A little update and some pictures from this summer...

I was supposed to go to a veterinary volunteer trip in New Mexico. However, a lot of things have happened recently. Despite all the fundraising effort I put in and all the fun learning experience I was expecting, I decided that it was best to stay home for another week.

One of the things that happened recently was that Diamond got lower urinary tract infection last week. It's a fairly common illness that cats get, but it can be quite serious. I knew she was a little stressed from moving home with me. She showed some signs initially, but has gotten better few weeks ago. Last week, she kept on running around, peeing frequently and peeing and pooping outside of her litter box. She was meowing at me, and I knew something must have gone wrong because she never meows. When I went to her litter box to check, I saw red stains on the carpet and on the kitchen tiles. She was urinating blood!

I'm usually extremely calm when it comes to taking care of other people's animals, but I got so nervous when I saw bloody urine on the floor. So I took her to the humane society I worked at before immediately. Her blood and urine analysis results are still pending, but we decided to treat her empirically with antibiotics since she's had history of UTI before and all the signs fit UTI.

She has gotten a lot better on the first day-- bloody in the urine has become more and more diluted. But she is still regaining her appetite and her confidence in using the litter box again. Sigh.... I'm such a bad mom for ignoring her signs. She still purred and rubbed her head against me even though she must have been in a lot of pain.

Anyways..... On a brighter note, here are some pictures from this summer..... I haven't touched my D80 in a really long time, and I almost forgot how to use it.

I went to Santa Monica with my friends few weeks ago. This bikini set was the one I talked about in my recent haul video. The set was only $15 (compare to ~ $140 originally). This was the first time I've ever worn bikini in the public, so I was a bit shy about taking off the shorts off. LOL

I was told to do a sexy pose..... and this was the awkward pose that I came up with..... Definitely not a model material as you can tell...

Oddly enough, I was just demonstrating to my friends how to do a sexy pose here. Just when I was about to get up, she took the shot. For some reason, this weird pose that lasted 1 milisecond reminded me of the sculpture in front of the Getty Center.

The funny thing is that I did take my family to visit the Getty Center last week, and here is the sculture I'm referring to. Now to look at it, my pose was far less skillful than that of the sculpture. How do you just balance on your hip and keep the legs so low and parallel to the ground....?

Here are some other random photos....

Product Review: Eye Rockz Mineral Eyeshadows

Here are the color swatches......
Top (left to right): Lemonade, Orange Sparks, Sunshine, Pinkalicious, Glamorous
Bottom (left to right): Mysteriously Blue, Green Love, Seductive, Wham!, Nightmare

Natural light





Flash Light









I am wearing Orange sparks on the inner corner, green love on the outer corner, and Sunshine on the lower lashline... They are really pigmented when you apply on top of a base or apply them wet. All the colors have a nice sheen to them, not chunky shimmers or glitters.











You can visit their website at
http://www.eyerockz.webs.com

Enter "ECHOLIROCKZ10" for 10% discount on your entire order....



I am wearing the World Series 3 toned Lens in Grey
You can find them here....
http://lenscircle.com/world_circle_lens_grey_color_contacts.html

Enter "ECHOLI10" for 10% discount on your entire order.....











And of course it wouldn't be a legit post w/o camera whoring.... ready???

































And of course.... can't forget a picture of my cutest little girl Diamond. Muah!

China Glaze: Secret Peri-Wink-le

This was one of the 8 nail polishes that I got from Transdesign.com. Decided to try this one first because it's such a unique color in the bottle. Based on the only China Glaze nail polish that I own previously (For Audrey), I'm really not too fond of how it looks so thick and gloopy on my nails.


Secret Peri-Wink-le is supposedly a periwinkle color (which I didn't really know is a flower until I googled it). If you ask me, I would say it's a intense ceil blue color (for those of you who are familiar w/ scrub colors). It's a creamy blueish color with slight hint of lavender.

First coat was kinda streaky, so I applied a second coat. But the color was still not quite as intense as how it appears in the bottle. Third coat made it more even, but it took forever to dry..... And knowing me, I just don't have the patience to leave my fingernails alone. So some nails got horrible dents, other ones have fingerprints on them..... o___O The color is gorgeous, but on my nail, it looks horrible as usual.....


But I'm new to nail polishes, what do I care..... Maybe it would be worthwhile to invest in a Seche Vite fast drying top coat.




Here is the swatch of the color on the relatively less messed up hand....





w/o flash










w/ flash











A little background about my nails, which I'm still a little self-conscious most of the time. I have really short nail beds to start with... and they are really soft..... I bit my nails till I was like 12 yrs old..... My mom always thought it was a nutrition deficiency kind of thing.... like how sometimes chicken peck at their own eggs to get calcium? So my mom would smack my hand everytime she saw me doing it.... But I think it was more of a habbit/stress behavior? I don't even know...


