Sunday, February 15, 2009

life.

valentine's party on the friday before valentine's day. i saw him, he gave me a hug.

valentine's day, a phone call informs me that he was in an accident, and is now in a coma.

the day after valentine's, hes gone.

all we know is that he was going to a party (possibly with friends) in a nearby town by cab, and he "fell out of the cab". no names, no license plate number, nothing.

this is the fragility of life.

who will fall out of this life next? will it be someone close to my heart? will i have the chance to give that person a hug?

will it be me...?


R.I.P. Jeffrey Weng


|| [ 雪子 ] ||

Friday, February 6, 2009

cigarettes for breakfast.

i have slowly came to an realization that cigarettes are replacing coffee, speedily approaching its destination as american's new favorite breakfast.
||

this is my usual weekday morning. getting off the bus with 15 minutes to spare, walking to my first class. coffee at hand, enjoying its sweet aroma, the fresh air, the gentle morning sun. after another sip of coffee, the day seems to have started on a great note.
then, as if defying the law of diffusion by gradient, as if there was a hidden bomb, waiting for its victim: the deadly suffocating smell, the smoke, the fumes of a cigarette hit me.
cough cough... oh great.
||

it might have been the essay that i had forgotten about. or it might have been the late night pillow talk with my boyfriend. but i was running late to class.
being the caffeine addict that i am, i risked going to class late to buy myself a cup of coffee from the coffee stand across the street from my class. while i was pondering if i want a breakfast burrito with my coffee, i heard from the girl in front of me:
"a bottle of water and a pack of cigarettes please."
...wait what? dont you mean a bottle of water and a cup of coffee?
apparently not.
||

the time is, of course once again, a weekday morning.

"do you have a light?"

"sorry i smoke coffee."
||

caffeine, a natural diuretic, working its magic, is rushing me to the lady's room. as i run into a building to the bathroom, a smoker runs out of the building to heed the call of a completely different nature...


mmm coffee...

コーヒーお願いします!

||
 [ 雪子 ] ||

Saturday, January 31, 2009

updated wishlist

*note*
this is not a "buy me this!" wishlist. i know ryuu gifted me most of the stuff here, but it really wasnt intended to be like that. it was more of "if i had all the money in the world, what would i want" (notice the "i" in there) wishlist. if you read the first makeup post, you should know.

the list

NARS Highlighting/Bronzing Blush Duo - Orgasm/ Laguna - $37
*gifted by ryuu <3*>
NARS Duo Lip Gloss Trio - $49 set contains- Rose Birman/ Chihuahua
- Sweet Dreams/ Harlow- Boogie Nights/ Giza
*gifted by ryuu <3*>

NARS Lipstick - Honolulu Honey - $24*gifted by ryuu <3*


Dior Dior Essentials Duo - $24
set contains:
-dior hydraction eye creme SPF 20
-diorshow mascara*gifted by ryuu <3*

Skin Deep Palette ($74.75 on hqhair.com) Contains:
For Eyes: all about eve I, all about eve II, blondie
For Cheeks: zen, ninotchka
For Lips: bambi, manhattan, viva las vegas

1.7 oz Eau de Parfum Spray - $68


Too Faced Shadow Insurance - $17
*bought! 2/1/09 at sephora*
Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion SPF 55 PA+++ - $38


MAC lipstick one of the following - $14
myth
creme d'nude
high tea
freckletone

MAC mineralize Skinfinish in Petticoat or Soft and Gentle - $25
and the total is... $370.75! thats almost half as before! haha now cut that number in half i will be more likely to afford everything.

全部欲しい。。。
|| [ 雪子 ] ||

being girly.

last week, i finally received all the makeup i bought online! super happy :) i was playing with my new toys in no time :D

|| [ NARS sugarland ] ||
this eyeshadow has become my new everyday makeup. its light, girly, and fairly natural looking. the only bad thing is that the gold glitter on the purple side doesnt show too well, so i have to layer more gold glitter for the other side after applying purple to add a little more shine. im thinking about getting some shadow base so the color would show up easier without too much layering.

