CG Update + 2013

[Note: I meant to post this on 13 December, but was unable to finish. My hair is done for the week  :-)]

Let's do the little things first :-)

First off, I finally fixed my edges situation! I smoothed my leave in mix on it, sealed it with some EVCO/canola oil blend. I then took two large (quarter sized) dollops of my gel and smoothed it on my edges. I let it dry, and honey boo boo chile my edges done look recovered now! Lol. No more of that embarrassing frizz! And, the best part is that I baggyed overnight, and my hair was still laid before I went to class this morning and it STILL looks amazing!

Now, my leave in stash. Um...well first, an explanation of sorts. I had all these mixes and whatnot going on, and reading product reviews on CN and YT...I just got overwhelmed. I snapped, dumped out the majority of my products (only the non-CG condishes with short chain alcohols, a DC mesh, and a leave in that I tried to mix together), and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, I hit up Safeway, Rite Aid and Target, and repurchased almost only staples that I used and loved. 

Ummm...don't take this the wrong way, but I will no longer be doing stash hauls. I'll just update y'all on when I buy new products and do little product reviews and whatnot. I'm trying my best to curb my PJ ways :-P



My CG journey is going pretty well so far; I still have to get rid of some of the conditioners, though *sniffles* But otherwise, I'm good. My moisture levels are much higher, so my curls look much more hydrated, and they clump well without even being detangled with the Denman. I lurrve this technique of hair care! Never thought it'd work for me, but it does :-)

My cowash mix is good, but I also purchased two sulphate-free cleansers (shampoos); I tried one out already and it is amazeballs (got that from the NiveNulls)! Review coming up soon, chicas.

Additionally, I purchased a copy of The Curly Girl Handbook, 2nd Expanded Edition. I'll be doing a review and comparison to Curly Like Me because the methods are so similar. Suffice it to say that I'll be pulling things from both books.

Oh, and one more thing: Happy New Year! Feliz ano nuevo! Here's hoping and praying that 2013 will be even better than 2012 was :-)

Amazon Haul!! (Updated) + My First Recital

Hola, chicas y chicos! I'm pumping out the posts today :-)

Anywho, many of you know that I'm in an honors program at my CC. Well, our professors decided to give us homework over the break *le sigh* C'est la vie. Here are the books and movies we have to have read and watched by the time classes restart on 28 January:

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Printed scholarly work focusing on the 20th century history of the country chosen for biography*
Rabbit-Proof Fence
The Lives of Others
Apocalypse Now

*The last book I listed is part of a second semester project. We all have to write a 20th century biography of a single individual from a country and move them through the historical, economical, and cultural events of most of the 1900s. Everybody chose a country; I selected Korea because I've been intrigued by its culture for some time, and I'd like to know more of its history and background and whatnot. The book I chose as a source was A Concise History of Modern Korea: From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present by Michael J. Seth, associate professor of East Asian and world history at James Madison University. Other than the book being scholarly, I had no clue as to what criteria to look for when searching for a book to read over the semester break, so here's hoping I chose a good one. Lol.

So, on Saturday, around 8 am, I ordered 9 books from Amazon: The Metamorphosis, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Concise History of Modern Korea, Waiting for Godot (another honors program requirement), Steppenwolf (honors), Night (honors), The Curly Girl Handbook, Eat to Live and Better Than Good Hair (more info on this particular purchase mas tarde :-D) I have an Amazon Prime account, so I get free 2 day shipping on most items. I expected to get my books on Monday. Imagine my surprise when a box was delivered to my front door on Sunday morning! I didn't even know that UPS delivered on Sundays. It was a very pleasant surprise. I even have a little video about it:

Obviously, not everything came, but to have nearly half of my order delivered by the next day is impressive, methinks.

Ooh! I forgot to mention that Sunday (30 December 2012) was the very first piano recital that I've ever held without my piano teacher. Only 3 of my students could come (one was sick), and the recital lasted a total of 13 minutes, but all the parents and grandparents loved it. There were sugary refreshments laid out decoratively on the counter, and everyone bonded over chocolate mint balls and apple juice. I was able to talk to a few new parents, neighbors and classmates of my students, etc. I was a nervous wreck at first, but I felt more comfortable afterwards.

