Warning: Entirely Sappy, Cheesy, and Nostalgic words ahead.
1. Holy Cow It's Almost Over
If you're like me, you have a blog that records all the foolish things you said freshman year, including but not limited to: "oh no! It's Christmas break! I won't get to see my friends for an entire month!".
Yeah. Past me? One month is no big deal. Four weeks compared with the foreseeable future? You had nothing to complain about.
Denial runs pretty thick senior year; it still hasn't fully hit me that in a couple very short days, I will be saying goodbye to all the amazing friends that I have made here. Luckily with Skype, Google+ hanging-outs, and road trips, I know that we will all keep in contact. Still, I know that I will never live within a 5-min walk of almost all my friends again; that is a peculiarity known only to college.
2. Wait, there's no cafeteria in the real world?
Next year, one of the hardest adjustments (and believe me there is a long list) will be going from only cooking a meal or so a week to cooking every single meal I eat. I've been tremendously spoiled here at Hendrix; our caf has literally won awards for the quality of food. And while, after four years, some of the dishes have grown old, I will sorely miss both having meals already cooked for me and having all the dishes done for me.
3. Dreams don't necessary come true
"You can do everything right and still lose. That's not fair, that's life."
A friend recently posted that on Facebook, and I've been repeating it every since. As everyone knows, hard work doesn't always pay off. I had a rough graduate admissions season-- I worked very hard, crafted what I thought was the perfect resume and cover letter-- and then proceeded to get rejected from almost every school I applied to. Luckily I struck gold on one of my applications-- they contacted me to accept me even before my application was officially complete.
Which, coincidentally, is why I'm proud to say I'm attending the University of Missouri this fall to start the long, arduous process of getting a PhD in Biophysics.
For those playing along at home, you might be wondering whatever happened to my dreams of astrophysics? Around my junior year, I began to realize that what I wanted most out of my career was the ability to help people, to somehow actively strive to make their lives better. I had briefly toyed with the idea of going into medicine, but with my lack of med school pre-requestite classes that was never a serious option. However, I realized that there was a way to marry my love of physics and desire to help others: biophysics.
4. Liberal arts education is not the norm
These past four years have been a wonderful amalgamation of courses in physics, french, English, history, mythology, and more. I didn't come to Hendrix because it was a liberal arts college-- quite honestly I didn't know what that even meant.
What that meant was that while my friends at other universities had schedules weighed down with only math/science courses, I took courses in Classical Mythology, History of Medieval Europe, Minimalist French Literature, Intro to Film Studies, and many others. Heck, I took an entire semester away from math and science and only studied the French language.
That breadth of academia will be gone next year as I enter a very focused physics program. And while I adore physics, I will miss the opportunities I've enjoyed here.
5. When Panera does Bagel Tuesday, hop on that
But for real though. That's an awesome deal. ((Baker's dozen for like seven dollars))
While perhaps the least deep revelation here, I felt the need to mention that recently my breakfasts have been brought to you by the wonderful world of Panera.
6. How easy it is to forgot about your blog
I might have forgotten to post this entire semester.....I wish I could say life got in the way, which it did, but still I always had something that I could've written about. My new resolution is to try and blog this summer (perhaps once a week? I have an overload of opinions, so writing opinion pieces would be easy to do).
And that's it!
As graduation draws closer and closer it's hard not to label everything we do as "the last time". The last Sundae Thursday, the last game of Catan, the last hike, the last coffee shop visit. In a couple days I'll be saying goodbye to this beautiful campus which has become a home and my friends who have become like family.
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Women in Physics
This past weekend a couple other Hendrix students and I headed to Ole Miss for the Southern Undergraduate Women in Physics conference. ((Think that's a mouthful? Try the acronym! SUWiP. Yeah. Catchy.))
Having a conference solely for women in physics might sound a bit odd, until you look at the numbers. Recently a university emailed me to check out their physics graduate program. They boasted a relatively large number of female students-- almost 20%!
20%. That means the student body is 80% male. And that's supposed a number that they want to brag about? That describes, in a nutshell, why there is an entire conference whose purpose is to encourage women to study physics.
There are cautionary tales of sexism women face in pursuit of the sciences. Personally, while I have been told I'm unable to do plenty of things because I'm a woman, physics has never been on the list.
However, physics is still lagging far behind the other sciences, which are getting closer to the 50%-50% gender ratio.
I've never cared or really noticed that I was in the minority in my physics classes, being a woman. Though that tells you sometime-- I've come to fully expect to be in male-dominated classes, so it is no surprise when that is true. The only instance where I've ever been really frustrated with the lack of other female students was when I was trying to make assertations about the way society views female physics students.
You see, whenever I tell a stranger that I'm a physics major they typically respond with two emotions: shock and awe. Awe is too strong of a word, but you get the idea, right? Here's a typical interaction.
Them : "So what do you study?"
Me: "Oh I'm a physics major."
Them: "Wow! Physics! Man, I could never do that. It's so hard. You must be so smart!"
Which is not true, but that's a topic for another post. Anyway, it was only after a couple years that I began to really analyze the typical response. While there is the whole "you must be super smart" which, once again, needs to be delegated to its own personal post about societal perceptions of science, there is always an element of surprise.
As a scientist-- or rather, as a rational human being-- I can't just jump to any conclusions. I can't declare 'oh they must be so surprised because I'm a woman! They must not expect me to be into the sciences'. While this might be true, there are too many other plausible answers. Perhaps they don't meet many physics majors-- and would respond with the same level of shock if a guy told them he was a physics major.
To try and ascertain if my gender actually did play a role in peoples' responses, I turned to other female physics majors.
Oh wait.
There's only one in my grade besides me-- and she's a physics/English double major, which skews the results. Peoples' response could be due to the duel major or just the English part-- I have no way of knowing how people perceive just her role in physics.
