(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.
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.
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.
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.
