Finding Art in Shapes and Shadows

Hometown Travels

An Antique Land

I'm a nerd. Not in that computer-genius, off-the-charts-IQ, Big-Bang-Theory-way because I'm not actually that smart, but in the boring, like-to-go-to-museums, addicted-to-Firefly-and-Doctor-Who-way.

When I travel to new places I like to visit museums, see the sights, take in culture and art as well as walk the streets to participate in daily life. As contrasted with most of my peers who go to bars, drink, have random drunken hookups, and wander around drunk.

So when I visited New York for the first time during one all too brief weekend last year, of course one of my priorities was to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of my good friends from high school (and middle school, and even college too -- we went to the same one) who now lives in DC came up and met me in New York. She had been there several times before but being less of a nerd than me, she had never been to the Met before. She sounded pretty doubtful when I said that I wanted to go but, being a good sport and a good friend, agreed without any argument.

We spent several hours on a Saturday morning wandering through the museum looking at any exhibit either of us was interested in, me with my ever-present camera constantly snapping away and her patiently waiting for me (she's a great friend).

I really enjoyed it and my friend did too, which rather surprised her. When we left the museum she told me that she had thought it would be boring but actually ended up having a good time. And trust me, she's not the type to say things just for politeness' sake. If she says it, she means it, which is yet another reason why we're friends.

I particularly liked the exhibit on ancient Egypt. Again with the nerdiness: I've always been fascinated by ancient civilizations, and Egypt was one of the largest and most influential, not to mention seeming particularly exotic and strange to a small town girl growing up in Iowa. So even as a kid I read a lot about ancient Egypt -- about their cultures and traditions, gods and goddesses, myths, architecture, art, etc. When I was younger thought it would be fun to learn to read hieroglyphs, but so far it hasn't happened yet.

My interest is actually strong enough that early last year after I had decided to return to school but was trying to decide which discipline to pursue, I was seriously considering archaeology, possibly with an emphasis on Egyptology.

I've always wanted to visit Egypt, and I still hold out hope that someday I will be able to go. But for now I'll have to content myself with visiting museums like this and dreaming.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Lantern Waste

Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so

I presume everyone has heard about the new zodiac by now? I have to admit, I was rather surprised by the impact it has had -- most of my friends profess to be upset by it, with reactions varying from being a little thrown off to proclaiming to no longer know who they are anymore.

As for me, well, let's just say that I'm not much of a believer.

One of my friends from college is really into all that astrology stuff and used to talk about it all the time. Surprisingly enough, a lot of what she told me was really interesting and actually did seem to be right a large percentage of the time. However, just because I think it's interesting certainly doesn't mean I believe in it, at least completely. It's just something that's fun to play around with and think about.

So even if my sign had changed (which it has not -- I'm still a Virgo), it wouldn't really affect me because basically I agree with Edmund in King Lear:

"This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My
father compounded with my mother under the
dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
major; so that it follows, I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing."

Or in other words, you are what you make of yourself and the stars have nothing to do with it, except as a convenient scapegoat to blame when things go wrong. And that I do believe.

Sinister Staircase

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody!

I used a Facebook application to compile this photo collage using pictures that I had uploaded to my Facebook account throughout the year. It pretty much covers all the major events, and, after looking back on it, made me realize that my year actually was pretty good.

A lot happened in 2010: I traveled to Afghanistan, visited with college friends in Chicago, was a bridesmaid in the wedding of my one of my best friends since kindergarten, moved halfway across the country, and went back to school.

Good times!

How did you spend your year?

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Time is Here Again

A small selection of vaguely Christmas-themed images from my trip to New York City last year for your viewing pleasure. As you can probably tell, I love Christmas lights :)

Enjoy, and happy holidays to all!

Neon Lights

Although it's been said many times, many ways...

Footprints in the first snowfall last year

It may have been 80 degrees outside the past few days here, but I’ve been seeing a lot facebook statuses about the first snowfall posted by my friends in other, snowier, places. This is going to be my first snow-less winter, and I’m a little sad about it.

When I was young the one thing I wished for more than anything else as this time of year rolled around was a white Christmas. Christmas was my favorite holiday by far, and not just because of the presents (although they were definitely a nice perk).

To me, Christmas meant snow and lights and Christmas Eve at my grandmother’s house with all my cousins.

It meant mittens and crisp cold air, decorating the tree and writing a letter to Santa.

Searching the house with my brother and sister for my mom’s gift list to see what presents we were getting.

Building structures out of the presents under the tree, including a fort for the cat.

Having snow battles with the neighbor kids.

Seeing Christmas lights glowing everywhere you looked.

Playing an angel in the Christmas pageant at church.

Standing with my cousin in front of my grandma’s big picture window on Christmas Eve with our noses pressed to the glass, searching the night sky for Rudolph’s red nose.

Night view of Radio City Music Hall at Christmastime

One of my most vivid memories from childhood, evoked every time I listen to the Oak Ridge Boys’ Christmas album (a family favorite), is of coming into the warm, bright house from the snowy darkness outside during Christmastime. The house would be lit up with lamps and Christmas lights everywhere, my mom would have the Oak Ridge Boys playing on the speakers and the smell of baking Christmas cookies would fill the air while I pulled off all my snow clothes and rushed into the kitchen to taste-test the warm gooey cookies fresh from the oven.

