The Rain in Spain

Oh wait!

2008-05-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

I sold another macbook case:
Hurray!

In less than 24 hours

2008-05-18T13:36:00.002-05:00

I will be in HONG KONG! HELLZ YES! I'm so excitedddd. I'm at home now just chilling and packing but I will be on the plane tomorrow morning at 10! Yessss!

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But this is the time to reflect on my first year at college isn't it? Yes, I need some time for that. I was officially done on Thursday afternoon (4PM to be exact) when I took my English portfolio to my professor's mailbox. Then I met with her Friday morning at her house to go over it and to talk about my work this semester and what I can do to improve. As a part of my portfolio, I incorporated "Outside influences" that affected the way I saw things...here they are, with my comments:

Outside influences:
1.http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=owner%3Aucberkeley+lunch+poems

I was more intrigued by Li-Young Lee’s thoughts in between his poetry reading although a couple of his poems were quite beautiful (the one about birds).
Speaking as dying, poetry is death etc.

2.http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/pe08/rla/genre/poetry/collinyard/assets/pe08_vid_collinyard/pe08_vid_collinyard_100_mov.html

Billy Collins reading “The Lanyard.” I both laughed and got teary-eyed when I heard this poem.

3.http://media.ghostrobot.net/7020_wanderlust.html

Bjork is my favorite artist/singer and this new music video “Wanderlust” certainly made me see things differently. The last part as she falls down the waterfall is incredibly frightening but the very last shot resolves the entire video.

4.The Other Shore by Gao Xingjian was a production done by some Swatties this semester. During the play I felt nervous, surprised, vulnerable, amazed, happy….then I left and had to go to a piano room and cried while I improvised for nearly 20 minutes. I felt refreshed after that but had to go spend time with my friends to start filling up my emptied mind. I think it might have been the strangest experience I’ve encountered at Swat. I definitely recommend seeing this because I felt deeply affected (neutrally) by it.

5. http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

Keri Smith’s blog has been a part of my life for 4 years now and she has definitely influenced the way I approach things. She doesn’t blog as much now but her earlier posts are just as insightful and interesting.

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Another piece in my portfolio:
He watched without moving, so finally I got up and stood over Moses. My shadow spread, a cool place in the radiance that heated the ground. My shade was pleasant at first, but I stood there so long that he finally shivered in the dark shape I cast.
“Get your shadow off me,” he said. He spoke in Indian, his voice a thinly oiled saw, half-rusted.
I smiled, flourished my hands on my hips, pleased to make him talk.
p. 79, Love Medicine
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt the power of language and the infinite insight that each language provides to the world in this passage. Shadows implying meaning with shapes and temperature reminded me of ‘real imaginations.’ The metaphors here of Moses’ voice as a ‘thinly oiled saw’ and Lulu’s hands as flourishes on her hips tickled my mind and excited the artist in me. I was further entranced by the otherworldly island Erdrich invited me into with subtle details and fantasies. To me, each word in this passage was a brush stroke that contributed towards the final painting of a luminous ball that I wanted to cup in both of my hands to eat and swallow.