Out of the eight senior physics majors, two are female. Could be worse, but it could be better. There are three female physics majors in the class below me, but there are also a lot more male physics majors.
The purpose of the conference was to encourage those still on the fence about physics, hoping to trickle the numbers so that eventually schools will be graduating a physics class that is half male, half female. Of course, we really need to talk about science education starting even younger than college freshman-- somewhere in elementary school girls start dropping out of the sciences.
But that's a topic for another time! I've already put off application work long enough. I only have two more graduate schools to apply to but I need to go and actually apply.
Thanks for reading! :)
Having a conference solely for women in physics might sound a bit odd, until you look at the numbers. Recently a university emailed me to check out their physics graduate program. They boasted a relatively large number of female students-- almost 20%!
20%. That means the student body is 80% male. And that's supposed a number that they want to brag about? That describes, in a nutshell, why there is an entire conference whose purpose is to encourage women to study physics.
There are cautionary tales of sexism women face in pursuit of the sciences. Personally, while I have been told I'm unable to do plenty of things because I'm a woman, physics has never been on the list.
However, physics is still lagging far behind the other sciences, which are getting closer to the 50%-50% gender ratio.
I've never cared or really noticed that I was in the minority in my physics classes, being a woman. Though that tells you sometime-- I've come to fully expect to be in male-dominated classes, so it is no surprise when that is true. The only instance where I've ever been really frustrated with the lack of other female students was when I was trying to make assertations about the way society views female physics students.
You see, whenever I tell a stranger that I'm a physics major they typically respond with two emotions: shock and awe. Awe is too strong of a word, but you get the idea, right? Here's a typical interaction.
Them : "So what do you study?"
Me: "Oh I'm a physics major."
Them: "Wow! Physics! Man, I could never do that. It's so hard. You must be so smart!"
Which is not true, but that's a topic for another post. Anyway, it was only after a couple years that I began to really analyze the typical response. While there is the whole "you must be super smart" which, once again, needs to be delegated to its own personal post about societal perceptions of science, there is always an element of surprise.
As a scientist-- or rather, as a rational human being-- I can't just jump to any conclusions. I can't declare 'oh they must be so surprised because I'm a woman! They must not expect me to be into the sciences'. While this might be true, there are too many other plausible answers. Perhaps they don't meet many physics majors-- and would respond with the same level of shock if a guy told them he was a physics major.
To try and ascertain if my gender actually did play a role in peoples' responses, I turned to other female physics majors.
Oh wait.
There's only one in my grade besides me-- and she's a physics/English double major, which skews the results. Peoples' response could be due to the duel major or just the English part-- I have no way of knowing how people perceive just her role in physics.
Out of the eight senior physics majors, two are female. Could be worse, but it could be better. There are three female physics majors in the class below me, but there are also a lot more male physics majors.
The purpose of the conference was to encourage those still on the fence about physics, hoping to trickle the numbers so that eventually schools will be graduating a physics class that is half male, half female. Of course, we really need to talk about science education starting even younger than college freshman-- somewhere in elementary school girls start dropping out of the sciences.
But that's a topic for another time! I've already put off application work long enough. I only have two more graduate schools to apply to but I need to go and actually apply.
Thanks for reading! :)
Sunday, August 17, 2014
DIY Dresser Makeover
This semester I'm moving up in the world.
I've gone from sharing one (tiny/moldy/size of a large closet) dorm room with two lovely people sophomore year to sharing an entire apartment with two friends senior year! The overabundance of mold/zombie-suicidal ants (true story) sophomore year may have helped boost my immune system, but I am quite excited to get a (hopefully) cleaner living situation this year.
While there are obviously many perks to living in an apartment, the apartment is unfurnished. So I picked up a cheap plastic dresser/drawers set up. Next year when I'm off to graduate school I'll spend more thought and perhaps money on setting up an apartment, since it'll be more long term.
But this will do fine for at least one year. I've seen tutorials about cutting up a large poster and decorating the front of an old wooden dresser. I thought that could be a cool way to spice up my plastic drawers. However, my plastic dresser is a bit bigger than most of the posters I found online-- and I'm too cheap to spring for a large poster on a project that may or may not turn out.
Then, a week or so ago, I was wandering through a cool hippie store and stumbled upon a large sheet of patterned paper. I bought one sheet for my quick canvas DIY and bought another one for my dresser DIY. The papers were about three dollars a piece, and was big enough to outfit my dresser.
The hardest part about this DIY was just taking the time to cut and tape each little piece of paper into the drawers. I used the patterned paper for the front of the dresser and used black card stock for the rest of the sides. I'm a decently messy person, and I wanted to use the card stock to hid my messy piles of clothing/whatever ends up in the drawers.
I tried using Mod Podge to fix the paper to the plastic drawers, but Mod Podge doesn't work well with plastic, so I stuck to using tape. I measured how long the drawers were, cut up my paper, and taped it to the inside of each drawer. I made sure to apply extra packing tape so that the paper wouldn't tear as I threw clothes in and out of the drawers.
It was a bit tricky to fold the purple paper over the contours of the drawer handle, but nothing a some scissors and some tape can't fix.
If you want your pattern to be all over the drawers, you can always find some fun wrapping paper and use that. I really liked the purple paper-- no one is going to see the sides, so I don't mind that they are just covered in black card stock.
Et, volia! That's it-- an easy way to customize a cheap set of plastic drawers.
It's not perfect-- the purple paper was about 1in too small width wise, and I don't have a perfect amount of patience. However, you won't notice the imperfections unless you sit and stare at it and I know that is one thing I won't have time for this coming semester.
Thanks for reading! Hope you were inspired to spice something up with a little DIY.
