Family

My family is hilarious.  When we get together, all of us, comedy is sure to ensue.  We're always trying to sharpen our wits.  Our memories are sharp, and we always employ inside jokes from our pasts.  We do make fun of stupid things that other members of the family have done, but we all know that it's just in good fun.  This humor is one thing that we all have in common, and I am really glad that that's how it is. 

Another thing that we all have in common is our love of food.  We are true gourmets, all of us.  We like going out to eat and trying new things.  It wasn't always this way.  My brother and I were the pickiest eaters as children.  Lately, I have started being more and more open to new flavors and ingredients.  This has provided me with many new outlets with which to relate to my family.  I just love talking about foods and flavors.  If you think about it, food is something that all people have in common.  People, naturally, need to eat.  Therefore, practicing this discussion of food with my family provides me with more social skills down the road. 

My whole family, close and extended relatives, are very artistic.  Most of all, we are musical.  I have three cousins whose college majors deal with music.  I play saxophone, my mom is a band director, my brother plays trombone, my cousin is a prodigy of the flute, my other cousin is a successful percussion and music major at the Manhattan School of Music, my OTHER cousin will be attending Western Michigan University this fall and majoring in Music and Bass, and my OTHER cousin plays the oboe and was marching band drum major in high school.  My other relatives who do not play instruments have, what I judge to be, fantastic tastes in music and art.  Basically, we're just really artsy people, and I really like being a part of it.

Spring Break

My spring break was enjoyable.  Actually, thinking about it, I didn't really do that much.  What I did do, however, was either very fun or very productive.  At the very beginning of my break, I decided to get organized and make a homework schedule for the whole rest of my break.  I felt that this work would all have to get done by the end of break, so I could either do it all in one day at the end of break, or make it a whole lot easier on myself and split the work up to a tolerable amount per day.  Then, after my work was done each day, I could have some fun and relax.  This relaxation would involve video games or hanging out with friends.  Also during this time, my mom forced me to help her with some spring cleaning.  Also, I had to help her with packaging of jewelry for her polymer clay jewelry business.  Being incredibly awesome, my dear friend Hannah offered her assistance in these two tasks. This made both much much more tolerable.  We cleaned things that I never thought could be clean.  Our biggest project was scraping off my stove.  Ever since my family moved to the house that I live in currently, the stove has had this black layer of gunky stuff on it.  With some elbow grease and hours of scraping with the back ends of silverware, we cleared off this layer.  It was a long, grueling, and disgusting task, but we were determined to succeed.  After the job was finally done, we went to Coldstone Creamery and ate some absolutely fantastic ice cream.  Overall, it was a fun and productive day.  It was really surprising how fun it ended up being cleaning my house.

Near the end of break, my aunt from the Chicago area came to visit my mom and do jewelry for a couple days.  She brought with her some Italian beef from the amazing restaurant Portillo's.  I ate so much beef over the next couple days, yet I didn't ever grow tired of it.  Overall, it was a great visit with my aunt.  This whole break was different from any others that I have had in the past, but I loved it.  I would gladly do it all over again.        

Job Shadowing

Job Shadowing was a fantastic experience for me! I went to Allen Henderson & Associates Structural Engineering Firm downtown.  My Job Shadowing person was Mark Henderson.  As I arrived, he introduced himself as the husband of a teacher I had in elementary school, my Enrichment teacher.  The company was in an old house, and it was an interesting small business environment.  Previously, I had seen Engineering as only a big business venture, so this was a fresh new experience.  The company's workers, being part of a small business, had more experience in many aspects of Engineering.  The first thing that we did to start our day was surveying.  We surveyed the whole parking lot in front of the company.  The surveying that we did was a great experience.  Previously, I had been introduced to surveying.  However, the others that had previously attempted to explain this process didn't really explain what it was that they were trying to accomplish.  While shadowing, I learned of this purpose.  The surveying device we used was quite interesting.  One surveyor would hold a prism at a point of data to be recorded.  The other would use the surveying gun to locate and record the point.  Points were recorded on x, y, and z axes.  Matthias and I took turns shooting the gun and holding the prism for several hours, but the time passed by very quickly.  When we finished surveying, we took our data up to the office.  The original plan of the day included us entering this data into CAD; however, the time escaped us, and one of the office workers ended up completing this task for us while we were at lunch.

