Let's Start Over

Hey friends, I realize that I haven't posted in approximately 11 years. I'm home now- I LOVE HOME.
Here are some reasons I love home:

1. You don't have to eat during designated meal times

2. Mom's food is better than school food

3. I can eat meat at home! 

4. My bed is a cloud.

(see below)

5. Thomas, my car, is just waiting to be driven.

(Thomas may or may not have a flat in this picture..as per usual)

6. I can take showers without wearing flipflops- and the temperature of the water stays the same...the whole time!!

7. No homework, just friends and family all the time!

This was during Thanksgiving Break, but it's a great picture. I love my fam!

By the way, I am completely aware that almost half of those reasons have to do with food.

To explain: my cloud bed refers to the fact that I have a 3 inch memory foam mattress topper covered by huge white downy comforter, 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, and like 2,000 pillows. By 2,000 I mean 7. It's fine. 

When I googled cloud bed, this is what came up. This is nothing like my cloud-bed and does not even remotely comparable to the comfort of mine. Mod furniture= over-rated. 

All in all, home is awesome. Stay tuned for a holiday activities post!

Throwin' some pots, no big deal.

Hi. Well, I recently started attending a pottery class on Thursday nights. It's 2 hours long so you can get some serious work done. You all should be expecting pots for Christmas (sorry for blowing the whole surprise aspect of the holiday).

THROWING IS HARD.
Let me tell you why:

1. You have to do this "centering" thing. You throw your clay down and then you basically have to get it to settle the heck down. (see above cartoon)

This entails bracing your elbow on your hip and then leaning your body weight into the clay that is near to spiraling out of control.

You're constantly re-wetting your hands because  the clay gets stuck to your hands and starts ripping clay off your mound.

Sometimes when I'm desperate I close my eyes and I have this idea that if I just think really hard the clay will be scared into submission by the intensity of my mental powers. This tactic has yet to work.

I was trying to find photos of people centering on google images but I decided not to pick one of a person because none of them seemed to exhibit the frustration, that in my mind, is paired with centering.

These were my pots after the first class:

These were my pots after the second class:

Whoever gets the one on the bottom left is a lucky relative!

Despite how difficult centering is, I look forward to Thursdays just because of how relaxing and stress relieving class is. It's amazing that even when I am focusing so hard on a pot, I'm also in deep thought about other things. Great truths have been revealed to me thus far. Well, maybe just truths- I'm not sure if they qualify as "great" truths yet, but I'm sure they're coming. Regardless, when I throw I slip into this meditative/prayer land.

Did anyone notice that under "Throwing is hard" I attempted to make a list and only made it passed number 1? WAY TO GO EMMA.

Anyways, before I end this post I want to direct your attention to a new feature of my blog. On my sidebar you will find "Emma's Nutrition Fact of the Week." Very exciting, I know!

HUGE Blog Update

First of all, I apologize for not blogging in 2 or so weeks but I had a sudden surge of exams and various other meetings.

Fun things that happened recently:
1.Halloween at Penn State (aren't those girls freezing?)
2.Pottery Class
3. Michigan (not state) vs. Penn[CHAMPIONS]State Game

*I will eventually get to all of these during this next week. But since today is officially Halloween I'll blog about....

 HALLOWEEKEND

 

Corny font changes, I know. But I couldn't resist. Anyways, I did my best to not confirm to the wear-no-clothes themed halloweens here. Girls really hang on to that quote from mean girls: 

 Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it

If you're wondering what I was-I was a Sudoku puzzle. And the shirt took me 2 hours to make. I was very proud of my creation.

This was post-halloween party too. So as you can see, I was partially solved! It was fun, except for I had to stand really still while everyone tried to fill me in. If you know me at all, you know this is nearing impossible for me. Also, I urge you to notice the japanese writing on the left sleeve. It means Sudoku. I WROTE IT. I'M A CHAMP.

Okay moving on...

This is what most girls wore: 

 

Well. This is from Mean Girls. But you get the idea. It was also 36 degrees on Friday night when a lot of Halloween parties were happening. 36 DEGREES FARENHEIT. 

A few of them had on their "Frackets " that provided about an eighth of a degree more warmth, but even baby steps to practicality are commendable here at Penn State. 

On a brighter note, here were my favorite halloween costumes (and by favorite I actually do mean favorite. I'm trying to move away from the sarcasm just a bit).

