West Coast Vacation- Part Three: San Francisco

So... I've neglected to finish up this easily writeable end portion of my coast trip for over two months now. The motivation to finish it is to get started on another brilliant idea and I need to finish this one up first. Anyways, San Francisco definitely had its ups and downs. It was fun and awesome to see sights that I've only seen in pictures and television, but unnecessary stress marred our day in the Bay City mostly because of unpreparedness. For instance, it turns out that you need to schedule Alcatraz trips two weeks in advance because there's only one ferry on the entire pier that goes out there. Another thing is that we didn't plan out our transport very well and missed the shuttle back to where we parked the RV and instead had to split up between a taxi cab and taking the bus back. Adding on the fact that my brother, Christopher had his bike stolen at pier 39 in broad daylight, the stress was definitely running high that day. Live and learn.

                 However, there were some great sights to see and I managed to cross one of my goals off my bucket list, which was riding my bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Because my brother's bike was pilfered and my family was stuck at the pier because the bus never showed up, I rode solo to the bridge and crossed via the western side of the bridge facing the ocean. The wind was blasting from the direction of the giant puddle with the sun setting in one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen. I couldn't have planned a better time to cross it and I am eternally grateful that I at least had the opportunity to make that one ride.

                After our day in San Francisco, we raced eastward back to Utah, through the beautiful California countryside and into the more barren, though still aesthetically pleasing, state of Nevada. It was a great trip all in all and a great final hurrah for Christopher before leaving to the MTC and on his mission for two years. If nothing else, there is one repercussion I have felt from this trip, being that my travel bug was reawaken. Now the twitch to run off and see the world has hit me harder than it has in quite some time. Already, I'm making some big plans for next summer with two places on two different sides of the world  in consideration. I'll be posting more on this idea and hopefully get back into the swing of things with this blog...perhaps even starting a new 'travel blog' if all goes according to plan.

West Coast Vacation- Part Two: Northern California

 So to start off this second and second portion of my vacation blog, here are some more thought worthy sea side pictures. Now I can't remember which of these were still in Oregon and which where California, so just picture these somewhere near the border.

- This one I know was in Oregon because I'd been there before when I was twelve. Unfortunately, we didn't get out and swim around there like we did before, but it was cool seeing those rocks again.




- This one I liked because it felt very Scottish; with the misty rocks and the wavy pale grass against the ocean.




- Once we got to Northern Cali, we had to take an in-depth look at the mighty redwoods. We found a nice trail through the woods which came out to the ocean.

 - The rest of my family walked the three miles, but I decided to be a little more adventurous and try riding my bike across it. (note: that is not a mountain bike.) It was a relatively nice ride except for wiping out on a downhill slope and scuffed up my arm. I didn't even get that good of a scar out of it so it's really not even worthy of mentioning.

- These flowers were covered all
over these giant boulders by the shore.













- My brother, Christopher goofing off with the flora.

My new friend, the banana slug

 - There was something on top on that isle out there. I'm guessing it was a lighthouse of some sort but I all of my zoomed in pics were too fuzzy to tell.






Well that concludes the coastal views and redwood forest. My next and last post will be a little closer to civilization, of sorts...San Francisco.

West Coast Vacation- Part One: Oregon

   You know, I was originally going to write this big ol' blog entry detailing every aspect in my west coast vacation that my family and I took a couple of weeks ago, but then I thought: who would really care about all of that? I personally like travel stories, but I'm willing to bet that the majority out there wouldn't give a rat's bottom to hear a long winded story about someone else's vacation. So, in short here's a bunch of pictures I took while out and about with some descriptions below every once and a while.

 So the first place we visited was Pendleton, Oregon. It was more of prolonged stop while on the road. Since we weren't going to be going anywhere for a few hours. I decided to take a short fifteen mile bike ride through the countryside.

St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pendleton

Above are a couple of pics taken of the Columbia River. First one in the more desert-ish east and then the much greener and mountainous west.

 The left pic is the Bonneville Dam while the one with the train and mountain was right before the dam where they have a fish hatchery.

 When we got to the Portland area, my brother and I rode our bikes a good eighteen miles or so from where we were staying to downtown Portland. As we were going through the suburbs, we came across some awesome street art that we had to take pictures of.

This was just too awesome! While
visiting Powell Bookstore I found
this little tribute to H.P. Lovecraft
and had to snap a pic of it.

Portland, Oregon

 Tillamook Cheese factory. My mom really wanted to visit it before heading south which turned out to be an awesome drive through forested mountains and our first taste of the sea breeze. I am very tempted to move there because it's such a beautiful place. I wish I took more pictures of the area.

 Got to go out and play in the surf a bit before nightfall. It was my second time seeing the ocean.

     Still in Oregon, just a very scenic view of the ocean and northwest coast.  

So then we had a party on the beach... haha! Just kidding. I found this bottle (already empty-why's the rum always gone?) at a view point and wanted to take a picture of it.

Well this got a little bigger than I thought it was going to be. I've still got some more pics and the rest of California to share when I get some more time to write again. 

