RECAP: Spring Break 2011

Sorry for the long delay in this post. I know you've all been dying to know what I've done over my break. Well, let me give you a quick rundown:

First of all, and maybe most importantly, Japan happened. We all know what happened over there (if you don't, do you live under a rock?) and I think we should all keep them in our thoughts and prayers!

I'm working on my fourth bag of Sweet Tart jelly beans. Don't fall into the same trap I did and try them. You'll never want to stop, and you'll completely lose your appetite for anything else. But really, they're the best thing since... Oreos, I think.


I learned about this video on Friday. Just watch it and then never tell me you don't know what order the days of the week go. And if you ever ask me what day of the week it is I will tell you that it is "FRIDAY FRIDAY" and that I'm going to have "FUN FUN FUN FUN." And even though you will questions whether or not this is a serious project, from beginning to end, I have to admire Rebecca Black for being such a trooper and going on national television and sticking up for herself and even poking fun at herself on her Twitter. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's this:

I finished two of my three crafting endeavors. I couldn't find a mirror to make the mirror with, so I decided to wait until summer and maybe try to find a garage sale mirror somewhere! But I made the lamp and it turned out really sweet, and now it's just sitting in my house, at home, doing nothing. Maybe Mom will plug it in somewhere and turn it on when she needs to be reminded of me. Or maybe it'll just sit in the middle of the dining room table until I come home. Who knows. But this is what it ended up looking like:

Very cool looking. And that is a $7 light bulb in there, so luckily it is bright enough to shine a decent amount of light through the negatives. Plus you can see all my amateur photography!

I got two new pairs of shoes. Some fresh Nike kicks (in off white and green!) and my Gel Noosa Tri 6's. Awesome. I haven't gotten to run in them though because I got them on Saturday but I am super pumped to give them a real go this week.

I watched four awesome movies over break:

I saw this in the theaters. It was bad because I was super distracted the whole time and kept wanting to just get up and do something, so I had to keep telling myself that "I'm in a movie theater, sit down and watch this movie." And I tried. And it was a really good movie. Animation was super, music was SUPER SUPER (I downloaded the soundtrack. Just the music makes me want to go to the desert.) and the voices were SUPER SUPER SUPER. I would have loved this, had I not been so darn ADD that night and I'm excited for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it again!

This is a documentary basically designed to counter everything in "Supersize Me." And it did its job. The guy who makes this is funnier that Supersize Me Man, he talks to more real doctors than Supersize Me Man and he goes on a more realistic diet that Supersize Me Man. Basically, if you're too lazy to watch this (but really, if you want a really good movie about dieting and food, you should definitely watch this) all it comes down to is: Avoid carbs as often as you can. Don't go out of your way to avoid saturated fats, they are actually good for you. Don't eat trans fats. And last, it's better to be obese but active than to be a healthy weight and not exercising. But really. Just watch it, if anything, it's a really funny documentary.

It's a mockumentary about frozen food enthusiasts who participate in other activities such as competitive freeway sports (I Spy and the alphabet game), christian punk rock, dressing up as a "klown" and "kutting" kids hair and working at an abstinence center. Beginning is funny, middle is funny, end is funny. Makes you feel happy to have real hobbies and interests.

If you've seen the previews for the upcoming Russell Brand movie "Arthur," you may be surprised to learn that that movie is a remake. I was. And I watched the original and I have to say, it'll be hard to top. The original was nominated for and won some Oscars (much deserved) which is almost unheard of for comedies. I thought for a while after watching this that there was no way anyone could top it. However, after analyzing the situation, I came to the conclusion that if anyone were to give a better performance in the role of Arthur, it would be Russell Brand. So I'm interested to see the new one and compare the two!

