... and so are you.

Aw crap, RPM!

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:32:00 +0000

I love it! haha. So, I have decided to do the RPM challenge again this year. I would have told you sooner, but I haven't had the time. I'd like to say it was because I was working on music all the time, but alas, there is school and work, and homework, and sleeping and all that living too.

So, it's been a week and a half since the start of February. It was a rocky start, and I think the first idea I had for a song will be scrapped. But, the ball has already begun rolling.

** Oh! I almost forgot to tell you that this is not just an iaMHer project either, I asked Charity to help me out. We don't have a name for ourselves yet though.

Back to the news: We had a jam session last week and got the skeleton for one song out of that, it has a night theme because it pretty much put Charity to sleep. :)
We had a remue-méninges (brainstorming) session on Wednesday and came up with a map for some of the songs, which I think will really help out. As soon as one is close to being ready to present, I will post it up.

So far, I think we have 5 good starts on songs, plus some ideas for some others and that badass map! All in all I'm pretty positive about it; it's going to be a lot more work, but it is FUN. It will have some interesting stuff in it, that is a given. Hope to share some soon.

Anways...
xoxo
Her

A new song, a little inspiration, i wonder

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Just watched this video from M. Ward's upcoming release. The lyrics are sparse, but I like them, and the guitars sound beautiful.

It really makes me want to up my game, so to speak, in terms of playing. For now, i'll keep practicing my runs and scales, and keep my fingers worked out in preparation for next month.

Also, speaking of inspiration, I wonder what Ani Difranco's new album sounds like. I haven't given myself the chance to listen to it yet. She plays a mean guitar :).
Anyways... I leave you with this:

M. Ward - The First Time I Ran Away

xoxo Her

Yay for Soup! It's like music for my tummy!

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:31:00 +0000

The delivery from Greenling.com last week had butternut squash in it, so we decided to make a soup. Cliché you say? The only response to that that I can give is that I love soup, and I am going to share my soup experience with you here, like i have done before.

I took the recipe idea from a number of different spots on the interwebs, and decided to give a go on my own. So of course, I took the squash and first peeled it, and cubed it for optimum quick cooking in the veggie stock I used as a soup base.

One thing that I needed help with was the peeling bit. I didn't really know if there was any easy was to cut the damn thing, but luckily i found a tut online to help me out. As silly as that may seem, I have cut squash before, and they can be pretty tough to get through. This was no sweet potato though, thank someone for that!

So this is a pretty simple soup: Squash, onion, garlic, stock, spices, a possibly optional thickener (you can use cream, or flour, or whatever else you have), and I put a dollop of some local yogurt in the middle to give it a little tang!

As you can see, the squash is all chopped up, and I took a yellow onion and chopped that one all up too.

My squash was about 6 inches long, and the onion wasn't too big, but I was able to get about 4 servings out of the bunch in a bowl about the size you can see at the bottom of the page. Take that measurement police!

Alright, so back to the cooking. After cutting the two veggies up, I put some oil in a pot, turned up the heat and threw the onions in to yellow and clear up a bit before adding the stock and the squash. I would say that with a squash that size, about 4 cups of stock would be good to use. You can use chicken stock if you like, and that is how most of the online recipes i saw were made, but i don't eat that, so I used a veg stock.

Once everything was in, I decided that I wanted to have a little spice, and added a couple of little cloves of garlic into the mix.

At this point it was time to let the squash soften up in the pot, so I brought the whole thing to a boil, then turned it down and simmered for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes.

After everything was all soft and melty together in the pot, i took all the solid vegetables from the pot and tossed them into a blender, and blended the life out of it! Liquid vegetables, mmm. It looked like baby food.

Once the veggies a puréed, the purée can be added back to the stock. This is when I added some spices, nutmeg and cinnamon, and a touch of cumin. I used a number of different things to thicken this soup for my own tastes, and Charity came in and assisted me with that as well. The most prominent of them all was some cream, mm, cream, yes, cream. Full and thick, and delicious, this made the soup fantastic, and as you can see below, the presentation is just fabulous.

