Here’s a new photo challenge to join in. From Maria at citySonnet.
Here’s my entry…
I took this photo at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It’s labeled as a “sandstone concretion”. I really loved looking at all its twists and turns. I always enjoy this museum, they have a great exhibit on insects and a butterfly ‘garden’, and they have frequent very interesting lectures and presentations.
I found a new photo challenge in my reader tonight. It’s hosted by Frank at Dutch Goes the Photo. This week the topic is ‘crawl’.
I have a few that will fit the challenge…
I took this photo a while ago at Moody Gardens in Galveston. I used to have a membership and so went fairly often. I gave that up a couple of years ago when I got laid off….
I took this one at the Houston Zoo. They have a ‘bug house’ with a couple of dozen terrariums with different kinds of insects. I believe this one is called a ‘blue death feigning beetle’ which is native to Texas (though I haven’t seen any wild ones around here).
I took this one at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It’s a tarantula. Bigger than my hand (I’m estimating, I didn’t pick it up). I go there and to the zoo a lot when I get up to Houston. I have memberships to both so it doesn’t cost me anything. Both the museum and the zoo always have something new and interesting to see.
I went again last Friday night, hoping to spend a little while looking around the museum before the event I was going to (Biophilia). Sadly, they had the entire place blocked off so I just had to wait around, bored, for 45 minutes until they let us in to the exhibit. It was worth the wait.
The amazing creativity of the artist was incredible. The museum did a great job. They had a few tables set up where we could make our own art magnets, check out some of the insects they keep around downstairs, and talk to some of the docents. They also had free food (pulled pork sliders, chips, pecan breaded chicken skewers and cookies). Drinks were available too.
There was a pretty decent crowd, the tables were full of people eating before or after looking through all the beautiful artwork. I loved the bright colors and fantastic designs. I never would’ve thought to make something so beautiful out of a bunch of bugs. Even tho when you look at almost anything in nature close enough you can find beauty.
They’re having another event at the museum tomorrow, but even if you can’t make it the exhibit will be on display for a while. Don’t think you have to go only if you can go with someone from the museum. It’s definitely worth going if you like anything to do with art, nature, design.
I’m taking a break tomorrow. It’s not that I’ve been working (I wish that I was), but I’ve been busy catching up on all kinds of things around the house that I’ve been putting off for ages. It hasn’t been much fun, but I have slowly been getting a few things accomplished. Tomorrow I’m going to spend the day in Houston. First at the zoo and later at a members only event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Here’s how the museum describes the event…
Spend an evening with HMNS and artist Christopher Marley for a look into Biophilia: A Dialogue with Art, Nature, and Science. Enjoy themed crafts, lite bites and cash bar and then dive into Marley’s world of nature and art with this multimedia and sensory experience in this exclusive meet and greet only for members. Reservations required, limited space available.
I’m usually interested in science and art and this sounds very interesting to me. I googled Christopher Marley and I have to say, I really liked what I saw! He combines natural items like bugs, shells, rocks, with design to make gorgeous colorful images. I’m amazed at how he shows off the beauty in so many of the common things we see around us every day. Like these bugs, for instance.
Isn’t that just gorgeous? It’s just a bunch of beetles! If I had a bunch of extra cash and some spare room on my walls, I would definitely go on a shopping spree!
Tomorrow night is for members only but next Wednesday (Feb 13) at 1830, the museum will have a lecture and tour where the director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center Erin Mills will introduce you to these inspiring works of art and the amazing animals that comprise and showcase their beautiful, yet functional, features. After the presentation you can check out the special exhibition. There will be ‘special guests’ from the butterfly center and insect zoo too. 🙂
If you get your tickets before Feb 6, they’re $16, after that they’ll be $20 (members get $6 off).
If you’re anywhere around the Houston area and you’re interested in art, it’s probably worth taking a look. The museum is worth spending some time there anyway.
I just wanted to let everyone know about this upcoming event. It’s at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It sounds really interesting and if I was going to be in town I would definitely go. I’m leaving tonight to head offshore for a couple of weeks. Yeah!