To cap off a great weekend, some friends and I went to SkyZone. SkyZone is like a hyper-active-super-athletic-awesome-place-to-do-things-that-might-kill-you-in-the-real-world playground. Basically, it's a bunch of courts that have trampolines as floors, and walls. They have dodgeball, on trampolines. They have foam pits, on trampolines. And they just have big areas, full of trampolines. Jumping on the ground will never be the same. If you don't believe me, watch this video, WE DID THIS (but it wasn't nearly as cool because there were abot 2o38472834623 more people playing than that, but still, WE DID THAT):

PAT NESHEK GOT PICKED UP BY THE PADRES. THIS IS POSSIBLY THE GREATEST TRAGEDY MINNESOTA HAS EXPERIENCED SINCE THE BRIDGE COLLAPSED. Anyone want to start a petition to get him back? Or move to San Diego with me?

So besides all of this, I just did a lot of running, did AbRipperX a few times (highly recommend it, my abs hurt real bad) and slept. I even did homework and applied for jobs for the summer. And last night, I fell asleep to a thunderstorm. Spring is coming, and Moorhead is under a winter weather advisory this week. Heavy snowfall predicted on Tuesday. MY LIFE IS AWESOME, RIGHT?

I'll end with a little quote which I think describes how I feel right now. From the movie Rango:

"The animals here have had millions of years to adapt to the harsh conditions. But the lizard? He is going to die." (I'm the lizard.)

"Name the creature with the most legs, ever." "A cat."

Ahh, Spring Break. Blogging from home. Being on the Internet without a cord. Not hitting my head on my ceiling when I wake up. Not having to risk my life getting in and out of bed everyday. Showering without shoes. Driving. Shopping. Eating Goldfish and Oreos. The simple things. Spring Break.

Spring break really started on Thursday night when I finished up some homework and packed. I went to bed early because of 6AM soccer on Friday. But I did get a Film Studies midterm done (I scored a 9.4583333333333/10...) and finished up some notetaking:

Translation: French Impressionism was an early cinematic film movement in France. Stemming from the Impressionist painting movement, trademarks of French Impressionism include expressive cinematography, lavish sets and exaggerated acting styles.

6AM soccer was enjoyable. It felt good to put in some hard work before a long break (but I'm gonna try and get out to run everyday here because it's warmer and I have time!) and our coach was nice enough to put breakfast in the locker room for when we were done. He also put flowers in the locker room but doubted our judgment (whether because it was 6AM in the morning or because we're known to eat just about anything, I don't know) and it pretty much made our morning:

Shoot. That water just looked really good...

Enough said.

Drive home was enjoyable, we listened to music and I sat in the back by myself and danced pretty much the whole way home. I love the cities and I tried to get a good picture of the skyline of St. Paul but the dirty windshield combined with my poor timing caught only these two pictures:

Attempt at St. Paul. Nasty windshield.

Attempt at Cathedral. Dirty windshield and freeway sign.

I spent the rest of that day at home, hanging out with my family. It was good fun. I went to Target with mom and discovered the best jelly beans ever. Sweet Tart jelly beans. SO GOOD. I also saw these and got a little sad inside:

WHAT ARE THOSE? WHY ARE THEY LOOKING AT ME? What little kid would want to wake up on Easter morning and find those? Not me. CREEPY.

Today was a good day too. I slept in, which was awesome, went to lunch with my dad, then tried to shopping. I drove to the Mall of America only to find the exits backing the freeway up about half a mile. I kept driving and turned around and tried the Burnsville Center. I got a parking spot (nearly across the street) and walked around for a while but was unmotivated to try jeans on (I really, really need new jeans. I am down to one wearable pair because I wore holes or ruined with art supplies the other pairs) and decided to go to JoAnn's instead. I got some supplies and $20 and about an hour later, I knocked off my first Spring Break project:

I just need to find a way to mount it so I can make it say "Welcome to the" and hang it in our apartment next year. Stoked to decorate more!

Watching Saturday Night Live right now, with Zach Galifianakis, pretty funny stuff. I liked the musical performer too, Jessie J. I haven't heard of her before but I liked her first piece so I'll have to look into her! I'll end with a funny quote from Galifiaknakis because he's in front of me right now and I just found a good one on the Interwebs:

"At what age do you tell a highway it was adopted? I think seven, because that's about the time he starts to think, "I don't look like Kiwanis club.""

"Do you want this fish stick?" "I don't need another one I've had like, a million already." "No, you've had eight."

