Hi Again, Also Bella, Also "Wasted Time"

Hi, all.

I can't believe I haven't posted since winning the writing contest.  (Late March, right?)  Stuff has happened and I'm sorry I haven't updated you on any of it.  Bullet list timeeeeeee:

• school is out and I'm a "rising junior"  (somebody told me that was the term)
• I took down the post about being in the newspaper and my editing Freshly Squeezed v2 because I gave it to the greatly capable and deserving Sarah Fosburg
• she did a great job and Freshly Squeezed v2 is out; I'm on pages 9 and 60-64 (my favorite piece though is on page 32)
• I have a new story to post!
• I have a cat, though that happened back in February.

Here is my cat, her name is Bella:

And here is a short story called "Wasted Time" that I wrote while fairly stressed:

Wasted Time

Um...so yeah, I think that sums it up.

Until next time,

-Allie H-S

P.S: I also started a cover band with a couple of friends, but it has no name.  I am the guitarist/ukulele-ist.  Root for me, 'cause I dunno how to play instruments, but I'LL TRY!

SO I ACTUALLY DID NOT LOSE THE CONTEST

HI, ALL!

So remember this post when I was half-secretly all bummed like, "yeah so I lost the writing contest but here have a story anyway"?  Well I actually was only thinking that because the UVU people were all, "Hey so yeah we'll notify winners by March 1st, yeah totally," and then it was like March 3rd and we'd heard nothing back and I was like, "the tears are real."  But hey guess what IT'S MARCH 27TH AND THEY GOT BACK TO US!  I actually was a runner-up and will get fifty dollars for it!  Yaaaaaaaaaaaay I just placed in a writing contest for the first time everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Thanks to everyone who read "Locks and Keys" and gave me feedback.  You guys are great.  I am excited.  This is pretty swell.

Yay.
-Allie H-S

HOW TO CRANE: Step-by-Step

Hi, all.

So I was folding some paper cranes recently for the GSA's upcoming Week of Silence.  (Basically just Day of Silence, but with lots of promotion on the Monday through Thursday beforehand.)  And I was also showing a few other people within the GSA how to fold cranes, and I kind of just decided to make this tutorial and post it on my blog.  You know.  For the good of the people.

-HOW TO CRANE-

Materials:
- a square piece of paper and preferably a table.  that is all.

The rest of this tutorial will be given in photos and captions.  Click on them and they should enlarge.  Enjoy.

So get a piece of paper.  This is foil paper, but any kind will do.
(I actually do not recommend foil paper for your first time; it's finicky.)

Fold it diagonally, with the color on the inside.

Now do that again the other way. 

Now fold it horizontally with the color on the outside.

Now do that again.

Now poke the middle point up and make a tent-y thingy like this. 

See how the diagonal folds you've made just kinda collapse in?
Push 'em in more.  Make it happen. 

Now put it on the table and flatten it.  It should make a square.
Be sure the open tip is at the bottom.

You should have four flappy thingies on the edges.  Take one.
Fold it to the middle seam.

Do that again with the other one.

And then the other side.

It should look like this, you know, like a kite.

Now take the tip and fold it down.

Flatten it back up again, flip the paper over, and repeat. 

And then, one one side, open the thingy-things like this.

And then pull up the tip from the bottom. 

Open it.  Then open it moreeeeeeee.  (This should be
taking advantage of the fold you made when you folded
the tip down.)

Take them corner folds you made and reverse them.
Try to be as clean about it as possible.

Flatten it on a table.  It should look like this.  Then, 
like most of these steps, repeat on the other side.

Now, my friends kept forgetting this step, but like, ya gotta take
the legs on the bottom and make 'em skinny.  To make it easier
to remember, I started calling this step "sexy legs."  For some reason.
Just fold it to the center again. 

Now do it again.  Sexy legs.

And then a third timeeeeee....

And then a fourth time and you're good. 

Sexy leeeeegs! They're like legs, see?

Now take one leg, and kinda pull it out and flatten it and
turn it halfway wrong-side-out and stuff?  It's hard to explain. 

And push/fold it up a little moreeeee.  This is an
okay picture, right?

This hopefully shows it a little better.

And then make it all the way wrong-side-out,
like that.  (This is hard the first few times.  A lot 
depends on how precise your previous folds were.) 

And then do it to the other side too, and it should look like that.
Now.  Time to get nit-picky.  Choose which little pokey thing
is the least precise and would be better as a crane head than as
a crane tail.  I choose the right one.

Fold it down carefully, like when you folded the legs up. 

See how it's not just all smushed-down, but instead can be
made nicely wrong-side-out again?  Good.

Now make it wrong-side-out.  Huzzah!  It's a head!
(This also depends on how nice your other folds were.) 

Take a wing.  Fold it down.

Take the other wing.  Fold it down. 

Fold them back up a little so it can sit.  And then?  Yaaaaaaay
you did it!  Be good to your new avian friend.

Have a nice day!
- Allie H-S

Fish, Frogs, Mushrooms, and Spiny Things - Part 1?

Hi, all.

