Julianne's Complete Randomness

Flying Free Trip #6: Paris/London

2011-09-18T14:15:00.001-04:00

Last year, I was lucky to have the opportunity to attend a conference in Paris. Since this was my first trip overseas, I decided to spend a couple of extra days in a Paris and a couple days in London.

Lucky for me, I was traveling for work during a non-busy travel time, so I got a free upgrade to envoy (business class). Business class is the way to go! The seats lay back, sometimes flat, otherwise almost flat, you get a free bag of trinkets (toothbrush, eye covering, and lotion), and they give you several delicious meals. The flight was most excellent.

I arrived in Paris in the early hours of the morning before the sun had risen. I speak no French, so I was rather nervous. After much trouble of walking outside, waiting outside, walking in circles, asking for help, taking a tram to the next terminal, waiting for a shuttle, getting more nervous, asking for more help, going in more circles, wondering where this shuttle is going to pick me up, I looked up, and there was the Hilton! Hurray! I found it! I thought the website said there was a shuttle from the airport, but oh well, a 2 minute walk is preferable to a shuttle.

The conference was interesting despite my extreme fatigue (probably due to my inability to sleep well on the plane there and jet lag), and the dinner cruise was very fancy. For the conference, we went on a cruise down the Seine river where we could see many of the Paris sights from the boat including my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I especially like how it sparkled for about 5 minutes every hour. The dinner was also very fancy, and I was offered red wine, white wine, and champagne. I opted for water. Personally, I felt the cruise was overly extravagant and unnecessary and a waste of money, but it was a good experience nonetheless. I enjoyed dinner with Dr. Peter Belobaba who is probably the most well-known name in revenue management. He was very interesting to talk to, and I didn't feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable during the dinner.

After the conference, I visited the sights in Paris with my coworker. My favorite place was the Gardens of Versailles. I prefer being outdoors among the beautifully trimmed garden hedges and trees to somewhat dull museums of art, and I was filled with energy walking around the gardens.

I then took the train through the chunnel to London. I like traveling by train! I like London MUCH better than Paris and not because of my inability to speak French. I actually really enjoyed being around a foreign language. It gave me a challenge to try and learn a few French phrases which I did. I like London because it is clean and very well taken care of. There are little parks everywhere and most everything is free. I felt safe despite being alone. However, I don't think I want to travel alone again; it's kind of lonely.

Arizona Skies

2011-08-17T02:16:00.001-04:00

I did not adjust the colors to get this picture. The sky is really that incredible.

All my life, I wanted to get out of the desert. I considered the desert a dry, barren, ugly place. Why do so many people like living there? So I escaped. I'm now back, and while I still believe that the land elsewhere is much more beautiful, my break from the desert made me realize how stunning the skies are here. The past couple of weeks, the sky has been especially beautiful. While walking out of the grocery store tonight, I was so impressed with the sky, I couldn't resist using modern technology that I keep on me most of the time to snap a picture (cell phones are pretty amazing).

Flying Free Trip #18: Albuquerque

2011-08-03T21:51:00.000-04:00

When I told people that I was planning to go to Albuquerque, the most common response was, "Why?" in a tone that meant "Why would you ever want to go there?". I happen to really like Albuquerque a lot. For one, it's a whole lot cooler than Phoenix. Plus, they have a few really cool things--- the tram up the mountain, the balloon fiesta, and a good friend of mine.

It was a nice and relaxing trip. Friday night, I hung out with two friends of mine---one friend from high school that I hadn't seen in many years, and the one who lives in Albuquerque. It's interesting how fast time flies and how much our lives change in just a few years! Saturday, I rode a bicycle for a while (I love the outdoors when it's nice weather), watched a movie, got a ride to the airport in this amazing truck, and flew home. And I still had time to go out to the movie theater after I returned home. Great weekend.

Sewing Project #7: Easter Skirt

2011-07-02T13:01:00.000-04:00

For Christmas, I received a sewing tote with scissors, pins, a rotary cutter, and a skirt pattern. I really like the pattern, and I decided to make it for Easter. I finished the skirt at around 2am Easter morning, and I am quite happy with the results! I especially like that it has pockets.

Now I need to make a dress. Anyone have any good patterns? I saw a good one at Scrapbooks Etc. yesterday, but I didn't want to pay $12 for a pattern.

Flying Free Trip #17: Long Beach CA

2011-06-28T02:45:00.002-04:00

My life is awesome.

Friday was 111 degrees in Phoenix. Saturday was too. However, Friday I was hot; Saturday I was not. I was so hot that I posted a picture of ice on my blog. It was so hot that even at 6am at 90 degrees I decided it was too hot to go for a bike ride (or maybe I was just lazy). Then I was even hotter after walking back from lunch at 1pm. Why did I move back to Phoenix? Yesterday, people kept asking me what my plans were for the weekend. "Nothing," I replied. I was sure I'd think of something interesting to do. Probably read my book and clean the house a little. Then I realized---why am I in Phoenix this weekend when I could be somewhere cooler? What about California? I could enjoy the beautiful 75 degree California weather AND read while in transit. So I looked up flights to California and decided to go to Long Beach. I found a nice park within walking distance from the airport with a nice long bicycle path. I might not be able to bring a bicycle on the plane, but I recently found a nice pair of used roller blades.

So, I went for it. I woke up early on Saturday morning and a short while later I was in Long Beach California walking down the tarmac to the airport. Yes, this airport is so small you have to walk down the tarmac to get to your airplane. It's so small that the baggage claim is outside. But it's also so small that I could walk to a park in just a few minutes. The park was beautiful. I felt like I was in a utopia. Many people were out enjoying the beautiful weather. One man was doing a fairly good job keeping up with me on my roller blades, but I eventually passed him for good.

Overall the trip was excellent. The sun makes me happy, and Saturday was no exception. I failed to bring sunscreen, so I'm a little red, but it's not too bad. My return flight was two hours delayed, so I went shopping at Kmart to pass the time and bought socks. I enjoyed a delicious smoothie for my afternoon snack. And finally, I returned to the airport and flew home.

Nice Day.

HOT

2011-06-24T10:57:00.000-04:00

With the coolest temperature of the day being 87 degrees at 5am, I forget that it can actually be cold here. A few months ago, it was so cold, I found ice in my front yard. Being such a rare occurence, I had to take a picture. Now I look at it dreaming of cooler weather. Maybe I should take day trips on the weekends to cool down.

Book Signing

2011-06-11T03:11:00.001-04:00

Confession: I like teenager books. Maybe it's because I never liked reading in high school because the books we read in school I thought were boring, or because I prefer quick, easy reading to books with words I have to look up in the dictionary. Maybe it's because I'm still a kid inside or I prefer to stay away from adult themes. Whatever the reason, I really like teenage science fiction books especially. Here a few titles I've read somewhat recently:

Uglies Series
The Maze Runner
The Hunger Games Series
The Roar
The Supernaturalist
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Running Out of Time
Found (The Missing Series)

Last night I finished, The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I had a little trouble getting really interested in it, but once I did, I was hooked and finished it in less than a week. I like the whole concept of the book. It's about a bunch of teenage boys who show up in a glade surrounded by an impossible maze. They remember nothing of their former lives, but they live pretty happily in this glade working hard to keep their physical needs met and even harder to try to solve the maze. I was never convinced that any of the characters were as smart as they were supposed to be (Orson Scott Card does this really well in Ender's Game), but I enjoyed it anyway. I'm pretty excited to read the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials.

Tonight, I went to a book signing for Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. Four years ago, I was playing games at a friend's house, and she told me about a story her sister-in-law just got published called Wings. When I moved to North Carolina, I discovered the book in the library and read it. It was quite good! Definitely an early teen romance book, but I liked it anyway. The second book, Spells, was even better. I now look forward to reading Illusions. I find it interesting that one person I talked to four years ago directly affected my evening tonight. I would not have gone to that book signing if I had no connection to the author. It makes me wonder how the things I've said to other people have affected them.

Anyway, this was a quadruple book signing! Four authors, many books! The books by two of the authors seemed especially ridiculous to me---vampire romance novel with 10 books in the series and mucho teenage angst going on. I enjoyed twilight, but this just seemed over the top. One author stuck out to me though. When Veronica Roth said she likes The Giver and read Ender's Game seven times, I immediately liked her. Her personality and vibrance increased that liking even more. I could totally see myself being friends with her. Then I read the plot summary of her debut novel, Divergent, and I liked her even more. It's my favorite genre---young adult dystopia! More amazing is that she's only 22. I used to always think authors were older than me. Now they are my friends. I look forward to reading Divergent and hope it's even better than I'm imagining.

