strange garments

So for my 3D design class we just finished our cardboard abstract art project (mine was expressing the word argument) and now we are assigned to make an outfit or clothing item out of some sort of unusual material. I'm so excited about this project. Some examples in class were out of tires, or silk flowers, or soda cans, or nails, or basically anything. Last year I made a dress out of duct tape for a contest at our school and that took forever but was still tons of fun. This time I'm thinking straws. I bought a whole bunch at k-mart and I spent 5 hours tonight tying them together with fishing line, but I haven't even made a dent in the possibilities or come close to completion of the ensemble. I envision many long hours working on this project, but I think it will be worth it.

Here are pics of my duct tape thing from last year, it's been in a box for a while now so it’s not a spectacular as it once was-aka large creases from folding. You'll just have to be happy with photos of the shoes and gloves/mask only. The whole outfit also has a head piece, arm band, mermaid-like skirt, a strapless top, a necklace, and of course what you see in those photos. Ha. Now that I think about it, guess what I named my duct tape outfit? Yep, that's right, Moonlight Masquerade, hence the name of this. Wow, I amaze myself at times. Ha.

NEW YORK BABY!!!!

Yeah, NEW YORK BABY!! So we pick the two days in the whole year that a freak blizzard hits New York to go visit. Our spring break consisted of temperatures that were way below freezing. While we we looking at the statue of liberty the snow was painfully pelting our faces and the wind about knocked us over. Not to mention it wasn't the greatest picture taking weather either. I think we may have been cursed or something. We neither got onto the taping of Regis and Kelly or Conan O'Brien which was sooooooooooo disappointing. Also the swing dance club we had reservations for was closed due to their heater breaking. Nonetheless we still had fun. I had my moment of being angry/depressed (and I apologize guys) but thanks for making our trip fun anyway. I rode a subway for the first time in my life and hence I am happy that I have my good ole car to haul me around. If katie and tami hand't caught me the one time I almost fell over into someone's lap, I think I may have been shot. We were on the 12th floor of a hotel right by times square which was a nice spot. We browsed around the huge, might I add, Metropolitain Museum of Art. We ate at Planet Hollywood on Wednesday and probably the highlight of my trip was seeing the Jean Claude and Christo gates. Emily and I almost slipped on the ice with excitement when we saw they weren't taken down yet. We had assumed they took them down right before we got there but when we saw the billowing orange cloth in the distance we started screeching with delight. NY was tons of fun even if it didn't turn out as planned. Here are some pics of our fun.

Mike was amongst us four girls. He was a great sport and actually survived with nothing more than a few frost bitten toes:)

I wan't kidding when I said the snow was pelting our faces. I've never been in a snow storm quite like this before. It was all I could do to face the wind to take the picture.

Yay, the celebrated gates! Let me know if you want to see the rest of my pictures of them. (Note my new profile pic)

This is in the lobby of our nice hotel. I think it's a painting of the highlights of NYC.

Here we have my friends gawking/gazing/ohhing and ahhing/looking at/admiring/viewing/apreciating some modern painting at the MET that no one knows what it is supposed to be. Actually Mike is probably trying to explain it to the everyone else.

Finally the nightscape of NY. All the ads and lights and such. Too bad photos can't convey the cold. I'm telling you, it was unbelievable.
I'll probably put up some more photos later from our trip so keep checking back.

blister fingers

I hit some golf balls with Dan today at the range and now my fingers hurt. I've got some nasty blisters because I forgot to put on my glove until I was 3/4 done with the bucket. Catching up with Dan was pretty cool, but man, my golfing is ugly. I haven't swung a club since new year's day. I have to get into the groove here before summer comes. Right now I'm working on my golf camp brochures to give out, since I will be coaching 2 different weeks. I can't wait, especially since I love kids. Finally-- tonight we leave at a 2:30 in the morning, so watch out NYC, here we come.

Phantom

So today is Sunday. High school friends are also home on spring break so I get to hang out with them. Funess! Today I'm going to watch Troy at Emily W's house. We can talk girlie talk and hang out. I'm so excited to get caught up. Yesterday we had a pow wow at my house. The Phantom of the Opera sound track rocked, you guys!
Note for those of you who don't know. The phatom's mask changes during the movie as his emotions change. Isn't that cool? I find that fasinating. Also in the book he was much more evil and dark, and you didn't really feel sympathy for him. In the broadway and movie version you actually wanted him to win the affection of others. I think I like the nicer image of him. It gives the story less depth, but in some ways it is more satisfying.

