Lifescouts Friday: I'm grumpy today

Well, we've made it through another week. This hasn't been an easy one, work has been crazy and I decided to quit smoking Tuesday (something I was planning on doing on the 1st). I'm exhausted and ready for a couple days off. It seems like most of these Lifescouts badges are things I really didn't enjoy, but maybe that's just because I'm grumpy and still having to deal with the whole not smoking thing.

Fishing

I find fishing both really boring and really gross. I went when I was at a summer camp as a kid. I didn't particularly enjoy sitting around waiting for something to happen. I didn't enjoy touching worms and the fish when we caught something. It was gross. But I also went deep sea fishing on my honeymoon and that was kinda cool. And we caught a HUGE marlin. I've done it, I don't plan on doing it again.

Drive In Movie

When I was a young teen, a guy actually took me to see a movie at a drive in. It was weird. But that's probably more due to the fact we were both young, awkward teens on a date that our friends had set up because we would just look so cute together. The idea of drive in movies is fun, in execution when you're awkward and 15, they suck.

Haunted House

I don't like being scared. I'm not a fan of scary movies. I don't like people jumping out and scaring me. I don't like haunted houses. I've gone to many throughout the years because apparently other people like to be scared. And I want to be around other people (sometimes) so I go as well. I don't really like haunted houses but I've gone. And that earns me another badge.

Swimming

Who doesn't know how to swim? I took lessons when I was a child (the first one consisted of my father throwing me into a pool before actually taking lessons). Nowadays when I go to the pool its mostly just lounging by the pool and drinking and enjoying the sun. This used to be something  I would do all the time during the summer, but now that I have a house sans-pool, I don't see much pool time this summer.

Zoo

I'm not the biggest fan of zoos. I understand that they can be a good thing and they can help endangered animals, but I hate seeing all of those animals locked up. Although, this may be because when I was less than a year old, my father took me to the zoo and while he was off doing god knows what and not paying attention to his child in a stroller, I tried to crawl out of my stroller and ended up flipping it over and crashing into a window and splitting my chin open which required stitches. So maybe there's still a bit of emotional scarring from that.

This is about equality

Starting today, the Supreme Court of the United States is going to be listening to arguments about Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Pretty much, they're going to make the decision about marriage equality in this country.

What enrages me is the fact that this has even needed to go to the SCOTUS. I remember reading this little phrase as a kid and thinking that this was really the answer to this question of marriage equality. I know its not a very well know sentence but it stuck with me. It means that all United States citizens are allowed the same rights. It means we are all granted the same equal rights.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." 

I know, as a country we've really had to struggle and fight to make sure the color of a person's skin and what's between their legs isn't what's going to make them a person. I know getting equal rights is still something we fight for every day. Women still fight for equal rights and equal pay. People of different nationalities are still fighting to be treated the same as a white man. But the situations for all people (except maybe the white, land-owning male) has really improved in this country. Equality is something that everyone agrees on, equality is a good thing. We all deserve to be treated equally and given the same equal rights and equal opportunities.

So why are we even discussing whether or not people of the same sex should have the right to get married?

Is it because marriage is a "Christian institution" so they get to decide who can get married? No. Because people in other religions and in other countries get married all the time. People with no religion get married in this country all the time. Marriage is by no means a Christian institution. If you're going to sit back and tell me that marriage is a Christian institution and they get to decide the rules, then you're also telling me that this is a Christian nation and Christians are the ones to make the rules. But they aren't.

One of the founding principles of this country is the separation of Church and State. Many of the people that founded this country fled their homes in other countries in search of a place they could worship or not worship what they wanted without fear of persecution. By turning a secular thing like marriage into a religious institution wherein they get to make the rules breaks this simple principal. It means that anyone that gets married must be a Christian or its not a "real" marriage.

