Law & Order: SVU
I’m sure this sounds really weird, and I promise I’m not a creep or a psychopath or anything, but SVU is a feel-good show for me. I feel like it’s something I can take refuge in, the same way battle scenes and siege scenes (think Helm’s Deep) make me feel safe. I’m not quite sure why, but years ago I started referring to the main detectives on this show as My Friends and I really do think of them as such. If you check out the SVU last.fm page you’ll see that I really am serious about it. I think I’ve written this in a comic once, but here it is again. When I try to explain why this show makes me feel good, I say it’s because these detectives are confronted with the worst crimes and, more often than not, they can make things right in just 42 minutes, and so that must mean there’s hope for my problems, too. Plus, I think I have a celebrity crush on Olivia Benson.

The Office (US)
Everyone watches this show and I’m so glad I do too! I think that doing something everyone else does can be a really good vehicle for making friends and participating in every day conversations, so people can think I’m similar to them and will be more likely to like me. Also, I actually do think the show is very funny. I think it’s still funny. I know how Michael feels about wanting to have friends and I know how Dwight feels about wanting to conquer the world. I’ve long thought Jim is a little annoying, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too, right?

Dexter
After watching Weeds this past summer, I feel like I’m a fan of Showtime shows. I really appreciate how intricate and well-made the opening credits are on both Dexter and Weeds. In order, I think my favorite seasons are 4, 2, 1, 3. Even though it’s my favorite of the series, I felt like there were major plot inconsistencies in the fourth season (mainly, the entire series they make such a point about having Dexter always always always always pick up his phone, even in the most inconvenient and impractical times, and the one time he doesn’t the consequence is this huge tragedy???). But I enjoyed the premiere of season 5, and I’m a fan of Julia Stiles so I’m looking forward to seeing how this season turns out.

I’m not even sure why I like Dexter. I think there’s good storytelling, and good question-asking. Good question-asking is an important part of good storytelling. At first I thought it would be really difficult for me to empathize with Dexter because he’s a serial killer, but Michael C. Hall makes it possible (perhaps the writers have something to do with that too). I really like that Dexter always wears a button-up thermal shirt whenever he kills somebody. Not because he’s killing someone, but because those are my favorite long-sleeve shirts to wear. I have about ten of them. I love the buttons.

Weeds
Oh man! I think Weeds might be my favorite show of the bunch. I watched the first 5 seasons in one fell swoop at the end of the summer and loved it. I wish they still had “Little Boxes” in opening sequence. It was always a treat to hear who was covering “Little Boxes” during the second and third seasons. What makes this show great? Nancy fuckin’ Botwin. Actually I feel that my affection toward her has been waning with the current season, but I’m hoping that will change because I really love loving her. I think the show peaked at season 3, but I have hope that it can get back up there. Or, I want to have that hope. I think it’s a trend in cable channel TV shows to feature a lot of swearing, vulgarity, nudity, sex, etc. just because they can and it gets to be a little old/too much in this show, but that’s my biggest gripe with the series. What also makes this show great is all the other characters. Props to the writers of this show for having such a good balance of comedy/drama, and character development/plot.

How I Met Your Mother
I’m nowhere near caught up with this show (so don’t tell me anything!) and I like that. I think I’m a couple episodes into season 3. I always watch this show with my best friend Rachel, and we managed to get through the first two seasons over the past several months. It’s just not often that we decide to watch TV shows together because we are usually busy doing other best friend things. When we do watch this show, it’s often paired with chocolate cake. I think all the characters in this show are really charming, and I love seeing Neil Patrick Harris because, to me, he is that awesome singer from the Proposition 8 musical and I love that. And I like Ted. I know a lot of people that really don’t like him, and the other night I was reflecting that I think there’s something inherently unlikable about many main characters that’s part of their nature being a main character. But I still like Ted! I think he’s a nice guy. Sometimes me and my friends try and match ourselves up with HIMYM characters, and I really don’t know who I am. My favorite thing about this show is it always makes me laugh.

