Winter Break Blogmas Days 4-5: My Family's Weird Christmas Traditions

Day 4 (Beware, Spoilers of Frozen may make an appearance)

Happy Christmas Eve even though it's technically not even Christmas anymore as I write this hahaha...  

Christmas Eve was kind of a relaxing day in the morning until four PM hit and all my aunts/uncles/cousins started arriving at my house for our annual Christmas party.  This year we had hotpot, which is an Asian meal thing where you're just constantly cooking stuff in a single pot.  There's a bunch of uncooked stuff like sliced beef, mushrooms (blech), veggies, seafood, and fish meatballs (THEY'RE SO GOOD) that you can just pop into the pot whenever you want to eat it.  You also mix a bowlful of sauces to dip your food in.  I usually don't really like hotpot, but this time I enjoyed it a lot for reasons I do not know.  Maybe my hotpot maturity has grown or something.  

Two years ago, the adults brought us kids to see The Adventures of TinTin as part of our Christmas present.  This year, we went out together and watched Frozen, as per my request.  And let me just say that this movie was absolutely phenomenal and one my my favorites right now.  I loved it sooooo much, and that is a lot to say for someone who already has her "favorite first three movies" list pretty much etched in stone.  The list, in case you're wondering, goes like this:

1) The Sound of Music (no duhhhh)

2) Tangled (another no duhhhh)

3) Peter Pan (with Jeremy Sumpter, not the cartoon version)   

Ha!  I just realized that all my favorite movies are nice and frilly and have moderately happy endings.  On the other hand, my favorite books are pretty gory and may or may not have all its main characters barely alive in the end.  Just thought I'd point that out.  

Aaanyway, Frozen.  I purposely avoided the trailers and teasers and such before this movie came out because I just knew that I had to go and watch it in theaters.  Not only cause it's a Disney movie, but the creators of Tangled made it!  I really wanted to just go in and see this movie without any prior knowledge of anything, and as a friend suggested, without any expectations.  I feel like I did a pretty good job avoiding all things Frozen cause all I knew was that there was a reindeer and a live snowman called Olaf.  I had no idea that there were in fact TWO princesses, so that surprised me a lot during the first few minutes of the movie.  

My Favorite Things About Frozen

1) Score/Songs: I really loved all of the songs in this movie, and it just reminded me a lot of old Disney movies, which I haven't watched in a while.  It just really brought back good memories when the characters just randomly burst into song, and everything onscreen would just start dancing.  

2) Olaf the Snowman: "Hi, I'm Olaf and I love warm hugs!"  Oh my goodness, I loved this little snowman.  He was just spontaneous and so selfless (I almost cried both times when he started melting), and so EXTREMELY funny.  I mean, you don't get a snowman that actually wants to be in the sun, enjoying the sand and getting a tan.

Source: neptunetwin.com

3) The characters in general: Because this movie was created by the creators of Tangled, I kept my eye out for similarities.  And while it really bothers some people, I found it really exciting when the characters in Frozen resembled the characters in Tangled!  Anna and Elsa totally looked like Rapunzel, while Kristoff and Hans bore slight resemblances of Flynn.  Sven the reindeer behaved a lot like Maximus the horse because they both act like dogs!  One last thing, the kindom was just like Tangled's kingdom, right by the water. 

4) The animation: Most of the movie took place in snow.  Usually, snow is really boring, but the animators made the background so interactive with beautiful snowflakes and Elsa's temporary ice castle.  

5) The moral of the story: I feel like there were multiple morals to this story.  The first was to love and cherish your siblings.  Now, I'm supremely guilty because I'm pretty mean to both of my sisters.  Sometimes I really can't help it because they're quite annoying, but after watching Anna sacrifice everything to try to talk to her sister, I feel like I should try harder to be kind to my own.  I feel like Elsa, who feels like she needs to shut out Anna to protect her, but without the need to protect my sisters.  Another moral was that true love is not only for THE ONE, but also for your own family members.  Yeah, so basically I felt like this movie was telling me to be nice to my younger sisters.  

So there ya go, my take of Frozen.  It was a very, very awesome movie (also cause my dad was appointed the refiller of the popcorn bucket, so us girls didn't miss anything) and I give it an 8.5 out of 10.  

Song of the Day: "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from the Frozen Soundtrack

Day 5

So today, my whole family woke up pretty late because we don't have the tradition of opening our presents on Christmas morning!  We actually opened them all last night when our cousins were still over.  

I decided to start a Christmas tradition where we watch a movie (this year was The Sound of Music) on the couch, piled with snacks, pillows, and blankets.  I'm hoping this tradition will stick.  :D

Remember that haul post I did before school started about nail polish?  Well, I also did my nails today with my Sephora nail polish (FINALLY)!  Here's a picture...  I'm quite proud of my work.  

For this manicure, I used the polish called "A Color That Can't Be Tamed" by Sephora by OPI.  It's basically billions of mint green glitter pieces.  It's too thin to go on its own, so I put on a base of white first before I put on the mint green.  I think that the effect is so gorgeous, and it kind of reminds me of winter in a way.   

Song of the Day: "Royals" by Lorde

Winter Break Blogmas Day 3: Monday, Still the Worst Day of the Week

Hello and welcome to Blogmas Day 3!!  If you haven't yet, catch up with me on Winter Break Blogmas Days 1 and 2 right HERE. 