Every American citizen is allowed the same set of inalienable rights. This is what this country was built on. Are homosexual men not citizens? Are homosexual women not citizens? Just because someone is bisexual, they're not a citizen? Just because they're transgender, they don't matter? Its time we as a country realize that just because someone loves someone you don't think they should love learn to just say... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because it is of no concern who other people love.

And if you want to tell me that these couples really don't need to get married, I'm calling BS. Not only because you're denying them a right that they should have as an American citizen, but because there are things that are granted to married couples in this country that a same-sex couple can't have because of who they love. Don't believe me, read up here about some of the benefits of marriage. How could the SCOTUS say that it is in fact constitutional to deny American citizens these rights?

I really hope in the (near) future students will read their textbooks in school about this time in our history when these couples had to fight so hard to be able to love people and look back with the same disgust that we look back on the fight of African Americans. These are basic rights. By denying them you are saying that we are not all equal.

This isn't that hard, people. Love is love.

Project 1: Water Sustainability

Our first big project in my 2-D Media Design class was to focus on water sustainability. We had to incorporate at least five different images in order to create our design and it was supposed to to be upbeat and based on Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." She wanted us to "connect with people on an emotional level" and to be mindful of colors that do this. We did have several things that we were not allowed to include in our design as they are very overused; we were to think outside the box. No water drops, faucets, recycling symbols, pictures of a "parched" Earth, desert scenes, or even Earth from any given view.

I had several great ideas for this assignment. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I knew where this was going and it was going to be great. Then I actually started working to make my ideas a reality.

And I couldn't.

Honestly, I'm not too pleased with how this project turned out, mostly due to the fact that I had so many great ideas that I wanted to use. I threw out many designs before I finally came up with this one. I hated everything that I created prior to this. I know that it will take time and work to get my skills up to where I want them to be and where I need them to be. I know that I just need to continue working and not try to do something that is too far outside of my current skill level. I know I can't get discouraged because I really have come a long way from where I started off at the beginning of the semester.

But this journey to where I want to be is hard. I just want to be better!

Self reflection and another class

In computer illustration, we were tasked with creating a cover for a "School of..." In keeping with my dance theme that I have going with all of these assignments, I picked the logical "School of Dance." Not only were we working in layers, but we were also continuing to work with text and manipulating it and the spacing it has. While this assignment was fairly straightforward and easy, I think I might revisit it later in order to try and create something a bit more elaborate.

We also talked briefly about the problem that a lot of us seem to be having. I know that I personally have a lot of great ideas for various assignments. Sadly, my skill level does not seem to be up to par with what I would like to be able to do. I've noticed this a lot in my ARTS 1311 class as I've been working on our first major assignment, water sustainability. I have so many ideas for things I want to do that would look great, but I just am not there yet. This leaves me feeling very disappointed in everything I've created thus far. I've probably made four or five different projects and I've hated each and every one of them because they aren't the idea that I have in my head.

You know in Mulan when she's asking when will her reflection show who she is? I'm having that sort of problems with my computer screen.

When will my computer screen show what I see in my mind's eye...?

O Captain! My Captain!

I've known that the Stars have been shopping our captain, Brenden Morrow, for several months. I knew that there was no intention to resign him if he did manage to stick with the team through the end of the season. I knew this was going to happen.

That doesn't mean I'm any happier about the fact that he's now gone.

I know that Morrow really hasn't been his best. Any time your captain is demoted to fourth line, you know that its only a matter of time. He's been with the team for what seems like forever. He's been a staple of the team. He's one of the last Stars that I avidly cheered for when I saw my first Stars game six (seven?) years ago. Ott's gone, Ribiero's gone, Modano is gone, Turco is gone... The players that I loved watching are all leaving. Even though they were only here for a single season, it still sucked to hear that both Souray and Burish were traded. If I hear anything about rumors for either Loui or Jamie getting traded I'm just going to give up on actually liking individual players.

And I'm really going to miss our captain.

