New Blog

Don't worry. I hope to continue maintaining this one as well. My new blog pertains to my recently launched company, Flashback Animation Studios.

Here's the link:

http://flashbackanimation.wordpress.com/

Please tell your friends as well! :)

Awww, Ma!!!!!

Do It Anyway...

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway." ~ Mother Theresa

I'm Getting a New Camera

Two years ago, I went to Walmart to buy my very first digital camera. I literally bought the cheapest of the cheap. It was a Nikon Coolpix. It takes really good pictures in the day, but once the sun goes down and/or if there's low light of any kind, all kinds of picture taking comes to a fast end. Not gonna lie. I've grown sick and tired of my little Nikon. It may be cute and handy, but I feel if I'm going to further my skills and pursue my passion for photography, I should make an investment.

To say the least, it's going to be a rather LARGE investment, but I'm hoping it will be totally worth it in the end. After a year's worth of research I've made my decision. Above is the Nikon D90.

Life is Good

It's Fall! A cool breeze is blowing through the window and is causing the pine trees to stir in front of the balcony. Pine trees? Since when does this girl have pine trees in any near vicinity of her apartment? Haha... well, since she moved into her beautiful new apartment. That's right! I switched apartments for my last quarter at JP Catholic. It's lovely. There's two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen and dining area, a fireplace and a front room. Right now, it smells of the Christmas Cookie candle burning on the counter top. It's wonderfully cozy. *Sigh of happiness...

But the best part of the apartment is the girls that are living there. I am blessed to still be rooming with Lisa. She's a continuous reminder of what it is to be holy. The other two girls are freshmen and they're adorable. Both are so sweet and joyous. All of us have been having a lovely time together. There has been many an interesting conversation (during which Tiffany makes baby hats). Becca was gracious enough to get a television which has enabled us to host a small gathering of girls. We had pizza, fruit, and ice cream and watched Pirates of the Caribbean. We all enjoy cooking and good music.

As for the practical things in life, each girl has good study habits, understands what it means to share the washer and dryer, how to keep a kitchen and apartment neat and tidy, and "indoor noises".

What can I say? I've been blessed and I don't know how else to put it. I am going to be sad when I leave and I have a feeling that I am going to miss these girls horribly. I am most definitely not looking forward to that aspect of graduating.

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
- Stanley Horowitz

Would You Like To See My Schedule For Next Quarter?

Here is the schedule so far for my final quarter at John Paul the Great Catholic University. It sure looks intense, doesn't it?

Monday:

American Politics: 12:00-2:55pm

Senior Project: Post-Production & Demo Reel: 3:00-5:55pm

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Multimedia Advertising: Commercials & Beyond: 3:00-5:55pm

Thursday:

Business Launch: 8:00-10:55am

Friday (I may or may not take this class; it's an elective):

Logic: 12:00-2:55pm (I might just audit)

Then In October: The Business of New Media

October 1st, 2nd, 22nd, 23rd: 4:30-7:30pm

October 3rd, 24th, 31st: 9:00am-4:00pm

I have to get through all of this before I graduate on December 12th! :)

I Haven't Blogged in Forever

Okay, okay... I haven't blogged in a really long time. It's all for good reason, but I fear that in my absence I've probably lost some of my dear readers. *Sigh.

In my absence, I've been busy beyond all comparison. I landed a job working on a promotional video for a new children's book. (I'll make sure to post it when it's finished.) I've been reading an encyclical per week on top of at least twenty pages of other Catholic social teaching reading. The production of my senior film project has taken up most of my free time on the weekends and I'm happy to say I wrapped that up last Monday. Of course, I'm still running my business. I've also been taking an environmental chemistry class. This class is the only class I've ever taken at JP Catholic which does not pertain to my degree in some way. However, it is required so I will do my best to finish up with all that I have. And so I'm left with only two more weeks before this quarter is over. In that time I have to finish my After Effects promo for my company, write a 10-12 pg. paper on Catholic Social Teaching, write my Catholic social teaching take-home final exam, and study for my science final exam. When this quarter is over, I will have only one left before graduation! Ten weeks left in my college career! (A strange feeling has just washed over me.)