:)
I've gone from sharing one (tiny/moldy/size of a large closet) dorm room with two lovely people sophomore year to sharing an entire apartment with two friends senior year! The overabundance of mold/zombie-suicidal ants (true story) sophomore year may have helped boost my immune system, but I am quite excited to get a (hopefully) cleaner living situation this year.
While there are obviously many perks to living in an apartment, the apartment is unfurnished. So I picked up a cheap plastic dresser/drawers set up. Next year when I'm off to graduate school I'll spend more thought and perhaps money on setting up an apartment, since it'll be more long term.
But this will do fine for at least one year. I've seen tutorials about cutting up a large poster and decorating the front of an old wooden dresser. I thought that could be a cool way to spice up my plastic drawers. However, my plastic dresser is a bit bigger than most of the posters I found online-- and I'm too cheap to spring for a large poster on a project that may or may not turn out.
Then, a week or so ago, I was wandering through a cool hippie store and stumbled upon a large sheet of patterned paper. I bought one sheet for my quick canvas DIY and bought another one for my dresser DIY. The papers were about three dollars a piece, and was big enough to outfit my dresser.
The hardest part about this DIY was just taking the time to cut and tape each little piece of paper into the drawers. I used the patterned paper for the front of the dresser and used black card stock for the rest of the sides. I'm a decently messy person, and I wanted to use the card stock to hid my messy piles of clothing/whatever ends up in the drawers.
I tried using Mod Podge to fix the paper to the plastic drawers, but Mod Podge doesn't work well with plastic, so I stuck to using tape. I measured how long the drawers were, cut up my paper, and taped it to the inside of each drawer. I made sure to apply extra packing tape so that the paper wouldn't tear as I threw clothes in and out of the drawers.
It was a bit tricky to fold the purple paper over the contours of the drawer handle, but nothing a some scissors and some tape can't fix.
If you want your pattern to be all over the drawers, you can always find some fun wrapping paper and use that. I really liked the purple paper-- no one is going to see the sides, so I don't mind that they are just covered in black card stock.
Et, volia! That's it-- an easy way to customize a cheap set of plastic drawers.
It's not perfect-- the purple paper was about 1in too small width wise, and I don't have a perfect amount of patience. However, you won't notice the imperfections unless you sit and stare at it and I know that is one thing I won't have time for this coming semester.
Thanks for reading! Hope you were inspired to spice something up with a little DIY.
:)
Saturday, August 16, 2014
10 Things I Learned my Freshman Year
My senior year of college starts in a little over one week. Every time I realize this, I am amazed to think that in two semesters my entire undergrad experience will be over. High school was fun but college has been such a a blast, I'm not ready for it to be over! Even though I know that the friendships I've made will not end after graduation, I'm not exactly ready to enter the real world. Even if the 'real world' just means more schooling at graduate school.
Thinking ahead reminds me of where I was three years ago, just about the start my freshman year. I even wrote a little paragraph of things the summer before college--what I was looking forward to, and things I was worried about. Looking back now it's almost funny how insignificant my worries were.
Your freshman is a very special time in your life. For the first time you're leaving home, living with a bunch of strangers, and making all of your own decisions. There are best friends to make, amazing courses to take-- college is where you start to solidify and defend what you think and believe about the world.
Without further ado, here are ten things I learned my first year of college!
--Should you spontaneously dye your hair because you have a coupon and it's some day that ends in a y?
The answer is always yes. College is a very peculiar time in your life. It is also one of the only times in your life that you can dye your hair bright red/any other obnoxious/unnatural color and it will be alright. You don't have a job to look 'professional' for.
--Best friends take time to make.
Your freshman year is a crazy period of time where you meet people by the bushel. However, those sometimes awkward ice-breaker events help you make a bunch of acquaintances. It's over the course of the semester that these acquaintances grow into friendships. Even in the separate universe that college sometimes seems to exist, these friendships take time to grow.
--You should start your homework sometime before the night before it's due.
In high school my classes were never very challenging. I approached my first semester of college expecting the difficulty level to be reminiscent of high school.
Well I was in for a surprise. College courses turned out to be far more challenging than I had expected. This was a great thing-- being challenged is always fun-- but my attitude towards homework took a bit of time to be updated. I sometimes cringe to think about how I didn't even start my physics homework till the night before it was due (spoiler alert: that didn't turn out well). I quickly changed my approach and things got better from there.
--Say yes to new activities.
Sometime early on freshman year my roommate mentioned she was going to watch a TV show I had never heard of with some people in our student union. The TV show sounded weird but I figured I might as well tag along. The TV show turned out to be Dr. Who-- now one of my favorite TV shows. Not only did I find a really cool show, it also turned out to be a great bonding activity with people I just barely knew.
--If you see a sign at a local coffee house proclaiming that live Irish music would be performed that night you should drop all homework/other obligations and go.
Even if the sign turned out to be a lie, hanging out with new friends was worth pushing off homework till later.
--Sign up for (almost) every club/activity/group that looks mildly interesting.
Freshman year is a temporally amazing time. Somehow I managed to: (a) be in the wind ensemble, (b) take piano lessons, (c) be in a small ensemble, (d) sing in my church's choir, (e)play some in the orchestra, (f)join the Qudditch team (sometime I don't like to admit to, but since I've already blogged about it, I figure all hope is lost), (g)join my church's college group, (f) and, you know, classes and that.
Looking back I'm not sure how I didn't die but the special thing about freshman year is that while your classes might be hard, the work load is nothing compared to the coming years. You're getting time to focus on making friends-- something that will disappear as college goes on.
--Movie nights are the best.