I may not remember the Morrow's entire career here in Dallas, but I do know that Morrow has been great for Dallas. Even though the past several years he's been plagued with injuries (what do you expect when you're starting to creep closer to 40 and you play a physically demanding sport), I think he's had a great presence. He's given everything to this team. And to this city. He's fought well, he's played well, he's given everything he had and then some for this team.

As much as I'm sad to see him go, I think we all know that it is time. Fans can't help but criticize him ruthlessly whenever he makes a mistake. We've all been disappointed that our captain has been playing on the fourth line. And, though I've never had the chance to ask him personally, I'm sure the negativity from fans that he's given everything to isn't easy to take. I know I've made my fair share of comments on the lack of points from our captain, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate everything he's done. I'm sure the constant comments that he's past his prime can get tough to hear.

And even though I knew he wasn't going to stay in Dallas, its still sad to hear that he's leaving.

And what makes this entire situation worse is that he's going to a team that I absolutely hate: the Penguins.

But I do wish all the best for Brenden. As much as I would hate to see the Penguins win the Cup, I wouldn't hate the fact as much if he were on the team.

I won't say good luck to him, but I will wish all the best and thank him for everything he has done for this team.

Lifescouts Friday: Animals!

Happy Friday all! This week's Lifescouts is all about animals. I hope you've all had a bearable week and have a great weekend!



Milk a Cow

I took French while I was in high school. Along with all sorts of French type things we did like eat French candy, bake yule logs, we also would take an annual field trip to Heifer International in Little Rock. I'm really not sure what this has to do with learning French or anything about French culture (really, why did we go every year?) but one of the interesting things we did there was actually milk a cow.

Horse Riding

I've ridden a horse many times. I've also owned a horse. And when I lived in DC, there was a stable just off of the military base where I lived. I would occasionally go on weekends to ride the horses and just enjoy the feeling of being in a stable, even though I was in the middle of the capital of the US. I'm also trying to set up a time to go horseback riding with one of my friends, Mel, for her birthday in a few weeks. She loves horses and I'm not sure if she's actually gone or not. But I know she'd like to go and it will be a lot of fun.

Own a Pet

As absolutely shocking as this is, I've owned many pets throughout my life. I got my first cat when I was in kindergarten and had him until I moved to DC. My parents always had at least two dogs and two cats at any given time. And now, as an adult, I have two cats and a dog. I've had Gatinha since she was a tiny kitten and we've been together for about seven years. I've had Sox since she was about two and has been with me for about three years. Samwise is the newest, he's now about 11 months old.

Rainforest
When I was growing up, I couldn't just pack up and go for a weekend at grandma and grandpa's. It was a trip that we had to plan for several months in order to get a visa in order to stay in the country for six weeks. why? Because my grandparents lived in Brazil, in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia. Porto Velho is in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. It really was a beautiful place. I was really wishing I could make it to Brazil for the World Cup, but I don't think that's a possibility. But hopefully I can go back soon... I do love Brazil.

Hold a Snake

A lot of my friends love reptiles. While I've mostly had the more "traditional" pets, some of my friends prefer less fluffy creatures. And I really don't have a problem with reptiles, so I've held many a lizard, snake, spider, gecko, whatever. I like animals and I don't see why people get so freaked out by them. The first time I held a snake I was expecting something slimy but I was surprised that they're not (I was like six, okay). And the big boas are heavy. Also, as a Slytherine, I kinda have to like snakes.

Don't Rape

Just like everyone else, I've been following the Steubenville trial of the two high school athletes that raped a 16 year old girl and then spent the next few days bragging about it through text messages, videos, and pictures. And I've been absolutely appalled at the message that people have been sending out.

While a CNN corespondent was in a broadcast saying how sad she felt for these boys and how their lives were just absolutely ruined by the verdict and people around the country are lamenting this decision, I think these boys got off easy. These boys made the decision to rape a girl. Then they bragged about it. How can anyone feel bad for them. Go ahead and read some of these text messages and tell me they didn't deserve to be tried as adults and convicted of a longer sentence. And that's only a a small part of the 1500 text messages these men sent.

