How to Understant Art - The Principles Strike Back

Part 2: The Principles of Art

So a Stormtrooper and a Sith Lord walk into an art museum and they have a lovely conversation about some art they see there... I'm not very good with jokes :/  But what I am good at is teaching people about how to access art and have a fun time with it. Really, I am, it's my job! So let's get on with it then.

How to Understand Art: A New Hope

Part I: The Elements of Art

If you are someone who approaches art museums or galleries with some trepidation, not because of your fear of echoing hallways and rough security guards, but rather because of your fear of not knowing what's going on and not being able to keep up with artsy-fartsy people who know about art, then fear no more! I shall rescue you from social discomfort in this small way and impart on you some simple ways to approach and not be intimidated by visual art.

GNW Marathon: Best of SNES

The Gamers Northwest are putting on another marathon coming up in December! In case you missed our last one (and when I say "our" I mean I ate chips and talked to the stream while everyone else played), we did a full run of (nearly) all the Resident Evil games and finished up with the latest installment, Resident Evil 6! Get all the info on that at the GNW blog and the Twitch Archives.

Now for our next trick, we will (all, including me) be playing classic Super Nintendo Entertainment System games - we're calling it the Best of SNES. The marathon will begin December 28th and wrap up nicely on the 30th, just in time to welcome in 2013.

I'm pretty excited about this marathon: for one reason, it's going to be really fun; and another, it's a good excuse to get in some gamerLove crafting and art! I'm planning on making crochet toys, painted glass, and fan art paintings, a little something for each game.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I LOVE the holiday season! For me it means traveling to visit my family in California, eating good food, relaxing and having fun! In my mind, today is the real start of the holiday season. I'll plan some trips to go to the outlets for present shopping (although I'm not big on presents, I'm big on shopping), and I'll make lots and lots of cookies.

Gosh, I love cookies. And there are few things as wonderful and warm gooey cookies fresh from the oven and a hot cocoa or cider (or something something alcoholic for us big kids). This season, I will be making one new cookie recipe every week and share the results with you!

Today, I bring you an ultimate holiday-y flavor of spices and pumpkin in one scrumptious cookie!

Make 3 Cool Science Toys!

... in jars

I spend a good amount of my time looking online for sciencey educational and fun activities, to use in my work as an educator. I always end up learning something new, and every now and then I discover a little gem somewhere in the blogosphere that I get really excited about. These are three DIY science toys that I've stumbled upon over the years. They're really cool, I just kinda wanted to make them for myself.

Days 14-17 (Thirty-Day Vegan): Vegan Grilled Cheese 2 Ways

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, fall/winter is coming on strong - the days are cooler and the nights seem a little bit longer. When it starts to get chilly like this, I start to thinking about soup, a lot...

And soup is great! Amy's Kitchen has a great selection of delicious soups, ranging from No Chicken Chicken Noodle to Thai Coconut Soup in the style of Tom Kha Phak (which is seriously, seriously good), and many of them are vegan (the vegan soups have a big bold VEGAN written at the start of the ingredients list).

But, sometimes I feel like soup needs to go with something in order to be a real meal, like something I would eat for dinner. And then my brain goes back to what I love: cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches, specifically. Which is unfortunate if you happen to be on a vegan diet...

Well, lucky for us, I worked up an easy vegan grilled cheese that rocked my dinner socks the other night.

It's a Beautiful Day

Praise in Creation

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things --

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced -- fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; a dazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

The Rainbow Willem Roelofs (1875)

Enjoy the beautiful day, wherever you are!

<3 Jen

The Ultimate DIY At-Home Spa (for less than $15)

Sometimes I get home from work and all I want to do is take off the heels, put up my feet, and turn off my brain for the next 4 hours. Sometimes I get home from work and all I can think about is settling into a comfy message chair at a spa in town and having all my tiredness and achey-ness scrubbed and polished away so I come out of it refreshed and smelling pretty. All of the time, I am looking for ways to save money and live on the cheap... because I'm broke, what else is new? So naturally, my favorite weekly tradition is the $15 Home Spa, putting together all my best laziness, sweet-smelliness, and cheapiness ideas into a luxury experience I don't have to get in my car and drive to. I do this little spa treatment once a week, and it's the perfect kick in the butt for going from "ugh, I'm so tired and bloated, I hate life" to "gosh I'm cute! and perky! and I smell pretty!"