I recently read an article that advocated not bringing a TV to college your freshman year because if you do you'll be glued to the TV and miss out on life. Which sounds like a personal problem with me. I brought a TV freshman year and I'm glad I did. My roommate and I rarely watched it but it was great for Friday movie nights. We would buy a bunch of junk food and pull down our mattresses to lay on the floor, invite friends over, and have a good time.
--Don't neglect your studies
Freshman year I got B's in classes where I easily could have gotten A's simply because I put minimal effort into them. Freshman year is where you learn how to balance having a life and doing well in your courses-- it takes a while to find a nice balance.
--College parties aren't all they are made out to be in the movies
In fact they generally aren't much fun at all. I never had enough alcohol in my blood to fully enjoy them like some people seemed to be doing. Turns out going to a party sober just means you won't be able to forget the regrettable fashion choices some people are making. This was a big thing for me freshman year-- I felt like I should be going to parties and loving them. Instead, I learned to accept that while dorm/house/off campus parties might be fun for some people, it's perfectly acceptable to skip them and bake cookies with friends instead.
--There is no one-size fits all plan for how to make the most out of your freshman year.
One of my pet peeves are those articles that tell you how to be 'pretty/more intelligent/more successful'. There are articles that tell you, if you just follow these steps, you will have a great freshman year. The problem with these articles is that they impose these qualifications on your life. In order to make friends, do X, in order to be happy you should be doing Y. These blanket proclamations don't take into account individuality and differing personalities. There were things I did freshman year-- that awkward Twister ice break, various parties-- that I did solely because I felt like they were things I should be doing. I didn't enjoy them, I felt awkward, and I didn't get anything out of the experience. The perhaps most important lesson I've learned is to not follow anyone else's guidelines on how to enjoy your life. Just because person A wrote an article about how glad they were that they went to ever party//spoke to every stranger they saw at college doesn't mean that you should feel obligated to follow their lead.
There you have it! Ten lessons I learned my freshman year. Right now I'm recuperating from getting my wisdom teeth out ((so forgive any stupid grammar/spelling mistakes. I blame the drugs)). However, I still have at least two more craft tutorials to write, so stay posted!
Thanks for reading :)
Thinking ahead reminds me of where I was three years ago, just about the start my freshman year. I even wrote a little paragraph of things the summer before college--what I was looking forward to, and things I was worried about. Looking back now it's almost funny how insignificant my worries were.
Your freshman is a very special time in your life. For the first time you're leaving home, living with a bunch of strangers, and making all of your own decisions. There are best friends to make, amazing courses to take-- college is where you start to solidify and defend what you think and believe about the world.
Without further ado, here are ten things I learned my first year of college!
--Should you spontaneously dye your hair because you have a coupon and it's some day that ends in a y?
The answer is always yes. College is a very peculiar time in your life. It is also one of the only times in your life that you can dye your hair bright red/any other obnoxious/unnatural color and it will be alright. You don't have a job to look 'professional' for.
 |
| My short lived red hair phase :) |
--Best friends take time to make.
Your freshman year is a crazy period of time where you meet people by the bushel. However, those sometimes awkward ice-breaker events help you make a bunch of acquaintances. It's over the course of the semester that these acquaintances grow into friendships. Even in the separate universe that college sometimes seems to exist, these friendships take time to grow.
 |
| Bonding over Quidditch! One of the best parts of this photo isn't shown: I was playing Keeper which meant I got an awesome cape. |
In high school my classes were never very challenging. I approached my first semester of college expecting the difficulty level to be reminiscent of high school.
Well I was in for a surprise. College courses turned out to be far more challenging than I had expected. This was a great thing-- being challenged is always fun-- but my attitude towards homework took a bit of time to be updated. I sometimes cringe to think about how I didn't even start my physics homework till the night before it was due (spoiler alert: that didn't turn out well). I quickly changed my approach and things got better from there.
 |
| This is the best way to study for a physics exam. Perhaps not the most productive, but the yummiest. |
--Say yes to new activities.
Sometime early on freshman year my roommate mentioned she was going to watch a TV show I had never heard of with some people in our student union. The TV show sounded weird but I figured I might as well tag along. The TV show turned out to be Dr. Who-- now one of my favorite TV shows. Not only did I find a really cool show, it also turned out to be a great bonding activity with people I just barely knew.
 |
| Side note: This was in September and it was probably like 80 degrees outside. However, this was a scary episode of Dr. Who, thus the cuddling and blanket ;) |
--If you see a sign at a local coffee house proclaiming that live Irish music would be performed that night you should drop all homework/other obligations and go.
Even if the sign turned out to be a lie, hanging out with new friends was worth pushing off homework till later.
--Sign up for (almost) every club/activity/group that looks mildly interesting.
Freshman year is a temporally amazing time. Somehow I managed to: (a) be in the wind ensemble, (b) take piano lessons, (c) be in a small ensemble, (d) sing in my church's choir, (e)play some in the orchestra, (f)join the Qudditch team (sometime I don't like to admit to, but since I've already blogged about it, I figure all hope is lost), (g)join my church's college group, (f) and, you know, classes and that.
Looking back I'm not sure how I didn't die but the special thing about freshman year is that while your classes might be hard, the work load is nothing compared to the coming years. You're getting time to focus on making friends-- something that will disappear as college goes on.
.jpg) |
| I had the pleasure of playing two clarinets-- at the same time. Just kidding, but these are a B-flat and an E-flat clarinet I was able to play in the orchestra. Lucky for me I always had enough rests to switch between the two clarinets during the pieces. |
--Movie nights are the best.
