WOW! That's all I can say. Wow.
Though I know this video will be entertaining for all, I think only those who have actually tried dancing in pointe shoes can truly gain a full appreciation for the genius (or madness) therein. I am baffled. Speechless. Have... no... words...
Perhaps I should stop trying to find them and let you get on with it.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Super-Awesome Photography
I'm in Utah for a couple of days while Jay is interviewing for a faculty position, which just happened to be the same week as my mom's birthday! So it worked out really nicely. What this means is that I'm missing school- which conveniently frees up more of my time for getting caught up on all my blogs ;)
I found out about this photography project (which is now being exhibited at the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors' Center ) called "Reflections of Christ" where the photographer tried to depict scenes of Christ's life through modern photography. I read about it here if you're interested in hearing a more detailed description of the actual exhibit.
I must admit, I originally imagined something super-cheesey and a bit hokey, but I perused the photographer's blog about the production, and this video (seriously, you have to watch it) completely convinced me! I can't believe how cool the angels turned out- and I think it's so neat that he made them jump on a trampoline in front of a green screen to get it to look this way. I'm really curious about the rest of the photos now...
Luckily, I'm from "zion"- so hopefully this exhibit will get to debut here sometime in the future while I'm around. :)
I found out about this photography project (which is now being exhibited at the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors' Center ) called "Reflections of Christ" where the photographer tried to depict scenes of Christ's life through modern photography. I read about it here if you're interested in hearing a more detailed description of the actual exhibit.
I must admit, I originally imagined something super-cheesey and a bit hokey, but I perused the photographer's blog about the production, and this video (seriously, you have to watch it) completely convinced me! I can't believe how cool the angels turned out- and I think it's so neat that he made them jump on a trampoline in front of a green screen to get it to look this way. I'm really curious about the rest of the photos now...
Luckily, I'm from "zion"- so hopefully this exhibit will get to debut here sometime in the future while I'm around. :)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Elevator Enlightenment
For me, the point of indifference is probably 4 flights.
Yes, if I am going up 4 flights of stairs I would be equally likely to take the elevator or the stairs. And going down? I'm probably indifferent at around 6 or 7 flights, depending on if I'm carrying a lot of/heavy things. Indeed, after living above the 3rd floor for 3 years in a row at Brown, I would have been very grateful for for an elevator on move-in day, but I managed just fine- and so did everyone else. When I lived on the 5th floor, there was an elevator, but it was extremely tiny compared to the number of people living in the building, and I generally found it very inconvenient, as it was located on the opposite side of the building. Every morning I would just walk down the stairs right near my room with little thought.
Flash forward. For the past 4 quarters at Stanford I lived on the 4th floor of a building with 2 elevators (the slowest moving elevators in the history of elevators) which I only used on occasion: such as carrying especially large loads of laundry or when I probably should have just made two trips to bring groceries in from my car, even though it was a mere 1.5 times my carrying capacity. After the aforementioned recent move , I find myself on the 11th floor of a 12 floor apartment-style dormitory, and have never had the impulse to walk up the stairs. I have gone down once, but will probably never do that again, except in case of fire. Needless to say, this means I ride the elevator at least twice a day, on a normal, non-hermiting day.
Now for my rant: sometimes I am amazed at the laziness of my fellow-occupants. For instance...
I was doing my laundry, which means I used the elevator an unusually many number of times that day, and during one of my journeys back up, I was stopped mid-ride: 3rd floor. I greet this rude interruption (please note the sarcasm) with a ''polite'' smile and then actually start feeling annoyed when I noticed that they got off on floor 5. Two flights of stairs?! Really? My only consolation was that they probably had to wait longer for the elevator to come, than it would have taken them to just walk up the stairs like a normal person. Since that time, I have discovered that this is not a rarity.
No,
I have encountered such instances on numerous occasions. I have slight sympathy for those going up, but the other day when someone made my ride stop twice so they could go down ONE floor, it took every ounce of my mother's teachings for me to not say something about it to them. You know, something casual...
"Hey, did you know there are stairs at both ends of the hallway? Yeah funny thing... they're behind the doors with the big green exit signs above them, so I can see how you might have been confused and thought they were exits, instead of stairs. Well, now you'll know for next time. Have a great day!"
or maybe
"Hey, did you know there are stairs at both ends of the hallway? Oh you did know! Oh... sorry, I just thought you might have used the stairs if you had known about them since you were just going down one floor."
Okay, some people may have knee problems or something... fine. But as for the rest of you... (which is most of you- given that I live on a college campus, not in a geriatrics ward) you should be ashamed!!
This is why America is getting fat.