Then around teenager years, everyone else started painting their nails all colorful, and I realized that my nails were so ugly to a point I can't even bear looking at them.... So I told myself since I wasn't born with girly pretty nails, if I keep on biting them, they'll always stay short and stubby. It took me a while to quit the habbit, but I stopped biting completely around high school.


I'm still really new to nails..... since I'm a really low-maintenance kind of girl =P... As you can see, they are still really short and not girly at all ..... But I'm content..... I think as long as your nails are clean and uniform, they really can't be that bad. I think cream colors and darker colors actually look really good on shorter nails IMO.







Anyways.... For the last few days, Diamond has a kinked eyebrow. It's almost broken, but still hanging on tight and leaning to the other side..... I resisted for a long time, but I finally decided to trim it because I got really tired of trying to "correct" it everytime I pet Diamond. haha.....









Anyways... Back to studying.... Good luck with finals!!!

Little Update

I've been really into nail stuff recently... I was searching for nail polishes on ebay, then I saw these nail canes where you can cut a slice of the cross section and glue them onto your nails. There are so many cute ones, such as a cat face, apple, watermelon, flower, kiwi, and so on.














Then I came across the Konad Nail Stamping System. I can't believe that I've never heard about it before. It's kinda like an intricate nail design for dummies. I would never be able to have the patience nor the artistic skills to draw those designs. I really wanted to order some plates and nail polishes from www.wowsocool.com, but unfortuntely, they just ran out of the really famous M57 plate. So I shall use my last bit of patience and wait until they restock =)








Since I'm in a hunt for any nail stuff, I "accidentally" bid on a set of korean nail polishes yesterday. Initially I thought it was only 0.99 cents for all 5 bottles, so I placed a bid when there was like 3 min left. Then I realized that the shipping alone is 7 bucks...... 10 bucks for 5 polishes is that bad, the problem is that I've never heard of the brand before, and I don't know if I should pay...... Sigh... this might be my first bad record one ebay. I always pay the seller immediately after the bid finishes.... but this time, I blame myself for being so careless......








Speaking of shopping, it's a little burdensome to think that everything I buy right now has an interest rate (since I'm on federal loans...). And I'm just kinda broke right now, that I really need to triple and quadruple think before I buy something.... Do I really need another nail polish or another blush when my drawers are already overflowing with unused stuff.....









Anyways.... I don't think I've mentioned this before, but Diamond has asthma. Although I worked with animals all the time, it's been a while since I had a pet on my own. It took me a long to realize that Diamond is coughing (I mistakened it as trying to throw up her hairball for 3 months... yes I know, shame on me.) So I took her to the animal hospital, and the vet couldn't really figure out why. But her bronchi did look a little inflamed on the radiograph. So the vet told me to give Diamond Predinisolone, which is a steroid that reduces inflammation, but the side effect = immune system goes down as well.








She reacted well the pred initially. Her cough was completely gone! But on the 4th day, she started sneezing all of a sudden. Like 15 sneezes in 10 seconds. I totally freaked out. As it turned out, most cats have feline herpes virus, which don't manifest themselves unless the immune system is compromised. So the vet told me to stop giving her pred. One week later, the sneezes went away, cough came back, and actually a bit worse than before. I just get really stressed when I see her struggling, and I really want her to feel better. The vet recommended getting Diamond an inhaler. So I just picked it up few days ago, a $168 inhaler. $168!!!! And I still need to get a mask so that it can fit over her face and deliver all the aerosol medication from the inhaler.







And also few weeks ago, my wrist was still hurting from falling during ice-skating. I debated for a while whether I should see the doctor.... since there wasn't any swelling and it only hurt when I press on the spot.... But just to make sure, I decided to see the doc and got some X-rays. Nothing was broken, yay! The doctor said I probably sprained my ligament, (scapholunate ligament to be exact). It's funny how the guy at the ice-skating place give us a 50% discount, so it only cost 6 bucks, but the medical bill on the other hand was not so nice.





Anyways.... lessons learned. I need to take better care of myself and of Diamond.

FOTD

I was going to do a makeup tutorial on this look.... but I was in a rush to go to our Thanksgiving dinner event. I know some ppl requested it, but I probably won't have much time to show it in a video........ I used MAC pigment in Blonde's Gold on my inner corner and used three shades of purples on my outer corner. And just drew an eyeliner and applied some mascara. Voila!






Please excuse my unruly eyebrows... This is what happens when I have exams one after another.... I've been wearing sweatshirt and jeans or scrubs every single day.... I have my glasses on like 24/7. When I try to keep up with school, I just abandon taking care of my face. The nerdiness definitely overshadows the beauty if there's any..... haha....

I bought this dress from Forever 21 for 7.99!!!!! And I never wore it out. And of course.... this time, I didn't actually wear it out either. I changed to another more warm dress the last minute.... When it comes to coldness, I just chicken away. I really don't want to get sick before finals week.... you know....