I recently read an article that advocated not bringing a TV to college your freshman year because if you do you'll be glued to the TV and miss out on life. Which sounds like a personal problem with me. I brought a TV freshman year and I'm glad I did. My roommate and I rarely watched it but it was great for Friday movie nights. We would buy a bunch of junk food and pull down our mattresses to lay on the floor, invite friends over, and have a good time.
 |
| Momma Mia night! |
--Don't neglect your studies
Freshman year I got B's in classes where I easily could have gotten A's simply because I put minimal effort into them. Freshman year is where you learn how to balance having a life and doing well in your courses-- it takes a while to find a nice balance.
--College parties aren't all they are made out to be in the movies
In fact they generally aren't much fun at all. I never had enough alcohol in my blood to fully enjoy them like some people seemed to be doing. Turns out going to a party sober just means you won't be able to forget the regrettable fashion choices some people are making. This was a big thing for me freshman year-- I felt like I should be going to parties and loving them. Instead, I learned to accept that while dorm/house/off campus parties might be fun for some people, it's perfectly acceptable to skip them and bake cookies with friends instead.
 |
| The best part of any party is generally getting ready with friends :) |
--There is no one-size fits all plan for how to make the most out of your freshman year.
One of my pet peeves are those articles that tell you how to be 'pretty/more intelligent/more successful'. There are articles that tell you, if you just follow these steps, you will have a great freshman year. The problem with these articles is that they impose these qualifications on your life. In order to make friends, do X, in order to be happy you should be doing Y. These blanket proclamations don't take into account individuality and differing personalities. There were things I did freshman year-- that awkward Twister ice break, various parties-- that I did solely because I felt like they were things I should be doing. I didn't enjoy them, I felt awkward, and I didn't get anything out of the experience. The perhaps most important lesson I've learned is to not follow anyone else's guidelines on how to enjoy your life. Just because person A wrote an article about how glad they were that they went to ever party//spoke to every stranger they saw at college doesn't mean that you should feel obligated to follow their lead.
 |
| Ice skating with some new friends :) |
There you have it! Ten lessons I learned my freshman year. Right now I'm recuperating from getting my wisdom teeth out ((so forgive any stupid grammar/spelling mistakes. I blame the drugs)). However, I still have at least two more craft tutorials to write, so stay posted!
Thanks for reading :)
Thursday, March 14, 2013
WOTE!
I can't even think of a fitting sentence to describe how long it feels since I last posted. So I won't try.
A week or so ago, some friends and I went to the Miss Hendrix drag show. Like last year we camped out for ticket. Unlike last year, we camped out inside-- yeah it was odd-- and there wasn't any drunk guys who tried to sleep with me.
The show itself was okay but the best part was when one of the drag queens was dancing to Taylor Swift songs. Romeo and Juliet starting playing and he ran off stage, proposing to his girlfriend right in time with the lines 'knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring'. ;) So that was rather precious. And a little odd, as he still had heavy make-up on.
All the proceeds went to charity-- this was the culmination of a week long festivities. Overall we raised 50,000 which is pretty awesome.
In other news, I flew my first kite! Or at least, the first one in a veryyy long time.
This was at my second game of D&D; I mastered the art of spinning a D20-- a 20 sided dice.
Today is Pi day! In case you have somehow missed this fact. In the caf was a delicious assortment of pies. This was a peanut butter and chocolate pie, as good as it looks.
So last night a couple friends and I headed down to Little Rock for our first off-campus-actual-in-a-bar-legit concert. One of my favorite bands from YouTube, Walk Off the Earth, was playing. Despite one of the main singers being like four months pregnant, they were amazing performers, and the concert was a blast. My hands are still purple-- huge X's on both hands preventing me from using my charms to get alcohol (ha).
I didn't want to be one of those people; the obnoxious ones who have their cell phones up the entire time, blocking the view of everyone behind them so I just sneaked a quick photo, which is why some drunk girl's hand is blocking part of the band.
It was so odd to go from watching videos on YouTube to seeing the band live; but it was so much fun. Even if I did have 8 am lab the next morning.
Totally worth it.
Stay tuned for Spring Break! Only one more day and one more test to get through before I'm headed home. Only for the night, though, because Saturday morning I'm headed to New Orleans!
Now I should get back to studying for that test...
Thanks for reading!
The show itself was okay but the best part was when one of the drag queens was dancing to Taylor Swift songs. Romeo and Juliet starting playing and he ran off stage, proposing to his girlfriend right in time with the lines 'knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring'. ;) So that was rather precious. And a little odd, as he still had heavy make-up on.
All the proceeds went to charity-- this was the culmination of a week long festivities. Overall we raised 50,000 which is pretty awesome.
In other news, I flew my first kite! Or at least, the first one in a veryyy long time.
This was at my second game of D&D; I mastered the art of spinning a D20-- a 20 sided dice.
Today is Pi day! In case you have somehow missed this fact. In the caf was a delicious assortment of pies. This was a peanut butter and chocolate pie, as good as it looks.
So last night a couple friends and I headed down to Little Rock for our first off-campus-actual-in-a-bar-legit concert. One of my favorite bands from YouTube, Walk Off the Earth, was playing. Despite one of the main singers being like four months pregnant, they were amazing performers, and the concert was a blast. My hands are still purple-- huge X's on both hands preventing me from using my charms to get alcohol (ha).
I didn't want to be one of those people; the obnoxious ones who have their cell phones up the entire time, blocking the view of everyone behind them so I just sneaked a quick photo, which is why some drunk girl's hand is blocking part of the band.
It was so odd to go from watching videos on YouTube to seeing the band live; but it was so much fun. Even if I did have 8 am lab the next morning.
Totally worth it.
Stay tuned for Spring Break! Only one more day and one more test to get through before I'm headed home. Only for the night, though, because Saturday morning I'm headed to New Orleans!
Now I should get back to studying for that test...
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Quantum Cats
I hate coming up with titles.
