Herbs: Day 17

My herbs are growing very nicely. Tomorrow Edward and I are going to go Lowe's to get wood to make a vegetable planter. I am sooooooo excited! Here are some pictures of my little herbs. Today one of my two little Lavender sprouts was uprooted when I watered it. This was the first time that I watered since the seeds were planted. I tried to replant it, but we'll see how it survives.


You have to look really hard at the Lavender.

Look at my little sprouts of Thyme on the edge of the planter.



Basil!


I'm not an engineer by any means, but these are my plans for our planter.

OFFICIAL Sweeney Todd Trailer!

I wish they would have played up that this is a musical in the trailer. I think that Warner Bros. wasn't sure how a musical would be received so they didn't put much singing in it. They forget about people like me who will see a movie JUST because it's a musical.

Herbs: Day 12 Plus my Sweeney Todd review

Yesterday while I was at Target I picked up a clear shower curtain liner to cover my plants with so that I could cover them all without those vegetable bags. When I put the plants outside I had to scoop them a nice dry and snow-free spot so that they wouldn't get too cold. Then I put the cover on. When I went back to check on them a few hours later they steamed up when I lifted the cover. They were actually steaming while I was looking at them. I thought that they were going to cook! I tried to air them out a little and then put the cover back on.

Well, I guess in that cooking time Genovese Basil liked it because it finally sprouted. Sweet Basil, who I notices popping up yesterday, is doing well too. Notice: I talk about my plants as if they are real people. I'm obsessed, but I've come to the conclusion that it's just my slightly obtuse personality (Harry Potter, Emmy, musicals, Sailor Moon, shoes etc.).

Speaking of musicals, I saw Sweeney Todd last night. I love the music, but it's a little too bloody for me--definitely not a feel-good movie like Enchanted. It's about a "demon" barber, but really he's just a very angry guy who is trying to get back at the man who ruined his life. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter (Belatrix Lastrange), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail), and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) were all directed by Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride), which was amazing. I felt like I was watching Harry Potter with Johnny Depp and a couple of other extras. Like I said, it was very bloody, but Tim Burton added his grotesque flare, which made it more bearable (I know that sounds weird, but I don't know how else to describe it). The blood wasn't very realistic and there was a lot of dark humor in it. I don't think I'll purchase the DVD because it made me feel slightly edgy by the end, but I did get the soundtrack and have been singing it since I woke up this morning. I've also been thinking about the actual writing style of the musical too. I think it was very well done with a couple of exceptions. So if anyone who has seen it wants to talk shop feel free to send me an email/IM.

I REALLY REALLY want these shoes

Today I sucked it up and returned those flower shoes from Target, but then when I was out at the mall I saw these Chinese Laundry shoes. They are sooooo cute. The site has them for $70 but at DSW they are selling for $50. I enjoy Chinese Laundry shoes very much. They are very comfortable in terms of high heels. Trust me, I know from experience. Some of them even have little pads where the balls of your feet go. Comfort is something that I've been looking for lately when I go shoe shopping, although it is difficult when I like four inch heels.

I think we all know that I'm a sucker for shoes and I'm caving on these. The only thing that's keeping me away from them is the 20 minute drive out to the mall. I had to literally talk to myself in the store and tell myself to leave so that I could meet Edward and the CS people for lunch. But now I keep thinking about them. The site has them in silver, which I like more, but I do where a lot of brown so gold will work too. *Sigh* And I thought doing my proposal was hard. Maybe I'll just work an extra hour every day this coming week so that I can justify buying these shoes. ...and wear them at least once.

Have you ever read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella? I'm having a moment that is incredibly reminiscent of her Lilac and Clementine colored sandals. Ohh, while looking up the book for you all I found that the book is coming out as a movie in 2009. How exciting! I suggest checking out the series. It's very good. I haven't had time to read books 3-5? yet. I think there are five of them now. I'm not sure. Anyways, I feel like Rebecca Bloomwood right now.


Update:
I got the shoes today. I kept thinking about all of the different outfits that I could wear them with. Yesterday when I was at the store I was in such a rush that I didn't notice that they had the silver shoes also. It took me a while to decide what to do. I ended up with the gold ones since I liked them better. Plus, they're different. I felt like the silver would be too ordinary for shoes as awesome as these. Sadly, I think the shoes were the last things I thought about before I fell
asleep. Ah, I have a sick, sick addiction.

I also purchased somethings called "sure step" which are little rubber paddings that adhere to the bottom of your shoes so that you don't go sliding on slick floor. I haven't been wearing heels nearly as much as I used to because I've had too many near encounters with sliding into the splits. I'm not as flexible anymore, plus it would embarrassing to do that at work. The pads are basically that stuff that you see on stairs so that you don't fall down. I'm going to go out Home Depot or Lowe's to look for some and then make them myself. At $4 for a set of two I think I can put my craftiness/frugality to work. I am a Chin after all. We are crafty, crafty people.

Gardening

I've come to a conclusion that if I'm going to do this Advanced Project and Thesis I'm going to have to stay sane. So I'm going to start gardening once the weather gets a little better. Edward said that astronauts found themselves tending their gardens a lot when they were stressed out up there in space. If it worked for them, it'll work for me. I've already noticed as my stress level rises I've been blogging more to try to keep my mind off of things/procrastinate. At least you guys get to hear from me more often, although I'm beginning to think its a bit of overkill. I also think I've been posting more now because I've been waking up earlier, which gives me a lot more time than I had before. I just find that I'm a lot more tired or have to depend on coffee and exercise to stay awake. Exercise is good, but I've been getting caffeine headaches too.