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And another:
Seeing the World in High Focus
Attention to detail in literature can be everything from satisfying as knitting an entire scarf to being so completely boring that it makes us want to pull our hair out. It is a wonder that some gifted authors can meticulously grace every crease, wrinkle and groove in the skin with the most delightful pattern of words while others might put you to sleep in an instant. What then, is the key to a successful elaborate description of pretty much anything? The first step in finding the answer might lie in exploring the function of these worded intricacies, or what we want out of them. As Susan Orlean says:
…the sheer bigness of the world made me feel lonely to the bone. The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go.
“The Good Life,” The Orchid Thief, p. 107
Although she is specifically talking about passion, her comment can be applied to the reason why readers and authors alike, enjoy detail. Choosing to describe the flickers of light that an dying lamp sheds across the wall, or the pattern and dance of the ants march at our feet might just be a way of narrowing down the world that “is so huge” so that we can appreciate it bit by bit. But what I have found to be most rewarding in some works is the unspoken truths revealed by describing the object, place, event or emotion. It introduces us to look at something and actually see it differently since it is told differently.
Take for example the following excerpt from Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, only a handful of pebbles, figuratively speaking, in comparison to Lulu’s time on the island, which is an enormous boulder that only moves a few millimeters a year:
A tangle of cats lay loose and drowsy in the sunniest part of the yard, a black slate where the sun beat down . . . I stroked and petted them. I lightly pinched behind their ears, moved one finger up their throats, rubbed the base of their spines until I claimed their hearts, cold balls of silk, and unwound them and set them to warm in the failing sun.
“The Island,” P. 78
Though she uses many words, the actual events taking place are slow moving and seemingly unimportant--the cats are dozing off while Lulu pets them. However, descriptions of tasks done by hand such as the petting of a cat are much more involved than one might expect. As Erdrich leisurely moves from ears, throat, spine and finally to the cat’s heart we can’t help but feel the joints in our fingers wanting to imitate and follow the same path. It is a feeling that hits us especially deep if we have pet a cat (or another animal for that matter) before. The petting of these cats is so vividly described and therefore relatable, that while it seems unimportant, they are valuable to us at the moment of our reading it, as well as later when we string this bead in next to all the other beads to form a coherent story.
The magic of such attention to detail is that we get to experience a different world, or the same world but in a different light. Descriptions in “The Island” are particularly resounding since they provide us with an ocean of resolved questions, explanations and character traits that the pages and pages of Lulu’s desire for Moses left us curiously asking and contemplating. Erdrich’s details are delicate and carefully crafted like a house of toothpicks, each one fascinatingly intricate but absolutely breathtaking and fulfilling to see the lot of them together, in one piece. Her success is hidden in both the immaculate and perfectly chosen words of the descriptions, as well as the questions they answer.
In other novels such as Kindred by Octavia Butler, detail denotes train-of-thought and confusion:
There was the soup that Sarah had left simmering; fish to fry; ham that had been rock-hard before Sarah soaked it, then boiled it; chicken to fry and corn bread and gravy to make; Alice’s forgotten potatoes to finish; bread to bake in the little brick oven alongside the fireplace; vegetables, including salad; a sugary peach dessert—Weylin raised peaches; a cake that Sarah had already made, thank God; and both coffee and tea.
“The Fight,” p. 159
Although this long list carries, by default, a certain degree of monotony because she is simply citing everything that needed to be cooked, the chaos and desperation that Dana feels can be sensed immediately. But by articulating every single dish and preparation with flourishes like “Alice’s forgotten potatoes” and “Weylin raised peaches” Butler successfully keeps the passage interesting and moving. In addition, the chaos provides us with what Dana must go through in the antebellum South and evokes a sense of empathy towards her and anger towards Weylin. By incorporating such minutiae here, Butler is preparing us for the bigger themes of the novel while documenting a specific mood at the same time.
Satisfying and insightful descriptions are, as was exemplified by Erdrich and Butler, the product of the right set of words, and are usually capable of evoking an emotion and/or a new way of seeing the world. Perhaps we are so attracted to these new insights within a set framework because as John Berger says in Ways of Seeing, “we never look at just one thing because we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” When we read a detailed description, we are able to create connections between things we are familiar with and a new way of seeing those things.
A true master of attention to detail is also aware of the need for lack of detail. While a novel that is chockfull with detailed descriptions has the potential of being abundantly rewarding, constant zooming in such as can be seen in a passage in The Orchid Thief in which Orlean drones on and on about the different appearances that an orchid can have a mind numbing effect. Not only does this put us to sleep, but also we may lose any remainder of hope we had for the rest of the novel.
Just as Aristotle said “everything in moderation,” this motto unsurprisingly applies to the amount of detail a novel should include. Erdrich, for example, thoughtfully weaves her lavish descriptions into the more subtle passages, which require more contribution and effort from the reader. In “The World’s Greatest Fishermen,” she says that “[Albertine] went into the next room and stuffed the hat under King Junior’s mattress” (42). While the entire chapter can be viewed as elaboration upon elaboration of describing a single hat, this is one of many sparse sentences that leave the detailed sections to be appreciated. By deliberately leaving the sentence vague, Erdrich is suggesting that a deeper reading should be made, and that she has either given us enough evidence or plans to give us more evidence so that it can be made.
The two examples I’ve given are indicative of the type of attention to detail that not only works, but is also satisfying. They are, as Orlean writes in The Orchid Thief, successful in whittling down the huge universe into something more comprehensible, and provide valuable insight into the things we may not necessarily notice on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, they all serve a greater purpose in their novels whether it is to prepare us for an event, or to provide us with some background information. If the author is successful, the ending brings us satisfaction since details encourage us to become invested in the plot, the characters and the various aspects of the novel.
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We also had to write about how we saw or told things differently:
What I see now is that there are many ways to see.
It is the type of joyful knowledge that I live to learn about as an artist.
Seeing things differently and in many ways means,
that there are just as many different ways to tell people about those things.
Whether it is through written word or mouth, or the brushstrokes in an oil painting,
different methods call for exciting, and colorful outcomes.