And I've saved the best news for last. A couple weeks ago, I came to a very important decision. It is my firm belief that Jesus is calling me to spend the rest of my days with Him... as His bride. In simpler terms, I'm pretty positive that I have a vocation. I've gotten past the point of tearing up with happiness every time I share this special news with someone. (If you know me in person, you'll have to ask me to tell the story of exactly what happened. I somehow do not feel quite right posting the story for all to see on the world wide web.) I'll be looking into orders after graduation. Therefore, I ask for anyone who reads this blog to pray for me that I come to the right conclusion.

I've Been So Busy

Gosh darn, I was doing so well. I was blogging almost every day, sometimes more than once. Then life happened. I have one week left of summer break (they gave me a whole three weeks) and so much has happened in the past two weeks, I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I must start somewhere.

The first week my aunt and her two kids came to visit my family in San Diego. They stayed at our house. It was interesting experiencing a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old living in an unfamiliar environment for four days. The four year old was probably given more sugar by my mother than she has ever received her whole life. (It's a good thing they live 500 miles away.) Mum bought those tasty little Circus Animal cookies. You know, the pink and white ones with the little multicolored sprinkles. At the park, she bought the four year old an orange dreamsicle. Worst of all, the little one would refuse to eat anything green. For example, I made dinner one night: eggs with turkey, baked oatmeal, and strawberries. There was a bit of green on one of the strawberries, and she looked at it with disdain and gave it to my sister. I probably sound like I'm complaining. Believe me, I love children, but when they're staying somewhere other than home, they're out of their routine, they're tired, you're tired, and it can become overwhelming.

They left Saturday and got on the plane with two guests: me and my sister! The airport experience was uneventful. Both the two year old and the four year old were extremely excited about getting on the airplane. The two year old (my godson) made it clear that he wanted to sit with me and his mommy and the four year old thought it would be great fun to sit next to my sister. Our flight left at 9:45am, which means I got up at 6:15am. We got to the bay area around 11:00am. Our uncle (aunt's husband) is an amazing musician and that very night was going to be conducting and directing the music for a production of Yeomen of the Guard (Gilbert and Sullivan). So, my sister and I got to babysit the little rascals while my aunt and her friend went to see the show. By this point, the two little ones were quite used to their big cousins, which made things, quite fortunately, easy as pie. They were in bed by 8:30. Bridget and I were exhausted. We had both gotten up in the wee hours of morning, traveled by air (which is always exhausting no matter how far you're going), and our other aunt had been visiting all afternoon. We stayed awake as long as we could, debated as to whether or not we should go to bed, stayed up a while longer, decided it was probably okay, and both got some shuteye. Bridget woke up at one point to check on the kids, but I was out.

(For future reference, Bridget and I are generally night owls and excellent late night babysitters. We make a great team. We're both certified in CPR and have taken care of lots of children. Bridget's good with the loud extroverted ones; I'm good with the quiet introverted ones. We schedule ourselves and make sure everything stays in order. For example, with our cousins it was: playtime, bath, books, drink of water, potty, prayers, bed.

Most recently, we've been split up as a result of receiving higher education, but we're happy to watch your little ones if we're in the area and/or are on break.)

The rest of the week was spent traveling to/fro from relative to relative: grandparents, cousins (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), aunts, uncles, you name it, we saw all that were available. We just got back last Friday. Bridget's friend from TAC came for the weekend and we had a wonderful weekend watching movies, eating good food, sunbathing, swimming, etc. Thursday is Dad's birthday and our aunt (another from the bay area who we just saw last week) is coming down for the 4th of July. I hope to put together a Europe photo album before I head back to school, make a French Toast casserole for dinner, wash the truck (it's filthy), and maybe read one or two more interesting books.