LOST
Oh God, Lost, there’s so much to say about Lost. When I interviewed her, my sister spoke of Lost, “Well these people on an island just like, get lost.  And they don’t know where they are.  And they can’t find themselves or whatever.” And I guess that’s right. I really liked the series finale, but at the same time, so many freaking unexplained plot holes. I think it just depends what you expect out of it. At first I was expecting some grand revelation in the fashion of Harry Potter, during which every single little action would be given clear and perfect meaning. But once I figured out that Lost just wasn’t gonna give me that, I was able to enjoy the show more. It’s sort of the same thing with Charile Kaufman films. I find that when I watch them, the first time around I spend the entire time waiting for the movie to start, instead of just realizing, oh, this is just what the movie is like, this is it. This show did have great characters, and I applaud the creators for developing so many of them. My favorite? Ben Linus, obviously. I think my sister’s favorite is Hurley.

The O.C.
I have such a soft spot for The OC! This is the kind of show that I would love to re-watch with someone and just laugh with. I think there’s good dialogue in this show, even if it’s unrealistic. But here are some of my least favorite things about this series. The lighting. It’s really obvious throughout the series that they never took the time to shoot scenes during the times of day when the occur. In fact, I think they really tried to do a bad job at this. I don’t expect to be able to perfectly measure the time with a sundial on my screen (or something) but it’s pretty obvious that it’s actually late afternoon when they have a scene before school that they filmed at 4:30 pm. The other thing that is bad about this show is the story is always fueled by really annoying secondary characters. There is always at least one non-main character causing drama, and I think these characters are always a huge pain to watch. The show would’ve been a lot better if the writers had just focused the story on the main characters. Also, I never watched all the episodes of season 4, but by that point it didn’t matter to me much. But I was (and am) a really big fan of Ryan/Taylor. I thought they were a great match. And I hated that guy Summer met at Brown and that goddamn stupid bunnies episode.

Dawson’s Creek
I don’t even really like this show a lot, but I used to stay home in middle school and watch it a lot. I think I couldn’t watch many episodes of this show without getting bored, but I wanted to comment that Joey/Pacey is one of my favorite television couples and I love watching their scenes.

Arthur
I figure I should also throw in Arthur to this list. Arthur is always playing at my house. I promise you. At any given time, if you walk into my house, it’s extremely likely that one or both of my mother and sister will be watching Arthur on the couch. Or neither. It’s just always on. DW is my favorite, of course.

So yup, that’s my TV life. I also love Boy Meets World. And I was thinking of starting Bones if I ever decide I have time in my life for another show. I’m really enjoying never watching these shows when they air (the ones that have new episodes) and then using catching up as pleasant breaks between activities.

Being a student really lends itself to being used to switching between lifestyles that largely contrast each other. During the summer, I was spending about 30 hours a week babysitting, and the rest of my time rock-climbing indoors, visiting friends, and hanging around the house with my family. Now I’m back at Smith, fighting to find the right balance between classes, friends, personal time, music, and just about everything else in between. Let me tell you about some of those things:

ENG 228 – Children’s Literature (4 cr.)
TTh 9:00 − 10:20
Two mornings a week, I go to a lecture about children’s literature. I’ve really been looking forward to taking this class for a long time, and I think it’s a shame that Children’s Literature isn’t more widely studied as a significant part of literature. The course is very popular with over seventy students. It’s unfortunate that the size prohibits the class from being a discussion-based environment, but it’s also great to see that so many people are interested in these books. Children’s literature is a lot of fun, but I think the genre goes well beyond fun. I’m familiar with most of the books we’re reading, but I’m really excited to hear a professor’s perspective on the genre. I have a long-term goal of learning Biblical Hebrew and being able to read the Old Testament as it was written, and studying overlap between OT stories and cornerstone tales of children’s literature, which I think together form some of the most important basis and inspiration for every story we know. Mostly I want to learn everything about what stories are. I decided not to continue studying Hebrew this semester, and so I feel like I’m still chipping away at this goal, even if it’s baby chips.

MTH 238 – Topics in Number Theory (4 cr.)
MWF 10:00 − 10:50
I’m really excited about this math class! I guess it fulfills a major requirement, but I never think about requirements, I just think about fun. I feel like it’ll take a few weeks to really get off the ground with this class, because there are so many topics in intro number theory that you just pick up and learn about on the side of other mathematics. So far class has been a more formal review of a bunch of stuff I already know. Last spring, I took MTH 255 – Graph Theory which was largely proof-based. I feel pretty sure that I could have handled the material in Number Theory a year ago, but I’d have been less confident writing proofs, which is the core of the classwork. My teacher for this one is pretty much in charge of the bell tower at Smith College, which is a really powerful attribute.

