Google Images

You might think it’s really weird to be posting about Google Images, because it’s just something that lets you see a bunch of pictures.  But I’m in the hobby of typing in a random word or random combination of letters, results come up, I look at them for a while, I type another random combination of letters and then I keep repeating.  To me, it’s just fun to see what everyone has posted on Google Images.  Here’s one of the searches I did:  YHMSGR.  And a bunch of results for Yahoo Messenger came up.  There were pictures of the icon, pictures of someone using it, how to use it, a screenshot of it.  There were a bunch of pictures in a row that made a slideshow if you looked at them really fast.

Right now, I’m grounded and don’t have any computer time [Mom sez: we make an exception for blog posts], but I ask my mom to search for things on Google Images and she prints them out so I can look at them.  Some things I’ve asked for are “future trains,” “future transportation,” “stairways,” “weird houses,” “sinks” and “pogo sticks.”

Just now, I did a random search for “HCBC.”  Here’s what came up:

It’s fun, because you can see a bunch of pictures that other people took.   You can even download images and edit them with various programs.  Some of them even let you draw things on the pictures.

So Google Images is just like a giant photo album right on your computer.  It’s good for all ages and it’s pretty educational also (just don’t search for inappropriate words if you’re looking for something educational).

The Kegel Family Reunion

A few weeks ago, we went to Spokane, WA to go to a family reunion.  Every year, the Kegel family has this reunion at the family homestead.

The people who came to the reuion were mostly other Kegel family members. But my mom, who’s a Fuller, also came.  We got to the reunion by two flights – one to Seattle and one that transferred us from Seattle to Spokane.  And we also flew first class both flights.  That was pretty awesome.  You didn’t have to share armrests, you got real glass cups (not just those dopey clear plastic ones), and each person even got two windows.  Oh, and you were also separated from economy/coach – no one could actually hear you.

Basically, the homestead is made of a parking area for all the cars, and tents and RVs and whatever.  And there’s a half-made barn that’s basically just a shelter with a firepit, a chimney and an adjustable funnel made out of bathroom stalls.  And then there’s a giant rock that all of the kids like to climb on.

From the campsite, there’s a path leading down to a fork, which is really fun, especially if you’re using a wheelbarrow.  One path splits to the right, and that just slopes down and reconnects with the other path.  And then the other one goes to the left, and makes a sharp right and goes almost straight down – that’s the one that’s fun with a wheelbarrow, especially if it’s loaded with bricks.  And that leads to a bridge over a creek with only one railing, and you can hop off the side of the bridge.

When I got there, I was really hoping that I could start building a dam in the creek (which we do every year), but not enough kids were there, so I started inspecting and thinking how I should build it.  It actually turned out that we built four dams.   One was our emergency dam and our main dam was on the other side of the bridge.  And the main dam was just a tiny wall used for chilling drinks in the water, but then it fell apart so we decided to make a pretty huge one, and it was pretty huge – took a lot more work than the emergency dam – and then we made a rock wall around the drinks – just enough to let water in but not enough to make big currents to knock the drinks over.  In our emergency dam, we actually found a natural water filter system.  Some of the material used for a dam the year before last year fell apart and made a natural filter system, which I thought was pretty cool.

We mainly use what we can find – there was a lot of sand on this mini-beach, and the wet-ish sand worked.  We found a bunch of rocks that we used as stepping stones, until we used them in our dam, and then we found a lot of gravel which worked until it exploded, and then the water was rising.  And we also used plants and some branches that we chopped off using some knives.  And we found this little path that was a trench, that was used for the first dam, and it actually came in handy – water was flowing through it.  So it was really squishy when we had to go for more plants.

Our final dam was past the culvert pipe, and we went through it, which was really fun.  And we knew we had success when someone checked and there was only a small trickle going through the culvert pipe.  And our absolute emergency dam was the perfectional stopper.  It was made out of boulders, fish (a lot of fish tended to gather around it when we were standing on top of it – I don’t know why), and pebbles.

On the two nights that we stayed there, we roasted marshmallows, and that was fun.  The final night we stayed, night #2, we hiked out to a big field at night and saw some shooting stars and set off fireworks (but I don’t know if that was legal or not).  I had a good time at the reunion.  You can see my mom’s photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilf/sets/72157627563145834/with/6100071419/

Camping at Lake Morena

This weekend I went camping with some friends – Dan and Alex Miles – near Campo, CA.  The first day we got there, we had a water gun fight with Xavier, one of our camping neighbors.  After the water gun fight, we set up the tent (and I can’t believe it was made by the same company as my shoes – Hi Tech) and then we ate dinner (vegetarian grilled chicken sandwiches and veggie burgers).  Then we roasted marshmallows (the vegetarian kind).  Sleeping was really good – my sleeping bag (an “Extender, Jr.”) was reeeeally comfy.

