Hello from the Non-Expert

Okay.  Well.  Hello!  

If you are a regular (which I really doubt there are any because of my being dormant for so long), you will have noticed that I've changed my blog title.  I don't really know why I did it, but I just didn't really feel the "Small Obsessions :)" thing anymore.  So in a way, I'm starting over.  The old posts may be a little cringe-worthy, but I just can't really press delete at the moment.  Some of them still apply, but many of the topics have changed (especially the music groups, oh man).  In other words, I've grown some.  

I think the new title really applies to my stage of life.  I've just recently graduated from high school and am ready to conquer another four years of school.  Just kidding, I'm not ready at all.  There are so many things that I have yet to really experience, some things I have experienced, and so many questions I have about everything that's coming. 

I am one of those people who gets pretty nervous/agitated about new things and experiences, especially the dreaded: SOCIAL SITUATION.  This is mostly because I embarrass myself pretty often.  That's right, the only thing that's in my expertise is self embarrassment.  *insert children cheering* 

So I thought that I could give you some advice, from a non-expert point of view.  Some people are always like, "Oh yeah, I'm so experienced and I never trip and fall in front of everyone" or "Oh yeah, I totally got everything right on the first try".  LIES.  Everybody is nervous and bad at something, and I'll be the first to admit it. 

I will be going through specific public situations with hacks and tips to help you get through the night/day/week/month with less than the usual difficulty.  Hopefully, I'll be able to provide some help and less of you will end up like me.  Along with these types of posts, I will be posting more of the old whatevers, like book reviews and whatnot.  

Yay.  I hope this post makes sense.  Like I said, social situations are not my forte. 

-The Non-Expert

Through the Eyes of a Six Year-Old

Source: planetware.com

Hi!  Last night, I happened to be looking through some Instagram photos, and one of them was of the Eiffel Tower.  My six year-old sister was looking over my shoulder (of course).  

She looked at me with super wide eyes and exclaimed, "Is that the Frightful Tower in Texas, Paris?!"

Despite the fact that she was super off in both name and place, I was pretty impressed.  What six year-old knows about Paris, Texas?  

Well, I just wanted to share that because it really put a smile on my face.  

Never Eat (C)old McDonald's

No, it was not the smartest choice on my account, but I was quite hungry.  I made a huge mistake of eating two cold-ish (and not to mention 5 day old) McChickens yesterday.  Now I've spent the whole day feeling queasy and very nauseous.  

Anyway, lesson learned.  Never eat cold/old McDonald's.  Ever.  

My Heart of Worship

Over the weekend, my church co-hosted an awesome youth conference.  In past years, my favorite parts of this conference was probably food or games.  But this year, the most enjoyable part of the conference was definitely worship.  

We had these crazy, super long worship sessions with song after song about how great our God truly is.  I found myself really connecting and focusing without getting distracted.  I think I may have matured some since last year, haha.  

And the crazy thing was that I was supposed to be on the worship team this year, singing and playing keys.  But the day before the conference started, I started sneezing and nose-blowing a lot.  Of course, being the sickly child I am, I got sick.  At first, I thought I was totally letting God and the worship team down, so I felt pretty bad about myself and my horrible immune system.  Then, I realize that God was, in fact, giving me a gift and letting enjoy the beautiful worship sets during the weekend.  He was giving me a chance to reconnect with him.  And I am very grateful to Him for that.  

Here were some songs that I really enjoyed worshiping to that were in the worship sets this year...

"Forever" by Kari Jobe - This song pretty much makes me tear up every time I hear it.  It has such a powerful message about how Jesus came back to life and how perfect he was.

"This is Amazing Grace" by Phil Wickham - I love this song because the lyrics are just so overwhelming.  It really is amazing that someone (Jesus) would love me so much that he would take my place and bear my cross. 

"Deep Cries Out" by Bethel Church - This is definitely an awesome song to dance to, and I especially love the part when they sing, "If He goes to the left, then we go to the left, If He goes to the right, then we go to the right"

My Half Year in 600 Words

Hi everyone!  Wow.  It's truly been half a year since I wrote my last post.  I don't know how I should feel about this or how I'm going to get around this rut except to keep on writing. 

Now that the school year is finally, finally over, I thought that I'd have more free time on my hands.  Evidently, this has not been the case because school for me ended in the beginning of June.  It's now almost July and I still haven't conjured up any posts since then.  Anyhow, I shall now go on to update anyone who's interested in knowing what in the world I've been doing for the past half year.  Here it goes!

January
This may not count for January, but I did attend the onething '13 conference that I enjoyed immensely.  The fact that Jesus Culture and Matt Redman were leading worship made all of us get up earlier in the morning to queue for seats closer to the front.  On our last day, we managed to get quite close to the stage (the section behind the esteemed white wristbanders).  And it also happened that Laura Hackett was having a meet and greet during the conference.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot about it and didn't get to meet her.  :(  Maybe next time!

February
What did go on during this month?  Not much that I really remember, except for slaving away at school and trying desperately to stay positive about my grades.  Oh, and also getting ready for the badminton season! Good deal, good deal.  

March
This was possibly one of the best months of 2014 so far!  I got to go to Disney World for a whole week with my high school marching band.  We traveled there by coach bus and had quite a wild time visiting all the parks (EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios).  My favorite rides were Space Mountain and that really cool roller coaster that I can't remember the name of that goes backwards in the Animal Kingdom.  I also really enjoyed visiting the World Showcase in EPCOT.  At first, my friends and I didn't realize that the showcase was super big and full of food and stores from different countries, so we just went in to try to find ice cream.  Little did we know that we'd spend the whole afternoon there trying to figure out if the employees of the showcase were actually from the country they were showcasing.  I also fangirled majorly when I saw an Anna and Elsa meet and greet in the Norway area, but I didn't have time to stand in line to meet them.  One thing I wish I'd done: save my money on my dining card so that I could buy all the awesome food in the showcase.

April
This month was spent mainly in competing with my badminton team.  I also tried very hard to study for the ACT that came up in the middle of the month, but you must know that I'm very bad at multitasking even in such a big scale. Whether I'm trying to juggle school and sports at the same time or even just talking on the phone and doing homework, I'll kind of fail at one of the things I'm doing.  

May
My birthday month!  And AP testing! And music auditions! And studying for finals!  I really don't know how I got through May.  I might've broken down a couple of times, to be honest.  

June
And then the end of the school year came by so fast that I can't even remember how it exactly happened.  All I know is that I made the drumline again (thank God), I passed my finals, I played music in our school's graduation, and that I'm now going to be a senior.  When they said that high school would be the fastest four years of my life, they weren't kidding in the least.  Now, I'm in school again (SUMMER school) learning how to drive and how the economy works and affects me.  Yay.  Yesterday was my last orchestra concert of this year's 13-14 season that took place in this amazing concert hall.  The acoustics were absolutely astounding and I'm planning on going back to be in the audience this next time around.  

So that concludes my half year.  Check out my music and book archives because I have updated them for y'all.  I'll be back soon.  

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!