ROBERT MUNK

Fall Semester

2012-01-26T19:27:00.001-08:00

A photo-review of my recent adventures.

Fall 2011

Update

2011-07-20T07:26:00.001-07:00

Yeah so I have not written in a while. Perhaps it is because I have not done anything interesting all summer. I am working at Valley Medical Center as a housekeeper on graveyard shift. If anyone is wondering why I have not been on Facebook recently it’s because I put my account on hold, it just took up time and I do not need it this summer. I will be back on when I am at BYU so that I can stay in “the know”. Also I finally got my new camera, I really haven’t been able to go anywhere with it other than my backyard. But I hope to go to the coast and Mt. Rainer towards the end of the summer, I have a polarizing filter coming in the mail which I hope to use at both those locations.

Maple Valley

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Bridal Veil Falls

2011-04-16T20:18:00.001-07:00

I got some friends together and we climbed up the side of Provo Canyon near Bridal Veil Falls. It was fun but not the safest thing I have done. Most of the pathways were narrow made from lose rock. At one point we were sitting down to take a break when a few rocks fell down on us from above. I said “stupid mountain goats” jokingly as I turned around and looked up and saw a mountain goat poking his head out about one hundred feet above us (I took a picture without zooming in to show how far up he was, see if you can find him). We climbed hundreds feet up the falls but eventually the way became impassable due to steeper than usual cliffs and lack of climbing gear. Nevertheless we went to The Malt Shop afterwards and that was tasty.

Bridal Veil Falls

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More Bonsai and More Ice

2011-03-10T17:55:00.001-08:00

My sister Adrian gave me a photography book for my birthday, I have been looking through it and applying some new principles to my shots (mainly shutter speed and aperture). Here are a few that I took while goofing around at the lake today.

I found some moss while I was doing grounds crew yesterday and put it around my chinese elm bonsai, I think it looks pretty nifty.

Ice and Moss

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Bonsai and Ice Sculptures

2011-03-05T18:34:00.001-08:00

Adrian told me I should update my blog and talk about my bonsai trees. I have two a juniper and a chinese elm here they are.

Bonsai

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Furthermore; here are a few macro shots I took underneath the ice of the creek at my apartment complex. One of the images has a woman trapped in the ice! can you find her? She is wearing a skirt and standing sideways with her face toward the camera.

Frozen Creek

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William Tyndale

2010-12-12T20:56:00.001-08:00

“Born in Wales in 1494. Studied at Oxford and Cambridge. Translated the New Testament into English. Made the scriptures available to common people to expose the false doctrines and corruption of the religious leaders. He was executed on 6 October 1536” (Preach My Gospel p. 45)

For my New Testament class I am taking I am required to read The New Testament twice once in the King James Version and once in a language or translation of my choosing. I decided to choose the William Tyndale Translation because I thought it would be more worth my time than one of those modern English translations, or the Hawaiian Pidgin version: Da Jesus Book (I was sorely tempted to do so; on the later).

The William Tyndale version is of course the first English Edition of the New Testament. It started print in 1526 and as far as I am concerned it is very close to the King James Version. It seems that the KJV liked most of how the WTV translated and only changed a few things. Spelling is of course different: “in the begynnynge was the worde.”

Here are a few quotes from his life:

“Which thing only moved me to translate the new Testament. Because I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay-people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again.”

“My overcoat is worn out; my shirts also are worn out. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark.”

“I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.”

“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the scriptures than you do”

Tracy Aviary

2010-10-31T00:44:00.001-07:00

So Adrian took me to the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park (SLC UT) for my birthday present, it was a lot of fun. I honestly didn’t know what to expect the aviary to be like; but I was surprised to find that they had a good collection of birds from all over the world.

Aviary

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Aspen Grove Trips

2010-10-25T21:21:00.001-07:00

Aspen Grove

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Bioluminescence

2010-10-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

You probably already know what this is but let me share with you anyway. Bioluminescence is when live things (bio) are illuminated (luminescence), no duh right! You probably saw plenty of this in James Cameron’s blockbuster hit “Avatar”.