In response to this article, I don't think any of these books are inappropriate for teens. They might be too dark for younger children, but I'd much rather see a teenager reading these books than watching much of the lousy TV shows and PG-13 movies that are popular today. (Don't get me wrong---there are some good new TV shows and PG-13 movies, but I'd say the majority are just a waste of time.)

And now that I'm pretty much out of vacation days at work and thus will not be taking any more cool trips around the world for quite a while, I should find plenty of time to read all of these books.

Flying Free Trip #11: San Francisco/San Jose

2011-05-19T07:05:00.000-04:00

My life has been very fortunate. I've always earned decent grades in school. I've never been in a car accident. I've always had just enough money to get by. And best of all, I've met and been good friends with a lot of really cool people. One of those people is finishing up a post doc at Stanford and just earned himself an awesome job at Google. (Yeah, I'm a little jealous...) Back in February I decided that I needed to see the Golden Gate Bridge, so I contacted my Stanford friend. I was unfortunate in my timing---it was pouring rain the entire time---but I really enjoyed the day anyway. We also went to the exploratorium (my favorite kind of museum) and Stanford campus. As it turns out, I have another friend who is now his roommate, so it was nice to get the chance to see two old friends again.

Flying Free Trip #14: Orange County California

2011-05-02T00:00:00.001-04:00

This weekend, I played the oboe in the OCMCO Orchestra (Orange County Mormon Choral Organization). I was either playing oboe or eating/sleeping the entire time, so I didn't get to see much, but I enjoyed the opportunity. The music is fun to play, and the concert hall is beautiful! I saw the Newport Beach LDS temple briefly while driving to rehearsal, but I didn't even get a chance to take a picture. I'll have to go back.

Flying Free Trip #12: Flagstaff

2011-04-07T03:58:00.000-04:00

I love Flagstaff. I went to school there for a reason. It's beautiful. The air is clean. You can see the stars. You never have to drive far (or in my case drive at all---I didn't have a car, just a bicycle). There are excellent out-doors activities. The weather is beautiful (except when it's freezing cold). The sun still shines a lot even though it gets cold sometimes.

Snow!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a great opportunity. I accompanied my old roommate and really good friend on her drive back to Flagstaff. The drive was pretty, and we caught up on all of the things that have happened in the past few years of our lives. We went out to dinner, and then I flew home.

I didn't take any pictures, but here are some old ones.

Dominating a rock on Mt Eldon

Bouldering down the face of Mt Eldon

First time hiking Mt Humphreys

My cave room

Turning all of these into oboe reed cases

Jumping off a pole

Second time hiking Mt Humphreys

Flying Free Trip #3: Utah

2011-03-14T02:08:00.001-04:00

I love hanging with my family. We have so much fun together. Today while hanging with my sister and my dad, my sister pointed out to me that I don't write in my blog very often. She's right, it's been nearly a month. Plus, I'm behind on blogging all the cool places I've traveled to. I'm pretty fortunate that I can fly around the world for free or super cheap.

Last summer, my family went on a trip to Utah. We have a lot of family from there, so it was a nice trip. I drove up with the family, and flew back early because I couldn't take that many days off of work. I'm thankful that I have a job where I can take some time off work as needed. I really enjoyed the trip. On the way, we saw this really neat canyon.

We had a family reunion in the canyon of the mountains next to the small town my ancestors are from. There we did some of our favorite family activities: Ate good food including lots of sweets, played with the little kids, and played Rook. We play this version of Rook that I'm pretty sure only exists in this small town, but it's so big they have a tournament every year. One of these years, I need to join the tournament. I really like Rook a lot.

Me and two of my cousins decided to get back to Grandma's house by bicycle. I was the fortunate one with the normal-sized bike.

After the reunion. We visited BYU campus because my brother is thinking about going there. We also visited my great grandfather's grave. After this, I flew home. My brother was dropped off to not be seen again for two years, and the rest of the family drove home a few days later. Don't worry, my brother went to the exciting city of Chicago to teach people about the LDS church. He's dedicated.

Sewing Project #6: My Favorite Skirt

2011-02-16T10:37:00.000-05:00

This was a our last project, and by this point in time, several of the students in the class wanted the day to catch up on old projects or make one of the projects from a class they missed. Apparently most people don't really want a "naughty secretary skirt" as the pattern is called. So, I was the only person in the entire class (of 12) to make the skirt. I happen to really like my skirt a lot.

I think I'm finally prepared to sew a dress. However, first I have another skirt pattern I'd like to try out, and I still need to finish sewing project #4: pajama pants.

Flying Free Trip #4: West Virginia

2011-01-09T23:27:00.002-05:00

Four months ago, I went river rafting for the second time in my life. It was amazing. Equally incredible, were the beautiful West Virginia mountains. The trip was magnificent. First, the weather was perfect. After spending a grueling summer in the heat of Phoenix, the cool air was rather refreshing. The drive through the trees was beautiful---a nice break from the barren desert. After arriving to our camping location before the trip, we took a trip to this amazing bridge. The bridge is huge! It spans the wide New River Gorge, and it's so tall, that the Washington Monument and TWO statue of liberties could fit underneath it. More importantly, it's pretty. I'm not huge into artwork, but I love good architecture. Look at it---both well-built, useful, and beautiful. Plus, I love the outdoors.

Sewing Project #5: Failed Flouncy Tank Top

2011-01-09T02:58:00.001-05:00

Not everything you sew is going to turn out well. This is one of those cases. Fortunately, I have some really amazing projects that make up for this failed one. I think I spent 5 hours working on this tank top, and today I decided, "You know, even if I alter this the way I was planning, I still doubt I'll ever wear it. I don't think it's cute." So I burned it. It's now gone. How do I feel? Accomplished. Not for burning the tank top that I spent 5 hours making, but for learning so much about sewing from taking this class. I made some things I really like. Sewing project #4 is a way cute pair of pj's that I haven't quite finished, but once I do, it'll get a good post. Sewing project #6 is an amazing skirt that I get compliments on every time I wear it. Sewing project #5 didn't work out, but now I know how to do some sewing techniques I didn't know before.

Vegetarian Diet

2010-11-23T23:45:00.000-05:00

For the past week, I've been a vegetarian. It's been good. It was really hard one day when some chicken chowder soup with bacon was offered to me, but I had the cheese bread instead. For lunch on Friday, I went to a Thai restaurant and had tofu in my dish instead of meat. While I think I prefer meat to tofu, the tofu was good. The only reason I prefer meat is because it's what I'm used to, but the tofu was prepared in a way that tasted good and had good texture.

While I don't plan on being a vegetarian, it made me realize that I probably eat too much meat. As a Mormon, we have been given a "Word of Wisdom" on our diet, and it says that meat is "to be used sparingly." I don't think that most Mormons follow this very well. There are other things that we are very strict to follow such as no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, and no tobacco, but for some reason, we're okay with having meat at the majority of our meals.

At work today, we were discussing how a pilot from Australia found it interesting when he moved to the US that he was not allowed to drink at all during lunch. Where he is from, one drink is acceptable. They are expected to be adults and not drink more than is unsafe. We discussed this idea and that the problem with this is, where do you draw the line? I responded to this point with "That's why I don't drink at all." And it's true---does one cup of beer, one cup of coffee, or even drinking tea a couple times a week hurt you? Probably not. Some things may even help you, like drinking wine occasionally. It's when it's impairing you mentally whether through the affects of alcohol or an addiction to caffeine that's the problem. Still, where do you draw the line? It's just safer not to drink at all.

So, what am I going to about meat? While I don't think abstaining from it entirely would be good for me, I am going to cut back. I'll try not to cook with it much and try to choose items on the menu with less or no meat. And maybe I'll be more meat conscious like my mother by buying grass-fed beef.

Live from Paris: Flying Free Trips Sneak Peek

2010-10-28T06:43:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit behind on updating my trips. Here are the trips you'll hear about soon:

Flying Free Trips:

#3: Utah (I need to find a picture to post first...)
#4: West Virginia
#5: North Carolina
#6: Paris/London

And here's the Eiffle Tower at night during the 5 minutes of sparkle.

Sewing Project #3: Awesome Apron

2010-10-22T01:31:00.000-04:00

I found this amazing fabric at the Bernina store: it's covered in the golden ratio! That's right---phi, aka 1.618 aka my favorite number. This is the design covering the fabric, but trust me, the fabric is super cute. I've been trying to figure out something to make with it, and I was like "Aha! An Apron!" And I began my search for a solid blue fabric to match the blue golden ratio. I was thinking a solid blue background with golden ratio pockets would be amazing. Unfortunately, during my search at my new favorite fabric store, I found nothing quite right. But, fortunately, I found something better! The perfect fabric for the perfect apron: Italian food fabric with Italian food names, along with a contrasting musical fabric. I love Italian food, and I love music. Perfect combo for an apron. The project was rather time consuming due to the homemade edging, but I love it! It came almost perfect except that the food fabric is upside-down, but then I realized that means the cook can read it perfectly.

