A Springtime Switchup

Recently I've been thinking of switching up my hair style.  I've had the same haircut for many years now and I think it's time to change it up a bit.  And what better way to do that than freshly-cut bangs!

This choppy, messy, feathered look that has longer pieces on the sides is what I have in mind.  From these pictures, it looks like it would show off my eyes, and I could push them to one side or the other if I wanted to style it like my current hair.  What do you all think?

(photos collected from long-hairstyless, forever21, a-portrait.tumblr, lanababiy, allure, and flickr)

Would You Like to Swing On a Star

Welcome to the new week, everyone!  The Olympics are over, the sun is shining, and I got a full night of sleep last night!  After working twenty-five+ hours over the last three days, I definitely needed it.  Good thing I like my job and have fun with the people I work with!

How was your weekend?  I went over to Mom and Dad's on Saturday night for a delicious chili dinner and to finish watching the Ladies Figure Skating Long Program.  I agreed with most of the judging calls this year, but Yvgenia Medvedeva skated better than her counterpart, Alina Zagitova, and should have gotten the gold.  While both skaters were beautiful to watch, the showdown really displayed the inconsistencies of the new judging system.  Be on the lookout for an Olympic followup post that will go into this further.

(photo by mariah.b, and collected from isu.org)

Too Much Artwork, Not Enough Wall

My Mom was at an antique mall this weekend and spotted a beautiful folding screen with an even more beautiful Asian landscape across the four panels.  She texted me a picture of it seeing if she should buy it.

For twenty dollars?!!  Yes, ma'am!  Fast forward to yesterday, when I cleaned it up and figured out how to hang it.  It already had two screw-eye hooks on the back but it took a few trial and error ways of looping the string to make it work.

How calming and delightful!  I had to take down the two blue pieces that were there before.  One was a cool, collage-like color board I did for a class in college, and the other was this blue yoga lady with the wild hair that Mom made for my birthday a few years ago.  I decided to retire the collage for a while, but moved the blue lady into the living room.

Looks pretty good on the display wall with Taylor's photos and the watercolor print!  Now I just need to find/make a long, landscape piece to go underneath it.  What a problem to have!

(photos by e.hunt)

Restez Vigilantes Votre Vie Durant

Last night my work buddy Alissa came over to talk about one of my favorite things: travel!  In a few weeks she and her Grandma are going to London and Paris, and she wanted my opinions and advice on making the most of the trip.  She's never been overseas so she's a little nervous about flying and making sure they've packed everything they need.  This isn't the first time I've given travel tips to someone going to Paris, but it's always fun and exciting to share my experiences and knowledge.  To get in the Parisian mood, I opened my old photo album and pulled some of my favorites.

Way back in 2011, I studied abroad for a month at La Sorbonne in Paris.  I loved the big city life and the quiet, determined lifestyle of the French people.

Not to mention the city itself is a Mecca of art and architecture.  Everywhere you look is something ancient and beautiful.

I became fascinated with the Metro subway system.  Like any true American, I love the freedom and mobility of driving a car, but Paris' mass transit Metro was like a puzzle and I loved being able to get anywhere in the city without having to rely on cars.

I told Alissa about my favorite area.  If you get off the Metro at the Louvre-Rivoli stop, you can walk through the Tuileries gardens, make a stop in the Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's Waterlilies, make a right and eat at the fabulous father-son Lescure Restaurant, turn back around and check out the ornate fountains and lampposts at the Place de la Concorde, then continue on down the river walk that runs parallel to the Champs Elysées, and finish up the tour at the Arc de Triomphe.

I mentioned that when they go see Notre Dame they should get off at Odéon or Saint Michel so they can walk through the oldest section of Paris, the Quartier Latin, and see the impressive Saint Michel fountain.

And of course they are planning to spend a day at Versailles, the massive castle filled with opulent furniture and gold-encrusted everything.  There truly is nothing else like it; however, the real reason to go is to see the gardens and the fountains that are in them.

After my month of studying, I met up with Mom and Debby to see some Southern European destinations, not knowing that I would be returning to Paris four years later.  I loved being able to take Taylor to my favorite spots and explore new places together.  I think I just love traveling altogether and am always happy to share it with others.

(photos by e.hunt)

The Astonishing and Mysterious Difference

On my last day off from work, which was Saturday, I woke up to a lovely snow dusting on the ground.  And today, gloomy puddles and temperatures reaching seventy.  And then tomorrow I think the high is supposed to be thirty-five.  Welcome to the modern Midwest winter.

