So the big activity for today was going to the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the Bowers Museum. Kitten was already primed for this because she did Asian art last year in school, and actually did a clay t-c warrior as an art project. The exhibit was extremely cool, and quite educational, even if there were these odd notes of trying to rehabilitate the reputation of Emperor Qin for modern audiences (“Yes, he militarily united all of China for the first time, put down rebellions, imposed common currency and orthography, demolished internal fortifications while building the first external walls for the kingdom, and created a huge necropolis for himself … but, really, a lot of the rumors that he was mean to his people, or had his opponents buried alive and all predecessor regime book burned are probably exaggerations by later kings”) was … interesting.
Many thanks to Helen who, as a docent at the Bowers, gave Kitten a personal tour of the exhibit.
The Kidseum, a two-blocks-away institution, had a program about China’s “Monkey King” legends, but it needs a fair amount of work to bring it up to the professional levels of the regular Bowers.
As to toys … in the course of making reservations for a car up in northern California, I had four different results from Hertz come back with “NeverLost not available on this vehicle.” Which finally crystallized my resolve to get a GPS system, dagnabbit. We went down to Best Buy, looked over what they had, asked some questions, and walked out with a Garmin nuvi 260W. So there.
Biggest question now is what voice to use. I frankly find the female Australian to be the, um, most intelligible, but I’m sure we’ll come to some decision while on our trip.
Hmmmm….
The thing I liked about Mom’s Tomtom (besides the fact that it keeps mispronouncing places) is that all of it’s maps are updatable via the internets.
Haven’t looked at the update process yet, beyond asking how much it was. The 2009 data was $90 (not clear if a download or a SD chip), so I’m not going to worry about it for a while.
So, did you prep for the visit to the TC Warrior by watching Episode 2 of The Middleman? 😛
Um … no? (Blinks, drawing a blank.)
IF you AREN’T watching The Middleman on ABC Family you must begin IMMEDIATELY.
This is simply the best comic sci-fi program since the original Get Smart. The dialog is snappy, the comedy is delightful . . .it makes Mondays tolerable. I think most of the episodes are available on-line, too.
Episode 2 features a terra cotta warrior who comes to life to hunt down the true heir to an ancient chinese dynasty. A blonde, blue-eyed kid in the suburbs.
That MM and WW need the help of a fashion model succubus to defeat the creature is only icing on the cake. . . .
And there is so much else here that this doesn’t classify as spoilerage!