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!)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
