Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Top Ten Things I Did in the Last Ten Days

Hello all! School is busy and my social life is just bursting at the seams. ;)
So this will be brief, then I can get back to those papers I need to write. This is the topic I have been bringing up to everyone and their grandma for sympathy because it sounds so extreme. I have five major papers to write by next week. There, I said it! Some of you have already stuffed your ears with it before.

So what have I done if not blogged?
(No particular order.)

1. High School "Reunion" at Space Aliens
I went back home for a night to visit some friends (you know who you are... that is, if you even read this... moment of awkward insecurity) and we ate at Space Aliens, the small barbecue/pizza chain that is decorated to match its name... times ten (numerical theme). My waitress was a girl from high school. We were not friends in high school so no one broke the ice and said "hi." Thus she served me the entire time while being smushed with elephant-in-the-room-esque awkwardness.

 [speaking of aliens, Stephen Hawking is kind of boring when he narrates a show about them.]

2. Task Party aka organized chaos
Oliver Herring, a famous German artist, came to our school! He used to knit strange things constantly, but now he makes videos, photo sculptures, and Task Parties!

[here's a photo sculpture, this one wasn't at our school, but look--it's a bunch of small close-up photos glued together!]

The Task Party was the most fun though. Picture this: a large room strewn about with random art supplies and surplus items--from glitter to cardboard to metal tins and feathers to balloons, etc.--with a bunch of nerdy art-lovers and the command to simply make and do "tasks," no other guidelines. So first you draw a task from the big box, do it, and then write your own.

Examples:
  • dress up like a pirate
  • build a human pyramid
  • call your dad and say "hi"
  • construct a nest
  • protest something
  • walk around the room with a hotdog in your mouth
  • throw glitter at a stranger
  • etc.
What does it look like, you ask?
Well, everyone ends up in stupid costumes and such, so it ends up looking something like this:

[dramatic re-enactment]

3. CONTROVERSY Party
It was for the Sociology/Anthropology/Reconciliation Department, okay? Least controversial event ever, in the history of the world probably. Though I will admit it was more fun than I expected. Besides, my team won Political Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

4. Decided China is awesome
Justine's aunt Cliss has been to so many countries--India, China, and Japan. She spoke about them at some women's retreat and we went to see her. She spent the most time in China--3 years-- and after hearing all of the stories, now I reallllllly want to go!

5. Painted world turtle
Almost completed a painting that is about a Native American creation story where the land is just the back of a giant turtle. I made the turtle a tortoise because they are the cutest of all turtles and resemble grumpy old men. (Awww!)
Stupidly, I have no picture of it now.

Some day. Someday. Sumday.


6. Used an antique printing press
So--correct me if you already know this--Minnesota has an AWESOME handmade book center and it is about 8 minutes away from campus. How cool. We went there for class and got to find little lead letters in a big font drawer. Then we put them backwards and upside down on a little holder thing. Holder thing had a part called a "knee," while letters have "feet." Said holder thing was then inked and put onto the press, where a huge roller smushed ("pressed") it and printed out titles! So cool. It was also in a rugged, cave-like basement that was historically built as a flour barrel factory (cough cough, notice all the flour mills on our skyline).


7. RAISED A YOUNG TURTLE
Yesyesyesyesyesyes.

[wook at the widdle biddle!]

[baby waby tuwtle]

[oooh, painted]

[shmo smainted!]

Found the little guy in the parking lot after a rainstorm. Saved him by bringing him to a muddy cattailed area by the lake. I figured keeping him would not  really be saving him since Justine and I got bored of our last pet (Jibs the hermit crab) and gave him away to preschoolers.
Still, it was fun while it lasted. Brian came too*even though we were almost late for lunch. We ran up when the gate to the dining center was closing and I had to use my smooth diversion skills** to get us in. Barely!

*his hands are in the latter three pictures
**aka begging and telling the overly-nice guy that we just found a turtle

8. Enlightened others about Tootsie Pop Flavors

 [seriously though, how many licks?]

In my opinion, artificial banana is one of the lamest candy flavors known to both man and beast. Tootsie Pop Co. does not agree. I gave the one I got for "Thank-you-student-workers Week" to Brian, who also had never known of its rare existence.

9. Crawled and viewed art
 The good ol' St. Paul Art Crawl was this weekend. Brian and I walked through a bunch of galleries and apartments to see everything from chalk-drawn tigers and wooden magic wands to really fancy photography and huge paintings.

10. Tripped while sitting!! --less dramatic version
So this may or may not have happened to me before. Okay, it was in calculus class (AP thankyouverymuch) where I somehow fell off my chair by tripping. It is a mysterious phenomenon that not everyone has experienced.
I did it again today--and screamed--but I caught my balance before falling anywhere.
This photo may sort of kind of like a little bit, explain what sit-tripping is like.

[100% pure terror]

See you again soon I hope! If not, I will simply be here, complaining about my papers to those who do not read my blog.

p.s. FAILED tripping re-enactments. (aka "yes, it took 5 takes to get that terrible shot")

 [pooping?]

[HEAD]
[oddly sexual :/ ]

[dinosaur]

Friday, April 16, 2010

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Early Bird Gets the Nap

Do you ever have one of those mornings where you think you are awake?


Like your mind is ready, your body is ready to get up,

[ohboyohboyohboy!]

but your eyes feel more like THIS:

[yep.]

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Gold Star/Sparkles

Here is the fabled pictures of my winnings.
What I mean by this, for those not in the know, can be explained pretty easily.

My painting teacher helps out with an annual art show at his (kind of) church. Anyone can submit work for free. The church members have a lot of fun with it too.

