Top Ten Favorites.

So I am going to take an idea from a friend and possibly start doing the occasional "top ten favorite _______" list. So if anyone has anything they would like me to do my top ten in, let me know (within reason, of course.)

Today will consist of cleaning up the basement of my lego, and packing all of m stuff for going to Florida. Lovely.

Anyways,keep up the good work,

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Movie: MI: GP
Music: Sigur Ros
Game: Bastion

Its getting late...

Since I haven't posted anything in a while, I figured that I could at least say something.

So the weirdest thing happened tonight. My brother and I went to see the new Mission Impossible movie, and when we went into the movie theater it was maybe around 35-40 degrees our or so (Fahrenheit), and when we got out it was 54 Degrees! I was kind of eerie, even, to me. Plus the wind was blowing in the wrong direction (it always blows west to east out of the mountains. It was blowing east to west outside the theater.)

Anyways, the movie was pretty good. Tom Cruise, to me, never seems like a spy- type of character. The other actors/actresses in the movie played their roles quite well, but Tom Cruise is just... I don't know.
I did like how much of it took place in Dubai, even though some of the stunts undertaken were unbelievable. But that's part of the charm of those types of movies. It just makes it fun to watch! If you like action movies, I would go see it. I always go into movies expecting them to be bad, so I am usually pleasantly surprised! I actually enjoyed this one, much more than the last Mission Impossible.

Finally Beat Castle Crashers on Insane mode today, with my brother and friends help. Man, what a ride. There were level that literally took us 40 minutes that on normal mode take us maybe 5. Intense. But its done now, and I am proud of our accomplishment. I literally got a sense of achievement when we finished off the final boss fight.

Other than that not much is going on. Cheers, all. I am going to bed.

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Movie: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Music: Coldplay
Game: Bastion/ Castle Crashers
Food: good food.

For real this time...

All right, I'm more motivated to actually write something now.

So, Christmas Eve we went to the traditional Church Service, which is always really nice, where we have a portion that's only lit by candlelight. Its always a nice service. Here's some pictures that I took after the service:

Good reflections in the Handbells.

Once we got home we had an excellent steak dinner in the dining room by our Christmas tree (see next couple photos).

Mmm, steak.

Next, on to Christmas. I got a good assortment of stuff. I got a couple books, some movies, Skyrim for the PC, some candy, some Lego, some money, and lots of warm clothes. All in all pretty good.

We got my Mother a Kindle Fire, so here is a shot of her using her kindle as its meant to be used!  Playing games! I mean reading... yeah, reading...

Later that day we went down to my grandparents house for another Christmas celebration with more family. That was very nice, as I enjoy being with my family members.

Stayed there last night, came back, here's another picture of Comet, went to Best Buy to look at stuff, etc.

I bought Bastion on Steam. I really like it so far. It's just got a nice style and execution. I would recommend it to anyone who likes simpler, more artistic games over the SHOOT SHOOT DEATH DEATH games of now.

That is all.

TV: Top Gear

Movie: nada

Game: Bastion

Music: Bastion OST

Food: Turkey

Preow

Kevin

Christmas

Hey all!

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, even though it might be a bit late. All of the Christmas activities didn't leave too much time for Blogging.

I'll have a longer post later on tonight, but for now this'll have to do.

Cheerio!

Kevin

Glass

Today I went to an art exhibit featuring glass art by Dale Chihuly. It was really quite spectacular. It's almost unnatural what some people can do with glass.

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside the exhibit, so the best that I can give you is this one from outside:

If any of you want to see more, here is the link to his personal website: Dale Chihuly

After all that we went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Personally, I thought that it was better than the first. It seemed a bit less... gimmicky to me. More story driven with better action sequences. Also the villain seemed more real, more formidable than the guy in the first one.

My two cents.

That's basically all that happened today. It seems weird that Christmas Eve is tomorrow.

