Wedding Bowls

When my mentor and friend Stacy announced her engagement, I began looking for a good handmade gift. It wasn't until I stumbled upon glass etching that I knew I had a winner.


After a trip to Ikea where I bought a large salad bowl and four smaller personal bowls (for a grand total of $12), and a trip to Michael's where I picked up Armom Etch and clear contact paper, I was ready to go. Well, kind of.


Using the Cricut to cut out the shapes was a brilliant idea. Sometimes, however, good ideas don't always turn out so good.


Cutting the slippery contact paper was a bit of a trick with the Cricut, but after many many failed attempts, I finally figured out the right speed, pressure, shape combination. 


After a trial run on some old glass tumblers, I stumbled upon a few problems:
1) Even application of ArmorEtch is a little tricky. ArmorEtch is the consistency of watery Elmer's glue with some sand mixed in. Applying it evenly is difficult, and can vary how 'etched' it looks when all is said and done.
2) The corners of the contact 'stencil' will not stick to the glass very well, thus leaving you with not-so-sharp corners. If you wanted to etch a five point star, the corners would peel and not be perfectly clean. This is a problem for a perfectionist like me.
3) Applying a large stencil on a not flat surface is infuriating. Really infuriating. The tumblers with the straight sides and smaller stencils were a little tricky, but overall not bad. Applying the large stencils on the seriously rounded bowl, though, that was not fun at all.
4) Complicated shapes with a stencil of 2 or more parts (ex, a donut) is also tricky, especially if the precise placement of the inside sticker-stencil is crucial.


That being said, I went ahead and violated three of the four lessons I had learned. Below is my result!

As you can see on the etching above, it looks dappled, and that is because I didn't apply it evenly. Unfortunately, you can only apply ArmorEtch once. Reapplying it, trying to achieve uniformity, doesn't work. Also, if you look at the left outer point of my background shape, you can see how the sticker bubbled up a bit and gave me some less than desirable lines.

However, for my first project, and for a resourceful college kid, I'd say this project turned out pretty well, though I'm not too anxious to try it again. I'm glad I did it though!

Christmas Card

Over the summer, we played foster parents to a perfect little puppy named Dexter. Since we already had three Christmas dog costumes, we decided to pose a perfect little Christmas shot. Roscoe is on the left, Lola in the middle, Dexter on the right. Merry (belated) Christmas!

Resurrection

About a year and a half later, Glowing Empty Page is back in action.

After my discovery of Pinterest, I have been inspired to step up my crafting game. After stepping up my crafting game, I'd love to show off some of my work, thus the real motivation behind bringing Glowing Empty Page back from the dead.

I'm hoping I'll post about twice a month, but we all know how that worked out for me last time.

This weekend, which was Halloween weekend, was very uneventful. From a few friends going out of town, to me staying up too late + sleeping a bit, nothing happened. At all. 

However, Thursday was pretty neat, so I can't complain too much. I am hoping to get involved with the Student Alumni Council here at Ohio State University, which is the same organization I was involved with during my time at Colorado State University. They both aim to connect current students, future students, and past students with pride for The Ohio State University. They are very involved with promoting spirit and traditions, as well as creating opportunities for current students to meet Ohio State alumni. Because SAC (pronounced Es-Ay-Sea, verses Colorado, where we called it 'Sack') is one of the 'Big Three' (one of the three biggest student organizations here on campus) it can only take so many applicants. Because of that, they open up events to prospective members, allowing them to see what SAC is all about, but also seeing who is really interested in joining. On Thursday, SAC had their weekly meeting, and due to the holiday, everybody was asked to dress up. 


After the meeting, we went on a ghost tour around campus. Having been established in 1870 (ironically the same year as Colorado State), there are quite a few stories and creepy occurrences. Walking around campus in the dark, dressed in our costumes, about 30 of us heard different stories about spirits and weird things. For instance, Jeffrey Dahmer attended Ohio State in 1977. He we enrolled for two quarters before he was kicked out of school for an undisclosed reason. The University has sealed his file, meaning the reasoning behind his expulsion will never be known. According to the book his father published (Lionel Dahmer, who also substituted at my high school and is very kind and ridiculously brilliant), Jeffrey dropped out after the first quarter, as he had failed to attend most of his courses. Regardless, the fact that his file is sealed with the University is an odd one, as if he had just dropped out, it would have been a non-issue. Also of interest, it was in the summer 1978 that he made his first murder; not even a full year after his departure from OSU. 