Day #2:  we ate breakfast, which we bought before we got to the campsite.  It was just cereal in those tiny boxes.  And then, once we ate breakfast, we went to Lake Morena and we went boating with a motor boat.  Here’s a video of me driving the boat: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymiles/6070447571/?v=1 The boat ride was awesome – I made the boat go really fast.  (We took turns every five or ten minutes.)

After the boat ride, we went to Campo Depot, which is part of the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum.  We first took the rail bus down to the display building, where they display all of their trains.  The picture above shows the rail bus we rode in.  We looked at all the trains, but Dan and Alex wouldn’t let me use the MSTS rail simulator because they were too busy trying to figure out how to start the locomotive.  Once they got it going, it was going 100 miles per hour, but then it ran off the rails on a curved bridge and they were still trying to figure out how to stop when it said “game over.” And then they started fiddling with the controls again before I could get a turn.

After we looked through the trains, I found this model train display and there were two trains – both O-gauge high-rail.  There were buttons to activate them – a red button activated the freight train, which was a steam train with no tender, and the other was a passenger train with two Santa Fe locomotives (one freight and one passenger).  And after a while that one broke and it wouldn’t get started again and then a lot of little kids and other kids came up to the other red button (there’s two on each side), and I didn’t get a turn.

Next, we took the electric cart back to the main station, and then a train came and we took a cab ride in it.  Trust me, it was awesome – I got to honk the horn!

After the train ride, we went back to the campsite.  The next morning, I suddenly got a swollen eye and it was watering, so we left as fast as we could.  And then after a couple of hours, my eye got better and we stopped at a cafe for a pizza lunch.  And then we stopped at a dog beach, where the dogs took a walk while we played in the waves and I went body surfing.  Body surfing was pretty easy and fun – just get down on a big wave, lay down on your belly, shape yourself like a penguin on ice, and then you’re body surfing!  We were there for an hour or two…and then we went home.

I would say the weekend was pretty darn good!  It was fun being with my friends and camping…and it wasn’t at all scary being away from my parents.  You can see more pictures from the trip on my friends’ dad’s Flickr page. [Mom sez:  thanks Jeremy, for taking Alex…and for taking the pictures!]

Camelot Golfland

Camelot Golfland is a place where there is mini-golf, waterslides, laser tag, an arcade, pizza, etc.  I went there with my Legends of Lego camp class (a Star camp).  First, we did the arcade – I only played one game, but I got a jackpot from it.  The game was called “Every Win is a Jackpot,” and you could only win.  The minimum tickets you could win was 50, maximum 1,000.  I won 200.  I traded them in for a gun that actually shoots.  (But my mom doesn’t really approve of it.)

After that, we ate pizza, and it was also pretty good.  After that…water slides!  They. Were. AWESOME.  The water slides were: one black one, which was totally pitch black and kept going up and down, up and down, up and down…and then there was a blue one with little lights illuminating it, and there were a lot of little “S” turns in it.  Then there was a yellow one with pretty darn big lights in it, and the tube was almost flourescent and it went up and down and up and down and side to side and up and down.  And then there was this  “X” crossing, because it was a double water slide, and your inner tube would just slide onto the other one on the “X” crossing and then if yours got stuck, just wait until another one bumps you along.  And then the last one was the clear one, and it was the freakiest.  So this one just went down really fast at a sharp angle for a long time, and it was also the highest, and then half way through there was this corkscrew that went in corkscrew shapes (your inner tube actually went upside down).

I got to choose between water slides and mini golf, and I chose water slides, so I can’t tell you about mini golf, but I think it would be really fun.

And then, after the water slides was laser tag, which was the second best of all.  It was factory-themed.  So there were a bunch of little ATVs in it, that you could drive around on, and if you connected two ATVs to each other, they turned into a four-person ATV that anyone on your team could hop in.  And then when you connected three it got even bigger, and then when you connected four it turned into a giant hovercraft Hummer.  And then your hover-Hummer would just get bigger.  And then at the end of the room, there are these giant, industrial-sized doors that your hover-Hummer could hover next to them and then the doors would open, and inside  it was this laser weapon area — not many people could get inside.  Your standard laser weapon is a laser phaser, but can’t go too far and it can’t last too long.  But inside the room, there’s a laser rifle that can go across the whole room, and that can make somebody’s vest deactivate for like two minutes.  And then there’s also a bunch of other stuff like a laser bomb, which you set on the ground somewhere, and a lot of laser beams go out of it, bouncing a lot of laser beams around.  And if anybody gets hit by it, their vest gets deactivated. The ATVs and hover-Hummers don’t have any targets, so you can’t get hit in those.  You still have a vest on, but it’s really hard to get them because the seats are kind of down in, so it’s harder.

I liked the water slides the best, but the laser joust was also pretty cool.

