One fun thing is that my cousin, JJ's dad face timed us because he was doing something with work in Canada. JJ heard his dad and wanted to see the phone. He really liked that, and it was really cute. "I hear daddy, I want to see daddy" was what he was probably thinking. He held on to the phone and saw him, I had to help with moving his thumb from over the camera, and close the home screen and calculator app a couple of times. It was really sweet.
So after dinner we went back to the hotel. JJ now knows us pretty well. When at the Hotel JJ reached out for me to hold him. So I picked him up and he enjoyed it. My mom said the funniest line of the night; "[Pokematic] be careful with the baby, we don't even trust you with the good China." Yeah I don't know if I've said it in my previous Thanksgiving blogs, but at Thanksgiving and similar china plate events, my grandpa and I are the 2 eating off normal plates because we can't be trusted with the expensive plates. I held him well though. Then my brother took him and he enjoyed that. We got a nice picture of us with JJ. After my brother my mom took him and he enjoyed her, but when mom got him close to my dad, he gave the "uh oh, I don't know about that guy" face and then wanted to go back to his mom, K.
That was basically our time with my nephew. He liked us and we liked him. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.
Well now comes the time when we have fun with JJ. We were at their hotel room and JJ was playing on the bed, trying to figure us out. We bought him some gifts for his first birthday; 2 thick page books, 1 a Thomas the Tank Engine book and Goodnight Moon, a Thomas the Tank Engine stuffed animal that's about as big as him, and a red beanie baby dog that was started by my grandma/his great grandma. He liked the stuff and began to get used to us.
Now it was dinner time. We went to a fish restaurant that was close to their hotel, and a Meijer. My mom realized we forgot to get him goldfish, so after I put my order in I ran to Meijer to get goldfish. But first there was some funny thing, I forgot to look what I wanted to eat. The waitress came and I was like "oops, forgot to decide on something." I chose a cheeseburger. After ordering I ran over to Meijer and first looked at the videogames to see if they had any Amiibo I didn't have or if they had Pikmin 3. They didn't. Then I went to the crackers to look for goldfish. It was buy 2 for $4, so I got regular goldfish for JJ and flavor blasted goldfish for Uncle Pokematic. As I was walking out of the aisle, I realized that maybe I should see if they had baby goldfish, they did, so I exchanged the regular for baby. It was perfect for his little hands and mouth.
So now I'm back at the restaurant, goldfish crackers in hand. I sit down and visit with my uncle because at that point my brother was playing with JJ. Not to much longer after I got back did our food arrive. As Jules says, "it was a tasty burger." After visiting and eating, my brother and I switched places so I could play with JJ. He really enjoyed drinking my water from my straw. He also enjoyed moving my plate around so he could get a good look at it; but I had a hold of it so he couldn't knock it off the table. He stuck his hand in my ketchup. Good thing I was done. He just wanted to try ketchup, so I dipped one of my fries in it and let him have it. He already had enough plain fries from my brother, so he wanted one with that red stuff I dip mine in. He was interested in my bracelets, so I let him play with my paracord bracelet, but I pulled it away when he wanted to start chewing on it. I know where my bracelet has been, and months of not washing it means it was dirty. Yeah.
One fun thing is that my cousin, JJ's dad face timed us because he was doing something with work in Canada. JJ heard his dad and wanted to see the phone. He really liked that, and it was really cute. "I hear daddy, I want to see daddy" was what he was probably thinking. He held on to the phone and saw him, I had to help with moving his thumb from over the camera, and close the home screen and calculator app a couple of times. It was really sweet.
So after dinner we went back to the hotel. JJ now knows us pretty well. When at the Hotel JJ reached out for me to hold him. So I picked him up and he enjoyed it. My mom said the funniest line of the night; "[Pokematic] be careful with the baby, we don't even trust you with the good China." Yeah I don't know if I've said it in my previous Thanksgiving blogs, but at Thanksgiving and similar china plate events, my grandpa and I are the 2 eating off normal plates because we can't be trusted with the expensive plates. I held him well though. Then my brother took him and he enjoyed that. We got a nice picture of us with JJ. After my brother my mom took him and he enjoyed her, but when mom got him close to my dad, he gave the "uh oh, I don't know about that guy" face and then wanted to go back to his mom, K.
That was basically our time with my nephew. He liked us and we liked him. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.
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