tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45830241933637102082024-03-19T02:01:02.032-07:00spoony for logophilesbrynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-65720686121416533832011-06-18T15:12:00.000-07:002011-06-19T11:07:46.887-07:00I DID IT!!So remember in March when I said I was obsessed with making shoes? Well, I finally did it!! <div><br /></div><div>I didn't make them entirely from scratch, but I did make some serious improvements on some sandals I bought in Spain (2 years ago!) by cutting up a purse I got at Goodwill yesterday, and reassigning various parts of the purse to new and improved functions for my shoes!</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with these wonderful sandals was that once I got the leather totally broken in and molded to my feet, they no longer fit, because I could slide further into the toe box once it was all stretched out. I buckled the slingback straps as tight as they would go, but invariably, one or both shoes would always fall off at the worst times-- like when I was sprinting across Barcelona to get to class. Lemme tell ya-- I had some pretty freaky halts (think Fred Flintstone putting on the breaks in his prehistoric car, but with no prehistoric seatbelt) due to that issue. So, my solution was to get a couple of skinny hair rubberbands and knot them onto the straps that went behind my heel, so that I could have a makeshift ankle strap to hold everything together. This worked well enough, but was a bit janky; namely, because one of the rubberbands wasn't very big, so I made a loop out of a plastic twistie to attach the rubberband to the shoe. This bit of plastic and metal poking me in the ankle was not always very comfortable. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Here is a diagram of the ghetto-ness:</div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgRbxtajROvJYNsiKfpezV-VzsPxSilCdlHsKOPm-P_-GmBkDC6m6Rd_87gKOn2o4zhbfo2PHmNjoSx8FQRR-laVaSw16M1aGTBUj1emEs55rhkjbE1qHyxsuvxf3Ti6an-JcXUnR/s1600/ghetto+shoes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 229px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgRbxtajROvJYNsiKfpezV-VzsPxSilCdlHsKOPm-P_-GmBkDC6m6Rd_87gKOn2o4zhbfo2PHmNjoSx8FQRR-laVaSw16M1aGTBUj1emEs55rhkjbE1qHyxsuvxf3Ti6an-JcXUnR/s320/ghetto+shoes.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619696245417167042" /></a><br /></div><div>Finally, when I was at a haunted house in Spain, some girl who was way too freaked out was literally right on my heels (I guess she thought I could protect her from the terrible acting?) when she stepped right on my shoe, and my super-soft leather just tore right then and there. The tear didn't render the shoes unwearable, but it did make them more floppy and now more seriously in need of repair.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So today, I finally did it! I should have taken pictures during the whole process, but I was to excited about diving into the project to want to stop for Kodak moments. But that's ok, because the photos of my final results are pretty dang exciting!! Special thanks to Bryan for getting me a hardcore sewing machine that can fly through leather!</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's a crappy photo of what my shoes looked like before I started hacking up a purse and using lots of contact cement:</div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiknlTnC8ePROU4p9oa-eZShgMefR_H1uKWSDXGcvSsQkhFg1BFkxFlQoozXGpVGx4nZjSJ8-74Nr2K_lU6Az6gedLkI9O-Fi9V9cg1_CD8oW4D7zvDtZMYSsdAcsZQP8Dfz1Vme-Tb/s1600/shoes+before.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiknlTnC8ePROU4p9oa-eZShgMefR_H1uKWSDXGcvSsQkhFg1BFkxFlQoozXGpVGx4nZjSJ8-74Nr2K_lU6Az6gedLkI9O-Fi9V9cg1_CD8oW4D7zvDtZMYSsdAcsZQP8Dfz1Vme-Tb/s320/shoes+before.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619691684643875538" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And here are the lovely "after" photos!</div><br /><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikYXME4PBpsUAz_x4aBRVfOMOlUPZyFiqm1tPUah2vDWT_FqCLt-olInTAmVyGjU8pDtN6qGw7M3VhV-fhrpy5oT37jT3eTyOGgWL4FHZmTrUzzqJ9PuoaDeTY6pepi7rVDUdsfA7X/s1600/recycled+sandals.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikYXME4PBpsUAz_x4aBRVfOMOlUPZyFiqm1tPUah2vDWT_FqCLt-olInTAmVyGjU8pDtN6qGw7M3VhV-fhrpy5oT37jT3eTyOGgWL4FHZmTrUzzqJ9PuoaDeTY6pepi7rVDUdsfA7X/s320/recycled+sandals.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619692220244925298" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQjcgMr-qhL_ADN9sn2ytUhhUuAyfSYszURY8ahEDGjQKlqpgUxNIicXXsH-rPc5O4D2IZZwNhN1ZDYoUWwwNbq_LVq3gsrvNxigtST6-fKxMN42yVlpgK9YQSjsWtQCX7w-nvevZ2/s1600/sandal+side.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQjcgMr-qhL_ADN9sn2ytUhhUuAyfSYszURY8ahEDGjQKlqpgUxNIicXXsH-rPc5O4D2IZZwNhN1ZDYoUWwwNbq_LVq3gsrvNxigtST6-fKxMN42yVlpgK9YQSjsWtQCX7w-nvevZ2/s320/sandal+side.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619692595724095586" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFadnzkICH69rJdLqCpApoJ_IVytox1tBvu1FV8yeA3Vi6jFRZe2C-HIFRB_hH9cXNi17RTV4xRGqaDhygnRcdmrFSOjDz8Qa8SBVdTKvaFwdSwhKgN8dKSvNw0ce6TlcXabEkMPJ2/s1600/sandal+back.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFadnzkICH69rJdLqCpApoJ_IVytox1tBvu1FV8yeA3Vi6jFRZe2C-HIFRB_hH9cXNi17RTV4xRGqaDhygnRcdmrFSOjDz8Qa8SBVdTKvaFwdSwhKgN8dKSvNw0ce6TlcXabEkMPJ2/s320/sandal+back.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619692890479687234" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSqyDQH3dk5LTjnBKYkYV0x70SiEfPmiJLQjSK-In-6s6kLpc37FFRmZ5xT7NGfvwNXkuXrGahpQK7ndB0xfVXtAwExRBRMfbGaityBok4IzLlQcZtC0b7c_Js27nIYEjTSDj3yBF/s1600/sandal+top.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSqyDQH3dk5LTjnBKYkYV0x70SiEfPmiJLQjSK-In-6s6kLpc37FFRmZ5xT7NGfvwNXkuXrGahpQK7ndB0xfVXtAwExRBRMfbGaityBok4IzLlQcZtC0b7c_Js27nIYEjTSDj3yBF/s320/sandal+top.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619693071295120306" /></a><br /><div></div>And finally, here's a funny cat video that has absolutely nothing to do with this post:<div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FAox2OrJ_3I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-55688229626611465712011-03-09T07:46:00.000-08:002011-03-09T09:29:25.380-08:00my latest obsessionShoemaking.<br /><br />I have a tendency to get really attached to a certain clothing item until I've literally worn holes through it, and then I don't know what to do without said awesome piece! In the last couple of years, I've had three pair of incredibly comfortable flats that I wore EVERYWHERE (two of which I found on DSW clearance racks).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxguSswIQF5z5oonosvtCg5V7w_HVV66jsZTY3pSQ7cTecTtHXDLFsrI93IaP94A4xSJjKF7jYJsUflheGUnv4UG6vGPguX3v_QTpjHAj1sVosZRqAYL2UxztzHksDBzuJcqPRE-tF/s1600/linda.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 298px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxguSswIQF5z5oonosvtCg5V7w_HVV66jsZTY3pSQ7cTecTtHXDLFsrI93IaP94A4xSJjKF7jYJsUflheGUnv4UG6vGPguX3v_QTpjHAj1sVosZRqAYL2UxztzHksDBzuJcqPRE-tF/s400/linda.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582123075223745362" border="0" /></a><br />The first pair was handmade in Spain out of black nubuck; and I never even had to "wear them in." They were blister-free from the first day I put them on! As Linda Richmond (Mike Meyers) would say, "They wuh like buttah!" I also loved them because they were unusually dainty for being made of nubuck: The hand stitching was evident and lovely, and the cute little pointed toes caused me to sometimes refer to them as my "elf shoes." I wore them so much that they got holes the size of nickles in the soles, allowing lots of dust and grit to get between my toes, but I wore them anyway... at least until the rainy season was in full swing.<br /><br />The second pair I haven't yet allowed myself to toss, I guess, because the holes in them are still pretty small. However, with spring CLEARLY THINKING about coming soon, I am very eagerly anticipating wearing shoes that allow my ankles to be free again. Knowing that I walk in Boston a lot more than I did in Texas, I just know my brown Dollhouse flats aren't going to make it through another year. The reasons I love them so much are because they have this neat detail across the toe that has 3 layers of different shades of tan/orange/marigold leather, making them really versatile; and the shape of the toe box feels like they were custom designed for my fairly triangular feet.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8P1Wx7vH6Xddd_sFoEj_qhyphenhyphenTbG84TS1zb0YVsQyRUMxrW8hSED1bMsfKXcpuRpjLJeY13FyFZV8Q-jRseQWIVNZF-LjqarTdWG3-7FJqHUNndr5s81M1i27HZxlJEA6fae9CfkM1O/s1600/sesto+died.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8P1Wx7vH6Xddd_sFoEj_qhyphenhyphenTbG84TS1zb0YVsQyRUMxrW8hSED1bMsfKXcpuRpjLJeY13FyFZV8Q-jRseQWIVNZF-LjqarTdWG3-7FJqHUNndr5s81M1i27HZxlJEA6fae9CfkM1O/s400/sesto+died.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582120015657892434" border="0" /></a>Pair number three is the black patent, hand-tooled Italian leather driving moccasins made by Sesto Meucci that I got off ebay 2 springs ago. My sister and I refer to them as my "foot-gasms" because they are just so amazingly well-made. I ran (and danced) all over Europe and Texas in them, and the beautiful, lacey uppers on them have now stretched to the point of the shoes just about falling off my feet when I wear them. I've also managed to bust one of my pinky toes completely through the paisley-patterned perforated leather. Retiring my "foot-gasms" seems unfathomable, but the time has come.<br /><br />I have searched high and low for replacements for these shoes, but nothing quite does them justice. Sesto Meucci is still making incredibly beautiful and comfortable shoes, but the ones that really make me swoon cost around $200 retail. Even ebay doesn't have any of the pretty ones anymore--just the clearly-comfortable-but-kinda-weird-looking ones for about $50-75. As for my black nubuck and brown artsy flats? Nothing quite does them justice, either. Most shoes made of nubuck look really sporty, or like they only belong on the feet of someone shuffling around a nursing home. Sure, there are brown flats all over the internet, but the ones with pointy toes have no space in the toe box for ACTUAL TOES. Case in point: <a href="http://www.6pm.com/bc-footwear-hovercraft-whiskey">BC Footwear's Hovercraft flats in Whiskey.</a> Maybe they don't have orange and marigold on them, but they do have two tones of brown, and they are slick, yet feminine. They come so close to being acceptable replacements for my Dollhouse wonders, but then I read the reviews, and everyone says "beauty is pain." This is a sentiment I refuse to adopt.