Video Blitz

I have seen a whole bunch of great videos recently, and I wanted to compile them into one blog post to share them all. Because they are awesome. Enjoy. :)

The first video is from MysteryGuitarMan. He was the first YouTuber I ever followed, it was because of him that I discovered a wealth of independent talent on YouTube. This video is one of his best in a long time. For anyone interested, all the clips that are featured in the video are from other YouTubers.



The next video is another one that just made me laugh. A guy doing a Gollum impression covering a Taylor Swift song. You just need to watch it. :p



I hear this song every day at the store where I work, and I have to say, I like this version so much better. :D

The next video is a dance video. It is amazing. Watch it.



Next is an ad for Dennys. Why would I like a video from Denny's so much? It was made by Rhett and Link, and it is hilarious!



The next one is a sequel to the last one, and is just as funny.



This next one is a time lapse video of Riga, Latvia. I love time lapse videos in general, but this one seems especially unique to me. I really like it.



This last video I am sharing because it made me laugh harder than anything I've seen in a very long time. Seriously. I was in stitches the entire time. I have rewatched this so many times now, I have lost count. :D

Hello World!

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know I haven't died... I just haven't had time for blogging recently. I hope to get back into it soon, but I just have way too much going on with school these days. The activity on my blog has not died in my absence though, strangely enough, I get a steady stream of traffic daily, just not from anyone I know. Here's proof.

This is just the past week, but it is normal for my blog. Every time I check, it looks like this, just with different countries. Part of the reason has to do with with my posts on the Professional Bull Riders competition we went to last year. There is almost always something related to the PBR in the search terms listed that brought traffic to my blog. The biggest reason for the traffic though, is Lindsey Stirling. Since I've written more than one post about her, and she is currently getting more and more famous, those posts get LOTS of hits. Also, and very weirdly, is my post about Latvia. I get lots of hits on that one, and in the list of search terms that brings people to my blog there is almost always something to do with Latvian desserts, or rupjmaize. I suppose that could be why. It is not very likely that many other people are going to be writing about rupjmaize on their blogs. Actually, outside of Latvia, I doubt there are many websites period that are going to feature anything about Latvian rye bread.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope to make some more posts soon, I have material to write about, and pictures to post, it's just finding time to write and edit that's the trouble. The semester will be over soon though, so hopefully I'll have more time this summer.

‘Shopping

Perhaps it’s because I took a Photoshop class this semester, but I can no longer just look up pictures to use on my blog without seeing a whole bunch of things wrong with them. I simply must mess with them and make them better before I use them. All the pictures I used in my Latvia/Nepal post were all Photoshopped before they went on my blog. They all started out as just a random picture brought up on Google, and I nipped, tucked, and color corrected them until I liked them. There isn’t any massive differences, so I won’t go into too much detail, but I’ll share a few with you so you can see what I mean.

My favorite edit was the map of Latvia. I didn’t even do much, and I actually didn’t even have to use Photoshop. I just corrected some highlights with the standard software that was already on my computer, and I accidentally got this!

The map of Nepal was a bit more difficult. All I had was this little Thumbnail, and of course blowing it up to a usable size made it look all pixilated, so I had to do some major editing.

Another one was the Latvian Rye bread. The picture was ok, but I felt it needed something more.

See what a difference just a bit of cropping and color correction can make?

My other favorite was the Latvian dessert. That one I also didn’t do much, just some cropping, color correction, and rotating.

Just a little bit of editing and the addition of the border turns a regular old picture-from-internet into something just a bit more special I think. :)

Yesterday someone posted a picture on facebook that I found really funny. It wasn’t the picture itself that was funny, but the caption they had put on it. I though about making a blog post and just having that picture, but I usually don’t like doing that. I like my blog posts to have a larger point to them. Plus I thought the picture needed a lot of improvement. So I decided to severely alter it, and then share it in this post about picture editing. So, here is the “Before” picture:

Their eyes of course really bugged me. They look rather “dead” if you ask me, so that had to be fixed, plus I didn’t like that they were facing away from the blank space in the picture. Most people probably wouldn’t notice little details like that, but I guess because I am going to art school, composition is something that I notice a lot more now than I used to.