Next week: yoga pants. Maybe they'll be golden ratio pants?

Sewing Project #2: Decorative Pillowcase

2010-10-20T01:49:00.002-04:00

I found some cute fabric at the fabric store which I purchased to match my bedsheets. Here's a tip of advice: the color of something in your head isn't always accurate. So, the pillow doesn't match, but oh well! It's cute. Plus, it worked quite well as a sleeping pillow on the airplane. Even though it's supposed to be a decorative pillow, I don't care. It's my new airplane pillow. I finished sewing the buttons while flying on an airplane, so it fits.

I made this pillow with the fancy Bernina machine at the store. I think I like my machine better than the bernina, except that my machine isn't heavy duty. I guess I'll have to save the heavy fabrics for a more heavy duty machine. The pillow is complete with a center focus fabric surrounded by a border, and the back has both fabrics with buttons to connect them. Plus, I discovered a neat furniture store with cheap pillows (without the case).

Flying Free Trip #2: Seattle

2010-10-12T03:21:00.001-04:00

Two of my favorite friends decided to run the Seattle Marathon in June since they were planning to be there. "Hey Blay*, guess what? I found out there's a marathon the day after our conference in Seattle. I'm turning 26, so it seems fitting. Awesome, right?" Reply, "That's an awesome idea Barb*! I've always wanted to run so much to cause my knees to be in constant pain. Sounds like the perfect ending to a business trip." Then they ran, and ran, and ran. Several times a week. Talk about time-consuming. After watching all their hard work, I wanted to find out first-hand if it was worth it, so I went to watch them finish. They both did so well! Both under 4 hours and 30 minutes. Seattle was neat too, but not as exciting as seeing them cross the finish line.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's one with Barb.

*Names have been modified to protect the privacy of my friends.

Flying Free Trip #1: Las Vegas

2010-09-20T22:08:00.000-04:00

I've decided I need to document all the places I go so that I don't forget. A few months ago, I went with my coworkers to Las Vegas for dinner. We watched the beautiful fountains at the Belagio, walked around a bit, ate a delicious buffet, and then went home. It was a fun first trip.

While there, I saw the hugest picture of Donnie and Marie ever and some creepy creatures at the Belagio.

Sewing Project #1

2010-09-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

My plan with sewing project #1 was to make something that obviously looked handmade. Funny mistakes and non-straight lines are all part of the project. It ended up turning out better than I thought. My sewing machine gave me difficulties though---lesson learned... buy a good expensive sewing machine; it's worth it. Don't get me wrong, I really like my sewing machine, but considering it broke already, I'm less than pleased. I just hope the 1st-year warranty covers the entire cost of the repair. I ended finishing up the project on my mother's sewing machine which is super-old yet works like a charm.

Anyway, here it is. A cute bag! It includes fleece lined double-sided quilted fabric with a zipper and a side handle.

Vegetable Lasagna

2010-09-02T01:37:00.004-04:00

I made some vegetable lasagna the other night. My roommate quite enjoyed it and wanted the recipe. I don't use recipes much, so here is how I made it to the best of my memory.

Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 jar Ragu Mama's Special Garden Pasta Sauce spaghetti sauce
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes with Italian flavoring
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 medium carrot, shredded
1 tbsp red cooking wine (optional)

1 tsp seasoned salt
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
3 oz fresh baby spinach
1/2 pound mozzarella, shredded
1/2 pound Italian cheese mixture (I don't remember what it included, probably parmesan, romano, mozzarella, provolone.)
9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
15 oz whole milk ricotta cheese (I didn't use it all)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Directions

Saute the oil, onion, garlic, carrot, wine, and seasoned salt until the onions turn translucent.
In the meantime, place the tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and water in a large pan on low heat. (I used the water to get the last of the spaghetti sauce out of the jar.)
In the meantime, mix the ricotta, Italian seasoning, Parmesan, and egg with a spoon in a small mixing bowl.
When the onions are translucent, add to the tomato sauce mixture.
Using a large serving spoon, pour a small layer of the tomato sauce mixture onto the bottom of a 13x9 pan.
Spread a thick layer of the ricotta mixture onto 6 uncooked noodles.

Place 3 noodles in pan, ricotta face up.
Add a layer of zucchini.
Add 1/4 lb of mozzarella.
Add a small layer of sauce.
Add a layer of noodles/ricotta.
Add the spinach.
Add the rest of the mozzarella.
Add a small layer of sauce.
Add final three noodles.
Pour the rest of the sauce on top.
Add the half pound of Italian cheese mixture.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.
Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
Enjoy!

Serves 6-12.

Notes: Yes I don't bake the noodles ahead of time. The little water I add is enough. It's so much easier not to, and it works quite well. You don't have to buy no-boil noodles. Any kind will do. Also, if you want to add an extra layer to the lasagna, that's fine. You might need extra sauce. I didn't use all of the ricotta mixture, so there should be plenty of that. I find it hard to add an extra layer without almost spilling over the edge of the pan, so I only do three layers. And feel free to add any other ingredients you want like egg plant, ground beef, or mushrooms.

Arizona Skies

2010-08-07T01:45:00.001-04:00

Arizona really is quite the unusual place. I never thought it was growing up. I always thought it was dry, ugly, and boring. Now that I'm older and wiser I realize that only one of those adjectives is true.

Dry: Arizona is definitely dry. I saw rain while driving through Alabama at the beginning of June. The next time I saw rain (other than a few scattered sprinkles) was the end of July. That's nearly 2 whole months without rain. I'm amazed that there's still life here after so long with no water.

Not Ugly:I still believe that the lush life on the East coast is prettier than the desert, but the skies in the desert win hands down. Every time I look at the sky in the evening, I'm in awe. They're stunning! I'll never have to suffer through a gray-skies winter again.

Not Boring: There is quite a bit to do here. Most of the year, the weather is beautiful, and you can go hiking in beautiful scenery. Last January, I hiked the Superstitions. The view was spectacular. You don't get views like that back East. Plus, being the city there are a lot of activities to do around town. I've now been to two improv places which were way fun.

I haven't taken any pictures lately, but my current Sonoran desert background shows how pretty it can be here.

Fourth of July

2010-07-07T10:50:00.001-04:00

Last year: Fireworks at Washington DC. This year: Fireworks at Tempe Town Lake. The verdict?

The Washington DC fireworks show was rather disappointing. It was nice while it lasted, but after an adequate ending sequence, it was suddenly over, and I craved more. The show lasted about 15-20 minutes. I don't remember much about the music that went along with it. I guess it wasn't very memorable.

The Tempe fireworks show was quite fun. We went last minute, and I was worried we would miss the show since it started while we were in the car, but shortly after, we found a [free] parking spot. At first I was disappointed that we missed the beginning, but after 30 minutes, I was asking myself "These are pretty, but now I'm bored." At least the music was good. The fireworks lasted around 45 minutes. It had a neat false ending about halfway through that I liked, and the actual end was quite spectacular. However, the in between parts got boring. (Though the designs were fun, it was just too long.) I think it should have been at least 15 minutes shorter.

Maybe I'm super picky, but I think the ideal show time is between 20 and 35 minutes. The show needs a nice start, a slow period with some exciting surprises, and a false adequate ending followed by a spectacular finale.

So the verdict? The Tempe show was definitely better. HOWEVER, the Washington DC experience wins out. Maybe that's a little unfair, because Washington DC obviously has cooler sights to see, but that's exactly why it wins. I got to spend the day seeing for the first time the history of our country. That's what the 4th of July is all about. In 2009, none of the bands at the DC show were any good in my opinion. However, I notice that this year, David Archuleta, Gladys Knight, and the National Symphony Orchestra are all part of the show. I would have loved to hear that combination! Plus, seeing the Washington Monument next to the fireworks was pretty neat. The Washington DC event was free while Tempe Town Lake costs $5-$10 (though I watched from outside the gate so it was free).

Sewing

2010-06-15T21:06:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I started watching the TV show, Pushing Daisies off of theWB.com. I immediately fell in love with all of the dresses the main girl wore, so I tried to find some like it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any quite like them though I did find a few that I liked. However, these dresses were priced much too high for one that I wasn't certain I was in love with. Also a few weeks ago, I read a book called Into the Wild Nerd Yonder. I enjoyed the book but only because I immediately connected with the main character and her joy for math. She spent her summer sewing a lot of skirts---one for every occasion. On the first day of school she wore a skirt with pencils and rulers on it. While I don't think I could ever go that extreme, it gave me the desire to make a skirt for myself. Then a few days ago, I was watching another episode of Pushing Daisies, and I decided I could make a dress for myself too! Only problem, I've never really sewed before. I remember working on a quilt made from scraps of fabric when I was a child, but I never finished it, and I've never done much since then. Still, now that I'm done with school, I think I need to do something else with my life than work. So, I have a new goal. First, sew a simple skirt and maybe a few other things, and then design and sew (or just find a pattern I like) a pretty dress for myself. And hopefully since I have posted this goal for everyone to see, I'll actually do it.

