Merry Christmas from my family! :)

Okay so it's the day after Christmas but Merry Belated Christmas anyway!

Last Weekend in NYC

For my last weekend of 2010 in NYC several fun things happened.  I put highlights in my hair.  I went to a Christmas party hosted by friends.  My friends somehow miraculously convinced me to walk from TC to Rockefeller Center (That's from 120th St to 48th St.....right around 80 blocks). And I had a blast on all occasions!  (Okay I was a little cold by the time we got to see the big Christmas tree but I guess thats the price you pay for neglecting to bring gloves...)

Central Park

Me with the Rockefeller Center Xmas Tree

My new hair! :)

3am update!

It's just after 3am the night before I leave for my flight back to Oregon.  I just got back from watching the lunar eclipse outside with two good friends and before that spent the night (starting at about 10pm) singing karaoke with more friends.  What a wonderful way to spend my last night of 2010 in NYC.  New York City...It's been real and I can't wait to come back and do it all over again in January.  Peace.

Spring Classes

So far here are the classes I'm signed up for for the Spring semester. This may change but for now I think it's a pretty nice line up.

Culture Media & Education: (Online)
Culture(s) and media share a mutually constitutive relationship: cultures shape and are shaped by media and technologies, and media shape and are shaped by cultural practices, institutions, and artifacts. In this course, we will have the opportunity to explore this dynamic relationship as we study the ways in which different media and technologies are situated across various cultural contexts, both nationally and internationally. We will also explore a range of media/technology integration in education and bring to our exploration various cultural lenses. The course will address the following topics: (1) “reading” media and culture; (2) representation and media; (3) media, education, and pedagogy. Readings in this course will draw from a wide range of scholarly areas including popular culture, multiculturalism, cultural studies, literacies studies, youth culture, communication and media studies, the anthropology of media, and others. Throughout the course we will consider the cultural implications of media and technologies for education by pairing theoretical frameworks with case studies and other examples of empirical research.

Flash Programming II: (Tuesday 2:50pm-5pm)
The continuation of flash programming I.

TV & Youth Development: (Wednesday 3:00pm-4:40pm)
This course brings a sociocultural lens to issues related to youth (including children and adolescents) and the evolving terrain of television. Students will review research and theories and experiment with media production in this course.

Popular Culture: (Wednesday 7:20pm-9pm)
Critical examination of mass communication as an informal medium of education: film, TV, comic books, music, dance, advertising. "low" vs. "high" culture and hybrid forms. Enrollees learn to create and promote their own pop-cultural commodity.

CoreSeminar: (Every Other Thursday 7:10pm-9pm)
 Discussion of critical issues, reading of key works, development of project in Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education, presentation of work in progress, conversations with leaders in the field.

So basically I have my one online course, and then I have classes Tues, Wed, & every other Thurs.  Pretty cool, huh? 

Weekend of fun

I spent last weekend with a good friend who took the train up from DC.  I think we are both crazy because we collectively decided that the best time for her to visit was right in the middle of finals but oh well it worked out haha.  We had a lot of fun.  We saw Elf the musical (much cuter than I thought it was going to be) and Avenue Q (amazing of course) and we met up with a girl that we knew through 7th grade before she moved.  So we hadn't seen her in right around 10 years!  So that was pretty amazing.  We also wandered around times square and went to FAO Schwarz the toy store!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

Strange performers in the subway

Elf!

Last row of the balcony....

Here is a preview of Elf the Musical:

FAO Schwarz, where magic happens!

Because everyone needs a $1,000 stuffed animal...

famous giant piano

slightly creepy barbie doll fuseball table

interesting in theory...but creepy in concept...

Harry Potter corner!

Pretty star

I just thought this was a very strange parking garage

Here is a bit from Avenue Q from the Tony Awards.  Beware, this is a musical that's rated PG-13:

Snow!

There was snow in NYC the other day!  Okay, so it wasn't a lot of snow, in fact it was barely any.  But there was white on the ground and I hope we get more! :-)

Also, I have one essay left to write and one class to attend and then I will officially be finished with my first semester of graduate school! Its quite exciting.  I will do some more updates in the next few days after I get this essay finished.  Cheers!

Homework Update

Quick update on my homework situation because I'm proud of myself :)

So far I have been able to knock out my 1 short presentation, 1 group presentation, the majority of my programming final, the majority of one of my essays, and some of the video uploads.

