1220: Smartphone...Dumb Owner

I went to an education conference in Wichita a couple days which is why there was no Born Loser most of last week. It was an interesting conference but what I really enjoyed was spending some time in Kansas' largest city. I had never been to Wichita except just on the outskirts while travelling to and from Houston back in 2001. While we didn't do too much there, we went to the Mid-American All-Indian Cultural Center and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. A major feature of the Cultural Center is the Keeper of the Plains, a statue created by Comanche-Kiowa artist Blackbear Bosin. He also painted a beautiful mural inside the Center called "From Whence All Life".

When you enter the Center, you are greeted by this totem that tells the history of Kansas. I wish I could've gotten a better picture of each section and maybe even a translation but it's really hard to photograph a totem.

Chaac, the Mayan rain god.

Mingled with the United States flag and Kansas flag are the flags of all of the recognized Indian Nations of our country.
These flags hang about the dance floor in the Cultural Center.

"From Whence All Life" panoramic photo. It started out really good and then got a little warped about halfway
through. It was painted by Blackbear Bosin and represents Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico.

"Prairie Fire" by Blackbear Bosin. This tile painting is placed at Bosin's memorial
as you walk to the Keeper.

The Keeper of the Plains, overlooking Downtown Wichita at the confluence of the Arkansas
and Little Arkansas Rivers.

The Keeper of the Plains at night lit by a ring of fire.

The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum is located in the Old City Hall. The Old City Hall was built in 1890. It is an amazingly beautiful building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Historical Museum features a very in-depth history of Wichita and Sedgwick County from pre-history to the 1960s. There is a massive display featuring transportation--especially aviation. Other exhibits include Wichita founder history, business history, how children lived throughout Wichita history, replicas of an old drug store and schoolroom, how women lived, among a lot of other things. The museum did a really good job of trying to preserve at least the memory of things that no longer exist and that's something I like seeing in museums.

A couple of the more interesting things I grabbed a picture of was this Carry Nation tribute(?). Nation was a radical member of the temperance movement who would attack taverns with a hatchet to destroy the bar and liquor supply.

The display features one of Nation's hatchets, a small hatchet pin with Nation's name etched into it, and a comic describing the two choices men have to make in life. You can either drink alcohol, become a drunk and fall into a ditch. Or, you can be a teetotaler, abstain from alcohol and live in a nice house. The choice is yours, men.

In the children's exhibit, there was a small display for radio shows. In a case were these books featuring radio show properties although, with the exception of The Green Hornet, all these characters started out as comic strips. I would love to read one of these.

Yeah...that's one of the perks of smartphones.

Who forgets it's Monday? It's not like Monday is Wednesday or Thursday. You just had a weekend.