"To see the summer sky is poetry..." ~ Emily Dickinson

Just an Observation

When I'm finished with this quarter, I'll only have twenty weeks of school left.

Book Meme

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Probably L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gable series, etc.)

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
I'd say the Bible or the Catechism.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Nope.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
I'd probably say Horatio Hornblower.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?
Um... good question. Either Jonathan Livingston Seagull or the Anne of Green Gables series.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old?
I don't remember that far back. I read a lot of books as a ten year old. If I had to pick one, maybe Peter Pan.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
It was probably one of those Strawberry Shortcake books. I was reading to my cousin.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Crime and Punishment.

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Five Children and It.

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Man and Woman, He Created Them: A Theology of the Body by John Paul II.

12. What is your favorite book?
I don't have one. I love most all books.

13. Play?
The Jeweller's Shop.

14. Poem?
Not really into poetry. Is it okay to think of the psalms as poetry?

15. Essay?
I can't think of one at the moment.

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
J.K. Rowling? Don't get me wrong. I've read all her books, but yeah...

17. What is your desert island book?
Something really long and intriguing... maybe by Dostoyevsky.

18. And . . . what are you reading right now?

Nothing fun. They're all for school, and, come to think of it, the quarter's almost over, so I'm done reading for now. When I go home for my three week summer, I'll probably tackle Brothers Karamazov.

Random

I realized the other day that if I have get married and have kids, they will be homeschooled. Furthermore, I think it will be necessary that my husband be in charge of instructing them in math and science. Therefore, I need to marry a math/science type of guy.

Or I'll live close to my sister or my dad and one of them can assist me. Or the Bagel can just be completely in charge of their mathematical education.

Dr. Trent Oakes

I've recently picked up again on reading Dr. Trent Oakes' blog. He has his PhD and is a researcher at Standford. He's an absolutely brilliant guy. He understands all things having to do with the intricatery of cell phone circuitry. I recommend you check out his blog: iamfullyintegrated.blogspot.com

He also has a twitter account and he can be found by the name Trent Oakes.

I really recommend reading his posts. They're odd and strangely fascinating at the same time.

An Oldie' But Goodie'

I thought I would resurrect this old video. I should seriously watch this whenever I'm having a bad day.

And a new one which my roommate and her boyfriend introduced to me. 

Lol! Poor kid! 

I Know I'm Not a Mother...

... and I am not quite sure yet as to what God has planned for my life. I often wonder what tasks he will set before me, and some of you know that I've spent the whole of my college life and time before that trying discerning a possible vocation.

But I have to admit, motherhood has always been something that I believe I've tended towards. I adore taking care of people, feeding people, giving out needed hugs (didn't used to like this factor quite so much), praying with people, tucking them in to to go sleep, etc. Having at least twelve children is quite appealing to me. I would homeschool all of them, teaching them not only in education, but also to love the little things in life such as fresh air, long walks, animals, cooking, baking, a hot cup of tea, books, and the list goes on. 

Here's a link to a very well written article on the beauty of motherhood which inspired me to write this post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://blog.bravewriter.com/2009/04/27/on-being-a-mother/

Like I said, I don't know what God has in store for me yet, but I shall continue to pray that I may always do his will and follow the path that he sets before me.

My 100th Post

This is it, my 100th post on Decorus Verum (Beatiful Truth). I must say, I love this thing. I've used this blog for venting purposes (as in frustration), to marvel at the joys of God's creation, to post videos I find hilarious and inspiring, and even for writing homework assignments. Writing has always been a favorite past time and every spare moment I have I've dedicated to this blog. I cherish the comments, the feedback, and looking at my sitefeed every Saturday, checking out how many readers I have. Even though I love writing for the sake of writing, it's nice to know someone's reading. And better than that, to think that something I should write or post could have an impact in/on somebody's life, this fills my heart with gladness and makes me feel as if I have done something worthwhile with my time.

