Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Drawing Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: Favorite Food

This one was a little hard for me to decide. But after much consideration I believe that sushi is my favorite food of all time. Itadakimasu!!! Oishi!!!


I wanted to make it interesting than a boring drawing of a sushi roll... anyways. It's spicy tuna roll with soy sauce.

The World's Best Music (from my perspective)

Music of the World:
Have you ever fought with your friends and family with their different tastes in music? This band is the best or this singer is better? Perhaps or perhaps not. A lot of people usually stick with one genre of music that is usually only born in their language or country. However, I enjoy music from all over the world. Few people every venture off into new languages as far as music but they are so missing out! Each culture has a unique touch in their music and it is a pleasure to experience it first hand. Here are a few samples of the best music on earth.


Rap,Hip-hop/Jazz/Blues:
Born and raised in roots of African American culture, these genres are by far a whole league of their own in style, rhythm and sound. I personally have a selection of favorites from this type of music.
Rap is a harsh, poetic revolution that allowed the Black people of America to have a voice of their own while suffering huge amounts of discrimination. It tells tales of suffering, survival and battling demons through the tough lives of many people in America. This genre has has not only supported those of African roots but everyone of any color embraced this genre. Eminem is a perfect example.



Although a lot of rap is about battles, partying and sex. I do find beautiful songs about raising awareness and sharing the love. This one is by the Black-eyed Peas.



Jazz and Blues are one of my favorite types of music to relax to. The melodies of a good saxophone puts me in a state of calm and soothes any troubles that the day brought.



Rock
This genre is one of my favorites. It's empowering and it gives me motivation to get through the day. But the best rock in the world isn't only from America. It's from Europe!

Britian: The Rolling Stones

This classic band is famous all over the world and I am proud to have them in my collection of tunes!

Britian: Dragonforce

Simply amazing guitar solos from Dragonforce. In fact, this is one of their shorter songs! They have amazing shreds of awesomeness that lasts beyond 10 minutes of music!

Germany: Rammstein

Deep, hard metal rock from Germany is absolutely exhilarating.

Techno
Ironically, a few decades ago techno was deemed as the nerd music, but today it is one of the most popular genres in the world. Take Lady Gaga for an example... She is probably America's Tehcno Queen as Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. But I don't think I can hand the best techno to Gaga... it just doesn't seem right.

Moldova/Romania: O-Zone


Sweden: Smile D.K.


Japan: Yuki Kimura


Vocaloid
Alright! Here is a genre that took me some time to getting into. This music is from my favorite country, Japan. The awesomeness of this kind of music is almost too crazy to bare! Vocaloid is a type of music that uses completely electronically generated singing voices. It's hard to imagine on how this is possible with the complexity of the human voice. But the Japanese language has about just 48 distinct sounds. You combined these to make words. For an example, the word for thank you, "arigato", uses four sounds "a", "ri", "ga", and "to". With the simplicity of all these sounds, they can easily be put together in an order for the words and played along with a melody in notes. So throw in a character to be this voice, Miku Hastune, and enjoy the results.

Miku Hastune, "World is Mine"


Even a male character.
Kaito, "When I Get Home My Wife Pretends to Be Dead"


I hope you enjoyed a few of my favorite songs from around the world. There are a whole lot more I wish to share but discovering great music on your own is a rewarding and fun experience!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Drawing Challenge: Day 2

Day 2: Favorite Animal


Okay, so the giraffe isn't really my favorite animal. I just love animals in general so it is hard for me to choose. But I know that every time I go to the zoo I just can't wait to get to the giraffes for three reasons. One: You can feed the giraffes and their long crazy tongues are so funny!!! Two: They are just so interesting to look at. And three: GIRAFFES ARE HEARTLESS CREATURES!!!



LOL.... anyways. Here is how you say "giraffe" in different languages.

Japanese: キリン "kirin
French: girafeau
German: giraffe... lol
Spanish: jirafa
Chinese: 長頸鹿 Chángjǐnglù.... don't ask me how to pronounce that... (courtesy of Google Translate)
Pig Latin: Iraffe gay
Canadianese: giraffEH

Monday, September 19, 2011

Ponyo's Hot Tea with Milk and Honey

Hey, guys! I've got thinking that I'd like to do a little recipe that I interpreted from one of my favorite Miyazaki Films, Ponyo. If you've seen the film, you'll know that there is a hot drink that Ponyo drinks with Sosuke and his mother in one of the scenes. Within the film itself, you can practically feel the warm and fuzzyness that the drink bestows upon the characters. Here is the recipe to try for yourself!