It's so good, I'm posting it all over

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:07:00 +0000

Light Asylum - Skull Fuct [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

One week and three days of food!

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:38:00 +0000

That's how long this year is so far, though with the weekends I've been having it seems like a bit more.

Hello, and welcome to 2012. Hopefully, you have settled in to the whole resolutions thing, if you do that, or at least putting 12 into the year slot of the date rather than 11. I always have trouble with that one.

Let's see what's new. :).

Food! I'd like to think that most people like food, and I am no exception, as I'm sure you either know or will find out quickly. Over the last week and nearly a half I have ventured into a smoothie-for-breakfast-and-try-to-eat-a-lot-more-vegetables kind of regimen. I'd venture to say that it has been fairly successful considering the amount of fruits I have eaten. I am not one to eat many fruits unless they are in some sort of liquified form. Anyways, the smoothies are great!

Also great, are these two dishes that I tried last week. Fucking delicious! That's about the only way I can think of to describe them.
Rosy Garlic Sauteed Cabbage Recipe - Food.com - 180508
Potato Salad Recipe with Sweet Potatoes and Red Onion
These two together helped to clear out some of the remaining vegetables from the farmer's market visit while they were super tasty and nutritious (i think).

And more food! Last week was the first-week-trial-run of a local food delivery service to my place. Greenling.com was again, successful! Charity and I ordered a variety of fresh, in-season, local veggies and fruits to supplement our pantry for the week. Since we like the convenience of having the groceries delivered, and because school starts next week, which means we will both be extra busy, we are going to keep the service on a bi-weekly schedule. While some of the prices are a little more than taking the trip to the store, the convenience of having groceries at home will save us mucho money! It will be just as convenient as eating out with at least half of the cost, not to mention that the food and the business are both local.

One more food related bit before I end this post: Ghost Chili! Chili! Vegetarian style.
My friend Beth is a heat-seeker, and she bought some dried bhut jolokia peppers which have a scoville rating between 850,000 and over 1 million units. Whoa! So, what did we do with them? Well, after a taste of the pepper by itself, a tiny but powerful taste mind you, we put them in a chili! Beth bought some ingredients, and we threw them together into a pot, let it all simmer for close to an hour, then she, myself, and Charity dug into to the spicy explosion! We used three peppers, two of which were sliced, and one thrown in whole like a bean bag of fire; the flavor was phenomenal. It was damn spicy, but being a bit of a heat seeker myself, I'd say we could have used another one or two peppers to really get the sinuses flowing. Now that I've tried this one, it's on to the infinity pepper, or better yet, the trinidad scorpion butch t pepper!

just a post to end the year

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:26:00 +0000

Since the semester ended I have been working different hours and have had little time to play online. BOO! i do not like that part.

Anyways... The end of the semester turned out alright, I'd say... I got two As and a C in Calculus III, which I knew was going to happen. The numbers don't lie. And, then I start at UT next semester, so wish me luck!

I spent part of today decluttering some of the damn TIME magazines that will not stop coming to my house no matter how many people I call or talk to to ask them to stop, and detail cleaning random stuff. During the disposal of the magazines I came across some interesting stuff that I had missed over the last few months, and I thought I'd share one here with you.

It's the most relaxing song ever = Macaroni Union's "weightless"

apparently, it is not advised to listen to while driving, that's how relaxing it is said to be.

here is a link to the article about a study that was conducted which compares the song to some others that are supposed to be relaxing as well. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049948/Most-relaxing-song-UK-band-Boffins.html

Tonight, I will helping Magnifico rock the Highball tonight for their New Year's Eve party until 2AM. Whew!
I hope you have a great new year's eve, and bring in "the last year ever! 2012!" well.
relax. enjoy.

and here I will leave you with an acoustic version of the song duvet, by bôa. This is the title song for Serial Experiments: Lain, my favorite anime that I have been watching again since Christmas because Charity got me the series. Love! The song and the series and the girl.

