Oh wait!

I sold another macbook case:
Hurray!

In less than 24 hours

I will be in HONG KONG! HELLZ YES! I'm so excitedddd. I'm at home now just chilling and packing but I will be on the plane tomorrow morning at 10! Yessss!

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But this is the time to reflect on my first year at college isn't it? Yes, I need some time for that. I was officially done on Thursday afternoon (4PM to be exact) when I took my English portfolio to my professor's mailbox. Then I met with her Friday morning at her house to go over it and to talk about my work this semester and what I can do to improve. As a part of my portfolio, I incorporated "Outside influences" that affected the way I saw things...here they are, with my comments:

Outside influences:
1.http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=owner%3Aucberkeley+lunch+poems

I was more intrigued by Li-Young Lee’s thoughts in between his poetry reading although a couple of his poems were quite beautiful (the one about birds).
Speaking as dying, poetry is death etc.

2.http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/pe08/rla/genre/poetry/collinyard/assets/pe08_vid_collinyard/pe08_vid_collinyard_100_mov.html

Billy Collins reading “The Lanyard.” I both laughed and got teary-eyed when I heard this poem.

3.http://media.ghostrobot.net/7020_wanderlust.html

Bjork is my favorite artist/singer and this new music video “Wanderlust” certainly made me see things differently. The last part as she falls down the waterfall is incredibly frightening but the very last shot resolves the entire video.

4.The Other Shore by Gao Xingjian was a production done by some Swatties this semester. During the play I felt nervous, surprised, vulnerable, amazed, happy….then I left and had to go to a piano room and cried while I improvised for nearly 20 minutes. I felt refreshed after that but had to go spend time with my friends to start filling up my emptied mind. I think it might have been the strangest experience I’ve encountered at Swat. I definitely recommend seeing this because I felt deeply affected (neutrally) by it.

5. http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

Keri Smith’s blog has been a part of my life for 4 years now and she has definitely influenced the way I approach things. She doesn’t blog as much now but her earlier posts are just as insightful and interesting.

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Another piece in my portfolio:
He watched without moving, so finally I got up and stood over Moses. My shadow spread, a cool place in the radiance that heated the ground. My shade was pleasant at first, but I stood there so long that he finally shivered in the dark shape I cast.
“Get your shadow off me,” he said. He spoke in Indian, his voice a thinly oiled saw, half-rusted.
I smiled, flourished my hands on my hips, pleased to make him talk.
p. 79, Love Medicine
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I felt the power of language and the infinite insight that each language provides to the world in this passage. Shadows implying meaning with shapes and temperature reminded me of ‘real imaginations.’ The metaphors here of Moses’ voice as a ‘thinly oiled saw’ and Lulu’s hands as flourishes on her hips tickled my mind and excited the artist in me. I was further entranced by the otherworldly island Erdrich invited me into with subtle details and fantasies. To me, each word in this passage was a brush stroke that contributed towards the final painting of a luminous ball that I wanted to cup in both of my hands to eat and swallow.

