Cartoons meet real life...

So the other day I was walking home from work and I laughed out loud at this bird.... so I am going to describe it to you, and you can enjoy the cartoon moment I had..

So I was walking through the medical center. There is a ton of construction going on in the med center and i was walking past the construction zone. so it was one of those bright orange 'chain link' fences that have 4 ft metal stakes that weave through the bright orange hard plastic to keep the fence up, you know what I'm describing? Anyways, to make the metal stakes less dangerous they capped them with a bright orange hard plastic cap, that is round, and maybe 1.5-2 inches in diameter.

So I'm walking on the sidewalk and there is a bird in my path.. I'm kinda scary to a bird so it flew out of my path to the plastic cap on the stake... however, the bird couldn't get a grip with its feet on the cap... its feet kept slipping off and it would keep trying, and it was like he was doing a dance trying to get its balance and footing... I found it hilarious. I definitely could see this exact scene in a cartoon. Then finally it couldn't catch its balance and like fell off the cap... teehehe... luckily it has wings, so when it falls, it is able to save itself and ended up finding his footing again on the orange chain link fence thing... anyways, I thought I'd share it with y'all...

oh and I guess I'm more country/texan than I like to admit.. I went to the rodeo 2x in the last 3 weeks, saw someone from Milford, UT, win the saddle bronc riding (and $7500) AND I bought myself a cowboy hat... but I look sexy in it. I think I'll wear it next weekend when I go camping...

OH and my ankle is feeling better and I got to play 30 mins of ultimate frisbee today in the beautiful 75ish/80 weather today... such a beautiful day... love the ultimate frisbee!

AND I'm going to Andrew Bird tonight... I'll tell you how that goes (oh look we went full circle I started off talking about birds and I ended up talking about a Bird ;) ).

First charcoal drawing ever!

This is my first attempt at doing a charcoal sketch. I have done some art, pretty casually before, but i've never used the medium of charcoal before. My sister got me some materials at Christmas. I know it isn't amazing, but I do like how it turned out, esp my hair. I think the next object will be a couple of studies - like spheres with light sources, etc, to get used to the shading and the materials. I was thinking it also might be fun to go to the park and draw a couple of the trees.. The subject matter is basically endless. I'll keep you updated!

Mardi Gras 2009

So on Saturday I went down to Galveston for a Mardi Gras parade. It was the first time I had been to a mardi gras celebration. My friend that I went with went to New Orleans last year for celebration, he said that there was more kids in Galveston than in New Orleans... a little bit of a different clientele. This is a picture of me with my beads I caught off at the Parade (I didn't get a picture of me at the parade). My friend said that I was popular. Basically whenever I would put my arms up and cheer then I would get beads thrown at me... I responded, "Well I'm hot, what can I say?" Gotta love the arrogant self sometimes ;). I was impressed with the floats. They were quite ornate. I wonder if they would have been even more ornate if there hadn't been a hurricane a few months ago. The part of Galveston that I drove through looked back to normal, but my friend said he saw some boats in parking lots while we were driving, and we didn't go off the touristy areas much... and it def hasn't gotten its business level back up. There is even talk of closing the hospital down there. Anyways, back to mardi gras. So an example of the floats is seen here. Some had different themes - this one was a pirate obviously. Others included, 'under the sea' and '007'. In the parade there were also a lot of good marching bands (I've decided that being in a marching band would be very difficult). And lots of good dancers and baton spinners and flag twirlers. I enjoyed it.. even though it was a chilly mid50s temperature with a wind.. thank goodness for coats! Yes, before you say it, I admit I've acclimated and am currently a temperature wimp! Anyways, Happy Fat Tuesday!

Alumni meet 2009

So I decided it was pretty bad form letting my 2 regular readers down by not writing enough posts. I mean both Mom and my sister have told me that I need to do posts more regularly. So I thought I would give a little update about the alumni meet.

I went to to california to do my alumni meet at the beginning of Feb. It was super fun. I was debating about not going this year, but I am glad I decided to go instead. It was also nice because I shared a hotel room with Kristen one night and Kristina the next night, so I was able to spend a lot of one on one time with both of them. I like my track friends.

Anyways so the meet went well. I didn't throw that amazing... but it has been 6 years and in college I wasn't ever a super star. But I did get my friend to film me on the one good throw I had. My coach said that it was about as good of form as I had in college. So that was nice to hear.



