Steampunking Sleeping Beauty

So one of the sweetest outcomes of our trip to Comic-con was that we decided to partner up with our fabulously talented friend to create a graphic novel. It's a steampunk retelling of Sleeping Beauty. But, wait, what is steampunk you ask? Aside from a genre I use to illustrate the zeitgeist of overly enthusiastic Victorian scientists, it's probably best illustrated with the following illustration: Anyway, we're learning TONS about good story-telling from our partner-in-crime and we're nearly done with the plot and designs. Here's a sneak peak:

The first is variations of color themes with our "prince" character and the latter is the beauty of somnolence herself. We'll keep you posted with updates as they come.

What other fun steampunk projects can you except from us? I have two that are in the pipes, but it may be a little while before they see the light of day. 1st is a steampunky Halloween costume that my mom has volunteered to help (I used to be able to sew pretty well, but it was a long time ago, and the "simplicity" pattern had some difficult to understand bits, although I got most of them defined through the power of google). The 2nd project is steampunking some of my Nerf guns. There's actually a bit of a market for them and they can get quite pricey, but I'm DIYing it. I'm taking pictures of the process to post when completed as well.

Annual Campout

Last year we decided to start a tradition of an annual campout with some of our closest friends, Marie (now Marie & Christian) and the Ruekerts (see blog links).

This was quite an experience.

Context:

Brent and I (especially I) like to list camping any time we list the things we enjoy doing. He gives me a hard time because this is a bit of an exaggeration since we have been married almost 5 years, and hadn't been camping as many times. But, when we go, and when I've been in the past, I really enjoy it.

Well, now I've been 4 nights this year, in 3 different sites. So, I've earned the right to put it on the list.

Day #1 of the Annual trip:

Brent and I were exhausted from a week of working really hard. After half a day at work on Thursday, I was already on overtime. We still haven't had time to finish tiling the laundry room, among other projects (like his dissertation) that were weighing on us.

But, we had decided we were going to get away a day before the gang joined us to 'warm-up' the spot and spend some time just the two of us.

It took us a while to pack everything up and get going after running a bunch of errands. We headed up to Little Cottonwood Canyon, which was gorgeous.

We drove, and drove, and drove. Past the ski resorts the road turned into a dirt road which winded up past a remote neighborhood and up to Cecret (pronounced Secret) Lake Campground.

As we drove we watched a glorious sunset, leading to it being absolutely dark by the time we arrived at the campground.

"Closed for Winter"

Only weeks before Marie had driven up in person to talk to the camp host and confirm that they would be open until October.

About 2 minutes after we arrived, Marie & Christian pulled up. They were going to help us set up camp in the dark, even though they weren't staying. We stared disappointedly at the sign, then decided to check the place out anyway. It was so lovely, and there wasn't any information on the sign about not being allowed to stay or trespass when they were closed, so we figured we'd risk it.

It was a lovely evening. We didn't bother with a fire because it was already late, so we just watched the stars for a while, then went to bed.

Day #2:

The next day (Friday) we hiked up to Cecret Lake. It was a very steep rocky climb (ie. Nicole is getting soft... there was a hiking group of 60-70 year olds that passed us going twice our leisurely pace.)

It was well worth the hike. By the time we got back, the parking lot was full of hikers, many of whom looked suspiciously at our conspicuous tent in the front of the "Closed for Winter" campground. We did eventually get kicked out... I mean politely asked to leave by the forestry service at about 4 PM.

By 4:45, we were all packed up and headed out to try and find another campground before the others arrived to join us.

Many campers had jumped on the great weather this weekend, a stand-out anomaly in a very cold fall, and the first couple of campgrounds we passed were full. We were very lucky to get one of the last spots at "Spruces" up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and called the gang to meet us there.

It was a wonderful evening of catching up and enjoying smokey clothes smell, burnt food, beautiful mountains and excellent company. We all "sqeezed" into a huge tent (7 of us) and had a great slumber party. I think everyone slept great except Christian, and Troy had a little trouble with his cough, but was able to settle back in.

Anyway, it was so much fun, Marie and I decided to get some more firewood and come back for a second night.

Day #3:

We had slow-cooked omlets (cooked in zip-lock bags in boiling water) for breakfast-- my new favorite camping food. We played some phase 10 and then the guys & the Ruekerts split and Marie & I went to get geared up for another day.

Sometimes I forget how much fun we have together. We can talk for days at a time, and it never gets old or boring. I always feel like I know myself better after spending a lot of time with Marie, and this weekend was no exception.

