Piecing It Together

The final part of this blog series: drawing an entire human body. I expect that it'll be much harder to draw the details, such as the face and hands, because the farther out something is, the less detail you can add to it, making it harder to create a realistic look.

Something I struggle with when drawing full bodies is definitely proportions. Even if I follow proportional rules (the entire body being 8 heads long), it always looks just a little too unrealistic. I admittedly cheated on this one and drew the a picture of the knees-up instead of a full-body shot, but I figured that it was close enough, and cutting off the calves and feet wouldn't make an enormous difference.

The thing I struggled most with was definitely the face. With the face being much smaller, I struggled to fill in the details, and I'm honestly not satisfied with the overall face.

Of course, I started out with the basic head shape. As you can see, I started out with quite a rough sketch, just eyeballing everything quickly onto the paper and getting the major parts down.

I chose not to use construction lines here, because I was at more of a loss as to where to put them. Though they can be helpful at times, it's rather difficult to place them where they'd be most advantageous. Bridgman suggests following the major lines of the drawing best, or the lines that specifically direct the eye (Bridgman 72).

Another issue I had was smoothly connecting the limbs together. Bridgman explains that "Masses of about the same size or proportion are conceived not as masses, but as one mass; those of different proportions, in respect to their movement, are conceived as wedging into each other, or as morticed or interlocking" (Bridgman 12). He basically explains that the body parts should not be seen as multiple parts, but as parts of a whole. With this in mind, it was a bit easier to smoothly connect the arms and legs to the torso, as well as connecting the head to the body.

As you can see, I had quite a rough start. I was rather intimidated by the whole process, and it was quite difficult to start off. However, a tip I'd say is to not dwell over mistakes. It's okay to misplace the eye, so long as you use the misplacement to properly reposition the eye.

I'm really quite neutral about the end product. Not my best or worst work, but it had a lot of time and effort poured into it, and the finished product doesn't look horrible, though it's not the best.

How do you feel when something doesn't turn out how you want it to? Do you get discouraged when you don't always achieve the best results, and does it deter you from doing the same activity?

Bridgman, George. Constructive Anatomy. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2016. Print.

The golden seal lion

    For my final post, I decided to use a gold sheet of  origami paper to make my seal lion, from the book under the sea origami by Duy Nguyen. Under the sea origami has taught and shown me the different animals that I can create with origami paper. All of these animals I have never done before, but I have done certain folds that the book teaches and shows how to make such and such folds. But overall this book has enhanced my overall knowledge of origami, in the past I never knew the proper names of certain folds. But with book i now know more and the name of folds.

To make a origami seal lion, you must know the following folds: mountain fold, valley fold, outside reverse fold, squash fold. (Nguyen 30).

Making the seal lion was easy, even though I may had of have some issues getting the creases and folds perfect so that it all comes together very neatly. Especially with the gold origami paper, it is very fragile so I had to extra careful with the folds and creases. Some parts that I trouble with was doing "outside reverse fold". (Nguyen 8). I thought that I had missed a fold while making the seal lion so I redid it, but I just really had to was fold the tail inwards. Overall i did enjoy making the seal lion, espcially in gold.

Nguyen, Duy. under the sea origami. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2004

Do you prefer using a specific color when making an origami figure? 

  

Cookie Monster

Cookie monster is my all-time favorite character on sesame street, his fun and outgoing personality captured my attention. His love for cookies made me love cookies.  Today I will be sharing with this easy and adorable cookie monster cupcakes! The ingredients you will be needing are:

·        6 cupcakes Paper liners

·        Regular Cupcakes baking pan: 2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches

·        ½ cup on whole milk

·        Piping bag with tips

·        1 can of 16 oz. Container of vanilla Frosting

·        Edible eyes

·        cookies

·        11.5 oz. of Cake Mix

·        1 egg

·        blue food coloring

·        1/3 cup of Vegetable oil

Like always, I made the batter and placed it in the oven. When it was ready I took it out and started decorating. I started off by tinting the can of frosting with blue food coloring. I placed the blue frosting inside the piping bag with a start tip.  Generously covering my cupcake with blue swirls of frosting to symbolize the fur of Cookie Monster (Tack 124). Furthermore, Karen Tack emphasized the importance of making the frosting messy by saying, “To really get the fur of Cookie Monster, swirl the frosting in no particular order, get it everywhere to make it more realistic” (Tack 124). Using her technique, I grabbed the piping bag and squeezed it while moving my hand all over the cupcake without going in any pattern. Then, using a knife I cut a line at the bottom of the cupcake to create the mouth of Cookie Monster. I placed a cookie in the month of Cookie Monster because, duh, Cookie Monster loves cookies. Finally, I placed two edible eyes at the top of the cupcake, and honestly after placing on the eyes, my Cookie Monster became an old man. It didn’t really look like Cookie Monster anymore but a weird man. However, my friend said that it was cute and adorable.

That’s it! It is honestly so simple and doable! Overall, I had a really great time not only making the cupcakes but also eating them. They turned out way better than I expected. I brought these cupcakes over to my little cousins and they absolutely loved them! I will surely make these cupcakes again in the future! I am so shocked that I was able to make Cookie Monster, this has been a great achievement.

Question: Who's your favorite character from sesame street, and who would you like to try to bake on a cupcake?

 Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.         

Pastel Cupcakes

Today, I will be making pastel cupcakes. If you’re in a rush and need something fast and sweet to devour then these cupcakes are perfect. The ingredients you will be needing are:

·        6 cupcakes Paper liners

·        Regular Cupcakes baking pan: 2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches

·        ½ cup on whole milk

·        Piping bag and tips

·        3 cans of 16 oz. Container of vanilla Frosting

·        A whisk

·        An Oven

·        11.5 oz. of Cake Mix

·        1 egg

·        Red, blue, green, and yellow food coloring

·        1/3 cup of Vegetable oil

      

First, I made the batter and placed it in the oven. After making the cupcakes, I divided the frosting into 4 small microwaveable bowls. Karen Tack, author of Hello, Cupcakes, said to buy store-bought frosting to produce a firm, shiny, glistening, and smooth cupcake (Tack 138). I tinted each bowl a different pastel color with food coloring. Karen Tack explains the importance of covering up the frosting by saying, “Cover the frosting with plastic wrap until ready to use to prevent them from drying out” (Tack 139). Her techniques helped me significantly, last time when I was waiting for my cupcakes to cook, I tinted my frosting; However, I left it out without any cover and my frosting hardened and I was unable use it.

I microwaved each bowl for 10 seconds and stirred it until it became the consistency of light whipped cream or Elmer’s glue. If it’s too thick, stir and microwave for 10 more seconds (Tack 139). Quickly, I held the cupcake by its bottom and dipped it into the melted frosting and lifted the cupcake and allowed the excess frosting to drip off. I popped all the bubbles on the cupcakes and fixed spots that were weird and funny. Afterwards, I waited about 2 minutes for the frosting to harden, and dipped it back into the frosting. The second layer looked way smoother than the first layer. Later, I took a piping bag and filled it with white frosting and applied simple designs on the cupcakes, so it wouldn’t distract the attention away from the pastel frosting.  

Final Product

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My friends said they look absolutely adorable and tasted great! 

Question: What color would you use if you were to make these cupcakes?
                  Have you ever tried dipping your cupcake into melted frosting before?

 Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.         

Gotta Catch’em All

Today I will be making Pokémon balls cupcakes. Can you believe that Pokémon has been around for 20 years? As a child my favorite game of all time would be Pokémon.  I grew up with mainly boys in my household, so I played games that my cousins would love to play and I would be so excited to catch Pokémon’s and have competition with them. Today I will be reliving my childhood by making these cute, doable cupcakes. The ingredients you will be needing are:

·        6 cupcakes Paper liners

·        Regular Cupcakes baking pan: 2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches

·        ½ cup on whole milk

·        Piping bag with tips

·        1 can of 16 oz. Container of vanilla Frosting

·        A whisk

·        An Oven

·        11.5 oz. of Cake Mix

·        1 egg

·        Red food coloring

·        1/3 cup of Vegetable oil

Like Before, I made the batter and placed it in the oven. After 25 minutes I took the cupcakes out and started the decoration. Karen Tack emphasized the importance of having the right texture of frosting by saying, “Make sure your frosting is at room temperature; it will have a better texture and will be easier to handle, and always stir the frosting before using it” (Tack 10). I took her advice and placed the frosting on the kitchen table for a day, and stirred it well before using it. First, I took half of the frosting in the can and made it red with red food coloring and let the half remain white. I took the red frosting and spread it on half of the cupcakes, and i did the exact same thing with the white frosting. I removed any excess frosting and smoothed the top (Tack 10). 