Ahhhh, Wednesday down, Thursday and Friday morning to go. ALMOST THERE. SO CLOSE. Good news is I believe (or rather, I hope) that I don't have anything due for the rest of the week so I have to go to class but it'll be pretty low stress. Awesome.

Since I promised, my Video Production project finally finished uploading (at 7:37am... That took a LONG time...) and I'll share it with you. Like I said, don't judge me, it was my first try.

We started a brand new project in Design today (the day before break? REALLY?) and this is what I had to bring to class:

Plastiline, wood chisels, a rubber mallet, duct tape, 8lbs Plaster of Paris and a cardboard box. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It means I'm going to die, that's what. I'm doing an impossible project in Drawing and Design now. This is not good, people, not good.

I turned my sketchbook assignments in for Drawing and we didn't even critique them which means that I won't know how bad I am until after Spring Break, so there's a chance I could go through break disillusioned about my oil pastel skills, which is good, I guess. But here's what was accomplished in my last three hours of drawing before spring break:

What? Is that what I think it is? Well, if you think it's a staple remover shoved all up in that orange's business, then yes, it is what you think it is. I didn't want to do it, but all my drawing friends are bad influences and they were like, "Just do it, you have to draw it, it'll only make it easier, don't question it, just do it." And I did.

Here's what I used that masterpiece above to draw. Note how little what I drew looks like the real thing. Totally not helpful at all. But that's ok. This is just a rough draft of a product that will be eight times larger (on exactly 4 sheets of Fabriano Tizziano 50x65 paper... For you art nerds out there). But at least it looks like there is some improvement in my oil pastel usage.

I don't really have anything else to say except that I'm hungry but all I have in my room is sugar and right now we're on this "Food Restriction Period" (my non-participating friend won't let us call it a diet because it's not a diet, it's just not eating dessert seven times a day) so I can't eat it. I have to end with a quote that pretty much sums up how I feel about dieting anyway. By Don Kardong (no idea who that is):

"Avoid any diet that discourages the use of hot fudge."

"Be there or be a square. Think about how hard it would be to do things if you were a square. Don't be a square."

Ahh Tuesday. I woke up thinking it was already Thursday and I got really excited knowing all I had left until break was two more classes and two more soccer practices. But no. I was falsely excited and came to the bleak observation about 10 minutes into my day that is was in fact, only Tuesday, and even now I still have four classes, three soccer practices, one track practice, one project due and I have to pack. So there.

And one more thing before I start- I'd like to give a shout out to my dad who is a loyal reader of this blog. So naturally, he is my biggest critic (he's only trying to help, I'm sure) and I wake up this morning to a great little collection of texts from him:

"You had a misspelled word in your title, unless you meant to say ginat. And I don't know if that's how you would spell lougie either..."

"You have  dentist appointment at noon on Monday."

What a great day to start my Thursday Tuesday!

I turned in my video this morning (I actually woke up extra early to finish it and get it handed in). I don't really know how I feel about it. I guess I was really overwhelmed by the whole thing so I was pretty relieved when I finished and it was a comprehensible piece. But after seeing some other peoples' videos, I was a little disappointed in the way mine turned out. Now of course, lots of the people in my class have movie-making experience already (editing experience would have made this so much easier) so maybe I shouldn't feel bad. But anyway, I'm attempting to upload it to YouTube and currently, there are 127 minutes remaining. So it probably won't make it up tonight. But I promise, eventually.

I finished the drawing sketchbook today and they're pretty awesome. I mean, as awesome as oil pastels can be, I guess. I wish I was better at them because I thought I thought of some pretty cool concepts that deserved a lot more credit than I gave them with oil pastels. Maybe I'll revisit them later. But here they are, in all their imperfections:

Easily my weakest piece. It's called manipulation where you manipulate something. I chose a fence. I guess the fence itself isn't too bad but I should've done a watercolor wash for the sky in the background instead of trying to go in when I was finished and do it with pastels. But I learned from my mistake and will do better next time. Promise.