(photos by e.hunt)

There and Back Again

After photos in the park, we drove downtown to the convention center where Comic Con was being held.  We saw a lot of people walking around, our eyes peeled for others in costume.  We spotted a few Jedi from the new Star Wars movies, and wizards from Harry Potter, so then we turned our focus on finding a place to park.

We found a parking lot a few blocks away from the venue and accrued quite an amount of attention from our fellow meter-waiters.  "Where are you all headed?"  "What are you dressed up as?"  "Ah, Comic Con.  I wonder why cousin Timmy wasn't going to that.  He's really into that kind of stuff."

Once inside the convention center, we navigated our way back to the event.  An RV tractor-trailer convention was happening in the next auditorium; talk about the perfectly opposite crowd!

After checking in and getting our wrist bands, we decided to walk through all the little booths, which mainly consisted of graphic artists and collectible sellers.  We saw a lot of action figures, t-shirts, and replica swords and wands.

We saw a lot of people dressed up as Spiderman, a lot of Star Wars characters, and a lot of obscure comic book superheroes.  There were a few that stood out: Spiderman villain Doctor Octopus, TV-painter Bob Ross, an aged Luke Skywalker, and a spot-on Legolas and dying Boromir, complete with Uruk-hai arrows coming out of his chest.  Most people didn't really get our costumes, but were impressed once we told them.  A few people even asked to take our picture!

After walking around for a while, we headed to the auditorium where the Lord of the Rings actors were to have their Q&A session.  Another one of the big names, John Barrowman, of Doctor Who fame, was in the middle of his segment.  Neither of us knows anything about Doctor Who, but he was basically putting on a stand-up comedy show rather than just talking about his time on the show.  It was pretty entertaining, and nice to sit down for a bit.

And then it was time for the main event!  Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, and Sean Astin, or Boromir, Pippin, and Sam from Lord of the Rings were all together for the first time in several years.  In fact, this was Sean Bean's first Comic Con ever!  Pretty cool that we got to be at it too.  He was very clearly not as used to this kind of event as the other two, who mentioned they weren't used to having this big of a crowd.

They told a lot of the stories I already knew from the DVD commentaries and behind-the-scenes interviews, but there was a lot of new stuff, and it was just so exciting to see them in person.  It was also neat to see them interact with each other and hear their worldly accents.  The guy on the far right was the host and kind of directed the conversation, which was good.  Andrew and I were both excited when he asked Sean Bean about his other famous roles of Ned Stark on Game of Thrones and Alec Trevelyan 006 of Goldeneye.  On his tendency to play bad guys, "The roles are so juicy, and you can get away with doing it however you want.  I did consciously have to start taking some good guy roles, like Ned Stark, I guess he's a good guy, but you know the others are more fun."  Now imagine him saying that paraphrased thought in his drawling English accent!

Once the Q&A ended, we hurried over to get in line for our photo with the three of them.  There was quite a line, but it was moving quickly and gave us time to come up with our poses and if we were going to ask them a question.  I figured I would be too excited to ask anything so Andrew decided he would ask Sean Bean if anyone calls him "Seen Bean," which is what we all call him around our house.

When we were just a few people back, we got our lightsabers ready and headed in the little tent.  It was very rushed, but they liked our costumes and appreciated our "Thank you, you guys were amazing in Lord of the Rings," comments.  As we were being ushered out, Andrew asked the question and Sean Bean didn't hear, so Sean Astin said it again, and he responded, "Yeah, it's great."

What a fun experience.  I can now cross 'Meeting Actors from Lord of the Rings' off of my Life List. If I ever go to another Comic Con, I think I would do a more straight-on costume, take the time to pose in character when someone asks to take a picture, and get an autograph instead of/along with a photo because then you can talk to the person a little more.  Now I just need to find a place to hang it up!

(photos by e.hunt, and a WizardWorld Photographer)

The Fellowship of the Jedi

Let's take a break from the extreme sports of the Olympics and head back to the extreme nerdiness of Comic Con.  We started the day by meeting up at Kaldi's where I got an extra shot of espresso added to my mocha in anticipation of the excitement.  After that we headed back home to start getting ready.  It all started coming together when the capes, weapons, and details like Leia's hair and Luke's gloved hand came out.

