Site and Field Trip

Pictures of the Day] Panoramas!

Mood] BLAH

Weather] Cool and incredibly windy

Currently] In the basement

Quote of the Day] "My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"

So we went on a field trip to Evanston Art Center as part of our assessment of a site possibly in need of preservation. The day was beautiful. It was bright and sunny, but very very windy. My allergies definitely flared up. Driving to Evanston took about 30-45 minutes. There was some construction along the way so I had to navigate around that, but otherwise it was a very lovely drive.

The Art Center itself was a very old building. It reminded me a lot of the Ecology Action Center in Bloomington-Normal. The interior has winding passages that are maze-like to different areas, most leading to what were servant quarters or store rooms. The grounds are very nice as well. There is an entrance to the beach area and also a park-like grove. The major problems with the site include an overgrowth of trees and brush that block the views to the lake and a drainage issue. There is a Jensen Council Ring that, partially embedded behind a slope, creates a dirt trail for runoff when it rains, which inevitably transforms into a flooding, water-fall effect.

This is the semester project for my Historic Landscape Preservation class, so we'll be learning a lot of skills in assessing the land and researching how to solve the problems. Hopefully a suitable, relatively reasonably priced solution will be reached.

Quite tired,
Jaye

Back to School!

Pictures of the Day] New haircut!

Mood] Excited

Weather] Nastily hot

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are."

So I have mixed feelings about coming back to school. The first couple weeks of classes have been nothing but hectic. I feel like I haven't had any time to breathe! my new apartment is great, but my room is still a mess. I keep rushing in and out that there is barely any time to clean up. I wake up pretty much every day at 7:00 AM and don't sleep until about one or two in the morning. I don't mean to scare, but I thought that being a 4th year meant relaxing more! All the 4th years I knew last year seemed to be living the high life! They had so much time on their hands!

My classes have been really interesting. I have Prairie School Landscape Design, Landscape Preservation, and Shakespeare Text/Film/Stage, I mean, aside from Studio and stuff. Shakespeare has been really fun. We watch movies and discuss the readings of the plays analytically. The two Landscape courses are also very fun. We plow through a ton of different readings. I also have Visual Training, which is nice. We've been working on an exercise called four white rectangles. I'll have to post my plates sometime! Basically the rules are you are allowed one horizontal black line and one vertical black line, both of any widths, and you have to place them on the white crescent board to create a visually balanced piece. It's a lot harder than you think it would be!

Well there's a lot more to say, but there's also a lot more homework to do, so I'll keep you updated with classes as I go!

Schooled out,

Jaye

The New Place!

Pictures of the Day] My new apartment in Gunsaulus Hall

Mood] Freakin' excited!

Weather] Cool

Currently] In my new apartment

Quote of the day: "If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

So my new place is awe-tastic! I was even more pleasantly surprised than I thought I would be. I was expecting it to be pretty cool, but this is awesome! I am now living in an upper classmen undergraduate apartment in Gunsaulus Hall. There is a kitchen, a living area, bedroom, and small bathroom. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do, but I think it'll be nice once it's all decorated. I have some things up now though. The only bad thing about it is that it is a little hot sometimes. My roommate and I put up a ton of fans though to help cool down the bedroom. The living area is pretty cool because there is an air conditioning-like machine in there. It'll get removed though once it gets colder.

I have a new desk for studio. The studio space we are in is pretty small and it is shared by another studio. We have about 30 people in both studios. The other studio in the space is about urban farming. The studio that I am in about moveable structures on the Chicago Riverwalk. More on that later!

Quite happy,

Jaye

Cake Pops

Picture of the Day] MS Paint Harry Potter scene. Hee hee. I get inspired.

Mood] Lazy

Weather] Cool and sunny

Currently] At home

Quote of the day: "Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds"

So my sister showed me this awesome blog called bakerella.com! I'm determined to make some of the cute cake-pops that this woman has. They are absolutely fabulous! She does cute designs for each holiday and events like the Emmy Awards, Superbowl, birthdays, and more! It's pretty much my new baking equivalent to smittenkitchen.com :D I'm addicted to these crafty blogs!