Yes, if I am going up 4 flights of stairs I would be equally likely to take the elevator or the stairs. And going down? I'm probably indifferent at around 6 or 7 flights, depending on if I'm carrying a lot of/heavy things. Indeed, after living above the 3rd floor for 3 years in a row at Brown, I would have been very grateful for for an elevator on move-in day, but I managed just fine- and so did everyone else. When I lived on the 5th floor, there was an elevator, but it was extremely tiny compared to the number of people living in the building, and I generally found it very inconvenient, as it was located on the opposite side of the building. Every morning I would just walk down the stairs right near my room with little thought.
Flash forward. For the past 4 quarters at Stanford I lived on the 4th floor of a building with 2 elevators (the slowest moving elevators in the history of elevators) which I only used on occasion: such as carrying especially large loads of laundry or when I probably should have just made two trips to bring groceries in from my car, even though it was a mere 1.5 times my carrying capacity. After the aforementioned recent move , I find myself on the 11th floor of a 12 floor apartment-style dormitory, and have never had the impulse to walk up the stairs. I have gone down once, but will probably never do that again, except in case of fire. Needless to say, this means I ride the elevator at least twice a day, on a normal, non-hermiting day.
Now for my rant: sometimes I am amazed at the laziness of my fellow-occupants. For instance...
I was doing my laundry, which means I used the elevator an unusually many number of times that day, and during one of my journeys back up, I was stopped mid-ride: 3rd floor. I greet this rude interruption (please note the sarcasm) with a ''polite'' smile and then actually start feeling annoyed when I noticed that they got off on floor 5. Two flights of stairs?! Really? My only consolation was that they probably had to wait longer for the elevator to come, than it would have taken them to just walk up the stairs like a normal person. Since that time, I have discovered that this is not a rarity.
No,
I have encountered such instances on numerous occasions. I have slight sympathy for those going up, but the other day when someone made my ride stop twice so they could go down ONE floor, it took every ounce of my mother's teachings for me to not say something about it to them. You know, something casual...
"Hey, did you know there are stairs at both ends of the hallway? Yeah funny thing... they're behind the doors with the big green exit signs above them, so I can see how you might have been confused and thought they were exits, instead of stairs. Well, now you'll know for next time. Have a great day!"
or maybe
"Hey, did you know there are stairs at both ends of the hallway? Oh you did know! Oh... sorry, I just thought you might have used the stairs if you had known about them since you were just going down one floor."
Okay, some people may have knee problems or something... fine. But as for the rest of you... (which is most of you- given that I live on a college campus, not in a geriatrics ward) you should be ashamed!!
This is why America is getting fat.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Cliffs Notes Version of December to Present
Wow, I feel really bad that it's been so long since I've posted anything of substance. So much has happened, but most of it was so long ago that it seems like old news by now... I'll try to give the abbreviated version of my happenings so that my next post can just revert back to my two cents about unimportant things that invade my mind.
Christmas was great! Jay and I were together, finally, with his family in Mass, and though it is hard to feel like Christmas when you're not with
your own family, they did a really great job at making me feel like part of their tradition. It's much more fun to find out what Santa brought when you have a someone around who still believes in him, (Jay's- and now my- little sister is 5) and I got to partake of the annual McCarthy "Yankee Swap", as opposed to our western "white elephant" parties. Though I deeply wish I could make fun of the idea of swapping Yankies, I must admit that our past-time title has nothing to do with elephants, not even the white variety, so I'll hold my peace.
While in New England, I decided to take advantage of Jay's mom's (I think this sounds friendlier than mother-in-law, and she deserves only positive sounding references) mad sewing expertise and dig out the fragments of intended quilt that I started constructing several years ago. I slowly gathered interesting fabrics from JoAnn's scrap fabric bin, until I thought I had enough for a scrap quilt, and got everything cut out and even began sewing some of my patches together, but once school started up again, I flew off to Brown and left all my fabric in the back of my closet in a shoe box, almost forgotten. However, I was reminded of our need for a bed-covering now that we'll actually be sleeping in the same bed, and I knew she would be a valuable resource, so I had Jay take the things to Mass after Thanksgiving in Utah. So during our down time, I frantically worked for many hours and got caught up on many a podcast that went unheard (since I accidentally left my ipod in Utah, most of last quarter). Perhaps I'll comment on some of the really good ones in a later post. Needless to say, I still haven't finished my quilt, despite having worked on it for many hours since arriving in California. But more about that in a bit, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Jay and I flew back to Stanford together (YAY!) on New Year's Eve and arrived at 10pm. We were supposed to be able to get the keys to our new abode in the on-campus "couples' housing", but for some reason they didn't have our key and we ended up sleeping together in the twin bed of my old place. (Was fun for a night, but I'm glad that was no permanent situation.) We found ourself at midnight:05 sitting over a candle-lit frozen pizza dinner from Trader Joe's and realized that our starvation had clouded our memories of the approaching new year. However, I think it was probably the best New Year's Eve yet- finally being with my love and for the first time not having large expectations.
