A Spoonful of Holiday Cheer

Christmas is almost upon us. Have you finished your Christmas shopping? I know I haven't, but I've put a sizable dent in it. I no longer need presents for my younger sister or step-brother, or for one of my friends. Wait, who am I kidding? That's not sizable. Shoot. Anyways, every year around this time I realize all the friends I have and how little resources or time I have to come up with a nice, thoughtful gift for them all.

That's where my baking skills come in. Maybe I can't come up with unique gifts for all my friends, but I can sure make a variety of sugary goodies and present it all to them on a plate. As an added bonus, it gives me something to do in between studying for exams.

In preparation for this cookie-baking, candy-making extravaganza, I was browsing the web for some good ideas on what to make. So now for your viewing pleasure, I give you TasteSpotting.com

A Spoonful of The Chosen One

Wow. Harry Potter 7, Part I. You were everything you were supposed to be and more.

Besides the fact that I think Daniel Radcliffe looks kind of goofy with the combination of those glasses and facial hair, I was impressed by his acting this time around. He has been getting progressively better movie by movie, but it wasn't until this movie that I thought he had arrived. He was totally Harry Potter to me. And Emma Watson was superb as always. Rupert Grint, for having a haunted character for half the movie, still managed to be endearing the other half of the time.

Other standouts: Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Dobby! My favorite! He had some of the best lines in the whole movie!

I will watch this movie many more times in the future, guaranteed. Oh, Harry Potter, what my life would be without you and your wonderful, wonderful, magical world. :)

A SpoonFULL of Excitement, Anxiety, and PARIS.

I got this email in my inbox today, from the French Internship Facilitator(aka my new favorite person):

"Congratulations! Pending approval by the Honor Code Office, you will be accepted for the Paris Chamber of Commerce internship for Spring 2011. If any of you have not submitted your CV and questionnaire to M. LeBras, please do so immediately. If he has asked you to make any corrections on either of those forms, please likewise do so immediately. So, enough negative sentences: Congratulations on being accepted!"

I'm going to Paris this freaking summer! As an intern. Wow. It's hard to believe that it's actually going to happen. :0

Despite how completely excited I am, I am a bit anxious about it. There's so much to do in preparation: find my passport, book a plane flight, improve my French, and much more. I want to be a solid intern. I know I have a pretty good understanding of French grammar, but I definitely could use some help on my spoken (and written) French. I know that just as Heavenly Father has helped me thus far, he will continue to help me in my endeavors as i have faith. I completely believe this.



Guys, this is gonna be good. :D

A Spoonful of Normality

Recently, I had a conversation with my friends about what constitutes normality. This is quite the topic among university-age adults. I mean, most of our lives revolve around the other sex. We're constantly talking about who we'd like to date, who we hope never asks us out, and which of our friends are most likely to get married first. It's not surprising then, that we talk about our experiences with less than normal people. They are all around us it seems. Somebody watches nothing but watch Anime, they're labeled as weird. Somebody is in the medieval club. Weird. Somebody is wearing their shirt backwards intentionally. Weird.

Weird. Weird. Weird. Weird. Weird.

When you type that word enough you start to think it's a weird word.

This conversation however, made an interesting turn. We started talking about how each one of us aren't normal.

Confession: I wear an undershirt under just about every shirt I wear. It has come to be a kind of comfort blanket for me.

I have many quirks just like that that make me a little weird. And guess what? I bet you do too. Even if you're more than willing to share them or more hesitant. So what makes some people too weird?

I don't know. I do know, that no matter the strangeness or number of quirks somebody has, we need to love and accept them. Maybe not date them, but definitely be friendly. Definitely. And maybe we should just not be so obsessed with normality or weirdness. What do we know anyways?

A Spoonful of Twilight???

So when Twilight was fairly new and not quite the phenomenon it is now, I was a fan. I even was able to find documentation of this: it was listed as one of my favorite books by my 14-year-old self. Wow. I have since realized all the things the Twilight series is lacking in order to be a really good. Anyways, my astronomy teacher said the words "supermassive black hole" at least 5 times today because guess what is at the center of our galaxy? You guessed it. Anywho, I can't think of that song without thinking about the best scene of the Twilight movie. It was mostly made good because of this song, but here for your listening pleasure is one of Muse's most popular hits. I hope you enjoy.

A Spoonful of Spotlight

Sometimes you have to stick your neck out, either because you're being forced to by circumstances, or just because you have that inner desire, like hey, I need to do this. I had that when auditions for Académie Française came up. I had to audition.

Now some background. I have had moments where, standing in front of a roomful of people, I was able to be smart, talented, and even funny. When it comes to performing, it's never really been easy for me. I wasn't born a performer. I sometimes wonder if that has to do with my birth order...hm...Anyways, I still do it because I want to get better, and you can't get better without trying, right?

So this Académie Française thing. I did it. Tonight. And it went so-so. I kept thinking before my performance, if only I had thought to bring an accompanist. GAhhh. My guitar-playing sucked. That's not an exaggeration either. I have no problem admitting that to this blog. My singing, however, was not too bad. Pretty decent, actually. My friends came and watched too! Well, some of them. And it made me so happy. Even if I didn't do the best. Just the fact that they were willing to take 2 hours of their day out to come watch me, wow. I have some great friends.

The whole point of this blog is to say, you know what? You need to put yourself out there. Sometimes you might do worse than anticipated, heck, you might even get booed off the stage, but sometimes, you're going to be amazing. And I think those times make it all worth it. Which is why I'm auditioning for Big Band Night next week. :O Yep. You heard it first here. Haha, this should be fun. :D