Surprise, surprise I woke up at 10:30 AM fully intending to get up and get ready for a Speech Team party at 1 PM.  Of course, you know me.  That didn't happen at all and I slept until 12 PM.  

When I finally got up, I blasted music from Spotify (WHICH IS FINALLY FREE ON MOBILE AHHHH!!) wrapped my white elephant gift, and just wandered around the house until it was time to go.  I also brought along tissues and a boatload of cough drops cause I was still sniffling, sneezing, and hacking all over people.  

Turns out, I didn't use a majority of my supplies cause I got a huge headache and sat at the party for about 20 minutes until I finally just called it quits and headed home.  Ha, you should have seen me.  I looked like the most pathetic, antisocial person sitting there alone and looking miserable.  Hope I didn't ruin anyone's party experience with my awesome "modeling for the sick" pose.  I also hope that someone got my white elephant gift!  It was a jar of Nutella and headphones (the headphones were NOT in the jar).  :)

For the rest of the day, I kind of lounged around the house and tried to get rid of my headache by taking a nap.  Candy Crush and YouTubers also took turns entertaining me during the afternoon.  Here's my favorite video from today's batch of uploads.  Connor Franta and his siblings are too funny...  I love how his sister laughs the loudest out of all of them, but they still all look the same when they're laughing!

Sorry today's Blogmas is so bad!  I really didn't do much, but I promise that tomorrow will be better.  Joy to the world cause my whole extended family from my dad's side is coming over for Christmas Eve dinner!  And we're gonna watch Frozen!  So there will be a detail-filled review of that coming very soon...

Song of the Day: "More Than Ashes" by Tim Reimherr

Winter Break Blogmas Days 1-2: Feverish Beginnings

Hello everyone!  It's been quite a while since I've posted hasn't it?

Well, I'm pretty determined to keep my blog going, so I came up with an idea.  As you may already know, I'm subscribed to a bunch of musicians, beauty gurus, and other Youtubers that I like to keep up with.  A selection of them are doing Vlogmas this year, which is basically them vlogging their daily lives each day during December, all the way till Christmas. I've decided that I kind of want to do the same thing except that the time span will be my two weeks of winter break, and I'll be blogging instead of vlogging.  I'll also include a Song of the Day at the end of each Blogmas.  These songs will be from any genre.  Today I'll be doing both day one and two of my winter break Blogmas!  So let's get started...

Day 1

Saturday, oh Saturday.  This happened to be the first day of winter break, a day that I'd been looking forward to since the beginning of December.  I already planned out what I'd do: sleep in (something I hadn't done since mid-October), eat a good breakfast, read Allegiant by Veronica Roth, and get ready for two orchestra concerts that I was performing in at 3 and 7 pm.  Of course, my first winter break dream plan didn't go as planned at all.  

Instead, what I thought was a slight cold on Friday turned into a fever when I woke up on Saturday morning.  I was lying there in my bed thinking, What am I going to do?  I don't think they can get anyone else to play my parts, can they?  And even if they could, what have all my Sunday night rehearsals gone to?  My mom, of course, was really concerned and tried to convince me to stay home.  Our conversation went something like this...

Mom: YOU HAVE A 102 DEGREE FEVER YOU NEED TO STAY HOME.

Me: *moans* No...

Mom: WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?!  

Me: *croaks* It's my responsibility... *hacks up a lung*

Mom: IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE!!!!  YOU ARE KILLING YOURSELF, YOU CAN GET A SECONDARY INFECTION  AND KILL OTHER PEOPLE, YOU'RE GOING TO GET PNEUMONIA!!!!!!

Yeah...  That's what happens when your mom has a pretty high degree in nutrition/health whatnots.  And also when she has a highly imaginative mind.

Anyway, I ended up performing in both concerts, the first one being a real uphill battle.  During a couple of pieces, I really thought I was going to collapse, no joke.  The stage lights were pretty harsh.  I played sleigh bells in "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson, and that piece requires sleigh bells to play the ENTIRE song.  By the end, my arm was even achier and sorer than it was already, and I had sweat dripping off my forehead.  But hey, I think I sweated off my fever if that's even possible!  The second concert was easier for me cause I was smart and brought chamomile tea.  I also did my hair and makeup to make myself look slightly more presentable than my feverish-first concert self.  

Song of the Day: "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson (hehe... you never saw that one coming)

Day 2 (Beware, Spoilers of Allegiant by Veronica Roth)

Sunday (today) was better than yesterday.  However, I couldn't go to church today because I pretty much exhausted myself to the extremes from yesterday's escapades.  I did have a nice little church service of my own, though.  I was reading my Bible in a year thing and part of today's passages happened to be Psalm 119!  It was so long, but it was a good refresher.  All I can say is that the dude who wrote it really like to phrase and rephrase his ideas.  Multiple times.

I also got the chance to finally watch Man of Steel!!  I've been meaning to watch it since it came out (haha definitely did NOT happen), and today seemed like an excellent day.  One thing I've got to say is that I liked the soundtrack better than the movie, but I still liked the movie a lot.  I hope that very badly written sentence shows you how much I liked the soundtrack.  But seriously, my favorite part of it was every time the epic drum sections came on.  It gave me chills.  Every time.  Hans Zimmer fan 4 lyfe.  Oh, and the movie itself?  I think Henry Cavill is enough to explain it.  