Edward and I are going to build a planter or two so that I can have a nice little place to dig around in. I was going to do it myself, but then he said that he would help me. I was very happy when he said that. I figured the he's always so busy now-a-days that he wouldn't have time to help me build something that could just be a phase. I think he likes building and fixing things, so hopefully it'll make the both of us happier and more relaxed. Hopefully we can do it in the beginning of April since some of the seeds I bought need to be planted then. I was originally going to dig up the grass that the landlords put in, but it looks like the grass is growing on a thin layer of dirt that is piled on top of the cement. So we're going to build little 5x5 planter(s) so that I can have something nice out there.

Last night Edward and I couldn't fall asleep and were trying to figure out how to make a little garden for me. He said that he wanted carrots because he used to eat them out of the ground when he was little. He also said that his daddy had some potatoes that he would go dig up every few weeks to look at. I told him that I only wanted flowers because I didn't want to be disappointed if my vegetables didn't grow, but I bought him carrots anyway. I didn't get any potatoes since I'm a impatient and it seems that potatoes take a long time to grow.

Today in my excitement and anticipation I went back out to Lowe's and purchased more seeds.

Cauliflower
Carrot (for Edward)
Brussels Sprouts (for me)
Jalapeno Pepper
Long Thin Cayenne Pepper

Sunflower (mixed colors)
Sunflower (Ebony and gold)
Zinnia






I really wanted strawberries, but couldn't find them. I think after looking at the flower seeds I got I'm going to plant them in little pots and planters so that we can have them on our deck. I think that they will brighten our days to see them when we leave the house everyday. We'll have our "crops" in the planter.

I also purchased two packs of Thyme to send home to Julie. She said that she couldn't find them anywhere. It's funny that dismally urban Troy, NY has seeds that agriculturally based Davis doesn't.

Also, my Sweet Basil sprouted today! Yay! I had lost hope! Maybe they knew that I was going to try to transplant basil in their place so they thought that they should make an appearance. I bet it's glad that I didn't put it out in the snow today. It had been nice the last few days so I thought that Spring was definitely on its way, but I was wrong. It snowed about four inches today. Boo.

Should I keep these shoes?

I've been thinking about these shoes for a while now. I bought them today, but think I might return them. I first saw them at GoodWill, but they didn't have my size. They're still in the Target's around here so I'm thinking that they'll hit GoodWill sooner or later. If I get them a GW, I could get them brand new for $5, but it's not guaranteed that they'll be there and have my size. I got them today for $15, but I feel like I should return them. What do you think?


I got another pair of shoes today too, but I'm keeping these ones for sure. They aren't super cute or anything, but they are soooooo comfy. I couldn't find a picture on Target's website to show you.

Getting a mentor

On Tuesday I had a VERY good day. Not only did my plants start to sprout, but I got a a prof to mentor my advanced project. I wasn't sure I wanted to start my advanced project next semester (my third) so that I could do a thesis in my fourth semester. Most people in the St. Rose English department don't do theses. I'm not really sure why, but it's just the way it is. Well, I decided that I am going to do a thesis.

I was so excited that my first pick professor, Hollis Seamon, took me on. I was dancing around the room and Emmy was getting very upset. Now I'm busting my rump to put together a proposal. Apparently it was supposed to be due two weeks ago. Woops. I'm almost done with it, I'm just working on my huge working works cited list. I have twenty articles, chapters, and books to read. My bags were so full of books that my left bicep muscle is sore from caring them all. You should have seen the poor girl behind the circulation counter watching me pile all of these books up on the counter.


Me pretending to love all of the books I checked out.

My actual sentiments towards the tower of literature.

Emmy had dug her racket ball out from behind the shoe rack. It's so bouncy that it went behind the heater where it's all dusty. She came out with hug dust bunnies on the ball and in her mouth. She does the cutest little licking thing to get the dust bunny out of her mouth. Here is a picture of the ball and the dust bunny hanging from her mouth.

Herbs: Day 8

Lavender has one tiny, tiny little sprout! I noticed it when I was putting the planters outside to get some sun. It's so small right now that it can easily be mistaken as plant food, but the food I got is white and orange. Maybe it was all of my singing and dancing around the planters. "You make me want to sprout! Throw my leaves up and sprout!" I was so excited I ran inside to get my camera. Emmy had no idea what was going on and was sliding around the wood floor.


See that tiny little green speck? There she is! Lavender Brown is her honorary name. (After the HP character) Sorry the picture is a little blurry. I think I got too close in my excitement to get a picture of her.

I devised a plan for my soil to get some sun and warmth while I was laying in bed this morning. I put the planters in plastic veggie bags that you get at the grocery store. This way the wind doesn't chill them down to much and they get some sun. It's much better than sitting on our living room floor in the dark. Plus, now that I have a seedling Lavender needs to have lots of sunlight. It's going to be a very good day. I was so excited that I had to call Mommy and tell her even though it was only 7 30am at home.



Sun makes everything better. I even have been waking up earlier. "Ah, the sun is shining. The tank is clean...THE TANK IS CLEAN!" Can anyone tell me where this quote is from?

