Ekphrasis

I was going through papers from last semester, and I came across one of the poems I wrote in my Honors Aesthetics class. I remember that we were learning about "ekphrasis," which means (according to Wikipedia) "the graphic, often dramatic, description of a visual work of art." One of the English professors came to our class and showed us a piece of art entitled Strange You Never Knew by the artist Steve Neves (one of our Aesthetics professors). In the piece, a young woman with medium-length brown hair and head slightly tilted downward sat in a white kitchen chair. On her face was the feeling of tranquility with a pinch of underlying pain. Behind her was an open window where a warm, summer evening rested. A single streetlight stood in the background and dimly lit up a dusty road. Dr. Larry Fink, the English professor, told us to participate in ekphrastic writing in accordance with the artwork presented to us. Here's what I came up with in the ten minutes we had to write:


Strange You Never Knew
A young woman sits beside the window
With the evening sky behind her.
A streetlight brightens the road,
But does not do the same for her.
The summer heat is overpowered
By the coolness of night.
It allows a window to be opened,
A window to her soul.
But what does she think about?
Is someone on her mind?
Someone in her past she left behind?
Does a melody play inside her head
That she'll be better off instead?
Is her thought as clear as the glass,
Or does pain reside in her semi-tranquil state?
Her back against a chair,
Why does she not look the other way
To see the peace behind her?
Strange you never knew
The thoughts of a perfect stranger.


Hope you enjoyed that! Have a great day and live life!

wanna SAVE MONEY in college???

So...I was surfing the web for ways to save money in college (and btdubs, I'm always looking for ways to save money since I'm a typical "poor" colllege kid), and I came across THIS. I found an interesting way to save some Benjamin bucks (or Washington bucks in my case): GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!

I'm currently on a project to grow basil and tomato plants in my dorm (kinda similar to what that dude in the link does except that I don't really know what hydroponics actually is...cool word though). Anyways, I was inspired to grow my own fruits and vegetables thanks to fellow HSUgreenteam member Tay, who grows okra in her bathroom (weird, I know...)!!!

Last weekend, I bought two of these nifty thrifty mini-plant kits from Target in the dolla' section, and currently, my basil plants are doing pretty great! Here's a pic of them awesome shoots:

I'm pretty proud of my basil! I can't wait until the plants are big enough for me to pick of a leaf of basil and chew it for a good five seconds before going out with some friends (for fresh breath right?! or did I mix basil up with mint?)

For all you HSU peeps, DumpDay is on Thursday, May 12, 2011! Basically it will take place on the lawn in front of your dorm, and all you have to do is dump the stuff you don't want to take to your casa at designated DumpZones & the Greenteam will take care of the rest! We will take your paper, plastic, aluminum, furniture, old electronics, and clothes so that they won't end up in some nasty landfill! Por favor/please rinse your containers before recycling them! Let's keep God's creation as clean as a whistle! Check out the vid:

And if you like that vid, you'll love this one even more:



And since I love music way too much (like, it's not even funny), here is earth-lover Jack Johnson singing an awesome earth-lovin' song:

Anyways, I hope you all have a great day, and keep lovin' the earth!