BBC quiz

Ha, so I stole my favorite questions from this quiz at the BBC news website. See if you know the answers. (This stuff really did happen) I got 5 right out of 7, but I only put 4 questions on here.
The answers are at the bottom of this post.

Question 1
What began this week and ends on 2 August 2012?

A: The return voyage of the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn to earth
B: A new cycle of the study of the Talmud, a Jewish holy text that takes more than seven years to read
C: A scientific study to ascertain whether the so-called "seven-year itch” – the point at which partners are said to tire of their marriage - has any basis in fact


Question 2
In a controversial case in Bangladesh this week, four babies aged between three months and two years old were put on trial. But what were they accused of?

A: Fraud
B: Criminal damage and looting
C: Burglary


Question 3
This week, a US food company was forced to halt production of a new range of sweets, after being threatened with a boycott. Why were the sweets controversial?

A: They came in a range of meat flavours including beef and bacon
B: They were found by a consumer magazine to contain a record number of artificial colours and flavourings
C: They were shaped to look like animals killed on the road


Question 4
Why are Indian scientists maintaining a colony of 500 fat rats weighing 1kg or more?

A: The rats have sensitive noses, and could be trained to replace police sniffer dogs
B: The scientists are hoping to identify a gene that leads to obesity
C: The rats fur is especially fine, and can be used to make clothing for astronauts


Answers
1:B Jews read one page of the Talmud each day. The book of rabbinical laws and commentary has 2,711 pages, and takes seven years and five months to complete. One cycle finished this week and thousands of followers promptly returned to page one again.
2:B The court eventually dropped the case and suspended four police officers over the case, which highlighted the widespread practice of filing false complaints to harass people.
3:C The US food giant company Kraft decided to halt production of the sweets shaped like flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels after after animal rights activists said the sweets encouraged cruelty to animals, and threatened a boycott.
4:B

Mosaic Floor

Today seemed like Saturday all day long since I had nooooooo classes. Ah, the life, it was wonderful. I have made it my goal that before break is over I should be at least half done refinishing my bathroom floor. We ripped out the old linolium and bought a huge container of broken tiles and blue colored grout. I am going to do a mosaic with all the pieces. Unfortunatley it is a lot more work than I expected. First you gotta lay out all the tiles where you want them and then pick them up and mix the cement stuff, then smooth it down and then put the tiles back, stick caulking between them, wipe off the extra gunk, and finally seal it with glaze stuff. It seems like there are a million steps, plus I'm afraid I'll mess it up and then not be able to fix it. Even still this project is exciting; I can't wait to see it once it is done. When I'm done I'll do a before and after picture to show you the transformation.

The ever elusive purse with a long strap

So today was the last day before spring break. Time goes by much slower when you are conscious of it. Every 5 minutes I would check my watch to see if class was over yet. Finally I can be carefree, finally we are that much closer to going to NYC. We are going to have so much fun. I got an email today confirming our reservations at swing46, this jazz dance club with live music and dinner. They say you have to dress up to go and it seems like a very stylish classy place. Later on I'll have to put up some pictures of our trip. I just can't wait, although I must find a cute black purse before we leave. No one wants to walk around New York looking out of place. You have no idea how hard it is to find a purse with a long enough strap to put around your neck these days. They just don't make any cool ones like that anymore. The long-strap ones are limited to momma purses or suitcase sized ones and I definitely don't wanna carry a momma purse! Oh, the worries of being a girl. Feel lucky boys, you can shove everything important you own in a wallet and in your back pocket. Plus you can't leave anything in your pocket behind like I tend to have the habit of forgetting my purse at places, and then have to back track my steps and hope the world is a good place without theives and robbers who may see a lonely purse and help themselves to all the good stuff in there like makeup and tissues, right? Although on the bright side purse shopping CAN be fun, but usually I find things when I don't need them, but when I really search for something it stresses me out and can't be found. I've concluded that shopping plays games with your mind. Resist the temptation... or not, and go shopping anyway in order to find things you weren't really looking for in the first place.

(On a side note: like *ahem* pretty brown boots that friends trick you into buying that you really don't NEED.)

There is such a thing as a free lunch

Kristin and I went to talk the professor of this new honors class that we want to take next semester. I am so excited about it. Not only do we get 3 credits for planning our own non-profit organization, but I can imagine its pretty hard not to get an A in a class you design yourself. We'd be organizing the gathering and sending of textbooks to schools in the Phillipines that don't get much funding. How awesome is that? The fact that it is a class, but yet I could see myself doing on my own time is just too cool. Plus we got free lunch just for showing up. Nothing says thanks for meeting with me like grilled cheese and green tea.