The Butterfield New Year Traditions

Well, New Year's has never really been that big a deal in my house... so there aren't many traditions that we uphold.

The main tradition that you have to keep in mind is that we all hold a piece of silver in our hands as the new year turns, usually some coinage. Holding a silver coin is supposed to bring you luck and prosperity for the new year.

Other than that... we just sit around and watch movies, eat shrimp cocktail, drink wine, and generally relax.

AND, our other major tradition is for New Year's day... we eat pork and sauerkraut for dinner. Sauerkraut because we're Polish, and pork because for some reason or another, eating pork on New Year's day is supposed to be good luck as well.

So, I guess the short of it is... our traditions are about bringing luck. Amen.

What is the World Coming to?

Yesterday, I was shopping a department store and I saw a Steelers thong... a black thong with the Steeler's logo on it. AND it wasn't even in the underwear department... it was on a gifty-type display in the middle of the men's apparel section of the store.

I mean, really...

Doggy Under the Tree

Aaaawwww... :)

Pancakes

Matt made pancakes this morning... second time this break. He is growing into quite the little chef. Awesome :)

The Butterfield Christmas Traditions

Well, all the good traditions start with Christmas Eve dinner... the table must have at least 7 different foods on it (why 7, I couldn't tell you): three different kinds of homemade pierogies (sauerkraut, potato, and cottage cheese), pickles, olives, and fish (2 different kinds this year). The table must have fish because my Granny always said that fish (and almonds) are the Lord's foods... it's always been smelts in the past but this year it's smelts and crab cakes, and thank God because I hate smelts, all those little bones, gross.

Then, after dinner, church. That is a relatively new tradition, we only started it after my dad left... and it is the one time a year that I go to church. I like it though, we go to the candlelight service. I know this sounds cheesy, but every single time we sing "Silent Night" in the dark, it makes me cry. AND, I have a bell that I wear on my coat when we go to church, my Gran gave it to me, it used to be hers... I wear it once a year and then it lives safely in my jewelry box for the rest of the time... a very "It's a Wonderful Life" kinda thing.

Then after church, we always watch Scrooge with Albert Finney before we go to bed. My Mutti always waits until after Matt and I go to bed before she puts the presents under the tree... I like that, I think it keeps the magic alive. Sweet.

Christmas Day, we wake up and open gifts then have a big breakfast then we start cooking dinner. I cook pounchkies ("poonch-key"), polish donuts. I only make them once a year because they are so labour intensive. You have to fry them in grease, so I'm sure they also majorly clog your arteries as well. This is another tradition that I took over for my Gran... she used to make the pounchkies, but she taught me before she died, and now I make them.

And my Uncle Jimmy and his family usually come over for Christmas dinner...

And that's Christmas in the nutshell, good food and lots of good times. Family to the fourth power and just lots of tomfoolery. Yeah.

Baking Day!

Today is Baking Day... I'll be making mini-oatmeal cookie sandwiches with buttercream icing in the middle and mini-cherry tarts with cherry pie filling and whipped cream. Yummy. This is the first time I will have tried these recipes, but don't they sound really great?

Also, Uncle Bob and I are making dinner this evening as well: lasagna.

AND, I'm making ice cream today... Kahlua/Amaretto ice cream.

Good times in the Butterfield kitchen.

3D: foam carving project

These are pictures of my final projects for 3D Design. We were studying organic forms... making pieces with edges and folds and transitions in and out of both. There were two pieces required for this project, one larger and one smaller. Both pieces had to have at least one edge and at least one fold.

Both of these pieces are made of housing insulation, obviously not the pink fiberglass stuff, but the blue foam-type stuff. I worked with Hacksaw blades and sand paper. They were very messy to make. Once you started working, there was blue dust, pieces, brap all over the place. My lint brush was my new best friend when I was working on these pieces.

They were fun, but I'm glad that I don't have to work with the foam anymore.

2D: final project

Our final project for 2D was to create a book of about 10 images. The books did not necessarily have to tell a story (although mine did, what's the point if there's no story?). The object of the project was to use good flow and design sense, and the images had to connect to one another visually, that is to say, you couldn't turn the page and feel like you were in a different book all together. Text was basically no allowed, it could only make up about 10% of the finished book. Although, I know plenty of people who used no text at all, myself included.

Just some examples of the books people are making: one girl is making a book about different types of houses, another girl is making her book about sensations and she has lots of pictures of hands holding ice, holding gravel, etc, one boy is making his book about pirates (and that's all I know so far, but what I've seen looks really cool), and another boy is making his book about superheroes (and it looks awesome). And that's all I've got so far, but I can not wait to see every one's finished project.

The project was incredibly open ended, your book could be about anything that you could possible think of (as long as you could make it visually interesting). The book could be any dimensions that you wanted and be bound any way that you wanted. The only real "rule" is that you have to use two different surfaces. My two were glossy card stock and acetate. One boy used scratch board and Bristol board. Lots of people used Bristol board and construction paper.

