Why the Olympics Make Me Ashamed of America by Ian Patterson

Why the Olympics Make Me Ashamed of America

Costume Dyeing

On Saturday I ventured to the faraway land of Tracy, CA so that I could use my parents' great farm sized back yard to do costume dyeing. Luckily it didn't rain and so I was able to spend the whole day dyeing, it was however cold and windy which just made the experience more....uhm...more memorable.

I used 3 dye baths. The first was 2 gallons of water and 1/2 package of RIT Royal Blue dye, the second was 2 gallons of water and 1 whole package of RIT Royal Blue dye, and the third one was 2 gallons of water 1 package of RIT Royal Blue dye and 1/2 package of RIT Navy Blue dye.

I dyed all of the leotards the first dye bath to get them a light blue color. The pants were immersed in the light blue, and then dipped into the second dye bath, and then dipped into the third dye bath. I feel like the results were great!



Below is my work station.....

And my assistants! (my niece and my mom)

And this is me with the costumes drying on the clothes line. As you can tell it was cold and windy.



















I couldn't resist! I had to try it on!!


I can't wait to see the entire costume assembled and on the dancers. It's going to be amazing!

My Choreography!!!

I am finally posting my choreography!! This piece is from a performance at SJSU on December 5, 2009. It is titled "Hippocratic Oath?". The Hippocratic oath is an oath that doctors take when they become practicing doctors:

"I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts."

However, people are faced by decision or pressures of doctors/Insurance companies to euthanize or end life support. It makes me ask whether this oath still holds true or if it is somehow now void.

This piece seeks to illustrate the dilemma people are faced with when forced to make this type of decision. I hope that it educates people whether they are for or against euthanasia. I feel like no matter what your belief or views are they should be chosen out of education and not out of ignorance. When asked why you are for or against something you should be able to answer why and know what the ramifications of your decisions are.

I hope you enjoy this dance as a visual piece of education as well as a piece of fine art.

Super cute!

Ok my dear friend Kelley the Drawworm posted this video, and it really made my day!! I hope you smile and enjoy it too!!

Testing 1-2-3

Yesterday was Presidents Day as well as a Campus Furlough day, and so since I had the day off but couldn't really go do anything because many places were closed (also my husband was out of the house working on a game creation project, so he wasn't around to freak out for fear that I was about to dye the entire apartment blue), I did some practice dyeing!

I have "designed" the costumes for the modern class that I teach. This is a picture of what it should roughly look like.

The dance is about the Sea/Water, the creation of it, the movement of it, etc. The dance is abstract of course and as you can tell so is the costume. The idea for the costume is the blue of the water, the deeper down you go into the sea the darker it is, and when waves splash it often looks white and foamy or s"splashy"...hence the dark o light blue gradient and then the white swooshel over-top.

The costume consists of a tank leotard, jazz pants, and an "asymmetrical dress". Right now all of the are white. The pants and leotard are waiting for me to dye them blue. But before I delve into dyeing the real costumes I wanted to play around a little bit to get a feel for how the dye takes to the fabric, and how the color will/should look. Here are some test pant legs.
This was enough for me to figure out how I will go about dyeing the actual costumes!! For my test I used one dye bath (the left was navy blue and the right was royal blue because I didn't know what color would be the right blue), meaning that I used one color at one intensity or one level of concentration. For the actual costumes I will have 3 different dye baths each at different levels of dye intensity. First I will dye the entire garment in the bath that has only 1/4 amount of dye, then dip the garment to the appropriate level in a bath that has 1/2 amount of dye, then dip the garment to appropriate level in full strength. (intensity of dye is determined by amount of dye per 2 gallons of water) This will yield the actual ombre gradient that I desire. I am excited!!

Also I have decided to use Royal Blue dye because the Navy looks too purple as it goes lighter.

I can't wait to post pictures of the actual dyeing process as well as photos of the completed costumes!!

Lot's of "yummy" things

Since I haven't posted in a while and since there is a lot of yummy things to write about, I think this post should be broken into sub-posts. Below you will find that that I have labeled sections as "recipes", "school", "thoughts" and "praises".

