Music to my ears, and hopefully yours

April 3rd, 2011

I’ve been wanting to work on more creative projects lately. My schedule hasn’t been as forgiving as I’d like and I seem to be too unmotivated and exhausted from the dreary weather to be inspired. (But, I can smell spring in the air already.) With that being said, I’m extremely fortunate to have a muse in my life to create with. Dave helped me to get out of my funk by suggesting we do a no-pressure musical recording session where we build off one another. He laid down a chord progression on an acoustic guitar and we went from there…Packets and Waves – Song Pong

Eileen_ViolinClapsCat Drum

These were our “instruments” and the order we played them:

  1. Dave: acoustic guitar
  2. Eileen: ooooo’s
  3. Dave: bass
  4. Eileen: cat food tub “drum”
  5. Dave: bottle cap on cheese grater
  6. Eileen: ahhhh’s
  7. Dave: harmonica
  8. Eileen: shaker and cat toy
  9. Dave: cat (kick drum)
  10. Eileen: violin
  11. Dave: acoustic guitar lead
  12. Eileen: claps
  13. Dave: beer bottle and silverware

We did this in a few hours in our dining room and though I wouldn’t say it’s polished, I think it sounds pretty cool. Here’s our latest musical creation from our nerdy-pseudonymed group Packets and Waves.

Packets and Waves – Song Pong

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Save the EPA! It’s worth more than you think

March 10th, 2011

Source: joemohrtoons.com

In a time where our country is trying to figure out the budget for the next year and beyond, and in the midst of the largest deficit we’ve ever had (almost $14.2 trillion), funding for government agencies and programs will inevitably be reduced, if not axed all together. That is if the Congress and Senate can ever come to an agreement on the Federal budget. Let’s be straight here: our nation is in A LOT of debt and there is a very real need to cut significant spending in order to balance the budget and remain an economic powerhouse (which we’re losing the title to China and other rapidly growing economies). But being short-sighted does not do us any good either. The Republican-majority Congress has proposed in its latest budget to cut 1/3 of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget or $1.6 billion, the largest cut of any government department. Meanwhile, there is no mention whatsoever of cutting the $4 billion of subsidies that are given to oil and gas companies every year.

The argument by the GOP is that the environmental regulations imposed on industries, such as limiting greenhouse gas emissions and toxins from entering our waterways, are detrimental to jobs and economic growth. Seriously?! Based on an August 2010 cost-benefit analysis of the Clean Air and Water Act (regulated by the EPA of course), it “returns $40 dollars in health and environmental benefits for every dollar of compliance cost” or a projected $2 trillion in 2020, far surpassing the cost of compliance. A past EPA study has concluded that from 1970 to 1990, we’ve already seen a value of $21.4 trillion in health and environmental benefits. If our legislators are concerned about saving money in the long run, it seems pretty obvious that EPA is a good investment. Less sick people mean lower healthcare costs, which mean more productive days at work and school, which equates to….drum roll please…A STRONGER ECONOMY. How about them apples?

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Changing zebra stripes

February 22nd, 2011

This little number was picked up on a thrift store binge a few months ago and has been waiting in my closet for some attention. It was a whopping $1.80 at Village Discount in Chicago, of which they have many locations. If you want a true, no-frills thrift store, instead of a trendy, pricey vintage one, I highly recommend Village Discount (let’s NOT shorten that to VD) in the city. They have 50% off price tag sales daily bringing that average $4 item to a mere $2! You can’t even buy earrings at an H&M for those kinds of prices…There’s also a huge selection of clothes, though you have to be dedicated to sifting through A LOT of ugliness. When I saw this piece, I wasn’t quite sure if it was a tube dress or a long skirt, but I decided that I didn’t like it as either. I was a fan of the fun colorful stripes, which reminded me of Zebra gum (children of the ’80′s know what I’m talking about). So, I flipped it around and turned it into a sleeveless shirt, just in time for the weather warming up to a mild 58 degrees.

Update: The temps have since plummeted and it’s currently snowing on this major election day in the Windy City. Eh, so it goes. So it goes…

From: Village Discount Thrift Store

Cost: $1.80

Before

Honestly, I didn’t know what to do with this when I started on this piece. Did I want to keep it as a dress and add a strap or two? Did I want to make a mini skirt? Since, I didn’t have a ton of extra material to work with (as you can see, it fits me snugly as a dress), I decided to go with something different from the original, yet relatively simple. The idea of the cowl neck shirt was born.

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Tiger Mother, Hear her RAWR!!

February 2nd, 2011
My mom and her kids

My mom and her kids

I couldn’t resist this topic of conversation. A friend posted an article on Facebook about one woman’s take on the superiority of Chinese mothers to Western mothers. Of course, growing up in an immigrant Chinese household myself, I was curious about her experiences and what she had to say. So I read the article and after listening to the flood of controversy that soon followed in the media, legit and satirical (heard about her on WSJ, NPR, CNN, the Colbert Report…), I read Amy Chua’s new memoir entitled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. This is not a review of the book, though I did enjoy it through a range of emotions and read it in two solid sittings. It is more of my own personal take on the subject of growing up or likewise, raising your children, in an authoritarian Chinese way.

