Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Life Lately

Well, I'm done with school for the semester, and I'm back in good ol' Clovis, CA. Where it is hot. So hot. Like really, really hot. I'm still glad to be home though.

Katie graduated and I passed all my classes(yeah! It was touch and go there for a minute...)! I head back to school in September for my last year of college, and Katie is heading out looking for a job. We're so old!!

I remember pretending that we were grown ups when we were kids and what our jobs were going to be. I always wanted to be a super hot drummer for a famous band or something like that. Or a police officer. I don't remember exactly what Katie wanted to do, but I'm sure it had nothing to do with computers. My how life changes! For both of us.

I turned 21 about 2 weeks ago and don't feel different at all. Kind of a let down.

I finished designing my website, Transparent Designing , for a class. Some of the links don't work, but I've been to unmotivated to fix them. Maybe I will soon...

I finished my cake final and everyone loved it! It took forever but it turned out pretty cute. I made a Nascar cake for my dad. He thought it was pretty cool!


I had a cool birthday, and got some pretty awesome things. I'll post about that separately. I'm looking forward to a month of relaxation and family time mixed in with some culinary adventures and crafty amazingness. Nice!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

It's Late...

I'm anxious. Anxious to be done with this paper I'm supposed to be writing, so that I can go to bed. Anxious for Dreamweaver to work so I can get my website up. Anxious for this semester to be over. Anxious to be home where my family needs me.

Anxiety has been my companion these past three months. Daily I've worried about my dad and how he's doing. My heart hurts. I feel helpless here. I want to be there. To help, to support. But I'm states away.

Now more than ever with other recent hardships in the family, I feel this need to be home. I need to be there. To be around my family. To recharge my soul and do what I can to contribute. I head home in 4 days. I think I can make it.

Though my body may be in Idaho, I left my heart in California. Sending good vibes to all the familia in the Golden State. I love you all!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Techno-WOW!

So I'm working on my website for Advanced Visual Media, and we have to post the projects we've completed in class. One of them is a product redesign. I redesigned Shasta's Tiki Punch.

Anywhos, while I was figuring out how I wanted to display my project, I stumbled upon Issuu, this really cool site that lets you upload document into really cool forms. This is what I settled on.

Take a look!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Poetry

As an English major, poetry has always been one of my least favorite things to study, especially Jon Donne. What the hell was going on with that guy?

But every once in a while I'll read a poem and feel this connection. I become somewhat obsessed with it. I'll read it over and over and ponder the meaning. I think about the way it makes me feel, and how the poets felt when they wrote it.

I was in a British Literature class last fall, and I found a bunch of poems that I fell in love with. I've decided that I love British poets way more than American poets.

Anyways, I had to give a presentation on John Keats. This man has a heartbreaking story. If anyone has seen the recently released movie Bright Star, that movie is about him and his sweetheart Fanny Brawne.

The poem "When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be", comes after he finds out that he is dying.

Here it is:

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Beautiful. Simple words in the grand scheme of poetry, yet impactful, is that a word? It should be.

This next poem made me laugh, because it is exactly the way I feel, and it was written some 2 or 3 hundred years ago...

The Lover: A Ballad
By Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

At length, by so much importunity press'd,
Take, C——, at once, the inside of my breast;
This stupid indiff'rence so often you blame,
Is not owing to nature, to fear, or to shame:
I am not as cold as a virgin in lead,
Nor is Sunday's sermon so strong in my head:
I know but too well how time flies along,
That we live but few years, and yet fewer are young.

But I hate to be cheated, and never will buy
Long years of repentance for moments of joy,
Oh! was there a man (but where shall I find
Good sense and good nature so equally join'd?)
Would value his pleasure, contribute to mine;
Not meanly would boast, nor would lewdly design;
Not over severe, yet not stupidly vain,
For I would have the power, tho' not give the pain.

No pedant, yet learned; no rake-helly gay,
Or laughing, because he has nothing to say;
To all my whole sex obliging and free,
Yet never be fond of any but me;
In public preserve the decorum that's just,
And shew in his eyes he is true to his trust;
Then rarely approach, and respectfully bow,
But not fulsomely pert, nor yet foppishly low.

But when the long hours of public are past,
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last,
May ev'ry fond pleasure that moment endear;
Be banish'd afar both discretion and fear!
Forgetting or scorning the airs of the crowd,
He may cease to be formal, and I to be proud.
Till lost in the joy, we confess that we live,
And he may be rude, and yet I may forgive.

And that my delight may be solidly fix'd,
Let the friend and the lover be handsomely mix'd;
In whose tender bosom my soul may confide,
Whose kindness can soothe me, whose counsel can guide.
From such a dear lover as here I describe,
No danger should fright me, no millions should bribe;
But till this astonishing creature I know,
As I long have liv'd chaste, I will keep myself so.

I never will share with the wanton coquette,
Or be caught by a vain affectation of wit.
The toasters and songsters may try all their art,
But never shall enter the pass of my heart.
I loath the lewd rake, the dress'd fopling despise:
Before such pursuers the nice virgin flies:
And as Ovid has sweetly in parable told,
We harden like trees, and like rivers grow cold.

She's basically saying that she's not a prude, nor overly religious, she's just waiting for a guy that isn't a total jerk. Someone who's nice in public around his friends, and sweet and funny in private. She wants a friend and a lover. That's something I'm still waiting for.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Cakes

This is a picture of my Fiesta! Royal Icing cake, it was a really time intensive cake, but overall a cool experience. I think it turned out pretty cool.
I made maracas, and strings of confetti. I also have royal icing primrose, wild rose,and violet flowers on the cake. The side is a butter cream basket weave with a rope border. It was really fun to see it all come together.




A couple weeks ago my roommate Stacy's boyfriend, Ryan, turned 26, and she asked me to help her make a cake for his surprise party. Ryan has a pet hamster that Stacy gave him when she got tired of having a pet, and Ryan loves him so we wanted to do a fondant hamster eating the cake.
When we started out we were a lot more ambitious. We wanted to have the hamster standing up with cake in his hand and a nibbled on circuit board (Ryan's in the engineering program here) with another hamster trying to scramble up the side.

Our fondant turned out to be a little to soft and we didn't have enough time to fix it, so we scaled back our plan and made it like this. I baked and iced the cake, and Stacy made the fondant hamster.

He still loved it and it turned out pretty cute for the time we had to complete it.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Eeek!

Have I mentioned that my student status has now been changed to SENIOR!?!? Err....

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Let It Wave


I'm American. Born and raised.

I love this country.

I love the people.

I love my rights.

I love my forefathers.

I love the government, (or how the government is supposed to be).

I love fireworks and hot dogs.

I love our armed service members.

I love America.

I'm American. Born and raised.