TV: Top Gear series 13
Movie: Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows
Music: Sigur Ros
Game: Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
Food: Pot Roast

To Infinity and Beyond

Kevin

Two for the price of one!

Yeah, its nothing really exciting, just that this is my second post of the day.

After I posted this morning, my brother and I shoveled the driveway, something that I haven't done in a while, living in an apartment on a college campus. It was actually kind of enjoyable.

Once that was done I played some minecraft for a while. Working on making an underground mob trap, so I am now playing on normal difficulty rather than peaceful.

That was some time in the afternoon, then around when it got dark I went swimming with one of my friends at the CSU Rec center. Quite interesting pool. 4 lanes of lap lanes, and a lazy river, hot tub, water volleyball net area, and even a climbing wall.

The climbing wall and the volleyball area are over to the right out of the frame.

It's ok for a rec center pool, but what my friend told me was that it used to be a 10 lane 25 yard competition pool, but then they tore it up (spending a ton of money to do it) and ruined it with all of the other junk in there. The whole rec center is only a few years old, so they very recently built it as a 10 lane pool, then wrecked it and spent even more money to make it useless. I don't understand some people and how they manage money (e.g. Valpo.)

Anyways, I managed to do around 3000 yards before we got kicked out because the pool was closing (earlier than the sign said, for some reason). Here's my practice:

400 Swim
300 Pull
200 Kick
100 swim
12x 75 Kick, Drill, Swim x25 IM order,
100 easy
5x100's "fast" (so harder than "easy")
500 warm down.

Not too bad normally, but I am still feeling it as I'm writing this 3 hours later. The pool was pretty warm (81 or 82 degrees F).

Also, I am definitely feeling the altitude when I swim. That makes it way harder than swimming at sea level, and anyone who has swam at altitude will attest to that.

I had a good chat with my friend on the way back from the pool, about classes and computers and stuff. Then got back, showered (I forgot shampoo at home), and had some food. Watched a couple episodes of Top Gear, played some ping pong with my brother, and now here I am. So there you have it.

TV: Top Gear Series 13
Movie: nada
Game: Minecraft
Food: Hamburgers

Buy one get one free!

Kevin

White Christmas

Well, it looks like it will most likely be a white Christmas after all. Exact same picture as last night, just with more snow!

So I couldn't sleep last night, so I watched an episode of Top Gear. Quite good show if you are into cars and British people.

Was also messing around with my camera in the dark last night:

This is just a little electric thing that makes those lightning patterns. I thought it would be cool to get a split-second exposure of it in the dark. So I used a high ISO and a short shutter speed, and I think that it turned out interestingly.

That's basically it. Wanted to update on the snow.

TV: Top Gear
Movie: Still nada
Music: Coldplay "Brothers and Sisters"
Game: Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Let it snow!

Kevin

Blogging in the Snow

Not much of note happened today. Played some Halo Anniversary, played some Castle Crashers, played some Assassins Creed Brotherhood. Other than that, pretty uneventful day.

Now its snowing outside, with the unworldly orange tint that streetlights give it. Here's some interesting pictures that don;t really show off the orange, as much as the snow.

It really is quite a bit more orange than these show. Oh well, its snowing!

And now that means that its time for bed.

TV: Leverage
Movie: nada
Game: Castle Crashers
Food: Qdoba Burrito

Let it snow!

Kevin

5 Days

It baffles my mind that there is only 5 days left until Christmas. It always seems like this far away event that will never actually get here, even now that I am basically an adult.

Got some last minute shopping out of the way as a result of the aforementioned revelation.

Not much else happened during the day today. I took some pictures of my cats just for fun (who would have guessed!)

Comet again. Interesting effects caused by the sun.

Then tonight we went to dinner at HuHots Mongolian grill! If you haven't been there basically you fill a couple bowls with noodles and meat and such, then you take it to a big circular grill in the middle of the restaurant and then the guys cook it for you right there! Here's a phone picture that I took, since I didn't bring my dslr or my point and shoot:

Not the best quality photo, I know. But it was really good food. I finally figured out that I don't like the noodles that they use their and started using the rice instead. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes that kind of food.

