Hiking in Utah

As I said before, I got back from a hiking trip around Utah last week.  I finally got around to uploading the pictures I took of the awesome Indian ruins we saw.  I'm only going to post a few, but feel free to email me if you want more-- because I have a lot, too many to post here.

The first picture shows a pot we went on a ridiculously long, trail-less, steep up-and-down hike to get to.  But, as you can see, it was completely worth it.  The pot was entirely intact aside from a few cracks, and it was well-hidden in between two rocks.

This carving was actually on one of the rocks that were over the pot.  In fact, the pot is nicknamed the "murder pot" because this pictograph shows a guy shooting another guy with an arrow.

 

This is a pendant I found, made from a piece of broken pottery that was rounded and then had a hole carved in it.  In the background, you can see my uncle, and behind him, some fabulous bluffs. 

I apologize for the fact that this picture is so out of focus, but, as you can see, this is an almost intact arrowhead (only one edge is broken off)

 

This deer (I think) was carved into the floor of a steeply sloped cave.  The cave also featured several different animal tracks, a turtle, and a line of little feet going all the way out to the edge. 

These green hand prints were something I had never seen before-- usually they are reddish brown.  If you look closely at the palms, you can see where a pattern was painted.  Very cool.

REMEMBER: I have many more amazing pictures I just didn't have room for!  My uncle also took several very cool pictures, and you can see them!  Just email me at thetoothpickchick@gmail.com!  However, I might be able to post more later, so keep checking in if you liked these.

The Star Wars Holiday Special-- Something George Lucas Really Doesn't Want You to See

Do you love Star Wars? If you answered yes, Good! Keep reading this blog!  But do you want to spite George Lucas for not making the original version available? If so, this is something you need to watch.  Even if you don't much care, this hilarious film is definitely worth watching.  This, you might say, is where the creativity from Star Wars was left to die, and our dear friend George realized that a bit too late.  He did his best to destroy all the copies of it, but fortunately bootleggers got their hands on it, and it's available from YouTube in thirteen parts.  Basically, Chewbacca wants to come home for Life Day, the Wookie version of Christmas.  The movie introduces you to his entire family and features at least half an hour of Wookie dialogue-- without subtitles!
Below I have the links to all thirteen parts, to save you the trouble of typing the search terms into YouTube.
PLEASE post feedback to let me know if these are in the correct order and everything!  I was having a hard time tracking them all down, so they may  not be right!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Ending

Giant Gummy Bear, Anyone?

Call me a sucker for novelty junk, but I was in this awesome gas station that had a restaurant and store and book shop inside it, as well as regular gas station stuff recently.  It was filled with novelty stuff; I was going crazy.  Originally, I was going to restrain myself from buying anything silly, and so I went up to the counter with only a Doctor Pepper, but I quickly saw an entire shelf-load of stuff I knew I was going to end up bringing home.  I narrowed it down to Pac-Man mints that came in a tin shaped like a ghost and a giant gummy bear.  I later discovered that the gummy bear, made in China, had the texture (and flavor) of rubber, but at the time the only thought running through my head was "It's so BIG!"  Naturally, I had to buy it.  Before I started eating it, I made sure to take some pictures, because, after all, I only bought it for the novelty, not to eat, so it needed to be well-documented.  Here they are.  (For privacy reasons, I am not posting the pictures that my face is in, but if you want to see them, send me an email at thetoothpickchick@gmail.com, and if I can determine that you are someone I know, I will send them along.)

Help "Nancy Sends the Slab" go viral

Recently, I went on a hiking trip in southeastern Utah with my parents, grandparents, and led by my aunt and uncle.  We visited several amazing ruins, which I will post pictures of later on.  On the way back one day, we had to scale a steep slab to get back to the car.  My grandparents (ages 79 and 83) were struggling to ascend it.  We managed to capture a video of my grandmother climbing, which was later posted on YouTube.  This incredible video shows something not every 79-year-old could do, and your comment, like, or even mere viewing of this video will help it along to the fame it deserves.
A random thought: Zoidberg emoticon, anyone? (V) (,',',) (V)

WATCH THE VIDEO:

LEGO Man in Space

On January 26, 2012, two ambitious 17-year-olds from Toronto, Canada, hatched an ingenious plan.  They spent a grand total of $400 on equipment: surplus weather balloons, dozens of tanks of helium, a GPS tracking system, and a small digital video camera.  What were they going to do?
Launch a LEGO man holding a plastic Canadian flag into the air attached to a weather balloon.  The boys (Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad) were clever.  The rigged the camera so you could see the LEGO ascending.  They filled the balloon with just enough air that it would pop once it entered the atmosphere so it would be within range to find it again.  They attached a GPS to it and tracked to the landing location.  They even sewed a little parachute for the camera so it wouldn't break on the way back down. Their plan succeeded without a glitch. The balloon reached the atmosphere.  The camera was retrieved and the footage was breathtaking.  The video is now up on YouTube-- and below!
Watch the flight of the LEGO man now:

I like my WIkipedia just fine: Why the SOPA act is a bad idea

If you hear about some random bit of trivia or want information on some obscure fact, what's the first thing you do?  Sure, Google will work, but your best bet would be Wikipedia.
If you hear about some cool new viral video, your first stop isn't Hulu, it's YouTube.
But what if there was no Wikipedia, no YouTube... In fact, no un-copyrighted material at all available on the internet?  Well, that's where we're headed, folks.  Not even a single photo on Facebook will survive after this.  You can even kiss your beloved Nerdy Babble Today goodbye if  SOPA (or the Stop Online Piracy Act) gets passed.  It's just a bill at this point, but if it gets passed, all your favorite sites will get "black-outed" overnight, not only Wikipedia and YouTube, (though those are the ones that affect me the most), but numerous others will be affected too, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, eBay, and many more.  It's all well and good to try to prevent online piracy-- but there's GOT to be a better way to do it.

Want to protest?  Print out my new T-shirt design onto an iron-on transfer and wear it proudly!

Got Futurama Apparel?

Today I had what I thought was a very unique and awesome idea: A Zoidberg hat!!!  After some extensive Googling, however, I discovered that my idea wasn't that original after all.  But I did find some incredibly awesome hats that I just HAD to share.  That also reminded me that I have been having inspiration after inspiration for Futurama-themed T-shirts (I know, I spend WAY too much time thinking about Futurama).  Anyway, there are so many that I couldn't do them all in one post, but I'll do a few every time and eventually they'll all be there.  And so, without further ado, presenting the best Futurama (and other nerdy) hats EVER!!!  (Keep in mind that I DID NOT design or make these, I just found them on the internet). 
Number 1: The roll-up Zoidberg hat
Number 2: The beastly Batman hat
Number 3: The intense R2-D2 hat
Number 4: The adorable Bender hat
Number 5: The sweet Nibbler hat
Number 6: The incredible Brain-parasite hat
And, for even more amazing geeky hats, visit The Geekery at Cutiehats.com