The people who might like this place are the same people who like the Corkscrew roller coaster at Valley Fair (an amusement park in Minnesota), or loop coasters, or extreme laser tag.

I do want to go back sometime, and the first thing I want to do is water slides, then laser tag, then mini-golf, then everything else!

Driving School GT

Driving  School GT is a game where you are just a student in driving school.  The game objective is to complete all 20 levels.  This game has the same controls as Nordic Race (see below), but these are much more effective.

On level one, there are three cars, and you’re a person, so just walk into one of these three cars and it will start.  Just don’t run over pedestrians.  Oh, and watch out for trains.  On some train tracks, trains come…and they can run you over.  And you finish a level by driving over the X on the level.

The good part about it is that beating levels 1-8 are pretty darn easy.  The bad part is level 9 starts to get hard.  Level 10 takes a few tries, level 11 is almost impossible, and level 12 is completely impossible.  The problem on level 9 is that guys in the game start to blow their stack and go like 90 miles an hour.

A tip for when you’re playing the game:  the millisecond the car stops, it will start going backwards.  And when that happens, you’ll hear a loud screech.

You can find this game at http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/driving-school-gt.html

I rate this game a 4 out of 10.

Diner City

This game is about running a restaurant with the best reputation and the most decoration.  You choose which kind of restaurant to run; I usually do the sushi place, but there’s also a burger place.  I don’t know why the picture shows the burger chef holding a pizza!

The object is to get the most decorations to earn the most money.  You start out with $50, and people pay you when the food is good.  You lose money if the food isn’t good.  You earn more money by placing decorations, like balloons, and other things, like an underground bar.  Cleaning your place helps you make more money, too.  The best way to earn more money is to add more employees to speed up service.

You can add on things like newspaper stands, benches, or ice cream stands outside your store… but so can your competitors.  Your rival’s add-ons are red.

The most important connected add-on is a security camera.

The game ends when you or your competitor meets your revenue goal.

You can find this game at http://www.play181.com/games/7467/diner-city.html

This game rates a 9 out of 10.

Hollywood Sign Hike

A few days ago, we went on a school field trip to the Hollywood sign.  It was a hike of about two hours, but it was so fine.

We didn’t take a bus there; we took a car.  There were all these chaperones, and they drove us in a bunch of cars, and then there were more chaperones at the beginning of the trail, and then they took us up to the Hollywood sign.

It was drizzling a bit, but then later in the hike it got really hot. Two kids were lucky – they had camelback backpacks that had a water bottle inside and were attached to a straw.  I had a normal backpack.  I used a walking stick that no one else used – so when I got really hot, I didn’t slow down, I just kept at my  normal pace.  I found it on a pile of dirt (a lot of other kids thought a cobra lived there, but it didn’t – plus, that dirt was way too wet; it would just fall down on the cobra).

On the trail, we saw humongous piles of steaming horse poo.  (I think that may have been a little bit TMI.) One group got lost.   The kids that got lost – they weren’t with a chaperone [Mom sez:  actually they were chaperoned – don’t worry!], so when the sand road turned into a paved road with a T shape, you had to go right or left.  All the kids with a chaperone went right, that was the right way, and the kids that went left went toward the Observatory, which was totally in the wrong direction.  They found some picnic tables for lunch, and then they turned around and got back to the cars first.

The car I went in was actually a mini-van, so it had two rows of seats for kids.  I sat in one of the private seats, and there were reclining seats and they had a movie, so when I was laying down I watched a movie.  There was only one movie, and it was “Despicable Me,” but that was OK – it was hilarious.

The first thing we saw before the hike was a ranch. It was called “Sunset Ranch.”  It was mostly a horse ranch where teens could have horse rides (not pony rides), but they also raised peacocks and had wild chickens – those were the other animals they had.  The teachers mostly sent us there to go to the bathroom, but the ranch hand said we could help for a while, so we did.

They said, “Can you help us get the horses to the horseback riding arena?” (which was just a small area of dirt with some horse stables).  It was across the street, and usually the horses want to go there really badly, but this time they didn’t want to.  So we had an idea the ranch hands never did: why don’t we hook up a livestock trailer to a tractor – because they had one, and they had two livestock trailers – and just bring them across the street.  So they said, “Why don’t we give it a try?” And it worked.  They were willing to go in the livestock trailer.

At the top of the Hollywood sign, we found a gravestone.  It had the initials “R.I.P” and “D.W.P” on it.  DWP was the initials of the person and RIP means “Rest in Peace.”

From up high, the Hollywood sign looked like giant sheets of aluminum.  It looks sort of like a factory’s industrial walls.  I could also see a sign that was white, on the ground, that said “Tourists go away.”  That’s really mean.  We could actually see the whole state from up there.