The Hobbit Trilogy

Earlier today I found out that Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Hobbit double feature, is going to be extending The Hobbit duel movies into a trilogy, which of course sent me into a fit of nerd hysteria! I've been an amateur Tolkienite since I first stepped into Middle-Earth when I was twelve years old and have since read the whole collection twice and soon to be thrice. So when I heard that Jackson was finally given the green light to start work on a Hobbit movie, I was overjoyed; even more so when I found out that it was going to be a two part series. However, even with two movies based on one book, I was already calculating in my mind how much was going to be left out or squeezed to fit it all in. For instance, trying to envision the mid-point where the first movie would end and the second would begin was difficult to picture. Would it be at the house of Beorn, or the escape from the elf-kings' hall?

 Now that we know there will be a third installment, here's how I believe the trilogy will flow: The first movie will end when the eagles save Bilbo and the crew from the worgs & goblins and deliver them to the Carrock. The second will pick up with the introduction of Beorn and with the departure of Gandalf from the company. Now Peter Jackson has said that there is going to be more emphasis on Gandalf & the White Council's battle against the Necromancer, so a good chunk of the second show will revolve, not just on Bilbo and the dwarves marching through the dusky veils of Mirkwood, but also on the former, less mentioned, yet just as important event Gandalf takes part in. The end of the second will be when Bilbo busts the dwarves out of the fortress of the elf-king via barrels. Then finally the third and final movie will pick up outside Esgaroth, the Lake-Town.

For those who believe that turning it into a trilogy was all about the money, you are probably only half right. Of course the film corps that are funding the movies are in it mostly for the money, but it was Peter Jackson himself who asked Newline Cinema, MGM Pictures and Warner Bros. Studios if he could extend and make a third. According to a couple of different articles I read on the subject, Peter Jackson wants to add Hobbit lore written by Tolkien that wasn't added into the published book, such as added lore concerning the dwarves of Erebor, not only the fall but the rise of the Necromancer in Mirkwood, the battle of Dol Guldur and more.

No matter which way you look at it, a Hobbit trilogy is a good thing. If it was Peter Jackson who came up with the idea, is basing completely on Tolkien's writings and enlarges the mythos of Middle-earth, the only thing that could possibly surpass this in sheer awesomeness would be. . . A SIX PART SILMARILLION SERIES! OH YEAH!!!!

Is Amon who I think it is?

The first season of The Legend of Korra culminates in less than twelve hours with the possibility that Amon, the main antagonist in the story, will have his true identity revealed. If so, I wanted to quickly put up my theory on who he is and how he can do what he does without being a bender.

As for my theory on who Amon is, I am about 85% sure that it is Bumi. No, not the King of Omashu in the first series. I'm referring to the eldest, non-bending son of Avatar Aang. Both his mother (Katara) and older sister (Kya) are water-benders while his younger brother (Tenzin) and father are both air-benders (of course with his father also being the Avatar). Growing up in such a situation could have caused feelings of jealousy and eventual hatred for benders in general. One thing that supports my theory is the way Amon moves when fighting benders. He dodges and flows with the attacks, just like an air-bender; my guess is that Aang taught Bumi the forms while he was alive. Another point is that, in the last episode, Amon takes over air temple island and seems to make it his base of operations in the finale preview.
Moving along now. Amon has two very strange abilities that have thus far been revealed. First off, he can take a bender's power away. Second, he can withstand blood-bending, something that even Aang couldn't do without some help. Assuming that Amon is truly Bumi, one could reason that it was Aang himself who taught Bumi to take bending away, since Aang is the only other person known who was able to do it. While that may be the case, it still doesn't explain how Amon was able to resist blood-bending.
In the episode where Korra witnesses Aang's battle against the blood-bender, Yukone, we see that Aang was at his mercy until the Avatar spirit took control. Where I'm getting at with this is that amon would not be able to escape blood-bending by himself alone. Someone, or something had to have been helping him. During his revelation to the equalists, Amon tells his followers that he was chosed my the spirit guardians of the world to do away with benders. What if that was only a half truth? What if a powerful, ancient spirit made contact with an angry boy and promised him his strength to equalize the world. It would have to be a malevolent spirit who has an issue with the Avatar and wants his revenge. The spirit that I'm referring to is Koh the face-stealer from the first season of ATLA.
We know that Aang went to him to learn of the ocean and moon spirits, that few knew of except the most ancient of spirits. When Aang confronts Koh, he reveals to him that a previous incarnation of the avatar tried to kill him for stealing the face of his beloved. When Aang leaves, Koh tells "the avatar" that they would meet again. Later in the last season, we find out that the Avatar who fought Koh was the previous water-tribe Avatar, Korin, so how sweet would it be for Koh, to wait and take his vengeance on the next water-bender.
So there's my theory in a nutshell. Amon is Bumi with Koh the face-stealer backing him up.
Now many of you might think it's a waste of time pondering on things like this. I'll agree, it is. But so are video games, movies and books in a sense. It's all just good fun trying to figure things out like this before they happen. If you can go an entire mystery novel or Christopher Nolan film without trying to guess who's behind it all, then you don't know how to enjoy it!

New Art for Monster Mash

Here's some new stuff I've been working on in relation to my Monster Mash idea. Once again these are the main four characters that I wrote about in my previous post, but now in full color and much closer to my final concept.