Computer Help

Hey Aubrey or Andy,

I have some photos that I want to upload to photobucket but they are too big to even register. How do I resize them? What program do I use?

Thanks

Zombies in the Manger

Here It is...FINALLY!

As most of you know I have moved to LA to persue my passion for modeling. I have been down here from almost 2 years now! I have done so much so far! Many many photoshoots! These are just some of the photos Ive finally gotten from photographers, as well as some of my own behind the scene phone photos. Hope you enjoy! I Love you all!http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v287/ataber/My%20Life%20Modeling/?albumview=slideshow&mediafilter=images

Password: taberclan

That was fun...

Thanks guys!

Leaving work early to celebrate. Love you!

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

The main tank called the "Kuroshio Sea" holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

This was shot a cool new camera called a Canon 5DMKII with a 28-135mm lens.

You can view it in high quality and even go full screen! It's really amazing! I HIGHLY SUGGEST GOING FULL SCREEN!

A bad day for Baristas

Italy, Seattle, what do think of this madness?

From Smiling Coffee Vendor to Terror Suspect

Bikini Baristas Busted for 'Prostitution'

For shame.

Crayon Portraits by Christian Faur

I thought you guys would appreciate this! Really neat crayon portraits! Wow, people are so creative! :)

The rest of the portraits can be seen HERE!

It's not much but...

Wait, "what is it", you ask? It's my first construction project, that's what!
A wise man once said "measure twice, cut once." I never met that man. I measured once and cut four times, so the whole thing's a little wobbly. Oh well, it's not like we're going to be pouring drinks on it, right? Onward and upward, I say! As long as I find a bracket to support this contraption if it goes too far upward...

AMAZING Sand artist Kseniya Simonova

Had to share this with you guys!

Sand artist Kseniya Simonova, winner of Ukraine's Got Talent, becomes internet hit

Miss Simonova, 24, drew a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.

One video clip of her work on the television talent show has been viewed by two million users alone.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Check out the original story here

Squash Soup

...possibly the best thing that happened today.

mm...mm...gooood...

Cotton Candy Clouds

This is the view I can see from the restaurant I work at now. Its on the 18th floor of a hotel right on the coast. It has 365 degree view of the ocean, the beach, and the city.
It's literally breath taking!

Asias face was stolen by the japanese and put into my favorite game series called final fantasy Xlll! i wonder if asia can sue for this...

this is just a great picture

Thai Food Love

Here we are at a Thai restaurant an San Francisco the same weekend we went to the Filoli and Great America.

Filoli Gate

Look Ma!

Despite popular belief, the Demon was the original helmet ride. Someday, I hope to be able to pass this on to my own child for their journey through this crazy roller coaster... called life. Until then, I know I'll be safe and sound.
Love you Mom!
-Andy

Cheers to new digs!

Look what I found... nice to wheat you!

Biscuit Bike!

She's going to learn to ride her bike with no handlebars.

Finished video!

Me and my friend Tyler made this video for fun. It took 3 days to make and finalize it.

Sorry guys its a little long but its funny!

Finally Graduated!!!!!

Congratulations, Jentre!!! You made it!!

For everyone that couldn't be there, Jentre's school asked two students, one guy and one girl, to give speeches at the graduation ceremony, and Jentre was selected. Here is his speech... It's absolutely fantastic. He made everyone in the auditorium laugh a lot and cry at the end. I hope you enjoy it!

MY PORTFOLIO SITE IS FINALLY DONE!

After 4 years of school and a semester of building a portfolio -also including a book, a leave behind and a pdf- to display that school work, I am finally finished! It was a lot and a lot of work! I hope you like the result. :)

Check it out!






http://www.aubrey-hadley.com

Let me know what you think,
~Aubrey

Say hello to my little friend...

Here's a video of a huge spider that was in Morgan and Ashley's sink. Bleh!

The Great Sonoma County Apartment Search

"...the thrilling tale of Andy and Bailey's quest to find the best quarters for the least dollars!"

Update: a map of all the locations we're considering is here!
Coming Soon: vote for your favorite!

Farewell Portland...

...we hardly knew ye'.

California here we come!

MOVING ROBOT::

I'M OUTTA HERE!!1!

Moving Day!