Actually I was listening to a track on the “Avatar” soundtrack called “The Bioluminescence of the Night” just about an 30 minutes ago when I decided to research the subject.

Quite simply bioluminescence works like this: some animals i.e. fireflies and some plants i.e. mushrooms release a chemical known as Luciferin or light-bringer (same pronunciation and meaning as Lucifer). Anyway this chemical mixes with the oxygen in the air and creates light. BUT THERE’S MORE!

Pyrodinium Bahamense a type of plankton found in tropical oceans around such places as Puerto Rico and The Bahamas releases light in an area 100 times its size whenever it feels pressure on it’s cell wall (it is a single celled organism after all). This makes for some sweet pictures. (remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them). I think these were taken in Vieques, Puerto Rico. And I am also sure that they are enhanced a bit, but who cares! they still are real and cool!

Bonsai

2010-09-20T00:25:00.001-07:00

So I have been in the market for a bonsai tree for awhile now. And one day as I was passing by a floral store I just so happened to see an advertisement for bonsai. So naturally I left a half hour later with this juniper and a free lesson from Tosh the owner.

Contrary to common belief a bonsai tree is not a special kind of tree. Its really just a regular tree that has been kept small by trimming roots and branches. Like most other plants you can wire them to grow in different ways (I don’t know if you can see it but my trees trunk actually takes a long ‘C’ shape). Bonsai trees can live incredibly long lives (i guess as long as a normal tree). Some 200+ years. Tosh the owner says he has bonsai that have been passed down to him from previous owners that are 100+ years old. Pretty cool. My tree is about 10-13 years old.

Since Bonsai are just regular trees that have been kept in small pots and such. You can technically grow any kind of tree as a bonsai (Elms, Junipers, Ficus etc.)

Fall So Far

2010-09-20T00:21:00.001-07:00

Expedition Timpanogos

Homeless…

2010-08-14T19:08:00.001-07:00

Well I am out of an apartment until the 23rd when I can move in. So right now I am at Nathan’s house and we found this dead snake on his driveway. So I took a picture. Pretty cool. I also got around to fixing that stupid red building in the lightning picture as well.

New Mexico Road Trip

2010-06-27T18:16:00.001-07:00

Check my Facebook, the program resizes pictures and I did not want to go through and do that by myself to post on my blog.

Places Through Seasons

2010-06-12T22:16:00.001-07:00

The following photos were taken in the same area with eight months in between. They were all taken in the same alpine meadow on Mt. Timpanogos. You will notice a familiar branch in the second and third photos.

…

2010-04-30T22:04:00.001-07:00

http://reface.me/profile-pictures/avatarize-yourself/

Provo Lake

2010-04-29T20:58:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I rode my bicycle down to the lake. Mostly because I haven’t seen a body of water in a while. I guess that’s something we take for granted in Washington. While I was there I was able to see a few of these cool yellow breasted birds. I think that it is amazing that birds are light enough that they can stand on these reeds without them giving way.

Rockland Idaho April 2010

2010-04-27T23:24:00.001-07:00

I went to our family farm in Idaho and we didn't finish all of the work by Sunday like we planned. So my dad left me there to finish up on Monday. So Sunday afternoon I went out on an ATV for a few hours and took some pictures of where I rode:

BYU On Sunday Afternoon

2010-04-19T23:30:00.001-07:00

I went to read on campus this last Sunday. And I took my camera just in case I saw some cool things. So here they are:

One of the deer that roam BYU. I was able to get within 6 feet of this animal and she did not even care.

All I did to this photo was add text (the heart was already in the tree). You will have to enlarge this photo to see it.

TrekEarth

2010-04-13T19:52:00.001-07:00

I was searching the internet on Sunday and came across this awesome website: http://www.trekearth.com/ It is a cool website where people from all over the world take pictures of the world around them. Kind of like National Geographic, but only without professional photographers. The following pictures can all be found on the website. It is worth noting that not all of the contributions on the site are spectacular. One occasionally finds them self looking at a picture of a goose that some guy and snapped in his backyard. But then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

(Remember that you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it)

Monasteries on Mountains

2010-04-13T00:54:00.001-07:00

Today I was thinking of that monastery where Bruce Wane was trained to be a ninja in the movie Batman Begins, and I thought: “what a cool building. I wonder what other cool religious buildings have been built in secluded places. So after a few Google searches and a half hour later I have found the following:

Taktsang or ‘The Tiger’s Nest’

Religion: Buddhist

Location: Bhutan

(this picture is obviously has been fiddled with in Photoshop, but I still thought that is was cool. It reminds me of Kung Fu Panda for some reason.)

