Star Wars Exhibit

A couple of weeks ago I took some time off to stay at home and to take Alexander to the Star Wars Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science. It is a travelling show staying in town from June to the first week of September. I received tickets to the event as a Father's Day gift from my parents. Alexander and I arrived at 9:00am to the museum and we were able to walk right up to the ticket window without waiting in the queue. This will have great significance later.

We got our package tickets to the event and to the IMAX movie "Special Effects". The tickets were set for a particular time to enter the exhibit. They had movie props including Luke's Landspeeder and many costumes.

The most interesting portions of the exhibit were the interactive "real science" experiments that showed off how the technology of Star Wars was applicable to real life. Alexander and I enjoyed building a landspeeder out of Legos with magnets on the bottom that would repel from some magnetic tracks. Then by placing another magnet on the back of the speeder and sending it through a series of electromagnets, they would propel the speeder along in a similar fashion to a mag-lev train.

Most of the other experiments had to do with the creation and programming of robots. Alexander enjoyed programming a R2 unit to work itself through a maze, and I enjoyed a robot that you could control to make it walk.

The exhibit ended with an animatronic C-3PO talking to the audience about different types of "real world" robots.

Alex and I had a great time.

Brave Combo Philosophy

Carl Finch of Brave Combo had some interesting things to say about isolation of society and listening to music. People just don't interact with each other much anymore. Here's the article.

Concentration

Having a difficult time CON-CEN-TRA-TING today. I have had what feels like a sinus headache for over a week now with no change. It's like a low-grade evil pulsing through and clouding all that I perceive and...I'm rambling.

Again, it's that concentrating thing.

There is a line from a favorite brit-com that applies:

"My short term memory has been erased. This I ascribe to the proximity of the magnetic coils from Starbug's rear engine. Secondly, due to the proximity of the magnetic coils, my short-term memory appears to have been erased. This, combined with the erasure of my short-term memory, has has left me a little disoriented, disoriented, disoriented." - Kryten, Red Dwarf


If I never hear about drilling gas wells in the Barnett Shale again I would be a happy camper. I don't care how much money you're pulling out of your 7,000 square foot hovel built in 1964...I don't want to deal with gas well drilling operator companies anymore.

I miss feeling relaxed.
I miss not having responsibility.
I hate having frustrating dreams about not getting work done.
I miss art and being creative.


I still haven't had that original thought - I'm looking for it everywhere.