But, other than the "Oh these poor boys" attitude that people seem to have, I'm even more furious about the response of people that this girl should have done something different.

Yes, she shouldn't have been drinking to the point where she was barely conscious especially at 16. But that doesn't excuse what these men did to her. But this happens all the time. Not just this highly publicized case. But all the damn time. Women are raped and its their fault because they should have stopped it.

There's this attitude that apparently women shouldn't dress a certain way or they will be raped. They shouldn't act a certain way or they will be raped. They shouldn't drink or they will be raped. They shouldn't go out alone or they will be raped. Women have to go out in groups and stick together or one of them will be raped. When walking to and from your car, house, shop, garbage bin women have to be aware of their surroundings because anyone could rape them because they weren't paying attention. Women have to take self defense courses in order to prepare themselves for the time a rapist decides to come after them because if they're not prepared, its their fault and they should have been prepared. If you don't explicitly say "No" you are giving your consent.

Not only is this logic absolute bullshit, its also insulting to men everywhere.

Women are taught that they have to be prepared in every circumstance for a man to attack them. If a woman is wearing certain things or acts a certain way, it means that she has provoked a man to attack her. It means that the general position of a man is to have sex with a woman unless he is otherwise told no. It means that men are nothing more than some uncontrollable sex fiend that have to be protected from these women that dress and act a certain way. Its insulting to men to say that they simply can't control themselves when women do certain things.

This society seems bound and determined to make rape a woman's fault. If a woman is raped because she is at a party and is too drunk to say no, it is her fault because she should have stayed with friends that should have protected her and she shouldn't have been drinking so much. This happens to women more often than people would like to believe. I would be willing to bet that you know someone that this has happened to. And when this woman tried to say she was raped, people told her it was all her fault because she got drunk and she should have known better. I know because I've been there.

People don't like to talk about the fact that this standard teaching of "Don't get raped" is offensive to both men and women alike. Instead of teaching that, how about we start telling people "Don't rape." Wouldn't that  solve the problem?

We should start teaching that if a person is too drunk to say no, it means no. If a person says "I don't think so" or "maybe not" because they're too afraid to actually say no, it means no. If a person is in any way showing that they don't want to have sex, don't have sex with them. It doesn't matter what they're wearing, what they're doing, what they're saying, or even if they're alone. Don't have sex with people if they don't give consent. If you don't have consent, don't video tape it and post it on the internet. Don't text your friends bragging about it. Don't send pictures of your "conquest."

Just act like a decent human being.

I finally made another vlog!

I know its been forever since I actually posted a vlog. I'm sorry. I will get better and more regular with posting them. Promise!

Lifescouts Friday: Camping, Niagra Falls and more!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all enjoy this week's edition of Lifescouts Friday. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! DFTBA



Niagara Falls

The summer before I started high school, my parents decided to take my brothers and I on a road trip through the Northeast. This included stops in Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, and a stop at Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is... huge. And impressive. We took the boat ride that takes you right up to the Falls (even in July it was freezing!) and walked around behind the falls. And while it was great to see, I don't really have any intention of making a second trip.

Archery

Growing up, my parents would send me off to camp almost every summer. No matter where we lived, every summer it was guaranteed that I would be heading off to some sort of camp for at least two weeks in the summer where I would learn something really cool for two weeks to never use it again. One summer, I took up archery (it was either that or some dumb craft stuff). I'm by no means a Katniss when it comes to archery, but it was a lot of fun to learn.

Fencing

Like archery, I took up fencing in summer camp. I was really into fencing since this also happened to be the summer that Pirates of the Caribbean was released and it was fun to pretend to be a pirate for a little while. But I can't help but ask myself what were these people trying to teach us? Were they insane letting thirteen-year-olds spend hours each day learn how to hit each other with swords? Especially considering they were actual swords, just with no edge. Oh well, at least I didn't die.

