My bibelot Aziz

bibelot \BIB-loh; Fr. beebuh-LOH\, noun:

a small object of curiosity, beauty, or rarity.

I found the perfect bibelot on Saturday.  He goes by the name of Aziz Ansari.

When I was wasting away in my sickbed on Saturday (because Ashley was doing amazing things at a Westin hotel in Boston), I couldn't help but browse Netflix.  It was on Netflix, that I decided to watch "Dangerously Delicious", a taping of Aziz's comedy tour.

I almost died laughing.

He is so hilarious!  Unfortunately I can't post a link to Netflix, but I absolutely recommend that you watch his stuff, he's on TV and other movies too, just google him.

Aziz Ansari.  With a weird cousin named Harris.  Who loves R. Kelly.  Who got to hang out with Kanye West and disappointed Jay-Z on New Year's.  Who is Indian and grew up in South Carolina.  Who hates racism but loves biscuits.  Here are some photos of my little bibelot:

A panoptic analysis

panoptic \pan-OP-tik\, adjective:

1. permitting the viewing of all parts or elements: a panoptic stain used in microscopy; a panoptic aerial photograph of an enemy missile base.
2. considering all parts or elements; all inclusive: a panoptic criticism of modern poetry.

Let's go with definition number two today.  I am currently in a writing intensive class that I love a lot.  Mostly because of the professor, she makes absolutely everything enjoyable.  

The thing is, last semester I took a writing class where the teacher was nice and all, she brought us cookies on Halloween, but our class discussions made me lose faith in English class.  It was kind of a problem, because English has always been my favorite class, and the discussions about literature just seemed super pointless.  I really didn't realize it until I took American Literature this semester, but THAT class took a panoptic view of the WRONG things in the book.  We analyzed the wrong words, discussed boring things that didn't give significance to the book, and it made me dislike a lot of the books we read.

This class, however, is on historical writings instead of modern literature, so it's much easier to examine how certain writings made an impact on society and examine styles over time.

It's too hard to do that kind of thing in a class called "Living Writers".

TheProjectChronicles

THIS WEEK'S VIDEO HERE

So, cat's out of the bag. I make weekly videos on Mondays for a collab channel called TheProjectChronicles. Why did I decide to share this with you now? Well, I kind of need to make up a post with an image/video/photo thing, so HERE IT IS!

Yeah, this was a wimpy excuse of a make-up post for the one I missed on Sunday. However it is an important part of my life, so I might as well share with you :P

Guest Lecture: Immersive Journalism

Today I attended a guest lecture by Nonny de la Pena about immersive journalism. This presentation talked about the future of journalism, and how 3D virtual worlds can be used to place the individual into the newsworthy environment so that the thoughts and feelings that come with a virtual first person experience will give light to the news story.

Despite the good intentions of such immersive journalism, the animation was terrible. The virtual world is not realistic enough to convince me nor Jillian that I would feel directly involved in the story. However, I do appreciate the concept of immersive journalism which tries to place the individual into the environment, to think and feel as if s/he is experiencing the news.

Sorry for the short, brief posts lately (and I am still missing yesterday's post). It's midterm week and I spent all weekend long in Boston bust as ever.

Mazuma's revenge

I'm guessing we're all fans of today's WoD:

mazuma

\ muh-ZOO-muh \  , noun;

1.money.

To be honest, I've never heard this particular terminology for money.  I've heard moola, dough, greens, etc., but never mazuma.  To me, it sounds more like Montazuma, which reminds me of this awesome ride at Knott's Berry Farm called Montazuma's revenge, which makes me wish I were there right this minute...

I actually thought of mazuma a bit today, when I was contemplating how I should go about acquiring this food that I like so much.  The thing is, I'm a bit under the weather today.  Coughing, runny nose, the works.  I've just been straight chilling in my room most of the day, and so I wanted to have my favorite food in Syracuse delivered to me: miso soup and edamame (yes I have low standards for good food). 

Now as much as I would've loved to have had that food delivered, my mazuma told me to think economically, because when food is delivered, you have to spend at least $10.  You must also pay the $2 delivery charge.  And tax.  And tip.  However, when you walk up to their counter and order the food to-go, you can spend under $10 (which is all I wanted) and don't have to pay tip or delivery charge!  So I marched out of bed, trudged through the snow, and brought my food back to my room, where I then watched movies on Netflix for the next few hours.  It was low-key a nice day.  Even though I was sick and SU lost yet another basketball game.  We're a disgrace. 

NEACURH Mini No-Frills 2013

Long story short, I'm at a conference in Boston. The conference is hosted by Northeastern University, but we get to stay at a fancy Westin Hotel :) this picture is of our spacious room! Today, we had opening ceremonies, then I went into the boardroom with the NCC and the NRHH where we hosted elections for some of next year's board positions. It was a very interesting experience as the NCC-IT (in training), and I must say, I'm pretty convinced that I'll enjoy this position next year if I decide to run.

I know this all sounds pretty ambiguous as to what it is I am running for, but it's 2am, and I need to be on a shuttle to Northeastern at 6am. Details later!

Much Mooselove,
Ashley

The leeward side

leeward

\ LEE-werd; Naut.  LOO-erd \  , adjective;

1. pertaining to, situated in, or moving toward the quarter toward which the wind blows (opposed to windward).

noun:

1. the lee side; the point or quarter toward which the wind blows.

adverb:

1. toward the lee.

 

Ah, again with the ship references.  Well done dictionary.com.  While I have never personally used this word in a sentence, ever, I imagine a conversation might go something like this:

 

-"What are you doing there, matee?"

 

-"Just moving the sail towards the leeward side!  Argh!"

 

And that is the extent of my knowledge of leeward.