I'll Miss You North Carolina

2010-06-10T22:18:00.001-04:00

I'm finally mostly settled into my new place, and today while driving through the cool 100 degree weather, I began dreaming of glistening rain and sparkling flowers from North Carolina. Plus, my mailbox here is not nearly as cool as some of the ones I saw back in NC.

I dearly miss North Carolina. As my time there came to a close, I realized how much I absolutely loved it.
The land. The people. The experience.

The Land

It's beautiful there. I've shown that beauty in past blogs. I have loved seeing the 4 seasons. I've never experienced 4 concrete seasons like I did in North Carolina. The first time I saw a firefly was last summer. Granted, it was in Maryland, but close enough. We had a campfire going, and I thought sparks from the campfire were going towards the grass. When I was told they were bugs, I was so excited!

The People

The people I met there were the best. Strangers were often quite friendly, and acquaintances quickly became friends. Due to the small size of the groups I was a member of, I feel I've made a strong connection with many people. For example, at school, there were three other US students in the same (or similar) program as me. We spent many hours on homework together. As grueling as that sounds, being together made doing the homework somewhat enjoyable. At church, having a smaller group helped me to get to know everyone. We often had parties where everyone was invited. There was always something to do.

The Experience

The combination of the people, the culture, and the land was a rewarding experience I never imagined possible. I hope to go back and visit someday soon. I'll try to take advantage of my free flights. Now if only I had more than 5 vacation days this year. Although, if anyone wants to visit me, I have 8 discount tickets for other people to use (standby).

And finally, here are some of the neat mailboxes I found a few weeks ago.

College Math Teacher Rule

2010-05-27T11:04:00.002-04:00

Not all students will like you. (And if they do all like you, you're probably doing something wrong.) If a student is not coming to class regularly, chances are they don't like you. And if you don't want them writing a bad comment on your class evaluations, don't tell the whole class which day class evaluations are and that there is extra credit that day. They will come and write you a bad evaluation. Lesson learned for me.

"Instructor is incapable of connecting with students . . . to the point where I stopped going to class to maintain better grades." Maybe I had a bad day one day (like when I couldn't hear due to an ear infection) and if you kept going to class you would have done better in the class. Or maybe I just can't take criticism. At least I got these contrasting reviews, "Very systematic I always knew exactly what I had to do and how I was doing." and "Great teacher and class."

Tick Tick

2010-05-15T21:16:00.001-04:00

I think me and the Mother Nature of North Carolina are done for the summer. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, and it's especially beautiful here in North Carolina. However, after finding a tick on me a few minutes ago after already removing one earlier this week, I'm done. Three's a charm, and in the tick-biting world that might mean Lyme Disease.

Here is a little info about ticks. They can't jump or fly, but they can crawl.. They can get you if you're leaning next to a tree, standing near a bush or sitting on a log. They might even fall from a tree. When they do get on you, they crawl to a moist warm spot on your body.

My first tick this week I either encountered while going for a nice walk through the forest next to Lake Jordan or the nice walk around the park at the Lost Colony Visitors center on Manteo Island. I found the tick on my back. It looked like a small freckle at first, but no, upon closer examination it was a tick. The second tick I encountered either while camping this weekend at Lake Jordan or during my nice bike ride a few minutes ago. I think I see a common theme here: Lake Jordan. I guess no more Lake Jordan for me during the Summer. I found this tick on the side of my waistline. It was a bit bigger than the last one and much harder to remove. The pictures are of the second tick.

And more info about ticks. The only way to remove them is by gently pulling them out. Don't try any other method. I just use a piece of toilet paper and my fingers, but the experts recommend tweezers.

On a more positive note, I went on an adventurous bicycle ride today. I explored a neighborhood near my house. The most exciting thing I saw was the mailboxes! I'm going to have to go back and take a few pictures before I leave. The houses were pretty neat too. I do love North Carolina. Just not in the summer. (Did I mention I found 3 spiders in my bathroom just now?)

Family Vacation

2010-05-15T10:44:00.002-04:00

I'm just going to refer you to this post made by my mother.

College Math Teacher Rule #1: Go to Class!

2010-04-29T10:54:00.002-04:00

While reading this blog by a family member of mine and thinking about how funny her students are, I realized that I am a teacher too. Yes, I teach a class. I have 31 students. It's only just started to hit me that Tuesday was my last day of teaching them ever. The last memory they'll have of me is turning in their final exam next week. Maybe I should make it easier than the previous exams.

Anyway, I was thinking about all the funny things her students do and say. Why is it that mine aren't that funny? Is it because I only have 31 of them when I imagine she has a lot more, or is it because my students are on average 4.5 years older than hers? Do kids really mature that much in 4.5 years? Maybe it's just being in college. Or maybe it's because my average attendance rate is 22/31 students and the funny ones choose to skip class.

Whatever the case may be, I've discovered that math tends to be a rather boring subject for many students. After being entirely disappointed that one of my students fell asleep during class, I decided I needed to fix this problem. So, the next class I came up with a question about the TV Show, the office. Here is how I presented the problem during class: After 50 minutes of usual class, I told everyone to stand up and tell two people their favorite TV show. Then we proceeded to work out this question:

The Michael Scott Paper Company has just opened with 3 employees: Michael, Pam, and Ryan. In addition to their regular tasks, there are 3 additional tasks that need to be done each week by any of the 3 employees (copy materials, purchase bulk paper, contact clients). Their efficiencies on these tasks differ, where the time each would need to perform the tasks is given by the following table:

Time needed per week
Copy Materials Order Paper Contact Clients
Michael 5.9 hours 1.8 hours 6.7 hours
Pam 4.5 hours 2.4 hours 6.3 hours
Ryan 5.1 hours 2.2 hours 5.8 hours

Each task should be done by exactly one employee, and each employee can do at most two of the tasks. Additionally, each employee has some requirements: if Pam copies materials, she will not have to do either of the other two tasks; Ryan will not copy materials and order paper combined in the same week; and Michael will not spend more total time than Ryan. Formulate this as an integer program (decision variables, objective, and constraints) to minimize the total amount of time spent on these extra duties per week. Do not attempt to solve.

And to finish up, here are a few random comments from my students:

Student: What's your last name? (This was the last day of class. I think he knows my first name at least.)
Student: Can you just give us the exam problems?
Student: I like the way you taught class.
Student: How do you do this problem? Me: Were you in class on Thursday? Student: No. Me: We did it in class on Thursday.
Student: My birthday is today! I'm 23! Me: *Not saying anything but realizing that I'm barely a year older than him.*
Student: Can I miss class tomorrow to take an exam for another class? Me: So you're saying your other class is more important than mine?
Student: I'm feeling a little lost with the homework. Me: Were you in class on Thursday? Student: No. Me: You should have come to class!
Student: Don't worry, I love you too. *Looks around awkwardly.* (He said this to me after telling me he loved our TA. I guess he didn't want me to feel left out.)

I guess college students aren't as funny as high school students. And for anyone reading this who is still in college, here is my rule for you: go to class! It's rather annoying when students ask questions that were answered during class.

Super Taster

2010-04-27T08:47:00.002-04:00

I always knew my taste buds were different from the average person. During biology class in 9th grade, I remember the teacher handing out small strips of paper that she told us to put in our mouth. About half the class immediately ran to the drinking fountain due to the horrid taste while the other half looked at each other confused. Reason: half the class has a gene which makes them able to taste a chemical that the majority of people cannot taste. I was among the tasters.

Sometime later, I had forgotten about this incident and I was watching a TV show, maybe the discovery channel, about how some people are super tasters. These people often find foods like broccoli to have a bitter taste. At that time, I was thinking, "That's it! That's why I'm so picky. I'm a super-taster!" Over time, I forgot about the show. As time passed during college, I decided I needed to get over my pickiness, and I've slowly started liking foods like onions and peppers. To this day, however, I do not like olives. Yuck.

A couple nights ago, I had some homemade enchiladas with fresh cilantro as a key ingredient. While the enchiladas themselves were really quite good, the cilantro had a flowery flavor I did not like. This bothered me, so I decided to read about it on Wikipedia. Sure enough, many people avoid cilantro leaves due to a "soapy" flavor! After some more research I read about supertasters, and finally put the two stories together. It's official. I'm a supertaster! Finally, I have a scientific excuse when I tell people that I don't like olives, dark chocolate, spicy food or when I add extra sugar to my lemonade and grapefruit. I've also figured out why I much dislike those sugar cookies you buy from the store that some people love. Apparently, supertasters don't like things overly sweet. Suddenly I don't feel as bad about my pickiness. Although, I think I'm learning to enjoy that extra flavor. Maybe our taste buds change over time.

