Healthy Snack Ideas

Two of some of my favourite things in the world are food and Lauren Conrad. Now, honestly, I'm not really the one to obsess over celebrities, especially reality TV show stars. I find that kind of obsession really pointless, but I love Lauren Conrad. Despite the fact that she became famous through a reality TV show, she branched out and has her own clothing line, website, blog, everything. She makes good lifestyle look fun, HAHA.

I guess I could write an entire review about her website, which I will tell you now, is very inspirational. But I ceebs, plus we all know how my blog posts always run too long anyway! But speaking of, I really really liked one of her website posts, which gave a ton of ideas on healthy snacks. My favourite one was the graham crackers with cream cheese and grapes. Oh, and plus, people also commented on the post giving even MORE ideas on other healthy snacks.

If you like fashion, beauty, health, lifestyle and just fun stuff like funny videos or whatnot, I suggest you check out Lauren's website. It's weird having a favourite celebrity at this age, but I can tell you the truth that Lauren Conrad is my favourite celebrity! Really!

Korea's Got Talent's Very Own Susan Boyle

Okay, swear my blog isn't turning into Youtube, but after seeing this really sad but somewhat inspirational video, I knew I had to share it!

I actually came across this video of a contestant of Korea's Got Talent from a random website through omg-facts.com. It shows the quintessential story of a boy from the wrong side of the tracks auditioning for a nation-wide talent show and his hidden talent for singing. I would say it's a lot like Susan Boyle's audition from Britain's Got Talent a few years ago, except this guy named Sung Bong Choi was actually a homeless man. I'd tell you his story, but I'll go on forever so just watch the video. And! He claims he's not good at singing and he simply just enjoys singing for fun, but dude, HE'S GOOD.

By the way, Sung Bong Choi actually made it to the finals of Korea's Got Talent 2011. He didn't win though, but it's so nice to see him get 2nd place!

Jackie Chan sings?!

Thanks for following omg-facts.com on Twitter, I actually found out that Jackie Chan has done a few singing jobs in movies, including the Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast and Mulan. I don't know, but I found this absolutely hilarious when I found out! I guess it's because I perceive Jackie Chan as the guy who does martial arts in movies, the kind of guy who does action-comedy movies, NOT musicals. And the funnier thing is that he can actually sing! As in, he's not off-key! This stuff is gold, seriously. Watch it!

Birthday Post! (finally)

I've been looking forward to posting about ze birthday (which was last Friday), but I've been quite a busy bee that I haven't been able to! But amongsy the busyness, I managed to collect some photographs and fix up some documentations on how I will write this post today...

As you can see above, it was a pretty sunny day (okay, well, I kinda digitally-enhanced that photo to look even sunnier... but it really was sunny then!) on my birthday, 17 February. All weather reports had predicted thunderstorms and I was so scared that it will happen because weather reports here in Australia are usually pretty accurate yet Australian weather can also be unpredictable too. So it was really hard to tell what the next day's weather will be. Anyway, my mum and I booked a shaded spot for my birthday picnic so we weren't too worried about it, which was great!

Everything that we planned went down to planned for my birthday picnic.

Life Without Art

Before I graduated, I actually used to draw a lot. Mainly because I picked Visual Arts as a subject for my Prelim and HSC years.

I've done Visual Arts ever since Year 7. Six long years of such a relationship which I dearly loved. I struggled at times, but I loved every minute of the creative journey and experience. Having studied art for so long made my eventual inability to imagine what it would be like to not study art somewhere, somehow.

Until I made it in to University of Sydney, not studying visual arts in any way at all. The degree I'm doing is actually closest sociology more than the arts, and I guess that's kind of an advantage since my highest score in the HSC was from Society and Culture. But I did apply for an art-based degree, except I didn't get it because I'd already received my first university preference (I was actually a bit bummed that I didn't get into COFA because I really wanted to give jewellery design a crack - I feel like I need a break from painting and drawing and that I need to venture out onto other artsy stuff - and possible start a business!).

Honestly, before I couldn't imagine what living life without art was like. But now that I've taken a break from it, it actually feels kinda liberating! It feels great and refreshing. Like I'm ready for new interests and hobbies too.

But when I see hardcover art books, the new works of my favourite artists or a really epic drawing or painting, I start to think 'Maybe I should start painting again so I can pass time whenever I'm really bored'. And you know what? I just might! Examine the illustrations I did above for my Visual Arts major. Honestly, they're not even that good. I was way too indecisive, my mind was unclear and for me, I didn't have enough time to come up with what I really wanted my major work to be about. So I just did all that in a rushed fashion. I rushed the entire thing, pretty much. (It sucked at first how when I finally finished the HSC, that's when I started coming up with good ideas for my major work, haha)

I don't know if I'll ever start drawing and painting again hard-out. I'll probably get busy from now on since I'm getting older. But if I did, art will always be something in my heart. I'll always love it, and I know that whenever I feel like life just gets too adultish for me, I'll turn to it. Since early childhood, I've always been the girl who's loved loved loved eye candy, and the same still goes now; art will always inspire me to the bones even if I don't become a jewellery designer with her own business, an art curator, an illustrator or even an art teacher.