Update:
Oregano and Thyme are sprouting too!

Herbs: Day 7

I should have done transplants! My soil is starting to get moldy and it's too cold to put them outside to get sun to dry up the dirt and inside the sun doesn't stay long enough in one spot. My lavender is getting white and fuzzy. I was soooo excited about having lavender, but all I'm getting is stuff that I can grow on old bread. If by May I don't have anything I'm going to go get some transplants. I want herbs gosh darn it!

My long day

I got so much work done today I’m very proud of myself. So now I’m giving myself a break and watching Dancing With the Stars. Let me run through my day for everyone so that you guys know how much I accomplished today.

First of all, I woke up at 9 15am! Can you believe it?! Last night I didn’t feel like my Sunday night ritual of preparing all of our dinners for the week. So I had to wake up early to do it all so that I could meet a friend for coffee at 11 30. I managed to get dinner started for tonight as well as prepare all of our meals for the week. At 11 30 I went flying out of the house to meet my friend.

By 1 00 I was at work…even though I didn’t really need to be there. The kids only had half a day for Easter so I didn’t have to do program, which was nice. I decided to go into the Y anyway so that I could get some paper work done and print out some stuff for class. (I print my stuff at work to save our paper and ink cartridges.) I actually got work done at work too! The last time I was in the office I wrote that long blog last week, but today I did this flyer that Carol wanted me to do and made my calendar for the rest of the year. It was all done in an hour, so now you know why I go in just to write my blog. Writing my blog actually takes me longer than doing the work that they pay me for.

I rushed out of work at 2 10 so that I could drop off my resume at Seton Health (a little doctor’s office/hospital down the street from the Y) and then to school. I should have thought about it before I drove 20 minutes out to St. Rose. Everything was closed because of Easter. So I got back in my car and drove back home by 3 15 so that Edward could use my car to go right back out to Albany. Last night I talked to my Baba and he thought that I should try to apply for secretarial jobs since most of them offer full time and benefits. Of course Daddy and Edward had the same line of thought, where as Mommy, Julie, and Juni think that I should stay at the Y. I wasn’t going to apply anywhere until Edward said that if I didn’t then I’d be loosing either way because I wouldn’t know if I could get another job or not. I guess the word “loose” did it for me. So I sat down and updated my cover letter and addressed some resumes to deliver. I’ll have to go back to St. Rose on Friday since I get out of class too late to turn it in on an actual school day. Hopefully I’ll hear from Seton Health soon so that I can get back to my friend about the summer camp thing. I think it’d be best if I stayed at the Y, but I thought I’d try anyways. I just hope that my friend doesn’t give away that position while I’m trying to decide.

Okay on with the day. After I got home I had an egg salad sandwich because I was starving and jittery from my two cups of coffee. On Friday I had cracked down and written my Renaissance Lit. midterm so that I could have my prof edit it. Last midterm I didn’t do well at all. I was shocked to say the least. So I had to make sure that I got his feedback so that I do well this time. After he emailed it back to me I was like, oh my gosh I have so much work ahead of me. I didn’t feel like doing it last night so I tackled it this afternoon. I think it is WAY better now. It makes so much more sense. I had totally read Aristotle’s The Politics incorrectly. Hopefully my grade will be better this time. I’m pretty much done with it, but I want to give it a night to rest before I submit it tomorrow by midnight.
After I did my midterm, I did my two responses to my Information Age class. These are responses that I really dislike doing. They’re just so tedious. I like getting feedback myself, but when you’re required to post it is definitely not fun. We basically have to do four posts a week for that class. I write so many discussion board/blog posts for my classes it’s no wonder that I fall behind on my personal family blog. I was feeling quite good after I did my responses so I went to do my reading for the class. I’m not sure how I feel about the website that we had to read. The content was really, really cool, but the navigation was really difficult. The website was called Mark Amerika if you’re interested. Don’t look at it during work, or at least keep the sound off. I thought that it had some really good ideas. Here are a few quotes that I thought were particularly good.

“Perception itself has now become terrorized.”

“The World News propaganda machine pounds me with its social hammer.”

“I am corrupt body corrupting other corrupt bodies.”

By this time, my stomach started grumbling all weird and my shoulders were in knots. At first I thought it was my caffeine overload crashing, but then I think it might have been the egg salad. Our mayo had expired a year ago but it smelled normal so we used it. That might have been a mistake. I can see you guys cringing right now. Yeah, I better throw that away. Anyway, I tried to make the best of it and read most of the play for Renn. Lit called A Christian Turned Turk. I wasn’t looking forward to it because the first six scenes were about selling slaves and totally boring, but then it turned out to be pretty funny. I was so inspired that I was able to write my discussion board two days early! My prof hasn’t even opened a discussion forum for it yet. I was very proud of myself. Two things for Renn. Lit in one day. Whew.

We had some slow-cooker chili for dinner and now we’re watching Dancing With the Stars and I’m doing my blog. Okay, now that you’ve all read about my entire day, I’m going to sign off and go finish the Turk play and read Meridian by Alice Walker. I love Alice Walker so I’m looking forward to reading it. If her name sounds familiar to you it’s probably because you’ve heard the The Color Purple. Anyways, TTFN!