Roussanou

Religion: Eastern Orthodox

Location: Greece

There are actually six other similar monasteries in the region. I think the region is called Meteora?

Taung Kalat

Religion: Buddhist

Location: Myanmar

Festival of Colors

2010-03-28T23:02:00.001-07:00

Not much can be said that has not all ready been said concerning the festival. All I can say is get there early and buy the super bright powder. We got stuck with the super bland stuff that didn’t stick very well, so we just ended up looking like we rolled around in the dirt. Also we were on the temple balcony, which was cool, because we could see everything, going on down in the grass. I would suggest going down in the crowd with everyone else. But it was super fun regardless, and I think that I would go again.

The Krishna Temple

Pre-Game Faces

The Main Event

Sean Nicholes, I run into this fellow everywhere

Trent and Scott were having a good time…

Dance Sport

2010-03-14T22:49:00.001-07:00

So this Saturday Dance Sport was in Provo and Nathan and I were supposed to compete for our dance 180 class. However due to a series of unfortunate events, I was not able to compete. Sad I know. But Nathan was able to compete and he got into the quarter finals for Cha Cha, there were about 190 couples in his division at the start and only 26 went to quarter finals! Also my other friend Sean Nicoles was competing in Samba and he got to the quarter finals as well. Below are some ‘special’ moments from dance sport:

These two photos of the loveable couple were taken by our good friend Christina.

“uh uh uh! don’t you be frisky with me boy!”

This is the Cruella Deville type woman who was judging Nathan and his partner Annette. She did not pass them on to the next round :(

Nathan and Annette walked out on to the floor first!

Sean!

Scotland’s Hebrides Isles

2010-03-10T19:29:00.001-08:00

So while I was in the doctors office (getting my nose fixed) I has able to look at January’s issue of National Geographic and was flipping through when I found the following article on the Hebrides Isles.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/hebrides/warren-text

I was blown away by the beauty and culture of these little islands. The basalt formations of which the islands are made up give the islands their own unique look.

I love the following photos, they are amazing shots of an all ready amazing landscape! So enjoy!

All Photographs on this post were taken by: Jim Richardson

Downloaded: March 10, 2010

Broken Nose…

2010-03-09T22:03:00.001-08:00

So yesterday evening for family home evening we were playing a game outside and one of my family members and I jumped forward into the middle of the circle, in the dark, at the same time. His forehead came down on my nose and then after doing an awesome backwards somersault; I had the worst head ache ever, and my nose did not feel too good either. Luckily my nose did not bleed at all. I went into the BYU clinic today and was able to see a doctor, he had me get an X-Ray and I found out that my nose was fractured (that heals by itself. The problem is my cartilage, my septum is in a kind of ‘C’ shape as you can see from the picture above. You can also see that I have some swelling but not too much. Anyway I have an appointment on Friday, that is when they will yank the cartilage back into place and I can go through life without having to look like Owen Wilson.

Twilight

2010-02-24T10:58:00.001-08:00

So the other day my friends and I went and saw New Moon at the dollar theater. So naturally after seeing the movie I decided to put my face on Jacob, the ‘stud’ in the movie. After, I thought' ‘hey why not stick some of my friends heads on the other twilight characters.’ And so, with the help of some of my friends, and two hours later, this was the result:

New Shoes!

2010-02-18T22:27:00.001-08:00

Besides looking for work this week and trying to balance school and everything else here is what I have been up to.

Austin called me up and asked for a ride to go pick up his scooter from the shop. This is Austin’s fool proof way of picking up a girlfriend as he assures me.

