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.


----------------
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.

----------------
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.

----------------
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.

----------------
Now playing: Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
via FoxyTunes

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!

----------------
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.

----------------
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.

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

Vacation Pictures Episode 3

It's no secret that I love taking pictures of clouds and sunsets. So this post really just couldn't be helped.


The sunsets on Oahu didn't really cooperate with me too well. The first picture up there was taking while driving around there one day, but we didn't really catch any great views on that island.


The other three pictures were all taken on Maui. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to catch a sunset since it rained a lot, but it always seemed to clear up just before the sun started going down. We didn't see any really spectacular, calendar-quality ones, but I'm quite happy with the shots I ended up with since I was able to enjoy them with my family.


Okay, so I didn't post once a week, but I still got 4 posts for the month of January! That counts, doesn't it? I'll work on discipline throughout February I guess. I've still got a round of photos from the trip that I want to post. Also, I've been gearing up for a convention in March where I'll be selling the chainmail jewelry I alluded to in a previous post. So I'll have a bunch of pictures of the pieces I've finished so far that I'd like to blog about.

----------------
Now playing: Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
via FoxyTunes

Chrono Trigger

I'm a big fan of role-playing video games. Especially 2D, 3/4-view ones. Chrono Trigger, originally released in 1995, is one of my favorites. Definitely top 3. So when I heard news that it was being re-re-released for the Nintendo DS, I was quite excited.

I've been playing it for a while now, and I've noticed some things that I really like, and some things that I'm not too keen about.

The good:
The art and gameplay are as good as ever. The animated cutscenes created for the PSX re-release have been included. The menu system doesn't take 5 seconds to load (this happened in the PSX version - not sure if it was just my copy but it was annoying). The use of the dual screens and touch screen is good. The battle menus are displayed below and can be operated by touch, but are still easier to use with the buttons.

The new content is neat. The first addition is a sort of minigame where you raise a monster and use it to fight in an arena. Your monster grows stronger through training, with more available areas being unlocked as you visit them in the main game. The battle system is fairly simple, with attacks going off automatically. Special attacks are triggered by giving your monster an item between rounds, which it may or may not use based on a "Trust" score. You can battle against the game or with a friend through DS wireless connection. Winning a bout versus the game will net you a prize - some of which are actually quite powerful.

There are also two new dungeons full of side quests. It's basically the same area in two different ages, so most of the quests involve travelling back or forth in time, acquiring an item, and taking it back to the right person. Semi-repetitive, but there's a decent storyline involved and some excellent rewards to be had.

The bad:
Really not too much to say here. As I mentioned above, the arena can hand out some extremely powerful prizes - I got a Prism Helm and Dress well before the Ocean Palace. I opted not to use them so as not to upset the balance of the game. The extra levels and equipment from the two new dungeons made the game play like I had powerleveled, which I really tried to avoid this time around.

The really big thing that irked me though - the retranslation. I didn't have any problems or complaints with the original translation, so I have no idea why they decided to change it. Names of techs and combos are almost all different. Personally, I think Triple Raid sounds a lot cooler than the updated "Triple Attack." A lot of the dialogue is changed as well, some of it to the point that the original feeling is lost. I remember when adding Magus to the party from the end of time, he'd say "Now we've got a winning team!" Now he spouts off something about not hesitating to kill everyone if they get in his way. I'm not sure which version took the creative liberties, but I really would have preferred it wasn't changed. It just feels like a betrayal to the spirit of the game to me.

All in all, I have no regrets in re-re-purchasing the game. Chrono Trigger truly is one of those timeless titles. I have no doubt that every generation of RPG players starting from the original release onward have been and will be captivated by the deep storyline, rich characters, amazing gameplay, and beautiful artwork and music.

And hey, maybe if SE gets enough good feedback from CT they'll finally make Chrono Break! One can hope...

----------------
Now playing: Chrono Trigger - Battle With Magus
via FoxyTunes

Blog Anniversary

Wow, it's already been a year since I started this? And this is only the 38th post... Well, like I said in my last entry, hopefully that's going to change this year. Anyway, happy birthday Blurred Lines!


I've started working on a new layout for the blog. I wanted to have it ready for today, but my weekend was a lot busier than I anticipated. My brother is involved in mixed martial arts and had a fight on Saturday, which he won. He's actually quite good. From what I heard, there was a professional scout in the audience who talked to my brother's trainer about him. Exciting stuff.


This round of pictures is composed of general scenery we saw in Hawai‘i. I'm never satisfied with my photos because they never quite capture the scene as I remember it, but I guess that's the difference between looking at pictures and actually being there.