Oh! I have a new kitchen counter cleaning system. Originally I was using those Clorox and Lysol disposable wipes. Julie informed me that they are not biodegradable and then my friend Abby said that those things aren't really good to have around food. So then I started using the Lysol kitchen spray, but then I was using rolls and rolls of paper towel. So it's either not biodegradable or wasting wads of paper towel. I didn't want to go back to using a sponge since they're so germy. Then I came up with a plan. I'd use cloth towels and just label them and use one a day. Since I do laundry every week I think that my system will work. So now for $1 a towel I can feel as "green" as I possibly think to be. I figured since no one seems to want to see pictures without Emmy anymore, I had to put her in there too.

New Emmy Videos

Hopefully these work. I tried to post these last night, but they didn't work for some reason.

Herbs: Day 5

There is still no sign of anything herb growth. Today Emmy was trying to look out the window that they are stationed under and accidentally knocked Lavender over. I yelled for my unborn plants and she skittered away. After righting the planter I inspected it to see if there was any damage done. It doesn't look like it, but if Lavender doesn't grow, we'll know why.

I was in the grocery store the other day looking at more plant seeds and noticed that the Basil packages said that germination takes 5-10 days. Since we're (the soil and I) are only on day five I'm hoping that something will start sprouting soon. After reading all of Julie's posts about her sunny garden I'm feeling a little jealous and out of sorts for my little pots of soil. I keep telling them how Auntie Julie's garden looks very nice and that they should grow. I made up a little growing song for them, which oddly sounds a lot like the songs I sing to Emmy. Hopefully they will sprout soon.

It's still not warm enough to put them outside. It was nice and sunny today and I wanted to put them out there to encourage them to grow, but Edward said that it was pointless since they're still underground. I'm beginning to think that I'm too impatient to have a garden. Even though seeds are much cheaper than little transplants, I think that maybe I should have started with those.

On the up side, if my herbs grow, I'm motivated enough to turn over the soil in our back yard and plant flowers. Of course we'll have to fence it off so that Emmy doesn't do her business over there, but I'm willing to do that. Edward doesn't think that the soil is very deep so it hopefully it won't be too much work. He said that he thinks that the landlords just threw some dirt on the ground and planted grass. We'll see when the time comes. I don't like the bugs that come with flowers. Last year we had huge bumble bees (you might remember the pictures I had of the one that Emmy pulled off her belly. I had stacked a jar and a bunch of cans around it) and I don't really want them to come back. I just really like to have flowers in the house, but don't see the point in buying them from the store.

Work

The program that I'm working with currently at the YMCA isn't going to be running this summer because the grant didn't come through. So my boss said that she would have to "terminate" us and then pick us back up in September when the grant for the school year begins. After hearing this I've been looking for another job for the summer. St. Rose has a few secretarial jobs open and a local health care/hospital center also has a position open. I was thinking of applying to these but then yesterday a friend at the Y asked me to be the "Assistant Summer Camp Director". He said that I probably wouldn't be getting paid much, but he'd feel better about being director if I was there to help him. So I've been weighing my options. I really want to be able to say on my resume that I've worked somewhere for at least two years. If I switch jobs now, the I won't be able to work anywhere for that long until I get back home. I think that having some secretarial experience will help me since the life of a writer isn't very excited career wise. With secretarial I will probably get benefits and paid more. If I can get a job at St. Rose then I might even get some tuition paid for. But then what about my two years? The Y is much closer to our apartment and the job title is a lot more impressive at than secretarial. Also, once school starts again I'll have my position as Site Director back as well as the flexible hours. If I'm in secretarial then I'll be working full time, which might suck with school. Plus, at the Y they let me go home for the month December.

In the long run I think that secretarial might be the better choice, but I'm still not sure. The title positions that I hold at the Y are more impressive than a secretarial assistant, but I'm not sure how much future employers will look at that. Geez, I'm not sure what to do. Maybe since I'm thinking about starting my Advance Project next semester so that I can write a Thesis I should stick with the job at the Y. What do you all think?

Happy Birthday Julie!

Herbs: Day 1

Here's to the start of my new garden. Maybe I'll be like the little girl from the children's book that one of my librarians read to me and sing/read to my plants.

Day 1 pictures:

Starting a garden

Now that I'm getting more into cooking, I thought I'd take a leaf out of Julie'(Ed's sister) and start growing my own herbs. This weekend I went out to Lowe's to get some seeds, gloves, plant food, and a spade. All in all it cost me less than $17.00.

I bought :

Sweet Basil
Genovese Basil
Oregano
Rosemary
Thyme
Lavender
Candytuft (I decided to spend an extra $1.25 for some flowers. I like having fresh flowers in the house. It makes everything seem so much brighter.)

We have a whole bunch of flower pots and planters here from our landlords. I guess they were trying to make the place pretty before they left, but ended up leaving us will a bunch of broken down plastic pots. So yesterday even though it was rainy, I worked up the courage to put on some boots that I hadn't worn in over a year (I had to shake them to make sure no bugs were in them) and then I got rid of all of those ugly planters. Since it's still pretty cold here, there were no bugs really. Thank goodness. I had my gloves on and everything. In the wreckage I managed to salvage about four pots out of about 20. After that, I was still feeling brave and I dug some gravel out of an open bag that was left behind. There could have potentially been many many bugs in there, so it was no small feat for me.

