out of the blue

Thanks to Anne for this meme. I rarely do these, but this one looked good. So, here you are:

(Still up, in case you were wondering)

TEN random things about me

01. I am completely oblivious to pop culture, aside from a lingering fear of it in improv games
02. I don't drink caffiene, except in some teas
03. My childhood hero was Steven Hawking
04. I used to say my favorite food was oysters, but when I found out that a lot of people didn't like them, I was afraid to claim that I did
05. I was the shortest person in my class all through grade school
06. I don't generally find people pretty until I know them–all of my friends are
07. I love the rain
08. My favorite flowers are lilacs
09. If I could live in the mountains, I would
10. I find smoke and fog to be some of the most beautiful things in existence

NINE ways to win my heart

01. Truly care, and show that you do.
02. Don't settle for the everyday answers.
03. Don't be a jerk, even to people you think deserve it
04. FInd out what I want to be, and help me become it
05. Show me something beautiful
06. Buy me tasty food
07. Accept that I'm not perfect
08. Find time to just be with me
09. Talk to me, about more than superficial things

EIGHT things I want to do before I die

01. Live in a foreign country
02. Figure out who I'm going to marry, and do so
03. Write a book
04. Grow old and awe the neighborhood children
05. Own a cat
06. See the alps
07. Learn to program
08. Publish some poetry

SEVEN things I believe in

01. Love
02. Art can communicate the things that we can't say
03. God
04. There is a lot that science can't explain
05. If I look long enough, I'll find the truth
06. Success isn't what most people think it is
07. People can transcend their situation

SIX things that get me mad (or annoyed/paranoid/frustrated)

01. People hurting other people, being aware that they're doing it, and doing nothing to stop it
02. Hatred
03. When the rules or laws make it not okay to do the right or intelligent thing
04. Seeing people fight
05. When the country does things that I think are stupid
06. Blindness

FIVE things I'm afraid of

01. Finding out that someone I thought was a friend is really just tolerating me.
02. Losing the people I love.
03. That there might be something in which I can't change myself for the better
04. That I'll hurt the people I care about
05. Darkness, in certain moods and places

FOUR of my favorite items in my room

01. My nice blue teddy bear
02. A lovely computer
03. My art supply box
04. A bookshelf full of (surprise) books

THREE things I do every day

01. Think deeply about things
02. Talk to my friends
03. Dream

TWO things I need to do right now

01. Sleep (but I'm not going to)
02. Homework (ditto)

ONE person I want to see right now

01. Sarah

So, I haven't gotten more than three or four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours (and that's an estimate, because I don't actually remember when I fell asleep and woke up, that's just measuring at the limits of how much I could have slept.) I'd estimate more like 2 hours. Tonight (this morning?) one of my friends who is currently in Japan went to sleep before me. Instead of sleeping, I've been sketching pictures of my blue bear that I got for a graduation gift, in different mediums. So far tonight I've done an ink drawing, a marker sketch, and a colored pencil one. I'm working on a Photoshop painting, and I may very well go on to do a vector art version before going to sleep. I've never really done vector art before, but there's always a place to start–insomnia. Wheeee!

Well, it's my roommate's birthday today. Becky and I just sprung a big one on him, too, with him unsuspecting. It was quite beautiful!

You see, Becky and I made a cake today, a nice lemon one with a lemon glaze on top. It's great-tasting, and it isn't the sort of thing one generally puts candles in. But it worked beautifully. Anyway, all day Becky and I were waiting for Aaron to leave to go to GUTS, but he went and it apparently was cancelled, or something. So that put a stop to our plans of filling the room with balloons and streamers. Instead, we quickly devised an alternate plan, and it went off nearly without a hitch…

After removing the screen from the window (which is right next to him) without him noticing, I set up a bunch of music playing, then ran off. Becky and I got the cake, sparkling cider, and balloons ready. I had set a loud song playing, for a cue so that we knew when to be ready, then I let the Beatles Birthday Song play just a tiny bit after 12, while I came in with a flaming cake and Becky sent balloons flying through the open window.