Okay, a quick two cents: For some reason, New Year's Eve is always one of those holidays that I expect to be completely awesome and stupendously exciting- enough so to get all glammed up with glitter and all, and then come the new year, all expectations seem to always be let-down. This year was a nice change. :)
The next morning, our amazing home teacher and wife helped us move into our new tiny place and we finally started to feel like a real life
married couple. You know... the kind that lives together and everything! After getting settled, I promptly whipped out my sewing machine and continued the quilt piecing I had started back East. Before we knew it, we were eating meals on the floor because our kitchen table, couch, and bed were covered with fabric and color placement strategies (My husband is the best... have I mentioned that recently?) and I finally finished all my nine-patches before school started. We also make cupcakes and took them around to the neighbors on our floor so we could meet them. (Jay's first time ever, and they turned out quite lovely indeed :D)
The first week of class went as well as can be expected, and I'm very excited that after auditing a ballet class every quarter, I finally have room to take one for credit! I'm hoping with only 2 real classes, I'll have some time to enjoy myself (and my man) too.
Ok, that's enough for now. Thanks for hangin' in there everyone!! :)
Christmas was great! Jay and I were together, finally, with his family in Mass, and though it is hard to feel like Christmas when you're not with
your own family, they did a really great job at making me feel like part of their tradition. It's much more fun to find out what Santa brought when you have a someone around who still believes in him, (Jay's- and now my- little sister is 5) and I got to partake of the annual McCarthy "Yankee Swap", as opposed to our western "white elephant" parties. Though I deeply wish I could make fun of the idea of swapping Yankies, I must admit that our past-time title has nothing to do with elephants, not even the white variety, so I'll hold my peace.While in New England, I decided to take advantage of Jay's mom's (I think this sounds friendlier than mother-in-law, and she deserves only positive sounding references) mad sewing expertise and dig out the fragments of intended quilt that I started constructing several years ago. I slowly gathered interesting fabrics from JoAnn's scrap fabric bin, until I thought I had enough for a scrap quilt, and got everything cut out and even began sewing some of my patches together, but once school started up again, I flew off to Brown and left all my fabric in the back of my closet in a shoe box, almost forgotten. However, I was reminded of our need for a bed-covering now that we'll actually be sleeping in the same bed, and I knew she would be a valuable resource, so I had Jay take the things to Mass after Thanksgiving in Utah. So during our down time, I frantically worked for many hours and got caught up on many a podcast that went unheard (since I accidentally left my ipod in Utah, most of last quarter). Perhaps I'll comment on some of the really good ones in a later post. Needless to say, I still haven't finished my quilt, despite having worked on it for many hours since arriving in California. But more about that in a bit, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Jay and I flew back to Stanford together (YAY!) on New Year's Eve and arrived at 10pm. We were supposed to be able to get the keys to our new abode in the on-campus "couples' housing", but for some reason they didn't have our key and we ended up sleeping together in the twin bed of my old place. (Was fun for a night, but I'm glad that was no permanent situation.) We found ourself at midnight:05 sitting over a candle-lit frozen pizza dinner from Trader Joe's and realized that our starvation had clouded our memories of the approaching new year. However, I think it was probably the best New Year's Eve yet- finally being with my love and for the first time not having large expectations.
Okay, a quick two cents: For some reason, New Year's Eve is always one of those holidays that I expect to be completely awesome and stupendously exciting- enough so to get all glammed up with glitter and all, and then come the new year, all expectations seem to always be let-down. This year was a nice change. :)
The next morning, our amazing home teacher and wife helped us move into our new tiny place and we finally started to feel like a real life
married couple. You know... the kind that lives together and everything! After getting settled, I promptly whipped out my sewing machine and continued the quilt piecing I had started back East. Before we knew it, we were eating meals on the floor because our kitchen table, couch, and bed were covered with fabric and color placement strategies (My husband is the best... have I mentioned that recently?) and I finally finished all my nine-patches before school started. We also make cupcakes and took them around to the neighbors on our floor so we could meet them. (Jay's first time ever, and they turned out quite lovely indeed :D)The first week of class went as well as can be expected, and I'm very excited that after auditing a ballet class every quarter, I finally have room to take one for credit! I'm hoping with only 2 real classes, I'll have some time to enjoy myself (and my man) too.
My bestest Brown buddy (and old roomie from college) was in town this past weekend, so Jay and I got to be tourists and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other fun things. I also got to show off the awesomeness of FOPAL booksale and finally found a decent haircutting book (which I've been wanting for some time- ever since I first cut said roomy's hair in college), as well as some quilting ones and a few other cheap treasures. I tell you, I'm dangerous in a store with good deals, and I want to be dangerous in a bookstore... so put them together and watch out!
Ok, that's enough for now. Thanks for hangin' in there everyone!! :)
Friday, January 4, 2008
Love surveys? Me too.
I promise a thorough update is soon to come, but I thought this was very fitting for the times and plus, who doesn't love online quizzes? Turns out I already knew the candidate for me: Ron Paul. What about you?
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