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Friday, September 2, 2011

College Colors Day: ULV Leos

My friends, as some of you may or may not know, today is College Colors Day! It's simple, really. Just wear any kind of apparel with the name or colors of the college you go to. (Or the best college you've ever went to. Whatever.) Since I am a student at the University of La Verne, I decided to do a look involving the school colors and leopard print (leopards are our mascot, but we call them "Leos"). But before we go on to the look itself, I'll show you something really quick. Yesterday, I did another mask! What with all the products going on my face daily (and the influence of certain...er...hormones), I have to do these religiously now!



Unlike the mark. shine fighter mask that comes in a tube, this one comes in powder form. You have to mix it with water and apply it with an aesthetic brush...thingy. :p
 
This is the bag it comes in. It's a mud mask from Brazil from the brand VitaDerm that my mom got. I think it's a lot better and more effective than the mark. shine fighter, but I can only do this one once every week or so. All it really has in it is pure kaolin clay. It can be used not only on the face, but the rest of the body and the hair, too. :)




And here is the product on my face. :) Whatever part of the mask is already dried up is where there is the most oil on my face. :p

Now, for the makeup...




After putting on foundation and concealer, I immediately got to work on the eyes. I used the Revlon cream shadow quad in "Khaki Suede" and spread the shimmery sandy tan color all over my eyelids. Then, I used the matte sandy tan from the Pro Palette and went over the cream shadow with it to make the background of the Leo's coat. For the school colors themselves, I used the same technique with the rainbow eyes. I just put on a liquid liner that lost its pigment to make the colors stay. Then, I put on some matte forest green from the Pro Palette on the top lid, from the inner corner to the edge. Then, I got the shimmery red-orange and applied it up to the wing and halfway through the lower lash. Then, I put some white shadow on the inner portion of the lower lashes. I got some black e.l.f liquid liner and used it to make leopard spots on the outer corners of the eyes. I finished off the look with Maybelline Lash Stiletto in "Very Black" and Rimmel London Sweet Jelly lipgloss in "Gourmet" (a clear gloss).



I won this school sweatshirt in a raffle on my Freshman Orientation at ULV in 2007. It was kind of annoying and peppy to me at the time, but now I really miss it. :/ Anyways, I don't really know what the school colors stand for (I was told on my Freshman orientation that they chose orange because there used to be nothing but orange groves in the land where they built Lordsburg College, that is, University of La Verne in 1891 before it became the University of La Verne. :p) But, they had a good choice in mascot. Whoever is a girly girl would LOVE going to ULV, because we get leopard print stuff all the time. ^_^




This is the main sign at the school. It's in front of the Presidential Hall thingy and the Cafeteria. :p




This is Miller Hall. This is where I have most of my English-related classes and where most of the English professors have their offices.

So, that's all about my school and the makeup and what not. :p Are you gonna wear your school colors today?



