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....

Before/After

I was browsing online, and I came across some pretty amazing before and after pictures. It's amazing how makeup, circle lenses, false lashes, and some photoshop editting can transform a girl! Here are some examples.....

































And last one.... XD








Pretty impressive, huh?

A Caricature of Me =)

Ana or aka evenangelsfalter drew a caricature of me while she was watching my recent haul video. She's such a doll!!! So gorgeous and talented.









This is like my very first caricature.... It was very interesting seeing myself through other people's perspective. Hmm.... Do I appear very masculine? Maybe I should smile more? haha..... I know when I don't smile, I can really ward off a lot of people. That's why I was never popular among boys..... LOL.... oh welll

Exhausted....

I'm babysitting my cousin today and tomorrow..... He's 3 and half. So he's like constantly jumping up and down, running around, and laughing loudly. I just can't match up his energy level.... Usually, I would blame my aunt for buying him fast food or allowing him to watch TV. I know how easily kids get addicted to those things. But I was so tired after the first 2 hours, I was just watching Spongebob with him the whole time (since he only sits down when he's watching spongebob, and also because spongebob is one of my favorite cartoon too... XD)

I gotta admit, kids are a lot of work..... I just can't imagine how I have to work a full time job, and still have to take care of my family after work..... My cousin is finally asleep right now, but I have a really bad pounding headache right now. It pounds everytime I tries to get out of my bed. So I probably should sleep early today and get ready for one more day with a 3 yr-old.

Fashion is......

I don't know about you guys, but I used to try to follow every fashion trend. Sometimes, even when I know the cloths don't flatter my body, I still wear them. After a while, I realized it's just not realistic to be blindly chasing after every fashion trend. I don't want to feel uncomfortable in cloths when I know I'm not at my best.

I certainly don't have perfect modelesque figure, and I know even with very stringent diet or exercise, genes still override. I don't want to be too critical of myself. I want to be able to enjoy food and enjoy life. I want to be comfortable, happy, and confident. So let it be. So I learnt to embrace my body and be picky about which trends to follow. Then for a while, almost all the clothing pieces I bought were either grey or black. They were too ordinary, unoriginal and ageless. Now that a lot of clothing stores are ubiquitous (ie Forever 21), I'd rather look ordinary than bumping into another dozen of girls who wear the exact same outfits. My mom always tells me how my wardrobe is so boring. I don't really care, because I'm comfortable in my own skin, so it doesn't really matter what I wear.


Anyways..... I really love seeing pictures of street fashion, especially of Japanese and Koreans. I love their individualistic sense of fashion. It's so refreshing, so unique, and even so bizzarre!!! Sometimes, I wonder how these people even came up with the idea. Regardless whether it's wonderful or weird, it's so brilliant the way they put the outfit together. So I guess fashion is what makes you YOU. As long as you are comfortable in it, nobody can have a say about your fashion sense.





























All pictures are from http://www.japanesestreets.com/.

Another Japanese street fashion website that I've been visiting since few years ago is http://www.style-arena.jp/en


So what do you guys think? Following the mass trends? Creating your own unique style?

FOTD and a little update

I'm so lazy at updating this blog, it's not even funny.....






Anyways... this quarter started out as pretty intense. But I'm still in Winter Break Mood.... and I'm losing my motivation to study..... I really should push myself harder.













Here is a FOTD I did a few days a go.... I'm wearing the Geo World Series - Green circle lens from lenscircle.com. I'm not a huge fan of the color "green", but this color definitely stands out. Love it!




You can purchase these lenses at Lens Circle . Enter ECHOLI10 at check out for 10% discount.





























































Oh, why am I doing the sad face??? I went to ice skating with my friends during the Martin Luther King long weekend. I've only ice skated once before with the help of my friend. And I consider myself as extremely uncoordinated due to my long limbs..... On the way, all my friends were telling me how they are not very good at it. As soon as we walked into the ice skating place, they started skating right away and just disappeared. Meanwhile, I was holding onto the wall and trying to balance myself.











So as a result..... I fell 5 times, and I mean I fell hard!!! My friend was holding onto my hands to keep me balanced. Everytime I'm about to fall, I feel really bad dragging her down as well (which would have been so easy since she's a lot smaller than me), so I diverted my weight away from my hands, and landed on my knees all 5 times. By the 2nd time, it already felt like the skin around my knees were all wide open. I had so much ice on my knee area.... Although I got up just fine, it hurt so much to bend my knees that I just couldn't really enjoy the rest of the time skating. Man, it was embarrassing.













After I went home, I checked my knees. Didn't break any skin! But swollen and red as hell..... I iced it for the whole night.... but here is how my knees look like the day after.....

Brutal, right?

Do you know why bruises have different coloration?