We're live-video-blogging our move - see our pain here.

This table...

This table I made for mom for mothers day. She already peeked at it and spoiled her present, but thats ok. I welded the frame together and made pretty unique cut outs for the legs. It was an old piece of Cedar we had for firewood. Looks much better as a table than as a pile of ash.

New Haircut

Have you ever seen a mohawk with dreads before!? It was french braided.

State Fabrication Qualifier

This is me welding for my Regional championships. Unfortunately my team got second by two pionts so we don't qualify for State championships. It was a lot of fun.

Potato Salad FTW

We have to use up the perishable food we have before we move, so I made this super yummy potato salad that turned out so much better than I thought it would--yaay, thanks to Mama for her cooking advice!!!  It uses baking potatos, sauteed garlic and onions, the rest of a small bottle of capers and the juice, dill, salt, sugar, white wine vinegar, hard boiled eggs, black pepper, paprika, mayonnaise, and ranch dressing.  Cool, now all I have to do is decide whether I want to throw away the rest of our half-full jars of condiments, or pawn them off on my coworkers and uncle...  Hmmmmm.  Wish I could share it over the blog! Oh well...  

Paul Bunyan Brownies

I made some dark chocolate brownies with dark chocolate chips last night. Bailey asked if they were more chocolatey than Black Forest cake. I told her that my brownies were like Paul Bunyan, because they'd chop down stupid Black Forest cake in a fight and burn it in the campfire to make more Paul Bunyan Brownies. Yes: they are so chocolatey, they self-propagate.

And don't even get me started about how Paul Bunyan Brownies feel about German Chocolate... achtung!

MOVING ROBOT SEZ::

Moving is fun!

(Yeah, he's an idiot.)

Vic Firth

Thats me with the real vic firth!

Full Retreat

This is called full retreat. Its when everybody from all the drumlines get together and recieve awards i was way over to the right.

Spring has Sprung

A duckling dozen:

Happy Easter everyone!

This is so exciting!

miss you.

some pictures are worth a thousands words. i suppose this is no exception. it's not so much that i would love to go back to this time ( of course I would) as i would love to be this close to both of my big brothers. john andrew ring III and andrew james ring- i love you both to the moon and back. thank you for all of your guidance, teasing and love because you two are the reason i am me today. 

love you both,

manda

60th Anniversary Album

Hello again everyone!

I've created an album for everyone to upload their pictures of Granny and Papa's 60th Anniversary to! It's easy to do: just send your pictures attached to an email to andrew.ring.gpanniversary(at)picasaweb.com (sub the "at" with an @). You can view the pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andrew.ring/DropBox#

Granny and Papa are looking forward to having them all in one place, so get to uploadin'!

Portland Lately

We had a nice bout of sunshine this week and got out a little bit. We tried to fly a kite, but this is about as high as it got - there wasn't quite enough wind.

...And more excicting-ly, we found the Wilderness Trail. Here's a picture of us at the Stone House, a landmark along the Balch Creek part of the hike. 

"ARE YOU READY TO GO TO THE JUNGLE?!"

Not too sure if any of you readers have had the chance to go to a classic rock concert yet but let me tell you, it sure is an experience. If you get the chance to do so, grab it by the tail of the mullet and don't let it go.

Last night Evan and I ventured out to see The Steve Miller Band play in downtown Honolulu. With the tickets being a little steeper in price than what we are used to for our indie shows ($65 bucks!), we decided to use the opportunity as a great excuse for a date night. I even wore a dress. 

Anyway, upon arrival, I was nothing short of surprised when I saw the apparel being sported by the other concert goers. The cougars* were really playing the part in all of their leopard stretchy tops and mom jeans*, while the dress code for all the men seemed to fit in the category of tucked in Hane's tees and jeans with their right hand strategically placed in their pocket, for extra cool points I'm sure. We quickly gathered that we were obviously the youngest fans here by at least twenty years. But, we stood in line for our 24 oz. Bud Lights and we went with it.

Besides the getups, what really shook us up was the overall behavior of these adults. It was as if they were nineteen again and running against the wind. There was grinding and hippie dancing, even the band had a man on stage the entire time doing nothing but dance moves- and he could really dance! I don't think I saw him repeat a step during the entire three hours. What a life! Get paid to freestyle for a bunch of screaming women in Lee jeans! Sign me up!  

