The Dark Knight Rises - TRAILER

Yet another 2012 movie I am so so so excited about.

Check it out below:

IOWA: Who's Gunna Win??

So, the two latest polls coming out of Iowa look really good for a somewhat surprising candidate: Ron Paul. The storyline the past two days or so has been that Gingrich's numbers in IA have totally imploded, while Paul has risen and taken the lead. Looking more closely at the numbers/trends, it also looks like someone else has been benefitting from his attack ads the past week or so - Rick Perry. Here are some of the numbers:

Insider Advantage (12/18): Paul 24%, Romney 18%, Perry 16%, Gingrich 13%, Bachmann 10%, Huntsman 4%, Santorum 3%.
PPP (12/16-12/18): Paul 23%, Romney 20%, Gingrich 14%, Perry 10%, Bachmann 10%, Santorum 10%, Huntsman 4%.

And check out the latest RealClearPolitics graph mapping the trends in the state:

So, what can we gather from all of this?

First of all, the attack ads that have been airing across IA have taken a huge toll on Gingrich's numbers. His lack of any real campaign infrastructure there probably has as well. According to PPP, he was leading the field with 27% just two weeks ago. It looks like those numbers were premature and flimsy. Right now, it definitely doesn't look like Gingrich is going to win the first caucus in the nation.

Secondly, something that I think is being overlooked are Perry's numbers. The RCP average over the last five days has Perry in fourth place with 12%...but if the Insider Advantage numbers are to be believed, Perry is definitely trending in the right direction right now. He's definitely got momentum building. His numbers will be the ones to look at in the next couple of polls - is he staying around 10%, or is he moving up into the high teens? If he's moving up, I'd say he has a shot.

Third, of course the thing everyone is talking about right now is how Paul is now leading the field. And it's definitely true. But, like every other blogger and political journalist out there, I'll reiterate that his numbers are made up of an unconventional (read: young and unreliable) bloc of voters and he has less growing room than some of the other front-runners (read: Romney). Conventional wisdom is that Paul has the strongest operation going in IA, and this will definitely be huge for GOTV efforts come caucus day. But will it be enough? 

Now that I've gotten those formalities out of the way, I want to go out on a limb and say that Paul's support is much stronger than most reporters are giving him credit for. Yes, he loses to Romney 10-28 among voters older than 65. But not only does he lead Romney by a whopping 48-3 (45 points!) among voters under 30 and by 18 points among voters 30-44, but he is also essentially tied with him among voters 45-64 (22 for Paul, 21.6 for Romney). So, he leads in nearly every age group, among both men and women, and among Independents, Democrats, and yes, even Republicans. In other words, the only groups Paul is not winning are the over-65 crowd and blacks and hispanics (who make up a pretty small number of the IA electorate). 

At this point, I'd say the newest IA numbers are pointing toward a three-way race: Paul, Romney, and Perry. Of course, everything can change in 24 hours - and we're still 15 days away from the caucuses. Newt could go on the air and make a resurgence; Romney's numbers could solidify as we get closer; Bachman (or even Santorum) could climb just enough to play spoiler. (On that last note, one more thing to look for in the next few polls: where are Santorum's numbers at? 3% in Insider Advantage and 10% in PPP are very different, especially in a field as big as this one, where those seven points could mean the difference between a Perry win or a Romney win). So, all of this is pretty irrelevant. I just wanted to share the poll numbers with you, and let you know my amateur opinion of what they might possibly mean.

Please comment and let me know what YOU think is going to happen! And thank you for reading. I'm going to try and start updating this pretty regularly, maybe even a few times a day - even just with links to cool articles and the like. Feel free to leave comments to let me know what you'd like to see more of!

-Ryan

OH.EM.GEE...THE HUNGER GAMES TRAILER HAS ARRIVED

I've been meaning to start blogging again for a while now. I spend far too much time cluttering everyone's newsfeeds on Facebook with articles, music, videos, pictures, etc. I've really wanted to start doing that on here instead for a while now.

Well, now something has prompted me to get over my laziness and just do it.

If you don't know what The Hunger Games is, click that link and get with it. (But be careful!!! Don't read all the summaries and spoil it for yourself).

Then, watch the just-released trailer for the first movie, coming out March 23rd. If I may speak for myself and all the other die-hard Tributes out there (Perez's recently coined term for all us Hunger Games fans), IT LOOKS SO DAMN GOOD.

A friend of mine actually cried watching that trailer. I came close.

