Still Breathing…

Wow… it’s been awhile.

So for the past couple months I have been slowly adjusting to the new school year with new classes and new teachers. I feel like freshman year didn’t do anything to prepare me for this year… The classes and its workload can be capable of keeping me up all night. Which is why blogging has been shoved to the back of my mind.

A couple notable things have happened to me this school year so far.
        1) A new foreign exchange student from Germany came to our school, and is now one of my best friends:)
        2) Homecoming week is next week (AHH!)
        3) I decided to throw out the whole “song title” thing. It kind of limited my title choice…
        4) Perfect grades are becoming harder and harder to earn
        5) I started a video blog:D

I also have been recently obsessing over photography… My grandfather gave me a new camera (SCORE!!) and I have been finding every kind of excuse to whip it out and test my skills. Of course, I still have much to learn, but I hope it will get better in time:D

Hope everyone has had an amazing schoolyear/workyear so far!!

Pictures of You

My room was in serious need of a little umph.

I had this blank wall right above my keyboard that screamed “empty.” It needed a little personalizing. So I looked in every memory card, folder in my desktop, facebook album and hard drive I can find and put together a bunch of photos of me and the people that are important in my life.

There were about 104 pictures that I got developed for like 10 bucks at Walgreens. I hung all of them on that one wall right above my keyboard.

I LOVE how it turned out!

I look forward to taking a bunch of pictures this upcoming school year with my friends and family to add to my wall. I wonder how long it would take to fill the whole thing?

Love this place:D

You can never be too old to come here.

(:

Material Girl

For some reason, I am experiencing this sudden crave for new clothes. All throughout middle school and half of my freshman year, my main wardrobe consisted of basic graphic tees and jeans. Pretty boring.

But now I want floral shirts and cardigans and thick belts and military jackets. I want ankle boots and dramatic rings and button down shirts and cropped sweaters and scarves and pretty much everything in the latest Seventeen Magazine. Last week when I visited Forever 21, I found myself loving everything I saw.

I need some serious help.

I still need to go back to school shopping. Hopefully when I do, I’ll go to school looking like I just stepped out of the Forever 21 catalog:D (is there even a catalog?) I can’t believe I didn’t buy that much clothes in the Philippines… Clothes are a lot cheaper there. Silly  me.

I am currently obsessing over these…

Forever 21's Pink Floral Shirt

Forever 21’s Strappy Suedette Ankle Boots

Forever21’s Knotted Strappy Sandals

Macy’s V-Neck Cardi

Forever 21’s French Terry Jacket

Macy’s Carpenter Denim Jacket

Macy’s Faux Leather Belted Bomber

Macy’s LA Kitty Jacket

Forever 21's Linen Jacket

 

 

 

So yeah… Totally LOVING Forever and Macy’s right now…

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I recently went to SanFran with my FamBam (HA! How’d that happen?:p) and me and my little sister were the only kids there. Everyone had cameras (naturally), but they were the professional looking ones. It just made me want one even more. So I snagged my dad’s Canon PowerShot G11 and kept it all to myself for the rest of the day.

Despite the freezing cold weather, I just had fun experimenting with the different settings on the camera, taking pictures of everything in sight. We went to the Golden Gate park and stumbled across this beautiful flower garden where my uncle and I just circled around taking pictures of the pretty flowers.

My little sister, Bel, is also a fun target to photograph as well:D

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He is SOOO gorgeous. If only he could talk<33

Photograph

I’m not really sure when my interest in photography started. Photography has been around me my whole life; my uncle is a professional photographer and every single member of my family own their own camera.

What I love about photography is because simply it’s an awesome way of expressing yourself. Pictures can have minds of their own; they can make you feel happy, sad or even make you laugh. I especially love the dramatic ones- the ones that are taken at unsual angles and cool lighting.

I want one of those cool big cameras… the kind that you can manually focus and zoom by twisting the lense. The ones that you have to look through the viewfinder to take the picture instead of simply pointing and shooting. The ones that take AMAZING pictures.

Unfortunately for me, I am still very new to this kind of stuff- I don’t know the differences between the different cameras or different brands. There are a bunch of buttons on those cameras that I don’t know the function of. But I DO want to learn!

I do remember my grandfather telling me in 8th grade that if I kept my grades up, he’d buy me a small Canon camera. I managed to graduate middle school and survive my first year of high school with a 4.0 gpa :p

Check out my uncle Rikki’s website! He takes awesome pictures:D
http://www.photosbyrikki.com/

Well here’s a small archive of my amateur pictures taken on ordinary point and shoot camera(:

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LOVE<333

Who Needs Sleep?

Summer means vacation. Vacation can lead to jet lag.