Praises
First of all I would like to let you all no about how great God is. You may recall me talking about a couple who were recently pregnant and the woman wanted to have an abortion, she didn't even want to go to counseling. Well, she did go to counseling, and "postponed" the abortion. Since then though, the abortion seems to be canceled completely and they are excited to find out the sex of their baby! Praise God for the new little life, and the preservation of that life...God is so good!

School
It's crazy!!! Luckily I am officially registered for everything which truly makes this my last semester (this takes one stress off of my shoulders...waiting for add codes and petitions to exceed units really sucks).

Dance rehearsals have started for the Sr. Portfolio concert, and I am really excited. Both pieces that I am dancing in already seem magnificent. I can't wait!! My piece I am excited for too, but I am having trouble placing my concept and ideas onto my dancers, a sort of choreographers block. I have tons of ideas and things I want to do, I just can't seem to materialize them into movement. It will come though, and I have great dancers!!!

With normal classes, dance rehearsals, and teaching for Grace Dance Academy (and finishing choreography for their spring concert in April), I am kept extremely BUSY! At least its all mostly stuff I love (except for the a few classes in school).

Thoughts
For anyone who has read the Sparks novel "Dear John" DO NOT go see the movie!! It will make you upset. They rushed through all of the important parts and took some things out, and yet added things that never happened and changed things. It was a real disappointment! The book however is wonderful, and if you haven't read it please do!

On a more serious an theological note (for Christians): Is there ever a point during our life on earth where we can truly say "I am saved"? If so, can salvation be lost? Additionally, can it be gained back again? This has long been in debate between different theologians and churches, and was the topic of discussion during a meeting I had earlier this week.

Matthew 24:9-13
⁹"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹²Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Hebrews 6:4-6
⁴It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, ⁶if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Philippians 2:12
¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Most of the verses I found when looking up the term saved, seem to describe salvation as something to come, which suggests that we have the hope of it but don't actually have it have it. The verse from Matthew says it quite clear "those who stand to the end WILL BE saved". The other two verses show that obeying God's will and seeking His forgiveness will lead us to salvation. Additionally, Hebrews suggests that we can even lose the hope of salvation, by committing an unrepentable sin.

I think this is interesting because many Christians and churches hold onto the belief that there is a single moment a persons life where you are "saved" and from that point on you are guaranteed your place in God's heavenly kingdom. This belief is much more comforting to think about, it seems so much more simple. Believe and be saved, and then do your best for God and all is good. If that were the case however, Paul wouldn't be "working out his salvation in fear and trembling". Paul seems to be much more aware of Gods power and mightiness that Christians are today. Today we like to picture God like a Santa Claus, big friendly, jolly, can give great bear hugs, and is there to give us things we ask/pray for. In a way God is those things; I mean he isn't mean, but he is just and just for some people (and probably many people) isn't nice, happy, and jolly, and definitely not something they want. So I think from our human persepctive and relaization of time, salvation is a process. Something that we must currently strive for, but we can be comforted in the fact that we have the HOPE of that salvation.

Now if we think about things 4th dimensionally (which is always a much more interesting and precise way to think about things) we can see that we are either saved or not saved, and it's simple as that. God is outside of time and sees our entire life all at one time. He knows what we did, what we are doing, what we are thinking now...and now....and now, and knows what we will do. becauseHe sees our entire life as one complete piece of fabric He knows whether or not it is something He can use in His Kingdom. To Him we either saved or not saved. We are not almost saved. We are not once saved and then oops.. not saved. We are not unsaved and then suddenly saved. He simply sees the fabric of our entire life and judges whether or not is beautiful enough for His house.

Recipes

I have done a lot of cooking, and baking. Some were successes, and some were... well, not so much.

Pasta Sauce

One fun new thing I did was jar some of my homemade pasta sauce.
My sauce is delicious if I do say so myself, but tricky and interest part is the jarring process. Actually, it's really not that hard.