Nothing much has been happening otherwise. I haven't cooked or baked in a while, so no new images to post, but I'm sure that there will be photos to come of delicious food once I'm back in college. I plan on trying to get some good meals down. If I have any time, hopefully I might be able to host some parties too! :D

Out for now,
Jaye

Home

Pictures of the Day] Apricot Button Cookie

Mood] Tired and moody

Weather] Pretty cool

Currently] In the kitchen

Quote of the day: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."

Soooooooooooooooooooooo things are annoying. I hate it when you plan something and it doesn't turn out right. I ended up trying to get together with some friends and due to unforseen circumstances, it just didn't work out. I mean, it's unfortunate, but totally legitimate and I can't help but feel upset about it anyway. I think it's natural. So of course what did I do? I baked! I made these small bite size cookies with sugar free apricot and blackberry jam. They were very soft and crumbly, not exactly to my taste, but decent enough. I used smart balance margarine and splenda.

Anyway, not much has been happening. I've been home putzing around, cleaning up now and then. Within the few weeks I have returned, my room has become a mess. It looks completely disheveled.

In other news, re-reading Harry Potter has been awesome! :D I am finding some more details that I overlooked before, so hooray! Not much else to report now...

Baked out,
~Jaye

Tempura

Pictures of the Day] Shrimp Tempura and Vegetable Tempura, Teriyaki Chicken, Glazed Pumpkin

Mood] Joyful

Weather] Too hot to be driving with the windows down.

Currently] At the front desk

Quote of the day: "There was a disturbance in my heart, a voice that spoke there and said, I want, I want, I want! It happened every afternoon, and when I tried to suppress it it got even stronger."

I have been craving to get out to Mitsuwa for the past, I don't know, year, so I finally did it! HOORAY! It was good and bad, a wonderful and terrible time coming. I ended up of course, buying more than I was supposed to, but it was delicious food that I got, so I was proud. For those who do not know the wonderful land known as Mitsuwa, it is a Japanese food market, like a grocery store, but much more! There is a bookstore within, a liquor store, home decor store, and food court. It's pretty much like it's own little minimall. H-Mart is the Korean version of it. Needless to say, happy place. It is located in Arlington Heights. Link here: http://www.mitsuwa.com/english/ . Totally check it out! A fun place to go for a few hours or a half day.

So long story short, I ended up perusing for way too long with a CART no less, bought tons of groceries and ended up making some delicious tempura. I made up shrimp and vegetable. For veggies I used carrot, zucchini, eggplant, okra, green beans, and Japanese pumpkin (DELISH). I also decided not to use as much batter as is usually done in restaurants because if you fill up on batter, then you won't be able to eat as much! I also made up the sauce for the tempura, which is comprised of pretty much vegetable stock, soy sauce, and mirin (cooking rice wine). It was way too much, be tastey. I also did chicken teriyaki, which unfortunately was not glazed like my mom's, but rather was marinated. It still tasted fine, but I think I just miss my mom's cooking :)

Stuffed,
~Jaye

City Hall Green Roof Fieldtrip!

Pictures of the Day] The City Hall Green Roof and Me!

Mood] Gross

Weather] Nasty. All I have to say.

Currently] At the front desk

Quote of the day: "Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects."

This field trip was to City Hall Green Roof, which hopefully is NOT a once in a lifetime experience, but very well may be. There are guided tours offered, but I am not sure if you have to register or pay for those. The opportunity to see it was great! The green roof was absolutely fantastic! It was soooo hot and gross, but it was awesome to actually walk across the circular stone tiles on the sloping lawns and look at all the different plants. My professor named them as we looked, showing us the leaves and the flowers to emphasize how we could distinguish them. The man who gave us our tour, Michael, works in the Environmental department at City Hall. He helps with the planning of sustainability and different ways the city handles the Environmental issues, like drainage, insulation on buildings, etc...Quite neat!

Our tour was very short. We just traipsed around the top of the roof, but it was nice. Michael showed us the bees that they actually keep on the top of the roof in a bare patch toward the center of the roof. These bees produce a lot of honey (I forget how many pounds of it Michael detailed, but it was a large amount!) that the City of Chicago actually sells and gives away as gifts. I think all the proceeds go to charity and non-profit organizations! Cool, huh?

I wondered if the honey from those bees differ in any way, but I didn't mention it at the time. I was engrossed with the different sedum and flowering varieties. It was quite lovely even though it was burning! I was glad when we got off even though it was a great time.

Sweating up a storm,
~Jaye