*Bonus Story*

For anyone who just came for the makeup, you probably don't need to be bored with this part, so you may quit reading if you want. But, for anyone who is intrigued, you are most welcome to read. :) I feel the need to tell my story of my whole college experience today. It's not the standard four-year story. There were a lot of curveballs and challenges that I never expected in my life. Then again, there were many wonderful lessons that have shaped me into the person I am today. If I didn't go to college, I would have still been a bigoted, ignorant child. (Well, a worse one than I am now, anyways.)
I started in the Fall of 2007. I was none too thrilled about college at the time. I had just finished 13 torturous years of school and I wasn't ready to have four more. But, despite my protests, my parents insisted and I went to the University of La Verne. I had five classes that semester. (Quite a bit to lay on a Freshman.) I had English Composition with Professor Sean Bernard, Creative Writing with Professor Karen Ogden and Fitness and Health, U.S. History and some Freshman guidance course with some professors whose names I don't remember. All I remember was that the teacher of the Freshman guidance course was extremely annoying and whiney and that the History professor lectured in such a sophisticated way, that the course material went way over my head. If I learned anything new academically that semester, it was that Thanksgiving wasn't as friendly as I thought (I was indoctrinated in Catholic or Baptist schools all my life...they had huge patriot boners and blinded themselves to the reality of the society we lived in, so they omitted to tell us about the Thanksgiving slaughter.), that Vikings visted the "New World" long before Columbus did and that Native Americans could possibly be Asians. I think my favorite class at that time was Creative Writing. My teacher was incredibly funny. She had a "no-bull" attitude and she is possibly the only teacher in college who has ever sent me home for not having my book with me or for coming in late. While her draconian methods scared me a bit, there were times when she really made it fascinating to listen to her. One time in particular that I remember was when she told us about a time when she was opening a tangerine. She said that she found something beautiful about it, about its smell and its color and the way it sprayed a little when she opened it. It compelled her to write a poem about it and that's when I really learned to appreciate poetry. It was in that same creative writing class that I met Stephen Turner, an absolutely fascinating girl and probably the only one at that school, among that multitude of yuppies, who really understood. I went to her dorm a couple of times to hang out with her. She called me the "Viking Queen" once because we both loved listening to the music of Leaves' Eyes. I regret ever losing contact with her. I've been looking for her everywhere and now, I can't find her anymore. She is probably the only peer in college that was worth meeting. As fascinating as all this was, I had other plans in my young, naive mind. I got late to school often. Sometimes, I didn't even go. I missed a lot of assignments and tests. Needless to say, I pretty much failed that whole semester. But, like I said, I had other plans. I had gotten to know a man the summer before school started. He was probably the first serious relationship I had. I had planned to save up enough money working at my dad's office to get a ticket to England and elope with him there. Needless to say, (yeah, that phrase bugs everyone...get over it) fate had other plans for me. I had not saved up enough money yet for the ticket, so when the semester ended and my parents saw my grades, they were disappointed. And rightfully so. They figured that I just wasn't ready for the university life yet, so they had me transfer to Chaffey College, a community college just down the street from my house. It was cheaper and closer and gave me plenty of room to mess up if I happened to do so.
In the spring of 2008, I began my semester at Chaffey College. Although Chaffey might not be where I graduate from, it's the school where my learning experience started to come to fruition and began to actually mean something. I didn't learn  how important school was for the first three semesters, believe it or not. I did a little better in my second semester in college. I had only two classes, Biology with some Norweigan professor and Child Development with Professor Mickey Gentry, a nice southern lady. It was because of Child Development (as well as the fact that my fiancee and I wanted to have a secret love child), that I learned to love children and want to have a few of my own. At this time, I became an undeclared major and pretended that I didn't know what I wanted to do. Well, I was stupid at that time and truly wanted to be a housewife to a man who didn't appreciate or love me. In terms of my romantic experience that semester, it was really weird. I broke up with the guy I wanted to elope with and before that, I was conflicted about whether I wanted to be with him or my current fiancee now. (I met my fiancee before I met this guy, but the British guy happened to ask me out first.) I went back with him for a short month right before summer break, but he kept making the same mistakes and treating me badly, so I broke it off with him a second time. I was confused about way too much in my life to care about what I wanted to be, let alone if I wanted to even finish college at all. My romantic life was way too turbulent and I just needed a break from everything. Adjusting to college was hard for me. I hated how unforgiving it was, unlike high school. I hated the fact that graduating depended on me and not some structured plan that the school had set for me, like high school.
