A call for more firesides

I think we need to have more firesides on Sundays. Because when we don't, nice innocent girls like me and my roommates start getting crazy ideas that boredom and free time bring into fruition. After Ward Prayer a few weeks ago, I thought that my apartment should do another photo shoot, but this time I would give my roommates makeovers. I don't know who came up with the punk idea, but these are the results:























I'm happy to say I'm responsible for all of this. I even made my roommate skip work. I was a real devil's advocate that night. (She wasn't feeling good in the first place, so it wasn't that hard, and not as bad as it sounds.)



We decided we kind of looked like a punk band, so we gave ourselved a punk band name Tree of Life (in honor of the Tree of Knowledge statue where we took the group shot) and we put together a CD for each other. It's pretty much the best CD ever. So please, don't let this happen to your friends, nice girls, lobby for more firesides on your Sundays.

Ceramics Projects

Okay, so I know it's been like 20 years since I've written and you all think I'm a huge slacker and not good for a single promise, but it's not my fault. Well, maybe it is a little. I needed to get some pics from my roommate before I could show you all the joy that is my ceramics projects. And who wants to move on to this term's news before finishing off last term? That's what I thought. Anyway, you can know bask in my new awe-inspiring talents. (PS: I'm definitely going to take up ceramics as a hobby, especially the wheel because I need a lot of practice on it.)

First project: The Game Cube

This is a view of all four sides. The top comes off and the inside is all black and therefore too boring to show (plus it doesn't look that great. Luckily black is very forgiving). The bottom does still look like a die and the whole thing sits on the six dots. I was planning on putting card decks or pieces of games that always get lost like dice or timers so when you need one you can just open up the lid and get one. By the way, I should be a hand model. Wow! Anyway. . .

2- Tribal Mask


We needed to have tribal reference in this project, so I looked up a lot of pictures online to see what I liked. This is a combination of two different African mask designs. But even though I took liberally from their ideas, all it basically gave me was the basic shape, the nose and forehead, and the mouth. The rest I came up with using my knowledge from my African-American lit class and my imagination.

I was really happy about the snakes. I didn't think I'd be able to make them look like snakes, and I know the picture isn't the best to view, but they look super cool. Snakes are very significant in African religions. The colors also have significance, but I don't want to sound like a pseudo-intellectual explaining it all right here, so just admire and know that there is a reason for the shapes and colors.

I was a lot happier with this project than I thought I would be. I think I'll hang it on the wall of my future library by my ethnic literature section.

3- The llama box

My favorite animal is the llama, so when we had to have an animal reference for our boxes, the choice was obvious. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to shape the head the way I would have liked, so it looks less realistic than I wanted. But I am planning on attaching fake eyelashes to it to make it even cuter.

Piece of trivia about this piece: the glaze is called Bleeding Armadillo as in the movie Steel Magnolias.





4- The bowls


The glaze on these is just horrible. They were supposed to be lavender. Luckily the pictures are forgiving. And they are very small and mostly off center. Oh well, it took forever to get these substandard peices, so I didn't have time to be a perfectionist. I was just happy to get anything I could use off the wheel. It's a lot harder than it looks on the movie Ghost.

I use the two smaller ones for condiments. They work great for dipping, not too big. They're great for glazing/marinating too. The top one has a crack in it, so it holds my rings and stuff on my desk.

5- The yarn basket

It took forever to make this look like a basket. Seriously, like many hours figuring out how the weaved pattern could work on clay. I didn't make it shiny so that it would look even more basket-like. But I'm very happy with it. The purpose of this basket is to store my projects and let me work on them without the cats attacking the yarn ball. The places where the basket makes points I can string yarn through and it will unravel as I pull it to make crocheting easier. It has a lid so no one has to see the projects and for cat purposes. The lid broke twice in the kiln so I had to glue it back together and it's pretty sad. And the glazes turned out horribly, so I'll just paint over those.

But there's a secret compartment in the yarn so I can put my hooks and needles and scissors and not lose them. Plus I'll be able to get to them without taking the lid off. Pretty nifty design, huh? Yeah . . . That was all me. I like it.


Well, ceramics was lots of fun, and like I say, I'm going to keep it up as a hobby. Very stress relieving.

celebrity status

Having my job is really strange. Especially for someone like me with a fairly severe and long lasting inferiority complex. People that I've only met once or twice briefly call me by name whenever they see me because they have to remember my name, I'm an important person for them to know. It's so strange to have people say your name where ever you are and not to necessarily be able to return the favor. But let's be honest, that's partially why I took this job. I thought it'd be good for me to be in this position, where I know what's going on, where it's normal for people to know me. It's strange, but not quite in a bad way.

pranks

My roommate likes to play pranks on people. Last semester, she taped newspaper to my door frame, then stuffed the space between it and my door full of packing peanuts. I caught her that time, she's never been caught before. She wasn't my roommate then, so catching her was a pretty big deal.
This semester she stole my keys, as you can see here. Picked them right out of my pocket, no less. You see, I don't like to stuff them all the way into my pocket because it gets too bulky. So I leave the lanyard sticking out and it's all knotted up and stuff. And at the time I was wearing my kakis which have side pockets instead of front ones, so they fall out all the time when I'm on the couch.
Anyway, she came back to my room and did the following:










She put my poor little Serta sheep in prison. Doesn't he look so sad. The prison is her Fencing mask, in case you were curious.


I, of course thought this was hilarious.



Just like when a few weeks later, Helen brought home a chef's hat from work, and then the next day I found this:

I think he's adorable. Probably the best he's looked.

Yes, it's fun to have a pranking roommate. The other night I had stayed up rather late finishing a book that had me bawling at the end (which I haven't done in quite awhile, it was refreshing), so I was pretty drained in the morning when I had to wake up to open the doors. Little did I know that during the night (she works from 7pm-4am most nights) she had decorated my door yet again.


