Just a Thought...

I've started saying a phrase recently and I don't know where I got it, but I like it.

"Life happens..."

I usually say that after something unexpected happens. Sometimes the unthinkable happens out of the blue and there's nothing you can do about it except keep living life.

That's my thought. Not at all profound...

Facebook got boring...

So, I'm sitting at work and I've seen all there is to see on Facebook, so I decided to entertain myself with Blogger instead.

Last week was the ACTUAL start of my Newscast class. We started putting together news packages, weather forecasts, PSAs, readers... the elements that make up the actual newscast.

I was nervous. Really, really nervous. My production job was to be the floor manager in the studio. I have to repeat everything the director in the control room says, to everyone in the studio. Basically, I relay messages. I tell everyone when we're going on the air. Also, if the director wants the anchor to move over a couple inches, or to talk slower/faster... that's my cue.

The best part of that job is I get to wear a headset. But, it can also be confusing because I can never tell if the director is talking to me, or to someone in the control room.

A couple days later for our next show I was in charge of tapes. Tapes contain all the reporters' stories. News packages are what take up most of the time on a newscast, and I was in charge of all of them. If tapes aren't done right the whole newscast could be a total failure. It was a little intimidating because the tapes had to be cued in the right spot and put on the air at the right time, but I think I nailed it!

There's nothing like the anticipation minutes... even seconds before you're supposed to go on the air. It's so nerve racking. I've noticed that when I get nervous my feet sweat. So random. And kinda gross.

Another one of my jobs was to announce the weather for our Cache Rendezvous show. Bad day. Reading from a teleprompter is HARD! Especially when you're standing in bright sunshine. Add to that a contact that was not happy being in my eye. It looked like I was crying because my contact was irritating my eye so much. And then I bombed at reading from the teleprompter. I felt like a wind up monkey toy... or a CD that kept skipping. It was not a good experience. I never want to watch that weather forecast ever again.

I must practice reading from a teleprompter.

This is a work in progress.

I feel like I'm making slow progress.

Progress... hurry up!

My mom is wearing off on me!

I tried it.

I cooked.

Yep, SHOCKER isn't it?!

And I'm going to... admit that I kinda liked it.

I must be my mother's daughter.

I think there's a difference between cooking for just myself and cooking for other people. I don't really care much about cooking something special when it's just me eating. But when I make something for someone else, it HAS to be good. I actually have to put forth some effort and TRY to make it appetizing.

My only mishap to date is I overcooked some biscuits. But, in my defense... they were the cheapo, 49 cent off brand kind that you basically have to WATCH bake because they cook so fast. I know pre-made biscuits isn't the greatest endeavor, but it's a start! I don't want to bite off more than I can chew right at the beginning.

So, what I need now is EASY dinner ideas. All you homemakers out there (and Chase) lay them on me in the comments section!

Much appreciated.

To be perfectly honest, cooking scares me. I'm afraid of doing something wrong.

This will be a work in progress.

No Leisa today?!

I walk into the Journalism Department and Ted Pease, Department Head, shouts, "Thank God you're here!"

New semester, new department head, lots of changes in faculty and staff, and Leisa, the office manager, is sick today.

Leisa knows everything. She's all knowing. She's omniscient you could say. She'll fix your problem no matter what it is. If she doesn't know how to fix it, she'll find out.

I find it hilarious that the department head is excited to see me, the lowly work study student that in all reality, knows next to nothing about running an office. I know how to answer the phone and transfer the call to the right person, take a message, make a few copies, and smile when someone talks to me. Oh, and staple and paper clip papers together. These things are complicated I tell ya!

It makes me feel a little important actually.

But truthfully, I feel comfortable being in charge today.

A girl just said that I knew what I was talking about, so that makes me feel pretty good about myself.

It's a good day!

Happy Fall Semester 2009 everyone... good luck!

Piano Keys and S&P

My roommate and best friend, Celeste, is a master at the piano. So, when she inherited a piano she was so excited to move it into our apartment.

