A Wandering WeyrCat...

Hobbit and I joined a couple friends to visit Northlandz Model Railway System, the Guinness Book of World’s Records for being the World’s Largest Model railroad. It was started in 1972, and all the models are handcrafted by the owner, Bruce Williams Zaccagnino. The whole layout spread over 52000 sq feet having 8 miles long railroad track with 100 + miniature trains, 1000+ buildings, 400 + bridges, and 250,000 trees that cover the whole landscape. It's  a Mile just to walk through the linear layout. Hobbit Loved it. He begged to be picked up to see, because often the step was still too low for him.  There's even a construction scene (one of many). Hobbit was encouraged to name all the vehicles, and of course, he did. There was a sign stating that some bridges required as many as 23,000 hand placed pieces. This was not even the most elaborate. They spanned chasms, scaled wall high mountains in zig-zags, and some had multiple track that ran at the same time...

Hobbit and I made a daytrip to Philadelphia to visit the  Franklin Institute . We came for the "Polar Express" event but happily learned the Train exhibit is permanent (and well done)! I'd hoped the event would thrill my little engineer, but the trip was even better than I expected. First, I had to see the HD Moon temporarily on display. Bonus, they had it in the Franklin Memorial and the effect was astounding. Unless you're two, then it was just meh, apparently. However, The Baldwin 60000 blew our mind. It is a HUGE steam engine. Baldwin 60000 is an experimental steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in 1926, during the height of the railroading industry. It received its number for being the 60,000th locomotive built by Baldwin. It weighs 350 (US) tons. The weight and length of the engine were too much for all but the heaviest and straightest tracks. In 1933, it was purchased by the Franklin Institute Science Mus...

Jason and I had a lovely time at Highland Park's Earth Day celebration at the Eugene Young Environmental Center. It was so nice to have a warm, spring day so we could there!

On April 14, we took to the streets of Trenton, NJ, along with thousands of people across the nation, to send a message to the United States government: Science, not Silence!

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero My rating: 3 of 5 stars I think I read one self-help book a year. It's nice to both, A. get some tips and pep talk, and B. roll my eyes at the usual embedded nonsense. This book, which is largely indistinguishable from any other "tough big sister" style of self-help book, has a few half-smile moments and a neat title, but is just as quacky as the rest. It does have some fatal flaws.. A. A lot of quasi-spirituality. Harmonize with the universe by changing your frequency. Silly, but translatable, so forgivable. B. Ths author thinks depression is a buckshot excuse (a story) we tell ourselves that we get off on... Depression. "When you feel awful you don't have to work hard (among other things). It gets you attention. Gives you something to talk about, and allows you not to try too hard. Gives us permission to drink beer in the mor...

Arrow Vol. 1 by Marc Guggenheim My rating: 2 of 5 stars Clearly meant to be a show tie-in without any real standing power on its own. Some of the stories had good roots, but none of them had enough breadth to really cement a storyline. They simply tried to put too-many threads into one package. They introduce a bunch of characters and have some good backstory, but everything else just feels rushed. I'm hoping that, with that out of their system, the next volume has some storyline to follow. Or at least, a complete story in each issue of the volume. View all my reviews

The Color Purple by Alice Walker My rating: 5 of 5 stars No Wonder it's taught in Schools. Though I chose this book as a reread, having read it in high school. However, once I started reading it I realized I didn't actually remember it at all. It was a nice surprise. Not only are the characters believable but they're written in such a way that can make you deeply empathetic towards them. Though I've never suffered many of the struggles or in justices of the characters in the book I can relate to some of the stronger motivations in Celie. Seeing her change through the book as much as her core values stay the same while this whole Pantheon of people grow and change around her made for a story that kept you wanting to keep reading. And it wasn't too predictable. At the end I really did wonder if she was going to reunite with her sister or not and I don't think I would have been surprised either way. I found it interesting that c...