A Change of Plans...

because we can.

Screw daily blogging! The both of us have decided that we'll only post when something significant comes up. Maybe that'll make the content better...

So long for now,
Ashley and Jillian

Pinwheels

Every year, our school has a pinwheel planting in honor of the children (quite literally-- that sign says "Today these pinwheels represent adults who provide a voice and advocate for our children). It's a nice thought, and the pinwheels are awfully pretty to look at when the wind blows by...

We Chalked the Sidewalk

I'm part of an organization called NSCS. It's just some scholar club that does community service. Anyways, we chalked the sidewalk to get our name out there on campus Monday afternoon.

... Of course it rained a day later.

Class Registration

Last Thursday was my registration enrollment date for Fall 2013! I'm glad that my final schedule worked out after a bit of emailing and constant pestering of other departments.

Something that I hate about SU's registration process is the fact that you don't always know whether or not you can take a class until you click enroll and find out on enrollment day. Granted, you can get around the roadblocks that revolve the administration after a bit of persuasion.

Fall 2013: Presentational Speaking, Reading Popular Culture, Photography in Broadcast News, and various news and media related classes?! I'm psyched!

Interpretive Dancing

This past weekend, my friends and I filmed our English final project. Afterwards, we had a funny dance session at 2am. The fact that we can do things like this sober just tells me we need to refrain from any substance use because who knows what will happen when I'm not in a sane state of mind.

News and Social Media

So I've been busy this past week doing a variety of things from midterms and papers to putting together my first news package for CitrusTV. Filming, writing, and editing in one day is hard work! Anyways, excuses aside, let's talk about the news... since, you know, I'm into that stuff as a wannabe journalist.

The bombings in Boston this past week was a tragedy for many. Why Boston? Why innocent marathon runners? While we await the details of the recent event, many people expressed their concerns whether it be contacting people they know in Boston to make sure friends and family were okay or just posting a Facebook status that expresses their sympathy for Boston's situation. All over various social media you see the words "Pray for Boston."

But there are others. There are people out there who care more about popularity in the eyes of the public than about the people. Don't know what kind of people if you dare call them that I am referring to? I'm talking about people like this...

Has the perceived use of social media stooped so low that "proving your care" in the eyes of the public is more important than sympathizing with humanity?

Stranger Danger

See this piece of Hershey's Chocolate? It was taken from the arms of a stranger. Let me explain...

My friend Ali and I were walking to class when we passed by a student with a colorful sign that had the word "FREE" written in one hand and this piece of Hershey's Chocolate dangling in the other. Both my friend and I noticed this as we walked by, but neither of us wanted to take the piece of candy. After all, "stranger danger" comes to mind with such a creepy, atypical move. A few moments after passing by, we both just knew we wanted that candy, so we went back and greeted the guy and each of us received a piece of milk chocolate!

Recently, breaking the "stranger danger" rule has been a novel concept to me. It shocked me the other day when I was playing basketball at the gym with my friends and a group of guys I didn't recognize asked to play with us on the same court.

This concept of "stranger danger" has always been a rule I'd follow as a kid, but as an adult, you're forced to face strangers everyday.  It doesn't help to shy away from something you want or new people you could potentially meet. There's a point where you need to recognize that not everyone is out to get you.

It was warm today.

Today was so warm, it was 60 degrees! Jillian and I just had to get some froyo at Yogurtland, so here's a lovely picture I took today on a stereotypical park bench with my $10 worth of yogurt.

Sorry I didn't take a more meaningful picture today...

Spin Art

I never had the privilege of knowing about Spin Art until I came to college... but apparently most people passed by the Spin Art machine with words like, "OMG SPIN ART! I used to love that!" Maybe I lived under a rock when I was younger for not knowing about this magical toy, but Spin Art is pretty cool.

Syracuse University Relay For Life 2013

I participated in my first Relay For Life yesterday,  hence the late post. Let me tell you, it was nothing like I had expected. I didn't realize that the event was an all night soiree with performances and ballroom dance lessons and things to buy and make and play in addition to the given walking and the speech giving.

My experience is best documented by this video I threw together last night/this morning.

