Before I begin this blog post, I must thank all veterans who served in the arm, navy, air force, marines, and coast guard. We all thank you and appreciate you for serving our country and laying your life on the line to protect the American way. Again, thank you.
(Only first verse. All paragraphs separated is a different section of the forces.)
From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli,
We will fight our country's battles,
On land and air and sea! (Marines)
Anchors aweigh my boys, Anchors aweigh!
Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay!
Through our last night at shore, drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more,
Here's wishing you a happy voyage home! (Navy)
Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun! (Give 'er the gun!)*
Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,
Off with one helluva roar!**
We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey!***
Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force! (this one is obvious, but I'll do it anyway. Air Force)
* All words in parentheses our spoken, not sung
**Nowadays it's actually "Hell of a roar" because it is easier to pronounce
***The guy who wrote it originally was SHOUT! (These our just some things I've learned from the lyrics.)
| March along, sing our song, with the Army of the free. Count the brave, count the true, who have fought to victory. We’re the Army and proud of our name! We’re the Army and proudly proclaim: | |||
From North and South and East and West,
The Coast Guard's in the fight. Destroying subs and landing troops, The Axis feels our might. For we're the first invaders, On every fighting field. Afloat, ashore, on men and Spars, You'll find the Coast Guard shield.(Coast Guard) |
Thank you veterans and all who served!
Now to the blog. Two days ago, on the 9th of November, we drove to a large museum, the science museum, in St. Louis. We paid ten dollars for parking, and walked into a large lobby with ticket booths, and a cafe and everything. It was very large, and had about two floors from where I could see. Above us was a long cool contraption of balls and gizmos and such, and it was really fun and entertaining to see all the balls moving and tapping each other and going up and down the colorful lines. As we came in, people told us that the museum itself was free, but the iMax cost money and a special exhibit did too, called Star Trek: The Exhibit. Now, at Roswell, in my mom's small office which held her computer and used to serve as a nursery when I was a child, I would wake up very early and watch Star Trek on a small T.V. and close all doors, watching it on T.V. Land, a station which shows old shows. It was channel 59, if I remember correctly, but to all nation wide viewers or people not in Fulton County it is a different station. Anyway, I watched the original series, not going into Voyager, or The Next Generation or Station 9 or anything like that. I'm talking about James T. Kirk, the 60's and 70's version. I developed an interest, the same way I did for Star WARS and an English show, Dr. Who(longest running sci-fi T.V. series EVER) Star Wars came about by my friend Westin liking it and having a birthday party about it, and Dr. Who by me just surfing channels and having to find it. But I'm getting away from the subject here, the point is, I watched the T.V. series.
I kind of wanted to go to the exhibit, to see what it had to offer. Although a little pricey, we bought tickets anyway. Dad wanted to see an iMax presentation, called Tornado Alley, a movie about people trying to find out more about twisters in the nation's biggest hurricane area. Surprisingly enough, St. Louis, in Missouri, was in the alley. So, we were seeing a movie about where we were, so to speak. We went to that first, and it was very cool, with the huge screen looming over us, about to strike with it's surround sound. It was a great documentary, and the scientists trying to study the twisters had a program called Vortex 2, or V2, for short. We found out all of their equipment. Also, a movie-maker made a home made tank and tried to get a wonderful close up shot of the tornado. He succeeded, by the way. It was a great and trilling production.
Because Mom and Rebecca did not want to go to a geeky exhibit full of alien costumes and extressial guns, we parted, as Dad and I went down a glass elevator into the exhibit. We found a little podium for tickets, a green screen with a canon camera and of a black color, and a massive entrance with the probably expensive words and not needed: STAR TREK (in white and grey blazing and italic them) THE EXHIBIT. We showed our tickets and were given stubs, and then asked if we wanted to take a picture on Kirks big chair.(I'm sure you've seen it.) "Go on Andrew. Get up there." I followed my father's instructions, sat in the seat, and smiled. It was cool to sit in there. Then we looked at two costumes in a glass display tank, which were a star fleet cadet uniform and Klingon warrior garb. We then walked in. In a little area was a video about the starting of Star Trek, the quick pilot episode that failed called "The Cage" and then the victorious pilot episode they made after the first one called, "Where no man has gone before!" It talked about the creators, and I even looked at sketches of the ships and characters and even a screenplay. There was also a display showing the original model for the Enterprise, which they had to use because of not having CGI and such. We then saw a colorful timeline of every Star Trek plot and episode and movie and fake timeline that every happened, from WWIII in 2063 to Kirks death in 2342.(I think, I'm not sure.) It talked about the first League of Planets meeting, and all the way to the Wrath of Khan and Nero the romulan. We then came into a new room, where there were Klingon emperor chairs and models of the ships. It was also cool to see the original Phaser I, II, and III.(which is totally huge and awesome!) We even saw the colorful little tribals, and even the cool decorated weapon Kathless the Unforgettable. We saw a remulan and romulan weapon. Then we went and saw some costumes. We saw the new Star Trek uniforms, with Chris Pine. We saw Uhara's uniform, the pretty red one. We saw Vulkan robes, with all the white and yellow designs and nice bath roby type. We saw all kind of Klingon garb, red and black lines through them, black regular ones, and even the ones which were worn by their leader. We saw purple space suits from the remulans, and also the Klingon language book, which I think has no real words in there. I was going around and looking, when an african-american girl at a table with a plastic box in front of her and sitting in a chair said, "Do you wish to try an experiment?" I said sure, and came over. She said, "What do you see?" There was only one thing in there, a wood toothpick. I said what I saw. "Pick it up." I did, and found that around the toothpick was a squishy gooey solid that felt like a jello. When it came out of the water, I found it around the toothpick, like a shish-ka-bob. I was ample with my ooohs and surprising ejaculations. The girl said it was a calcite crystal that when in water is invisible because of light bending off the water. She said it was used in the films and shows. It was cool to see that.
