So last night, I prepared myself to watch Archer at my friends dorm. So, I practiced some singing in our performing arts center, and went to pick up a salad from one of the dining halls. Nothing on the ground at all, it was just a little cold outside. I walked on over to the dorm and we played some FIFA and watched some TV. It was only an hour later when we decided to go to the market to pick up some extra food. We peer out the window, and cutting through the dark night sky was snow. It every direction. Swirling and driving, it was already piling up on the ground. Normally I love snow, especially when I get to go sledding. On a side note, sledding down a hill with a lot of people on an old mattress is loads of fun. Anyway, I usually enjoy a good snow. But of course, this is Ohio, where it is acceptable to have a day of above fifty degree weather, and two days later have cold and snow. Then I wake up for class today and of course, it's a solid 5 degrees with ice on the ground, just what I was looking forward too.
In high school had this happened, I would have looked forward to the likely two hour delay I would get, to catch up on sleep and the homework I didn't do the night before. If I was lucky, the big districts would get scared and even stop bus service, which meant that I would have no school, and could make friends with my Playstation until it was time to sled, then arrive back home to warm hot chocolate with marshmallows. Nothing beats marshmallows in hot chocolate, although whipped cream on the top is a solid addition.
The only partly acceptable part of this frigid weather staying around is that the local ponds are freezing over again as I type, meaning: Pond Hockey. Or just pond skating or sliding in general. Sure it's not the safest idea in the world but it's defiantly one of the most rewarding, and somehow natural feeling activities to take part of in Winter.
Well, that class that I just had to wake up for is calling me....
As you will soon learn, I love hockey. I love watching it (Go Blackhawks), playing video games of it, and most of all, actually playing out on the ice. So to help me improve my skills instead of just stick handling in my basement and shooting against the wall, I decided to take a hockey class. This meant that now I would no longer just be skating on weekends, but four out of five school days too. I quickly learned that we wouldn't just be skating leisurely, but we would be skating hard. I have finally acquired the ability to hockey stop...well actually just stop in general, and skate backwards. Now that I can skate better and feel more confident on the ice, I am able to use better hockey vision, especially involving the boards and glass. To go off on a quick tangent, this has also helped improve my safety when I play in leagues. Last year, I suffered a minor concussion when I was boarded during an intramural game. For those of you that don't know, boarding is when a player is checked or pushed violently into the boards in a way that may cause injury It was very similar to Niklas Kronwall being hit into the boards a while ago.
Even as a Blackhawks fan, I hate watching anything like this, no matter whether the team is a rival or not. This is so similar to what happened to me, I saw the puck back in my zone, skated over to posses it, looked but did not notice the defender behind me and boom....out. Woke up with my helmet off and my face on the ice. For some reason, the linesman was telling me to put my helmet back on, but I wasn't really sure what was happening to begin with. Looking back on it, it was my fault that I fell straight into the boards because of the choice I made on stopping. If I had hockey stopped, I would not have hit the boards directly with my head. Thankfully, both Kronwall and myself are fine and back on the ice.
Back to my latest issue, my sudden increase in skating has caused great pain in my legs as I try to rush back and forth to and from classes. I visited my local physical therapist, and they determined that I am suffering from mild shin splints. *sigh* I just want to be on the ice, I don't want to take a break! But this weekend, I will sit in the stands for two games and stay away from the ice. All for my hockey future.
In other news, go Hawks! (Both Black and Red!)
PS - We worked on celebrations this Wednesday and it was glorious. If you are playing NHL 13 anytime soon, make sure to score a goal and use the left trigger to celebrate. My favorite one!
Here, in Hilton Head, it appears that the pig is trying to blend in with the birds. It took me at least an hour to find his whereabouts in this picture.
I'm not sure how he got up there and hid from all those people, but at least we know that he uses planes to get here. That's step one to unraveling this mystery!
From this anonymous photo, it is clear that the piggie is prone to hitching rides on random international airplanes, which helps explain the next picture.
Way back many years ago, there was a terror that roamed Niagra Falls and the surrounding waterways. As you can see here in this rare black and white footage, it would emerge from the water to frighten the visitors to the natural wonder. It has not been spotted for many, many years.
I just loved the contrast between sections of the water in this shot, the brief interruption of the colored trees, then another sea of blue in the sky.
Just to continue with the Rome theme, here is the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. Remember though, this was shot many years ago on an old camera, and I was not yet very experienced with photography. These are, however, the stepping stones that led me to enjoy photography. What I loved about this instance here, is the water flowing over the rocks. The water is slightly blurred, which gives it a sense of motion, but the motion is frozen in time, immortalizing this moment.
This picture is another from my trip to Rome years ago. It shows the Obelisk in front of St. Peter's Cathedral, blocking out the sun. This is an interesting viewpoint, and in a way seems to parallel the current state of the church it represents, in a shroud of darkness. Remember though, the sun will always continue to rise.
Like my last picture, this picture was taken in the winter, but the main difference is that this is in Hilton Head! Fun fact: All four of the pictures I've posted so far have been shot with a different camera!
This picture is one of my favorites. After spending a whole day at a snowy park, I hadn't gotten a single picture I was truly happy with. As I was walking up the steps to my house though, I saw this bird. I whipped out the camera snapped this picture. I loved it. I love the depth of field, and the clarity of the bird, along with his perfect pose. I don't think I'll ever get a better winter photo than this one!
This picture was the first I took with my Canon T3. I love the ability of DSLR's to show a large depth of focus over a small area, and I thought this was a unique perspective of my simple backlit laptop keyboard.
I took this picture using my first camera, the Konica Minolta Dimage Z10 while traveling through Italy with my friend. I stabilized the camera on the edge of a bridge for this magnificent view.
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