bucket list

two years ago i put my bucket list online. i didn't spend too much time getting everything i wanted. and nor did i consciously set out to cross things off in the next two years, but it turns out that i have.

- go to spain to eat tapas and see gaudi, go to petra,

- get a pixi cut or shave head entirely

- go skydiving, cliff diving, scuba diving, snorkeling, swim with sharks and paddle in a glass bottom kayak

- go on a windmill tour (like this one), ride in a hot air balloon, more spelunking! ...well, more walking through caves anyway

- go on a cross country road trip

- learn to drive a motorcycle, go luge!!! (tho i may have to settle for skeleton)


- learn archery, rock climbing, knife-throwing, or how to throw a javelin

- at least once, watch all the current best picture nominations for an oscar

- see aurora borealis, watch a meteor shower

- make my own jam (it didn't turn out as jam, but i did make it!), make peppermint bark

- learn how to knit / crochet, use a potter's wheel, solder correctly, or weld

- build my own terrarium, make a quilt

myer's briggs

take the test here. what it's testing you on:

• How they focus their attention or get their energy (extraversion or introversion)
• How they perceive or take in information (sensing or intuition)
• How they prefer to make decisions (thinking or feeling)
• How they orient themselves to the external world (judgment or perception)

i'm an INFJ (tho i feel like i didn't used to be)

Introvert(22%)  iNtuitive(25%)  iNtuitive  Feeling(25%)  Judging(67%)
You have slight preference of Introversion over Extraversion (22%)
You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (25%)
You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (25%)
You have distinctive preference of Judging over Perceiving (67%)

wikipedia calls me a "Ethical Intuitive Introvert"

I – Introversion preferred to extraversion: INFJs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in
social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).
N – Intuition preferred to sensing: INFJs tend to be more abstract than concrete. They focus on the big picture rather than the details, and on future possibilities rather than immediate realities.
F – Feeling preferred to thinking: INFJs tend to value personal considerations above objective criteria. When making decisions, they often give more weight to social implications than to logic.
J – Judgment preferred to perception: INFJs tend to plan their activities and make decisions early. They derive a sense of control through predictability.

i'll leave it to you to judge if i am actually an INFJ, but i think it's pretty close.

xmas colors

 october 17th's astronomy photo of the day!

without china

what we'd wear if china didn't exist


went thru my current outfit and very surprisingly, i'd be wearing everything i'm still wearing!! i also included the brands i'm wearing and which country "owns" that brand. my list is surprisingly american. the one thing i'm wearing not from an american company is my watch, tho the only thing i'm wearing i know is made in america, are my bobby pins.

pj bottoms - india (old navy - american)
underwear - doesn't say (gilly hicks - american)
bra - phillipines (calvin klein - american)
tank top - doesn't say (gap - american)
shirt - nicaragua (gap - american)
seatshirt - vietnam (abercrombie & fitch - american)

bobby pins - usa (goody - american)
ring - doesn't say (coach - american)
watch - case, switzerland (swatch - swiss)

btw, it's funny but i thought gilly hicks was from australia, because it actaully says sydney on the tag. turns out they're owned by abercrombie & fitch, which for some reason i thought was a british brand.

how about you? anything surprising results?

crazy clouds

october 23rd's in canada

and november 4th's in washington

dragons

so this is the dragon that i was talking about in a previous post. so as i said, aj had been pestering me to come up with something for the auction. but we were both drawing blanks. so i went to joann, the craft store, and walked around waiting for inspiration to strike. i ended up in the felt aisle and decided to pick up needle felting again. i'd tried it years ago and had only made a couple things: a black and white sheep, a couple dinosaurs and a more intricate crocodile. i figured i had about a month to make something good. and if it wasn't good, i just wouldn't tell anyone about it!

it took about four days to make my first dragon. and holy shit i couldn't believe it when i was done! this literally came from one 8x11" sheet of blue felt, some left over red felt, thread, two seed beads for nostrils, and two "pearls" for eyeballs. i gotta say, i felt pretty fucking bad ass.

i emailed a photo to denise and said my dad thought he could mount it onto a wooden placard so it would be more trophy-like. she said that while it was very cool, they were all set for trophies for this year. maybe offer it up along with a trophy? i said no. haha. he's so special to me that i want him to be a highlight!! i didn't say that to her but i surely was thinking it :) so i said that i'd hold onto him for next year and make a red dragon, so we could have two, since a few of our prizes are paired.

four days later, i had made a red one. i also made the blue one more "chinese." i added eyeballs, horns, and the pearl in his mouth. i tried to make the red one's head more chinese too, but pretty much failed. blue's dad is a chinese lion; red's dad is an alligator. oh well. they do actually look very very different from each other, which is a shame, but each one has its qualities.

i didn't make the green one, obviously.

after making these tho i realized that hey, i finally have a great gift for dr. chen, mike, and mary! for sooo many years i've been wanting to get them something special as a thank you, but could never think of anything. i don't actually know them personally, and they all have money, so... but hand-made dragons would be great! they're from the heart and one of a kind. i'll photograph them when they're done sometime next year. :)

compton initiative

a few years ago ting and i tried to go to a habit for humanity meeting. i say tried because altho we really did show up to the right place at the right time, there was no meeting, and no one we asked had heard of said meeting. ... years later my neighbor debbie tells me about a volunteer project thru her church, seacoast grace. they go to compton and paint houses for people. i was so excited!