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE5io1xR-OqcveJMwjXsWVqe5w_9M-5NGUFb8O02btbdQ_Lzj9zggkp3yJSMYoCHGt04ESnvZdJ-PoPz_2Wfc7MDPztQxuV4m6w1KfzQLmIUQSK0C0jMgsSBjwMrG8gnHnYW7qO3Ks/s1600/cat+hat.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 358px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE5io1xR-OqcveJMwjXsWVqe5w_9M-5NGUFb8O02btbdQ_Lzj9zggkp3yJSMYoCHGt04ESnvZdJ-PoPz_2Wfc7MDPztQxuV4m6w1KfzQLmIUQSK0C0jMgsSBjwMrG8gnHnYW7qO3Ks/s400/cat+hat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582123883732747362" border="0" /></a>So, now, of course, I'm obsessed with learning about shoemaking. I know, I know--at Christmas I asked everyone for hatmaking supplies, and most of you were smart enough to steer clear. It's not like grad school and three jobs allow you much time to fiddle with totally unfamiliar supplies/tools that could potentially cost an arm and a leg and make a huge mess. And yet, I persisted. I watched tons of<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL1pgH1KOv8"> instructional videos</a> on YouTube; I inhaled 100-year-old <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wxBBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=millinery&hl=en&ei=Yad3TdENwvuXB_Ggte4H&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">illustrated millinery guides</a> on Google Books; I dug through hundreds of ebay searches looking for <a href="http://www.colonialcrafts.com/manufacturer/Wool_Felt_Packs/1015/1">the right kind of felt</a> and glue and needles; I daydreamed about how to make my own (affordable) <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Hat-Block-Milliner-/130493803828?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e62096d34"> custom hat blocks</a> so I could invent awesome designs to hug my head! Somehow, I never got sick of it! I am a self-diagnosed "research-aholic," and anyone whose met me wouldn't dare disagree.<br /></div><br />I've been posting my YouTube finds on Facebook, but that doesn't seem the appropriate place for cataloging all of these gems. I must blog about the wonders of research.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIw60ebgLc_8ic_8CII-Tu-yR4W9sOwxeZPZ6-bNp1zKrU4kcf0NE9krT9_D9LFKLVgxF4Hj74PjN4CPbIqBXsgHavpqEd2phPc5S8_To9w3E4_fD9tcnGUh-8K4e1GzXlqnq0nioo/s1600/disco+man.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIw60ebgLc_8ic_8CII-Tu-yR4W9sOwxeZPZ6-bNp1zKrU4kcf0NE9krT9_D9LFKLVgxF4Hj74PjN4CPbIqBXsgHavpqEd2phPc5S8_To9w3E4_fD9tcnGUh-8K4e1GzXlqnq0nioo/s320/disco+man.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582130096372195874" border="0" /></a><br />Blogs about people learning to make shoes are really exciting for us craft-nerds. I have found two that are pretty good: <a href="http://norisstuff.com/">Nori's Stuff</a> and <a href="http://greencouple.com/2009/02/27/shoemaking-101-its-all-about-insole/">Green Couple</a>. The folks who wrote Green Couple actually went on their honeymoon in the backwoods of Virginia just so they could spend a week learning about shoemaking. Cannot imagine talking a certain someone into that sort of "romantic getaway," but maybe I could get a coupon for a local class next birthday! There are actually quite a few traditional artisan cobblers/shoe repair guys in Boston that it's entirely possible I could charm my way into some sort of summer/weekend apprenticeship. It would be so fun to learn from someone in real life, rather than just online! But I digress. Nori's Stuff is a really great blog that is much less overwhelming than Green Couple's incredibly detailed (but somewhat poorly photographed) endeavors. Thanks to blogs like these, I've learned <a href="http://greencouple.com/2009/03/08/shoemaking-102-making-lasts/">how to make your own shoemaking last</a> (a copy of your foot that you can use for stretching/hammering/gluing leather into the right shape), how to make a flexible <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqiYJ-4dxUU">steel leather needle out of guitar string,</a> how people in Budapest make <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqiYJ-4dxUU">really fancy men's dress shoes from scratch while listening to techno music, </a>and <a href="http://lastmakingschool.com/lastmaking-supplies-for-sale-main-page.htm">so much more!</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqiYJ-4dxUU"><br /></a>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-6763305848274484352011-03-03T11:20:00.000-08:002011-03-09T12:08:26.840-08:00Stuff on the internet that gives me abs of steelExhibit A: Mybusters is the awesomest show of all time; however, despite my love for the show, there are still episodes that have not yet entertained me. Case in point, (to quote the person who posted this on YouTube) "Do elephants afraid of mice?"<div><br /></div><div><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="320" height="195" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wXiMs65ZAeU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Exhibit B: ...And then there was Charlie Sheen. This guy has been spewing some seriously hilarious, and nutty stuff lately, and true to form, the tube-dwellers of the internets have spoofed him in a myriad of enjoyable ways. Personal favorite? BuzzFeed's <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/charlie-sheen-quotes-as-new-yorker-cartoons">Charlie Sheen quotes inserted into New Yorker cartoons</a>. My runner-ups (runners up?) have to be similar mash-ups ala LOLCats. Take your pick of <a href="http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/cats-quote-charlie-sheen/">cats</a> (duh) or <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/charlie-sheen-quotes-presented-by-baby-sloths">baby sloths</a> quoting the self-proclaimed winner. Also, today on Twitter, the top trending hashtag was #TigerBlood. Even the <a href="http://www.someecards.com/2011/03/02/american-red-cross-tweet-tiger-blood-charlie-sheen">Red Cross</a> found a way to work it in!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>In other news, I just found out that Tom Hanks is <a href="http://tomhanksimals.tumblr.com/">a lot of animals</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh4sswXTcn1qbyqk7o1_500.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh4sswXTcn1qbyqk7o1_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Exhibit C: Combine <a href="http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2011/02/20/how-is-your-eyes/">passiveaggressivenotes.com</a> with bad grammar, and I just laugh my smarty britches right off. Ok, well, not <i>off</i>, but you get the idea.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJehtzQZtnVJYjRKY5F54CBHwKKzpveA5NGEb01lsipAnNMT_xV0cIua5sQ8C88oZHTRdTHRySLu9yMDT3mMwap7-aQn-2yqucTd0JyaX-xWtna0snulqmULB-ROvVVYkSgYtXcrYCqU/s1600/scary44.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJehtzQZtnVJYjRKY5F54CBHwKKzpveA5NGEb01lsipAnNMT_xV0cIua5sQ8C88oZHTRdTHRySLu9yMDT3mMwap7-aQn-2yqucTd0JyaX-xWtna0snulqmULB-ROvVVYkSgYtXcrYCqU/s1600/scary44.png" border="0" alt="" /></a></div><div>Exhibit D: The funniest web comic ever in the whole wide universe is definitely <a href="http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html">Hyperbole And A Half</a>. It's written like a really long children's book, and illustrated like a fidgety crack head found a crayon and decided to draw his entire childhood. With stories of UNFATHOMABLE desires for birthday cake, bear-snake-bats that live under the bed and a smattering of temper tantrums, this blog frequently causes me to burst into laughter/tears/silent shaking (from trying to hold the tears and laughter inside because I'm in a public place!!!).</div><div><br /></div><div>Exhibit E: A lot of people already know about this website, but somehow, it never gets old. <a href="http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=4917">PeopleofWalmart.com</a> now has an entire section dedicated just to the weird people who go shopping at 3 a.m. in <a href="http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=12576">Texas</a>. (FYI-- other than these links, the rest of the site is prooooobably not totally work-safe).</div><div><br /></div><div>Exhibit F: <a href="http://damnyouautocorrect.com/">DamnYouAutoCorrect.com</a>. This website makes me laugh so hard that I tend to cry and then choke on my tears...every time!! You know when your smart phone isn't so smart--and the autocorrect in text messages goes horribly, horribly wrong? Yeah, it happens to everyone, not just you (dad).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-14035879582608271352010-11-16T09:34:00.000-08:002010-11-17T21:12:10.934-08:00no flying without molestationin case you haven't heard, TSA's new policies with regard to airport screening has gotten a bit <a href="http://www.good.is/post/the-tsa-s-new-security-procedures-touch-a-nerve">out of hand</a>. one security officer (whose job it was to repeatedly grope randomly selected folks who didn't want to go through the backscatter x-ray machines that show off your naked body) actually said that when you buy a plane ticket, you are giving up a lot of your civil liberties. to find out more about the experience of one guy who preferred the metal detector, but was refused access, read <a href="http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html#comment-form">here</a>.<div><br /><div><br /></div><div>here's my idea for how to let the big wigs know that we aren't down for this bullshit. in the spirit of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9La40WwO-lU">improv everywhere's annual no-pants subway ride</a>, we should just keep on strippin' when they say we have to take off our coats, shoes and belts.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>step 1:</b> do the usual selection of line and tray(s) for your stuff.</div><div><b>step 2:</b> when you have to lose the belt and coat and shoes, keep taking your stuff off, with a straight face and casual demeanor. </div><div><b>step 3:</b> when you're down to your skivvies (or less, if you're so inclined), stroll up to the metal detector, instead of the friggin giant x-ray box machine. if you are stopped, or redirected to the x-ray machine, continue to step 4.</div><div><b>step 4:</b> try again to go through the metal detector, explaining that you wish not to expose yourself to the radiation. if necessary, explain also that they don't need to send you through the x-ray, because you have assisted them by showing them what they would see anyway. try to keep this conversation public, rather than letting them drag you off to the private booths where they practically get away with murder (legalized sexual assault). this is about raising awareness and concern, so it's important that the other (ahem, clothed) passengers see/hear what's going on.</div><div><br /></div><div>maybe if this catches on, and a certain day/week/month is proposed so that lots of people can do this en masse, we can get someone's attention and let them know that buying a plane ticket should NOT equate to giving up your civil liberties.