So let's give you a quick update on my photography class.  Film photography is, like, super duper fun, and I've done a lot of cool stuff in class this year, but third quarter, my teacher kept being absent/things in the darkroom kept breaking, and basically the last couple months have been really frustrating because we couldn't get anything done.  And then, finally, my teacher decided that because she's also pursuing her own art career, she really didn't have the time to teach this class (which honestly had become pretty clear), plus she kept getting sick (and I genuinely hope something's not wrong, like she's still a good person and everything), but so, long story short: she's quitting in a week.  But she's leaving day after tomorrow.  Aaaaaaand I'm mad.

I'm mad 'cause several times this year, she got mad at us for not working hard enough on this class, and now she's really just bailing on us (and she has a greater obligation than we do, being the teacher and all - I mean nearly every time she was gone, she didn't even leave sub notes, so we just sat in the room and stared at the wall for an hour and a half), and also because I may or may not be able to finish this project, and I want to because I wanna submit some pieces to the Kimball Art Center's Wasatch Back Student Art Show.  The theme of this year's show is "Over the Moon, Under the Sea."  I went to the aquarium and everything.

I have finished a couple of prints, though, and I like them, so now I'm posting them here.

This is some sort of weird demonic sea urchin.  *shrug*

This is the same photo, but "solarized."
(basically you expose it to light as you're developing)

These are some cute mushrooms. 

Same mushrooms!  Except I sprayed on the
developer instead of putting it in a tray.

The thing that sucks is that there are some things I would still like to develop, but I don't know if I'll be able to because I don't know if we'll still be doing actual film stuff with our sub fourth quarter.  But like, look at this frog here.  He'd come out so cute.

There's a tiny frog in the middle.  I upped
the contrast in iPhoto so you could see him better.

We started a project with a lot of cool stuff, like cross-processing (developing color film with black and white chemicals), solarizing, scratching/tearing/burning negatives, etc, and I was starting to get excited about the class for the first time since the beginning of the year.  So ah...who knows what'll happen now, really.  *sigh*  Whaaatever.

Anyways, until next time.

-Allie H-S

EDIT: The title of this post also promised you a fish, so here's that:

And here's a turtle and a duck just 'cause I like them:

I'm not sure why the colors are so weird on the frog one.  *shrug*

My new photography teacher seems okay, I guess.  Better.  We'll see how this goes.

Also, this is indeed part one, but there is little chance of a part two.  Sorry!

Short Story: Locks and Keys (with Audio) (UPDATED)

Hi, all!

Sorry for the lame amount of posting currently.  I was actually waiting for the results of a writing contest to come through before I posted anything else.  I have a short story I wrote called "Locks and Keys" that I was actually going to post back with "Missoula," but instead I decided to enter it in a writing contest.  If it had been previously published, it would have been disqualified.  Not that is really matters, since I lost (ouch).  I'm actually pretty bummed.  But hey, at least I can put the story online now!

Locks and Keys
(I took this link down, revised it, and put it back up at least four times before coming to the version you see now.)

Locks and Keys Audio
(Sorry my S's are so loud.)

So...you enjoy that.

We've definitely done lots of other projects in Creative Writing this year, and I know that for this blog to become a good portfolio, I need to be prolific.  But I also don't wanna post anything I don't think is good, so...we'll see what I decide.  We're doing a poetry unit right now, so I'll probably do a post of a few poems later.  I still have to edit some and write a slam poem.

Wish me luck!
-Allie H-S

P.S: my updated favorite webcomic list should appear on the side bar.  New ones include Johnny Wander, Balderdash!, Paranatural, Monsterkind, Harpy Gee, and The Lonely Vincent Bellingham.  Wow, that's a lot more than I expected.  My friends say I have a problem....Haha...ha....

UPDATE: Eek look here I just learned I didn't lose yay!

Happy Birthday to Me

Hi, all.

Today was (is) my birthday.

So happy birthday to me!

It's dark outside, so it's mostly over now, but I just thought I'd make it an excuse to say hello.

I'm actually kinda sad that it's over.  One of my friends who's an awesome baker made me these really nice brownies with mint chocolate frosting and they were amazing, and another friend who's admittedly less pro at baking but is super cool and tries really hard made me chocolate chip cookies even though her oven was broken and I thought that was super nice, and my waifu (my girlfriend, not literally my wife) is gonna get me a somethin'-or-other, and another friend said they'd give me pennies because I collect pennies (wow I've been meaning to post about that for months - yeah, I collect pennies 'cause I think they're cute), and just everybody was cool and nice and awesome today, and it makes me kinda sad that it's about to be over.

I'm not even sad about the not-getting-gifts-anymore thing, 'cause like, we just had Christmas a month ago and all, and I'm just really materially satisfied right now.  No, it's really just 'cause I wasn't really thinking about my birthday coming up until it surprised me when I saw the date on Monday.  So it was super unexpected when a bunch of people - some of whom I don't really talk to - started wishing me a happy birthday out of the blue.  It was like, "Hi, we might not be good friends or anything, but I just want you to know I'm glad you were born, so have a nice day."  And even with my good friends, I just thought that was super nice of them, you know?

It was.  It was nice.

I hope you all have happy birthdays, too.
-Allie H-S