While I was proud of all of my kiddos for performing so well (and having everything committed to memory!), my oldest student nearly brought tears to my eyes. He has two older sisters (one of which is one of my closest friends), and since he's heard them playing different pieces, he can pick things up pretty easily by ear. He goes through his sisters' old music books and finds songs to play and then rewrites them. One such piece was from a book that his sister and I used when we were 12: Alfred's Basic Piano Library Lesson Book Level 6. The first piece, "Variations on the Theme from the Celebrated Canon in D," was one that he knew well. It's a 4 page piece, and would have been relatively simple for him to learn. Him being the perfectionist that he is, however, he began to freak out about how he couldn't learn it in a month, it was impossible, etc. I calmed him down, and we set to work, practicing one line at a time. He picked up the first 1.5 pages easily, but we hit snags once the fingering and variations became too difficult for his small hands. So, instead of freaking out (yet again), he did what all great musicians do: he improvised.

From those 4 black and white pages and that brilliant little mind of his, came a 10 year old boy's interpretation of Pachelbel's "Canon in D." It was marvelous, and he added a new element every time he played it. It sounded better at each lesson, so my hopes were high at the recital. Imagine my surprise when he shortened his already condensed Canon into an even more potent piece! It went from 4:30 to 2:00 flat, but in those short 120 seconds, he played with more musicality than I've ever heard him perform with before.  He improvised and added Alberti bass, broke the chords in both treble and bass clefs...things I'd never dreamed he'd do with the Canon. He went to new places, and my, oh my, was it a joy to listen to.

Here's to improvisational music!

Oh! I forgot to ask: have any of y'all ever seen any of the movies I mentioned above? What did you think? Did you like them? Were they thought-provoking?

#Realtalk: My Relationship with God (Updated)

Wow. Where do I begin? Last year (2012), I was all gung ho about reading my Bible, praying, going to church, etc. and I wanted to deepen my relationship with God. Things went well until my Nana's health started to fail. The more ill she became, the further I felt from God. After she passed away, I read one last Psalm, and I have hardly opened my Bible since (except for Sundays during church and Thursdays at Bible study). I seem to have lost all motivation to read it. I haven't sincerely prayed in months. I don't feel like going to church most Sundays. Things that used to bother me (cursing, amongst other things) no longer prick my conscience. God feels like a fairy tale that I used to believe in, and to be quite honest, there are some days where I just want to give up and not believe at all. I turned to hair and technology to be my gods instead. For months, I have been addicted to watching YouTube videos until the wee hours of the morning, staying on CurlyNikki and feeling the urge to post and read nearly every thread, and wanting to fit in everywhere that I could possibly go on the Internet. But then I realized something: I'm miserable. My overly-anxious, melancholy personality has magnified a hundredfold and I feel like I can no longer function properly. I have become lazy, lethargic, angry, irritable, bitter, and inconsolably sad. I keep flip flopping in my decisions, unsure of what to take during the spring semester, worrying about my major...all decisions that I normally have less issues with.

Like I've said before, I go inside myself when troubled times come instead of reaching out. I did that with my professors in the fall semester and my grades suffered severely as a result. And to be quite honest, when I was a younger, 15 year old "super Christian," I never imagined that I would do it in my spiritual walk. Oh, all the pride I had (and still have!). I wish that I'd gone to the Lord instead of material things with my hurt and pain. I don't want the storm of my Nana passing to be the thing that did me in as a follower of Christ; the rabbit trail that kept me from finishing the race like my grandmother did. I can't dwell on my rocky spiritual past, but I can definitely do something about the future.

I'm struggling so much with the sin (yes, sin) of unbelief right now. I know that it's not going to be easy to uproot, but I know that with God's strength,I can be cleansed of my unbelief, have my hurts healed, and find compassion, joy and hope once again. It won't all be rainbows and sunshine, and I know that there will be days where I feel like yelling at God and giving up, but I cannot quit. It honestly feels like my heart is hanging in the balance, and I will not let Satan take over my life.

