Post-Dublin Update

I'm back in Edinburgh and I have to say that overall Dublin was amazing. Never in my life did I see myself actually going to Ireland, much less Dublin. I spent a total of 12 days in Ireland, 3 of which were day trips out to see the Giant's Causeway, the Cliffs of Moher, and Blarney Castle. I enjoyed all three but my favorite was the Blarney Castle/Cork trip. Overall, Ireland is a lovely country and I hope to return again someday in the not so distant future. Now that I'm back in Edinburgh I have roughly a month and a half left here in Scotland with exams coming up in May. Everything should be fine and I look forward to what the days ahead may have in store.

London and Quidditch

For those of you who don't know, this past weekend I made my way down to London to participate in a Quidditch tournament in Reading. I myself have never been to London nor have I participated in such an amazing display of athleticism and sportsmanship. I may have come away bruised but it is not an experience I am likely to forget. During this trip I was not alone. I traveled with a great group of people known as the Holyrood Hippogriffs. They are an outstanding team and an even greater group of people. I had the honor to play with them and see parts of London with them. I got to see places like Hyde Park

The Science Museum, which has an awesome flight simulator by the way,

And the hectic, Irish congregation that was Trafalgar Square.

Overall, I want to say thank you to everyone that made this weekend a possibility. It is moments like these that I will take home with me and cherish.

Realizing how out of shape I am or the day I played quidditch again for the first time in almost two years...

I have been looking into the Harry Potter society and thought I would check out their quidditch team since I had played in my freshman year. I got there and met some of the other players and they were all nice people. We started out with simple stretches and a few laps around the pitch. All well and good. As we got more into it is when I came to the realization that I hadn't done much in the ways of serious physical activities in some time and I have thrown myself into a situation in which tackling is not uncommon. Overall it was a great experience and was fun to get back into this equally great sport.i am glad I made the decision to come out and practice with them and look forward to doing it again.

Edinburgh: Cold, Gray, but as Beautiful as Ever

I have been here in Edinburgh over a month now and have seen more cold, and dreary days than I could shake a handful of sticks at. It has snowed twice that I have seen with none of it sticking. I have worn a jacket everyday knowing it to be cold out, but I can't help see how beautiful it is. There is more history here than I could possibly hope to study in a slew of lifetimes, but what makes this city work and so wonderful is the people. I have yet to meet anyone that I have a distaste for, not saying there isn't anyone just that I have yet to meet them, and have met a good number of people who are among the nicest people I will have the pleasure to meet. The destination, along with the journey are only parts of the experience. What truly makes it is the people you find along the way.

As for general updates I have no class this week due to an event called Innovative Learning Week in which the university hosts a variety of events to expand the minds of both staff and students alike. Just this day I was taken on a tour of Edinburgh Castle to see the military history of Scotland and it's soldiers through history. It was a wonderful experience and the castle provided a spectacular view of the city.

Homestay Weekend and the Water Leith

This past weekend I was able to stay with a local family. They were lovely people who were both kind and friendly. On Saturday a group of other students and myself were taken along the Water of Leith followed by a game of bowling. It was a beautiful walk and I was excited to learn that their daughter is good friends with Karen Gillan who played Amy Pond on Doctor Who. It was a great weekend and I look forward to the ones that follow.

Third week in Edinburgh

Although the actual three week mark isn't until Wednesday and I was supposed to do this yesterday I am going to do this now. For all of those concerned I am very much alive and kicking. I am loving every minute of being here in this lovely city and this beautiful country. I may not have left the city itself but i have seen it in it's from a hill nearby called Arthur's Seat. From a hill next to it I took this photo and saw the surrounding country side. I could see the rolling hills, the bay,  and it truly makes you think about everything. It is one of those moments where past, present, and future slam into you at once and you don't really know what to do with these fleeting seconds of life. It is as if the whole of the world just crammed into your head and the wide range of emotion that us as human beings are capable of experiencing ingrained themselves into my little ole mind. I thought of Texas, the riverside I have come to call home these past 5 or so years, my friends, family, my fears, my joys, sorrows, and my future. Anything and everything that one can think of brushed across my speechless mind as I gazed across a place that has seen so much of history and the human experience. In that moment I knew in my mind that I may not know what would happen to me in the following months but that I would be ok in the end. That I would come back a better man, and person then I currently am. I may be 21 but there is a lot that I don't know and have yet to learn about what it means to be someone on this little planet we call home. But most importantly, through everything, in that moment of beauty and realization I look down and see the most amazing thing, and a sight I will carry with me the rest of my days when I am an old and balding man. I saw that someone had taken the time to hike up this imposing hill, someone I am likely to never meet, and constructed a giant penis out of stone for the whole world to see.

Blog in Scotland

I have finally taken the time to set up my blog. Which is me using my old blog from freshman-sophmore year to be honest. I will try to do a weekly update with news, interesting things, and photos as they come along. The semester has only started and there is a long way left to travel before I find myself in the Lone Star state once again. Edinburgh is a beautiful city with a little bit for everyone. I haven't been beyond the city yet but I look forward to the opportunities. 

Anime

Before

 

After

Not the best I have done I know. I tried to do exaggerated eyebrows and tried to make my eyes appear larger. The lines are not terribly smooth. I did my eyebrows by covering them with spirit gum and then coloring over them.

Zombie Day

 Before

After

Last week was what we call Zombie Week. My main problem that I see is my shadowing, particularly on the forehead and around the eyes. The thinning of the cheeks could have been better as well. When we try again this Friday I will look to improve those areas.

Lysistrata

Lysistrata was a production put on by TLU Dramatic Media. I had the honor to help with the show although only with minor things. After having seen the show develop and seeing the show itself I feel that overall it was very well done. As the show progressed everything seemed to fall together; the make-up, the costumes, the set, and, most importantly, the actors. I can not wait to see the next production.