Let me tell you, moving a piano is a great way to make some friends. We recruited a few guys that live in our complex to help carry it up a flight of stairs. We were making cookies for a week trying to make it up to them!




On the top of the piano there is a mirror. It adds a nice little touch and an artistic feel to an otherwise, ordinary upright piano.



A little known fact that only a few people know about me is that I have a salt and pepper shaker collection. It's quite small, only consisting of about 20 sets of shakers.

Anyway, how do salt and pepper shakers and pianos relate to each other? I put my shakers above the piano. It's the perfect place to display them. And, it gives our apartment a more homey feel.

Spring has finally sprung!

The beauty of the Utah State campus amazes me. As I see tulips, trees blossoming, green grass and birds chirping, it makes me excited. I took a walk around campus today after my Sunday afternoon nap. The lighting was perfect for taking pictures. I got some amazing shots. These are straight out of camera, not edited at all just so you know!









Last year I never saw campus in the spring. By the time spring had sprung school was out and I had moved back home. It's beautiful in the winter time, but it's even more beautiful in the spring. I think I like it better this time of year. It's quiet and peaceful and there's hardly anyone around. It's like you have the whole place to yourself and you don't have to be in a hurry to get anywhere. I took the time to look around campus and notice things I've never noticed before. It was a nice day.

Spreadable Butter

So, call me high maintenance or extremely picky, but does it matter to anyone else to have soft butter to spread on their toast?

I woke up this morning and surprised myself. I made myself fried eggs and two pieces of toast with a full, cold glass of milk. I must have been really hungry when I woke up.

I go to spread butter on my toast and IT DOESN'T SPREAD! The kitchen window was left open last night and I guess it froze the butter! This is what soft butter should look like:



Everyone in my family feels very strongly about soft butter... my older brother once wrote a college paper about the importance of soft butter. You did write a paper about that, right Kyle? You don't still have that do you? That would be fun to post...

You may wonder why I have a picture of butter... It looked cool ok?!

New surroundings

So, I haven't posted for almost two weeks and I'm so sorry! I feel so out of the loop... and I hate it. These past two weeks have been a blur. Between final tests and final projects, cleaning and relocating all my crap between two apartments, traveling, and job hunting... it's been insane! There were a couple days where I was tired to the point of exhaustion. But, now that I'm settled in my new apartment, things are starting to look up. Here are some pics!









If you go out in the middle of the street and stand there, this is what you'll see:

I have the best view of campus, and Old Main Hill as my playground!

So yeah. That's my apartment. Overall, it's so much bigger and nicer than my previous apartment. There's probably three times as much storage space than what I'm used to and it just has a nice feel to it. I really like it here.

That's going to be all for this post... sorry the majority of it is pictures with no explanation. One thing I hate most is pictures without explanations, so I'm going to be a little bit of a hypocrite right now. More posts to come!

Oh, I'm job hunting so if you hear of anything in the Logan area let me know by leaving a comment! Thanks :)

College Life

When I woke up Friday morning, I had no idea what was ahead of me. My weekend wasn’t planned and I thought it was going to be another fall-asleep-to-a-movie-at-11:00 p.m. weekend. Little did I know that I was going to become a True Aggie, crowd surf at the dance on the quad, have a mani/pedi/facial night with a gay guy and not get a wink of sleep.

These activities sound pretty typical of a young, college student, especially at Utah State University. My philosophy is that the most memorable weekends are the weekends with nothing really planned. Those are the times when random and exciting things happen that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

First thing, you’ve moved away from home to become independent, right? Then, you’ll probably want to stay away from home as much as possible. Going home too much causes you to miss things going on in the college atmosphere, especially on the weekends. It’s important to feel connected to things, and that happens mostly on the weekends.