Bye Bye Whitney: When Famous People Die

I personally like the name Whitney. I think it sounds like a very strong, solid girl name but it still has a sense of sure femininity to it. Strong but feminine.

But today, when the whole family and I were in Costco shopping for my birthday picnic things for this Friday, surprisingly, it didn't come as a surprise when my sister told me that music giant Whitney Houston has mysteriously died. I thought it was just one of April's random rumours, like when she told me that Julie Andrews had died except that about six months later, Tooth Fairy comes out in the movies.

Just like how Michael Jackson's and Amy Winehouse's death honestly didn't come as a shock or a surprise to me at all, I felt the exact same way about Whitney's. Being an avid reader of celebrity gossip magazines, I've already read about how all Michael, Amy and Whitney have been either going a little cuckoo or really ill right before their deaths. Which probably explains my apathetic view towards Whitney's death today.

But I will admit. I was a little bit sad. Because she did have good songs, and she was one of those true musical artists who epitomised the meaning of a good vocalist. Before she got on the drugs, you gotta admit, she was really good.

Boring You Again With My Family

It was my mum's day-off today. She actually works six days a week, with some of these days being graveyard shifts and with Friday being her only day off. So we decided to go buy some stuff for my birthday picnic next week.

LOL

Thanks to one of my mates, I only found out today via Twitter than you can actually check your blog's stats! So, having that in mind, I think I may start brainstorming and actually be bothered to work on my blog material a lot more! I did promise A LOT of different things, like fashion, art etc. and I've yet to deliver. Yes, this blog is still fairly new, I will tell you that, but now that I've seen the statistics and seen that there are already quite a few number of people who are looking at my blog, I think now is a good time to step up to the game!

I do apologise for my ever-continuous complains about my family life. Things haven't been too easy on my side and there's actually no one I can verbally vent to because I'm not really allowed to. I only got a few friends to vent to, and I don't wanna fill them in with too much of my negativity, so I blog my thoughts instead.

ANYWAY! Having said all of the above, my thoughts have basically been over-preoccupied with these worries that I've neglected the blog a bit by only writing about my current situation. BUT! I will try to have less and less and less of that for the sake of possible readers! Peace out :)

A good uplifting video; possibly a self-reminder for myself about my current situation!

P.S. I kinda want a pet dog now. My grandma hates the smell of dogs despite the fact that they have dogs at home and, according to my dad, have had dogs for all his life. But I also want a loyal companion to play around with when I'm happy, and cuddle with when I'm down!

Top Ten Thursday: Happy Things

Apologies for missing out on Top Ten Tuesday this week! I actually did a draft of it already on the Tuesday, but I was seriously pressed for time that day that I was unable to finish it.

The Top Ten list I drafted is actually a different list from the one I'm making right now. I'm not feeling very well today due to the issues at home I keep talking about. I've been crying a lot lately and when I'm by myself at home, I usually lie on my bed for about an hour doing nothing but just crying. I also realised this morning; you know that pissed-off feeling you have when you have PMS? That's been me every single day for the past three months. To sum it up, I do feel very useless and helpless in my situation right now.

But despite the situation I'm in now, there are still some things that automatically just lift your spirits up a little when you're feeling down. Sometimes, the bad situations still outweigh the good stuff in life, but I believe it's still good to keep yourself in check by cheering yourself up every now and again when you're feeling that down. The joy you get from it may be fleeting, but I think they're actually important to have when all you can do out of your bad situations is just wait for it to end.

Having said that entire speech, I'll get on with it. So, here are the ten things that make me happy when I'm down!

What's Wrong With Australia's Education System?

Last week, I was actually gonna write about this after hearing news on the radio that the federal government has finally admitted noticed that something about Australia's education system is way behind many of our neighbouring countries, particularly those in Asia. If you went to a school with a decent amount of Asians, you would've probably noticed why the newly-migrant Pakistani student seems to be impossibly smart.

However, I kinda got lazy until I logged on Twitter today and saw the SBS TV show 4 Corners trending. 4 Corners has always been known to document on some really controversial topics known in Australia's culture, one popular one being about the disgusting animal abattoirs the Australian industry had in south-east Asia. Tonight, it happens to be about the thing I wanted to write about last week: Australia's educational system.

The big deal about the Big 18

Whenever the month February comes to one's mind, the first thing many people think of is the dreaded holiday of Valentines Day. But for me, February has always been an exciting, exciting month for me because that's when my birthday is! February 17. And yes, it's three days after Valentines Day.