The funnest of my pieces. This is metamorphosis. I metamorphosized a tongue into a road. It's pretty awesome, it kind of reminds me of one of those old school golf courses where you have to putt the ball into the clown mouth, except now you're driving your car into a real mouth.

This one was also kind of bad. I think it just comes down to being a weak idea. It's supposed to be scale, so I drew a bunch of office supplies in different sizes but it's not as obvious as I feel like it should be. But I like my table and the shadowing so I guess it's not all bad!

And this was my cutest idea and my most experimental method. It's location, so I drew a hot air balloon in space. Totally impossible but it's supposed to be. I did most of this using water and oil pastel, almost like water color painting except with oil pastel. I went over some of it with normal pastel then to give pieces texture and shape.

Glee today was probably the most awkward episode, ever. I don't think I have to say anything else about it! Raising Hope was hilarious (as always) and it reaffirmed my friend's faith in "BOOYAH" as well.

And the other highlight of my day was listening to Lupe Fiasco's new album "Lasers" for about two hours straight while finishing my sketchbooks. All I can really say about it is WOW. So much packed into one album it's hard to believe. Now, I wasn't giving the lyrics my full attention, but I'm pretty sure I heard him make a Maya Angelou reference, sing a love song (Lupe? I didn't expect this from you!), and sing about a deceased loved one. All in one album.

And I'm pretty sure about half the songs are actually about how much he hates Atlantic Records and how they're restricting his creative freedom, etc. Which doesn't make sense to me. How many of us, when we listen to a song, automatically judge the record company it comes from? How many of us even know what record companies our favorite artists come from? Can anyone name more than three or four record companies? What's the big deal with censoring artists if no one is going to relate it back to you, anyway? And you're making yourself more unpopular by setting restrictions because then your famous clients (aka, the artists) go to the public complaining about you and how you're not giving them enough freedom and that makes you look bad and pisses the fanbase off. THINK ABOUT THAT.

So anyway, I'll end with a Lupe quote because I did hear a whole bunch of good ones while listening. I'm picking a few lines from his song "State Run Radio" which I think touches on what I was mentioning above, so it's only fitting.

"You're now tuned into the weakest/ Frequency of fear, keep you locked right here/ And hope you never leave this, never be a leader/ Think inside the box, and follow all procedures..."

(And PS I've been writing this for probably 20 minutes and there are still 120 minutes remaining on my YouTube upload so... Maybe tomorrow...)

"Once I spat out a ginat lougie onto a cookie and said 'Eat it' and she did."

Mondays are becoming increasingly hard to cope with as the end of the year approaches. You'll see some examples of boredom to the max below but I would like to start by officially starting my countdown until spring break. I'm counting the number of classes/meetings/activities/important due dates I have until break. Right now the count is: 18. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but it is. For three days that's a lot. It's going to be a long three days (and Friday morning... 6AM practice).

So my day started with design. Which is cool, except when you're making platonic solids. Platonic solids are where you cut out paper and then fold it into cubes, pyramids, octohedrons and isohedrons and dodecahedrons and infinitidifficultihedrons. So we made cubes and when some of us were finishing those, he points out the next one we should try. So I start that, get it all drawn, cut out and creased and as I'm trying to fold it together, I realize there's no possible way that it could create a shape. I consult with other classmates who are at the same point as I am and we finally get the attention of Prof who asks, "Why are you making that one?" And when we tell him because he told us to (and he had to look around to see that everyone else was making the same one) he says, "Oops, I guess I meant this one." And points to a completely different shape. But I made the best out of what I had already made instead and came to this:

It's hard to take a picture of platonic solids because they're so.... Three dimensional. But there's my (almost) perfect cube and my awesomimadeupidecahadron.

Then drawing happened. And let me tell you. I thought this surrealism project was going to be cool but I was so wrong. Oil pastels are going to be the death of me. I simply can't work with them! It's like coloring with crayons but much much more complicated and the colors smear and get everywhere and my drawings always look blotchy and I can't draw an orange to save my life and just wow. You know it's bad when Prof is walking around, looking at people's progress and she gets to yours. I say, "I'm really struggling with oil pastel." And she looks at my work and says, "I see that." Luckily she then volunteered to help me which will be awesome. I was also in the drawing room from about 9:30PM-midnight working on my sketchbook assignment, I got three out of the four done and I'll share pictures tomorrow when they're all done!


