Kicking the Habit

Well, hello folks! Sorry I haven't blogged in so long :( I've been so busy with school, it is insane. I figured I'd post something quick, just for fun! This is a feature radio piece I produced in my Advanced Radio Production course at UW-Oshkosh. It actually won a couple of awards: 1st place at the Wisconsin Broadcaster's Association in the Long Form Production Non-News Category (2010) as well as 1st place at the National Broadcast News Association in the Soft Feature (Student Market Radio) in 2010.

It's about my journey as a smoker, and how I quit. It's got some fun music and honest writing, so check it out!

Hope you liked it! Let me know your thoughts, I love getting feedback :D Rock on!

Paramore "Singles Club"

Being the huge Paramore fan that I am, I have to blog about this: Paramore is releasing new songs! I could not be more excited!!!!!!

You can go to the Fueled By Ramen webstore to check out the different sets you can purchase. I am so stoked, you have no idea! I love their newest song "Monster," but I am just so curious and excited to see what they sound like with just the 3 of them now. If you don't follow the band, their lead guitarist and drummer left the band this past winter, so its kind of a big deal to see what the band will become. "Monster" indicates good things in my book, and I already love "In the Mourning" even just from the video of Hayley and Taylor jammin together. Check it out:

It's really cool how they're releasing the songs too. If you go buy it now, you can download "Renegade," but you have to wait for the other 2, which will be "Hello Cold World" in November and "In the Mourning" in December. I sadly have to wait for $ to transfer into my bank account before I can go buy it! I cannot CANNOT wait though. Rock on Paramore fans.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe!

So it seems that I'm making it a habit of only posting about movies and music. Understandable, seeing as how much I love them both and they are both integrated in my schooling and everyday life. But there is more to my interests that just those things. I actually love to bake. In high school, the only thing I knew how to make was lemon poppy seed bread (in a bundt pan) and my friend Janae made weekly requests for it!

I think its the methodic nature of baking that makes me love it so much. There's just something so fun and calming and organized about measuring everything out, mixing it and seeing something yummy come out in the end. So I thought I'd share a recipe with you! Here's a nice fall recipe and its one of my favorites! It's pretty simple, but super yummy. Enjoy :D

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.

Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water and spices together, then combine the dry ingredients, but too not mix too thoroughly.

Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked into the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on rack.

Yields one loaf

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Fun tip: if you want the bread to taste more cinnamon-y, double the amount of cinnamon. Tastes sooo good! This is one of my favorite things to bake because it just smells so damn good the whole way through! And it tastes good obviously ;P

Hope you enjoy it! I'll post more recipes along the way as I find more favorites. I have like 4 other things I love to bake so if you want to know them, just comment and I'll post em. Do you like my recipe? Or do you have a better one? Comment away! Rock on folks.

The Soundtrack of My Life

Everyone has their favorite music. Maybe for some its just a favorite band. Others, a favorite song. I have tons of favorite songs--who doesn't? I bet you could think of 10 right off the top of your head. But how many complete albums do you love? I'm talking, the whole damn thing, not just one song. I actually have quite a few albums in my iTunes library that I really do like the whole thing. To be honest, I went through and made a list of 20 and narrowed it down to just 10 so this blog wouldn't put you to sleep!

Now, here's the deal: these albums are not ranked in way, shape, or form. There is no effing way I could figure that out. I had a hard enough time cutting the 10 that I did. Some albums have stuck with me because of what they provided me at the time, some are just epic. Anyway, hope you enjoy :D

Something Corporate "Leaving Through the Window"

I figure to start it off, I'll start with my earliest favorite album. A teacher of mine gave me this album back in the 6th grade actually. I was like 12 then. That's 10 years of love. I love love love Something Corporate. Their lyrics are so intricate and flowing. Personal favorite tracks include "Punk Rock Princess," "Fall," and "Hurricane." That last one is so epic. Seriously! From the lyrics to the guitar, from Andrew McMahon's amazing voice to the part when it breaks down after the 2nd chorus--holy shit I just am in love with it. Totally brings me back to junior high walking to school to go crush on my first official boyfriend. I will always love this one.