But this year may or may not be different from any other year, despite the fact that I think every birthday is different because you get a year older than you previously were. It's the Big 18. The 18 where you're officially recognised as an adult here in Australia. It's the age where you can legally drink and buy cigarettes, go clubbing, enter an adult sex shop, but not the age of sexual consent (that's 16 for us here, haha). Basically, it's the age many Australian youths get so bloody giddy and excited for because 18 marks the age where you can do anything and everything legally. Even when many of them have done anything and everything illegally, as in, underage.

Turning 18 after most of my friends from school already have (I'm one of the young ones, a 1994 baby), I've previously been invited and attended so many parties that involve drinking, clubbing, etc. Because it's their big day, they wanna do something they couldn't do legally.

But to be honest, I've never had that kind of attitude. Even when I was in my early teen years, I've never had that kind of rebellion. I rebelled, don't get me wrong, but not the kind where I just do thinks because I can't do them and because I'm a daredevil. I just did things because I wanted to, not just for the sake of something.

Note that not all of my friends who have turned 18 already are like what I described above. One of my friends Preetika didn't even have alcohol at her 18th party. She was content with having just the people she loved celebrate a birthday with her. She's not really the kind of person to care about drinking or buying smokes legally. For me, I guess I'm the same too. This may just be a personal thing, like a personal preference, but firstly, I'm not one of those people who are full into clubbing and being able to legally drink or smoke or whatever. I have no personal interest in those things. I don't see dancing in a noisy club while being squished amongst sleazy strangers as a good bonding time with your friends. Wouldn't the music be so loud that you can't even hear each other converse and you're practically just watching each other do the body roll and the Dougie. I don't classify that as bonding. A picnic with your friends, now that's bonding. Obvious health reasons why I wouldn't smoke either and get carried away with alcohol. Yes, call me conservative and call me grandma, but I don't care because I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm not hurting anyone and all at the same time, I'm happy and I'm having fun!

So. Am I just gonna sit here at home and do nothing on my 18th birthday next Friday? Of course not! Although, I was contemplating on it given our issues at home and the fact that we virtually have no money left to spend on luxuries like planning a huge 18th birthday party. Instead, I decided to throw a decently-sized 18th birthday picnic at a nearby park from my house. Literally, it's really close. And since my house is close to the train station, the park is also at a decent distance from the station and people can access my party more! My mum and I are gonna cook and prepare food, take lots of photos and I'm planning something of a surprise for the guest up my sleeve! I'll post in soon on how my birthday picnic goes, proving that you don't need legally-bought vodka shots to make a unique and memorable 18th birthday party. :)

Cute Little Birdie

Just thought I'd like to share. In our Bicentennial Park picnic last week while we were packing up, ready to go home, we caught a little bird sneaking a drink from someone's Coke cup. So sneaky but cute! So I too tried to be sneaky to quickly take this photo to capture the rare moment before the little birdie flew away. The cute but rare things you see momentarily cheer my up! :)

Changing Perspectives

If you're bothered enough to regularly read my blog, you'll be aware enough of the current family issues going on in our home. And as someone who's observing it all, particularly observing how much it's hit my parents, and for someone who is partly suffering from it too, I am not taking it well. In other words, it's really been challenging my character and my faith.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Crap photo quality, hahaha.

Yet another baking recipe! Sooo, I got bored at home today and I've been craving some home-baked sweets lately, so I decided to make the classic chocolate chip cookies with the ingredients we have left at home! I remember buying a packet of white chocolate chips with a recipe on it at the back, and decided to use that since we have all the ingredients at home anyway (except for the condensed milk, which I asked my sister to buy).

I prefer my cookies, cakes, brownies, whatever to be moist and soft, so I Googled up some ideas on how to make cookies moist like the ones you buy from Subway! So, along with the recipe given on the white chocolate chip packet, I made some alterations in the recipe to make moist cookies by adding an extra egg yolk and using melted butter.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: 20

Ingredients:

• 225g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup condensed milk
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• One egg yolk
• 3/4 cup chocolate or white chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips because that's what he had at home!)

Instructions:

1. Preheat over to 160°C and lay out baking paper on tray.
2. Whisk together melted butter, sugar and condensed milk in a medium-sized bowl until mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Shift flour and baking powder into bowl and mix with wooden spoon. Combine egg yolk with mixture. Stir in chocolate chips after.
4. Roll dough into balls of one tablespoon each. Place balls on baking tray and flatten with a spoon, fork or your own hand (I totally forgot to do this on the first batch GAH!)
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean from the cookie.
6. Cool down the cookies for 10-15 minutes. Cooling it down completely allows the cookie to be soft and moist.
7. Enjoy! 

Verdict: I just took out the last batch of the cookies from the oven. The packet recipe told me to bake it at 190°C, and I took it down to 180 yet it was still too hot! So the bottoms were brown-burnt but the insides were chewy. Next time I am soooo baking these at 160°C ONLY (hence I wrote that temperature on the recipe above).

Would you rather marry someone rich but ugly or poor but attractive?

