Summer suggestions?

So this time we have a post with no pictures! Imagine that!

Anyhow, as most of you who are reading this (or at least the one's who are following this blog) know, I am spending around two months this summer in sunny San Diego. I'm heading out there at the end of June to spend time with my lovely lady, and some friends, as well as my childhood BFF from Vermont who just so happens to be moving out there this summer to live with her boyfriend and who has offered me a possible place to stay (I was originally tentatively planning to stay in Santa Barbara with friends of my dad's).

So the question is... what does one do in San Diego? I was born in SoCal, but we moved when I was two and I haven't been back there to visit since I was in the 2nd grade. I already have tickets for San Diego Comic Con in July, and I plan on hitting up various theme parks and such, not to mention the beaches. HOWEVER, is there anything else in the area I should be sure to see/do? I know some of you have been there and know the area way better than I do.

Definitely planning on trying to hit up some auditions in LA while I'm out there too. Might as well! Who knows, maybe I'll actually get something?

On that topic, if anyone has suggestions for a part time summer job out there, that would be awesome. I'd like to try not to eat through ALL of my savings. XD

OK, I lied. I couldn't let this post end without a picture. So here's my friends and I getting all soaked at Universal Studios Florida last year.

Spring again, in video format!

Today was a GORGEOUS day in Central Park, and somewhere in the two hours I was walking around I decided to take advantage of the video setting on my little digicam.

IGNORE MY DOOFY VOICE. :P The narration is mostly directed at my girlfriend who has never been to New York (yet) who I've been harassing lately about HOW PRETTY THE PARK IS.








BONUS VIDEO: My roommates and I fail at directions while trying to get to Ikea.

Another way I like to waste my spare time...

First and foremost, this post is brought to you by my assistant Holly. Who really doesn't do much in the way of assisting. Her expertise is more along the lines of sitting on my hands while I try to type.


AND NOW, I present: another one of my many hobbies.

I have always been interested in costuming and making things. My mother taught me how to sew when I was little and I'm not too shabby at it if I do say so myself. In high school I experimented with this little thing called cosplay, which is essentially nerdy dress up for the sake of fun. I didn't really have many conventions to go to, living in small town Vermont, but I had a lot of fun making costumes for friends and for Halloween. When I went to college my costuming kinda got put on hold, due to the fact that I no longer had a sewing machine or my group of costuming friends. However, last year I made some pretty awesome friends who encouraged me to get back into the game and come to some conventions with them, and holy WOW did I have fun! I figured I would share some of the costumes I've made recently (pictures all taken by various friends).

First we have Toph Bei-Fong, from the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (which you should totally check out if you haven't, because it's AWESOME). I actually wound up doing several variations of this particular character over the course of the year, starting with the red outfit, which I made over Christmas break '07





Then came "Invasion Day Toph", which I made to match a couple of friends' costumes (who were dressed as other characters from the same episode)

(I'm the one on the left :P)


Unfortunately I have almost NO good pictures of this costume for some reason. I'm planning on wearing it again at Anime Boston this year (because it's one of my absolute FAVORITES and hasn't gotten nearly enough wear) so hopefully I can get some then.


This seriously blurry, but it's the ONLY half decent picture I could find of me with my helmet on.



FINALLY, we have outfit number three, which is Toph's dress from the series finale. This is probably the FASTEST costume I've ever made in my life. I put it together in less than a week. XD





This picture doesn't show off the costume very well, but I just like it. :P



Most recently, I have moved on from Toph and started attending conventions dressed as my very favorite resident of Arkham Asylum...



This costume was a BITCH to make, due to the fact that spandex is the most horrible material to sew with EVER, but it sure does look good when you can get it to cooperate. However, my favorite thing about this costume is the fact that if I don't feel like wearing the hood and makeup (as happened Sunday of New York Comic Con), my hair is still accurate to the character.


Even Harley Quinn loves the Ninja Turtles!



And that is all for now! I'm working on (or at least planning) some other costumes at the moment for both myself and others. This year I will, for the first time, be attending San Diego Comic Con! I've never been able to afford to go that far for a convention, but this year I'm spending the majority of my summer in San Diego anyways, so it all works out. I'll likely be dressed as Harley Quinn the whole time, hopefully with my partner in crime Poison Ivy.

Spring has sprung!

Well... sort of. Not quite warm enough to go to the beach or run around without a hoodie on (at least not today), but it's getting there. Things are starting to bloom, and I snapped a few pictures today near my apartment.

I don't pretend to be a photographer with my dinky little digital camera, but I do like to take pictures of stuff. No photoshop on these or anything, because I'm feeling lazy. :P

These first few are from City Hall Park right by my apartment.







They finally turned the fountain on! :D



This next bunch is from Battery Park down by the water. The light was going a little by this point, but OH WELL.














And, just for fun, a few of the statues outside the museum by Bowling Green.

Proof that weirdness is genetic

Well, no topic suggestions yet (let me rephrase that: no VIABLE topic suggestions yet. You know who you are). And my ladylove has informed me that embarrassing photos of her are not an acceptable blog topic, despite my spectacular arguments about it being an important human interest story. So you'll have to settle for the next best thing: PICTURES OF MY FAMILY.

When I was growing up, every year my extended family would gather at my grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. At the end of the weekend, we would take a group picture. While my grandpa is no longer with us, and this house belongs to someone else now, one of my cousins recently decided to upload a treasure trove of these old pictures to Facebook and I felt like they should be shared.

We're all a little bit touched in the head, and I wouldn't have it any other way.





Us poor saps in the front row had no idea what was going on






I believe my aunt's holding her arm out like that so we could photoshop in someone who was missing XD




BLUE STEEL


An innocent photo descends into CHAOS


And finally, this isn't a Thanksgiving picture (it's from the summer of '05 I believe), but it's one of the last group photos we have from before my grandpa died, and I like it. :)


Perhaps a post with actual content next time? NAH. That would just be silly!

YOU HAVE THE POWER

Since I am new to this whole public blog thing, I'm going to put myself in your (hopefully) trustworthy hands.

What would you like to see me blog about? Is there some aspect of my life you want to see pictures of? Some topic you'd like to know my opinion on? Burning questions? Marriage proposals?

I will do my best to fill all requests. The one thing I may veto is questions that stray too far into personal territory, since this is a PUBLIC blog and all.

HAVE AT IT!

Hello there blogspot!

Did I really need another online journal? Of course I did!

I've come to the realization that a whole lot of my friends and family don't actually have LiveJournal accounts, and since my whole LJ has been friends-locked for the last 4 years or so, all the brain spewing I do over there does them little to no good.

What will I post here? Art and photos mostly. Maybe the occasional textual diatribe about something or other. Nothing particularly deep and meaningful. No unlocking the mysteries of the universe, but I hope you will enjoy anyhow!

To start off on a truly classy note, here's a picture of me (circa age 14) driving a riding lawn mower. Why? I have no idea. But it was in my dad's online photo album. WTF dad.