Gaming for the Fun of it!

Fair warning: I'm going to get a little newbie gamer nerdy on y'all...

But first I'd like to tell you about how I have been really good at riding my bike to work like almost everyday, and I even rode this morning even though the weather was a little icky. But I forgot to wear a hat or a hood or rain pants, so when it turned into Oregon today (the sky opened up and the heavens let it rip, seriously) I got suuuuuper drenched. So I'd like you to do either or both of the following: a) be impressed by my diligence; b) feel sorry for me and bring me vegan hot coco. Also, is there such a thing? I need there to be such a thing. Oh, look, it's a chai with almond milk... ok I feel better.

Gamer Love will keep me warm

Anyway, I'm home and dry now, and it's time to get me settled in to some games! I'm going to play a bit of Chrono Trigger and stream it live just for you up on Twitch! Let's cross our fingers and hope a) that the stream works; b) that I don't utterly fail at this; and c) that this first storm of the season I am enjoying from inside my apartment does not lead to a power outage right in the middle of my game.

... let's hope.

DIY Foam Eyeball: Science Project or Creepy Halloween Prop?

Today in science, I am working on this:

I can't tell you too much about it (yet), other than it's an eye... and it's cool. It's also kind of creepy. Right now in other parts in the world of science, eyes are a hot topic, particularly the gigantic softball-sized one that someone found on a beach in Florida O.o

Day 13 (Thirty-Day Vegan): Fast Food Breakfast

This morning, for reasons that will remain unspoken, I ran out of time and didn't make myself any breakfast :/ Ok, so maybe the reason I ran out of time is because I spent so much of the morning digging through my closet for boots and a cardigan that would go well with my new Shrödinger's Cat shirt... so maybe it's my fault, but come on, it's such a cute shirt*!

Days 3 - 6 (Thirty-Day Vegan): Super Cheese

It's day 6 in my vegan challenge! What I've discovered so far is that when it comes to new kinds of food, I am very enthusiastic about trying a little bit of everything pretty much right away. I don't know if it was a particularly rough day at work and I am comfort eating, or I just knew that I have vegan cheese at home, but I biked extra fast today and I had a heck of a time not taking a spoon to the vegan soft jalapeño havarti. Ok, maybe I took a teeny tiny nip with a spoon O.o

Day 2 (Thirty-Day Vegan): Popsicles and Beer

So today was a... difficult day at work :/ Sometimes we just have those days, and it's ok, you just pick yourself up, dust off, and keep on going. And I like the work I do, so I can look forward to having better days ahead. Occasionally, I'll instinctively turn to my good old standby comfort foods to get on the track to happy town, but today I got home and the first thing I went for was a Popsicle Brand ice popsicle. I have a couple in my freezer from recent days, I usually rehydrate with one after riding my bike home from work. Today, however, it occurred to me that I had no idea if these Popsicles were vegan friendly.

Day 1 (Thirty-Day Vegan): Shopping! and Vegan Flatbread

My 30-Day vegan adventure... vegadeventure?... starts today! And a good place to start is with the basics: to eat vegan, I need FOOD! I very cleverly ate my ate through all my non-vegan foods in my kitchen (or used it up as beauty products, more on that later), so I had a lot of room in the ol' fridge for some vegan-friendly vittles! I worked up a shopping list that was mostly foods I know I like, and everything is double-checked for vegan-approval...

30 Day Vegan!

Tomorrow, I'm planning on starting a 30-day trial of being vegan! It's a challenge I've had in the back of my mind for a long time now, admittedly inspired by some recent new health information, documentaries, and real nawing curiosity... can it really be that hard? Will I actually be healthier? Is veganism a gateway to out and out hippiness? (I honestly wouldn't mind any of that too much).

Gamer Artsy: How to Make a Graphic Tee

Sometimes I go to my closet - stuffed with all kinds of crazy things that I thought looked good on me in the magical light of dressing rooms - and I cannot find a single thing I want to wear. Sometimes I go to movie premiers or special video game-themed parties and I want to stand out or fit in, but my flowery work blouses are not quite the thing. My solution? It's not to hit the stores with the full power of my debit card... instead, I grab my laptop, some fabric paint, and a clean tee and I get artsy!