|| [ NAR
S cleo ] ||if black smokey eye is getting boring, this is the perfect alternative smokey eye color :) its very pigmented, especially the darker side. the color stays on all day and all night. im so glad i got it. :D
|| [ NARS desire ] ||this one i actually got from sephora store. i wanted a very pink blush to create some sweet/innocent looks. i was debating between this one and angelica. angelica looks very similar to desire, but angelica is glittery and desire isnt. i thought if i want the glitter look i can just add some on top of desire, so i got this one in the end.
this blush, like all NARS blushes, are VERY pigmented. i have to be extremely careful when applying, otherwise i would look like a monkey's butt. i use a blush brush, LIGHTLY sweep once over the blush, then blot off extra color on my hand, then dot it on my cheeks (if not the first place you sweep will be very very red), finally, blend.
color looks great! its pink and its cute. exactly what i was looking for :D
|| [ NARS exhibit A ] ||read some very good reviews on this one, saying that it gives the very 元気 look. honestly, the color looks intimitating in the box. but after reading so many good reviews and seeing some very nice result pictures, i decided to go for it.
same as desire, this blush is very pigmented. but if applied correctly, it does give a very healthy look :D reminds me of of the saying りんごのような頬っぺた. so if i didnt get enough sleep the night before, or if i feel too pale that day, this would be my blush of choice.

|| [ stila contourin
g trio ] ||this is my first contouring powder. took a little while to figure out how much of what color to put on where in order to slim my nose, highlight my cheekbone and eyes.
i think the flash color is useless in contouring. its pretty much just glitters. nothing special.
the highlight color is not light enough for my skintone to do much, but i use it anyway because i dont have another one.
the dark contouring color is ok, but i thought it was a little on the red-ish side. but it does what its meant to do.
so overall its not a great buy. after i finish this i will look for something else. wont buy again.

i was looking at the list of makeup i wanted. i think now the list has changed a bit. i dont really want half the eyeshadow i listed there anymore. i will update the list in the near future. hopefully the list will be shorter and the final price will be lower...

||
 [ 雪子 ] ||

Thursday, January 29, 2009

plagiarism.

following is my honest opinion after reading scholastic dishonesty from the University of Texas website for a class that im taking.


|| [ idea of plagiarism ] ||

everyone knows that copying someone else' work without proper citation is plagiarism. that part is obvious and unambiguous. i do agree, to a certain extent, that there should be rules against plagiarism. however, the boundaries of plagiarism becomes unclear and, in my humble opinion, too far fetch when it comes to copying ideas, self-plagiarism, double-submission, and paraphrasing with citation to another source.

the whole idea of plagiarism is to avoid those lazy, unoriginal, unimaginative, uninspired people from taking those active, creative, imaginative, inspired, self-centered, hard-headed nobles' masterpieces. so, rules were invented and strictly enforced to keep other from stealing writings, ideas, sentence structures, findings, knowledge of these oh-so-intelligent geniuses and claim them as the works of those scumbags.

so, plagiarism is, obviously, not limited to copying verbatim from others. plagiarism is put in place to give credit to every little thing that the original creator ever thought of and included in the writing. therefore, if you are not careful, you could unintentionally plagiarize your favorite author's masterpiece, just because it left an imprint on your mind and you wrote it down somewhere and forgot where that imprint came from.


|| [
paraphrase ] ||

yes, your teachers has been telling you to paraphrase since you were in middle school. but it seems like the rules for paraphrasing is more convoluted than it appears to be.

so it appears that paraphrase, like direct quotation, requires citation. ok, fair enough. it also appears that paraphrasing is not just merely changing the sentence around slightly. not only paraphrasing has to be written in your own words (this part seems fair enough and obvious), it cannot even have the same, or remotely similar sentence structures. now now, great writers of all ages and great minds of scholars, arent you asking a little too much? not only do i have to put the idea in my own words, giving you credit for the idea, i cant even use the same sentence structure?? why cling on even the sentence structure if that genius mind can think of so much things i couldnt even begin to dream of?

give me a break. instead of holding onto your sentence structure, go count the words youve ever written in your lifetime and count your lauds. let me have that sentence structure.


|| [
double-submission ] ||

the university has "double-submission" under its scholastic dishonesty section, and has attempted to make several reasons to back it up.

double submission refers to submitting one piece of work to two different courses without the permission of the professor.

