Beardyman on the Beatbox

This guy is ..... AMAZING. And hilarious. ^_^

Kitchen Diaries

Posted by Joanna at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

20 of the most amazing short animations you need to see before you die - Check these out; lots of great ones, including the animation that was snagged for Kenna's "Hell Bent" music video.

The 12 Funniest People on the Internet - I LOVE reading Izzle Pfaff! Lately I've been reading lots of Violent Acres too, though she is a bit too potty-mouthed for me to read too much in one sitting.

101 Best Free Games on the Web - I don't even have enough time to play all of these games, but they're great to kill time!

10 Foods You Should NEVER Eat - Heheh, Chipotle Chicken Burrito is #9.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - What is up with the things you have to do before you die? Anyway, good luck with this one. Never gonna happen for me.

Listening: Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Playing: Okami (PS2)
Watching: Æon Flux MTV Series, Full Metal Panic!

Posted by Joanna at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you didn't know already, I got a Wiiiiii for Christmas. Actually I got it the day after Christmas; the EB Games in 4th Street happened to have one left after someone reserved it and couldn't pick it up. Lucky me! Actually I've been thinking about it, this is the first video game console I've ever purchased (the PS2 was won in a raffle); what does this say about me? In this point in my life, are video games the most important thing? It certainly seems that way; all I've done in the past two days is play Elebits, and today I picked up Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. Granted, there's nothing else to do because there's a snowstorm outside and I'm just starting my classes this semester, and you know how those first few days go. But it feels so... wrong and incomplete.

Ben is in a jazz ensemble this semester, and now his life is all about playing the bass. Which it was before, but now he's actually required to practice everyday for class. He's got a full load of classes, might be joining another jazz combo, and works part-time at his school library. He's completely overworked, and he says that he couldn't be happier simply because he's finally doing what he wants to do - play bass in a group. So this gets me thinking, what do I want to do? It's taken me four years to convince myself that I WANT to stick with graphic design and that I can't change majors (or schools) anymore. But what happened to my 13 years of piano and 9 years of violin? Being in the YPAS Philharmonic was the happiest time in my life (along with my two years of photography with Mr. Curtis). Should I get back into an orchestra?

It's not that I didn't try - when I first went to OSU I contacted the orchestra teacher, and I did the same when I came to Kent State. Howeeeever, both teachers never replied to my emails, and settling into my new schools became top priority. I enlisted myself for one of the most time-consuming majors ever. Also, it was hard to find an ensemble to join that wasn't strictly for music majors. These are my excuses. But not playing in an orchestra is looking to be one of my top regrets later in life if I don't do anything about it soon. I always remember this old Chinese man who came to my house when I was in high school; no clue who he was, but apparently he was a great violin player. I was practicing violin when he came over, and he asked if he could play my violin. First he ran some really fast scales and then started playing bits and pieces of famous works. But after that, he handed the violin back to me with the saddest look on his face and told me that he quit playing a long time ago and that he wished he hadn't. Over these past few years, I've had the image of that man stuck in my head every time I turn to the classical radio station, or hear some great orchestral music. That's going to be me, I thought.

I've been all bothered ever since Ben joined this ensemble, because now I just feel like a failure. And this wouldn't be such an issue if I hadn't already recognized this empty feeling I have when I tell people I'm a photo-illustration major. I know that photography and graphic design are two fields that I absolutely love (and I'm going to STICK WITH THEM), but every time I say that I'm a photo-ill major, I always follow it up with a "Yea...", trail off, and try to picture myself at a design firm. It doesn't happen. I don't know, can you major in traveling, taking photos, and eating good food? Or perhaps owning your own shop? Because that's all I can imagine myself doing. I've been playing a ridiculous amount of video games lately; I thought maybe that could be a hobby to pursue. I started Kawaii Gamer and almost applied to GameStop today, but something in the back of my head keeps telling me that I should just play the games rather than pursue the industry. But I could also be happy imagining myself with popular video game blog and going to all the cool conferences and getting stuff for free ^_^ Siiigh...

But back to my cold, empty feeling. It could very well be a need to play music. I did randomly ask for my violin to be fixed up for Christmas, maybe my heart already knew what it was. But it's been four years, I barely remembered what the word "fermata" meant when I saw it the other day, and I'm sure college orchestra is nothing like high school orchestra. Something tells me that I'll find out that music isn't what I'm looking for, and I'll be back at square one. But I guess I'll just have to try to see, huh. Maybe I'll give it a shot this fall, or even the summer if I can. I hope my neck problem clears up by then, it's come back with a vengeance and I think I'll probably have to start physical therapy again. I just hope that what I'm searching for isn't video games; it's an awfully expensive hobby...