Logging on my Twitter mobile, I saw a guy from the Philippines (family friend) who stated his opinion on the very question. He simply said that he would rather marry a poor but attractive person than someone who's rich but ugly.

When I think about it, frankly I don't think there's a non-shallow choice out of the two. If you pick the first option, may mean that you love money. If you pick the second option, it could just signify that you care just a little bit too much about looks. If you're ever asked that question and you don't wanna come off as shallow or screwed-up in any way, it's pretty hard to answer it by picking between the two.

Anyway. The family friend picked marrying a poor but attractive girl. His reason, translated in English, is in its exact words 'Poor but attractive. Not only because she's attractive, but I also like girls who are simple and are true to themselves. And I like girls who are the one-of-the-boys type. Where do you find rich girls who like to be around and be friends with guys? Being friends with guys doesn't mean you're a skank. And other thing, I don't like fussy (read: priss) girls.'

I don't wanna be slack, but I though his answer was kinda ehhhh, stereotypical and too-assuming? I don't know why Filipinos (who actually live in the Philippines) naturally think that girls, or just people, with money are snobs who treat those with a different lifestyle in a demeaning and inferior manner. Just like how they depict balikbayans (read: Filipinos who have come back to the country from overseas to visit for a holiday), usually those with good money, as ignorant snobs who can't handle life without a plasma-screen TV with cable and silver cutlery. No. There may be some rich people like that, there may be some white-washed Filipinos like that, but not all. Not all girls with money are shallow and just care about makeup and not getting dirty.

If I can swing that far with the Australian context in mind, I actually think Australians are more laidback and less shallow than Filipinos themselves. I can't say the same for other Filipinos living in other countries and their culture and upbringing, but growing up in Australia, it's like that. For example, Australians care significantly less about people in shopping centres wearing their pyjamas or people mowing their lawn without any shoes on. Filipinos care about that shiz. If you're in the Philippines and you turn up at a jewellery shop wearing your house clothes and thongs, the salespeople will think you have no money and won't attend to you. That's actually happened. No exaggeration. In Australia, they just serve you.

Whenever I go to the Philippines, people can already tell from a mile away that I'm not from around there. Perhaps it's the way I dress, walk or whatever. They can just tell. Some people think I can no longer speak Tagalog. Boys who want to talk to me when I'm on holidays there don't talk to me because they think I'm a snob. To be honest, I was even more of a snob when we lived there than I am now. And it's all thanks to Australia who taught me how to look beyond people's characters and little quirks and just talk to them. I'm just gonna say, we're not the richest of folks especially with our current financial situation right now, but my parents do make enough money for people back home to call it "big money", and it makes me wonder if boys like our family friend would say the same thing about me too. I honestly don't think I'm like that. But if I am, at least the salespeople in the Philippines will help me find some good jewellery, right?

Top Ten Tuesday: Animated Films

Possible readers, I hope yous enjoyed my previous Top Ten Tuesday post on Korean dramas! It took ages to make because being the indecisive me, I take ages to make decisions about little things like how to order each Korean drama from one to ten (I even had a tie between three kdramas in one spot, lol).

But I think I'm getting better at it though. This time, my Top Ten Tuesday's gonna be listing down my top 10 fave animated films of all time! (I excluded Disney cartoons from it because I plan to do a separate Top Ten Tuesday on that one day and including them will mean harder decisions for me too) For this list, my criteria for it is its cuteness level, humour, the moral lessons taught in it and the ability of the movies to warm your heart and perhaps get you a bit excited too as you watch it. Sooo, here goes!

No matter how angry and pissed off you become with the world and with God, in the end God is always in control and there's nothing else to do but either trust Him or remain pissed off with the world.

Tempted To Cut It All Again

Left: January 2011. Right: November 2011.

I got a short bob cut two years ago on December 31 2010. My hair, which was growing into a long shoulder-length bob, was beginning to look all weird and awkward and I was dying to get a haircut. I even considered a haircut like this, but my mum wouldn't let me, so we agreed on the bob cut above. At the time, I had a huge obsession with short hair that went on for about two years. However, about two weeks after I got the haircut above, I realised that I really missed having long hair. And I'd just cut it.

So, for the past year in 2011, I've been trying to grow my hair

Letting my guard down

I think now is a good time to come as I am. Be honest. Tell the truth.

I'm momentarily not happy at the moment. Please take note of the word 'momentarily'. How can I be unhappy now? It's my dad's 45th birthday today. I should be automatically happy, and if not, be happy for his sake. But why not?

David Archuleta singing in Tagalog?!

I'm a fan of David Archuleta. Ever since I heard his first song 'Crush' on the radio, I always wondered who that was, the boy with the voice of an angel. Well, after that I figured out who the singer of that song was, and since then, I've been a fan.

