Meet the Penguins

So when I said I’d introduce the penguins “very soon,” I really meant “more than a month later.” I blame my permanent writer’s block.

I’m not sure exactly how the idea for the penguins was born, but I know I saw these photos (there’s also a Facebook page). I liked the idea and started thinking about what I had that I could photograph. All my LEGOs were at home, so I didn’t have any minifigures. My LEGOs are still at home; I meant to bring some back with me this summer, but I forgot. Guess I should have packed more than twelve hours before leaving. Anyway, I thought (shocking, I know) some more and decided on a plastic animal figure.

The next time I was at the mall to go to Target, I stopped by AC Moore to check out their selection of plastic animals. I was looking for a penguin, because I like penguins, but the only one I could find was about three inches tall and cost four dollars. I considered a couple cheaper options, and then I saw a whole tube of penguins. They were only an inch or two tall, but there were eleven of them, and they were on sale for five dollars. They came back to campus with me.

I then decided to name them after the Fellowship of the Ring. Here they are:

Front row: Merry/Pippin. Middle row: Frodo, Gandalf, and Sam. Back row: Legolas, Boromir, Aragorn, and Gimli

The penguins occasionally travel with me and they tend to see the world from a different perspective. I plan to feature them on the blog every so often, because who doesn’t want to see life as a two inch tall penguin?

1189

Among the other things I meant to write about and didn't was the fact that last week I came to the 1772^nd page of a book and finished reading its last (the 1189^th) chapter. It was a book that took a very long time to finish, but it was a very good book. There were battles, journeys across deserts and oceans, visions and prophecies predicted and fulfilled, and even a left-handed judge who wasn't properly checked for weapons and who killed an opposing ruler by plunging a dagger into the enemy king’s stomach. And then the king’s intestines fell out.

Upon completion of the 1772^nd page of the Bible, I decided to go back and start again at the beginning. This time I’ll be reading chronologically. Hopefully it takes me less than six and a half years this time. Reading fairly regularly, I got through the New Testament in nine months (October 2013 – June 2014) and that was about one third of the Bible, so there is light at the end of this tunnel. Projected ETA: 2.25 years.

Art

First off, I am back at Cornell in the midst of summer college, tour groups, and no less than four major construction projects around the main part of campus. I have thus far survived mostly on cereal, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, pasta, frozen vegetables, eggs, and a variety of fruits.

Second, there is currently a giant root outside of the Johnson Art Museum.

I can’t find a picture of it right now, but I just wanted to let people know that I happen to have a smaller version at home. It’s an original work, produced by spade and manual hedge trimmers, and I would be willing to let it go for the right price.

Third, I became the owner of a tablet about a week before returning to Ithaca. It’s one of those that graphic artists and photographers use to make art, but since my art skills peaked in elementary school, the most useful thing it’s done for me so far is turn about six pages of handwritten equations into computer text. I honestly don’t think it was much faster than typing everything up, but it was less painful due to the preponderance of Greek letters, superscripts, and fractions. If you've ever had to type up equations in Microsoft Word, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, be glad.

Since, of course, my photography is usually only slightly blurry and slanted nearly professional, I was semi-interested thrilled to also be able to download a version of Photoshop that came with the tablet. It only took my sale-price high-end laptop three hours to download. Once I got to try Photoshop, I had no idea what I was doing instantly became a Photoshop master and produced such quality photos as these:

It was a dark and stormy night.

When the Statue of Liberty came alive.

And then we went to Mars.