Paranormal Activity in Death Valley

For Halloween, I went to the Death Valley desert of California. It's about 250 miles east of Los Angeles. I stayed high in the mountains so it wasn't so hot, but in the valley it can be 120 degrees. It's to hot for most animals to live a happy life, so I only saw two little rodents while I was there. I tried to make friends with them, but they were too fast.

The bee hives in this picture are actually giant kilns made over 100 years ago. They used to burn pine wood inside these kilns and make charcoal. That's what the sign said, but I still think it is a giant hive, with a giant super bee who lives inside. People are probably trying to keep it secret because they want to keep the honey for themselves.

The nearest town to death valley is called Trona. It's a sulfer mining town, and Americans say it smells bad, but to me it smells like Japanese hot springs. It's a pretty quiet and lonesome town, I wonder what it would be like to grow up there.

I was a gold miner for Halloween and I stayed by myself in an abandoned Death Valley gold mine. I was hoping to meet the ghost of an old gold miner.
Here is a video about it.

YOUTUBE SOCKS....AND THE YOUTUBE ROUND TABLE

Today I was invited to the Santa Monica google office to a Youtube round table discussion about the future of youtube and how youtube partners are using youtube. Most of the other participants were very well known youtubers that i recognized like Shane Dawson, David Choi (davidchoimusic) , Tay Zonday, Corey from SMPfilms, Alphacat and Liam Kyle Sullivan (Kelly). I felt a little bit out of place among all of these youtube celebrities. I don't really know how I got invited to this event, but it was very fun, and I also got free fruit roll ups.

When I arrived, they asked me whether I would like youtube socks or wrist bands. I wanted both because I thought it would be funny to walk around with youtube wrist bands on, but I went with the socks. They are practical and also very fashionable. I like to know that youtube is keeping my feets warm.

Sharks, Seals and Pelicans.

Last week, my friend took me on a trip to Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. It's in Central California, about 4 hours from Los Angeles and San Francisco.
There were nice waves there so I thought about surfing, but then I saw this sign. A local man told me a sad story of how a woman was swimming with some seals in the ocean and a great white shark bit her in the leg, and cut her artery.


Later, I saw this seal lying in the rocks. I decided to go closer and try to make friends with him. But when I got next to him, I realized that he wasn't alive anymore. He was just the body of the seal, but the seal inside him had moved on. Maybe he had been bitten by a shark. I gave him the name of Toby.




Toby wasn't a very exciting friend to talk to since he wasn't alive anymore. So I went to the pier and met this Pelican. Her name is Lucia Pelican. She told me that she likes to sit on the pier and wait for fisherman to clean out their fish and throw the guts away. She said it's much easier than having to catch a fish on her own. Also, she can get some reading done while she is waiting for the fish guts. It's a good deal for her. She mostly reads mysteries.

How to be a better bear

The past month, I have been working on drawing a story. This is part of the 4th page of the story. A honey bear is being attacked by a honey bee. It's a sad story for the bear, and for the bee too, because I think honey bees die after stinging. Maybe it would be best if people were like honey bees. We would have the power to hurt people, but we would die immediately afterwards.

Here are two versions of the bear and bee.


This is the first version I drew. The envelope is covering up the words to the story because it's a secret. I drew this bear two days ago and painted him, but I thought he might not be the right kind of bear for my story. I thought he looked a little bit like a wookie.



Yesterday I drew this bear. He is a little softer. At first, I thought he was definitely a better bear, but then my friend, the great artist called Gooch came over. He said that the original bear at the top was better because it really looked like a bear who was getting stung by a bee and going crazy. He said the bear's weird and awkward pose was also good. The second one, Gooch said, looked like a representation of how we are taught to think of bears and was less interesting.

Now I am confused. Maybe you can help me, by telling me which bear you would most like to see in a storybook.

Wayward Goose Pilots overshoot destination

Today I came across an interesting article on the web.
The following is copied from the Goose Times




WAYWARD GEESE BACK TRACK ON THEIR STORY
Eric Gosling
Special to the Times


Two Canada geese, part of a large flock heading towards Baja California for the winter, overflew their destination by nearly 150 miles last Wednesday October 21st. The flock arrived at Magadalena Plain Salt Marsh at 1:45 pm on Wednesday but two geese failed to land. Jay Edgar Goose, and Patrick L Gooseman continued flying South west after the rest of the flock landed. Other geese reportedly tried to get their attention with rapid wing flapping and loud honking, but neither Mr. Goose nor Mr. Gooseman responded. An immature albatross reportedly spotted the geese 152 miles west of Magadalena Marsh, over open water.
When questioned by flock leader Captain Lucinda Goose, the wayward geese claimed to have been in a heated argument over migratory patterns. This was met with much skepticism, and today the two geese changed their story, claiming that they became distracted while playing an intense round of charades.

Goose specialists suggest that it is unlikely the geese were arguing or playing charades, and MIgratory fatigue may have been a factor. Migratory flocks have recently come under fire from the International Avian MIgratory Commission over flights that can sometimes keep geese airborne for over 24 hours.