Plant a Tree

Again, something I've done at various summer camps. I guess in order to balance out all of the ways they taught us to kill each other, camps would often have events at the beginning/end of camp where we would spend time planting trees.

Picnic 

When the weather is nice out, I love picnics. There's something really nice about throwing a couple dishes together, grabbing a blanket and going on a picnic. Shortly after Austin and I moved to Dallas, we would go on picnics all the time when we were in the West Village. There was something amazingly relaxing about grabbing our dinner and wine and heading down the Katy Trail. Sometimes I miss being in Uptown because the Katy Trail was great for that sort of thing.

ARTC 1353 - Self Portrait

The second project in my computer illustration course has been to create a self portrait and color it in. It was supposed to be a bit a of a pop-art type of self portrait. Since I realized that I really don't have any recent pictures of myself, I decided to use one of my bridal portraits. I had a lot of great shots, but this is the one I decided to work on. I decided to leave the background from the original, I think it looks kinda cool with the background.

Original

Vectored self portrait

I had a lot of fun working on this project. When it was first assigned, I couldn't imagine being able to take a photograph, turning it into a vector and tracing over it to create some as cool as this. While it did take a long time to get it done, I enjoyed every moment of it.

Get mad, but get informed first

I'm absolutely fucking sick of hearing people complain about the government when it seems like they don't know the basics of how our government works. I get that people dislike the President. I get that people dislike the cuts that are being made. But lets get one thing clear:

The President isn't the one that decides these cuts.

What's that? You didn't know that? You thought that the President had full power? No. Wrong. Don't you remember learning about a little system in place called "checks and balances"? It means that while the Executive branch (aka our President) is the one to sign a bill and pass it, the Legislative branch (aka Congress) is the one to actually write it up and create it while the Judicial system (aka the Supreme Court) make the ruling on a laws legality. It means that while the President can make speeches and statements about various things that he thinks should or should not happen, it ultimately comes down to what those 535 members decide on doing.

Get used to the fact that while the President is the one to sign a budget into law, Congress is required to pass a budget every year in October that decides where funds will be distributed and cut. Various committees in both the House of Representatives and Senate decide on what is put into the budget. And if they can get a budget put together and agreed upon by the majority (which hasn't happened since 2009), it gets sent to the President to be signed into a law. But you say he can veto a law which means this is all his fault? No. It can get sent back down for a 2/3 vote. And if that doesn't pass? Then the House and Senate can make appropriation bills and set up a time when automatic cuts will be made if they can't agree on a budget.

If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at the people that are sitting in Congress, writing laws and setting the budget and deciding what should be cut. Maybe you should get mad at the fact that there are certain aspects of the budget that can't be touched, while roughly 36% of the budget is open for our wonderful leaders to manipulate. Things like Social Security (22%), Medicare/Medicaid (23%) and the interest on the US debt (6%) are areas that generally can't be cut, they're mandatory spending. The "discretionary spending" that can be cut (17%) covers things like education, NASA, and departments that regulate food and health safety while the defense budget (19%) covers the military and wars and homeland security, this is where cuts are going to be made.

Maybe you should get made that the reason Social Security is such a financial drain on the country is brought about by leaders in Congress deciding some 30-odd years ago to use this money as their own personal bank while never paying it back. But guess what? Those people that paid into it are now retiring. And those people deserve to get their Social Security checks because its their money. Its not an entitlement, it is their money in the first place! Maybe you should stop getting mad at the 70-year old couple that draws a check every month that doesn't even cover half of their monthly living expenses. Maybe you should realize that there are simply more older people retiring than there are younger people working. So of course its going to cost more to give them Social Security. Maybe you should realize that people are living longer, Social Security was made to help people from retirement to when they die, which used to be around age 70 and is now around age 80.