Anyways, the dinner turned out to be great!!! Nothing beats a relaxing weekending night with friends, delicious food, and nice music!!!!!

Somebody asked me how I did Diamond's diet plan..... It involves some understanding of animal nutrition and some calculations. Ideally, you should be able to see your kitty's waist line curving inward. You shouldn't be able to see the rib cage, but you should able to feel it. If your kitty is losing that distinct waistline and the fat pad is dangling, your kitty is most likely overweight. You can cut down the food and/or make your kittey exercise a little bit more. It's hard to say how much you might want to cut down because it depends on your cat's current weight and the ideal weight you want to achieve.

Diamond is around 10.5 pounds right now. I think her ideal weight should be around 9.4 lbs (this could be somewhat subjective). I've been feeding her about 200 kcal/day. (I feed her 1/3 cup of dry food and 1/2 of 3.3 oz wet food everyday..... if you really want to know the details... ) It definitely varies among different food brands and manufacturers, so definitely check with the brand you are feeding your cat. So in case you want your cat to be around 9.4 lbs, try feeding it 200kcal/day in conjuction with exercise.

It does take a while to see the results. But remember don't give your cats extra treats (which are usually junk food) and definitely don't give them any table scraps. Cat foods are formulated to meet all the dietary needs specifically for our feline friends. I think putting a cat on diet is the hardest on the owner. Because everytime you look at them, they give you that look @ . @ "I'll behave, please feed me?"

So it's tough love..... be consistent and don't give in to those round shiny eyes.... because nobody want their little furry buddies to get overweight and develop diabetes or bone disease later in life.

Where did October and November go????

Hey guys.... I just want to stop by and say hi! I've been really MIA lately. I'm doing well, just a little beat up by vet school. But I'm still enjoying the process!!! I heard next quarter is going to be a lot worse, so I better kick up my pace.

Diamond has been doing very well too. I have carefully calculated the calories that she needs daily and proposed a diet plan back in september. Since she's relatively older, I don't want her to get diabetes or orthopedic diseases from being overweight. It will take until January to finally reach her ideal weight. But according to my plan, she has actually already lost some weight. I can vaguely see her little waist line now. hehe....

I just can't stop talking about science and medicine right now. This afternoon, while my friend and I were in the anatomy lab. We were both complaining about how our wrists hurt. I was like when I over flex carpal joint, it hurts a lot. And we just couldn't help but laugh at our nerdiness.... LOL......

Anyways... expect to see a few videos from me in the next few days....(maybe a haul video, and a makeup look video?) Then it will be another long gap, since I'll probably try to catch up and start reviewing for finals.

Anyways... I'll see you guys soon. Diamond says hi~~~

I've been MIA

This week has been a long and exhausting week. Our orientation started, and I've been away from home from 7:30-6:30 everyday.





The rewarding thing is that we finally received our white coats from the White Coat Ceremony, which signifies the beginning of our long and intensive four years of training. Here are some photos.....




This is what I wore to a semi formal luncheon and then to the ceremony. Top from Sears ($12?). Skirt from Nordstrom Rack. (90% wool! $26). Heels from Marshalls ($39.99). Remember those high heels I was raving about few weeks ago, how they are really comfy...... NOT!!!! ! We had do a substantial amount of walking from the parking structure to the lunceon. My feet kept on sliding down to the pointy part of the heels. When I'm standing still, my feet are all right. As soon as I started walking, my feet hurt like hell....... Needless to say, my toes are full of blisters right now. Most other girls from my class also had the "limping" problem toward the end of the day. Another pain being a girl. I always joke aobut how I wear shoes that don't fit me like I'm Cinderella's evil step sisters....... If you know the original story (Anderson likes to put these gruesome graphic details), you'll get what I mean. I will have to wear flip flops for a while now....

Yippee!!! I'm going to be a doctor in 4 years. =D

Although my parents weren't able to make it to the ceremony, I was very content that I'm finally wearing a real white coat (w/ responsibilities, not just another lab coat). haha..... Still having mixed feelings about going back to being a full time student, but I'm very happy that the orientation has ended on a good note.

And since I have the burden of being a professional in the public, I have to watch what I say or do online. (Only my parents and my very close friends know about my youtube channel.) So if anyone from my class catch me doing videos or posting random beauty blogs, I think I'll be super embarrassed. So I shall keep my alter ego as a secret identity.....

Lastly, (as usual), I'll leave you a pic of Diamond. She's been naughty lately. One day, I was sniffing her (why you ask me, I don't really know either.) So my face was very close to hers, and without a sign, she bit on my eyebrow. I could clearly remember that I heard a sound and realized that she had punctured through my skin. I had to pull her back and squeeze out her dirty dirty fishy saliva out of my tiny wound. Then I was complaining to my parents how Diamond pretended to be all cute before I adopted her, now she's becoming ferocious! My mother was like "Why ub the world would you put your face there??!?!?!!" IONO...... haha..... I still love Diamond.