Oh, and the best part is still to come. Evan and I were pleasantly surprised when we found out who would be seated right next to us. An older "busty" woman who was not shy to let us know just how (ahem) drunk she was and then proceeded to grab Evan's leg numerous times perhaps in an attempt to make her point understood. But she continued to drink her beer and slosh it around with every "keep on a rockin' me baby". 

But, the show was fantastic and I am grateful to have been able to see such a talented group of guys play their hearts out like they were twenty-two again for a crowd that maybe believed, if only for one night, that they really were. 

Above is a picture of the band, and the man to the right of Steve was the dance-dance revolutionizer. 

*Cougar: Older woman usually ranging in age from 36-64 on the "prowl" for men, preferably younger men.

*Mom jeans: Jeans that ride up so high it's hard to know the difference from their bra. Usually Lee Jeans or Liz Claiborne.

Proof is in the Pool

Here we all are at Wally's Hot Springs in Genoa, NV on Monday..  It was a Beautiful day and we got there around one o'clock, a few hours before the wind really picked up.  It's always better going to hot springs during the winter because it's not too hot outside and you can really sit and fully enjoy them for hours at a time.  The boys had a ton of fun with Andy's camera, which is waterproof.  Usually they say the proof is in the pudding, but in this case the proof is in the pool!  (That line was Andy's idea :)

p.s.  Andy spent a lot of time and attention on this video.  Props!!!  :)

other poster

Here is the other poster that goes with it.

Need help!

So i've been working on a bunch of advertising campaigns for my never ending portfolio class and I just can't seem to get this ad right. Any suggestions? It goes with another environmental awareness poster. It doesn't feel quite there yet.

Happy 60th Anniversary, Granny and Papa!

Here's a video from the show last night:



Add your comments below - and if you have pictures, let's see 'em!

We're on our way...

See you soon!

Vindication

Victory is so, so sweet.

My car was towed in January while I was a customer of Starbucks. When I picked up my car, I requested to speak to a Retriever Towing manager, but was only allowed to speak to an unhelpful super. I emailed the General Manager to let him know that his driver did not follow proper procedure when he towed my car, and escalated the matter when I didn't get a response - the string of letters below tells the rest of the story...

Original Article (on Consumerist.com - 222 comments and counting!)

Email to Chuck White, GM of Retriever Towing

Statement to Portland Towing Commission

Towing Coordinator's Response

Towing Coordinator's final determination

You might notice in this final link that they don't actually have to refund my money... but it's the second-least expensive option. We'll see if they appeal this - I plan on calling them tonight.

UPDATE: Five months after the events above, the state of Oregon voted and outlawed the practice of Predatory Towing:

Oregon House Bill 2578

I like to think it's owing in part to my experience, story and letters - no big deal, Portland, it's the least I could do.

Andrew

Mi Amor!

Happy Valentine's!

I can send drawings straight from my phone! All it takes is a little love and a few clicks... and massive amounts of artistic talent, as you can obviously see.

Love you guys, hope you're all having a great day!

Asparagus Soup!

We're making it!

By the by, if you can see a picture "under" the blog's title and description, it means that we're "liveblogging," whatever that means.
(Hint: it means you can refresh the page to see current pictures there. Look for a few other "Easter Eggs" I've hidden on the page also...)

Hope everyone's having an excellent night.

One sketch at a time...

I just finished this little sketch of a latte for a flyer I'm taking around to other stores to let people know I can cover shifts for them. It's really simple, but it's the first drawing I've actually finished in a while, which makes me feel inspired to finish some more... One little baby step at a time! 

I can't wait to see all the Hanson relatives at Granny and Papa's 60th anniversary!!! I love you all and I'll see you soon!! Mwah!

Furry Chicken

Soup soup soupa doop poop a scoop looks so cute!

I saw a dog that looked just like jewlie the other day, but she had short hair...

so instead of a furry chicken, she was a lamby! (like jewlie with a hair cut!)

I just woke up and its still raining this morning! Last night it was non stop pouring allllll night! boooo...I want the cali sun shine back! I have a casting call for a runway show today (thats why im up so early) but then I have the rest of the day to get some cleaning done.

this last week was sooooo busy for me! yay! elite has been sending me out like crazy! I had 8 casting calls this week and two test shoots. I have two tests this week as well! Im so excited that they are sending me out so much more!

