Alex: An Exploration

Life in Arizona

2010-04-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

So its hard to believe but as of yesterday I have been in AZ for a full year now. Time has really flown by, especially since I've moved into a better place right across from school with a couple of good guys, Nate "Jojo the Monkey" and "Skinny" Pete.

Arizona can be fun, its not all bad, (but it is a terrible place, dont ever live here) it can be boring but we find our own fun, pictured below is Jojo taking his aggression out on AZ

Thats Josh "DK" shootin from the hip
We found a nice place 30 miles from nowhere to go shooting (legally might I add, as long as its at least 10 miles from any structure)

Arizona brings out the crazy in just about anyone... this place is just terrible
"Skinny" Pete
St. Paddy's day
Zain "Trans AM" and "DK" humping me as I pay my bill
Why you ask? Why the hell not.
From left, "Trans AM", Jason, Larissa "Lulu", "Windows" (ie. me) "Jojo", "DK" and Alec
Its been probably a year to date that I've had internet of my own, but we now have internet, which is awesome.

I'm just about done with school here in October, and I hope after graduation I will be off to NJ to finish up some more schooling with BMW. However much I hate AZ I know I can look back at it with fondness because of the people, but seriously... this place blows. I miss everyone and hope to see all you Washington people soon, till then more posts coming!

Ahhh Seattle

2009-07-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Thank you PETA. Why? Because those bastards have done it again. They say that it is cruelty to the fish(dead fish) to throw them in the traditional way they do at the pike place market. I believe there was a compromise, throwing plastic fish... Fuck you PETA, for taking a beautiful tradition and turning it into a joke. They're already dead! I would only hope that when I go my friends and family can have a riot throwing my body around into newspaper.

later on this bird pooped on that kid. haha you can see him planing his attack

Justin and Jenifer Cox's Wedding

2009-07-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Palm Springs

2009-07-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

I meet up with my bro Eric and my Mom in palm springs for the Palm Springs International Film festival, these palms are in the area for which palm springs is named

Big. Very big
see that cave in the background, well nothing is going to stop Eric and I from exploring. especially the chance of death
this is the bastard that Eric was practically stepping on before I screamed like a girl and ran leaving Eric to die

Arizona

2009-07-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

this was one of my first roommates, needless to say I was happy to get out of there.My first time riding a Harley Davidson, a 2003 Road King
its amazing what you can find out in the middle of the desert

Grand Canyon

2009-04-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

Dog and I took a trip to the Grand Canyon, I caught him several times trying to jump off.. I'm not joking, he's either that dumb, or very suicidal

And again, I had to save him
Several times
Dad in front of the Deer Valley Airport

Bringing Seattle to Phoenix

2009-04-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

It seems to be the rainy season in Phoenix, just about two days straight of horrendous rain. So much so that our "front lawn" is now a lake, and if you cant see from the picture we had to place a stepping stone to get out of the RV.

Arizona

2009-04-10T12:03:00.001-07:00

This is our home, the RV park right off of two major freeways and right below a small airport. delightful really, the planes give off an all to calming hum that nearly puts us to sleep where we stand. Dog is having a wonderful time, air conditioning during the day, under my covers at night and some brisk walks in the cool air of the god-awful hours of the morning. I'm coming to know my surrounding area pretty well, my apartment will be less than a mile from my school, a shopping mall just a block away with the just about all I need; a movie theater, Starbucks, Target, and dads favorite, Ross.
Al

2009-03-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

Eric Elofson said...

Chuck Norris doesn't attend your birthday party,

your birthday party attends Chuck Norris.

8:37 AM

My Birthday -Pictures By Alan Hunter

2009-02-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Justin

Al & Justin
Hess

Eric

Chuck Norris age 90

Bryce

Picture by Alan Hunter

2009-02-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

Muff Bandit

2009-02-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

And you thought Hess was creepy before...