But it's not until recently that I've really been informed of where David Archuleta has been. I don't really listen to the radio anymore because I don't really like the songs they play on there anymore (they don't even have David on the radio nowadays, it's all just Rihanna and LMFAO), but thanks to Twitter via Filipino-Australian actress Jasmine Curtis-Smith, it seems that David has taken a break from the US to build his career in the Philippines! He's currently starring in a new teen drama called 'Nandito Ako', and is even singing the theme song of the new show. And no, it's not in English. It's in Tagalog! I'm seriously impressed by how he doesn't even sound weird when he sings in Tagalog. Suddenly David Archuleta became a whole lot cooler than he was before. I hope him actually speaking Tagalog is just as good!

Ten Things You NEED To Know About Australia

After that depressing emo blog post about my reflections on Australia Day, I thought it might be again time to balance out my blog and add some happiness into it! (I like happy). So I thought I'd put together a list of things anyone and everyone needs to know about The Land Down Under. There are seriously a lot of misunderstandings about Australian history, geography etc. So I thought, in the spirit of Australia Day, things should be cleared out by a certified Australian! So, here goes!

1. Sydney is NOT the capital of Australia. Just a brief lesson on Australian history, when they were trying to find a capital of Australia, both Sydney and Melbourne wanted to be the capital but in the end, they decided to make a place called Canberra, located in between Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney is just the biggest city in Australia, that’s all.
2. The majority of the Australian population don’t live in the desert. Yeah, it’s true that most of our land is desert, but a lot of people do live on the coastline. We have cities, suburbs, houses, shopping malls, McDonalds and airconditioning. But we don't have Taco Bell, though! And no, not all Australians go to the beach everyday, tan and surf. Many Australians don't even live near enough to the beach. Most Australians, I would say, live very regular everyday-people lives.
3. We don’t, and probably can’t, ride on kangaroos. People are probably just joking around with Australians riding kangaroos, but no one ever actually does that! They stand on two hind legs, so yeah! And no, we don't keep the as pets.
4. Australia has states. My friend who is an exchange student met an American guy who argued with her that there are no states in Australia and that Sydney is the capital of Australia. Of course, both are wrong, wrong and wrong! Australia has 6 states and 3 territories. Google it :)
5. It doesn’t snow in Australia. Ever. Although there are a couple of places where it snows a little bit. And when the temperature is low enough (it rarely ever is, though), it will snow but only a little bit. But we don’t experience snow D:
6. Australia isn’t monocultural. We are, in fact, quite multicultural. Though I know there are certain areas in the country where it’s more white-dominated than others.
7. Following from Fact #6, Australia’s descendants are not Caucasian. The original people in Australia are the indigenous people called the Aboriginals. Australia got colonised by Europe in the late 1700's.
8. The British didn’t discover Australia. The Dutch did! Captain James Cook is often mistaken for discovering Australia, but a few people actually beat him to that!
9. We don’t have a President, like how America has Barack Obama etc. Like Britain, we have a Prime Minister as we're still under the Commonwealth (read: Australia is not a republic). Her name is Julia Gillard, she's a ranga and has a bogan accent. Oh, and she's actually Welsh in terms of cultural heritage too.
10. Koalas aren’t bears. I thought they were when I was younger, but now I know, I don’t exactly know why they called koalas “koala bear”. Maybe because they just look like bears? 
11. Extra Fact: Australians just speak English. No other language. And we don't have an English accent either. On Twitter, I saw someone today ask what languages we spoke. To clear things out, Australians just speak English. Except with an accent, just like how American and British people all speak English but have different accents. If you have no idea what a typical Australian accent sounds like, click here for the lols. If you hate stereotypes, click here for what a real Australian accent really sound like.

Happy Australia Day?

As you may know, today, January 26, is Australia Day. It's the special day people all over the country make space for family and/or friends time to have a BBQ, wear Australian t-shirts with the Australia flag, the Australia colours (green and gold) or kangaroos on it and where some people even put on the bogan accent and talk like that the entire day. Some people go to the city and paint their face with the Australian flag (as shown above) and get drunk. All for the celebration of 'being Australian'. Having not been born in Australia where I just migrated here as a kiddo, I've always been pretty neutral with Australia Day. It wasn't the best, but I didn't mind it either.

Until I got to Year 9 history class. That's when I found out how Australia Day really came about. It was the celebration of white (British) colonisation in Australia. And with the further history classes I've had in the past and in the future, white colonisation actually brought a lot of pain, racism and discrimination in Australia within its indigenous people. Stuff that is sadly, still present today. And British settlement here happened in the late 1700's, almost 300 years ago. The very first Australia Day aimed to present Australia (then called New Holland) to the rest of the world as a British-settled/colonised/whatever you want to call it nation. White Australians were never friendly to indigenous Australians, but on Australia Day tried to make it look like they "belonged".