Today I managed to wake up at a normal time so that I could take Emmy for a walk and then fill my planters with soil. I was going to plant the seeds today, but decided to read up on how to do it first. It's a good thing too since I learned that the soil should be warm and herbs need to be between 60-65 degrees all the time. It's getting a little warmer here, but it's definitely not 60 degrees. I brought the planters into the house and have them sitting on a plastic sheet on the kitchen floor. I rearranged the kitchen so now we have some extra floor space. I'll talk about that later in the post. Anyway, so I was talking to Julie about my little herb experiment and she suggested putting them in the TV room where the heater is for the first week so that they can germinate. I'm going to try that and then put them in the guest room because I think that it is the sunniest room in the house and Emmy doesn't tend to go in there much. I'll move them into the TV room tonight and get planting. I'm excited! I think I might wait a little while for my flowers though. I'm going to have to see how the herbs go first.

I'm inspired by Julie a lot when it comes to domestic ventures and experiments. In her house she used to have this little beverage cart that she kept her coffee machine, grinder, and tea on. I thought that this was pretty neat, but when I looked around our little apartment I realized that we have no room for anymore furniture. After thinking about it for a while I decided that I could convert out kitchen table that acts as a flat coat rack into an alternative workspace. It is temporary now since I'm not sure if I really like all of my appliances on the other side of the little kitchen wall, but it sure frees up a lot of space on my counters. Since our roof leaks and has ruined a good number of my cookbooks, I had to move them to the other side of the counter. But then the other day I filled our Crock Pot (a treasure by the way) a little too high and it overflowed, thus ruining another one of my cookbooks. Now with this new set up, I can have my books away from anything wet at all! It might be a pain to have them all the way on the other side of the room, but I can only use one at a time anyway. I'll live. With the cookbooks in their new spot, I was able to move my flour and sugar pots to where the cookbooks used to be. Before they sat under the broken cabinet where the roof leaked. I was always in fear that nasty rain water would ruin all of my supplies. At the beginning of the year this happened. I had just filled the sugar jar and then it was filled with gross water. I was really upset. Now the problem is solved.

The new work space also allows me to have our bread machine out again. I just found this bulk foods website that sells wheat flour by the pound. I ordered 7 3/4 lbs of wheat flour and a pound of yeast so that we can start making wheat bread again. The cost of wheat flour in the grocery store is ridiculously high, so I'm very happy. Shipping was quite expensive, but it still comes out to be much cheaper than the grocery store. I also bought 5lbs of couscous. We LOVE couscous. Note: Also introduced to me by Julie.

I think that is about it with explanations. My Sunday night food prep is still going strong. Doing all of the work on one night and then just dumping the ingredients into the Crock Pot is so much easier than doing it every night.



Edward accidentally broke off our windowsill so he's putting it back on. I'm surprised that it didn't fall of sooner. I think it's better attached now than when we moved in. I joked that when we leave the landlords are going to be like "Gee, this place looks better than before they moved in".


Notice how warped the counter is from the leaky roof. So annoying.



I really like this little jar that I got from Juni's bridal shower. It makes me think of her whenever I see it so I like to put flowers in it. Whenever I plant those flower seeds I'm going to clip them off to put in this.

More pictures

Here are some more pictures from the last couple of days.


Okay cousins Ruby and Tater. You should come play with me now.










We've been doing this play thing with Emmy that makes her do this funny growl. She opens her mouth like she is going to bite us but never clamps down. It only hurts because we move our hands around and they knock against her teeth, but it's too cute of a noise to stop.

Videos!

Okay, so now that I've figured out how to upload videos, here are some from last winter that I'm not sure if you guys saw or not.











Hopefully I can find my charger soon so that I can take more up to date videos.

Pictures of Emmy update

I know that you guys have been asking for Emmy pics, but I can't find my camera charger. It's been missing since my last trip home so it's either there or here. When I find it I'll be able to post some more interesting pics. I took out my SLR, but it'll be harder for me to capture Emmy doing anything in action since it takes longer for me to get it out. I took a few tonight just so you can see her again. I have a difficult time getting her to look into this camera since it looks even more like a giant eye than my snapshot camera.












Here is a special treat that I found on my external. This is when we were at Glen Highland Farms checking out to see if our little girl was right for us. Obviously she was. Since I figured out how to compress my videos I can start posting them. Yay!



P.S. Today, March 11th, is Emmy's 2nd birthday! She is officially a toddler!

QuarterLife

Hi everyone! I just heard about this new show called QuarterLife. NBC just picked it up, but it was originally an internet series. The episodes are like 10-15 minutes long, but it's pretty good. It's about a girl who blogs (like that LonelyGirl chick on YouTube) and gets into the nitty gritty of her friends lives. You guys should check it out. It's the first internet series to be picked up by a major broadcast network.

Death or Evolution?

Hello everyone! Well I'm not so stressed anymore, but I still have a ton of reading to do. I'm posting one of my class blogs because I thought that you guys might think it was interesting. For years there has been the debate that the novel is dying. This article that I had to read is about the anxiety of obsolescence in terms of our beloved paper novel. I disagree completely, but you'll see that in the following class post.