The funniest thing about it all was Aaron's reaction. When the Beatles Birthday Song came on, Aaron was sort of humming along to it without realizing the significance! He got it when he saw the cake and the sparkling cider. Aaron was very surprised… :-D It made me quite happy.

Anyway, that's the second year in a row that we've surprised him. We'll have to keep doing that for the rest of his life. :)

Pictures from the festivities

PS. The cake was excellent, thanks to the culinary skills of Becky, and the moderate help of yours truly. The cider was good too, but it was made even better by drinking out of the cool red glasses. As you can see from the pictures, we made good use of the balloons.

Well, I haven't said anything about Spring Break, which was actually a little while ago. Over a week. But I have to say that I had a very good time. I may have spent a little too much money, because now I'm broke, but it was definitely worth it.

The entire account can be found here.

Over the week of spring break, many things happened. From almost missing my flight, to being sore from getting so much excercise, they were fun-packed days. I actually got to see a lot of my fellow Alumni who were scattered about the country like stars on the velvet of a midnight sky. They all congregated in this one place in order to watch a play, where forming stars gathered in the nebula of SST to put on a play. We brought brilliant light to their lives, and they enlightened us with their youth.

I've broken my Spring Break into episodes. Here's the seventh episode of the miniseries.

Seventh Episode: Before, After, and During The Play
So, at this point in the narrative, Sarah and I are wandering around in the Nature Park. We wait to start heading out until it's pretty much Dark. I didn't realize how Dark it was until I looked up and realized that I could see Venus. Then, I realized that Venus wasn't all I could see, and that there were many other stars out as well. We had half an hour to get to the play, which was to be the crowning jewel of the day. So, we ran, in the half-light, watching the sides of the trail as they passed by, to find the quickest way to the school, which was on the way to the place the play was to be at. Finally, after stopping to read a couple tiny signs by the starlight, we happened upon the trail that would take us where we needed, and we ran down it. Then, I called Soren's cell phone, and asked him to see if anyone could pick me up. I didn't pay much attention to who he said, if he even said anyone's name, but he said someone would be by. So, Sarah and I stood in the middle of the road, waiting for someone to come by.

We're waiting, and we see headlights in the distance. Obviously, since the road we're on isn't a big one, it must be Aaron. But, as they pull to a stop up to where we are, we see that it's not Aaron, it's actually Mark with his car. He rolls down the window, and calls out, "Do you need a lift?" And we, naturally, agree, knowing that Soren must have sent Mark to come get us. We get in, and put our stuff down, and he said he just happened to be in the area. I laugh, and jokingly say, "Well, that's good." becase he was obviously being silly since Soren had sent him. Then, I stop laughing, because I realized that he wasn't joking. This, naturally, caused me to laugh some more due to the irony of the situation. We ask him to wait for a minute, because Aaron will be along any minute, and sure enough, we see headlights in front of us, and the car is Aaron's this time. Sarah and I decide to ride with him instead, so Mark gets to go off just carrying Rowena again.

The play was awesome, and I was especially glad to see Gabe onstage. He did a wonderful job, and I've wanted him to act for quite a while. In addition, we got the pleasure of watching Ian Kern pull off an excellently stylistic politician, and Steven Rapp play an almost-wicked stepchild. (He could have been a little louder, though.) The play was brilliant, and you're welcome to ask me for a plot summary sometime. I read it, since I did the poster for the play, and I can remember most of the details. For a lightning synopsis, it's about an older woman and her three evil stepchildren who are trying to get her part of the family fortune from her by putting her in a nuthouse. This is the least comedic play that SST has done since I've gone there, as we've only done farces for the three years I attended. (The previous year we did Earnest, so it's a long-term tradition). It was brilliant.

One amusing incident that I find just odd was when I went to the bathroom during the intermission. I walk in, and there's the moderately old guy standing there, as if he's been there a while. I use the urinal next to him, expecting him to finish. No. He just keeps standing there, one hand on his hip, hand curled into a fist, his other hand on his fly, and his body is at somewhat of a jaunty angle. He doesn't really move for the entire time I'm there, from when first I entered to after I wash my hands. For all I know, he could still be there.

