Doing A Tile Painting Of The Great Wave Over Kanagawa. It's Taking A Long Time To Do But Is Going To

For us here in Chicago spring has finally arrived. I know it's almost May but here it seems like we have been cut back to only two seasons, winter and summer with maybe two weeks of fall and spring (if we're lucky). So with hopefully just three or four more days of 30 degree weather left, it's time to break out the camping gear!

Me (Jake) and my girlfriend Allison live in a one bedroom apartment in the city with our cat Turd Ferguson (Turdie for short). Even though there's a park across the street it doesn't fulfill the desire we get to be outside. This is a blog for us to share our outdoor experiences and love of nature. Enjoy! 

At the end of the month Allison and I will be moving into a new, nicer apartment. It's very exciting and big step for us as a couple. The only problem is that we've been having trouble with the rental company. They're very dodgy with any questions we might have and today I tried to drop off the security deposit and couldn't find their office at the address they gave me.

I'll admit I'm a bit paranoid of a person but Allison is starting to get worried now too, which worries me :/

I don't think I'm allowed to get up this morning

At the Doctor Who themed wedding I was in this weekend was a collapsable Tardis I designed to be build by myself and the other groomsmen. It took most of the summer to build but was worth it to see the bride freak out by the surprise.

Side note- It took all summer because I appeared to be the only groomsmen who new how to use basic tools... so it was a building experience in more ways than one.

Every day there are several things that happen which moves me that much closer to selling all my things for a hill somewhere I can into a hobbit hole to spend my days reading, ignoring people and the government. Yeah, that'd be nice.

Campsite breakfast.

It's been a rough winter. Fingers crossed it's almost over.

Beorn the skin changer

I have long been a fan of the LOTR books with the Hobbit being my favorite. I think it's because I read it at a young age and t was able to make a nice impact on my imagination. Anyways I was excited when I heard about the Hobbit movies and couldn't wait to see one of my favorite minor characters, Beorn, on the big screen.

Needless to say I was disappointed.

Not only did they skip over the chance to lead nicely into the film with some down time at Beorn's house which would have allowed them to reestablish the plot prepare everyone for the events that would later happen in the movie, but they also cut down the content from the book drastically. Why go into the appendices and pull out extra information to help extend film time and then cut short scenes that are actually in the book  itself.

I don't want to be totally negative about the movie, it did have some great parts and as always the people at Weta did a fantastic job with the set, props and design work. However, I recently got a chance to look through the "Desolation of Smaug" design book that is out on the market (available on amazon below).

http://amzn.com/0062265695

All I can say after looking at all the designs made for the Beorn character is that they picked the wrong one. There were some truely fantastic concept ideas that were much more closely related to the book's description. Understandably you want the dwarves to look distinctly different so that you can tell the 13 of them apart, but there is no way anyone could mistake the giant Beorn for a tiny dwarf, so why try to make him look like one? Luckily the got all 30 seconds of screen time for his bear form right at least.

Into the Fall

Last weekend Allison and I took a trip with friends up to Wisconsin for our last fall adventure before it got too damn cold. As usual it was so magically perfect that I had trouble coming back to the city.