The summer of 2008 was truly a whirlwind summer for me. I started experimenting with women romantically (and by romantically, I do not mean sexually.) I took Theatre that summer with a fabulous metrosexual professor. (He was absolutely fun and hilarious.) I didn't want to take anything that summer, but my mom insisted. So, I did it to appease my parents for the first three semesters. The end of the summer semester is where my romantic life started to flare up again. My current fiancee still didn't have the guts to ask me out, so I got back together with that British guy a third freakin' time and was once again caught between whether I loved him or my current fiancee. But, when I discovered Wicca, none of that mattered to me anymore. Now, up until then, I had been Christian practically my whole life. But I started to see something in Wicca that I could appreciate. That love for nature, the honoring of a Goddess as well as a God, the use of witchcraft to change my life myself, the "harm none" creed. Becoming Wiccan changed my whole perspective on college for the rest of my college career. As soon as I realized how indoctrinated I had been with Christianity my entire life, I began to learn the importance of learning as much as I can so that I can make wise decisions for myself. I embraced the learning of all subjects, no matter how difficult they were. Gleaning the fabulous treasures of these various subjects would give me the tools needed to smash the invisible oppressions of this harsh reality we live in and to light the way for others to follow.
Fall 2008 was the first semester of college I started taking somewhat seriously. I had Nutrition with Professor...Whabi Sharif or something Middleeastern like that. Political Science with Professor Pak Tang, a criminal science class about female criminals with Professor Frank Griffin and Sociology with Professor Lynn Navarette. My nutrition teacher was a very prim and proper type and she reprimanded us for poor attendance scores (I'm really bad with attendence...), but I learned a lot from that class. I learned how the food industry was trying to kill us and I tried taking up a more nutritious, wholesome and organic diet. Professor Pak Tang was a particular, uh...nuisance, I should say. I thought he was kind of funny and quirky at first, but when he made a lot of conservative-leaning comments throughout class, I decided that I didn't wanna sit through that. (I wouldn't blame a conservative for getting out of a class with a liberal-leaning teacher, either. What will you learn if your blood is constantly boiling with your teacher's bigotry? And yes, I believe liberals can be bigots, too.) There was also this really annoying fool in that class who had apparently just gotten out of the military and decided to preach his doctrine of hate and violence to the rest of us, so I wasn't gonna sit around for that. However, there were quite a few things I learned in that class. My favorite was a quote in the book by Joyce Carey, an English author saying, "It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know-- and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything." At this point, I became aware that I was truly ignorant. It was shocking and frightening to me. I desired more than anything to do something about. So, I took my learning seriously and started to stretch those flaccid critical thinking muscles in my brain more vigorously. I had the misfortune of voicing my opinion in an extremely foolish way in this class and I figured that I should only speak when I have something intelligent to say and if I can back up my argument if others start to question it. (It took a lot of practice, but it's almost effortless for me now.) My criminal science class with Professor Griffin was pretty cool. He was a small man of mixed race who weaved a lot of fascinatingly funny anecdotes into his lectures. He was a huge hit with the boys in that class and the girls just listened to their hilarious pre-class discourse and laughed at them. It was in this class that I learned the very shocking truth about the Salem witch trials. (Because I had just become a witch, I viewed that harrowing event quite differently.) I had learned that since the dawn of man, women and nature had been in harmony as one. Women understood and respected nature. We mirrored her nurturing love as well as her mighty rage. Men from patriarchal religions in the Abrahamic traditions became afraid of this power, both of women and of nature. So, they took the female Goddess and made her into a God and completely eliminated any chance of a female deity's existence. They stripped us of our rights and reduced us to property so that it would be easier to subdue us. On top of that, they demonized nature, making her into an eldritch temptress and a vicious force and indoctrinated us into believing that we needed "protection" from her. I had learned all this in my Wicca books, of course, but to see it validated in a college classroom felt so empowering to me. It was in this class that I discovered Post-modern Feminism and even became a Post-Feminist because of it. Sociology was possibly the one class in my college career at this point that changed my perspective on everything at once. (If you've ever taken a sociology or are taking one right now, you'll know what I'm talking about.) Professor