Behold Chance the Snapped-Together
2019-Sep-09, Monday 10:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Friday afternoon, I took a phone call! And I wasn't nervous and it didn't bother me! This might seem silly, but I used to hate even calling utility companies when there was an outage and I had justifiable reason to complain, so this is a great progression for me. It was the Director of Development from Mishkan--by the way, I joined Mishkan as a member, so I finally have membership in a synagogue again--asking about me, why I joined, and what I wanted out of my membership. I talked about how much I loved the nigunim during the services and how it managed to pull me fully in, in a way that I usually never manage to attain during large events. I wasn't (and still aren't) sure what I want, but the director successfully talked me into signing up to one of the small groups meeting a few times around the High Holy Days, so I'm going to get together with other Jews and presumably discuss teshuvah (lit "returning," usually translated as "repentence"). Surprisingly, I'm looking forward to it. Good thing, since I signed up and paid money to go. 
Friday was also the beginning of LIVE's sixth season, so I bought tickets to their show (now at 8 p.m., so in future I'll be able to attend both it and Shabbat services). The show was good but didn't stick with me as much, mostly because the serials were the ones I'm not as big a fan of ("Clark and Belmont" and "Chi Beta Justice"), but I definitely remember the intermission, where one of the actresses was talking to her friends next to me and I got to hear about her trip to a knitting retreat in Scotland and her visit to Italy where she learned firsthand that Michelangelo's David is seventeen feet tall. She also explained that it's under a dome, meaning that while you're walking down the hall to get to it, all that's visible is the waist down, leading to the following conversation when![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
worldbshiny came over to say hi to me:
Saturday, I woke up early, had my matcha and sweet, and then took a shower, got dressed, and went downtown to catch the train from Union Station out to the Brookfield Zoo to meet my parents. They asked if I wanted to see the Brick Safari, and how could I say no? The sun was brightly shining, much to my annoyance in terms of comfort while I was traveling to the zoo, but it made for great pictures:
In honor of Chicago's recent alligator resident, I called this 'Chance the Snapped-Together.'
There was a video showing their construction, and most of the animals had a Lego framework inside providing structure, built around a metal support, and then a Lego "skin" that created that actual animal shape. So they were heavy and took thousands or tens of thousands of pieces, but they weren't solid Lego.
The Lego animals were off in a shaded path to the side, which made them more tolerable for me--I got sunburned already during my trip to Baptist Lake and I didn't want a repeat--so I walked down the path with my parents and we talked. A lot. On of the nice things about getting older has been the better relationship with my family, something I know that a lot of people my age don't have.
We went to check out the giraffes too, and the wolves on the way out. We would have gone to look at the elephants but the zoo doesn't have any anymore, which is probably for the best--elephants strike me as too intelligent to keep confined like that. I do like them a lot, though. I think I have a soft spot for any animal that's taller than me, since there aren't many.
I took the 3:08 train back into the city (the next train after that was 5:08, so) and when I was walking down Adams Street I saw the Art Institute in the distance. After a bit of debate with myself, I thought that I was already down here and the Manet exhibit was closing this weekend, so this was my chance. The benefit of being a member is that I can just see the Art Institute and decide to duck in if I want to.
I'm not a big fan of Impressionism and, while Manet wasn't quite Impressionist, his work is close to it. But I enjoyed the Manet and Modern Beauty exhibit, mostly for the discussion of Manet's life, about which I knew almost nothing. I also liked the more quirky art like this painting of a bunch of asparagus:
Edouard Manet, A Bunch of Asparagus.
Next to it was another painting of a single stalk of asparagus, dashed off by Manet and sent together with the first painting when Charles Ephrussi paid 1000 francs for it rather than Manet's asking price of 800 francs. That's the good context that I'd have a much harder time stumbling on if I saw a picture of this painting online.
The rest of the weekend I was more of a homebody. I put together a shoe rack for the genkan area--three times, since I screwed it together wrong twice
--made lunches and dinners, and went shopping. I briefly went for frozen custard since the local frozen custard place has malt flavor for a few more days and got malt custard, crushed Whoppers, and chocolate sauce. It was extremely good and made my stomach hurt from all the sugar. I bought tickets to the Distant Worlds concert next weekend because they posted a 20% off discount code. Then I ate chicken tikka masala for dinner with stir-fried peppers and kale, and while I thought the peppers weren't spicy, apparently I was wrong.
Very wrong.
