Hdelossantos.com» Leisure

Sunset After a Storm

Hanly — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:24:07 +0000

An oldie but I do have to admit it is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken. I love the colors as the sun sets behind the clouds. I took this on my trip to Cuba in 2005.

Tags: art, cuba, photograph, pictures

Banzai…Place Your Bets Now!!!

Hanly — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:05:06 +0000

Tonight I was surfing through the channels and I started watching Wipeout on ABC. It was a lot like MXC, which was a Spike adaptation of the Japanese Takeshi’s Castle. Wipeout however was not the same. While it is funny watching people beat themselves silly trying to get through an obstacle course, they do take it to an extreme trying to be overly funny when it is not natural to them. There’s just this inconsistency on how people manage to make it to the next level despite their falling and failing to complete a course intact. They just get out of the water and continue…wtf is that? After Wipeout came I Survived a Japanese Game Show the crazy Japanese host reminded me of Banzai.

The First time I watched Banzai was on USA during the commercial breaks between movies. The hosts would propose a challenge like Lady One Question who would ask a celebrity a question and see how long they would continue to talk. The hosts would give 4 options and ask viewers to call in for prizes. The stunts were really funny. A few years later Fox picked up the show (2003) in a 30 minute segment. Viewers would log into the Fox website and start an online version of the game which was synced with the show. Needless to say, I had many problems with this. Like many online things which have massive amounts of users log in at the same time to do something, there was huge lag. But the show was fun, and I was very disappointed when it was scrapped.

Needing to quench my Banzai craving I hit up youtube and found the Banzai Online Channel with over 100 Banzai skits. I have to admit, I kind of want to try one of them out. Squirrel Fishing.

This is definitely something to try out on Liz Waters hill once I get back to Madison. There should be a lot of squirrels and chipmunks around to have some fun.

Tags: funny, japanese, show, television, tv

What’s with all the vampires?

Hanly — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:41:00 +0000

What’s with all of the vampires? Recently they seem to have made it back into mainstream culture. Its seems that a society which once shunned science fiction movies and television shows is craving them more and more every day. Vampires however seem to have made the biggest hit. There’s the twilight book series and movies, which altogether seems to ignore most of the vampire tenants introduced by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There is True Blood, which sucks away all of the finesse and class which has become the widely accepted vampire way while substituting it with something reeking of the CMT channel, lastly there’s Moon Light on Sci-Fi. Lets not even talk about Moon Light. As one would expect from sci-fi programming, the acting and plot are atrocious. I almost forgot about the Underworld trilogy and the less famous Blood and Chocolate. I have to admit, I am a fan of Underworld.

Twilight
Most vampire stories inevitably gravitate towards the sexual and love story themes. Twilight of course, while somewhat hinting at the explicit at times is geared at a younger audience of hormonal teenage girls and Hot Topic shopping goth kids (don’t blame me for this one, blame South Park). I found it quite funny when I walked past a Hot Topic after watching the episode and saw a movie poster at the entrance.

I’ve read the first volume of Twilight, and while it wasn’t that bad, it’s just not the type of book I like to read. I’m not into the whole love story thing. After reading it I felt like I was cheated out of 12 hours of my life (fine I would have been cheated out of those 12 hours anyways since I read half the book on my way back to school last semester). Nevertheless, It was very predictable, had a to be continued type of ending, and it just struck a chord with me since It disobeys vampire tenants. In the Twilight universe, vampires are not affected by the sun, the stay out of the sunlight because they glisten like diamonds or glitter. That’s kind of cheesy, although I do have to admit it is unique. There is the clichéd good vampires (the ones who don’t feed on humans) versus the bad ones (the ones that do), and the human vampire love story. To kill a vampire you burn them, and of course there is the whole vampire versus werewolf dichotomy which is introduced in the second volume. Didn’t see that one coming…right. The movie was atrocious. It completely ruined my interpretation of the book. The casted characters were not up to bar with the described beauty of their book counterparts. In my mind Alice was hot, had nice flowing black hair and dressed in a vintage gothic (maybe victorian gothic) dress. She had none of that in the movie. Twilight also took a twist on the vampire charming abilities, making their scent the thing that makes them irresistable. In Twilightverse vampires don’t sleep, yet every other vampire story to date says they sleep in coffins during the day. Heck, Twilight makes it good to be a vampire, the only downside is the bloodlust.