1st - Red - due to oxygenated hemoglobin

Then... - Blue - due to deoxygenated hemoglobin

Then... - Green - due to biliverdin

Then... - Yellow - due to bilirubin (the same compound that stains our pee and poop yellow ;P)

Finally... -Golden-brown - due to hemosiderin

So age the bruise please! Ok... that was random













Btw, I just saw Avatar yesterday, yeah I know, talking about falling behind. It's awesome!!!! Best 2hr and 30 minutes ever!!! Totally see why everyone is raving about it!!! I love how the storyline emphasized on loving the mother nature and bonding with the animals. Also the theme of big corporation taking over smaller businesses...... The plot may be a little cliche.... but you can really feel the amt of effort the crew put in to make Pandora seem as realistic as possible. I was watching a video clip of how they filmed it..... the kind of technology is just insane..... Anyways.... I kind of wish that they will make a sequel.... but I guess it'll be kinda hard with the ending.

Oh well.... gotta go study some more medicine....

It's that time of the year again!!!!

Year of 2009 was a phenomenal and life-changing year for me
I've met a lot of amazing ppl and made some good friends
I'm in vet school and feel that I fit in completely!!!
And most important of all, I'm slowly recovering and building my confidence
I finally feel like I finally found myself
What a long journey that was.....




But now it's time for new year resolutions!!!

1. Use my Nikon D80 more often.
I rarely took it out with me and I've been neglecting it since school started. My wrists would ache everytime I take it out since it's so heavy for me..... Even though I'm still very unfamiliar with all the functions and features, I'm already eyeing on another lens as my birthday gift. So I have to force myself to use it more often, as I have waited 3-4 years to get a dslr. I don't want to lose the ability to discover beauty in everyday life.



2. Be more independent.
To be honest, I'm already quite proud of myself for taking care of myself and Diamond. During the four months I was away from home, I only got sick once and got over it in 3-4 days. I cooked on my own most of the time. I actually find doing laundry and vacuuming the floor to be quite amusing. But I must grow even stronger mentally. I find myself reaching for my mom whenever I run into problems. If I just calm down and think harder, most problems would just resolve on their own. My mom gets so concerned whenever I tell her things like "I think I have a huge lymph node on my neck, what's wrong with me???" or "My roommate just did blah blah, she drives me crazy!!!" Sometimes telling her stuff like that only doubles and quadruples the anxiety. So I will try to suck it up and learn how to handle difficult situations on my own. But of course, I know whenever I need a pair of ears, my mom will always be there.




3. Find myself a form of workout and stick to it.
I heard that our school gym is really nice, and I wanted to check out the gym even before school started. It's been 4 months, and I have not been there once. They also offer many many kinds of dance lessons (locking, hip-hop, jazz, waltz, rumba, etc) The classes are not that expensive either.... but I'm just too afraid that I won't have enough time to study. Our neighborhood is quite and has such a refreshing and relaxing scenary (perfect for a walk). But I have never seen the other end of the road. Even when I wanted to take pictures of the beautiful sunset, I shoot through my windows... =____= So whatever it may be, I really need to get rid of the belly fat.... I'm so out of shape....



4. Improve studying efficiency and studying style.
As our workload gets heavier and heavier, I have no choice but to absorb and digest more materials in class. So I don't have to be like a ruminant and chew on it later on. Also, it's not college anymore.... (just manage to cram the night before and get a decent grade.) There's such a large amount of material that I need to be able to retain the knowledge. I need to integrate old material with new ones and infer more information from what is presented. I still have a looong looong way to go. But at least by taking neat notes and making an effort to really OWN the knowledge, 4th year rotation will come around much sooner and easier, or so I hope. And of course, by being more efficient, hopefully I could volunteer more and be exposed to more hands on experiences during school. And maybe update my youtube channel and blog a little bit more frequently?......






5. Network and make more friends (maybe more guys friends?).
It's a sad reality. Once you are in the real world, a lot of things depend on connections. It's not about just making a friend, but it's more about how many more connections this particular friend can bring. I have yet to master the art of disguising networking as friendsmaking. To me, it's all black and white. I like your personality, let's be friends!; I don't really like you, let's be "friends...".

I was also contemplating about my blank lovelife..... and trying to work out the equations reversely.... I do want children some point in my life, and I'm 10000% that I want healthy ones..... So I should at least get married before 30 and have some healthy and intelligent babies.. So that means I have to find some one either during vet school or immediately after I graduate. Meanwhile, there are literally no available guys in vet school, and vet school is too busy for me to go out and meet guys at random hangouts. So that leaves one option, online dating... but there are so many perverts online nowadays..... And of course, even if you do find that Mr. Right, it's 89834849380 times harder to finally hear him propose to you.

It's a tug of war between the desire to have a normal paced and happy life and the fear of meeting the wrong guy and suffering the extra stress that follows the wrong decision. Do guys understand the kind of stress that women go through???? We shall fight on!!!



Anyways.... forget about all the rambling. What are your new year resolutions? Wishing everyone a joyful and prosperous 2010!!!

Getting sick before finals is NOT fun at all....