</div></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-76025065131130159712010-11-09T09:30:00.000-08:002011-03-09T12:05:57.454-08:00jewelery designers with whom i am falling in love<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">These are in no particular order. I can't rank one above another, because I love them all, sometimes for the same reasons, sometimes for very different reasons. You wouldn't say you had a favorite pet, or a favorite child, would you?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hne-rs.s3.amazonaws.com/filestore/8/7/8/0_ecbd0fabd1fca34/8780pre_6c21894e0b5576a.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 233px;" src="http://hne-rs.s3.amazonaws.com/filestore/8/7/8/0_ecbd0fabd1fca34/8780pre_6c21894e0b5576a.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">#1 <b>Edward Everett Oakes.</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bio: </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Born in Massachusetts in 1891, Oakes was a second-generation Arts & Crafts master who had the good fortune to study with two beacons of the movement -- <a href="http://www.chicagosilver.com/hale.htm" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Frank Gardner Hale</span></span></a> and Josephine Shaw. </span></span></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In 1923, the year he won a Medal at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Oakes was pleased to learn that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had acquired a pendant of his for its permanent collection ("the first such purchase made from a living American craftsman" according to Edith Alpers in the British <i>Jewellery Studies</i>, Vol. 3). This was a source of pride -- in a small <a href="http://www.chicagosilver.com/oakes3.htm" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">catalog</span></span></a> of wedding rings that he issued, the last page included a photograph of the object with the caption "A MASTERPIECE BY EDWARD EVERETT OAKES IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART."</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why I'm in Love: </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">His love for all forms organic, asymmetrical and whimsical totally woos me. Also, he frequently bezel sets his stones, which to me gives the pieces a feeling of delicate sturdiness, and a lack of pretentiousness, which is needed for something you'll love so much you'd wear it every day. If his stones aren't bezel-set, you might find them peeking out of what seems to be a bouquet of leaves (a more romantic image than what first came to mind, ET's face poking out of a pile of stuffed animals) floating in the form of what it seems magically collided into a piece of jewelry. Can't get much more lovely than that.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.joannecooperartist.com/show-image/976298/Joanne-Cooper/Double-Leaf-Spiral-Cuff--.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.joannecooperartist.com/show-image/976298/Joanne-Cooper/Double-Leaf-Spiral-Cuff--.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">#2 <b>Joanne Cooper.</b></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bio: </span></span></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Joanne is an expressionist painter. A sculptor. A jewelry designer. And somewhat of a Renaissance woman. Her work is alive and bold, full of pure energy and raw emotion. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of a noted Professor of Marketing and Economics, Ms. Cooper initially followed her father’s lead and studied economics at Northwestern University. But ultimately she moved to New York to follow her passion as an artist. Studying painting at the Art Student’s League, she was soon exhibiting her artwork in shows throughout the Northeast; winning National Competitions in juried shows at the National Academy of Design, Newport Festival of the Artist; and one-woman shows in galleries in New York, Chicago, East Hampton and throughout the East Coast.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ms. Cooper started her career as a young painter back in the pre-feminist mid-60’s trying to balance her creative vision with her responsibilities as a young wife and mother of two. Painting 5-6 hours a day while her children were off at school, she stole time in her studio between preparing meals, doing homework and managing a family and household.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Moving between painting and sculpture, Joanne eventually applied the movement and flow of expressionism to the ornamental medium of jewelry design. During a successful 20 plus year career creating what she calls “Body Sculpture” working with semi-precious stones, silver and gold.</span></span></span></span></span></p></span><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why I'm in love: </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> What's not to love? I'm a sucker for leaves, and it seems, so is Ms. Cooper. This cuff bracelet rocks a personality that I imagine to belong to a ballerina on an archaeological dig. It's bold, beautiful, soft and intricate. It looks like it was made in a similar fashion to that ceramic pot in the movie, Ghost-- a mystical spirit guided the artist's hands through a sexy art-making moment of zen. Oo! Sign me up!</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.jamesmeyerjewelry.com/pieces/images/1353.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 376px;" src="http://www.jamesmeyerjewelry.com/pieces/images/1353.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span></span></div><div>#3 <b>James Meyer.</b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><b style="font-family: georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bio: </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Mr. Meyer got started making jewelry "relatively late in life" in his thirties. After</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> diligently studying classical languages and history at Haverford College, he decided not to go to law school (as he had been encouraged to do) but went instead to the wonderful Rhode Island School of Design to study sculpture and drawing. He married in 1962 and a</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">fter some twists and turns (a Fulbright Scholarship to study art at Athens Polytechneion and some college teaching) he came to jewelry as the way to fulfill his artistic desire and make a living. </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For almost 30 years, he had a retail shop in Williamsport, PA, specializing in his own jewelry and selling other American Craft items. He says it was a truly amazing period in American history </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">in which crafts were revived and were supported by a wonderfully enthusiastic public. In his shop, a staff of about seven people made production jewelry based on Meyer's own designs for sale to other stores as well as their own; they</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> also made countless one-of-a-kind pieces for the shop.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Around the turn of the century, he had a feeling of wanting to simplify his days and have fewer responsibilities, so he had a big sale (“to the bare walls”) and closed the shop. Since 1999 he has worked on his own in my studio in Bastress Township, about 10 miles from Williamsport, doing one-of-a-kind and custom order pieces only.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 14px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 14px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why I'm in love: </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Milgrain! Asymmetry! Patina! Swirly shapes and organic lines! Oh my! I totally love everything about James Meyer's work. He is also unique in his use of green gold </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Wikipedia says f</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ourteen and eighteen carat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold) and his interplay of different metals (or colors of gold) in a single piece. He has an incredibly delicate hand in his work, but it never looks flimsy. He's definitely a fan of the bezel setting of stones, but his use of playful and nature-inspired shapes, as well as minute details, breathe life into compositions that could come off as otherwise too cold or modern.</span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.aurumjewelers.net/images/aurum/130-140-2535.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://www.aurumjewelers.net/images/aurum/130-140-2535.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">#4<span class="Apple-style-span"> <b>Constance Wicklund Gildea</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b></b></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bio:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> I actually can't find anything about her yet. Still digging.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why I'm in love: </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What's not to love about this carved gold ring! It has just about all the qualities I've listed above, plus it's hand-carved (the wax from which its mold was made, not the actual gold) and it looks like the sort of ring a fairy queen might wear! I especially enjoy the fact that it has a matte finish, making it look even more like it was plucked right out of a garden, rather than off a velvet tray.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.clay-pot.com/images/P/CHARLES-PERRELLA--Wide-E-2227P.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.clay-pot.com/images/P/CHARLES-PERRELLA--Wide-E-2227P.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">#5 </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Charles Perrella.</span></span></span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><br /></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><b>Bio: </b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Charles Perrella joined his brother Genaro in 1928 at age fifteen to master the jewelry trade. Charles continued after his brother's passing and became a Master Jewelry and Designer and later a budding entrepreneur. Perrella has always valued hand-made work and the integrity of jewelry construction. He patented his shop after the European factories where people mastered various aspects in the creation of jewelry. He enjoys working with 14k, 18k, and platinum gold to present the highest quality in jewelry. The careful combination of quality metals and stones results in an inspired collection of timeless sensibility.