It has been ridiculously long since I last posted-- an unfortunate testament to my workload. Even though I have nothing big to blog about, I wanted to post some pictures about my life.
The best way to grade Astronomy homework :) I went home for my birthday to see my family, hang out with a friend, and see my lovely cats. I feel like college could be exponentially less stressful if there were more pets around.
I broke my streak of somehow always missing the Hendrix plays to go see a musical with a ridiculously long name. Considering how small Hendrix is, and the fact that no one goes here just for musical theater, the musical was really good.
Before I went home for the weekend, my friends and I were really craving some sushi. Normally we make some on Saturday, but since I would be gone, we headed over to Kroger to buy some sushi. Now I had been told how good the sushi was at Kroger, but I was a little wary. The price, however, was reasonable, the sushi was pretty good.
Last Wednesday a guy from the group that helped find the Higgs-boson particle gave a talk in Little Rock. So my friend and I ran the second our dress rehearsal for band ended, grabbing some food, and racing towards Little Rock. We didn't get out of band till 5:30, the talk was at 6:00 and it was a 30 minute drive.
Traffic, road construction, and one missed exit later, we pulled into Little Rock. Not realizing that there was parking at the event, I found an open spot downtown and we took off running towards the Clinton Library. Suffice to say, my lack of athleticism made the 'running' turn into a couple sprints interspersed with walking quickly. We arrived ten minutes late, but everyone was really kind about it, and let us in. The talk was geared toward the general public, skipping over the more hard core scientific details, but was still really interesting.
They had a nice fancy reception afterwards. Surrounded by all these fancy, well-dressed people, I went to grab a piece of chicken, only to have it slid off my plate, hit the table and fall on the floor. I just don't belong in fancy events.
So last night some friends and I tried out a new-to-me Asian restaurant, which was delicious. I took a quick picture of the rice, being the photographer junkie that I am, and edited it on my phone-- not using Instagram this time! I just wanted to post a quick before and after.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
I was able to crop, use a preset, and dodge and burn to my heart's desire. I used an app called Photogene-- it's pretty awesome and cheap.
I was searching for an open wifi network and found this ;) pretty snazzy name.
I think I've procrastinated enough. I have a 2000/3000 word paper due on Quantum Tunneling that I really should get back to. I thought about posting about the really cool parts of quantum tunneling (all of them!) but I realized I would only bore you. ;)
Thanks for reading!
It has been ridiculously long since I last posted-- an unfortunate testament to my workload. Even though I have nothing big to blog about, I wanted to post some pictures about my life.
The best way to grade Astronomy homework :) I went home for my birthday to see my family, hang out with a friend, and see my lovely cats. I feel like college could be exponentially less stressful if there were more pets around.
I broke my streak of somehow always missing the Hendrix plays to go see a musical with a ridiculously long name. Considering how small Hendrix is, and the fact that no one goes here just for musical theater, the musical was really good.
Before I went home for the weekend, my friends and I were really craving some sushi. Normally we make some on Saturday, but since I would be gone, we headed over to Kroger to buy some sushi. Now I had been told how good the sushi was at Kroger, but I was a little wary. The price, however, was reasonable, the sushi was pretty good.
Last Wednesday a guy from the group that helped find the Higgs-boson particle gave a talk in Little Rock. So my friend and I ran the second our dress rehearsal for band ended, grabbing some food, and racing towards Little Rock. We didn't get out of band till 5:30, the talk was at 6:00 and it was a 30 minute drive.
Traffic, road construction, and one missed exit later, we pulled into Little Rock. Not realizing that there was parking at the event, I found an open spot downtown and we took off running towards the Clinton Library. Suffice to say, my lack of athleticism made the 'running' turn into a couple sprints interspersed with walking quickly. We arrived ten minutes late, but everyone was really kind about it, and let us in. The talk was geared toward the general public, skipping over the more hard core scientific details, but was still really interesting.
They had a nice fancy reception afterwards. Surrounded by all these fancy, well-dressed people, I went to grab a piece of chicken, only to have it slid off my plate, hit the table and fall on the floor. I just don't belong in fancy events.
So last night some friends and I tried out a new-to-me Asian restaurant, which was delicious. I took a quick picture of the rice, being the photographer junkie that I am, and edited it on my phone-- not using Instagram this time! I just wanted to post a quick before and after.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
I was able to crop, use a preset, and dodge and burn to my heart's desire. I used an app called Photogene-- it's pretty awesome and cheap.
I was searching for an open wifi network and found this ;) pretty snazzy name.
I think I've procrastinated enough. I have a 2000/3000 word paper due on Quantum Tunneling that I really should get back to. I thought about posting about the really cool parts of quantum tunneling (all of them!) but I realized I would only bore you. ;)
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Formally 20
First blog post of my twenties!
Yup, that's right. I'm 20.
20. Two decades. Twentyyyyy yearrss old! I was still trying to figure out how I felt about this whole leaving my teenage years behind when I looked down at my watch in IHOP and realized that it had just turned February 17th and I had just turned 20 years old.
O.O Cue my friends singing Happy Birthday at 12:01 am in a fairly busy IHOP. The reason we were in IHOP at such a late hour is 1)really, when else would one go to IHOP? and 2)we had just left formal.
Formal is the biggest dance of the spring semester-- here's a post to pictures of last year's formal. Being the photographer, I ended up with zero pictures of me in my dress-- something that I fixed this year.
This year formal fell on the day before my birthday, an interesting way to end my teenage years, finally feeling like a teenager in a mock-club party.
Questionable stereotypes of teenage years aside, we all had fun getting ready for the party.
The happy couple!
While I don't have any pictures of formal, it was downtown and pretty cool. We stayed there for a couple hours before heading off to the obligatory IHOP late night snack and musing about two decades of life.