the university states that "some students mistakenly assume that they are entitled to submit the same paper (or other assignments) for two (or more) classes simply because they authored the original work." i agree with this statement completely. but the university obviously has a different opinion. apparently double-submission is not allowed because "an instructor reasonably assumes that any completed assignments being submitted for credit were actually prepared for that course" and it results in "unfair academic advantage". it states that "if you submit a paper for one course that you prepared and submitted for another clas, you are simply better situated to devote more time and energy toward fulfilling other requirements for the subsequent course than would be available to classmates who are completing all course requirements during that semester. in effect, you would be gaining an unfair academic advantage, which constitutes academic dishonesty as it is defined on this campus."

honesty, after reading what they have to say to back it up, i still dont see whats wrong with double-submission.

first, if the instructor assumes the work is prepared for that course, he/she would grade it as so. and if i have previously done an assignment that is similar enough to receive a good score on it, why do the same or similar assignment again? yes, go ahead and assume that my work is done for that course, grade it as if its done for the course. and if its good enough, why cant i get credit?

second, this "unfair advantage" isnt really given to me "unfairly". i have already previously put in that effort, how can you call it an advantage? i didnt cheat and submit something that i didnt put effort in, why cant i get credit for it? if the university claims that i am better situated, well i wasnt so better situated when i was putting time into that assignment the first time around. no, im not better situated, i dont have an unfair advantage over other students. im just lucky. sucks for you if you didnt take the same class i did and didnt get two similar assignments from two different instructors. better luck next time.
|| [ self-plagiarism ] ||

the double-submission question also raised another issue: self-plagiarism. the university says "recall the broad scope of plagiarism: all types of materials can be plagiarized, including unpublished works, even papers you previously wrote."

to me, "self-plagiarism" is an oxymoron. if the definition of plagiarism is taking other people's work and claiming them as your own, how can you plagiarize yourself? if self-plagiarism does exist, doesnt it mean we are plagiarizing non-stop? then does it mean once i write one thing, i can never repeat that thing again, and once i say one thing, i can never repeat that again? what then, are we on the never ending route of keep track of everthing we've ever said and written; are we in the ever extending tunnel of creating new ideas, phrases, sentences, speeches?

sorry for my misunderstanding, but i have always thought plagiarism was stealing others' ideas and works, never thought that ive been plagiarizing myself all my life. so, here, i officially apologize to myself. self, please forgive me for my unforgivable crime.

馬鹿じゃないの
|| [ 雪子 ] ||

Saturday, January 24, 2009

cliques.

feels like ive been trying to squeeze into a clique that i dont belong to for the past year.

others had said that the crowd i hung out with is "clique-ish". but i didnt think so. i thought we were just close to each other. when someone new wants to hang out with us, i thought we were generally pretty welcoming.

i dont know if i was deceived or the crowd had changed. now ive become the person outside of the glass door, slowly realizing that i am not in the same room as those people. ive been excluded.

how foolish of me. to think that i actually belonged. to think that the difference didnt matter. facing reality, i have no reason to think that i actually have things in common with their clique. furthermore, i have no reason to think that those people are special, are different from other cliques just like them. ive heard stories. stories about crowds just like the one i was in being clique-ish. at that time i thought, well good thing people over here isnt like that. how foolish of me. to think THEY can be different. to think i am the same.

now that i see the transparent glass door clearly, now that i see they dont intend on openning it, its time to quit banging my head on the door and leave. now its time to find others, with whom i will fit in; those who will open that glass door for me.

不是我的终究都不会属于我。

|| [ 雪子 ] ||

Monday, January 19, 2009

yummy curves?!

a friend just came back from japan and brought presents for everyone. one of my female friends had asked him to bring her 6 boxes of something called f-cup cookies.


apparently these cookies are a type of breast enhancement. guaranteed to make your breasts bigger by eating only 2 cookies per day. hmmm... big boobs sounds good, eating cookies to get big boobs sounds even better. first thing that comes in mind is: whoa whoever thought of this is very smart and this is a great merchandise! so, out of curiosity, i looked more into it online. other than advertisment, this is what i found:


