She paints her fingers with a close precision

Man, this has been one brutal week for me. On Wednesday, all the nails on my left hand had some kind of splinters on them, making life extremely annoying. Then I accidentally paper-cutted my right thumb and basically speared my left thumb with the needle-thingy connected to those little red poppies. That was just Wednesday alone, imagine the rest of my week. It was like one bad thing after the next. At least my cold's kind of somewhat dimmed down -not really -and I can breath again. Kind of. However, that is beside the point because this is the entry where I promised I'd talk about all the goodies I got from Hong Kong! 

Let's start with the biggest and most awesome gift: A metallic grey Herschel backpack. OMG

I love it to bits!

I asked for a Herschel backpack because my current one is a massive of a monster bag for me. I'm only taking 3 courses, with heaps of notes taking and not much of textbooks-require-classes, so I needed something smaller. Hench, the obvious answer to this dilemma was to get a new backpack, for the first time in 6 years.

I am now the unproud owner of a Chelsea Fernando Torres poster...

Then my mum encountered her first shopping booboo. She bought what she thought was a magazine with a David Silva head and poster, only to realise after she's returned home that she actually bought a magazine with a Fernando Torres magazine cover and poster. Sad, I know but oh well, I'll at least be able to practise my weak Chinese. However, she did buy me a Nail Venus magazine, which was her saving grace because that magazine is gold. The stuff inside has me drooling and anxious to get back into doing nail art. Just like my Chinese, my Japanese has all but disintegrated since I left Japan but comparatively speaking, my Japanese is still several steps above my Chinese. Needless to say, Nail Venus has been forcing me to practise my Japanese quite a bit; however, it hasn't been very hard since almost 50% of the entire book's written in Katagana...

A collection of goodies from both my mum and her best friend! Oh how I feel loved!! :) I especially love the pig earrings haha My aunt also spoiled me quite a bit just no picture proof.

And new iPhone cases for my friend and myself. The one on the left now belongs to my friend and the burnt looking Union Jack's for me.

So yes, this concludes my Hong Kong goodies haul. For now. haha

David is the one sitting on top of Silva in the first picture. Silva, is the littler kitty of the two and still has an eye infection from what I'm told, hence the pained looking right eye. I hope she makes a speedy recovery. And they're currently in cages cause my aunt and uncle are in the middle of moving places. So, just to avoid an unwanted injuries, it is better to keep these two safe in cages lest their curiosity lands them in any kind of trouble.

oh, before I forget, my aunt's taken in two little abandoned kittens and they make my heart melt and I don't even like cats. They are so adorable, like so cute they can make even the meanest looking man coo and melt at the sight of them. It's also a clear sign of just how much my aunt and uncle love me because they have named these two rascals David Silva. HAHAHA David for older brother and Silva for the younger sister.  I'm just that persuasive, I know ;)

credits: kitten photos shamelessly taken from my aunt's facebook and the title from the Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! At the Disco (I have been playing their album on constant repeat without pause for the last several days).

The rumour of us

I am going to title this, a self-indulgent entry, and you'll know why really quickly too.

I picked up my mum from the airport yesterday, tired and sleepy and already in her withdrawal of all things amazing and awesome Hong Kong. She has also brought with her, many many souvenirs for me :) (...she may or may not have gotten a list of 'what-to-buy' but that's neither here nor there). That post will come next week, when I finally get my second extra long weekend of the semester.

For those of who see me everyday, this shouldn't be a surprise (unless you're a guy, in which case, surprise!), and for those who don't, well, I coloured my hair, twice, during the month of October. I was hoping for a lighter golden hue-like brown hair by using Palty Honey Brown, but that just turned out to be a complete flop and waste of money. Then I decided to just take the plunge and dye my hair red again. I used Garnier Nutrisse Cream 660 and my hair's a beautiful shade of red now.

I didn't say anything earlier was because I was keeping it as a welcome home surprise for my mum. When she saw my hair, she gave me one look, which basically translated to 'I better not find any remnants of red dye anywhere in the bathroom.'