Then, I put chocolate frosting inside a piping bag with a small hole tip. Where the red frosting and the white frosting meets, I put a line in the middle and a circle in the middle of the line to create the Poké ball design. It might look sloppy and messy at first, but everything will eventually come into place.Then, I get another piping bag but this time I have white vanilla frosting inside. With the same small hole tip, I fill the circle in the middle of the line with white frosting to imitate the poke ball design.

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Overall, they look so adorable even if it’s a little messy! My friends said it was tasty and the design was beautiful! I really enjoyed making these cupcakes and will surely make it again in the future!

Question: Did you play Pokemon when you were young? If so, what Pokemon was your favorite? 

Will you ever try to bake these cupcakes?

 Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.         

Japanese Cuisine- Miso Soup

For this blog post, I made Miso Soup with Tofu and Mushroom. This soup wasn’t extremely challenging, but finding the ingredients was (mainly the Red and White). The recipe consists of Katsuo Dashi, White miso, Red miso, Mirin (rice wine that is similar to sake), silken tofu, and Shitake Mushroom. Katsuo Dashi is the standard stock for Japanese soups, made out of dried Bonito (atype of fish) and water (Dekura 144).

In order to make this soup, I first prepared the mushroom and tofu by cutting it up. Most of my tofu go smashed in the package so it was challenging to cut it. In addition, the mushroom was chopped a little smaller than I expected, since I thought it would expand more. After that, I squeezed two tablespoons of Red and White miso into a pot of water. When the miso dissolved, I threw in the mushroom, tofu, Mirin, and Katsuo Dashi. Finally, I “turned off the heat to allow each ingredient to simmer” (Dekura 45).

This is what the final product looks like; I’m impressed by how it tasted since I thought the Katsuo Dashi would taste funny considering how it was made out of dried up fish. What foods have you been surprised by after tasting the food?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Japanese Cuisine- Nori Roll

Making sushi roll is one of the hardest food that I have made from this book. Many aspects of this food are challenging. From cutting all the ingredients to rolling the sushi together. Using Cucumbers are the easiest ingredient for sushi rolls (Dekura 93). Instead of using only cucumbers, I chose to challenge myself by using more ingredients. Since I have had a decent amount of culminating experience, I decided to improve my skills by giving myself a challenge. I took a recipe from my mom, which includes Cucumbers, Yellow radish, Crabmeat, Spam, fish sticks, rice, seaweed, and salad dressing. The main challenge of this recipe was cutting everything, but rolling it up was not as hard.

To start this Recipe I cut the Spam, Crabmeat, Yellow Radish, fish stick, and Cucumber into long strands. From my amount of experience, I could cut these ingredients without a struggle. However, from the amount I made, it took a long time. I cooked the rice while I was cutting the ingredients in order to save time. After the rice finished cooking, I “combined rice vinegar, sugar, salt” (Dekura 146). When I finished mixing the ingredients, I left the rice cooker open in order to cool off the rice.

When all the ingredients were finished, I took out my sushi mat (a bamboo mat) and laid it on the counter. According to Dekura, you should, “spread a handful of rice thinly over the nori without squashing it” (93). I used a water-vinegar solution to soak my hands, in order to avoid rice sticking on my hands. After getting all the ingredients onto the nori, I lifted the edge of the sushi mat and rolled up the sushi while pushing all the ingredients towards me (Dekura 93). Finally, when all the sushi is rolled up, I cut each piece by, “[cutting] it into halves, then fourths, then eighths” (Dekura 93).  