God bless all my dear readers, whether you follow me regularly, or have just stumbled upon me and my little posts. (Except for the fact, that most of my posts are rather lengthy.) :)

Spiritual Booster

Today at JPCGU, we had an all school retreat. It was really wonderful. It started at 12:30pm with a full on lunch including sandwiches, chips, cookies, strawberries, soft drinks, and bottled water. Fr. Martin from Miles Christe came and gave two talks on faith, gave us time for quiet reflection, led us through a group activity and meditation on C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, led us in an hour and fifteen minutes of Adoration, offered confession for as long as needed, and said Mass. Then we had dinner which consisted of catered Pat & Oscars. It was exactly what I needed in my spiritual life.

Unfortunately, in my academic life, I'm behind. Initially, I had 15-20 pages due for tomorrow (Wednesday) and I hadn't started them yet. At about 8:30pm, I was editing page 2 (and hadn't gotten any further than page 2), when I received an email from my professor saying that he can't come down tomorrow (he's from L.A.). Which means my script isn't due until next week! Yay!

The Joys of Being a Senior

Yes, that's right, I am a senior now. I have been for the past five weeks or so. This quarter has so far been one of the most enjoyable quarters that I have had for a long time. The classes I am taking this quarter are:

1. Documentaries
2. Senior Project: Pre-Production
3. Advanced Distribution and Marketing
4. Business Launch
5. Marriage and Family

This is the homework due next week:

1. What Would Google Do? (Reading: 20 Pages by Thursday)
2. Moviegoers to Marketing (Reading: 2 Chapters by Thursday)
3. Documentary Reading (60 Pages: DONE)
4. Study for Documentary Midterm (Monday)
5. LAUNCH BUSINESS and open bank account! (By Thursday night)
6. Identify at least five distributors (By Friday night)
7. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body (Reading: About 60 pages by Thursday)
8. Catholic for a Reason IV (Reading: no clue, but it should be pretty easy by Thursday)
9. 15-20 pg. script (Wednesday)

These are the final projects due at the end of the quarter

1. Director's Notebook
2. Marriage and Family Paper (15-20 pgs.)
3. Documentary on Skeeter, the Rodeo Horse
4. Marketing Project 

Very Vivid Nightmare/Dreamsequences

I usually can't remember my dreams, but there are a few that I remember for years in intense detail. The most recent ones have been about JP Catholic being persecuted. For whatever reason, at very random times, I have dreams about JP Catholic's involvement in a second sort of Nazi holocaust, or being shot at by Communists. Once I had a dream that the whole school, in fact the whole of conservative USA was put into a concentration camp and the males and females were separated. It wasn't extraordinarily horrible, except for the fact that we most definitely not free. There was a huge security gate surrounding the camp and the males were separated from the females and everything was scheduled and we were watched like hawks.

This normally doesn't scare me, but every once in a while, I have a dream that does come true. It's usually not that big of a deal. It's just like, "Whoa." It's like dejavu or something. And when I was telling my roommate about the persecution dreams and how they weird me out, because they are so realistic, she told me that her sister had a dream about some sort of OK bombing the night before it took place. There was no way for her to hear anything about it, because no one knew it was going to happen. And then they watched the news the next day, and she goes, "That's the yellow truck!" It was the one from her dream. 

Anywho, like I said before, these dreams normally don't creep me out, but every once in a while...

I Hate It

I hate it when people are selfish, when they think of no one else except for their own feelings. It's so unchristian. Yeah, I know that we're human beings and we make mistakes sometimes, but when we are so self-centered as to not care about how others feel, that's a problem. That's why there are wars, and broken friendships. And the worse thing is, this syndrom seems to mostly occur in my life in MY SCHOOL. In a place where people claim to be Catholic and strive to impact the culture of Christ. If we are to impact the culture of Christ, we need to learn to be selfless and love each other as Christ loves us. We need to be one with Christ if we are going to change the world. And self-centeredness is not Christlike at all. On a non-religious level, selfishness is not only unattractive, it's immature. Grow up, people! I hate it, I Hate It, I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Rome, a Home Away From Home

As promised, I am posting yet another installment on Europe. My second destination of my two weeks abroad was Rome. It was mostly a wonderful experience, yet I could have lived without the first night, which is my topic for tonight. I will try to be as brief and as detailed as possible. (I wonder how that is going to work. If you read this blog regularly, you should know by now that I tend to be quite wordy. I apologize in advance.)