Death or evolution?
Blog #9: Initial ideas on Three Discourses on the Age of Television

It’s evolution, evolution I say! I think that Barth says it perfectly in Fitzpatrick’s excerpt: “I’m inclined to agree, with reservations and hedges. Literal forms certainly have histories and historical contingencies, and it may well be that the novel’s time as a major art form is up, as the “times” of classical tragedy, grand opera, or the sonnet sequence came to be. No necessary cause for alarm in this at all, except perhaps to certain novelists, and one way to hand such a feeling might be to write a novel about it” (Fitzpatrick 23). After I read this I felt pretty good about my analysis on the claims about the death of the novel. I had written something similar, though not as eloquently, in the margins of my copy on page 20 when I first noticed the word “blame”. I wrote: “Why does there have to be blame? What if this is the ‘natural’ evolution of the novel? Like Global Warming could be natural… there is no way to disprove it.” Hah ha! That was me! Pretty smart huh? Anyway, let me explain my Global Warming analogy. Even though I’m just as prone to pinning horrible weather on Global Warming as the next person, I’m not so sure that Global Warming really exists. This is simply because there is no real PROOF that the emissions that this day and age emits to the atmosphere has the ultimate effect on the world. Since this has never happened before there is no way for scientists to prove or disprove that Global Warming really does exist. Yes, there are some ice caps that are rapidly melting, but then again there are other places where the ice is thicker than ever. How are we to know if this is just the way that the earth’s evolution is supposed to take place?
Likewise, since the novel is a relatively new form of literature, how do we know that the novel isn’t destined to follow the path of technology and economy? As we know, previously everything was printed on paper because that was what was available. Now the option of the internet has expanded the resources that the novel can use to expose itself. I think that in twenty years, maybe even less, Amazon.com’s Kindle will be in everyone’s bag like Blackberries and Ipods are right now. I mean seriously, why wouldn’t you want something that is the size of a mini legal pad. No matter how many pages the book that is uploaded into is, the Kindle will always be the same weight at 10.3 ounces. Okay, so Amazon isn’t paying me to advertise for them, but do you get my drift? I think that the “death” of the novel isn’t really a “death” but more of a growing spurt. The novel is becoming a teenager and what better way to celebrate its growth but with a new 4-level grayscale screen? I’m being slightly sarcastic here, but really, I think this technology is going to change the way people read—possibly even get people to read more. Like I sadly said in a previous post, Borders and Barnes & Nobel are going to become novelty stores.
Before you chew my head off about my claims on Global Warming, try to find me an actual scientific piece that isn’t influenced by the media that says that it actually exists. Like the novel, everyone wants to blame something or other. Why does there have to be blame? Can’t we accept that the earth/novel is changing, perhaps for the better. For the record, I do think that emissions are ruining the Ozone layer and ice caps are melting (among having other horrible effects on nature) because of it. There just isn’t any solid proof out there for me to shout from the roof tops “Damn you Global Warming!”.

School is canceled!

Current away message:

St. Rose is closed due to severe weather conditions. I'm jumping for joy. No hour and a half Renaissance presentation for me! Woo hoo! Now I have to finish reading a book for tomorrow's class.


I am so happy! My friend Cassie and I put together our outline for the presentation tonight, but the campus is closed starting at 2:30pm. I think this means that we'll share a presentation day with someone else and maybe it won't have to be so long! Yippee! Anyways, I have high hopes for today. I want to finish The Member of the Wedding for my Southern Women Lit class so that I can have my discussion board submission up by 2pm. Hopefully I can at least get the post up. The book isn't that good. Then I want to attempt some writing, but I have some reading to catch up on so we'll have to see.

Biting off more than I can chew?

Here is my first paragraph/intro/thesis statement to the midterm I just finished.

The notion of love at first sight is a reoccurring theme in many of William Shakespeare’s works. Creating worlds teeming with naïve youth and scheming villains, Shakespeare skillfully sets his characters up to fall madly in love as soon as their eyes meet. My critical analysis will consist of the deconstruction of romantic love and the objectification of the female counterparts via the institutional love within the realm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Othello the Moor of Venice. Here, I will look closely at the relationship between the two sets of lovers and expose the use of love as a method of belittling the female.

This essay has to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words. By the end of my first draft I ended up with 1,820. Looks like I have some trimming to do. Perhaps the topic that I chose to write on is more than can fit in a three to four paged essay. NOTE: Mine is three pages single spaced. Love is a big thing in the world of literature and can't be thrown out there on four sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of crisp white copy paper. People write entire dissertations on this stuff and I'm trying to cut it down to 1,500 word midterm paper. The fact that it is a midterm and not even a final paper is a little disconcerting for the loaded notion of LOVE. So the big question is: am I butchering/disgracing the realm of institutional love or is everyone else completely nuts?



My current away message says:

Yay! I finished my midterm! Now onto:

1. Writing 576 blog
2. Posting 2 comments on other 576 blogs
3. Preparing this weeks dinners
4. Finish reading the last 400 pages of Spacial Topics in Calamity Physics
5. Finish reading dryer than dry Eudora Welty stories
6. Start reading The Member of the Wedding
7. Post initial response to The Member of the Wedding
8. Prepare hour and a half presentation
9. Read all secondary criticism assigned
10. Regain my sanity

...This is the life of an english major

I think I'd make a good mom...

