Pumpkin hunting and Halloween

A few weekends ago Travis put together a trip to the pumpkin patch near his parents house. After a great ferry ride in the morning and a short drive up the hood canal we arrived at their house. I want to say thank you first to Travis's parents for letting us come and have such a great time in their home, and second to Travis for putting this together. Also I want to say thanks for everyone that came along. It wouldn't of been the same without all you guys. That being said we set out in search of the best pumpkins we could find after piling into Travis dads truck. That's eight people in one truck. Arriving at the farm we were greeted by a tractor that pulled a huge cart behind it out to the pumpkin patch. It was a bumpy ride(you can see this in the video) but fun. Once out in the field we all found some good pumpkins for carving and rode back. On the way back the was a field adjacent to the pumpkin patch full of cows. One of the cows found a hole in the fence and decided to go for it. This in turn created a whole stampede of cows running straight at us looking for food. It was pretty funny, and I've never seen cows run so fast. Those things move when foods involved! After buying our pumpkins and piling back into the truck we were welcomed back to Travis's parents with encilandas. After stuffing myself with too much food we all played a game of cranium. Sadly all good times have to end sooner or later and after the game we (Elizabeth and I) had to head out. On the way back we got to see an amazing sunset in the hood canal on the way home. All in all one of the best days of fall I've ever had. Fall colors, pumpkins, fall sunset, cool crisp air, and good friends.

Halloween has now gone. But I have pictures of the pumpkins we got!!!!!(and some video). Here are Elizabeth's and my jack o lanterns. We had about fifteen trick or treaters this year. Which is nice to see people still actually going out and exploring the neighborhoods for candy.

What a great October!

Haunt part 2

Here's the second video I did for field of screams. I got the raw footage, cut it, added the effects, and then pieced it back together. This video plays while you wait in line to get in, an orientation video if you will. One thing that gets lost on here(the blog due to the recomp of the video) are the scratches and dirt I added in to make it feel more gritty. The sound is a little hot and cold but that was part of the wanted end result.

Sketch

The sketch.....

and the final....

Haunt

One of the people I work with runs a haunt out in Snohomish called Field of Screams. I've been fortunate to have been asked to do graphics for a lot of the promo. Check out the website( http://www.stockerfarms.com/page9803.asp?pid=13455&tid=13455 ). If you get in the Halloween spirit and want a good scare, go to the best haunt in the area. Here's one of the promo videos(more to come).

Sketch

I've been super busy with a ton of work this week and last(more posts on the way). This weeks sketch a quick fun shark.

The sketch....

...and the final.

Shawn Kemp

One of my favorite videos with one of my favorite players. No one could dunk in traffic like the Reign Man.

New Shoes

Saturday I picked up a new pair of the newest top Nike shoe, the Hyperdunk. The hype behind these was that they are the lightest basketball shoe ever made. I'm usually never one to believe the hype till I try it out. To many gimmicks. If you can jump, you can jump. Shoes won't make you Jordan or Kobe(if that's why you're buying shoes you need to invest some money into seeing a shrink instead). Playing ball is the only way to get better. Shoes won't change a thing.

That being said the advertising behind these(which has been pulled but can be found on youtube) is that you'll be dunking all over the place. Just about every Olympic basketball team had them too. Different countries all had their colors. So I was intrigued as to how good of a shoe they were with so much advertising and money put into it.

The first thing I noticed as I opened the box were the clear sides of the shoe. Looking closer you could see the threading that ran through it. Interesting. The next thing that really struck me was when I pulled one out of the box how light it was. The ads weren't joking, it was light.

But I still didn't have it on my foot. So I slid em on and laced them up. Stood up and walked around to get a feel. Felt pretty good, a little stiff but that would go away in a few games. Most shoes need some breaking in anyhow. So I bought them and walked out the store.

The real test was last night. The first on court testing. They didn't fail. In fact they've got to be one of my favorite pairs I've ever had. They were grippy but not overly so. The had some ankle support but not to much so they stayed loose. They also were really cushy for being so light. Two things that I thought would happen were one, they wouldn't absorb impact being light, and two the material the sides were made from would either be weak and scratch and scuff easy or too rigid. They were perfect and in all honesty it felt like I was barefoot.

I'd highly recommend these shoes to anyone playing basketball. They easily surpassed my expectations.