I'm extremely proud of my product, and I felt very accomplished after I finished doing everything. What foods have you been proud of making?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Japanese Cuisine- Green Tea Tofu

         For my fifth post, I wanted to try something new; something that I’ve never tasted, nor have I ever heard about it. I want to expand my culminating experience by exploring new tastes, foods, techniques, and skills. Therefore, on this post, I created something called Green Tea Tofu. The name is self-explanatory as to what it is. I was intrigued by this dish because; I questioned how it would taste. Would it be bitter? Sweet? Salty? My curiosity drove me to create this dish myself.

               The dish consists ingredients such as silken tofu, Matcha Green Tea, agar agar powder, and Mirin. This dish isn’t time-consuming; It would take around 10-20 minutes or so. To start this dish, I place the silken tofu in a pot. Then I, “mash the tofu with a potato masher until it’s semi-liquid” (Dekura 77). When it becomes a thick paste, toss in 3 tablespoons of Green Tea powder. Again, continue mashing/mixing the solution until you have a consistent green paste. I messed up the next step, which was adding the agar agar powder. I forgot to mix it in water before adding it in the tofu and heating it up. After the mixture is heated up, strain the mixture through a sieve onto a rectangular mold (Dekura 77). Place the content into a refrigerator for roughly 30 minutes.

               As for the sauce, I used a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and Katsuo Dashi. Allowing the tofu to have a sweet, bitter, and salty taste. Additionally, some accompaniments you can use for this dish is ginger or pickled radish. Since I didn’t like either of those ingredients, I left them out of my dish. I added seaweed onto the tofu in order for it to look better.

               Finally, the dish tasted sweet yet salty (which I didn’t expect), and it seemed not stiff enough. I felt like I could’ve added more agar agar powder in order for it to harden up more. But all in all, I found this dish as a great learning experience, and I tried out a new dish.

So my question to you is: What dishes have you failed on making?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Python: TurtleWorld and Polygons

In this blog post, I will be continuing on with the TurleWorld and seeing if I can make different shapes and objects using my previous knowledge and guidance from the book. For example, in the first exercise, it wants me to simplify my coding by adding a “for” statement. “A for statement is sometimes called a loop because of the flow of execution runs through the body and then loops back to the top” (Downey 39). In this case, I used the “for” statement to simplify and make my square coding not as repetitive. 

In this example, I had the line of code that I used in the last post to repeat 4 times, instead of me typing it out 4 times. In the next exercise in Think Python. It wants me to fiddle around with the angle of the turns that the turtle can make. In this case, by making the polygon a function, I can change around what I can input in its parameters to change the shape that I make with the Turtle. In the example that Think Python gives me, the first line of code defines the function “polygon” to have the variables, t, n, and length. Then in the function of the polygon, there is a variable called angle, which calculates the exterior angle of the polygon. Then there is a loop statement again that moves the turtle (t) in a certain length, and then turns the turtle left in a certain angle. The last line of the code executes the function “polygon” with 7 sides with each side length being 70 (Downey 39).

During the next examples in Think Python there was also a challenge to program it so that the turtle draws a circle. While I tried my best to figure it out I eventually ran out of time and gave up to be able to post on the blog on time.

Question: When have you given up on something because it was too difficult?

Downey, Allen B. Think Python: How to Think like a Computer Scientist. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, 2015. Print

The key to long- term success

The one thing I genuinely appreciate Mark Lauren's book You Are Your Own Gym is that in it, he clarifies exactly what kind of exercise makes you lean, and what kind makes you look like Popeye after eating a can of spinach ( we will get back to this later). His big idea is that strength training (like pushups and pull-ups) makes you big, and cardiovascular training (aerobics, running, etc.) makes you lean (38). This is important to keep in mind when choosing your daily or weekly workout routine because you must have a goal or a realistic image in your head of what physique you hope to achieve. I decided in the beginning that I wanted to have a lean body, with a few target areas such as my stomach and my thighs to be more toned. So for this, I have been doing sets of my favorite exercises such as the pistol, or the one-legged squat, which simultaneously both work your core and your quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and hip flexors (I have written blogs on both these forms). And on alternating days, I will do my favorite stretches and go running around my neighborhood if I have the time.