Motorcycle Mechanics Institute

2009-02-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

I just got accepted into MMI, AZ. Pretty sweet, not really excited for Arizona, but school will be fun. Last week, I just decided to get out and do something, 3 days later I find out I'm moving to Pheonix in April.

The King Has Returned

2009-01-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

Elvis made an appearance at an Early Childhood Development, Headstart meeting. Ironically he was there to promote good health, exercise, and eating habits.. none of which Elvis was really good at, but he was born to rock & roll, which I hear really got the crowd going on.

Winterfest 2009 Lake Chelan

2009-01-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

Lake Chelan, Washington, holds an annual festival of fire and ice. Ice sculptors from all around come and decorate the town with their creations, and also in tradition, the towns people compile all of their Christmas trees in a huge bonfire. It was a crazy weekend filled with snowmobile drag races, polar bear dips, late night card games, and 20 degree weather. Justin and I picked out our ice designs a couple weeks in advance, though it took a little while for me to finally decide on something, I chose Pooh Bear.

For one, he's a cartoon, something a little easier to sculpt (well in theory) because of the smooth round lines, nothing too detailed. The second reason, well bears and I have a mutual respect for each other... they try to eat me, which I respect, and I keep living, which they respect. And last I believe I use to sleep in a Pooh Bear onezee. My second design was a "Goodnight Moon". One of Justin's sculptures was a solstice sun, I figured ours would go great together, like the team we are.

We all Started our day off helping Steve set up for his sculpture. Ten 300lb blocks of ice, carfully pieced together to make a large chair, large enough to make an adult feel like a child. People were welcomed to sit and take pictures in it. Everytime we say it after it was finished, there was a line at least ten people long. By the end of the weekend, so many people had sat in it that it had actually melted the seat about 3inchs. You can see the butt marks in the picture.

Where the Hell is Matt

2008-06-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

Do you dance terribly? well you are amongst friends! from the creator of http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/ and a person who has similar goals as my brother, only my brother's idea of goals required more nudity, Matt has created a Youtube phenomenon. Matt has set out and danced terribly on every continent in the world! read more at his website above! But wait THERE'S MORE! Matt is coming to SEATTLE!!! Matt is coming to Seattle in his quest to dance all 'round the world, he will be at gas works park, if you don't know where that is, shame on you, but you'll probably find it on his website. The event starts at 3PM but if you want to STAR in this most recent adventure, then you must show up early, be able to sign your life away and want to be spread all over the Internet!!! My brother did it naked, sober, and unaffiliated with porn, so you can do it too!!! So come and bring your friends, tell Matt by contacting his website and telling him you are coming, sign up, dance terribly, and be on the Internet! seriously, can you ask for more entertainment that is practically free? Ok, I have to be off, I have been summoned to dance in my mankini, which I am becoming more famous for in Seattle (again, unaffiliated with porn, or stripping). what the hell... TO PIKE PLACE!!! MANKINI AWAY!!!!

Climbing the Space Needle

2007-12-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

It was a difficult task, 525ft from the ground, the 7th tallest structure in Seattle, but I did it, I climbed to the top of the Space Needle. How you ask? Why? what the hell was I doing there in the first place? and did I get arrested? these are all good questions, I think the last question shouldn't raise a brow, but that's not important right now. I was working, tearing down Ice Sculptures when the service elevator shut down, leaving all my supplies trapped and me stuck in the basement, some lady with more clearance than me swiped her card to the stairway and told me it was 3 floors up, no problem. Of course the skycity floor was locked and the basement door then locked me in, I thought maybe I didn't go up high enough to reach the skycity floor. 80 flights of stairs later in the esophagus of the Space Needle, the wind blowing hard and my legs pumping battery acid I came to the top floor with a card reader key entrance. I tried my card and got a green light, but of course the alarms when off. one of the employees was standing there asking me what was going on, still out of breath I managed to explain. everyone was really nice about it, a waiter even brought me a glass of water. we all had a good laugh, but the embarrasing part was I had to take the regular elevator down with a full load of people watching me sweat and all i could think about was if the room was spinning (which it does) or if it was my head. turns out they moved all my crap out of the elevator and put it by my truck, they practically did my job for me while I ran around trying to figure out what was going on.