You can notice how Austin’s rear end only takes up half of the scooters seat. The other half is for any woman who has the courage to hang on tight to Austin’s manly back as he attempts a wheelie on I-15.

(For more information on Austin Vach and his ride; click on the link to his blog on the right.)

I have been wanting new shoes for the past 3 months at least. But had not come across any that were in the right price range and that fit my style. I tend to lean towards skate shoes but I don’t like the shoes have a ton of junk on them like skulls and random colors. I have looked all over Provo but all the shoes seem to be for the kind of guys that like to wear kakis. In the mall there are tons of sweet shoes but they all seem to run at $55+ Anyhow I tried payless again in the mall today and found nothing good. However on my way out I went into sports authority I didn’t expect to find anything but running shoes and hiking boots. But to my surprise I found a whole section of skating shoes all for about $35-40 and in the midst of them on a glowing pedestal I found the following:

I figure that since we are almost out of winter I should be safe with these and that they won’t get trashed for a long time, even though they are white. Plus you can never go wrong with Vans.

The picture below is the second coolest piece of footwear I found there.

My Entire Life (In Photos) Part 3: Mt. Rainier and Provo Canyon

2010-01-31T17:35:00.000-08:00

So my friends and I decided one night to go camp on Mt. Rainier, so the next day we left. We climbed up and set up camp and then climbed the rest of the way up to the base camp (Camp Muir 11,000 feet) in shorts and tennis shoes! Yeah you don't even have to tell me, I know we were hardcore (AKA. Stupid). The rest of these photos are ones that I took with Nathan on our trips up Provo Canyon.

My Entire Life (In Photos) Part 2: Spring 2009 and Hawaii

2010-01-31T17:25:00.000-08:00

The first four pictures were taken in my backyard in Maple Valley, I worked at home fixing up our backyard for much of this last summer, so on occasion I ran into some cool creatures. The next pictures are from our family trip to Hawaii.

My Entire Life (In Photos) Part 1: The Last Nine Months of My Mission

2010-01-31T16:56:00.000-08:00

This post consists of the last three areas of my mission Ft. Wingate a town on the Navajo Rez I was there for six months. After that I was transferred to ABQ with Elder Lomelli who happens to live in Auburn WA (about 15 minutes from my house). We had a lot of fun on P-days. We went to the ABQ Botanical Gardens and Aquarium twice that transfer, which explains why I have so many pictures of the place. My last transfer was in Sage right on the other side of the Rio Grande sometimes called "little Tijuana".

C.S. Lewis

2010-01-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

So for my birthday I asked for CS Lewis' complete works ($27 for all seven of his religious works, which is a good price considering each book individually is $15-$20). Any how I had started reading them back in October but I had only got through a few chapters when mid-terms hit so I got sidetracked until now.

So now I am reading them again. And with the help of the Holy Ghost, I have been able to discern that most of what C.S. Lewis has to say about Christianity and Discipleship are right on. The following are some of my favorite parts:

Mere Christianity : Chapter 5 p. 88

"We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity-like perfect charity-will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection."

The Screwtape Letters: chapter 8 p. 206-208

Note: keep in mind that this book is a series of fictional letters from an experienced devil (Screwtape) to his young inexperienced nephew (Wormwood). Since these are devils speaking, their allegiance is the exact opposite of ours. For example: they refer to God as the enemy, and Satan as their 'Father Below'.

"...Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal... As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks...

Now it may surprise you to learn that in His (God's) efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily good; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be... We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

Why We Love National Geographic (and other stuff too)

2010-01-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

This cave blew my mind when first I saw this picture, I had no idea something like this existed on planet earth. Apparently this is in Mexico.

A national park in India

I am not a fan of fish eye lens, but I still though that this was rad.

Funnyness

I took this one from The Boston Globes website this was under their top pics of 2008.

I wonder if they stuck a fly on the light to get the frog to eat it.

Interfacelift.com

Another Boston Globe, that is a volcano in Central America.

Cool colors

I love the Southwest

Interfacelift.com This ones in Tuscany

This one reminds me of the cockroach in Wall-E, this was taken on Brooklyn Bridge.

This might be my favorite