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I had to write quite a few more pieces for the portfolio but I'll spare you :P I mean this blog is pretty much a space for me to write freely so I guess it doesn't matter but still....
---
Wow this girl's blog is awesome
^check it out!
--

Okay, I guess I don't actually feel like reflecting back on my first year of college. Maybe another day :P

But tomorrow I'm going to China so the blogs will be short and spread out.

Enjoy your summer!
Take advantage of the time! (if you're a student that is)

<3

My talented friend

2008-05-15T20:49:00.004-05:00

wrote an exquisite poem.
---

(That's what it's supposed to look like but blogger keeps messing up the alignment--you can click to make it bigger but here are the words just in case)

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the infinite shapes of dots

you left a constellation hanging in my life,

in the same, thoughtless manner that permanent markers do

when annotating on legal pads, only to speckle

pressured points strewn across a perfectly yellow page—

the remnants of insensitivity synonymous to

photographs I missed between albums of you,

perfect smile despite the absence of wisdom teeth, or

your name rare on a coffee-crumpled receipt, oh

i could have told the children the stories of gods

with these rude fragments of what once was

(you).

----

Told you it was exquisite.
Candice Mai Khanh Nguyen, you are one hell of a poet!
Keep it up--you inspire me!

60

2008-05-14T17:32:00.005-05:00

Someone finally bought a macbook case! Hooray! I'm so excited :)
They bought this one:

Only 5 days until CHINA!

Today was my sculpture open house:That's the crew minus 2 who weren't there :/
I love this photo though! We had such a great class :) and a successful open house too!

I'm going to go to bed early today so no more writing. I've done enough writing for my English class anyways >.< AGH! Still have more to do tomorrow :(

Goodnight!

Shfifty nine!

2008-05-13T15:40:00.005-05:00

WOW! Today was exhausting.....we had to clean the sculpture studio from 1-3 (which was a mess) but I also had to set up all of my artwork for the open house tomorrow which included a couple of installation type pieces so that took an extra hour. TIRED! But I still have one more class to finish some stuff for.

ICK!

I've been obsessed with these Berkeley Lunch Poem videos
You should check them out if you fancy poems :)

I'm starting to pack for China and for leaving for the summer. *sigh* I feel like I haven't gotten anything done though because I brought too much! Fortunately we get to store as many boxes as we like in summer storage but I'm really trying hard to limit myself.
Also, I need to bring home my sculptures! GAH! That's the thing about sculpture :( you can't just pile them into a portfolio....

Okay I'll stop complaining! I can do it! haha

I'm going to go start my final paper.

Day 58!

2008-05-12T20:58:00.005-05:00

I can't believe I'll be in china in 8 days!

But I can hardly believe this

My heart goes out to all those who had to experience such a frightening natural disaster. 7.9 magnitude! My gosh.

