Day 15: A Picture of Random People
This is a very strange topic for a blog. I am not entirely sure why I should have a picture of completely random people unless it is for artistic or social documentary purposes.
Pictures of people you know or pictures of non-people are okay.
Back to pictures of people I don’t know, though. I think the easiest way to find those pictures is off of the internet. Hahah. I could go around and take photos in my neighborhood, but I feel like it lacks some purpose besides being able to write this blog. Therefore, I’ve found some kind of cool pictures.
This is wing suit base jumping. If I ever get the chance (and the courage), I would really like to try this. I’ve seen videos of people who ski off of mountains and then dive with just the wingsuit. Ahhh! It’s so crazy. And you can see the world in a completely new angle. I think I’d like that.
Something I’ve noticed: a lot of social documentary photos are done in black and white. Yes, I realize that color photos have not always been around, but I think there’s more to it. When photos are done in black and white, you’re no longer distracted by the colors around the edges, no longer distracted by little details on the side. Black and white photos force the viewer to see the focus of the picture and to take in the act of what is happening. I guess it makes it feel like history.
And, just because it made me laugh:
Awww, poor Yoshi.
Day 14: If I were an object
This may seem a very random topic, but it was suggested to me by Grace. I haven’t been able to think of what I’d want to be, yet, even though this post is already late one day. 
I do feel that I have to share this, though. I don’t know how many of you have played/have heard of Portal (hi Teddy and Twang), but it’s a really interesting – slightly nerdy – game of logic/timing against a malicious computer by the name of GLaDOS.
Today, I found this and it made me happy:
I thought I should share this. I might even use it, though I tend to leave my phone on vibrate.
Day 13: My Most Beloved Object(s)[Requested By Grace]
This is hard for me. I would have a very hard time narrowing down a lot of my stuff (this is part of the reason moving out of NU was so difficult for me – I have wayy too much stuff around in my dorm and if I think I might need it later on, I don’t throw it away).
Still, even with all of the piles of stuff I have, I do have certain items that I enjoy more than others. For instance:
One of my first “babies.” (I have an odd habit of calling everything I really like my “baby”).
(Actual picture of my own R13 to be added when I can get out of the library and after tutoring.) Ahh, I still love playing pieces or old solos and etudes, even though I don’t actually get to play anymore. I’ve had my R13 since second semester of 6th grade. I still haven’t named it, though, which is why I still opt to call it my baby.
While at home, this next one is mine and only mine.
Now that my sister is 16 and has a complicated rehearsal schedule, she will be driving soon enough. She will inherit my car. I don’t think I can keep my baby clean and spotless inside anymore.
I don’t trust my mom’s driving, so I usually don’t let her drive my car. (You only have to look at the number of dents and scratches on her car to know that I’ve made a good choice.) She is still unnamed for a good reason: there are not any names perfect enough. Hahah, corny. But, I really like the background, otherwise I would have uploaded a picture of my own car. But it’s okay. I need to wash her soon.
Next in my set of babies, one that most are pretty familiar with:
This one is the most recent of my acquirements. (Is that not a word? Firefox is telling me that it’s not.)
Oh! I guess my laptop is actually the most recent, because I bought my timeline only a few weeks before school started last year.
Hmm, while I usually disapprove of backdrops in pictures, I kind of like this one. The angle makes the camera seem more sporty and less stoic. Teehee. My Nikon has only been with me for a little over a year now. I recently bought a new lens for her, too! A 50 mm! I have a cousin who has a D80 and since he has a wide angle lens, we’re talking about borrowing each others’ lenses if I can buy a macro lens. Yay! It’s kind of strange when you think about it, though. We’re trading off body parts. 
Sigh. It’s kind of sad. I wrote a whole post about pictures, and none of the pictures are my own. But I’m stuck at the library now and I have to go tutor a kid for a couple of hours when I get out.
Oh! And if anyone else has topic requests, drop me a line in the comments section! I still have an open topic for tomorrow. 
Day 12: My Favorite Secret Recipe
Well, here’s a conundrum. Once I’ve shared my “secret recipe,” it’s not so secret is it?
Hahah, in any case. I have created a fruit tart that is so easy to make and so pretty and so yummy that it has quickly become my favorite. It doesn’t yet have a name. I just call it.. fruit tart.
First, buy a Ready-Made graham cracker crust (a medium or little small ones), a pack of Jello banana cream pudding, Cool Whip, and whatever fruit you desire. (For fruit, I usually get one can of mandarins, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, kiwi and grapes. I think it would also be good with small chunks of pineapple or bananas.)
Take off the cover of the Ready-Made graham cracker crust and put the crust in its foil shell on a cookie sheet. Preheat the oven to 350 (375 is too hot) and let it bake for 5 minutes when it’s hot. Take it out and let it cool.