So what I have left to do next week is most of 1 paper (though I do have an outline), finish up a 2nd paper (I've written about 10 pages and so maybe need 3-5 more), finish up one little glitch in my programming assignment, and give a group presentation on Mon about our board game.

This weekend, however, is about fun and seeing my friend who is visiting.  I'm not sure exactly what we're going to do but I do know it will involve two shows, Elf and Avenue Q.  I am sooo looking forward to a weekend of fun after everything I did last week and weekend!

Quick Note

So I have just enough time to tell you all that within the next two weeks I have to complete: 2 final essays (1 Literature Review and 1 we haven't been told the topic for yet), 2 group presentations (1 presenting the board game we created and 1 presenting a lesson to the class), 1 short presentation of the Literature Review, 1 giant programming final, and have to upload several hours of video for work.

And just so there is more to this post than me complaining and freaking out, here's a picture that the TC senate included in their last newsletter. It amused me :)

  

PS. The building in the middle and the right pictures is TC.

The Radio City Rockettes

Tonight I got to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes.  It was pure magic.  The lights and the scenery and the 3D video and the background videos and the glitter and LIVE animals and of course the rockettes and their kick line was just unbelievable.  I saw this show in Denver when I was in high school but it was nothing like how I remembered it.  The basic dance numbers I mostly remembered but I didn't remember being swept away into the magic of it all.



Seeing the show really put me into the Christmas spirit. I think it was just what I needed to give me that final push and get all of my work done that is due in the next two weeks!

In front of Radio City Music Hall

The Lobby.  Isn't it beautiful?

The Stage.  We were sitting in the 2nd Mezz - Amazing Seats

The crowd of people leaving at the end of the show!

Thanksgiving and memories

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday of the year.  Sure Christmas equals presents and time off of school and the yuletide spirit and snow and my birthday (I suppose I consider that a holiday haha) is awesome.  But Thanksgiving has always been about family for me.  Christmas is about family too but somehow Thanksgiving has also been about family that isn't blood related but are just as much a part of my family as anyone else.

When I was little my parents and I would have Thanksgiving with Grandma Laura, the elderly lady that my mom met before I was born while volunteering for Silver Key.  She was the first person to hold me who wasn't my parents or my grandparents after I was born and I grew up visiting her probably at least once a week if not more.  Until she passed away I always remember on Thanksgiving my parents cooking food at our house and bringing it over to her house with us.  We would bring everything one might need for a Thanksgiving meal.  Except for the carrots, Grandma Laura was always in charge of the carrots and when she couldn't really stand up and cook them anymore my mom cooked them, but always under her supervision.  I think I found out later that probably the reason they tasted so sweet and good was because they were cooked a long time and so basically all of the nutrients were cooked right out of them. ^_^  But of course when I was little I didn't care about any of that, I just knew they were the best carrots I ever had.

So anyway, I guess Thanksgiving will always be a reminder of Grandma Laura, which is one of the reasons I love it so much.  After she passed away we started celebrating with family friends in Colorado and then after moving to Oregon, well the first couple of years we flew back to Colorado for Thanksgiving, but after becoming more settled we started celebrating with good family friends in Salem.  Thanksgiving is the time to be with family :)

I think there has only been one Thanksgiving before this one that I have ever celebrated without my parents when I flew back to Colorado alone.  Even when I was in Spain, Thanksgiving coincided with my parents' visit and so that year we got to celebrate twice: once in Spain with the school and then once when I got back with our friends.  So this year it was so much fun when I was able to take the train down to DC to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins and my aunt and uncle.  After all, Thanksgiving is a time to be with family :)  And my family is just about as awesome as they come :)

Breezy

I folded the napkins :)

Apparently I like brie.  Who knew?

Rex

My aunt made this!

Say it with me.....dawwwwwwwwww

Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Pie. So delicious!

Playing Rockband after dinner

Onto the Theatre!

The weekend before Thanksgiving was also another weekend of Theatre for me.  First, friends and I went to see a musical on Columbia's campus.  It was by Columbia's Musicals Society or something like that and they are basically a group on campus committed to putting on two really good musicals each semesters.  It was pretty much all undergrads from Columbia and Barnard in it but they were actually really good.  It was in a small black box theatre but they did a really good job at using the small amount of space they had, plus the actors had great voices and were very talented.  The musical they did was Urinetown, which is one of my all time favorites.  I originally saw it when it was on Broadway in 2002. It won three Tonys including best book and best original score and was nominated for best musical.

