So, across the freeway from the hotel that I stay at, someone parked this monster boat... its a hydrofoil I think. I've seen smaller yachts! Anyhow, the nearest water I found to Wichita KS was either the Missouri river or a lake in OK. The appearance of this boat here was a mystery for the 3 or 4 days it was parked there.

 The above two pictures are of the underbelly of the beast. the escape hatch was not very big. I wonder how big the prop for this thing is...

Well, I got a job that is going to involve a lot of driving through the Oklahoma/Kansas countryside, looking at ancient records of various mineral rights, which will hopefully help me start paying student loans while I wait to apply to the Air Force JAG. Anyhow, I needed something to get me all over, and I chose the more dangerous route, a motorcycle. I was going to get a 1983 Camry for like 800 bucks, but I figured if I pay a bit more and buy a fairly new motorcycle, I'll not only get better gas mileage, I'll also avoid a couple of repairs. Not that you don't have to fix motorcycles, and a Toyota will last for a long time, but when choosing between a motorcycle with a few thousand miles and a Toyota with a few hundred thousand miles, the former seemed more logical.

Now I just need to exercise more caution than I've ever done before. 

 So, we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, and it was interesting to see all the hot air balloon stuff. But what caught my eye, as well as Eli's, was the helicopter making exhibit, where you could make little helicopters out of paper or paper cups. I made two, or should I say invented two, and Eli liked them a lot. He actually wanted to make some exactly like mine, but kept getting frustrated with himself. I was trying to teach him that everyone can make different ones, and they don't have to be exactly like mine to be awesome.

What I didn't tell him was that the fan they had for you to test out your helicopter with was so crappy that, in order to fly, they did have to be at least as good as mine, physics-wise. He didn't listen to me anyway, and gave up to go fly a hot air balloon simulator.

I was proud that the finer blade one would actually take off from the screen over the fan if you set it there. The other one has potential, but it will only fly if you hold it up a little higher. Both tip over within 6 or so seconds... not that great. But seriously, I can blow harder than this fan, so it was still an accomplishment. If you look close, I incorporated Bernoulli's famous shape into each blade. Good times, probably more time than I should have spent
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Holy Crap, there are a lot of amazing artists in this world.

This is an amazing movie. I actually didn't listen to the soundtrack, so I hope that's ok too. If you don't like the music, just listen to pandora instead.

So, there are tons of petroglyphs and pictographs around here. Hence, Petroglyphs National Monument is 10 minutes away from our house. Here are some of the neat ones that I've seen.

Horseshoe Crabs have been on this earth a long, long time.

So have some of the trees here in NM, although not nearly as long as this crab species. Still, one life lived for so long is pretty impressive.

Here are some more pictures of Sandia:

So I hiked up Sandia Peak with my Brother-in-law, Ben, and some friends. It was beautiful, and here are some black and whites that I took. I experimented with the burning feature of gimp, and unfortunately, the files were massive so I had to save them at 90% quality to be able to upload them. They got a little grainy.

So I just found out that while we have Hannah Montana over here, while they have Il Volo over their. I have to admit that my American pride is hurt by how much talent is exhibited in those kids. Come on, American kids, let's get it together and come out with some real talent. I guess Justin Bieber is pretty talented, but when you team up with someone like Usher, it all falls to crap. And Bieber is Canadian anyway.

And its not just the Italians who are showing us up. Here is an Arabic genius that Sierra found, who just needs something to record sounds with, and he can produce something of actual value.



I guess I'm going a little overboard in my statements, the world isn't going to end because of our dearth of good music. But really, here in America, the good sources of music left are not popular, and they are hard to find. What is popular tends to be a bunch of noise that annoys the soul. We could do with a cleansing in the music industry, putting our faith and resources into other mouths than those of the giant recording industry which supplies us with a wasteland radio cesspool lacking the color of talent, but certainly not lacking in the revenue generated from advertising.

Enough about that, just try and develop culture on a personal level I guess. And fight the man, ie. the moneysucking record companies. Support guys like this:

https://www.daytrotter.com/

We've had a decent drought in Florida, but there have still been a few beautiful sunsets. It will be sad to leave the beautiful weather here. I know the summers are hot, and the mosquitoes will get insane at some point, but I do really like it here. I think there is a beauty to every part of the earth, in the forests, mountains, deserts, oceans, swamps, etc., and, in my book, it exponentially increases the majesty of it all.

 Easter is a fun time of year, that's for sure. I love to just mess around making eggs pretty. I actually drained five of these eggs before we decorated them, and I was going to spray a matte finish on them, but I think they got tossed. One day I'm going to drain them, fill them with heavily salted water, let them dry out so the salt cake will coat the inside and act as a preservative, decorate them, spray a permanent finish on them, and then go place them up high on a cliff on the Y-mount, or someplace more remote. I would spend more time on them, and make them into the most amazing eggs you've ever seen... I'm such a weirdo. :)