Saturday, October 29, 2011

Mylo Xyloto


This image basically represents how my week was.
Amazing.

Living on the edge...

Sometimes, I like to live my life on the edge. Every once in a while, I need a surge of adrenaline. This would be a lot easier if I had a fast car, like my friend Richie. But I don't have a fast car. So, instead, I do this.


This is my gas gauge. Sometimes, when my gas light comes on, I like to see how long I can go before I actually have to fill up. So far, I haven't run out of gas. Each time I get close to being empty, I try and go a little farther than I did the last time. I just hope I don't actually run out of gas one of these days. That wouldn't be fun. Maybe I should stop this activity.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Hidden Gem

I was going through all my pictures the other day and found this little gem. When I saw it, I thought "wow! How creative of me." Well, actually more like, "wow! That was a lucky shot. How did that get in my library?"  


I don't even know what it is or what it is for. All I know is I found them in Idaho. Down by the river.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

blinchiki (блинчики)

It has been a while since I was serving in Russia. It has been over 5 years, if we really want to know how long it has been. I really miss that place and I especially miss all of the people that I came to know and love over those two years that I was there. So, as a nostalgic homage to Russia, I decided to make some blinchiki, or pancakes. They are kind of like crepes and they are so stinking delicious. I ate way too many of them (mainly because I made too many of them).



Making them reminded me of the very first time I was taught how to make them. My companion and I were at a member's home for family home evening on a Monday evening. It was at Nina Miller's (Нина Миллер) apartment and a bunch of other members were there, too. The thing I remember most was Maria Stepanovna (Мария Степановна) thrusting me into the role of cooking them. She showed me how to do it first and she did it so fast that I still had no idea what to do. She took me through the process a few times and before I knew it, I was flipping the pancakes left and right (I caught all of them. Didn't drop a single one). We must have made a hundred or so of them that night. Way too many for the crowd we had, but we just kept dishing them out anyway. Those were some good times. O, how I miss Russia...

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Pumpkin Carving

For our ward's home evening, we did some pumpkin carving. So, I grabbed all of my cool little pumpkin saws and tools and headed over there. Upon arriving, I raced over to the tables to find my pumpkin (yes. Raced. I was pretty excited). This is what he looked like.


It basically stayed this way for about half an hour. I just couldn't decide what to do with it. I didn't want to do the classic triangle eyes sparse-toothed smile. I wanted something awesome. Something hip and screaming 21st century. I needed something people would like and laugh at, but at the same time, strangely relate to. 

That was a very productive half hour of thinking. Better than anything I've done in school so far this semester. Pretty sad. Finally, I came up with the idea of all ideas. I was going to create an "emotipumpkon." "Genius!" I thought to myself. So, I plotted everything out and started carving.

;)

The flirtatious, winky face. Perfect. I was really onto something here, so why stop at just one emoticon? I thought of another.

:P

The goofy, stick-my-tongue-out face. My pumpkin was getting better and better as time went on. But two emoticons wasn't going to be enough. I needed a third.

XD

The squinty-eyed, mouth-wide-open, excited face. Best. Pumpkin. Ever. Now, I just needed to make sure that it was mine so no other could take credit for my take on 21st century digital culture in pumpkin format. 

Z

The best letter of the alphabet. Z. I'm particularly proud of the serif font I used (I debated for a good five minutes whether to make it serif or sans serif). This was now unmistakably my pumpkin. 

Now, for the emotipumpkon in all of it's grandeur. 

XD   ;)   :P

Z

Monday, October 24, 2011

Gardens

This Saturday, I went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was amazing! I was so glad that I went when I did. This is about the best time of the year to head down there because the colors are just absolutely stunning and vibrant. Sneak down there this weekend if you get a chance (it's only open until the end of this month!). Of course, as is my new style, there are plenty of pictures for you to look at.

This is the beginning view from the top.


A carousel. I'm sure that in the summer it's more beautiful with the 
flowers blooming out of the horses.

The Italian Gardens. Pretty sweet.

A very delightful bridge. Love that red tree in the background.

Just a gorgeous winding stream complete with cute little bridge, of course.

Love, love, love the colors!


The secret garden. You come through these doors to enter the garden.

The view from inside the secret garden.


Amazing waterfalls. Completely manmade. Actually, they are the largest
manmade falls in all of North America. You have to go just to see this!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Lightning

Ok. I have been wanting to post again for a while now, but have deemed myself "too busy" to do so. However, I have decided to make a little time and give you some fun things to read/to look at.

About a month ago, there were some pretty sweet lightning here. I mean, they were lightning storms like I have never experienced here in Utah. I love lightning storms. So much. They are quite mesmerizing and I think that they are beautiful. So, I went and sat out on my deck to just soak in the experience. Strikes were happening about every 1-3 seconds. It was amazing! I grabbed my camera a little later (something I have been doing a lot lately) and tried to take some pictures of the lightning. It actually turned out quite successful and I am very pleased with the results. Check out some of my favorites.

One day...




A different day...