1. "Boobie" (Bee costume + "BOO" on shirt)
2. Sandy from the end of Grease
3. Some guy wore a kilt with no shirt. 
4. Guy dressed as a nun
5. Chilean Miner (too soon?)

There were others, too. A lot that I had heard about but not actually seen. Someone was a hamster, a fully costumed-mascot-like duck, a lot of girls were Lady Gaga. A guy dressed up as an Olsen twin.

If any of you are interested (I know you are) in what Marc was for Halloween. He was Michael Cera. He wore gold shorts and a red hoodie like Cera did in Juno. Check out this Dopplganger:

Hey der, Bleeker.

Well, I don't know if any of you have blogged before and understand just how long it takes to write a single paragraph-but I just spent approximately an hour and a half on this. Have an awesome Sunday!

BEN FOLDS 15

WARNING: This post may be dangerously long. 

Let's kick off this post with an awesome new video/song on Ben's new album with Hornby.

 

yeah. he's pretty frickin' awesome. 

So I went home on Thursday to spend the night at the house with Ian when the parents were out of the house and to be his personal cheuffer. We planned some bonding....Ben bonding.

  And we had a fabulous time. 

Basically our mission was to create a "Best of Ben" CD. We chose our songs based on the following goals.

1.Show every aspect of Ben possible to create a true "Ben experience"

2. To be able to hand a novice Ben listener this CD to get them hooked on his genius-ness

3. Satisfy all the different types of Ben listeners (that's why it took 3 people and 3 hours to put this together)

4. Include a mix of Five stuff and solo Ben stuff

So what was fair game? All Five stuff, all E.P. stuff, all the albums (including Hornby), but no Shatner or a cappella jawn. We came together with our lists already made. Voted, discussed, switched some stuff around, geeked out, and then repeated the process.

MY LIST:

Effington/Jackson cannery/Army/Narcolepsy/Jesusland/Rockin the suburbs/Saskia Hamilton/Kate/Errant Dog/One angry dwarf and 2000 solemn faces/The bitch went nuts/The Luckiest/Trusted/Protection

  


  

HENRY'S LIST:
There’s always someone cooler than you/Landed/Give Judy my notice/Annie waits/Trusted/Dr. yang/Battle of who could care less/Doc Pomus/From above/Ascent of Stan/Free coffee/Magic/Cologne/Late

  





 

IAN'S LIST:
Effington/Bastard/Jesusland/Rockin the Suburbs/Mess/Narcolepsy/Doc Pomus/The Luckiest/Magic/Not the same/Evaporated/Late/Army/Philosophy

BEN FOLDS 15

1. Saskia Hamilton
2. Effington
3. Trusted
4. Cologne
5. From Above
6. Narcolepsy
7. Rockin the Suburbs
8. Brick
9. Doc Pomus
10. Not the Same
11. Jesusland
12. Zak and Sara
13. Late
14. Army
15. The Luckiest 

It's funny that I haven't even begun the bulk of my post yet. Below are some snippets from the conversations that happened while trying to formulate this awesome compilation. Well, mostly remarks that Ian made.

I was shocked that no one else had Saskia on their list. I quote:

Emma: HOW DO YOU NOT ALL HAVE SASKIA ON YOUR LISTS!?

Ian: It feels very anthemy.

This is definitely happening -->Ian: You what what would be fun? If we did this regularly. Pick, say, four artists that all share a similar sound and work on a mix tape.

Ian: the piano playing on narcolepsy is what blows me away. I can’t play it like he  can play it. He has the perfect hand balance throughout the whole song. It’s a really strong song. The lyrics are amazing once you can  make them out.

Ian: You don't understand, Marc, this is a labor of love.

Marc: Oh, I get it, it would take me this long to do Bruce songs.

Ian: We love Ben as much as he loves Bruce Springsteen.

Enough of Ian's smithy remarks. Below is how the bulk of the two hours really went. If you are fellow Ben fan, you may find this interesting! If not, listen to our playlist and then you will find it interesting.

10 songs overlapped and then we had 4 more to choose. A lot more single stuff, so we needed more Five. But we felt that his true artistry came through in his solo stuff. Even though his Five stuff was awesome, we primarily rocked out to it rather than appreciating how well written it was. We agreed that exceptions to this are songs like brick and evaporated.

