Is This Not True!

There probably is another reason for lights in refrigerators, but I think this is the best reason out there! C'mon this has to be true?

Beautiful 3-D Jelly Cakes

This takes some mad skills! Maybe not, but I am surely impressed and they just look so lovely!

Proud To Say This Is My Dog!

Rain. It finally started raining. I didn't think during our Thanksgiving break it would, but thankfully it did because we need it. My family and I forgot that we shut the back door so our dog wasn't able to take shelter/cover. However, we do have a brilliantly smart dog. I go to open the living room curtains and I see up against the sliding door in the only spot that is dry. A few more minutes out there he would've ended up wet. But thankfully I went to go and open the curtains. And Izzy (if you don't know already is my dog's name) was too cute that I had to snap a picture before I could let him in. So here is that picture:

My New Big Question

So this was my original question. However, as I was trying to watch a YouTube video there was an ad. An ad in which a man begins to experience some heart problems and this heat problem gives him a scare. This man, Matt Prindle, (in his video that I watched in the ad) had a funny yet serious part that made me both giggle but also helped me come up with my new question. That scene had the following words spoken: "This is the beginning of something pretty amazing. Sometimes it takes a serious health scare to get serious about what's important. Being present. Soaking in all this. Enjoying it! Pursuing it! And having fun along the way right? Which might mean to...means to go out on a limb and have some fun...." I have always thought of this situation already and tried to make something out of it so I can pursue a related question, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to find. But now after having seen this video of Matt's I have my  question. My new question is along the lines of why does it take something to happen in order for people to realize that they must live in the moment and cherish what they have? Why waste time in waiting and not start loving everyone and everything now? What happened to living life to the fullest? What is possibly holding us back? I guess I can tie the two concepts of time and cherishing life before it become too late together because I do not want to entirely give up and throw away my other question because I am still very much interested in finding out more. I am wondering at this moment if I will be able to tackle two questions?

You have to watch to the end now in order to see what I was talking about above!

This Child Is Amazing

Have you guys heard of that TV show called Little Big Shots? I love to see all the amazing talent these little kiddos have! When I was some of their ages I probably was just learning to read my ABC's and write my name. I can only awe in amazement and wish I could've done something similar when I was their age. I guess I am really late on this, but I came across this YouTube video that shows yet another child talent. Meet this four year old Russian girl who is fluent in seven languages. This video was on my recommended feed and the title caught my attention. Even though I wasn't able to understand most of what Bella was reading I still was able to just sit through the video and watch her earn those petals. I was sharing this with friends and they all told me they have already seen this video and that I was about a few weeks late....oooops. I have been taking Spanish for some years now and I definitely have not become fluent in it. So to see a four year old become fluent in not just one, but seven languages is truly remarkable! If you haven't seen the video yet here it is....

We Are Saints!

Random Post for the day! I missed the last PV football game where I saw many pictures of how amazing our school spirit was! I was ecstatic to see that we had that in us and I wanted to check it out for myself! So I attended our last football game with some close friends of mine and the show up was good. I loved the confetti cannons, however, I loathed the baby powder. It really was suffocating and because I sat at the way top every time we scored baby powder was up in the air and the wind pushed it up to where we were sitting. Now I sat at the way top to see all the cheers and confetti and pom poms shake, but I did not anticipate the horrible baby powder. So definitely true that a little can go a long way. Because a small amount of baby powder is perfectly fine. But have it like the game that is a big no no. I did take panoramic pictures throughout the day and here are the best two:

Vignette In Time

Now let's go back in time! What does that even mean? Well I mean I shall take you on a journey way back yonders. Okay not that way back, but back in time when something really memorable happened. Something I will never forgot and something I will be forever grateful for. In a nutshell, my seventh grade science teacher had chosen me to be apply to this summer opportunity call Tech Trek or more formally known as The American Association of University Women (AAUW). So the application period was quite tough. Every day leading up to the deadline I was unsure if whether or not I should apply. I was a bit shy during this time in my life and so I did not know if I could make that leap. But it was one day I said to myself "Why not"? I knew it wouldn't hurt for trying and after a few days upon turning in my application I had received a call that invited me to the final process - an interview. I was quite nervous and I remember that I sat in the waiting room with my mom just talking my butt off trying to calm the nerves. When the lady called my mother and I inside the conference room there were other ladies there and my picture was taken and so it was, the interview began and once it did get started I was totally fine. I left that room feeling super proud and overjoyed that I just had my first interview. And not even a few weeks passed and I received another call telling me I was accepted. I was trying really hard not to scream on the phone and wanted to hand up as quick as I could. Because once I hung up I was screaming and jumping up and down filled with delight.