Blondies Recipe, Take Two

The first time I've ever made blondies (read: white chocolate brownies) was when I went to Katoomba with the mates last December. I've always loved vanilla over chocolate, and as soon as I've heard about the existence of blondies, I've always been curious about what they would taste like. So, being quite pressed for time, I quickly Googled an internet recipe of blondies so I can bring them over to the Katoomba picnic and while my friends personally liked the recipe and pretty much gobbled all of it up. But for me, I absolutely did not like them. The taste was... okay, and I didn't like the texture at all. I guess it was because I used cake mix for it.

So when we went to yet another picnic at the Bicentennial Park in Sydney Olympic Park yesterday, I saw it as yet another opportunity to further improve and make the perfect blondies recipe. Recently I discovered a baking/cooking website called Brown Eyed Baker and they had a really good, nice and thorough recipe on how to make different types of blondies. My reflection of the blondies I made for yesterday's shindig wasn't perfect (they weren't chewy enough and I misplaced the vanilla extract so I used lemon juice instead... haha), I would still say, but it was an improvement from the first time I made blondies.

Top Ten Tuesday: Korean Dramas

Wooh, this is exciting! I'm doing my first Top Ten Tuesday post this week, and I've come up with so many ideas of what to post about that I couldn't really pick which one to make a Top Ten Tuesday list about. But I thought I'd begin with one of my favourite things in the world; Korean dramas!

I've been watching Korean dramas since I was 13, maybe, and they've drastically changed the way I watch TV. I've grown up watching western and Filipino TV, and both have their ups and downs. Western shows can be refreshing sometimes but predictable or try too hard to be refreshing and original *cough* Glee *cough* (sorry, fans!), and if you think western TV shows are predictable, multiply that by 100 and add cheesiness and that's what Filipino dramas are like.

On the other hand though, Korean dramas have the perfect balance. They can be refreshing, funny, cute, preditable and dramatic but not overly so and sometimes even succinctly teach you something about life. With those criteria in mind, I'll give in my personal Top Ten Korean Dramas of all time! The Korean dramas that you should have to watch before you die! I provided the Wiki links to each Korean drama, so just click on it to get a better idea of what each are about.

"Moving on may require forgiving, adjusting your expectations or simply coming to grips with the fact that we've all made mistakes."

– Dr LM

"I make mistakes, I'm not perfect and I'm not apologising for who I am"

This is a quote I saw on Twitter made by Miley Cyrus. On face value, while I do believe this quote to be a good one in terms of not faking and changing yourself for the sake of other people (you know, it goes along the 'be yourself' philosophy), over time I've realised just how ignorant this way of life is. Actually absolutely ignorant.

Enrolling to university

I asked Bryson if it's okay with him to be dragged along USYD as I enroll there today. It wasn't too bad, it was pretty simple and people were helpful and nice. But the fun was only beginning.

Charlene was also going to UNSW to enquire about her enrollment, so we met up with her after my morning enrollment which ended at like 11:30. We went to UNSW, bummed around, asked some questions, went back to the city, Chinatown, the Chinese Garden etc. Bryson, Charlene and I just talked, talked and talked about the randomest shizzle out. It's funny because the subject of our conversations were so dumb, yet the conversation flowed like the Niagra Falls.

Oh, and I also forgot to mention. On the way home, we accidentally took the wrong train. When we were getting in the train, I asked Bryson "Are you sure we're on the right train?" He's like "Yeah!" So we went in. But when it got to North Strathfield, we knew we went on the wrong train.

We ended up getting of at some hoobaloo place called Concord West, and turns out we were in the Hornsby train line! If we were that stupid, we could've ended up at Hornsby! It's funny because when I was editing the lighting and sharpness of the photo, it was then that I only noticed that there was a graffiti on the Concord West sign. Oh goodness me. Anyway, we decided to take the train back to Strathfield, then switch platforms to get to the Western Line, on the way home.

Anyway, my day's yet to be over, but turns out even though I've enrolled at USYD now, I still can't get my lectures and tutorials timetable. Everyone else already has theirs and I'm super keen to have mine so I can know what days I can hang out with my friends. I have to wait until O-Week to get it. Sigh. Oh well. Regardless, I am pretty keen to take the next step and go to uni. I'm a bit scared, I will admit, because I'm really just hoping hoping that people at USYD, especially in my course, aren't snobby or two-faced. Especially since most of them are gonna be girls too.

Making Macarons?

My mum has been making coconut macarons ever since I can remember. And even though it's so hard for me to name out my favourite food, I can, however, say with confidence that macarons are one of my favourite foods ever!

Until I discover that there are actually more, different types of macarons! It was love at first bite. However, they're always so expensive! Like, when we went to Macquarie University's Open Day last year, one macaron each was like, $3! But, again, Costco saved the day for us just a few days ago and this whole box of vanilla, pistachio, strawberry and chocolate-flavoured macarons for $6 only!

But it wasn't only recently that I've begun to venture out into the world of cooking that I've ever wondered how I can make these heavenly desserts by myself. But turns out today was a lucky day for me! I was in Big W, helping April shop for school supplies and noticed this book which they only sold for $15!

