Brown County - continued

So back at the nature center, we were given the opportunity to see a bat that had been injured. It turns out the bat was a natural showman, pretending to want to bite the volunteer's fingers and constantly "asking" for more food (read: mealworms). It was a pretty neat presentation. Also, I don't wish to brag, but when she asked how old the oldest fossils of modern bats were, I guess it right - 50 million. Yep, I don't want to brag, but I guess you're reading the ponderings of a stinkin' genius.

Our adventure continued outside of the state park and into a small town called Nashville. It might not have been as flashy as the version in Tennessee, but it was fun nonetheless. There were art vendors, caramel apples, fudge shops, and some nice hometown restaurants. There was even a little alleyway with a marionette stage in it. Pretty impressive. After that, it was getting late and it was decided that back home would be the next destination. And that's pretty much the entire trip, excluding the tornado dodging that was done in driving back from there.

Don't forget that this upcoming month, I'll be celebrating ONE YEAR of having this blog. Be sure to buy me cake.

The Brown County Experience

Welcome back, loyal readers! I was on hiatus from work yesterday to take some much needed time to explore the sights of southern Indiana...south to me, anyway. Destination: Brown County.

The first stop was a winery. It was a rather nice place where one could sample many different types of wine. The only downside, from my perspective, is that I did not see people in bare feet stomping on the grapes.

The next stop was the Brown County State Park. It seemed to be pretty large and the roads seem to wind through it forever. It is also possible that I got stuck in a spatial vortext, which would probably explain the wild turkeys that ran out in front of my car. From here, we went on a small trail which led to an overlook which could also reinforce the notion of the spatial vortex, because I think we wound up on Mt. Everest.

From there, we moved on to a nature center, which also had several trails to follow nearby. The nature center itself was a collection of snakes, turtles, and stuffed animals. I should also warn you: there was a little notepad for anyone to write down what they thought should be the state animal. I just looked and saw that according to www.stateanimals.com, Indiana appears to have no entry, but the exhibit said it was the bison. Anyway, someone had wrote down the new state animal should be Nina from Napoleon Dynamite.

Next, we took one of the trails that had been labeled "easy". This, of course, was established in the 1800's, where easy simply meant you didn't have to wrestle an Indiana bison barehanded in the middle of the trail. Now, it seems like an awfully long trail to use. It was pretty nice, regardless of ending up in M0ntana by the end (okay, that's an exaggeration).

There were many other times and experiences had while out there, but I'll have to write about those at a later time. Fare ye well, dedicated readers who donate money to this blog.

Radio Thing Update

Just yesterday, I was driving around and said something referencing Golden Earring's "Radar Love". Just as I did that, the song came on the radio! There was a witness who can vouch for this, in case you were in doubt.

Also, I think I found something worse than receiving a phone call during a relaxing lunch break - getting an unexpected visit from a vendor. FUN!!

Save the Planet!

Pluto, that is.

My Radio Thing

I've decided to use this entry to inform readers about a gift I've been hiding all this time. Very few people know of it, but I have a gift that may seem borderline magical. I admit, I haven't searched into this much, but if forced to give this a name, I'd call it "my radio thing".

The idea is simple enough. A couple of times, I'll be thinking of a song or singing a song. Then I'll turn on the radio. The song will be playing! But here's some more specific examples.

*Once, my brother told me about this SNL skit that I hadn't seen before. Now I know it well, but it was the one with Christopher Walken saying that more cowbells were needed while performing Don't Fear the Reaper. The very next time I hear that song, the DJ accidentally (or not) cuts into the song and starts saying "We need more cowbells!" Perhaps if the episode had just played, but this was four or five years after the episode made its initial run. Not convinced?

*I asked the same brother if he had heard this old White Zombie song being played on the radio recently. He said he had heard it once or twice over the span of a long time. But after I asked him that, he said he heard it many more times over the span of about a week. Still not convinced?

*One day, I mentioned in an e-mail to my girlfriend that I had been looking up the lyrics to Led Zeppelin's "Hey Hey, what can I do". That same day, I hear the song being performed by Hootie and the Blowfish.

Okay, if those haven't convinced you, then nothing probably will. This has happened a lot more than these times. Yeah, they're not played infrequently and, yeah, I'm not hearing White Zombie on the local oldies station. But still...

Fine, don't believe it then...I don't, myself. Just don't blame me that when you go home, you're going to hear:

Boston: More than a Feeling

Maybe the wait would have been more interesting with the 3D glasses?

This past weekend, I made the pilgrimage to Cedar Point. It was rather warm, which changed around the normal line lengths for the rides. Take Disaster Transport for instance. Normally, a very short wait in line for a solidly mediocre ride. In fact, one of the features listed here is that the "Queuing area is in blacklight with fluorescent paint creating a 3-D effect. 3-D glasses are available for purchase." When one of the features involves the waiting line, it's probably not too impressive, right? And the normal 10-15 minute wait verifies that. But throw in the fact that it's indoors and there's air conditioning while waiting, and all of a sudden, that balloons into a posted 1 1/4 hour wait (although actual recorded time was somewhere around 50 minutes).

I also fell victim to one of the "carnie" games, specifically one involving shooting 12 shots at various points outside a three-point line. Like all carnival games, though, it was rigged - I actually had to shoot the ball. That and I believe the rim might have been at the height used in the Indonesian Leagues, which is 297 cm, equating to 9.744065 feet. The rim may have even been at the standards of various South American tribes; the only way to get the ball through it is by using black magic (involving deflating the ball).

All in all, it was a great experience...as usual.