Before lunch, we went to a construction site.  The site was a future long term care medical facility which the firm that we were shadowing had helped design supports for.  We received a complete tour of all floors of the facility, and even went up onto the roof.  This tour was guided by the construction manager of the site.  This put into perspective just how much work goes into an engineering, architecture, and construction project.  The firm was only a small part of the project, intermingled with work of electrical and mechanical engineers.  On top of all of this work to make the building functional, architects worked to design aesthetically pleasing aspects of the building.  After all of this was designed, construction workers were employed to carry out the designs laid out for them.  This process, being quite extensive, was not perfected.  In fact, we fell witness to long-standing arguments between the construction workers and designers.  These arguments, we were told, had resulted from stubbornness of Engineers and Architects.  All argument could have been avoided if these designers could have just admitted their mistakes.  This was a truly eye-opening experience.

After this site visit, we went to lunch, where I ate WAY too much pizza.  However, Mark was impressed with my massive stomach capacity.  I felt quite accomplished...

Anyway, after lunch we went to another construction site, the bridge under construction on Washington Street (the one that they have been working on for over a year!).  Apparently, due to inconsistencies in the design and construction processes, this bridge collapsed early in construction, and the workers were forced to start over.  It was interesting to see this familiar bridge that I drive over quite often from the perspective of an Engineer.

Overall, the day was a fantastic experience, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it!         

Favorite Car

I am quite a big fan of my 1997 Honda Civic EX. It is the first car (not a truck or a van) that my family has had since the early-mid nineties. This car possesses such features as a sun/moon roof (opens both ways), cup holders, a non-stock radio, and many other very nice additions. We initially bought the car as a birthday present to me. Over the summer, my brother and I shared the vehicle quite well. We took roadtrips together, and switched off usage while we were at home. When the school year started, we were faced with the problem of who would keep the car. My brother, off to college, loved the car every bit as much as I did. Also, we can both agree on how much we HATE the other vehicle that we would get, a 1999 Dodge Dakota. This truck is an absolute piece of junk. It is a gas-guzzling, road-hogging, dinosaur of a truck. I honestly feel like I am going to die every time I get into the truck. Along with all of this horribleness, the car is known for not starting in very needed situations. One time the truck even died WHILE I WAS DRIVING IT. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life.

I digress... My brother took one for the team and drove the truck to school. I was left with my favorite car ever, and I was very happy about that. The months went by, and my brother was finally fed up with the truck. My parents decided that they were tired of driving an hour and a half at least once a week to pick up my brother after the truck died on him. I now have the truck, and I live in constant fear that it will die on me again. I count the days until my lovely car will be returned to me.

Oh, right. And my dream car is one of these http://www.teslamotors.com/design/exterior_colors.php

GoogleSites: Emily Dickinson Project

I think that the concept of this project is quite ingenious. Rather than just writing several essays analyzing Dickinson's work, we will become totally immersed in her life and works in creative venues. Probably the most creative part of the project for my group is the song that we will be writing for the "How did Dickinson's Life Effect her Writing Style" portion of the project. This song will be biographical of Dickinson's life and then tie the biographical info into how it affected her writing. For example, we may include information about the letters that Dickinson wrote to her friends. These letters were often written about death or other such subjects and her views on these subjects. This topic translated itself over into her poetry quite often. As you can tell, this information is quite boring stated as I just have. For this reason, writing a song about it will seem much more interesting and creative to whatever audience may be listening to it. I don't know about others, but if something interesting, such as random trivia, is set to music, I will remember it more. Also, I marvel at how awesome songwriters are. They get the point across all while fitting certain rhythms or rhyme patterns. Who knows, maybe someone will marvel at how AWESOME I am for once. HOORAY FOR CREATIVITY!

