Tag Archive for ‘nature’ at Riding the Wind

Tag Archive for 'nature'

Birthday

Published

on February 10, 2008

in Comic, Nonsense, Photography, Wood Carving, Work and Writing

. 1 Comment

It was my 28th birthday the other day - on February 8th. Steph and I took the day off from work and went to Loch Tay where I found some nice driftwood for possible carving and stick making projects. We just drove around the Loch, mostly. It was quite a windy day, though it was sunnier than it has been of late. I took some photos:

So I must admit that I still haven’t done any carving lately, and I have yet to post my latest carving project photos in the projects section of the site. That’s partially because I realized that I only have photos of one of my projects. There is another set of photos on Steph’s camera and some I have to dig out from my email somewhere, as I forgot to take pictures before I gave the carving to my Dad and he sent pictures after I got back home.

Nothing is really happening today. We might go for a walk a bit later. There is a beautiful little stream I’d like to get a photo of if I get a chance today, but Steph’s still in bed. We went to bed quite late - I think at around 4:30-5:00 am, yet I woke up at 10 am and felt wide awake. I fear I’ll have burning eyes and a weary body later in the day to punish me for my silly sleeping schedule. There is really no reason other than being too lazy to go to bed. John and I have been working lately on a big project for a popular gaming site but we’re now almost done. There are a lot of little things to fix and clean up but overall it is in much better shape than when we inherited it. I don’t really want to give away the name of the site, but suffice it to say that John and I have been mentioned in several site and forum posts and we were mentioned in two of the weekly podcasts, which are quite popular. It was kinda cool to have the experience, and it was good for learning, but I’d rather have a regular schedule and more time to accomplish tasks. What I’d really like to do is learn to do custom vBulletin mod stuff and more server side scripting for maintenance (maybe with python or something - something useful for cron jobs and not horrible to look at, etc) and then be able to work independently on my own projects without having to kill myself over them. That way, I’d hopefully be able to get a lot done yet keep time for myself for writing, etc.

Speaking of writing, I guess things are going moderately. Not too fast, because I don’t really do much at the moment. Since my book is going to be based on my life experiences living in Scotland, I’ll need to get out and meet more people and do more things if I want this to really happen. I intend on making some changes soon. I have a few ideas, but I’ll leave those until later, as I’m not sure what I’ll do yet.

On the HandRooster front:

I know we haven’t done a comic in months. I know it’s probably annoying. I know I keep making excuses when I get emails. Believe me, I want to do this. I think I’ve finally convinced Steph to go forward with it, but we may be making slight changes in the way the art is done. At the moment, it just takes her too long to do them. It isn’t something we get any money for, and it seems like a lot of time to her to spend on something when she doesn’t always appreciate the humor or when she’s slaving away for hours on something I’ve written in 2 minutes time. I really feel her pain. I wish I could draw the thing, but my unsteady hands and warped sense of perspective would probably have people calling for my head. I don’t really want to go to low quality stuff after having broken the 100 comic barrier. Anyway, we should be moving on soon. I think Steph may be doing some comics next weekend, should I provide her with the material. I have some ideas, so we’ll hopefully have some good news for you before too long.

It has been so long

Published

Mike

on January 16, 2008

in Comic, Military, Nonsense, Photography, Web, Wood Carving, Work and Writing

. 2 Comments

Well I’ve realized that it has been over 3 months since my last entry and another 3 since the previous entry. I’m sorry. I’ve been busy, but probably not that busy.

Most of you probably know that we’ve made the move to Scotland. We live in a little place called Strathtay near Pitlochry and Aberfeldy. Our house is called “Tayview Cottage” and as the name suggests, we have a view of the River Tay. It is a beautiful and peaceful place, but my peace comes mainly from the knowledge that I am now free of the military for good. I am no longer involved in all of that nonsense. I’m a civilian. Yay! I just hope all of my friends who are stationed all over the world are safe and happy, and not being forced to do anything horrible.

Steph and I are doing web development work with my brother in law, John. We’ve been starting at about 10:30 am and working until the late afternoon. It isn’t necessarily glorious work, but it is much better than what I was doing before. I’ll be getting into some server stuff at some point, which should be more what I’m used to. I’m also doing some writing, in an attempt to compile a book based on my experiences here in Scotland. I hope it will be good, but I guess it all depends on what I do here, what kinds of people I meet, and the activities I do. I also want to take a lot of photos and do a lot of walking. The scenery is great here. In fact, I’ll put a photo from behind our house below so you can see it.