That being said, I'm committing to spending the next 120 days (from today [1 January] to 2 May 2013) in the word for at least 30 minutes per day (excluding prayer). I'm calling it Operation: Back on Track (OBOT). It will be in addition to church services, life groups, Bible study, and any other Bible-related event/activity in which I participate. For direction in this area, I'll be using books/devotionals from Precept Ministries International; from their 40 Minute Bible Studies series. Each focuses on different aspects of godliness and spirituality, and is designed to be completed in 6 weeks. The ones I plan to complete are:

How Do You Walk the Walk You Talk?
How to Make Choices You Won't Regret
What Does the Bible Say About Sex?
Turning Your Heart Toward God

If I finish those earlier than planned, I can also finish a Beth Moore study in which I left the last chapter undone: Breaking Free.

I hope and pray that each one of them will be helpful in my spiritual growth journey.
In addition to getting back into the Word, my prayer life must be reassessed. I have a wonderful book that I was going through last year called A Young Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George that I will likely restart. The author emphasizes improving one's prayer life by actually putting down the book and praying, which is encouraging. I can devote 15 minutes per day to prayer and getting back into the habit of doing it, etc.

Total, that's 45 minutes per day that I'll be spending with God. My goal is to be able to do it in the mornings, but anytime will work. My only problem when I plan things out like this is that I get too excited, think that I can do everything, get a big head about it, and then fall flat on my face within a few days. So I already have my first prayer request: humility! :-P And diligence, consistency...whatever you want to call it. I have a terrible habit of putting off for tomorrow what I could've/should've/would've done today. It will be the death of me, mentally.

I didn't mean to write so much, but my heart feels lighter right now. This was definitely something that I needed to get off my chest. I'll report weekly on my progress, what I've learned, my thoughts, where I think God is leading me next, my setbacks, frustrations, victories, good news, bad news - everything.

(I know that not everybody who reads this is a Christian or believes in God, but my faith is part of my life, and therefore, part of my blog. If you are offended by it in any way, please feel free to skip over these posts in the future, when you see them :-) )

Ciao, bellas!

Core Finals: Day 1 + Mi Pelo + Regrets

Today was the first day of studying for finals! I didn't get there until the afternoon, but only Becca, Daniel and  Andrei were at Vicente's house. It was difficult to focus because we enjoy talking about other things too, but despite the fact that we went off onto many, many tangents, we got a lot accomplished, methinks. We discussed literature a bit, and then when Stephen came, we got more into history. Becca and Daniel left, and then Allen  - our resident philosopher - came. He is probably one of the deepest guys I know, so we got our philosophy on when he arrived. I love that he's so open to learning about other people's beliefs, even when they differ from his own. We can talk about our faiths (he's Muslim and I'm Christian) without the conversation turning into a heated debate, and we end up seeing a lot more of the similarities between our beliefs instead of the differences. I've actually seen that there are many more similarities between Islam and Christianity than there are anything else. Both religions have Abrahamic roots, just like Judaism, so it makes sense. It slips my mind so often, though, that it usually takes a person of another faith to remind me of how much we share. But I digress...

Throughout the afternoon, we went onto rabbit trails about culture, religion, philosophy, science...you wouldn't believe it unless you were there. After everybody else had left. Allen and Andrei even got into this deep discussion about what time really is, the definition of 3 dimensions, time travel, quantum physics, calculus...it was amazing. I thought it was over my head at first, and I remarked how dumb I felt, but they both encouraged me to just think about it in different ways. I did, and I actually comprehended it. It totally changed my attitude and view of physics (not my favorite science) and the practicality and application of mathematics (most especially algebra and calculus). I'm looking forward to math classes now. Or even just learning math on my own. I'll show you some shots of the group - finally, faces to the names I mention so often!

SN: Andrei wanted to know why he wasn't on my blog, too. Lol. So, I wondered about just doing a Scholars Stories series, and do interviews with all of the people in the program - even the professors. What think you? Let me know what you'd think about getting to know my classmates and friends! :-)

So, now, presenting some of my fellow Scholars! (I did let them know that I'd be blogging about them, and they knew about the photos :-D ):

 

From left to right: Daniel, Andrei, and Stephen while we discussed the major points of history that we learned this semester.

