Good News

With a number of cherished celebrities dying recently, rising unemployment, and other melancholy events usurping the headlines, it was very refreshing to see some good news.

Random acts of kindness will get us through times of peril, and this New York group Improv Everywhere creates scenes of chaos and joy in public places. One of their best missions was adding a little jazz to a mundane little league game.

When I was much younger, I did such things, not quite so elaborate as these skits, but little impromptu scenes with my friends that most onlookers would view as weird or amusing. The satisfaction of doing that was so much fun, I'm now thinking of how to do that again.

FOOM!

My amateur fireworks show received rousing applause last night (components pictured aside). Next year, I'll spend a little more time in preparation so that the show goes a little faster. Last night I spent a lot of time fumbling in the dark unwrapping components and trying to work the extra fuses.

My show started with some simple pop bottle rockets (Moon Travelers, Jumbo Whistling Wolf Pack Bottle Rockets, and Assorted 8-oz Wolf Pack Rockets), and I worked my way through about 50 of those from smaller to larger models eventually trying to launch up to three or four at a time by wrapping fuses together. Then I set off three dozen single-mortar shells (Red, White, and Blue Aerial Shell Show) one at a time for a while and gradually progressed to launching doubles and finally triples using all three launch tubes. The big "finale" was a pair of aerial multi-shots (Thermobaric Warheads) that I fused together. Each one had 16 mortars fused in a successive series. By fusing them together, I was able to light both fuses simultaneously and shoot all 32 roughly two at a time. It lasted for over a minute and worth every penny. I love that FOOM! sound of the rocket launch, and nothing is more satisfying than a big colorful boom visible for miles. I feel so American.

Tonight we go to watch a professional show.

Zambelli Gallery

How Fireworks Work

Spelling Be

As one who writes on paper, walls, sidewalks, sand, and several places around the "Internets", I've always partly understood the popularity of tattoos even though I have none myself. They combine art and message in a nearly permanent form that suggest the wearers (tattooees?) have put a lot of thought into the choice of what goes on their skin forever.

However, you have to wonder about some people when they got some of their tattoos. I mean, what the hell were they thinking?