Words from Alyssa

       I can hear the sound of the plastic unwrapping, the sound of foil crinkling as I unfold the small white disk that is now being held by the tips of my pointer finger and thumb. I place the small white disk on my tongue and a cooling sensation coats the inside of my mouth. There is a sharp increase of saliva and it almost feels as if my body temperature has decreased. A light tingly feeling spreads across the skin on my face and I make the detrimental mistake of inhaling too sharply. Tears start brimming at my eyes and there is an overwhelming burning sensation down my larynx. The intense contrast of the hot burning that is seeping into my lungs and the freezing cold that pierces my eyes takes me back to a time in my childhood, laying on the couch surrounded by blankets, my mom is next to me taking my temperature and she just got done rubbing Vicks Vaporub on my chest.      Then, the sweet taste in my mouth brings me back to the present. The tingl...

       Studio Ghibli is an incredibly influential animation studio based in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for its beautiful style and its appealing storylines that attract people of all ages. Studio Ghibli films are incredibly well loved all over the world and almost, if not every film has been dubbed over in english.  While I do not know to much about the cast list for the original japanese versions, the dubbed version of many of these films have an elite cast full of A-list actors and actresses.  Christian Bale as Howl        First off, and my personal favorite on the list, is Christian Bale. Known for his role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, and as Batman from 2005 - 2012, Bale is nothing short of a celebrity amongst celebrities. He auditioned to play in the english dub for Howl's Moving Castle after he watched another Studio Ghibli film, Spirited Away.  He was cast as the lead male, a wizard named Howl who travels in his movi...

    Blogs aren't something that have ever interested me a ton, and I only find myself looking at them if I am using one as a source for a research paper. After looking at a couple for this blog I can definitely see how they could interest people because just by clicking around a few blogs I learned information about things I didn't even know existed, like the 'One Chip Challenge'. WHile you can learn a lot of new things from blogs, much of this information is trivial and will most likely be forgotten within the week. One thing I do appreciate is how much different blogs vary in terms of structure, topics, and tone. Of course, which blogs someone likes is going to depend on their personal interests and I understand that I am probably not the target audience for most blogs. That being said I want to talk about a few blogs and why I did or didn't like them.     The first post I want to talk about is one that I personally was not a fan of. It is a blo...

      Hello!! My name is Alyssa and I am an 18 year old college student studying nursing. One thing I love to do in my free time is bake. I started baking when I was pretty young at my grandmas house. She would always let me have little treats, but only if I helped her make them, which eventually turned into making them myself. I have been designated the family baker so around the holidays or when we go on vacation, everyone tells me what they want and I bake everyone things for whatever event is coming up. My favorite thing to bake right now is matcha cookies with white chocolate chips, but my dad is the only other one in my family who likes matcha so me and him are the only ones who ever eat those cookies. My mom and sisters like when I make regular chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cookies more, but I usually wait until the fall to make them. I like baking because it allows me to put my focus into something without feeling like a chore, it is just a fun little hob...