Does Anybody Else See It?

Michael Jackson

Freddie Mercury

When I saw a google image search for Freddie Mercury, I told my dad: "that one is Michael Jackson, not Freddie Mercury."  But lo and behold, it was indeed the latter.  Is it possible that Michael Jackson sculpted himself after Freddie Mercury?  I recieved a similar jolt recently when I first saw this video comparing Bob Fosse and Michael Jackson dance styles.  Observe.

Uncanny, is it not?

I Made a Recipe!

That's right.  I, Christine Haynie, am so advanced in my cooking skills that I have created my own recipe.  Two in fact.  I made dinner for Rachel and I due to the temporary absence of my parents, and she liked it so much that she said I should write it down.  It is a very good meal for a summer day, and I quite like it myself.  Dearest world, here are the recipes.  (And dearest sisters, you really ought to try them.  Especially you Sarah.  The dessert is sugar free.  But not in a gross way.)

Garden Pasta:

Pasta al dente

Olive oil

1 egg per person

Mozzarella cheese

Dash of milk (optional)

Carrots: cut round and lengthwise

Sliced Purple Onion

Sliced, chopped or otherwise broken up green olives

Other colorful vegetables (tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, etc.)

Various seasonings (I used spaghetti seasoning, garlic powder, lime zest, pepper and salt.  Basil would be lovely too.)

Sauté and season onion and carrots and other vegetables friendly to being cooked in olive oil.  Place into separate bowl.  Boil Pasta.  Scramble eggs, cheese, and milk together, removing from heat while they are fluffy and still almost raw.  Toss pasta, eggs, and vegetables (sautéed and otherwise) together.  Serve onto plates and top with olive oil and seasonings (may I highly recommend using more than just pepper and salt?).   If you would like, save out some of the vegetables to place on top.  Enjoy!  (Note: I have not put amounts on the ingredients.  I did not measure them and you do not need measurements.  You know how many people you are serving and how much you like.)

The Fruit Cup Dessert:

Milk

Various fruits (canned or fresh peaches and strawberries work well.  Any other berry would be fantastic as well, but frozen fruit would probably be disgusting)

Lime zest

Fresh mint leaves

Pepper (trust me on this)               

Fill small cups or ice cream dishes with fruit.  Pour in the milk.  Top with lime zest and pepper.  Garnish with mint leaves.

I would have liked to share a picture of the result, but the camera directly at hand was full.  At any rate, the effect was charming as they are both very colorful and summery.  I am thinking that  this dinner would go well with lemonade (the homemade kind).  So, what are you waiting for?  Go ahead.  Try it out.  Make it your own.  See how you like the recipe of your very own friend and/or sister.  Now if only I could learn to make something besides pasta...

Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday is a cool website I recently discovered.  Every Friday there is a new word on the website.  During the next week people of any skill level send in their entries based on that word.  I think this is an awesome  concept, and I have included my entry for this week, "bicycle," here.

The Danger of Caging Beauty

This poem is about the sense of longing I get when I see something really beautiful.  That may lead me to take incessant pictures of a sunset when I know they will never do it justice.  It may also lead me to kiss a baby's face off or run through a perfect field of snow just to get at it although I know very well that I am only ruining it.  It is about the elusiveness of beauty, and also the danger of trying to capture it.  The second one (which I wrote first) is similar, but has quite a different tone.

Lusting for Beauty

I don't approve of caging beauty

As mankind likes to do

They press flowers, and carry home the ocean in a jar

They do not know that flowers fade

When crushed by heartless paper

They forget the ocean is not wild, is not blue, imprisoned

Then when they see the beauty gone

They feel betrayed, they know not why

They do not know that beauty owned is beauty gone away

'Tis like the seagulls and the birds

That let us watch them play

But when we try to grab at them they flee from us forever

A foolish man thinks he is master

Of the world he lives in

And when his mastered beauty pales he doubts that it was there

He does not know that he destroys

That which he desires to save

He wants so much to own the world that he forgets to love it

A man who owns a woman

Loves her not; she is obtained

But when they do not own, but have, their joy can last forever

Praises be that those who could

"Just eat a baby up"

Have the good sense not to; for they'd kill joy trying to find it

The man who had the golden goose

Had riches day by day

But lusting for it all at once his wealth was done away

To Elusiveness

What art thou?  Thou art a cherry blossom, a cricket’s song, a sky.