My favorite memorable moment was when I insisted that Marie put a steam hole in the top of the chilli can before heating it (which she, of course, already knew). But, I explained to her that my pop-top soup can would slowly open itself up as it heated in the fire, so we didn't need to open it. Less than 10 minutes later the gun-shot sounding explosion luckily left no casualties, but nearly gave me a heart attack and sent a general mist of split-pea soup which landed in our hair and all around the camp. About 3 seconds after the explosion, as I was figuring out what happened, I heard a clatter in the trees above and yelled to Marie to cover her head, thinking the lid would be coming back down. Nothing landed except a few potato remnants, and the lid was never recovered.

Marie said, "Well, at least the 8 year old boy-scout in me is satisfied."

Day #4:

Marie and I were awakened for about an hour from 1-2 AM by some very inconsiderate campers next-door. We requested they quiet down, which they "tried" to do, but didn't do so well. After the second request, and about 20 more minutes, they finally went to bed.

On a happy note, the camp host we spoke with the next day not only went to wake them up and give them a good talking to, but also gave us a free pass for another night-- good for a year. :)

Marie and I were showered and ready for an excellent Sunday School lesson a couple of hours later, and I very much enjoyed visiting her ward before coming home to rejoin my wonderful Sweetheart.

I can't wait for next year!

Timp Storytelling Festival

As a philosopher, Brent is a huge proponent of narrative as an essential aspect of the human experience. But, in real life, it's Nicole who INSISTS that we attend the Timpanogus Storytelling Festival!!

One of the blessings of living in this beautiful place is that we are just down the street from the largest storytelling festival in the western states.

And, we would never have known what we were missing if we didn't have so many creative friends. Our first year there, we had 3 good friends who went, and 2 of them have performed. As a matter of fact they both happen to be in this commercial about the festival.

Randy is the puppeteer with the red puppet. Tamilisa is playing the banjo. And they have NACHOS!! I mean, WOW!!

Actually, our favorite storyteller this year was Jennifer Munro, an intellectual british storyteller whose prose rivals Dickens in its engaging colorful nature.

http://www.jennifermunro.net/

The most popular teller is Bill Lepp, a local talent who is legendary here-- sort of a Jeff Foxworthy of the West, as much comedian as storyteller, and very entertaining.

Most of the storytellers brought some cultural dimension: A lovely and delightful Japanese woman, an African man, two American Indians, and (my other favorite) a half-Cuban, half-Irish-American storyteller that told half in English, half in Spanish.

Brains!!!

One of the perks of knowing psychologists is that I got a free MRI. First, the good news, I have a brain. Now for the awesome news, I'm going to share pictures of it with you!

This first is taken at the cross-section of my eyes (you can see them (even the Irises) on top). You can also see the optic nerve make it's way back to the brain. Also, my septoplastian will be pleased to note that my septum is quite undeviated!
This is a nice slice from the middle:
And this next one is just off the top of my head! (Sorry, I couldn't resist a literal pun)Here's my brain on fire:
And here's the "cooler" version. I actually got an fMRI as well as a regular ol' structural MRI, but these pictures are all just from the latter (the computer colored them).

So this is what's been going on in my head recently (sorry, I'll stop now)

First Day of School

This is a shot from my first day teaching at BYU this semester (you can tell it's BYU 'cause of the BLUE shirt, on my first day at UVU I wore green!) Also, you can tell that this isn't actually during class, because my tie's off)

Anyway... I'm teaching personality again, which I'm thrilled about, because, as I mentioned in my last post, my "living question" is all about human identity/personality. Furthermore, I have a couple of students in class this semester who have previously taken a class from me, which I always take as a really good sign that I'm doing something well when I teach. (Especially when it's an elective class like personality!) This week, however, I received an even more impressive (and humbling) sign.

After class, one of the students I taught last year in an Intro to Psychology class came up to me and said "I just wanted to thank you for last year's class. I loved the perspective you brought to the subject and because of that experience I've become a psychology major." She said some other really nice things along those lines, but I was a bit too surprised to comprehend it all. I certainly don't set out to "convert" anyone to psychology as a field (if anything, I'm a bit of a critic of the discipline), and my main goal in class is to help students think about some of the critical issues effecting their lives (i.e. "what are humans, how should they be treated, how should they be talked about, and how should we stay away from really bad ideas that will be detrimental to our self understanding and progression" etc.) Still, it was nice to hear that God could use me to make even more profound differences in the course of some of my students' lives (enough so for them to had the courage to seek me out a year later and let me know it!) Nice and humbling. I've just barely begun my 3rd year teaching and have only been doing adjunct teaching and grad student instruction; I didn't expect to see such rich dividends so soon, but I rejoice in it and thank God.