Fraser Island Part 2: The Places

Hello! I'm finally back from my blog hiatus :)

If you haven't yet, you should go check out "Fraser Island Part 1: The Logistics, The People." It will give you a good overview of what the trip to Fraser Island was like, how we were driving around, where we were sleeping, who I was with, etc. This post is purely dedicated to showing you some pictures of the various places we saw as we drove around Fraser. So, if that's what you're looking for, keep reading!

Lake McKenzie.
Lake McKenzie is a freshwater lake in the middle of Fraser Island, and it's easily one of the most picturesque  beautiful places on the island. We went here out very first day on Fraser. The sand was so so white and so soft, and the water...it really did look that blue. It was gorgeous. We were able to just chill out here, lie on the beach a bit, swim in the water. Apparently the sand here is just as nice as the sand at famed Whitehaven Beach, in the Whitsundays. Since I won't be able to make it to Whitehaven before I leave, this will just have to take its spot :)

Lake McKenzie

McKenzie again - so blue!

Eli Creek.
I unfortunately don't have any good pictures of Eli Creek, but here's a glance at where you get in. Basically, Eli was a natural lazy river! It's a cold (like, really, really cold!) freshwater creek that flows down onto the beach. It's sandy, and really nice. We all climbed down those stairs and stood shivering while working up the courage to just start splashing one another so that the water would feel nice. Eventually, we caved - and then it felt so nice. We floated/walked down the creek, and then walked back up against the slight current.

The entry point for Eli Creek

Maheno Wreck.
This, clearly, is a giant shipwreck sitting on the sand on Fraser. This stop was mostly just a photo op - nothing really to do, but still very cool to look at. Unfortunately, I don't know the story behind it to share with you now. But I did get some pretty pictures, and this was certainly a magnificent thing to see. I just wonder what it used to be like...

Maheno Wreck

Wreck, in B&W

Wreck and coastline

Champagne Pools.
Oh my gosh, these were one of my favorite stops! The first picture below aren't the pools, just a look across the beach that I snapped while we were walking to the pools from where we parked. That green area going out into the water across the beach is Indian Head, which was our next stop after the pools. If you look at the second picture though, you'll see the actual Champagne Pools. They were basically just big "pools" that were protected from the waves by a ring of rocks. They were so peaceful. You could just go out and sort of float in the water while the waves crashed on the rocks. I spent time here on the beach, relaxing, in the water, relaxing, and on a rock, in the sun, drying...and relaxing. This was a beautiful and peaceful site.

A scenic walk to the Champagne Pools

The Champagne Pools - so peaceful

Indian Head.
This stop was another photo op, and very beautiful indeed (I probably sound repetitive...but Fraser Island was, all around, beautiful)! We walked up from the beach and out to the edge of the outcropping, where you could get a good view all around. Looking behind us (the second photo), we could see a huge sandy area in between the forests. It just gives you a sense of the amazing landscapes across the island. Then there's me, cheesing it up for the camera with the beaches of Fraser Island behind me. (Note: you can't swim in the ocean at Fraser!!! There are too many sharks, it's too dangerous and they don't allow it. That's why we stuck to the lakes and creek).

Indian Head

View from Indian Head - note the huge sand-blow

Yours truly, on Indian Head

Lake Wabby.
Woooo, Lake Wabby, my favorite of all our stops!!! This place was literally an oasis! Here's the story. We went to Wabby on Sunday, our last day on Fraser. It was our final stop of the trip. I woke feeling a bit, ahem, under the weather. I did not feel like being around anyone at all, so I sort of just kept to myself as we drove to Wabby. I just wanted to sleep. We get out of the vans at Wabby, and Wayne says we need to walk a bit. The furthest we've had to walk to any of our places has been 10 minutes or so, so I assumed that's how long it would take. Thirty minutes later, we are still hiking through a trail in the woods! Needless to say, I was far from pleased.

Then we come out of the woods - and all there is everywhere is SAND. Like, we're talking the Sahara. I thought it was a joke. "Lake Wabby used to be here...it dried up!" You know, like in Holes. But I followed the crowd, and about thirty seconds ahead, up over a little hill and then down a steep slope - Lake Wabby. It wasn't the prettiest or bluest or most scenic stop we made on Fraser (though it was really, really unique, the way it was just there in the middle of this huge sand-blow type thing. But it was literally like an oasis in the middle of the desert.

It didn't instantly save my mood, but a quick nap and then a dip in the water did. I missed out on rolling down the sand and straight into the water, which a couple of the people did, but that's okay. Lake Wabby was just such a neat, unique place - and really loved it!

Lake Wabby - just a huge fake out!?