My First Sculpture!

2007-12-14T17:08:00.001-08:00

My first sculpture! The drill bit used for the details of this Christmas tree was $500 and the surgery to remove it from my clavicle was only $10,000! what a deal! if you don't pay attention to what you are doing, those things can jump and get away from you, or in you.it does take patience and a lot of concentration to handle this drill
You can see in the background the variety of tools we use in this craft, ancient Japanese secret! specially made chisels, something like 15 chisels with different angles, some for round edges some for sharp edges etc, giant saws (with teeth the size of my thumbs!) specially made drill bits (6-8 drills in all with different bits all custom made. All very very expensive, and all very very sharp.
the colored logos are the coolest, its just a gelatin paint mix that we freeze into the drill holes. this one we tilted the block and let the red run down first and then let the orange bleed from the top into the red and make and red flame kind of appearance.
And vawla!
today at work we received a bucket load of buckets (we use them for draining the excess water when the sculptures are on display) we usually get them from hotels or restaurants and they are usually all different sizes, meaning when we get them we have to spend an hour taking them apart often times throwing away some that we had to drill holes into to brake the vacuum. Steve was showing me plans for his new invention that uses leverage and an aluminum plate to rip them apart, in the mean time however we used a pair of pliers and the plate... is was about just as hard to rip them apart than with just your fingers, but on the bright side it didn't hurt as much. today however I had about 30 buckets, about halfway through (and an hour later) I stopped and thought to myself, the vacuum is what is making this hard, you cant fight that with brute force! so I used my brain. about an hour later my brain hurt, but I had an idea, use the air compressor to shoot air down the sides and break the vacuum! the rest of the buckets came apart in just 2 minutes with a satisfyingly "POP"! Steve was amazed, I saved a lot of time (well at least for next time) and energy. productivity is up, and so Steve is happy.

The Ice factory

2007-12-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

The Ol' Ice Factory
Some Golf Club logo in a Christmas tree (sorry, Holiday tree)Belvedere Vodka
The 6 foot tall Space needle
Justin making a Red Bull logoa wide shot of one of the freezers
A snow globe of vitamin water
the finished Red Bull logo
the Empire State building (the top is somewhere else)
The modified Public health poster, the health inspector didn't find fecal spray funny.

Roommates on Halloween

2007-10-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Devon

Sean & Mark(Reno 911's officer Jay Dangle)

Team Zissou, (Alex as Vikrum Ray along with other Zissou members)

Sean and Me

(not pictured, Helen)

My new place!

2007-09-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ballard

2007-09-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Lake Union boat ride

2007-08-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

Yes that plane is heading right for our boat

Mt. Rainier

2007-08-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

Slanty Shanty Photo

2007-08-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

2007-04-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

2007-04-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Some Pictures of Overseas I may not have posted

2007-04-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

First time driving on the wrong side of the road/car

Me catching dinner for the night, later eric told me it was a statue. My personal dissapointment was more than bleak

The sign told us that only professional mountain guides could go beyond the little rope, Eric being a professional mountain guide reassued me, I believed him and got held hostage by this glacier for a few hours. I had to lick my way out.

We got lost for a little bit, but realized that we were on a ferry boat. Problem solved by the Elofson brothers!

He was taking a nap... in the middle of the road... right after we hit him with our car. But we believe he might not be on the endangered speicies list.