Summer Plans & an Origami Dove

this post was originally published June 20, 2012 on turtlesplusrhinos.wordpress.com  Just before school got out for summer, I gave some of my students square sheets of paper and I asked them to write down or draw (because it's art) 10 things they hoped to achieve before the start of the next school year. I told them it could be realistic or not, it just had to be something that was important to them. Then I walked them through turning their paper into a simple origami dove, which I thought was neat. They didn't think it was as neat (it was like the last day of school). The whole idea was that the dove is a symbol for the Holy Spirit and the gospel theme for next school year is

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. - Philippians 4:13

It's a Catholic school, by the way. The idea is that they would keep the doves all summer and try to remember what they want to achieve, and that God is the power they have to reach their goals. Anyway, I did the project, too, because I do think it's a nifty idea. I told my students that they didn't have to share their lists - it should be just for them - but I'll share my list!

Adventures in Bread Making: Soft Vegan Whole Wheat Bread

The search for homemade, vegan, healthy, whole what soft sandwich bread has come to a happy ending with a warm and delicious discovery!

Gamer Birthday: The No Lie Portal Cake

Last weekend, Caleb had his big video game themed birthday bash. It was so much fun! His friend Tami put together some amazing decorations and a very cute snackies layout that went on to be completely demolished by Om-Nommy gamers.

Side note: if you are a gamer or someone who, like me, likes to watch other people play games, you can check out Caleb and Tami and lots of friends play games streaming online at GamersNorthwest.com - they have a Resident Evil marathon coming up in October!

YarnLove: Cozy Slippers, Funky Luna Lovegood Style!

On my very last day of summer before I begin a crazy work schedule that has me doing 7 days, 56 hours per week (it's true, and it starts tomorrow), I decided to spend my time re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and crocheting - hoping to make a dent in my embarrassingly large collection of random yarn. I manage this with a digital copy of the book on my lap top next to me, my cat at the foot of my bed, some iced tea on my night stand next to my crochet hooks, and lots and lots of yarn everywhere (mostly the cat's fault).

Gamer Birthday: Metroid Cupcakes (for 2)

I sure do love to bake, and I also love my boyfriend :D It's his birthday today and I've planned a special treat for us to celebrate with. He's a real big science fiction/ movies/ video game fan (er... nerd <3) and it's one of the things I love about him. He plays lots of games with his friends on a stream channel online, which you can catch at Gamers Northwest. One of his favorite games EVER is Super Metroid, and in case you're not so familiar, this is a metroid:

Healthy Eats: Zucchini Nugs

I have a really awesome co-worker who gardens and makes her own wine and brings in lots of treats to share all the time. She's also a badass when it comes to training big dogs, running a whole Planetarium, and talking science :D This summer, her garden was particularly fruitful so she brought in lots of zucchini, kale, garlic, and beets for us all to take home. I was especially grateful because I always want to cook with fresh produce, but I can never get to our local farmer's market on time since I work weekends :/ But with Sue's goodies from her garden, it was like the market came to me! I came up with a list of recipes I've always wanted to try, but have never gotten around to because of my lack of certain kinds of produce.

How to Get on a Bike and Ride to Work!

Everything to know to ride a bike to work!

When I moved up to Oregon for grad school a few years ago, I decided to leave my car behind with my parents. I can't remember the justification for it - maybe to save money on gas? - but I do remember that I was excited to try public transportation and get my own bike to ride around town. This was a big time in my life; I was trying all kinds of new things like grad school, living in Oregon, not having anyone I knew within 400 miles of me... that sort of thing. So I added "bike hippie" onto that list in case it didn't seem overwhelming enough. And it was ultimately a good choice - I avoided the usual weight gain that comes with big life transitions, I got to know my new adopted town on a street level, and I gained a wonderful sense of freedom. When things did get to feel like too much pressure or too crazy, I would go for a quick little ride around town, maybe explore places I hadn't been before and just relax.

