Walking in a random direction and seeing where I go

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Over break I went on a lot of bike rides and walks to fight boredom and not get super out of shape. I was going on a bike ride with my friend and we stopped at a playground and walked around for a little, but after a while I suggested that we should walk in a random direction and see what happens. First I took out my phone compass and checked what direction we would need to walk back in, and then we set off into the woods.

We ended up being pretty underwhelmed because after like 3 minutes of walking the woods stopped and we ended up in the middle of a golf course. Old men were looking at us suspiciously so we went on a path instead of just walking across the middle of the green. Soon we made it to a river (the Potomac, we were in Algonkian Park) and walked along that for a while. Once again we were a little underwhelmed cause we had both been there before, and I didn’t really feel like I was walking blindly. I really wanted to find a really interesting place or have something particularly exciting happen, but I think my hopes were too high. Along the river it was super muddy and to spice things up we decided to take a random path back through the woods, but it was even muddier than before and we made it back to our bikes wet and cold.

Overall, this wasn’t a very exciting experience but it was something new that I did so it fits in the criteria of this blog. I kind of want to do this again just to challenge my sense of direction. I think getting lost would be kind of fun, since I can always pull out google maps if I´m getting worried. I recommend this to people who enjoy walking around but want to make a little more interesting.

Being a part of a play

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So after high school volleyball ended I had no clue what to do with my time. I talked to my friend about my issue and she suggested helping her as a tech person for the school play. And so I decided to take a risk and do something that I hadn’t really considered doing in the past. I thought that tech was a great idea for me because it was a lot more low maintenance than having to memorize lines and be in front of a bunch of people, but I still got to be a crucial part of the play. I was a light technician, meaning that I helped create light cues depending on where people were on stage, and then had to listen and press a button when the cue came. This sounds easy but it was probably the most nerve racking thing I have ever done. Lighting is the kind of thing where it is hard to notice when it goes right, but when someone messes up it’s super obvious.

I worked on creating light cues for a few weeks (with the help of others), but they didnt come together till like a day or two before opening night, and I was super stressed about if they were going to work out or not. On all of the days we had the play, the techies would first have to spend 15 minutes or so putting a microphone on all of the actors. The mics we used were super crappy and some just refused to work or always said they were at low battery no matter how recently the batteries had been replaced. After we had mic’d everyone, the techies went up to the booth (room in the back of auditorium with all the tech stuff) and got ready to do our jobs. I felt super fancy because the head tech had us put on headphones so we could communicate without disrupting the show. Walking around the auditorium and saying stuff urgently into my headphones made me feel like I was on a mission or something, though I’m sure that I looked a lot less cool than I felt. A few times I did a light cue early, but really the only super noticeable mistakes were when I changed a cue in the computer and it decided to make that change to like 5 other cues. The computer was so finicky and annoying but it was still nice to learn how to work the lights. 

After we finished our weekend full of shows the cast and crew went to IHOP and I had a great time talking to all the new and interesting people I had gotten to know. Drama is the kind of program were you’ll always meet an extremely unique and fun group of people. Though when I first joined I didn’t realize it would be such a large commitment, I didn’t really mind having to stay at school late and put so many hours into the play. I love the people that I made friends with and I’m going to continue being a part of the program for sure.

Image: “Theatrecrafts.com.” Theatrecraftscom, www.theatrecrafts.com/pages/home/topics/lighting/glossary-beginners/.

Making Clay Tree Ornaments

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For a project for school I needed to make a tree ornament. I decided to create little clay figurines and attach a tree hangy thing on it so that it will count as an ornament.

To create the figurines I used this recipe http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/2011/07/baking-soda-clay.html

It was super simple, just baking soda, cornstarch and water. I mixed it all in a pot and then heated it up while stirring, then let it cool in the fridge for a few minutes. It was nice to make clay from scratch because it was cheap and easy, and I felt accomplished when I was done.

To mold the ornaments I used a fork and water to help mold the clay. It was super easy to manipulate and I finished it all in an hour. They took about 3 days to dry, and after they dried I hot glued string to the figurines and then tied tree hangers to it. Though I doubt anyone will feel the need to make a tree ornament anytime soon, I recommend using the clay recipe if you have to mold something and don’t feel like spending money on clay. 

The picture I used is pretty low quality but I promise they look less bad in real life.

fried plantains vs. fried bananas

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Today I decided to test if I liked fried plantain or fried banana more. I’ve never made pan-fried banana before but I’ve had it in restaurants. I just added a little olive oil to a pan, heated it up, and added sliced banana. I tried to let it cook until it was golden brown but forgot about them so they were a little burnt. The fried banana did not have enough flavor to eat plain so I had it with vanilla ice cream, honey, and some peanuts. Plantains are like bananas but a little bit more dense and are much more sweet. I get them frozen in this box from trader joes and I make them all the time.

What I discovered from this experiment was that fried bananas’ flavor is so subtle that really all I could taste was the oil. They can’t just be pan fried using the same methods for making fried plantains and are best deep fried, though that takes way too much time and effort. If you’re ever at a store that sells plantains get them. Frying plantain is an easy and healthy-ish way to make desert.

I just looked up banana and plantain and that image came up isn’t it amazing

 

Dry needling isn’t fun

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This week I tried dry needling. The past few months I’ve struggled with tendonitis in my posterior tibialis (inside of my ankle) and my physical therapist suggested dry needling my calf. Pretty much, what dry needling does is stimulate the muscle so that it completely loosens up instead of being tight. It’s ideal for the muscle to be sort of in the middle between super tight and super loose. You can stretch your muscle and roll it out a bunch to get it from tight to the middle point, but it’s easiest to dry needle and get it super loose and then work the muscle to that middle point.

I left school early, which was pretty much the only nice part of this whole experience, and went to my physical therapist’s. She had me lie down, and then cleaned off my calf and stuck a tiny needle in it after looking for the tightest spot. The actual needle didn’t hurt at all, but then she started moving it around looking for a trigger point, and it felt like my calf had a giant charlie horse that was tightening and untightening. Once the pain stopped and my muscle stopped twitching she would take it out and put a different one in. This all sounds super unpleasant and that’s because it was. The whole time she was really nice and was asking if I was okay. I suffered through it cause I payed money and also because after dealing with my tendonitis for so long I was willing to try anything (I’ve done cupping and shock therapy as well). She did the same thing with 5 more needles and then I did some band exercises to retrain my muscle. When I got off the table I could barely walk because my calf was so sore and had to hobble around for the rest of the day.

This experience was really helpful in the long run because it relieved a lot of the pressure on my tendon, though I would not recommend this for people who have a really low pain threshold, or people who weren’t recommended to do this by a physical therapist.

That’s all for this week’s thing

Hi this is my introduction post

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Doing something completely new has always been one of the most fun and exciting things for me. I am going to enjoy myself way too much while writing on this blog. Every week I’m going to try something new and then talk about how it went.

As a reader I hope that you will be able to learn from my experiences as well!