The book isn't very huge, and it doesn't have a million macaron recipes on it. But. It does teach about the basics of macaron-making quite thoroughly, from how to make the most of the ingredients, what tools are best to make macarons etc. They have some of the basic macaron recipes, like vanilla and pistachio-flavoured ones, to some of the more complex ones like 'macarons de fancy'. Ooh, fancy!

I saw another recipe book, a cake cookbook, and it was only around $7. The book has more recipes than in this macaron book, and I really want to buy it next week when I go school-supply shopping (I don't know what books I'm supposed to use for university so I'm just gonna wait until tomorrow when I'm going to USYD to ask!). Anyway. I hope I can really start making macarons, but first apparently I gotta buy these things called a 'piping bag' in order to make the shells (the patty-looking covers) for the macarons! Apparently they sell them in Woolworths, so fingers, toes and eyes crossed that they really do sell them there! Can't wait to make my first macaron!

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream @ Penrith

Almost forgot! Because my mate Mark has never been to Penrith Westfield, I decided to take him yesterday. I also told him about how they have Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream there inside Hoyts (located right across Muffin Break), and thought we'll give it a whack. They're already half-eaten above, but it was worth every cent despite the fact that they were pretty pricey. Three scoops costs almost $9! But I love the innovation and uniqueness of the ice cream flavours in Ben & Jerry's. They're the kinds of flavours you wouldn't find in Coles or Woolworths. They've got flavours like peanut butter, cookie dough, ice cream with chocolate bits that have caramel inside etc. They had really weird names too, and I cannot remember them, but I remember one of them was called Phish Food. I recommend everyone to go to Penrith soon and try them. Expensive, but worth it!

Last note: Thank goodness they have Ben & Jerry's at USYD. When we went there for Info Day, they had food outlets that sold Ben & Jerry's. Yay-er.

Patterned Nails!

One of my absolute favourite websites, The Beauty Department, regularly posts nail tutorials. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of nail polish because I swear, they make my nails feel heavy as, but I do appreciate good art. I just love colour and pattern, which explains why this post is here. The above nail tutorial is inspired by Missoni and their designs. And I love it! I also like how they used China marker for this tutorial (it's like an oil pastel but in pencil-form) which we used quite a bit when I did Visual Arts in school last year.

For more on the online tutorial, it's here! For more of The Beauty Department's innovative nail art stuff and other tutorials, here.

USYD and being called a 6/10

It's been quite a while since I blogged in here due to my excessive use of mobile internet (it's hard to blog in there, especially if you want to add photos). So this super-long post (again) is dedicated to whatever's happened in the past few days.

Now An Official USYD Student

Wednesday was the Main Offers for university. Instead, I went to Bryson's house and had a movie fest with Bryson and Christian. Watched a number of 'dick flicks' like Stepbrothers, Blades of Glory, Zoolander and the first Harold and Kumar movie. Until 9pm came. Judgement Day #3. Uni offers. I was on Facebook mobile and the first uni offer-related status by Carmel, about her getting into UTS Business. That only meant two things: all congratulations to Carmel who previously regretted sticking with her first uni preference and ended up making it to her second preference, and that uni offers were already up.

The Four Temperaments

Probably one of the coolest and least bogus personality characterisations I've ever come across are the Four Temperaments. So, before I go, on, what exactly are they and how exactly do they characterise different personality types?

According to Wikipedia (the Wiki page for this appears to be reliable unlike many of the pop culture articles they have that seemed to have been edited for humour!), the Four Temperaments is a 'theory of proto-psychology that stems from the ancient medical concept of humorism and suggests that four bodily fluids affect human personality traits and behaviors.' In English, it's basically a theory of how these different body fluids, called 'humors', categorise personality types. With this theory in mind, it also means that the temperaments can actually be passed on parent-to-child. I mean, has anyone ever told you that you act just like your mum or dad?

Yes, it may sound like another bogus personality theory but I don't know, personality theories have always interested me, and when I was given the opportunity to find out what my temperament was, I can say for myself that it was really accurate!

The Four Temperaments: Which one do you reckon you fall on the most?
Sanguine

• Joyful/Cheerful
• Optimistic 
• Charismatic
• Compassionate 
• Makes friends easily
• Short attention span
• Disorganisation
• Impulsive
• Forgetful

Choleric (this is what apparently my sister is. I agree)

• Self-sufficient
• Born leader
• Practical
• Strong-willed
• Optimistic
• Confident
• Goal-oriented
• Hot-tempered and impulsive
• Impatient
• Sees little need for friendships

Melancholic

• Sensitive to anguish of others
• Artistic or musical
• Poetic and philosophical
• Organized and tidy
• Must finish what is started
• Cautious to make friends
• Studious
• Pessimistic
• Reflective
• Dreamer

Phlegmatic

• Calm and collected
• Quiet
• Witty but has a dry sense of humour
• Kind
• Inoffensive
• Hides emotions
• Good listener
• Stubborn
• Laidback, but can be lazy
• Indecisive