If you turn your head to the left 90 degrees you will see a beautiful hillside accompanying a glacial disease pool

A New Zealand family we stayed with

2007-04-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

The New Volkswagon RivaltaThe New Volkswagon Bug, I'll get a better shot of this later.
That poor dog, being mocked again
Creepy French mustache, which later turned into a creepy porno-stache (pictures coming soon)
Mom and Dad at Cannon Beach, Oregon

To sum it up

2007-02-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

So my adventures in New Zealand are coming to an end. I have been invited to stay with my host family until my departure which is very nice, one less thing to worry about.
To sum up all of my adventures here I shall begin with my arrival. I got into auckland on the 20th of January. My host family lives kinda outside of Auckland so it would have been a $70 cab ride. luckely I found free internet at the airport and found not only where they live, maps and direcitions, but a cheap bus ride over there. little did i know at the time but I was riding the same bus as some of my host family's friends, their daughter Natilie was waiting on the street to meet them and saw my confusion. That night they were having a party (not for us, just good timing on our part). A few beers into the night I had bought into a poker game, $10. a couple hours later and many beers later we were all having a good time, it was a close match but i pulled away $40 richer. We stayed with another host family the next night, they gave us some suggestions on where to visit, so we made plans to head to the south island. An 11 hour bus ride, a stay over in Wellington (a beautiful city that prides theirselves on every 20 something being an extra in the Lord of the Rings movie.) and a 3 hour ferry. We rented a little POS Ford Festiva and traveled some odd 3000 miles, or as they call it over here, 3000 kilometers! Strange. Camping, hiking, boat rides through fiords, climbing. One climbing spot, filled with hippies, we thought they were playing flutes, I kept trying to find these hippies, turns out they were birds. Back to the north island, a few hitchs up north, a stay over in a crappy little town called North Polmerston, a bus ride to a little town just outside of hamilton, a couple of hitchs to some climbing, then some camping, then back to Auckland where I am right now. Eric and I just took out a kyak around the bay, had some fun sloshing around in the sea. Eric leaves pretty soon for Australia, then I will follow in a couple of days. Thats about it right now.

North Island, Auckland

2007-02-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

Here in Auckland, awesome city, much like Seattle. Same kinda people, same scene, etc. Last night I went out on my own to get a picture of the sky tower, I forgot my memory card, but I met a German guy who bought me some beer. about 4 beers later the bartender gets up and says , "awhhh letsgetouthere, findus a real party, youin?" why not i says. so he closed up the bar and about 5 of us went to a night club, 70's disco kinda thing. I get up to the bouncer and he says, "Na mate, cant go in there like tha, you need trousers." "trousers?" "Yeah long pants" (I only have one pair of pants and I just roll them up to make them into shorts), so I rolled them down and said, "this alright?" "ya sure mate". I also go a free shot from the bartender at the club, I walked up to him and said, "Give me your biggest, cheapest, strongest drink." he had to think about it, so he just gave me a beer and then poured me a shot and said it was on the house. HA!
We did a lot of climbing in a little place about 200k south of Auckland, mostly farm land. there were goats and sheep walking around us while we climbed, kinda funny. we really didnt have much of a plan to get back to Auckland, and we were miles away from civilization. well the day we left we packed up everything and walked out on the road and within 1 minute with our thumbs out a truck (mind you there wasnt much traffic around) came out of nowhere and offered us a ride. he dropped us off pretty close to a place called Hamilton about 100k south of Auck, again within about 2 minutes with our thumbs out someone picked us up and drove us into hamilton and to the bus stop where (now this was just perfect timeing) there was a bus for about $20 heading into Auck that was leaving in 5 minutes. jumped on the bus and we were off, no worries. it was amazing how quick that went, we had actually planed to stay in hamilton that night but everything just worked out so well.
Right now we are staying with a host family, Sue and Bruce. They have an awesome place right near the bay, beautiful view.

2007-02-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

New Zealand

2007-02-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hitchin' into Kihikihi, pronounced somewhere along the lines of kitty-kitty, well at least thats what I kept calling it.