Afterwards, a bunch of alumni went to Shari's, and we ended up at Nathan's house until three in the morning, when the party broke up into its component parts.

Special thanks to Beth and Paul, who made all of this possible (That would be Beth Bland and Paul Wildermuth, who were kind enough to pick Aaron and I up from the airport upon our return *good vibes towards them*)

Blast, Anne beat me to wishing people a happy Pi day! Oh, well, I can still do it. So, everyone…

Happy Pi Day!

(I'll review the number sometime, and get back to 50 places or so)

In my family room at home, there is a large pile of books behind a particular green chair. I was kneeling on the chair talking on the phone, and I chanced to look back there. It's always amusing when you find a copy of "Introduction to Electronics for Technologists" (one of my dad's college textbooks) lying next to "Horton Hatches an Egg" (One of my own early textbooks).

That was amusing. What is truly making me happy right now is that a bunch of my friends are coming back today! Soren and Nathan, in college in Everett, are returning tonight on a train, and we're going to Shari's once they get back. Sarah, from USU, is returning by plane, and we're going to be doing stuff tomorrow. In ADDITION, tomorrow I'm going with a bunch of Alumni from SST to see the play they're putting on this year, titled "The Curious Savage." I'm really excited, as this is the first SST production I'll be able to see, since I was involved in all the others.

I'm off to have fun!

(This means I won't work for a couple days, and homework will kill me when I get back, but such is life!)

So, my school does an art publication called "Reflections" twice a year. I didn't manage to submit anything in the fall, but this time around, I had a piece ready. I suppose you have seen my painting of St. Al's. Anyway, I e-mailed it to them, and shortly thereafter I recieved a reply….

Chris,

Hello! I a question for you. Should some of your photography be chosen for publication, will you be able to provide the originals? You see, we have to resize the photos for print, and in order to ensure the best quality of representation in Reflection, we try to scan the photos ourselves. The goal is to get as close the original as possible after going through scanning and reprinting on a different medium. Let me know. Thank you!

EG (editor)

I appreciate this a lot, but I still sent back an e-mail saying that, actually, it wasn't a photo, and if she looked carefully, she could see the brushstrokes from Photoshop. I hope I get published!

Well, I did okay on this. Some of them were a little confusing, because some of the words actually did work with either, although it changed the meaning. Oh well… I still did okay.

Advanced
You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 66% Expert!
You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score.

The test

*hugs for Elana*

Just a few minutes ago, I read this one person's page on DeviantART. I looked at their artwork, which was a lot of political hate-art against the United States. I also read a lot of the comments that people had posted there. It made me mad that so many people can be so blind.

Why do people insist on using hatred to combat what they see as hatred? Why can't they instead try to understand the people they are against? It's universal that nobody does something BECAUSE it's bad. They do something because they see some good in it. The people we say are bad are those people who do things that hurt other people. They think its justified, or they wouldn't do it. They think they are justified in hating America. They think they are justified in killing people. They think they are forced to do something. There's always a reason.

It is a rare person who has a real reason to hate America. To truly hate it requires so much of a personal connection that it isn't entirely rational any more (I think). Yet so many people claim that they do. Why are they so eager to claim that hatred? Does it make them more of a person?

Is it wrong to think I'm smarter than they are? More educated than they are? More rational than they are? They don't seem to really know much about what goes on, instead they just parrot the stuff used by EVERYONE to insult the US. If they seemed to have more of a rounded opinion, I might take them seriously as a person with some intelligence. Instead, everything they talk about is how the United States is bad. And of course, they are not a racist, which they assure people of every time they say something. "I don't hate all Americans, just the half that voted to reelect Bush." Or "I don't hate Americans, just most of them because they're stupid." (disclaimer: not actual quotes)Am I wrong for thinking they are ignorant?

Sorry about the rant. Just something that was on my mind.