Springtime

2010-04-11T23:23:00.006-04:00

Spring has come and nearly gone again. I consider this the second real spring of my life. Being raised in the desert, I haven't often seen trees change from green to orange/brown to white/pink/purple/yellow and then back to green. While we did have a tree in our the yard at our house that had fallen leaves each year, I don't think it grew pretty flowers. And even the dessert has it's share of flowers. I was quite impressed our yard back home being covered in flowers. Still, it doesn't compare to springtime in the lush hills of North Carolina. Here are a few highlights.

These pictures come from a trail near my house. You have to cross a pipe that goes over a stream to get to it. When I took these pictures, the trees hadn't bloomed yet. I wonder what it looks like now!

Yesterday, I walked onto campus. I decided to sit underneath these huge trees with nice pink flowers. Isn't the view spectacular?

Criss-Cross Applesauce

2010-04-05T12:58:00.002-04:00

Today during my office hours, several students asked how to subtract the fraction on the right. My immediate reply, "Oh, you just use criss-cross applesauce," and I proceeded to teach them about how to use criss-cross applesauce to subtract fractions. I told them about how it's a neat trick my high school algebra teacher taught me that I still use to this day. While I thought that many people knew this trick, it seems that not even the Internet has heard of it - at least in the math sense. So, I'm going to fix that. Here is the best way to add and subtract fractions with non-matching denominators. Enjoy!

Yes, I am a nerd.

Mushrooms

2010-03-13T01:17:00.000-05:00

I have never liked mushrooms. Even now that I have grown out of my bland teenage tastes, I still don't like mushrooms. While I can usually handle eating a few, too many of those slimy, squishy objects do not make my mouth happy. However, a few weeks ago, I ate a fresh salad with mushrooms in it. They were fresh, white, and thinly sliced mushrooms, and guess what? I liked them! I'm not going to go nearly as far as saying they're my favorite food or start adding them to salad on my own, but this in itself is a victory for me. I ate a mushroom and liked it! Since then, I've eaten a pasta with fresh mushrooms, and a chicken carbonara sandwich from Quiznos with mushrooms. Each time, the mushrooms did not bother me (and maybe I even half enjoyed them). I've figured out the reason I've never liked them: the texture. All of the mushrooms I've eaten in the past have been slimy and squishy---a terrible texture. These fresh mushrooms have a much better texture. I think I prefer thinly sliced.

Also, I bought green and yellow peppers for the first time ever a couple of days ago. I've never liked those either, but I think I'm getting used to them. I had some fajitas last week, and I quite enjoyed them. I've discovered that after you cook the peppers, they actually have quite a nice flavor. Verdict: mushrooms should always be fresh, peppers should always be cooked. Tomorrow, I'm planning to make up my own recipe: pasta with ground turkey in a white grape juice garlic sauce with peppers, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes. Wish me luck that the combination isn't terrible.

Weekend Trip

2010-03-11T11:15:00.004-05:00

I applied for one PhD program in Auburn, Alabama, so I took a trip last weekend to visit. It was a nice little town. They let me stay in the Auburn Hotel which was really nice, but not as nice as the engineering building.

As you walk in the entrance of the engineering building, you are greeted by marble walls, paintings, floor to ceiling windows complimented with luxurious curtains, tables decorated with flower arrangements, fancy rugs, and a grand staircase. Unfortunately, when I went back to take pictures, the building was locked, so I only took pictures of the outside, but even that is pretty nice to look at. I'm sure it's much nicer in spring and summer when the grass is green and the trees are full. Still, outside there are multiple courtyards, arched walkways, and seating areas. Just behind the two courtyards are two buildings under construction. I believe that these will also be a part of the engineering complex when completed.

I found this lake and building while on a bike ride around town. I liked the way the building reflected onto the pond, so I took a picture.

I was very impressed with how religiously minded people in this town were. I saw many churches while I was there, and the students and professors were very open about religion. I noticed that several shops were closed on Sunday, including Chic-fil-A.

Yogurt

2010-02-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Today, I went to the doctor for the first time in 2 years (I think). I've had a sore throat for a week, so I thought I should get it checked out. I was tested negative for strep and mono, but it was a good thing I went because the doctor prescribed some antibiotics for the ear infection I happened to develop this morning just before my appointment. While telling my mom about this, she recommended I eat lots of yogurt while on these antibiotics, and that got me thinking about yogurt.

Apparently, my mother has had quite an influence on me. Now, whenever I buy food, I make sure it has sugar. Either that or no sweeteners at all. None of this corn syrup stuff and especially no artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose. I was quite disappointed the day I discovered that my favorite yogurt has corn syrup, and even more disappointed when that special flavor I wanted to try only came in nonfat yogurt which has aspartame.

I've since become a huge fan of Trader Joe's Organic Strawberry Yogurt which I buy in the big container, and it usually lasts about a week. I also really like Archer Farms yogurt (from Target) which has my new favorite flavor, white cranberry strawberry. Not that you have to buy the low fat kind rather than the nonfat kind to avoid the fake sugar.

Still, I wonder about the amount of sugar in that yogurt. Are the benefits really outweighing the amount of sugar I eat? Maybe I should be eating the better Greek yogurt. However, I don't really care because I'm of the opinion that my body likes extra sugar, and I figure by eating yogurt, I'll crave less of mostly unhealthy foods like candy, cake, and ice-cream.

Stonyfield Farms also makes good, healthy yogurt, but it's too expensive for me. And just to spare you all the pain---I don't recommend yogurt flavors such as chocolate, pumpkin pie, and cinnamon roll.

I ruined my pie.

2009-12-15T01:17:00.004-05:00

I just spent the past several hours of my life making the perfect pie. Yes perfect. Here's the recipe. I made it all up tonight.

Julianne's Apple Cinnamon Cheese Pie

I have made several cheesecakes now, and I find it interesting that they all have slightly different amounts of ingredients and different ways to cook it. I decided to make up my own recipe and see how it turns out. From the sounds of it, you can change a lot with a cheesecake, and it will still turn out good.

Ingredients:

9 inch graham cracker crust

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 large apple or 2 small apples peeled and sliced thinly
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice (leave out if you use granny smith apples)

Directions:

Prepare a graham cracker crust or use pre-made graham cracker crust. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Beat softened cream cheese until smooth (this is important if you like your cheesecake smooth). Add brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add heavy cream, sour cream, apple cider, and vanilla.
In medium saucepan, saute apples with butter cinnamon and lemon juice until softened (medium to medium-low heat).
Beat egg in separate bowl. Add to cream cheese mixture and mix until consistency is even. Poor half of mixture into pie pan. Add apples in one layer (two if necessary). Poor rest of mixture into bowl. Optional: I saved about 1/4 cup of the mixture and added 1/2 tsp cinnamon. I then added this in drops/ swirls over top and used knife to create a marble effect. You can just add the cinnamon ahead of time if you prefer.
Put pie pan in large pan filled with about 1 inch of water. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off oven and leave in oven for 30 minutes. Let pie cool to room temperature. (All of this helps prevent cracking.)
Refrigerate several hours or over night. Enjoy!

The cheesecake was beautiful. The marble effect gave it just the right look I wanted. I made certain to slowly let the cheesecake cool to avoid cracking, and I used the water pan for the same purpose (see directions # 5). And it worked! No cracks. Like I said perfect. Well, almost. The crust was a little too high. It didn't make as much as I thought it would, so the crust came a bit above the cheese filling. So, to fix that, I used a butter knife to flake off the extra. It was going to be perfect. But then... If you're food ruining-phobic, stop reading now. This part is pretty bad. But then as I was tipping the pan sideways a little to let the crumbs fall onto a plate, the entire cheesecake fell on to the plate! The whole thing, crust and all. And now it was broken. My beautiful marble effect was ruined. I guess I am rather fortunate that it didn't fall on the floor. It's still edible and will likely taste almost the same, but there's something about looks that makes a food taste better. Anyway, I was able to put it back into the pan slightly intact. I ended up spreading the filling all around to make it symmetrical. Poor cake. Lesson learned. Never attempt to make something that's already quite beautiful more beautiful by cutting it and removing parts of it. Just like plastic surgery.

On a more positive note, here is a picture of a marble cheesecake I made that I didn't ruin. Happy Birthday Mom. I'm glad yours turned out. Sorry for ruining your birthday cake Brett. I'll think of some way to make it up to you.

Update: Though the pie didn't look very pretty, I thought it tasted pretty good.

Juice!