So that was all that happened to get into this program. I believe it was another five or six girls from Santa Maria that also got accepted as well. To the actual day itself I remember so clearly. I had everything packed and got little sleep the night before. My parents and I had to wake up quite early because we had to drive to Santa Barbara and get to UCSB by a certain time. When we got to the place we definitely couldn't get lost because there was this whole line of girls and their parents waiting to be checked in. I waited in this line for quite some time and when I got to the front I was asked questions about medications specifically for the boat ride. Okay well technically my parents were asked, but I could have replied myself. I got my folder that day which had papers inside and a whole list of the girls attending and where they come from. From this point I went to get my key for my room and went up to leave my suitcase and this is the time I got to meet my roommate Ali! I had gone to the room first, had some trouble unlocking the dorm room go figures, changed into my camp shirt, and met my dorm mother or caregiver for the week who ended up being in the program since it began and she attended Stanford University. Loved Gerry. In fact, she was retiring that year due to age and because she was one of the older ones there she was someone who I loved to hear stories from and her experiences. Anyways, so my roommate walks into the room with her parents and we are saying hi and then someone yells that we had to meet out into this quad area on the campus. This is where we met our teachers for the week and afterwards we went to this cool science presentation. And after this we went back to the dorms where everybody said goodbye to their parents. This would become the first time I left the house all by myself. Okay, this was only the first day. If I went on I would probably be writing a novel by now! To sum it all up, well this summer trip lasted a week and was paid all by the branch in Santa Maria that makes this possible for a few girls every year. And this week was full of firsts! I went on my first boat ride where I saw dolphins for the first time who were riding the waves along the boat, I slept in the dorms with a roommate, I ate delicious campus food that provided dessert even for breakfast... yumm, I met a whole lot of friends, and so much more. This truly was a once in a life time opportunity that I am glad I did not let pass me by.

 This is that folder we received before getting our keys to our dorm room.

 My dorm mom and junior counselors and hallway dorm mates.

 This was all of us that first day before we went to eat  lunch.

I remember 2013 like it was just yesterday! And just seeing these pictures again makes me smile and want to go back!

An Earth Shattering Fart

A Sound Of Thunder was so out of the blue. To go from reading something like Emerson's On Self-reliance to this piece of literature was a sigh a relief. I thought we were once more tasked with having to read this difficult piece of writing and having to do all this crazy stuff with it, but to my surprise that absolutely did not happen. Instead, I found myself following the plot easily and understanding what was going on. I was taken on an adventure like none other when reading this story. Everyone talks about time machines as a kid, or at least I have, and so to see that come up again in another piece of writing and with a different perspective to it was quite neat! I am not too much a fan on dinosaurs -just not my forte I guess- but I found it quite interesting that this is what the character was wanting to do - to hunt dinosaurs. Overall, a fun thing to read about, but now I am left wondering why DP even had us read this. I'll have to wait and find out what is now in store.

It is all about the Butterfly Effect!

Emerson Presentations Day IV

Stephania: did a collage of quotes and says that if we take chances and listen to the heart we will gain experience. "Believe In Yourself" was the title of her poster and she picked these quotes based on liking and what spoke out to her. Fatima and Jordan: They did a CD collage. Talked about society being a wave and how you can expect it to go one way. Discusses greatness appealing to the future and left class with telling us that if we stay true to ourself and once we find that truth then we must stay strong. Leydi: made a video picking out her favorite quotes from the essay and would first have the quote appear and then next an explanation of what she thought the quote was saying. Alexis: Frank Ocean song played and exemplified how we shouldn't do drugs and if you follow that path then you'll become sluggish and thought of as stupid. So it's all fun and games in the beginning and you know it is not good for you to drink and smoke yet you still do it because at parties that is what the kids do. That is a no no and rather than following this wrong path we have to find a way to not follow trends and be yourself. Main message is that the crowd is what leads you into the wrong decisions. Angel: made a powerpoint and says not to follow the crowd or copy others. Elaborates on how you are the only person to make yourself happy. Cayla: Made a short video that showed a tornado and how that is like the eye of the storm. How the storm represents society and society therefore spins around and around like a tornado.  Main message is to not seek outside self. Linda: made a CD that she put songs onto one of which was "Man In the Mirror" which was said to delineate being and making that change in society.