My book is a story, as I said... kind of a mythology story. The mythological creation of water. I created all my images in Adobe Photoshop. I didn't include any images from the front of the book... but, basically, the story begins in the desert, and a blue wolf enters the landscape. As he walks across the desert, his footsteps fill with water and storms come in behind him. Eventually, the desert is overcome by an ocean and lush green replaces the red sand of the desert. My book had 11 pages and I've included pictures of my favorite 3. Trust me when I say the color is much more vibrant and impressive in person.

3D: foam core projects

Alrighty, I turned these projects in about a month ago... sorry that I'm just getting to them.

None of these are very big: the tallest is maybe 7 inches. The object of these projects was to deal with plane: how it divides space and how one plane maps onto another.

All of us turned in 6 foam core projects: 1 dealing rectangles and set up in a grid-like way, 1 with rectangles and triangles set up in a grid-like way, 1 with just triangles no longer in a grid-like manner, 1 with all curves, and 2 using any shapes or techniques that we wanted to use. I've included pictures of my three favorites from the project.

The rules for the project were as follows: planes could only be glued face to edge (not edge to edge or face to face), they had to be built to stand in a certain way, each plane had to be broken be another plane (meaning there could be no clean faces that could be placed on the table like a pedestal), and there had to be at least one plane in each of the three axes. To understand the axes, just imagine a desk: the table top is in one axis, parallel to the floor; the wall is in another axis, perpendicular to the table top; and the legs of the desk (connected front to back) create the third axis, perpendicular to both the table top and the wall. I hope that helps you visualize. I had a hard time with that concept at first too.

Triple Planetary Conjunction

"Starting" December 6th and "ending" December 13th, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars pass closely to each other in the eastern, pre-dawn sky.

So, of course, I got up this morning to see it. AOL said the best time to see the planets was 45 minutes before sunrise, and according to Weather.com, sunrise was at 7:38 AM, so I got up around 6:40ish. I saw the conjunction, but at first, I wasn't sure that it was the conjunction because Mars kept winking (so I thought it was a star) and I couldn't see Mercury. So I thought maybe it was stars just haning out in the pre-sawn sky. BUT, I found a picture of the conjunction online, and it was what I saw. So, yay, I didn't get up before dawn for nothing :) I tried to include the picture, but sorry, no go on that one. Just imagine bright stars that form a tiny triangle to the left of sunrise. The brightest and left most intersection is Jupiter, white... the top of the triangle is Mars, cream, not as white and winking. Mercury, the least bright, sinking into the sunrise and barely visible. Also according to AOL News, these plants have not been this close since 1925 and will not be again until 2053.

Now, let me just say that as an astronomical event, this one wasn't too stunning. I mean, intelectually, I understand why it's scientifically significant, but visually, not really so impressive. I wasn't even sure that it was what I was seeing, I thought I was seeing stars and turning them into plants because that's what I wanted to see.

I saw the conjuction between the Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon in June 1991, and as both a scientific and visual event, that was much, MUCH more impressive. All the bodies were easier to see AND it was an event that only happens about once every 600 years. PLUS, it was an event that happened in the western, post-sunset sky, so there was no getting up involved. I remember seeing it with my Gran and reading about it in the news paper. Good times.

And that's it for now. Much love...

Yep

This first picture is the view from the front door of my building. White, isn't it?

And just in case you couldn't tell, that's my car with over a foot of snow piled on top. Nice.

This According to Weather.com:

Tonight (Wed Night)
Rain and snow showers this evening transitioning to snow showers overnight. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 70%. 2 to 4 inches of snow expected.

Tomorrow (Thurs)
Cloudy with snow. Colder. Morning high of 28F with temps falling to near 20F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 80%. 4 to 6 inches of snow expected.

Tomorrow Night (Thurs Night)
Periods of snow and windy. Low 17F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 90%. 5 to 8 inches of snow expected.


Please pay special attention to the amounts of snow that will be falling.

Winter Wonderland

Hey gang,

I know that I haven't written lately, but that's because there hasn't been much of anything to write about.

Thanksgiving break was fabulous, although not nearly long enough. And now I'm simply back at Edinboro, finishing out the semester: working on final projects for both 2D and 3D, studying for Golf/Wellness, Computer Sci, and Accounting tests. And that's what occupies my time at the moment.

Although, in other news... there must be at least a good 7 inches of snow on the ground here. We got about about 3-4 inches two nights ago and another good 3-4 inches last night. So, everything is very white and wintry looking. Just what I need to get into the Christmas spirit.

I know I shouldn't be telling you this because Annie will be appalled, but I don't have any Christmas lights or decorations in my room, not a one. I just didn't feel the need for some reason. Christmas is what happens at home, and this place isn't my home yet.

And that's it for now, much love...

Mini-movie Review: The Fountain

Don't waste your money. As a movie, it was well crafted and beautiful looking... but as a story, it sucked, not worth the 95 minutes.

The Chimera Soiree

Well, it was a good night. I included a picture of myself, but as you can see, it's blurry. I have no idea how it became blurry because as is a prerequisite of using the self-timer, I set it on something, so it's not like it was going any where. So, my apologies... but don't I look hot? I'm surprised that no one asked for my phone number.