The basic plot is it takes place in sort of a futuristic world where there is a drought and so water consumption is so limited that private toilets have become a thing of the past and now everyone must use pay toilets and if they don't they are sent to the mythical Urinetown.  The story is very satirical and very very funny.  Here is a clip from the Tony Awards:




The next day, on Sunday, I went with a different friend to see the play A Life in the Theatre starring Patrick Stewart (From Star Trek X-Men) and T. R. Knight (From Grey's Anatomy).  They were in a word, Brilliant.  The show actually got mixed reviews and closed earlier than it was supposed to, which I think is unfortunate because I really enjoyed it.  It is kind of a backstage look at two actors so we see them in different situations such as just leaving the theatre, putting on and taking off their make up, during costume changes, and also a variety of scenes from the shows the actors are in (only from the back!).  It was also cool to see two famous actors live! 

It's a little hard to see, but this is the set from where we were sitting

If you watch the clip below it has several snippets from the show.  The boat scene around 1:20 was my favorite!



Oh, why can't every day be a day at the theatre?

I plan on seeing two more productions before the semester ends when my friend comes up from DC to visit. We're going to see Elf the musical and Avenue Q. I think those will be the only other shows I see as finals are fast approaching and the semester draws to a close. Only about three weeks left!

Dessert and Disney!

Last Friday (before Thanksgiving) I also went to the cutest crepe place with some friends and we had crepes and yummy yummy dessert!

Hot Chocolate!

Yummy yummy crepe!

Yummy Yummy chocolate mouse thing!

The same weekend on Sunday I went to check out the new Disney store in Times Square.  I have to say I was not entirely impressed.  It was only 2 floors!  I mean, if the Forever 21 next door can manage to have 5 floors why can't the Disney store manage to build more than 2?  It was cute though and definitely fun to check out.  (Toys R Us is more fun though)

Muggle Quidditch!

So a couple of weekends ago the Quidditch World Cup was held in NYC.  Now, you might ask, what exactly is Quidditch?  Quidditch is the wizard's sport found in the Harry Potter books.  If you're reading this blog then presumably you know me so you probably know that I love Harry Potter!  (Perhaps to an obsessive amount but let's not get into that argument right now).  So when I heard that the Quidditch cup was happening I decided I needed to see this so I dragged my friend there on the Saturday thinking we'd probably stay, oh, maybe 15 minutes or so before getting bored.  We ended up staying for several hours, it was that entertaining.  I then ended up going back on Sunday with a different friend to watch the championship game.

Now if you still don't know what Quidditch is then I direct you to the following wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch.  If you are already familiar with the sport you might then be asking, how does one play Quidditch when muggles (non-magical beings) can't fly?  Well, several years ago Middlebury College in Vermont created the rules for "Muggle Quidditch".  The rules are actually pretty well adapted from the books I think.  Basically the idea took off and now there are over 60 teams formed across the United States (and some in other countries as well) who are all part of the International Quidditch Association which is run right here in NYC.  I now direct you to their website for more information: http://www.internationalquidditch.org/

You can find the full rules on the website but basically it's a lot like if you combined flag football, dodgeball, and basketball (only you can carry the ball).  The Bludgers are dodge balls that the Beaters throw at people, the Quaffle is a volleyball that is used to score points (10 points per goal), and the snitch is a person dressed in yellow.  There is a tennis ball inside of a sock that is stuffed into the back of the snitch's pants and the Seeker has to try and grab the tennis ball in order for the snitch to be caught and the game to end (the Snitch is worth 30 points).  What makes the game fun to watch are the commentators and the Snitch.  The commentators basically just make up random things and if they are good at improvising it makes for a funny game.  The Snitch has very few rules so they can do pretty much whatever they want including but not limited to tackling the Seeker, stealing parts of player's uniforms, throwing Bludgers at people, and hiding in the stands.  It's a little hard to imagine but very fun to watch!

I definitely recommend checking out the website though for more information!  Anyway, on to pictures from the two days!

One of the matches on Saturday

The Snitch (in yellow) tackling a Seeker to the ground

Partway through a bunch of little kids started playing! So cute!

There were random unicyclists during halftime - they were not that good

There was also a live owl!

Owls are very important in the wizarding world

The trophies that went to the winners

The scoreboard before the championship match started

Quidditch is fun!

You can see the goal hoops and the brooms laid out before the start of the match

The Snitch came and hid right at my feet during the beginning of the championship match

A lot of Snitches flooded the field trying to confuse the Seeker during the championship match!

The moral of this post:
Quidditch is awesome and Harry Potter rocks!