As the oven is preheating, prepare the jello pudding. It requires 3 cups of milk, but I usually only put a little more than 2 cups (to make the pudding a little bit more solid). Stir until the pudding has a pretty thick consistency. (As an afterthought, the banana cream would probably taste really good with slices of banana or nilla wafers mixed in.) Another way you can make it more solid is to mix in (unsalted) nuts into the banana cream. But I know a lot of people either don’t like or are allergic to nuts, so I usually don’t do that.
When the crust has cooled a little, pour the banana cream as a layer about 1/2 or 2/3 the way up the side of the crust. Try to make it pretty flat.
Cover the banana cream layer with Cool Whip, Make an effort to pile it pretty high, otherwise, the tart looks pretty flat and empty. On top of the Cool Whip layer, arrange and fashion the washed fruit in any manner you choose. I usually cut strawberries in fourths and use mandarins as a border. The blueberries and grapes can go anywhere, but I make the blackberries in concentric circles. The kiwis are placed sparsely along the edges. Of course, with your fruit tart, you can make it however you want. See the picture below for an example of the past three steps:
Let the tart sit in the fridge for as long as possible before serving. Because the pudding never really “sets” like jello does, it still will kind of flop around a bit. It only means that the tart is kind of unstable when you cut it apart, but it still tastes wonderful. In the picture, you can see the banana cream layer, Cool Whip layer, and fruit layer together. I somewhat overused the blackberries in that tart because I couldn’t find blueberries that day. Oh well, it was still good to eat.
P.S. That photo was taken with my new 50 mm lens! 
P.P.S Also, because the next two days have categories that I’ve already covered on the “outfit you’re wearing today,” if you have anything you want me to answer, just give me a new topic in the comments!
Day 11: A Photo Taken Recently of Me
It seems a bit strange for a blogger to put up his or her own picture as part of a post. A bit narcissistic, if you ask me. Anyhow, if my profile picture isn’t enough to go on, I guess I should continue with this post.
There’s an odd phenomenon that occurs when you are the photographer: there is a seeming lack of pictures that include yourself. I used to remedy this occurrence by being a closet camera whore. However, I’ve realized the difficulty of taking your own picture with a full dslr in your hand. For this reason, I’ve mostly stopped taking pictures of myself, unless I am part of a group. There is one picture that I took of myself when I first got my dslr. If there are any more, I think I used either a mirror or self-timer.
One example of my attempts at long exposure self-timer narcissism. Hahah. This was actually taken in the dorm sometime during fall quarter of this past year.
Unrelated, but I’ve been listening to the Inception soundtrack almost every chance I get. But it still hasn’t gotten old. I keep thinking about how cool it would be to be able to play a soundtrack for a movie. But for Inception, I think it might get a little old playing whole notes all the time. I guess all that really matters is the overall effect – the constant build up to the climax. I wonder if there is still an orchestra who plays all of the pieces. In the digital age, it’d be much easier to fabricate an orchestra, reassured by the perfect timing and perfect pitch of every “player.”
Ahh well. Hans Zimmer is a boss in my book.
Day 10: A Photo of Me Taken Over 10 Years Ago
Wow, let’s see. 10 years ago, I was 9 1/2 years old. I don’t know if I even own any pictures of me at that time on the computer. They’d all have been taken with film rolls and wind up cameras. (I didn’t get a digital camera until my 14th birthday. Or was it my 15th birthday? Figures, seeing as I didn’t get an internet connection at home until right around my 13th birthday.)
In any case, most of my pictures have all been printed out. The only few from my childhood that are online were taken by another camera and posted (usually for senior slideshows, etc).
Please, let me introduce the child version of myself.
Joy, these are the people that will read your posts in about 14 to 17 years from now. People who read my posts, this is me from when I was about 2 and 5.
Heheh. In the yellow parka, I was still living in Arkansas. It snowed faithfully every year, and the seasons actually changed. It’s too weird how much difference a few hundred miles will make in climate and culture. Yup. Me and my sister were abnormally fat asian babies. =.=
The second picture is from a water park in Fort Worth. It’s not one of those water theme parks. This park is more of.. more of a water garden. There are sculptures and different architectural waterfalls, including steps and small moats around statues and little fountains you can walk over that shoot water out through little holes at musical intervals. I’ve been back maybe one or two times since then (trust me, there’s not really much to do or see in Fort Worth, unless you’re into rodeos or stock shows or square dancing festivals). I’m not quite all that Texan, thanks. Hahah. I have been to a stock show. It’s a bit too smelly for me.
Heheh. No commentary on the quality of the pictures, or the apparent rubbery, bendiness of my door back in Arkansas. I’m just going to say “parallax, baby.” I’ll leave it at that.