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On a brighter note, there was an email that went out to SAO (Swarthmore Asian Organization) members today talking about the mistake that People Magazine made--they did an article on a Korean popstar named Rain but had the wrong picture in the article! (see more here)
Anyways, someone responded by saying that it's okay because white people look the same to him too!!! And then he said that he thought Steve Carell and Luke Wilson were the same person for the longest time. Dude, check it out!!

They're practically identical! Hilarious!

I watched The Little Colonel today featuring SHIRLEY TEMPLE! YES!

So good! No matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old!

Also I finally handed in my research paper on harakiri! Hurray! Only one more final!

Did a few other fun things but I'm going to be good and start working on the first part of my take home final!

Ciao!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T09:45:00.002-05:00

So here's the thing I was telling you about:
The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

-------

Please go to the link though....Billy Collin is reading his own poem and it's just FABULOUS!

(more Mother's Day secrets here)

Thank you okasan for being the best at everything you do. You're love touches everything you do whether you're rubbing my belly when it hurts or scolding me. But I better go call you now because you don't know how to use the computer :P

YAY MOTHERS!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Oogabooga!

2008-05-10T10:09:00.004-05:00

Today was exhausting. The first picture shows how I feel now, the second is what I want to be doing. Haha. Lameeee! We had a hall dinner tonight and a couple of my hallmates and I decided to make curry rice (for 26+ people). BIG MISTAKE. So since our senior hallmates who have a car were going to the grocery store in the A.M. we tagged along, got back at 1:45 at which point I was tired (already? yes, already) and took a nap until 4:15 (really? yes, really) and bugged the aforementioned hallmates that we should start cooking if we wanted to be ready by 6PM when the dinner was planned to start. End result was delicious. However, the two and a half hours in between were frustrating, tear-jerking (the damn onions), and gross (college kitchens).

A day of food-making/preparing/planning and napping later, I sit on my bed typing about the food-making/preparing/planning and napping day. But I no longer want to do this and !!!! The end of that story. HAHA!

Okay, on a brighter note I just took a trip down memory lane with Kiki's Delivery Service. Love this song and movie. This movie has footage of the character developing process which is pretty darn cool. You know, this might even be my all-time favorite animated film--Miyazaki Hayao is brilliant. Thank you youtube.

Tomorrow's Mother's Day. I have a special poem to share (that I didn't write) and I can't wait to share it!

Ciao for now!

P.S. Day 56

Rainy Friday

2008-05-09T13:47:00.003-05:00

This is me looking cold and hot at the same time. It's windy, rainy and cold outside but it's hot and muggy inside. Yuck!

I've been working on the same paper all day long. It's about harakiri and boy oh boy is it a fun topic to write about. (That was meant to be slightly sarcastic) The implications of harakiri really do fascinate me and that's where the hates-to-write part of me gets upset and throws tantrums.

It'll all be okay though because I'm in my friend's room getting a lot of work done (clearly blogging needs to be excused). It's especially helpful that she's writing a paper for the same class >.<

Yay for Foucault and Bourdieu the wonderful sociologists :D I love reading your dense philosophies.

I can't wait to stop talking about my work!

But for now, I have to go and do my work :( *tear*

Oh but wait! This brightened my day:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aeeR4Vnvs8U

Day 54.

2008-05-08T15:52:00.004-05:00

Just talked to my favorite art professor, Randy Exon who happens to be my faculty advisor as well. It was nice to talk to him about my art and how I'm feeling at the end of my freshman year. He always has the best insight and advice. Hurray.

Have a BIG research paper due tomorrow which is kind of scaring me. AHHHH! If only someone would find the cure to procrastination >.< Okay I'll stop talking and start acting.

Ciao now!

Under the Cherry Tree

2008-05-07T17:10:00.002-05:00

Trying to get some work done during Reading Week. Failing. It's gorgeous out and the cherry trees are singing out to passerby students. I love the spring here although allergies are no fun. The pollen is collecting on my screen already.