The second and third pictures are of the gallery space in the Erie Art Museum Annex, where the party was held. It was a really cute, intimate space that was subdivided by a wall; the gallery space and all the art that was accepted into the book was on one side, and we had the food and Chinese auction on the other side. And let me just say that the food was fab... most of our dishes were made by the Multi-Cultural Club and they were great. The Soiree had a Mediterranean theme this year so there was a lot of hummus and bruscetta flying around, but there were also some very nice rice dishes and some spanicopitta and salmon rolls. And there was this spinach/roasted red pepper dip that was yummy to the Nth degree; if there weren't other people there I seriously could have just grabbed the tray with the dip and fresh bread and just eaten the entire thing. But alas, I didn't, maybe next year.

The forth picture is of the gallery on the second floor where the poetry/prose readings were held. If you didn't read the previous post and you don't know, three of my poems were accepted into the book, so I was in the reading. I think the mag accepted about 12-13 writers this year, and 6 of us read, so it was a really nice, intimate reading. I only read two of my poems because the third is a suedo-Haiku and the explanation of the poem would have been longer than the poem, so I figured the audience could just read it for themselves when the book comes out in April.

And the last picture is of a band from Erie called Mr. Gnome... they were a two person band and actually quite excellent. A little bit loud for the space, but they're music was pretty fab. There was another group on before them, based in Edinboro, it was a student group... much calmer in tone but just as excellent.

All in all, I had a really nice evening, eating and listening, etc. Good times. I would do it again.

My Brother, The Musical Genius

My mom and I went to visit Matt at Penn State over the weekend... to hear him play in PSU's Bandorama: both the Symphonic Band and the Blue Band played.

Matt is in the Symphonic Band, the second best band at Penn State. AND he is the first chair oboe, over juniors that are also in the band. So proud. He had solos in three out of the four songs that the band played... and let me tell you, he sounded maaaarvelous. So proud. The first picture is of him and Mutti, notice how saucy he looks in his tux. And the second picture (you're just going to have to take my work for it) is of Matt standing for recognition of his solo in the forth and final song of the concert.

It was a football weekend, vs. Temple... lucky I had my PSU Tee with me, there were armies of people in blue and white. And I got to see a little bit of Penn State's campus. I liked it... I don't think it would suit me, but Matt is very at home there; he fits. And I am happy to see him happy.

Chimera Submissions

All three of the poems that I submitted made it into the book, although one of them just barely.

Two of them were on the cusp... so both of them were read aloud to the group (by the faculty advisor). I know I should be complimented by the attention, but I'd rather they were in outright.

Work harder, write more I suppose. But I am on my way to being a literary success :)

The Next Time You're on Jeopardy

I learned an interesting little tidbit of information to day in 2D: how to "grey" down a color.

When you're painting, you don't add black or brown to a color to "grey" it down because then you will end up with muddy colors that look icky. Instead, you add a color's compliment to it to make it into a "grey." But that's not all, even if you a color's compliment (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/violet), you may still end up with a muddy mess. SO, you add that color's secondary compliment to get a nice grey.

For instance, in the painting I'm working on now, I have a shade of Yellow-green (actually, it's green, but to get that color, I had to use a heck of a lot more yellow than I did blue to get it) that my teacher told me was too saturated (too pure). So, he told me to add Violet to grey it down.

How, may you ask, did he arrive at that descision? Well, simply refer to the color wheel... to arrive at the correct greying compliment, find your color's actual compliment and then take one step counter-clockwise on the color wheel (always one step counter-clockwise) and you have the correct mixture.

Example: the color I'm working with is Yellow-green. Yellow-green's actual compliment on the color wheel is Red-violet, BUT, take one step counter-clockwise, and the correct greying compliment is Violet. Viola!

So, the next time you're on Jeopardy and Alex Trebek is grilling you about the greying compliment of Yellow-green, you'll know the answer: Violet.

Via Air Pollution

Thanks to Andrew, I've just discovered Quizilla. I have a feeling it is going to be one of my new favorite sites.

Which Jane Austen Character Are You?

You are Eliza Bennett from Pride and Prejudice! Yay, you! Perhaps the brightest and best character in all of English literature, you are intelligent, lively, lovely-- in short, you are the best of company. Your only foibles are that you stick with your first impressions... and your family is quite intolerable. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Winter Hits Overdrive

Lake Erie dropped 4+ inches of snow on Edinboro last night between 3-9PM. You know how I know? I was driving in it.

I went to my class in Meadville around 5:30ish... and it was snowing profusely, but the roads were still passable. THEN, on the way home, my trip took me 2 hours. That trip usually takes me 30 minutes.

It was still snowing profusely, and it was sticking to the roads (I saw more than one person in a ditch off the interstate). THEN, when I did reach Edinboro, the main road into Edinboro was closed (as to exactly why, I'm not sure), so some firemen directed me along another route, which I had never taken before, and it was dark, and still snowing, and there was snow on those roads as well. I was terrified that I was going to end up in a ditch for the night as well.

But I did make it home... and when I made it to my room, I was shaking. I had myself a mini-panic attack over the thought of being lost and stuck. But you live and you learn, if I had been smart enough to check the weather when it started snowing at 3PM, I might have known that last night would have been a good night to skip Accounting I.