Allen (left) and Andrei (right) talking about the finer points of history in the kitchen.

Vicente (left) and Stephen (right) enjoying Allen and Andrei's conversation.

Allen and Andrei deep in a discussion about the effects that religion has on culture.

In the basement: Allen and Andrei's physics and calculus oral dissertation lol. I looked on from the couch, taking in the incense that Vicente (sitting off to the left) burned. Vicente's younger sister came down to listen in, too, and she was also intrigued. Who wouldn't be?

This is a short clip I recorded during their discussion. This was the tip of the iceberg! Sorry for the poor video quality; their voices are more important than the images, though :-)

Andrei used my scrunchy to describe what time is (my mind was blown, btdubs). And speaking of scrunchies, peep the 'do! I went up to the bathroom to take out my twists, and was greeted with this (I did pin back one side with a couple bobby pins I found in my hair):

Not too bad, eh? I think I'll wear my hair out on Fridays again. I'm loving this look, methinks. Oh, and I just mixed up my cleanser for tomorrow morning. I added some Paula's Choice shampoo because of the silicones from the Pantene that are in my hair. Uggh. Ooh, and I'm DCing with Nature's Gate Aloe Vera Moisturizing Conditioner. I'll probably add EVOO, EVCO, grapeseed oil, sesame oil, canola oil, and mayhaps a carrot or two, and some mayonnaise. I'll dish in the AM.

Last but not least: Please, please, please keep those CT families in your thoughts and prayers. The fact that somebody was sick enough to murder so many young, innocent children is troubling to my soul. I was devastated when I heard the news. I work with that age group a lot, and I just cried and cried. What are we coming to?

Tales of Bacon + Gritting my Teeth + Schwarzenberg

For my World Music class this semester, our professor assigned everybody a Fieldwork Project to complete by the end of the semester. We all had to find a person involved in world music (non-Western or folk or non-mainstream), interview them, research about them and what they do, and present a brief (10 minute) presentation to the rest of the class, and submit an 8-10 page research paper.

It sounds daunting, no? Well, I thought so. This week, we're going through all of the presentations and submitting our papers on Thursday.Tuesday, Rory (a musical theatre aficionado and fellow lover of Newsies) presented, and she did her project on this guy who just blew me out of the water! His name? Christylez Bacon (pronounced Chris-styles; his real first name is Chris). He's a progressive hip hop artist - he takes the essentials of hiphop - the beats, beatboxing, rhythms, etc. - and blends them with just about any other musical style you can imagine: classical, jazz, children's songs, classical Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean...the list is endless. Now, before you wrinkle your nose up in disgust, hear me out. I actually dislike hiphop. A lot. It is my least favorite musical genre of all time. But what Chris does is unique. He removes all the vulgarity and ratchet-ness so prevalent in modern rap lyrics and replaces them with words that make you THINK. His beatboxing is on point. He plays dozens of different instruments! Everything about him is just unconventional and unexpected. Here's a couple videos for y'all to check out (one is above): ----------->-->

I presented my project today, too, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as Rory's. I did mine on the guzheng; a Chinese zither first used by members of the literati (upper class of scholars in China in Japan; they wrote beautiful calligraphy, painted, wrote poetry, and were able to afford not working on a farm). There were so many amazing presentations, and it was cool to know that there were so many talented people who lived and worked in MoCo (Montgomery County). Oooh! Even though I had a semi-boring report, here's what the guzheng looks like, and how it sounds being used on a modern piece:

Continuing on this school-related note, I am NOT playing around with finals this year! Last spring I thought I could breeze through everything, which resulted in God rooting some pride out of me...as well as knocking my GPA down a bit. I'm determined to get not a single grade lower than a B this semester; I'm hoping for all As in the spring. So, I actually printed out all of my professors final exam guides to use as study aids. I'm pulling out my highlighters, textbooks, index cards, notebooks, laptop, bookmarks, and loads of water and snacks. Vicente, one of the guys in my program, opened his house to us (Scholars), and so we'll be spending Friday-Sunday with each other just studying and prepping for Tuesday's and Thursday's exams. Pray that we can get through it without driving each other nuts!