Maybe instead of blindly blaming the President for the cuts being made to our education system you should get mad at the fact that the US defense budget is more than the top 12 countries combined and then the decision is made to cut their education assistance programs instead of cutting outdated programs and systems in place. Maybe you should get mad at the fact that the military has no problems spending money to update their computers and systems every year because if that money isn't spent, it means they have too large of a budget (which they do) and their budgets get cut the next year. Maybe you should start to realize that the three wars we were in cost a lot of money and we're going to be paying for them for quite a while. And those wars? Guess what? The current President wasn't the one to get us into them.

Maybe you should stop blaming a single individual for the Sequester and start blaming the people that actually thought it would be a good idea for automatic spending cuts to happen March 1, 2013. The people that thought this would be a good idea? Oh yeah, they're the same people that couldn't agree on a budget for a year and thought that in two years when things were really bad, they'd be able to come together and reach an agreement. Maybe you should take the time to actually learn about what the hell our government is doing instead of waiting until shit hits the fan and complaining about everything. Maybe you should take your opinions to the place where it actually matters, start participating in your elections that happen all the time instead of voting once every four years for a man that really doesn't have that much power.

Get mad at the government, that's fine. If you're mad, it means you're taking an interest. It means you're involved. But don't just sit back and get mad when things that we all knew would happen eventually happen. Before you start blaming a single individual for an entire country's problems, it might be in your best interest to actually learn how things work and how laws and budgets are made.

ARTC 1353 - Midterm

Last night was the midterm for my ARTC 1353 course. Since you really can't have a test over computer illustration, our assignment was to recreate six artboards that our teacher had created then upload them. These are my six. 

Lifescouts Friday: CPR, Hot Air Balloons, Parades and more!

Happy Friday everyone! Hopefully everyone else's weeks have been a bit less crazy than mine, but its over. Its finally over. So, without further ado, its another edition of Lifescouts!



CPR
In high school, in order to graduate you were required to take a health course. Not only did this cover basics like nutrition and "family planning" but it also covered things like CPR. One of the requirements in order to pass the teacher I had was that you had to get CPR certified by the end of the semester. It really wasn't too difficult, all you had to do was to take a test and (on a practice dummy) perform CPR. While I've let my certificate lapse, I still remember how to do it.

Hot Air Balloon
When I was in the 7th and 8th grade, I was in band and I also lived in DC. Three times a year, our band would travel all over the northeast to perform in competitions (which we always won, I would like to brag). During these trips, we would spend one day competing, one day at an amusement park and another day doing some other "learning" activity. One of these competitions was held in New Jersey. Our "learning" activity was spending the day at the zoo. This zoo also had hot air balloon rides. While we didn't get to actually go anywhere, it was a lot of fun to go up.

 Driving
I've been driving since I was fourteen. Actually I remember when I was, like, four and I would get to sit on an adults lap and "drive" while they drive.... But I guess that doesn't really count. So I've been driving for the past eight years. Maybe its because I live in the US and especially in a city that doesn't have a major public transportation system, but I really don't see what's so "badge worthy" of driving.

SCUBA Diving
In August 2010, I learned how to SCUBA dive. Austin's cousin teaches SCUBA diving, so he obviously taught us how to dive. We both wanted to get be PADI licensed divers before we left for our honeymoon since you can't dive unless you've been licensed and certified (and who wants to do that when you're on a vacation!?) It really was a great experience and although I am sad to say that we haven't done anything with our certification lately. Maybe its time to get back in touch with Curt about going diving come spring....

Be in a Parade 
Throughout high school and junior high I was in band. In high school, this meant I was also in the marching band. Aside from being able to go to band camp which is actually a lot of fun (seriously, have you ever played soccer on the roof of doors with a ball that was on fire?) and playing at games, we also were in the parades at Christmas and whatnot. While being in the parades in the summer in your band uniform and walking for ten miles and playing and keeping in step wasn't so much fun, hanging out with everyone afterwards always was.