Science Toys: Cartesian Devil

There are a couple of ways I am like an elf - not the archery or magical spells kind, I mean elf as in little guy in pointy shoes works in the North Pole variety. I like to do things that make kids happy, and I love to make toys (I'm also adorably short at 5'0", tiny, just like a real elf)! My favorite toys to make are the kind I can dig through my crafts and recycling drawers to find the materials for, and the kind that teach something amazing in a simple way. I'm slowly but steadily building up my personal collection of homemade science toys that demonstrate all sorts of things like molecular polarity, cyclone formations, air pressure... the list goes on! About a year ago, I made up one of my first ever science toys, the Cartesian Devil. This is a nifty little thing that demonstrates Archimedes' Principle about how pressure relates to the buoyancy of an object. It's also super simple to whip up at home with 4 common materials. I had to make myself another one after my original one made its permanent home at the museum.

Reusable Sandwich and Snack Packs (Pattern)

I like to make some small efforts in being environmentally friendly, especially when it comes to waste. I try to have those reusable grocery bags on hand when I go to the store, and even though I forget sometimes, I save all my plastic grocery bags to use to make plarn (plastic yarn), so at least they're not going out into the dump. I also try to be conscious of my daily waste, especially my lunch stuff. I already use reusable lunch containers - I like my To-Go Ware stainless steel tiffin and my little bento-sized Lunch Bots - but sometimes I still use little plastic zip bags for snacks and sammies. I always feel bad when I throw one out, too. I have a couple of reusable snack baggies that I picked up from Bed Bath and Beyond (they are also available at reuseit.com), but those are a little pricey for just a couple of bags. And then I thought, this can't be that hard to make at home... so I made a pattern for snackies packs! And then I made another pattern for sammies packs!

Vegetarian Wonton Soup Recipe

When I was 11, I made the horrifying discovery of a purplish rubbery tendon in my chicken sandwich at a fast food place. Since then, I've been a steadfast vegetarian. It wasn't very hard, I never really liked meat anyway (something about the texture makes me feel ick). I did go through a brief period in college when I would eat chicken on a dare, but that was always more out of my challenge-y side than out of appetite. For the most part, I've stayed true to my vegetarianism, or rather ovo-lacto-pescatarianism (eggs, dairy, fish). There were only a handful of meaty foods I actually missed when I stopped eating meat, all of them yummy memories of my childhood: tamales at New Year's with my Hispanic family side, lumpia and wonton soup at the Asian family side. I've found some substitutes in fancy-pancy grocery stores and in some amazing food carts (gotta love the Pacific Northwest), but few have stood up to the homemade goodiness of my grandmothers. Being far from home and all my family, sometimes all I really need are the flavors of my childhood.

Classy Noms: Baked Crab Rangoon

Every now and then, I put down the Stormtrooper action figures and put on a flowy dress and high heels and go out like a grown woman. I know, it's shocking to me, too, but it's fun to get dressed up and sip wine and talk about grown up stuff. The other night, I went out with some friends to a local winery for some live music and yummy wine. We went to Sweet Cheeks Winery out here in Eugene and it was soooo beautiful! The weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and the wine and music were lovely.

How to Get into Reading Comics

Maybe you've gotten into some of the recent awesome Superhero franchise movies like The Avengers and the Batman series. Maybe you can't possibly wait one more moment for new season of The Walking Dead or the next video game episode release (I feel you, brother). Or maybe you're a hip mom or dad who wants to fit some visual and language literacy in to your kid's everyday and in a cool way (which I recommend as an educator, BTW). Maybe your reasons are something else entirely, but the basic thing is you want to see what the fuss is about comics and you want a way to get into comics without feeling weird about it. Unfortunately, comics, like video games, suffers a sometimes characterization of being exclusive cultures; if you don't know about the really obscure stuff and use the special jargon, you're not cool enough to hang out at the shops and try new things. That's baloney. I honestly don't know a single comic nerd soul who would try to alienate anyone who was interested in getting into comics for the first time. And as a side note - if you are also interested in getting into video games for the first time, communities like streamers on TwitchTV are a good resource to turn to (Gamersnorthwest are a bunch of high quality chaps always ready to talk games with everyone).

Vocab Round Up: Comic Book Jargon

Like I tell my art students, always be willing to try a little something new. If you're not big into comic books and you think you might want to try giving them a shot, there are some simple ways to get in and not get overwhelmed. Along with my How to  Get Started Reading Comics post, I want to put some basic vocab terms out there to help you navigate the shop shelves and know just what people are talking about. Be sure to also check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics for some background and tips on how to read comics and why they are so special to some people.