To make it better and get it to the point where I would want to share the joke on my blog, I did some pretty major editing on it. I cropped it, cut off their heads and flipped them around, painted their eyes in, and color corrected the whole thing. Here is the “After picture.

The final step was to add the hilarious caption.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets the joke. :D

 

“We didn’t see any crows get killed,” Violet said.
“’Murder’ is the word for a group of crows, like a flock of geese, or a herd of cows, or a convention of orthodontists.”

2 Countries 8 Facts

I am getting down to the final stretch! Next week is finals week and I have been studying harder than ever this week trying to get ready. Today I never left my room, except for, you know, eating and stuff… I’m still in my pajamas from last night, and it is currently… Um… Very, very late at night… Again… :p But it was all worth it because I completely finished a huge research paper and an assignment for Geography where we were to find 4 facts each about two different countries. (Though because I am somewhat of a nerd, I beefed up all the facts, so they each contain a bunch of sub-facts. Maybe I’ll get bonus points! :D ) The countries could be anywhere in South America, Europe, Asia, or North Africa. Since I know you are all dying for some interesting Geographical trivia, ;) I decided to share my findings with all of you. Aren’t you excited? Hooray for knowledge! :D

For my first country I chose Latvia, as I have friends whose family immigrated from Latvia, one of whom has now returned, having married a Latvian, and they are currently raising a family there. The second country I chose purely because I wanted to incorporate some aspect of Cryptozoology into my report. I chose Nepal, because it is one of the two counties in which the Himalayas are located. The Himalayas being the home of the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. :p

You guys are all lucky because, as this is my blog, I decided that I would illustrate my report for you. So much more interesting than the one my teacher has to grade! :D

Latvia

The name Latvia is spelled Latvija in the Latvian language and this comes from the ancient Latgallians, or Letts, one of four tribes, who formed the ethnic core of today’s Latvian people. In written sources, they are first mentioned in the 11th century, but not much is known of the origins of these tribes.

One of the staples of the Latvian diet is Rupjmaize, a dark bread made from rye.

Using rye bread for something other than sandwiches would be pretty unheard of here in the U.S., but in Latvia, it is used to make Rupjmaizes kartojums, a traditional Latvian dessert. Layered like a trifle, this dessert uses jam or preserves, along with a rye bread crumb mixture and whipped cream.

Often it is garnished with more bread crumbs and fresh fruit to give it an attractive appearance.

Latvia's national bird is the White Wagtail, so named for the way its tail moves as it runs along the ground.

No one knows why the wagtail is constantly wagging its tail, but reasons for it have been hypothesized, from a submissive signal to other wagtails, to a sign of vigilance that deters predators.

Although the origins of the Christmas tree are disputed by historians, one of the first documented uses in history is from Latvia. In 1510 an evergreen was erected for their celebration in the town hall square in Riga, Latvia.

The grandest building on the square, the House of Blackheads has a domed plaque in front of it, marking the location of this first celebration.

 

Nepal

Early sources refer to the country as Nepala, and the name Nepal is believed to come from the word "Nepa" referring to the Newar Kingdom, which is the present day Kathmandu Valley. Local legends say that a Hindu sage named "Ne" came to the valley in prehistoric times and that the word "Nepal" means, "The country looked after by Ne".

Nepal contains some of the highest mountain peaks on earth. One of these mountains is Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain in the entire world.

Although the height is disputed and Nepal is planning a new survey, the current accepted height of the mountain is 29,029 ft. The mountain is the home of what may be the highest non-microscopic life form on earth, the Euophrys omnisuperstes, a tiny jumping spider.

It is thought that the spider may feed on small frozen insects blown there on the wind.

Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular in shape.

The red in the flag stands for courage, and is the color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, and the flag's blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the calm nature of the Nepalese people, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of the Nepalese warriors.

Nepal is one of two countries said to be the home of one of the most famous legendary monsters of today, known as the Yeti, or, more popularly, the Abominable Snowman.

The Yeti is said to live in the Himalayas, a mountain region spanning both Nepal and Tibet. The name Yeti comes from a Tibetan word for bear, as some believe that the Yeti is a Man-Bear. Most descriptions given of this creature make it out to be a giant ape, similar to the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North America.

So, there you have it. All you never knew you needed to know about Latvia and Nepal. :)