This is the view from our breakroom… Fall is definitely upon us. Sigh.

That’s right! The most seen movie in France’s theaters released today the game version for Nintendo DS, Wii and PC. Sweet!!! This game is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn French, chtis style ;-)

Also for grins and giggles, check out ChtiNN!

I got a special WordPress app on the iPhone which enables me to create posts and even add images very easily.

For example this one… I was trying to take a night photo but it didn’t work so I played with blurry shots.

However I’m not sure yet how it will look live on the blog… How does it look?

Update: I just learned how to change the dimensions of the photo via iPhone interface. Awesome!

This is the first time I blog from my iPhone… Oh yeah, by the way… I got an iPhone!

I am having lunch facing the bay bridge. It’s a gorgeous day! Maybe I should think about twitter now that I have the cool mobile device. I don’t know yet.

I will ponder on this question a little longer while I’m in the sun.

It’s texture time! After sketching the outlines and laying the first set of colors, I had a much better idea of where I wanted to go with different sections. This time I focused on the walls and sky.

I use a patting technique which just feels good to me, I have no idea what I’m really doing. It allows me to make mistakes and fix them either right away or later. It also allows me to use multiple colors on my brush without actually mixing them. That way they sort of blend on the canvas but sometimes just lay the original hue.

Next, I paid a little more attention to balconies, windows and doorways. I wanted to start giving the canvas a little bit more of a three dimensional feel. To do that, I used mostly gray tones and played with some light shadows.

Next I will focus on the center part of the painting giving some love to the church, the restaurants and the foreground.

The whole process:
Act I
Act II
Act III

Hiking our way out of the Grand Canyon was definitely the longest hike I’ve ever done, let alone with 25-30 pounds on my back.

It was very long, very hard (going uphill pretty much the whole time) but it was one on the best hikes ever. I actually ended up finding that getting out of the canyon was easier than going down. It’s not as hard on the knees, the Bright Angel trail was a little more gradual and went through side canyons, which I deeply enjoyed. More so than the wide openness of the South Kaibab trail.

It’s really surprising for me to think that hiking uphill for 9 hours was very cool, because normally I would curse gravity and beg for a little flat or downhill. The big differences with most uphill hikes I’ve been on were that this time:
– I knew exactly how hard (steep) and long (9.5 miles) it was going to be
– I was mentally prepared for endurance
– I knew it was the only way out and no matter what, I just had to drag myself out of the damn thing.

I really learned a lesson on what mental power can do to the body. From now on, I just need to be fully aware of what I’m undertaking for my brain just shut up and enjoy. Good to know!