Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Wild Lights at the Zoo

Hey everyone. So I guess every year at my local zoo they set-up a light exhibit where you walk around half the zoo and see all the lights in the shape of animals and other cool things. Mskate suggested we do this since it's a fun thing. We were going to do it the weekend before Christmas, but due to scheduling issues and whether, we decided to go the weekend after Christmas. Here's the little adventure that it was.

So I go over to her house and we got ready to head over to the zoo. She lives rather close, so we drove to to her "locals secret free parking" place. On out way there we saw a woman drive slowly by the fence getting the "side-line free show" from the back streets of the suburb that's next to the zoo. It was a small walk, but it saved us $7, plus it allowed us to get this picture.
Yeah, it's not dark enough to see it yet. Oh well. It wasn't time yet. There were 2 ways to buy tickets; pre-order in advance for a specific time, or same day on wait. We did same day on wait. I'm REALLY glad I brought my credit card because mskate just brought cash, and the only way to get our tickets was with credit card at the automated kiosk. She reimbursed me after I bought both of our tickets. So, now we play the waiting game. It was kind of cold, so I'm glad I wore warm clothes. Well, except gloves, and that's why I kept my hands in my pockets when I could. They separated us "at will" people from the "in advance" people.
 It wasn't fun on the other side of the barricade.
We were at the front of the line because we were paying attention to where we had to go. It was still about 15 minutes before they let us in after they let everyone else in. We just chatted and got caught up while we waited for it to get dark and be let in. But then they let us in, and it was great. We gave the ticket people our tickets, and mskate was a little upset they didn't let us keep our ticket stubs because she scrap books, and wanted to use this in her scrap booking. I did get her a map since they were only going to give me one. She also saw the "prism glasses that make the lights rainbows" and all that. She wanted one, but since this wasn't my first "vendor event," I knew those glasses would cost extra, and I was right. She didn't want them knowing they cost extra. Once we walked in we were greeted with this large, decorated tree. I got a nice photo with it.
After seeing the light tree, we saw some cool lights. Like these.


(In the future, all pictures without me will be uploaded to myspace)

It was already really pretty, but it felt weird not going to the butterfly house or penguin house. But outside the penguin house, I got this picture with a penguin statue.

After the penguin, I took this short video while walking.
Check out this cool tree light set-up.

After the tree the path had all these lights. Some of which were animated, like these.



They also had other animals. Here's a fun picture of me "petting" the light elephant and "hugging" the light hippo.


We walked down the path and saw a lot of cool lights. Mskate was walking faster than I did, so I kept having to tell her to slow down. I felt like I was with a younger me since "[Pokematic] slow down and enjoy the scenery" was something I heard a lot as a kid. lol. After walking through this cool walkway thing, (pictured below) we came up to a "rest area and giant slide" area.
We didn't do the large slide, because that was extra. Also, we were a little big for it. Well, I was a little big for it. Mskate could probably just make it, but still, extra. The rest area was a converted picnic area with drinks (including beer), crafts for the kids, pictures with Santa (who wasn't there since it was after Christmas), and a couple places to sit. We didn't stay to long, but I did get this funny picture of me "warming my hands" with a giant candle light.
It gave of a small amount of heat, but it was just a light bulb. It made a good goof though. However, outside the rest area we did find an actual gas heater. We warmed our hands by that for a couple minutes. It wasn't to far before we got to the "organizations and motion simulator" building. It was open so we could warm up, use the bathroom, and optionally ride the motion-simulator. We didn't ride the motion-simulator because, extra. We warmed up and took in what we just saw. Outside there was this cool "dancing lights" with the lights on the pillars changing with the music playing. Check it out.


That was cool. Outside the building there were some more animated lights, but these were of dinosaurs, particularly pterodactyls. Here's a gif of it and a video with me making pterodactyl noises.



Not to much farther did we come to the big fountain. Because it was winter the water was drained and not flowing. Oh well. It still looked cool at night.
If I had some change with me I would have thrown a coin into the empty fountain because that's what I did all the time as a kid. It was nice. After the fountain we walked a little further and saw some more lights. We also found a warming fire barrel. I warmed up by it. I was regretting not bringing gloves.
We saw some more lights (pics available on myspace). Then we saw this cool dancing lights and animated ball. Oh man was this cool. Video below.
A little more down the way, we found this wolf emblem lights thing. Here's me "howling" with the wolf.