Gender Bending

Before (Not from the same class)

 After

Although the pictures are not from the same class I think the effect is still very clear. I had to reshape my eyebrows to be more pointed using a pencil, accent my lips and used a pencil to color around my eyes. I also tried to put color into my cheeks using blush. However, more could have been used for a greater effect.

Looking Old

Before

After

This effect was achieved by simply accenting the wrinkles and lines that were already there. To do so I used character shadow and a lighter creme make up. Although not perfect I think the desired look was achieved.

Thinning the Face

Before the Thinning

After the Thinning

Although it may be to subtle to see I attempted to try and thin out or make myself appear gaunt or lean. I believe that my lines have become somewhat cleaner but a confidence in using make up is still being worked on. I used foundation and shadow to try and create the effect.

Lip and Nose Make Up

 Before Application

 Thinning Upper Lip

 Increasing Upper and Lower Lip

"Betty Boop"

"Pig Nose"

After having done each of the pictured things I have learned and see that there is one main problem. The problem being that I need to work on making my lines neater and should work on my blending skills. Once having done so I believe that everything that follows should turn out nicer.

Theater Arts Make Up Week 1

Before Make up application

After Make up application

As this was the first time I have applied make up it was a slow process. To start I took it slow using only creme foundation, an eyebrow pencil, and a small amount of blush. The differences maybe small but they are certainly noticeable. My blemishes are less noticeable and my cheeks have a slight rosy tint to them.

The Unfortunate Facts of Life

Next year... Election time...

   Just under a year till the next presidential elections. This is exciting for me because it will the first presedential election in which I vote in. For most of my life so far I have sit by and watched my family discuss who to or not to vote for, and waved bye as they drove of to mark a ballot. However, after looking over the candidates I am not entirely sure who I should vote for myself. The Republicans talk of how the Democrats are ruining America and the Democrats respond with the same message. Who do you believe? Both sides have done great good, but also great evil. Both parties have their dirty secrets and the Republican candidate Herman Cain is in the middle of fighting for his reputation as women have come forward saying they were sexually abused and assaulted by Cain. It seems no one is clean in the world of politics no matter how nice they may seem. Personally, I do not agree with everything Obama has done over the past few years, but compared to who is running I would rather handle a known evil than an unkown evil. True, the other candidates maybe better than our current president, and many would agree with that, but the risk of the unknown is simply to large to gamble on political and religious ideology.

Thoughts on Syria

So it would seem peace has finally come to the Middle East. Syria has called a cease fire and al-Assad, President-Dictator of Syria, has agreed to step down. This is what some would like to see in the news. What has actually happened is that the Arab League has agreed to suspend Syria’s membership on the grounds that the Syrian government did not stop the violence as they had promised. I do not know what this means for the people of Syria or how this will affect the nation as a whole. What I do know is that this is at least a step in the right direction. A sort of foundation with which the people of Syria can start from in order to make a more ideal country for them to live in. Will this transition be simple and painless? Not by a long shot. Two countries that had similar situations, Libya and Egypt, had to go through violent protests followed by full on revolutions , in which hundreds of people lost their lives, in order make the changes they wanted. This process that the people of Syria have initiated is a long and painful process. A process filled with violence, bloodshed, death, and tears; a process that sadly could have been avoided, if things had been more diplomatic. Another tragedy is that the peaceful, diplomatic talks will not happen as their too much tension between the two parties. The people want freedom and change, and the president wants stability and to keep his position through any means. Whether or not the result of the people of Syria’s hardships is something worth the lives lost and the suffering caused is up to the people left after the smoke clears.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

Krost Symposium

After having attended Dr. Sherry Turkle’s presentation, “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other” I find that I agree with her on how  technology has reshaped how people interact with each other and that the changes made need to be reworked for the better. The reason is, as Dr. Turkle said, people have become so linked and attached to phones, computers, and various social programs and websites  that countless hours are spent tailoring and remodeling online selfs in order to make them perfect and escape from the real world. For example, Dr. Turkle talked about a man that spent hours on SecondLife talking to another user, so far as to convince her not to committ suicide. It was later revealed that the other user the man had been talking to was an older man from Florida. This made up world the first man had been living in was pulled out from under him. Everything he thought he know about himself had been taken away and brought into question. Adults  are not the only ones with problems concerning technology and social media.  Dr. Turkle said, during the presentation, that many kids and teenagers find it difficult to talk to their parents because their parents’s attention is not on the kids, but on computers and cell phones. What this is teaching kids, Dr. Turkle said, is not how to be alone, but how to be lonely. However, like Turkle, I belive there is hope still left in this digital world. People just need to find that balance between their lives and their technology that works for them. If they ever get the feeling that they are addicted to any of these thigns then they should simply put it down and back away from it for awhile and see how they feel about it afterwards. In the end the matter of whether or not any of theses problems are problems for anyone lies with the user. It is the user’s choice to bring these thigns into their lives and reshape how they live it.

Old Friends

  Now that college has been going strong for a little over 2 months I have realized that I haven’t really stayed in contact with my friends from high school. The main reason is that we are all too busy with school to get together or take the time to conversate with each other. Some are going to school in Austin, Texas, in Lubbock going to Texas Tech, and the rest have jobs or are looking for one. That, and with a graduating class of over 500, keeping in touch isn’t the easiest of things to do even with my friends. I talk to them as often as I can and it is usually on Facebook. Given the choice I would talk to them more, but I am not sure how I would do that. I am just too busy with school and my new friends. In conclusion, I do keep up with my high school friends but not as much as I would like.