Another thing I admire about Mark Lauren’s book is that he also cracks the myth that dieting does much for you. He explains simply and clearly that your body slows down its metabolic rate in order to compensate for the intake of calories. When you starve your body, your metabolism slows down to preserve those calories. You may lose weight, but the reason so many people have gained previous lost weight is because once you resume a regular calorie intake, your metabolism stays slow, therefore, dieting is a definite no- go! Instead, he suggests going for small, but frequent meals, every 2-3 hours. “The key to long-term success” (38). Popeye was onto something with that spinach, it’s one of the most nutritious foods on earth, rich in most vitamins and necessary minerals you can name!

Putting

               Putting is always something that people have difficulty with; some people have problems with reading breaks, reading how much speed they need, understanding the slopes. There are many little details that come into sinking a putt.

               Now the things I said in the first paragraph are only a few examples of the things you need to sink a putt. Starting with being able to read the break. The break is the way that they green moves, so depending where you are on the green the break can be left to right or right to left. Those are the two main breaks that there are. When the green breaks from left to right you would want to aim your putt to the left of the hole so that the ball will follow the break and roll directly to the hole, and vice versa for when the break is from right to left.

               Another thing that many people forget to take into consideration is if they are putting uphill or downhill. Almost all golfers run into a time where they leave the putt to short or they rocket the ball way past the hole, I have done it multiple times! It depends how much of an uphill putt you have but when it comes to uphill putting, you always want to pick a spot past the hole. If you aim for this spot past the hole than you will not leave the putt short. When you have a downhill putt, you want to choose a point before the hole and aim for there. If you aim for this point, the ball will have just enough speed to roll down right into the hole.

               The final thing that most golfers have a problem with it the movement of putting. Usually when people have long putts or hard uphill putts, their instincts will be to hinge their wrists in order to get more power. You want to avoid this! Moving your wrists while putting can adjust the line you are following while putting. For example, you may be lined up to go to the left of the cup but when you hinge your wrist, you could hit the ball to the right of the hole because you moved the clubface. This is a problem that all golfers face, even the pros! A good way to fix it is by moving taking 50-100 practice putts a day where you just go back and forth, just your arms. Keeping your wrists straight, strong and balanced. This will allow your body and your mind to understand the right stroke and will eventually getting rid of the wrist nonsense.

The Final Step

The final step to finding the monologue just right for you is:


Step 7: Be natural and real. Bring these characters to life as only you can.



Question: Do you think your ready to do a monologue now?

Healthy Snacking

Cravings can be a huge setback when trying to maintain a healthy diet. Most people when they think of a snack think of carbohydrate loaded chips or crackers, but all those do is make you crave more. However, "protein is far better at giving you a pick-me-up" (Zinczenko 66). Lot's of things can get the job done, as well as taste good.

Men's Health, Get Back in Shape focuses on being healthy, but still enjoying life and not having to make huge sacrifices to keep those few extra pounds off. There are plenty of healthy snacks the book talks about, including Laughing Cow Cheeses, hard boiled eggs, and Muscle Milk. I have taken a particular liking to apples and almond butter. The apples are sweet and satisfy my sweet tooth, while the almond butter brings on the protein (Zinczenko 66). This snack is filled with natural sugars, and no room for artificial additives.

I have tried to hold myself to eating this as a snack rather than something unhealthy whenever I'm craving that little something, and it's been working. I've been staying away from chips for the past couple weeks, and as a result I've felt more energized. I'd suggest this snack to anybody trying to stay on the healthy side.

What other quick healthy snacks do you recommend?

Zinczenko, David. Men's Health, Get Back in Shape. Rodale Inc, Emmaus Pennsylvania, 2009.

Classic crunch

An old favorite, for a reason. Everyone knows and can do a crunch. Lie flat on your back with your knees perpendicular to the ground and bring your chest to your knees. So simple and easy, yet it's so helpful when you are working on your upper abs (Lauren, 124). Although, if you've been following my blog from the beginning you know that I am not going for a washboard stomach. Which is why my weekly workout routine has 2 sets of 10 side crunches (pictured above) every workout. Because crunches focus on your rectus abdominis, you won't get the definition of man's stomach. If you are, go for the flutter kicks (Lauren, 125). Mark Laurens book You Are Your Own Gym has really helped me get back in shape, emotionally and physically. I am more energized than before, and I genuinely feel a whole lot better about my body. I have also found that exercising is a great way to channel and relieve my stress. A great improvement has been my sleep. I find that if I do a few sets of crunches, and some pistols (previous blog) that I fall asleep faster, and stay asleep. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to see quick changes in their physique and overall health. 

