Anyways, I found out that I had uploaded all of these photos … and never actually posted them! To catch everyone up, I went to Korea two years ago (summer of 2011) and went to a concert at Jeju Island. I posted the video here.

Enough of me blathering… this is late enough as it is. Photos away! (click on each photo for a full-size image… and don’t forget to credit photos to @MtnMadman if you’ll be sharing them!)

This was the very first one after I switched to the new layout:

The artist in the middle is After School’s Lizzy, and the roller coaster is Maverick at Cedar Point. I was very much into futuristic paintings at the time, so the header image reflected my interests.

A few months later, I decided that the header was simply too large, so I shrunk it down a tad:

The future city is gone, replaced by Nokia’s newest flagship phone: the Nokia Lumia 920. Since I was getting invested into the Windows Phone platform at the time (my current phone is a Lumia 900), I thought that I might as well feature it on my blog. The new K-Pop artist flavor of the month is SNSD’s Tiffany. The roller coaster remains Maverick.

Also, I switched the color palette a little, adding some hues of magenta. Along with cyan, these two colors would be featured prominently in my social media presence from now on.

A minor refresh brings us to the above image. My interests had transitioned from Windows Phone to the tech world in general — I was very much excited about Blackberry’s newest effort, the BB10 operating system. The roller coaster is now Blue Fire from Europa-Park, Germany’s largest amusement park. The K-Pop flavor of the month remains as Tiffany; I was originally going to switch it out for another artist, but this photo was simply too cute to pass up.

Overall, it was sort of bland; the colors were too muted, and nothing really struck the eye. The images grew slightly as opposed to the previous iteration, but that’s about all I can say.

The newest design is much brighter, refreshing, and cleaner (hopefully). Apple’s iOS 7 lends an aura of vibrancy, as does the crowd in the Badger home game next to it. Girl’s Day’s Yura is the newest K-Pop artist, and overall, the colors are much more saturated.

No roller coasters; instead, the photo displays the chair-swing ride from Grona Lund, a theme park in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ah, summer. It’s a beautiful time, especially in California, where the sun always shines and sunscreen is a necessity. In fact, I got badly burned on the chest a few days ago, when I underestimated the sheer force of the sun and foolishly fell asleep on the patio. It still hurts.

For the first time in recent memory, my memories of summer aren’t filled with haranguing, loud voices, or frosty silence. Instead, I’m spending my days filled with a sort of happy stupor — reading, lounging, gaming, and learning how to (badly) play the guitar. Just you wait, girl of my dreams. I shall woo you yet. (evil laughter)

The thing that strikes me the most, though, is how differently I’m living, now that all of my Wisconsinite friends, distractions, and worries are far, far away … some farther than others. I’d be lying to myself if I said that summer wasn’t tinged with memories past; however, more important things, people, and friends await me. As does the California sun.

If you need me, I’ll be outside — lounging.

I’ve always loved Mighty Mouth’s collaborations with Soya, including their summer hit LaLaLa – which remains, years after its release, one of my favorite summer songs to ever hit the airwaves. Soya’s voice is tender, a little rough, yet charismatic. It matches perfectly with Mighty Mouth’s strong vocals.

But this one has to be my new favorite:

“You don’t really think she’s watching, do you?”

Jeanie looked up from where she was tracing absent-mindedly on the ground with a stick. “Huh?”

Michael lifted his head up from the sleeping bag he was currently in and looked over at his sister. “You know. How you said … that she would always be with us.”

Scoffing, Jeanie threw the stick away. It clattered off into the darkness; the campfire roared brightly, but its light couldn’t penetrate too far into the pitch-black night. And the forest was thick.

“Of course I didn’t,” she now said, building up the fire some more. She laid down on the ground and threw her own sleeping bag over herself, burrowing under the quilt down. “It’s just fairy tales, Michael. Mom isn’t coming back.”

She stole a glance at her younger brother. They lay next to each other in silence, only punctuated by the soft crackle of the dimming fire. As the light diminished, the stars threw themselves into even clearer focus.

Michael sniffed. “I miss her, Jeanie.”

Jeanie stayed quiet. To be quite honest, she did too. But she wasn’t about to say so in front of Michael, because it was up to her to keep some level heads around. And she couldn’t do that if she kept escaping into a dream world, where mom was here, and it was daylight, and the campfire wouldn’t exist…

“Look, Michael.” Jeanie now roused her brother. “Look at the stars.”

Michael blinked sleepily. “Why?”

Jeanie smiled, although she was herself tired and the act of smiling took a toll on her muscles. “I think I can see mom.”

It was Michael’s turn to scoff. “No, you can’t. You said so yourself.”

“Well, maybe I lied,” Jeanie winked. “And the stars are a bit brighter now. Maybe she can see you, too.”

Despite himself, Michael narrowed his eyes, trying to see into the murky night. “No, I can’t – I can’t see anything.” He sighed and leaned back into his sleeping bag. “Maybe she really is gone,” he mumbled.