Listening: Nelly Furtado - Loose
Playing: Elebits (Wii)
Watching: Sex and the City

Posted by Joanna at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Almost all Caucasians have a double eyelid. Most Asians don't. What is a double eyelid, you say? If you don't know, you obviously have never been around an image-concious Asian. It is the fold right above your eye when it is open; usually when girls wear eyeshadow, that is where the color is concentrated. However, most Asians have a single eyelid, and therefore reading any beauty magazine is torturous because none of the makeup techniques work for us. Here is a photo of the differences, stolen from the internets:

So because all Asian cultures have an inherent need to look Western (pale skin, high cheekbones, thin noses, large boobiez), it is desirable to have a double eyelid. The idea is that it makes the eyes wider (what all bullied Asian kids wish for!). And because Asian people are insane, there is a surgery to make this happen. It's called blepharoplasty, which was probably the first word an Asian doctor barfed out to describe this ridiculous procedure. They can cost up to $3000, but hey, now we can wear eyeshadow and not have it look like paint, right? And this ain't just for women either. Asian guys want big eyes too!

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to lecture you all about this surgery. The point is, I woke up two days ago with a double eyelid on my right eye. This occasionally happens if I don't get enough sleep, and goes away after a couple of hours at the most. It is now day two, and it's STILL THERE. And the thing is, I should be rejoicing, right? I'm halfway towards look like a beautiful white woman! But I'm not, because 1) I always really really liked my single eyelids, and 2) IT'S ONLY ON ONE EYE. I can't even enjoy it because all my eye makeup was in my luggage which was LOST, btw. So I've been constantly rubbing my eye to make it go away, and praying that I either wake up with it gone, or with a double eyelid in my other eye. Because the whole point of having two eyes is that they match, right? It's tough being an Asian-American these days.

About my luggage: It never arrived at LAX, and when I called the luggage service lady, she said that it hadn't been scanned since Louisville. As in, it never left the airport. Now I've been trying to come up with all the possible scenarios where this could happen, and the only one that makes sense is that airport people are dumbasses. Someone could have stolen my bag - except we checked it in. It could have been sent to another airport - except it has LAX on the tag. I could list off all the other crazy ideas I had in my head, but they involved ninjas and spies. (Like those exist.) So I get $50 reimbursement for the first day, $50 for the next, and after that, I can list the value of all the items in the bag and they'll reimburse me for some amount. But among other things, my MacBook power adapter, phone charger, Gap coat, and eyeglasses already amount to $500. So yea, I'd be losing a lot of stuff. And some cute underwear I just bought. Luckily I always carry my laptop, camera and DS ^_^

But anyway, who cares! I just got a call saying that it finally arrived at LAX and that it'll be shipped here as soon as possible. Man, I wish luggage could talk, because I want to know what happened. You can bet Northwest won't tell me squat. Ah well, after looking back at all the really expensive stuff I've lost throughout the years (see: $1000+ violin), I've realized that everything ended up being found. I am one lucky unfortunate person. I guess once I get my bag back, I can finally play with my retarded one double eyelid.

California is nice, btw. The weather is about 60 degrees everyday, even though I swear the house I'm staying at is at an uncomfortable 40 or something. We went to the Getty Museum today (did you know that it's a .edu? Weird), and we're going to the Huntington Library tomorrow. But what is most important, is that I am eating like a queen. A queen who is addicted to spicy Chinese food. I decided that I could never move out here simply because I would never stop eating. It's been......... awesome.

Oh, and I got a hot new pair of eyeglasses, because I thought I had lost my other ones in my bag (and also because that pair snapped in half and I just glued it back together like a nerd). I am thinking about throwing away my contact lenses and just wearing these glasses all the time, like back in the good ol' days. Because the last I heard, glasses were trendy right? Like two years ago? When trends are about two years old, that is when I feel comfortable adopting them. It's like, I'm not following the crowd, but I will acknowledge that it's cool, and maybe I can bring it back two years later. Yea, me and fashion have a strange relationship. Well, I should probably... continue to do nothing in a different room. Anyone want anything from California? I will be happy to pick anything up ^_^

Listening: Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor
Playing: Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
Watching: lots of Chinese gameshows

Posted by Joanna at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

If you remember my post about James Kim from a few weeks back, there's going to be an arts and crafts auction held as a fundraiser for the family starting tomorrow (January 3rd). There's a lot of really cool stuff up for sale. Support the Kim Family, and if anything, support art!

http://kimfamilyauction.typepad.com/

Posted by Joanna at 2:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)