Next, immerse yourself in the college environment. One of the biggest mistakes I see is someone “hiding” out in their apartment just waiting to be invited to something. That’s going about things the wrong way. If you’re not having a good time, then it’s probably your fault. It may be uncomfortable to talk to people you don’t know, but that’s how you meet people. The more you meet people, the more comfortable you’ll feel in your new environment.

College is all about having fun, right? The key to that is spontaneity. Be open to anything and be willing to try something new. You might discover something you really like this way. Don’t let judgments stop you from doing anything. An activity your parents might consider to be completely crazy and random could be relatively normal to you.

Take the initiative when it comes to deciding what to do. The most common, and also the most annoying, question is “What do you want to do tonight?” If you want to do a specific activity, round up some people to make it possible. Prevent having the answer to that question be “I don’t know” because that doesn’t get anyone very far.

Small World...

It's amazing how many different (and the same!) people you connect with through blogging. I was on my Mom's blog reading her latest post about Butterfinger Mini Cheesecakes. (looks so-oo good by the way, Mom!)

I was reading the comment on that post and visited the profile of the one commenter. On her profile it showed that she follows a Lynn Shinney Photography. You know me and photography blogs... I'm obsessed with them and follow about fifty. Not even kidding.

So, I click on the link to the photography blog and up pops the wedding announcement of someone living in my building! Small world... cute announcement, very cute couple!

Soil Science

Haha, I just heard from one of my friends that I need a new post. People actually read my blog, I feel so special! This is will be random, but here goes:

I know I've been lacking in posting lately, but I've been too busy reading about the soil degradation issues and devastating economic and political climate of Zimbabwe. Not kidding. Once you get into it, it really is fascinating. The hard part is actually getting into it.

My group just barely gave our presentation on it and we did AWESOME! When the teacher tells your group that your presentation was really, really good, that's a great feeling.

However, keep in mind though that she perks up every time she hears the words soil, erosion, aggregates, degradation and any other word that can be associated with soil.

It's quite entertaining really. During presentations today she broke into a big smile when anyone related what they were talking about to a previous lecture or something we learned in class.

Who would have thought that I would ever take a SOILS class? This particular class was not my choice. It was at the right time of the day and it fulfilled the depth science requirement I needed.

Seeing how fascinated my professor is with this stuff just goes to show that everyone is interested in different things. I look at Ag majors and think, "Why would you ever want to study soil?" But on the other hand, people probably look at me and say, "Why would you ever want to take photographs and write stuff and put it in a newspaper?"

To me, documenting events so others can see what is going on is fascinating. To be able to create something visually informative, such as a news broadcast, from nothing is exciting. Photographing a person, place or thing that seems ordinary is my chance of making it look extraordinary.

These are all really tech-y things that require a lot of preparation and time, but I like it and it's what I'm good at.

This post has no pictures! Let me find some...



photos courtesy of The Hard News Cafe

That's what I'll be doing in the fall... helping produce the ATV News and Cache Valley Rendezvous broadcast programs the broadcast department puts on twice a week. I'm excited!

Historic clock

When I was home this past weekend... my family left me while they went to my brother's track meet. I was all alone and I was bored. So I pulled out my camera and wandered the house.

I remember this clock being very central in our house. My dad brought it back from Holland after he served his mission there some thirty-plus years ago. It has always hung in the same spot, behind my dad's recliner. Sadly, the furniture has been rearranged so it isn't behind the chair anymore.

I remember my dad pulling the chords and hearing the clock and its gears wind up again.

I remember hearing it chime every quarter hour while sitting on my dad's lap watching This Old House and The Joys of Painting with Bob Ross on Saturday mornings.

I remember tapping the chords and watching them swing just a little bit. I don't think I was supposed to touch the clock.

It doesn't chime anymore. I don't remember why or when it stopped, but, I think the chime of the clock left with the physical presence of my dad.

This may be a weird analogy, but since I've always connected that clock with my dad, I will always associate the working clock with the presence of my dad. I think that's why it has never been fixed.

I probably have the story of the clock wrong, I've never asked about it and don't know why. But, that's how I've always interpreted it.