Navarette was one of my favorite professors. Not just because she was so nice and cool and all but because of the subject matter she had opened my eyes to. It was like The Matrix. During this semester, I had my first experience voting for a U.S. president, President Barack Obama. I was thrilled about him when I first voted for him, but that thrill has changed significantly now. He has done a lot, of course, but not nearly as much as I thought he would. I had finally gotten rid of that Britsh guy I was with after discovering that he went out for coffee with a girl. I could say that it was his fault that I did not fully embrace the college experience like I should have, but that's not entirely true. For the most part, it was my own fault that I didn't embrace that on my own. (And I will learn that in a couple of semesters...) I had finally decided that I wanted to help people and heal them and not be a money-loving person. So, I decided to become a nurse and I registered for my new classes with plenty of zeal.
In spring 2009, I took Cultural Anthropology with Professor Susan Mazur-Stommen, Figure Drawing with Mela Marsh and English Composition with Professor Ryan Murhpy. (I registered late, so I couldn't get any of the "nursing" classes.) I had a little tiny bit of romantic turbulence, once again. This time, I had to choose between my current fiancee or a friend of mine that I was in love with. But, I didn't allow that drama to thwart my academic endeavors. I had a goal and nothing was gonna stop me from acheiving it, come hell or high water. I did perfect in this semester and it was probably the only one where I got all A's. Because of my previous background with Sociology, Cultural Anthropology was a breeze for me. My professor in that class was a freaky doppelganger of Professor Kirsten Ogden from the first semester of college. She was a blonde, stout woman with the same facial features as Professor Ogden and even had the same draconian teaching methods! But, I was ready for her. I was ready for her strict attendence requirements, I was ready for her unreasonable assignments and of course, I was ready for her wrath. I ended up getting an A- in that class. :) Figure Drawing was a very fun class for me. I had it with an eccentric Russian teacher who gave me the first experience of drawing somebody in the nude. I learned about all kinds of art forms in an assignment where I had to make an "Art Book" which I had to fill with clippings or drawings of my own. (I was one of the only two people in that class who did that assignment.) We even got to do a fascinating project called the "Africa Project". My partners were a black guy who was into anime and gothic fashion and a really big, tall boxer who I fantasized about a lot. (It was in the beginning of this year that I lost my virginity, so I thought about sex a lot after that. :p) I fell in love with a girl in that class who was a very delicate, petite and beautiful ballerina. Of course, I only admired her from a distance and never had the courage to ask her out for real. My English comp class was a lot of fun, too. My professor was young, so he went easy on the rules of the class. We met on Wednesday nights at Ontario High School and I cannot deny that my secret desire to be a writer came out most in this class. But, I settled on being a nurse and I was happy with that decision at the time.
When summer came around, I planned to continue working just as hard as I did in spring. I had an arithmetic class (that's where the tests had put me at) with Professor John Halldane and Communication Studies with Professor Carmen Navarro. Professor Navarro was another one of my favorite professors. She was very sweet and charismatic and I got an A+ in her class! She taught me a lot about communication. A lot of things which completely changed the way I communicate with others, especially my current fiancee. I met a couple of interesting people there, Jackie and Faruj who I really connected with. But, of course, not as much as Stephen Turner in my first semester. That summer was actually pretty horrible because my fiancee and I were having relationship problems. I tried being patient with him and tried to fix them as well as I could. But, I had school to focus on, too. Math was the worst class for me. My professor was a terribly bigoted guy from New Zealand who constantly insulted Americans, constantly insulted people personally and just seemed misanthropic in general. He gave us homework that used some ridiculous sort of Calculus instead of sticking to a lesson plan meant for people in a lower kind of math class. It was interesting to learn that all math is interconnected in some way, but I would have rather learned it from someone who wasn't so rude. With the stress of that class packed on, I nearly killed myself in the end of that summer because my current fiancee did something so unspeakable and mean to me at that time. I took the break-up hard, but I eventually moved on with a Cuban guy who was a mutual friend of mine and my best friend's. But, before the new semester started, my fiancee came crawling back to me, realized that he was a jerk to me and changed completely for the best.