Day 09: Random Photo/Video
Hi. I know that the real topic is supposed to be about a random picture, but I wanted to take a break from all of the pictures. Please forgive me. Scheduled postings will resume tomorrow.
Hmm okay. So I had a couple of things in mind for today. There are some cute youtube videos to watch, but after last night’s post, I wanted to put something up that could (hopefully) put a smile on some of your faces.
Hahahah.
I only discovered this guy a couple of days ago. He’s really interesting. This is not my favorite of his videos, but I still think it was very well done. Hahah. And the music gets in my head. I like it. I was going to post the one he did for the Portal “Still Alive” song or the Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but it might be too nerdy for my audience. So, in your best interests, I will let you search it up yourselves. Heh.
About this guy, though. Twang and I were discussing the merits of sign language:
JL: maybe we should all learn asl to speak. it’s so much more active hahaha
TW: it would definitely be more efficient i think. less inflection, less double meaning. more expression reading. we would be more aware of each other in body language and not in words
JL: mm, true! there are downsides though. words are quicker. and sarcasm.. can that be conveyed so well? maybe better, actually. haha
TW: i think it can be. sarcasm is in body language and expression, not just tone
JL: but people have to be looking at you
TW: lol but isn’t that the beauty of it? people actually have to pay attention to each other to get it
JL: haha true, again
Yup, I think ASL would be fun to learn.
Hahah. Something else that has grown on me recently: the Old Spice commercials. Not the ones with the ODORBLOCK, but these videos.
“Do you want a man who smells like he can bake you a gourmet cake in the dream kitchen he built you with his own hands?” The mustache one is strange.
Hmmm. At the end of it all, I find I really do want to insert a random picture in here, anyway. My cousin showed me this.
I really enjoy macro photography. The above is the surface of an eye. I never knew it looked like this. The depths of the eyes. It’s pretty amazing.
But I have recently discovered tilt-shift photography, as well (which is the art of making something life-sized appear miniature). While there are expensive lenses for tilt-shift (for the Nikon D60), the effect can be easily replicated by photoshop.
Some of the best examples that I’ve seen of tilt-shift photography can be found here.
Day 08: A Photo That Makes Me Angry/Sad
This post is taking me a rather long time to write, because I don’t think I can find anything that fits the requirements.
I have seen offensive photos, yes. I have seen photography that disturbs or annoys me, either by lack of quality or by the lack of technique in taking said photo. But in order to fit the requirements, I feel as though the content must be something that strikes at me personally.
See, the issue with that, though, is that I’m left with either posting personal pictures or offensive and rude pictures, neither of which I am particularly eager to have displayed on my blog.
Somehow, this business reminds me about one of the comics I read called “pictures for sad children.”
The whole comic is based off of awkward situations and some strange, dark-ish humor. The best place to start is from the beginning. The comic is thoughtful in its misplaced, strange way. I still enjoy it, though. But even then, you can’t be guaranteed to understand the whole flow of the story. Here is the link: pictures for sad children.
In other news, today was Leon Yung’s birthday!
Sorry that you got a lame post for your present. Heheh.
As another side note, I am re-reading Ender’s Game! I had forgotten why I like this story so much. But as far as characters go, I am much more partial to Bean from Ender’s Shadow. He’s brilliant and my favorite. Wheeee, scifi.
Day 07: A Photo That Makes Me Happy
Happy pictures!
Last summer, I had a lot of fun being a summer school teacher for incoming 2nd graders at church. I was their math, English and assistant theatre teacher. They called me “Ms. Joy.” Not only were these kids the perfect age (too young to get mean and snobby, but old enough to be focused and yet still so cute!), but they also were so much fun to be around. Heheh. I was their teacher, but I don’t know how well I actually taught them. Most of them picked up the math concepts and English concepts without much difficulty – in fact, the only difficulty with the work was usually with their concentration and attention spans. Recess and snack breaks were an absolute blessing that summer. Any chance I could get for these kids to get excess energy out without hurting each other and making too big of a mess was used. The girls were mostly good workers and quiet players. But all that 7 to 8 year old energy for the boys was terrible! I spent as much time chasing down one of those adorably innocent-eyed deceivers as I spent trying to teach new concepts. Hahah. Needless to say, those were good times. The little kid on my lap (Ryan) and the kid in the striped yellow shirt (Brenden) were my favorites. Yeah, they were kind of trouble makers, but they were harmless in their fun and kept me laughing all day.
This is from my sophomore year (wow, such a long time ago) band/orchestra trip in Colorado. Hahah. On this trip, I skied down without poles for the first time. It’s a crazy exhilarating feeling. My friend and I accidentally took the lift too far and had to ski down a slope that was harder than what we were used to. That was probably the best thing to happen, though, because I realized that we were actually capable of doing it! I made it all the way down to the green slopes without falling, and then what happens? I wiped out. Hahah. But it was still my favorite band trip throughout high school. Mmm, I miss Brekenridge snow.