Two decades. I feel like I should feel like an adult now. You know, live on my own, not in a dorm, have a job-- though grading Astronomy totally counts--, have my life figured out. Or something like that. Still, I don't feel drastically different then I felt in high school. Twenties are when I'm supposed to get my life figured out. Finish school, find a career, fall in love. Ten years from now (a date impossibly in the future) I can barely imagine what my life will be like.
Anyway! On Sunday the caf workers all came out to sing and give me a birthday cake-- yet another reason why Hendrix is awesome.
I spent most of my birthday doing homework, per usual. However, it was most pleasantly broken up by a surprise birthday party my friends threw for me.
Here's the delicious cake my amazing friends made for me!
You can't really see it in this picture, but the candles all burned different colors. :)
Since I've never really celebrated my birthday much-- being at All-State for three of my birthdays kind of complicates the whole celebrating thing-- I loved having the surprise party. It was short, as everyone was terribly busy, but the fact that everyone took the time to organize it and bake the cake was so nice. :)
I had barely finished eating my slice of cake when I was taken to the fountain for the lovely Hendrix tradition of throwing people in the fountain on their birthdays.
Thanks Ashley and Michelle for snapping photos as I was tossed into the frigid water. Luckily for me it was an unusually pleasant day, even if the water was terribly cold.
Cold!
Apologies for the break in posting! It has been a hectic couple of weeks, packed with far too much work. I should go study for my Chem test tomorrow, but I wanted to post about you know, the whole 20s thing and the fact that I am no longer a teenager.
Thanks for reading!
Yup, that's right. I'm 20.
20. Two decades. Twentyyyyy yearrss old! I was still trying to figure out how I felt about this whole leaving my teenage years behind when I looked down at my watch in IHOP and realized that it had just turned February 17th and I had just turned 20 years old.
O.O Cue my friends singing Happy Birthday at 12:01 am in a fairly busy IHOP. The reason we were in IHOP at such a late hour is 1)really, when else would one go to IHOP? and 2)we had just left formal.
Formal is the biggest dance of the spring semester-- here's a post to pictures of last year's formal. Being the photographer, I ended up with zero pictures of me in my dress-- something that I fixed this year.
This year formal fell on the day before my birthday, an interesting way to end my teenage years, finally feeling like a teenager in a mock-club party.
Questionable stereotypes of teenage years aside, we all had fun getting ready for the party.
Two decades. I feel like I should feel like an adult now. You know, live on my own, not in a dorm, have a job-- though grading Astronomy totally counts--, have my life figured out. Or something like that. Still, I don't feel drastically different then I felt in high school. Twenties are when I'm supposed to get my life figured out. Finish school, find a career, fall in love. Ten years from now (a date impossibly in the future) I can barely imagine what my life will be like.
Anyway! On Sunday the caf workers all came out to sing and give me a birthday cake-- yet another reason why Hendrix is awesome.
I spent most of my birthday doing homework, per usual. However, it was most pleasantly broken up by a surprise birthday party my friends threw for me.
Since I've never really celebrated my birthday much-- being at All-State for three of my birthdays kind of complicates the whole celebrating thing-- I loved having the surprise party. It was short, as everyone was terribly busy, but the fact that everyone took the time to organize it and bake the cake was so nice. :)
I had barely finished eating my slice of cake when I was taken to the fountain for the lovely Hendrix tradition of throwing people in the fountain on their birthdays.
Thanks Ashley and Michelle for snapping photos as I was tossed into the frigid water. Luckily for me it was an unusually pleasant day, even if the water was terribly cold.
Cold!
Apologies for the break in posting! It has been a hectic couple of weeks, packed with far too much work. I should go study for my Chem test tomorrow, but I wanted to post about you know, the whole 20s thing and the fact that I am no longer a teenager.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
C'est fini!
It's...over. Half of my sophomore year...finished.
After finishing my last final I headed to the Murphy House and enjoyed my new found freedom by relaxing in front of a fire, sipping tea, and reading a French magazine.
Yup. Life is good after finals. No more stress no more obsessing over verb tenses, Maxwell's equations, Laplace transforms, or enthalpy changes.
It's over. In a way ((well in most ways)) I'm immensely glad that finals are over. After this challenging semester I need a month break. However, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness as I walked out of MC after my chem test, realizing that I wouldn't go to Vibes and Waves again, wouldn't have Diffy-Q.
Pretty bittersweet in an unexpected way.
What's not unexpected is that I'm so excited for break! Time to sleep, time to bake, time to blog, time to craft, time to hang out with friends-- I can't wait. :D
Yes that's a crane. Made out of a Recces peanut butter cup wrapper.
Let's just say that procrastination took on a more creative form as time went on this year ;)
I'm oddly excited for next year. I'll have the same awesome physics teacher as this year, an intriguing history class, a high level French class (yeah, we'll see how that turns out), and another chem class (oh well).
I keep obsessively checkout my grades, but it will be a while before any of them are posted.
It's official. Finals turned me into a tea drinker. I never thought I would say it. After all, I'm an ardently, mostly straight black coffee drinker. But the warm, free, fruity-goodness tea in the Murphy House (place on campus) won me over. Well that, and the warm, comfy, quiet study atmosphere really helped me get through finals. I count it a victory that I didn't step foot into one those forsaken library study carrels. While they can be useful, the claustrophobic-ly small cubicles cut you completely off from the outside world.
And that's no fun.
My roommates and I celebrated the end of finals by heading to Goodwill to make fun of the ugly clothing and buy the ridiculously cheap cute clothing. I just love second hand stores. Perhaps it's because I'm a broke college student. Good thing I don't like Prada or something.
Last night was my youth group's Christmas party. If you can't tell by the picture, it was a blast :)
Anyway! I think I'm going to go sleep...for like a week.