These aren't as good of pictures as I would have liked to get of this clock. They're kind of blurry. I was balancing on the arm of the couch to get high enough to get this close. It was an odd position... I almost fell and caught myself by running into the wall. It scared my dog to death and he started barking uncontrollably. Silly dog!

Shoes

So the shoes I talked about in my last post?

I wore them today. Bad idea.

They're fine other than how they dried. The backs dried odd so they're giving me blisters. I would change them, but I'm on campus til 8 tonight.

Stupid shoes.

That's all.

Look What's Cookin'

The other day, my mom thought it would be a good idea to eat shoes for dinner. Yes, shoes. She even turned the oven on while they were in there.

Just kidding. She didn't think it would be a good idea. It was an honest mistake that she almost caught my shoes on fire.

At my house we have a second oven in our garage we don't use very often. I washed my shoes to make them look a little whiter and newer and my mom said to put them in the (then cold) oven so they could dry in a warm environment because our heater wasn't on.

I forgot they were in there, and I guess my mom had too because when I went out to take the trash out in the garage I smelled some sort of burning. It turned out to be my shoes. My mom started to preheat the oven to cook dinner.

I pulled my steaming shoes out of the oven and looked at the damage. They didn't look too bad except for they were more yellow than white, and the shoelaces started turning brown. A 400 degree oven doesn't do a whole lot of good for a pair of tennis shoes.

I went in to tell my mom and she gasped in horror! I can still see the look on her face and it's still funny to laugh about.

She promised to buy me new shoes. Thanks for making me laugh mom, and at least I get new shoes out of your mistake! :)

Focus, People!

Focusing must come naturally for me as a photographer... When I have the camera in my hands and I press the shutter button halfway down to allow for focusing, I can feel the camera working. It's like the noise a computer makes when it's loading something. When the camera stops "working" I know that it's focused and I can then press the button all the way down and take the picture.

Why don't people understand how to focus pictures?! I get frustrated when I ask someone to take a group picture and then I look at it and it's blurry.

I don't like blurry pictures. Like this:



I think that's a person on a couch... holding a pillow over their head. But I'm not sure.

Hold the button halfway down, let the camera work and then everyone will be happier!

By the way, I'm very picky about my photos if you couldn't tell.

Templates

I hate blogger... it doesn't let me do what I want without getting overly frustrated.

As you've maybe noticed in the past few weeks, the background on my blog has been white for quite some time. I wanted to find a template that was like the "dark dots" template, but one that would allow me to do a header across the top, not just in the sidebar.

I googled my problem and came up with many "blogging experts" that showed step by step instructions on how to do what I wanted. Perfect, right?! No. I did every step, exactly the way it said to, and I still came up with error messages every time I tried to save it.

After spending several hours squinting at the computer screen editing HTML code I hardly know how to read, I found my current background. That's the simplest and darkest one I could find.

I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'm sick of getting frustrated over it.

Maybe when I'm more of an expert in HTML I can manipulate it with more ease and less frustration.

In one of my classes I'm learning Dreamweaver and I really like it! I'm thinking about investing in the Adobe Suite... just what I need, one more thing to waste my time on and get frustrated over when it doesn't do what I want it to.

Eyeshadow and Lipstick

Sometimes the best weekends are the weekends with nothing planned in advance.

Because then you end up with pictures like this:




But then your living room ends up looking like this:


And you have to clean it up. My mom was always right... it's fun making the mess, but no fun cleaning up the mess.

I hope my roomies forgive me for posting these pictures, but they aren't THAT embarrassing. I think we all look really cute with purple eye shadow and bright red lipstick.

Sometimes you need a night with the girls so you can act like this without trying to impress a bunch of guys. That just gets tiring... besides, a guy won't willingly let you put makeup on them. It's just better this way and more enjoyable for all parties.

Candy from Grandpa Petersen's

I'm full of old memories tonight...

Do you remember the strawberry candies that had a soft center?

