http://youtu.be/bxjWNJU8rNE When I was in college I had the privilege of performing many beautiful pieces in both choir and band. While I got to sing Eric Whitacre's "Hope, Faith, Life, Love" and play trumpet in his instrumental piece "October," I never did get to sing this beautiful piece. I absolutely love his suspensions and cluster chords. They give it a real ethereal quality, and it's beautiful.
I hate being sick. Even though I'm home today, I really wish I could be at school. Well. Alive.
I'm stuck with this really annoying cough and a fever. The cough I've had for days. Like, since Saturday. The fever I just got yesterday. It really stinks. I want to be back.
I'm somewhat wondering if this is bacterial. Like maybe strep. That would stink.
What's worse is that I went to bed last night thinking that I'd be better today. Nope. Had a fever this morning. Took my tempe
I swear, this is ridiculous. Yesterday, I felt great, now I'm sitting at home wrapped in a blanket dealing with sore muscles, sore throat, and a headache.
And I'm really tired.
Ooh, but listening to Glenn Beck heals it a bit. ^^
I've decided to post this review here, as I'm not sure this fulfills the requirements to actually post this in the LEGO Sets forum. Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. ] It's a polybag. The front features the set's picture and a picture letting you know that the eagle character you get is Ewar. The back is full of legalese, as per usual, and has a cutout option for a free child ticket to LEGOLAND.
Today, we take a journey to Middle Earth and take a look at the LEGO reimagining of the Mines of Moria. Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. I really like the LEGO LOTR logo with the one ring on Sauron's finger in the upper right corner along with the map of Middle Earth in the background. The back highlights various parts of the set. I do like their cave-like choice of background for the front
I've felt rather unproductive recently on BZP, so I decided to do another set review. This time, we look at the new Monster Fighters theme's largest set (for now), Vampyre Castle! Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. The trunk dented the upper left corner of the box. Sad face. The titular castle sits here in front of a sinister, spooky background with bats trailing from the moon and a ghostly gr
In continuing my trend of reviewing 90s LEGO System sets, I'm turning my criticism to one of the most beloved, nostalgic LEGO sets arguably of all of LEGO's existence. Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. Ah, the desert. Something about it inspires adventure. Perhaps it's the survival aspect of it. Anyway, the box pulls off the desert background very nicely, and the action of a bunch of caval
Welcome to another installment of 90s LEGO set reviews! This entry's review is of the 6496 Whirling Time Warper of the Time Twisters theme! Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. Image courtesy of Peeron The box features a shot of the titular Time Warper flying through a dark backdrop with what looks like a portal to a city in the sky and a dark forest near the bottom. Behind some mountains, a moon
Greetings, all! It's time for another retro set review. This time, the villainous Time Twisters and their smallest set, the Time Tunnelator! Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. We see here one of the sibling antagonists, Tony Twister (whose face bears a striking resemblance to Black Bart of the Wild West theme), flying through a stormy backdrop with a jagged mountain to the left, a forest or som
I hope everyone had an enjoyable, reflective Memorial Day today. Since I couldn't come up with a comic, I decided to work on another retro set review. This time, we switch gears back to the Time Cruisers with the 6493 Flying Time Vessel! Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. I just love the backgrounds for Time Cruisers and Time Twisters. They're so trippy and cartoony yet so dark and spooky. Th
As promised, I'm going to kick off my set reviews of LEGO System circa mid-late 1990s with a review of the Time Cruisers Rocket Racer (no, not the LEGO Racers Rocket Racer). Credit to BZP for the review format. (My apologies if you notice the yellow tint to the shadows; my digital camera decided to be rather yellow when taking these pictures, and using GIMP to re-balance the white left those yellow shadows as an artifact.) Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, t
Today I went to my local LEGO Store to plunder some Series 8 Minifigures. I reviewed the 8 Series 8 minifigs (clever, ain't I?) over here, so check it out for pics and entertaining descriptions. I posted a teaser below: Also, while at the LEGO Store, I noticed some new sets. Remember the recent beach set that contained the Hula Girl, Surfer, and Surfer Girl from the Series Minifigures? Well, two new similar sets are now in the LEGO store, and I snapped a quick pic of them. Click for
I have posted before about the genius of physicist David J. Griffiths. I thought I'd post a few quotes by him to share why I think he's awesome. "…You can always tell the particles apart, in principle—just paint one of them red and the other one blue, or stamp identification numbers on them, or hire private detectives to follow them around." "...And, of course, if you’re in a really bad mood you can create a state for which neither position nor momentum is well defined..." "It is tradition
While days 2-4 were relatively uneventful (mostly collaborating days, doing research) my last three days in Edinburgh were pretty cool. Day 5: I climbed Arthur's Seat for a second time; it was sunny, so the view was even better than on Sunday when my advisor and I climbed it together. I also got proof That I made it to the summit. 8D Day 6: I went to Edinburgh Castle and walked around the former residence of the Scottish royal family. There were a few museums that were mainly dedicated to th
So, in an earlier blog entry I talked about a journal article one of our professors presented at our department's journal club discussing neutrons in a purely gravitational potential well. Well, I decided to read it and am going to present it to the math and science grad students on Friday because I think it's pretty dang awesome. Related: Airy functions are weird. And cool. Perhaps I'll discuss them later... Also, tomorrow spring is here! (If it weren't for ponies, I would not say that with
With the end of break comes the beginning of a new semester.
At least, that happened last week. Today commences week two of my spring semester of my junior year (though I'm a senior by credits—thank you, Advanced Placement!). The week before that was our college's choir tour, my first since I just joined last semester. Holy mukau. I can't even begin to describe how awesome that experience was. I look forward to next year's tour.
This semester I'm taking a lovely range of physics cour
(12:43 p.m. EDT) So, Sandy is currently doing his/her (its?) stuff outside my apartment. LOTS O' RAIN! No snow or high force winds yet, though. I think that stuff is being saved for later. In other GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE, I'm technically still alive. UPDATE 2 (3:40 p.m. EDT): Winds have been picking up, rain is unrelenting, and my apartment is cold. This calls for hoodie & blanket times! 8D Wow, it's really raging out there... UPDATE 3 (10/30/2012 at 2:29 p.m.): Things have calme
So, school for me has been cancelled Monday and Tuesday due to some sort of sandy storm that is also full of winds and snow (and may or may not be caused by Spongebob's rodent friend). The details aren't really clear. So, after removing things from my porch and storing lots of water in my fridge (at least five gallons worth, maybe more), I feel I'm ready to bunker up and watch it from the comfort of my living room. My roommate is thinking of going into school to do research. I am not terrib
