lineofaction

Wherein Ryan examines dead bodies…

I wasn’t going to make another update to the site until 2006, but I just got back from the coolest museum exhibit I have ever seen and had to share my experience. The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa is currently hosting an exhibit called “Bodies: The Exhibition". Basically they used a plastic polymerizing process to convert all the water based cells in the body into a plastic duplicate, thus converting the forms into permanent statues. The bodies were *amazing*. Room by room they went through the systems of the body and flayed out the forms of the corpses to show the inner workings. The in the muscular system room you could see all the origins and insertings of the muscles. In the circulatory system room they had injected the blood stream with the polymerizing agent and removed all the other tissues, so there was a body that had just the circulatory system in tact, down to the capillaries. It was amazing. I wish it were showing longer so I could recommend people go check it out. Maybe they’ll be moving it around to other science museums. If this exhibit comes to a town anywhere near you and you’re not squemish about corpses, GO SEE THIS. It really is breathtaking.

Wherein Ryan drives a new Mustang and visits family and friends in Tallahassee…

I just drove back to Tampa after spending six days in Tallahassee to continue the traditional Arxer family Christmas-induced insanity fest. I had a very good time, ate a lot of good Cuban food, spent some quality, albeit manic time with my family and some less manic though equally quality time with my friends. I am now decompressing from that trip in the near stress-free environment of my father’s house. In an ideal world I’ll get a lot of my thesis done in the next week. We’ll see how that goes. Sunday I return to Phoenix where job, friends and dog await my return. I hung out with David and Jeremy and the indominable Avni several times this last week. Excellent experiences all around. Christmas night I went to Jeremy’s father’s house and we ate chicken wings, played a really fun associative word-game that Avni calls “Name the Thing” and had some peculiar Freudian conversations that I’ll leave them to explain if they care to. The rental car company when I went to pick up my car didn’t have the vehicle I requested, so all week long in Tallahassee I was driving around a brand new 2006 Mustang. Driving this car made me feel like a different person on the road. I’m not sure if that person was a better person or not. I’m willing to say that he probably isn’t. The Mustang goes, I’ll give it that, but its a plastic, low-end and really not that impressive near-sports car that tries to make up for its cheapo American craftsmanship by throwing as many horses into the engine as it can for the price-point.

Well...Merry whatever everyone. I’ll see you in 2006.

Wherein Ryan sits in Sky Harbor and awaits his flight…

I am sitting in Sky Harbor, using their free wifi. I am about to enjoy a two week vacation back in Florida. The last few weeks have been pretty standard, but I did go to a great Christmas/Birthday party one of the animators threw for his wife. Good booze, good friends. I traded in a few games to pick up Final Fantasy I & II for the GBA, which I will be playing on my rarely-used DS. I just got a notice from SCAD reminding me that I have 2 more years to finish my thesis. That first year went by awfully fast. The holidays are upon us again, and I’m looking forward to seeing my family and nervous about not having Hank the Dog around for two weeks. I had trouble sleeping last night without Hank around. 

Wherein Ryan hikes up a mountain and doesn’t get an XBox 360…

I am switching over to a full blogging system so the site is going to be a little rough for a while. Sorry about that. If you want to see the skeleton of the new system, its at http://www.lineofaction.com/weblog (thanks to Mister Brett Brown for supplying the framework). I’ve been working out for a month now and while I don’t see any weight loss results, I do feel much better and less tired during the day. I’ve been hiking a bit recently, and just last weekend a friend of mine and I hiked to the summit of one of the local mini-mountains called Squaw Peak. The total round-trip hike was 3-ish miles, the final elevation being 2600 feet. It’s a hard hike. I’m probably going to try it again this weekend. There is only 9 days left until my trip to Florida. I am excited. Not happy that I have to leave my dog behind though. I’m bringing my thesis work with me and will atempt to get some of it done while I’m hanging out at my Dad’s. I’m getting closer. On the gaming side of things, no I did not get a 360 and will not be getting one for at least 3 or 4 months. I’m going to let them work the initial bugs out. I am currently playing Dragon Quest VIII and have yet to give up World of Warcraft. My lease is running out at the end of January and I will be looking for a house to rent as soon as I get back in town from vacation. A lot of stuff is happening in January including my eye surgery, so everything is falling at sort of a bad time, but hey, I’ve been under tighter schedules before.