The oasis that was Lake Wabby

The slope down into the lake

Lake Wabby

Andddd that's it for the stops! Again, if you haven't yet, go read the Fraser Island Part 1 blog post so that you can find out more about my trip to Fraser - including dingos, vans and revolution. Fraser Island was amazing, and now I'm sort of glad that it took me so long to write this post. It's allowed me to go back through all of the pictures and remember how great an experience it was!

As always, thanks for reading! Coming next...a weekend trip to Melbourne, and spring break...in Thailand!

Our caravan, beach driving on Fraser Island :)

Till then, g'day mate!

-Ryan

Fraser Island Part 1: The Logistics, The People

Well...this is really, really overdue! I'm sorry!

To be completely honest, keeping this blog is kind of a pain (clearly). But it's definitely worth it...I want to share with you guys all the amazing things that I'm doing, and I'm looking forward to having a record of it for myself once all is said and done. So don't worry, this blog still exists...I've just gotten a bit behind!

Over a month ago (yeah, really behind) I took a 5-day trip to Fraser Island with some friends. Fraser is located north of Sydney, off the coast in Queensland. It's a special place because it's one of the only places in the world where (temperate, I believe) rain forest grows out of the sand. So, it's got a really unique look to it - you'll be on the beach in one moment, and driving through the woods, on sand, the next. 

The big thing to do on Fraser is to go on a 4-wheel-drive type tour where you get to drive basically these big vans on the beach and just everywhere. And then you camp at night. So, this is what we did!

Photo of the 4WD vans on the ferry to Fraser Island

Zack, Nicole, Kirsten, Hannah, myself, and our guide, Wayne! After the trip.

That's what the vans look like. So basically, we flew up to Brisbane from Sydney on Thursday. Then we took a bus (I think like 5 or 6 hours?) to Rainbow Beach, where we stayed overnight at a really awesome hostel. We didn't meet anyone that night, but the next morning we got our "safety briefing" and met the people who were coming in our van with us. It was the five of us, plus three Englishmen backpacking around the world - Joel, Will, and Phil. We all loaded into our vans - there were 4 vans in total on our tour, I believe. We drove in caravan-style, with Wayne always leading the way. We had to take a ferry across the little inlet to Fraser Island - and then drove right onto the beach!

Driving on Fraser Island


Basically, we spent the next two days or so - until late Sunday afternoon - checking out some of the best places Fraser has to offer: Lake McKenzie, the Champagne Pools, Indian Head, Lake Wabby, and more (see "Fraser Island: The Sights" for all of these places)! We set up camp at the end of the day Friday, and camped there both Friday and Saturday nights. This aspect of the trip was a bit of a welcome surprise. Everyone on the trip was a backpacker, so everyone was really young, social and fun. We got to know Joel, Will and Phil pretty well in the van, and at night we got a chance to meet and connect with the rest of the people on the trip. It was mostly English people, though not entirely. 


(For some reason, Blogger isn't letting me do captions on these two photos...but below is our home base and then Joel, Hannah, Phil, Will and Nicole in the van, and then some night shots)

Another interesting thing about Fraser Island is that there are dingoes everywhere! Dingoes are the wild Australian dogs that are sort of like a cross between a pet dog (in that they are adorable and you want to pet and feed them) and wolves (in that they could actually feed on you if they wanted to, I suppose). One night I was brushing my teeth sort of by the edge of camp and there was a dingo that ran RIGHT past me! Wayne has been camping in our spot for years, and he actually knows the dingoes that come around there. Apparently it's always the same ones, and he's seen them there since they were pups.


 Each night, we saw them at least four or five times, sort of just circling the camp. One actually got into one of the tents at one point early on because people had food in it! It was pretty crazy, very very cool. I didn't snap any pictures of them myself, but my friend Zack did:

After two days of caravaning all over the island, checking out great places, meeting cool people and nearly getting eaten by dingoes, we headed back to Rainbow Beach for Sunday night. This was a great way to close out the trip. Everyone felt pretty close by that point, and the hostel we were at had organized a series of games for the night - so we had a blast doing that. The games were basically musical chairs (musical kegs), a game where you had to bounce a ball off a wall and into a can, and, finally, flip cup. 

Obviously, the Americans (us) started getting pretty competitive about the flip cup part. Somehow, it wound up turning into a Revolutionary battle - America versus England. No, but literally...in the finals, it came down to our America team (us 5 + Ben, a turncoat Brit) and the English team (our van mates! gasp! plus a few others..including a Canadian). It was an epic battle of good versus evil, has-been world power and current superpower.

AMURRRICA:

vs.

ENGLAND:

The battle raged...

And out of the wreckage, one team emerged victorious....America, of course!!!