Fall of 2009 was not an easy semester, but it was simpler to handle, now that I had such a supportive man to love me and help me. I had Human Anatomy with Professor Frank Caracol, Pre-Algebra with Professor Mark Ballard and Developmental Psychology, Pharmocology, Chicano History and an Art Museum Appreciation class with some professor's whose names I don't remember right now. Yeah, I had a loaded plate, which is why I had to drop Pharmocology halfway through. Human Anatomy was hard enough as it was. But, very necessary for the job I wanted. I obviously ended up changing my mind about being a nurse, but I still think this class was useful. Now, whenever people wonder what's going on with their bodies, I usually know and I know why, as well.  My Pre-Algebra class was a lot easier than the arithmetic class (tho it should not be that way). My teacher was nicer and I even met Susan, an older woman who I had previously known in the Cultural Anthropology class, so I had some companionship there. Developmental Psychology is a pretty fascinating subject in itself. That's where I learned about Erikson's stages of development. (At that time, I felt more in sync with the mid-adult "stagnation vs. productivity" stage, but now I'm back at "intimacy vs. isolation" in the young adult stage.) Chicano History was a very empowering class for me that taught me not only about my people, but why they are who they are today. My teacher was a cool white guy who pronounced all the Spanish words correctly and made it seem like he was practically a Chicano, himself. If there was one thing that he said that made an impression on me, it was that even non-white people can be "gringos" with the right attitude. Pharmacology was a lot of fun and I learned plenty about health and medicine there. Even tho I'm not going to be a nurse anymore, it's still nice to have a vast knowledge of medication while others around me tend to be ignorant of its effects. The Art Museum class was quite fascinating. It was only one unit and lasted only one month. All I really did was vist a bunch of art museums (my brother and dad often went with  me) and learned to appreciate art. Since I had already created art in a previous semester, that was fairly simple for me to do. Ever since, I've taken quite an interest in  visiting art museums.
Spring 2010 was completely uneventful, yet very eventful. Because of a messed up new school system, I had to pay for my classes 10 days after I registered or lose them. So, I ended up losing them and not going to school that semester at all. It really set me back in a very frustrating way. But, maybe this break was needed. At this time, I had finally become engaged to my current fiancee and started planning my wedding. But, I also began to do some soul-searching since I had so much time to think now. I realized that I didn't want to live the rest of my life in mediocrity. I wanted to be a lot of big things in my life. So, I reapplied to the University of La Verne and got accepted. Originally, I was going for
Business, but then decided to do English again. During this break, I tried looking for a job, but couldn't find one because of the economy. Six months of not finding a job had taught me how difficult it truly can be and how much more difficult it is without the education.
In summer 2010, I decided to take English Composition B with Professor George Henson. He's a wonderfully funny guy and really knows how to be sarcastic. xD But, he's still really nice and if there's one thing I can remember about him, it was his strong dislike of generalizations. Although the World Cup was going on that this time and going to class would harsh my mellow, I still had a lot of fun learning what I learned in that class. I learned that the reason things change so quickly now is because of corporate influence and capitalism. I learned about "The Hero Journey" which was very useful in helping me finally write that novel I had contemplated writing since I was in high school. I had learned about all the symbols and codes that TV and the media put right before us to convince us that we just really need that product. This class was beyond just a key to the important classes for my English major. It taught me a lot about this social creature we call man, as well.
Fall 2010 was my first semester back at ULV. I had resolved on being an English major with a Music minor, so I took Music Theory I with Professor Reed Gratz, Foundation of Linguistics with Professor Dorena Wright, Philosophy with Professor Dan Campana and the University Chorale with Professor James Calhoun. Music Theory was pretty standard. I already knew most of this stuff. (Although the Circle of Fifths was new to me and extremely useful!) My favorite part of this class was the professor. He did more than just teach us about music. He encouraged us to love it as much as he did, too. I just enjoyed his company and his voice in general, too. There are just some teachers who have that affect on you. :) Speaking of teachers who have that effect on you, Professor Dorena Wright also has that affect on me. She is the only teacher who I've taken a class with more than once in college. She's a really nice little English woman, but don't think that means she'll make the subject material easy. She really helps you learn, but in a way that effortlessly coerces you to do so. (The cool thing about her is that she's not one of those British people who try to point out the ways in which the UK is better than the US.) Foundation of Linguistics taught me more than just Old English origins. It taught me a lot about the American people as well as the world. Now, whenever someone uses a word out of context (like the word "heathen"), I am educated enough to put them back in their place and tell them where that word came from. Philosophy was esepcially a class of mind-blowing realizations. I've all heard all the strange stories about the things Philosophy professors tend to do. But, I should say that Professor Campana is a