2009-11-06T02:00:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week I went to a talk by a well-known operations research professor who is also one of the authors of this book that I'm using for my algorithms class, Cliff Stein. We thought there would be refreshments beforehand so we arrived 20 minutes early. No refreshments were to be found, so instead I discovered a bookshelf full of free books! The sign said to take books if you want them and to leave books you no longer need. I found some interesting books on machine learning, logic, and data structures which are now an important part of my textbook collection, and we found one book which didn't belong: The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies . It inspired us to make smoothies during our The Office / Rock Band night tonight. We ended up not using the recipes in the book, but its inspiration was priceless.

Here is my favorite smoothies that I made (all amounts are approximated):

1/2 of honeydew melon
1 kiwi (peeled)
1 banana
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
ice (optional)

Directions: Blend the first 4 ingredients until smooth. Leave as is for a thick juice or add ice and blend for a smoothie. Enjoy! Serves about 3.

(Note: Since my camera is lost, I found this picture if another honeydew smoothie recipe found here. Feel free to try that one. It looks good too!)

Biltmore

2009-11-06T01:42:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the biggest privately owned house in existence. At least I think it is. It has 250 rooms each of them nicely painted often with ornate wall decorations and neat molding. One of the rooms had a really neat design on the ceiling. I've decided that I want a house similar to it one day complete with a personal garden and greenhouse. I think I could settle for 125 rooms though. 250 seems just a little extravagant to me.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera while I was there. The picture above and to the left is the last place I remember using my camera. Fortunately I wasn't the only one with a camera, but I do miss my camera. I had a canon SD1200 and it treated me very well this summer. Plus it was green which made it very unique. They told me things always turn up in the lost and found but that has not happened yet. Still, when I get around to getting a new camera I'll probably get a different one. Either a cheaper one that I can afford to lose, or one with a wide angle lens.

New Post

2009-09-27T00:57:00.001-04:00

Preface

Someone complained to me the other day that I haven't updated my blog recently. I guess life has been fairly uneventful recently. I signed myself up for more credits that I probably should have because I was bored, and now I'm not bored ever so that's good. The only unfortunate part is I worry about homework that I haven't done yet because I'm doing other more fun or more important things like river rafting, cleaning my house, playing on my new piano, making English horn reeds, or playing soccer. I can hear your voices now---River rafting? New piano? Didn't you say your life is uneventful? Fine. I'll explain more. I guess. I generally intend for this to be a picture blog, and seeing as my camera is not waterproof, I don't have pictures. I tried to add links to spice it up a bit.

Piano Buying Adventures

On labor day, I bought myself I new piano! A digital one. I told myself at the end of last semester that if I got the job I wanted that I would spend some of the money I made during that summer on a piano. I really like the few opportunities I have to play around on the piano. I'm not serious about it or anything, but it is a nice escape. I feel like it helps my mind focus better after I play on the piano. Whenever I had some free time this past school year, and the LDS Institute building was open, I would play the piano. I even compiled a notebook of a few fun songs to play on the piano. So now I can play anytime I want! Being a big purchase, I had a rather difficult time choosing a piano, but when the labor day weekend sale came up and all of the pianos were I sale, I couldn't resist. After much deliberation, I finally chose this one. I have no regrets, and it fits beautifully in our living room. I owe my roommates some credit as well. Thanks for being my moral support and letting me use your car for transportation!

Rafting Down the Nolichucky

Last weekend, I went on my first ever river rafting trip. I went with the other young single adults from church. In total, there were over 40 of us that went. We rented a cabin for the night, and began our descent down the river in the morning. When I say cabin, I mean old, rusty, bunk bed filled cabin that was built before the civil war. It was quite the experience. I felt like I was at a summer camp again having to walk to the bathroom and shower with the spiders. I think that just added to the experience.

As for the rafting---it was amazing! I want to do it again! Our rafting guide was a true North Carolinian. His accent added to whole experience, and he's been doing rafting since he was 7, so he was an expert. My favorite part was when I fell out. Seriously. The drops were all really fun, and towards the end I started getting confident. I looked at one small drop and thought, "Oh this is nothing compared to the last one. No Problem." Consequently I didn't brace myself and was flung from the raft. The guide promptly held out his paddle for me to grab and advised me to keep my feet up until we arrived to the calm section of the river. That part totally added to the experience. Falling out was really not that bad. No problem.

Orchestra

I've recently discovered that most people have no idea what an English horn is. Well, I'm happy to report that I am officially an English horn player now. Here is a picture for those of you who thought it was a brass instrument. That's right; it's a woodwind. It's quite similar to an oboe but longer with a really cool shaped bell. I've began making English horn reeds, and I need to start practicing for our second concert because there is a huge solo in Pines of Rome. It's a really neat piece. Listen to it if you get a chance.

Closing Remarks

While I'm at it, I might as well make this a five section blog. Kind of like a five paragraph essay except since this isn't English class I can write poor sentences like the one you're reading right now. Anyway, school is pretty much awesome. I might be crazy by taking 12 credits + orchestra + dealing with 240 students + learning more about family history + student congress + LDSSA, but I love my life and don't want to drop anything, so I'll just see how it all turns out. Hopefully I won't make future mistakes like I did yesterday when I posted the solutions to the turkey extra credit problem rather than the problem itself. And hopefully now that I spent today cleaning my house rather than doing homework, I will spend all of my free-time this week doing homework and practicing the English horn and the oboe. Although, I did really get into a book today while cleaning. I listened to Inkheart on CD which really made the work enjoyable. Unfortunately I can't do that while trying to figure out my complicated homework.

Arachnomaniac

2009-09-21T18:27:00.002-04:00

I just noticed how the past two posts on here have been focused on spiders. People must think I'm arachnomaniac or whatever you'd call someone who is obsessed with spiders. I'm not. I guess I just have a slight fascination for them. Well, let me tell you about the spider in the previous post. I named her Buffy. She'd build a web every night right there on our door frame, enjoy the delicious bugs that flew into the web, and then take down the web and hide out in the corner of the door frame until the sun went down. Crazy spider. The sad story is that she's gone. One day she just disappeared. I'm glad she enjoyed our door for a couple of weeks. She's lucky we're not spider-phobic or she'd have been dead by now.

White Lasagna

2009-08-30T23:37:00.002-04:00

Go here to read my very own white lasagna recipe. Enjoy!

And I'm happy to report that the bugs have not-so-gladly welcomed me back to school. I have met 2 cockroaches, a colony of ants, a bunch of weevils, and more spiders than I can count. Look at this one who decided to make our front door his new home.

Full of Life

2009-08-03T22:09:00.003-04:00

I learned two interesting things today:

1. Spider webs are invisible. I didn't notice this web until the sun shown on it just right at about noon today.
2. Spider Webs are strong. Above: Before. Below: After.
Even after rolling down my windows while going 65 mph, the spider web was still in perfect condition.

Now if I could just figure out why the spider decided my car is a good place for spider web, that would be good to know. Maybe I need to deep clean my car. Or perhaps closing my window completely (it was open a crack) would help too.

Adventures

2009-08-02T10:03:00.004-04:00

When I was younger, one of my favorite computer games was Myst. I loved exploring and seeing the neat places they had in the game. The graphics were really good. Now that I'm older, life has gotten busier. I never even got around to beating Myst IV. Maybe I will in a couple of weeks when I have a week off... Anyway, today instead of exploring in games, I go exploring in real life. I love hopping on my bicycle and exploring a neighborhood or a trail I've never been on. This summer I explored the University of Maryland campus (which I have yet to take pictures of), my new neighborhood, a few biking trails next to the Washington DC lds temple, some neat bike trails in a neighborhood nearby my apartment until it dead ended, a nice neighborhood nearby with and artificial blue lake and stream, and I explored a little hiking trail through the forest, on foot. It's all been really enjoyable. I wish I had more time to go exploring around here because there is so much to see! I guess I'll have to find more places by school to explore. I haven't really done that yet. Enjoy the pictures. It really is beautiful out here. I love the green trees and the natural water sources that you don't see very often back home.

A Whole New Me

2009-06-18T22:09:00.006-04:00

My Mom would be so proud. I used to be the pickiest eater. And look here! Vegetables! Broccoli, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions. So maybe I left out the peppers, mushrooms, and olives, but hey, I'm getting there! I also ate at an Indian restaurant today (buffet style) for lunch, and enjoyed it. That's really saying something considering the last time I ate at an Indian buffet was with my mom and my older sister, and let's just say I told her I would never eat curry again.

Now, perhaps she would tell me that the extra cheese counterbalances the healthy veggies, but I think I'm still doing pretty well.

And to top it off, I had a healthy glass of 100% pure grape juice.

And a brownie. :D

Visiting different parts of my nation!