We also saw many make up heads like Klingon and all kinds of different aliens, and even one called a tailhead, which was basically a snake going down a green headed man like a pony tail. It was the creepiest one, but their were also some weird ones with a head and two small tiny ears, with a deformed face. The most robotic of all were the borgs, a race of many races connected in their brains by every other borg. They were pale, with shaved heads and black tech on their body and arms and legs. In the next generation, Capt. Picard was made into a borg and had to have everyone else take him and fix him. It was creepy and amazing at the same time to see the crazy detail of the big sphere, the borg H.Q. It had so much detail! It must've taken an epoch! Anyway, it was really cool to see all of the costumes and props and make up.
A man was being guided by a short haired blonde lady and a younger brown haired girl. The man had short hair, was pretty tall, and had a little grizzly beard. He had been writing vigorously on a little notepad with a pencil. Why? Some S.T. nerd? Didn't think he would remember it all? Why does he have two guides? Who does he think he is? Wait, is he taking pictures? At the beginning of the exhibit we were told not to do that. I'm gonna tell him you can't. But, I never got the chance, as we went onto another place. We went into a really cool part. It was the bridge of the enterprise, the part where most of the action happened. It had a huge screen with Earth from the universe on it, and had two cool chairs in front with tables connected to it with all kinds of buttons and gadgets. It had three chairs beneath a big rail with a floor higher up, with the one in the middle bigger than the rest. I took a picture in that chair too. I asked one of the man's guides where everything was, and she lead me through a tour, showing the right front chair being the navigator, and the left of which being the communication's guy. She said the right of the middle seat was Picard's right hand man, and the left another guy I'm sorry to admit I forget. Picard sat in the middle, and the rail had cool dials and such and was the weapons advisor, with engineers and technicians facing the back. It was cool to see all that. I had actually been on the enterprise, in the bridge.
We saw Capt. Picard's room, which was a little quarter area with a jetson desk and couches and wine bottles. I haven't seen the next generation, so I know nothing about Picard. We then finally saw the beam me up place, and took a picture there. I actually was beamed up on the six lights and changed and went to space! Not really though. It was cool to see what I saw on T.V. It really made it come alive. We went and saw McCoy the medical doctors (bright blue, short sleeve) uniform, and also that of Spock's(long sleeve blue) and the original Uhara costume(long sleeve red). We also saw Kirks yellow uniform, and somebody named Data's uniform. Then, as I went to look in one part, I separated from Dad, seated on a bench. When I came back that guy with the note pad was asking him questions and writing it down. I came over. "So I hear you're going on a one year trip?" "Yes, sir." "What's your name?" "Andrew. Can I ask...?" He interrupted with, "How old are you?" "12 sir."
"What did you think about the Star Trek exhibit?"(He's a reporter!) I said that it was very cool and I loved how it came to life. I said I liked looking at all the props and things and that the costumes were cool. If you want the full story, please (Mom tell them how they can find it, erase this once you have told them)
It was really cool to be written about in a newspaper, and really cool to see it today, my face, in an online magazine. I had been in one before, in Michigan, but this was the first time I had done it alone, without Rebecca.
I asked the man what his name was, and he said Doug Kaufman. He was very nice. Thanks Doug! Hope your reading this!
We left the exhibit, and I had a lot of fun. We(Dad and I) decided not to tell Mom and Rebecca what had happened(the whole reporter thing) until the day it came out, on Friday. I'm writing it on that day right now, and it was funny to see Mom go, "You were on a newspaper and you didn't tell us?" Rebecca was like that too. But anyhow, we found Rebecca and Mom at the museum and ate a little lunch at the cafe. They said there was a little more, but nothing we hadn't already done or learned. We then left, after a great visit and a fun time going boldly where no Bourne has gone before.
But, although the Science Museum was fun, it didn't equal at all what was to come next!
TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!(The next part of the day is in Science Center and City Museum: City Museum)
Live long and prosper,
Andrew.
CHECK BACK FOR PHOTOS....
CHECK BACK FOR PHOTOS....
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