F2 World Of Football

Win grove Cruyff

        "A good attacker scores, a brilliant attacker leaves his defenders in the dust in doing so"(F2 110). Simple is always efficient, although sometimes simple doesn't achieve what you want. This exercise doesn't stretch simple but also is not as easy to do. Using this skill will get your defender moving as well as yourself so before starting any training remember to always ALWAYS warm up your body to prevent unnecessary injury. This can be done by stretching your calf's and hamstrings.

         

       

Persistence and strong will is the key to success when learning something so remember, it may not work at first but soon enough the skill will develop. "This one's going to take a bit of practice, the key thing is to follow the steps closely and then build up the speed slowly" (F2 111). Begin with "touching the ball with the inside of your foot, then the outside cutting slowly back wards".

Don't move on until the first two steps are very good as it will be a lot harder taking it all in at once rather then step by step. If you have these steps down then start to "cross your standing leg behind the ball" (F2 112). 

Great, you're almost done, "now use your trailing foot to tap the ball in front of you and explode away from the defender and race away" (F2 113). Now you have learned another trick, do not forget if you do not get in touches on the ball every week your skills will diminish slowly so always look to get some practice time in and especially always seek to improve your skills on the ball as there is no such thing as perfect but you can always be better.

Do you think being the best attacker means being able to pull of the fanciest tricks? 
Freestylers, F2. F2 World of Football: How to Play like a Pro. London: Blink, 2016. Print.

Sand Bunkers

                Hitting out of the sand has always been one of the hardest things for anyone who has ever played golf. Not only because it is hard to get a clean shot, but also because you cannot get much distance, or accuracy. According to the book, How to Hit Every Shot (The Ultimate Guide to Shot Making and Scoring) there are two main types of sand bunkers. The first type is the fairway bunker, which a bunker in the middle of the fairway, usually about 100-200 yards away from the green. The second is a greenside bunker, which is a bunker that is usually 10 yards away from the green, 20 yards away at the most. Below, I will talk about the most efficient ways that you can hit out of the sand.

               There is the full swing, which is where you can place the ball in the front, middle or back of your stance. Either stance works, but usually it is best to line the ball closer to your back foot. It is most efficient to line up in the back of your stance because most bunkers have large lips that you have to hit high to get out of, so placing the ball in the back of your stance adds loft to your shot. No matter where you line the ball up, you take a full swing almost every time. You can take a full swing whether you are in a fairway bunker or a greenside bunker. From experience, I have learned that when you are in a fairway bunker it is best to hit the ball cleanly, trying not to hit a lot of sand. If you do not hit a lot of sand then you are able to hit the ball farther, which is important, especially in a fairway bunker. When you are hitting out of a greenside bunker, it is good to hit a lot of sand. The reason you want to hit a lot of sand is because then you can pop the ball up very high and not that far. This is good because you can land the ball on the green instead of hitting it far past the green.

               Another type of way to hit out is the flop shot out of the sand. The flop shot is placed in the front of your stance. The reason you place it in the front of your stance is to get a ton of loft on the ball. The best place to use this shot is when you are hitting out of a bunker with a very high lip. A high lip means you have to hit the ball higher than normal to hit it clearly out of the sand. The flop shot pops the ball up high and pretty short. “You usually want to use this shot when you are at a greenside bunker and the pin is close to you. This shot is never smart to use when you are in a fairway bunker because that means you will not hit very close to the green” (Golf Mag. 105).

               Above you can see a picture of a famous golfer names Phil Mickelson demonstrating the flop shot out of the bunker. In the “golfing world”, Phil Mickelson is known as one of the bests at hitting out of the sand and one of the bests and the flop shot. He chose to use the flop shot because as you can tell there is a big lip right in front of him that he has to hit over. Hitting out of the sand bunker is one of the hardest things to perfect as a golfer, so that is why most golfers just try there hardest to just stay out of the bunkers ;)

Give Your Bae a Swan Towel Animal For Valentines Day!