I think that I'd make a good mom just because I'd read to my children. No, this isn't me telling you all I'm having a baby. I realized that I read A LOT to Emmy. She is probably one of the best versed doggies around. From Eudora Welty to JK Rowling, she's heard a little bit of pretty much everything that I've read since we got her. It started on the first day that we got her. She was pretty freaked out so I read her The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian. I figured that her mommy's voice would sooth her. Now when I read to her she completely flattens out and falls asleep. Even her cousin Sweet Potato Pie relaxed (well he's always relaxed) when I read to him. They fell asleep together to John Katz's A Good Dog. So purely on the basis of my reading aloud to my little dog-ter (daughter), I'd make an excellent mom. Maybe this is why she's so smart!

I went to bed last night at 5 30AM so this thought popped up out of my delirium. I haven't even finished all of the reading I've been assigned. I pulled a Hermione and read/wrote for seven hours straight and I'm still not done. Aiya.

Blog from class

Here is my newest blog for my Information Age class. I thought you might think it was interesting because I talked about how I got into HP Fan Fiction.

Blog #5: Wrap up ideas on Convergence Culture

Ah, well, we didn’t get to talk much about fan fiction, but that might have been a good thing for you guys.  I can go on and on about it.  Let me start by telling you how I started writing HP fan fiction.  I was in the summer of my sophomore year at UC Riverside and my apartment-mate and I were not speaking.  Thank goodness we had separate rooms.  Needless to say, we didn’t spend much time in the living room.  After surfing the net for things related to HP, I came across HarryPotterFanFiction.com.  This intrigued me and I began reading stories.  At the time I didn’t really care what I read as long as it was a Draco/Hermione romance and would look at every single post there was.  (I liked this pair because I knew that it could NEVER happen—Jo said it herself…and yes, Jo and I are on a first name basis.) 
Many times there would be a truly awful story where people would “flame” at the writers.  In these cases I usually responded with something positive to say even if I thought that the story was a load of crap.  I figured that they were young girls trying their hand at writing.  Seeing posts like “This story sucked” and “You shouldn’t be a writer” were not going to help motivate these writers. That was no way to encourage people to write.  Obviously, I didn’t have the authority to delete these responses before the writers saw them so I felt that I had to do something. So being the nice girl I am (har-har) I would try to encourage them. 
Like many fans, I truly wished that the wizarding world existed…still do actually.  But since I knew that it didn’t (I’m not that crazy) I began to pretend I was one of the characters.  I had just listened to the fourth HP audio book during my daily attempts to exercise and became even more engrossed with the world.  After a while I tried to make myself think more like Hermione.  I wanted to adopt her study habits and persistence.  If it wasn’t for her character, I don’t think that I would have ever passed Statistical Psychology.  So, during the day I’d go to my summer class for an hour and then sit in my room studying for five.  In the evening I’d let myself unwind and read fan fiction.  Somewhere along the way I decided that I wanted to start writing myself.  I think that I lurked for a good month and a half before that idea popped into my head. I could write something myself instead of criticizing others.  And so I did.  By the end of the summer I had 25 chapters of fiction-fiction. 
Now, when I go back to this story I think to myself, “What was I thinking?”  The grammar and style is horrible and my tenses shifts like the San Andreas Fault; I’ve thought of going back to edit my story, but didn’t really see a point.  I’m out of the loop now and if I’m going to write, I want to write something that is my own.  I can’t speak for all fan fiction writers, but in the back of your head you know that you can never pursue paid publication with these works.  We’re merely playing with someone else’s fantasies and dreams. 
I guess to wrap it up, Fan fiction is a good starting point for beginning writers.  I don’t think that I would have thought that I could be anything close to a writer if I hadn’t discovered fan fiction.  I would probably still be struggling to get my degree in psychology and be miserable if I hadn’t started writing.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that HP saved my life, but it definitely has prevented many fits of crying and frustration. 
As for the book burnings and banning, I can’t stand to think about it for more than two minutes.  It gets me so upset that I stutter even more than usual and can’t get my thoughts straight.  We aren’t living in the land of Fahrenheit 451,, people.  I would just love to force these people to read the books before they torch them.  What is the most infuriating about the whole situation is that in most of the instances the people haven’t even read the books!  Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. 
Anyway, HP has helped people become more creative all together.  Here is a link to a group of people who put on Potter Puppets.  This cheers me up whenever I see it and I’ve been known to go around singing this song.  Poor Beth has already had to see this, but it’s fun to watch if you’re into the fandom.  Potter Puppets

Hello hello!

Well, we've been back in Troy for a couple of weeks now and it's back to the same old-same old. I think that those ten pounds I put on during the break are gone again. I've been good about making dinner with the Crock Pot so that we don't go out so much, but we don't really have time during the day to eat much. I wake up so late that I have my coffee and then I'm not hungry until I'm at work. After that I don't come back until after class around 9pm. That's when we get to eat. So one meal a day and plenty of caffeine and sugar is keeping me afloat. Ed usually takes the left overs since he needs more to eat than I do.

Anyways, my eyes are already bugging out because of all of the reading I have to do. So far I've read five books in the two weeks I've been in class. Since I'm taking all Lit classes this semester I had to buy 29 books and post five blogs/discussion boards per week. It's a pain and A LOT more work than I'd really like to be doing. Ah, but that's the life of a grad student, right? This week I have to read a book and make a presentation by Thursday. I see lots of late nights in the near future. I'm trying to get my internal clock back on schedule. I've been going to bed around 4am and waking up at like 1pm. Today I woke up at 11am, which is nearly miracle. Hopefully I'll be so tired tonight that I can go to bed at a semi-normal time.