During the month of October, I also did a little more like very indulgent shopping trip. Which resulted in me feeling rather guilty of the amount of money I spent purely on assessorising myself. It's tough work being a girl. sigh

4 out of the 5 stuff displayed are from Sephora. Like, the eyelash curler -cause my old one was simply crap. Then I re-stocked my liquid eyeliner from Kat Von D. (I fell in love with liquid eyeliner after trying them out for the first time in Japan) and a new fancy looking waterproof mascara from Eyeko. I actually bought these two things in September but I thought, hey, why not just include it into this picture? A Julep matte nail lacquer I have yet to touch (also from Sephora) and an Eiffel tower necklace from Forever21. All in all, expensive stuff haha

This post is brought to you by my new hobby: Sudoku. It's always been something I'd do in my spare time but lately, it's all but consumed me. Have I improved? Not quite but at least I don't fail as much as I did when I first started this Sudoku thingy back in 2005.

 

Song title: Hurricane by Panic! at the Disco (remember them?)

Just the thought of you keeps me up all night

Right. Today's Sunday, which means tomorrow's Monday, which also means: back to more school. Yay. Just finished up a page assignment for French and is on a one night break because I have a midterm on Wednesday, Halloween, and then a presentation that the prof bullied me into doing. Sad, I know. Well, life's life.

Yesterday, I worked a 9.5 hour shift and it started off with a bang. Here's a small list of all the things that happened to me yesterday: I slept in (I'll explain later why), I slipped on snow and let out the most undignified squeal where an unfortunate witness saw me at 7.30am on a Saturday morning (who even goes to school that early? It's not even finals yet. Jesus), lost parts of my breakfast to the microwave, got tea splashed in the face, slipped a dozen or so times walking outside, my water bottle falling out of my gym locker 4 times, almost everything within the locker falling out onto me three times and my cold's gotten a lot worst from Saturday morning. Not really a happy Saturday hmm? The only good thing was that my supervisor helped set up 1.5 rooms for my Friday afternoon, which was awesome.

All in all, it was a brilliant day at work. I was tired, sick -my cold's gotten worst, which made me have to cancel my appointment of going to a friend's place for some scary movie watching time (hard to believe but I was really sad that I couldn't make it ): ), and just feeling a little frustrated with life in general.

I guess it's just that time of the semester where everything's at a very frustrating stagnated standpoint which just frustrates the shit out of me. Just chirpy I guess.

Anyway, back to the question of: why did I sleep in Saturday morning?

The answer is that I participated in this awesome scavenger hunt Friday night where the rules were: dress up in your Halloween costume or we'll dress you up. So, to avoid utter public humiliation (I saw the punishments and they were that bad) I decided to dress up as my usual costume and went traipsing around downtown, bar hopping, doing stupid things with my awesome teammates and taking heaps and heaps of pictures, some of which will never ever be shown anywhere public, no matter how awesome my picture taking skills were.

Here are some of shenanigans my friends and I did Friday night...

I wanted a group picture but for some reasons my teammates were rather against it, so here's my one and only proof of 7 team members (count the hands touching the glass) : (the reason for this picture: 1 cup (Irish Strongbow), 1 team)

and here's me and my new...friend? huh? :D

And Thor...who went around saying Thor-ry. It was as much a Halloween party as it was a birthday party and he was one of the two birthday children. :)

Well, this concludes my entry of Friday and Saturdays fun adventures. I leave you with this:

beware everyone, this lovely bear might just lurking around your nearest McDonald's ;)

Peace and not war

I'm just going to apologise right now but this post will be a little depressing and not like my usual...happy kind of posts.

I'm sure the news about the 14 year old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, being shot in the head in front of her classmates by members of the Taliban is old news by now but I just, like just, discovered this little girl's...blog/diary entries from BBC news' website. I went through all 5 webpages of her diary and all of them were just so heartbreaking to read through.

Coming from such a safe and stable environment such as Canada, it is almost mind boggling to imagine a life where school would be forbidden to the female population. I love going to school. Sure, I have my off days where I'd complain nonstop about how much I hate going to school -group projects, assignments, bitch fights, the daily gossip mill, tests, exams, whatever -but at the end of the day, it is still one of the more exciting activity that I enjoy doing on a somewhat daily basis.

