Well, like so much the rest of my life It appears that I didn't win. It's happened many times before: I work hard & devote so much time & effort into something until I feel it's a sure thing, only to lose to someone else at the last minute & receive zero recognition. This happened with the Running With Scissors display I created for (store's name omitted) this has happened time & again with writing stories for contests & now once more for the Battlezone high score for the retro gaming week at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
I thought it was certain. I was there two hours before the entire event was over & my score was untopped. But now, a week & a half later with no notification it's evident that somewhere during those two hours it was topped. I'm certain of this because
the_tick27 has already received his package for topping Joust 2. It was a fun & exciting week & it was certainly worth every quarter, but the icing on the cake would have been to have one of those T-shirts to commemorate the event.In other news, on Saturday I returned to the Chicago Shedd Aquarium after a 20 year departure. The last time I was there was with my father & a friend & we spent the entire day in that area with most of our time at the museum & journeying out to the aquarium & planetarium before everything closed. This time I was the guest of Thea & her mom who had never been there & had been wanting to go for some several years. We all enjoyed the trip (especially Mitsuwa for dinner afterward) but it doesn't appear they'll be going back soon. As Thea pointed out, most of the animals there (excepting of course the whales & sharks) she could raise in her tanks at home & there wasn't any additional info on them other than their name & a photo by the tank. With the exception of the video monitors showing interactive films, the museum & catalogue in Animal Crossing: Wild World is more informative.
I don't have much desire to return again either, tho' there were some points of note: The day was so incredibly foggy that we couldn't see the lake, despite being not 100 yards from it. The fog persisted throughout the entire day & didn't let up until the next. I am so glad I didn't drive. (Plus, we got lost twice.) There is a lungfish living there that was originally donated in 1933. Yes, it's older than some of your grandparents. It is currently the oldest living aquatic animal in captivity. By comparison, the oldest of the other lungfish sharing the tank was brought there in 1993.
Unfortunately, the memory I will probably take to my grave whether I want it or not is when we were peed at by a dolphin. >_< We were in an area a few floors down where you could watch whales & the like under water through windows in the walls. The dolphins were all very active & one of them was doing laps around the tank. Each time it came by it would swim right next to the windows & woosh! This happened several times in a row. I swear the little bugger did it on porpoise. *
I got to spent Sunday with
toastmastertom which is always awesome. He gave me my belated birthday gift which is also awesome. Together with my dad we met the gang at Pedro's for laviorli's celebratory new job feast & excused ourselves early for Mah Jongg Club at Pegasus Games. Once we got back to town I had Tom all to myself for a few hours which is something that doesn't happen often enough at all.Next weekend I'm looking forward to seeing Two Timer perform again in Newville. Anyone interested is welcome to join me. I also want to see
- E V I L O U T -
P.S.
I dedicate this newest White Ninja comic to hal.
*Management apologizes for the horrendous attempt at humour, but swears that the anecdote is still entirely true.
Current Music: Agents of Destiny ~ Colin Gagnon
