An Easter of Epic Proportions

Happy Easter to everyone!
This Easter will be the first that I have not been home since I was abroad, which was not too long ago considering I've only had one Easter back home in New Hampshire since 2008, but this time I will not be celebrating the holiday in Bangkok, or in Guangzhou, China, or at 4140 meters above sea level in the Himalyas. I'll be in Baltimore. Celebrating Easter (and Hanamatsuri the Buddhist holiday/Flower Festival in Japan to honor the birth of The Buddha). Today, I'll be working on my writing and photography. Documenting and reliving all of my past Easters.
Granted I miss my family and having the traditional Easter egg hunt, big dinner, and special moments back home. But this year it's more about reflection. Looking back at the year that was since my Easter 2011 and seeing such a big change in my life. Then being able to extrapolate those memories further back to the following years.
In 2010, my easter morning was spectacular. There were no eggs hidden anywhere, no Easter dinner served. It was the one of the most untraditional holidays I've ever had. And I'll never forget it.
I could barely sleep I was so excited, partially because I was having trouble breathing due to the unbelievable thin air but also because I was so excited to see what I had in store outside my window. I looked out a few time through the frosted glass to see the moonlight shining down onto the pearl-white snow of a hill outside the freezing cold hut we were sleeping in. I was wearing about six layers and still was shivering. The sun couldn't have come up faster for me and my anticipation. Finally it was time to awake and open my door to see just where I was: at the Annapurna Base Camp in the Himalaya's. After four long, grueling days of hiking to the top of this mountain, I finally got to see what it was all about. All the other hikers and myself came for this one day, for this one view. To stare down the tenth tallest mountain in the world and be surrounded by colossal giants for 360 degrees.
(I wrote about the entire Annapurna trip last year at this time, you can see it here...)

The view was incredible, the sky was piercing blue and the contrast of the snow and rock against the sun's beaming light was amazing. Early in the morning, the sky was a deep-sea blue but the sun's rays hit the mountain tops in a pinkish/orange color almost reminiscent of the Easter bunny.

"Life, Love and Pursuit Of..." gallery premiering Oct. 3rd

"As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being."  ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

My largest and most exciting photography gallery Life, Love and Pursuit Of: Daily Interactions with the World will be premiering on Monday October 3rd, at Brewer's Art. The gallery graciously has asked for me to fill their entire back dining room with over 20 large photos from my collection and will have the gallery up until January. Brewer's Art will be providing free appetizers and happy hour drink prices all night for the event and will also include a free print of one of the images from the gallery, given randomly to anyone who attends the event. So you get to come look at some great images and hear the stories behind them, eat some delicious food for free, drink Baltimore's best beers for cheap, and potentially win a free piece of art. That doesn't sound too terrible, right?

I have put in more time, money, countless hours of lost sleep, energy, and extreme amounts of patience to make this gallery. It is one that I am incredibly proud of and cannot wait to show everyone. My motivation and inspiration behind this exhibit was one that I found while traveling throughout Asia and Africa over the past three years. I realized that I wanted to capture daily life, whether it be doing a job shift, at home with family, traveling around the country, or celebrating your passions. Every person lives their lives in an unique and interesting way, and I only hoped to have captured some of those idiosyncrasies to show that although living on completely different ends of the planet, everyone has love, everyone has emotions, everyone has the pursuit of something important to them; ie- money, peace, happiness, etc. But overall, it's life. We are all living life and this gallery is to celebrate that.

One of the best parts about finalizing this exhibit and waiting for the materials to arrive is that today (September 20th) is World Peace Day. This gallery hopes to give, show, spread peace to people that see the images and are somehow affected by them. Remember that peace is not just a liberal-minded belief or unreachable attainment. Peace can be found within yourself and within the world, I only hope that this gallery may guide you towards that peaceful direction.

"Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity." ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Be sure to head to my website michaeltirone.com and take a look at just a few images that will be displayed at the Life, Love, and Pursuit Of... gallery (I obviously can't show you them all!) Also remember to sign the virtual guestbook on the website AND the actual guestbook once you get to Brewer's Art on Monday, October 3rd!

An Anniversary for Annapurna ~ Travelog Thursday

I treat anniversary's of specific dates as a big deal. I don't know why or where that came about, but since I can remember I found knowing an important date in my life as a milestone, or marker that gives me perspective on the things that have changed in my life since last year or ten years ago at that time. I think that I treat important dates as my own personal New Year's Eve/Day. I have never had a massive revelation or moment on the last day of the calendar year because it never had any personal significance to me. But certain dates in my life stick out in my mind with significance.