I think that's all for now. The Roomba is absolutely amazing. Ed and I are very impressed by the work that it does. It runs every night and it still manages to pick up dirt, dust, and fur. It does 100% of a better job than I do since I hate vacuuming. So with the Crock Pot doing my cooking and the Roomba doing some cleaning, all I need now is a machine to dust and I'm all set. Since I do all the prep for our weeks dinners on Sunday night I haven't had to do too much work. Ed has been helping out a lot more now, which makes me a lot happier. Maybe it's because he sees all of the reading that I have to do on my white board. Hehe, well whatever it is, I'm glad that he's helping out around the house more.

He's started to play inter-mural ice hockey on a team full of freshmen. It's funny and pretty frustrating because they all know what they're supposed to be doing, but none of them can ice skate well enough to get to their positions. Ah, well. They'll get better and I'll continue to be the obnoxious girlfriend in the stands cheering them on. Toodles!

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm back in lovely Troy, NY. (I'm being sarcastic.) Anyways, one of my classes has started a blog thing so that we can post twice a week. I didn't give them this blog since you all read it and I figured you wouldn't want to hear every post I have about books that you haven't read. I figured I'd only post the class entries if they seemed remotely interesting. So as our first entry we had to talk about ourselves as reader. Hopefully the professor doesn't get mad because I totally forgot to post it last night. oops. I attached and apology and will understand if I don't get credit for this post. (Mommy, don't get mad.) Anyways, here's the post.

Blog #1: Characterize yourself as a reader of literature and as a reader in the information age.

I think that I am a below average reader in terms of speed and efficiency. Unlike my peers, I find that I read at a rate that puts me in line with a tortoise. I am a slow-mo type of reader when I think about it. I like to take my time and read every word, to the amazement of my friends. In high school my boyfriend told me to just read the important words and not worry about the little words like “a” and “the”. “Filler” words he called them. I tried this tactic, but was unable to understand what the text was trying to tell me. In essence, it took me even more time to read because I had to go back and figure out what it all meant!
Though I am a slow reader, I’m glad that I still do it. I have heard some of my friends say that they do not like to read because they are too slow at it or do not understand it. When I hear this, I think of myself and my “struggles” with time efficient reading, but feel proud of myself for plugging through it. After Tuesday’s class, I no longer will say that I love to read, but rather that I highly enjoy it. Unlike Josh, I do not enjoy reading anything that I can get my hands on. Though this is to my disadvantage, I will take what I can get. I can only wish, and maybe through enough wishing, I will be more like him and be able to pick up a Java book and read it cover to cover with pleasure.
As it is, I find that I enjoy young adult fiction the most. The carefree nature of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Princess Diaries make reading leisurely and fun for me. (Plus, since the reading is so easy I can read through a book in a day and feel good about my reading abilities.) Please do not get me wrong, I have read some adult fiction as well, but mostly books of a fantastical nature. I like to escape from my hum-drum world of school, work and missing home. Stories like Wicked by Gregory Maguire are among some of my favorites. I cannot say that I like all of his work. I got through half of his Cinderella story entitled The Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister but did not enjoy it. I was a little let down at the quality of the writing. Wicked posed some hefty questions of religion and prejudice, which I found pleasing to reflect on, where as I found no such writing in the latter piece.
Asian and African American literature are also areas I enjoy exploring. I figured since I am Chinese, my interest in Asian American literature stems from there. I like to read, even if it is fiction, about Asian families and their histories. There has to be little fragments of truth in there, right? I connect with the stories well, and they make me think of home. As for African American Lit., I am not exactly sure why I am so attracted to it. I particularly like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I have not read any of Morrison’s other works, but they are on my list of books that I intend to read before I die.
I also am nothing short of obsessed with the Harry Potter series. I find the series utterly fascinating and can occasionally be heard muttering spells while in traffic or cleaning the bathroom. Harry Potter has lead me into a universe that is outside of my own. I have found that FanFiction has become a suitable outlet during the down time of book releases and now, the end of the series. I first started reading within this fandom one summer in my undergrad when my roommate and I were having a horrid fight and not speaking to one another. This lead to studying for five hours and reading FanFiction late into the hot, desert nights. As many will say, reading leads to writing, and that is what happened with me. At the time I was using my trusty desktop computer, but once I got my laptop I began to “cuddle” with it on top (not in) of my bed. Late into the night, my laptop and I would delve into the teenaged girl’s mind and fantasize about being in the wizarding world. I say teenaged girl because most of what I read sounded VERY much like a teenaged girl’s writing. In this case, I would read anything that I could find. As of late, I have been much more picky about my reading, which has made the hobby become a task.
Reading and writing of FanFictihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifon is not something that I have openly admitted to any class before, but as it is out there, I’ll see it through to the end. “I am Allison Chin, and I write smutty Harry Potter fan fiction.”

A/N: I apologize for the tardiness of this blog entry. To be honest, I totally forgot about it until I saw the “pinkish orangish” syllabus sticking out of my folder. Also, sorry for my wordiness. Those of you who have had me in a class before know that I tend to ramble on more than I need to.


P.S. If anyone is really interested in reading the other blog, I've given them my old Xanga blog.

That's all for now. Emmy is doing fine, but we've noticed that she isn't as energetic here as she was in CA. She's been sleeping a lot more than usual. I think that she misses home as much as we do.