As you may have noticed I had short hair in that video. Yes it is true, I cut of 10+ inches and my hair is currently on my fridge in a plastic bag ready to donate to locks of love. I'll get around to it eventually.

Anyways, I'm glad I went down to Claremont for the alumni meet - even though it was kinda chilly. Here is a list of a few of the things I miss from college:
1. The Motley - it really is great to have a place to hang out, talk with friend, have a good drink, and stufy if you'd like to.
2. The dining halls - The dining halls on campus, esp on Scripps, really wasn't too bad. And I def like having food prepared for me everyday right when I want it when I'm done with work. I mean I do like to cook, but sometimes when you're just home and starving cooking food just isn't what you wanna do.
3. Living next door to all my friends. I like living by myself and having my own space, but having the oppportunity to be within a couple mins walking distance from all your friends is quite desirable.
4. Having a workout prepared for you everyday. I love being outside, and though I have a hard time doing my own work outs, I do love to lift weights. And track work outs really were pretty great.
5. The absurd amount of spoiling Scripps does - I walked through the new field house - HOLY CRAP! it is like a resort. I don't know how you wouldn't work out if you lived at Scripps now.


Well that's enough nostalgia for now - there is plenty of other things about Claremont and college that I like, which is why I get so excited when I meet someone who went to Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Claremont Mckenna, or Scripps. And luckily I have a chance to meet up with some 5C'ers every year. Here is a shout out to the alum and current CMS hammer throwers.

if only i had taken...

AHHH!!! sometimes being a grad student in an interdisciplinary field is so frustrating... I consistently think something like, "if I only had studied engineering then I would have a wide range of exposure to mathematics in an application mindset.. that would be so handy," or "if only I had studied physics, I would have had plenty of math classes, and stats classes, and any number of other classes that I could easily utilize", and today I've thought, "if only I had taken more computer science classes... I could write code so much easier and not spend all day doing a 'simple' automated calculation!" I know this is a very pessimistic outlook.. I should instead say, "well at least I have taken so many computer science, biology, physics classes, math classes, stats classes so that I could catch on to the material that I have to learn," or, "I'm glad that I took lots of humanities classes to fill my time because it really was interesting to learn about history and religion and all those other things.. it helps me have something besides science to think and talk about," or, "even though I took a lot of math classes where proving theorems was the dominant subject matter, and I don't use that much anymore, I did learn how to break up problems logically, make an argument, and think critically with creativity." However, I tend to have a pessmistic outlook when it comes to me and a positive outlook when it comes to everyone else. I guess I'll need to try and change that... in the meantime... I hope my little computer code works and does what I want to soon...

whoooohooo... time to decorate!

So my title was a lame attempt at sounding like a ghost haunting my apartment. But let's talk about how much fun it is to buy decorations and decorate the apartment! People are always so surprised that I decorate when I live by myself and have no kids... but I am going to enjoy my life in whatever stage I'm in... and I enjoy decorations. So this year I bought some new decorations - the tree, the 3 tombstones (they say beware, spells, and rest in pieces). I also bought a 'wooden sticks wound into a pumpkin decoration', but its the centerpiece of my table - so at a different part of the room and not in the picture. I think my little bit of halloween looks pretty good though. I think that it is funny how my decorations have become 'scarier' now that my garland of skeletons have lost some legs and feet and arms - can you see the skeleton lacking legs? It's like some horrific attack occurred in my closet where my decorations live - maybe I shouldn't keep the door closed all the time ;). Anyways, I'm excited for Halloween... maybe i'll let you in on my future celebratory plans!

Artwork excitement!

So when I was in New Mexico I went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe. I was very impressed with her artwork. A few paintings really struck me. Luckily they had a print of one of my favorites, and for only $10!! and it was an 11x14 print, I was quite impressed with that cost. So I've been looking to find some matte and frame to complement the artwork. I just got back my custom matte the other day and I am so impressed with my choice. It looks super great! I am so excited to get it framed and hung on my wall. The matte made the dimensions a 12x16, so it's a little harder to find a frame for it. I envision a metal blue frame.. I don't really want to do custom framing, but I might go that way if it needs be.. I also decided that a frame that is the color of my table wouldn't look bad... So I guess taking a picture of the artwork has at least 2 main benefits - I can show off the amazingness AND I learned that a neutral brown frame would be a good second choice! Anyways, let me know what you like and if you find a metal 12x16 blue metal frame ;).