Spain is the world’s largest strawberry exporter.

I freaking LOVE strawberries.

Amendment One has passed in North Carolina.

go-tothepapertowns:

wickedclothes:

Same-sex marriage is now officially banned in the North Carolina State Constitution, as well as civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Oh my God…

…Hopefully there will be a case that will go to court, causing the amendment to get thrown out. 

Paint, Feet, and Rivera

In my Spanish III class, we’re doing an artist project where we take a famous artist, learn about their lives and paintings, create a presentation in Spanish, and make a replica of one painting of the artist. Sounds like a lot, but we’re in groups, so it’s all good. I was assigned the part of recreating a painting. It’s Portrait of Natasha Gelman by Diego Rivera. This is what it’s supposed to look like:  

And this is what mine looks like so far - it still needs more layers for shading:

The most difficult part about painting this thing is the easter lillies that Rivera insisted on using 24/7. It’s extremely hard to match all of the different shades of the lillies, even considering I’m using acrylics and not oil. (Oil is more difficult for me, due to the slow way it dries, the cost, and the way you have to ‘erase’ marks with thinner. I’m not the best painter, I like pastels and charcoals more.) So, I made a shade for the little lillies and had small amount of extra paint left over that I didn’t want to waste. So, Internet, here is my foot. I painted it with chemically-loaded acrylics. I regret nothing. 

Diego Rivera was a pretty quirky guy. He was a Mexican painter who married Frieda Kohla (think unibrow). He’s known for his murals depicting mainly people. If you ever see Easter lillies in a painting, 9/10 times it’s Rivera. The other 1/10 is some wannabe. 

According to my wonderful neighbors, Diego once was asked to paint a large mural for the Rockefeller Center. He put Vladmir Lenin in the mural, a Russian communist, and refused to paint over the mural. Sure, this happened way before the second Red Scare started in the 1950s, but there was already an initial scare after WWI, and communism was NOT the sort of thing you wanted to flaunt back then in the United States. Understandably in that time period, the mural was either covered up or destroyed.  Diego was still paid in full, though. What a lucky guy. 

Nightlight

It’s not that I’m afraid of the dark…it’s that I enjoy some level of perpetual awareness at all times, and that includes being able to see in a dark room.

“In a study conducted by the PewResearch Center, teenagers from the ages of 12-17 were asked what their favorite video game was. Around half of the boys and 14% of the girls surveyed put down a M or AO, adult only, rated game. It can be reasonably inferred from this data that there is a strong possibility of more than half of the boys and more girls than 14% actually own M or AO rated games, considering that the study only asked for the favorite game, and not if the teenagers surveyed owned a rated game.Therefore, if 97% of all teens ages 12-17 play video games, and there is an almost an equal number of male and female teenagers, and half of the boys and 14% of girls are known to play video games that are rated, that means that over a third of teenagers have a favorite game that is rated M or AO, and over a third of all teenagers ages 12-17 most likely own, play, or have played a M or AO rated game.”

I’m writing a research paper. Lotsa research. 

My research paper for my American Studies class is about the portrayal of women in video games. After researching, I think my faith in humanity died a little.

For every good article and comment by someone in the video game industry or someone who recognizes the problem in the industry with female characters, there’s about ten comments degrading women. It’s difficult to research in the sense that I really feel like my brain is turning to mush reading such thoughtless comments. 

But! I preserve. The paper is going to be written. Then who knows, maybe I’ll even put it up on this here blog. Sure I want this to be mainly a Rotary blog, but eh…I can always delete it later. 

Madrid

My host family lives in Madrid in a small but cosy house. I think that their daughter will be in the USA, Minnesota to be specific, while I am at their place - at least, that’s what it sounded like from the email. It’s a trade-off, and although it’s too bad I won’t get to really know her, being an only child should be fun. I’m a poor, forgotten middle child, see? :P

I have two choices for schooling: technology, or social sciences. I think my mom wants me to do technology instead of social sciences to a degree. While I’m feeling a bit ‘um’ for the technology school because itll probably going to be harder to understand with more difficult vocabulary, it’ll most likely boil down to if I can take an art class and play in an orchestra. 

My host mother seems so nice! She’s signing the emails with “kisses! (besos)” which I think is more of a culture thing, but still! It makes me feel loved and wanted already. I know I’m going to have an awesome time. :) And she understood everything I replied to her! I replied to her in all of my Spanish without having a Spanish teacher or peer edit it, so I know there were some mistakes, but she understood what I was saying. I’m conversing/corresponding in Spanish! This is so cool!!!! xD

OMG A FAMILY!

MY HOST FAMILY JUST EMAILED ME!!! I’M SO EXCITED!!!

I will have a host sister my age, and they all look super nice (they sent a picture)! I’M SO EXCITED! I was worried that I wouldn’t have a family and then wouldn’t be able to go, but they sent a very nice letter letting me know I am able to get in contact with them! I’m going to start a response right away! It’s all in Spanish, so I will do my best. I understood everything they said in the email, so I think I’m going to be fine for language! 

AAAHHHH I’M SO EXCITED!!!!