Just a few things...

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:24:00 +0000

My last post was about the show, mainly. The show was awesome! I don't have many pics to share from myself, since I was playing, but I can report back with a smile on my face.

taken with Instagram

Halloween!? How was yours? I had a good time on Saturday at work and then on Sunday going out to the usual haunt, that has become less usual since school started back up a couple of months ago, Elysium. Check us out!

Today was Project Build a Park day, a community service effort from my school to clean up a park in the area. It was a mess! My group was on trash duty, which is always dirty work, but it shed some light on homelessness as well as litter problems. Yikes!

AND..., I've been posting about my classes, and their seemingly excessive difficulty this semester. While that has not changed much, it seems to be turning up. Keep crossing your fingers for me, I need it.

Merci for reading
xxoo
Her

The Weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (iaM Her) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:50:00 +0000

I'm not talking about the R&B music The Weeknd, I'm talking about tomorrow and Sunday!

It has been a while since the thought of a weekend excited me, and while I have tons of homework, I am going to do some things this weekend and it is going to be fun! Truly, anything that I could be doing outside of work and homework would be a drastic change.

Tomorrow, the French Club from my school, of which I am one of the founding members, and officer, is going to take a museum tour of french portraits. We have been planning this since the beginning of the semester and I am pretty excited about it. In addition to that, I will be off from work earlier than usual on a Saturday. While 11PM is not super early, it's way earlier than 2:30, which means I can attend a birthday party for my friend, woo hoo!

Then the big Sunday. Everyone must expect that I will spend it changing fish tank water, grocery and pet food shopping, and doing homework. But! This Sunday! I am playing a show, with Ash- Blaize and as iaMHer. It's going to be pretty awesome. So yeah, we finally made some time and got to practice with the new lineup, and it went quite fantastically. If you're in Austin, come see us :)


Ash- Blaize

facebook event link

One more thing, thanks to the google doodle today for Mary Blair, I found this blog (chewychewychewybubblegum). So cute!

See you either tomorrow, or soon...

SCHOOL!

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:34:00 +0000

School is KICKING MY ASS! Well, maybe that is a bit dramatic, but it is not easy, that is true! Physics, and Calculus. They are so interesting to me, but very difficult to understand. I mean, we live in a three dimensional world, why is it so hard to understand how to do the math to get from one place in space to another?

Besides all that, I have a show coming up with Ash- Blaize the band, and we have not practiced in months = scary! I know it will all work out. The last show went super amazingly well. There is a new member of the band though, and I have heard he is awesome, but have not met him yet. That whole scenario sounds professional to me. Now where is the money?! haha- Not in Austin.

That's
October 23rd!

Ash-Blaize!

@ Hyde Park Bar & Grill South Austin!

Come if you can!

My music, is as usual, slow going. I was able to get some vocal tracks down for one of the songs I'm working on, "Ghost" but there is a lot more to record and get tweaked out. The song is kinda spacey/bassey/heavy and kinda strange. Maybe you heard it in its earlier stages, about 3 years ago! mdr! Either way, the new version is really turning out nice to me, and it will be all ready for the LIVE show time, whenever that comes, after this semester most likely.

Side note--> wish me luck, or good thoughts! I put in my application for UT recently. Also, scary! I think I am just freaked out in general lately. Mucho responsibililies. Good timing for Halloween though! :D

anyways... besides the usual stresses of school and work, everything is going pretty well. It seems like a lot of craziness, and it is, but would I have it any other way? Hell no! I gotta keep busy and pushing forward.

hope you are doing well
xo

One month later...

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Well well, it's been a month since my last post about the previous week, and mucho has passed. I'll talk about the two big ones. Trip to New Orleans & school (which takes up all of my time that i don't have at work, or eating, or sleeping).