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><b>Why I'm in love: </b>duh. all of the above.</span></span></div></span></span><br /></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-45430441807746995412010-07-29T13:25:00.000-07:002010-07-29T13:30:55.367-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1KZL3WWwiHpbNB-gdvxqC2ZyIeb42czNdUm0GprOFKrX3VCZkGUwsKLE5Xhet5HHnMYlFMk56I33WA1n5ghsrvSYr7-janyUvCVQB0wfP6zCaaN3p_Lex2gSTOOMAiQDYGY-PbJi/s1600/bad+mac+n+cheese.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1KZL3WWwiHpbNB-gdvxqC2ZyIeb42czNdUm0GprOFKrX3VCZkGUwsKLE5Xhet5HHnMYlFMk56I33WA1n5ghsrvSYr7-janyUvCVQB0wfP6zCaaN3p_Lex2gSTOOMAiQDYGY-PbJi/s400/bad+mac+n+cheese.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499427091751348898" /></a>This stuff is really gross. I can't believe I paid 2 bucks for it just now. Granted, I may have nuked it about 30 seconds longer than the directions I didn't bother to read advised, but I still think that's no reason for it to taste like a cat ate burnt rubber bands and then puked them into a bowl. God, even the smell is starting to interfere with my workplace productivity (which I was trying to improve by eating this crap in the first place!!) As much as my disdain for high fructose corn syrup can often be blamed for the cause of convenient foods being less edible than those your grandmother slaved over for hours... I'd have to say I'm letting the diabetes-inducing goop that is the basis of most American foods off the hook this time: Thanks mom, for never letting us eat Chef Boyardee when we were kids. Gross.brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-8346742747402547292010-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:002010-07-30T07:46:46.573-07:00So, I guess I'm kind of a big deal... who knew?<div><br /></div><div>As you may recall, I got paid a whopping $200 to blog several times a month for 4 months last year, and people came out of the woodwork responding to my posts. Apparently, kids were choosing to study in Barcelona simply because I made it sound so cool. Go me! A year later, IES is still psyched about my work; I just got this email from them (sans details not needing to be published here): </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hello Brynn,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> I wanted to contact you about a new feature on the IES Abroad blog site. The new spotlight feature is titled “A Year Later” details what our former bloggers are up to and how studying abroad has affected their lives one year or more after completing their semester abroad. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Based on the high quality of your past contributions to the site, I would like to ask you to share an update.</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you would be willing please share a few (3-4) paragraphs about how your life, attitude, world view, career goals, or future plans have changed because of your experiences abroad. You do not need to worry about logging back into the blog site, you can simple respond to this email with your update and I will be post it on your behalf. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Once provided, your update will be featured prominently on the blogs homepage as well as the locations list in the right hand menu.</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thank you for your participation,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">IES Abroad</span></span></p></span></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-69424145269565114562010-07-07T07:08:00.000-07:002010-07-07T07:26:46.151-07:00I love you Texas, but you're dirtySo an environmental lobbyist group I used to canvass for is (alongside the Sierra Club) suing ExxonMobil for dumping out of its Baytown refinery over a million pounds of toxic air pollutants <b>per year</b> since 2005. Apparently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been bugging the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to tighten up its regulations on air quality and enforcement of current laws, but where government agencies drag their feet, hippy activists usually tend to bang their drums and whine a lot. "Hey, look at us! We're disgruntled! Grrr." This does not seem to be the case for Environment Texas and the Sierra club, however. The lawsuit is set to be filed in federal district court later this summer, and by the looks of the evidence that's been aired against ExxonMobile, BP is hardly alone in the department of negligence. According to the TCEQ, <b>85% of incidents at the three Baytown facilities were categorized as avoidable or preventable.</b> Classy.<div><br /></div><div>Check out this article for more info, if you aren't too busy picking oil blobs off your toes at the beach, or hacking up a lung in Baytown.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2215/">http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2215/</a></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-48543183861061469122010-05-29T06:30:00.000-07:002010-05-29T06:32:35.065-07:00finally got that video of claire's roach story on youtubeas some of you may know, i filmed a little story of claire's a while back and it was the funniest damn thing ever. now, i'm considering editing it into something shorter and funnier for a work thing. don't want to spoil the fun, so i'll just post the raw footage now, and see what i can do about putting a sneak peek of the edited version up later. enjoy!!<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IcZQum41GUU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IcZQum41GUU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-45314208040094994382009-07-24T16:51:00.000-07:002009-07-24T17:12:30.696-07:00Hellooooo, Anchorage!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkjj9zeZk1b37NZR_6XRIumWCi5KSGWAND41-veamjTKgPnrx8hqXYt46V9trHGMmo0d6QgfQCWtYPzZqWF1bfB3gitZLvObJZ5HkSIGvkYIz2YLG0MNbTQARu5z2LjjGDDy65ZFX/s1600-h/moose+tooth+t-shirt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkjj9zeZk1b37NZR_6XRIumWCi5KSGWAND41-veamjTKgPnrx8hqXYt46V9trHGMmo0d6QgfQCWtYPzZqWF1bfB3gitZLvObJZ5HkSIGvkYIz2YLG0MNbTQARu5z2LjjGDDy65ZFX/s400/moose+tooth+t-shirt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362183863694969746" border="0" /></a><br />Hey everybody!<br /><br />I'm super excited to announce that I made it to Alaska safe, sound and ON TIME!! No missed flights (not an option-- the flight I was on was the ONLY one going that day, eek!!) and I've spent the day in Anchorage running errands and eating delicious (and free) pizza with my awesome professors, Dr. VanEynde and Dr. Tynes. Both are delightful, happy people, and I'm very excited about what's to come for the rest of the week. Since I was the first student to arrive, I kind of have an advantage: I was told a few minutes ago that since I helped my profs with their shopping and planning, that they would help me out on my leadership day. It's not cheating, but there are some planning things that I won't really be able to do ahead of time-- like finding where to buy sack lunches in Seward. The internet here is spotty and my cell phone coverage is worse, but as long as I'm in Anchorage, I can text and email (some).<br /><br />Anchorage is beautiful!!! There are flowers blooming everywhere, and it's overcast, but not too dark. In fact, the lighting is what we photographers consider to be the best conditions-- it's what we call "shadowless light." Oh- and for those of you who are burning up in Texas-- It's 58 degrees here. :) Navigating this town is a little tricky, but we've had fun making lots of U-turns. It's kind of like one big Alaskan roller coaster with Dr. Tynes at the helm! We had lunch at a place called Moose Tooth Pizza-- which, as it turns out, has the highest volume pizza sales in North America! It's named after a mountain next to Mt. McKinley (the tallest in North America) and they have 13 different home-brew beers. They also had homemade soda on tap! Oh-- and the pizza was phenomenal. I'm goingto have to take a food-coma-nap here in a litle bit, but first, I must finish my homework and email it to my profs. (I hope they send alright, I was having trouble with getting very simple attachment-free messages to send this morning.)<br /><br />Alright, well, I'll try to post in the morning, but it sounds like we're going to be pretty busy. Below is the week's itinerary:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-family:Forte;font-size:180%;" ><b> </b><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Saturday, July 25 – Anchorage & travel to Seward</span></span></span> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Anchorage Street Fair</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Travel to Seward; visit Exit Glacier</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Overnight in Seward</span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a name="0.1_graphic06"></a></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><img src="http://mail.google.com/mail/?name=d33be9805ff33117.jpg&attid=0.1&disp=vahi&view=att&th=120ca36107d06968" alt="Your browser may not support display of this image." width="1" height="1" /> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Sunday, July 26 – Seward and travel to Ninilchik</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Group A; Deep sea fishing, Resurrection Bay for Halibut and Sockeye Salmon<br /></span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Group B: Hike through Seward, visit Alaska Sea Life Center</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Travel to home base in Ninilchik</span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Monday, July 27 – Ninilchik</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Purchase needed supplies</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Class related activities</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a name="0.1_graphic07"></a></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><img src="http://mail.google.com/mail/?name=d33be9805ff33117.jpg&attid=0.1&disp=vahi&view=att&th=120ca36107d06968" alt="Your browser may not support display of this image." width="1" height="1" /> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Tuesday, July 28 – Anchor Point or Kenai River</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Group A: Halibut fishing on Cook Inlet from Anchor Point (reserved for six persons)</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Group B: Red Salmon wade fishing on the Kenai River</span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Wednesday, July 29 –, Homer and Halibut Cove</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Tour Russian village (Nikolaevsk)</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Visit Norman Lowell Gallery</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Travel to Homer</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Boat trip across Kachemak Bay</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Lunch and tour Halibut Cove</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Return to Ninilchik</span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Thursday, July 30 – Hike to Crescent Lake</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Travel to Quartz Creek Trailhead</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >6.4 mile hike to Crescent Lake </span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Picnic lunch</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >6.4 mile hike return</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Return to Ninilchik</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Preparation for departure to Anchorage on Friday</span></p></ul> <ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="color: rgb(0, 32, 96);font-size:85%;" > Friday, July 31 – Travel to Anchorage and departure</span></li></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Travel from Ninilchik to Anchorage</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Plan to depart Anchorage Airport after 2 p.m.