So by the time my night class started I was about dead. I had to buy a Mello Yellow before class to kep me awake and I couldn't focus on anything Prof was saying so I ended up doing this instead:

Some more doodles. I'm working on mastering those one sided plane deals.

Attempt one: Partial success. Minus the part that is like, inside the shape I think it's ok.

Attempt two: Also a partial success. I think it's fine but I can't figure out if that little middle loop is physically possible or not. It looks cool though so I'll accept it!

I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to finish my video project and do some history reading before my 10:30 class so it's definitely my bed time. I'll end with a cool quote I heard today from Buddha, don't remember where but hey, it's Buddha:

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

"ABRE LA FREEKING VENTANA, DORA!"

Fun, fun, fun weekend! Lots of good stories to tell, so listen up!

Friday was a very, very long day. It started at 5:20AM. But the good news was soccer practice was awesome, I won a pasta dinner (with my team, of course!) and even the conditioning was "fun." I ate breakfast with some of the girls and then my roommate and I watched Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go because apparently real TV doesn't start until later on Fridays. So we were watching Dora and all I could think of was the skit from SNL about Maraka and Mittens. And then when Go Diego Go started Diego was following around this animal he called "okapi" which looked like half zebra half antelope mix with a really long purple tongue. We thought Diego was lying to us. Then we learned that the Okapi is a real animal:

"The okapi (pronounced /oʊˈkɑːpiː/), Okapia johnstoni, is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe."

Then after dropping off scholarship materials, eating again and taking a long nap, the festivities began. It was Scorch's birthday on Friday and let me tell you, Dragons know how to party. We worked a station at his party that involved a large inflatable soccer ball, and all the mascots liked our station the best. After we were released from that we ate another 18" pizza at Spicy Pie and then headed to the 2 Minute Film Contest at the Fargo Film Festival. It was really, really funny! There were some really good short movies and it was well worth the $2 we paid to get in.

We then proceeded to have a dance party in the car. We decided that we needed to let some more dance energy out and were pleasantly reminded that school was hosting a Mardi Gras masquerade and we wanted to make a mask and dance our brains out. However, 11PM is too late to arrive to a school event and we were disappointed to find that all the masks were gone and the dance floor was more of a mosh pit (which sometimes is fun, but when you have dance moves like we do, being in close proximity to other people is a big no no). But luckily bingo started just as we were about to leave, and we grabbed some cards and played. And won. Between three of us there, we won seven times. My friend was there the entire time and won zero times. So I now have a Chuck Norris poster, a reusable coffee cup, a new set of Sharpies and a 3-pack of chic pocket-prong folders at my disposal.

And just when you thought our night would end, we were just beginning. Instead of going to bed, we went to my room and named our apartment for next year ("The Jungle" so we can make a huge sign that says "Welcome to the Jungle" and hang it in the front room), and I picked out my Mod Podge crafts for spring break:

This is what the crafting community calls an" IKEA hack-" going to IKEA, exploiting their cheap yet functional goods and making them so much better. Lamps covered in film. So simple and easy to make yet so stylish and awesome looking! Very excited to make these.

But instead, "THE JUNGLE" and in all animal prints. This way we're not obliged to put animal print anywhere else and our apartment doesn't turn into a real jungle.

And finally, this mirror. This one pictured sold at Anthropologie for $600. I think I could make it for less than $20. Does anyone want to challenge me on it? Hopefully I have time to try it over break!

Saturday was an equally exciting day. Got to sleep in, which was really nice. Then we tried something at the Wellness Center called "Body Pump." We thought, "Oh, we're soccer players. We lift all the time and run all the time, this will be no biggie." WRONG. COULDN'T HAVE BEEN WRONGER. OH MY GOSH MY WHOLE BODY STILL HURTS. It was so hard. We had no idea what to expect going in and we had no idea what kinds of things to grab and we put too much weight on for pretty much all the lifts and it was SO HARD. But we're going back because it was a super good workout.

