Obligatory Christmas Blog Entry

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'm a little late on the Christmas blog.  But I've been having technical difficulties so get over it.  Now where did I leave off...

Jenn and I barely made it down to CA.  We hit a nice break in the weather and were only delayed a couple hours.  Once there, we had a really relaxing time with family and friends.  Some of the highlights were surfing in Santa Cruz, power outage on Christmas, and hanging with the fam.  

I miss quail, turkey vultures, and eucalyptus.  When I went down earlier this month, the first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the airport was a turkey vulture soaring overhead.  At my grandma's house on Christmas, I could hear the quail running around and chirping to each other in the bushes.  And every time I go down, I love to smell the eucalyptus trees (I tried bringing back some seeds but couldn't get them to grow- I'll try again).

We celebrated with Jenn's family when we got back to WA.  Another great time.  I hope the pictures tell the tale.

Well that's all for now.  I have to get started working on my New Years blog entry.  I'm already late...

Late Night Snow Angels

A 24 Hour Surf Trip

So a few weeks ago, my mom asked if I wanted to fly down to CA to surprise my brother for his birthday- just for a day.   I got work off and my flights reserved.  It was perfect...

All of his friends bailed on him for the surfing party Saturday and he was really depressed.  He even called me two days before I was supposed to come to say that he really missed me.  The night before, he was telling his wife how disappointed he was his party didn't really work out.  

The next day, I walked up the stairs to his living room, quoted something he said to me on the phone two days ago, and gave him a big hug.  He was so stinkin' excited.  I love my brother a lot.  We have a relationship that a lot of brothers don't.  We were always friends growing up and hung out together all the time.  I think the best times we had were when we were roommates in college.  

Anyway, the surf was plentiful but not great.  Our good friend Mark Campbell and his son Elias came with Jason, my dad and I and we had a blast.  It was freezing cold, but tons of fun.  One of the best parts was Val's Hamburgers for dinner.  Mmmmmmmm.....

Brian

Interesting...

Some words a close friend of mine recently wrote:

"Is God chuckling at me right now?

Is He shaking his head disapprovingly?

Or is He a little hungover too?"

Interesting theological discussion, I thought.

Well, I finally got back into basement to make a shirt.  I really haven't done anything since I started working.  I brought up this design a while ago and shirted it.

Here's a cool story...

So a couple weeks ago, I'm at a family function- just a tad bored- and I grab Candace's iPhone to check my e-mail, not expecting for there to be anything interesting in my inbox.  Much to my surprise, I had an e-mail from someone, asking if they could use my Steinbeck drawing to put on a souvenir penny at THE Steinbeck museum.  My first thought was, "I'm probably breaking some kind of copyright with this drawing."  I continued to use Candace's iPhone to scan the internet, and quickly became a self-made expert in copyright law.  Long story short, the owners to the rights of the photograph don't allow derivative works to be made of the originals so I had to come up with a new Steinbeck design.  I had to make it different enough to not break any copyright laws but still retain the original feel of the design.

Well, here it is.  Next time you go down to Salinas, check out the Steinbeck museum and buy one of them souvenir pennies.

Blasto from the Pasto

Check out this awesome movie I made in high school.  It was the final for my science fiction class.  This is unedited for the most part.  The new version with the added scenes, updated sound, etc will be coming out soon.

Hobo Nerds?

Wednesday nights, my brothers-in-law and I congregate for what we call "Brewery Night" or "Hobro Night" or "Brewthers Night." Traditionally, we have worked on the brewery, but since a batch is currently a' brewin', we decided to play Risk instead. But since we didn't have a Risk game, we made our own. And a damn good one too.