1/28/12 my first house

our first compton initiative project was just me and kim. i think debbie got sick? in any case, the house turned out good but on that day, when the paint was still wet, it looked pretty bad! the trim and house colors didn't have enough contrast so kim and i agreed that it had actually looked better before we started on it. =\ the above photo i actually took when we went back for our second project. i was surprised the colors really turned out so differently once the paint dried.

4/21/12 mckenna at our 2nd house

our 2nd project was a really hot day. debbie, mckenna, sally and i went (no kim this time). the ladies wanted to go gardening and they did an amazing job clearing up the backyard. i painted cause i hate spiders. :( we realized tho that both our houses were on the same street. that's kind of strange. especially strange because the area is so nice! when we thought of volunteering in compton we were thinking like... well, you know what we were thinking. but these houses were pretty nice to begin with! turns out that seacoast grace is partnered with a local church in compton. so when volunteering thru seacoast, our houses will always be in the same area. compton initiative itself rotates it's serving area for every project (4 districts total for 4 project a year).

5/12/12 serve day with ting

this school was a totally different project that ting signed us up for thru her church, rock harbor, called serve day. we got to choose which project we wanted to do so we picked painting a mural at a middle school in costa mesa. when we showed up, that wall was pretty much blank. the prep team had already stenciled out the center part of the mural, but everything still needed to be painted. the T's were also filled in later. this project might be one of my favorites because the change was so dramatic and the mural really did turn out so well!

10/20/12 house #3

for my third compton initiative project we brought a big group: kim, debbie, mckenna, sally, ting, aj, and his two friends. the weather wasn't great (it drizzled all day) but it was fun nevertheless. only hitch was that aj and his friends ended up at the wrong house, haha! this house was actually actually really cool because there was less window work (our first house just about killed us with all the latticework!) and because the before and after colors were so different: from grey to blue. i later got a photo packet from compton initiative which featured this house, probably because the change was pretty dramatic.

for 2013 i'm trying to set up an scdbc event with compton initiative on their 1/19 work day. i may even train to become a lieutenant, tho no promises yet since their schedule conflicts with lb competition dates. either way, i'm really hoping for a strong showing. i think it would be really great since we already have such a large group of people who are dedicated to giving up their every weekend morning. it would also be a good opportunity to meet people from other teams. send good thoughts my way!

atlas v

september 2nd's astronomy picture of the day!

dress code

last saturday i went to the space dragons year-end party. my first ye party was five years ago, and it was pretty small. we were all crammed into a restaurant, and there was no dj because there was no room for dancing. over the next few years our team has gotten larger, so we've moved into bigger venues. and a few years ago a part-time dj joined our team, so now he spins at our year-end dinners.

what's also happened is that a lot of masters (over 40 years old) have left the team, and a lot of under 30 year olds have joined. what does that mean? we're a stronger paddling team now, we have more socials, and our ye parties are less classy.

yup. less classy. it's not that we're classless. definitely not. but back in the day, women wore cocktail dresses and maybe even the occasional gown. this ye party was full of clubbing dresses: tight, short, and revealing.

i'm not passing judgement, because i totally dress like that too sometimes. but i do miss the ye parties where people looked nice, not just sexy. and the change does actually make me sad. ye dinner was the one time of year you could count on to play dress up, like how we used to do when we were kids. ..maybe it's just me wanting to feel like i'm at the grown up's party, but you can wear short and tight most any weekend, when do you have the chance to wear something actually nice?

i think a big problem is that most people no longer know the difference. image google cocktail dress and quite a number of the results you see are actually not appropriate cocktail party attire. good questions to ask yourself: is your dress more likely to be seen at a vegas club or at a formal wedding? on a d-list actress at a fro-yo store opening or on an oscar winner at a movie premier? would you wear this to see your in-laws or your sorority sisters?

anyway, no judgement. but next year i'm going to go with the crowd and wear something more casual and more sexy. and you know what? it won't be as fun.

holiday cards

i really wanted to do something for the space banquet this year. not sure why, but probably because aj had been bothering me about us offering something up for the action (but we couldn't think of anything), but also because i've been crafting a lot lately.

i had originally needle felted a dragon to offer up as a trophy (i'll post pictures of that later), but denise said they were all set for trophies. oh well. then about a week and a half before banquet, i was at michael's with g and saw that colored paper was on sale; 6 sheets for $1. so i decided i'd give paper cutting a try.

and those are the results. pretty good if i do say so myself!! the last colored sheet we bought was a light grey, so the white design did not look good on it, so instead of making 12, i made only 11, then discarded the one i felt was "worst." i figure a set of 10 cards makes more sense than 11. i also purchased plain white envelopes to go with the cards. (tho i totally didn't think to do so at the time!)

making these were easier and harder than i thought, haha. i had went to target a couple times to get desgin ideas for the cards so that part wasn't too bad. turns out that the hardest thing is drawing! even if you do have an  idea, the pencil marks have to be light enough so that they'll erase cleanly. the design also has to be drawn on backwards since i cut from the back. once i realized i would never be able to finish without some help i asked ting to draw a few for me. she "free handed" the snowman and the stockings, and also drew the wreath and "be merry" from a few pictures i had taken at target. she really adapted them to make sense with the paper cutting though and i definitely think the ones she drew turned out to be some of the best of the set. (btw, i did draw the deer and the holly ones. but before you give me too much credit, i copied those designs, haha. [i tell you this because rip didn't believe that i did the deer one myself. which i kind of didn't!]).

btw, the guy who ended up winning these cards, i don't think was too excited about them. it was a mass raffle pot instead of people putting in tickets for specific items they actually wanted. oh well. either way, i gave something to the team, tried out a new craft, and made something pretty nice too.

1min history lession

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121114.html