YarnLove: Lucky Möbius Shawl

While I was off exploring Southern California with the youth group, I hunkered down during the 18+ hour bus rides with my crochet hook and a couple of skeins of some soft bamboo mix yarns. I had it in mind to make a prayer shawl to send to my grandmother. See, the trip was centered on a Catholic youth retreat in San Diego, and I was going as a chaperone. This whole past year and a half has been pretty Catholic for me: I finished RCIA and took my first Communion and had my Confirmation last Easter, I became an art teacher at a local Catholic school, AND I was one of my own students' sponsor for her Confirmation this year. Then there was this trip with the youth group last week for a huge retreat called Steubenville. It was really cool, and the whole time I kept going over my Catholic journey in the back of my mind. My grandmother is inseparable in my mind from my religion. Well, my whole family is part of my religion. But my grandmother is most closely linked with my conversion in my adolescence because of her great and gentle influence.

Wingardium Leviosa: Levitating Water Science Trick

"Wingardium Leviosa" by Arieare on DeviantArt

Personal confession for the day: I am a serious fantasy and science fiction fan; in fact, I have what could be considered an "unhealthy" fascination with Harry Potter and his Wizarding World (admitting it is the first step to recovery). But I'm also super into science, which I think I've mentioned before. My job as a museum educator is so awesome, I can combine these passions for the fantastical and the empirical in cool ways to get kids interested in science and have a little fun with it. I really like putting together science magic demos and showing my art students how optical illusions work in the brain. When I was going through some of the demos we keep around in the museum for a special outreach event, I re-discovered this  very awesome water trick. I get geeky excited when I find a science experiment that demonstrates interesting real science AND looks like a wizarding spell from HP himself. I mean seriously, you can make water levitate, this is some real sciencey Wingardium Leviosa, baby. It's so simple and easy to put together, you can do it at home, right now, on a whimsical impulse if you want (those are the best kinds of science, BTW).

Feed the Hunger Monster Oatmeal Snack Bars!

I'm one of those people who are prone to crankiness due to hunger... which may be putting it mildly. Ask anyone who loves me enough to stick around after I've gotten hungry and let loose the brat within, and they'll tell you I can be a wee bit unbearable those times. I'm not the only one; chances are you know someone or are yourself a cranky hungry person. I had to research this and I did find some interesting things. Of course it all leads back to brain chemistry: it turns out serotonin levels are affected when the body is hungry. Research from Cambridge University, cited in two articles I found in a quick search online (Huffington Post, US News), reveals that serotonin is needed to for different parts of the brain to communicate, and weakened communication can lead to *less rational* thoughts and behaviors. Interestingly, serotonin is also related to social dominance as it is particularly related to a perceived availability of resources - a.k.a FOOOOD. This "social dominance" affect can translate into agression in some vertebrates (including humans) when the perception of resources is low (see this 2002 Stanford University article). Evolutionarily, it might be more advantageous to scare off competitors with agression when there are limited resources.

Summer Road Trip: What and How to Pack

What and How to Pack it up...

This summer, I'm going on a road trip with a youth group I help counsel. It will take us from Oregon down to San Diego on three charter buses for all 130 of us! The whole trip will be 5 days long, and since there are so many of us, I need to think about how to pack what I need lightly. My goal is to pack only my essentials and to limit myself to one duffle bag and one small backpack. My duffle bag is a typical Nike gym bag (it's pink!) and my backpack is a child's sized hiking pack (I'm a small person) with lots of extra compartments and straps. In all this I need to fit clothes, toiletries, bedding, entertainment, snacks (see How to Healthy Nom), and chaperone essentials like my itinerary, first aid, and all the emergency contacts for our group. It's kind of like packing for a hiking trip, and I actually really like that! I often go out of town for a day or two to stay with friends, so I always have a "go bag" on hand with miniature and condensed versions of my daily needs, and that will help a lot with keeping myself organized for this trip.

Summer Road Trip: How to Eat Healthy

These days, my eating choices have been pretty good and I'm proud of how much whole and fresh foods I've been working into my everyday meals. Almost every single meal I've had in the past couple of weeks have been homemade (I made an acceptable exception for a veggie burger and fries the other night before the midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises). But with the big road trip coming up, I'm going to have to be even more diligent to keep up my healthy eating habits.