Regardless of a seriously messed up killer, there are other interesting tales. One of them is that a family was housed on campus, as the father was a professor. The young family had a child, who died of a disease as a small infant. Several years later, the building was converted into office space. It had been reported that sometimes you could hear the cries of an infant, but besides that, there were no other occurrences. However, one day after five oclock, a lady was working in her office, when the lights began to flicker, and the door slammed shut. She wasn't able to open the door back up, but was quickly discovered by a coworker. It only took one more time for a similar incident to occur before the room was vacated and is now, supposedly, abandoned. 


A more interesting, less frightening story, is one of a man who was on the board of directors, or something impressive like that. He loved Ohio State and said he never wanted to leave Bricker Hall, which is where his office was located. After his death, his ashes were donated to the University, and he is now interred in the boardroom wall, with a plaque over the hole. 


After the ghost tour, most everybody left, except a group of about 10 kids. We all decided to go check out the haunted elevator and explore a fallout shelter on campus. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened in the elevator, and the fallout shelter was said to be creepy, but nothing traumatizing. I, being a bit of a chicken, yet one who likes adventure, simply stood lookout, making sure nobody caught us during our shenanigans. 


After our fun around campus, 8 of us went to get frozen yogurt at a local place called Cuzzin's. It's similar to a make-it-yourself icecream bar, with self-serve machines and a toppings bar. You only pay 42cents an ounce. Because we were in costume, we got half off, so of course we couldn't pass that up. 


After Cuzzin's, (also, at this point, I was the only prospective member left) everybody else was going to a Halloween party being held by a member of SAC. It didn't take much prompting to go, especially since I hadn't yet been out to any parties at OSU. Even though I don't drink (honestly), it was fun and a good opportunity to meet current members of SAC, who will ultimately decide if I get into SAC or not. There was dancing and drinking games and the like, but I just went around meeting people, so it worked out. 


I did indeed dress up, I was saving the worst for last. I decided to dress up as a hipster. For anybody over the age of 28, a hipster is an interesting thing to explain. More or less, hipsters are very into creative communities. You will see quite a few of them as art students, design students, music majors or dancers. You can have some that are engineers or business majors, but chances are they are into something creative outside of their major (either music or photography or art). Hipsters tend to spend quite a bit of money to appear as though they have spent no money. Quite a few will shop at thrift stores and second hand shops, but many will also go to urban outfitters and buy a shirt that looks like it is from Goodwill. Also, hipsters seem to put a lot of thought into creating a look that appears as though they have put no thought into it. Most hipsters dress ridiculously alike, all the while claiming they are original and creative. Hipster clothing for a girl would be skinny jeans, moccasins, a band t-shirt, maybe an open button vest, a headband worn around the head (like a sweat band), many many rings, super long necklaces, a lot of bracelets, a messenger bag, and Drew Carey style glasses (often times with fake lenses). Hipster guys tend to wear skinny jeans, expensive stylized tennis shoes or canvas tennis shoes, v-neck t-shirts that say something ironic like 'die you hipster skumbag,' cardigans, plain winter caps that barely sit on their head and slouch down in the back, and Drew Carey style glasses (sometimes with fake lenses). Hipsters love biking, especially on fixed-gear bicycles, they often have tattoos, they like to listen to records (but call them vinyls), they like photography, writing in journals, making music, drawing and finding bands nobody has ever heard of. 


I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea. It's more or less a 'lets-stick-it-to-the-man, we-are-creative-and-nobody-understands-us' kind of group. Of course, this is a stereotype and like all other stereo types, they are kind of negative and nobody ever meets exactly all the criteria and is more of a person than just a stereotype. 


Anyways, I decided to dress up as a hipster for Halloween. (This being because I have some very strong hipster attributes, and hipsters are the only ones to make fun of hipseters, which I realized after Thursday night.) I had a pretty legit outfit that matched the criteria perfectly, and I had my vintage film camera with me, which sealed the deal. Going to my meeting, it was pretty funny to watch people's reactions as I walked by, as they were unsure if I was a real hipster, or if I was dressing up. (Most hipsters don't employ every hipster style all at once, however for the sake of halloween, i did). 


