The desert

That vacation went by fast... :(

The end of a lovely break has coincided with endless amounts of rain. Perfectly mirrors my anxiety and dread surrounding the next few weeks. At least this colorful take on the desert theme cheers me up a little. 

Q

"Desert angles"

City by the sea

My break is coming to an end, but I've still got the weekend! Hope it goes by real sloooow. 

I have to say, the South is a lot nicer than I originally thought, and Charleston has become one of my favorite cities by far. The beautiful old mansions with their generous porches and elaborate staircases, the strong presence of water, the shrimp corndogs at Amen Street Fish & Raw Bar... yes, I was very sad to leave indeed.

During my visit, I came across a miniature replica of what Charleston looked like when it was still Charles Towne back in the colonial days. I thought the shoreline seemed particularly interesting, so I recreated a retro version of it here. Today, the half-moon battery, depicted in black, is many feet underground. 

Charleston is still very colorful, though, and I can't wait to go back!

Have a good one! 

Q

"Charles Towne"

Goat sounds

I saw some goats today! That vacant stare coming from their plastic-looking eyeballs is so amusing. :) 

It seems that lately, goats have experienced a surge in popularity: the "Goats Yelling like Humans" video; Taylor Swift's "Trouble: Goat Edition" (this version, in my opinion, far exceeds the original in both quality and catchy-ness); that goat-meat burrito I ate the other day. Weird.

Anyway, here's my belated homage to these noisy, funny-looking, kinda smelly, and sometimes cute animals.

Q

"The Bleat"

Aha!

Being on vacation feels so nice! Sleeping in, eating out, strolling around... such a lovely, languid pace. This also means I have some more time to accumulate new ski ideas. Hoping for some "aha!" moments in the coming days. 

Q

"Aha!"

 

For the love of books

When I was an undergrad, the only time I ventured into the library was to take photos of books. I was obsessed with capturing the look and feel of old book covers, especially those with faded gold letters. Finding the perfect book was an adventure! I amassed a sizable collection of macro-style photos of books from all angles, and I would obsess over and edit them for hours. I definitely spent more time capturing pictures of books than actually reading them! Ha, all those tuition dollars put to good use. 

Anyway, these skis feature a sample of some of my photos, altered to look less real (the idea of realistic images on skis seems very cheesy and uncool to me).

"Brett"

By the way, I feel compelled to say that I find reading books just as enjoyable as photographing them. :P

Also, on kind of related note, I'm only one shelf exam away from SPRING BREAK!!! Thus, my updates this next week will probably be more sporadic. Maybe I'll finally finish reading a novel.

Have a great weekend!

Spray

I've yet to use a more muted palette, so I thought it'd be nice to branch out a bit. Plus, it was really fun to play around with the spray paint effect!

"Aerosol"

 

From me to you

Thought I'd brighten it up a bit with these gift wrap skis! One of my favorite things about presents (those received as well as those given) is their packaging -- funky wrapping paper/ ribbons/ stickers/ doodles etc. can make even the dullest gift exciting. :) 

Q

"Just because"

Feeling blue

Today was depressing in all sorts of ways: Monday gloom; overcast skies; Boston Marathon. Tomorrow will be better, I hope.

"Warped"

Neurons

My brain can't possibly hold any more information. All the neurons in my head are fizzing feebly in protest. Can it please be spring break already?!?! Gah.

At least the weekend is here -- cheers to that! 

Q

"Neurotoxicity"

Sore loser

Last year, I was the champion of my fantasy basketball league. When I first started playing fantasy sports, I scoffed at the idea of deriving any sort of pleasure from winning a cartoon trophy. After tasting victory, I understood. And I wanted more. This year, I came sooo close to making it to the final round -- I'm particularly bitter because I lost based on free throw percentage: 0.802 to 0.803. Plus, my opponent stole my winning strategy from the year before. 

Here is a graphic expression of my sore loser-ness: 

"Basketball tears"

Movie mania

I started watching movies in movie theaters at a very late age, and the excitement of watching anything on the big screen made me incapable of separating good movies from bad ones. I do remember, however, that in the prime of my movie ignorance, a "two thumbs up" from the mysterious "Siskel and Ebert" meant that I ought to be extra enthusiastic about a film, and so I was careful to be extra impressed by it. 

As I grew up, Siskel died, Roeper came and went, Ebert's lone voice remained, and I became more discerning in my choice of movies. But it still mattered a bit to me what Ebert had to say about certain movies, and I would occasionally seek out his review of a film before deciding to watch it. Granted, I started doubting his opinions when he started giving rave reviews to movies like "The Last Song" starring Miley Cyrus and her now fiance Liam Hemsworth, but it was hard to completely abandon someone who was such a force in movie culture as well as my personal experience with the movies. 

Now that Ebert is gone (I miss him already -- who's going to do a serious review of Adam Sandler's next movie??), I'm not sure who I'll turn to next. At least I can tell on my own now that a movie like "Mulan II" is waaaay worse than its predecessor. The ninth-grade (who am I kidding -- probably more like eleventh-grade) version of myself would be very impressed. 

Q 

"Ebert"

Coupling

I've noticed several "His and Hers" style posts on various blogs that I follow, and I thought it might be fun to extend that idea to skis. These couple skis are a nod to our good friends Colette and Kevin, who got married this past weekend (congrats!), as well as our own upcoming year in SF! Excitement all around. 

xo,
Q

"Cross-country couple"

To all the lovers out there

Aren't weirdly-colored skies kind of romantic?

Happy weekend, 
Q

"Lovers"

Poipo

I love purple! I also love pronouncing purple as "poipo" -- a dumb but incredibly gratifying act. Plus, doesn't it look so funny on paper/screen?

Q

"Skylark"

 

Step by step

Today I did an insane amount of walking and stair climbing while wearing rather uncomfortable (but stylish!) shoes. Poor feet.

Q

"Step by step"