So when I opened my door in the morning, all the toilet paper fell into my room. I stood there for probably two minutes just figuring out how to get out of there. You can't see it really well, but she taped seran wrap to the frame and wrote on it backwards, so I had all these messages to read from the inside of my door standing in toilet paper up to my ankles. I felt loved in a tired sort of way.

So when I finally got out, I got her back. I knew she had only been sleeping for a few hours, so I figured she wouldn't wake up when I went into her room. If I hadn't dropped her camera charger right by her head, she wouldn't have woken up and things would have been perfect. She would've had just as nice of a surprise when she woke up as I did. As it was, she still didn't know what was going on. So I guess the pay back was successful.

I like college!

bad movies

So I stayed up way too late the other night watching one of the worst movies ever made that have stolen time from me. Yes, I wasted at least two and a half hours that I'll never be able to get back, and even more sad, I could have been sleeping. So sad. So, in honor of this pathetic occasion, I have decided to compose a Top Ten Worst Movies I've Ever Seen list, in order one being the very worst of all time. Not that I'll be able to complete it now, but here's just a taste:

1- Just A Walk in the Park
This one is an ABC Family original production . . . enough said. Not Jane Krakowski's best work (I saw her in London). But it did create some fabulous bonding between me and one of my first roommates.

2- I Love Trouble
This was the movie in question from the other night. Why would any smart journalist, like Julia Roberts is supposed to play, sleep with a guy after accidentally getting married after he abandons her barely clad self to be gawked at by a boy scout troup . . . with cameras!

3-Star Wars II: Revenge of the Sith
It's a shame when men become so rich that people are afraid to tell them that they can't write. Lucas's scripts are awful. And I'm an English major, I can tell bad writing. This one was the worst yet. Luckily for me I haven't seen the third one yet. Is everyone in that movie blind to Anikan's humongously dark aura. And poor Natalie Portman, she delivered all of her lines as if she was ashamed to have to speak such horrible dialogue. And did anyone really belive her reaction to Anikan's news that he had just killed an entire villiage, not just the men, but the women and children too. Hello! don't comfort the boy, run! That's a giant red flag!

4- Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
Again, the script is horrible, but the acting is even worse. Who was in charge of hiring that little boy to play Anikan. And Jar Jar . . . don't get me started. It's a good thing the other ones are classics.

5-Autumn in New York
First of all, I don't like Richard Gere. I'm sorry but he is not attractive. He acts like he is, and his attitude has fooled millions, but he cannot fool me. Secondly, there was far too much tongue shown in this movie, and he was in love with Winona Rider's mother before he started on her. Does no one else see so much wrong with this senerio?

6-Election
I really am a Matthew Broaderick fan. He's done some great stuff, but this movie isn't on that list. And with Reese Witherspoon this movie appears to have a lot going for it. But don't be fooled, the lying, cheating and stealing and the cover ups that go with them that normally make a good movie combine horribly in this film, which just ends up crude. It definitely left me with a dirty taste in my mouth.

7-The Remake of The Music Man
Here's another Matthew Broaderick flop. Not even Victor Garber could save this movie. I just didn't think any of the filming looked original. They tried to copy the first one, which is classic and brilliant, but ended up with a sad second. Word to the wise, if you're going to remake, actually remake something, rethink the point and make it relivant. Plus, the singing in this wasn't that refreshing. I was disappointed.

8-The Home Teachers
I'm not a huge fan of any so called "church films", but this one was particularly horrendous. So here's a tribute to all those film makers who just don't know when to stop.

9-Fear Dot Com
I don't like scary movies, but this one was just stupid. I'm a little ashamed to say I've seen it. But it was a remarkably unscary scary movie. And I scare easily. It was predictable not original, with no really scary ghost or presence, and no good plot. A good scary movie should have at least one of these things.

10-America's Sweethearts
An all time low on the romantic comedy front, despite its all-star cast. Billy Crystal is just crude as a writer. This was just a headache movie, if you know what I mean. The only thing worth watching it for is for a glimpse behind the scenes of hollywood. And what you hope behind-the-scenes is never like (but secretly think maybe it is).

As with all my lists, this one is still fluid and is subject to change upon further contemplation.

Interview

I got interviewed the other day by a friend of a girl in my hall. She is in a newspaper class and needed to interview a stranger and I volunteered. Mostly we talked about my job and what impact it had on me and the girls in my hall. She asked me what I would wish for the school, and I said that I wish the students here would be more open-minded. I think in this culture we tend to be superficial and try to hide our flaws because we think that if we aren't perfect, other's won't think the gospel is perfect. So we try to conform to the hive mentality around us. But we are such a supportive and friendly culture that if we just opened our eyes and our hearts to those around us struggling with issues like homosexuality or eating disorders or things like that, then we could be help to those around us. But some many people choose to close their eyes. . .

Anyway, I was really glad that I got to do this interview because it's been a tough week at work. I hate cleaning checks. I have to be the inforcer, the police man, and I hate that role. Plus they're time consuming and annoying. It was nice to remember why I'm doing this job, why I decided to keep doing this job until August. It's hard, but I am making a difference. I've met some of the most incredible people though this job as well. This is a picture of the other people I worked with last year. They were all amazing people. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have made it. Honestly. (Also notice my beautiful Diva tree in the background. I had a lot of fun making the decorations for that.) Okay, so I'll post the pics later, when my blogger is cooperating.

changing

I must say I think it's ridiculous to change your clothes more than four times in one day. Especially when you don't really look decent in any of the outfits. Nevertheless, I did just that on Monday. It was sad to me. But I guess when you get up at 6am, you have time to do things like that.