Still Fighting It

Today I went to a yarn store in New Haven and got $70 worth of very fancy yarn... I'll be making many many hats. 

http://www.yarnllc.com/index.html

Last weekend was a four day break after exams, although I still had to work on my writing portfolio. Weak. I saw Slumdog Millionaire, and even though I had to sit on the ground because there were no seats left, it was basically the best moviegoing experience I've had within the past year. It was so inspiring. I suggest you see it.

Last week I finished another hat, for my friend Marissa, and I'm using the same pattern to make one for myself only in a much fancier yarn :P (hers was just in some acrylic from an arts and crafts store). 

I discovered something that made my life yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/user/corporalcadet

I think I watched all his videos, and they're so frank and britishly funny (even though he lives in New Zealand). Go to him.

Fairfield Follies tryouts are coming up, and I'm thinking of either singing Se Tu M'Ami or something from Sweeney Todd. If we're allowed to do duets, Jaclyn and I might do something from Wicked. I dunno. Good times.

Besides almost passing out in APUS on friday, everything's been good...

Political Correctness and Knitting

I should be working on my Writing Portfolio right now. But, joyous news: I finished Jaclyn's hat! It's beautiful. And I'm making a couple more for friends using variations on the same pattern.

It's supposed to be a beret. The

 thing supporting it is my drawing model, Luigi, in case you were wondering. He's pretty stylish.

I have one more day before I go back to school to start the second semester. Today, as everyone knows, is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I think he was a great and inspiring guy. One specific thing pisses me off about us lovely Americans with regards to political correctness and half of our population: the rabid political correctness and, by association, the term "African-American" (by ancestry African, but by many brutal centuries of naturalization, American. Not like they have much to show for the years of torment... but I digress). On a day such as today, I recall an especially annoying moment in my life. I was on vacation in Tanzania, and a family of plastic surgeons living in a gated community in Florida was on the same tour as my family. I specifically recall hearing the father say, "These African-Americans have it tough." We were in Africa. Not America. And I'm pretty sure he was referring to the impoverished and tsetse fly-ridden school children we were visiting. I'm not saying blacks in america don't have tough times, but life is a lot easier when you don't have to worry about malaria and bacterial meningitis on a daily basis. Stupid fuck.

All in all, I look forward to Obama's inaugural speech tomorrow (as some of my friends would say, the "Obamarama"). And I hope these next four years will be a hell of a lot better than the past eight. As Stephen Colbert said, "he's just what we've been waiting for--a Hawaiian president!"

I Have No Life.

The Auction ended like an hour ago. My piece sold for $95, and I wore the infamous Betsey Johnson with vintage jewelry, black tights, and PAINFUL black patent pumps. 

And since (as above mentioned) I have no life, for your viewing pleasure, I present What I do When I'm Alone on a Friday Night.

Floating Buddha!

A Waste of Life...?

So today I had a very relaxing schedule. I didn't have to come in for my first final so I got to wake up at 9, get to school in time for my jewelry final which took all of half an hour, and then sit in the classroom eating brownies. Not bad. But, when I got home at noon, I realized I had SEVEN hours to kill before the jewelry auction tonight. So, naturally, I decided to work on the hat I'm making for Jaclyn.

And so for the past few hours I've been knitting. And my hands are killing me. But, out of it, I made up my own pattern for the hat. So, here it is. The hat's far from finished, but when I'm done I'll put up pictures.

Cable-knit Beret (I'm using a big cheap skein of dark purple acrylic worsted-weight yarn)

Cast on 80 stitches onto US 7ish circular needles, 16 or 24 inch circumference. 

K2 P2 row one, and continue with the ribbing up till the end of row 6.

K, K 1 front and back of each stitch, for row 7 to increase to 120 stitches total

Rows 8-11: P12, K8, etc.

Row 12: P12, Cable K8, etc.

Row 13: P5, K2, P5, K8, etc. (You're adding two knit stitches in the middle of the purl section)

Row 14: P4, K4, P4, K8

Row 15: P3, K6, P3, K8

Row 16: P2, K8, P2, K8 (So every other "stripe" of knit stitch, you'll have a cable section)

Row 13 on: continue with the pattern, adding a cable in the cable section after every ten rows. Continue until the hat is between 6 and 8 inches from cast on. Really you can stop whenever.

Decrease (try to do this right after a cable, transfer onto regular needles): P 2 tog, K 2 tog 4 times, P 2 tog, K 8, etc.

Row 2 of decrease: K 2 tog 3 times, K8

Row 3 of Decrease: K 2 tog the entire row

Carefully slip the loops off the needles and cut a 4-inch tail of yarn. Thread the yarn through all the loops and pull tight. Flip inside out, tie the yarn, and weave in the end.

... hopefully it'll turn out well.

Scandal!

One of these two makes me hate life is a kind of appreciative way. I don't mind inferiority complexes if their sources are this awesome. You know?
Another one of these two just makes me want to kill everyone.
Guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUx4t4W4eVY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TME30pPBw58

Finals are basically over for me today, so that's a fun time. My hand is about to fall off after four consecutive hours of writing--English and APUS. Then tomorrow night is a jewelry auction--a piece I made with one of my friends will be for sale, and I'll be working there. It's an orchid made of folded silver, I'm very proud of it. Perhaps some pictures later.

For Laura's sake: As you can see, this is my face. I'm not sure what it has to do with my day, but what I was trying to do was make my eyes as gigantic as possible. They can get pretty terrifying. This is nothing. 

Uhm last year, I did some modeling which I pretty much forgot about until now. And I kind of miss it, and hope my agency hasn't forgotten me. 

And this is what you call attention whoring.

Ok bye.

Inception

My life is not exciting. This is a disclaimer.

My dear friend Laura gave me the idea to do daily posts involving a photo of myself that had to do with my day in some way. Simple concept, no? But it's intriguing and I want to see how it goes.

Although I find it uncomfortable to be vain, my other dear friend, Jaclyn, has opened my eyes to the many benefits of being irrevocably, unabashedly, deliciously vain. And I say this with the greatest possible fondness. It's quite a fun time, actually, and taking pictures of myself is a great, mindless way to waste time when I should be doing more productive things.

As my profile says, I absolutely love the arts. I just ordered Photoshop Student Edition Extended Version (I didn't even know that existed... how fancy!) as a late Christmas present. I do love editing photos, but I'm not amazing at it. Hopefully with new tools I'll get a little better at it. Drawing and singing were my two first loves, and I continue to do both. I've been playing piano for a number of years, and I've just taken up classical guitar again. Perhaps there'll be some compositions later on. Eh? Eh? Acting/theater is also a favorite of mine... I'm also an insufferable nerd. I love reading (although trying to comprehend Dante on a plane flight was not a good plan), and math excites me to no end. Really. Fashion designing is a hobby of mine, but I don't really expect to go anywhere with it. Oh well. I've taken up knitting recently, as well, and I've been cranking out a hat a week. Pretty impressive, I know :P. Other than that, I don't really know what to say...

So, basically this blog is going to be pictures of my face (how captivating) interspersed with witty comments and philosophical rants.

Sounds like a good time.

This picture was taken by Jaclyn last March, and it remains one of my favorite pictures of myself. That's pretty much it.

Adeu, cassez vos jambes!