Na-na-na Batman! Paper Crafts

Me as Batgirl for Halloween 2012

So today I showed up to work in all my complete Batman ensemble, and I got some looks. From my hairpins and earrings to my Barbara Gordon pin and yellow "utility" belt, I am as ready as I'll ever be for tonight's midnight opening of Chris Nolan's final Batman installment (only 9 hours and 19 minutes away). I am very excited!!!

Nerdy Crafts: Space Invaders Wall Decals

Today is a no work day, which means it's time for some crafts! My boyfriend's cubicle walls at his work are sadly bare, so I thought I could spend part of my day off making him some fun decals! He's big into video games (you can watch him and his friends play through some of their favorites at Gamersnorthwest) and I thought some pixely decals would make his cube a little more exciting. I saw some cool Space Invaders decals for sale at Blik, which were my inspiration for a DIY project. I know a lot of DIY wall decals are made with contact paper and I got a couple of rolls from the Dollar Tree. My problem was, though, contact paper comes in a small selection of varieties usually meant to look like drawer interiors: wood, vinyl, and floral... and classic Space Invaders are not usually wood, vinyl, or floral. In fact, the only other kinds of contact paper I could find at the Dollar Tree were white and clear, so I nabbed those up. I could have ordered solid color contact paper online, but then it wouldn't be a $2 project and I'd have to wait for it to be delivered. So I came up with a different solution with a few extra steps to make the decals...

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies with Lime

My boyfriend and I agreed to cook two healthy meals together for every one going out to dinner date to save on money and eat a little healthier. Both of us individually are pretty good at eating well and exercising regularly, but we're not so diligent when we're together. Today is one of our home-cooked meal days, and we're planning on making Curry with Coconut Milk from Skinnytaste (awesome site for yummy, btw) and it looks so good! But, inevitably, I know I will want dessert after. So to keep it still in the acceptably healthy range, I turned to another food blogger I really like, Chocolate Covered Katie and her "World's Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies" aka "Not Guilty Chocolate Chip Cookies". I love her site because she's vegan and so she only puts up recipes that are dairy- and egg- free, and she has some really creative ways of making desserts from whole foods, which I like.

3 At-Home Science Experiments

Just for the heck of it, and because science is fun, here now are three science projects, tried and vetted by me personally in my adventures as a museum educator. Of course, I can't help but put a little science blurb about each, but you don't have to read them :)

Strawberry Chocolate Fudgesicles

It is definitely summer up here in the Pacific Northwest! Today is supposed to reach the 90's, which is downright shocking when you consider we were trudging through the 50's just a couple of weeks ago. I'm not complaining, of course; as a native Californian, sometimes the rainy Oregon winters can seem like they go on forever and I sure do miss the sun those days. But now it's here, and it's HOT! So, naturally I have stocked up on cold beers, cold pickles, and cold popsicles ;D I've also been looking around for some homemade treats to keep cool. When I was little, we had a popsicle making set and my parents used to fill them with Gatorade for us (that's pretty much the only way I like my Gatorade). Out of an urge of nostalgia, I got some funky popsicle molds from Bed Bath and Beyond the other day, and I set out to find some yummy cold treats to make (Gatorade pops are so 1990's, psh). I found a really simple fudgesicle recipe on Pinterest that uses Nutella and I was like YES (because what every dieter needs is a jar of Nutella in her house). The original recipe is from 52 Kitchen Adventures, which has lots of really great om noms. I adapted the recipe a little bit: I don't really like milk and I never have it on hand, so I substituted almond milk, which is my favorite non-dairy alternative. I added come cut up strawberries because I noticed I had some that were pretty ripe, and then I could make the pops kind of like chocolate-dipped berries. Also, I used Jiff Chocolate spread instead of Nutella because it was 70¢ cheaper and I'm cheap, and chocolate spread is chocolate spread as much as I can tell.

4 Online Tests About You!

How well do you know yourself? Pretty well, you say? That's probably true, without getting too existential, you probably know yourself better than anyone else. But there might be some areas of your own brain and mind that are a little enigmatic, or maybe you haven't thought of before. Here are 4 (free) online tests that you can take to uncover some of the mystery in yo' head (just because it's fun).

Thauma-what?

Thaumatrope (English pronunciation) is a Victorian-age optical toy, one of several early animation inventions (others include the zoetrope, the magic lantern, the phenakistoscope, the praxinoscope, and the flip book).