My Grandpa Petersen always gave these to us when we came to visit on Sunday nights.

They were my favorite because the wrapper looked like a strawberry with a green, twisted top and a red bottom with little seeds.



The best thing about them though was the center.

It would be hard until you got to the center, and then all the gooey strawberry flavored stuff would ooze out. That was my favorite part. I would eat lots of them just so I could feel the flavor ooze out of the center.

All those memories came back to me when the candy jar at work was filled with these. I was overjoyed, ecstatic, reminiscent and like a little child all over again in my Grandpa Petersen's kitchen holding my hands out just waiting for a handful of my favorite candies from the candy tupperware.

Over the past months there have been many different brands of the strawberry candies (also known as bon bons) in the candy jar, but none of them were quite right until just recently. Arcor is the brand that produces these candies exactly as I remember them. I couldn't find exactly the source of these candies, but I think it's somewhere in South America.

When the candy jar no longer contains my favorite treat in the world, I'm going to order a whole bag just for myself.

This is the place

"Utah, people working together
Utah, what a great place to be
Blessed from Heaven above,
It's the land that I love,
This is the place!"

Remember in secondish grade when Utah was celebrating its birthday and all the school's put on an assembly to celebrate? I just heard some people singing this song outside my window. NOT JOKING. After weeks of practicing those songs I'm not surprised that they still know the words.

It brings back the good days of dressing up like pioneers and Indians and singing (horribly I should add) to my parents about my home state. I wonder if I could find that home video somewhere?! That would definitely be something to laugh about.

Out of the Apartment

I got home from school the other day and decided I didn't want to be inside. I packed up my camera, put on a hoodie and grabbed my sunglasses and walked out the door. The weather was so nice that I didn't even need my hoodie, and there were too many photo opportunities to keep my sunglasses on.

The ducks were out at First Dam and they were so excited to be scurrying around in the sunshine picking and prodding at the bread crumbs and duck food people of all ages were throwing their way. This little boy threw the crumbs up and over his head so hard that half of the food ended up in his hair and down his shirt. It was fun watching his mom laugh at him while he tried to brush it off himself.



The water was clear and calm with only a little bit of wind to create a nice little breeze to keep you cool. I loved watching how calm everything around me was. The water was clear and quiet. The wind was only slightly blowing making the weather not too hot and not too cold.



I look forward to summer when I won't be in school and I can fully explore the beauty that Logan has to offer. I've never really appreciated everything in Logan because I've been too busy with school to get out beyond my apartment. Either that or I'm just lazy.

Come this summer I won't be lazy anymore. I'm ready to be adventurous and explore the place I live.

Needing something new...

Spring Break is great, but you can only sleep in so many times before it gets mundane and boring.

I'm excited to get back into a routine. I miss my friends! I miss my WARM apartment. I miss my bed and my slippers I forgot to bring home. I miss the strawberry candies I always munch on at work. I miss walking through the TSC and seeing familiar faces. My calves miss walking up the hill every day to school... maybe not. I miss staying up late and doing crazy things.

I'm making it sound like I hate being home. NOT TRUE! I LOVE being home. I'll miss ultimate reign of cable tv. I'll miss the endless supply of food. I'll miss my mom and how much she spoils me. I'll miss taking showers and not worrying about when the hot water is going to run out. I'll miss parking in a garage and not having to scrape my car every time I drive somewhere. I'll miss having a constant snuggle buddy... my puppy. I'll miss a washer and dryer available anytime I need it.

I'm being dramatic for no reason. It's not like I'm stuck at college forever and I'm never coming home again. I'm pathetic.

No pictures in this post... that's weird for me, but I have nothing new. More to come in the near future! :)

Spring Break

This week is Spring Break... it was a much needed break. I was so excited when it started to warm up last week. The moment I left Logan, it snowed 14 inches. It snowed three or four inches in South Jordan, so not too extreme... but it's still snow in the middle of March. Not happy!