Emerson Presentations Day III

Cerenity, Adriana, And Clemente: brought in boxes which represented cakes. They were comparing how the smallest box is not the best and the biggest box is also not the best, but the one in the middle is just right. And they added onto this saying that physically not everyone is the same. The box that had no fondant on it signified the rare/bare form of you that Emerson wants you to be. The best looking cake even though it looked good there was still some imperfections. All in all, this presentation showed that everyone is trying to be this character they are not so that they could just fit in. Abigail/Peter: Share Emerson's ideas in a song. Took the Michael Jackson song "Man in the Mirror" and changed the lyrics up. And what the members of this presentation wanted us to get from their singing was to follow what the lyrics and don't be forced. Don't be forced to do things you don't want to do. Paloma: Painted this grand piece of art in which a character was split and one side was man and the other woman. The woman's hair was wavy which represented society as a wave. The man was painted as a galaxy and all these vibrant colors representing man being his own star. The woman's heart was a guitar in which the strings depicted hearts vibrating to the iron string and how the strings on a guitar have different sounds. Grass=society and Eyes=everyone who stares and judges. Eyes closed on the character itself portraying that they don't care about what others have to think of them. Bridgett: on blog and chose five quotes from the essay that spoke to her. Had said something about sinking ship and how the water coming aboard represents negativity and that eventually will engulf the ship just like comments can destroy a person or make them feel less of themselves. Wave as a background. Again, shows from the essay how a society is wave. Also says that if we learn to be comfortable with selves then we will began to love ourselves as well.

Emerson Presentations Day II

Jacqueline: She made a poster in which she compiled quotes from the essay. Talked about fear and how we shouldn't care about what others think. Also talks about how the life is yours and making it yours and ends presentation from quote found on Instagram. Alejandra and Rosie: "Why be born an original, but end up dying a copy" and they represented this saying with eggs. They had one raw egg and one hard boil in which they show first the raw egg with just a slight pressure added we will crack just like that. On the other hand, with the hard boiled egg you can slowly peal yourself piece by piece and reveal yourself that way rather than cracking under pressure and spilling all that in you. This was different from other presentations I have ever seen and I would give them creative points. Liliana: brought in brussel sprouts and said that farmers are the only ones to believe in them yet several other people hate them. Class left with confusion and DP tells us to write down extended metaphor which we later learn is when comparison of two unlike things such as ideas and concepts that is carried throughout a couple of sentences or phrases. Similar to an allegory which is an extended metaphor throughout the whole story.

Emerson Project Completed 👍

Yip Yip Hurray! We were told to come up with an idea for what we shall do to wrap up on Emerson. I had wanted to make a collage using pictures and I asked Daniel what he was doing and he was also planning to do a collage. So from there we partnered up to make this dope project in the time allotted because we were told we would get as much time as we needed and then boom! Preston drops it on us and says we have until Monday-3 days! So Friday Daniel told me he wanted to do a quote collage and I told him I wanted to a picture collage and so were thinking he'd do the quote side and I'll do the picture, but then I thought how weird would it be to just have one whole side full of quotes. And then we came up with merging both quotes and pictures. So Daniel met up with me at my house on Sunday and we spent about five hours collecting all the pictures and looking through about fifty magazines! We compiled a whole stack of just images and words that came to our heads that related to Emerson and his message On Self-reliance. Daniel had to leave because it was indeed getting dark and I was fine with having to put everything together since he did come to my house. And little did I know we had collected so many images and words that the collage was a massive piece of work! I was on the floor for some hours trying to lay everything out and getting everything to fit well. My back started hurting and my tush was not liking the hard floor and the next thing you know it is 1 in the morning. Like holy cows. Just to lay everything out and tape it down was a lot of work. And then I took it a step further and wanted to laminate the whole thing, but sadly I don't have those fancy machines that could quickly do that. And unfortunately I did not have packaging tape on hand and so it was just regular office tape. I spent two rolls of tape laminating the collage. I felt this was necessary because I didn't want pictures hanging off when we were presenting and it just would bother me. Plus, I had to some how roll this big collage and I wouldn't be able to do that if not everything was not taped down. So a few more hours it was. I couldn't handle working on the floor anymore so midway from taping I cleared the table and worked on there. And I was initially putting the collage together on the table, but when I was starting to compile thing I could already see that I needed a bigger surface to work with. So when the collage came together and the major parts were taped then could I move back to the table where half the project hung from the edge while I worked with the part I needed. In total, I spent a good 15 hours maybe and it paid off because the end results were amazing!

