These are amazing: A4 Paper Cut.

Jim pointed me to this link, which is pretty interesting as well. It baffled me for a while, because first I saw it going counterclockwise which would indicate I was left-brained, but then as I shifted my eyes over and read the article, when I looked back, it was going clockwise, and I couldn't get it to switch back. This was bizarre because reading is a *left* brained activity and clockwise meant I was using the *right* side of my brain. I finally figured out that if I look at it out of the corner of my eye I can get it to switch either direction.

Today has actually been pretty fun. I caught up on computer maintenance (ok, I'm weird, I think that is fun. I like cleaning out files and backing everything up). I was starting to get nervous given how long it has been since I have done a backup. Not that anything usually goes wrong, in fact I have very few computer problems, but all it takes is once.

While I was talking to Daniel on the phone today, I also finally got around to making my new desk calendar. Lifehacker mentioned a site a while back where you could print out the template and get instructions for putting together a dodecahedral calendar with a month on each side for any year in a given language (there are fifty options, including Latin). There was the regular dodecahedron that required gluing, and then there was a rhombic dodecahedron that had twelve pieces specially folded so that they all fit together without glue or tape or anything. Very cool.
I decided to try the rhombic dodecahedron, and it was a little tricky because it was made to fit on size A4 paper. But they give it to you in PDF which has a nifty fit-to-page option. I had to extend a few of the fold lines and do a little trimming before I had twelve ready-to-fold rectangles, but it came out great:







It's surprisingly sturdy.  If you want to see how the pieces fit together, there are pictures on the website I got it from.

I was hoping the new hotel would have wireless, but turns out their modem got fried in the last lightening storm.  argh!  Oh well, here I am again, writing a blog on my computer to post later.  There is an information place that supposedly has wifi, but I'm a little nervous to try to go anywhere for wireless after that guy in New Mexico treated us the way he did.  The internet is my safe little world I can escape into, and I don't like having people mess with it... I'm pretty gun shy now.

Today was kind of fun.  There was a little stress getting out of the hotel in the morning, and then we drove toward Silver Dollar City.  On the way we stopped at Bass Pro Shop, which was amazing.  It was huge and filled with stuff to buy (hunting and outdoors kind of stuff), live exhibits, displays--tons of stuff.  I'd love to go back.  Then we went to Silver Dollar City a little bit and got to see some neat shops, including a knife shop.  There was this guy that makes absolutely incredible knives out of a bunch of military-grade steel (bought from the military).  He's a blacksmith and he folds the steel over and over and over until you can literally jump on the blade and it won't break.  He showed us a knife that a soldier used in Iraq for diffusing nine hundred some-odd bombs and if it were polished up a  little it would look like new.  There was also a wood carving shop that was really neat.  They showed Daniel how to sharpen a knife really really sharp (the kind that cuts you before you even feel it), and then showed us how to whittle a little out of a stick (he let us keep the stick).  Another thing I wish I could learn.  Makes me want to find my knives and play around with some wood.

We didn't go on rides though because for some reason I wasn't feeling well.  I tried the usual (maybe I'm dehydrated, maybe it's because I haven't eaten, etc.) but I still felt pretty awful.  Turns out it was a migraine of all things.  I didn't get a headache so much as there was just pressure in my head, besides light sensitivity and nausea.  When we went out to eat I drank a bunch of that wonderful vasodilator called caffeine, and felt a lot better.  Daniel and I then drove around and managed to find me some clipon polarized sunglasses to reduce glare and such so hopefully this doesn't happen tomorrow.

I was on a blog that my mom sent me the address to because she found something else cool on it. While there, I found a post about the art of Vladimir Kush. It is amazing! It's the kind of surrealism that makes you think, sort of like Salvador Dali's, and yet his doesn't creep me out.

If you want to see, there is a gallery of his work on his site, or there are a few of his paintings on the blog I was at.