</span></p></ul> <ul style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >(Cold storage available at airport)</span></p></ul>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-91799577587586014772008-05-28T14:33:00.000-07:002008-05-28T14:35:45.296-07:00highlight of THE YEAR<strong>me:</strong> woah woah woah<br /><strong>Mark:</strong> hahahahahaha<br /><strong>me:</strong> i just did my budget for the year and figured out how much money i'm going to have in SAVINGS at the end of the year <br />guess guess guess<br /><strong>Mark:</strong> ummmm 50 bucks?<br /><strong>me:</strong> try 15,000 <br />i love myself. <br />hahah<br /><strong>Mark:</strong> holy balls <br />thats awesome<br /><strong>me:</strong> I KNOW<br /><strong>Mark:</strong> i are jealous<br /><strong>me:</strong> hahabrynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-3288955188320483922008-05-27T08:26:00.000-07:002008-05-27T08:36:46.677-07:00Art Contest Entry!grrr...so i couldn't imbed the pretty little image from brickfish's website, but here's the URL:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=502410_37724933&=fastart3_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=689614&pbvi=19799423">http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=502410_37724933&=fastart3_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=689614&pbvi=19799423</a><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5205081795361335538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccrG6dWoYzEjNnA_-iQAkoa5z2zdfCvCfet9Pdan8azkb4M4BOIdd3xJShxMVJ1Kfu7UA2eGCF8fW0c-fPQ8WnI41vl_jnLik52HzwbA1EsJ747AzHOvIHyGGaGFNr12RY3JvAiYD/s400/the+struggle.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />my drawing needs to get lots of traffic and votes in order to win the $500 scholarship. so go vote!<br /><br />love,<br /><br />-brynnbrynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-31304016577725429902008-05-17T08:29:00.000-07:002008-05-17T08:32:35.119-07:00kitty lost, kitty found!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ZD6VPL8aj9tZZfDPwSElE8JaDFWr6zs1JF3WOMK2o-ruurbEkIMNFvlbkTmDwonQMQn3qyAhlYgL-BtNYScsxCCoY7kJn7Ijp0xZElrElT_NcxkOmuAvXIeoKuhIFTqCpuWE_PwN/s1600-h/missing+cat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ZD6VPL8aj9tZZfDPwSElE8JaDFWr6zs1JF3WOMK2o-ruurbEkIMNFvlbkTmDwonQMQn3qyAhlYgL-BtNYScsxCCoY7kJn7Ijp0xZElrElT_NcxkOmuAvXIeoKuhIFTqCpuWE_PwN/s400/missing+cat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201369957844140530" border="0" /></a><br />yesterday, my productivity was deteriorating so much that my boss basically ordered me to go take a nap. when he came to check on me and make sure that i didn't feel like i got "sent to my room" he found me crying, having just got off the phone with cody to tell him that ouizie was missing. my boss and i talked and came up with a compromise that included me working remotely from st. louis to make any forms or fliers needed by the team in neosho, and also being allowed the time to go look for ouizie.<br /><br />last night, i got to st. louis about midnight, and as soon as my ride drove away after dropping me off at home (because i forgot my car keys in the 15 minutes i had to pack for the weekend), ouizie started crying for me. i couldn't figure out where it was coming from because it was so loud, it was bouncing off the houses, so i started calling out her name, and it was back and forth until i saw her on the sidewalk running toward me. she found me. her agoraphobia seemed to have been completely wiped away, as she roamed the porch freely while i waited for my roommate to bring me spare key to the house. ouizie almost seemed to be in guard dog mode as she sat out on the front edge of the porch watching cars go by. she also seemed to have found herself a boyfriend, whom she stared at with body language that looked like she was ready to elope with the other cat... but she stayed by my side, purring and snuggling and peeking in the glass of the front door, wanting to get inside and roaming the porch playing guard kitty.<br /><br />today is the first day since sunday that i have been allowed to sleep more than about 4 or 5 hours. it feels good. :)brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-74432683996221745652008-05-14T05:42:00.001-07:002008-05-14T05:54:26.683-07:00tornado #2 -- no-show for neoshohey guys-<br />just wanted to let you know that the tornado warnings and watches and severe weather reports all turned out to be not applicable with regard to the county my team is in right now.<br /><br />As some of you may already be aware, the city of Neosho, in Newton county, Missouri, was hit by an F-4 tornado on Saturday and devastated a couple hundred homeonwers, including many uninsured occupants of modular homes. The death toll for Newton county alone is at 15, including a local firefighter. Yesterday, while we had teams in the field trying to tarp as many roofs as possible before a second band of storms swept through town, we were also keeping tabs on some severe weather forecasts calling for baseball sized hail, thunderstorms, and winds upwards of 70 miles per hour. When it came time for the storms to hit, though, they just sort of magically broke up and migrated to other places on either side of Newton county's lines. The larger band of storms turned south at the last minute and hit Arkansas, and the smaller, second storm cells broke up and scattered across the counties to the north of us.<br /><br />So thanks for all your prayers, because, apparently, they worked!!brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-39176381507321578962008-05-13T14:10:00.000-07:002008-05-13T14:15:32.440-07:00more evidence of the awesomeness that is "logistics"My friend, Kara, was starting the decent of her caffeine high and wrote the following in response to the assignment of thanking corporate givers. enjoy :)<br /><br /><div style="margin: 1ex;"> <div> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">These businesses and people rock. They should get a piece of recycled paper that says THANKS A BUNCH FOLKS! Or maybe YOU RULE! Or quite possibly a little ditty (about Jack and Diane...no, sorry i get side tracked sometimes) or poem that goes something like this: ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, YOU HELPED US, WE LOVE YOU...maybe not use love, like would be slightly more appropriate. If we told them we loved them they might get emotionally attached and then follow us around like lost puppy dogs and sit by the phone waiting for us to call. Basically putting their lives on hold, which could lead to lost jobs, living in their parents basement and eating cold french cut green beans right out of the can. Gross. And if they lost their jobs we wouldn't have people to bug for free stuff. Bogus. </span><br /></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">Lowes</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">Wal-Mart</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">The Copy Center</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">The guy that saved Jeremy K's ass</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;">Tim Raymer-MDC</span></p> </div> </div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-62459186898723169572008-05-13T12:41:00.000-07:002008-05-13T12:43:41.892-07:00behold: the awesomeness that is my job.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BHKLiX7bmL2bhEf5cfMFrAYkuypUDJ-AxC6oGeAZmnajYOHSNdInBNXp-NjAx8Vitj7lYt7f1GzWsVsp02terNBH6mVni1bvumMLVFvYx40FEJmFEbiz180rNS8alajL4ZVdFBlU/s1600-h/street+thunder.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BHKLiX7bmL2bhEf5cfMFrAYkuypUDJ-AxC6oGeAZmnajYOHSNdInBNXp-NjAx8Vitj7lYt7f1GzWsVsp02terNBH6mVni1bvumMLVFvYx40FEJmFEbiz180rNS8alajL4ZVdFBlU/s400/street+thunder.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199950157620199906" border="0" /></a>why, yes. while running logistics in response to a tornado, i <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> get to boss around the <span style="font-style: italic;">next</span> tornado coming in with a megaphone called "street thunder." heeellll yesssss.brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-37832967974371723802008-02-28T20:33:00.000-08:002008-03-01T09:27:45.092-08:00best 10 consecutive days in years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sJ03zesvaawR_zMzLJKY6NaQEJLrOtb1SFNOTIU3HtaGk-YHFlhGhagM3TrlSNtgyg67JEVtq0eFVpCh71oqZAyENIavoRqluhf7LUB8K9e45Z69lw_ZBARoPxCdp4Faq2yMxrQf/s1600-h/rowdy+car.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172263531299189570" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sJ03zesvaawR_zMzLJKY6NaQEJLrOtb1SFNOTIU3HtaGk-YHFlhGhagM3TrlSNtgyg67JEVtq0eFVpCh71oqZAyENIavoRqluhf7LUB8K9e45Z69lw_ZBARoPxCdp4Faq2yMxrQf/s320/rowdy+car.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#000000;">feb. 15- After being back home from the field for only an hour, my friends Vicky, Drew and Derek and I repacked our bags and loaded into Vicky’s car to embark on a 2080-mile road trip. it was originally just going to be a college visit for Derek in Philadelphia... but after we dropped him off for the campus tour, drew and Vicky and I high-tailed it to see the ocean. needless to say, I was ecstatic to see my old friend, the Atlantic.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaCSymaNEa0SXkRNH58XevykVNPKxIJ4o3NV73n9fExbT0mf0yzRhAcOklmCzwQboOCMaEct0R9yADelRIGvoRVra0wvnL1-B9S-5URn4QDuB2ECEcOgXYRSBQFz9saeWHTiSogRw/s1600-h/hand+stands.