Tonight is more chores and trying to finish the last few levels in Hyrule Warriors Deluxe so my slate is clear when the Link's Awakening Remake comes out in a couple weeks. I have a couple lower-key days and then it's events from Wednesday through Saturday night, so I'll be happy to stay at home for a bit.
Maybe I'll take out my Dreamcast, which I found while I was moving, and play some Soul Calibur II in honor of the Dreamcast's 20th anniversary. I played a lot of that game at university...
Friday was also the beginning of LIVE's sixth season, so I bought tickets to their show (now at 8 p.m., so in future I'll be able to attend both it and Shabbat services). The show was good but didn't stick with me as much, mostly because the serials were the ones I'm not as big a fan of ("Clark and Belmont" and "Chi Beta Justice"), but I definitely remember the intermission, where one of the actresses was talking to her friends next to me and I got to hear about her trip to a knitting retreat in Scotland and her visit to Italy where she learned firsthand that Michelangelo's David is seventeen feet tall. She also explained that it's under a dome, meaning that while you're walking down the hall to get to it, all that's visible is the waist down, leading to the following conversation when
Me: "We're talking about David's junk."Then we went out for ice cream later, where she collapsed into laughter when I told her about Polteageist (ポットデス pottodesu, "It's a pot") and where she ninja-paid for my ice cream before I got to the register, so the Dessert Wars are once again back on.
Me: "Michelangelo's David's junk."
Saturday, I woke up early, had my matcha and sweet, and then took a shower, got dressed, and went downtown to catch the train from Union Station out to the Brookfield Zoo to meet my parents. They asked if I wanted to see the Brick Safari, and how could I say no? The sun was brightly shining, much to my annoyance in terms of comfort while I was traveling to the zoo, but it made for great pictures:
In honor of Chicago's recent alligator resident, I called this 'Chance the Snapped-Together.'
There was a video showing their construction, and most of the animals had a Lego framework inside providing structure, built around a metal support, and then a Lego "skin" that created that actual animal shape. So they were heavy and took thousands or tens of thousands of pieces, but they weren't solid Lego.
The Lego animals were off in a shaded path to the side, which made them more tolerable for me--I got sunburned already during my trip to Baptist Lake and I didn't want a repeat--so I walked down the path with my parents and we talked. A lot. On of the nice things about getting older has been the better relationship with my family, something I know that a lot of people my age don't have.
We went to check out the giraffes too, and the wolves on the way out. We would have gone to look at the elephants but the zoo doesn't have any anymore, which is probably for the best--elephants strike me as too intelligent to keep confined like that. I do like them a lot, though. I think I have a soft spot for any animal that's taller than me, since there aren't many.
I took the 3:08 train back into the city (the next train after that was 5:08, so) and when I was walking down Adams Street I saw the Art Institute in the distance. After a bit of debate with myself, I thought that I was already down here and the Manet exhibit was closing this weekend, so this was my chance. The benefit of being a member is that I can just see the Art Institute and decide to duck in if I want to.
I'm not a big fan of Impressionism and, while Manet wasn't quite Impressionist, his work is close to it. But I enjoyed the Manet and Modern Beauty exhibit, mostly for the discussion of Manet's life, about which I knew almost nothing. I also liked the more quirky art like this painting of a bunch of asparagus:
Edouard Manet, A Bunch of Asparagus.
Next to it was another painting of a single stalk of asparagus, dashed off by Manet and sent together with the first painting when Charles Ephrussi paid 1000 francs for it rather than Manet's asking price of 800 francs. That's the good context that I'd have a much harder time stumbling on if I saw a picture of this painting online.
The rest of the weekend I was more of a homebody. I put together a shoe rack for the genkan area--three times, since I screwed it together wrong twice
--made lunches and dinners, and went shopping. I briefly went for frozen custard since the local frozen custard place has malt flavor for a few more days and got malt custard, crushed Whoppers, and chocolate sauce. It was extremely good and made my stomach hurt from all the sugar. I bought tickets to the Distant Worlds concert next weekend because they posted a 20% off discount code. Then I ate chicken tikka masala for dinner with stir-fried peppers and kale, and while I thought the peppers weren't spicy, apparently I was wrong. Very wrong.
Tonight is more chores and trying to finish the last few levels in Hyrule Warriors Deluxe so my slate is clear when the Link's Awakening Remake comes out in a couple weeks. I have a couple lower-key days and then it's events from Wednesday through Saturday night, so I'll be happy to stay at home for a bit.
Maybe I'll take out my Dreamcast, which I found while I was moving, and play some Soul Calibur II in honor of the Dreamcast's 20th anniversary. I played a lot of that game at university...
