Desiree Jennings

     Desiree Jennings got a seasonal flu shot and ended up with a neurological disorder that causes her to not be able to walk forward. She can walk backwards and can run, but has a reaction when she tries to walk forward. She can't even talk correctly if she isn't running.

Cooking with Lily

Pumpkin Pie –
     So, about two weeks ago, I had a day off, and I decided I would carve a Jack-O-Lantern for October. I drove out to the nearest pumpkin farm. (You know you live in the middle of nowhere when the nearest pumpkin farm means driving 5 minutes.) I bought the biggest, roundest, and orangest (not a word) pumpkin I could get with my saved up change. I brought it home and started cutting away. When I got all the gross gooey guts out, I decided why not make a pumpkin pie out of the pumpkin I get off the edges. I know you’re suppose to buy a different kind of pumpkin for pie, and you’re suppose to use the actual pumpkin and not just the scrapings you get off the edge, but I was feeling daring. After sorting the extra pumpkin into a bowl, picking out extra seeds, adding some water, steaming in the microwave, and pureeing, I finally had some pumpkin puree. I took the extra seeds, covered them with butter and salt, and roasted them in the oven. I then made homemade crust, and mixed up the pumpkin pie filling using my puree. I then realized that I didn’t own a pie pan. After a trip to Wal-Mart, my pie went into the oven. After about 50 minutes of baking, I had a pumpkin pie. Even though it wasn’t the most conventional directions, it ended up tasting good.
     I also ended up finishing carving my pumpkin. I made an “Imagine” design based off the Bluecoat’s 2009 DCI show because each year DCI has a pumpkin carving contest. Here’s the video from their show:

2009 - Bluecoats - IMAGINE

John Dunnam | MySpace Videos

Bertolli –
     This is going to sound like a commercial, but I just love Bertolli skillet meals! My favorite part about them is it makes me feel like a gourmet chef (I have no cooking skill whatsoever). What other time can I say I made “Chicken Florentine and Farfalle”? All you do is put the meal in a pan on medium on your stove for 10 minutes, and stir occasionally. The sauce is in frozen chunks in the mix, so it melts as the meal cooks. It’s pretty cool. In case you’re not hungry enough already, here’s their real commercial:

Apple Pie –
     After my pumpkin pie accomplishments, I decided to make an apple pie last week. First I went to the local orchard, Blevins, and picked my own apples. After bringing the apples home and washing them, I realized that peeling, coring, and slicing these apples was going to be a pain in the butt. I decided to purchase an apple peeler. Good decision! This is the coolest old machine I have ever seen. You just stab your apple onto this fork thing, and turn the knob. It slices, cores, and peels an apple in less than 10 seconds. (Picture included) After making pie crust, mixing the spices with the apples, and filling the pie pan I bought for the pumpkin pie, it made its way into the oven. My apple pie turned out better then my pumpkin pie. My favorite thing to do is to top a slice of apple pie with two scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel sauce. I’m probably going to die young of overly clogged arteries, but it’s totally worth it.

Time for Lily’s TOP 3 IPHONE APPLICATIONS!

1. ITick
ITick is a free application that is a metronome. It is very handy if you need a quick reference for tempo, although my cheap KORG metronome is more accurate. The nice thing about ITick is that it also serves as a reference for the common tempo points of moderato, allegro, andante, etc, which comes in handy when playing more classical pieces that don’t have the BPMs (beats per minute) written at the top. For free, I haven’t found a metronome that will beat this, but you can’t forget that if you have an IPhone you’re still paying the $20 a month service charge!

2. Offender Locator Lite
Don’t let the name full you, the reason it’s called “Lite” is not because the criminals it lists are any safer. The "Lite" version is just the free version. Offender Locator Lite is an application that lets you look up any registered sex offenders in your area, the location of your phone, or any address. Not only does it show you where they live, it also shows you a picture if it’s available. It’s pretty creepy, but it’s definitely an interesting IPhone app. It almost makes me feel bad for the people listed, but then I remember they had to commit a pretty serious crime to get onto the list in the first place.



3. Mach Dice
So, this may be the most pointless application ever… I love it! It basically lets you shake your IPhone in order to roll plastic dice on the screen. I can play with it for hours. When I was in high school, sometimes a couple people would bet some lunch money on a game of dice if we were really bored in some class. Now, I love playing with dice when I’m bored. It’s hard to describe how intense a game of dice can get when you’re bored.



*Bonus App!*
Phase
The reason Phase is a bonus app is because it’s really not an application at all. Phase is an IPod game that can be downloaded to any IPod. It allows you to turn any song in your ITunes library into an interactive Guitar Hero like experience. Unfortunately, since I have 8 gigabytes of music, and I only have an 8 gigabyte IPod, I can no longer fit Phase onto my IPod. It was very fun while it lasted, but I warn you it’s not exactly like Guitar Hero.



*Please note, I do not own an IPhone myself, just an IPod nano. I know these applications because I play them on my friends’ IPhones.

Ecclesiastes

     I decided to look up the book of Ecclesiastes, because I don't know it very well, and I wanted to see why Bradbury picked that book for Montag to be. I thought it was very interesting that Bradbury decided to choose a book of the Bible that is not very popular or talked about. The book of Ecclesiastes was written around the third or fourth century B.C. by a man who is called Qoheleth in the book.
     Qoheleth was disturbed by many things he viewed in life; that sometimes bad people lived longer than good people, that those who were most deserving did not always get what they earned, and that those who worked hard for a living had to leave their possessions on earth when they died. Qoheleth really asked the question, "Why should we work so hard to be wise and good?". Ecclesiastes really does not answer this question, but it is one of the earliest books of the Bible that really ponders about the afterlife and what lies after death, which makes it very similar to Revelations.
     One of the major points of Ecclesiastes is that Qoheleth was calling the Israelites to try and understand God and life in a new way. He was trying to get the Israelites to really ponder the meaning of their religion, instead of blindly following it. The point of Ecclesiastes wasn't to answer questions, but the get people to ask them in the first place. I think this is why Bradbury chose this book. Like Granger and the wanderers in Fahrenheit 451, Qoheleth was just trying to get people to think about their lives.

Brooke Greenberg

I was watching TLC tonight, and there was a special on Brooke Greenberg. Brooke is 16 years old, but she hasn't aged since she was around 2 years old. She is the size of the average 1 year old, around 20 lbs. It was very interesting to me because Brooke is less than 2 years younger then me. Some scientists believe she may hold the secrets to the fountain of youth because she never ages.

This is a picture of Brooke and her sister. Her sister is Carly is 13 years old. Brooke is 16.

See the full video

Burning Bright

     Burning Bright is the climax and action of this novel. One of my favorite action scenes of this novel is Montag’s fight with the Mechanical Hound. “It was half across the lawn, coming from the shadows, moving with such drifting ease that it was like a single solid cloud of black-gray smoke blown at him in silence.” I like this last chapter a lot because it contains much more visual imagery, as opposed to conversation and dialogue.
     Also in this chapter, the reader gets to meet Granger. He shows Montag the fake chase scene that is happening on the television, in which they capture a fake Montag in order to trick the audience into believing that they caught him. It shows that the government is willing to sacrifice innocent people in order to maintain peace and control. The reader also learns that Montag becomes the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible.