I'm not quite ready for this impending zombie apocalypse Breanna was speaking of. Once, in one of those random online quizzes, I was told that if I were in a horror movie I would be that person in the very beginning who gets killed just to get the ball rolling. I'm guessing that applies to said zombie apocalypse. I hope, Breanna, that your knowledge of zombies is accurate. In my experience, not all zombies are as slow as molasses in January. (Anyone catch that movie quote? Probably not. It's not even a movie about zombies...) But that could just be the video game industries way of making the zombie apocalypse more exciting. (I'm thinking of Left 4 Dead specifically in case anyone was wondering.)

If the zombie apocalypse is more like Plants vs Zombies, then I'd totally win. I have mad skills in that department.

Oh! Speaking of zombies, I discovered a new game yesterday. It's called Give Me the Brain: The Card Game of Zombie Fast Food. That's right.

Would you look at this? It has its own Wikipedia page! Check it out so I don't have to explain it to you. Ha!

Zombies was not the reason I started this post. This is getting out of hand! The real reason is so you can be introduced to my new group of actors. It's been awhile, but I've made a video! Woot! Starring all your favorite people ever. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme. But take a look if it suits your fancy, and be ye warned. Here there be spoilers for all those who have not as yet read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You've been warned!





Enjoy your preparations for the impending doom by zombie hysteria, and perhaps form your own wizards' book club. I know I'd show up...if I were invited that is.

So everyone seems to be freaking out about this whole "rapture" thing and they are convinced the world will end tomorrow etcetera. :\ Hmmmm, well considering the fact that only God knows when this day will come (and absolutely no one else) I am fairly certain that the world is not going to end tomorrow (just as it didn't end all those other times). However, if we do happen to see an outbreak in zombies I immediately assign the blame to our president's health care bill (it's the only logical explanation). So, just to be safe, here are some zombie survival tips (most of which I learned from comic books and from watching Buffy kill vampires).

Grab you shot guns and machetes people, it's time to take on the undead.

Well there are a lot of fairly essential things that must be done to survive a zombie apocalypse (most of which were covered by the CDC here: http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp). I would just like to add a couple of things that I find important.

1. Center yourself around people who don't use their brains very often because they will give off a strong "brainless" vibe that may shield you from the zombie senses.
2. Make sure to get a pair of Heelys (check that off my list good sir) because while having shoes is very important to your survival it is also important that you can outrun (or out roll) the undead swarms.
3. If you ever find yourself surrounded, don't try to be a hero, just try to be as brain dead and slow as possible. Zombies are stupid, if you pretend to be one of them they won't think to eat you.
4. While owning a guard dog would be good, owning a zombie guard dog is even better, just be sure that you properly train your undead pet to enjoy the taste of animal brains more than your own.
5. Don't move into some big city and scrounge for food in empty buildings like all the idiots in all the movies do. If you are drawn to the city, where do you think the brain dead zombies are drawn? Go out into the country, plant a garden, hunt your own food. The mountian air is too thin for the undead and that is where all the wildlife will flee to is well.
6. Finally, and most importantly, always make sure you have some kind of weapon with you because, for some reason, dead people (even though they walk slower than a snail can crawl) are stronger than you.

I hope you guys fare well in your impending doom. I'm fairly certain it will not be soon but it never hurts to be prepared. That is the boy scout motto isn't it? Or maybe I'm just thinking of that song in the Lion King.

I'm sorry YouTube, I really do love you and I couldn't live without you, but you have to stop distracting me right now. I think we need to take some time apart, maybe an hour or so, because I haven't written in a month and that is not good. I'm really sorry, I know this upsets you YouTube but this isn't goodbye. I just need to take some time away so that I can get my thoughts straight because otherwise I am never going to finish another book. I love you dear YouTube, don't you forget it. I will be back in a bit but for now, please just give me some space. Don't go sending me messages on my iPhone or tempting me with CTFxC app updates. I'm going to go now, I promise I'll be back. This will be good for you too. Take some time for yourself, tidy up your home page, clean out my subscription box for me, do something for yourself. You're amazing, see you in a while.

Some years ago, I picked up the complete series of Sonic the Hedgehog because it was cheap and I was feeling nostalgic. A couple weeks ago, I decided I should actually watch the entire thing. I just finished the last episode. Way to go Sonic and crew for defeating Dr. Robotnik.

It wasn't as cool as I seem to remember it being. I guess some things just seem cooler when you're young, and some things still seem cool even if it's just the influence of nostalgia. Have you ever noticed that? Some people really love certain things because they grew up with it, but when they show it to someone else, they don't get what the big deal is. I'm thinking of movies specifically but it can apply to other things.

I will say this though, I feel like the quality improved over time. I guess mostly I liked having the back story that was provided from the episode where Sonic and Sally go back in time! Too bad it took three discs to get there... Watching the series really makes me want to play the old Sega Genesis games... I never did beat those... Because I kind of suck at them... Not going to lie.

You know what's going through my head right now? The music that plays everytime you fight Robotnik in the video games. Anyone else know what that sounds like? Anyone else concerned that I can remember what that sounds like?

Oh my goodness. You got to love youtube. Turns out I was thinking of Robotnik's theme from Sonic and Knuckles. Here, listen.




Now go listen to the one for Sonic and Sonic 2! Go! I must have played Sonic and Knuckles the most and that's why it stuck in my brain. Or I'm just weird. Or both. Who knows?

So for Mother's day, we decided to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and enjoy some time together in the mountains. Usually we do this for my mom's birthday every year, but seeing as that was still going to be several months away and we wanted to go now...we packed a lunch and headed out. The drive we took was one similar to the enjoyable trip to Bear Lake with Danielle but instead of going up the mountain (where there was still snow) we stayed down in the valley. While driving down a long dirt road, trying to find a secluded picnic table to eat at, all hope seemed lost. Most picnic tables were taken and those ones that were empty were right smack dab next to a taken one.

In the hopes of finding one that others missed, we drove to the end of the road (where the trail head began) and had to turn around, we were out of luck and it looked like we were going to have to eat next to someone else. So, we headed back in the other direction. Somehow someone spotted a picnic table hidden in a fenced off area (some parts of the park have high fenced areas that keep the deer away from certain tree populations that are declining because the deer really like rubbing their antlers on them). Of course with the gate and everything surrounding it...the area looked like it would be an off limits place...or like the entrance to Jurassic Park.






The eating area was like the tiny space between the outside world, and the dinosaurs (a.k.a. death). Within that space I was surprised to find a variety of birds which I took the time to photograph. Not only was there a cute little duck couple, but I was pleased to find some of the angry birds in their natural habitat (a safe and pig free environment).








These pictures are amazing shots (if I do say so myself) and they were definitely hard to get. I found that the angry birds were rather flighty and grumpy little feathered tennis balls. I had to go to great lengths to get a good shot which meant sacrificing my good pants to the mud gods, but it was worth it.


All and all, the limbo of Jurassic park was a good place to chow down and take pictures of the native fowl. We left some bacon behind on a rock for the angry birds, we figured they would enjoy a good snack. It was then that we moved from our space in limbo into the actual park where the dinosaurs were sure to roam free. We followed the river into uncharted lands and I again took the time to capture some beautiful images.









During our travels we came across a female elk that had wandered away from it's family. I was worried about her getting eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex but she soon dashed off into the trees where she would be safe. We really only ran into one dinosaur during our hike and luckily he was friends with the angry birds who had grown fond of us because of the bacon we left behind.


So we left some more bacon and a hunk of green ham (we ate all the eggs) to make the angry birds happy and to show our gratitude to the dinosaur (I think it was called a Yoshisaurus or something)  for not eating us, then we headed back home. It was a pretty great adventure and a pretty awesome Mother's day.

So...how was your last trip to the mountains?



P.S. I also took lots of video during this hike which will be included in my next video for Danielle so keep your eyes peeled for that...well not literally peeled because that's painful and it would make you go blind which would mean you couldn't watch the video anyway...keep them figuratively peeled.

BEDA is officially over...now what will we do with our lives? I guess find other random stuff to post about ha ha. Well for now, here's a picture that is a frame from an animated version of ALL CAPS' music video, Summer of '09, that I have been working on for a while.