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172291487241319426" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaCSymaNEa0SXkRNH58XevykVNPKxIJ4o3NV73n9fExbT0mf0yzRhAcOklmCzwQboOCMaEct0R9yADelRIGvoRVra0wvnL1-B9S-5URn4QDuB2ECEcOgXYRSBQFz9saeWHTiSogRw/s320/hand+stands.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;"><br />feb. 16- We were still driving through Pennsylvania, but at some point in the wee hours of the morning, had acquired a new passenger: Rowdy the dog. Although he looks real, especially with his ears blowing in the wind in this pic, he was, in fact, just a plush, life-sized, toy dog. In fact, the manufacturers worked so hard at making him seem realistic that he has steel rods in his legs to help him stand up... So you might imagine how crowded the car got.<br /><br />feb. 17- We returned to St. Louis at about 10 p.m. and were exhausted! It was a lovely trip, though.<br /><br />feb. 18- Snow day! I spent a much-needed day of rest, at home with Ouizie. I am teaching her how to spoon with me when I take naps. It's adorable.<br /><br />feb. 19- (Happy birthday Mom!) Back to work... but good news! I got sent to SEMA (state emergency management agency) in Jefferson city to take a course in emergency donations management. We stayed in a really fancy best western with an indoor pool and hot tub, an exercise room, continental breakfast and queen sized beds for everyone! Not only did SEMA pay for our lodging, but we also feasted like kings and queens on our $36/day SEMA food allowance. We found it a tad bit difficult to spend all that money every day, but it wasn't too painful... :)<br /><br />feb. 20- More SEMA training, feasting, exercising, and enjoying the hot tub!<br /><br />feb. 21- Due to impending "severe" weather (less than an inch of snow), our instructor rushed the completion of the course so we could get back on the road ahead of the incoming storm. Our director ended up calling and telling us to stay put. So after a leisurely lunch, we found ourselves in a new class called "training the trainer". We learned what a MARC (multi agency resource center) was, how it worked... and were then told to write a manual on how to set one up that would be easy to read by volunteer agencies, as well as John Q. Public. Holy cow!!<br /><br />feb. 22- We stayed in Jeff City (still on SEMA's dime) and did some more work on the MARC manual and I made a pretty </span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/brynn.leggett/LinkTo/photo?authkey=tT2eVEn0EaU#5172270995952350050"><span style="color:#000000;">spiffy pamphlet</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> out of what we learned from our emergency donations class. Not only was my AmeriCorps boss impressed with my work, but so was the <b>director of SEMA</b>!! He was so impressed, in fact, that he is pushing to have it mass produced so we can pass it out to the public in times of disaster, so they will know how to <i>actually</i> help, instead of only <i>feeling</i> like they are helping. yay!! (click the numbers to see close-ups of the pages. </span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/brynn.leggett/LinkTo/photo?authkey=tT2eVEn0EaU#5172279607361778562"><span style="color:#000000;">1</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/brynn.leggett/LinkTo/photo?authkey=tT2eVEn0EaU#5172279611656745874"><span style="color:#000000;">2</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/brynn.leggett/LinkTo/photo?authkey=tT2eVEn0EaU#5172279611656745890"><span style="color:#000000;">3</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/brynn.leggett/LinkTo/photo?authkey=tT2eVEn0EaU#5172279611656745906"><span style="color:#000000;">4</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKJH5-W0Wob-dlX5Sb-bcvMQHCRNwYrTW2Wqk_771VkySAbf91FRZwu9esSGoH-6190unvBeYzWkmAvm8F72hjsFCnZsyD40vAeiSpXa8ylopwzereN8Q8Bu78XUEdh-VtRVCT4Bm/s1600-h/pamphlet.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172292492263666706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKJH5-W0Wob-dlX5Sb-bcvMQHCRNwYrTW2Wqk_771VkySAbf91FRZwu9esSGoH-6190unvBeYzWkmAvm8F72hjsFCnZsyD40vAeiSpXa8ylopwzereN8Q8Bu78XUEdh-VtRVCT4Bm/s400/pamphlet.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgESoV5vtZDOx13z7B21ImksWlc7Xi30AsUYjUheIc_soH8rEZDcHHGffsfe9tUqfmOf1eZjd9-zayUs2qgl8BTuPY_SoKAl-j6gkK4NnIwkKoXYwvpAI2YP6s3gQ0Lf44bS7ejOH/s1600-h/pamphlet.jpg"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"><?xml:namespace prefix = v /><v:shape id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172281140665103314" button="t" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgESoV5vtZDOx13z7B21ImksWlc7Xi30AsUYjUheIc_soH8rEZDcHHGffsfe9tUqfmOf1eZjd9-zayUs2qgl8BTuPY_SoKAl-j6gkK4NnIwkKoXYwvpAI2YP6s3gQ0Lf44bS7ejOH/s1600-h/pamphlet.jpg" alt="" type="#_x0000_t75" spid="_x0000_i1026"><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><v:imagedata href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgESoV5vtZDOx13z7B21ImksWlc7Xi30AsUYjUheIc_soH8rEZDcHHGffsfe9tUqfmOf1eZjd9-zayUs2qgl8BTuPY_SoKAl-j6gkK4NnIwkKoXYwvpAI2YP6s3gQ0Lf44bS7ejOH/s400/pamphlet.jpg" src="file:///C:\Users\brynn\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg"></v:shape></span></a><span style="color:#000000;">As soon as I got back to St. Louis, I rushed to my apartment, packed up some "bear necessities" and hurried off to the airport for my birthday weekend in Texas with Cody! We spent the night in the fanciest hotel I’ve slept been in, located right on 6th street. Even the stone inlay on the headboards was worth a second look.<br /><br />feb. 23- We woke up super early and drove to an undisclosed location west of Austin. (Cody wouldn't let me spoil the surprise for myself, so everything that weekend was very hush-hush.) I found myself at Enchanted Rock! (pics to be posted soon.) We climbed the big rock and scrambled around in between smaller ones that made cave-like structures and explored around until our knees started creaking like the floor boards of an old boat.<br /><br /></span><v:imagedata href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvr-xUljBvUgxf1-U5t5DXROrpVgb7nSLyFYhVh4qOf0cTKT3rG11tWboFTOO28qtXb7BFmv-L_VM88hop_lgS6bMeMtyaKJ-Og9i3TUW1Lz_rchk9pHOHpUD2j79tBNkyebKu5EmT/s400/officer's+lounge.jpg" src="file:///C:\Users\brynn\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image003.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;">Then we drove into Fredericksburg and checked in to the </span><a href="http://www.hangarhotel.com/"><span style="color:#000000;">Hangar Hotel</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. So cute!! (you GOTTA visit the website... my words won't do it justice.) Every detail down to the notes typed in courier font saying things like "<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:85%;">urgent message from the front line: please use <i>these</i> towels to remove makeup</span></span>" was intended to make you feel like you've just stepped into the 1940s. Mission accomplished.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpyC6zmSgRHJrMhDsDKTPNGTMXpXEUp3sa8-iv9DWw_Vcb_ipzQW4Niy1p79mRNOJKtET2Z3OJp-azrdr7HfWRVMo6ziCvY8Blo22iekR6aX8CzTG8sg-CTFaEx-bi_RNzcLtaI2G/s1600-h/officer's+lounge.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172291143643935730" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpyC6zmSgRHJrMhDsDKTPNGTMXpXEUp3sa8-iv9DWw_Vcb_ipzQW4Niy1p79mRNOJKtET2Z3OJp-azrdr7HfWRVMo6ziCvY8Blo22iekR6aX8CzTG8sg-CTFaEx-bi_RNzcLtaI2G/s320/officer's+lounge.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="color:#000000;"><br />In Fredericksburg, we went window shopping, ate gourmet chocolate, checked out a classic car showroom... and eventually found our way back to the hotel to get cleaned up and explore around the various parts of this fascinating place! The captain's lounge (pictured left) was just the spot to feel extra swanky in our snazzy duds while sipping a couple of cocktails before dinner. Later, we had some delicious German food at a brewery/restaurant in town. When we settled in for the night, we had the pleasure of leaving the windows open and enjoying the cool Texas breeze from the comfort of our pillows.<br /><br />feb. 24- In the morning, we went down to the airport diner (also in immaculate 40's decor) for a hearty breakfast, and a nice show of little private airplanes coming and going right outside the window. After breakfast, we made our way back to Austin, where we did some more shopping, and finally spent a lazy afternoon at Zilker park napping (Cody) and reading (me) in the cool shade of a rock outcropping. By 4, I was already back at the airport and ready to start missing my beloved Texas... oh. right. I'd miss my beloved Cody too ;)<br /><br />Sigh... it was nearly as much of a whirlwind to write this blog entry as it was to live all that in 10 days!!</span></p></v:imagedata></v:imagedata><br /><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"><v:path connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" extrusionok="f"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:lock aspectratio="t" ext="edit"><v:imagedata href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2Lebd-l8WbkU9zGnjDTYGtcGWn9x32oid-1rcITRb9GOWRWBDwYElCn_MAJstil8-xtBivW26Dx0i-_4vjVuwXFxGHuIEXLj_bJCanKIOPWGVAqJY9krby4sFx9vcmSF_p0G_gJy/s320/hand+stands.jpg" src="file:///C:\Users\brynn\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg"><v:imagedata href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgESoV5vtZDOx13z7B21ImksWlc7Xi30AsUYjUheIc_soH8rEZDcHHGffsfe9tUqfmOf1eZjd9-zayUs2qgl8BTuPY_SoKAl-j6gkK4NnIwkKoXYwvpAI2YP6s3gQ0Lf44bS7ejOH/s400/pamphlet.jpg" src="file:///C:\Users\brynn\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg"><v:imagedata href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvr-xUljBvUgxf1-U5t5DXROrpVgb7nSLyFYhVh4qOf0cTKT3rG11tWboFTOO28qtXb7BFmv-L_VM88hop_lgS6bMeMtyaKJ-Og9i3TUW1Lz_rchk9pHOHpUD2j79tBNkyebKu5EmT/s400/officer's+lounge.jpg" src="file:///C:\Users\brynn\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image003.jpg"></v:imagedata></v:imagedata></v:imagedata></o:lock></v:path></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:stroke>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-87691454703566910282008-02-11T15:05:00.000-08:002008-02-12T16:03:25.424-08:00free hugs! this almost made me tear up... :*)in the words of the almighty wikipedia:<br /><b>Free Hugs Campaign</b> is a phenomenon which involves individuals who offer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug" title="Hug">hugs</a> to strangers in public settings. It began in June, 2004,<sup id="_ref-smh_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign#_note-smh" title="">[1]</a></sup> and was widely publicized in 2006 by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video" title="Music video">music video</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube" title="YouTube">YouTube</a>. The campaign is an example of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness" title="Random act of kindness">random act of kindness</a>, a selfless act performed by a person for the sole reason of making others feel better. The original organizer has stated in interviews that the purpose is not to get <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name" title="Name">names</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_number" title="Phone number">phone numbers</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating" title="Dating">dates</a>.