The trip to NOLA was a last minute decision that went off fantastically! The trip back was another story, but to be fair, it seems typical. I'll explain that more in a bit. We booked a trip on the day or two before heading out, and found a great deal on Travelocity for the Hotel Provincial. it was apparently a great deal, because according to the reviews online, it would be a great deal for the price we paid, but most of them paid more, and said it was good, but not great. There were complaints of the rooms being small and the staff being rude. Lucky for us we found the staff to be pretty ok, not fantastic, but we didn't really need to deal with them much except to get the keys. Anyway, we walk into the courtyard to search for our room, which we were told was just around the corner, and did not see the number we were told at all. As it turns out, this room was in the center of the courtyard, not connected by any walls to the other rooms in the area, and to be honest, looked like a tiny cottage hotel room just for us! We got in, were right next to the pool that we kinda didn't use, and relaxed for a few after the long ride. As it turns out, we found out later that the hotel where we stayed is the most or second most haunted hotel in NOLA. We felt swindled in a way after finding that out; there were no hauntings for us.

Of course in New Orleans you eat too much and drink too much and we did a lot of both. The first night we checked out the famously touristy Pat O'brien's. Had some shrimp creole, and fabulous drinks and walked out with some fancy souvenir glasses that they give to everyone by charging you first and asking you later. After cruising up and down Bourbon Street we finally decided to ask someone what would be fun to do that night. Again, it was our lucky night because this queen that we had seen hanging out in the French Quarter all day told us we were in for a treat, and that it was ladies night at the club on the corner. Well, i thought she said 80s night, and was really excited! You know i love a good 80s night. But, no, it was not. It was however the "Girl Bar" night at the club where the local drag troupe, Carnival Kings, performs once a week! the girls were eating it up too, it was a great show, and the crowd was huge, and full of locals. Hell yeah Tuesday night! That night was interesting in that we not only met some cool kings, but also met some twins, one of whom was a vampire, and both of which we frightened by our enthusiasm in having a good time in NOLA. Rather than continue on with a full recap, and to save you the major slideshow in the middle of all this, I will say, I had a great time. Major food excitement: Chargrilled Oysters from Acme Oyster Bar! You gotta try 'em!

Here's some pics too... Trip to NOLA Album

Second big event, that is ongoing of course, is school! Well, school is school. I'm taking Calculus 3, Engineering Physics 2, and US History 2. The homework for these classes varies greatly in number. In my history class, there is virtually nothing to read. Since the semester has begun I have read a maximum of 15 pages from the book. There have been a couple of handouts, but really, they are all about 3 paragraphs long. So easy! The other side of the spectrum is physics of course. I can't complain though, because it is pretty interesting material. We are learning about electricity, ooh! For instance, today we worked on circuits, that's fun, and earlier this week, we created huge sparks and made ozone by ionizing the air in the room with a Wimshurst machine. That was pretty cool too.

Anyways... Hope y'all are doing well. I'ma finish listening to Watch The Throne and get back to my homework and studying...

xxoo

iaMHer Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:30:00 +0000

Well, it has been quite a long and fast-moving week. It started with a Cow Parade and ended with a show.

Sunday was spent wandering the streets of Austin trying to hunt down some of the newly installed cows for the Cow Parade. While the interactive map was helpful at times, there were a lot of cows that were being moved, or had been moved into and out of their current positions, making it somewhat of a scavenger hunt, and at times left us wondering what a cow looked like!

Cow Parade Pics:

We went for brunch, and went out later that night to celebrate Nicole's birthday. It was 80s night and some friends who rarely show their faces came out, which made for an exciting evening. And! in between all that I spent a couple of hours with Ash- Blaize, the band, practicing for our upcoming show.

Monday at the Ritz, there was the 25th Anniversary of Blue Velvet by David Lynch. So we went, and got to say "Fuck Heineken" and tossed back, ever so gently, a couple of Tall Boys of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That was an awesome show. I've always loved watching that movie, and to see it on the big screen, whew, awesome.

In a barter for cutting hair, my girlfriend got these beautiful eggs, a coworker's chickens.

