to, to, to the Science Center

THIS.

This is what I came here for.

magical arches

This, and this, and This.

emerging colors of fire and ice

red, red, red

Considering that it has been years since I last set foot into this place, considering that it was so long ago that I couldn't even bring to mind what the entrance looked like so much so that I got genuinely surprised by the sight of the structure which greeted me, I'm glad I made the trip here.

oh, hai!

Because it is always charming to have Marvel's Hulk greet you the moment you step through the gantry, knowing well that there is a Science behind his transformation from puny Bruce Banner to The Incredible Hulk. We're talking lessons related to gamma rays, a topic remarkably complicated, but ooooh, so fascinating.

All by himself, the Hulk

I didn't go around everything. Sort of let myself wander here and there at will, which is a great way when you're on an excursion.

There was an anti cyberbullying exhibition which was uber elaborate and had a very fierce character and which certainly felt like a video game asset. There was this Defense Exhibition that was... interesting. Let's just say that there were some pretty large props around the hall, and some experiential stuff that featured ping pong balls and it is a miracle that no one seemed to have taken the balls along with them as a free souvenir.

But what I'd gone there for was the Mirror Maze.

Apparently it's not the newest exhibition in the Science Center. Rather, it is a sort of remake of a well-loved exhibition, and well done it was too. You wanted fun, you got it here. You got these two of these foam thingies- the kind that you use to float around in the pool, and what you did was to hold them in front of you and use them to whack your way around. Kept you safe, these fun things did. You didn't bump headlong into anything or anyone with these tools in hand and if someone hit you, well, all for good fun, eh? It was all very simple. If you whacked a hard surface, then you knew it was a mirror and would have to navigate another way.

The exhibit started you with a storyline and then guided you onwards from there, going through this laboratory set first before arriving at the classical looking arches themselves, and let's just say that whenever I wasn't clinging tightly to the t-shirt of my touring companion, I used those foam thingies quite extensively.

it's a kaleidoscope

an exhibit

a bottle made its way into the lab

The exhibit was beautiful though. Seriously beautiful, very magical. Sort of a tie-dye, very hippie, very quirky, very expressive place, like I were making my way around this very huge tie-dye cloth, or like being in a rainbow fantasy, candy-colored land where illusion and reality didn't always define themselves clearly and which were often blurred between the lines, The vibe of the Psychedelic was there, with cues and clues of colors and shapes that penetrated the mind. 

psychedelic

very psychedelic

Ten, fifteen minutes in total was all I took from the time I stepped in, to the time I stepped out. Was it mind-boggling? Honestly, a wee bit little. Guess that speaks very much how much love I have of analytical skills, problem-solving techniques, 'keep calm and breathe' solutions and whatnot, doesn't it? :)

Animals are different though.

Animals don't boggle your mind and leave you feeling claustrophobic. Animals don't make you want to squish into a corner and wonder when you're going to finish this friggin' maze and can you just hurry up and complete and get the heck outta there.
What Animals do is to test your patience.

Hoh, they sure did, the little creatures. You thought you were fine watching them quietly pass their day. I mean, how fine could you not be with this little black mouse-like creature with a long, long tail and a meal of carrots in his bowl, and just watching him munch his way through a sliced carrot? 

But when there's a turtle who decides that he'd stay in his little wooden log for the afternoon and not come out and so you can't catch a peep of him at all, or when there's this hedgehog who decides that he'd snuggle into his little home real tight, so much so that even if a visitor has never seen a real hedgehog in her entire life and really, really wants to catch just that lil glimpse of its face... trust me, there is a lesson of patience going on somewhere. 

Likewise over at the chicks enclosure, now, this is not just about patience. They also throws in a test of endurance and coping with helplessness.

Because whilst you can have a sign that says that all these little eggs are ready to be hatched, whilst you can stand there with the other kids all staring together at the glass enclosure that serves as a hatchery, whilst you admire the chicks running around with one eye whilst staring hard at the eggs on the other, and whilst you wait and wait and wait, if the eggs aren't gonna hatch, they're not gonna hatch AT ALL. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Such is the power of nature.

She has her own rules. And she abides by them, on land, in the air or under the sea.

a creature with a long, long tail

learning to read starts when young

But nature doesn't leave you empty handed. She doesn't merely throw you a bunch of lessons and leaves you hanging there with no reward for your efforts. If you're going to sow, you will reap. If you want to reap, you got to sow. That's how it is.

So nope, there's no disappointment about not having seen any creature in motion.

Because it was a different picture over at the aquarium side.

Here, the waters were clear and bluish, the plants were a glorious green, the fish were happily darting in and out amongst the leaves, and it was all very calming and very therapeutic and very natural, very no-rush, and very languid.  

are they guppies?

this way or that?

The Creatures of Nature can be behaviorally humorous too.

And we'd do well to pick up some of their skills.

Like if there are days when you just don't feel like leaving your cave, you can simply settle down right in the center of it, close your eyes, go absolutely still and be at peace with the world- whilst blending in perfectly with your surroundings, becoming at one with your own walls.

camouflage WIN

Or better yet, not bother to camouflage at all.

Nothing for it. Just simply lie there on the grains of sand, pretend to be asleep or just stare out at the world around you with a languid, lazy eye. What can the hoomans do? :)

whaddaya want?