<br /><br /><br />sigh. this makes me happy. :)<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vr3x_RRJdd4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vr3x_RRJdd4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />holy cow! i just read the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign">wikipedia article!</a><br />apparently the free hugs campaign became a worldwide phenomenon! my favorite part of the article is the part that mentions what happened in Chicago:<br /><br />On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_25" title="November 25">November 25</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006" title="2006">2006</a>, two friends in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago" title="Chicago">Chicago</a> had a Free Hugs outing, and persuaded the police to join in the hugging.<sup id="_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign#_note-12" title="">[14]</a></sup>. On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_10" title="December 10">December 10</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006" title="2006">2006</a>, the same people, Amber Gribben and Nicholas Markos, along with additional friends, had another Free Hugs outing in downtown Chicago. They were found by a Fox News Chicago crew, who featured a report about them.<sup id="_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign#_note-13" title="">[15]</a></sup> Proceeds from the sale of downloads of the song ("Gimme All You Got" by bee) used in the first video are being donated to UNICEF.brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-38938905673269274312008-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:002008-02-09T07:14:31.613-08:00axes, pack tests, spring break!wow. I'm extremely overdue on a new post on here. Sorry guys!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFh1kT6x9aq3J9I4rO-L5AhrS7Uo862Vne3oBA-TxVT_oerefur8dFD_ZeYgSOPm74ZDpApiX1PPNUwCdQcQ72ftAWymxlTbsG702JynvORdbMlGsrqoAgpF0_2IZWGZxs2ywl7lJ/s1600-h/ax.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFh1kT6x9aq3J9I4rO-L5AhrS7Uo862Vne3oBA-TxVT_oerefur8dFD_ZeYgSOPm74ZDpApiX1PPNUwCdQcQ72ftAWymxlTbsG702JynvORdbMlGsrqoAgpF0_2IZWGZxs2ywl7lJ/s320/ax.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164997254607835410" border="0" /></a>The latest news is that I'm still spending my weekdays at the same ol' Peck Ranch working on firelines and burning cedar slash... but now I'm teaching people how to use chainsaws (when they ask for coaching) and I've been working on my precision axing skills! Also, the weekend before Mardi Gras, I had my pack test and passed!<br /><br />The pack test is the last thing I had to do to get my Red Card, which will certify me to fight fires on federal land, or just outside Missouri. Yes, that includes out west. What I had to do was don a weighted vest that weighed 45 pounds and trek around a park a few times until I had completed 3 miles... all under 45 minutes. It's a test designed to make you work really hard for 45 minutes, so that if you're going to have a heart attack, you can get it out of the way safely, instead of on the side of a mountain while fighting a fire. My goal was to finish in 42 minutes and I finished in 42:18! This morning I intend to head over to the park and do the pack test again with the rest of my team because it was such a difficult, but refreshing workout. My goal for today is 40 minutes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYp0ghRt0Xr7uFNPJq0ci-ERV8ZtajWnkkGPciqfZ-uL77FY2B0l9iLc729Fp6o1a7J25fneYLeQQrKJ58m4Y9-DU7QU4QdjitKcOwLJV7Xj50okoU67mz3uoxd5BDBkNggunaliwl/s1600-h/mardi+gras.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYp0ghRt0Xr7uFNPJq0ci-ERV8ZtajWnkkGPciqfZ-uL77FY2B0l9iLc729Fp6o1a7J25fneYLeQQrKJ58m4Y9-DU7QU4QdjitKcOwLJV7Xj50okoU67mz3uoxd5BDBkNggunaliwl/s320/mardi+gras.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164997855903256866" border="0" /></a><br />Mardi Gras was a system overload of fun. We saw the parade, got lots of beads, drank plenty of beer, had a dance party on the sidewalk and barbequed in the back yard. Good times, great friends. That Sunday, I spent most of the day laying around the house and finishing up laundry. It was a great weekend... and it got the little remaining bits of crazy out of my system for at least the next 6 months.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQ2fsWnX916c6eOyhPwOujzPqWXlKUxnfE9Nyb5kVSLt0-MJk9S91O7lq1eHc7uHqpMc2nfWapitZklrzrZVCJUU5BDus3VHL5h5jN4-DeH1grpzXn5bhtSBv9Q_duNcutu45Ts2C/s1600-h/cedar+torch.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQ2fsWnX916c6eOyhPwOujzPqWXlKUxnfE9Nyb5kVSLt0-MJk9S91O7lq1eHc7uHqpMc2nfWapitZklrzrZVCJUU5BDus3VHL5h5jN4-DeH1grpzXn5bhtSBv9Q_duNcutu45Ts2C/s320/cedar+torch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164998680536977714" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Speaking of 6 months, This month marks my 6th month in AmeriCorps! I'm half-way finished!! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm starting a countdown, because I can't wait to get out of here... it's just that I can't believe I've gotten this far, this fast! I've learned so much and have gotten so much stronger in character and in body... I honestly can't imagine what the next 6 months will bring.<br /><br />My birthday is also coming up and I will be 22! I can't believe how fast time flies as I get older. When I was little, it seemed like decades passed between my birthdays, and now it's like the years are shrinking into blocks of 3 or 4 months. It's been over a year since I met Mrs. McNutt at the Summit... It's been almost 2 and a half years since I met Cody in San Marcos while he was on R&R... It's been almost a year since Tiffany's wedding, and it's been a year and a half since I adopted Ouizie, my beloved kitty.<br /><br />Next month, my sister, Claire, is coming up to visit me for spring break!! woot!! I got approval from both my bosses for her to come into the woods with us for a week and do conservation work alongside me! The higher up boss even said we might be able to get her level 1 fire training, so that, if need be, she can help us with prescribed burns! (I don't see when there would be time for that, so it's doubtful, but I'm still soooo excited!!) Claire is pumped too, but she's trying to work out the travel expenses and find out if her car will make it to St. Louis and back without a new catalytic converter. We'll see.<br /><br />Well, It's time for me to start stretching and getting ready for pack test #2. Much love to all!!brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-55893351785401820542007-12-11T22:38:00.001-08:002007-12-12T11:58:07.373-08:00new video!! gangsta cookin with derek!!hehehe enjoy...<br /><br />p.s. at the very end, the weird sentence that derek says is, "my seester tahched a monkee... and she eht hees soop."<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zyhsWHn5tMM"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zyhsWHn5tMM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed> </object>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-32023456206792421722007-12-10T17:01:00.000-08:002007-12-10T17:52:31.179-08:00what it's like manning the missouri winter storm hotlinewow. this winter storm hotline business can get pretty crazy... example:<br /><br />a woman called about an hour and a half ago saying her mother had many special needs, including being oxygen dependent, paralyzed on one side, has a catheter and is diabetic. she only had 2 or 3 hours of oxygen left, and was heating her home with her gas oven. she called asking for batteries for flashlights and 2 or 3 oxygen tanks. we advised her that she should try to get to a shelter that can handle special needs because it is extremely unsafe to heat your home with an oven, and at this time we had no way of getting supplies to her house. she insisted that they had one window cracked about 3 inches to let the fumes out and they did not want to leave the house.<br /><br />so i called the only shelter open in that area and asked if they could handle special needs. they said no, and that they were diverting special needs patients to the hospital. the red cross people stationed at the shelter advised me to call the local police to get the woman transported out of her home asap.<br /><br />i called the police and talked to the chief, who told me that "oh crap" had become a technical term in the last 24 hours. he said that the only place that could take the woman was the hospital. i gave him her contact info and he said he would call her and try to transport her to the hospital.<br /><br />i then called the woman back, and explained the situation and again insisted that the oven heating the house was very dangerous. she insisted on staying in the house and said that she would not go to the hospital because she would be billed for the visit. she also said that she had been trying to get ahold of her oxygen supplier all day and had not received any calls back from them. I told her that i would call the hospital to check on the billing situation, to see if there was an exception due to the disastrous weather emergency, and get back in touch with her.<br /><br />i then called the police chief back to inform him that the lady did not want to be moved from her house, but he did not answer, so i left a message. I then called back my contact at the original shelter, and was informed that a new shelter was being opened in the basement of the city hall, and they might be able to accommodate special needs. I got the number, and called city hall, only to get ahold of the answering machine.