I liked (I wanted to write join but that kind of doesn't work anymore with facebook...) Upworthy, a group of young journalists from all over America (therefore, I'm reading a lot more about the American Presidency campaign than I really want to...) who banded together some time ago with the intentions of sharing things that are 'awesome, fun, interesting videos and graphics about stuff that matters.'  With heaps of the importance of American healthcare, American Presidency campaign tidbits, the ''legitimate rape' does not cause pregnancies,' or how weird Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are on their best days aside, I really enjoy a lot of the stuff they share. Sometimes, they're ...tastefully interesting and sometimes they're just crude cold facts. Like this one, (October is the month of Anti-Bullying Month (please, 'an-tee' and not 'an-tie')

(The only bad thing about Upworthy is that I get spammed by them constantly. Not that I mind cause I barely even check my email as it is...ha ha...ha)

It was through Upworthy that I discovered Malala's webdiary on BBC news (be smart and don't be like me: start from the beginning). Her words and vocabulary are that of a typical 14 year old girl: simple, clean and direct. But within each entry, her maturity, intelligence and bravery shines through. My heart goes out to her whole family (her two brothers, mother and father -she talks about them a lot) and hope she'll make safe recovery. She's 14 for goodness sakes. I leave you with two interviews:

Monsieur Leroux

Well, today's Wednesday, which means I am working tonight! YAY!

Anyway, I'm not really here to say much besides to rant about how rude some people are. Like ridiculously rude. There's something called 'control your tone and voice.' No one appreciates being yelled at, or ordered to do something in a severely rude manner that's lacking in all sense of manners and politeness. I'm extremely annoyed at just how ridiculous some people are. You'd think that being in a university setting, you'd be a little more courteous to other people but nooooooooooo. I guess while university is also the place to further your education, it is also the place to learn and hone in your skills of being a bitch or a jackass for future uses. Unbelievable.

Another reason to I'm updating is to announce my impending doom. What doom you ask? Midterm's right around the corner and Halloween parties are beckoning me left and right and omfg. haha

Here's my music recommendation for today's post (actually, it was youtube that recommended this song to me in the first place...(I was trying to look up stuff and see what's all the fuss's about this TV show Teen Wolf...))
Imagine Dragon: It's Time

Dressed to the nines, with hair to match

Oh whoa! I went from posting absolutely nothing to posting twice a week? What an accomplishment (ignoring the fact that I was working both times).

Before I get to the point of today's entry, I went to Rocky Mountain Wine and Food festival last night with a couple of friends of mine. I ate more than I wine-d but that was alright. The food there, albeit not always worth the cost I paid, were all quite brilliant. Especially Cobs' Bread. Everything there were 2 tickets (.50cents each ticket) and their scones were amazing. ...I also spent around 3 hours walking around there last night so my legs are just a tad bit tired now...

Anyway, here's a bunch of photo-unloading. They're all of my recent, well...the last 6 weeks worth of nail art. Nothing too new and interesting but worth sharing either way since I did work a little hard on them... (see, this is what happens when school starts (whoever does homework.....?) and given a long weekend...)

I apparently named this 'stardom' when I saved the file, but it's a fitting name I suppose. This took me endless of hours and ridiculous amount of mucking up before getting this finish. You'd think drawing stars would be easy... You'd think.

My current nails?

I must be having some issues lately because making little black dots drove me up the walls. Thankfully, the only mucking up that happened were the sizes of the dots. Some were teeny tiny little wee ones and some were just big fat globs. Didn't really make any sense to me because I used the same dotting tool for all of the dots. (I also dotted my left thumb's nail with 6 dots...but it would look a little odd I'd think if I were to just have a random left thumb poking out eh?)

And here is my left hand. I hunted down my grandfather's beloved deck of cards and used that as inspiration for the remaining 4 nails. To keep up with the black and white colour scheme, I opted to make my diamond and heart white rather than red. For those of you who know me well, you'd know that I am very ... impartial to the colour red. In fact, I'd much rather not use it if I can.

I also have another set of nails done between third week of September but it was a line of lacquer review for Colour Club. I'll update that picture at a later time, when and if I manage to find when those nails were released intending for which season (I think Spring 2012 but I'm not a 100% sure...)