The most exciting thing we did in Hawai‘i was probably the snorkeling trip. The weather didn't hold out for us to go parasailing or take the giant zipline down a mountain. My dad bought a disposable underwater camera, but the pictures sadly didn't turn out too well. The company running the tour rented out nicer cameras, but it seemed kind of expensive and I really didn't know what to expect. Next time though, I'd definitely shell out for the rental.


I got a lot more familiar with my camera on this trip. I played around with the settings a lot more, and quite a few of my photos benefitted from the experimentation. I think it's fairly evident in the pictures for the next round - sunsets, clouds, etc. A lot of the shots were taken several times, all with different settings. It really gave me a feel for how things turn out just slightly differently with all the different options.


Anyway, thanks for reading, and hopefully this next year will be loads better than the last!

----------------
Now playing: ai otsuka - Birthday Song
via FoxyTunes

Holiday Season Recap

-Statue of King Kamehameha I-

Hope everyone had fun over the holidays!

-Germaine's Luau Dancers-

One of my resolutions for the new year is to blog more. Looking at my post count for last year, I think at least one entry per week is doable. They might be shorter posts, maybe a few without pictures, just discussing current events or linking cool sites, but I would like to have more content here. Also! The blog turns a year old on the 12th! How exciting is that? I feel like I should do something special.

-Germaine's Luau Firedancer-
This was taken with the "Fireworks" setting - lots of light and long exposure.
They turned out to be some of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

Anyway, the big news is that I spent Christmas with my family in Hawai‘i! We did visited some relatives and did all kinds of neat things. Lots of shopping and beach time, but we also went to a bunch of parks, did some snorkeling, attended a luau, and generally had a wonderful time.

-Manoa Falls-

I'm not sure how many pictures I actually took as I deleted ones that weren't that great as I went, but I ended up with about 500. I've got a bunch that I want to post, so I'll break them up into several posts. This one will be the more tourist-y type photos. The other categories will probably be landscapes, sunsets, and flowers.

Burger King serves Spam for breakfast!
It was delicious

----------------
Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - E Ala E
via FoxyTunes

Marathon Cookie Baking

The other day, I baked 380 cookies. Three hundred and eighty. Cookies. I went through four pounds of butter. I ran out of flat surfaces in my house to cool them on. It was absolutely crazy and I loved every minute of it. The purpose of this all-day baking blitz was to make up trays to give to coworkers, neighbors, and family for the holidays. This was the first year that I covered everyone on my own, so it was a real challenge.

Laying everything out was key. I usually grab stuff from the cabinet as I need it, but this was no ordinary baking session. The only problem was that it took up precious counter space, so I ended up covering the dining room table with wax paper and using it for a giant cooling rack. No pictures of that, it was horrible.

I started pretty early in the morning (10:00 AM is super early unless I'm going to work) and I was rotating pans trying to be as efficient as possible. I don't think I'll be doing that again unless I get another timer. My timing scheme that was based on the time of the previous pan broke down disappointingly quickly, so I switched to a single batch at a time in the afternoon.

My (still relatively) new baking stone has been working wonderfully. It makes perfect cookies every time and I think I just might like it more than my trusty tin pans. I know I'm probably ages late in figuring out that stone bakes better than metal. Also, it fit 20 mini Snickerdoodles at a time. That was so awesome.

I also made Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls again. They're simple, easy, and everyone loves them. You really can't go wrong with these things, it's amazing.


Here's a picture of a tray being assembled. The stack in the back is Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate. They're surrounded by mini Snickerdoodles, with the Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls in the middle, and Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip cookies in the foreground on the right. Also there is a horrible box of plastic wrap ruining the picture in the background. Yay for forgetting to set up the picture properly!

Here are a few of the completed trays. I had 13 total, with quite a few cookies left over for my immediate family. They all turned out pretty well, although some were a bit drier than I would have liked. I was afraid of having too few so I doubled each recipe and tried to make the cookies a bit on the small side. This completely backfired. Recipes that supposedly yielded 20-40 (I estimated 30, so 60 when doubled) ended up making 140. More than twice the generous estimate!

My favorite out of the bunch is probably the Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate. They were crispy and chewy, sweet and salty all at the same time, which was really neat. Even though I couldn't find the right kind of sea salt locally (supposed to use the flake kind), it worked out. I'll definitely be adding these to the list of cookies to bake for special occasions.

Here's where I got the recipes:
Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate - Smitten Kitchen
Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip - Carmen Cooks
Snickerdoodles - Oven Haven

----------------
Now playing: The Hives - Love In Plaster
via FoxyTunes

Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember...