Speaking of Evaporated, Ian really defended Evaporated right up until we were about to figure out the order of the final disc. Then he had a turn around. We added in “From Above” instead. The sounds of from above weren’t like evaporated at all, but the lyrics were comparable.

One of Henry's picks was There’s always someone cooler than you, a very Foldsy song. This angered Ian and I because we still don't have Sunny 16, the E.P. We felt like Fail Folds Fans. We hung our heads as we listened to how awesome the song was.

We all agreed that You Don’t Know Me was a good idea to not put on the compilation because it was far more Regina-influenced than Ben influenced. You Don’t Know Me also became extremely popular amongst non-Ben listeners, (and excuse me if this is too uppity of me) which was an indication that it wasn’t the essence of Ben. It dabbled into pop a bit. It didn’t belong on our list, even though we too enjoy its beat and general cool feel.

This kind of talk led us to an in-depth analysis of the distinguishing traits of each album.We decided that Rockin the Suburbs album (a really tight album, by the way) was truly a transitional album from his Five stuff to where he ended up next: Songs for Silverman.

Songs for Silverman was the album that every serious artist has where they lock themselves in a closet with their chosen instrument (guitar, piano) and comes up with bottom of their heart stuff.  Ian called it a “greater experience of Ben.”

With Way to Normal he started trying new things which is why we got such a unique experience of every song. Compare Hiroshima Cologne and You don’t know me. Crazy differences. 

And then we all agreed that while this new Hornby album is essentially just another awesome Ben album, the writing was definitely the highlight. 

 
Henry pointed out that Ben is a very different writer than Hornby. Ben’s writing tends to have stories within the verses to make up a message. For example, the Luckiest. A different expression or story of love is in each verse and they aren’t necessarily continuations of each other. However if Hornby had written it, the luckiest would have been a story of two people from birth to death and probably equally as powerful.

 

Okay back to songs: We all agreed that Not the Same was classy. Instant winner. I felt ashamed that it wasn't on my own list.

Henry chose Cologne over the Luckiest. He felt very strongly about it being on the final list. It “stirred emotions in me,” he said.

I admit I was on the fence about Rockin the Suburbs. Too much hype about the song maybe. My favorite remark that I’ve ever read about Rockin the Suburbs was that it showed that Ben completely embraced his whiteness. He is incredibly white. 

But we thought that if we were selling this to the public people would be like “where the heck is Rockin' the Suburbs?” 

 



And then we all realized we didn’t have Brick. And then we freaked out. We all assumed everyone else would have it. We took Magic off the list and added Brick in instead. We all then realized that we just liked magic because University of Chicago a cappella choir knocked it out of the park and we weren’t  going to count a capella stuff. Henry said that he just liked the timpani “bum bum” at the beginning.

The thing about Brick is that it makes you think. It took me 3.5 years to figure just the concept out and then Ian said he is still figuring things out. It makes you keep listening to it.

Once we realized that we didn’t have Zak and Sara (just like we realized we didn’t have brick), we decided to add a track, allowing the title to become Ben Folds 15. And then got mad because this was too hard and that really we needed two discs.

Just look at him. He's adorable.

 

Well. There is a lot I left  out, but you can tell we are Ben enthusiasts. And that we wish we were on All Songs Considered. Wouldn't that be the ultimate dream job!?

That's all. Long post ending now.

ps. I'm seeing Ben Folds in less than a month! The count down begins...

FOOD.

  EXHIBIT A

EXHIBIT B

There are severely average cafeterias that serve primarily thin crust greasy pizza and ice berg lettuce (see exhibit A), and then there are "I can't believe I'm only paying 4 dollars for this" cafeterias that serve salmon with pesto sauce and tossed grilled zuchinis and onions (see exhibit B). Actually, there is only ONE cafeteria that serves these glorious polyunsaturated, fiber rich, 9 essential amino acid fulfilling foods. This haven is Simmons Dining Hall.

And it's in my building.

Here is an example Menu. The blue Ms mean meatless. The green Vs mean Vegan. LOOK HOW MANY THERE ARE!

 

As you can probably tell. I'm a huge fan of Simmons. Its safe because you really cant mess up unless you engulf all the desserts or o.d. on ketchup. Also, what you can't gather from this menu is their extremely extensive salad bar, 6 soup selection, whole grain baguettes and homemade hummus, organic peanut butter and Smart-Balance butter. I repeat: this is no ordinary cafeteria. 