Yeah. At this point we were approaching the end of the walkway into the zoo. This is where the polar bears and main zoo cafe was. The cafe was closed, as well as the polar bears. But we did see this cute little polar bear light statue.
Mskate wanted her picture with it, so I took her picture with it on her phone. At this point we reached as far into the zoo as we could. Everything was blocked off. We saw some more lights, and stopped by a chimp exhibit. This wasn't the BIG chimp exhibit, but it was one of them. Unfortunately the chimps weren't out, because it was past their bed-time. However, I got a funny picture of me at the little statue.
Yeah, it's fun to goof and have someone to take the pictures. As we walked, we came across these fun barricades. I got behind one and acted out what the scene was.
You're not supposed to go beyond them (and we didn't), but it doesn't cause much harm to walk directly behind it and take a picture. As we walked on we came to the other side of the animated ball. I tried to have Mskate take one of those "forced perspective" tourist shots of me "holding" the ball, but that kind of failed.
Yeah. Oh well, she isn't into camera work like I am. We continued to walk and see some more lights; some new and some from a different perspective (pics available on myspace). We missed this on our first viewing, so I got this picture of me with a light T-Rex.
I'm trying to mount it lol. We saw some more lights, but then we got to the reptile house. If I'm remembering a zoo overnight with the cub scouts properly, zoo mammals have specific bed times and are conditioned to know their bed times and sleep inside during the night so they are more active outside during the day. Zoo reptiles, however, don't have bed times because their constant heat lamps, permanent enclosures, and general lethargic nature allows people to see them at night without disturbing them. These reasons probably aren't completely correct, but we were able to see them at 7PM, long after all the other animals were asleep. Here's me riding the brass turtle statue.
I tried to take some pictures, of the animals, but the lens kept fogging up. Oh well. I really enjoyed it, but then again I really enjoy reptiles. Mskate however, didn't like it all that much, because she doesn't like reptiles all that much I guess. She enjoyed the warm though, and so did many others since it was warm in there. I did get this funny picture of me with a cobra statue.
After I took my picture there was a dad that wanted a picture with it. His son was afraid of it though, and thought the snake was going to bite him. Kind of funny. We left the exhibit and saw some more lights. We stopped at the otter house because it was warm. Mskate was all "why are we here, the otters aren't even out?" It was warm though, and made for a good "disappointed goof" picture.
After the otters there were more lights, and these cool animated frog lights by the amphibian exhibit. Here's a gif of it.

After the frogs we saw a lot more lights (see on Myspace). Near the end there were these construction penguins for their new penguin exhibit. Here are some pictures of me goofing with the penguin lights.


This now brings us to the butterfly house. We're right close to the enterance. I did see this sparkly rain deer, and tried to take some video. I realized I was filming vertically, so enjoy this little banter.


That was mostly it. Here's a picture of the exit.
It was cool, and once we got out of the main gate, I got a good picture of the entrance.
That was really fun. I'm really glad Mskate suggested that we do this. Sure, it was cold, but we saw a bunch of cool lights for cheep. It's also been a while since I've been to the zoo. It was fun to hang out again, so that was fun. I think we might have to do this again next year, but we'll make sure to order our tickets in advance. Make sure you check out the myspace gallery for all the pictures. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Black Friday and Christmas 2015

Good day everyone. I didn't have enough to talk about for Black Friday 2015, so I thought I would combine that with my Christmas 2015 blog since it is kind of the start of the Christmas season for my family.




Enjoy our hamster Epsilon in our play nativity. Didn't you know there were giant hamsters in biblical times?


