Flip the Shoopian Explorer

Alright, so I haven't updated in ages, but I haven't forgotten. I just haven't really been doing anything artsy lately. Well, I haven't finished anything artsy lately. I've got lots of projects in production, so maybe I'll start putting up WiP pics or something. I don't know.

So anyway, this is Flip. He's an alien. This is a character idea I've had about an expeditionary alien exploring a newly discovered Earth. He hasn't been here long, and is extremely curious about everything on the planet. He's found a particular interest in squirrels for some reason.

This is the initial design idea for a children's book I've thought about for a bit. Hope you enjoy him.

Happy Easter!

Just finished with Easter breakfast and the morning easter egg hunt. I think it went over quite well. Instead of the standard hunt, I hid the eggs and wrote up and designed a letter/poem from the Easter Bunny with clues to the eggs locations. I set it up on the table with her basket, and read through it with her to help find the eggs. Some of the clues proved a little too difficult, so I had to help her out a bit, but she enjoyed it. I think next year I'll find a cool small treasure chest to drop all the eggs and candy in, and put a treasure map in the basket.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program . . .

So I was actually drawing a bit today and I thought I'd share a page of my sketchbook. It's not that the sketch is particularly good or anything, it's just that I'm drawing a bit again. Alrighty, off to work.

The Top Ten Places in the World I want to travel to. (Pt.2)

Alright, today it's time for the top 4, and it's really not an easy choice. There are so many great places to travel. This list is definitely not an all-inclusive list. Given the money and opportunity, I'd travel everywhere. Anyway, without further ado, the top 4:

#4 Italy


Hooray for the "Boot Country"! Besides being a part of my family's heritage, the draw to a country like this is a big one. For historical relevance alone, Italy is an incredibly cultured country. Rome itself has enough to keep you occupied for weeks;


The Colosseum


The Pantheon


The Spanish Steps


Vatican City


The Roman Forum


Venice would be a big draw with its awesome canals.


Sicily for it's ancient architecture and Mt. Etna.


The Island of Capri has the legendary Mt. Vesuvius, the stunning Bay of Naples and;


The Magical Blue Grotto.



You could probably even roam the countryside for a few days and fully appreciate the "pure win" that is Italy.

#3 Santorini



If you don't already know, Santorini and the ancient Minoan civilization are the (major) basis behind the fabled Atlantis. The Minoans were the most advanced civilization of their time.



These guys had hot and cold water running through a piped system, and flushing toilets. They also had incredibly advanced architecture and wall paintings. And when did they do all of this? 2000-1580 B.C.

To give you a little perspective, in "The Middle Ages" people used to throw buckets of feces out their windows into the street. And this was around the 12th century. That's over 2500 years between the two cultures.

I'm getting sidetracked though. The point is that Santorini is as beautiful as it is incredible.

There are Minoan ruins all over the islands.

Solidified lava flows and vents to explore.

Fantastic beaches with colored sands

Really, it's almost overwhelming.

It seems that the deeper I delve into this subject, the more involved the posts become, so I'm going to continue this yet again at another time. The top 2 I'll probably work on tomorrow. If anyone happens across this and likes it, lemme know. It's my first foray into actual blogging instead of just "Hey, look at my amateur photography and stuff."

The Top Ten Places in the World I want to travel to.

I've had this list as a "mental note" for quite some time. Generally though, it's been incorporated into my "bucket list", and I thought that if I actually make it into it's own list, then maybe I can make sure I tackle some of it. I decided to make a list of 10, as it would be easier for me to accomplish.

This list is partially inspired by the new show "Life", as well as "Planet Earth" before it. It's amazing to see all that the world has to offer, and I want to be able to experience some of it myself.

Seeing the world has alway been a huge dream of mine. The world is a fantastic place, full of all kinds of treasures and wonders if one is willing to look for them. Ever since the first time I picked up a National Geographic, I knew there was nothing more I wanted to do. Seeing pictures of people kayaking and exploring remote caves, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, exploring the beautiful hills and lakes in Japan, you get the idea. All these great places that are just waiting around for you to come and take in its beauty.