The last interesting thing I did today (well, hopefully it's interesting) was lie in my bed and read the rest of Allegiant.  AND OMG THE ENDING OMG OMG OMG OMG.  Like seriously.  I sat there reading and rereading the parts over and over to make sure I didn't miss a thing.  At first I thought Veronica Roth was being super sly and tricking everyone with the "Hey I'm dead, but I'm actually not!" kind of thing.  But I kept on reading and I realized that NONONONONONO TRIS IS REALLY DEAD.  

At first, I was devastated because I was like, How can she kill off her main character like that?!  Nobody kills off their main characters!  Then, I realized that no, Tris was not the main character.  She may have been the main character in the first two books, Divergent and Insurgent, but Allegiant was definitely different.  Veronica Roth split this third book between the viewpoint of both Tris and Four.  Four kind of became the main character as the book developed.  

To be honest, I was totally expecting Four to die in some tragic way and that Tris would be devastated.  I guess I was quite wrong about that...  I'm still kind of in a shock right now about it, so please forgive me if my review of the end of Allegiant is absolutely terrible.  The only thing I'm looking forward to is the Divergent movie that's coming out next year!  Yay!!

And to end off my day, I proceeded to watch a bunch of videos interviewing the original movie cast of The Sound of Music. What can I say?  I love this movie/musical and I've watched it more than 100 times, at least.  

Song of the Day: "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music

Counting Stars...

Once again, I'm completely astounded by the Gardiner Sisters.  This time around, they covered "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic (Native album) with an amazing blind pianist, Kuha'o Case.  

I absolutely love this cover because it's not quite as pop-rockish as the original version.  I think the only instrument in there is the piano.  The Gardiner Sisters have such amazing voices that blend together SO well.  Not to mention Kuha'o, who plays the piano BLIND.  Seriously, I can't even play the piano half as well with both of my eyes open.  

Check out the live version...

 And the music video...

FWP: The Daily Struggles of Being a Percussionist

Hello!  Today I'm here to complain about my life has a percussionist (this is definitely a first world problem).  For those of you who don't know, I am a percussionist (the people that stand in the back of the band during a concert and hit drums and xylophones and have classy triangle solos, yeah I'm one of them) in band class at school.  Our band program requires everyone involved in band to be in marching band, so I'm also on the school drumline.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love music and love playing it, but sometimes things and people get on my nerves.   

*If you are a percussionist from my school, don't read on.  Please.*

Here come my grievances in no particular order:
 
1) Wearing a harness under my marching band uniform!  When I have a harness on inside my uniform, I can hardly pick anything up off the floor because it doesn't allow me to bend over.  I'm also one of the shorter, smaller people on the drumline, so I look like some kind of mutated gorilla.  

2) When my mallets click while I'm playing.  I play four mallet solos on the marimba (a larger, prettier xylophone), which is one of my favorite parts of being a percussionist.  However, I absolutely hate it when my mallets start sliding cause my hands are sweaty and the two mallets in each of my hands start to click.  My instructor yelled at me the other day about it too.  >.<

3) The percussion section is SUPER competitive.  This is only my opinion, but I feel like every time auditions for chair placements or drumline roll around, everyone is practicing like mad.  All the other instrument sections are so chill, but percussion auditions fry my brain and music ability every time.  By the time auditions are over, I'm a total wreck.  

4) Parades!  Being on the drumline means that we have to play the ENTIRE time during a parade to keep the rest of the band marching in time.  I feel really bad for complaining cause the tenor people have way heavier drums, but by the end of our annual Septemberfest parade, I'm always about to collapse when I take off my snare.  

5) Buying all sorts of mallets/sticks/beaters/brushes/any other watchmacallits.  I don't do this personally because most of the above are provided by my school.  But I have seen some people with HUGE stickbags (what do you have in there, a child?) with all sorts of mallets and stuff that must have cost a fortune.  

6) Waiting for a very long time during tacet movements.  Some people may think that we're lucky to not play for a particular movement, but I always am bored to the point of tears.  Well, maybe not tears, but you get the point.  It's a good opportunity to do homework, but really, who wants to do homework?

7) We need to stand.  The whole time.  Enough Said.

8) My left ear is going deaf soon.  Sometimes I forget my earplugs when we rehearse for marching band.  I stand on the right most side of the drumline, so I always get an earful of whatever it is we're playing.  And I always get it loudly.  

9) I'm short!  I don't know if it's like this for every other drumline/percussion section out there, but everyone is about a foot taller than me.  Really.  

10) Percussion is a male-dominated instrumental section.  I'm not very good with dealing with a lot of testosterone for a very long time cause I only have sisters.  Here is a little of what's going on in my mind: Oh my... Did he really just do that?  Did he really just say that??  Can they go somewhere else to do that?  Why did he just fart and laugh about it???  Why is he not shutting up?  Can someone just give me a hammer?!  I need to knock someone out before I go crazy.  You know what?  I'm just gonna leave.  

11) When I can't find the right triangle beater. When I can't find the right auxiliary instrument.  When I can't find the right ANYTHING.  

12) When people don't clean up after themselves.  I'm definitely guilty of this self-convicted crime, but I try to remember...  I really do try...

13)  I have the same marimba solo piece as someone else.  For this one, I'm just going to blame my percussion instructor who teaches the other percussionists at school too.  I really hate it when I'm given the same piece as someone else.  I feel like there's no originality in anything I play because someone else already played it!  Someone brought up a question the other day: "Are there only 5 solo pieces around here?  Cuz that's all I hear you guys play."  Good question, my friend, good question. 