The project will also utilize technology as a means by which to get information across. My group, for instance is making analytical podcasts of Dickinson poems. We have to do ten analyses of Emily Dickinson poems, a task that would become tedious if just typed out. Through the use of technology we will effectively lighten our total workload AND make the analyses into a somewhat more accessible form for the visitors to our site.

So far, my group has been pretty awesome. We are all getting along quite well in splitting up the work. Plus, we are allowing ourselves to have fun with this project while still taking it seriously. I think that our end result will be quite awesome. Don't hold me to that, though.

Imagery of Nature

Set the scene: A forest. Green all around. Many shades. Morning light streaming longingly down through the canopy high above. The rays fall about all along the forest floor. Strewn all around the dewy ground are various species of leaves, logs, and creatures. Many, many creatures. Thousands or them. They crawl all over everything! Look closer! Do you see them?! No? They are everywhere! How can you not see them?! You must not be looking very closely, for I see them everywhere. Look at that little guy. The beetle, right there... On that log. He looks so lonesome. I wish he could have some little beetle friends. They could go beetle clubbing, they could start a little beetle-sized band. That would be great. HE LOOKS SO NICE, DOESN'T HE?! Why shouldn't he have friends? He just crawls around. He's nice to everyone. Did you see what he just did?! WOW! He just did a little beetle-sized flip. Does he have a home? I hope he has a home. A nice little beetle house. A nice little beetle family. A nice little beetle wife. That would be the best. Don't you think it would be? I do. Wow. He is so fascinating! I like him. A lot. What a curious little beetle!

HEY! Look! A stream! Right over there. I bet it has fishies in it. Don't you like fishies? Eating them, you say? Preposterous! How could you eat such a fine little guy. Look at him. Look at the muscles in his tail. What coordination he possesses. Look at how fast he swims along. I wonder if he plays and fishy sports: fish football... Do fish have feet... no... tailball? Maybe he's the star in the NTL. A regular Peyton Manning, this one. He should be in sports, if he isn't. He's quite the athlete, this guy. I hope he keeps up his swimming forever. Such a beauty.

Time to leave the woods, you say? Must we? I really don't want to. I want to live here. Can I live here, mommy? It's so beautiful. The little guys can be my friends. They'll take care of me. I'll brush my teeth every night and even go to bed early. How does that sound? Can I stay? Please? No. That makes me sad...

2010 Winter Olympics

I love the winter Olympics. Unlike the summer Olympics, these games involve many daring, dangerous, and death-defying events. This is highly exciting to watch. You are forced to the edge of your seat, cheering for your country, but most of all, cheering for the whole world. This year was the first year in which I could truly grasp, understand, and appreciate these games. I would have to say that the sport that I watched most was Curling. I know, this contradicts my love of the dangerous sports, but being a logical and intelligent person, I love games of strategy such as curling. The curling in these Olympics was very well televised, perfect for my first year of true understanding. The matches were ALWAYS on on either CNBC or MSNBC at my house. Women's, Men's, American, or not, I soaked up every bit of the sport that I could. The whole concept of the game, guarding, how the scoring works, the actual 'curling' of the stones, the whole concept of sweeping the ice, is all just so interesting to me.

I think of all of the curling that I watched, I had two favorite matches, the first of which being the men's final between Canada and Norway. For one, the Norwegians had probably the coolest pants ever known to mankind (http://estore.websitepros.com/1957025/-strse-1456/Dixie-dsh-A/Detail.bok). Beyond that, both teams produced spectacular shots all throughout the match. Even with both teams on the absolute tops of their games, Canada was just such a dominant force that Norway had no chance of winning. It is truly inspiring to see such dominance in sport.

My second favorite curling match was the first that I saw in all of the 2010 Olympics. This match was between the female teams from Canada and Denmark. For several years I have been somewhat intrigued by the Danish people as a whole. Thus, I was immediately glued to the television screen when I saw that this match was on. The Danish women pulled out some absolutely incredible shots, but once again, Canada was a dominant force in this game of finesse and strategy.