Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!!! Since I'm not doing a lot, and my internets are going really slow, thought I'd put together the next post of vacation pictures!!!

I thought pictures from the Sawyer glacier would be appropriate. This was the first destination on the cruise, up Tracy Arm. There was one whole day of steaming up the Canada coast and a night of heading up the Alaska coast. When I looked out the porthole of our cabin that morning, I saw icebergs!!!

We never left the ship, but were just positioned off the glacier all day.

I kept looking at the left side all day, see how it looks like it's all an overhanging ice cave???

There went a little, but I was sure there was more in it.

They said that some days they come up here and it doesn't calve off but one or two icebergs. As was typical of our trip, however, it was excellent, and it was calving ALL DAY LONG!!!

I took so many pictures there, and the bulk of them came out quite good!!! There's the wave from just a bit to the right of where I was watching.

If you notice the dark specks on the ice floes, those are seals. Gives you a bit of an idea of the scale. There's a huge hunk of the blue of the glacier iceberg.

There it's going!!!

And to all a good night!!!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

More Rage

I made this up some time ago, once again based on a true life adventure!!!

In case you didn't know, Mexican candy is notorious for having high levels of lead...

Passing the Torch Random

Once again, I've got a lot I've been meaning to blog, and it's time to get some of it out!!!

First up is some cup art I did back on December 7th. I was going to subscript it with "We will never forget", but it didn't come out too recognizable. It's supposed to be the Arizona memorial, in honor of Pearl Harbor day.

There was another birthday, where as usual I was contracted to make a cake. Actually, it was a double birthday celebration, so I was requested to do two or something... I forced my older boy to do the second cake, ergo the title of this post!!!

My niece is a fan of Justin Bieber, and that was my only direction for a cake. I utilized the Rage Comic "Now Kiss" guy, and made the dolls her and Justin, then added their names (+ each other) to the bottom, along with a heart. She LOL'ed.

I'm sure he's been featured here before, but the other requested cake was for SpongeBob. I've done at least two other SpongeBob cakes, and even Wubbsy with Bob's pants on, and I'm about Bobbed out. My older boy is quite the aspiring artist, so I told him, "It'll be a new medium for you to work in!!!" He wasn't especially enthused to be doing so, but he came up with this slightly Picasso themed cake. the smaller eye is actually 3D about an inch tall!!!

That same evening was my company's Christmas party. There we are dressed up for it. This year, instead of having a photographer on the way in, taking a formal picture then selling it to you on the way out, they had a photo booth. The pictures were free, and they had a lot of costumes and props to use, too. I wore a sparkly hat and my wife wore a black & white feather boa and a necklace that read "HO HO HO" in large letters.

I worked the Friday after Thanksgiving, at time and a half, plus getting paid for the vacation day. I'm doing the same for tomorrow, Christmas eve. They fed us breakfast and lunch last time, and I'm assuming they will tomorrow, too. If not, I'll be going hungry.

I saw the Counting Crows at the Wiltern back at the end of November. It was a pretty good show.

Personal space and general admission shows are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Opening act one was Tender Mercies, who come to find out, Counting Crows has been doing several of their songs for years as covers. I have many as bootlegs, and one (maybe two???) are featured on their latest album. Instant fan!!! The second opening act, Mean Creek, well, they were loud. They feature a cute girl guitarist, who constantly jumped up and down the whole set. She made a comment that she loves when the crowds are rowdy, and we were the rowdiest. Pretty much the opposite was the case, I LOL'ed.

I liked the artwork for the Wiltern show. Wish they'd had it on a shirt. I never much care for the concert shirts from Counting Crows. Strange.

Goody day at work was kinda bad this year. We're back to three lunch breaks, and by the time I got my break, they were out of a lot of stuff, including drinks. Oh well, I've been told next year will be better. This year WAS better for gravy day. If I'm not mistaken, it was only 5% under what I've been told was the record amount. Also 10% under what I was told by a "reliable source" to be this year's amount. I'm good with it.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Stranger than Fiction

Finally back to the vacation posts, here's the previously alluded to Science Fiction Museum. No, it wasn't really stranger than fiction, but it was pretty cool!!!

And there I am, also looking pretty cool. Ahem.

The boy, in the red glow, was being scanned for motion capture technology, the kind of which they use in many of the SciFi movies these days. This particular one was for the exhibit from Avatar, where they motion capture you, and make a rough video clip with you replaced by an avatar!!! Pretty cool, you can see the video here, watch the boy almost stagger off his feet at the end. Oh, and instead of just touching the plant, he gives it a karate chop!!!

They had a lot of other cool stuff from that movie, too. Models, costumes, and an interactive computer display.

James Kirk's captain's chair, surrounded by tribbles.

The cane and amulet of Yoda.

Not pictured but appreciated was the gun from the Men in Black series.

The skeleton of a face-sucker stage of alien.

There were many displays of groundbreaking Science Fiction books and authors. The Watchmen is featured here.

Concept sketches from many movies were on display. Pictured is the costume concept for Neo from The Matrix.

Unfortunately, we only hit about 2/3 of the museum before it closed. at the end we were watching video trailers and commentary from several classic horror movies. Too much to see!!!