Plagiarism is Wrong and other Random

The buzz of the week is all about the Republican National Convention, the selection of the evil orange Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, and Mrs. Trump's introduction to society via her big speech on Monday.  That speech turned out to contain several passages verbatim from a speech given by Michelle Obama, which was unfortunate. 

Politics aside, plagiarism is wrong.  It's wrong no matter WHO does it.  Someone went to a great deal of effort to write that passage, and to steal it and claim it as your own is heinous. It's the same as stealing a musician's song and saying that you wrote it.  If you do such a thing, unintentionally or not, you should immediately own up to it and apologize profusely.  What you don't do is deny it or blame it on someone else. Period, end of story.  Anything else is just embarrassing.

But then again, this entire election season has been crazy.  I'd rather turn the television off and think of other things.  Like Nerf.  Larry and Zane have been hunting all over town for various Nerf guns, bows, rifles, etc.  They huddle over the computer, watching unboxing videos about new Nerf items.  Then they stage "epic" Nerf battles.  Which is fine with me, except...nobody wants to pick up the bullets.  Including me.  So if you come to my house, there are Nerf bullets all over the place.  Under the couch. On top of the couch.  Under the fridge. On top of the fridge. It's a mess. I've made small efforts to pick up a few, but the vast number of bullets all over just makes me tired. 

I'd also rather think about a vacation.  As in one where we actually go somewhere else and hang out, as opposed to just staying here and hanging out.  Next year, when I don't have any more surgeries or doctor visits and all the bills are paid, I would like to pack up the car and head to South Dakota.  We can check out Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument, and Deadwood.  Plus, they have a place where they are digging up dinosaurs, so we can head over there.  Zane would love that.  Of course, Zane and his father want to go to Disney for the Star Wars convention.  Negotiations are ongoing.  We could split the difference and head over to Washington D.C. 

That's enough random for now.  I just realized that I start back to work on August 1st!!! Where does the time go?

Lego Love

At the end of our vacation, we had a treat for Zane.  It was stupendous.  It was colossal.  It was...The Lego Discovery Center! 

Yes, they have one of these places in Grapevine, and apparently it is Nerdvana for children and men alike.  We had to wait in line, because the joint was slammed with people.  In the first portion of the visit, they discuss how they make the lego bricks, and each child gets a commemorative brick for "helping" to make some legos.  Then the children are let loose, and a frenzy ensues.  Okay, maybe not a frenzy.

These legos were HUGE, and soft.  I wish that they sold these, because I could totally build a nice castle in my bedroom using these bricks! 

I wasn't the only adult thinking of playing with these bricks--there were a couple of adults IN the pit building a tower with these legos.  They originally showed up with a child, but I'm pretty sure that they bricked her up in the tower, which ended up being well over six feet high. 

There were lots of cool things made out of lego bricks, too.  I admire the patience of people who spend hours and hours and hours doing nothing but putting legos together to form buildings or mountains or whatever.  I am also sure that many of these people do not date. Ever. When would they have the time?

This is downtown Dallas, Texas.

I am not really sure what this is, but I thought that it looked cool.

This is the gigantic Ferris wheel that shows up at the State Fair.

This is an airport, and an airplane built out of legos. It may actually fly.

Zane and his father had a blast, and I had a blast watching them have a blast, so it was all good.  Zane is currently into Ninjago, and there's a ninja named Zane that we were trying to find, with no luck this time. 

That's it for our wonderful, kid-friendly vacation.  We had fun, got sweaty, and slept in hotels for a week, but it is time to go back home and do laundry and upload pictures and all those wonderful things that make a house a home.  I will be glad to pet my cats and see if my houseplants survived.  School will be starting up soon, but I'm not going to think about that!