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…and I’m back with more creative projects

January 13th, 2011

Writing in my blog has been on hiatus in recent weeks, ok, months is more accurate. Unfortunately, it’s taken a back seat to applying for grad schools, spending the holidays with family (my own and the newly adopted Schwanteses), hockey practice/games and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life.

Here’s a silver lining in the dark cloud of graduate applications: I got into Columbia University in NYC!! Waiting to hear back from my other schools, but I’m pretty psyched about this one. It is an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy and is a 12-month program that will begin in June 2011. I’ll keep you updated on my final decision on a school in the coming months.

All this is a prelude to me showcasing the first original song by Packets and Waves (a side music project of Dave and I) called “Wanderlust.” Dave wrote most of this during his week off of work during Christmas/New Years break and we recorded it over the course of 4 days. The first version we released made me cringe every time I heard the vocals. It sounded flat and strained, so we decided to rerecord the vocals a week later. I think the final version turned out pretty well, considering that it was my first try at singing an original PAW piece. And of course, the music sounds amazing because it was written, played and recorded by the very talented Mr. Schwantes. Hope you enjoy it! There will be more to come soon.

“Wanderlust” by Packets and Waves

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Sewing is a lost art

November 21st, 2010

Like I didn’t have enough things on my plate, I’ve decided to take on a new hobby: sewing. I’ve actually been really interested in doing this for a long time, partially inspired by Project Runway, my own frugality and a desire to find my own style. Along with making an effort to live greener, I have been buying clothes at thrift stores for years. It was about time that I took it up a notch by cutting, altering and REUSING secondhand clothing to make it my own. Though I am not very apt to stick to things (I get bored easily), I thought that it would be worthwhile to attempt to do a new dress/shirt/pants per week. This is my first real attempt at doing this, so here goes…

From: some vintage store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Cost: $25 (more than I’d usually pay, but it was from a vintage store)

Front

Back

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What the GOP House Majority Means for the Climate Change

November 8th, 2010

Upcoming Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner speaking about the Republican’s plan to fight climate change on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC (April 19, 2009)

For those who haven’t followed the results from this Tuesday’s (Nov. 2, 2010) election, the Republicans/Tea Partiers won the majority of seats in Congress, which makes the current minority leader, Congressman Boehner (pronounced bane-er, though you may think otherwise), the new Speaker of the House, superseding Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats still retained the majority in the Senate, but by a very slim margin. It’s now going to be very interesting to see if and how the two parties will work together or if they’ll spend the next two years bickering like 5-yr olds with temper tantrums.

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The Blago Blog

August 26th, 2010

This was the last thing I expected. I accidentally ran into our infamous former governor Rod Blagojevich at Laguardia Airport in New York City on Monday night. You know the one. He’s the guy that was accused of 24 counts of corruption charges, but had a hung jury with 23 of those counts. The guy that was supposedly trying to sell Obama’s former senate seat in Illinois for a new job. He’s the guy with the unmistakable pouffy coif that rivals that of Donald Trump and Elvis. The one that can’t seem to keep his mouth shut in public except for when he’s supposed to testify on his own behalf. Yea, that one.

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Tiny fruits of my loin

August 17th, 2010

I love nature, but I’ve never had much of a knack (or patience) to have a green thumb. Early this summer, I was determined to change that. I bought an organic gardening book, full of beautiful color pictures and instructions on everything from growing from seedlings to composting. I went to a nursery and picked out a few plants that I could start out with: 3 cherry tomato plants, 2 strawberry plants, one sweet basil plant, and a spearmint plant. I bought topsoil, filled up a few old flower pots lying around my mother’s garden and had at it. With a little bit of watering, I managed to grow something. Also take into account that I live in an apartment and don’t have my own garden. Pots are the only way I can grow stuff.

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Gay marriage, still an issue?

August 13th, 2010

With the recent repeal of the Proposition 8 ruling in California, which made it illegal for same sex couples to marry, it got me rethinking about the debate over the issue. Granted, in this respect, I am not the most objective person. One of my childhood friends is gay and so are many more of my college friends. I live in Boystown in Chicago. I played hockey with several lesbians. There is not a question in my mind of whether or not homosexuals should be given the right to see their partners in the hospital when they get sick, get Social Security benefits or just be able to officially make a commitment to the person they love.

Think about it. Before the civil rights movement and a 1967 Supreme Court decision, it was illegal on a federal level to wed as an interracial couple. That was just 43 years ago!! I can’t even fathom that being the case anymore. No one even questions it as a moral principle. I see interracial couples everywhere, even in my own relationship. How is this much different? It isn’t. Trade in a few players for a different demographic and you have the same arguments being made.

This is a list put out by the Family Research Council on “Ten Arguments against Same Sex ‘Marriage’”. The italicized words are my argument of why it’s preposterous.

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