my snarky.

This is me, everyday, trying to train my rat for an hour, watching it in the "skinner box" and waiting for it to press the bar so I can push a botton and give it a pellet of food.



watching intently...



I have a rat. My whole Pyschology class does actually. We've had it for about a month and a half now and we've had to work with it for about an hour each day training it to do a number of things. It's really frusterating too but this week, on Wednesday night, I had a break through and I called my mom right away, freaking out with excitment. We have to train our rats that pressing a bar will give them food. When they press the bar, we push a button that releases a pellet of food and then they eat..but the only way they eat is if they press the bar. Eventually we have to get our rat to press the bar 50 times for a single pellet of food. It takes forever to get the rat to understand that a bar press will get them food but once she figures it out they start pressing the bar wildly. It's so great... My rat is finally pressing the bar, then eating the pellet, then pressing then eating, pressing, eating, pressing, eating.. then pressing 10 times, then eating one pellet and over again until I train it up to 50 bar presses. Then we have to teach it something else... I named my rat Snarky though and this is the funny thing: my mom had this same project many years ago when she went to this college and she even had the same teacher I have, Dr. Rulon. I'm being taught by the same man who taught my mom General Psychology! So on Wednesday, when my rat was finally getting it, there was no better person to call then my mother. She knew what it was like to underestimate the rat and experience compleate surprise and excitment when it started pressing the bar. :)

I filmed me coaching my rat and pressing the bar... I'll see if I can upload it to UTube and post it :)

our castle.

...back in the day.

my daddy came to visit !!

..for the whole weekend. it was a beautiful weekend! i feel quite refreshed and motivated now. spent the days off campus, out of my room and away from the hustle and bustle of campus life. went to target for conditioner, skirt hangers, a new toothbrush, and other such necessities, got a banana coconut frap from starbucks, dropped film off, ate almonds in papa's alumni room, watched ellen degeneres, folded laundry and talked with sienna, brae, lowen and papa, went to New City after which we ate lunch at lowen's place: spaghetti (sauce made by liz anne) and bread and salad. yum! (followed by nap!! woohoo!)

anyway, i got so wrapped up in being with papa that i totally forgot to take pictures. only took this one today as we were leaving lowen's place--he and brae for maryland and sienna and i for covenant.

so here's the proof, guys.

my eyes (and heart and soul) love autumn's trees

these are the trees that line the road that lead to my school. they fascinate me. i actually find it hard to have a conversation when going through this long, winding tunnel of vibrant oranges, deep reds, screaming yellows and fresh greens. the light, the shapes, the colors, the combinations--they are stunning and my eyes soak in the glory all the way to the top of the mountain. these photos do not even begin to capture it.

dressing up is fun!

this is halloween night. we all got dressed up in our costume, met in the hall at 6:00 and went to dinner. i was a librarian\school teacher..either one was fine and i got called both. Took a copy of "little women" and "clock without hands" with me to help the costume along. my costume was really last minute..asked melody what i should be and she said "school teacher!"--so i hurried back to my room and gathered all my schoolteacher-y and librarian-y things together. (Sienna was a photographer...she took the pictures :)

ps. high-waisted skirts are not the life for me!! i like breathing and eating.

she's a cutie... that's for sure.

dance magic dance

autumn@covenant

checking my email in the library--2 unread messages!! beautiful words.
our school newspaper..so if you ever hear me refer to The Bagpipe, it's our paper not the musical instrument.
Liz Tubergen, Bethany, Sienna, Natalie and me are working on this project for the yearbook. instead of using the 'Lifetouch' photos shot earlier in the year, we're putting up black paper and shooting all the students again..with our cameras and with our style. today's our second day of shooting. Anyway, last week I made this flier to advertise for it. Regardless of the posters, however, people were still confused. The photos are turning out so well ! darn thrilling. i might post some.
i love autumn trees as much as night skies. autumn trees photograph way better. theres brilliant color going on here. !! bright reds and greens and oranges and yellows..all right next to eachother.

theres just too little of

I took these a couple weeks ago when we Lowen stopped at bilo before heading up the mountain because lizanne wanted some icecream. Lizanne loves ice cream and that's something I really love about her. In this photo I had just finished telling her about a new ice cream called "cyclone" and how I'd seen the commercial for it and then gone to the grocery store with papa and he got me a bucket of it. It was just as good as it looked. I told her how they put oreos in (if it's cookies n' cream) and then they mix it up half way so there's still real big chunks..and it's called Cyclone and if you've never tried it before you must go to the store right now and buy some.

I got some coffee that night. Lizanne loves coffee too. I like that about her too. :)

Happy Extra-Hour of Sleep Day! :)


ice cream in hand!




posted by sienna.

them and their matching shoes

they've got matching shoes!
must be love.
!

ready for mardi gras..or club sparkle

sienna brought these masks back from new orleans with her. not sure where we could wear them besides our hall dance parties (aka club sparkle ) or something of the sort. arn't they fun though?

we tried hanging them on our wall but they were a bit scary. something about the eye shaped holes.

the library is a good place.

and beth orton is pleasant too. diana krall isn't bad either. i'm sitting in the library and i've listened to both. i've been here since 3pm and it's almost midnight. Tobi's beside me though and coffee and butterfingers (from my papa!) so i'm doing alright. i have to get back to my paper but i wanted to send this bit of advice, specially to soon-to-be-college students, out into the night's void:

don't wait until the last minute. don't do it, okay? just don't. make that decison now.

pray that i get this thing done too. it's due in 8 hours.


posted by sienna.

Mcdonalds makes me happy.

so very happy.

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well"

the last day of fall break found sienna, liz anne and me at Panera Bread studying. well, they studied, I drew and wrote letters and read from "Life of Pi" because my first semester has been kind and not given me very much homework or courses that are too difficult. I got french onion soup yesterday. that's big guys. without fail, i always get a brocolli cheddar bread bowl. yesterday, i stepped out of the box. arn't you proud? and it was yummy. i love soup and bread together--i just belong at panera bread. that place is straight up my alley.

and i caught up on my sketching homework. my sketchbook should have about 60 sketches but only has about 10. so i've been sketching my life away during fall break (drawing my jeans, my lotion bottle, sienna's camera, anything!) but still haven't got quite enough (at all!) why am i not worrying??

afterwards, we went to lowen's for dinner . Keith made the food. SO yummy! chicken and paste with pesto and salad. so good to have homemade food. it rained. i read. and talked. and watched some beck music videos. it was alex neff, liz anne, lowen, keith, sienna and myself. perfect way to end fall break.

ps. i don't know how the title pertains to the blog entry (except perhaps the last one) . just thought it was incredibly true and something i have come to realize in my eightteen years and something others should realize too.