And since I'm only human, I naturally have some complaints to make about life. In particular, my work life. So, this morning at 8.30, I was cleaning out a microwave and that thing was filthy. Not only that but the inside of that thing smelled like curry. What the hell? Another complaint I have is about this one always very old judgmental Chinese lady. She always has this air of attempt superiority (seniors these days) and always has to point out some flaws and point the finger at me. This morning, she was accusing me of having somehow switched a wire or ten around, making the coffee button spew out hot cocoa. When I went and checked, that lady, this judgmental madame was speaking on behalf of her friend because her English was just so sparkling, was pressing on the button that says cafe mocha and most definitely not the 100% Colombian roast. When I explained what the heck is mocha, that judgmental madame backed off and walked away. What a rotten lady.

And my work day's just begun. D:

[Title provided by The Golden Age - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour]

I'm a junkie over you

So. It's snowing outside and it is only October 10th. How unfortunate but also how oh so very typical Calgary. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow. But at least give me a bit more warning than a 40% chance of flurries...

Anyway, I'm currently working at my part time job right now and all's going well and such. One of the instructors left behind a plateful of cookies behind for me to enjoy (ha, so much  for a 4 week attempt at eating everything healthy...) is definitely one of the better pluses.

So, I'm minding my own business, trying to do my homework (trying being the very important keyword), eating my very healthy dinner (heaping ton of green veggies) and then, all of a sudden, I'm getting the third degree from my of my old coworker...

...about whether or not I'm dating this mutual coworker of mine.

I have never laughed louder or harder so far this year.

And then he goes and supplies an answer to my laugh: oh, don't worry, I get why you two aren't dating -or well, not admitting to me that you're dating (but you shouldn't be afraid really!) -because really, I do! You're not 'dating' because school is messy and annoying and gets everything all confused and weird. It's hard getting into a relationship when there's the thought of graduation and such in mind, it certainly makes things more tricky. Well, whenever you guys feel like you're ready, do let me know!

I just gave him half my plate of cookies as a nod to his creative thinking because I have nothing better to say. Nothing at all.

Music of the day (or well, the song that lulled me into a very uncomfortable nap in the library today afternoon): Rush by Ferras.

Romance your ego for a while

Whoa. It's been a very long time since I last came around here hey? I guess I was just very caught up with my 3 summer jobs and the start of my last year in university. FYI I AM VERY EXCITED for that last little bit.

Anyway, I am currently in the midst of enjoying my long weekend (Monday is a national holiday because it is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada :D) and relishing in my first day of 'mum away on holiday in Hong Kong for the next 4 weeks.' Haven't even done much, just recuperating from over-baking the last two days (I baked some 50 cookies and 30 odd tea biscuits. I am exhausted).

I come bearing two videos as a way of saying, 'hey, remember me? Sorry I haven't been around, socialising, but I'm alive!'

The first is a short trailer clip of this one documentary I watched during my one week of vacation at the start of September (that's how much I worked during the summer...). It's a 2 hour documentary about this super-powered single mother looking after 20 or so foster children, all of mixed heritage, primarily those of black and white parents. Bi-racial they call it. The website writes, 'Olga is a loving mother but she is no Mother Teresa. Raised by the Soviet regime, she believes in communal responsibility over individual freedom and runs the family with a Stalinist determination.'

An incredibly touching video, but what really got me was this one quote that she said during the movie (provided yet again by their website), 'When the kids grow up, at least they will have a mother to blame for all the failures that will happen in their lives.' And let me tell you, a lot of the children living under her house hold a lot of deeply embedded anger and frustration towards her.

The second video is nothing really, just the video of a British synthpop band, Hurts. I don't even remember how I came across them but throughout this entire week, I have just been listening to their songs nonstop. I am quite literally in love with them.

When I told my friend to have a go at their music (a 'know-it-all music guru' is what I call her) after she's made it clear that she's never heard of them. Her verdict? '...this is a like a little on the darker side. I can see why you'd like it.' HAHAHA oh ya. I know.

Speaking of updating, I should update some somewhat recent pictures of my nails. And I've also been scrapbooking lately. I am not a single artistic bone in my body, so we'll see how that'll turn out in the end.