The makers of F-Cup Cookies claim women can increase their breast size by eating two of these cookies a day. Each biscuit is said to contain 50mg of a breast-enhancing herb. No indication has been given as to how many days it takes to eat your way to an F cup or what size your butt will grow to as you snack your way to a bigger bosom. Obviously, the very idea of breast-enhancing cookies is ridiculous. Surely everyone knows F-Cup Cookie is the name of a famous Japanese porn star. (http://www.slashfood.com/2007/08/08/snack-your-way-to-a-bigger-bosom-with-f-cup-cookies/)
well no surely i did not know f-cup cookie is the name of a famous japanese porn star. so i looked up f-cup cookie japanese porn star on google, but i didnt find any porn star named f-cup cookies. however, it is true that it doesnt say how many cookies it takes to get to the next size. but it does say that its low calories! so hopefully my friend's butt wont inflate before her boobs do (well not that it matters, shes skinny so she can afford a little inflated butt)

i looked some more and came across this:

From Japan comes the F-Cup brand cookie containing nearly 50mg of that "miracle" breast enlarging herb Pueraria Mirifica...These types of herbs are apparently associated with similar risks as estrogen containing birth control pills or hormone replacement. There is literature suggesting these can make estrogen-responsive breast cancers proliferate or interfere with Tamoxifen (a common medicine used to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence that works by blocking estrogen pathways). Estrogen products can also make you more likely to spontaneously develop blood clots in your veins which can cause lethal pulmonary emboli. (http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2007/08/f-cup-cookies-no-need-to-bother-with.html)
why what do you know! thats the same warning as the birth control pill! and it makes sense because birth control pills contain estrogen. so doesnt it mean it pretty much have the same effect as birth control pills, then why not take birth control pills instead? its cheaper ($15-30 per month at UT SSB instead of $10 per box of 30 from japan or $25-$30 per box of 30 online) AND it prevents unwanted pregnancy. hmmm... what a thought right?

巨乳になることを頑張ってます! 
|| [ 雪子 ] ||

Thursday, January 15, 2009

a note on love.

|| [ definition ] ||

as a catholic, my definition of love, of course, comes from the Bible.

1 john 4:7-11
"beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love... beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another."

1 corinthians 13:4-8
"love is patient, love is kind. it is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. love never fails."

john 15:12-13
"this is my commandment: love one another as i love you. no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."


|| [ usages ] ||

in the west, "love" is a frequently used word. it can be heard almost everyday, everywhere. children saying it to their parents, parents to their kids, kids to their pets and dolls, girlfriends to boyfriends, boyfriend to girl friends, on tv, in songs, on the radio, loving a thing, a person, an animal, and so on. and because of its frequent usage, the word "love" has lost a lot of its values. it can be said easily. but it carries hardly any of its definition, in my opinion of course. i do believe love should be eternity and unconditional. but how many times do we say "oh i just loooove that song" or "i LOVE that dress"? do we really? when the song is old, and the dress is torn and out of fashion, do we still love them? like i said before, because of these frequent uses of the word, it has lose a lot of its value. shouldnt we save the word for when we really mean it? for those special occasions?

as a contrast, the word is used, in my opinion, too sparingly in most asian countries. a lot of asians actually find it corny to say "i love you" to their parents or their kids. and you almost never hear asians say "i love this dress", or "i am in love with so and so" in their native language. you dont even hear it that often between significant others or even spouses. (but the funny thing is that even though the word is used so scarcely in real life, it is used very often in songs) instead of "love", the word "like" is used a lot more often. and i do agree with it. because after all, it is "like" that we feel, not "love", most of the time, especially towards inanimate things. however, like i said, i do think most asians (in asia) say it not enough. i do think we should say "i love you" to our parents, our kids, and our spouses. if we love someone, we should let them know. there is no shame in love.

|| [ practices ] ||

because God is love, and we love as God loves us, the purest and most honest form of love should be unconditional and ever-lasting. we should love everyone we ever encounter because God loves every single one of us.

now, thats easy to say, but a lot harder in practice. there are dozens upon dozens of people who get on our nerves, people we dont get along, people we dont like. there are even more people we dont really know much about. it is even harder to love those who have hurt us, betrayed us.