No Schwarzenberg Tales today, but I do have a Schwarzism. Before Core started this morning, a few of us  were outside the classroom in the hallway. We were talking about studying, exams, etc. Out of nowhere, Matt says, "I might as well sit at my desk and wear a diaper all weekend; I have so much stuff to do." We  were all dying! He's one of the most quotable Scholars. Lol. I can do a post with pics from our study session tomorrow, and you can see what my classmates look like :-)

Randomness: On Teaching Music + Country

I don't think that I ever divulged this in my earlier posts, but I am an avid music lover, play piano (since I was 9), and I teach piano as well. I taught my first student when I was 12, and have continued ever since. I love the Faber series for teaching beginning students, but I'm always on the prowl for other methods (with differing pedagogic approaches) to incorporate into lessons with all of my students. The following is a re-post from my CN blog when I was contemplating such things and just musing about music materials in general:

All I want for Christmas is money. I have so much to buy! I need textbooks for next semester, I'd like some new clothes/shoes and hair accessories, and I need to buy new books for my students! I'm adding 3-4 more bambinos to my roster next semester, which means more revenue for me, but also more responsibility in how well I prepare my lessons and selecting quality materials to use.

The Faber Piano Adventures series is my favorite, but it's also one of the pricier lines and it has lots of supplements. They recently updated the first 3-4 levels in the series to a newer edition that is an even better version of the first, so now there's teacher's guides (I've never used one to teach piano before; but I think it'd help me get new ideas and techniques), CDs, at least 6 repertoire books, sightreading, flash cards, assignment books, etc. It's slightly overwhelming to say the least.

Recently, I've experimented with different methods of music theory, as well. I tried Level A of the Alfred Basic Piano Library with one of my students, and it's not going well with the music alphabet. So I brought in good ol' trusty Faber to remedy the situation. She's doing fine now, so she just might be getting the second half of Faber next semester. One successful deviation from Faber has been the Hal Leonard series. I started one of my more vivacious students with it, and it teaches in a manner very similar to Faber. I especially like the multi-sensory way that it goes over the music alphabet (utilising a goodly number of learning modalities). She's on Level A, and graciously, it comes with a handy checklist in the front pages, and a CD in the back for listening. A great all-in-one method for beginning students.

One of my most challenging aspects has been deciding which series to use with which students. The success of a particular method of teaching can depend a lot on the student's personality. More math-y students do well with Alfred. Faber is great for anybody, and is strong on theory, sightreading, scales, chords (inversions, progressions...) and whatnot. Hal Leonard is likewise. Bastien is a stuck-in-the-70s version of Alfred. The pictures are distasteful and clownish looking. Ugh.

For every student, I've basically narrowed down what I do to select . I typically give 30 minute lessons, give 5-10 minutes depending on different variables. Within that time frame, it's not possible to use the lesson, theory, performance, and technique books. The attention span and distractability (yes I made that up  ) of 6 year olds just doesn't permit it. So, at minimum, I buy the lesson, theory and performance books for every student. The flashcards I hold off on until they learn some basic terminology (dynamics, note values, music alphabet, grand staff, etc.), and those are easily split apart since they're color coded. I may or may not do technique, depending on the student. The kiddos I have this semester all have very small hands, so I'll be adding in some technique next semester. Besides all that, I ask each child which type of repertoire book s/he wants. One boy wanted the rock 'n roll book because he said that he likes rocks lol. Little kids...

Ooh! I forgot to mention that Alfred actually also updated its entire series to become the Alfred Premier series. I'd like to invest in the complete kit and look it over, but that'd put me out $35 :-/ Maybe they have sample books...

So, there's a peek into my non-hair related life. I think I'll do more posts about music, actually. I love it, and teaching is becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life. Y'all don't mind, right? :-) I love sharing music with others.