Well, this concludes my rant about being a percussionist.  I'd like to stress that even though I'm complaining massively (Mom says I've always been really good at complaining), I still love being in percussion.  Annndd... if you're a percussionist from school who read this anyway, don't take this too seriously.  This is solely for my entertainment.  I think.

Thanks for reading!

"Royals" by Lorde

My favorite song at the moment.  But could someone explain the video to me? :D

I WANT ONE

Source:www.tumblr.com

Source:riverviewobserver.net

I WANT ONE. 

Late Night Rambles

Hi all!  Unfortunately, the school year has started once again.  AP US History, AP English, math, marching band, and a few other sports have pretty much taken over my life.

However, I'm really glad that my youth group has started a one year Bible study together. We all read the assigned chapters everyday and check in on a google doc spreadsheet when we're done.  So far, I've tried really hard to keep it up and I intend to finish the whole Bible by the time I start school again next year.  This has really helped me and kept me accountable of all my quiet times and my relationship with God (it's also brought up some weird questions such as "Why was polygamy allowed in the Old Testament?" and "God was still able to forgive HIM after he did THAT?!").  Last year, I didn't do my quiet times or even read the Bible as much as I should have.  Now, I make sure to do it everyday to go along the the Bible passages.  If you'd like to get started on reading the Bible in a year, the plan is called Eat This Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalms.  Join me so we can slug through the genealogies together, haha.  

Wow!  I had no idea that I would go off on doing my quiet times everyday, but I just did.  As you probably can tell, I didn't really have a "topic" to blog about today.  (This will probably be the most random post you'll ever read from me.  Ever.)

If you haven't already, please go and check out the Disney Dudez video on my previous blog post.  The video is the most hilariously awesome thing that I've watched, simply because of the boy band, IM5, and the fact that it has the boys playing their own princesses.  My favorite part is the second solo by the guy with the dyed blonde hair in the... red (?) pants. Cinderella's boyfriend.  I just love the funky tune and how he sings it.  Heart.  Melting.

I hear that they might be doing another collab type thing with the director of the video, Todrick Hall (the janitor that does these awesome random appearances during the video).  I'm definitely gonna keep an eye out for that.  
 

And while we're talking about IM5, let me just mention their new song, Superman.  It was co-written by Dalton (heart melting blondie) and Will (heart melting Asian).  The first time I heard it, I wasn't sure who wrote it, but it turned out to be two of the guys in the band!  I was super impressed because...

a) boybands usually don't write their own songs and 

b) IM5 sounded really good when they sang it live (usually songs are auto tuned to the max, ugh).  

So here is the video if you'd like to take a listen...

 

Last thing: I RECEIVED MY NAIL POLISHES FROM SEPHORA!  Yay!  They are all very gorgeous in their own ways, though I wish that I'd opted for a couple of other colors instead.  In case you missed the Pre-Haul post, I'll link it right here...  I'll try to do a post soon about the polishes, but I can't really promise anything, seeing that I haven't blogged since school started.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with legit stuff to blog about instead of random videos (even though they are awesome) from YouTube.  :) 

DISNEY DUDEZ (IM5)

My new favorite video that only helped fan my ever-growing obsession for Disney princesses (Ariel and Rapunzel, yeah yeah) and boy bands.  Please, someone tell me how to stop falling in love with all five of the IM5 members!

Pre-Haul: Sephora by OPI Nail Polish!

This morning, I bought a bunch of nail polishes from the Sephora website!  Normally I don't go on shopping splurges like this, but since I earned some money from working this summer, I decided to reward myself.  

It also helped that there was a sale: 3 NAIL POLISHES FOR ONLY 10 DOLLARS!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it?!  Normally the polishes cost about 8 dollars at the least, please correct me if I'm wrong.  But that was truly a bargain.

Another plus: Three free samples (you can choose out of nine) WITH ANY PURCHASE!  I fully took advantage of that.  

Here are the polishes I bought...

1.  212-Sephora:  I loved all the little specks of different colors and thought it would look really great layered on top of black.  Or maybe it'll work in a bunch of layers on its own... We'll see!

2.  Mermaid to Order:  The shiny iridescence really appealed to me for some reason.  I guess the name of the polish also made me really want to get this.  I'm obsessed with the Little Mermaid.  :D

3.  Bright as a Feather:  I've always wanted a pale, eggshell blue color.  

4.  What's a Tire Jack?:  I've actually never owned a black nail polish.  And I feel like black is a very important staple to a nail polish owner, especially if you like nail art.  

5.  Casanova Is So Into Me:  I've also never owned a pink either!  I borrowed my sister's pink nail polishes for my blog posts.  Now she'll be the one begging me for polish hehehe...

6.  A Color That Can't Be Tamed:  The description said it was a "mint green with fine holographic glitter".  I thought that was pretty cool.  It also reminds me of my favorite ice cream flavor, mint chocolate chip.  

For these 6 nail polishes, it was only 20 dollars!  Not plus tax or shipping, of course.  But either way, I'm excited for my nail polishes ( and free samples) to come in the mail!  It will be the bright point of my one and a half weeks of band/drumline camp.  

Thanks for reading and go claim your 3 for $10 polishes right here.  

*Sorry for the weird gaps under pictures if there are any. 