Nature has always had an incredibly calming effect on me. Anytime I feel like life has got me down, a trip out into the wilderness is usually all it takes to recharge my batteries. Being out amidst the flora and fauna of the world has a way of centering me, helping me remember what priorities in life are important, and which need to be moved aside.

So what happened? Why did I never end up doing any travel? Life, mostly. I had a daughter at a very young age (Whom I love to death and I wouldn't change a thing in how she came to be in my life), and life piled up before me without me even realizing it. I got lost in it all. Everything that I enjoyed doing in my free time got put on hold. I stopped drawing, playing guitar, taking pictures, I even put all my small life goals on hold. That was the biggest reason I started this blog. I'm using it as an outlet, a way for me to re-discover all the things I used to love. Granted, the blog itself has only been photography stuff so far, but I am glad to say that I've been picking up all aspects of who I used to be again. So updates of those varieties will be coming shortly.

So, back-tracking a bit, let's get started on that list, shall we?

#10. The Grand Canyon

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've never been there. I spent roughly 16 years in AZ, and about 10 of them within 2 hours or so of the Grand Canyon , yet I never made the trip. It's one of the worlds most beautiful natural structures, and as you can see from above, the gorge itself is reason enough to visit. Looking down at the raw power of the river over thousands of years has got to be a humbling experience. But there's more!

Those who really want to experience the beauty of the canyon take the hike down (or ride a donkey, but I feel that defeats the purpose). At the base of the canyon, all manner of wonderful things can be found. Including the unbelievably stunning, Havasu Falls.

All of this was right in my backyard and I managed to ignore it for years. Well no longer, I will make this trip, and I hope to make it soon. People come from all over the world to see it, I think I can manage a few hundred miles.

#9. Australia

This item on the list is slightly more vague, but for good reason. There is so much to see in Australia, that it could easily take up a few more spots in this list. Everything from the treacherous Outback, to the Great Barrier Reef (which, despite what I just said, will be getting it's own spot on this list anyway), Australia is a land chock full of exploration potential.

When people think about Australia, they generally think of a huge desert filled with convicts (Ok, some people do), but there's so much more to it than that. Imagine taking a safari through the Outback and coming across something like this:

It's an entire little eco-system (mostly) untouched by man. It's like it's own little world.

Add to that the Sydney Opera house, Fraser Island, Ayers Rock, Tasmania, etc. and you have quite a full docket for your trip.

#8. The Great Barrier Reef

This is a big one for me. The ocean is a stunning place. An alien world within our own. I've accepted the fact that I can't be an astronaut, but that doesn't mean that I can't explore some alien creatures and terrain. I mean look at this, tell me that doesn't look like an alien:

How awesome is that? There is nothing more awe inspiring to me than the creatures of the deep.

The Great Barrier Reef is the most well known (and largest) reef system in the world, and it's home to thousands of species of plants and animals. Honestly, if you're a licensed scuba diver you have no excuses for not visiting the GBR. There is so much to see here that it cannot possibly be seen in one trip. This is a site I hope to visit many times before I die.

#7. Thailand

Ok. So this one is slightly influenced by the fact that I have a half Thai daughter, but this country is far too beautiful to ignore. Anyone who has seen "The Beach" has seen some of the more popular sites to see, but there's so much more. Fantastic beaches, waterfalls, jungles, buddhist temples, city nightlife, etc. there is so much to experience here that you just can't pass it up.

#6. The Caribbean

The overwhelming draw to the Caribbean is well founded. It's quite simply one of the best tropical places you can visit without getting too far away from civilization. My own interest lies in my fascination with pirates and the Age of Sail. I personally have never been on a sailboat, but I will. In fact, I'd love to own one at some point and sail to the Caribbean on my own. My love for the ocean and exploration lead to sailing as a natural transition. Every island here will provide you with it's own unique experience. Ideally, I'd like to live here at some point, but we'll see how it goes.

