an amazing variety of imperfections

an amazing variety of imperfections, originally uploaded by speckled_beckle.

Samuel McChord Crothers says, among other things,
"Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways."

I must say I wholeheartedly agree with him.

In one way or another, humans try so darned hard to be perfect, to reach that esteemed vision that the world has deemed as "perfect."
...and then we fail, horribly, at ever reaching that goal.
...or die trying.

I say, just be the perfect version of YOU that you can be.
...that's why I think the quote above is going in my book of favorites.
It speaks so much to the drive of humans for being perfect, but it also says that we find ourselves in awe of our imperfection, and I think that is the way we should be.

We should be in awe of our imperfections.
Without our imperfections (either perceived, comparitive, self-assigned, or otherwise) we are just cookie-cutters of everyone else.
Undoubtedly, in this world of 6+ billion people, we each have an increasingly likely chance of finding someone who has the same job, same favorite musical artist, and favorite hobby as we do. Shared interests are what bring people together and form bonds. We learned about that in elementary school, when we were learning how to make friends. "My favorite color is pink, too! Wanna play on the swings together?" But trying to fit in any pre-determined shape, box, or cookie cutter is outdated. I'd say the better thing to do is to live off the radar, to not be definable. (If you like to think of yourself as being mysterious, not fitting to any label will definitely make yourself seem more mysterious!)

For example, I didn't know what the actual definition of "hipster" was until a few days ago.
...then I found out that I am nearly 100% hipster.

But does that mean I'm going to change who I am, just so that I don't fit that definition? No. Because I have been "hipster" longer than I've known what one was, so why should I change just because more and more people like me are starting to define themselves (us) based on a word? (Besides, I don't get the obsession with triangles. And yes, that obsession existed before HP7 came out.)

I guess what I'm saying is...we place too much importance on being perfect.
We place too much emphasis on fitting into every little corner of that box to make sure that we belong.
...maybe, just maybe, that by not touching every corner, not filling every space, makes us fit in that box better.
We are individuals based on our imperfections and our "blunders" so maybe we should be happy to have them. =)

Black Forest Cupcakes

Black Forest Cupcakes, originally uploaded by speckled_beckle.

25 cupcakes.
10 minutes of prep.
100 minutes of baking.
30 minutes of post-processing.
90 seconds to devour them.

The big oven in my parents' kitchen decided to go kaputt, so these were baked in the toaster oven, six cupcakes at a time.
The mix made between 24 and 36; some cupcakes were fuller (and bigger) than others, and there was just enough to make an extra single cup. I only needed 22 for my class, plus one if the tutor was there (or Jake in case the tutor wasn't there), and then one for each of my parents.
Originally I got the recipe from here but I fudged it a wee bit.
Okay, I fudged it a lot. =p

Here's what I did:
*1 box German Chocolate cake mix
*1 can pie-ready cherries (with sugar)
*1 jar of whipped white icing (enough for 2-3 dozen)

1. Prepare the cake mix according to box directions.
2. After cooling, use a melon baller, teaspoon, butter knife, or hand-held apple-corer to make a hole in the center of the cupcake; set aside the cake bit that you remove. Put 1-3 cherries in the hole. (Depending on how much you love your recipient. LOL) Replace the bit of cake you took out. (You may need to trim some off the bottom so the top's not sticking up.)
3. Frost.

Traditional Black Forest cakes call for a cherry and chocolate on top, but I (obviously) didn't do that.
In mine, too, I also added a few cherry chips to the bottom of the muffin cups before filling with dough and then baking. Some of them stuck to the paper cups, some of them integrated into the mix. If you want to try adding the cherry chips, I recommend adding them to the mix as you're mixing it, or sprinkling the chips on top so they will sink to the bottom. (Grab a bag of cherry chips; add the whole thing in if you go the mixing-in route, or sprinke just a few on top if you choose to do it that way.)

They turned out great and were a big hit!!
My wonderful Jake helped me with the filling bit; it was kind of a conveyor system.

.....I got glaze on my shoe!

.....I got glaze on my shoe!, originally uploaded by speckled_beckle.

Man, oh, man.

I missed a lot of days there on my 365.
...and I never got caught up on 30 Days of Gratitude, either.

Oh well.
Ce la vie.

I am, however, getting straight A's, TYVM.

I am just anxious to see how my ceramics pieces come out of the glaze kiln Monday!!
I do have a good reason for being MIA this last month and a half. School. I glazed 16 pieces today; 29 total pieces total this week. Five more pieces to glaze on Monday. Today was also my presentation in German class. Taught MS PowerPoint to myself just for the presentation. (Really not that hard.) And I spent over two hours last night making Black Forest cupcakes for today, too. Thank goodness I had Jacob to help me with those! <3 (See the next blog for the full story on that.) But yes, there you have it. The reasons I have been at school from 10-5 most days since mid-October, and thus the reasons why my photos starting slacking off. Holiday break is coming up. I plan on reading and cleaning my room, so that should allow for plenty of time to take some pics, right? =)