I love you all, gotta go get some coffee in me or ill be a grump at my casting.

Forts for Kitties

Andy's always makin' little forts for the kitties. He loves puttin' 'em together, and they love cuddling inside them. This one's from a few nights ago...

Silly Chocolate Monster Pandy :P :)

Otter Mattic

The Smallest City Park in the World..

So here's what our Portland tourist map has to say about this place: "At 24 inches in diameter, this is the world's smallest city park. It was dedicated by Oregon Journal writer Dick Fagan, who wrote imaginative pieces about the park and it's leprechaun inhabitants in many of his 'Mill Ends' columns. Look for the park, closely, in the middle of the traffic island at the intersection of SW Taylor Street and Naito Parkway."
So I was pretty excited to see this miniature park.. I mean it couldn't possibly have been anything more than one bonsai and perhaps an elaborate planter, and an implanted bronze sculpture of tiny park benches at most.

This is what it looks like up close.  I feel really disappointed.  Honestly, if this were the "city park" that were dedicated in my name, I'd become an expatriot and change my name!  What an embarassment!  Oh well, what can ya do?  :P

Monkey Socks

I wore my favorite socks out to a Super Bowl party tonight. I always get compliments on them - a lot of people say they remind them of those "Sock Monkeys."

What I don't tell a lot of people is that I killed two Sock Monkeys to get them.

Winter Love

When you go to kiss your Hunny,
   And your nose is kinda runny,
You may think it's really funny
   ...but it'SNOT.

Movin' on up (literally)

As our time left in hawaii is slowly but surely dwindling away, Evan and I are growing more and more anxious by the second. We have begun making apartment plans, airline reservations, and have all of the furniture picked out and added to shopping cart on ikea.com already.

But most importantly, Evan and I are all applied and eager to hear back from The University of Oregon, Eugene to find out which of our credits will transfer. 

So, here's a little breakdown of the month of May, Mandy style (no synthesizers needed):

middle of May: flying into San Jose to visit ev's brother, sister, and nieces (and I suppose mine now, as well), the offering up some much needed family time to my daddy's side of the family- Aunt Cookie, Mary & Joe, and Collette and Cody. 

After that it is on to Oakland, California, my favorite place in the world. yes even over disneyland. There we will pick up our cars and whisk them back to Where this long journey began, but will not be ending, Reno, NV. The plan is to stay there for a few days and get some stuff out of storage and into or cars and also to spend some time with friends.

Then, during the first week of June, we will be traveling up to the beautiful state of Oregon where I am sure my first week there will involve staying in my new apartment for a week straight and getting it all set up and decorated to my liking (thanks for the perfectionism, mom and dad!) and then I'm sure I will be heading up to glorious Portland to get a big bear hug from my bro whom I have sincerely missed so dearly. 

I can't wait for our new adventure! We are so proud of ourselves for saving up enough money and doing this whole move on our own! 

We will keep you informed!

Flake!

ugh! My friend Tyler flaked on me again! last night we arranged for him to come over to my house and we would make a video. After school today he left with Chris and Josh somewhere and i didn't see him again. when i got home i texted him and he blamed it on his dad. The least he could have done is tell me he wont be able to make it! Thats probably the 8th time hes done that to me this week! I cant trust him anymore. I Want a better friend.

I'm sorry guys I always write about my problems. I can never talk about what went good.

Helipad test shoot

I had this test shoot before christmas, but I finally just got the end result pictures from it. On this shoot there was 5 photographers that were interns to the main photographer, and each of them got a chance to take pictures of me. The location was so cool! It was in downtown la on top of a building on the helipad. The only downside to it all was how cold it was, and I was in skimpy little clothes! Brrrrr....

The test shoot went really well yesterday. The theme was more of a grunge look. So every outfit I had on was combined with men cargo boots! they were about two sizes bigger than my already big feet and they weighed a ton.

Zac got a call back today for GNC for men. Crossing out fingers he gets it, it ll pay really well!

Its a beautiful day here, clear and sunny. I think ill take advantage of it and go running and then read my book!

hugs, kisses, and lots of love!