After getting back we watched "Sherlock Holmes" on our projector from my brothers computer. Pretty good movie, and now I can go see the sequel with my family sometime.

Before the movie, however, when they were setting up the computer and all, I got to play minecraft on the projector! That was fun, and my netbook worked perfectly even running that.

I am farming a lot. Lots of melons and Pumpkins and Wheat and Sugar Cane and the like.

Oh, I found out today that I passed all of my classes this semester! I was seriously concerned about one of them (that I have mentioned previously) but I ended up getting a passing grade (barely). So that's a huge relief, and now I can stop worrying about it and focus on what needs to be done next semester and next year.

And that's been my day.

TV: Nada
Movie: Sherlock Holmes
Music: Some sort of trance song.
Game: Minecraft

Until later,

Kevin

Slightly chilly

So it seems that winter is finally upon us. It snowed a little bit last night, but not too much. It has just been really icy here.

I got to hang out with some of my high school friends for most of the day, working on my collaborative castle project with one of them. Here is another sample image with some stuff you can see in the background:

We are still working on the landscaping, so no buildings have gone up yet.

After that, I went down to Denver with some of my friends that I used to swim with at Loveland Swim Club. It was really nice to reminisce with them about the times that we had in high school, and now we are all so far removed from it. Only a few of us still swim competitively, and it was really cool to hear how the other people are using their time. I always wonder what it would be like to not have to swim every day. To actually be able to have the time I need to get all of my homework done well and understand all of the material, instead of being rushed and exhausted every time I need to do it. It was good to see them, though, but it also made me miss my new swimmer friends from college.

I have been having a really good time taking pictures with my camera. Figuring out how the lighting affects it and how to compensate for different things, and how to get it to focus exactly where I want it to. I love the precision and quality of the DSLR, and I'm probably never going back to a point-and-shoot again.
Speaking of pictures, here's another random picture of a cat:

Lucy this time, in her hiding spot behind the Christmas tree.

That's basically been my day.

TV: Cowboy Bebop
Music: Cowboy Bebop OST
Movie: Castle in the Sky
Food: Italian

Until next time,

Kevin

Home and Friends

Hey all.

So I have just been hanging out at home all day with friends and my brother. I'm quite glad to see them after so long.

One of my friends and I have started our collaborative Lego Project on a very large base. We are planning on making a village scene with a tower and the ruins of a wall crumbling nearby.

I haven't done too much else today but sit on the floor and work on that.

I took a few pictures of one of the creations that I destroyed to start the new project, here is my favorites of the bunch:

But this is now gone. Gone to bring progress.

We have been listening to "Flight of the Conchords" for a little bit. Quite entertaining. Cheeky New Zealanders. 

Now we are watching "Princess Mononoke." One of my favorite movies of all time. The soundtrack is one of the best ones that I have ever heard, from Joe Hisaishi.

Probably almost bedtime here, so I leave you with another random picture.

TV: Top Gear

Music: Flight of the Conchords

Movie: Princess Mononoke

Food: Steak!

Preow,

Kevin

Colorado

Lost of stuff happened today.

First off, woke up to Snow in Valparaiso. First real-feeling snow of the year, with big fluffly snowflakes. IT was pretty awesome.
Here's a shot from my window, taken at around 8:00 am.

However, had to drive in it to Chicago, which was a little slick, but nothing too bad, I imagine, from the passengers seat.
Then got to walk around Chicago for a few hours, admiring the scenery and architecture of the US's 3rd largest city. Here's a couple examples, taken with my Fujifilm Point and Shoot since I didn't want to take my dslr with me.

We also went to this place called "ChristKringlemart" or someplace, which was basically a big christmas market where you could get a ton of German-inspired and even German made christmas stuff.

However, I didn't feel like taking any pictures, so here's some pigeons warming up near the eternal flame in Chicago. It made me laugh.