So after spending thanksgiving with my aunt and grandpa, we gathered our black Friday lists. With everything open at 6 it's starting to lose it's fun. I still have the long lines for check out, but the door busters are typically all gone by the time I get there, and door busters are the best part. This year mbinski wasn't able to join me, and my brother didn't want to go out this year, and Zeldamaster93 hates black friday, so I was kind of at a loss. I asked mskate if she wanted to join me, and luckily she said "yes, I need to do something a little crazy." We went to 3 different stores; Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. We went to Walmart first. I got the amiibo I was looking for, and found a couple movies. After that we went to Target. I found another amiibo I was looking for and some movies. Mskate also found some movies, and I had to talk her out of getting Train Wreck for herself. One of her other friends said "you need to see it so you can get more well rounded," and I told her "you aren't going to like this movie. I've seen it and I know you, you will hate this. Rent it at family video for a dollar, don't spend $10 on a movie you will watch once." I don't know if she's rented it yet, but I might have to rent it with her and we'll watch it together, because I thought it was funny; REALLY raunchy, but funny. After Target we went to Best Buy. I got Inside Out and a Nintendo Eshop card. Mskate was getting tired, so we didn't go anywhere else afterwards. It was a fun time.

So fast forward a month and Christmas festivities begin. Once I got home I helped my parents set-up some Christmas decorations. Fast forward a little more and it's December 24th, Christmas Eve. Every year I celebrate Christmas with my grandparents on Christmas Eve. We went to McDonald's like we do every year since we were little. We had lunch and we tried the new mozzarella sticks. All 6 of us tried 1 after having 2 orders of 3. They are OK. It's McDonald's, what do you expect. Anyways, we get back to their house and exchange gifts. From them I got lottery tickets, Big Bang season 8, Simpons season 17, Jurassic World, Dragon Ball Battle of the Gods, Modern 8-bit Mario Amiibo, a 100 years of Lincoln Penny set with the last year of the decade (I love pennies), money, a flashlight that doesn't require batteries, a stuffed hamster that repeats what you say but sped-up, and candy. Here's a picture of me with my movies/TV shows
For them we got them good whiskey, because that's what they like. It was a great time with them. That was my Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, that night I watched "A Christmas Story 2 on CMT." You can read my review here. The TV edit was pretty good. I also watched A Christmas Story on TBS, because I do every year.

Now for Christmas Day. My family is really into the red Beany Buddy dogs, and have been since my Grandma got my dad the first one. Here's what they set-up on Christmas morning.

Yeah. It was for their amusement as much as ours. Here I am with my stuff.
Here's a list of what I got; a head massager, a retro 8-bit mario amiibo, a nintendo network card, beef jerky, lemon head candy canes, a recees cookie set thing, a large pepermint stick, an industrial size bag of peanut M&Ms, Inside Out, some money, bungee chords, and a 5 gallon bucket. Look, I'm bucket head.
But like any normal baby, all the dogs wanted to do was play with the wrapping.
 Also, because our hamster wanted to join us on on Christmas morning, we got to introduce him to the stuffed hamster. He wanted to chew on him.
But not to long after that, he wanted to join the dogs in his ball.

Since my aunt moved to Texas, my family now has the largest house and we host Christmas at our house. At about 3 PM my relatives started arriving. PepperBC and her family, my grandparents, and their friends came for dinner. We visited, played a game called heads up, and got caught up until about 5, that's when we had dinner. There was the choice of chicken, pork roast, and beef roast. I had pork and beef. Both were amazing. I sat with my brother, cousin, and family friend. We talked about deep web, bitcoin, and how I'm trying to buy a domain name from roller coaster tycoon. Oh yeah, I participated in a google plus secret Santa, and got Roller Coaster Tycoon for PC, and the website that is used to register the game is up for sale, and I want to buy it and put some of my content on it. Why, because I can. Anyways, dinner was good.

After dinner it was time for the sing along. We invited over some high school band friends to join those festivities. We had fun singing Christmas songs and polkas. Yep, that's my family. Almost every celebration we sing songs with someone playing the accordion. It's what we do. Throughout the celebration I showed everyone that was interested my nerd cave with the 10 retro videogame consoles. It was great seeing everyone. They stayed until about 8 PM.

Alright, it's not over yet. Now it's the 27th and time for Christmas with my mom's best friend, her kids, and their girlfriends. We played heads up and exchanged gifts. We basically got candy. Though while we were exchanging gifts, my mom said something REALLY funny, so funny I laughed for 30 strait minutes. Yeah, I'm really excitable like that sometimes. It hurt after about 10 minutes, and then the pain just made me laugh even harder. It was a fun time.

That was Christmas 2015. I had a couple of new years parties at new years, but nothing really worth noting. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.