Got my vaccines last night *ouch* and tried get to bed early. I partially succeeded and attempted to sleep at around 1. However, due to the three hours of volleyball I played yesterday my body was sore and I had a terribly restless sleep :( And then I woke up at 1:30PM today. Incredible! I don't usually sleep past 12 at the latest but oh well, I'm making up for all of the 5 hours of sleep nights this semester.

The Student Activities Committee spent the rest of their money on buying sushi for students and so I had two rounds of it :) Delicious! I can never say no to sushi.

All right, I better try to do some work on my papers. Ciao!

P.S. Day 53 :D

Day 52

2008-05-06T08:56:00.005-05:00

Just hanging out in the Kohlberg Coffee Bar waiting for my class to start (at 11:20) so that I can give a presentation on harakiri. Since my classes usually start at 9:55AM I stupidly got to my 2nd class at 9:30 only to realize that I still had two hours. And that I could have slept for longer. BAHH! Such is life though. I just want to get this presentation over with. It's been looming over my head for long enough.

Last night I decided to head on over to the health center on campus to see what vaccines I could get in preparation for my trip to China on the 19th. The nurse proceeded to give me consent forms and a list of vaccines and pills that I should take. Wow. That's all I have to say. I mean I knew that there were probably many recommended ones but she talked up a storm and I'm paying over $200 for these things. The good and bad of science. Check! I certainly don't want to get malaria while I'm on my innocent trip but lord! Oh well.

There's a curry party today for people associated with the Japanese department here that I'm going to. I haven't had Japanese curry in a while so I'm pretty excited. So since I'm on the topic of Japanese food, take a look at these pictures:

I wouldn't mind eating sushi like that :)

All right, enjoy your Tuesday!

Marvelous Monday

2008-05-05T09:48:00.007-05:00

So I just got out of my piano juries where I played Tcherepnin's Bagatelles 1,2, and 4 on the most amazing grand piano ever, overlooking the green and lucious Crum Woods. It would be the best time ever if it hadn't been for the fact that I was playing for all of the music professors at Swat for my end of the semester jury which determines if I get to keep my music scholarship and see if I learned anything.

Anyways, even though I started off the first piece without one of the notes in an octave I think I warmed up to the situation throughout and then played the 4th one without messing up! (This is RARE) All I can say is that I'm extremely relieved that it's over and am glad that I don't have to do that again until December. *sigh* I did learn a lot though this semester. I took off first semester and didn't play at the end of my senior year in high school so my wonderful teacher took me under her wings when I was rusty and unconfident about my piano playing. I really lucked out with the teacher because I contacted her late but she still found a time to see me (Friday nights at 7:25!) which as much as I bickered must have been just as or more annoying for her. I mean she really works hard.

Hopefully I'll have places to practice over the summer....I definitely won't be able to have access to a piano when I'm traveling in China but perhaps at Wellesley? I'm sure they have a few that we can access.

I'm trying to find books that I can buy with a gift certificate I got to Barnes & Noble but they have to be books I can't take out of the library...crafts or art books? Any ideas? Of course I could buy Amanda Blake Soule's book "The Creative Family" which is all about raising a creative family. I know I know. I'm 19 and I don't have kids and don't plan on having any within the next 8-10 years. Still, I read her blog All The Time and I just love reading what she has to say. Hmmmmm

Today I have my last (hopefully) eye appointment. I really really really hope that my iritis is gone by now.

I have to present tomorrow on harakiri so I think I'll go practice that.

I'll leave you with an image of our main admissions/dorm building, Parrish:

Found here

Ciao now!

DAY 50

2008-05-04T12:12:00.003-05:00

Woops forgot to blog yesterday!

Listening to Madonna--something I don't ever do. It's really bubbly and weird. Haha

I've been eating way too much junk food lately. I feel like it's affecting my mind and body which is no good is it? Ick. Even now I'm sucking on some "Lik-a-stik" which is gross/delicious in a nagging way.

Wow can't take Madonna anymore. Delete.