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And another:
Seeing the World in High Focus
Attention to detail in literature can be everything from satisfying as knitting an entire scarf to being so completely boring that it makes us want to pull our hair out. It is a wonder that some gifted authors can meticulously grace every crease, wrinkle and groove in the skin with the most delightful pattern of words while others might put you to sleep in an instant. What then, is the key to a successful elaborate description of pretty much anything? The first step in finding the answer might lie in exploring the function of these worded intricacies, or what we want out of them. As Susan Orlean says:
…the sheer bigness of the world made me feel lonely to the bone. The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go.
“The Good Life,” The Orchid Thief, p. 107
Although she is specifically talking about passion, her comment can be applied to the reason why readers and authors alike, enjoy detail. Choosing to describe the flickers of light that an dying lamp sheds across the wall, or the pattern and dance of the ants march at our feet might just be a way of narrowing down the world that “is so huge” so that we can appreciate it bit by bit. But what I have found to be most rewarding in some works is the unspoken truths revealed by describing the object, place, event or emotion. It introduces us to look at something and actually see it differently since it is told differently.
Take for example the following excerpt from Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, only a handful of pebbles, figuratively speaking, in comparison to Lulu’s time on the island, which is an enormous boulder that only moves a few millimeters a year:
A tangle of cats lay loose and drowsy in the sunniest part of the yard, a black slate where the sun beat down . . . I stroked and petted them. I lightly pinched behind their ears, moved one finger up their throats, rubbed the base of their spines until I claimed their hearts, cold balls of silk, and unwound them and set them to warm in the failing sun.
“The Island,” P. 78
Though she uses many words, the actual events taking place are slow moving and seemingly unimportant--the cats are dozing off while Lulu pets them. However, descriptions of tasks done by hand such as the petting of a cat are much more involved than one might expect. As Erdrich leisurely moves from ears, throat, spine and finally to the cat’s heart we can’t help but feel the joints in our fingers wanting to imitate and follow the same path. It is a feeling that hits us especially deep if we have pet a cat (or another animal for that matter) before. The petting of these cats is so vividly described and therefore relatable, that while it seems unimportant, they are valuable to us at the moment of our reading it, as well as later when we string this bead in next to all the other beads to form a coherent story.
The magic of such attention to detail is that we get to experience a different world, or the same world but in a different light. Descriptions in “The Island” are particularly resounding since they provide us with an ocean of resolved questions, explanations and character traits that the pages and pages of Lulu’s desire for Moses left us curiously asking and contemplating. Erdrich’s details are delicate and carefully crafted like a house of toothpicks, each one fascinatingly intricate but absolutely breathtaking and fulfilling to see the lot of them together, in one piece. Her success is hidden in both the immaculate and perfectly chosen words of the descriptions, as well as the questions they answer.
In other novels such as Kindred by Octavia Butler, detail denotes train-of-thought and confusion:
There was the soup that Sarah had left simmering; fish to fry; ham that had been rock-hard before Sarah soaked it, then boiled it; chicken to fry and corn bread and gravy to make; Alice’s forgotten potatoes to finish; bread to bake in the little brick oven alongside the fireplace; vegetables, including salad; a sugary peach dessert—Weylin raised peaches; a cake that Sarah had already made, thank God; and both coffee and tea.
“The Fight,” p. 159
Although this long list carries, by default, a certain degree of monotony because she is simply citing everything that needed to be cooked, the chaos and desperation that Dana feels can be sensed immediately. But by articulating every single dish and preparation with flourishes like “Alice’s forgotten potatoes” and “Weylin raised peaches” Butler successfully keeps the passage interesting and moving. In addition, the chaos provides us with what Dana must go through in the antebellum South and evokes a sense of empathy towards her and anger towards Weylin. By incorporating such minutiae here, Butler is preparing us for the bigger themes of the novel while documenting a specific mood at the same time.
Satisfying and insightful descriptions are, as was exemplified by Erdrich and Butler, the product of the right set of words, and are usually capable of evoking an emotion and/or a new way of seeing the world. Perhaps we are so attracted to these new insights within a set framework because as John Berger says in Ways of Seeing, “we never look at just one thing because we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” When we read a detailed description, we are able to create connections between things we are familiar with and a new way of seeing those things.
A true master of attention to detail is also aware of the need for lack of detail. While a novel that is chockfull with detailed descriptions has the potential of being abundantly rewarding, constant zooming in such as can be seen in a passage in The Orchid Thief in which Orlean drones on and on about the different appearances that an orchid can have a mind numbing effect. Not only does this put us to sleep, but also we may lose any remainder of hope we had for the rest of the novel.
Just as Aristotle said “everything in moderation,” this motto unsurprisingly applies to the amount of detail a novel should include. Erdrich, for example, thoughtfully weaves her lavish descriptions into the more subtle passages, which require more contribution and effort from the reader. In “The World’s Greatest Fishermen,” she says that “[Albertine] went into the next room and stuffed the hat under King Junior’s mattress” (42). While the entire chapter can be viewed as elaboration upon elaboration of describing a single hat, this is one of many sparse sentences that leave the detailed sections to be appreciated. By deliberately leaving the sentence vague, Erdrich is suggesting that a deeper reading should be made, and that she has either given us enough evidence or plans to give us more evidence so that it can be made.
The two examples I’ve given are indicative of the type of attention to detail that not only works, but is also satisfying. They are, as Orlean writes in The Orchid Thief, successful in whittling down the huge universe into something more comprehensible, and provide valuable insight into the things we may not necessarily notice on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, they all serve a greater purpose in their novels whether it is to prepare us for an event, or to provide us with some background information. If the author is successful, the ending brings us satisfaction since details encourage us to become invested in the plot, the characters and the various aspects of the novel.
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We also had to write about how we saw or told things differently:
What I see now is that there are many ways to see.
It is the type of joyful knowledge that I live to learn about as an artist.
Seeing things differently and in many ways means,
that there are just as many different ways to tell people about those things.
Whether it is through written word or mouth, or the brushstrokes in an oil painting,
different methods call for exciting, and colorful outcomes.

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I had to write quite a few more pieces for the portfolio but I'll spare you :P I mean this blog is pretty much a space for me to write freely so I guess it doesn't matter but still....
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Wow this girl's blog is awesome
^check it out!
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Okay, I guess I don't actually feel like reflecting back on my first year of college. Maybe another day :P

But tomorrow I'm going to China so the blogs will be short and spread out.

Enjoy your summer!
Take advantage of the time! (if you're a student that is)

<3

My talented friend

wrote an exquisite poem.
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(That's what it's supposed to look like but blogger keeps messing up the alignment--you can click to make it bigger but here are the words just in case)

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the infinite shapes of dots

you left a constellation hanging in my life,

in the same, thoughtless manner that permanent markers do

when annotating on legal pads, only to speckle

pressured points strewn across a perfectly yellow page—

the remnants of insensitivity synonymous to

photographs I missed between albums of you,

perfect smile despite the absence of wisdom teeth, or

your name rare on a coffee-crumpled receipt, oh

i could have told the children the stories of gods

with these rude fragments of what once was

(you).