Tuesday was Tittie Bingo night @ the Highball, and we watched Debbie Does Dallas, with most of the sex cut out of course. That was an interesting night!

The week held a lot of work, and a lot of going out, and seeing friends. I was able to cut a vocal track for one song at my place before the crazy steam cleaner restarted in the hallway of the building, making it impossible to continue. I feel like I've made some progress on the music since I've been out of school, but there is much more to do.

Last night, to round the week off, Ash- Blaize had a show, it was a benefit for Austin Children's Theater, and a birthday party for an old friend, Emily. That was a great time. We got to see some other people perform, and when we went on, it was a blast. It has not only been a long time since I played, but it had been a long time since we played together. I feel like it was one of the more fun gigs too. I can't explain why, but it felt like we were really on point this time.

Anyway, I have got to get back to planning another week... hope to have some music preview up soon, and hope you are all well.
xoxo
TTYL!

Happy July! Wish me luck!

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:11:00 +0000

It's now officially summer, and the start of the month that comes after my favorite month of the year, June!

While June is typically my favorite month, I think i am going to really enjoy July this year. For starters, I have some time off of school. This will be the first time I will have more than two weeks off of school since last summer, and I am ready for it. The next semester will be a little lighter than the last couple as well, and I am hoping to get my essays all smoothed out to turn in to apply for UT in the spring.

Next, I am moving into a place with Charity, which we started painting and making ready for us to move our furniture in yesterday. The place is all old and cool, but that means there is a lot of touching up for us to do. We are gonna pimp it out for sure :).

Also, I am getting an extra day off per week! That is something new, and though it will not last, it will be nice to have the option to do something else. Maybe I can use it for my yearly trip to Six Flags!?!

I plan on starting work on recording the music that has been sitting in a dusty crate in my head for the last two years during this month, as well. Of course, this will have to wait until I have my equipment set up in the new place. Considering that there will be a dog at home for the entirety of my recording process, this should prove an interesting venture, and maybe she'll find a place in the tunes!

If i can get all of that stuff started, i may actually find time to work on and finish my claymation project that has been started yet sitting on my desk for a year-in-progress.

Well, here it is again, the link to part of the playlist that I had at my Super Sci-Fi Freakout Birthday party http://bit.ly/kJAAPJ unfortunately, there is no Ash- Blaize "L'espace" on it. That was awesome! see for yourself --> http://qik.com/video/41495736

I've taken up the daily mug again too. It's too bad they won't let me forget about all those old pics I uploaded

Daily Mugshot

What happened to May?!

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:10:00 +0000

For me May was a mad month of school and work. That doesn't seem to be a major change considering the last year, but it was pretty intense at the end of the semester.

Of course, I couldn't just end the semester and take some time off. I'm taking a summer course that thankfully will end at the end of June. Texas Government. For most, it is enough to just say the name to describe the excitement that the course gives to most people, so i'll just leave it at that. It's Texas Government.

Other new and exciting things...
I'm planning a move, officially in the middle of next month. Not a huge move like across the country or world or anything like that, but a big move in life terms. Charity and I are getting a place, close to downtown, which will be pretty awesome considering the amount of time we spend trying to spend time together.
Ash- Blaize is planning on getting a band back together, which will mean some good playing time in for me too, i hope.
I am planning on finally recording and working the songs i have been working on, for over a year now, into a functional live show. So, hopefully thinking, i will have a good thing going by the end of the summer into the fall when school picks up again at full speed.

It's going to be a good summer. I have spent plenty of time already at the pool, and the lake is just on the horizon. Hope you are having a good one too! À la prochaine!

Humpday +1 videos

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:47:00 +0000

I realized that a lot of people I know online post youtube music videos that I am interested in checking out, yet rarely find time to watch. Music, yes.

So, I decided to grab what I could from Monday to Humpday, of whatever I could find that they put up, and made a playlist of the videos.

Now, I get a chance to watch them and so can you!