Step 1 Make your sauce
Step 2 Once the sauce is finished, keep it hot (boiling temperature), and in a large pot filled with boiling water boil the empty jars and their lid/lid parts for 15 minutes
Step 3 Take the jars out of the water pour water out of the jars, and set on the counter (put a couple of towels underneath them so they don't scorch your counter)
Step 4 Fill the hot empty jars with your hot pasta sauce
Step 5 Place the lids on the jars and screw on tightly
Step 6 Place the sauce filled jars back into boiling water and boil for 35 minutes
Step 7 Take the jars out, place on counter and let cool until cool enough to put away in your cupboard

Lanie's Oatmeal Surprise Cookies

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup of chopped coconut cashews (they are at Costco)...(chop them by placing in a ziploc bag and smashing until a nice "chopped" consistency)
  

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, and cashews; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. ENJOY!! Store tightly covered.

Lemon Recipes

The Lemon recipes below were made because I was given an enormous amount of lemons from my mother-in-law; Myer Lemons from her tree. So yummy, but I was then stuck with the decision "what do I do with 20 lemons?!"

Chicken Piccata

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces whole-wheat angel hair pasta
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• salt, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 chicken cutlets (3/4-1 pound total), trimmed
• 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 10-ounce package mushrooms, sliced (use portobella)
  
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (I added more lemon juice)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed (I added twice as many capers)
  
• 2 teaspoons butter

Preparation:
First we have to boil a large pot of water. Once the water boils, we put in the angel hair pasta. We have to let the pasta cook for about 4-6 minutes till it becomes soft. Once done, drain the water and remove the pasta.

Then we beat (piccata) the chicken broth and 5 teaspoons of the flour together. Then, we have to season the chicken with salt and pepper (as per taste, but generally 1/4th teaspoon of each is used), and dredge both sides of the chicken in the flour. Once dredged, heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a non stick skillet. Pan-fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side on a medium heat till the chicken turns brown and then remove it off the skillet and keep it warm.

The last 1 teaspoon of oil is used to pan fry the mushrooms over a medium heat. Once the oil is heated, we add the mushrooms and cook them for 5 minutes, till they brown and start releasing the juice. Next, add garlic and wine to the pan and cook for 1-2 more minutes. We take this mixture and stir it in the flour-broth mix with the lemon juice and another 1/4th teaspoon of salt. Put the gas on a low flame and cook, stirring continuously, for 5 minutes, till the sauce thickens.

Next, add the parsley, capers and remaining mushrooms. Add the pasta into the pan and cook, continuously stirring. Serve the pasta topped with the chicken and voilà!! Your easy mushroom chicken piccata recipe is ready!

Lemon Cookies

Omg!! This recipe is sooooo involved, and they didn't even come out close to looking like they do in the picture!! They are pretty tasty anyways, but way too much work.

Lemon Merengue pie

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 4 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. To Make Lemon Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.
3. To Make Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.

Falling Behind

So we are beginning to fall behind on our two books "A Year With C.S. Lewis" and "The Five Love Languages". Since school started I have a lot less time in the mornings, and instead of finding myself able to wake up early and relax in the morning with my husband, I find myself waking up early (6am as opposed to early mentioned 6:45) and rushing around the apartment to find my dance stuff, pack a lunch, fix breakfast and get out the door in time to make it to my 7:30am class. As I sit here writing this I am wondering if the excuse I described above is just that....an excuse. Or if I (and my husband) have valid reasons for falling a bit behind in our morning readings and quiet time. Maybe we aren't trying hard enough?! I mean the C.S. Lewis book is pretty much a paragraph a day!!!

Unfortunately our reading and prayer-life aren't he only things that have gotten forgotten about over the past week. The apartment looks disastrous, and instead of having meals all planned out for the week like I had hoped, I find myself scrounging last minute for ideas of what to cook for dinner. Am I just a weak woman, only able to concentrate at one thing at a time? ...Curently school. Or are these valid and universal dilemmas? Anyone with advice on how to be superwoman; balancing: 20 units of school, being a wife, being a homemaker, and being a dance teacher, please share!!! Luckily I'm not stressed out yet, I'm just sad that the house is in disarray, my husband ALWAYS sees me in dance sweats, and school seems to precede spending quality time with my husband and with God. Maybe I'm just experiencing senioritis? Afterall it is my LAST semester....yeah that must be it. *sigh*