Me and my mom went to the store today. She bought me potato chips... ah... my life is complete. I always crave potato chips, but I've promised myself that I'll only eat them when I come home. Otherwise, my face would break out more than it already is because of the constant consumption of oil from the chips. Even though they're made with all natural sunflower oil DOES NOT mean they're any better for you.

Here's what me and my mom have been up to...

Stir Fry complete with chili garlic sauce, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Doesn't that just sound exotic? It definitely was exotic...

I love watching my mom cook. I help her cook, but mostly I just watch because I'm amazed at how good she is! She makes things look so easy and then when I try to do it I slaughter it completely.

My Little Ball of Fur

Kip, Kippy, Kipper-Puppy, etc. Kipper makes everything more exciting. He is my full grown, 4 year old, 5 pound Yorkshire Terrier. For being such a small dog, he has the biggest attitude.

He has always barked at the doorbell and just recently he's decided to bark at the phone too. Whenever someone gets home he barks until he's been acknowledged. Not just "Hey Kipper!" But, you have to sit on the floor and rub his tummy.

When the family watches a movie he sits with the person that's NOT trying to get him to sit by them.

He cuddles up in the smallest ball possible in the spot that you don't want him to sit in. He'll sit in your lap when you're working on your laptop.

He licks everything. It gets annoying.

If you touch my little brother he freaks out. He's very protective of him. They're best friends.

When he wants to play he'll stick his bone in his mouth and get really close to your hand or your face so that you'll try to take it.

If you gasp or open your eyes really wide he'll tense up and get ready to pounce.

He gets really scared if you say the word "bath". He'll flatten his body and run to his bed.

I don't know why I decided to write about my dog... probably because he's cuddled up on my lap pretending to be asleep.
He loves going outside. If you even mention the word "outside" he starts barking and heading toward the door.

He's terrified of the car. We don't take him in the car often. Only to go to the groomer, the vet, and to be boarded. He starts shaking like a leaf and whining uncontrollably. He's calmest on the driver's lap.

When we leave the house he cuddles up in my little brother's shoes, shorts or blanket. He likes my brother a lot.

Crying Over Silly Things...

Today was a sad day. I broke my mom's favorite pitcher. It was one of my favorites too... it's been in my life for as long as I can remember. It's been at every family dinner and special event in my life.

I was drying it and it slipped out of my hands and hit the counter really hard. It didn't shatter, but it cracked. I wanted to cry. Actually I did cry. As I took it out to the trash, a couple tears escaped from my eyes.

Later, after the party was over and everyone had gone home, I fished it out of the trash because I had to take some pictures of it.





I know it seems silly to cry over a pitcher, but I loved that pitcher. I've never seen another pitcher like it. The handle doesn't connect on the top, it's only connected on the bottom. That's why I love it. It's unique.

Everywhere I go, I'll look for another pitcher like that. If I find it, I'll buy two... one for me, and one to replace the one I broke.

We were walkin' in the park one day...

These are the funnest kinds of pictures to take... especially with a DLSR. If you keep the shutter button pushed down, it just keeps taking pictures. So you can capture the whole process... like this:








Isn't that cool?! I love watching everyone's face and seeing how it changes from the picture before it. Did Steve even make it off the ground? How does Chase jump that high? Kami was working on getting some good momentum... and Kristen looks like she's concentrating so hard! I l just love these pictures so much...

Some more highlights from our Sunday afternoon walk by the river:



Every walk needs a bridge picture! And some nice man walking by even offered to take a picture with all of us in it... how nice. He didn't quite know how to use my camera though, it was kinda funny to watch him!



The left picture is kind of dark, but it was in the car so it doesn't matter. Kristen and Steve have matchy matchy sunglasses... how cute. Actually no, Steve is wearing Kami's sunglasses that match Kristen's. And the right picture is of a thistle. Usually I don't think thistles are cool, but this one just spoke to me and I had to take a picture of it! Isn't the fuzzy background cool looking? That is why I love my aperture.