Nobody really understood what I was for Halloween, but once I told them then they were like 'Oh yeahh, I see it.' I suppose it goes nicely with my costume from last year, as that was pretty unidentifiable as well. The most comments I got were from people saying that I was dressing up as Taylor Swift. While she is pretty, it's kind of sad to think that a blonde with big glasses can so easily be thought of as Taylor Swift. And she only wears the glasses in one music video, too; they aren't a part of her everyday wardrobe. 


But here is what she looks like in the video, and what I looked like for Halloween. Sorry I don't have pictures with anybody; nobody at the party was really a friend, as I had just met them that night. I'll work on showing you that I actually socialize a little bit.

Taylor Swift

Halloween Costume 2010

More attractive because the white tape isn't messing it up

My outfit took three seconds to pull together. I don't know if that is because Hipster style is so easily identified by those aware of it, or if it is because I have hipster clothes myself.

Ironically enough, as we were waiting in the Student Union for a few people, a real life hipster stared me down. I was wearing the glasses though, which upped my dork factor, but I thought it was funny he hardcore checked me out even though I was wearing them.

Game day against Purdue, October 23, 2010

End of Carmen Ohio after the game

What I wished more of the campus buildings looked like. At least the leaves have changed!

October Gave A Party

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
-George Cooper, "October's Party"


October is here, and autumn usually is. On days like today, 80 degrees and pure sunshine, it feels less like fall, more like summer. The trees around the oval are dropping their leaves, yet the campus isn't draped in gold, yellow, red and orange like I had anticipated. Colorado's leaves don't change much, and I was looking forward to the transformation that would occur here in Ohio, but it has yet to reveal itself. Unfortunately, while I sit here questioning fall's whereabouts, Winter will creep in, like an intruder to a funeral. While we relish in the late life of summer, savoring its final days, winter approaches, bringing with her an undeniable chill. The guest nobody wants to see, Winter steps forward to pay her respects, pulling her tattered black shaw closer to her shoulders. It is only after she leans towards the lifeless body of Summer, and gives her final kiss, that Winter becomes permanent. Drawing the warmth out of the body of summer, Winter will prevail.

I have a loose tooth

It's true. I do have a loose tooth. Ever since I started wearing my retainers again, my right tooth, (if you split the palette down the middle, it'd be the fourth one back) has been fighting it's natural position in my mouth. Slight wiggling was only mildly concerning, but now it has begun making noise.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that unintended noises coming from bodies are typically bad. Here are examples:

- farts: unintended (usually) and typically not very aromatic

- burps: if you had something delicious for lunch, this is not horrible, as long as the noise isn't too loud

- sneezes: sometimes snot flies out my nose during a sneeze, perhaps it flies out your nose sometimes, too

- yawns: it means you aren't getting enough air (touch your tongue while you're yawning,it'll stop)

- joints cracking: i'm not talking about cracking fingers, but the incredibly painful joint crackings

- vomit: certainly undesirable, and very certainly audible. this noise sometimes makes others barf as well.

- rumbling stomach: somebody's hung-gie

- hiccups: i'm not sure that they're bad for you, but rather just as annoying as hell

- snoring: it comes from obstructed air movement during sleep (thank you, wikipedia), but can lead to sleep deprivation, irritability and other things (which is ironic, because the spouse of the snorer is typically sleep deprived and irritable, too)

- sleep talking: funny, but can be a sign of a sleep disorder, or can cause extreme embarrassment for the one talking (especially for those who will answer any questions asked and never remember a thing)



i really can't think of any others, but i'm getting tired as well.
my new address is :


101 Curl Drive
1035 Jones Tower
Columbus, OH 43210


Feel free to mail me coupons, or letters, or pictures or flattened origami, or additional bodily noises, i just like opening mail. Well, fun mail.

Electron Boy saves Seattle

This link is to a story about Electron Boy, Seattle's newest superhero. Living with liver cancer, Eric Martin has fought battles his whole life, but nothing like the one he fought last Thursday, thanks to Make-A-Wish foundation. Do yourself a favor and spend the 3 minutes reading it, you'll be glad you did.

This sums up my life, more or less!

The world was my oyster...

"The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork." - Oscar Wilde

Although using the incorrect utensil in important social settings is only a minor faux pas, there are several other ways to go wrong. One of the student organizations on campus, the Student Alumni Connection, which is essentially the student arm of the CSU Alumni Association, hosts an annual etiquette dinner, and I learned quite a bit. Unless you sit around reading Emily Post, you'll probably learn something too! 