Reading week starts tomorrow.

Just found out that I don't have a final in one of my classes! HURRAY! That makes me insanely happy.

Here's the low down:
2 research papers (1 due on the 9th the other due on the 12th)
1 presentation (on the 6th!)
1 take home final (due the 13th)
1 portfolio (due the 13th)
1 final paper (due the 13th)
1 piano jury (tomorrow at 10:20AM!!!)

>.<

HAHAHA! More at www.postsecret.blogspot.com

Jugglingggg

2008-05-02T12:07:00.002-05:00

Day 48. Only 16 days left!

This picture is supposed to represent the juggling act that is, life at Swarthmore! I'm juggling So many things now that I can hardly wrap my head around it all. At least I got a presentation out of the way! I think it went well...

Oh yeah the video clip I was talking about:

It's pretty funnysadandeyeopening if you ask me. So watch it tell me what you think of it.

I think I'm going to go take a power nap. Mmmmm!!!

Ciao now!

Coffee smells good but tastes bad

2008-05-01T23:31:00.003-05:00

Weird picture I know but I haven't worn these earrings in a while and I just love themmmm!

Day 47 :D

Today was productive. I went over the presentation I have to give tomorrow (several times) and read a lot too. Hung out with people, ate good food and got a massage.

Had a slightly rough feedback time with a music prof who is just a little stricter than the norm.

Ate sherry cake in the morn at my English prof's house with the entire class. Delicious. It's just the best dessert I've ever had.

Watched a very interesting youtube video there too but can't remember what it was called and so can't show you. I left a message withe person who showed us--will know by tomorrow!

I have my presentation tomorrow so wish me good luck! Yay! Here's the low down:
2 research papers (each 10-12 pages long)
2 presentations (10 minutes each)
3 page English paper
Short answer one hour final and 48 hour take home essay final
Compilation of writing portfolio with notes on the side
Final art project
Music 48--Piano Jury

----all before May 16th! AGH!
None of this is done yet. How wonderful!

Ciao!

Hurray!

2008-04-30T22:56:00.003-05:00

So today was a lot of fun.
1. power outage in the morn
2. class
3. lunch
4. 2 hour nap
5. presentation group meeting
6. an hour of good volleyball peppering with Ed! So much fun!
7. dinner with very informative & knowledgeable person
8. 2 hours of stupid housing lottery waiting--->resulting in the biggest double at Swat because they moved a wall over to make the room next to ours a single! We even get a fireplace <3 Couldn't be happier.
9. Checked the room out and gawked because it really was as amazing as Michael told me
10. My best friend here is going to be living across the hall from me
11. Returns to current hall and eats cookies with milk
12. Watches Bjork's new music video for Wanderlust: here
13.Takes a happy picture!

Hurray!

Day 46!

Day 45

2008-04-29T22:24:00.006-05:00

19 more days!

I'm currently preparing for a presentation I have to give on Friday on the way enka (refer back to enka week) is visually packaged on Japanese national broadcasting. It's pretty fun when you consider how much I love enka and how I get to analyze actual enka performances on youtube for research. Awesome! Hopefully the class gets something out of it :) I just hate the fact that there's a time limit of 10 minutes. I have to show videos so that's no fun >.<
*Ironically, I don't like the sun that much. Haha

Oh no!

2008-04-29T16:32:00.008-05:00

I didn't post yesterday! It just totally slipped my mind. I'll make it up by posting these Charlie Brown comic strips (courtesy of Charles M. Schulz and June who posted them on her facebook album). If the words are too blurry, I'm pretty sure you can click to enlarge :)

Enjoy!

I'll post another blog tonight for today's entry.

Ciao!

Mixed Blood

2008-04-27T20:53:00.004-05:00

Day 43.
Watched this video today and was deeply moved. It's called "Bi-Racial Hair." Thought about my multi heritage.

The succulent green leaves on the plant I received at the beginning of the school year are dusty. Somehow that bothers me more than the dust collecting on top of my clock and stapler. Listening to Finnish acapella while pondering about dust makes me feel even stranger.