Syracuse University's National Communications Coordinator for Residence Hall Association

Gave a 5 minute speech and suffered through a Q&A session today, but it's all worth it! I'm very excited for the next school year...

CoCoPPa App Review

In a world where iPhones are as common as cars, the iPhone case seems to be the only personalized aspect of this must-have device. But not anymore! Now the icons can also be personalized with the CoCoPPa App, a Japanese kawaii-themed app that lets the user create and set individualized icons for various apps from Facebook to Blackboard.

Despite the cuteness overload, there are some setbacks to using these icons:

1) You don't delete the original app from your phone. These icons depend on the links the original apps have, and therefore deleting the original app would only leave a useless icon. I ended up tucking all the original app icons away on the very last page of my iPhone menu so that the aesthetically pleasing ones would stay at the frontline :)

2) These icons don't show notifications! Game and social media apps typically have a little red number at the top corner of the original app icon when something new comes up. Because you still have the old icons, those notifications show up on the original rather than these replacement icons.

3) These icons only work for apps downloaded from the app store. Original apps that come with an iPhone such as Camera, Contacts, Music, etc. cannot be replaced with a styled icon, so the inconsistent use of the original icons and the personalized ones might look awkward when mixed together on a single menu page.

So is the app worth it? If you think about it, this app really is extraneous. What's the point of this app if the original icon still exists, but is only hidden away? All this extra work is only to provide some originality. Personally, I think the wow-factor of showing your friends the unique icons is worth it. Plus, the extra personalization couldn't hurt in making sure the phone you pick up off the counter is yours.

3/5 STAR RATING

It still looks amateurish.

It's taking a while, but it's getting there... slowly but surely.

How to reduce scanned file sizes (Mac).

Scanning files onto a Mac is silly when the file is much too high quality to send to anyone else via email. I give you this post because the first link I listened to taught me to reduce a quality to this:

Super Blurry Crap

We don't want super blurry crap. We want readable text that doesn't take up over 15MB. So here's what you do...

1. Scan the page (Duh).
2. DO NOT SAVE AS A PDF. SAVE AS A JPEG.
3. Open the JPEG file.
4. File -> Save As.
5. A little bar should show up letting you manually adjust the image quality.
6. Save!

Now your file doesn't take up a ton of space! You can repeat File -> Save As to save it into different file formats, but use the JPEG format to adjust the file size.

You're welcome.

Letters

What is it about handwritten letters that make it so special?

In a technological age, people tend to fancy the virtual messages, but you can't physically hold these messages in your hand. You can't touch the paper and know that some time ago, your friend also had this piece of paper.

Handwriting shows character. Maybe the person likes to write fast and forgets to dot the i's or cross the t's. Maybe the person has terrible writing all together and the words just come out as scribbles. Or maybe each word is written with such precision the words almost seem typed. Either way, the writing itself becomes part of the person's personality. It's a part of the people you can keep forever even when the memories fade away...

Anyways I write this post because last semester, my high school friends and I were very good at keeping up with the old-fashioned mail. We've been slacking recently, but now I've been reminded what makes these postcards and letters so wonderful.

Addiction

Like most teens in this awesome virtual/technological age, I easily get addicted to video games. In fact I try to limit myself to one Facebook game and one iPhone game so that I don't waste too much time trying to beat high scores. I've done this well for the most part, until a certain someone *cough* Jillian *cough* decided to download a game onto my phone for her entertainment.

I started a mad Temple Run 2 craze last week. Since then not only have I not been able to stop, I also downloaded Ruzzle and Words with Friends to challenge my friends at different games.

What I find most addicting is when games offer awards for completing challenges. Whether it be beating a new high score, or playing so many times you deserve a virtual ribbon, this sense of achievement gets to me and feeds off of my thirst for success.

Anyways, that's just my bit on why video games are addicting to me. Why do you believe they are addicting?

Happy Easter! ~

 

 As someone who isn't particularly religious, Easter has quite a superficial meaning for me. I eat the chocolate bunnies and go on the egg hunts, but I don't know much about Jesus' death on the cross nor his rising from the dead. Particularly ignorant about religion in general, I turn to my friends to explain to me the different beliefs. I know that the Jewish holiday, Passover, happened pretty recently only because the school cafeteria served matzo balls almost every day this week.