<br /><br />So then I called the hospital, and talked to the ER and found out that they, indeed, are billing patients upon admission because they do not have a shelter set up at the hospital. The hospital also informed me that I could dial 0 to get past the answering machine at the city hall, and i would be able to get in touch with someone there. I called city hall back, punched in 0, and talked to another member of the police department and told him about the woman's situation. he said he already had heard about her, and that the only place she could go was the hospital, because the city hall shelter also could not handle special needs. I told him she refused to go to the hospital because she would get billed. He said they had been sending people with special needs to the hospital all day, and he thought because it was an emergency situation, that the people were not getting billed. He then put me on hold, and asked someone else at the shelter about the hospital situation. As it turns out, the hospital had been billing patients all day and would not back down because of the emergency situation.<br /><br />So then i called the red cross to find out if they could deliver oxygen to the woman's house. the red cross put me through to the disaster management chapter and they told me that they cannot, under any circumstances, carry oxygen, even for a CPR class because of liability and insurance issues. The red cross told me to talk to a different hospital than the one i had called earlier, to ask them about who their oxygen supplier is. So i called freeman hospital, and talked to the administrator in charge of getting their oxygen. The woman told me that their regular line was down- which explained why the woman in her home could not get ahold of them. Then, the administrator connected me to someone at the oxygen supplier and i gave them the woman's contact info and address, and i was told that the oxygen supplier would contact her and resolve the issue.<br /><br />I then followed up with the woman and told her a very brief summary of everyone i had talked to since my last call to her, and let her know that she should be hearing from the supplier. She then told me that she had already heard from the supplier, and would be receiving 10 cylinders of oxygen soon. she still had no way of getting batteries for the flashlights, but assured me that her mother had been heating the house with the oven for years and had never had a problem. she also told me that they had cracked the front door and turned on the vent above the stove to provide more ventilation for the fumes. (i just realized that the vent would not work without power, so she might have been lying, or she doesn't know how the vent works.) i informed her that the oven might also spontaneously catch fire if left on for too long, which concerned me because of the oxygen and the candles. I also told her if she gets cold, to snuggle up with her mom and to be safe.<br /><br />so the lady might still blow up, or suffocate from the fumes coming from the oven, but at least she has oxygen. it took me over an hour to do all of this, but at least she is (slightly) better off than she was when she called... (aka not dead... yet.)<br /><br />sigh... i really hope she doesn't blow up.<br /><br /><br />p.s. my director just came in and aksed how it was going- and i told him this story and he said this was the sort of thing that needed to be written down. i then went and printed out this blog entry and he was not only surprised but impressed, and is now working on trying to get this woman out of her house. (yay!)<br /><br />p.s.s. now the director is working on resolving this issue (with special needs patients getting billed by hospitals) on a state-wide level. awesome!brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-15050088933521199112007-11-12T07:35:00.001-08:002007-11-12T07:41:24.512-08:00totally stalling before going back into the woods...but i just had to make note of some wierd things people have been saying lately!<br /><br />the following are (mis)perceptions people have had about me lately, haha<br /><br />"But I don't want to have the dinner party at Kim's* house. It's dirty. I want to have it at yours!" -Carmen<br /><br />"Brynn, how do you get your teeth so white?" -Roice<br /><br />"You look like you're up to no good." -some drunk guy at a piano bar<br /><br />"You can fix my pants, right?" -several boys... on separate occasions... with pants that need to be donated to a dumpster<br /><br />"So what you're saying is, that if I stop saying obscene things about your mom, you'll make me dinner?" -Drew<br /><br /><br />*name was changed to protect the innocentbrynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-88498935058951338552007-11-10T06:34:00.001-08:002007-11-11T18:18:02.517-08:00food fight video is finally up!!it explains itself. enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/igj9p37IwIk&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/igj9p37IwIk&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-76476898489269049192007-11-08T20:08:00.001-08:002007-11-08T20:36:08.544-08:00long time, no write!So I'm sure you guys have been starving for an update, but before this week, there really wasn't much going on. We spent two weeks at Peck Ranch, located in the beautiful Ozarks, raking fire line in preparation for a prescribed burn coming up. It was a lot of hard, repetitive work, but it felt good, and at the end of last week, we finished the 2 and a half mile stretch through the woods. The fire line we made was about 6 feet wide, and raked down to the mineral soil, so that the fire wouldn't jump across the line. we had to do a lot of lopping (using loppers to trim/cut away small branches and thick undergrowth) and blowing (usuing huge industrial strength backpack leaf blowers to blast away the soggy leaves), in addition to the regular ol' raking.<br /><br />with all the hard work, came a nearly insatiable stomach. My tummy definitely can tell time when we are in the field. Here's the routine:<br /><br />6:30 wake up, get dressed<br />6:45 eat oatmeal and/or bagel with cream cheese and jelly<br /> make two peanut butter, jelly and apple sandwiches for lunch<br />7:00 load the trucks with tools and gear<br />7:15 drive to eminence forest service office (sleep the whole way there)<br />8:00 load the rest of the tools there and check in<br />8:15 arrive on work site and begin service project<br />10:30 eat an apple and/or a cliff bar<br />12:00 eat two sandwiches and the other apple<br />4:00 load up trucks and head out, (sleep the whole way back)<br /> stop for groceries or gas or duct tape on the way<br />5:15 arrive back at Peck Ranch and start making dinner<br />6:00 serve dinner for 10<br />7:30 clean the kitchen<br />8:00 finally sit down to read or watch boys play video games or just zone out with hot cocoa<br />9:00 fall asleep in the middle of whatever I'm doing<br />10:00 shuffle my feet to bed<br /><br /><br />This week, my team stayed in St. Louis to do some maintenance around the office and help the education team with an after school program at a nearby elementary school. The kids have been fantastic. I taught a kindergartener to do double digit addition in columns today and he got every problem i put on the board right, even though he still counts on his fingers and writes most of his numbers backwards. I also worked with a girl in second grade who came in with almost all of her homework complete, and then proceeded to write all of the word puzzles on the board for me and had me solve them before checking her paper... which was flawless. I also was given hoola hoop lessons and a jump-rope reminder crash-course, as well as many emphatic high fives.<br /><br />I love my job.brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4583024193363710208.post-52675202036185602912007-10-19T09:23:00.001-07:002007-10-19T10:37:32.793-07:00chainsaw training at peck ranch<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvMgWZ-RSygLB1WOT2KkVopklmOwD8oaOeUw-AM7-l4TrRuP6mrbgH77jQPyJsCxyvt3DROrbaPzviyUz_dnQFPmQNn6xs2t6bicBDwgehZjQ-BJUOW3QTDPtJapZgbXcfOYE-CikJ/s1600-h/first+tree.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvMgWZ-RSygLB1WOT2KkVopklmOwD8oaOeUw-AM7-l4TrRuP6mrbgH77jQPyJsCxyvt3DROrbaPzviyUz_dnQFPmQNn6xs2t6bicBDwgehZjQ-BJUOW3QTDPtJapZgbXcfOYE-CikJ/s320/first+tree.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123102976247648114" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Last night we got back from 4 days on a 21,000 acre ranch where we learned how to use chainsaws and the basics of fighting wildfires. It was pretty exciting, except that I had a cold for the first 3 days (a really quick one!), so I was nervous about bucking limbs with chainsaws when I knew that my ears were so clogged up that I'd missed part of the instruction... But it turned out fine. My tidbits of ballet training helped me a lot with my posture while handling the chainsaw, so I was able to make my small amount of energy last a bit longer.<br /><br />We spent several hours in the classroom with our chainsaw books learning proper terminology for different things we would encounter in the woods and different types of cuts we would be making. Thanks to my photographic memory, I could remember the pictures in the books, but not necessarily the words for them, haha. So bucking limbs went fine. I knew to be careful with the tip of the saw bar so that it wouldn't kick back, and I learned how to sharpen the chain and clean the air filter and put fresh oil and gas in the saw.<br /><br />The next day we spent a while in the classroom but then we went out to cut down trees. Snags are dead trees that are hazardous because they are going to fall down eventually. Our main purpose in cutting down snags was in preparation for a controlled burn that was coming up. We didn't want snags falling across the fire line, which would carry the fire outside the controlled area. The snag I chose was the biggest of the day, and my leader let me do it because I was patient and waited for all of my other group members to cut down their snags before me. The tree was about 2 feet DBH (diameter at breast height) and about 60 feet tall (we measured it by walking it's length once it was felled). We also attempted counting its rings and figured it was about 100 years old.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1BKYt0ULyC_WSvKZ_bpbd9uNwIJybfe87x_AC_RtjSxiTu1b6FKnBfQyHOP-pZbxMfhXUFAF4_h4xR-ymIgBghV0kePC0Un0vSCPD-mc2O3YVm9qKaD7hvw_VnOW3dVe9s3XghlE4/s1600-h/first+tree+sit.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1BKYt0ULyC_WSvKZ_bpbd9uNwIJybfe87x_AC_RtjSxiTu1b6FKnBfQyHOP-pZbxMfhXUFAF4_h4xR-ymIgBghV0kePC0Un0vSCPD-mc2O3YVm9qKaD7hvw_VnOW3dVe9s3XghlE4/s320/first+tree+sit.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123103178111111042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />My face cut was pretty good, although tough on my wrists; and then my leader, Evan, bore cut the center out, and then I did the back strap. It fell exactly where I aimed it and didn't get caught up in any other trees. Success!<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>brynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13976483969114924832noreply@blogger.com1