I'm a Survivor

I'm finally back home after... 35 days in the lovely, sunny land of California!  I have to say, it was one of the best vacations I've ever had.  And part of it wasn't even vacation!  I had so much fun meeting up with old friends, meeting new friends, working in a company, and being on my own in a state for a while.  While I had fun, I also learned a lot of (maybe useless, maybe not) stuff.  Here's one of my beloved lists.  My comments will be in italics...

Some lessons I learned during my trip:

1. Don't buy food at the OC (Orange County) Fair!  Okay, so maybe you should buy food, but remember to ALWAYS CHECK THE SIZE OF THE PORTION OF FOOD YOU BUY.  I ordered a $9.75 gyro to share with my friend, thinking that it was going to be huge.  But I almost passed out when I saw how TINY the gyro was.  It was only slightly larger than my hand (my hand is pretty average sized)!  If you're going to buy something expensive, buy something you can't usually buy anywhere else.  For example: chocolate-covered bacon, a giant turkey leg, nutella-bacon pizza, fried pickles wrapped in bacon, fried ice cream, a fried twinkie, etc.  Just make sure you share with others and don't inflict heart attacks upon yourself. 

2. Hold onto your keys, and REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT THEM!  Haha, funny story.  This happened on the same day that my friend and I were going to the OC Fair.  My friend locked the house door, but in the car I realized that I forgot my phone in the house.  We started looking for the key to the house, but we couldn't find it at all!  I was so confused at how the key could have gotten lost, because all we did was walk from the door to the car.  After about 10 minutes of frantic searching and praying, my friend asked me, "I know you don't have the key or anything, but do you want to check your purse?"  I complied to her request and was shocked to find the keys right on top of all my stuff in my purse!  We both were even more confused, because my friend had never handed the keys to me, at least neither of us remembered that happening.  I'm back home now, and we still don't really know how the keys got into my purse. 

3.  Beauty is silence.  My god-sister and I agreed that this was the most classy way to say "shut up".  :)

4. Cockroaches don't go down easily.  If you don't know already, I hate all kinds of bugs, especially cockroaches and spiders.  The house that I was staying at had this lone cockroach that really liked to terrorized me and my friends who were also staying with me.  We tried to drop a telephone book on it, but it only flipped onto its back, flipped back over, and then ran away under a book case.  Ugh. 

5. Family Feud is for the win!  I played this gamed on Facebook nonstop with my friend before she left for Taiwan.  The more heads, the better score you'll get. 

6. Flying by yourself is pretty intimidating, but extremely easy after you do it once.  My parents and sisters already left California because they had stuff to do at home.  They kindly let me stay by myself for 10 more days, but initially refused because I was super scared of flying by myself.  But finally I agreed to face my fear because I was currently having too much fun in California.  My friend came in with me to help me check-in, so I was completely fine.  Really, all you need to do is know how to read English and signs to survive the airport. 

7. Sometimes, angels and god-sisters don't really come through for you and you get hugged anyway.  I won't explain this one cause it's way too embarrassing, but if you know what I'm talking about, :)!

8. Counting is extremely important!  And handling a tape gun without four hands is challenging.  I had my first-ever real job while I was in California, and what I did mostly consisted of counting products and boxing them up.  According to my god-sister and my dad, it was a very good experience because I learned how to count, cushion boxes, and learn how a company (albeit a small one) works.  In my opinion, it was a good experience because I had loads of fun hanging out with some of my favorite people/spiritual big sisters ever.  And that tape gun thing is harder to manage than it looks!  When you're making a box you kind of need to hold the box and put your hand... okay I won't explain the mechanics of this cause you're already falling asleep.  The point is, you really need four hands to manage a lone tape gun.  Sad, I know. 

9. Eating at In N' Out Burger ten times in the span of one month is okay if there are no In N' Out restaurants within driving distance at home.  I seriously don't even know how many times I had In N' Out, but I know now that I will never be able to go back to McDonald's and Burger King.  Animal style fries, I shall miss you and think of you often. 

And that concludes my list.  I really am a survivor of random things. 

Like I already said, this trip was so extremely fun and I already miss the state and the people there.  Many thanks to everyone who hung out with me and took me out to places.  We will all agree that the real fun started after my parents went back right?  :)  A big THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU to my aunt and uncle who had my family over for a few days and took us all over San Diego.  

I'll miss you all SOOOOO MUCH and I'll try to come back soon.  If not, then we'll shall meet at Onething '13, yes?  It's kind of a midpoint between us... 

Thanks for reading!

Another Libera DVD?!!

My favorite boys' choir, Libera, has just announced that they will be giving a FREE CONCERT in Armagh, Ireland on Friday, August 9th.  OMG, it's free!!!!!!!  And what's even more exciting is that they will be filming the concert for who knows what (but we probably do know what, it will most likely be for another Libera in Concert DVD!!).  

I, unfortunately, cannot make it (if only they would come to the US!) because plane tickets cost a bajillion.  I really wish I could, though, and I'll definitely buy the supposed DVD when it comes out.  Man, I'm so excited right now!

For those of the Libera fans that can make it to the concert, I hope you enjoy it immensely and please, please, please blog about it so that others (ME!) can pretend we were there too.  :)

Begin Again

One of the best collaborations from YouTubers I have ever heard in my entire life.  Need I say more?  Take a listen. 

Yogurtland!!!

As you all know, I'm in the wonderful, sunny Southern California right now.  One thing that I have been looking forward to here is THE FOOD.  More specifically, YOGURTLAND, the quencher of my thirst (hunger??) for cheap but delicious frozen yogurt.   