2009-06-18T21:42:00.011-04:00

After, well... uh... cleaning my camera with lots of soap and water, it died. But what better excuse to get a new one! I got a canon SD1200 and I'm pretty happy with it so far. So, I had to take some pictures with it.

Last weekend, after orchestra rehearsal, I took a stop by the Washington DC LDS temple. It was so pretty. These pictures don't do the temple justice. But they do give an idea of the surroundings of the temple. I never realized from pictures I've seen before that it's so green here! Washington DC is surrounded by trees. It's a good environment, and even though I know I'm in a big city, I don't feel like I am because the air seems cleaner with all the plant life around.

Hopefully soon, I'll be posting pictures of places in the actual city of Washington DC. But first, I have to go there.

Handmade wallets!

2009-05-21T02:24:00.003-04:00

So I did one of those pay it forward things, and had to come up with something handmade. I thought about crocheting a scarf, making a boquet of origami tulips, or crocheting something else, but I thought that at least one of the people who signed up would not appreciate these types of handmade things. But then today, inspiration came and I flew to the store and bought some duct tape AND some duck tape. (Yes there is a difference.) I then used my good friend, Internet, to help me make a wallet. It turned out great! So I made another one. These wallets are so great! They're nice and thin, customizable, and I suspect rather durable as well. Next I plan to buy some other color of Duck tape and make myself a multicolored wallet. Woohoo!

And for the two of you who I haven't made something handmade for yet... if you would like a duck tape wallet, just tell me what color(s). Or if you want to be surprised with something else, that's fine too, just let me know!

Springtime is nearly over.

2009-04-29T22:01:00.012-04:00

It's so crazy. I've never seen so many flowers in my life. Everyday I walk around admiring the beauty around me. I think a new type of flower blooms everyday. I've taken a lot more pictures this past month; however, I never did quite get all of the different types of flowers, and most of them are dying out because it's too warm for them now. And it's just time. They don't need to stay flowers forever afterall.

Springtime is here!

2009-03-29T23:59:00.005-04:00

I've never experienced such a colorful flowery spring. And apparently, it's just getting started. I am really grateful for the beauty around me!

I never would have guessed that such pretty white flowers would be...
in such large numbers and...

on so many trees!

I don't think I've ever seen so many purple trees before or if I've ever even seen any purple trees before.

I found these flowers in my front yard. Can you guess which one was pre-planted by my landlord and which one just popped up in my lawn one day?

Duke

2009-02-24T08:15:00.003-05:00

I visited Duke University this past weekend. I thought the buildings were pretty neat.

The chapel was especially neat. The architecture on the inside was beautiful!

Snow Day!

2009-01-26T01:11:00.005-05:00

Apparently this town doesn't look like this very often. The pictures above are of my house and street. For pictures of where I spend my days go here.

graduate school

2008-12-17T00:24:00.002-05:00

I'm happy to report that I survived my first semester in graduate school. It was a bit harder than expected, but I didn't realize how good of a school I am at until part way through the semester. As it turns out, Chapel Hill is a really, really good school. And so, I'm very happy to report that I have passed all of my classes.

On an even better note, I recently discovered that I am now doing exactly what I told myself I wanted to do 4 years ago. Four years ago, I took a class called discrete mathematics. I loved the class. The topics we learned in that class are still my favorite topics that I've ever learned. At that time, I told people and myself that I wished I could major in discrete mathematics, but unfortunately it appeared to me that there was nothing in discrete mathematics beyond that course. My school did not offer any classes on the topic, and I thought that was the end of it. I'm happy to report that most of the things I do in my new program are advanced topics of the things I did in discrete mathematics---graph theory, discrete time markov chains, and others. Furthermore, I've discovered a new pastime that I might spend some time with this winter break---binary programming. Maybe I'll write a program that can solve these hard Sudoku puzzles for me. Or maybe I can write a program to solve this impossible riddle I tried to do a few years back.

My New Nephew

2008-12-09T20:33:00.002-05:00

I went to Texas for Thanksgiving to visit my sister's family. While I was there, I met my new nephew, Kyle, for the first time. I promised my mom I would take some pictures, so I did. I now I realize, that I didn't take very many, but I promise that there are a lot more on Kyle's mom's camera and Kyle's grandpa's camera! Just tell Kyle's mom to post them on her blog. I think it's time for more pictures on her blog.

The scenery

2008-11-25T07:58:00.004-05:00

Here are some more things that I am thankful for:

Color changing trees:
Colorful Trees next to a lake:And the sun glistening over the lake.

The New Hideout

2008-11-24T02:22:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving is coming up, so I'll take some time to show you the new things to me that I am grateful for.

I am grateful for my new bedroom:I have 2 closets
A really cool desk and comfy chair
And a bathroom to myself.

Looking Back

2008-09-07T15:47:00.006-04:00

These images are from the place I'll always consider home:

Best Day of My Life

2008-09-01T18:12:00.003-04:00

So, let me tell you about my day. If you want the short version, skip to the stars.*****

I woke up as usual on the mattress on the floor of my room. I got ready for my day as usual. I packed my bag overfull of my books and notebooks. I also took my 15.4 inch computer on the side because I wanted to get some help trying to get AFS to work on it. I biked UPhill to class as usual across some major streets. But fortunately, I got to the bus stop at exactly the same time as the bus, so I was able to take the bus from there. Classes were great. I finished one of my homework assignments no problem, and made no progress on the other. So, here is where my day gets interesting. I try using my computer after class, and it fails to boot. I try to boot in safemode and it gets stuck at crcdisk.sys just like last time it broke. Arg! No prob though, they fixed it for me last time using the windows boot disk, so I can do the same, right? I bike home in the rain. It wasn't that hard, but I was still soaked by the time I got home. I tried to fix the computer using the windows boot disk, but it kept having troubles saying I was putting in the wrong CD. That's when I realized that I must be reinstalling windows, not doing the cool fix thing the IT place did. (Looking back, I probably could have retrieved my files, but I did not want to wait in line for IT again.) So, I took a nice nap to forget my troubles. I woke up and then drove to my very first open tutorial session. While driving through campus, I was debating between parking on campus and parking at the institute and walking 20 minutes. That's when my car started making a grinding noise. The battery light and break light came on as well. Shortly after, I noticed that my power steering no longer works. So, I found the nearest parking lot with an empty spot, and parked my car in a parallel parking spot about 3 feet away from the curb. It was last one available, so I didn't think it was a big deal and went to the computer lab. There, I attempted to print out a class roster for my very first open tutorial session in which 250 students are invited to attend. The first 2 computers I tried didn't work, and the rest were taken, so I borrowed a computer from one of the other students and was able to download a list of students to print no problem. I then went to the open tutorial without my handwritten answers because I couldn't find them. The open tutorial went fine. It was kind of scary being in front of 30 students for the first time, but it didn't phase me too much. After class, I found a 3 hole puncher and finally organized my notes for class. I then called AAA. A little over an hour later a tow truck towed my car to the local BP and took me home. And now I'm here sitting on the floor of my roommates room using her computer.

*****

And if you don't want to read all that, let me give you a quick run down:

-Biked to class with heavy pack

-Computer broke

-Got soaked going home

-deleted all files on computer by accident

-Car made horrible grinding noise, power steering broke

-Took tow truck home

So, today was the best day of my life! Don't believe me? Sure a lot of unfortunate things happened to me, but that's OK. Look at the positives! My computer broke now---At the beginning of semester before I got all settled into it. Sure I just starting installing of my programs, but I'm not completely settled into yet. I now have no excuse to not downgrade to XP which will fix all the other problems I've been having (and there are several). I got wet today. That's certainly better than someday in the future when I don't have as much time to clean off and when the weather is cold. Being wet today wasn't that bad. I was actually smiling at the stoplight. My car broke today, right outside of the place I needed to be at. I had time to spare and could call the tow truck later. Plus the people who helped me were super nice. It's still early in the semester. My homework load hasn't picked up yet. I still have the time to have car problems. Better now than later. Now, I just hope that because of the problems I have now, that I can fix them and that they won't be an issue later on.

