BrickFair is nearly upon us, and for the fourth consecutive year I will be attending. Last year, Zatth, Xaeraz, and I went around the convention making all sorts of six-second videos on Vine. We had no shortage of ideas and I'm certain that this year will be no different - especially with Takuma Nuva in the mix. In addition to our regular fare of insanity, the promise of a custom Vine was presented as a prize in the recent crowdfunding campaign. But that's not all that I have in mind. So I
"All major credit cards and many more minor credit scams are accepted ... or bring a goat and some cheese to sample instead." "Try it on for size! Or grab a lovely Peruvian hat and dance on a tomato!" "You can take time to poison some wayward pigeons or millipedes while you read."
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3RD, AROUND 2:00 PM: BE THERE AT THE BIONICLE TABLE TO WITNESS THE 2014 HATPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE. SUMIKI AND CO. ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE WORLD RECORD FOR SIMULTANEOUS HATS ON A SINGLE HEAD. IF YOU'RE THERE ... BRING HATS.
"Well, that looks alright together." "No. Stop it. You stupid ball joint." "I can't believe I wasted that much time on something that looks that bad." "Well, that looks really nice from this one angle, but it's not connected to anything and there's no way of doing so without completely rethinking the torso." "This is the fourth time I've rebuilt this torso just to replace a freaking axle." "Ah, screw it, I can't be bothered with custom legs." "Can't make sounds ... parents are asleep
There's a number of ways to word the first paragraph of this entry, but suffice it to say that I've been a fan of the vlogbrothers since late last year, when I stumbled across their educational videos and then to their main channel. The great thing about the Green brothers' work is that even if you're not watching one of their myriad educational channels, you still end up learning something. They have a passion and excitement about the world that, frankly, few others have. The fact that people
Today is my eighteenth birthday. According to the government, I am eighteen years old, but that's actually not quite true. I'm still seventeen until around 7:30 PM. So for around nineteen and a half hours, I'm in the twilight zone - both a legal adult and not. Also, general update because last I told anyone here it was still before the concert on the third. That went extremely well and actually had a pretty decent turnout, mainly because they stuck a few string players on the program betwe
For the past few years, my sole request for this holiday is to experience one where the floor doesn't vibrate from nearby fireworks. I doubt I'll ever experience that.
I've practiced a ton and I'm really well prepared and really excited. July 3rd is less than a week away, almost everyone I know in real life who could realistically make it has been invited, and three string instrument players have been added to the program, meaning a larger audience because there are about a zillion chamber music players this summer. Would have gotten more practice but I met this girl who is in the film program but is pretty handy with a piano despite a lack of formal lessons
So the composition workshop is going astoundingly well, all things considered - and by all things I mean that there are eight of us this year so not everyone can get everything they need done given that there's only one music technology lab. That's fine by me, because I'm not as interested in writing for the abstract little films, and my time in said lab has basically been to assist the others in the operation of various bits of technology because, having attended for three consecutive years, I
Having only returned twenty-four hours ago, I get just a few days off to unwind and rest from the trip ... ... except not. I'm finally starting on the BIG THING that Pablo and I have been talking about for a while, but - and this is SUPER EXCITING NEWS that I literally only had confirmed earlier this week - I must practice and prepare all of the pieces that I've ever written for solo piano because I'm having a RECITAL DEDICATED TO THEM. A RECITAL DEDICATED TO MY COMPOSITIONS AND I'LL BE PL
We began the day by looking at the route home when I discovered a place that we'd unexpectedly pass: Montpelier, the home of President James Madison. It was a detour of just a few miles from our initial route, so we decided to take the detour and tour his home. Having visited Monticello many years ago, I kind of knew what to expect, but that was a while back and a completely different house. Montpelier was similar - starting in the visitor's center, we watched an introductory film and learned