So check it out, maybe your song is in here. It is definitely an eclectic group of songs, and there is something in there that you probably haven't heard in a long long time, or ever, and maybe that you don't even want to hear. Ha! Enjoy...

"Staring at the Sun" by TV on the Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:18:00 +0000

A video share to show that people still live on though they are now gone.

damn

Carissa's Wierd - Die (Lyrics)

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Just a random, not so new song that thanks to Mlle Eddie of Le Choix, i know love...

Short list - Courts Métrages d'Animation

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:26:00 +0000

I saw the Academy Award Nominated Animated Shorts today, and they were great.

Here's a short group of animated shorts, de la France, that have nothing to do with the shorts I saw today.

Above then Beyond (the film some say UP was modeled after) - 2005 - <5m

Même les pigeons vont au paradis - 2007 - <8m

Meme les pigeons vont au paradis from samuel Tourneux on Vimeo.

Un Grand Garçon - 2009 - <6m

Un grand garçon - Louis de La Taille from Tingo Films on Vimeo.

Le Silence Sous L'ecorce - 2011 - <11m

the silence beneath the bark / le silence sous l'écorce from joanna lurie on Vimeo.

Rant-omness - Where's the DJ?

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:33:00 +0000

I work doing sound, and the sound booth is connected to the back of the dancefloor. While I know that many people don't know what a sound, or A/V tech does, I can still get a kick out of them. I get two questions nearly every time I work.

1. Do you take requests?

What type of requests are they trying to make at me? I am not the DJ. The DJ is on stage, playing the music. On occasion I think, maybe they have a lighting request. But, no. They want to hear a song. Sometimes, a person will come up to me, while a band is playing, and ask me if I can play a song for them. The BAND is playing songs, i am not.

2. People are always asking if they can put "their stuff" down in the booth.

By people, I mean women for the most part. I tell them "sure!" But I'm not going to be responsible for their purse or jacket. I don't really care what happens to it and I'm working. I've got better things to do than pay attention to every girl who doesn't want to take her purse on the dance floor and check to make sure they are in the right bag, don't I?

The odd thing is, I don't ever have anyone asking to leave their wallet. Nobody is coming up to the booth to ask, "Oh hey, I'm going to dance, do you mind if I put my wallet here? I don't want it to get stolen" Of course, I would say - "Sure." Why not, right? If someone felt like their back pocket was just being too weighed down out there, bring it on up, after all...

What have I got to do?

It's now the end of the first month of school for the semester

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:46:00 +0000

I find that I have not done much by way of watching movies, checking in, watching tv, or taking pictures lately, and I am blaming school!

I spend much of my time doing homework, or trying to, and then getting to class and to work after it. It's a busy time, but I am taking a moment to document the whole thing, HAHAHA! Well, a glimpse at least.

I did make it to see The Fighter this week, and I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I made it out to see it, because I had thought I missed it. YAY!

A couple of things I'd like to share this time are some projects that a couple of friends are taking on for February. Click the links included for more info...

One: Ash- Blaize, my roommate, best friend, classmate, and fellow musician is participating in the RPM Challenge. I took on the challenge a couple of years ago, and had a great time doing so. Anywho, he has a theme of SPACE, and the entirety of the album will be a collection of soundscapes dedicated to the theme of the universe outside of our beloved Earth. I have had the opportunity to hear the opening sequence, which includes the Big Bang, and it is quite impressive.

Another: Tara Craig, fellow Austinite friend, girl with a guitar musician, and a great performer whom I have been pleased to see perform a number of times though not enough, is participating in FAWM, February Album Writing Month. This particular challenge gives the participants weekly challenges to aid or deter the player in their quest to 14 songs in 28 days. Tara Craig, just before the challenge, asked her fans to give her titles to songs and then she would create based on those. At this point she has two songs uploaded to her account, both fitting weekly challenges. "Waiting for the Clouds to Break," the most recent is truly solid, a very beautiful sound and I really like the lyrics. Great job Tara. I am looking forward to the next ones.

