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Meat Movement

So, I got to visit the Norton Simon Museum with new steampunk friends from Brass Goggles. It was a grand time, but we noticed something queer about the still-life paintings: despite the plethora of fruits and vegetables, almost none of the paintings showcased meat! It was distressing! Clearly, something needs to be done to remedy the lack of meat in still-lifes.

We need to begin the meat movement in art. I'm not much of a painter, but I'll do my best to convince others to start incorporating some nice cuts of beef and such into their works. Hell yes.

Man, I'm the best carnivore ever.

Things!

Today, May 25th, is Towel Day. During Towel Day, fans of Douglas Adams' literature show their dedication by toting a towel all day long. I am participating, of course.

Tomorrow, May 26th, is the day of the Los Angeles Steampunk Mini-Convention. Again, I will be going to this event. That'll be fun. It's also the day of my school's prom (I'm not going), a cubing competition in San Diego (I wish I could go, but steampunk takes precedence!) and a joint birthday celebration for all the May birthdays (I'm pretty sure I have to go to this one).

June 1st marks the beginning of Script Frenzy. I and a partner intend to write a 20,000 word screenplay by the end of the month.

July 14th is Bastille Day. I have no idea why I included it in this list of days.

Oh man, this is awesome.

I get to co-conduct an interview of Heather Joseph-Witham, the Mythbusters Folklorist, professor at Otis, urban legend expert, tree-cosplayer, and all-around interesting gal. This is gonna be sweet.

Some things I learned from simple research:

• Her last name is not pronounced WHIT-ham like I had assumed but rather WITH-hum.


• Her name is misspelled on the title tags of her own web page. That's kind of sad. I hope someone fixes it post-haste.


• Though it appears in this picture that Ms. Joseph-Witham is cosplaying as a tree, she is in fact a vampiress. Truth be told, I never would have guessed that.


• In 1993, she presented a paper to the American Folklore Society that mentions an Indian Jewish community in L.A. I must learn more about these people. Indian Jews! Everyone knows that us Jews are complete wusses when it comes to spicy food! I'm amazed they haven't starved yet, or exploded from curry overload.

That's all I got for now. Man, this is gonna be fun.

Latest idea: Book Gashapon

Right. Imagine a capsule-toy machine that distributes little books. They'd be short and small, printed cheaply to cut down on costs (because who wants to pay upwards of 50¢ for anything that comes out of a toy machine?). There is potential for a huge variety of stories to print, which would expand the consumer's reading horizons. Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Snorri Sturluson, or...dag, I can't think of anyone right now. Pretend there's a much longer, more varied list in the previous sentence.

So, let's imagine that you get a book. We'll name it something completely at random: Schmuthering Schmeights by Schmemily Schmrontë. Now, let's imagine that you don't like the book. What do you do? You buy another book, hopefully one that's not a total piece of crap! After all, it's only another 50¢.

My mind today

Here is what my homework planner looked like for today. I love being me.

Books!

I finally convinced myself to finish The Lungfish, the Dodo, and the Unicorn: An Excursion into Romantic Zoology (revised edition) by Willy Ley. I love this book because it's intriguing, insightful, delightful, and well-written. One of the reasons I wanted to finish the book was so that I could more singularly focus on another esoteric-history book. The one I am talking about is Riddles in History by Cyrus H. Gordon. It's about strange runes in strange places, undeciphered inscriptions, and pre-Colombian settlements in the New World. From what I've read so far (the first three pages), it seems pretty good. However, the author is pro-Semitic to an obnoxious degree which is not too surprising, because his middle name is "Herzl" for cryin' out loud. Anyway, back in the 60s, he proposed that a tablet found somewhere in the American Southwest was written in a Hebrew script (instead of the generally-accepted Cherokee script theory) and used this to go off on a lifelong rant that the Jews had settled in the New World in the 600s anno domini. I don't expect to believe much of what this man expounds in his book; after all, he clings to the thought that the Vinland Map is genuine.