ARTS 1311 - Texture

This past week in my 2-D Media class, we've been reading about texture and how it can effect a design. I've never really given much thought as to how texture can effect an image, but it can really make or break a design. 

One thing I've come to realize is how much each aspect (light, texture, value, line, etc) really goes into creating a design. Whereas before this class, when I thought about a photograph, I thought of it as a composition of all of these design aspects, I'm now looking at each one individually. Even in my summer photography course where we focused on a certain element of design, the main idea was to create an entire composition that used all elements of design. At the start of this course, I struggled to really focus on the one aspect of design. I feel like I'm starting to get a better handle on focusing on the single element that we've been assigned for the week. 

ARTC 1353 - Type Tool

Last night in class, we focused on the use of the Type tool. Honestly, I didn't realize how many different things you could do with text and it was interesting to be able to manipulate it in so many ways. Not only can you do the basic like put text into a shape, but you can also put it inside/outside of an object, change the angle that it is seen, change the spacing and even manipulate the box that text is in to create an object. Our assignment was to create a newspaper type ad using the text tool to create the main image for our ad. Continuing with my dance theme from my letterhead/logo assignment, I decided to create an ad for a dancewear shop. It was a lot of fun to manipulate a simple rectangle into a dress. Who knew that you could do so much with a simple text box?

Lifescouts - The Beginning

I don't know how many of you watch Alex Day, but about two months ago he came out with this video in which he debuted Lifescouts. Its pretty much like Boy Scouts for adults without all of the extra biggotry and hate, and I think its a pretty cool idea. Not only is it an interesting idea to remember some of the things you have done in your life, but its also a fun little way to push yourself to do something you haven't done before.

As of today, there are 40 Lifescouts badges and I've done roughly 30 of them. so instead of doing all of them at once, for the next few weeks, every Friday I'm going to be posting five badges that I've reached as well as posting my little story behind the badge.

Empire State Building
Spring of 2012, just months after 9/11 happened, I was still living in DC with my family. Things had finally settled down so my parents decided it would be fun to take a weekend trip to New York. This was the first time I climbed the Empire State building. It was also the first time I had been to Times Square. I've been to the Empire State Building twice since that first trip, and I'm hoping that I can go again this year with a potential trip to New York in the summer.

Play a Guitar
In high school, one of my best friends, Justin, started to teach me how to play the guitar. He spent a lot of time my sophomore and junior year teaching me basics and even progressing to songs. He passed away April of my junior year. That summer, I went to Brazil with my family to visit my grandparents. One of the guys I met there taught me to play a different style of guitar. He was incredibly sweet and helped me get through a time in my life when I was still dealing with the death of such a good friend. Since that summer, I haven't picked up a guitar. I doubt that I would remember much. It seems that I now associate playing the guitar with such a sad time in my life, I don't know if I want to anymore.

French
 I started taking French when I was in the 8th grade (god that feels like forever ago!). I honestly feel bad for that teacher, I was such a terrible student and I really did give him hell. I continued taking into my freshman and sophomore years of high school and then took a semester in college. While I'm by no means fluent, I can still read French and I can hold my own.

 Skateboarding 
In high school, a lot of my friends knew how to skateboard and knew how to do all sorts of fun little tricks. Never one to be the one left on the sidelines, I took a shot and taught myself. I could do a few basic tricks but I lost interest once I got the basics down. Although I wanted to fit in, I didn't really see the point in it.

Watch a Sunrise
This is actually something I've done many times in my life. If I don't have work, then I would prefer to stay up all night. There have been many nights that I've been out with friends until the sun rose. I've also had many nights that I didn't actually see the sun rise but I was up due to A) my addiction to the internet and inability to turn it off and sleep or B) procrastinating and putting off homework until the last possible moment.