We really haven’t gotten a chance to do much here yet, as we just got back from a 3 week visit to the states. We visited my family and had a good time. It was very snowy there for the majority of the visit, which was nice. We got to see my young nephew again and got a chance to see my sisters, my parents, and a couple of friends as well as some other relatives. We ate way too much food, which was enjoyable but bad for us. We also got some very nice Christmas presents. I carved a few things for presents before we left, so I’ll post pictures of those when I get a chance in the Projects section of my website.

I really want to get started on HandRooster again. We had quite a bit of success with it and had tons of traffic at the height of our relative fame, but we just didn’t have time to keep it up while we were getting ready to move and while I was getting ready to get out of the Air Force. That, and I was too stressed out to really concentrate on it. So, I really want to start again but I think that Steph is less keen on the idea. It really is much harder for her, as she has to spend a lot of time on the illustrations. My part isn’t as hard each day, but can be a bit difficult when I’m hurting for ideas. Anyway, we’ll see how that goes. I hope she comes round to the idea. I have a few ideas already, but it all depends on how much time we have.

Well, I’ll put 2 photos below. The first is the view from behind our house and the second is a photo taken from my parents’ balcony in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Enjoy, and I hope you’re all doing great.

Getting Closer

Published

Mike

on November 9, 2007

in Nonsense and Photography

. 0 Comments

Well, it has been ages since I did an update on any of my various journals. I guess things have just been so busy that I really haven’t had the chance or I haven’t felt like it because I just want to sit around and do nothing for a change.

We’ve been really busy getting ready for my exit from the military. Mostly we’ve been trying to find a place to live in Scotland, so we’ve gone up several times and had a look at places we could rent. We found a really amazing place with views overlooking a beautiful river which has herons and various other birds hanging around. There are also nice mountains and there are woodlands all around in which red squirrels thrive, which is pretty rare these days. It is also in a really nice place for just generally getting around to other places. There are good transport links and the towns nearby are nice. We really want this place, but there are a bunch of other people interested in it so we’re having to fight over it. I hope everything turns out well, but I’ll let you know. We also found another place to the west which was really nice as well. Basically everything comes down to timing, as we have to move out of our current place the last week of this month. We need stuff to happen quick.

I took some pictures while we were up in Scotland. I didn’t put most of them up on my Flickr account, but I did add a few. I’ll stick them below. Hopefully I’ll be doing more updates soon but I hope everyone is doing well.

Last Week

Published

Mike

on April 25, 2007

in Comic, Nonsense, Photography and Wood Carving

. 0 Comments

Last week, we stayed in a small self catering cottage in Pendeen, Cornwall. It was the same place we stayed last time we went down there. It was a really nice trip. I love Cornwall. I always enjoy it, regardless of weather conditions. There is great food, wild scenery, and the cottage is always very cozy.

I must admit that I didn’t get much writing or carving done while we were there, but I did take quite a lot of photos. I did start carving a small duck while we were there, but that activity was cut short by a nasty burn I got from the wood stove. I’ll hopefully start working on it again here in a few days.

We went on 2 hikes while we were there. One of them was pretty short. We just walked down to Portheras Cove, which was fairly near to the cottage in which we were staying. The other hike was much longer. We walked from Cape Cornwall to Engine House, and we stopped on the way and ate our Cornish Pasties on some grass overlooking the sea. It was a great hike. It was very beautiful.

Overall, we didn’t do much aside from walk and eat delicious food, but it was a great trip. It was very relaxing and it was nice to spend time with Steph. Anyway, we’re doing comics again and I just wanted to let everyone know how last week went. I will hopefully have some woodcarving stuff to post sometime soon.

I wish I had a pasty and some Cornish ice cream. Anyway, I have to go for tonight. I shall return.

Reminders of the Moment

Published

Mike

on March 29, 2007

in Nonsense and Religion/Spirituality

. 0 Comments

Sometimes when I wake up for work and I hear the rain, I dread stepping out into it. Today was one of those days, but when I stepped out, I was amazed at the depth and richness of the colors outside. The sky was a deep brooding blue with blending greys in some areas, and the light this gave the grass, the new formed buds on the trees and the blossoms left on the fruit trees was amazing. It was like stepping into a painting and I really appreciated nature’s way of picking me up during a long work week.

At this moment, I am drinking some green tea and enjoying the sights from my desk window. My life isn’t perfect, but I’m enjoying this moment. That’s what life is about, isn’t it?

Riding the Wind