For those of you who have not been educated in the wonderful art of frozen yogurt, it is infinitely better than regular ice cream.  It's lighter, healthier, comes in tart/sorbet/and regular ice cream flavors, and can be eaten with tons of toppings.  

Source: eatinggreat.net

 In other words, Yogurtland is a lot like Red Mango, Menchie's, and Skinny Sweet.  In all of these frozen yogurt chains, you take a cup, fill it it with as much fro-yo as you want, top it off with fresh fruit, candy, and syrups and pay by weight.  

Where I live, there are no Yogurtlands, and fro-yo isn't as popular as it is in California.  As a result, I've been gorging on Yogurtland for 35 cents per ounce, instead of 49 cents per ounce at Red Mango at home.  This is definitely living the life.  Oh, and if you guess the exact amount of money you'll be paying for your yogurt, you get to have it for free!  Unfortunately, I was off by about 50 cents when I guessed yesterday.  

I've been delaying this post for a while because I really wanted to get a couple of pictures of my yogurt to share with you guys.  But I obviously forgot all of the five times I went.  I promise I'll remember next time!  And you'll be able to see what I like to get every time I go to Yogurtland.  

I'll be back....

Pizzaaaa Roooollllllssss

Right now, I'm sneaking in a quick post while my pizza rolls are warming in the conventional oven.  Let me just say that PIZZA ROLLS ARE THE BEST FOOD EVER.  Besides watermelon and mashed potatoes.  Yeah.  :)

 

Source: foodirl.com

The only thing I don't get is why the creators of pizza rolls don't call them pizza pillows.  I mean, they look exactly like pillows, so why call them rolls when they don't look like cinnamon roll-ish things?  First world problems.  

*One thing to keep in mind: Never ever buy the generic brand for pizza rolls.  Never.* 

Anyway, this will most likely be my last post before I arrive on Californian soil tomorrow.  See y'all soon!

New Cimorelli EP: Made in America!

Source: www.fanlala.com

Hello!  Yesterday Cimorelli released their new EP called Made in America!  It has four songs, and three are new.  Here's the song list and my thoughts...

1) "Made in America":  This was my favorite song out of all four of them.  I really liked the tune; it was really catchy.  I don't quite know the verses, but I can sing the entire chorus.  :)  I also really enjoyed how they described many aspects of the States' culture, such as football games, apple pie, and the Pledge.  They even recognized suburbs!  Sometimes, I feel like only big cities get all the glory, haha.  Overall, my favorite song on the EP!  Keep an eye out for their official music video that comes out on their YouTube channel next Wednesday.  

2) "Wings":  This was the only song that wasn't new.  I didn't particularly like this version of the song because it was put into a kind of pop/rock style.  They added a beat to it and everything.  Don't get me wrong, I love the song "Wings"!  Except I usually like acoustic versions of songs better because you're then able to hear the singers' voices clearer.  Also, the beat didn't really fit the more slow tempo of the song.  Or maybe I'm just too biased because I've listened to the acoustic version way too much.  You be the judge.  

3) "The Way We Live":  It was such a nice surprise!  Usually Dani and Lauren rap songs, but this song opened up with a different sister rapping!  I don't really know who it was, but I'm going to guess it was the oldest Cim sister, Christina.  This song was a bit like "Made in America", with the underlying theme of "we're the best, we're so cool, you can't touch us".  In the nicest sense possible, of course.  The two songs contained a lot of confidence in the lyrics, which is pretty cool.

4) "Whatcha Think About Us":  This song was the only song that I didn't really like in the EP.  I felt like it was directed toward a younger crowd (so I'm guessing that's why Dani and Lauren sang for most of the song), and it was a little repetitive.  It was a good song, but I usually don't like songs when I can't connect to them personally.  This song also had the underlying theme of a lot of confidence in yourslef.  You can see this clearly with the upbeat lyrics, "This is my night, These are my friends, We don't really care, Whatcha think about us!"

The Made in America EP was a very anticipated EP for me, and I was pretty pleased with the results.  However I really wished that Cimorelli put in some of their covers too!  Especially the one of "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake.  It featured James Maslow from Big Time Rush (I was majorly fangirling during the video).  I'll be waiting for their next EP (or maybe CD!!) with A LOT more anticipation!

Well, time for me to go.  I hope you enjoy the EP just as much as I did!  Happy listening!

TWEET tweet TWEET...

I have finally entered the land of Twitter!  I made my very own Twitter account a few days ago after admiring the website from afar for a couple of years.  If you'd like to follow me, just search me up, @chrispytai.  

To be honest, I probably won't really be tweeting much at all.  The main reason I got it was to keep up with the people around me, get good offers from my favorite restaurants, and also follow musicians/YouTube channel people that I like.  So if you decide to follow me, don't expect too much!

Ever since I was young, my parents have always been very strict about anything involving screens/accounts.  I remember distinctly that I was one of the rare few that did not have a Facebook in middle school.  My parents believed that I wasn't mature enough to handle my Internet time along with my homework.  Also, they are big sticklers to the rules.  The websites doesn't permit anyone under 13 to make an account, so of course, the twelve year old me was not allowed to have a Facebook.  

No amount of cajoling, begging, or crying would move them to allow me to get a Facebook till freshman year was pretty much over.  And they only started to consider letting me get an account after I'd made an agreement that I'd get an A on my biology final.  Thank God I studied and got that A!  