Ta-Da! Biggest collage I have ever put together that's for sure & definitely is grander than last year's collage!

Emerson Presentation Day I

After seeing presentations today I am glad that everyone got to choose what they wanted to do for their project. Not only are we able to see Emerson and his message in a new light, but I also got to see all the creativity that everybody had. So just a heads up to y'all these next couple of days or anything that says Emerson presentation well you can kind of guess, but it is notes on who presented and what they did to interpret Emerson's message.

So day 1: Lesley went up first as she signed up to go on this day. What she did was make a compilation of seven lyrics I believe that she found to tie into Emerson's work. Lesley doesn't agree with "self-Reliance" and so she took something she doesn't like all that too much with something she loves which is music. In particular, the band Twenty One Pilots. Top half was inspired by Blurryface and bottom half by Vessel. Samary: She did a foam poster board and selected quotes that spoke to her. Vanity and philanthropy was discussed and it was said that people should speak their mind regardless of what others think. Cesar: "How To Be A Genius 101" Loved that title! Had quotes and read them off and explained what Emerson was trying to get across. Said things on solitude, swaying to other opinions and how society sees us. And end with saying that if we want to be a genius we must be self-reliant. And then I went with Daniel and we ran out of time so to be continued tomorrow. And this is where DP says always good to end in the middle of a sentence when presenting or lecturing.

Talking 101 for yah!

My Emerson

For my project I am thinking of doing a picture collage. When I heard we had to make up what we wanted to do for our project I was flabbergasted and my gears where turning. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. However, as we were brainstorming ideas in class today for what we could possibly someone had mentioned a quote collage. Now I do not know how a true quote collage looks like, but I think just quotes won't be that spectacular. So I know I can make a mean collage having done a nice one last year for my WWI and WWII project. This time I am going to try and top that collage with this years. We will have to see about that.... so excited!

Part of last years collage.

Emerson For The Young Buck

To the kiddos out there...

There is no doubt in my mind, but you will hear this somewhere down the line growing up to be yourself. Trust me, I have experienced it myself and heard those exact same words! Like right now actually. I read this 175 year old essay called "Self-reliance" by Emerson and who knows you may also be reading this is the near future. Give it a few years I am sure of it. Though some may tell you to be yourself it is up to you ultimately. You have the power to choose how you will be yourself. And it is going to be hard to do if you do choose to only do whatever pleases you because society and the mean world will try and change you to become like them and everyone else around you. So you are going to have to do the best you could to try and combat that kid so that you can be you. Because right now little do you know it you are full of wonders and ideas that have not yet been beaten down, and you are going to have to try your very best to preserve that! Just trust me child when I say you are going to hear what I just told you more than once. Trust me on that.

         

 

Emerson Said It

1. "Nothing can bring peace but yourself": brought up in conversation saying that it is you and only you that can give yourself peace. So it begins with us and every individual on this planet if we desire that peace. In other words, we will never be happy with life if we cannot be happy with our fateful circumstances and ourselves.

2. "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think." After what Cerenity had said about "Nothing can bring peace but yourself" Peter found this quote that was similar in what the first quote was signifying. And so this quote was added on to that first one to justify that people must do what they want to do in life if that is what pleases them. And when they find the courage to stray of the common path of man they must disregard the comments of those around them because ultimately you'll get remarks no matter what.

3. "We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.": In my interpretation I believe this to be very true for many. Because sometimes we can be hanging around others and that makes us timid and only makes us show a side of us when really we are built with multiple and brilliant sides of our character.

4. "Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright.": So it is that to this day people do not fight for what they believe in because they are fearful of what others think of them. And so we just tend to follow what everyone else is doing which is really unfortunate, but it is the hurtful truth.

5. "Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere." This quote goes to demonstrate how we have been compared to prisoners being guarded up. How we are quick to fall into the trap of continuous trends, therefore, we have locked ourselves up without even noticing it.