So THIS happened!!
Richard Simmons and me! – Unique LA 2013
The man is just as nice as he is on TV. Richard Simmons – the legend.
He also teased The Wife and said I should lock him up and eat yellowtail off of him. Haha!
And he tweeted me back!
Richard Simmons tweets me back!
http://www.minted.com/business-cards
The new business venture is coming along swimmingly. I have a to-do list that’s a mile long; who said starting your own agency was going to be a piece of cake? One of my glaringly missing pieces (is that a phrase?) is business cards. I’ve held off because I’m still working on the branding and logo design.
However, life doesn’t wait for my slow ass to make up my mind on logos and typography. There are events and conferences to speak at, mixers to mix, and networking to be had. “Order business cards” is now at the top of my to-do list. It’s actually trumped “Create website” if you can believe it.
Fortunately, the nice people at Minted contacted me about new business cards by way of the So Cal Lady Bloggers! Minted is different from your typical card company. Designers (and regular joes) submit their designs, they are then voted on by the public, and the winners go up on the site. (It’s kind of like Threadless business model.)
Minted: Friendly Type
Minted: Busy Bee
Minted: Assembly Lines
Minted: Banners & Stripes
Minted: Hello I’m a Business Card
Floriculturist:
Minted: Floriculturist
The backs of all of these cards are also designed but you can remove it and upload your own photo or image in place of it.
There are also square-shaped business cards if you don’t like rectangles. Speaking of which, have you seen these cool business card designs? Let those links be inspirations for ya!
So back to Minted. Check them out, and tell me if you end up ordering from them!
Disclosure: The team at Minted is providing me a credit to order business cards in exchange for this post. I’ll let you know what I end up ordering and how it turns out! (So help me choose a design!)
The Wife and I played host to our BFF, who flew down for some R&R (hockey, hockey, hockey). Since he wasn’t here for the Space Shuttle Endeavour experience, we thought it’d be neat to take him to see it in person. I’d just caught the Space Shuttle Endeavour when it flew around Pasadena. Just thinking back to that time gives me chills. It makes me so proud to be American, and it also makes me depressed there will be no more NASA of years past. Well, let’s talk about the happy part.
Space Shuttle Endeavour – my panoramic iPhone pic!
The last time I was at the California Science Center, it was for… I don’t remember. (Who cares about the last time I visited? The motherf*ckin’ space shuttle is here!)
Heading up to the exhibit – CA Science Center (That’s BFF in the foreground and The Wife in the background.)
Before you head into the big hangar, visitors walk into a large room with many bits of Shuttle memorabilia and a long wall of astronaut portraits. These are team photos of all of the space launches ever.
Maiden Voyage – Astronaut team – Endeavour
There’s a video explaining how astronauts go to the bathroom. Of COURSE it drew me like a moth to a flame. Hello, toilet! There is a CAMERA in the hole so that you can adjust your alignment (vagina, penis) to the hole, depending on whether you have to pee or do #2.
Spaaaaaaace tooooooilettttttttt!
There is also a replica of the Mission Control room – it replays the launch of Endeavour, including the countdown! You see where each of the engineers and other staffers are monitoring the launch as well as the different cameras and computer-y screens show the shuttle’s trajectory. CHILLS, people, chills! BFF and I were wondering where Mohawk Guy sat in this room.. Haha!
Mission Control replica
There is a short video that shows a time-lapse of how they got the space shuttle from LAX to the California Science Center. I’m getting old – I teared up. (Don’t tell anyone! I’m hard-core!)
THEN you head downstairs and out to the hangar where Big Mama now lives.
At this point of our visit, I felt this strong wave of emotion, of gratefulness. I’m so lucky to live in LA where awesome stuff happens and I get to experience it! I mean, a goddamn real-life space shuttle was strapped onto a big airplane and it flew around So Cal and landed at LAX. Who else can say this? No one in Kentucky can claim that.
In addition, I felt like I was standing in the presence of greatness. Greatness in our country, in our space program, in our genius NASA teams, and in our astronauts. Shoot, any astronaut. (For real, are you going to poo-poo anyone who trains to go to space and work in a tin can that requires constant oxygen and if it crashed or had a hull breach, you would die?)
The Wife and me at Space Shuttle Endeavour!
The tiles are made of silica (as in sand!), and each tile’s thickness is dependent on where it is placed. Obviously, at the nose and the bottom, the tiles are thickest, at 5-inches! Oh and get this – these silica tiles are sewn with silica THREAD!! I know these facts because I stalked a docent and made her talk to me for 5 minutes.
Under the nose – Endeavour
The Wife taking a pic of the tiles – Endeavour
Make your booty pop – Endeavour’s backend
I tried to imagine how cramped that cockpit was with a full team of astronauts in there. I tried to imagine how it would feel flying at a speed of 30,000 miles per hour. I couldn’t. I know I said it already but I’m saying it again – I am so very proud of all of the astronauts who have gone into space, and of the NASA teams that worked the ground to support them. It’s amazing how humans have created a program to shoot people into OUTER SPACE. Right now, while you read this, there are people in a space station… IN SPACE… working!
I doubt NASA or the world’s space geniuses will be able to build a workable FTL drive in my lifetime, but I hope they do! Then my fantasy of an Honor Harrington or even a Star Trek universe would be so close to complete!
If you haven’t seen the Space Shuttle Endeavour in person, what are you waiting for?! Bring your kids and your grown-up kids and be amazed! Tickets are free (plus $2 processing fee) – we had timed tickets but when we got there, they just let us in.
Go and let it take your breath away.
This makes me laugh, esp at 1:41.
Happy Friday!