This time, however, I didn't really need to get good grades to get a Twitter account.  The trust of my parents built up over time, and I'm glad for that.  Now, I'm finally caught up in the social networking land, haha.   

Thanks for reading!

My Summer in a Nutshell

Summer has finally officially started for me!  In the past years, I've usually slept the morning (and maybe early afternoon) away while my mom yelled at me to get a move on from downstairs.  However, I really feel like I'll be having fun and doing productive things during summertime, for once.

Some reasons why this summer won't be a drag...

1) No summer school this year!  My parents and I failed to sign up in time, so all the classes were filled.  This was kind of a blessing in disguise because of number 2...

2) Family friends from Southern California informed us that they're going on an extended vacation and would like my family to house-sit!  So I'm gonna be in SoCal for almost a full month.  Heehee.  I'm so glad I didn't sign up for summer school.  

3) As a "summer project", I decided that I'm going to knit hats and other items and sell them and donate the money.  I mean, if I'm going to be sitting on my butt the whole time, listening to Narnia (another story for another time), I might as well be helping some people out in the world.  My goal is to earn at least $100 for this summer and donate it to a charity of some sort (or donate the hats and knit stuff).  It'll probably be World Vision because I already sponsor a young girl from the program.  I think that this will be really fun because a few of my friends have already decided to help me out with this!  They're a lot smarter than me though, since they've decided to make friendship bracelets instead of sweltering in the heat with yarn and needles.  Oh well.  All I can say is that my hat turned out beautifully, and someone will enjoy wearing a nice purple beanie, complete with a pom-pom, this winter.  :)

4) I have yet to find out if this will make my summer fun, but it will definitely be productive.  My mom and I have decided to go running every morning to stay fit!  I'm not too excited by this because: one, I am not a morning person.  Two, I'm not a fan of running nowhere (don't even get me started on treadmills).  Three, I'm not a runner.  I don't think more should be said here...

5) I might join the tennis team at school next year!  I have no idea if this is a GOOD idea, but a bunch of my friends that play tennis really want me to go for the team.  I think it'll be a no-cut sport next year, so it won't be so bad when I try out.  But the truth is, I am pretty terrible at tennis and don't even know how the scoring goes.  People expect me to be good because I play badminton.  But really, the two sports are nothing alike.  Anyway, a friend of mine has kindly offered to give me a crash course on how to play tennis this summer.  If I fail... well, no tennis for me in the fall!

6) An ever-present ingredient of a fun summer: books!  I've been reading like crazy, making up for all the good books that I missed during the stressful school year.  There will definitely more book reviews, possibly two or three a week! 
 
So there you go, my summer all summed up in 6 points.  Man, lists are definitely the way to go.  

By the way, if I know you personally, and if you'd like to help out with the "summer project", please let me know!

Thanks for reading!

"Dangerous" by Shannon Hale GIVEAWAY!!

One of my favorite authors, Shannon Hale (who also wrote the Princess Academy Series) is coming out with a new book called Dangerous!  Yayy!!  She'd been writing this particular one since 2005, and I think that this is so amazing!  I really admire how she stuck to this project and did not give up.  The cover looks something like this...

Source: oinks.squeetus.com

This cover is pretty awesome, in my opinion.  I love sci-fi books, and I believe this book is in that genre!  I've only ever read Shannon Hale's fantasy/romance, so I'm very excited to see how she does with sci-fi.  

There is a contest on the Mundie Moms blog if you'd like to win a copy of this new book.  On Shannon's blog, she mentioned that winners get to read the book a whole 10 months before everyone else!  

To enter, you have to be at least 13 (without adult consent), and you give your email or Facebook info.  From there one, you've already been entered once automatically, but you have the opportunity to get more entries by posting a comment, liking pages on Facebook, etc.  I've already entered.  :)  Unfortunately, I don't have a Twitter account, so I had to settle for 12 entries instead of 15.  DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS CHANCE TO WIN DANGEROUS!  Good luck!

CARTOON NAILS?! (a cutepolish design)

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Today, I have a nail art design that I've been dying to share with you all.  I first saw it on cutepolish's channel on YouTube.  It's so simple, and as long as you have black and white stripers, you're set!  

I used my pink nail polish from my blog post, "Happy Resurrection Sunday".  I also used the a fore-mentioned black and white stripers from Kiss Nail Artist: Paint and Stencil Kit.  

My Steps: 

1) Apply your base coat!  

2) Apply the pink (or any other solid color that you prefer).

3) Take the black striper and outline your entire nail.  Don't make the lines too thick!  The width of the striper should be a guide to the width of the lines.  

4) Use your white striper and make an upside down exclamation mark on one side of your nail.  Paint this right next to one of your black outlines.  

5) Cover it all with a top coat!  


So..  It should turn out something like this (cutepolish's nails were SO much better than mine.  Check her video out at the end of the post!)

I think that this design is an illusion in itself; tons of people were asking me if my nails were real!  Sometimes, I felt like I was a cartoon character or something.  This is a very fun design, and I hope you'll try it out sometime.  Thanks for reading!

P.S. Here is cutepolish's video if you'd like to see how she did her nails!  Give it a thumbs up if you liked!

Covers of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons!!

Hello all!  It's been a pretty long time since I last blogged.  Sorry!  