Where art thou?   Thou art in laughter, in heaven, on blades of grass bedewed

Who can understand an infant in arms, asleep?

Who can recall the wild ecstasy of rain and thunder that make a tempest of the night?

Thou art the poet’s muse

Lives have dwindled, and lives have grown

In trying to capture thee

Cruel and coy beauty, why can we not hold thee?

None may manufacture thee

Oh, highest degree of sacrilege!

Thou sprite of the morning, thou fairy of the night

Plucking thy petals cannot make us understand

Thou art free; we are thy slaves, oh Beauty

Though we seek to put thee in a cage,

We are led along, toiling and hunting after thee

But we learn happiness from glimpses of thy perfection.

Favorite Quotes, Favorite Smells, and Spring!

It has been pointed out to me that my blog sounds rather sarcastic.  I'm all in favor of a healthy dose of sarcasm, but I realize that too much is not fun to read.  So I have decided to blog on something that I love.  Quotes.  Of all kinds.  I begin with all of the lovely things that my niece Brooklyn says/has said. (Now don't get all offended Sarah, I haven't known Livi as long, but the way she says "amo" is just delicious.)  All of you that know Brooklyn will have to add her inflection back in, as I cannot type it here.

• "Oh sweetie, I have to grow up fast."
• "It scares me just a little bit."
• "But just one/just a couple!"
• "It's a little bit yummy and a little bit yucky."
• "Once upon of time, there was a dragon.  RAWR!"
• "I probably don't like pie. Remember...pie?"
• "With silver bellllllllls, and cockle shells, and pretty Marys, all in a row."
• "Lise Bear!"
• ("What color is Papa Joe's hair?" -Me) "He doesn't have any.  It fell off his head onto my head!"
• ("See, now Rapunzel's hair is wavy." -Maria) "Like Christy's."

Okay, maybe I am a little bit biased on the last one.  But it just shows you how absolutely brilliant she is. And what amazing taste she has.

Favorite quotes from recent animated movies.  Like I said, I'm a quote freak.  If you are not interested or have not seen the movies, feel free to skip over this part.  Like, seriously.  Skip it.  It is long.  If you read it, you may never read my blog again.  Cara is probably the only one who will appreciate this.  But I had to put it in.  Because I love it.

Tangled:

• "You should know that this is the strangest thing I have ever done!" -Flynn
• "I am a despicable human being....BEST DAY EVER!" -Rapunzel
• "I do like ducklings." -Rapunzel "Yay!" -Flynn
• "I have dreams like you, no really! They're just much less...touchy feely." -Flynn
• "You smell that? Take a deep breath through the nose. Really let that seep in. What are you getting? Because to me, that's part man-smell, and the other part is really bad man-smell. I don't know why, but overall it just smells like the color brown. Your thoughts?" -Flynn
• "I have made the decision to trust you." -Rapunzel "A horrible decision really." -Flynn
• "I'll bet my surprise is bigger!" -Mother Gothel "I seriously doubt it." -Rapunzel
  
• "Stay calm.  It can probably smell fear." -Flynn

Thanks to www.imdb.com/title/tt0398286/quotes for the help in remembering them.


Megamind:

• "Your weakness is copper?  You're kidding, right?" -Megamind
• "I'm not allowed to insult patrons directly." -Bernard
• "Well, use the forget-me-stick." -Megamind
• (About the hero suit) "I have a son?" -Hal  "No.  It's for you.  It stretches." -Space Dad
• "There's no tooth fairy, there's no easter bunny, and there's no Queen of England!" -Titan
• "On this beautiful day we are here to celebrate a beautiful man..." -Roxanne
• A dialouge:
• "Over here, old friend! In case you've noticed, you've fallen right into my trap!" -Megamind
• "You can't trap justice! It's an idea, a BELIEF!" -Metro Man
• "Even the most heartfelt belief can get corroded over time!" -Megamind
• "Justice is a non-corrosive metal!" -Metro Man
• "But metals can be melted, by the heat of revanche!" -Megamind
• "It's REVENGE, and it's best served cold!" -Metro Man
• "But it can be easily reheated, in the microwave of evil!" -Megamind
• "Well, I think your warranty's about to expire!" -Metro Man
• "Maybe I got an extended warranty!" -Megamind
• "Warranties are invalid, if used beyond their intended purpose!" -Metro Man
• "Girls, girls, you're both pretty! Can I go home now?" -Roxanne
• "The fire of my evil burns bright! Now say something good back to me." -Space Dad
• "Oooh, I'm shaking in my custom baby seal leather boots! " -Megamind
• Another Dialogue:
• "Good luck on your date!" -Minion
• "I will!" -Megamind
• "That doesn't even make any sense!" -Minion
• "I know!" -Megamind
• And another
• "This town isn't big enough for two supervillains!" -Titan
• "Oh, you're a villain all right, just not a super one!" -Megamind
• "Oh yeah?  What's the difference?" -Titan
• "Presentation!" -Megamind
• "Oh! My giant blue head!"-Megamind
• I must be into these tonight
• "You don't judge a book by its cover, or a person by the outside." -Roxanne
• "Oh! That's a relief to hear." -Megamind (Bernard)
• "You judge them by their actions." -Roxanne
• "Well that seems kinda petty, don't you think?" -Megamind
• I only keep inserting my comments to make the format work.
• "Sir, I think this is a bad idea." -Minion
• "Yes, this is a very wickedly bad idea for the greater good of bad!" -Megamind
• "But I'm saying this is a kind of bad that, okay, I think it's good from your "bad" perception, but from a "good" perception, it...it...it's just plain bad!" -Minion
• "Oh, you don't know what's good for bad!" -Megamind
• "And I love you, random citizen!" -Metro Man
• "I'm ready to be a responsible member of society." -Megamind
• "Happy pictures make happy people." -Megamind's prison cell
• "He would win some.  I would almost win others." -Megamind

Again. Imdb.

How to Train Your Dragon:

• "And now, he's spinning.  Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile." -Hiccup
• "You just gestured to all of me." -Hiccup
• "I swear I'm so angry right now!  I will avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight...with my face." -Snotlout
• "Most people would leave.  Not us.  We're Vikings. We have stubborn-ness issues." -Hiccup
• "Trolls are real. They steal your socks.  But only the left ones; what's with that?" -Gobber
• "Oh I'm hurt!  I am very much hurt!" -Ruffnut
• "Uh, between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?" -Hiccup
• "Thank you for summing that up." -Hiccup
• "All right, you caught me, drag me back.  I have been making outfits..." -Hiccup
• "Da da da, we're dead." -Hiccup
• "Hey Toothless, we're going on vacation, like...forever." -Hiccup

Thanks to wikiquote (Wikipedia is a wonderful tool, despite what graders of research papers tell you.)


Okay.  That got too long.  Like a lot.  Oh well. On to the favorite smells.  I promise such an odd concept has an explanation.  My substitute seminary teacher asked each of us our favorite smell so that she could remember our names by association, and I began thinking that I didn't just have one favorite smell...

• Rain in Utah
• Pine
• Fireworks
• Tomato plants
• Saunas
• Baking bread
• Snowy air
• New clothes
• Oranges
• Old books
• Lilacs

What are your favorite smells?  Or movie quotes.  As a side note, spring is here!  Life is again glorious (went rollerblading today.  Ahh.)

Formulas for "highest rated" Youtube comments

Have you noticed that all of the comments that are rated the highest on youtube videos follow the same pattern?  To engineer such a comment, you must either play on people's emotions or their sense of feeling important/belonging to a club.  Examples follow:

"Thumbs up if you (insert something to do with the song.)"

"Justin Beiber sucks and (insert name of artist) rocks!"

"(# of people) were crying so hard that they missed the like button/listen to Justin Bieber/need to go die in a hole."        *note: said  # is slightly lower than the number of dislikes on the song.  (Apparently that intelligent remark didn't stop people from expressing their opinions.)*

And my personal favorite from today (this is a direct quotation)
"I hate it when people bring up Justin Bieber in every video!"

                         Oh, the irony.

Be aware of the formula.  Armed with it, you could become obscurely famous.

Fancy Snacks and other Fancy Foods

It wasn't pretty, but it was delicious

 Okay, so admittedly the theme here is birthday cakes.

This cake was a book report for my 9th grade English class for the book Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Dolled up fruit

Italian-ish? food

 Does anyone else share this food fetish?