fairly...fair, unbiased (well, as far as teaching goes, anyways), thorough and very professional teacher. He teaches you facts, not opinions about Philosophy. Then, he leaves you to think about the rest. From his class, I learned such valuable things as "physical might does not make philosophical right" and "we are not the victims of our destiny, we shape our own destinies". (The latter going back to Fall 2008.) I totally aced the section about the Ancient Greek Philosophers. Then, I had a lot of trouble with Descartes and those in his generation. And anything after that, I did just okay on. Overall, it was a very enriching class. (And it gave me something to bring to the table when my fiancee, who was a Philosophy minor, would talk to his friend about Philosophy.) And of course, there was the Chorale. A wonderful class with wonderful memories. I just love singing in general, so I enjoyed joining the Chorale. My professor was a very joyful man with a festive laugh. He always smiled when he taught us. (And who wouldn't if they weren't teaching others how to sing?) I learned that I was a First Soprano and that it wasn't all that great to be a soprano, if all the other sopranos were being bitches. I had a really fun time with the class tho and even found companionship with a guy named Sean Koester, who I talked to about music and religion. (He was a very open-minded Universal Unitarianist.)
In Spring 2011, I dropped the Music minor, because I figured it would take to much time and all I needed was a degree. I ended up taking Intermediate Algebra with Professor Scott Phelps (I tested differently at this school), English Lit. I with Professor Alden Reimonenq, Myth in Literature with Professor David Werner, a class about Jane Austen and her contemporaries with Professor Dorena Wright and a community service class where I worked with disabled adults with Professor Karen Jones. Unfortunately, I failed the algebra class, so I need to find some way to fullfill that math requirement still. It's just too hard for me, I guess. And when I need to focus on the more important English classes, I just can't do it. My professor was very nice, tho and he did everything he could to help. :) My English Lit. class was quite fascinating. I love early English literature, anyways, so it kept my interest. However, I did learn quite a few new things. My professor in that class was one of those teachers that make a lot of rules in the classroom and expects a LOT out of our work. (And, rightfully so.) From this class, I learned about sonnet cycles (and even created one of my own all dedicated to my fiancee) and I learned to write a little better, too. I got a D in the first paper I did in this class, even tho I put my whole effort into it. The fact that an English teacher essentially told me that I was not good enough at writing devastated me at first. But, I was intrigued. I ended up respecting his opinion more and taking his advice on better writing. I have improved significantly now and expect to learn a lot more. The Jane Austen class brought a lot of new lessons to the table, too. I discovered a more romanticized style of writing which I began to use myself while I was writing my novel. I also discovered Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, two literary treasures which I recommend everyone should read. And of course, I discovered the Byronic hero. A man that we can all learn to love. :) In Myth in Literature, I took the chance to read the Odyssey from cover to cover and to learn how important mythology really was. (I already learned that in Cultural Anthropology, but that went into detail in this class.) And last, but certainly not least, I quite enjoyed my community service class. The actually academic stuff in the class was fairly simple. But the lessons were quite valuable and enriching. Every Friday, I would go volunteer with disabled adults at a workshop called PVW (Pomona Valley Workshop). I would seal and package sponges or help the disabled adults in that place to do it. I already had experience with disabled adults, because I have an Autistic brother, so I wasn't scared or anything. I met one guy named Ramiro Ravena who was a very sweet, hard-working and charismatic guy with a somewhat troubled past. I know it sounds like a drag for most people to do community service in school, but trust me. It's a class that is just as essential as any other.
In summer of 2011, I couldn't find any classes to take, so I spent the summer with my fiancee for a whole month and a week. I was afraid of realizing that maybe I couldn't handle living with him. But, it was the most wonderful summer I had ever had. It was because I spent that much time practically living with him that I realized all the more why I couldn't live without him.
After that, I returned to school again, of course. Now, I'm taking American Lit. I with Professor Bill Cook, English Lit. II with Professor Dorena Wright and Modern Poetry with Professor Kenneth Scambray.
So, this is my story so far. There's quite a bit to it, as you can see. There were plenty of lessons about life, love, learning, work and more. I questioned and re-questioned my morality constantly. I changed and changed until I became something that the old me would never recognize (or approve of). My mind expanded and I got out of my little bubble of bigotry where I was just content to sit back and watch the worst things happen. But, my journey is by no means over and neither will it ever be. Hopefully, you all have an interesting story to tell someday, too. :)








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