Saturday, March 27, 2010

Kaien and Dracul Commission by Aetherfax: Sketch

A husky friend of mine (the brother of my mate), showed me a pic of him done by an artist known as Aetherfax.  I loved the style and had been looking for a professional to draw a pic of me and Dracul.  So, I got Aeth's email, made contact, and put in for a commission.  Silence is a good thing as it means work is being done.  Good things are worth waiting for, and once the sketch was emailed to me, I was utterly impressed.  Keep in mind, this is just the sketch.  The final piece will be nothing short of amazing.

To see more of Aetherfax's amazing work, and to put in for a commission of your own, visit:  Aetherfax on Fur Affinity

AZ Trip Part II and III

Oops, so yeah, this will encompass parts II and III of my trip.  Got to AZ thursday evening and my time was preoccupied with my boyfriend and homework, haha.  Now, we're in Las Vegas at the Sahara, staying for the weekend.

So, picking up where I left off last, Colorado Springs.  Of course, couldn't see this at night, but in the morning as I was packing the truck, I caught a view that blew me away:


Amazing, to me anyways.  Haven't been through Colorado in a number of years so the change in scenery was most welcome.  Leaving the hotel, more could be seen:

View just got better as I drove south towards New Mexico


Before crossing into New Mexico, stopped for some gas/food in Trinidad, CO.  There, I saw a homeless guy with his dog.  Felt sorry for him and his German Shepard, so I bought them lunch and gave them some money.  He wasn't the type to spend it on booze.  Looking back, I should have asked where he was headed since all he had was a rucksack.  It was comforting to see as I left, others helping him and his dog out too.

After crossing into New Mexico

Stopped off at historic Route 66

The drive was pretty straight forward, no mishaps.  Coming down to Phoenix from Flagstaff was fun with the hills.  After spending thursday night with the BF, we packed up and left Tempe around 2pm to head for Vegas.  This was a cool drive through the desert.  I will be snapping pics on the way back for sure.  Crossed a huge canyon that was absolutely stunning and of course the Hoover Dam!  I was like a little pup all over again.  We got to the dam around 8:30pm so it was dark and I didn't stop to take pics, but it was amazing!  I have never been to the Hoover Dam, so it was quite the experience.  We are going to stop on the way back since we will reach it during the day.

That's it for now.  Time to go hit the strip with my firedragon and be curious tourists.  I miss this city.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

AZ Trip Part I

Thank goodness for free, public, w-fi at hotels.  Let's see, I'm about 20 miles south of Colorado Springs en route to Arizona.  I figure, what better way to start off a blog than with a trip!  Haha

Anyways, I am on my way to Tempe, AZ to visit my boyfriend.  Yay for long-distance relationships!  Once I am done with school though, we will move in together, and I finish in May, so it's not too long of a wait.  However, I have been given the opportunity to drive west again, something that I have not done in about 8 years.

I left Minneapolis around 12pm with the truck loaded up and filled up with 36 gallons of diesel, and started on my journey.  I used to not look forward to driving through Iowa until earlier this year when I had started seeing someone in Ames.  We are the best of friends to this day and it felt kind of awkward to keep driving past his exit and not stop to see him (he was at work anyways, so even to grab a bite or a cup of coffee would have been out of the question!).  A phone call would suffice but we plan on grabbing dinner or something on my return trip.


Okay, so why a pic of a wind farm in IA?  Well, I figured I would snap this shot since in my chemistry class, we have been talking about alternative energy sources, and wind energy is something that has been brought up on many occasions.  Plus, they are kind of cool to see.

After heading into Des Moines, I headed west-ward into Nebraska.  Longest drive of my life (no offense to any Nebraska-dwellers, but seriously, 7 hours in one state...).  Pretty uneventful other than smelling manure at various places along the way.  Stopped in Kearney for dinner, which was Quizno's, yum.


The truck was clean when I left Minneapolis!  Hit some rain in Iowa.  After trudging along through Nebraska, hit the Colorado boarder at around 9:45pm.  It was odd seeing snow on the ground again.  I thought I left it all behind in MN(even though it's mostly melted back home)!  I guess Denver got hit with some snow a few days ago.  I saw more than a few cars off road, stuck in snow banks.  Actually, as we got out of Denver, heading south on I-25, we saw a Jeep flipped over in the middle of the freeway.  I wanted to grab my camera and take a pic, but figured the authorities on the scene wouldn't appreciate it, so I kept on going.  Driving through the foothills at night was still very beautiful.  On the return trip, I should be passing through during the day so I will take some pics.

 
Filling up at a Love's somewhere in Colorado, I think just outside of Denver.  Yeah, no artsy shots of the truck.  I don't feel like finding a nice spot to snap a pic since I am trying to make decent time to AZ.  So far the truck has been doing great, averaging about 16.5-17.5mpg cruising at 75-80mph.  Not too bad for a bolt-ons 6.0 Powerstroke.


Okay, so why the pic of a MicroFridge?  Another school related thing.  Just finished a case study for my ENTR 450 class on the MicroFridge company, then I see it at the hotel I stopped at for the night.  Kind of cool, I guess.

Well, that's it for now.  It's 4am and I am waking up at 8:30am to hit the road by 9 so I can get to AZ at a reasonable time.  I still have a 6 page essay to type for school that needs to be emailed to my professor by 4pm on Friday.  That should turn out to be an interesting read after driving for another 10 hours on minimal sleep, written the night before it's due.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  Stay tuned for Part II when I arrive in AZ.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Project Spartan 117 Launch

First, welcome, and thank you for visiting my blog, projectSpartan 117.  I have always had a knack for covering events and telling stories, reporting about my experiences.  Instead of keeping these thoughts to myself, I figure, hey why not share it with the world?  I have some unique tastes and interests, melding the world of cars and video games together.  Seems like an interesting mix.  The name, quite simple really, I love Halo.  The "project" part comes from my business, NL Projects.  Stick the two together, and voila, projectSpartan 117.

If the description didn't do it's job, this blog will cover various automotive events, gaming events, and other events related to my interests (and I have quite a wide variety).  Also, expect features on local cars/trucks/bikes, the latest in Halo news, tattoo features from The Canvas Tattoo Studio (www.thecanvastattoostudio.com), and a plethora of other things like cool pictures, drawings, and videos.

Anyways, thanks for checking in, and hope you stay along for the ride.  I leave for Tempe, AZ tomorrow so that should provide plenty of content to get me started on this fun journey of blogging.