Major Cockatiel Scritches

This is a lovely video from Japan. This cockatiel is really bonded to its owner! A big thank-you to the pet owner who shared this video! The bird looks like it's really enjoying that! My birds aren't bonded enough to me to accept this kind of attention...

Small Surprises: Teenie Weenie

Teenie Weenie Does Couple's Looks

Teddy Bear's Have Frats and Teenie Weenies!

Max: after Noodles, Beer, and Copious Amounts of Korean Fried Chicken

He has become Frat Bear~!

Here is something I never saw before Korea (besides traditional culture), and that is the brand TEENIE WEENIE. I can't help but smile or crack up when I hear that name. So Max and I bought some Teenie Weenie goods from an outlet store.

The heat of autumn is here, and I sit in my chair with very sweaty legs.

Enjoy the photos of Max and I in YELLOW TEENIE WEENIE Merchandise. Love love love! Kinda looks like a frat-boy, but the whimsy and the random name make up for it.

This post seems to be the polar opposite of my previous post, in which we encountered large Korean Phalluses. Now you just met the Teenie Weenie Bear.

Haesin-DONG(Haesindang) Dong Park 해신당공원

The Exhibit in that Hut is the Only one to be "R" Rated

Max Riding Free Willy

More Family Fun than Disneyworld!

Check out that Beautiful View, Be Prepared to Meet Sea Roaches Though!

Shrine to the Unfulfilled Virgin

Haesindang Park

A few weeks ago I was swept out of bed and into the car for a voyage to Samcheok area in Korea. We stopped at a hot spring, a beached cruise ship theme resort atop a hill, and then, to my surprise, what appears to be a very popular park in Korea. Just type "Haesindang" into the google search or google image search for more information.

Anyway, Samcheok is in the Northeast of South Korea. Since my family drove there, I can't give any advice about how to get there or anything. I just want to put some photos of it here for my family and friends to enjoy.

There is a story behind all the dongs in the park. At the Dong Park there is also a museum about traditional village life by the East (Japan) Sea in Korea.

Legend has it that an engaged maiden was taken by her fiance to harvest seaweed. So she was left alone on a rock at low-tide, while he went back to work on the shore. Unfortunately, time brought with it a weather change with strong wind and surf, and she ended up drowning. I guess the Village People thought that some kind of Curse of the Unfulfilled Virgin would overtake their town. They then decided to erect penises to put at this rocky point where she drowned to appease her spirit. And the park remains to this day with a museum about village life, tons of penis sculptures, and a nice view of the the East Sea. Not your average western bed-time story for the kiddos, is it? I'm not sure that I would want to be harassed by so many phalluses in the afterlife, but I guess everyone has their own belief about what a deceased young lady would have liked to enjoy had she had a longer life.

Year of the Dragon Phallus

Malia's Virtual Sketchbook: Open!

I have created a blog solely to share my art and art-related information on the interwebs.

It can be accessed at http://maliaautiovirtualsketch.blogspot.com

I'm excited. I think it will be a fun space to track my progress. It's not like I'm having any formal training (beyond looking up technique-related information online) but I'll do my best and hopefully instict and inspiration will guide me at least partway.

Birds to Fashion: Gang Gang Cockatoo

Gang Gang Fountain by ~pixipatrin on deviantART

Inspired by the Gang Gang Fountain Video (See that blog for the movie! It shows the character of this charming cockatoo.) If I can stay motivated there will be more to come! I regret using the ink. I love pen sketches which are painted with watercolors, but failed to achieve the sketchy effect. And using a camera rather than a scanner for the image didn't help it, either. It's my first watercolor work on this scale, so I'll just view it as a learning experience. I miss prismacolor pencils and using thick acrylic. I really like to pile paint on the paper. Watercolor doesn't work in the same way. I'll get used to it!

The trees are red peppercorns and the berries are one of the Gang Gang's favorite foods.

Watercolor Techinques

Major Mitchell's Cockatoos in Love

Gang Gang Cockatoos, Sorry they only have one foot

I've been spending time with a younger charge (even though I was friends with the neighbor's granddaughter back in the home country, we played tennis from time to time), than I did during my days as a tutor to college students. Anyway, it's a nice chance to get to go back to basics and just have fun without pretenses! (As you become so inclined to do at the higher levels.)

We spend hours water-coloring together. It's fun and a stress relief, so I went and picked up a set of watercolors today. But I would like to learn some basic techniques to get me started ,as compared to other mediums I don't have a clue about watercolors. Hence the state of the paintings I've put in as small images in the blog. I'd like to stick with it (I need to stick to a lot of things these days...) I prefer acrylics, but since I don't have much experience with watercolor I figure I might as well try learning a few techniques, should I like it.

Anyway, I'm leaving a link to a fun WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUE WEBSITE

I will add more links if I pursue this interest in the future.

http://www.johnlovett.com/techniq.htm (Thorough, Easy to Understand, Attractive Layout, and FREE!)

http://www.watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-tutorials.htm (Quite Detailed)

http://www.johnlovett.com/techniq.htm (Good Basic Summary)

I think it's safe to announce that:

*drumroll*

My job search is over! (for at least a year, but likely longer than that!)

After facing some setbacks with my school and some companies! (Including ones that I trekked all the way to Japan to see!) I was successfully hired after a skype interview at a small, informal, but very warm English school in the town were I lived for my first study abroad. My Certificate of Eligibility paperwork for a working visa has been submitted! So advice to all the hopefuls out there, dreams will come true, just be patient! (Moral of the story: try to interview in your home country, unless you really have the itch to travel, enjoy the travel but if you're not there for an extended time, don't expect anyone to hire you because you went to see them, but also don't be discouraged if a door slams shut in your face-the universe has something better in store.)

I really do dream of working in the countryside one day (the place where I'm going to is suburban/medium-large, but some areas of the town feel small), but I declined a job as an ALT in Nagano, just because the opportunity to be near friends and in a central area of Japan (Aichi) is too good to pass up.

And on the website I'd definitely recommend, www.gaijinpot.com, a similar small, warm, and personal eikaiwa school requested I contact them. Not that it's a job offer, but it made me happy all the same to be contacted.

I will be going back to Aichi-prefecture, sometime in September with work starting in Fall! After my long job search, it doesn't even feel real! But it is!