Both of these challenges take a lot of dedication, and show that the artists are interested in pushing themselves forward in a way to develop their talent. Inspiring. There are many people doing things like this this month and all the time, and I am glad to be sharing some that are people who I know personally. Hope you enjoy...

Incidentally, do not go to f a w m [dot] com <-- it is NSFW and not what you are looking for, or maybe you are, but i was not. rpmchallenge.com fawm.org

A new weekend is gone, excitedly reporting on ze life

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:32:00 +0000

Well, it's the end of the weekend, the end of the school-break-and-work weekend for me. No new movies!
So, I worked, and didn't get much homework in. Allergies are still there but my eye is better, thanks to those who shared their concern.

Let's see... I worked on some physics, which I need a little brush-up on. I coded a program to calculate shipping and totals on copper spools ordered dependent upon the inventory in stock. Now doesn't that sound like a hoot! HAHA! And lastly, I checked out some irregular verb forms in French.

As for work, from Thursday there was Two Hoots and a Holler at the Highball. They are indeed two hoots! It was the second week mixing for them, and they were all nice guys with good attitudes and seemed to have great fun while working/doing their thing on the stage. The crowd was pretty decent if not heavy for a Thursday night, cowboy-hat-wearing-country/rock-dancing bunch. Then Saturday night was The Gay Sportscasters and Karaoke Apocalypse. Also, a bunch of nice people who had fun doing what they do.

Reinforcing the sound for a group of musicians who are respectable and enjoyable and have fun doing their job is where it's at. At the end of the night, it's nice to have everyone happy.

Anyway, there were a couple of fun random music things in my email this week to share-- Thus! i pass them on and on...

Lykke Li 'Untitled'

Trailer for One More Love - David Guetta
Check out the trailer for

The Second Day Back

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:18:00 +0000

Well the second day treated me alright. School was interesting, and my physics professor has a decently dry sense of humor it seems. Really nothing too exciting happened until after school.

I was riding on the bus, and my allergies freaked out! It was not right away, but it was certainly sudden and hard. I rang the bell to get off as soon as I could and today, since yesterday, my eye is all red and puffed as if I had gotten punched a couple weeks ago, and the swelling is still there but no bruise.

Some of you may know that I have had a few black eyes in the past years, so I definitely know what it feels like, but this is not from a blow to the face.
Ah well, c'est la vie.

Time for class...

School & Such

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:03:00 +0000

A new semester began today at ACC. With the first day down, I am feeling pretty tired, but confident that it will be an interesting one, and one that includes a lot of work. With three classes today and one tomorrow, by the end of the week I am sure I will be prepared for it.

Today's line-up included C++ Programming, Calculus II, and French 4. A modest first day, as you can see.

So, I've got Physics to be excited for tomorrow. I wonder what my professor will be like... From his web page, it seems he is a fan of Star Trek and likes his job. Let's all hope for me and the others in the class that such is indeed the case.

Homework seems like it will be on the heavy side for my classes this time, which hopefully I will be able to just snap into again. The break for me involved a lot of doing nothing.

Besides school today I was able to come home and make a huge batch of vegetable soup (I love soup!) that I hope to take with me for lunches, and dinner (quorn cutlets and baby bellas with garlic in a balsamic vinaigrette reduction with buttered egg noodles and carrots), which was delicious!

It's about time to hit the books and get some sleep; another day awaits!

Tofu, Turkey, and the Time

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:27:00 +0000

Wow! It has been a long time, and i thought, "Hey! Let's tell a little story, it's been a while."
So here I am, and though I thought I might tell a story, I may just say a little hello.
Hello!

So, for Thanksgiving this year, myself and my gf took on the task of creating a Tofu "Turkey" whose recipe I found online about three years ago and have been too afraid to create it. In fact, it was not only a vegan recipe, but also a gluten-free recipe. But, we are not allergic to gluten, so there was probably something in the stuffing that we made that nullified that part. Sadly, I cannot even cite the owner of the recipe because the printout is cutoff.
Anyways...
Here's a picture of the finished tasty product

you don't need to like tofu to think that this is a beauty. It truly was delicious!