well, we dont need to like everyone, get alone with everyone, or know everyone to love them. just keep in mind, God created them, just as He created you and me. what it means to love is to be willing to sacrifice and to treasure the people around us. even if they get on our nerves, "love is patient". even if they hurt us or betray us, "love is kind".

everything looks great on paper. but it really isnt that easy. because we are not God, and we are not perfect. but what we can do is to aim for the goal: "
love one another as i love you". pray to God for the strength and the patience to love. i firmly believe that love is a decision, not a feeling.
with that said,

してる。

|| [ 雪子 ] ||

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

what a girl wants.

ive been eyeing NARS cosmetics for a long time. but as of now, all i have from NARS is blush in mounia and lip gloss in striptease. so since i have nothing else better to do, i went on sephora and added everything i want from NARS and a couple other brands in the shopping basket, just to see how much everything would sum up.

and guess what. it came out to be a shocking total of $616.00!!

here's the list:

NARS Highlighting/Bronzing Blush Duo - Orgasm/ Laguna - $37



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Sugarland - $32
*bought!! 1/17/09 on ebay $20.00*



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Charade - $32



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Misfit -$32



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Hula Hula - $32


NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Demon Lover -$32


NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Cleo - $32
*bought!! 1/17/09 on ebay $20.50*



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Pandora - $32



NARS Duo Eye Shadow - Mediteranee - $32



NARS Duo Lip Gloss Trio - $49 set contains- Rose Birman/ Chihuahua
- Sweet Dreams/ Harlow- Boogie Nights/ Giza



NARS Lipstick - Dolce Vita - $24



NARS Lipstick - Honolulu Honey - $24



NARS Lipstick - Casablanca - $24



NARS Blush - Deep Throat - $25



NARS Blush - Exhibit A -$25
*bought! 1/14/09 from ebay $17.50*


NARS Blush - Desire - $25
*bought!! 1/13/09 from sephora*



Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy High Impact Eye Shadow Collection - $35
set contains:
-eyeshadows in:
full frontal, glamazon, socialite, boy toy, skinny dip, lucky charms
-shadow insurance primer



Dior Dior Essentials Duo - $24
set contains:
-dior hydraction eye creme SPF 20
-diorshow mascara



Dior Miss Dior Cherie - 1.7 oz Eau de Parfum Spray - $68

i also really like NARS palette in Skin Deep. the palette is a lot cheaper than buying each color individually. however this palette has been discontinued, the only place i know still sells it is hqhair.com

Skin Deep Palette ($74.75 on hqhair.com) Contains:
For Eyes: all about eve I, all about eve II, blondie
For Cheeks: zen, ninotchka
For Lips: bambi, manhattan, viva las vegas

only if i was rich.. or had a job. sigh...


無理無理~


|| [ 雪子 ] ||

*all picture expect NARS Skin Deep Palette are credited to sephora.com, Skin Deep Palette picture credited to hqh
air.com*

Monday, January 5, 2009

sinking in.

last semester ended ok. could have been better. i was very lazy, still am.

laziness is a funny thing. once you sink in, you just keep sinking in, deeper and deeper. it is very much tied together with procrastination. once you start procrastinating, you keep procrastinating until the last minute. very few people procrastinate something only *one day* or *one week*. people procrastinate until the moment they absolutely have to do it.

kinda like laziness. i justify being lazy right now because it is the winter break still. that is just a lame excuse i use to fool myself. i know there are a lot of things needed to be done: study for the GRE, look into grad school, get textbooks for next semester, just to name a few. i should at least get out of the house and get some errand done, or catch up with friends. but im not. im staying in, to "relax", to "unwind".

i dont know what kind of excuse i will come up with to be lazy when the semester starts. maybe it will be the same as last semester: my grades are still acceptable, im smart i can catch up, or of the likes.

while i may be lazy, it doesnt mean i dont worry. i do think about my grades a lot. while i sit there and watch tv, studying is on the back of my mind. but for some reason it is so hard to pull myself away from whatever is preoccupying my mind and study instead. i struggle, but i fail.

but of course, my goal is to not be lazy. my grades suffers a lot because of my laziness. but like i said, laziness is a funny thing. sinking into laziness is like sinking in quicksand, the more you struggle, the faster you sink.

i am sinking in. somebody pull me out.

万事开头难
|| [ 雪子 ] ||