Y=Yellow Cake

• 1 cup butter: I remember mashing and mushing up butter in a bowl to help my mom bake and cook. I wasn't very patient so I never waited for the butter to melt completely, if it was supposed to. I remember adding in the butter to the other cake ingredients and slowly sturring it in until the dough was too thick for me to stir.
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar:  Sugar. Sweet, and slightly cold to the touch. I remember when I was younger I used to sneak into the kitchen when I thought no one was looking and steal a spoonful of sugar. It was sweet (of course) and had a grainy texture that slowly went away as it began to melt in my mouth.
• 8 egg yolks: I remember when I cracked my first egg. I was nervous because I was afraid that I'd get the goo of the egg everywhere, and that my mom would be mad at me if I messed it up. I eventually began cracking the egg; It took a few tries to break it open, since I was cracking in gingerly. Eventually, though, I finally craced the egg and was able to dump it into the mixing boul without making a mess.
• 3/4 cup milk: Cold, creamy. Slides down smooth on a hot day. Chocolate milk was my favorite drink when I was younger. I remember how every morning I'd wake up and eat a bowl of cereal with some ice cold milk.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract: I used too and still do love vanilla extract. I remember I was baking cookies with my friend and we needed to add vanilla extract. We both wondered what  it tasted like so we both tried a little and it tasted really strong, but kinda good.
• 2 cups cake flour: When I was younger I thought flour must taste good because it looked like powder sugar and was soft to the touch. One day I decided to try it and I shoved a spoonful of it in my mouth. It was discusting. The taste was hard toget out of my mouth.
• 2 teaspoons baking powder: When I was little my mom used to babysit the neighbors kids. One day, we were baking (I don't remember what), and the boy my mom was babysitting asked what baking powder tasted like. My mom said it tasted bad, but he asked if he could try it. My mom told him he could but that she warned him. He took a spoon and put some in his mouth. His lips then kind of puckered and he spit it out in the sink.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt: I used to love salty snacks. When I ate pretzels, I would sort them from least salty to saltiest, and then eat the least salty first so that I would have the saltiest for last.

Famous Poem Starters

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I run,

Trying to escape the madness that follows me.

Out of the night that covers me,

I see the ghosts,

Creatures that feed on hopelessness,

And reflect back failed dreams.

Nursery Rhymes ARE Relevant to Life

          What did I dream?

I do not know;
The fragments fly like chaff.
Yet strange my mind

Was tickled so,
I cannot help but laugh.

Link: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/dreamhouse/nursery/rhymes/dream.html

This poem made me think about when I dream at night. I rarely remember my dreams, and if I do I usually remember just bits and pieces of them. This poem relates to me because after I wake up I often wonder what my dream was. I try to piece together the fragments I have to get an idea of what my dream was about, but all that does is creates a jumbled mess.

Chuck Miller

The journalist I chose was Chuck Miller. Chuck Miller is a writer as well  as a photographer and was born in Massachussetts. He grew up in New York though and says that "technically,
Albany’s (his) home town." He started writing in 1990, and has written in magazines and newspapers, and has also written books. His photographs have won some awards too. He attended the Street Academy of Albany, which was "formed in 1969 by Sister Maryellen Harmon, RSCJ, as part of an attempt to provide a high school education for troubled youth in Albany’s inner-city neighborhoods." He also plays competitive trivia and has written books on record collecting and photography.

In the article, it talks about how a singer named Freddy Cannon "made over 100 appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, more than any other performer in the show’s history." Dick Clark helped Freddy Cannon by suggesting to him that "if the record had a fast bass drum in the song bridges, the record would sail up the charts." Freddy Cannon had the bass drum sound recorded and added into the record. When the song “Tallahassee Lassie” got released, it became a hit, and Dick Clark also used it on American Bandstand.

Links: http://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/the-chuck-miller-faq/1060/

http://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/dick-clark-as-remembered-by-freddy-boom-boom-cannon/13184/

NYT Tuesday

A Heroine

A warrior,

 Complex, contradictory, demanding.

She is an individual,

 Standing alone in the mist.

 A warrior,

 Unique and righteous.

 She defends the free

 Fights for life, home, love

 A warrior,

 Loyal, determined, watchful.

Intent to embrace her identity.

A rare heroine.

article link-

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/movies/katniss-everdeen-a-new-type-of-woman-warrior.html?pagewanted=2&ref=movies

 

When I'm frustrated...

When I'm frustrated I go down in my room for a while to be by myself, and to cool off. I'll usually put my ipod on my ihome, and put on some music. I turn it up really loud so that I can't hear anything else that is going on around me, except for the song that is playing. The music I play when I'm angry is usually by the Foo Fighters, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace, Good Charlotte, the Fray, OneRepublic, and others also.