Ponyo's Hot Tea Milk and Honey Recipe:

Ingredients:
4 oz. Water
1 teabag of your tea of choice (Different flavors of tea can give it a different taste, I use green.)
4 oz. Milk
1 large spoonful of honey (or to taste, I like mine sweet.)

Bring water to a boil in a small sauce pan then pour it into a mug. Place the teabag into the water and let seep to a desirable potency. In the mean time, heat up your milk in the same saucepan until warm. Pour your milk in the mug with the tea. Fill a spoon up with honey and stir it in the drink.

Oishi! This is really good! It's perfect for cold days, bedtime, and for those with a cold. Enjoy! More Japanese recipes to come!

Drawing Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: Self Portrait

I do say, I don't like drawing myself... This was done quickly just to save me the agony haha. But I guess it didn't turn out too bad. The eyes may be a little off... As you can tell I ventured away from trying to make it realistic looking. I don't really like to try to interpret what I look like on the outside for all my creativity and inspiration is what is inside my soul. This experience has made me think on how I view myself... I rushed this and did it without much thought or joy. Do I think that I'm a boring person? ...I don't know. Maybe I just don't feel that connected to the real world. Maybe this type of portrait is not what I personally feel that is my style or ways of doing things. Anyways, I think this drawing challenge will give me a new outlook of what is important to me in my art.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Nippon: Inside my Soul

For those who are acquainted with me, you will know that I am in love with the culture and spirit of Japan. Ever since I was very small, I have been dreaming of Japan and longing to be there for most of my life. It's kind of hard to explain on the effect this country has on me. Something stirs inside me as I learn more about this amazing place. There are both good and bad things about Japan just as much as any country. However, throughout my cultural studies I find myself more keen on Japan than any other place on Earth. Now that I am done with school, I am planning a trip to Japan within a year. I'd like to have someone go with me but even if I don't have a friend I will be making plenty in the place of my dreams. I know this particular post has really nothing to do with my research, but I will put together an in depth piece on this country soon. For now, I'd like to share a beautiful video titled "Japan - Heartbeats of Time" by Trey Ratcliff. Please enjoy.

Japan - Heartbeats of Time from Trey Ratcliff on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Drawing Challenge

Hey you guys! I finally got the list for my 30 days of drawing! As a reminder, I will be off facebook for the 30 days starting on the 19th of September. Just follow my blog to see my progress on these drawings! If I happen to have your phone number I will be texting you, probably from lack of social stimulation. Haha! Alright, wish me luck!

Day 1: Self-Portrait
Day 2: Favorite Animal
Day 3: Favorite Food
Day 4: Super Hero
Day 5: Super Villain
Day 6: Sequential Comic
Day 7: Graffiti you would put on a Wall
Day 8: Favorite Animated Character
Day 9: Favorite Talk Show Host
Day 10: Favorite Candy
Day 11: Scene from a Movie
Day 12: Most Memorable Past-time
Day 13: Re-Design a Book Cover
Day 14: Favorite Fairytale
Day 15: Family Portrait
Day 16: Inspiration
Day 17: Favorite Sweet
Day 18: ZOMBIES
Day 19: A Sea Creature
Day 20: An Actor and an Actress
Day 21: Something you want
Day 22: Tattoo Design
Day 23: Your Zodiac Sign
Day 24: A Couple
Day 25: Scenery
Day 26: Something you don’t like
Day 27: A Dragon
Day 28: A Martial Arts Battle
Day 29: A Place you want to go
Day 30: An outfit from your Dream Wardrobe

Thursday, September 15, 2011

30 day Challenges (Need suggestions!)

Attention friends and family! I shall announce that I have taken a deep interest in trying out a series of 30 day challenges for my self. One thing I have noticed, is that I have been spending way too much time using StumbleUpon and sitting on Facebook. I know these two are huge time wasters for me and distract me from doing more productive things. So starting Monday, September 19th, I will uninstall the Stumble button from my browser's tool bar and deactivate my Facebook account for 30 days. In the mean time, with the extra time on my hands I will be drawing one complete drawing every day for 30 days. I've picked up a nice list from a forum to start with. This won't be the final list for I will tweak it a bit to fit my needs as necessary.