The Keynote speaker for the program was Debra Fine, a best selling author. Once the overweight, shy, nervous engineering student, Debra realized a generally universal truth: engineers and other technically oriented professionals are really horrible at communication. She decided to captitalize on the need she saw, and is now nationally recognized as an etiquette leader, public speaker and story of motivation. She was incredibly straight forward and blunt with our audience of mostly undergraduate students, but everything she said was completely relevant and useful. Okay, now for what I learned (and what I'm copying off of the worksheet provided.) [For clarification, her ideas are in bold.]


Top Ten Etiquette Tips
#1: Treat others well. I heard Colin Powell speak (really fantastic!), but he shared a little story about his stint as Secretary of State: One afternoon, bored in his office, he decided to wander around and chat with different workers throughout the building. He ended up in the parking garage. In the garage, the attendants had to park three times as many cars as there were parking spots. Once General Powell started talking to them, he asked them his most pressing question, "How do you determine who gets to park where? How do you decide if their car gets stuck behind other ones or not?" The guys, who were all immigrants from varying countries, kind of chuckled and looked at their feet. Finally, one said, "General Powell, if the person rolls down their window and says hello when they pull in the garage, they get the best spot. But if they don't even acknowledge us, they have to wait to leave."  


#2: Sitting. Do not sit in your seat until your host has done so. If there is no host, wait for the senior or oldest person at the table to sit first before you sit in your seat.


#3: Start on the Outside. Have more utensils at your seat than you normally use in a week? Don't worry, just start from the outside and work your way in! Salad? Left most fork (if it's the first thing served), and dessert (my personal favorite,) uses the fork closest to the plate! No need to memorize that, though, just work from the outside in.


#4: Build Bridges, Not Ramps. I was never aware that there was a proper etiquette for silverware placement, but, alas, there is. Once you begin to use a utensil, it should never again touch the table. Do not lean half of it on the plate, half on the table. Rather, build bridges across your plate, so the utensil is resting on the two edges of your plate/bowl/etc. When finished, place the knife and fork together in the center of the plate at the five o'clock position to let your server know you are done eating. If you are eating at my house, however, get up and take your plate to the sink.


#5: Napkins. Tucking your napkin into your shirt not only looks weird, but is 'never acceptable' behavior when dining. Napkins go on your lap immediately once you have sat down. Your napkin should be completely unfolded, but then folded in half once. The binding/crease of the napkin goes towards your belt, the open end towards your feet. If you need to excuse yourself from the table, place the napkin on the seat, and it signals you are planning on returning. If you are leaving the table for good, I don't know what you do with your napkin, but I do not suggest swinging at around your head like a cowboy. Not classy.


#6: Placing Your Order. Most everyone loves being taken out for a meal, and most everyone hates taking people out for meals, only to have them order the most expensive dish. Don't be that guy. So, obviously, do not order the most expensive dish or "worse still do not ask the host how much you can spend. Follow the hosts lead when ordering, and order no more dishes than he or she does. Asking what they recommend is a good trick, but avoid dishes you have never tried.


#7: Cutting your Food. I blame it on my parents for always cutting all of my spaghetti in one go, instead of cutting each individual bite for me, but I'll let it slide. The knife is to be used with the fork, not knife, then fork. Cut one bite, eat one bite. (Remember to bridge your knife!)


#8: Starting to Eat. Unless you are the host, your meal is indebted to the host. Do not pick up your fork until they begin to eat. It does not matter if your food is getting cold. You will not die. Also, wait until everybody has been served before chowing down. If at a large banquet, the host may indicate you may begin eating before everybody is served, and if so, have at it.


#9: Spitting Food Out. Whether you are trying something new, or utilizing the "chew some food then spit it out to make it look like you ate some" method, there is a proper way to handle discreetly removing food from your mouth. Discreetly and cleanly remove the food in whichever way the food entered your mouth. This may get tricky with rice and chopsticks, but you should have thought about that before you stuck it in your mouth, now shouldn't have you?


#10: Bread and Butter. I suppose this goes to other dishes being passed, and is just plain kindnes. When passing the bread basket, offer some to the person on your left, and then begin passing to the right. That's it. No tricks.








I feel as though this should cover my obligatory Sunday post (which hasn't happened in about four months), but I'll post more to make up for it! I think I'll humor you with more etiquette because I just found another worksheet! Weeeee.






All information in bold can be found at www.DebraFine.com . Most commentary is based off of ideas from the materials found on the site, and some of it is from my pure comic genius.