I'm sure you are all dying of curiousity to know exactly what happened our first night in Rome. The flight over on Ryanair was uneventful (thanks be to God), but when we got off, we had to figure out exactly how and which bus we were to get on in order to get to Termini. For your information, it's a bit more difficult figuring out transportation in Rome than in Ireland as everything is in Italian. Not to mention, we had heard many horror stories of being robbed in Rome. One of our professors actually had his glasses stolen off his face! We eventually found the right bus, bought our tickets, and headed off to Termini with all luggage. 

We reached Termini at dusk, exhausted, more confused than ever, and eager to get to the Convent (our host). We had been told to look for a Tobacco shop. The shop supposedly would be right outside the station and would have a sign with a white "T" and encircled by dark blue. There was nothing of the sort in site. I did know, however, that we would need a one week bus pass which could get us on pretty much any bus/train in Rome. I found a stand which sold something of the sort for 16 Euros. After much debate and a bit of arguing with my travel buddies, I decided to risk buying the ticket. Then we had to find the right bus. Once again, all the signs were in Italian. I had the "instruction" sheet in my hand. I was really about to lose it as was one of my travel buddies. Her fiance had no clue what was going on. You know what girls are like: highly emotional, their brains working a mile a minute, and they easily get frustrated with others who haven't got a clue (i.e. fiance). I felt like I was going to burst into tears, but seeing that my friend was at the end of her rope as well, I figured she felt the same way as me and that she would lose it if I lost it, seeing that was following my lead. So I took a deep breath, muttered under my breath, "Mother Mary, help me". And then it clicked. The sign post read the same destination as the piece of paper in my hand and I lead the way to the proper bus. 

Once on, we huddled in a group with our stuff in the middle. It was jam packed in there. So we were going in the right direction, but where to get off? "St. Joseph of Cupertino, come on buddy." (He and I are pals for life. ) And then Alena saw, (oh joy!) an automated sign naming off destinations and such. (The interesting thing is that this was the only bus I was ever on in Rome with one of these signs.) We got off at the bus, expecting to see well, the convent. We were told the bus stopped right in front, but where was it? So we started walking down the street. (It was dark at this time and we still had all our bags.) We asked a young woman, who only spoke Italian, and I pulled out the sheet and pointed to the address. Other direction. Okay, turn around. We reached the corner. Still, no convent. Ah, a grocery store. Again, we pointed to the address on the sheet. Other direction. Whoops, too far. ("St. Joseph, your job is not over yet.")  Then we noticed the very small plaques with addresses in tiny print next to huge doors in the big brick/cement wall. We eventually found our way to the big brown doors and were let in by the very nice Italian nuns, who, once again, spoke no English, but were quite friendly nevertheless. We were very grateful, but traumatized and scared of the huge and busy city which seemed to speak no English and have lots of walls covered in graffiti. 

After a very quick dinner at a small pizzeria down the street, we hurried back and talked to the school's R.D. for a bit who convinced us that we had have a wonderful time in Rome once morning came and we were well rested. And the sun would be out, which would make things a lot nicer. And we wouldn't have all our luggage. Another plus. "Just wait until tomorrow and approach the week with an open mind. You'll see. You're going to have a blast." 

And we did. I knew from the moment I stepped into St. Peter's Square and was struck by the sheer beauty of the architecture and the awesomeness of my Catholic heritage, that JP Catholic was going to have the experience of a lifetime in Rome. We were home.