30-day Drawing Challenge (without Facebook or StumbleUpon)
Day 1: Self-Portrait
Day 2: Favorite Animal
Day 3: Favorite Food
Day 4: Super Hero
Day 5: Super Villain
Day 6: Sequential Comic
Day 7: What’s in my bag?* (I only have books, boring subjects)
Day 8: Favorite Animated Character
Day 9: Favorite TV Show* (too many to choose from)
Day 10: Favorite Candy
Day 11: Scene from a Movie*
Day 12: A Recipe*
Day 13: Re-Design a Book Cover
Day 14: Favorite Fairytale
Day 15: Family Picture* (oh my... please no)
Day 16: Inspiration
Day 17: A Delicious Food* (since the favorite food is already for day 3)
Day 18: ZOMBIES
Day 19: A Sea Creature
Day 20: An Actor and an Actress
Day 21: Something you want
Day 22: The meaning of your name* (My name is boring)
Day 23: Your Zodiac Sign
Day 24: A Couple
Day 25: Scenery
Day 26: Something you don’t like
Day 27: A Dinosaur* (A dragon instead maybe?)
Day 28: A Collage* (can I draw ninjas?)
Day 29: A Place you want to go
Day 30: A Favorite outfit* (that I wear or that I want to wear?)

And to even challenge myself further, I've gotten too much into the habit of drawing with my tablet and lost the feel of real paper. So every drawing will be on a physical medium, without Photoshop! I will be posting my drawings in my blog every few days or so. Hey, I may even do a video of the process of my drawings!

This weekend I will post the final draft of my list, in the mean time I would like some ideas for other drawings I can do. Please comment and give me suggestions! The days that are marked with a "*" are the ones I would like to change. Wish me luck!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Love and Marriage in the Mormon Church

Reguarding to my own experience in relationships, I've found myself at an ends on what to rely on. You see, I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was taught that physical "intimacy" is to only be shared between a man and his wife. However, falling from church activity I found myself stepping over that rule. At first I did feel guilty and scared but as time went on I wasn't feeling so insecure about it. And I even discovered some interesting qualities in myself and what exactly I wanted in a relationship. Do I still think it was wrong of me to break that rule? Yes and no. I've realized that sex wasn't such a big deal that everyone made it out to be but it is something special to share with someone special, someone you are deeply in love with. I found that out the hard way and working on forgiving myself as well as making my peace with my Father in Heaven.

My main point here is to share a different perspective on the church and it's values. Overall, I respect the church highly and the members are generally friendly... that is until I started going to a Young Single Adult ward(Correction, YSA ward in Mesa, AZ). I found the young singles to be very competitive with each other and made a lot of cliques. It was like a battle of engagements, who gets married first for eternal salvation. I've found a lot of young singles getting married just after a couple of months of meeting each other! I know this because I went through the same naive decisions before I became inactive in the church. I almost married someone that I knew nothing about(and almost ruined my life because of it). And now as I watched these young singles with this experience I've realized that there was one thing that was driving them to get married so fast:

Lust.

The very first stage of falling in love is called Lust. Your sex hormones go crazy over someone you meet. And these young singles are 18-30 years of age. Young, horny people left in a congregation with each other where it's a sin to have sex before marriage... That would drive me over the edge to get married as fast as I could, too. I know, I've been through it. However, I know there would be some members of the church reading this and disagreeing with me. Eternal blessings come from a temple marriage and create eternal families. It's a very fancy and tempting idea. I would love to have that one day myself. I would just like to point out that they are just getting married way too fast. 3-6 months NOT a reasonable time to get to know someone as a potential eternal partner (heck, not even a couple of years at times). The worst part is that the church isn't putting a leash on this kinda thing or at least educate these young people on dating, relationship counsel and a proper time frame in getting to know someone completely before making an eternal (possibly regrettable) decision.

Growing up in the church, you are set with the illusion that an eternal marriage is a Walt Disney's happily ever after marriage full of happiness and fluffy pancakes. Until you are tied up with a person you've barely known and realized that a relationship takes hard hard hard work. And it's even harder after knowing that you dug yourself a hole with an eternal temple sealing. The United States divorce percentage rate is nearly 50% and around 40 of 50 divorces are young people around the age of 24 years. Why? What is making these young people divorce so quickly as they get married? Well, it's a little something called...

Maturity

The human brain does not full mature til the age of 25 or so. Granted, I do turn 24 next spring in 2012 and I know for a fact that I'm not ready to get married. Heck, I barely know who I am yet alone trying to figure someone else out. I do know that while progressing through my early twenties that my taste in men dramatically changed as well as what I want to do with my life. This in itself proves that. If there are any young people reading this, please take this advice and just take your time. You are young! Go have some fun! Don't be in a rush to get married (or rush into sex for that matter, accidents happen). Figure out what you want to do in life and think with your head, not with what's below your waist. Good luck out there... and let's try getting to know each other before making a big leap... that divorce percentage is too high for my taste... let's put a little more faith back into happily ever after.