Giant Chess Board at Tarrant County College

This life sized chess board is located at the North East campus of Tarrant County College. For those of you unfamiliar with the campus, its on the corner of Boulevard 26 and Harwood in Hurst. The chess board it self is located behind the library by the large clock tower. The pieces can be checked out from the student center or you could chance them already being out on a sunny weekday. The chess club at TCC holds meetings here as well as a few unrelated clubs. This board is big enough to get a group of friends together and act out a game of chess or checkers. In the picture above I am sitting in the king spot to give you a good idea of how big it is. Behind me is where the pieces are kept under pad lock.

Aside from being a cool place to meet with your college buddies, it also makes a great place for a picnic, or get away with the kids. Its easily accessible and within the city. I have never seen this place crowded; If some one was there when I arrived, they were usually gone with in a few minutes. Funny thing that led me to posting about this particular place, I Googled it for pictures and found my face on page two from a time I was there 2 years ago. It made me laugh and revisit, and it is still another wonderful getaway and a must see for residents of Fort Worth.
- Roy Stanley

Planetarium at South Grand Prairie High School

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of visiting the newly renovated John Carl Pogue Planetarium at SGPHS.

My father was the superintendent for Lincoln Builders that was hired for many of the schools recent upgrades. He was allowed to bring the family out for the opening and I got to meet former teacher, board member and planetarium namesake John Pogue, as well as present astronomy teacher Chris Miller. They have several state of the art telescopes for student and public use provided you keep track of when they are available for events at the planetarium. The planetarium it self has a high tech OMNI Computing system in which the program can actually show you the difference in the stars positions over time. This made me question just how good it was and I was suprised to find out, given some time the program could actually show you a 2600 year span from the entire age we are in to the age of Aquarius. Like I said, that would take some time to do, but for the program, showing several years into the past of future is no problem at all.

This planetarium has a special black hole exhibit for the public. There is an admissions fee, but the experience is totally worth it. When we were getting the presentation of the program they could even simulate a thunderstorm, eclipse, and sky color changes simultaneously. The astronomy club will also be traveling to more remote areas for better views with the high tech telescopes, so be watching the Grand Prairie ISD website for updates, and give them a visit.

I didn't get any pictures of my self in this location, but here is my friend spencer sitting in the back with me.

British Emporium

Recently I found a store in Grapevine dedicated to selling a wide variety of British culture based food and gift products. I found the store looking for "Doctor Who" products in Fort Worth and this place has more than enough Whovian toys for every one. I was most impressed with the selection of cheeses you can't find anywhere else, not to mention the must read books that almost make me want to start a whole new blog such as detective fictions by the great Agatha Christie.

The snacks and the soda were delightful; really I can not express just how delicious the snacks were.
Then there is the Doctor Who section.. That's right, a whole section. Different types of Sonic Screw Drivers, and all forms of Tardis's. There were small Daleks and action figures, collectibles and even dictionaries and books. There were posters of everything British from Doctor Who to the Beatles; which brings up that there was even a selection of music!
This store holds many events, much like small comic-con's, for Whovians and other British cultural celebrations that are updated on their websites calendar. The website also includes a list of the foods and gifts available, as well as a place to make requests. The website offers help in understanding culture so that you can buy gifts for people with specific descents.
It is located right off main street in Grapevine, across from the large bank on the corner of Dallas by the Quiznoes. http://www.british-emporium.com/ here is the web address. I hope if you are as big a fan of anything British as I am, you find your way here very soon!

Space Ships in Dallas

I am starting this blog to help people like me, stuck in Dallas-Fort Worth who love to travel and experience exotic and strange things. A few nights ago I took a friend out to see an abandoned spaceship! AKA the "Futuro House" or "UFO house". I found this place on a blog about abandoned old places looking for hospitals, because that's what fancies my friend.

Here is me laying inside the spaceship around 2am.
From the inside it looks pretty shady. Graffiti and trash everywhere and no apparent lingering of the life forms that once lived there. The Futuro houses were built in the 70's for the modern loft-like home shaped like a UFO. Only 50 are known to still exist and they are scattered about the world from Russia to New Zealand, however in Rockwall and Royce city Texas, just 10 miles apart, there are two of these marvelous abandoned space homes.

The one in Royce has earned the nickname "Lost Soul" among the followers of Futuro Houses. The name is painted on the wall here as well as some scripture and rather depressing remarks from others who have squatted this UFO like my self. One remark references Douglas Adams character Marvin, the depressed robot, saying "what is the point?".
My friend and I viewed this wonderful place at night and I have to say the most amazing thing about it was laying on the floor seeing the stars through the windows and as cars drove by on the freeway, the lights, reflecting off the walls countering the many holes for windows, made the ship seam like it was spinning; the passing cars actually sounded like space ships too!

this image is from http://www.strangebuildings.thegrumpyoldlimey.com
He is a avid blogger of these Futuro Homes.
This is a link to a mock web site for the original homes from the 70's! http://www.berting.nl/futuro/
I hope this is a great start for my new blog about interesting places in Dallas-Fort Worth, I will be keeping it constantly updated. wish me luck!