Know Your Elements
Not memorize, but know them personally.
You can look through the whole list of them easily from the post on BuzzFeed, and here’s the artist, Kaycie D.’s tumblr.
Will and Beyond
ChuChu Rocket!
After seeing the image below on Lamebook, I was overcome with the urge to buy a Dreamcast and play ChuChu Rocket.
Nostalgia brings me back to going to Nick’s house during lunch in high school, making grilled cheese sandwiches with the Foreman grill, and deep frying things. Them sitting down for a nice (read: stress inducing, awesome) session of
ChuChu.
As I headed to eBay, I took pause: maybe by chance they have this on Android? What a wonderful world that would be…
Yes, yes they do.
Albuquerque
The main purpose of stopping in Albuquerque was to drive up to Santa Fe, to find a place to live. There was some time there before and after Santa Fe, so here it is.
The Albuquerque Museum was small but cheap, worth the visit. It’s also very close to the Rattlesnake Museum. Yes, the Rattlesnake Museum. The world’s largest collection of live rattlesnakes. They also have some scorpions and such, so I’m fairly convinced that New Mexico will kill me.
As a preview to starting at Los Alamos I took a trip to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, fun stuff.
After Santa Fe, came back to Albuquerque for a day with Amy. Went to the zoo, which was a pretty decent size, nothing compared to DC, Bronx, or San Diego obviously, but still good. In terms of apes, they have gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons, but no chimpanzees. Then wrapped up the day and finally saw The Hobbit.
For my last day, went to the Petroglyph Monument and saw ancient rock etchings. Crazy how they have remained after all these years. Also, I don’t think that “Nick hearts Tina” is an original, so people are assholes. Ended the day at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Learned a lot. There are 19 pueblos throughout New Mexico, would be awesome to visit some.
Albuquerque is definitely a small city, but fun. Only an hour from Santa Fe, so I imagine we will come down here somewhat regularly. In terms of the food: they put chiles on everything here. I will do okay here if for nothing else than the good alone.
Kansas City
Kansas City is like ‘The Tale of Two Cities’,* if instead of London and Chicago, it was about New York and an even sadder version of Detroit.
Kansas City, MO has good things, like happy people, good bbq, normal sized buildings. What does Kansas City, KS have? Sadness. That is their only industry.
When I was wandering KS for something to do, (for about 45 minutes, unsuccessfully**) I discovered on Wikipedia that KC, KS was a dry county until relatively recently. That’s the only connection I can make.
*I tried to read this, I really did. Not even just back in high school, when you are bitter about being forced to read books. It was recently, when I read them for fun. For fun! Apparently, Dickens was paid by the word to write. This is painfully obvious.
**In order for me to count that I have truly been in a state and cross it off my list, I have to have done something. Driving through, or airport layovers don’t count. For Kansas, I’m going to count wandering around, searching for something to do, because that sounds like the epitome of Kansas.
St. Louis
Did you know the St. Louis Arch is hollow, and you can go up it and look outside, just like the Washington Monument? Well I didn’t, but it was great.
Also great: BBQ. Specifically, Pappy’s Smokehouse.
Chuck E. Cheese for “grownups”. Sounds great, huh? Go to the City Museum. Go. Amazingly, my phone survived a sixty foot fall, because it luckily fell into a ball pit below. Yes, just go.
Anheuser-Busch puts on a pretty good tour, at least showing off the ridiculous scale at which they make beer, even if it’s shitty beer.
Thanks Anthony and Nina for playing tour guide/chauffer!
Layover: Chicago again
Only for an hour. More pizza!
Almost missed my train getting this. Adding Giordano’s to the list now.
Milwaukee
Arrived in Milwaukee, and nearby was the Harley Davidson museum. I’m not big into motorcycles or anything (actually they seem terrifying), but it was fun history.
Next I was recommended a good Mexican place, then took a tour of Great Lakes Distillery.*
“[after a couple questions] You’re not some sort of chemist are you? Damn, you’re just going to be constantly correcting me for the next half hour, aren’t you?”
The next day, went to the Art Museum, which was pretty, and had some interesting things such as above (my favorite of the museum). Then the Milwaukee Public Museum, which had some really quirky things like the Christmas whale below. Followed by cheese and more beer.
*Was recommended margaritas at Conejito’s. Then to take a cocktail with me on the tour. Then a tasting. Afterward to a local brewpub.
“Wisconsin: It’s too cold to be sober.™”
Next up: St. Louis.