Ahhh, back in my day....
We got a Ford Festiva to drive around the south island

To say the least, it scared and confused us.

to the point of our primal instincts
Out on the farm... climbing

near Fox Glacier

For Andy Cameron

Eric Climbing every chance he can get in New Zeland

Fiji

2007-02-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

Our host family in Suva, Fiji

Willson!!!

The water was a bit cold

This looks like an album cover, a christian album cover...
Later a coconut fell on his head

Accually the real story is much less interesting.

Thats me
This picture is one of the best I have ever taken, its so beautiful that there are no words to describe its greatness, there for I will make one up. Scrumtrulecent. Its Scrumtrulecence was so divine, i cried for hours.
later that day we swam by a white tip reef shark, oh about 6 feet long. but by the time i get back from my trip the shark will probably be a 30 foot shark that attacked us, then bears swam in to feast on us too, but luckely I had my trusty bear/shark mace.

What does fiji really need an army for anyhow? who would be that much of a jackass to invade fiji? who I ask, who?!
Eric climbing around a swimmin' hole with our guide that took us to the top of a peak.
This peak

New Zealand

2007-01-30T16:40:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the south island of New Zealand. We rented a shitty little car, a ford festiva, to get around, I thought it was comparable with the Geo, but no.. it had one more cylinder than Lester. It was fun, we saw all the crazy Lord of the Rings scenary. We went down to fiordland to see the towering mountains sloping into the water. the boat at one point slowed and turned right into a water fall close enough to get all who were in front wet. We also saw some glaciers, I cant wait till I'm old and I can say, "Back in my day, we had 9 planets in our solar system and huge mountains of ice that would carve mountains away." and then my children would laugh and put me in a home. Last night and the night before we camped at a place called "Hangdog" it was a climbers campground. there were hippies everywhere, it smelled, but the climbing was fun. When we first got there I heard hippies playing flutes everywhere even in the trees. turns out they were just these really crazy birds (I have them fluting on video in the background of eric climbing) Able Tazman, the national park we were camping near had awesome beaches and great hikes. Now we are heading for Wherapapa, and then back to Auckland so Eric can catch his flight to Australia. When I get to Auckland I will have time to post pictures (all of them).

LA

2006-12-31T16:11:00.000-08:00

Eric found some rock climbing... kinda

Eric molesting the Google Headquarters in LA

I dont know why

Allegro

2006-11-30T17:39:00.000-08:00

Burnt-Orange

2006-11-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Dont travel AA?

2006-11-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

lauren

2006-11-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

Green River

2006-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

2006-10-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

2006-10-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

2006-09-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

2006-07-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

Andrew's New Climbing Wall (Under Construction)

2006-07-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

iPod Alex?

2006-07-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Montana Trip

2006-07-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Butte's famous toxic coal lake

Isn't Montana great?

Bug

Ryan: intoxicated

GI-Joe's crappy $10 chairs, dont buy them.

Bomb Shelter

2006-06-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Eric and I were a bit worried about the situation in Korea so we decided to build a bomb shelter

Eric abandonded that idea and decided it was every man for himself. I awoke several hours later to find eric had gotten tired and had curled up next to me.

Drinkin' At Hess'

2006-06-18T02:42:00.000-07:00

A morning out drinking at the pub

2006-06-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

World Cup Football (thats the eurpoean football) Ghana vs. Chech Republic. Nicholas, Carson, Justin, Byrce, Mr. Yadon, and of course me. All who are 21 enjoying a pint of Guinness, and the rest a cup of coffee, and a traditonal Irish breakfast downtown at Fadoes.

Evil Tear of Threshold

2006-06-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

Notice that the right eye looks sad, also its an evil face. The evil face was actually a picture taken of me a long time ago getting a hair cut. Ahhh photoshop

The Man Is The Moon

2006-06-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

I call it, "Scary Eyes"

2006-06-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

Graphic

2006-06-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

The ol' "Bob Hess Hundred Twenty Mile an Hour Position"

2006-06-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Thumbs Up

2006-06-14T14:48:00.000-07:00