When we were up there, we ate lunch, and then when we were ready to go down, a loudspeaker announced, “A fire truck’s coming – clear the road!”  And then when we were hiking down, we saw it, right where we had to turn onto the sand path.  The fire truck was right there and stopped.  Then we went onto the sand path and it just continued.  (I wonder why.)

This trip was fun, but it was not one of our best field trips of the year (because I’ve been to the Hollywood sign a jillion times).  The best field trips were to LAX, Dockweiler Beach and the LAUSD Nutrition Center.

[Mom sez:  Thanks to Jeremy Miles for the photos!]

House of Blues

The House of Blues is where I went to play a concert.  My whole Rock Star class went. We played this song, “My Generation,” by the Who.  I played the guitar.  The drums were actually electric.  They were played by our teacher, Scott.

The building looked very worn down on the outside, but it was the ultimate concert hall on the inside.  It was really loud because other bands were playing.  Finally, it was my turn to go on stage.  I went with my band into the band holding area.  We got our picture taken and signed the walls (every rock star, including grownups, gets to sign the walls), and then we went on stage.  There were two keyboard sets, four guitars and one professional set of drums.  I felt like I was becoming famous because everyone was taking pictures by the millisecond.  I was nervous, but it was reeeaallly fun! The best part was the ending because you got to freestyle in the ending.  I played all the guitar notes at the same time, 16 times in a row.

  The other best part was that everyone got to play the guitars with solid silver picks.  A raffle was held to keep one of the picks and one of the people chosen was Trent, from my class.  I’d really like to take the Rock Star class again!

Here’s a video of our performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_4dqxiz1L8

My Most Exotic Field Trip: Dockweiler Beach

Today my class went on this field trip to Dockweiler Beach (it should be called Rottweiler Beach) – it was a beach cleanup and aerial art.  The beach that we had to clean up was not that messy — it was actually cleaned up two weeks ago.  But we still found, altogether, one million things.  The results were that it wasn’t very messy, but you’d find trash in the weirdest places, and the weirdest kinds of trash.  For example, a plastic cap that I don’t know what it’s supposed to go onto…and a bunch of nails in firepits.

But the best part was we got to make an aerial art.  Two helicopters took our pictures.  The art was a picture of a fish saying “Kelp Us!”  It was to show travelers how important it is not to litter — because we were next to an airport and every jet passenger could see.  I think the white picture helicopter said, “Guiness World Records” on it — we might have made it into Guiness World Records for Biggest Human Fish.

[Mom sez:  for more information about the beach cleanup event, see http://www.kidsoceanday.org/  and for the aerial helicopter footage see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kk5Je0Ywa8&feature=youtu.be ]

Cafe World

Cafe World is a Facebook game, which means that if you have a Facebook account, you can find it there and play (I use my mom’s account).  This game is about running a restaurant with the best reputation.  It’s not about the fast pace, but earning  experience and coins…the more money you earn, the more you can buy stuff to make more people come.  It’s also about how good the food you cook is.

The most simple food is a bacon cheeseburger, and that earns the least money.  There are a lot of others, but I’ll give three or four as an example:  Super Chunk Fruit Salad, French Onion Soup and Triple Berry Cake.  (I’ve already mastered Triple Berry Cake.)  Mastering is about how much you cook the food, and it tells you how many times you’ve cooked it.  It will tell you how many more times you need to cook it to get to the next mastery level.

To cook something, click on any stove you have and then just simply select the food you want to cook.  There are two exceptions for two kinds of stoves.  The “Lightning Stove” lets you select the dish and then it’s instantly ready.  With a “Super Stove,” you select the dish and you don’t have to prepare it, it’s already cooking.  Normal stoves you have to prepare and then wait for it to cook. The best stove is the “4x Mega Stove.”  It cooks four dishes at one time.  (I got fooled by the brown and brass stove, which has four burners but only cooks one dish at a time.)

I like this game because it’s about making a restaurant and I love restaurants.  What’s not so good is, for example, how much time it would take to cook a corn dog — in Cafe World it takes two days.  That’s what I don’t like about it — unrealistic time.

Also, do not expect to earn Cafe Cash as fast as Cafe Coins.  You can earn coins in the zillions, but you only get one Cafe Cash every time you level up.  You can also win Cash in the Prize Machine, and use cash for more plays on the Prize Machine.

You can also visit other people’s cafes once you become friends with them. And you can send your friends gifts and they’ll send you one back.

Another piece of interesting info is that not all dishes take two days – the shortest ones take three minutes.  And if you don’t come back to serve them when they’re done, they rot and you have to throw them away (or you can use Salvage Sage – one of the spices in your spice rack – to save them).

There are also a bunch of buildables in Cafe World, so you have to get parts for those.  You get parts by asking your friends for them, and they can send them to you.

This game rates 16 out of 10…it’s so good!