Then after that was all done I got some new art supplies from a store called "Blick" on State Street. A new .3mm mechanical pencil and some lead, plus erasers and an engineers scale. So those will come in handy.

That was our last stop in Chicago, and then we made our way back to Midway Airport. I said goodbye to my girlfriend and we headed for security. Because I had so much stuff in my bag (Laptop, cameras, harddrives, DS) the TSA people made me re-send my stuff through the xray machine all separate. IT was interesting.

Of course we got to the airport early, by about 3 1/2 hours or so. So I got to hang out near my gate and play some minecraft. Just built a little courtyard around my main house on my netbooks world (since I'm away from my Desktop for 3 whole weeks.) Not much else than that.

Uneventful Plane ride during which my brother and I watched "How to Train your Dragon" on my netbook. Great movie, I definitely recommend it to everyone.

And now I am at home! First time since the end of May, and its really good to be home! As I'm sitting here on the couch in the basement one of the kitties came up and laid next to me. Here's Comet. Purring away.

And that has been my day, Probably going to bed soon, as travelling usually makes one quite tired.

Cheers,

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Movie: How to Train your Dragon
Music: Still Sigur Ros
Food: Qdoba

Finally Finished.

After almost everyone that I know already finished their finals, I am finally finished mine at 12:30 today.

It was basically the hardest test I have taken in a VERY long time. I didn't even finish 3 of the 5 problems, I just ran out of time.

Oh Well.

Anyways, now before I go home I'm going to go hang out in Chicago for a while tomorrow before going to the airport and finally going home to Colorado! I haven't been home since the end of May, so it'll be nice to finally get to go home and see all of my friends.

Today after my deathly exam I haven't really done much. I set off the smoke detector in my apartment a couple times because we haven't cleaned our oven in a while. So I cleaned our oven and then tried again, and it worked without a hitch. Making a pizza that you buy at the store is so much cheaper than buying it from the university food service.

Now I am sitting in my room by myself thinking about what I need to pack. Clothes and junk, electronics, cameras, games, cables, swim gear. All sorts of junk.
But I'm being too lazy to really pack anything. Oh Well

Even though I have a lot of other games that I want to play, I just keep getting drawn back into Minecraft. Even though Assassins Creed has a much better storyline, and Oblivion has better graphics, and I haven't even opened the newest Assassins Creed yet (Which I got on Black Friday), I still just go back and play Minecraft. Whatever.

If anyone who actually reads this would like to suggest any good TV shows for me to look into, feel free to. I won;t put down a list of shows that I have already watched, as that would just be really long, but I'm open to suggestions.

It still hasn't sunk into my brain yet that the semester is done, and that I don't have to do any homework for Monday or Tuesday or anything. I still feel like I should be a freshman, not a Junior, if that makes sense. My whole concept of time seems to be skewed somehow.

This is a picture I took on the same day as the first picture that I posted. This was with my Fuji-Film point and shoot, so before I got my dslr. I just re-looked at it, and I kind of like it.

I'll have to figure out something cool to build out of Lego while I'm at home, since that's where all of my good lego is, and I haven't built something since I was home.

I've been thinking of doing a collaborative build with one of my friends from home. Our concept is to build a small medieval village scene with a blacksmith by a river, and an old large chunk of wall of the old city of Caraval exposed, but with plants and vines growing out over it.

However, to do this, I would most likely have to destroy my biggest build to date, Aubree's Bounty, my first real SHIP. Oh well, some of the structural parts are beginning to... fail... or so I heard from my mother last time I talked to her.

So again, if anyone has good creative ideas for castles and such, let me know.

I'm thinking that I'm going to start doing reviews of my own Lego Creations on here, too, chronicling my thoughts that went into it as it went from an idea into a model .I think that it would be fun to think how I built it, and it might be helpful to some other people as well.

That's basically all I've got to say. Now to go pack...

TV: Who's Line is it Anyway
Music: Halo: Anniversary
Game: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle..

