Sunday, February 24, 2013
As promised, Steph gets her own song. It's somewhere in the playlist, Steph (&Pri), you'll know when you see it. As for the rest of you, read on.
There were major moments of sudden realizations these past weeks. And most of them are centered around adulthood. Some of you may know, I'm a huge procrastinator, especially when it comes to things that should totally be done thoroughly and as early as possible. Welp, finding a place to live next year is definitely one of these things that I hate to get on but have to. I kind of looked at places towards the end of last semesters, online, and gave up pretty much after 3 hours sitting at my computer. Often do I find things more complicated with modern technology. It really does help out with the exchange of information, but the ideas don't really come across as nicely in many occasions. All I saw was these horrific comments about how unsafe the neighborhood was, or how mean the managerial peeps were once you sign the lease. In reality, probably only a fraction of the people is as angry as these people appear to be online. So at the beginning of my search, I was pretty much scared away from the idea of living off-campus.
A couple of months later, an email about some on-campus housing appointment timings arrived saying that I was selected to go sign my contract next Saturday. Just to clarify, apparently next year there will be only half the amount of beds as this year. And all USC students know that only like 2% of upperclassmen actually live on-campus. While feeling fortunate that I could actually live on the historic horseshoe for a school year and wake up to beautiful sceneries every morning, I really panicked. I am extremely uncomfortable spending my parents' money at a terrible value, and on-campus housing is definitely not cost-effective. The rates also went up to 7K a year for next year without free parking spots. For garages, you'd also have to pay about 300$ a semester. While my mom urged me to live on campus because of its convenience, I thought about it as if it's my own decision concerning my own money. I went back to do some serious research and actually checked out a couple of places in person, which made me become aware of all the little details that I didn't see before. There were places that were just upfront not for me as soon as the leasor started talking. And there were other places that were just OK but I felt that I could definitely find better ones. I'm not a picky person when it comes to living. As long as it's safe and undisturbed, I'm fine. I don't need fancy pools or community-sponsored social events once a month, but that's what I ended up settling with. It honestly wasn't a long process. My budget is limited, so I find the best that fits. And the rest is luck. Life is really simple when you don't have that many options and don't try to struggle with it too hard, right? I will update on it once I move in in August. Oh, did I mention they have a 24-hour gym? Now I can't avoid working out just because the gym is too busy.
Talking about taking chances and stuff. Last September, which really doesn't feel like a long time ago, I decided on driving up to Nashville on my own and attend a concert this March. Well, it just got canceled. I was really upset. But gaga is hurt (her hip) and needed surgery and recovery and blah blah blah. Yes it's very selfish for me to be so bummed just because I now have no plans for spring break and all my planning for arriving early to get into the Monster Pit (enclosed between the catwalk and the stage, where people will possibly get picked to go on stage or even backstage). My pink hair is also of no use now. But obviously she is probably the saddest about its cancellation among us all. So here it is, my dearest and biggest inspiration, Lady Gaga, thank you, for being such a role model for simply being who you are, for allowing me to upset my parents when I talk about you (but they were glad that I wasn't antisocial for once and wanted to attend your concert), for making me feel better when I'm down, for letting me become involved with supporting LGBT issues, for getting me all pumped up and ready to go before exams. I love you and hope you recover from this terrible injury soon. (She already had her surgery last week.) & I will most definitely rock on with this awesome pink wig.
Back to talking about feeling like an adult (please excuse the unnecessarily large face shots...) I got off meal plan this semester and it makes me want to cook for myself. Like, WHAT?! Eileen wants to...COOK?! Food is another thing that I am not so particular about just like housing. I'm like, as long as I have something healthy and eatable I'm good. But my school and its surroundings are definitely not up to par with my very basic needs. There're fried chicken Wednesdays (is that what it's called?) and I got some vegetarian entree that day and the chef asked me why. Plus, Freshens also disappeared from our campus quietly last semester, so now I'm basically living off firehouse across the street. I don't bring my parents' car here so I don't have access to any fresh produce. There are grapes you can get downstairs at the fake Starbucks for $2.60 (about 10 ripening grapes, I'd say), or one slightly bitter banana for a dollar. Fruits are my life, yo. So now I get like 2 bags of oranges every three weeks I get home and a bunch of bananas and stuff, and pray they don't die before I could finish them while trying to make them last as long as I can, or, they can. So, getting a car is on my list and I hope that comes to fruition soon. (PUN INTENDED!!! GET IT GET IT???)
