Itzhak Perlman comes to Penn State

On Thursday, September 27th at 7:30 pm in the Eisenhower Auditorium, audiences will be awed by the virtuoso Itzhak Perlman and pianist Rohan De Silva. As far as I know, Perlman has been to University Park only one other time, It is well worth the time to go see this performance. Perlman's works include pieces on the soundtracks for Schindler's List and Memiors of a Geisha

For more information visit the Centre for the Preforming Arts at

http://www.cpa.psu.edu/events/itz.html

Monday Mirth

More scenes from State College

As promised, here are a few more scenes from around town. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics from Wally World; and to this end I'm glad that I didn't because I have been told that if they know that you are taking pictures, then they can confiscate your camera or cell phone. Apparently, the Wal-Mart near me has already done so. But these pictures are safe....I think

Congestion near some apartments and dorms

Moving in

Night life

Line outside of the Creamery at about 10:30pm

en masse

A favorite hot spot!!!

More to come!

Another favorite -kinda long, but worth the read!

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream-and not make dreams your master,

If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same,

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss,

If you can force your hear and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

candid camera scary

Random photos

I realized that I have quite a collection of random photos from PVBI so I've decided that, instead of hoarding them to myself, I would share them with you, my faithful audience. Now, I'm not someone who likes to post too much personal information on the internet so I'm not going to be giving too much info or names on these photos. Most of my audience, however, will know who these people are. So, in the fashion of Laura E., here is one of many random photos to come....


Man....there sure are some WEIRD students around these days......

A favorite poem

The Fog

The Fog comes

on little cat feet

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on

-Carl Sandburg

They're baaaak.........

This week starts the chaos of the return of Penn State students for the beginning of the fall semester. Gone will be the well-stocked Wal-Mart shelves and abundant parking spaces. In all seriousness, though, we missed the students! They make life interesting and to be honest, the town is just too quiet without them! Welcome back students! I hope to get some good pics of the Wal-Mart chaos to come. You should see it! You can't sneeze without bumping into someone. People call each other from within the store just to locate each other again-a fact that I've seen personally. Locals around here know to go shopping before the offical move-in day which is this Friday the 24th, and to stay clear of downtown. Your personal intrepid explorer-me! will be a little crazy, however, and will try to get some good shots to try and give you a feel of what a town (yes, a TOWN) looks like when 40,000+ students move back within two or three days' time. It will be interesting since classes will start that Monday, the 27th. Think of it- you've got furniture to move in, scheduals to print out, books to buy, groceries to buy, and irritatged locals to deal with. Ah the life of a student...... for now, though, here's some pictures to tide you over.

Houses that students rent line the street of College Ave. Here, you can see the beginnings of the process of clearing out the old to make way for the new. And where does the old get put? Why, right out by the road of course! If you look hard, you can make out desks, sofas, and rolls of carpeting

Finally....you thought the dumpster at PVBI was bad....

Yes, there really is a dumpster under there! The thing sticking up to the left is the lid

Hopefully, I'll have more pics on the way!

New Job

I recently was hired on at Penn State, which was a huge answer to prayer! I'll be working in Paterno library (which actually comprises the area of the library to the right in the photo) in the bindary department. My start date is October 1st and I can't wait! In the meanwhile, I'm eagerly waiting for Penn View to start. Yea, I'm one of the weird ones that actually enjoys school.....guess thats why I'll be working in a library!

The best part of the arts fest

The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts is problably one the biggest events to hit State College besides a home football game. Riots that occured in 1998 and 2000 led to increased police presence, including (much to my delight) mounted police. Every Arts Fest I look forward to seeing these fantastic (and often overly large) horses. To someone who cannot afford the beautiful fares at the Fest, these mounted police and their mounts are the highlights of the fest. I'm sorry that they are needed, but I appreciate their presence since the Fest draws quite a crowd. My dad and myself happened to be in the area where they brought the horse trailers in and unloaded them, so I happily took pictures while the police saddled up. The evening was getting on, so the pics are a little dark, but you can see them pretty well. I hope you all, at some point get to see these officers in person some time.

The trailers had just arrived, but the officers immediately started to unload the horses

There were two trailers total and as far as I know the officers traveled in pairs

They put reflective strips on the horses' legs so the local (and non-local) drivers who were not used to sharing the road with horses would notice them quickly

Mounting up

Moving out

It was a pleasure to see these horses work. The whole time that we were standing there, loud atv's, cars, large vans pulling trailers, and even a few people passed close behind the horses who hardley even moved an ear. I can't imagine the training that must go into a riot horse!

Chat Noir

I recently adopted a cat. In truth I wasn't looking for one, I had no intentions of adopting in the near future as I owned two large dogs that had never been raised with a cat, however, the cat adopted me. For any of you that know, the introduction process can be difficult, but it all depends upon the individual personalities of the animals....here I seem to have underestimated my dogs. They took to the cat just fine, and after a few weeks of curious sniffing, were walking around the house together as if the cat had always lived here. The cat is still a little stand-offish to the dogs, making them even more curious at times, but that's just typical cat for you. Anyway, here's some pictures of my newest edition, Cocoa.

For some reason, Cocoa's favorite spot to curl up is around my male's food bowl. She moves pretty quick, however, when she sees those pearly white canines digging into the kibble!!

Good thing it's not feeding time....

We have a bird feeder suction cupped to the window and as you can imagine, this offers no end of fascination to Cocoa

I've been told that once you have kids or get animals nothing is sacred anymore. Well...I don't know about the kids part, but I can definitely attest to the animal part! Never surf the internet alone again!

Would you stop taking all those stupid pictures?!

Hey wow! A new shag rug! I thought the other one was looking kinda shabby!

Just kidding! I love cats. When I was growing up, I always had cats. Anyway, Cocoa is an absolute sweetie. She has a great personality. Welcome to the family, Cocoa!

A Tribute to Bostonians!

One night as my father and I were making a stop at our local Target store, I noticed a very interesting sight. The thought came to me, however I did not at that time have my camera. I returned a little later and took this picture. You see, it occured to me that this glowing sign on the side of Target, in its own neon-deprived way, was trying to do its best to send out a tribute to all those hailing from Boston! I could only think of a certain bible school cook who at one time had called this area his home and whom I was sure would never see this tribute to his heritage. So I am doing my meger part to spread the word..........Hail Bostonians!!! (especially those that make good fried chicken!!)

The dignified cello....

This is a cute video in which Yo Yo Ma (a famous cellist for those of you who may not know) makes an appearance on Sesame Street. For most of us, this video will be a little immature, but keep watching...it takes a real artist with a real heart to do what he does in this little clip. My hat is off to Ma for investing himself in children; who knows but what there wasn't a future cellist watching him?

First Blog

I just couldn't help it......everybody seemed like they were having so much fun blogging that I just had to try it! I don't claim to have anything as fun and exciting as cute baby pictures, horses stuck in slime, candid photos of people with cheeseburgers on their heads, or things such as-by the way, to encounter such antics, please refer to my links :-). However, I do intend to just be me, and and some would say, that's enough hilarity for a 24 hour period. Welcome to the String Section! Keep checking back as I'll be changing things around once I figure out how. Thanks for stopping by!


Sara