True Blood
True Blood is like watching CMT (Country Music Television) for an hour. If you can make it past the thick southern accents, its actually a great vampire show. There is everything one would expect from an HBO show: gore, nudity, and explicitness. That’s what made me such a Rome fan. Like any southern set drama, there is the whole good versus evil religious battle. There is the cult-like extremist religious group Fellowship of the Sun, which directly battles the vampires. The Fellowship of the Sun operates under the belief that if god is light then they are the children of god and if darkness is evil, then it is bad, and if it is bad then it is not god therefore it must be Satan, and since vampires burst into flames at the sight of sun and live in darkness then they must be sons of the devil, and as such they burn in the sunlight. Lost you yet?

True Blood is a bit more true to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Vampires sleep on the earth (I’m assuming if they sleep in coffins then they must have dirt in them). They are also susceptible to the sun and silver. They can be staked to death…sometimes very easily almost to the point of ridiculity. They dislike garlic but it doesn’t kill them.

How can vampires be so strong, yet explode when staked? A human can take more than they can apparently. This is just too ridiculous and in fact its even funny to watch when they explode like in the clip above.

True Blood also makes vampires look somewhat trashy. For years vampires have been associated with old gothic style, elegance, old customs, and stoicism. There’s just something about it, it bothers me that the show is set in the deep south middle of nowhere Louisiana, with their thick southern accents. If it were to take place anywhere else, say a more urbanized city where people speak english with a normal accent, I would be fine with it. Now, the main character Sookie is good looking…except for that large distracting gap every time she opens her mouth. Why, why, why would the casting crew choose someone like that as the main character. The gap is too distracting! I agree, it makes her look more southernly.

Somehow, despite me not wanting to watch it, I still do. I have to admit I like the show. What’s not to like about exploding bloodbags?

Moonlight
Moonlight is just atrocious. It’s on sci-fi after all. I used to be able to stomach the shows on there, but Moonlight is just too bad. It’s private eyes meets vampires with bad acting and a lack of plot. I can’t believe CBS ever paid to produce this sad excuse for a television show. I’d rather subject myself to hours of Medium than this. Last Friday’s episode was about a boring search for a rogue vampire who had been turned and left for dead. Oh yeah, unlike in True Blood, makers (vampires who turn a human) don’t need to sleep near their deceased body in a hole in the ground to breathe life into them.

Vampires have become a staple of popular culture once again. And once again we are subjected to some sub-par science fiction television shows that should never see the light of day, like Moonlight. Others like True Blood would benefit from a change of setting. I guess the bayou is unique, but somehow I feel like I’m watching a fishing or hunting show on CMT. So what’s your favorite vampire show or movie?

twilight, vampire, true blood, blood, book, underworld, television, tv, moon light

Tags: art, blood, book, funny, moon light, television, true blood, tv, twilight, underworld, vampire

Funny Comercial

Hanly — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:15:57 +0000

This commercial comes on several times on NBC during Heroes every Monday. I just can’t help but laugh when Abraham Lincoln rips of his shirt and you see his eagle tattoo. Even funnier is the part they freeze the video on as the letters appear on screen, where Abe is holding two sticks while showing his scrawny musculature.

Tags: art, commercial, funny

Free Art Friday

Hanly — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Yesterday was free art friday at the Union, so a group of us decided to go and paint some flower pots, which we would get flower bulbs for. Last time I had gone, which was for stained glass night I really had no desire to go, but I was guilted into it. I got there expecting some cool watercolor tye thing or acrylic painting on actual glass. No such luck! We were given a piece of translucent fiberglass (a small piece btw) which we were told to draw on with colored pencils. After which it was put in an oven and heated. When the fiberglass rectangle was heated it shrunk, solidified, and gained some depth.

