Pre-Thanksgiving Pizza

The night before Thanksgiving my family all got together in Tulsa, Oklahoma (where we always go for Thanksgiving) and went out for some pizza. We were going to try a new place, that is supposed to be pretty good, but when we got there it was packed, and there was a 40 minute wait. None of us were having that, so we went up the street to the Hideaway. Now, I’ve written about the Hideaway before, so I’ll keep it brief. It is good pizza, and I’ve been going there my whole life. That’s about all you need to know for this post. Also, it was not crowded at all. I guess everyone was up the street at the new place.

They sat us in this outdoor/indoor patio area. It was outdoors, but it was enclosed and had big heaters overhead. I got a picture of one of them. I’ve never been in a tanning bed, but I’m pretty sure I know what it feels like now, because this thing was really beating down on me. It was cold outside, but toasty in there.

I don’t really have much else to say about this trip to the Hideaway. It was good, and the food was good. I had planned on shooting nothing but my Hassy on Thanksgiving, so I decided to give my old friend the 20D some work that night. It’s a good camera; just an all-around good camera. Sure, it doesn’t have all the things a 5D Mark II has, but I don’t need all of that (although I would like to play around with a dSLR with full video capabilities). Anyway, enjoy these digital pictures.

Hollywood

I’ll be honest with you (when am I not?), I wasn’t impressed with Hollywood. I went there a couple times, once at night and once during the day. The day was much more manageable, but still nothing too exciting. At night it was a zoo, an absolute zoo; weirdos and partiers everywhere. During the day it was homeless people and tourists; better than at night, but still pretty crowded.

I went down there because I felt like I had to see it and give it a chance. I also used it as an opportunity to see a movie at the ArcLight Theater, which boasts having a very loud sound system (which it definitely does) in each of their theaters; specs that beat THX standards. That was kind of cool, but since I’m already being honest, I’ll tell you that it just sounded like it was turned up a little too loud. It didn’t help that I saw Iron Man 2, which had some big explosions.

I found it interesting and frustrating that it was so hard to get a good view of the Hollywood sign. For such an iconic sign, there sure weren't a lot of good views. Most of the views are just off of residential streets, and you’re pretty far away. Earlier in the year my Mom and Brother were out visiting and we couldn’t get a good view of it. My brother wanted pictures but we never really found a good spot, so I came back and got a few for him.

Honestly, I didn’t mean to make this a negative blog post. Everyone should make their own decisions about Hollywood. And if you want a good view of the Hollywood sign, bring a zoom lens. You could also trespass, but I wouldn’t recommend that.

Old Timey Fortress

As I mentioned in my last post, we got to tour an old fortress in San Juan. It was a cool place, and probably would have been more interesting if we had taken a real tour. What we did do was wander around and look at stuff, which was fairly interesting on its own. Below are the results of my self-guided tour, in picture form.




Proof that Puerto Rico is indeed part of the United States!


Want to initiate a siege against Puerto Rico? This might be a good place to start.


See? A great view of a capital looking building. I wouldn't do it though, because as I established, Puerto Rico is part of the US.




There were lots of dark corridors all over the place. Maybe you could blindly shoot some arrows out of this? I don't think that's a great idea though.


This might be a better place to shoot an arrow.. or a gun since that's a more effective weapon in modern times.


There's a pretty good view of the ocean, I promise.


I'd wager that this is the only kind of shooting that goes on in this fortress anymore. It's a good kind of shooting for sure.


They do have a little heavier artillery, although it's all cemented together.


On the inside of the fortress there were all sorts of buildings and barracks.


This one held cots and some pretty sharp looking military uniforms.




There was religious shrine in there too.


I hope you've enjoyed this fairly odd tour. ¡Adios! (They speak Spanish there, you see)

Old San Juan

The last day of our cruise was spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we also began our journey. The difference was that we had all morning to spend there on the way out, whereas we went straight from the airport to the ship on the way in. To pass the time we took a bus tour of new and old San Juan. These pictures are all from the old San Juan, specifically an area that had a lot of shops. Our bus stopped here for a while so we just wandered around and took it all in.

It was really hot and humid that day (what else is new for Puerto Rico, right?). My stepdad found a little restaurant and sat down and got a drink while my brother and I wandered with my mom. Eventually we got really hot and went to have a seat in the restaurant, but it wasn’t much relief from the heat. The fan was nice, but not nearly enough.

Despite the heat, I enjoyed seeing this area. The buildings there are all so colorful and pretty. We also toured an old fortress, of which I have many pictures. But those will have to wait for another day.

Why not

It's been a while since I've taken any pictures of myself, and when I got home there was just enough light left to snap a few pictures of what I was wearing today. This sweater is pretty much my favorite sweater, and although it looks excellent with the bow tie in the last picture under it, I wore a long tie today. I thought about changing to the bow tie for the pictures, but how could I resist that little dimple under the knot? I simply couldn't!

Yeah, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to men's clothes. I'm way too into them. If I'm at my computer and I'm not on Flickr, there's a good chance I'm perusing a menswear blog instead. It can definitely be an expensive obsession sometimes, but so are cameras!

To Holga by Boat

Although it doesn't exactly feel like it, summer is definitely over. Since that is the case, I wanted to try to post a few pictures that wouldn't exactly be appropriate for winter. And what is less appropriate for winter than summer? Sadly, these are not from last summer, but the one before; this summer was so hectic for all of us that we never got a chance to get out on the boat. Next summer though.. there will be boating. Until then, I'll just have to look at pictures. Pictures like these.

Mixx it up

My ladyfriend recently introduced me to what is now one of my favorite restaurants in Kansas City. It’s a place called The Mixx, and they feature a lot of locally grown food, purchased from local businesses that specialize in that sort of thing. While that’s all well and good, the real reason I like it is because this Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich on a croissant is freaking good. While everything is prepared quickly, it’s all on the healthy side of the spectrum, and you can’t complain about that. Salads seem to be their bread and butter, if you will, but they have a pretty decent sized menu overall. My only complaint is the seating. The dining area is a huge open room with tables everywhere. It reminds me a little of a cafeteria at a ski resort, which give me endless amounts of anxiety. Luckily it’s not as crowded as a ski resort in this place, so finding a table hasn’t been too difficult. I’d definitely recommend this joint for a lighter dinner or lunch that will be tasty and healthy.

Oh, a quick note on the pictures. I shot them with this awesome Lomography Redscale XR 50-200 film. Although the tones rendered are normally awesome, they definitely do not recreate accurate skin tones.