The Old

2008-08-19T21:04:00.015-04:00

We all have bought things that we look back on wishing we hadn't. In no particular order, here are the little things I've bought or paid for (or someone else bought for me) that I don't regret in anyway at all. Most of them are in someone else's hands in Arizona or are long since used up, but they're a good reminder of things I'm happy to have had.

cran-grape juice, it was surprisingly delicious
$5 sun glasses, they're perfect and my eyes are so much happier now. They unfortunately broke the day I got here, and the new ones I paid $10 for aren't nearly as fitting.
This tan wallet from the sale racks at at some jewelry store in the mall, it fits in my pocket, only problem now is that it's getting old. I need a new one and can't find any I like.
My comforter, $15 at Ross, it's so cute and girly, but not too girly, and so soft too
$20 bookshelf from IKEA, it's served me splendidly these past 2 years
Puffs tissues, when I get sick I use lots of tissues and my nose starts hurting from the tissue use, these tissues really are extra soft
my oboe, it gotten quite a bit of use these past 4 years
my IKEA desk, just the right size, holds tons of books, and a good price too. I'm going to miss you desk. I wish you could come with me to North Carolina
my first cell phone, it's been a necessity several times since I've gotten it
this game called SET, I really like it
my body pillow, it's great for taking naps with
Teva flip flops, my feet actually like them, I even wore them to a formal dance once
Altoids tins and friends, they've made excellent oboe reed cases - If you have any unusual ones, let me know!

my Math Club T-shirt, it's officially my favorite T-shirt ever
My caveroom, as cave-like as it is, it's just the right amount of space for me, if only it had a window.
my black sweater, it's been PERFECT for so many occasions, it saddens me that it's beginning to wear out
my black dress shoes with treads - these are wearing out too, they're the comfiest dress shoes I own and look good with pants
my gray backpack, it's the perfect size for all my needs, a neat design, if only I could change it's color to match my mood, that would be fun
the GPS for the rental car in Rhode Island, I seriously would have been lost for hours in Boston without it.
the Sims (original), I used to be an expert at that game, no cheating involved
purple yarn, I made a pretty scarf, and it helped pass time in the airplanes
fancy mechanical pencils with the long twist eraser, I use that eraser all the time
colorful 3-ring binders, telling apart your classes has never been easier
my computer, I use it more than I should, it fits in my desk, and it glows!
my 2 black skirts, I love it when skirts swirl when you spin, plus I can sit in them Indian style and ride a bicycle with them! (I've done it several time now)
red pulse hair dye, having my hair red for a week was so much fun
my red bicycle, it gets good use and rides great
my blue helmet, thanks to Mandi for the helmet, it actually fits my head when others don't, and now I won't ever fracture my skull again!
the barbecue chicken pizza we bought during our MCM contest. I didn't think I would really like it, yet I really want some more. Good choice Crystal.
Krispy Kreme donuts, it's so sad they closed down in AZ
my pink argyle knee-high socks, they've kept me just a little warmer this winter
skii rental, I finally went skiing my last semester in Flagstaff
my computer moniter, thanks to Justin for the trade, it's freed up a lot of space on my desk
vanilla bubble bath, ever since I got walking pneumonia last semester, I have thrived off of baths, the vanilla makes them even better

So that was a lot, and there are more, but I'll leave it at that.

2000 miles

2008-08-18T18:24:00.003-04:00

I finally made it to my new destination! The drive over was happily uneventful. Parts of it were pretty, but most of the time we couldn't see anything because the land was filled with so many trees we could not see past them. Still, it's beautiful. We have flowers in our front yard and trees in the back. Our house is great. It's covered in spider webs, but that's okay---I get my own bedroom and bathroom (and the vacuum took care of the spiders). The place is quite hilly. Riding my bike to class is uphill the whole way. Plus, it's humid, so in order to be proper, I have to change my clothes when I get here. I think I might take the bus tomorrow.

To fund my experience here, I'll be responsible for a tutorial class twice a week. Students will come to me and ask for help on their homework. I'm excited. I've always enjoyed helping people figure out their homework problems, and now I will get paid to do it! Plus, I get to keep learning and learning.

It's really weird being so far away from everything I know. The people I've met so far are really great. I've met a ton of people who use statistics all the time. It's amazing. We're going to have statistics themed dinners with a few people from church.

My computer broke the day I got here, so I'm using the school computer right now. Once I get it fixed, I have a bunch of pictures of the old and then pictures of the new I want to post.

Doing it backwards.

2008-04-16T23:51:00.006-04:00

I'm living in the right places at the wrong times. Last week it was freezing in town! And I mean freezing. It's not supposed to be this cold in April. It even snowed! Granted, the snow melted when it hit the ground, but it still snowed. Then, last weekend, I took a trip home. Can we say HOT!?! Next time I go home, I'm bringing shorts and flip flops. It was 95 outside and the thermometer said 83 in the house. That wouldn't be as bad if I hadn't grown accustomed to my apartment which has been as cold as 50 degrees inside, or colder. Fortunately, I've gotten a heater since that time, but I've gotten used to an apartment at about 65 degrees. 83 is just too hot. So now, I'm back at school, and what do you know? It's cold again. SUPER windy, and cold. Now consider how I've been living these past 4 years of my life. Summers in the valley where it's HOT, winters in the mountains where it's cold. I really am doing it backwards.

On the plus side, I've had some excellent adventures in beautifully springy perfect weather. Here is a really cool site I visited of the Palatkwapi Native Americans:
The dagger of light goes right through the center of the spiral at the equinoxes. Pretty neat.

And here is one of the most beautiful places on Earth:I actually didn't take any pictures of the landscape. This was in the background of another picture, but this place really is beautiful if you go. Way more pretty than this picture! While we were there, I spotted something hiding in the brush. Can you see it?

It's a small world

2008-03-06T00:30:00.002-05:00

I was recently accepted to graduate school at a university on the other side of the country. In a couple of weeks I plan on visiting to check it out and see how I like it. To make my trip more beneficial, I made a phone call to my church to see what activities they might have while I'm there. The lady I talked to got me in touch with one of the girls who could help me out. Great idea! I've been hooked up with a place to stay and possibly a ride. That'll make my trip a whole lot cheaper. The funny thing is, this girl called me back a little while after we talked and asked if I knew Carlton. "No," I said. Then she asked if I knew him from work over the summer. That's when it clicked. Of course I remember Carlton! We were both interns at the same company last summer. So she put me on the phone with Carlton for a couple minutes. He said he'll be on my welcoming committee when I get there. Who knew that I'd know someone in a small town thousands of miles from home on the other side of the country??? Needless to say, I'm super excited for my trip.

New England

2008-02-26T17:34:00.005-05:00

This weekend I flow to Rhode Island. Crazy eh? It was quite the opportunity. When I arrived, my luggage was no where to be found, so I decided to go shopping so that I would be dressed at least somewhat appropriately for my interview on Monday. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I had a nice car. The lady upgraded me to a Volvo when I told her I didn't want it. Now, I hope I still get reimbursed for the rental car. Anyhow, I took a trip to Boston, MA that evening. Here are some of the sites I saw:

I don't remember the name of this building.

This is how all of the streets in Boston are. Parallel parking times 100!

This has some incredible American history with it. If only I remembered what that was.

The next day, I had my job interview and took a few pictures of Rhode Island:

The Gazebo outside my back door at the hotel.

I thought this bridge was pretty cool.

So cool, I had to pay $2 to get across.

Take a Bath

2008-02-18T23:45:00.002-05:00

It seems that I find something to keep myself busy every weekend this semester! This past weekend I worked on a mathematical modeling contest all weekend. You try and find an answer to one of these questions in the course of just one weekend. We chose the bath problem. I think taking a bath is far easier than the research required to even begin to get an idea of how to answer the problem. Still, having a real world problem to work at was fun and a good experience too. Side note: The only problem with being this busy is that I don't have time to do laundry, clean my room, or even buy groceries. I lived off cold cereal and canned soup all last week. Fortunately, a class got out early last Friday so I could buy a few more things.

Now just wait and see what I'm doing next weekend. :)

Adventures in Nebraska

2008-02-13T03:00:00.003-05:00

I went to Nebraska last weekend! Why Nebraska in the winter you ask? I attended the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics. Despite the blistering cold (it really wasn't that bad), I loved the opportunity for adventure to see a new place. AND I got spend 3.5 hours in Denver. Granted, it was in the airport during a lengthened layover. I still had fun. I finished my very first crocheting project. A pretty purple scarf!

First Time Skier

2008-02-03T03:49:00.000-05:00

To begin my adventures of this blog, I went skiing for the first time in my life. After taking some quick beginner lessons (more like tips so you don't get stuck or die if you fall), and showing off my skills, my friends thought I was ready to move on. Here are the skills I showed them:

Shortly after this we traveled over to another trail which they said I would be fine on. I later saw this sign in front of the ski lift.

After a few elegant falls, and some not-so-elegant falls I made it down the mountain several times. Fortunately, I made it home without any injury at all except for perhaps a tired spell. Goodnight!

Blizzard!

2008-01-29T02:05:00.000-05:00

So maybe it wasn't an actual Blizzard, but it flipped my umbrella inside-out! Poor umbrella. And to think that last Saturday I went for a nice bicycle ride.

My First Blog Post

2008-01-28T02:41:00.000-05:00

I should be in bed right now, but instead I decided to create a blog. My purpose for creating this blog is to showcase all the adventures that I hope to go on in the near future. Right now my adventures in Flagstaff are coming to an end, and soon to come are my adventures in . . . ?