Due to my lack of desire to be there and lack of creativity, I decided to draw an exploding bear. My drawing continued to become less socially acceptable when I proceeded to write the words “Sometimes Bears Explode & God Cries BLOOD.” This of course was inspired by the popular poster of Domo Kun chasing after a kitten with the words “Every time you masturbate… God kills a kitten.”

This week I decided to continue the trend of social innaceptability, and pain my pot in societ colors. The bottom was red, the trim yellow, and it sported the communist soviet insignia of the sickle and hammer. I also decided to draw a missile, and write “Вырасти за коммунизм” or “Grow for communism.” My parents would certainly not approve of this, having been able to escape communism to give me a better life. Heck, I hate communism much more than any normal person would, having spent 7 years of my youth in Cuba. I know what communism is. I know that communism sucks!

After I was done painting the pot, I proceeded to plant the flower bulbs in it. There were daisies and tulips. I planted 2 tulips and a daisy. Hopefully the daisy turns outto be yellow, and the tulips red, so that they could match the communist motif of the pot.

Tags: art

Ski trip to Tyrol Basin

Hanly — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:58:27 +0000

Last weekend I went skiing for the first time. It was only for around 3 hours, but due to the falling, rolling, ski popping and pain, it seemed like much longer. However that night I managed to make it down the easiest slope without falling once. There was no real snow that night, just fake icy snow that had been made by the machines. That icy snow made it super slippery to go down, which is why at the end of the night when the easy trail was closed and we were forced to take the blue trail, I slipped on an icy patch and somersaulted around 20 feet while both my skis flew off in different directions. On the way home and for several days after my body was in pain. However, I did decide to make the trip there again this week when our dorm was going.

Today’s (well yesterday technically 2-21-09) was completely different. This time there was actual snow since it snowed about 8 inches and was still snowing as we we skied down the slopes. The real snow made it a lot better and easier since there were fewer icy patches in which to loose your balance. However,…enter the snowboarder complaints…the snowboarders’ plow marks and super packed trails made their own nice gashes and packed down icy patches for one to fall and or get a ski caught in.

I started my day by going down the easy slope, which was fun now, since I could do it without falling. After a few runs we decided to step up the challenge a little, and try the blue from last week. That didn’t go well, at least the first time. Thanks to the snowboarders making a path to the rails on the side, there was this big gash of snow. Without realizing it I went that way and made it through the first bump, but as I came down the ski got stuck on the other bump since the skis are much longer than the width of the gash. I tumbled down, got up quickly and made it down. I went up the chairlift again and once again headed for that blue. While on the chairlift I looked at the slope making note of where the dangers were . This time I used one of the chairlift supports as my marker for the gash. I headed towards it and avoided the gash, raced down the slope and made it down without falling several times. Once again my friend Tyler decided that it was time for bigger and greater things so he convinced us to try a black diamond that was coming off of the beginning of the easy trail. This one was a narrow zigzagging path through a bunch of tightly packed hills. I went through and fell once I hit this ice patch midway through the run, which caused be to not be able to make the next turn. Tyler had jumped over the hill I crashed into and lost one of his ski’s. After a few minutes of looking he found it buried in the snow a few feet away. I tried this run several more times, however I wasn’t able to master it. In fact one of the times I went down it I tripped on my stick and hurt my knee and thumb in the process. It wasn’t that bad of an injury; my thumb feels fine, and my knee hurts a bit when I walk. We went down another black diamond in which I wiped out the first time. The second time going down the same one I took note of the terrain and avoided the bad spots. I was able to make it down without falling.

After some time I met up with Sebastian, Miles, Fro, and Chris, who had been doing their own thing going through the woods. I decided to join them and give it a try, but large skis and the woods don’t go together. Everyone else had been wearing the snow skates (smaller skis) which are more maneuverable, which allowed them to turn better in the woods. That ended in failure for me, causing me to crash into several trees and eventually wipe out as I jumped out of the woods into the run.

Nevertheless, despite the minor injuries skiing was much funner the second time around. Once you know what you are doing it really becomes fun. The nearly 5 hours we spent at Tyrol Basin today flew by very fast. I love skiing.

Tags: rain, snow

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Sunset After a Storm

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