Citrus City Rain Boots

I got these in the mail today. Adorableness.

They're a tad big, even though I followed the advice of reviewers and ordered a size down. But the inside is so soft and fuzzy, in a suede kinda way. I'll be wearing them with socks though, of course.

Now I'm just waiting on the Target Frye knockoff boots I ordered a few days ago.

Why yes, I am procrastinating on my IHUM essay and chem p-set. And my PWR essay, to some degree.

Ennui

Ran 4 miles today (on the treadmill, as time goes faster when you can't see where you're going). Not a bad run, either. I only walked (4.0 mph) like four times after the first half mile, each for 0.1 mile or less. No achy breaky joints yet. Good sign.

Apart from that, I've been in kind of a blue funk lately. Before this weekend, I've been sleeping at like 10 or 11pm. I think I might do that today also. For the last 3 hours or so, after I finished my chem pset, I've just been sitting, aimlessly browsing the internet (the same sites over and over again), examining my iTunes library, and eating. I ate a whole sandwich bag of baby carrots, half a bottle of Life Water, a cup of ginger tea, and a few peppermint puffs (Red Bird Brand - so good!). Ok, I suppose that's not too much. But a bagful of carrots, that's a good amount. Plus I've been in a I'm-so-ugly and nothing-looks-good-on-me mood. I think I'm going to start a log of my moods; every day I'll record a number from 1 to 10. Then I'll be able to see if there's a pattern, like if it's monthly or something.

Speaking of clothes....I've gone and online-shopped again (how embarrassing). Due to the raging storm this past week, my roommate and a friend and I each got rain boots from Target, and we got free shipping because it was over $50. I got ones with citrus fruits on them. I don't know if they're too childish/crazy, especially with my not-too-refined wardrobe. But hey. They're rain boots, right? Rain boots are supposed to be crazy, right? At least a little crazy? Oh god what have I done...

And you know what else? Now I need skinny jeans to wear with them. Forever 21 apparently has $10 skinny jeans, hmm...

RIP Pushing Daisies

I just finished the last episode of Pushing Daisies a couple of days ago, and now I'm in PD-withdrawal. It was such a great TV show, and I'm so sad they ended it after only two seasons. The worst part is that they were just getting started when they were cut off, so they had to end it hurriedly and there wasn't enough time in the seasons to answer all the questions that were brought up. Like Ned's dad and Chuck's dad, at the end of the Norwegians episode. That never got resolved.

I would describe Pushing Daisies as either "quirky" or "a celebration of all things indie." Here is an incomplete list of topics that were brought up in the two seasons:

-synchronized swimming
-knitting
-daisy-powered alternative-fuel-source cars
-homeopathic drugs
-messenger pigeons
-windmills
-bee-keeping
-birdhouses
-cheese-making
-racehorse jockeys
-dog breeding
-polygamy
-scratch-and-sniff books
-honey-based cosmetics
-a nunnery
-circus clowns and a mime
-Pigby
-truffles
-pop-up books
-a rent-a-friend agency
-taxidermy
-dim sum
-poker with food on a lazy susan
-magic shows
-comfort food
-a lighthouse
-dioramas
-Norwegian homicide detectives
-window dressing
-reverse kidnapping
-a dam

Pushing Daisies is the best. Basically. <3 <3

The rain rain rain came down down down

As did the lightning and thunder. This whole week. I would be quite okay with it, if I had rain boots. Preferably with some cheery pattern.

Due to the rain and my pus-in-an-unfortunate-place condition restarting, I went to the gym today and *finally* learned how to use a treadmill. Usually I run outside on the streets, but, like I said, it's raining. This is the third time I've gone to the gym to use the treadmill, and the first two times I was too intimidated by the large display panel, and I just left >_> This time I screwed up my courage and got on and learned to press the actually very self-explanatory buttons. haha go me. These are my stats, as far as I remember:

Duration: 39:48
Distance: 3.02 mi
Avg. running rate: 13:05 mi/hr
Avg. heart rate: 160

Weather Report

...Basically.

There's also supposed to be an earthquake today, between 5.0 and 6.0. It's missed its ETA, but it might come later. Yay (unless someone gets hurt)!

On a happier note...

I got OPI Absolutely Alice! I loves it. But I put a layer of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme under two coats of this so that hopefully the glitter comes off more easily.

NOTD - LH China Glaze Orange Marmalade, RH China Glaze Strawberry Fields

ChG Orange Marmalade. I <3 this color. Apparently OM and SF (below) and all the other polishes in the Summer Days collex are "glass-flecked." I don't know how people know. I just know that glass-flecked polishes are shimmery, "like crushed diamonds are in it." Huh.