From the second day of the same trip, this picture was taken from the summit of our mountain. You can’t really tell from here, but over that ridge behind me is the rest of that mountain. It was a really long lift ride, but such an epic ride down.
I have many, many pictures from my all-time favorite trip, but I do not know where they are. The ones I can find have been printed out. These three are from my uploads on facebook, but I cannot find anything after the first few days in Greece. This country somehow resonated with my soul. I felt at such peace and stunning joy here. My favorite places included: Hydra (one of the little islands that are off the coast), Mycenae (fortress home of King Agamemnon), the Temple of Poseidon (overlooking the sea in the same area as those little houses with blue roofs), and the rooftop of our hotel in Glyfada. The hotel rooftop had a stunning view of the beach to the front of the hotel and the reassuring presence of great mountains in the back. My friends and I spent a lot of time up on that roof. The first picture is from the top of the acropolis at Athena’s temple. The second is one of the many silly pictures we took as we watched the sunset from the beach of the Aegean Sea. The third is half of a shot of a theatre at the entry of the acropolis and half of a shot of the city of Athens, stretching away into the distance. For my senior scrapbook, I wrote a little bit about Greece that pretty much sums up all of my feelings: “Never have I seen a country so green and vibrant in life. Both the present and the past live here in a calming coexistence. The waters are bluer and the skies clearer and the breeze forever sweeps from the mountains to the beaches. The people are friendly and cultured and so spirited. This, I think, is the way we were meant to live life.” Greece 2008.
Day 06: My Favorite Poem
Poetry. I like to think of myself as a poet, though I know that writing is a talent that is shared among many, many people. I enjoy reading and writing and discovering poetry, but I do not have any favorite poems. I have some that I like for some reason or another. Keats, the old ee cummings (when he still used punctuation correctly), some Percy Shelley. I think I have a hard time with favorites. Heh.
Mostly, I like to write my own prose-poetry. No rhyme schemes or stanzas, but just words. I have a tendency to write about sad things or to write “depressing” poems. I have written happy stuff before, but I think there’s so much more depth in depression. Tragedy breeds greatness or something like that.
- – - – - – -
When I have fears that I may cease to be
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; — then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
- John Keats
- – - – - – -
All in green went my love riding
All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the merry deer ran before.
Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
the swift sweet deer
the red rare deer.
Four red roebuck at a white water
the cruel bugle sang before.
Horn at hip went my love riding
riding the echo down
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the level meadows ran before.
Softer be they than slippered sleep
the lean lithe deer
the fleet flown deer.
Four fleet does at a gold valley
the famished arrow sang before.
Bow at belt went my love riding
riding the mountain down
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the sheer peaks ran before.
Paler be they than daunting death
the sleek slim deer
the tall tense deer.
Four tell stags at a green mountain
the lucky hunter sang before.
All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.
four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
my heart fell dead before.
- ee cummings
- – - – - – -
Ozymandias
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
- Percy Shelley
- – - – - – -
Shadows of Light
There’s a heaviness in the air. It pushes me down beneath the darkening skies. Beneath the passing hours and the sad songs that echo in the memories of our time together.
I’m losing focus. My thoughts are unfocused, slurred like some drunken melody.
I can’t put my finger on it.
I want to drive where no one will see me. I want to fly above the world. I want to feel a fierce breeze that guides me into the hands of mercy. I want to hold that hand that was brought to me by grace.
Paths cross and twist away and are redrawn together.
There’s a glimpse of promise coupled with the agonizing torment of doubt. It churns inside me.
Am I the only one to feel this?
This night is so hypnotic. I can barely breathe.
To stand beneath this sky of tears, does it wash away my hurt?
To stare into a night-filled room, does it hide away my fears?
But the night weeps and the dark shivers. The wind outside cries out in discontent and this feeling of uncertainty spreads even further still.
If I fall tonight, I fall alone.
If I stumble in the darkness, there will be no light to guide me back.
- – - – - – -
A Quiet Reverie.
Enter a hall.
Silenced by time,
adorned in dust.
Dust, a dull mask that sheathes the brilliant golds and reds of another era.
A distorting veil that covers the intricacy of the sculptured walls.
So masked, and yet still so elegant.
Even light cannot enter but through the opened entryway – the sun cannot see the transformation that has taken place within these walls.
Where once stood imposing columns, lay masses of broken stone, broken foundation.
Without a foundation, what is there left to stand upon?
There’s a silence that clings to the air. A heaviness that descends from the heights of the great arches and presses down into the soul. It stiffens the breathing.
Dust. This is how the world shall know you.
- – - – - – -
Sorry for the long post. I was contemplating changing the topic for today. The last two poems are my own. Not the best of them, but they seemed to match the other posted poems.
