Independence Day 2009

Welcome to a late, long overdue post on my poor, neglected blog!

So last Saturday was the fourth of July, which means get-togethers, barbeque, celebrating independence, and fireworks. Last year, I mainly tried to take pictures of the festivities, which didn't turn out too well. Even trying as hard as I could, my less-than-steady hands were no match for a long exposure time.

This year, though, I was prepared; I brought the old, trusty, slightly broken tripod! It worked wonderfully, but my timing was off on a lot of the shots. Also, it started raining right after I got into position, so I had to move into the garage and try to shoot at more of an angle. You can see part of my parents' house in some of the pictures...

Overall, I got some pretty decent ones that I'm happy with. They're a lot less squiggly than last year's. This last one was of those things that you set on the ground and they spin and shoot up into the air, showering sparks everywhere. I think it's a neat shot.


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Now playing: Nicola Fasano vs. Pat Rich - 76 Ocean Drive (Apache Vocal Mix)
via FoxyTunes

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Rules for St. Patrick's Day:

1. Drink lots of Guinness.
2. Have fun.
3. More Guinness.
4. Wear green!
5. Meet Smithwick, Bailey and Jameson.
   
6. Be safe.
7. Guinness!
   

Not necessarily in that order... You get the point.

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Now playing: Dropkick Murphys - The Rocky Road To Dublin
via FoxyTunes

Onion Rings

The other day, I was invited to a friend's house for a Spring Break cookout. He grilled buffalo wings and I fried up some onion rings. Wings and rings! It was good times. And in typical tradition, I made way too much food.

The recipe is quite simple, but really? You don't need anything else. Onion rings shouldn't be overly complicated. I like them stringy and messy and delicious with lots of ketchup and these were perfect. The only problem was in using the fryer I borrowed from my mom. I put way too many in the basket at a time. It was pretty much impossible to stir and the result was a collection of onion ring bricks. We tore into them anyway and everyone loved it.


One thing I substituted: I used chipotle chili pepper powder instead of the cayenne pepper in the recipe. I just happened to have it on hand - it worked well enough. To be honest, I'm not sure if there's much of a difference as I'm not into spicy food that much.

If... no, when I make these again, I'll probably just use a large pan. You'd probably have a lot more control over the rings that way so they won't stick together. The recipe (with one onion) will serve 4-5 pretty easily depending on the size of the onion. Or you can use two like in the picture and have a ton leftover. They were good the next day, too. Oh, one more note, when she says to go nuts with the pepper grinder, do it! You need an awful lot before it shows up in the flavor.

Recipe courtesy The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Go check her site out; I've found a ton of recipes I've bookmarked to try sometime.

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Now playing: Gogol Bordello - Smarkatch
via FoxyTunes

Mr. T is the "T" in I.T.

This is it, my friends. The shining pinnacle of everything awesome I've had the fortune to witness, compressed in a 3-minute, 23-second video.



There's nothing more to say.

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Now playing: Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
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Typefaces & Misc

This is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

When I was big into graphic design (seems like ages ago) I would search for hours on end for just the right set of characters for what I was making. However, I've never actually purchased any. All the typefaces I've used were available for free. I sort of feel bad about that; I mean, I don't even have Helvetica! That's pretty much a sin for typeface enthusiasts.

Thanks to David Malki ! for the link.

My love for typefaces goes hand in hand with my fondness of calligraphy. I've even created a couple calligraphy hands just for fun. At one point I looked into turning it into an actual typeface. It seemed like a lot of work at the time, but maybe there are some different tools available now. I might check it out again now that I'm all interested. If I have time. That seems to be in short supply these days.

In other news, HurleyCon went well! I didn't end up with my own table, but I helped set up, tear down, and I ran the concession table pretty much all day. My original plan was to sell chainmail jewelry, but my partner in crime couldn't make it, so we just scrapped the idea. Next year I'll be ready though. I didn't have enough time to make enough pieces for an entire table myself. I certainly tried though! (That is mainly why I haven't been blogging lately).

At the convention, I was able to hang out with some of the artists I knew, and I met some new ones. Several were coloring their artwork with watercolor and it looked amazing! So now I have a renewed interest in drawing and coloring. I got a watercolor starter kit to try it out and see if I like it. I sketched something up really quick and took the paints to it. For a first try I don't think it's too bad! The ink smeared from the eraser though, so it looks kinda bad. I definitely need to work on technique (especially evenness) with the paint. Also, I need to develop a feel for how much of a color I need to mix up for a certain part. Needing more purple when all you've got is red and blue and the section is only half done is bad news.

More news and maybe some pictures soon!

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Now playing: Polysics - I My Me Mine
via FoxyTunes

Vacation Pictures Episode 4

So here's the final set of pictures that I'd like to share from our family vacation. This set contains a bunch of tropical flowers, most taken with the macro setting. I love that setting as some people know. Anyway, I don't know the names of some of the flowers, so I'm just gonna post 'em.



Oh yeah Happy Valentine's Day I guess.

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Now playing: The Fratellis - Flathead
via FoxyTunes

Google Reader Sharing

Just added a new widget to the blog - Shared Items from Google Reader. I never really understood the point of sharing items from my reader unless I actually went around telling people about it. Now there's a little box on my blog that shows the five most recent items, so that's pretty cool. I come across a lot of neat stuff in my reader and I always end up emailing it to people.

It reminds me of an interesting article I read a while ago (5 minutes on Google and I couldn't find it, oh well) that compared Twitter with email and instant messaging. The basic premise was that email was a fairly heavy medium. Most people feel compelled to respond to email (that isn't spam anyway) since the author obviously took time to write out his or her thoughts and send them to a specific person. But there's also some pressure to take time for composition, spelling checks, revisions, that sort of thing. Instant messaging holds a similar demand, but the response must be immediate. This can lead to potential miscommunication and/or frustration. Putting something on Twitter (or, to relate it to this post - a Reader Share box) doesn't ask for a reply, at least not nearly as much as other internet social media. Simply putting it out there is usually enough; if the audience decides to respond, that avenue is open, but it's not expected.

I'd actually like something like this for YouTube videos. I'm always sending links to those to people I know. Heck, there's probably something already out there that does it. If not, maybe I'll look into how difficult it would be to make something like that. Could be a fun project.

tl;dr - I probably think about social networking way too much to be healthy.

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Now playing: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
via FoxyTunes