what!!?? Its only been 7 months!

So, I took a little break... extended break! Not a lot happened in the past few months. Lost my job, girlfriend broke up with, my car broke down and took a grand to fix... and I have been really lonely, so much that I am moving in a couple weeks. Not too much huh? Haven't been in the mood to blog much, but thinking of getting back into it. I'm moving home, to sunny Southern California to go back to school full time. Its the best decision I've made in a long time, so I will keep you updated with my progress. Other than that... not a whole lot to report on.

Great Start to 2008!

Woke up and didn't have a clue what I was going to do today, the 1st of 2008. My roommate suggested doing come rock climbing in Red Rock Canyon, which is only 20 minutes away (I just found out). This isn't your straight up vertical rock climbing, more gradual grades, but still can be challenging at times. It was great fun. I plan on doing more hiking in the area in the near future. Here's some pics of the day. My roommate Chris is pictured in the first one.

Recent Weather

I have been enjoying a lot of sunrises out here lately (mainly because I can't sleep so I am up that early often). I haven't found a good spot to take pictures of the horizon. I don't know if anyone can relate, but finding good angles in a city is tough! There's almost always something in your way, especially if its mostly flat like it is out here. I was out doing some errands yesterday and saw some really cool cloud formations. I took a few shots, let me know what ya think!

Southern Cal Fires 2007

The recent fires in So Cal hit especially close to home for me because all my family and all my early memories are from there. Fortunately, no one that I know was affected, but its still devastating to all those people who lost their homes. I scoured through a bunch of pics in the LA Times, and saved a few that were especially noteworthy. Here in Vegas we did see the aftermath slightly, a couple days into it the wind shifted and we started getting tons of smoke way up in the air. It made for some cool sunsets which

I didn't happen to get any shots of. Anyways, I wish all those people well in the future dealing with the aftermath of this disaster.

First Vegas Sunset

I took this pic on the way when I moved here from Wichita. I've always been enthralled by sunsets, when I was younger I used to keep a camera in my glove compartment and whenever I saw a cool sunset I would drive to the highest point I could find and take a picture. Sometimes its a race against time because they are over so quickly, so like everything else, its all about the timing. Enjoy!

I thought it would be funny to also include a picture of my misfortune on my epoch road trip (not long by some... but when you know your car is barely hanging on, driving 1800 miles seems like an eternity!). I blew a tire right outside of Vegas, about an hour out.. and had to get towed in... not the way I wanted my first day to go... but hey, I made it, right?

The View Out My Window

It was a full moon out when I got home in the evening, and it may not seem like it... but it took an hour to put together this photo. I had to take off the screen of my bedroom window, take two pictures with the mountains and moon in the frame (you can see the line down the middle if you look closely). And then spent an hour in photoshop merging the two pics as well as matching the color variations and even drawing in some of the mountains I cropped out... what you don't see is the house rooftops just below this picture which I sneakily removed. Once you get the hang of photoshop, you really can do some amazing things with it. Let me know what ya think!

Change of Plans.... More Work!

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get the time off work to take my trip I was looking forward to so much. This happens to be the time of year that Vegas starts really jumping, being the convention capital of the world. Next week we have about 130,000 people come in town for a huge car show. So, it looks like I won't have much time for anything other than work for awhile...

One of my favorite things to do is walk around the strip and do a lot of people watching... now that I got my camera I can actually take pictures now! I had planned to take a lot more, but we had wind gusts up to 50 mph per hour, so it made holding the camera still a slight problem. Here's a couple shots:

A Week of Debauchery Planned

Funny how I was going to describe different things to do in Vegas, and one my first adventures is going back to St Louis and partying with a bunch of my friends in a little German town called Herman. And of course the month to go to such a town would of course be October! And what do you know, it just happens to be this month. I've only experienced Oktoberfest once there, and it was so memorable that there's no where I'd rather be for this particular weekend. It's got a bunch of wineries right along the Missouri River, and its just a great time walking around with a wine bottle getting drunk in the middle of the day. Plus the fact you get a bunch of hotties from Mizzou come down.. and its just a recipe for debauchery, as my friends like to call it. It'll be the 20th of this month, so check back a few days after and I'll reveal some interesting stories at the very least. My new camera arrives middle of next week... can't wait to start taking pics!

Entry Numero Uno

Well, after reading some of my good friends blogs and seeing how cool they can be, I decided to enter into the world of blogging and see what I can contribute. I just recently moved to Las Vegas (June '07), so its been an interesting transition from what I am used to. I plan on documenting the city and give people a sense of what its like to live here... which has to be a completely unique experience, save for very few cities around the world. My new camera is in the mail as I type this, so look forward to lots and lots of photos!

I'll also be posting pics of my newer oil paintings as they are created. I love all the feedback, both positive and critical. I've only been at it for a little over a year, so it will be fun to watch and see how I progress.

Here's the website I use for posting my artwork, its a cool site to check out.

And here's a link to two of my favorite bloggers, both happen to be good friends of mine. They are excellent writers, as well as supplying many pics along with their blogs, so check them out as well!

Mom Says I'm Running Away - A Blog about traveling around the world
Show-Me to the Beach - Documenting life in San Diego