MTH 243 – Introduction to Analysis (4 cr.)
MWF 1:10 − 2:30
Whoa! Analysis! I’m really surprised that I ended up taking this class. I didn’t register for this until the middle of the 2nd week of classes. This semester I had a goal of taking a lighter courseload than previous semesters, and I just really failed in sticking to that because I’m taking more credits this semester than any other. This class is structured very differently from your standard mathematics course with something called the Cohen Method. We’re split into groups of 3 or 4, and every week we’re given a set of definitions to read, and then a set of problems to solve. As a group, we have to solve the problems, write our solutions up formally (using Latex) and then give an oral presentation on our paper to the class. Every group solves different kinds of problems, so the idea is you’ll learn all the material by working out solutions with your group, and being taught other groups’ findings by their presentations and papers. One of the things that makes having a hefty course-load doable is having classes that are structured differently. A class like this is more of a commitment than a standard lecture course, because your performance influences how the rest of your group fares in the class. But at the same time, I think it’d be more difficult to manage three math courses at the same time if they were all run in the same way.

But anyway, at first I wasn’t going to do this course because I just thought it would be too much, but I got sucked in by a couple classmates raving about how great the class is. What’s special about it is that this semester, the class is being taught by the Cohen himself, Professor David Cohen, who is officially retired from Smith College. I’m also eyeing Complex Analysis for the spring. Complex Analysis has a couple either/or prerequisites, one of which I already have, but I figure it can’t be a bad idea to have both of them. Adding this course also pretty much ensured that I’ll finish the requirements for a math major next semester, which will feel pretty cool. It will be like having a fake degree.

MTH 246 – Probability (4 cr.)
MWF 11:00 − 12:10
I feel like I’ll really get a lot out of this class. In general, I’m ambivalent to the question, “But how does this help in real life?” when being asked about mathematics. I feel like it’s often paired with a cutting undertone that theoretical/abstract math is impractical and therefore unimportant (sometimes the question is innocent, but sometimes it also sounds like an attack). But folks, just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it’s not important! Of course my belief is that even if advanced math didn’t have any immediate application to “real life” it would still be meaningful if people experienced joy in doing it. So I don’t see that it matters much. But for some reason, I feel like all the applications to everyday problems in this class will be a lot of fun. Maybe it’s the elegance of difficult problems stated so simply, and maybe it’s just something this branch of mathematics more readily lends itself to.

MUS 233 – Composition (4 cr.)
TTh 10:30 − 11:50
In this class I…compose music. So far, we are working on composing melodies for solo instruments. As a guitarist, I have a little trouble thinking just melodically, and so I’ve been spending more playing time working on soloing in different keys. I also think at the piano sometimes. I feel slightly handicapped in this class even though I’ve written a lot of music in the past—I feel self-conscious, at least, because I don’t have any real formal background in music, as in, I can’t play any orchestra instruments. The class is geared toward “classical” composition, and I like to write pop songs. I really think that there’s not much of a difference—a good melody is a good melody regardless of what environment you put it in—so this handicap is just one of perception, and therefore can be thought around.

MUS 914Y – Guitar lessons (2 cr.)
Th 6:10 − 7:00
This is my second semester of guitar lessons at Smith. I study classical guitar with Philip de Fremery, with his own wikipedia article. Pretty neat. Philip is an amazing guitarist and I’m blown away by his playing. But I struggle with these lessons sometimes. I’ve been playing guitar for 6+ years, and I can learn some difficult pieces pretty quickly, but I don’t ultimately see myself as a classical guitarist, so when I pick up guitar, practicing classical pieces isn’t the first thing I want to do. I’m really glad for the lessons I’ve taken at Smith, but there’s a chance I might not continue these next semester. Musically, I’m more invested in focusing on learning piano, and…

MUS 914Y – Drum lessons (2 cr.)
Th 7:00 − 7:50
One of the few things I dislike about Smith so far is their drum policy. Smith has a drumset in the basement of the music building, Sage Hall, but the only people who are allowed to use it are jazz ensemble drummers, and people who take drum lessons for credit. The rules seem silly to me, so I tried to see if I could get access a couple times a week without taking lessons (I don’t want to join jazz band right now) but they’re pretty strict about the rules. I debated a lot with myself whether or not to take these lessons. I’m doing a lot this semester, and adding these lessons put me at 24 credits, which is the most you’re allowed to take without getting special signatures. I’m a fan of overloading, but not of being busy, and I want to be really careful with commitments I add to my schedule. I finally decided to take these drum lessons because several times a week (often daily) I find myself really, really itching to play drums. I end up banging out beats in the middle of class for minutes at a time before I realize that to everyone else, I’m making a really incomprehensible ruckus because they simply don’t get that I’m playing “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin. The lesson is 50 minutes a week, and besides that I’ll just have to practice drums sometimes. They actually gave me a key to the drum room, so I bet I could sleep there if I was quiet about it (I feel like that will never happen). I haven’t actually had any lessons yet, but I’m thinking they will be a lot of fun because the woman teaching them seems to be a really well established drummer.