And then we led all these kids in some games of beer pong in the hostel lounge. After singing the National Anthem. Yeah, we were those kids...and it was beautiful.

All-in-all, it was a great finish to a great trip. Beautiful scenery, fun people, such a unique experience...defnitely one of the highlights of my time abroad thus far. The next day, we had a looong journey back home, complete with flight delays and everything. But it all worked out just fine, and the very next day we all found ourselves missing Fraser and Rainbow Beach and all the cool people we had gotten to meet.

Now, get yourself over to the other Fraser Island post, so that you can see pictures of all the amazing things we saw on the island!!! And check out these last few photos below, from random points throughout the trip, that I thought would be nice to include. Sorry the captions still aren't working, but there's just a lot of people shots...inclusing a picture of our entire group, in front of the Maheno Wreck on Fraser:

Thanks for reading! Oh, and last thought: no, I didn't get to drive, because I can't drive manual. Although, in the end, our van wasn't even manual. Oh well! It was fun getting to relax and just SNACK with everyone else.

Thanks for reading!

-Ryan

If nothing else, I've learned in Sydney...

...how to pack light! (well, at least lighter!!!)

That right there is my CARRY-ON luggage for my entire 11 day trip to Thailand! That's right, I, Ryan Hanley, will be traveling to Thailand - city life, jungletime, and beach bummin' - with just that carry-on duffle bag and my backpack. If you know anything about me, it's that I do NOT pack light...so, I'm considering this a huge ahcievement.

That said, if you know anything else about me, you also know I'm the world's number one procrastinator....and I have to tell that that hasn't changed yet. So, alas, you'll have to continue waiting for the way overdue updates this blog needs.

In four hours, my flight leaves for THAILAND, the finishing touch on my recent travel extravaganza. Which means that when I get back in May, I'll have plenty of stuff to tell you about and plenty of pictures to share...

From dingoes, beach driving and breathtaking lakes on Fraser Island...

...to museums, more AFL, and the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne...

...to, of course, whatever Thailand brings us!

Thanks, as always, for reading....and stay tuned for the treasure trove of stories and photos that I'll have once my 20/25 day travel extravaganza is finished!

Much love...now off to Thailand!

-Ryan

The Best Day Ever, Part 2

Sorry I've been so slow with the updates lately. Things have been CRAZY! Like I said in the last post, I'm right in the middle of a travel blitz...20 days of traveling out of 25. I keep coming home Monday and leaving three days later on Thursday. It's been an absolutely blast, and it's given me tons of material to blog about...but not a ton of time to do the blogging.

So, this post is two weeks late or so. Anyway, like I said earlier, my very first AFL game (Go Swans!) was in Olympic Park, at ANZ Stadium. This meant that we were right in the centre of where all of Olympic events went down in 2000 - the swimming, the gymnastics, the tennis, the track and field...everything! (okay, there were probably a few exceptions...I'm not sure....but still, so cool!). So, after the game, two of the guys from my house and I decided to check out Olympic Park. Best decision ever!

Map of the layout of Olympic Park

We spent about two hour or so just walking around and checking out the various stadiums, courts, and arenas located in the area. We even saw what we *think* was the Olympic Torch! We couldn't get very close to it to check, because of construction, but I managed to get a picture of it anyway. Basically, I guess it was just so cool because I really love the Olympics, and it was so unique to get to walk around the places where the very competitions took place just 10 years ago or so.

I've put together a bit of a "photo essay" again. I hope you enjoy it!

ANZ Stadium, site of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2000

Pat posting outside of the Athletic Centre

The WARM-UP track for the track and field events

The "Hockey Centre," ie field hockey. There seemed to be a college game going on, maybe for a club team?

Gymnastics! Not sure if this is where they actually warmed up for the Olympics or not...but it was still cool

Ian Thorpe, Australian Olympic swimmer

Pat and Steven outside of the main arena at the tennis centre

A view through the door of the main tennis arena (it was closed)

Golf!

AQUATIC CENTRE YESSS

Swimming!

And again...

The possibly inappropriate 2012 logo

Beijing 2008, placard on the sidewalk

Olympic Torch or UFO?

I forgot until I was putting the picture in...but another cool thing was that when we were there, there was a big meet going on at the aquatics centre. It was trials to make the Australian team for world championships. I really wanted to go in and check it out, but it was $15 and Steven and Pat decided they didn't want to, so we all went home together. Anyway, it was still cool to be there when something important was going on!

As you can probably tell, I love the Olympics. My goal is to go in London next summer...here's to wishing! Next up on the blog...my trip to Fraser Island! Stay tuned!

-Ryan