Today’s prompt for Just Jot It January is: humiliate. I’m not sure I’ll get a chance for another post today or not, so enjoy this one. Maybe it’ll interest you enough to check out some history. The story of the Glomar Challenger (photo below) is really pretty cool, but even more interesting is the saga of the companies other ships, the Glomar Explorer. 😉
Running Time: 2 hours
An innovative cast of characters have lead the way in the energy industry–Harry Wiess, Herman Brown, Howard Hughes, Herbert Hunt–and established Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast as the epicenter of the international energy industry. Author and historian Paul Mattingly will tell the fascinating, little-known stories behind the biggest projects of their time and explain the numerous interconnections including the Glomar Challenger, Apollo program robots, Texas Instruments and the proving of theory of plate tectonics.
Mattingly will conclude with how Texas continues to lead the way in new sources of energy for the future. A book signing of “From Orange To Singapore: A Shipyard Builds a Legacy” will follow the presentation.
Where the heck do they come up with these names?! Continuing on with Jennifer’s Color Your World Challenge, the color for today is “atomic tangerine“.
I really had no idea what color that was, I had to look it up.
And now, let’s see. This is the closest I could come. I’m having a hard time distinguishing the difference between some of these colors, they really look a lot alike, especially when the color is not on a crayon or a color swatch, but on something from the ‘real world’. I took this photo of a neat looking shell at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Still playing along with Jennifer’s Color Your World challenge? It’s never too late to join in. Today’s color is ‘mango tango‘.
Here’s my take on it…
I took it at the Houston Museum of Natural Science a couple of months ago. They have a really nice butterfly exhibit. Not all of them are dead like this one. You can walk around the habitat and sometimes the butterflies will land on you.
I forgot what kind of butterfly this photo is of. They have cards with pictures so you can identify the butterflies around you. The only one I can ever remember is the Owl butterfly. This one is definitely not an Owl. 🙂
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to join in on any of Cee’s great challenges. I’ll try to make up with a couple for this week. Here’s my take on her Fun Foto Challenge for this week- purples.
These are from the Houston Museum of Natural Science…
purple amethyst crystals
Purple Mexican wrestler dolls
purple paper mache’
Like it? Feel free to join in, just click the link and see what other things Cee is up to.
I was working in Houston on Monday. We finished up pretty early, so I decided to stop at the Museum of Natural Science on the way home.
I’m a member, so it’s free if I don’t go to the special exhibitions. This time they had one on the Virgin of Guadeloupe. I wasn’t really very interested in that, and by the time I got there it was after 3, so I just wandered around the regular exhibits. There’s plenty to see for free. 🙂
I spent a lot of time this time in the exhibit on ancient Egypt. I always thought all that stuff about mummies was pretty cool, and I really love the old stories about gods, goddesses, etc. They had a lot of that kind of thing on display. Quite a few mummies and they explained all about it. I liked how they set up the exhibit too. When you entered, it really put you in the right frame of mind. 😉
Here’s a photo of a mummy case, inside and out.
I spent most of my time in this exhibit this week, but I did take a quick look at the section on the Amazon, the rocks/minerals (the gem vault was still closed), and the shells. Here’s a nice shot of some gypsum.
I loved this thing! It’s called a ‘sandstone concretion’. I just think it’s beautiful, the way it twists and turns, spirals around, shades of gray. I could do a lot with photos of this thing. 🙂
I know I’ve been posting a lot of gloom and doom lately. It’s been hard for me to try and come up with cool stuff to write about when my life has been so screwy lately. I do still find things to keep me going, just not nearly as much as when I’m working. I hope you’ll stick around till things get more interesting. 🙂
My response to the Daily Posts weekly photography challenge.
I took these at the Houston Museum of Natural Science a couple of weeks ago. A butterfly was just coming out of its cocoon. They have a beautiful butterfly center there. I thought it would fit this weeks theme of ‘transition’. 🙂
People have been asking ‘what’s up?”, yep, it surprised me. Some people have actually sent me messages asking where I’ve been. Neat. 🙂 I’m sorry I haven’t been around here much lately. I’ve just been worn out. Too tired to spend the time and effort to even write a post. 🙁
Maybe you wonder what has been keeping me so busy? Nothing really. I think I’ve just been so frustrated with this thing lately, and maybe even a little depressed. I can’t seem to make any progress in getting my blog back to where I am interacting with people like I was before I moved. I don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it and it’s been bothering me. A LOT! And then there’s been the other issue with my photos. 🙁
I even consulted a couple of computer ‘geeks’ to see if they could help me. So far no luck. I have’nt had much time since I asked them either, so part of that may be my fault.