Working at the Rock Wall
Th 4:00 − 6:00, F 3:00 − 6:00
Oh my god guys! I am really, really happy to be a wall monitor this year. Smith has a really awesome climbing wall that I will tell you about later on with more depth. We have 9 top rope stations, and free gear, and a really positive climbing community. Last year I went to the wall a lot, and I spent all my free time this summer at the climbing gym. Next February, the folks who own the gym I go to in Worcester are opening up a bigger gym three miles down the road from me, where I’m also going to work. Working at climbing walls rocks! My work-study job is to talk to people really enthusiastically about rock-climbing, which is something I do all day every day, so now I get paid for some of those hours. It’s for precisely five hours each week, which is less than I’ve worked in the past while in school. I’m trading off a little extra pocket money for enough time to take all these credits, and I think it’s worth it. (And I’ll likely spend more time working next semester when the new climbing gym opens up in Hadley. Locals, pay attention to this.)

So yeah, that’s…my life? In between all this, I’m trying to keep up with everything else. Or, I mean I’m trying not to get too lost in it all. More later. You don’t get too lost either.

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are so delicious and they are so easy to make. I made them with the 12-year-old I watched this summer, on my last day of hanging out with her.

Ingredients

We didn’t have them at hand, but I’d recommend adding any of the following things too:

and any other yummy thing you can think of!

Pretty much,

you just mix

everything together.

Stir it and stuff

and then

put it in muffin tins

until it comes out like this.

I guess people would recommend mixing all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, and then combining them.

No Bake Oat Rolled Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many ways to describe these cookies. Delicious, heavenly, in my freezer, in my belly, in my mouth, all over my shirt and fingers while I’m writing this, friggen awesome, really good, wow, cookies…

These are SO EASY AND FUN TO MAKE. Really you just take any cookie recipe and delete the eggs and baking powder/baking soda. You don’t need to bake these anywhere. That’s why they are no bake cookies.

Here’s the basic recipe:

We actually didn’t have enough butter, so we substituted some olive oil and soy milk. After you get the basic recipe mixed all together, then you get to add whatever you want! It just depends how you want your cookies to taste. Here’s what got added to this batch:

Stir it all together. If you’re adding unsweetened cocoa, you’re going to want to go back and add an equal amount of sugar or honey. You might also need more flour as you add the peanut butter. You want to get it to a consistency at which you can pretty easily mold the dough into balls. When you’ve got everything together, pour oats on a plate, and roll the dough over the oats to add the outer-coating. Oats add a great texture and crunch to these cookies! At the end, just put the cookies in the freezer, and they’ll be all ready and delicious for you to eat in a couple hours or less, depending on how good cold your freezer is.

These are the ingredients we used!

Here’s our batter. Yum.

Oats!

The first cookie!

Because these cookies were made No Parent Style, you can put the dough all over your fingers and eat it, you can be cool like Rachel is right here. Not pictured: me being cool too.

You start by putting yeast in a bowl, and adding water and olive oil. We used two packets of yeast.

Then you add some honey and some salt! The salt is not pictured, but you know it’s in there.

Man if you’re me, you might wanna lick the honey that gets stuck on the bottom of the cap. We finished the bottle! We put in about half the bottle.

You let it sit for a little bit (20-30 minutes) and it starts to look like this.

Oh my gosh like this!

Then you beat it up while you add white flour and wheat flour (use both!) and beat it up the whole time.

It’s really fun to hold and squeeze in your hands.

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID, AT LEAST.

It’s sort of like a baby. Rachel said to me, “Julie, if you drop that bread, I’m gonna freaking kill you or hurt your feelings.”

That really did the trick, so I put the bread back in the bowl.

Put a warm towel over the bowl, and let the bread rise for 20-30 minutes. It will look like this! I was a little scared/intimidated…yeast is alive? And now it’s rising up against us? Oh no.