#5. Alaska

This is another close to home location, but there's no denying the variety of scenery that can be found there. Everything from:

Incredible mountainscapes(So it's not a real word, wanna fight about it?).

Fantastic sculpture-like glaciers.



To stunningly beautiful forests and rivers.

Everything about this place is a reason to visit. Take a kayaking trip down one of the rivers, camp in the forest, go fishing. Then you can go hiking and climbing in the mountains. Take a boat out and go whale spotting, explore the icebergs and glaciers up north. The possibilities are endless, and whatever you choose to do, you can bet it'll be breathtaking no matter where you go.

This is taking longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to break this up into 2 posts. I'll post the Top 4 tonight or tomorrow.

New temporary theme.

I got tired of the old one and until I can find one I like, or get off my arse and design one myself, this'll be my placeholder.

Disappointment

Man, I took the spawn to the Santa Ana Zoo today and it was such a disappointment. It took maybe 45mins to get through the whole place, and that includes time to feed little tidbits of info about the animal in question to the kiddo. Three of the exhibits were closed, and another was under construction and won't re-open until April. There were no lions, tigers or bears (oh my?). No rhinos, elephants, giraffe or sea critters of any kind. They had a good helping of monkeys, but no larger monkeys like gorillas or orangutan. It was really disappointing. The entire trip (Entrance fees and bus fare) only set me back 9 bucks, but I still feel ripped off.

The biggest issue I had was less the lack of wildlife, and more to do with the fact that everything was in a closed off cage. You can't get a good picture of something behind bars or mesh nets. It just makes it depressing. One of my favorite sections of the Phoenix Zoo was an enclosed monkey area that you could enter. Similar to an aviary. You'd enter through a set of doors and there was a walkway through the exhibit with spider monkeys running around with free reign. I used to go and sketch them as they ran around because, quite often, they'd run around near you to see what you were up to.

Anyway, this is just a long post with excuses as to why I don't really have any shots from the trip. I plan on taking the spawn to the San Diego Zoo/Sea World soon, so maybe that will result in a more fruitful session. So in the absence of Zoo pics, here's more stuff from around the city. I really need to go for some longer walks and find some more interesting subjects to shoot.

Another "Self Portrait". Also a chance to say "Who the fuck named this place?". I mean seriously, it's the most mind-numbingly ridiculous name. If I ever get the chance, I'm going to name a place "Trapezoidal Rhombus". Having any brain aneurysms yet?


This was a window in an old decrepit train station. I thought it had a lot of character, so I snapped a shot of it. I'm still planning on going back and hopping the fence to grab some other cool shots at some point.


This is how the spawn and I spent her sick day. Crafts day! I don't care how old I get, craft days are awesome days.

An edited shot of the kiddos paints. I thought it'd look good as a wall painting. I need to look into the cost of getting some of these shots printed to throw up on the wall. Maybe if I put them up around my desk it'll give me some inspiration to start drawing stuff again.

This is a shot of the ocean I took on our last trip to the dog beach. The waves didn't look super big, and then I went swimming and found it difficult to keep my head above water when trying to jump the waves. Lots of fun was had though. I can never get enough ocean time. I was away from it for far too long.

So anyway, that's it for now. My buddy and I are starting Detch: Round 2, so there will very likely be some musical updates in the near future. I'm also going to make sure I start drawing some more, so hopefully there'll be some of that coming as well.

Beach Fun & More

Pirate Cove.

Corporate Pond.

America, Fuck Yeah!

Fountain outside of Mimi's Cafe.

UGH. Blogger is not letting me upload any more photos, so there will be more to come.

Test Upload

Trying to find out what my upload size limits are.

Ahoy Ye Landlubbers!

Took the spawn to the beach yesterday and got some great shots. I have to admit, the biggest draw to this particular spot was the fact that it was named "Pirate's Cove". It seemed to be named with good reason. It was small, but it felt very "Caribbean". You know, aside from all the people and houses and boats, etc. Anyway, the following are some shots from the trip.