As I grow older (and hopefully wiser) I find that I am more interested in things that don't particularly involve me directly. Just because I am not affected doesn't mean I shouldn't try understanding what other people think, feel and believe.

That's all for now. Much thanks to Mrs. Davis for sending me this Chocolate Bunny for Easter :)

A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Syracuse Stage

Last Thursday night, I had the privilege to see a production of the classic A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Syracuse Stage. Although I went primarily to complete a review assignment for my Interpretation of Drama class, I was stunned by this performance. This post isn't my official review, rather these are the details I have noticed and want to write down so that I remember all these bits when I write my review... field notes per say.

The overload of the sensory aspects of the play from aesthetic uses of color and lighting and the incorporation of tone and sounds really made this play interesting to experience.
I was very glad to have the opportunity to watch a play in production rather than simply reading the script. Unlike more recent playwrights like Tennessee Williams, older plays typically don't have much stage direction and description within the script to visualize a play. This made reading A Midsummer Night's Dream much different from seeing it. When the script is dialogue on paper, it is more difficult to grasp the emotion and humor of a script.

This particular production seemed, as put in Jillian's words, "like Candyland had an orgy." The production almost seemed surreal with its lack of a particular time period for this rendition (after all, this play is timeless). The dress and setting with the four lovers reminded me much of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with the 1800's style. Yet the players wore overalls and carried a boombox playing rock and roll music! Not to mention the fairy "woodland" scenes that reminded me of a 1980's disco with giant pom poms made of tutu material. What added to the surreal effect included the use of lighting (spotlights, dimmed lights, patterned effects during intense scenes) and the mirror background that seemed to complete the environment.

The acting was spectacular, although a bit melodramatic---after all, this kind of play was meant to be overacted. I particularly noticed the performances by the actors who played Puck and Lysander. They were absolutely hilarious and entertained the audience throughout the entire production. Something that I noticed was the background sound effects made by the actors during the production. The small sounds-- the hissing and the whimpers and the whispers-- added an extra dynamic to the senses. The play was almost turned into a musical with several musical numbers filled with song and dance. The actress who played Titania in particular sang and danced with such a sultry grace which was beautiful. The actors were limitless; many entered the scene from among the audience, running down the aisles to make their way onto the stage.

Anyways, kudos to the producer and art director of this play to conceptualize how this particular rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play redone countless times, can be a playground for creativity and innovation that sticks to the audience more than any other movie or adaptation could possibly provide.

Today is not Wednesday...

but I suppose Art Wednesday can happen at any time really. I had a picture I wanted to use yesterday, so I saved an art update for Thursday!

I started to paint the canvas yesterday.

While the teacher was walking around he commented that I tend to cover the whole page before going into the nitty gritty details. Not that there's any right or wrong answer to art, but I do think it is easier to see the big picture when you focus on the whole. What if you paint a square inch to perfection, but then it needs to be adjusted later due to the parts surrounding it being off?

And also, I have no idea what colors I want to use for the objects in my painting until I actually do it! It's just whatever feels right at the time. My color preferences are not preplanned, rather I make it up as I go along. I want to emphasize the objects I want to stand out and blend similar colors together for details that don't matter as much. In order to do so, I need at least slap color on the canvas to begin the mix and match process.

Anyways, I'd love to hear how other people go about making their artwork. Does it take planning? Do you just do what feels right?

"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." - Mark Twain

I found this quote stuck on the restroom door today. Someone had gone into the restrooms and stuck sticky notes with motivational quotes scribbled on it onto the mirrors, hand-dryers, and doors. Although I'm quite upset that my silly iPhone picture turned out blurry, I am very happy to share this with you.

I've been trying to motivate myself for quite some time. I've tried listening to upbeat music, going out more, and even socializing to more people. But then there's a point where I realize I've done nothing but sit around waiting for a sign or something crazy and impossible to happen. Anyways, I suppose it's time to pick myself up and get moving again.