Afterward, we went to Wal-Mart, bought glitter and food (for unrelated purposes, promise) and started on a night of Mexican food and crafts. We ate quesadillas, rice and beans and chips and salsa. It was delicious! We completely trashed the floor with craft things and had a blast. And to make the night better, we ate a whole diet cake. That's right, I used diet and cake together. It's true, we made a diet cake. For you non-believers, try this and become a believer: instead of making a cake from a box with all the eggs and oil and other things that usually go into a boxed cake mix, just use a can of diet pop. Just cake mix and diet pop. That's all. I promise that it'll taste delicious and it's good for you (as good as cake can be, anyway). Experiment with flavors. My personal favorite is white cake mix with some diet orange soda. Delicious. I can't stop saying that word. But seriously, it's good.

We took a break from our crafting to go a someone's house and play that Dance Central game on xBox Kinect. It. Is. So. Much. Fun. Like, seriously. You know that you look nothing like the people on the screen but you think you do because they tell you things like "Awesome job!" and "Flawless!" and give you high scores. And if you really got into it, I think it'd be a pretty good workout, too. Then we went back to crafting until all hours of the morning.

Today was a little slower paced. I slept in (again. I mean, twice in a weekend? What is this madness?) and went to our soccer banquet. We shared our favorite stories about the seniors and ate good food. We presented awards (I won freshman of the year, yippee!) and just had a good time being together again.

I then edited my movie for a couple hours (actually, first I slow motion slipped and fell into a large snow bank on the two inches of snow that had fallen over night. I got snow down my pants and all up in my business. And my purse was completely full. My life is awesome.) and it's turning out pretty good, not exactly how I wanted it, but for a first time, I'm not disappointed. Either tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll have it posted up here so you can see it.

And to cap the day off, we watched that "America's Next Great Restaurant." Although initially it didn't really catch my attention, after they announced that the winner would open a chain with restaurants in Los Angeles, New York and MINNEAPOLIS I decided I had to watch so we could go to it when it opens and act all famous and stuff. Don't ask me why I need an excuse to watch a TV show, but if anyone asks, that's it.

To end (remember, tomorrow's my long, long day) I'll put in a quote from one of the 2-Minute Films we saw. It was about Parkour and even though it was short, it was pretty cool, and this quote obviously caught my attention since I remember it all the way from Friday night:

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid."

APARTMENT OF AWESOMENESS!

Very very long day. Had no morning class, our professor had said that we should spend the time either going to the Fargo Film Festival or editing our projects. I spent the time reserving a key to the edit lab for the weekend so I didn't have to do either. But I actually did other stuff too, like I ate, registered for soccer and finished applying for art scholarships.

There was a group on campus tonight called "Whose Rhyme is it Anyway?" They were an improv rap comedy group, and I live all of those things, so we decided to go. It was pretty cool, it stated kind of sketchy but it definitely got better as it went on and I'm glad I went. They were all really funny, and they all have some music on iTunes that I haven't had time to check out yet, but if you want to their names are: Heath Mcnease, Playdough and Manchild.

Besides that my dad just sent me my only real reason for wanting an iPad. This:

Yes, I want a $600 iPad for that. As a designer, I just think that it's really cool that someone designed a cover that does more than a cover is meant to do. Just awesome. I'm excited for the day I can think of something as awesome as that.

And I also found this article today, about the rediscovery of the original Nike waffle iron. Yeah, like the one the co-founder of Nike used to make his first pair of Nike waffle soled running shoes. Maybe not news for some of you out there, but it's still a good article about how the people who found it were conpensated and it just made a whole school better off. I recommend you read it!

Oh and as a little last note, AJ Hawk just signed a 5-year contract with the Packers! (He was released a few days ago as his contract expired). Go Pack Go!

I'll end with a quote I remembered from Whose Rhyme is it Anyway, it was during an improv session where they were basically ripping on these random guys standing on the stage, it was pretty funny.

"This guys is number 1... That's his GPA."