And so I must go back to my work. The semester is almost over, and I have four finals to look forward to. I'll touch back soon.

Here we fast forward and rewind

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:42:00 +0000

This was my recap for day 11...

What a day it has been. Super hot here in Paris. We spent the day at Père-Lachaise cemetery walking around and taking in the energy and history and seeing all the people that made so many different contributions to the world we know today, creatively and otherwise. After that, we went looking for some picnic supplies and the nearest metro station to take us to the Tuileries Gardens. When we got there, we devoured our spread, drank some wine, and Ash and I took a short nap. It was so hot, and while we caught some shade from the hedges, that sun was blasting us hard.

We hung out in the gardens for quite a while, just enjoying the sights of the other people picnicking and sunning, before getting back up and heading down to walk through the rest of the garden area, of course we couldn’t forget to grab some ice cream before heading out. The ice cream was delicious, and hit the spot. I got strawberry, while ash got coffee, I think that’s right, and beth got caramel salted butter, mmmmmm. Cold and tasty.

After the Tuileries, we meandered down to the Batobus stop and rode it down to Notre Dame Cathedral to catch a closer metro to get back home/hotel. After a bit of refreshing, we headed out to dinner.

Dinner for me was, couscous, meatballs, sausage, and vegetable stew. It was amazingly wonderful. The spices were magnificent and everything was very nice. We sat outside and watched nightfall. The people that worked at Folies Café were some of the nicest we had encountered thus far. For dessert, I took a suggestion and got crème caramel. Damn!

Two more days to go…

I have many pictures still to come

Paris - Le deuxième jour

noreply@blogger.com (Sophia M Hernandez) — Mon, 17 May 2010 09:07:00 +0000

So the second day, i had to change hostels. The first one was booked for all nights but friday and this new one had friday all booked up when i registered online. Anyway, this place is in Monmartre, really close to where Beth and Ash and I will be staying when they get in on Thursday.

So I came over here to Le Village to check it out. And when i walked out, i turned onto a street, saw a park, headed up, and BAM! I was right there at the Sacré Coeur! So super close. So i hit that place up. I hung out on the grass and took pics. Then i headed up about 300 or so stairs to the top of the dome and the view was amazing! Lucky for me, the day was really beautiful.

The metro on Saturdays is insane packed by the way.

So after the Sacré Coeur, i went down the Funiculaire Monmartre, and perused through the shops. The area where i'm staying is crazy full of touristy stuff and then random cheap ass department stores. Since it was the weekend, there were a bunch of people out. Crazy packed!

Later, I wandered around some more, bought a baguette, some chèvre, a bottle of wine, and some Orangina and headed back to the park. It was a really laid back day and I met some people and it was very nice.

That night, I decided to head out to a club. Saturday night! I was looking for Les Bains Douche, it was about 11:30 at night and I found it. It was super dead, nobody outside, hardly anyone inside. This was supposed to be the oldest gay bar in Paris. I decided not to go there, the vibe was not happening. lol. So, i wander around a bit more in the district, and see a few places. Nothing really grabbed me though and I nearly decided just to head home. But! I found a place, rather stumbled upon it, called The Hideout. Went inside and the door guy asks if I'm alone. Yeah, i was alone. People had asked me that a lot so far already.

Anyways... it ended up being pretty awesome, cave like basement, upstairs bar, dance music, lots of people. I met some people there and had a great time. One guy had a super cute shirt on with tapes all over it. We got to talking, and turns out he was some sort of computer scientist that had moved from somewhere in south america. It was fun talking with him, and he introduced me to a friend of his whose parents were political diplomats in some capacity here in Paris, and he too was from south america. i can't really remember, but i think they were Chilean. I didn't make it home that night till around 5 or so AM, my first experience with the Noctilien! It was way different than the metro, that's all I've got.

More to come... and pics will follow.