We left the New Jersey hotel before noon and almost immediately got turned around due to the fact that there were two possible routes out of New Jersey towards Valley Forge. We ended up paying a toll and crossing over into Pennsylvania - and, like New Jersey, Pennsylvania has no welcome sign. The roads to Valley Forge were long and tedious. Somewhere along the line we ran into a section that was just plain awful - the four lanes of the road literally slanted into each other, so much so that, i
After rolling through nearby Bard College and looking at some of their freaky architecture, we headed up to the FDR Presidential Library at Hyde Park - but first, we needed some lunch. We stopped at 2:00 at Eveready Diner, a fairly new construction made to look like the ultimate '50s diner. We later found out that they were on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives - one of the few places to have been featured multiple times. The menu was massive and included some very non-diner-like fair, such as a gyr
We checked out of the hotel and passed the Saratoga Raceways on the way out of the always-packed Saratoga Springs downtown. We saw a few horses being groomed and ridden, but no races were slated, so we just looked around to see what we could see from the streets. Our first stop of the day was a little ways from Saratoga Springs at the Saratoga Battlefield. Despite being one of the most influential battles in the history of the world, the Saratoga Battlefield is not as well-traveled or built-up
We meandered through Burlington at 11:00 and worked our way south along US 7, eventually getting out of the city and through countryside. We paralleled Lake Champlain as it narrowed, crossing over it into New York at noon. We continued south to Ticonderoga and traversed a surprisingly long unpaved road up to Fort Ticonderoga itself. The fort is exceptionally tiny, especially after seeing the monstrous forts in Halifax and Québec. It was built by the French during the Seven Years' War (or the F
We left the hotel at 11:14 after amusing the valet staff with our rudimentary French, heading for Stade Municipal, looking forward to what we were sure would be a strange pennant collection from the stadium of the independent-league Québec Capitales. After circling around the hotel and working through downtown Québec, we pulled into the parking lot. Armed with a cheat-sheet for the sentences we'd need in order to purchase a pennant exclusively in French, we headed in. Fortunately for us, the l
We ate breakfast on the top floor. I modified my coffee with six or seven sugar packets, and it was still quite bitter. My dad drank it nearly straight, though I'm not entirely sure how. After this, we headed out into Old Québec again, just as we'd done yesterday. But before we headed into the heart of Old Québec, we headed slightly south towards the Québec Citadel, a nearly impenetrable fortification that, like the Halifax Citadel, had served many different purposes over the years, and variou
We got on the road a little before noon after sleeping in a little bit. Leaving Fredericton was much easier than getting in - just a few merges and we were on the Trans-Canada Highway, first westbound and then northbound to Québec. We crossed many small brooks and paralleled the St. John River all the way up. We were never more than a few miles from the border with Maine, and made excellent time up the highway. We pulled into a gas station in Woodstock, which was, to our surprise, full-servi
After awakening in Charlottetown, we headed downtown to see the sights and nab some lunch. We got to a parking deck - they call them parkades in Canada - and walked around the downtown, although it was somewhat slowed by accounting for road work. We stopped in to exchange some more money at a bank since we were down to about twenty cents of hard Canadian currency. Charlottetown is a really interesting city - it's not a big city by any means, so it's basically a big small town. Charlottetown's
We slept in today a little bit and ate our last meal at Hometown Kitchen, where we said our goodbyes to the waitresses. Dad went down the street a few times to check on the status of the part. James, the man at the service station, said that the part was in Sydney, the largest city on Cape Breton Island. However, there was a serious breakdown in communication between dealerships elsewhere in the Maritimes, and by midday we learned that the Sydney dealership didn't even have it. After deliberat
We slept in and ate some brunch at the place that's become our local favorite - Hometown Kitchen. All the waitresses know us now, and they brought a whole butterscotch pie to the table to show us, with a promise that they'd save a slice for my dad. We ate well, and my dad enjoyed his pie. For the first time, I sampled a bite. It was alright, but compared to my beloved turtle cheesecake it was actually rather bland. Regardless of my opinion, it's their most popular dessert. We did a little more
