Apples, Banquets, and a McChallenge!

Thursday, April 4th was PSU's annual Apple Day. Apple Day is one of the longest standing traditions on the PSU campus. The tradition started in 1903 when Principal Russ and faculty lobbied for a new building for the University in Topeka. In those days, students were fined for being absent. On this particular day, the students fined the faculty a barrel of apples for being absent while lobbying in Topeka. Thus, tradition was started, and each year the faculty provide apples for the student body in memory of the successful lobbying on that day.
Another tradition of Apple Day is the Golden Gorilla Award. Students are recognized each year for campus leadership, community involvement, and academic excellence. This year my friends Adam, Erin and I were all given the Golden Gorilla award, and some delicious apples as well!On Saturday, the Graphics and Imaging Technology department celebrated their 100th anniversary. Students, alumni, and faculty joined together to recognize outstanding students and reflect over the last 100 years of the department. As a senior, I was asked to create a display of my work over the last 3 1/2 years. Here, Christel Benson and I are posed with my display. I was able to show my photography display, posters and promotional items I have made for SAC, t-shirts i have designed, and this blog!On Sunday I had the day off. My friend Erin and I were super hungry so we decided to take on a little eating challenge. We ordered the new McNugget meal at McDonalds. The meal includes 50 McNuggets, 2 large fries, and 2 large sodas.Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs. We started getting full about half way through, but we were determined to finish the whole thing! Twenty-five minutes later, we finished the entire meal. I tackled 30 of the 50 McNuggets, but Erin graciously helped me finish my fries. Needless to say, we did not go hungry for a long time after that meal!

Laughter is a Smile That Bursts

While planning my senior photography show I came across Mary H. Waldrip's quote "Laughter is a smile that bursts." It was this quote that became my inspiration. In my project I wanted to showcase portrait photography and I took pictures of people being serious, smiling and laughing. I then printed the serious photos in black and white, the smiling photos had faded color, and the laughing photos were rich in saturation. The project faded from black and white to color and from serious faces to laughter. I did this to emphasize that laughter really does burst. I mounted the images together and raised some off of the flat surface for a continued bursting effect. The project was very time consuming, but as I collected each image, my excitement for the project grew! i had so much fun building an image collection and designing a display for them. Now I just cross my fingers and hope for a good grade!