Now that I am back in America, I look at random days of the year and think, “where was I last year? What was I doing? How long was my hair? Where was I mentally?” These questions come up often, and I am fortunate enough to remember a lot of special dates from at least last year's crazy travels. But sadly like everything, your memories begin to fade from year to year, and hopefully with all of my photographs and stories, the moments in my life will be remembered.

My Buddhist Prayer flags blow atop Mount Annapurna, Nepal

So today, I woke up and thought the usual questions of “where was I last year on this date?” Although, knowing full well that I would remember April 6th as a pretty exciting day for me in 2010.

The sixth of April, 2010 I was just finishing my last day of a grueling weeklong trek to the base camp of Mount Annapurna, the world’s tenth highest mountain. But what made this date so special was all that occurred prior to completing the trek.

May Your Madness be Meaningful... and Mad ~ Travelog Thursday

As I sit in my living room with the patio doors open pouring in fresh spring air, i have two laptops on my desk and our tv on rotation with three of the four NCAA basketball games on every possible way. A mirage of sounds are coming out of apartment 2B; shoes squeaking, cheerleaders making out-of-rhythm cheers from all the 9 teams currently playing , in-depth announcers spatting out the plays, and crowds roaring at various big plays. What is in front of me? My brackets ridden with cross-outs, fill-ins, and highlight marks. A warrior's prep kit sits in front of me; a glass of Crystal Lite to get hydrated before the holiday of drunkenness commences tonight and my St. Patrick's green clothing folded on my coffee table, ready to be adorn shortly. Today is March 17^th. Most would consider this a glorious day for the Irish and alcohol lovers, but for me, that plays second fiddle to the unofficial holiday I am celebrating today. This is bigger than Christmas, it's more exciting. It's more significant than Thanksgiving, it's more meaningful. This is more patriotic than Independence Day, fireworks happen sporadically and not in an organized finale.

My set up for the first day of the NCAA tourney. Two computers, several brackets, HD tv, and a glass of Crystal Lite. Yup.

This is the first day of March Madness. If there has been a consistent sporting event that I have written about throughout my life, it has been the NCAA tournament. I remember the very first time I filled out a bracket for my dad's pool. I knew a little bit about college basketball as a 12 year old, but that moment it clicked. My first tournament pool and my first victory against adults. It was invigorating. From then on I have filled out a bracket; at 13 I made two and wrote a poem about how fun it was, at 14 I had three brackets and spent hours on research, by high school it was a full-fledged addiction. I skipped school and took “sick days” for the first two days of the tourney. At 15 I sat and watched every game with the each timeout break giving live updates on the start of America's war in Afghanistan. It was a memory I will always have, having the thrilling excitement of the first games and brackets being tested but the lows of teenage friends having to watch as our country embarked on war. Once college tipped off, it was not even a question, classes took a backseat.

So I had ten years of pure ecstasy of the tournament and then I left to live abroad in Thailand. College basketball was nearly impossible to find on television in The Land of Smiles and so I did not pay very much attention to the regular season other than my favorite Tar Heels of North Carolina. The regular season came and went and I got my usual college basketball tournament invitations. A tradition is a tradition so I absolutely signed up.

Super Bowl predictions and new photos!

What's up everyone,
Since I've been recently labeled as being scarily addicted to sports (and sports wagers), I am putting out just one post with my Super Bowl XLV comments but also include some new photos that I just uploaded to WMT Photo for your viewing pleasure.
First off, today, I uploaded another new gallery of photos on my Nepal page. Stories behind these photos will be given on this blog but also throughout the website, but for now, my mission is to get as many good, professional photos up asap. So take a look!

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Now since I've posted the link and a photo from the newly made gallery, I must give an explanation to my rebirth into American sports fandom before my prediction for Sunday's game. Living in a foreign country for two years, I did not have the great pleasure of watching any of my favorite sports teams (aside from Chelsea in the English Premier League) and so my love of the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, UNC Tar Heels, and Oregon Ducks sort of fell by the wayside with my time difference of 11 (or 12) hours killing any opportunity to watch my teams. So now that I am back in America, I am simply making up for lost time. I will even out to being a normal person once again, but for now, I am on overload.
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Ok, so the Packers will take home the Lombardi trophy back to Green Bay where that specific trophy got its name. I don't feel like seeing the Steelers and Big Ben's felon hands touch that trophy again. Let Aaron Rodgers enjoy the feeling since he was cast in the shadow of Bret Favre's massive ego. The Green and Yellow will represent champions much better than the boys from the Steel City.

Enjoy your seven layered dips, buffalo wings, and hopefully hysterical commercials on this Sunday of Super proportions.