So I submitted two of my paintings.
One involves a nude figure in the fetal position on a bathroom floor. The bathroom is a suffocating shade of pink and has no door. I rudely forgot to take a picture of it close up, but you will see it in good time. All in good time.

Apparently an older woman at the church got worker up about the nipple that is visible in my painting. An amusing thought, I didn't think it was too controversial compared to the rest of the art world! They still let it in the show.

The other painting I submitted is this guy:

 [tentative title = "The Confrontation"]

It represents some creepy relics of the Toltec civilization, the oldest known (art-making) people to inhabit central Mexico. We cannot read their writing or interpret the few artifacts they have left us, which includes these angry figures that were buried in a hole 20 feet deep. They also carved massive faces out of stones that came from sources 60 miles away!

[a detail for ya]

Fun fact: I am working on a sequel/version 2.0 of this piece that will be much bigger and (hopefully) cooler.

Anyway, I surprisingly got the 1st place student award at the show! Yay :).
It was for The Confrontation.

My painting teacher was very proud. 

[holding my winnings]

In conclusion, good times.
Don't worry, more funny blogs will come someday after this serious artsy one ;).

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Memorial

"Death of a Flying Friend"
watercolor on paper

(by me)

Climbing Trees = Not Boring!

You may think I am too old for this...
Well, then again, you read my blog, so you probably don't!

Spring is now in the air and this opens up oodles of new activities for Brian and me. We have already painted, flew kites, lost a kite, gained a kite (more on that later!), biked, and....
("Drumroll please," a motivational speaker would say here.)

[you might just know what this is!]

Climbing trees is fun because:
  • You are up high.
  • You feel like a child.
  • It is spring.
  • You can beat your boyfriend by going higher than him.
 [Is this opposite of low?! Nope, just me.]

Sometimes getting down is scary (!) but not if you pick the right tree. Let me tell you,
this one was PERFECT.

[Brian: "Let me take another picture, make it look like you are actually climbing the tree."]

NOW, do you guys believe I was climbing it?
The other ones were clearly fake.
You didn't know did you? Good thing Brian was there to set you straight.
(Or was he?)

Anyway, look how artistically I used this photo to do an assignment for class I wasn't interested in:

[colors and colors and colors]

Do the colors accurately describe my emotions as I climb this tree? You be the judge.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Why I am in Love with Charlie Brown

In this post, I will not be proving that I am in love with a fictional character. Rather, I will attempt to prove that the man I love is SIMILAR to a fictional character.

Completely different.

So, this is Charlie:
 [blond boy stands in pumpkin patch]

And this is Brian:

 [Exhibit A, fools!]

 Now, if that picture didn't prove it to you right off the bat, do not worry! There are a CORNUCOPIA of better reasons!  (cough, cough, Even Steven's reference, cough)

1. They both like to fly kites.

  [clearly Charlie is enjoying this]

As for Brian, he created an entire BLOG with the premise of flying his kite in numerous places around Europe. What does that mean?
I win!

[Brian + kite = less than three]

2. They both get their kites stuck in trees. :*(
Care to defend yourself on this one, Charlie?

  [I think not!]

Brian once got his kite stuck  in a tree. It was so far away, the string went through the tree, through another tree, across a power line, across the street, and over a fence to the soccer field we were standing in. 
The power company had to come in special to get it down.
(Reads like a comic if you ask me.)

This is actually the main reason Charlie and Brian are alike.
Because they have both done it multiple times.

 [oh, shit.]

This Tuesday, Brian took his new kite, Mr. Wingsy, out  for a spring-time fly. Wingsy was super excited, bouncin' around in the wind. 
Unfortunately, the poor guy flew too far. Brian tried to reel him in, but he whipped around--like a whip or whipped cream or a whippy-dip hairstyle--and dive bombed into a tree!!

This was not just any tree. It must have been the tallest tree in all of Bethel. 'Twas a wretched, thin pine tree that was pretty much popping clouds and knocking down airplanes. It was that tall.

That was three days ago, and sadly,
Wingsy the kite is still up there.

3. They both have a close friend who is all philosophical and stuff.
Boy! I bet no one else in the world has a friend like that ! Brian is totally CB.
See?

[right: Linus, probably about to quote Plato or something]

 [above:Billy Sveen, philosophy minor and Brian's future roommate, at the onset of dusk.]

4. They both freaking love Christmas.
Charlie even visits us in a Christmas special each year, come on!


[Charlie and friends, friggin' adoring Christmas]

Brian has a Christmas CD!!

[but has he ever worn Santa antlers to prove his Xmas love? GUILTY!]

5. Both have weird dogs that, for some strange reason, enjoy dressing up.

 [case in point! no sane being dresses up for Thanksgiving!]

[THREE pairs of antlers! Even Brian only wore one!]

6. Not only do they have weird dressing-up dogs, they both LOVE their dogs. Aww!

 [just hanging out in the yard, ^_^ oh boy]

Once again, Charlie, you are not alone.

[just hanging out (in a tent) in the yard. Cute, right?]

Maggie, Snoopy, their names practically rhyme. 

7. They both won Bethel Idol. 
 First of all, Brian won Bethel Idol this year.
Second of all...
[Hmm... fancy hat, the adoration of his peers, music notes... yep, Charlie Brown won Bethel Idol. Must have been last year.]

8. Both are "macho" but they don't know it.
[does this even need a caption?]


[once again, no caption is worthy]

10. Who says I need ten reasons? I think nine is a nice number! (Suck it, metric system.)

The end!

P.S. Some may think Brian is more like Schroeder just because his last name is Schroeder and he has a similar hairstyle and plays piano.
Hopefully said people will come realize the error of their ways. 
;)