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Told you it was exquisite.
Candice Mai Khanh Nguyen, you are one hell of a poet!
Keep it up--you inspire me!

60

Someone finally bought a macbook case! Hooray! I'm so excited :)
They bought this one:

Only 5 days until CHINA!

Today was my sculpture open house:That's the crew minus 2 who weren't there :/
I love this photo though! We had such a great class :) and a successful open house too!

I'm going to go to bed early today so no more writing. I've done enough writing for my English class anyways >.< AGH! Still have more to do tomorrow :(

Goodnight!

Shfifty nine!

WOW! Today was exhausting.....we had to clean the sculpture studio from 1-3 (which was a mess) but I also had to set up all of my artwork for the open house tomorrow which included a couple of installation type pieces so that took an extra hour. TIRED! But I still have one more class to finish some stuff for.

ICK!

I've been obsessed with these Berkeley Lunch Poem videos
You should check them out if you fancy poems :)

I'm starting to pack for China and for leaving for the summer. *sigh* I feel like I haven't gotten anything done though because I brought too much! Fortunately we get to store as many boxes as we like in summer storage but I'm really trying hard to limit myself.
Also, I need to bring home my sculptures! GAH! That's the thing about sculpture :( you can't just pile them into a portfolio....

Okay I'll stop complaining! I can do it! haha

I'm going to go start my final paper.

Day 58!

I can't believe I'll be in china in 8 days!

But I can hardly believe this

My heart goes out to all those who had to experience such a frightening natural disaster. 7.9 magnitude! My gosh.

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On a brighter note, there was an email that went out to SAO (Swarthmore Asian Organization) members today talking about the mistake that People Magazine made--they did an article on a Korean popstar named Rain but had the wrong picture in the article! (see more here)
Anyways, someone responded by saying that it's okay because white people look the same to him too!!! And then he said that he thought Steve Carell and Luke Wilson were the same person for the longest time. Dude, check it out!!


They're practically identical! Hilarious!

I watched The Little Colonel today featuring SHIRLEY TEMPLE! YES!

So good! No matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old!

Also I finally handed in my research paper on harakiri! Hurray! Only one more final!

Did a few other fun things but I'm going to be good and start working on the first part of my take home final!

Ciao!

Happy Mother's Day!

So here's the thing I was telling you about:
The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

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Please go to the link though....Billy Collin is reading his own poem and it's just FABULOUS!


(more Mother's Day secrets here)

Thank you okasan for being the best at everything you do. You're love touches everything you do whether you're rubbing my belly when it hurts or scolding me. But I better go call you now because you don't know how to use the computer :P

YAY MOTHERS!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Oogabooga!

Today was exhausting. The first picture shows how I feel now, the second is what I want to be doing. Haha. Lameeee! We had a hall dinner tonight and a couple of my hallmates and I decided to make curry rice (for 26+ people). BIG MISTAKE. So since our senior hallmates who have a car were going to the grocery store in the A.M. we tagged along, got back at 1:45 at which point I was tired (already? yes, already) and took a nap until 4:15 (really? yes, really) and bugged the aforementioned hallmates that we should start cooking if we wanted to be ready by 6PM when the dinner was planned to start. End result was delicious. However, the two and a half hours in between were frustrating, tear-jerking (the damn onions), and gross (college kitchens).

A day of food-making/preparing/planning and napping later, I sit on my bed typing about the food-making/preparing/planning and napping day. But I no longer want to do this and !!!! The end of that story. HAHA!

Okay, on a brighter note I just took a trip down memory lane with Kiki's Delivery Service. Love this song and movie. This movie has footage of the character developing process which is pretty darn cool. You know, this might even be my all-time favorite animated film--Miyazaki Hayao is brilliant. Thank you youtube.



Tomorrow's Mother's Day. I have a special poem to share (that I didn't write) and I can't wait to share it!

Ciao for now!

P.S. Day 56

Rainy Friday

This is me looking cold and hot at the same time. It's windy, rainy and cold outside but it's hot and muggy inside. Yuck!

I've been working on the same paper all day long. It's about harakiri and boy oh boy is it a fun topic to write about. (That was meant to be slightly sarcastic) The implications of harakiri really do fascinate me and that's where the hates-to-write part of me gets upset and throws tantrums.

It'll all be okay though because I'm in my friend's room getting a lot of work done (clearly blogging needs to be excused). It's especially helpful that she's writing a paper for the same class >.<

Yay for Foucault and Bourdieu the wonderful sociologists :D I love reading your dense philosophies.

I can't wait to stop talking about my work!

But for now, I have to go and do my work :( *tear*

Oh but wait! This brightened my day:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aeeR4Vnvs8U

Day 54.

Just talked to my favorite art professor, Randy Exon who happens to be my faculty advisor as well. It was nice to talk to him about my art and how I'm feeling at the end of my freshman year. He always has the best insight and advice. Hurray.

Have a BIG research paper due tomorrow which is kind of scaring me. AHHHH! If only someone would find the cure to procrastination >.< Okay I'll stop talking and start acting.

Ciao now!