Not sure what to give your significant other for Valentines Day? Don't settle with a meaningless box of chocolates, why not give them a swan towel animal instead! They will be in awe of your talent and effort to break the boundaries of a standard Valentines gift. From my experience from reading Holland America Line Towel Creations, I will be demonstrating the steps and instructions on how to make this easy towel creation!


For materials, you will need a large 30 x 50 in. towel and a medium sized 17 x 28 in. towel in order to create this towel animal. Additional accessories like googly eyes or decorations I would recommend to your towel creation, but its not necessary.


1st: For this step I recommend you have a hook attached to a wall so that this step can result in a more accurate towel fold. Either way, grab your large towel and "Latch the towel onto a support and tightly roll both sides of the towel to the center." (Holland 85)

2nd: Flip the towel over and grab the tip and fold it around 3/4s backwards (Holland 85)

3rd: Grab the very tip of the towel and curve it (Holland 85) to form the neck and mouth of the swan

4th: Now get the medium sized towel from before and "Spread over towel over the bottom body and tuck two corners into the front of the body"

5th: Finally, "Pick the center up and put the rest underneath to make it stand" (Holland 85). Optional, add any decorations or googly eyes to your swan. If not, your all done!

As I come to a close with my blogs, my journey with creating cute and adorable towel animals was a fun yet challenging task. I would make towel animals for my own use or to bring joy to others, either way, I consider this my favorite hobby or activity I would do in my spare time. For this Valentines Day, my hope is that you create or give something meaningful and special to your loved ones. For this, I ask you what is your favorite activity/hobby?

Thank you for reading my blogs throughout this season!

Have a Great Day!

Janice Herrador

Holland, comp. Towel Creations: Holland America Line 40 Designs. Seattle, WA: Holland America Line, 2007. Print.

"My Fault"

Taking ownership decreases the amount of problems and complications that could arise if someone were to not take ownership. In Stuff Good Players Should Know, Dick DeVenzio talks about getting into the habit of taking the blame yourself when a mistake is made involving you and another teammate. By owning up to mistakes, it makes everyone feel better and it won't anger others.

DeVenzio explains that, there are too many times in a game where one makes a mistake and they happen to blame it on the other person, which leads to both of the players to be angry at each other and hardly prepared to work together to stop the other team from scoring. It is an immensely different feeling when one makes a mistake and takes ownership for the mistake and the other person takes the blame as well. When both players own up to the mistake, it makes the both of them determined to do better next time, pass better, and are prepared to play a good team defense in the meantime (DeVenzio 168). Taking the blame makes the court more of a positive environment to play in. If people are always negative, it won't do the team any good.

After reading about taking the blame, I realized that I should take ownership more often. So, I started to apologize to teammates if a mistake happens that involves me, and it didn't anger anyone. "This kind of attitude, of taking the blame yourself, does wonders for team morale and will help you win games" (DeVenzio 168). The author informs the readers that having a positive attitude will help you win games and will decrease the tension between teammates. Examples of taking ownership on the court are, "Sorry, bad pass," "My fault," etc. The list goes on. 

Overall, taking ownership is better than blaming others. It helps people learn from the mistake and move on. 

Do you take ownership in your mistakes? Why or why not?

DeVenzio, Dick. Stuff Good Players Should Know: Intelligent Basketball from A to Z. 3rd ed. Stafford, TX: PGC Basketball, 1983. Print.

Origami: Traditional Creations

For this blog, I decided to create an origami design that was designed and created a long time ago. "This creation has a long tradition, and their creators were surely imagiros" (Kasahara 31). Imagiro is a play on word of "origami" written backwards to mean a person with imagination and a friend (Kasahara 32). The traditional origami I decided to create was an origami whale. This design was simple and had basic steps to create it. I found it easy and was good for any beginner to learn with the origami crane. This design started with a different origami base called the fish base, which was simple, but I had to go back to the front of the book in order to learn this base.

As I created this design, I had learned a new concept of cutting. The Japanese word "to fold" could be pronounced differently to mean, "to cut" (Kasahara 30). I had to cut half of the whale's tail in order to create a huge difference in the design, making it look a lot better. It shows how even a little cut can have a huge impact on a design. Overall, this design has taught me its tradition and beauty behind it and a lot about cutting.