I have another bit of non hair-related anecdotes. I shared this with one of my good friends (and fellow DMV curlies), Raven, from the CN forums. It brings me so much joy now:

Remember how I embarrassed myself with that cute camera guy last week (another story for another day)? Well, something similar happened yesterday when Matt (one of my friends from Scholars; we live 10 minutes away from each other and Julia [another D-mas resident], so we carpool a lot) was driving me home on Thursday. He likes country music and I'm not opposed to it, so we listened to it on the way back to the sticks of Damascus. As he turned onto this dark, winding road, there was a bit of a lull in our conversation, and suddenly (Seymour - Little Shop of Horrors, anybody? :-D ), a man's voice came from the speakers and began to melodically pine for the girl that he was sitting next to. Neither of us said anything, but in my head I was like o_O Then, right after that song, another one came on about a man driving some girl home, and how his eyes were on the road but his mind was on her body. Matt and I both have long arms, and we both happened to have had our elbows on the arm rest in the center. I froze, unsure as to whether it would be more awkward to keep my arm against his or quickly bring it back to my side. Hardly had I time to contemplate this decision, when yet another ditty played, sung by some whiny woman wanting her boyfriend back. The level of awkwardness (in my mind, at least) went from a 10 to a 99.999 (on a scale of 1-5). We did start talking by the third song, but I could still hear the lyrics o_O


SN: So many funny things happen with Matt that I've decided to give him a special spot in my blog: Schwarzenberg Tales! I'll likely have installments every week :-D

And there you have it...a glance into my mundane life. More musings to come if y'all don't mind! :-D

Pantene/Silicone RANT!! + Facial Hair Woes

I'm so angry right now. It may not come through in my calm, pleasant-looking typed words, but I'm ready to cuss and spit! I posted yesterday about my Pantene fiasco. Well, I baggyed my twist bun overnight like usual, and it looked fine...until I stepped outside. I live in Maryland, so the weather here is iffy at best. Yesterday was a pleasant 55 degrees, and today is dreary and grey and wet all round. Blech. Now normally, my hair is fine in the humidity and rain. The section that was covered with the Darcy's Botanicals leave in looks shiny and isn't frizzing up much. But the rest of my hair?! It looks dusty and dry like the Sahara, feels matted and hard and crunchy, and is just an all around NASTY MESS. Uggh! I'm ashamed to be a natural today. That's how bad it is. I mean, just look at it:

Can you shudder with me? Please? This frizz is ridiculous. The one twist I did with my DB looks BOMB; it's shiny and frizz free. I did have gel on it, rinse it, and then added some Pantene, but still. I'm hot. Silicones didn't used to treat my hair like this. Neither has Pantene; I've used the Pantene Curly Moisture Renewal conditioner multiple times before, and my hair looked fine before. My hair has NEVER looked this dry! Not even after I BCed! And definitely not after baggying. I'm just disgusted. I will be CG for life if this is how my hair is going to react to silicones now #ain'tnobodygottimeforthat. Here's the one twist that actually looked presentable. It's the bottom one...

On top of all of that, my scalp is itching like crazy in the spots that I have Pantene in! I'm like da heck is this? Mayhaps I just developed an allergy to it or something. Either way, I'm upset. Way more than I was yesterday. Ugh.

To compare that frizzy mess in the front with what my hair usually looks like, look at this little back section (that refuses to go into twists, mind you) that I detangled and left DB in, sealed with grapeseed oil, and added some gel. This is after being rubbed around on my coat collar and being out in the same amount of rain as the rest of my hair. Just lookit. It looks a little cray, but I'll pin it up...eventually...

Anywho, in other news...the amount of men with burgeoning beards lately is just sinful. Here's a bit of a Shakespearean-esque prose I wrote about it while on campus today:

*le sigh*
O, men of the College of Montgomery! O, O, O! 
Why dost thou insist on insulting the good people by permitting those evil wires to sprout from thine chin? 
Verily, I say unto thee, you do disgrace the eyes of even the most virtuous of women in thy presence. 
Be gone, whiskers from the bowels of Hades! Be gone!

Yes, I am a little on the crazy side. I get it from my Nana's side of the family :-D