ChG Strawberry Fields. I don't know if I like this color. It's pretty, but a tad too cool for me. But it has gold shimmer. I'm so confused. I think I'll keep it for now, pack rat that I am.

I'm impressed with the staying power of these. This is the second time in my life I've ever worn China Glaze, and I must say they are holding up very very well (this is the third day). Like Zoyas, which are my first love, but a little $$ without discount, they wear like iron on me (base coats: LH has Essie Fill the Gap!, RH has Barielle Nail Camouflage). I frickin played guitar with them and they didn't even chip, only a bit of tipwear. And I use my nails as a guitar pick, because I suck at using a real pick. These babies didn't even have topcoat. I thought topcoat was overrated, and I was half right. I don't seem to need it to prevent chipping (at least for these), but I was rushing to chem after I did my nails and dinged three of them. Yay for quick-dry topcoat...

And, please excuse the grody eczema-ed ring finger. The shininess comes from Neosporin. That's why I keep a blog, right, for posterity?

As you can see, I have not mastered the art of taking color-accurate photos. (I look like a white person! or dead! or, no, wait for it, like Edward Cullen! Just in the first pic, though. And not really, even.) Nor have I mastered the art of remembering to wash your hands and clean your nails before taking a picture of said nails. My apologies.

"Racial Covering," by Kenji Yoshino; or, my life as a Taiwanese-American kid

I'm reading this story for my PWR class (The Rhetoric of Multicultural Experience), and it is fascinating. It's about a Japanese-American boy whose parents bring him back to Japan each summer so he can relearn Japanese culture. He totally fails because he is basically American on the inside, and all the other "pure" Japanese kids laugh at him and it is all very sad. At least, that's how far I've gotten.

I wonder what I would be like if my mom and dad never left Taiwan, assuming that they did meet and marry and have me. We wouldn't be a minority, of course; I think my mom's family has lived in Taiwan for like two hundred years, and my dad's family is similar (like, they didn't emigrate from China). I would actually know all of my Taiwanese relatives. And I would be a ton better at the target language, just like tenth-generation American kids here who have been surrounded by English and American ways since birth. I would have good genes, because my parents both tested into the best university in Taiwan. (Well. Okay. I still have those genes. But still.) Would I be more diligent and persevering? If I wasn't, I would probably fall to the wayside early on, what with all the cutthroat competition and cram schools and whatnot. I could be sure that my parents would know what I was going through, schoolwise, because they'd been through the same type of school system (albeit with more corporal punishment). And there would be none of this Chinglish, "you speak Chinese and I speak English" business. We would both speak Chinese and we would both understand each other perfectly (language-wise). Me and daddy would probably not have so many misunderstood conversations. I wouldn't have had to go to speech therapy in second grade because I couldn't pronounce the "s" sound. Wait no, I still would have because I just realized the "s" sound does actually occur in Mandarin (duh). I would speak and think in Chinese, I would know tons of poems and cheng yu's by heart, and maybe I would even think faster because I wouldn't have spent a large portion of my childhood translating things from English to Chinese or vice versa. ("What's your mommy's phone number at work, Tammy?" "Uhhh...five...seven seven...*counts on fingers in Chinese and then English*...") Man, I totally don't know how I did it back then; I don't think I could do it as well now. I think kid's brains are just super pliable. Or maybe I did it well because I had to do it, so I had to do it well; if I was forced to do it now (like study abroad), I could kinda do it. Probably both reasons, but more of the former. Kids' brains are amazing.

I wonder what I would look like. Would I be totally anorexic or self-conscious about my weight, since everyone else is thin in Taiwan? Or maybe I would just be thinner without all that fatty American food. Chinese food is pretty oily though, because everything is fried or stir-fried. Plus the milk isn't as good in Taiwan as it is here - even whatserface, Xu Zhe Zhao's daughter, said so. I wonder how I'd dress and how my hair would be cut. I can totally see myself with a fob haircut and glasses - no I lied, I can't imagine that. Maybe a little. (Btw, I'm not trying to use fob in a derogatory sense; but I could just call them Asian, because they would be in Taiwan. They're not fresh off the boat, they never even got on the boat.)

But while we're on the subject of "what would have happened if yadda yadda yadda," it's quite unlikely that the specific egg and sperm that created me would also have met and created me in this alternate world. My genes would be all different anyways.

Crikey, that was a long brain dump. And I haven't even finished reading this story for PWR.