Question: Do you like to learn about traditional origami? Why or why not?

Kasahara, Kunihiko. Extreme Origami. New York: Sterling Pub., 2002. Print.

Taking a Free Kick

Taking a free kick requires a lot of skill and precision, and I know this from experience since I am my teams official free kick taker. Its important to have accuracy and power at the same time. You don't want to shoot at goal with too much power because it will most likely go over or you don't want to shoot with little accuracy because it could be blocked by the wall. Knowing how to dip and curve a ball is key to shooting a perfect free kick. The objective is to hit it over or around the wall and making it hard to reach for the goalkeeper. The wall stands 10 feet away from where the shot will take place and they can also jump to block, that's why it is important to have the perfect touch!

  

In the book "Soccer for Dummies" By Thomas Dunmore he goes in depth of the technique for a perfect free kick "Place the Ball. You don't have to place the ball exactly where the referee points; just place it in the general area

Look. Look at the wall and look at the goalie

Step Back. I sometimes see players take many steps back

Relax. Take a deep breathe to calm yourself

Look again" (Dunmore 90) As you can see the author even gives out some key points for the technique to a perfect free kick. And it is very important that you practice you're free kicks everyday because you never know if your designated taker will be injured or out that game and scoring a free kick can be a crucial moment to the game.

Why is it important to have a designated kicker?

  

White Chocolate Chip Cookies!

For my last blog post, i decided to do another cookie recipe since i started off my blog with a cookie recipe, i wanted to end it with a cookie recipe! The recipe is quite similar to the original one i did in my first blog post but this is a little tweaked. Also a relative of mines birthday is coming up and they love white chocolate chips so what better excuse to make these amazing cookies from scratch! According to the book, "This cookie recipe will make a total of three dozen cookies when using two tablespoons for each cookie" (Pansino 32).

The ingredients you will need are:

- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

- 2 teaspoon baking soda 

- 1 teaspoon salt 

- 2 sticks (8 ounces) salted butter, at room temperature 

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar 

- 3/4 firmly packed light brown sugar 

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 large eggs 

- 12 ounces white chocolate chips 

Directions:

1. The first thing you do is preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and in a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Next you add the eggs, one at a time and scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
3. After the two mixtures are all mixed, "beat the flower mixture in parts of three until combined" (Pansino 32). This step i think is such a important step because if you dont put the flour into three parts, it would get very messy and i know that no one want to clean up a mess of flour so i made sure i divided them into three parts and luckily, i didn't make a mess!
4. Next you would fold in the white chocolate chips and place two tablespoon of dough per cookie onto the baking sheet. This part i kind of changed up a bit because i am making these for a specific occasion and needed different sizes but the recipe says 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie.

5. After the oven is done pre-heating, put the cookies into the oven for 7 to 9 minutes and after they are done, take them out to cool completely. I decided to set my timer for 8 minutes because it is in the middle of seven and nine. In the book, the author specifically says when cooling the cookies, not to place them in the freezer but let them air cool (Pansino 21). When you place the cookies in the freezer, the cookies start to crack so i made sure that i didn't put them int the freezer and it took for me about 30 minutes for all the cookies to cool and finally be complete and ready to eat! If you have a wire rack, that would be a better place to place the cookies overnight and wake up to them fully ready to be gobbled down!

Final Presentation:

The total number of cookies that i got from this recipe was 39 cookies! Luckily i have people to eat them so they just dont lay around my house. I felt like this recipe with the white chocolate chips were okay but not the best. The brown sugar didn't compliment the white chocolate chips as well as they could've but they still tasted amazing. I feel like the white chocolate chips would be good with maybe a sugar cookie recipe rather than one that needed regular chocolate chips. Other than that, it tasted amazing and the white chocolate tasted amazing and overall, this wasn't my best recipe, but it was a good one to try out. Either way, THE OUTCOME WAS DELICIOUS! 

Question: What is your least favorite type of cookie and why?

Citation: Pansino, Rosanna. The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us. New York: Atria, 2015. Print.