See ya

Kevin

Almost through

Well, I just got through my third final without too much dismay. Its strange, usually finals fill me with a sense of dread, but this year the only one that does that to me is my last final, my Mechanical Measurements final.

That's probably because its the class that I am doing the worst in. That's mainly because the whole premise of the class if kind of vague and confusing. I wasn't really sure what to expect in the beginning, and its pretty much the same case now.

It also doesn't help that its one of the hardest classes at the university.

Oh well. So I'm going to be studying for that class for a long while today and tonight.

Later:

Music: Explosions in the Sky
Game: Limbo
TV: Scrubs

Kevin

Getting through the week

Well, I have officially finished two of my classes, both of which I feel very confident about my grades in them.

Thermodynamics ended well with an open book open note test that I feel like I aced.
Fluid Mechanics was an open book exam that I struggled a little bit more on, but still feel very confident.

Now I am off to the Engineering building to do some studying for my exams that I am feeling less enthusiastic about, namely Manufacturing an Measurements.

Good luck to all of you on your finals, or whatever you are doing.

Short post.

Music: Still Sigur Ros
TV: Top Gear, Family Guy
Movie: Invictus

Kevin Fedde

The Library

The place where I shall dwell for the next 5 days is the library. Its quiet hallways and bookshelves should hopefully be a good sanctuary from the distractions in life, so that I can actually do well on my finals.

Speaking of "The Library" I finally beat Halo: Anniversary yesterday with my brother. 343 Industries did an excellent job keeping to the original feel of the game, but giving it their own, unique vision of it. The Flood are even more terrifying in this one than they are in Halo 3 (i.e. the graphics and sounds are much better, etc.) I would definitely recommend this game to any halo fan out there, as it brought back old feelings from long ago, when I was first getting into gaming. Halo was one of my first ever video games, and Anniversary brought back all of those feelings and impressions back from the past. I commend it for that.

And now to Thermodynamics and the laws of entropy and enthalpy and isentropic and polytropic and such.

Music of the Day: Sigur Ros
TV show of the day: Top Gear
Video Game of the Day: Halo: Anniversary
Food of the day: Bacon, Mac, and Cheeseburger

Cheers

Kevin.

Once again

Well, its that time of the year again. And I'm not talking about Christmas, I'm talking about Final Exams!

All of my finals are going to be tough, ranging the gambit from Thermodynamics to Mechanical Measurements. So I'll be in the library for most of the next week, as my last final is on Friday (the last day of finals at my school.)

I know that I haven't been posting too much, but as school gets overwith, I will probably be able to post more.

I took these photo's a few nights ago during the first snow that we have had here at school. I think that they turned out pretty well, as I'm finally figuring out  the different settings of my lovely dSLR. My point-and-shoot wouldn't have been able to even get close to as good as these.

I'm quite excited to go home once finals are through. I haven;t been home to Colorado since the beginning of the summer, and I am quite ready to go home.

Music of the week: Evanescence, "Evanescence" (newest album)
TV show of the week: Boardwalk Empire


Until later

Preow

Crimson Wolf

First Images

I have always been a lover of photography, but never before have I truly analyzed a scene for the value it might have as a photograph. I just got my first DSLR camera, and have been learning a lot about the nuances of truly great photography from one of my professional photographer friends and from an amazing man named Chase Jarvis.

Anyways, this is a picture that I am truly proud of, taken with my little Fujifilm point-and-shoot, and not edited at all. The color gradient in the sky turned out nearly perfectly.
(All images copyright me, 2011)

Carry on, now.

The beginning of an experiment

No one will probably ever read this posting, but I feel that in this era of internet connectivity, there is an impersonal touch to it. You interact with computers from far away, but in many cases you never really know about the person.


I am starting this as an experiment in seeing how people react to the simple thoughts of an Engineering student and a photographer and a creative thinker and an athlete.

I may not post often, and I may not post much, but what I do post I promise will be from my heart and mind.