The Museum of Art

So, like I said earlier, I am going to do a post just about the Denver Art Museum. More specifically, many of these shots that I will show came from the Denver Museum of Modern Art.

Here's a link to their site:
Denver Art Museum

Anyways, There was a ton of really cool, really photogenic stuff in there, and I was quite surprised that they let me take pictures in there, especially with my DSLR. I was primarily using my 50mm f/1.8 lens on my D3100, which got some pretty good shots especially since in some of the rooms the lighting situation wasn't ideal.

Now on to the pictures:

This is the front of the Museum of Modern Art. They told us that there were no right angles in this entire building save the elevator shafts. Pretty intense, if you ask me. That large, almost castle-esque building in the back is connected and part of the Old art museum (which now focus' on traditional art).
Inside, just the building itself was pretty much a work of art. Lots of interesting sculptures everywhere.

Above is the view up into the building from the bottom of the first floor staircase. I think this was taken with my 50mm lens, so it is a bit more "zoomed in" than it could have been ,but the picture that I took with my 18-88 kit lens didn't turn out nearly as well.

From the outside, on the balcony.

Back inside. I felt that this was a really interesting art piece. I'm not sure what the point was, but I guess that's how it is with all modern art these days.

Another very colorful piece. It makes my eyes hurt if I stare at it too long. Even more so when I look at the high resolution version.

Another ... thing... yeah...

This was basically made out of lots of pieces of scrap tin or something like that. Really interesting pattern, I must say.

Interestingly painted picture.

Now moving on to the Traditional part. There were a few cool things, but not really anything that no one has seen before, so I'm just going to include a couple and call it good.

 Blue vases. That is all

 This was made of bamboo fibers. I really like the light pattern that it gives off.

 I really liked this quote that was on the wall in the old museum. IT seems fitting.

I did also manage to find a picture of the atrium from the bottom that I took with my kit lens at the 18mm focal length:

 And that is basically all of my thoughts regarding it. I though that it was a really great place ( but I love museums) and would definitely recommend going there if you need something to do in Denver.


And with that, I think that I'll sign off for now.

Later,

Kevin

TV: Family Guy, Game of Thrones
Movie: nada
Game: Minecraft
Food: PB&J
Music: Gotye, The National

New Years

Well, its another day that just happens to coincide with a new year. I don't really care, as in my brain I still think that it should be sometime in the 90's. I don't know...

Anyways, had a good Christmas, and a really good New Years.

We went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa Colorado. Awesome scenery and it was really fun climbing up the really tall dunes. It was good exercise too, as when I was swimming today I could really feel it.

Here's me flying my brothers acrobatic kite. Really fun, though it kept dragging me across the sand, the wind was so strong.

Now I'm in Boca Raton, Florida with my swim team. Training trip is upon us, the time where we basically get destroyed by our coaches and trainer.

I'll take pictures of the pool and training facility and such and post them later.

Am now sitting in my room, my tablet on one side and my netbook in front of me.

Oh, speaking of which, I got an Asus TF-101 Transformer tablet for Christmas basically, and its awesome. 'Nuff said.

So, meow meow.

Kevin

TV: Top Gear
Movie: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Music: The Script
Game: Angry Birds...
Food: Mongolian Chicken.

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