STATS 60

So today I was sitting in stats class when it struck me. I'M TAKING A FRICKIN STATS CLASS. It's supposedly for my psych major, or premed if I decide to do premed. But, Physics 41 is vastly more palatable and also required for med school and my chem major. However, I can use my AP credit to get out of physics for chem, but I can't use AP credit to get out of stats (or general psych for that matter).

ERG STATS. Not only is it mathematically easy, it's a huuuge class AND it's at 9 am every day. The only good part is that the professor is interesting and we don't have homework or midterms or a final, we just have weekly quizzes.

Recipe - Hot Chocolate I

Ingredients:
1 packet hot chocolate mix
1 Jet-Puffed Marshmallow
1 dash cinnamon
Hot water
Milk or Starbucks Vanilla/Coffee/Mocha Frappucino, or all of the above

Directions:
Dump hot chocolate mix and cinnamon into a mug. Fill 3/4 the way up with hot water. Stir madly. Drop in marshmallow. Move it around until half-melted. Top off cup with milk. Stir. Sip. Smile.

NOTD - China Glaze Fortune Teller

I only put one coat of Poshe so it's a little bumpy.

OMGOMGOMG!!

I was at my local Peninsula Beauty Supply and they had the new OPI Alice in Wonderland collection. Absolutely Alice is the most absolutely gorgeous polish ever. EVER.

Pictures do not do it justice.
I did not buy it, because it was full price and I was cheap. But I might just have to suck it up and get it. However, the swatch on the plastic nail did not wow me; maybe they didn't put enough coats on.

Happy New Year! And New Decade!

My New Year's Resolutions:
1) Exercise more - preferably run four miles (1 hour - yeah, I'm slow) every day. Learn how to use a treadmill.
2) No more B's on my transcript. Two is enough. But, with PWR and IHUM, that could be tough...
3) Revise my resume, which I should be doing now. Get a nice summer internship or research job.
4) Use fewer parentheses. They are a lazy way to organize thoughts.
5) Cut down on my shopping, but shop more for things I will use for a long time.
6) Don't be glued to my computer. Socialize more.
7) Find a healthful shampoo/conditioner/moisturizer/etc. Sulfate-, paraben-, maybe silicone-free. Cut down on dangerous chemicals.
8) Drink more water. Eat healthier and don't get so excited about dessert.
9) Try to be more normal and less emo. Be more happy.
10) Don't take up another hobby/obsession, for chrissakes. Also, How I Met Your Mother is the last show I will accept onto my short-list of followed TV shows.

Loveleh. Now, onto my recent hauls...

This is the pair of jeans I was looking for in the mall, but I waited to buy it and both pairs of it in my size were sold out the next day! Granted, it was Boxing Day, but still. AE has had free shipping for the last three or more major holidays - New Years, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, and maybe even Labor Day (I forget). I was banking on this New Years free shipping offer, but it did not come with a percentage off my order total, like the last two holidays (25% off and 20% off). Anyways, here it is:
From ae.com - AE Slim Boot Jean in Deep Indigo ($30)

Then I needed to add something worth at least five cents to my order to qualify for my $10 off $30 spent money card, so I added the cheapest thing I could find: a pair of underwear.
From ae.com - Aerie Ultimate Tanga in Pale Pink ($4)

Ooh, lacy.

This is the order I'm waiting for in the mail. It should arrive tomorrow (eeee!)
From ae.com - AE Lurex Stripe Cardigan in Storm Cloud Heather ($30, but got it for $24)


I also recently got a new phone, because I needed to change cell phone providers. I really wanted the Samsung Flight...

...but it was not free. So, I got the Samsung Magnet:

Yay for free phones! I hope it's a good one.

And then just a few hours ago, I ordered flip-flops, which I've been needing for the last three or four months:
From oldnavy.com - Women's New Metallic Flip-Flops in Pearl ($5)

Hmm, Bronze and Silver look nice too. That's ok. Pearl is priddy. A nice change from my usual boring basic black flip-flops. Mmmm, they look delish. *happy squirm*

OK. I'm done shopping now. DONE, I say. DONE.

Oh, and one other thing. I cut my mom's hair today, on her request. It actually did not turn out *too* horrible, considering that she has short layered hair, and she wanted shorter layered hair. It was at least generally even, and I learned how to cut layers! You take a thinnish vertical swatch of hair and pull it away from the head at an angle, and then you cut the ends off evenly. The higher angle you pull the hair, the more the hair will be layered. I also learned how my mom's bangs were cut - they're triangular and blunt. I rather want to get bangs myself (probably side-swept), but I'm too scared that I don't have enough hairs, or that they will be flat and paste themselves to my forehead, or they will make my forehead itchy, or that they will look wonky.