Here are some of my favorite parts of Simmons:

Something cool about Simmons is that they have water tanks that they cut up fruit in and they soak there ALL day. So essentially, your water is naturally flavored. They usually have orange, lemon, lime and either grapefruit or cucumber. My favorites are orange and lemon, but I have to say, the cucumber is surprisingly good


Also. While you can't see the names of the cereals, all of these cereals are low in sugar and are primarily made by Kashi. KASHI! While my father might snicker, this is great in mom and I's eyes. I don't usually eat breakfast in the dining hall (I have my own Kashi cereal in my room), I still hit this up before a big morning exam or if I didn't get a chance to inhale a Fiber-One pop-tart before my early Bio class.

 

This is what my dinner looked like a couple nights ago.

I was a happy camper that night.

Happy eating, all!

Napping

During high school, I would nap on the the occasional rainy Sunday afternoon. All naps were out of pure sleep deprivation. In college, this has changed. I think I nap now out of a need for more brain power. And thus the development of my new power nap skills.

STEPS TO THE PERFECT POWER NAP

1. Set alarm clock for t minus 20 minutes                                     

 2. If mid-day, put on night mask thinger

3. lay down facing away from window, one arm up covering face, enter REM cycle

4. Wake up promptly 20 minutes later and continue studying.

Power naps are very important. Otherwise, ill-timed naps may occur...

Okay. So maybe Billy wasn't actually falling asleep at the football game. But its adorable right?

The alarm-clock step to a power nap is very important as well. Otherwise, something that Urban Dictionary calls "Unprotected sleep" may occur. Emily and I found this on her urban dictionary calendar and it was immediately added to the urban dictionary bulletin board of fame collection.

I also want to say that being a pro-napper is key to being a good college student. I recommend the power nap for all types of studiers.

However, on the weekends my naps turn into more of another night of sleep. For example, while Marc was watching the ND game yesterday, I fell asleep in that really cushy, reclining chair he has in his living room. My nap lasted approximately 2 hours, as did my post-brunch Sunday afternoon nap that I had today.

Also- when you drift off to sleep, I learned in psych class that your eyes start to slowly roll back and forth as you relax. Try not to think about this as you drift off to sleep, it makes it impossible to actually fall asleep because you are mesmerized by how your eyes actually move when you're sleeping. SO WEIRD.

That is all.

Y'all Ready for Some THONvelopes?

Exciting news--I've recently been accepted by the OPP committee of THON!

First of all, I'm essentially bouncing off the walls in anticipation of THON and everything that comes with it. Not only am I committee member, but I'm also an active member of Springfield, an independent organization whose only purpose is to raise money for THON. If you don't know what THON exactly is, or even if you do, check out the link below.

THON 2011 Promo

These are the 10 dancers that were chosen to represent Springfield during THON weekend. It's very competitive to be selected as a dancer. 10 dancers is the maximum amount that an organization can have representing them at once. That's because Springfield is awesome at fund-raising!

There's a joke at Penn State (except it's true), that there are two seasons: football season, and THON season. If there is one thing that Penn State students can put their beers, shots, and keg stands away for it's THON. There is utmost respect for the cause and the kids. Watching the school rally around such a cause that is so close to every one's heart is incredibly inspirational and it attests to the goodness inside every one's heart that we may not get to see every day.

Watching videos like the one above makes me cry out of inspiration and the thought that THON is making each child's day on a daily basis. I know this because Springfield has 3 THON families that we correspond with, and all of the kids say that Springfielders are their heroes and source of strength during their battle with pediatric cancer (in kid language, of course!). 

 The picture above is of some of the committee that I am on helping to remove a platform from the dance floor during THON weekend. People are totally wrong when they think of us as only the clean up crew. Yes, our primary job is to pick up trash and set up/tear down THON, but we are the backbone of THON. We have to clean up trash to make sure that the kids' immune systems don't crash (and thus they would be hospitalized for weeks). But we are always on the floor and always do it for the kids =)

Lastly, THONvelopes are on Springfield's agenda. Look out for a donation packet/brochure in your mailbox soon. If you would like to donate to fight pediatric cancer  please do! If not, it's totally cool, just hold the dancers and the kids in your heart during THON weekend.






FTK,
Emma