Thanks for reading :)
After finishing my last final I headed to the Murphy House and enjoyed my new found freedom by relaxing in front of a fire, sipping tea, and reading a French magazine.
Yup. Life is good after finals. No more stress no more obsessing over verb tenses, Maxwell's equations, Laplace transforms, or enthalpy changes.
It's over. In a way ((well in most ways)) I'm immensely glad that finals are over. After this challenging semester I need a month break. However, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness as I walked out of MC after my chem test, realizing that I wouldn't go to Vibes and Waves again, wouldn't have Diffy-Q.
 |
| Festive Physics Class! |
Pretty bittersweet in an unexpected way.
What's not unexpected is that I'm so excited for break! Time to sleep, time to bake, time to blog, time to craft, time to hang out with friends-- I can't wait. :D
Let's just say that procrastination took on a more creative form as time went on this year ;)
I'm oddly excited for next year. I'll have the same awesome physics teacher as this year, an intriguing history class, a high level French class (yeah, we'll see how that turns out), and another chem class (oh well).
 |
| More Crane fun! |
I keep obsessively checkout my grades, but it will be a while before any of them are posted.
And that's no fun.
 |
| Roomie! |
 |
| Once again, thank you loose FB regulations! |
Anyway! I think I'm going to go sleep...for like a week.
Thanks for reading :)
Monday, December 3, 2012
Cabin in the Woods
Alternatively titled "That time when I thought that I should blog rather than studying for finals which may or may not end all life as we know it."
But I just thought 'Cabin the Woods' would be a bit...catchier. Besides, I don't have a final till Friday. Which is like four days away.
It's totally not panicking time yet.
That's tomorrow.
But for today I remain in blissful peace, breaking my one week Facebook fast to post some pictures from the LSF retreat. LSF=Lutheran Student Fellowship, aka fancy way to say youth group. Since I was putting them on Facebook, I thought I would blog about the retreat.
To start off with, we redeemed ourselves from the fishing fiasco that was the mission trip in Colorado where we spent hours standing around a still pond with half-broken fishing poles and fake bait, waiting for the fish to bite. It took roughly half a minute after throwing out my bait for my bobber to jerk under the water here in Arkansas.
The fish were biting like crazy and the unnaturally warm weather made it a pleasant day for fishing.
Besides fishing we played copious amounts of card games, and went skeet shooting.
In case you didn't know ((I didn't)) skeet shooting involves launching tiny Frisbee shaped objects into the air, and then trying to shot the hurling, spinning disks while they whiz past you. And if you have the sense to keep your eyes open ((I didn't)) and don't just blindly shoot, you might manage to hit one.
It was my first time shooting a gun; much louder than I had expected. Also much, much more difficult that I was expecting. Once I forced myself to keep my eyes open, I had better luck-- somehow managing to actually hit one of those awfully-small-tiny-barely-there-traveling-at-the-speed-of-light 'clay pigeons.'
We had campfires-- and I had so much fun experimenting with long exposures. ;) The fire was just so much fun to shoot.
I could post a lot more photos of the flickering flames but I don't want to bore you, dear reader who puts up with my erratic posting. ;)
But seriously. Look at those colors. And that movement. I love how soft the fire looks, spreading out against the black background.
Anyway! LSF retreat was last weekend, this week is the beginning of finals. I had my last day of classes today....such an odd feeling, half of sophomore year is almost over! It's crazy.
I mean if I think back to the beginning of the semester that feels like ages ago. However, it also feels like my first semester just fly past me. There were some crappy days and some good days, like on the LSF retreat, nearing crying from laughter when trying to play spoons with fake British commentary. I just feel like college is speeding by; soon it'll be over, and real life will begin.....
But until then I'll just pretend to not be freaking out about finals.
I'll probably have another my-life-is-over-finals-are-still-going-I-hate-college post before it's all said and done even if break seems sooo close and yet so far away (cheesy sayings for the win!)
Thanks for reading :)
But I just thought 'Cabin the Woods' would be a bit...catchier. Besides, I don't have a final till Friday. Which is like four days away.
It's totally not panicking time yet.
That's tomorrow.
But for today I remain in blissful peace, breaking my one week Facebook fast to post some pictures from the LSF retreat. LSF=Lutheran Student Fellowship, aka fancy way to say youth group. Since I was putting them on Facebook, I thought I would blog about the retreat.
 |
| Getting lucky in Arkansas |
 |
| So cool! |
It was my first time shooting a gun; much louder than I had expected. Also much, much more difficult that I was expecting. Once I forced myself to keep my eyes open, I had better luck-- somehow managing to actually hit one of those awfully-small-tiny-barely-there-traveling-at-the-speed-of-light 'clay pigeons.'
We had campfires-- and I had so much fun experimenting with long exposures. ;) The fire was just so much fun to shoot.
I could post a lot more photos of the flickering flames but I don't want to bore you, dear reader who puts up with my erratic posting. ;)
But seriously. Look at those colors. And that movement. I love how soft the fire looks, spreading out against the black background.
Anyway! LSF retreat was last weekend, this week is the beginning of finals. I had my last day of classes today....such an odd feeling, half of sophomore year is almost over! It's crazy.
I mean if I think back to the beginning of the semester that feels like ages ago. However, it also feels like my first semester just fly past me. There were some crappy days and some good days, like on the LSF retreat, nearing crying from laughter when trying to play spoons with fake British commentary. I just feel like college is speeding by; soon it'll be over, and real life will begin.....
But until then I'll just pretend to not be freaking out about finals.
I'll probably have another my-life-is-over-finals-are-still-going-I-hate-college post before it's all said and done even if break seems sooo close and yet so far away (cheesy sayings for the win!)
Thanks for reading :)
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