My laziness takes presence in other forms, like starting to study for this plant exam at 11 the night before. I hate it when other people are like, "I didn't go to class and studied for this exam the morning of and I passed it." So it's not my purpose to show off or anything here. I truly feel troubled when I don't have motivations to do anything. Yes I did an oratory on finding motivations to do things. And yes it was coming from my heart. However, it is something that I'm still working on myself. I don't know maybe I thought the test was going to be easy, or I thought I didn't know how to study since it was the first test, or I just get away with it too often. But I am still finding my own way of "perspiration is more powerful than inspiration". Mark Foster wrote Pumped Up Kicks when he forced himself to stay in the studio one day and see how successful that turned out. :) Maybe I can do it too. The environment I live in is really not all that challenging though, so I have become very laid back and chill and off beat. Le sigh. But when I do get inspirations or motivations, I overachieve. If you have read this far, I can entrust you with these following words: I have four hot ochem TAs! And I'm totally cool with that, because I have now become amazing at ochem, like, I'm the one that knows all the answers. If people can show off how they pass a test by studying the day of, it is definitely more appropriate for me to say that I don't even need to study the night before an ochem exam right? That's right. This is my motivation at work so I pretty much master my ochem shiz every day (not really but something like that). I don't know. I get switched on/off like that with things. It's really spontaneous and funny to think about. But I like my gift of spontaneity.
I am not only nerdy but also extremely shallow because I like to talk about inanimate objects in every post - I found a new shampoo that work wonderfully on my hair! Fleur mentioned it in her video and it just happened that I needed new shampoo. It is TRESemme Platinum Strengh (4 bucks?), which comes in a giant black bottle. For all Asians that struggle with flat hair - this shampoo actually makes it look not so bad while not being overly fluffy at all. I still envy Leandra's naturally French-y hair though. One always wishes for things that one could never get!
One of the perks of not having an extremely challenging life is that you get lots of time to develop your hobbies. I spent some money (or a lot, according to my income level) on this hobby called fashion that you probably have heard/read about. So if this is the shallow part of the post that you don't want to read about you can skip this paragraph. :P I purchased some really awesomely cool Thundercats truck taylors (originally for the concert, but I assume that is just an excuse). To be honest, I don't know the Thundercats story/comic at all. But the prints look cool and they were the only nice ones left when I found out about them (there's a whole collection Converse did with DC Comics). Turned out, though, they are still giving me blisters. Band-aids, baby, are girls' best friends. I also got this Prabal Gurung x Target skirt. I was originally going for a patterned sweatshirts, but the prints look a bit tacky with the Target quality. Now I can just pretend "x Target" part doesn't exist and it's actual Prabal Gurung. :P The moral of the story is, fashion obsession doesn't come too expensive at times. I am also obsessed with this Rihanna x River Island collection that is coming out in March. Despite the fact that while her songs are just going downhill, her fashion sense just keeps on getting better. I'd love to have her wardrobe! There I said it. And my wish is granted. Here's a preview of her collection. I hope it will become available on ASOS because I don't think there's any other way I can buy it in the States. You see, I'm slightly obsessed with the crop tops, high slits, and just the general I-don't-give-a-fuck-ness of her way of dressing.
Material world aside, my lazy ass still loves some old fashioned entertainment. I finally got to watch Django Unchained and HOLY SHIT it was good. It's totally my kind of movie. (minor spoil alerts about nothing too influential towards the major plot...read on at your own discretion) It's not only directed by my favorite director of all time - Quentin Tarantino, but it also contains all the other aspects of me - DENTISTRY (that tooth on top of the carriage was freaking hilarious), Django's fashion sense (that blue suit was nothing but MAJOR), and my love for Wagner's opera (OK not really, but this Brunnhilde-Siegfried reference totally got me going.) So cool. One thing I love about his movies is how in all the extremely serious scenes there are these moments that just crack you up. OK I'm gonna stop there I don't want to spoil anything. Also, really exciting new music are coming out:
- March 12 - David Bowie "The Next Day"
- March 19 - Justin Timberlake "The 20/20 Experience"
- April 9 - Kurt Vile "Wakin on a Pretty Daze"
- May 7 - Vampire Weekend "Modern Vampires of the City"
- sometime this year - Lady Gaga "ARTPOP"
- The Black Keys is also working on their next album!
- Arcade Fire is also working on it....
- OK I'm gonna stop looking for more now. These are all I know.
So, this is pretty much all I'm gonna blog about today. Before I finish, here are some other minor details I wanted to say before I got completely off-track:
I got contacts. And some badass aviators to make me look like a boss in a Chinese mafia. That's right!
I do realize that I need a photography boyfriend to take proper pictures of my outfits. So...anyone? (Maybe that's one of the reasons that my blog is still not a proper fashion blog, Ha!)
Titling a blog is hard. My last title was supposed to be temporary. And now this one is even more boring...help me please! Inspiration, where art thou?!
Also, if you're actually listening, most of these songs have some interesting moments.
Um, blogging is an addiction I feel incomplete and irritated before I wrote this post. Now I can move on with my life. :) But so few of us still do it now. It doesn't matter what you are interested in, fashion, politics, environmental issues, personal issues, or anything you can possibly think of, blogging is a good way to either help you digest your thoughts or kind of let it all out. Do it!
Labels: Lady Gaga, movies and TV shows, music, personal, photography, thoughts and feelings
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