Yet Another Diamond Post

I've been stuck at home most of the time lately... Always in my PJs, no makeup, and messy hair... .haha.... So sorry for being so detached from the beauty world.....

Diamond loves to play with this black/white string... My mom actually got this string for free (it was used to tie some veggies together in Asian supermarket... XD). Simple lesson learned: Happiness can be free!

I bought those catnip-filled rat toys for Diamond before. She showed absolutely no interest. I bought some colorful stringy toys w/ bells from Petco, and Diamond is actually scared of it sometimes. But she never get tired of this free string. And she becomes a little ferocious tiger. Speaking of which, I've got bitten many times already when Diamond is in a bad mood. She never did that before I adopted her!!?!?! Getting a bit more confident (beast-like) now??

Anyways... I like to play with Diamond's fur since she's a domestic long hair. Her black spots can change size depend on which way you brush the hair. hehe.....

Normally, the black spot on her foot looks like this......

But when you brush the hair against the grain, her black spot becomes longer like this....

And lastly, I'll leave you a pic of Diamond stacking up her little paws.....

The End (that was such a boring post.... XD)

Weird Dream

I dreamt the other day that Diamond got pregnant, and gave birth to 12 kittens. There were white ones, orange tabby ones, and black ones. I was afraid that it's too cold, and they'll freeze to death. So I carried them to Diamond. Then I just woke up.



Btw, Diamond is spayed probably when she was 5 or 6 months old. I kinda feel bad that the dream would never come true. But again, there are so many kittens and cats that need a home. So no biggy.








Diamond has been sleeping in my bed since we moved here. Unfortunately, I only have a twin size bed. It can be quite crowded for both of us (Diamond like to lay all stretched out when she sleeps). Every night, Diamond tries to hack up the hairball, so I have to jump out of my bed immediately, and take her to the litter box to avoid the possibility of puking on my bed or on the carpet. Then it always turns to a unproductive cough. Sometimes, I wake up because I accidentally kick her and feel horribly sorry. Finally, around 7am everyday, Diamond gets hungry, and would purr like a little machine and knead all over me.






I'm getting a bit more used to living alone and sleeping with Diamond nowadays. I hope it will get better everyday. =)

A Littel Guilty Haulage

I have a confession to make..... I shopped again...... Actually, I returned something and bought 2 cosmetics product w/ the store credit.... Does it still count? But I simply couldn't pass these two babies......


Nars Blush in Deep Throat












And Nars lipgloss in Striptease









To make buying these products even more legitimate is that I found them at TJ Maxx. You never find NARS product at TJ Maxx. Even if there is, it would be like bath gel or something. I swear that these two are the only makeup products I purchased since I entered the Project 10 Pan. Together they were $30.






Next, Ross was having Shoes Week last week. There were a lot of cute shoes. I initially bought three pairs, and came home to find that two pairs weren’t the greatest fit. So I went to return the shoes at another Ross.



Then I saw this pair of Steve Madden grey faux leather pump that I wanted really bad. I actually had tried them on three times before at two different stores. They were around $50 at those stores. Since I probably won’t have that many opportunities to wear them, I just set them down. Guess what? I saw them again at Ross, only for $15.99!!!?!?! What?!?!?!? But it was ok, I was hunting for more practical shoes. Out of five or six pairs of cute shoes, I had narrowed down to only two pairs. I really behaved myself, aren’t you guys proud of me? Haha….



This was the first pair that I bought. Had been wearing them ever since the day I got these….. Very comfy. The “leather” looks a bit fake though….. $14.99










I also got this pair of Nine West flats. My first impression was that the “leather” was a little stiff, but these are actually quite comfortable. I like Nine West shoes =) $14.99











And finally got a pair of black/grey flats. Initially, I wasn’t too impressed by the patchy design. However, I can’t deny that these are super comfortable and extremely wearable. I also like how the shoe embraces my fat feet very well. XD $11.99










And last, not least, I’ll leave you a picture of my little hero/warrior- Diamond. I’m so surprised that the little shy Diamond can be so brave in front of the bad kitty. These days, whenever I’m cooking in the kitchen, Diamond would walk out of my room and go straight to confront that kitty. Sometimes, she’s so close to the kitty that I’m afraid she might get hurt. She would choose a perfect spot and just sit right in front of the kitty. Other times, when the bad kitty wants to sneak into my room, Diamond would jump down from my bed and sit right in the middle of my door frame. She would guard my room until the bad kitty runs away. Isn’t she adorable?!?!?! Everyone in my family is very passive, and my mom was saying that Diamond is definitely our little role model. =)