Since my last posts here on Sunday, I’ve been fairly busy. I spent the first part of last week in my new job in the mornings. Monday night my DPO friend was in town so she drove down from Houston to visit me and we went out to Red Lobster for dinner. Tuesday night was my usual Campaign for Liberty meeting. Wednesday I met my DPO friend again and we had a good time shopping at the Galleria with a late dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!).
I took the day off Thursday, just went to visit my friend J and brought over a big pot of my favorite beef stew. She doesn’t get out much and I felt like she could use some homemade cooking. 🙂 We had a nice talk about all kinds of things. I really wish she was still up for going out together.
Friday I went to a lunch meeting in Houston where they had an interesting presentation about FPSO’s (yeah, I know, most people probably wouldn’t think that was very interesting, but I really do still like to learn about all that stuff!). I was going to the zoo afterwards, but they closed it early for a ‘Feast With the Beasts’ and I didn’t want to pay (a LOT) extra to enter since I’m a member and should get free entry.
I went to the Museum of Natural Science instead. I always really like their ‘bug house’ (exhibits on insects, etc) and butterfly center. It’s really fascinating to watch the butterflies come out of their chrysalis and pump themselves up to fly away. I like to take lots of pictures of all the butterflies and flowers. It’s a really relaxing experience, sitting around listening to the waterfalls while the butterflies land on you. I only wish it wasn’t always so HOT and HUMID in there!
I got a membership there too, so I could see all the exhibits. They had Faberge‘ there again which I really enjoyed. I always did love beautiful things and there were a lot of them in there, much more than just the famous eggs. Everything they made was just exquisite! So finely made, so delicate, so intricate, so gorgeous, so expensive!
They also had an exhibit on spies. It was called “Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America”. That was really interesting and I wish I had a lot more time to spend there to really take it all in.
One thing I liked was that they had little interactive quizzes set up at some of the exhibits. For instance, they had one that asked if the US government should be able to spy on their own citizens (like they ARE doing). Of course I answered no (HELL NO!).
I was absolutely stunned to see how many of my ‘fellow Americans’ answered differently. Amazing! Hard to believe so many are willing to give up their rights. Sad to see how many just don’t get Ben Franklins warning about those who would trade freedom for security.
Amazing how many have learned nothing from history and I guess that means that we will be repeating it all again. VERY VERY sad.
I was running out of time, they were closing the museum so I had to leave. It’s probably a good thing, since I was getting a little pissed off. Yes, it really does upset me whenever I’m reminded of how MUCH of my freedom has been stolen from me! I still find it hard to understand how anyone, much less any American, can stand it. Yet I see more and more of them willing to accept more and more of this theft every day.
So, the weekend came around and MORE rain! I spent the entire weekend being super lazy! I was just tired. Really worn out. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday lying around reading (Michael Chrichtons book “Travels”, Kim Harrisons “Witch With No Name”), watching TV (Saturday Night Live, Texas Music Scene, Househunters) and cooking up a storm. 🙂
Yesterday I eased back into things by catching up on phone calls, emails, etc and today I’m back in the flow of things. Went back to my new job this morning and political meeting again tonight. 🙂
Tomorrow I’m getting up REAL early to go to a conference I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s called Fund Your Life Overseas. I’m still hoping to find SOME way to support myself without being tied down here in the states. I have been trying to move overseas for YEARS now. Decades actually.
The ONLY thing keeping me here is my finances. I hope I will be able to learn something new at this conference that will finally allow me to earn an INDEPENDENT living. Something not tied to any specific location would be best, but if its located outside of the US, that would probably be OK too.
So, if you don’t hear from me again for the next few days, don’t worry. I’ll be soaking up the info at the conference and hopefully the weather will be decent when I return. Since I already missed the Pirates, I’d really like to see the Barbarians at the RenFest! 🙂