I just traveled to the Philippines, whose clock is 16 hours ahead of California time. I spent the first few days there trying to get over jet lag, and to be honest, it wasn’t that bad. But now that I am back from the Philippines, jet lag isn’t being as kind. And here I am blogging at 1:3o AM. So what are some tips that help you get over jet lag quickly? Here are some tips:D

Before the flight:

1. Gradually adjust to your needed time.
2. Get lots of rest.

During the flight:

1. If your flight arrives in the morning, get as much sleep as you can on the plane. If it arrives in the evening, then try and stay awake
2. Drink lots of water. The high altitude causes the air to be extremely dry. Lack of hydration is said to contribute to jet lag.
3. Get up and move frequently on the plane.

After the flight:

1. Get outside during the day. This is really important. Daylight can help your body adjust to the current time. Staying indoors can worsen jet lag.
2. Take naps that are less than 1 hour. If you are dead tired in the middle of the day, take a nap. However, if your nap is longer than an hour, you will find yourself waking up 5 or more hours later.
3. Eat carbohydrates during the day. This will give you energy and help you stay awake.
4. Eat meals at proper times. Don’t eat breakfast at 6 pm, and don’t eat dinner at midnight.
5. Take mild sleeping pills if you find yourself awake at 3 am.

Don’t be like me and pull an all nighter the first night back and spend the next day sleeping:p The faster you get over jet lag, the faster you can get out and have fun with the rest of your summer(:

Now, I shall get some sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz……

Science & Faith

“You won’t find faith or hope down a telescope
You won’t find heart or soul in the stars
You can break everything down to chemicals
But you can’t explain a love like ours<3”

I. LOVE. THE. SCRIPT.

Video Girl

Have a big date coming up and don’t know how to do your makeup? There’s a video for that.

Wanna be a Disney Princess for Halloween? A bumblebee? A Japanese anime character? There’s a video for that.

Want tons of DIY beauty videos? There’s a video for that.

Michelle Phan. HEROO! I learned everything I know from her. You should check her out:)

Click to see her website:
http://www.michellephan.com/

Click to see her  YouTube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MichellePhan?blend=1&ob=5

Here’s her latest Video:

When You Say Nothing At All

I’ve been obsessing over this show on ABC Family called “Switched at Birth.” It’s about two teenagers who were accidentally switched at birth in the hospital after they were born, and how it affected their lives sixteen years later. One girl on the show is deaf. And ever since I started watching this show, I became really interested in the American Sign Language.

I was always fascinated by sign language, the deaf community and their amazing culture. I’ve always wanted to learn. I learned the alphabet when I was in elementary school from this poster that was posted in the classroom. Nobody really paid attention to that poster and it was probably posted to cover that last square of open space on the wall. However, after I learned the alphabet, I slowly forgot it):

But I am DETERMINED to learn how to sign:)

Quick Lesson Time!!

Here’s how to say “I Love You”

It combines the sign for the letter “I” (pinky), the letter “L” (index finger and thumb), and the letter “Y” (pinky and thumb)

Oh and in case you haven’t watched the show “Switched at Birth,” I think you should watch it:D I am such an ABC Family Fanatic OMG.

First Time

Wow it’s been awhile:D

So I am BAACCKKK from the Philippines and I had SUCH A GREAT TIME!! Instead of droning on and on about how my trip has gone (and believe me… three weeks worth of stuff would be a lot of boring droning), I’ll just share this list with you.

Every single day I seemed to experience something new. These are things that I got to do for the very first time(:

1. Got woken up by a rooster
2. Rode a tricycle
3. Got laughed at for putting a seat belt on
4. Went to four different malls in two days
5. Bought three brand name purses for under a total of $100
6. Celebrated my birthday 10 times in one year
7. Celebrated my birthday in a different country
8. Swam in the rain
9. Fell asleep in the rain
10. Went snorkeling
11. Got a full body massage
12. Was waited on or helped by more than two people at a time
13. Went zip lining
14. Watched and understood a Tagalog movie
15. Went three rainy weeks straight without touching a jacket

Into Your Arms For the First Time

I’m LOVING these songs right now. I’ve been singing them around the house for DAYS now.

“Into Your Arms” by the Maine

“For the First Time” by the Script

These are the kind of songs that I replayed millions of times on my iPod when they first came out (because frankly,  they aren’t exactly the NEWEST songs out there). Then I forgot about them for a little while and then somehow rediscovered them in my iPod and remembered how much I loved them!! I love the lyrics and the melody and the music…

❤

Falling For You

“I am trying
Not to tell you
But I want to
I’m scared of what you’ll say
So I’m hiding what I’m feeling
But I’m tired of
Holding this inside my head”

-Colbie Caillat

Those words speak truth. It’s like Colbie Caillat went inside my head, stole my thought, and wrote a song about it.

I’ve never related to a song so much.

If only he knew.