----------------
Now playing: Ludwig van Beethoven, Philadelphia Orchestra & Riccardo Muti - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro Con Brio
via FoxyTunes

KC Renaissance Faire

A few weeks ago, I went to the Ren Faire in Kansas City with my father and brother. We've been going for the past seven years or so, and the last few times I've dressed up for it. I'm currently working on my chainmail hauberk, but it's only about a quarter done, so I borrowed my friend's for the weekend. I made the tabard (the cloth part that goes over the armor) myself, all stitched by hand. I usually tell people that I prefer the rustic look it gives, but in reality I'm just scared to use the antique sewing machine my grandmother passed down.

The aforementioned friend and I planned out this outfit a few years ago, based off the Templar knight uniform. We ordered matching helmets, gloves, belts, and shields. The plan was for both of us to go at the same time, but schedules haven't worked out, which is fine since I'm pretty lazy about working on my chainmail.

I definitely have an elevated level of respect for medieval knights. This was hot and heavy and uncomfortable pretty much the whole time I was wearing it. The helmet alone weighed ten pounds, the hauberk was forty, and with the sword and shield I was carting around a total of sixty pounds of steel (with a long-sleeved shirt, pants, leather boots and gloves on as well). Still, I lasted about three and a half hours, at which point my arms were going numb from the pressure of the chainmail. I'll have to do some research and see if I can find a way to distribute the weight a bit better.
At around that point, we stopped at one of the clothing stores, and I bought a doublet, which I had been wanting for a while anyway. I ran (well, walked rather slowly) back out to the car, swapped shirts, and put on my hat. This outfit was quite a bit more comfortable.

Next year, I want to have my hauberk completed, as well as a coif (a chainmail hood) and a blue tabard with a fleur-de-lis design. The leather store where we ordered our belts has a neat set of ringmail greaves and bracers that I think would fit nicely. It'll be a ton of work, but I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe I'll post progress here to keep me motivated.

----------------
Now playing: Queen - Brighton Rock
via FoxyTunes

Moving Back to Blogger

I'm temporarily moving back to hosting this blog on Blogspot. There were a few things I didn't like about hosting it on a separate server, mainly the fact that paging went away. I've also updated the template (using one of the provided layouts at the moment) and added a few neat widgets. You might notice the Twitter update at the top of the sidebar - I've finally broken down and started an account. We'll see how it goes.

As far as the future is concerned, I'm thinking about finally making my site. Right now I'm leaning towards Python and Django, but we'll see. Short-term, I want to create my own template or at least heavily edit an existing one. Also, I'm not sure if my feed has changed because of the switch; guess I'll find out after I post this.

In other news, I recently attended KaizenConf, which was awesome. I'll be either posting a recap here or on The Pirates' Code. Maybe both. To sum up in a word though: enlightening. And the number of people in attendance who owned iPhones was staggering. But seriously, it was the most amazing event I've ever been part of.

----------------
Now playing: The Raconteurs - Five On the Five
via FoxyTunes

Homemade Cookie Day!

So I guess today is Homemade Cookie Day. Last night, my mom and I baked four batches of these (about 120 cookies) and we both took them to work today. They're pretty time-consuming to make with all the different steps, but man they are worth it.

And don't mind the photo - it's one I took from the last time we made these, about a year ago. I was going to take a better picture to post, but... I ate all the leftover cookies.

Recipe courtesy Bake or Break.

----------------
Now playing: TOKIO - Joushou Shikou (#-= Anime Academy Radio =- Best of Anime/Asian Music! (www.animeacademyradio.net))
via FoxyTunes

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008

Avast me lads 'n lasses! T'day be Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008! 'Ave a mug o' rum, sing some shanties, an' above all, talk wit' th'boldness an' flavor o' speech tha' only comes from runnin' up th'jolly roger a time er two! Yaharr!

----------------
Now playing: Klaus Badelt - Skull and Crossbones
via FoxyTunes

Camping Trip: Photo 02

Seen on the bank of the river at Devils Den Campground. Kind of reminds me of those stock photos you seen on business websites.

----------------
Now playing: The Hives - Hate to Say I Told You So
via FoxyTunes

Camping Trip: Photo 01

Over Labor Day weekend, I went camping with my family in Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas. It was a beautiful campground with many things to do. There's a little river that runs through the campground, and while we were there, I came across this little fellow. He let me get right next to him to take some awesome pictures.

----------------
Now playing: Klaus Badelt - He's a Pirate
via FoxyTunes

A Ninja Riding a T-Rex

Yesterday I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who is a very talented artist. We were both sketching as we chatted, and this is one of the things I came up with. It was a lot of fun as I haven't really drawn anything in a while.

I actually surprised myself with the linework - I'm pretty pleased with it. I'll probably end up inking and at least trying to color it. Well, a copy anyway. Working on the original is not the best idea for me. I usually mess up somewhere along the line with more permanent media.

----------------
Now playing: Aqua - Cartoon Heroes
via FoxyTunes