Zub Tales

I had a quiet New Year’s Eve. I’ve been feeling burnt out and just wanted a solo one this time out to relax and reflect. I cooked myself a pretty sweet dinner and settled in to watch Back To The Future, which I got on DVD over the holidays. Christopher Lloyd makes that movie.

Got a chance yesterday to check out Body Worlds at the Science Centre yesterday. It’s a fascinating exhibit that sounds creepy and strange but is oddly humbling and enlightening when you actually see it first hand. Looking through anatomy books or looking at overly perfect sculptures of people is one thing, but seeing real human beings like this really is an amazing way of understanding human anatomy. Much like how sculptors can have a much stronger grasp of volume and form when they translate that experience into 3D modeling on the computer, seeing this stuff helps you visualize the human body and understand it in a new way.

Admission to Body Worlds also gives you entrance to the rest of the Science Center, so I got to see some of that as well. Some of the machines and science games have been there since I was a kid, but most were still interesting or at the very least a bit nostalgic. The shadow capture room still kicks ass.

Getting ready to leave, I saw one of the staff whizzing around on a Segway and actually got to give it a try. I’d read reports about it and how effortless it was to operate, but trying it first hand was quite amazing. I can’t see myself owning one any time soon, but it’s really a marvel. Standing relaxed and tilting slightly to move forward or back, I learned how to operate it on a functional level within about a minute and a half.

That was my nerdy first day of 2006. My legs are actually a bit sore from all the walking around. Here’s hoping the mind expansion bit keeps going throughout the year.