Take it out of the bowl and put it in a pan you can put in the oven! I wanted to make bread with “dots” which I learned was actually corn meal. You can see the dots on top!

Put dots on the bottom too.

We wanted to put spices in one of the loaves. What you have to do in that situation is put the dough on a clean, floured surface.

Spread some butter and olive oil on the dough.

Then put whatever spices and stuff you want! We put minced onions, rosemary garlic, Italian herbs, and other tasty stuff too.

Roll the dough like this!!!

This is the spices loaf in a pan.

If you want you can put some honey on top of the dough before you bake it!

Aw they’re friends!

Friends inside the oven too!

Mmmm…

So you bake the bread until it’s golden-brown-ish-however-you-like. When it’s done, you might want to cut the bread with a knife!

BREAD UP CLOSE! REAL BREAD.

If you want to eat a sandwich on your fresh, homemade, delicious bread, you could maybe cook some onions!

Oh my god and maybe add some mushrooms.

Oh and maybe snack on some bread while the vegetables are cooking

Pretty much done!!! We melted some cheese on top too.

Rachel and I were so nice that we offered sandwiches to everyone in my family, and my brother accepted. Wow we are so nice.

Ta da! To make your sandwich extra delicious, you could try adding some hummus and poppyseed dressing. This is what I did!

After your sandwich is done, you might want to go watch How I Met Your Mother with your friend. This is what I did anyway.

To make bread, all you need is:

It’s so simple! We pretty much eye-balled all the measurements, as Rachel had the recipe memorized. You can probably do that too if you want to make bread. Be creative. Rachel is the master behind bread pretty much, and I am the super helper. SUPER HELPER.

I had a nice interaction with Randall, and besides getting this drawing done, we had a short discussion. Mostly I remember he advised me to switch my major from math to physics.

Anyway, in Worcester, there recently opened up a new Five Guys Burgers and Fries place. I’m a vegetarian, and they have a good veggie sandwich (just get a lot of mushrooms) and so being able to eat at a fast-food location is pretty exciting for me. And I love mushrooms and sandwiches. I actually went there yesterday by myself, so this was my second trip in two days. Eating at Five Guys for me is worth about 4 meals (assuming I get french fries) so it’s pretty cool if I’m busy because I can just go there, forget to eat for about a day, and not really worry about it. Awesome!

So me and Seth (Seth is my younger brother!) were sitting down eating, and I had an obstructed view of the counter where people order. There was a crowd of people at the counter, and suddenly I heard a thud, and saw that someone was on the ground. It was a guy surrounded by some friends. People seemed really shocked, but I saw him getting up, so I assumed he was just very outgoing and had been demonstrating some story or joke a bit too openly.

So I went back to eating, when, BAM, a couple minutes later, I felt this body crash into me. It was really quick, messy, and shocking. Bodies are so heavy! This was just a normal guy, and his whole body was just like dead weight in my lap. I was taken completely by surprised, and just remember shouting, “Oh my god oh my god!” I thought I was being attacked at first. I like to think that I like to give people the “benefit of the doubt” but I guess in fact I’m pretty mistrusting.

I’m okay. My head got hit, and I think my elbows too, or at least somewhere else on my upper body. I might have a bruise, as my head thronged for a good 20 minutes after. But more than anything it was just plain scary. I really had a hole in my stomach for the next hour!

The guy was okay I think. He cut his arm falling on either a chair or a table, and hopefully he was able to get to a hospital to figure out what the problem was. I guess I’ve led a pretty boring life so far, because this is probably the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. I would have stayed to get interviewed (SHOCKING! MAN FALLS NEAR GIRL EATING VEGETABLES!), but I had to get going to help some kids in need of belaying.

Update
This afternoon I was speaking with Carissa and we had a conversation that went something like this:

Carissa: I got a bloody nose today!
Me: I got fainted on today!
Carissa: I know. I WISH someone fainted on me.
Me: What?
Carissa: When I went to Five Guys later with mom I walked in and I was thinking wow I really hope someone faints on me but no one did.

Hi guys, here’s a video of me doing some tricks in sand. If you’re enthralled by my tricks (I’m sure this is likely), you can also check out my Scooter Trick from late June. Enjoy everyone, and please don’t do anything dangerous just because I am, unless you really want to then that’s okay!

Here is a video shot and narrated by the glamorous Rachel Ravina, featuring the adventurous me successfully completing a trick on the scooter.