There were whole bunch of people who got sick in my class.... I was feeling extra proud of myself for not getting sick at this time of the year. Guess what? My nose is congested and my throat kinda hurts--definitely signs of a cold..... I was planning to catch up on school work during the Thanksgiving break. =(



Usually my mom would yell at me for not being able to take a better care of myself. But this year my mom blamed on herself, because she just sent me a package few days ago that contains some DayQuil. And being a little superstitious, she was like "Maybe you wouldn't get sick if I didn't included those medications." LOL..... nah.... this is about time for me to get sick as I have an extremely weak immune system. I'm just crossing my fingers that I will fully recover before next week approaches or else I will definitely suffer. Cold viruses, you guys better behave and get ready to die when my immune system is ready to battle!!!!





As a side note, I was trying on the circle lenses I bought the other day. It took me really long to put even 1 lens in..... and I teared up so much afterward. Haha... at least I'm no longer a lens virgin. Any tips on how to put in the lens more effortlessly? Maybe I'm just not used to it yet.






Anyways.... Everyone please tuck yourself in warm cloths or blankie. Stay safe and healthy during the holidays!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Any thing you guys want to snatch on Black Friday?

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.

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. =)

I miss home.........

Since school is starting soon, Diamond and I moved out of my parents' house this past weekend . It's very exhausting and nerve-wrecking, esp when my housemate and her cat are not the most friendly creatures on Earth. My housemate is a neat freak and everything has to be done in her way. She literally instructs me on every little detail in the house. Every single conversation revolves around something I had done "wrong" and needed to be "corrected". And because her cat hisses at Diamond, I can't even let Diamond go into the living room. Home was supposed to be a safe haven, but it's been so stressful dealing with the situation. I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own apartment, considering I've paid the same amount of rent as my her. 3 days down, 362 more days to go...... Fight on!!!!










My parents had to help me to move all my stuff, and just left today. They have been so supportive, tolerating, and providing me love so unconditionally. I have never really lived on my own before....... so I miss them already.....











On a brighter note, I am extremely proud of and impressed by Diamond. She's really shy and very submissive most of the time. However, after we moved in and after my housemate's cat hissed at her, she didn't fear at all and hissed back. I didn't want Diamond to stress (like me), so I always try to keep her away from the bad kitty. Diamond has been eating and using her litter box just like before. However, the same thing cannot be said for the bad kitty because she would hide on top of the kitchen cabinet the entire day. So one time, while I was making myself some lunch, Diamond sneaked out. She rubbed her head against the furnitures (marking her scent), drank out of the bad kitty's water bowl, played w/ the bad kitty's toys, walked around examining the living room, and then gracefully went back to my bedroom. And the bad kitty? She was just staring from the top of the cabinet the entire time. HAH!!!! Seems like Diamond has already won the battle. O btw, the bad kitty hisses at my housemate too. XD

















Few days ago, I was clearing up the pictures in my cellphone. I've accumulated a lot of random pictures over the year. Here are some.....



Took this pic at New York & Co, while I still had straight bangs. I was waiting outside for my mom to try on some cloths.









Took this pictures when I was in a Banana Republic store in NYC. I love this blazer, but I'm usually not very good with white cloths. And I couldn't find my size in other colors. It was around $50-60. Kinda expensive for one piece of clothing that I'll probably ruin fairlly quickly. So I didn't buy it. Now to thnk about it, I might have missed a really good deal.










I was having fun in a June store (accessory, cloths, & shoes store). Love that huge purple flower hair clip, but a bit too dramatic for daily use.







I took this picture during work. hehe..... It looks like I'm forcing the kitty. But believe me, no animal was hurt during the process. If anything, I was hurt. Right after I took the picture, the kitty climbed up my neck w/ her little sharp nails sinking into my skin.







A fellow youtuber asked me why I needed to straighten my hair permanently. Obviously, I never fit into the Asian stereotype, and I have very thick, rough, and frizzy hair. It roughly looks like this right after shower. My hair has no shine whatsoever..... The over exposure effect actually already cut down a lot of the volume. Permanent straightening is definitely God-sent invention for me.








Took this picture at Mall of America, Minnesota. They have a miniature amusement park there, and I spotted this super cute Patrick hat. I still watch Spongebob Squarepants sometimes...











Few years ago, I attached a stuffed turtle w/ a small hair clip. I think I was sick or I wasn't feeling well at the time. So I was just sitting in my bed, playing w/ this hair clip. It would be so interesting to put my turtles next to this one. hehe.....













And finallly, I'll leave you a ultimate sweet bomb---the kitty roll!!!!! Isn't she adorable???? You have to hear the background story. So she was a little 7 wks stray kitten. She was covered w/ fleas when we took her in. Since she was too young to get flea medication, I would give her a bath every other day and comb out the fleas for her. In this picture, she was really cold even after I dried her, so I wrapped her in this soft fleece blankie and carried her around. Then she just fell asleep like this....... hehe.......









Oki.... that concludes the random post.... sorry for being non-beauty related.



Still missing home....