But in case you were wondering, my AP Euro test was quite hard.  The multiple choice was an absolute stumper and I'm sure I guessed on at least half of the questions.  The DBQ (Document Based Question) was on an easier subject than I thought it would be, so I wrote quite a lot for that.  However, for the other two free response essays... I don't even want to talk about it.  Oh well, I'm glad to get it over with!  

Today, I've got two AMAZING covers of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons.  I believe this song was featured in the film adaptation of "The Host", so I think that's pretty cool.  I have yet to see this movie, because I have to read the book first!

The first cover is by the one and only, Gardiner Sisters!  Recently, they started recording music videos every week, so it's pretty exciting to hear all of their covers.  One of my favorites is, of course, "Radioactive".  I really like how they use an acoustic guitar instead of an electric like Imagine Dragons.  The Gardiner Sisters' voices completely fill the song and make it sound full without the constant buzz of an electric guitar.  I think that their cover of this song is also available on iTunes, so go check it out if you'd like to get a copy for keeps!

The second cover I found is by a brother-sister duo called, Cooper and Gatlin.  I actually don't know if this is their band name because those are their real names, haha.  I'm not going to talk much about them YET.  I think I will do a separate post about them because they are just that amazing!  Unfortunately, their version of "Radioactive" is not on iTunes, but if it were, I'd totally buy it!

If you enjoyed these covers, don't forget to give them a big thumbs up on YouTube!  I'll be back soon.  :)

*Updated 5/25/13*

Sorry!  Here's one last cover of "Radioactive" that I am completely in love with by Alex G and Kady Z.  I especially like Kady Z's voice (she's the one who sings second).  I could listen to this on repeat over and over again!

 

Contemplating Humility...

Hi!  I guess you might have noticed that I haven't been blogging very much lately.  This is partially due to the fact that teachers are starting to get this little voice in their head saying, "Go on, just pile up the homework.  It's alright.  They have time to do it ALL."  Ugh.  The other part is my AP European History test that is coming up on May 15!  I'm so scared that you wouldn't even believe me if...  well, if anything.  I really have nothing to say about this AP test, except that I will try my hardest not to get a two.  Again.  Like last year.  In AP World History.  

Anyway, I had to write a speech (and deliver it tomorrow, ooh la la) for English class about a character trait that I think that all people should possess.  My speech is about humility.  

For our past speeches (we give one every quarter), I can't say that I worked as hard as I did on the other ones than I did with this particular one.  I don't know why, maybe it's because I actually felt like it was an important topic.  

Well, here it is if you'd like to see what I'll be stuttering over tomorrow in front of about 25 peers and my teacher.  

Intro:  Funny story!  Some people had been asking what topic I’d be doing for this speech.  To each person, I replied with the word, humility.  I received blank stares and a couple of people even ventured to ask, “Um… isn’t humility the action of humiliating others?”  I proceeded to crack up in their faces.  While humility is not the ability to humiliate others, it is the action of humbling oneself, not being selfish, and not always being in the spotlight.  I believe that humility is a very important character trait for people to possess in order to live a fulfilling life of influencing others.   

A:  As you can see from my little anecdote, humility is often confused to be the action of humiliating people.  According to the thesaurus, humility is also said to be a synonym of meekness, lowliness, and submission. However, I don’t agree with these synonyms.  Meekness is being shy, lowliness is keeping a person in lower ranks, and submission is to give in to someone else’s power.  When I think of a person with humility, I don’t think of a shy person that submits to everything that other people dictate.  Instead, I think of a person who is kind, not overly prideful, and selfless.  These three words represent a person that doesn’t always do things for himself and his own welfare.  They also describe someone who is content with what they have and who is not a show-off. 

B:  One person I admire that possesses a great amount of humility is probably a person that you all know of, but don’t know by name.  If you all remember, one of the suspects of the Boston marathon bombing hid out in a civilian’s boat.  This caused a bunch of uproar about a bombing suspect on the loose.  The civilian, David Henneberry discovered the now injured suspect in the boat, and he quickly called the police.  The suspect was taken away, as was the boat for additional clues.  Some boat companies immediately offered Henneberry a new boat, and many people called him a hero for discovering the bombing suspect.  Instead of thinking only about himself, Henneberry showed humility by not accepting a new boat.  He suggested donating the money for a new boat to the people who were actually hurt by the bomb.  This action was definitely not weak, lowly, or submitting.  It was a confident and humble choice made by a person who was not thinking of just himself or being prideful.

C:  So how do we incorporate humility into our lives?  Well, that’s a good question, because I’m trying to work on humility myself.  One way to humble ourselves is to stop judging other people.  That comes by realizing that most people we judge are people we don’t even know on a personal level.  What gives us the right to act like a know-it-all about strangers?  Another way to incorporate humility into our lives is to recognize the gifts and talents of other people as well as ourselves.  While there may be people in this room who are smarter, faster, and more artsy than you, I can guarantee that there is at least one thing that we, as individuals, excel at more than anyone else here.  Humility helps us appreciate our individual gifts and talents, as well as those of the people around us. 

Conclusion: C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”  Kind.  Selfless.  Not prideful.  Humble.  Confident.  Those are the real words that I would use to define humility on dictionary.com. 

I hope you... enjoyed this speech?  took it to heart?  thought about how much humility you have?  I don't know, haha.  But I did mean every single word I said in that speech.  

Okay!  So I might not be back until after May 15 since I have to cram some history into my head.  Thanks for reading!