Although it has been years since I’ve done that, the memory lingers.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve been kind of a Grinch the past few years due to some family problems, and I’m not entirely sure why I’m suddenly so nostalgic now. Maybe it has something to do with being so far from my friends and family and everything I know. The exotically warm weather is just the most obvious manifestation of how different everything is for me now.

Now more first snowfalls for me, at least for the next two years.

Monochrome Monday

Cat in the Afternoon

That is the question...

To be, or not to be--that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

Round and Round and Round

Ballet Folklorico Otra Vez

Yes, I realize my Spanish sucks. But high school was a long time ago, and I never was any good at languages anyway. Although hopefully I'll do better when I start Persian.

Headlights

Más Ballet Folklorico

This one is by far my favorite out of all the photos I took yesterday.

Ballet Folklorico

Protesters! Yay!

Last weekend my university hosted a Town Hall meeting for Admiral Michael G. Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and principal military adviser to the White House.

I went.

It seemed like an unusual opportunity to witness the type of event that heretofore I had only read about, as small-town Iowa isn't really a prime stop for politicians (except during the year before Presidential elections when you can't take two steps without stumbling over a candidate). I thought it would be interesting, and definitely newsworthy, so as a journalist-in-training I figured it would be good to start attending this sort of thing. I was supposed to meet several of my fellow classmates there, but couldn't get hold of anybody before I arrived, so I went on in and found a seat. After going through basic security, that is. It was the first time I'd had to go through any time of security since I left Afghanistan, so I was expecting them to make me pull out my DSLR and turn it on, which of course is ridiculous because no one does that anywhere else. They did, however, make me dump out my metal water bottle, but then when I came back a different guard wouldn't let me take it in even though it was empty. I ended up having to hide it behind a bush. Seriously? How dangerous is an empty water bottle? I was annoyed. Luckily it was still there after the meeting.

Now here's where I felt somewhat stupid. The city I live in has a lot of military connections--there's a big Air Force base in the southern section of the city--so I should have figured that they would show up to hear Admiral Mullen talk. But me being me, I didn't and was therefore rather surprised when at least half of the large audience was made up of military personnel (and just as an aside, I don't know if it's me or if this is really the way it is, but they always seem so darn young).

The auditorium kept filling up, and finally the moderator started the meeting by introducing the admiral and several other prominent figures in the audience, such as a state congresswoman and a local tribal leader. Finally Mullen began talking, and I was again somewhat taken aback at his speaking ability: he stood in the center of the stage and just talked, in a conversational tone, about his theme. In this case he was talking about veterans and what the community can do to incorporate and assist them. To be honest, it wasn't terribly interesting to me because it was all information I already knew and had read about. There wasn't anything new or shocking. Although he did mention that there is a really high rate of homelessness among female veterans, which did surprise me a bit.

After about 30 minutes, Mullen finished with his prepared remarks and the floor was opened up for questions. And then the fun began!


This type of open forum, particularly when there's a VIP present--which means lots of press--tends to bring out the kooks. There were a few legitimate questions and concerns, such as one from an older veteran who was upset at the crappiness of the VA system (I'm paraphrasing, of course), and people curious about foreign policy and the future of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. But then there were the inevitable Israel questions (apparently the U.S. is a "puppet of Israel"--and here I would have thought it's the other way around :P) and other people who are there merely to air their myriad grievances publicly. I particularly liked when someone asked why the U.S. doesn't just go in and "impose peace" upon conflicted nations, clearly blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in that phrase. I personally enjoy these people as long as they're not too crazy or violent, but apparently not everyone finds the same entertainment value in them, as I overheard the soldiers sitting behind me muttering angrily several times when the more liberal-leaning crazies spoke.

I must admit, though, I was quite impressed with Mullen. He never lost his temper or even appeared irritated, and was very good at saying a lot without actually saying anything. He also was good at answering questions in a roundabout way that let him get his points across in a way that seemed relevant but actually really wasn't.

I'm not disparaging him here--while that type of thing might get annoying in the future when I'm working as a journalist, right now I'm just a student, and honestly I think that the ability to do that is no mean feat. I wish I could! Like I said, I was favorably impressed. He came off as intelligent, well-spoken, and affable. Very diplomatic.


Then when the fun part was over, it was time to go. I checked my phone to find that my friends had finally gotten back to me, to let me know that they got "stuck at the bar" which I thought was funny. I left to go join them, because politics and confrontation always makes me desperate for a drink. On the way out I received my second surprise of the day, when I found protesters just outside the auditorium. These were very well-behaved and polite protesters, as I discovered when one thanked me for listening to them as I walked away. I only listened for a few minutes and snapped a couple of quick shots because I was looking forward to that beer waiting for me, but what I heard seemed pretty standard.

Still, I was excited. My first demonstrators! Sorry, sometimes the small-town Iowa girl I keep trapped inside me escapes.

Eyes