After that first picture in our backyard, I knew we looked like a pretty good team (or fellowship, if you will).  Taylor took on the role of official photographer, and decided we needed to be in a more forest-looking environment for the rest of the shoot.  So we headed down to the park for our Forest Moon of Endor/Fangorn Forest backdrop.

And with those first long shots, we were on our journey.

We took full advantage of the location, and even recreated some iconic poses and scenes from the movies.

We continued on to the bridge and started doing more action shots.  We even did a few videos running down the hill and past the camera, and one from Gimli's point of view trailing behind us as we ran up the path.  "Dwarves are wasted on cross country!  Very dangerous over short distances."

Here we are fighting orcs.

And chasing after a band of Uruk-hai.

Lukolas slicing down a tree.

And Leiagorn ready to spring to action.

I have to say, we looked pretty good in our costumes, and this definitely got us pumped up for the actual event.  We had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for poses and yelling out movie quotes and getting into character.  A big thanks to Mom for helping us with last minute costume details, and to Taylor for his creative vision and photography skills.  Now we could be on our way downtown to the convention center!

(photos by t.hunt)

Happy Olympics Day!

After four long years of waiting, the Winter Olympics have finally returned!  Opening Ceremonies take place tonight in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  Since watching the great Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski rivalry at the Nagano Olympics in 1998, and figure skating recreationally for years, I always look forward to the Winter Olympics.  Especially the figure skating.

Tara Lipinski will be back this year as a commentator, along with men's skater, Johnny Weir.  They took the announcer mantle from Scott Hamilton, although he will be providing special event coverage this year.

I've been following the US hopefuls for the last few months and it looks like it is going to be a pretty eventful match.  For the Ladies' Event, the three contenders are first-time Olympians, although each has amassed several medals the past couple years at Nationals and Worlds.  Mirai Nagasu is the favorite, being one of the few ladies that can land a triple axel (fun fact, the axel is the only jump that you take off for facing forwards, instead of backwards).  My favorite, however, is Bradie Tennell, with her engrossing choreography and beautiful spins.

For the Mens' Event, Nathan Chen is this year's powerhouse skater, packing an unprecedented five quad jumps into a program; although, as we found out in the 2010 Vancouver rivalry between Russian Evgeni Plushenko and American Evan Lysacek, jumps are only part of the equation.  Quads are impressive, but if you don't have the artistry to match, you don't win overall.  Chen's robotic-like performance may be his downfall.

Another interesting side note for this year: there are two skaters who use very unique jumping techniques.  Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia holds one hand above her head when jumping, known as the Tano jump style, made famous by Brian Boitano in the 80s.  Rather than folding your arms inward towards your front center, this moves your center of gravity upwards and makes the jump much more difficult.  The Rippon, named after this year's US Men's competitor, Adam Rippon, is very similar.  He holds both hands above his head when jumping.

I will be spending quite a bit of time at home to watch the events live, as I don't have my tv hooked up to cable at my apartment.  And the first Olympic viewing party is tonight for the Opening Ceremony!  I even broke out my old official Olympic sponsor jacket for the occasion!

(photos collected from timedotcom.files.wordpress, binkysjohnnyweirblog, static1.squarespace, pictures.zimbio, insidethegames.biz, and gettyimages)

This is Skywalker's Heir

Well, I spent the last week working on my costume for Comic Con, and that came and went over the weekend.  I reused several pieces from my Link costume, and added some new details.  Three Lord of the Rings actors were going to be in attendance, and I could barely contain my excitement to see them.  Andrew decided he wanted to join in the fun, and we figured, if we're going to go to one of these, we're going to go all out, and that included costumes!

We decided to combine our two favorites into crossover characters.  Can you guess which movies I'm talking about?

Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, of course!  I blended the two to be Leiagorn and Andrew was Lukeolas.  We had matching capes given to us by Galadriel and lightsabers to fight the storctroopers.  I also made Leia's blaster from A New Hope.

In the LOTR movies Aragorn wears Boromir's bracers to honor him after he dies, so I painted felt pieces for that.

The blade part of the lightsaber Andrew gave me a few years ago is a bit unwieldy, and difficult to put on and take off, so I used the inside of a tube of wrapping paper to create Aragorn's rare grey lightsaber, with the words from the reforged shards of Narsil, the blade that cut the ring from Sauron's hand many years ago.

This was the test run from the night before.  Stay tuned for the final look!

(photos by e.hunt)