I think it's time to clean that dust off with a wet paper towel. Even young things get dusty. Gotta clean 'em from time to time.

I love Ling Jian's paintings. The ethereal girls painted present such raw emotion that you just can't help but stop and look.

All right, that's it for now.

Ciaoo!

Love Medicine

2008-04-26T13:38:00.003-05:00

Day 42. I like this pose I think: Day 22

Anyways!

Finished reading Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich and was blown away by her beautiful storytelling abilities. Bit by bit the complicated story unraveled like a knitted sweater that you pull at one end....the single strand of yarn a more comprehensible line than the tangles of frustration and impatience. "Hang in there," her stories seemed to tell me and I was rewarded with a gratifying feeling at the end that can only be achieved by a story well told. The greatest part of the novel was that each chapter is both just a piece of the whole and a story of it's own. I can read two chapters and feel just as satisfied as I do reading the whole book. Incredible!

Here are some quotes and phrases I jotted down:
"Opening his mouth to cry out, his lips bloomed and ached."
"An orange glow moved on the walls, and our shadows struck out unfixed, so huge they blurred and walked from our bodies."
"The light was thin and watery, a pale wedge narrowing the doorway."
"My shade was pleasant at first, but I stood there so long that he finally shivered in the dark shape I cast. 'Get your shadow off me,' he said. He spoke in Indian, his voice a thinly oiled saw, half-rusted."
"He began to taste me, licking my eyebrows, my arms, sipping at me with his mouth"
"hugging loss"
"stars, snowflakes, lucky spiderwebs"
"Right and wrong were shades of meaning, not sides of a coin."
"I missed the old language in my mother's mouth."
"He was a boy with no light in his eyes."
"waves licking behind me"
"I folded the letter up, exactly as it had been found, and I put it beneath the salt can. I did this for a reason. I would never talk about this letter but instead let him wonder. Sometimes he'd look at me, I'd smile, and he'd think to himself: salt or sugar? But he would never be sure."

In short, I highly recommend this book!

Day 41!

2008-04-25T21:20:00.003-05:00

Just got back from an incredible taiko performance! Yes! It felt so damn good. The audience went wild and just absorbed every beat....if you don't count last Sunday, I haven't felt the adrenaline flow as fast through my body in a long time. We have to do it again tomorrow and I can't wait...although I don't want it all to end :(

Listening to Yael Naim's "New Soul" and it's making me all giddy inside! What a great week :D

Have a stupendous night!

Time for Change!

2008-04-24T20:39:00.001-05:00

Felt hot. Chop chop chop.

Day 40!

Crocheting Want Books

2008-04-23T19:50:00.006-05:00

It's too hard to come up with ways to show the days of the numbers a.k.a. I'm too lazy.
So today I'm wearing the shirt I cut in half to use my newly learned crocheting technique! Check it out!

I love it <3 Not bad eh?

I also made a "want book":
Inspired by this
It's so that I can write down all of the material things I want and the date I felt like wanting it. That way I can wait a month and see if I still want it as badly. It's a way for me to suppress my impulsive purchases, especially with my upcoming China trip. My wants are relatively small at college since I don't go shopping, but I definitely see many things online that I think would "look nice" or "make me happier." Need vs. want? Hmmm...

All right, homework time!

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T16:15:00.006-05:00

DAY 38:D Wearing green in celebration of EARTH DAY!

Whenever you travel/roadtrip with friends, just remember this simple phrase “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.”

Came across on Threadbanger and thought it was mighty cute :D

So I did an art swap today with a wonderful artist, Sophie Horowitz, a senior studio arts major here. In exchange for my watermelon painting:
I received:
I'm SO excited! I put it up in my room and I just love how it looks :D Thank you Sophie!!! You made my day!

Also in more exciting news--I am no longer a voting virgin! Hurray! Can't wait to see what the results are...Pennsylvania is the state to be in now.

Woops, better get to my homework--didn't touch any of it today >.<

Later!