Also disappointed, Jeanie closed her eyes. Even though she – of course – hadn’t expected anything to happen, she thought maybe she could cheer up Michael. She had done the complete opposite.

“Look, Michael – I’m sorry,” she now mumbled, sleep and fatigue washing over her. “I’m sure mom’s out there somewh – “

She was interrupted by a gasp. Jeanie opened her eyes to see Michael with twinkling eyes and his face shining. ”Hey! I think I see her!” He pointed upwards. “I just … I just think I saw something. You should’ve seen it!”

Jeanie looked on as a grin spread across her younger brother. “She really was watching after all,” Michael told her.

She bit back a sigh and a lump in her throat. If only.

I’m a huge fan of the way that Marvel Studios has handled their cinematic universe. Even more so than the individual films themselves – which, don’t get me wrong, are amazing on their own – is the way that they’ve tied everything together, creating reoccurring characters and story arcs within the universe.

The next step in Marvel’s universe is set to hit the television screen very soon: ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’ revolves around the non-superpowered set of characters working in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (or SHIELD for short).

The first teaser is only seven seconds long, but it’s better than nothing. And it still gets me pumped.

If you didn’t know, today is Star Wars Day!

Although it started out as a pun on May 4th and the words “may the force be with you”, it’s grown into an international (albeit unofficial) holiday.

So: May the Fourth be with you!

“Not…not like this.”

I stare wistfully across the distant openness of the sea, the sunset surf pounding against the coastal rocks with tremendous roars while the seagulls squawked in harmony, gliding across the yellowing sky.

It almost drowns out our conversation.

Almost.

“How else would you have wanted it?”

I watch as she takes a stray strand of hair, twirling it around her index finger like candy maker would with a long string of taffy. I feel like pushing her into the ocean, but I’m pretty sure she’ll take me down with her.

“I didn’t mean it in this way.”

And I know what she means – none of had really thought about the after, preferring to focus on the now and the present, since they were hard enough to deal by themselves.

But, as it always does, we all have to face the after sometime.

“Well, we’re here, like it or not.” I say, a bit roughly, and immediately regret it as I watch her face turn slightly ashen. I hurry to explain. “That’s not – ”

“No, it’s okay.” She cuts me off. “It’s true, after all.”

I ponder it for a minute. Yes, it is.

“It’s funny.” I say aloud, mostly to fill the void.

“What is?”

“It just…is.” I start throwing random pebbles that I found in the cracks of the lonely rock we’re both sitting on. They arc across the air and fall down, down, down until they plop! into the foaming surf and vanish into the maelstrom.

“What’s so different from coming here before, and coming here after?” She asks, kind of rhetorically. I wonder if I should answer it or not – her mind already seems to be on other things – and I decide to sneak my way out with a humorous answer. Hopefully she’ll at least laugh.

“Well, first…no worries.”

She doesn’t even crack a smile. Her façade remains as unemotional as ever; sometimes, I wonder if she has any emotions at all, then I remember that yes, she does.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen that side of her, though.

I hear the broadcasting call of the bullhorn that draws us like moths to a flame. “We have to go in.” I say, and am about to stand up and jump back to the mainland when she suddenly grabs my ankle and I nearly lose my balance, about to tumble into the ocean five feet below, and when I gradually retrieve my inner balance through some egregious arm-twirling, I shoot her a venomous look that, in happier times, would have gained a nervous giggle.

But today, she’s just looking up at me with those dark brown eyes of hers, unblinking and uncaring, and I don’t know what she wants, and I just don’t care anymore, and I’ve given up on ever –

“Don’t go.”

Her whisper carries across the squawking of the seagulls, the gushing of the tides, the bullhorn of the people, the whistling of the breeze, to penetrate my brain and immediately halt my train of thought in its tracks.

We must’ve made a peculiar sight – me, standing at the edge of the rock, her sprawled over it, her hands clutching at my ankle, her eyes looking up at me – a peculiar sight, indeed.

But something pretty interesting about peculiarity is that it usually goes hand-in-hand with notability. Meaning: it’s important in some way.

“Don’t go.”

I think this could possibly be important in some way. Just perhaps.

I sit myself back down, crossing my legs and watching as she sits back up herself, combing her hair with her fingers out of slight embarrassment.

“Don’t go?” I ask.

She hesitates, then nods.

I feel a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. “Well. And whatever happened to not like this?”

She avoids my gaze – I find that ridiculously cute, like I’ve always done, and in the back of my head, I just know something good’s going to come my way. And she doesn’t disappoint.

“Like this…is fine.”

It’s always, always bittersweet when you force yourself to say goodbye to someone you love. Maybe this song will take the edge off – it did for me.

“Never say goodbye, hello…”

This song opened up a whole new world for me when I discovered that I loved African instrumental music. Ever since I first stumbled upon this Swahili prayer song, I’ve been spending my days on YouTube, looking up new African instruments, voices, and chorales.

Here’s hoping that “Baba Yetu” sets you down on the same path!