Phew! Another long blog post! I guess that's a characteristic of my blog... having ridiculously long posts! But anyway, if you're bored or at the least interested, I found a good online quiz to find out what your temperament is out of the four! Note, it's also possible to have one dominant temperament with a second dominant temperament (when I took the test, I'm right in between a Sanguine and a Melancholic). It's also possible to have a third temperament, but it's rare to have all four in you. Anyway, before I make my second essay, I'll stop rambling now! Have fun :)

Faith = Believe + Action

'Faith' isn't just about believing in something then telling people that you believe in it. It's also about showing this belief in action and in yourself. :)

Shit Tumblr Girls Say

Upon my current goodbye to my last blog on Tumblr (I haven't deleted it yet for inspirational purposes; I just don't blog there anymore), Carmel sent me this Youtube vid via Facebook about all the shiz girls on Tumblr say. Yup! Pretty much sums it all up! Reblogging, Dr Who, Nutella fetishes, GIFs, 16-year-old artists, begging people to go on your ask, being offended by offensive anon asks, kawaii posts, weheartit.com not being a "real" source, and more. Seriously. I still find some blogs on Tumblr very inspirational, I will admit, but right now (and hopefully for good) I'm done blogging there. I want to venture out into more unique, expressive and more 'me' blog posts. No more reblogging One Direction for me, thank you very many!

Surviving on mobile internet

Because my laptop's charger broke, meaning that my laptop is practically redundant now, I've been surviving on mobile internet for about a week now.

Anyway, that's not the main purpose of this post. The point is, I thought optimism, patience and hope was enough. As of yet, I've not discussed the current state of my home and family life, but I'll begin by briefly stating it in point form, so the overall loss-of-hope theme in this post will be easily followed:

• Paternal grandparents are here in Australia, living under our roof, since the end of the HSC exams to when university starts. In essence, a very long time.

Why bad things happen to good people.

Scrolling down the News Feed on Facebook, I noticed a Facebook status one of my good friends posted. It read: It makes me sad when bad things happen to good people. I go to church and pray everyday to God!

This status inspired me to blog about this. I think it's one of the world's million-dollar question, actually. So, why do I believe good things happen to people?

I did promise this blog would also be a spiritual one, and I reckon (well, hoped!) this was enough of a "warning" for whoever here doesn't like this religion stuff. But my faith right now defines a lot of who I am, so I'll take a shot at this million-dollar question.

ONE DIRECTION COMING TO AUSTRALIA (seriously)

Okay well, because this blog has only pretty much began and the blogger world may not know much about me, I suppose right now really is the right timing to introduce to you Jill Fact #1: yes, I like One Direction. I would not say I'm nuts about them like many of the other Directioners; some people would literally die for them, and to be honest, I chose to go to church next Sunday instead of going to Sydney city with some of my other Directioner mates to appear on TV to beg them to come here.

But in a way, that's not needed anymore! Scrolling through my TL in Twitter, Stamie, a girl I went to school with, announced that the boys were coming here in April this year. I honestly did not think they would come this soon seeing how busy they are right now. I'm just gonna put it out there to congratulate the boys in putting their Australian fans into priority in some way. So far, all I've heard is that they are doing promotional shows in Australia and are appearing in Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, Australia. Thank goodness I live in Sydney!

Anyway, now, everyone's making a mack of April 2012 on Twitter, and according to my friend Shaily, many Directioners want to be named April now. Well, we all know who snagged the name April first, which is moi my sister! Too bad she doesn't really like One Direction that much. It would've made her birthday too, because yes, April is born in April. And yes, my dad named her because she was born in April. Genius.

Looks like Shaily turned out to be right. She's getting closer and closer to meeting Zayn Malik this year. (And funny, last year Shaily said she wished her name was April when I mentioned that that was my sister's name, haha).

Dreamy Fudge

Yay! I'm so excited to share this first recipe post! It's called Dreamy Fudge, which my sister found in her Food Technology textbook from school. So yesterday, we decided to give it a whack with our own alterations (we just doubled the ingredients to make more and didn't add the coffee flavour), especially since you don't even need an oven to make these sweet lollies. Below, I'll also be sharing the recipe, step-by-step.

April

 

This be my little sis, April. She told me today she was getting bored of her hair and wanted a new fringe, so I cut it for her. Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly a professional when it comes to cutting hair, actually. I've just always had a fringe, for years now, really, and I've really done a lot of practice cutting fringes on my own (though I still go to the hairdressers to get it done when I get a new haircut HAHAHA), so I'm pretty alright when it comes to cutting other people's fringes. Plus, there's like TONS of video tutorials on how to cut your own fringe, so nowadays it's like you don't even need to go to the hairdressers anymore! 

Anyway, there I go with the rambling again. Anyway, most people usually think that April is older than I am because she's bigger (soz) and has a more, let's just say, mature style compared to me. And having that fact in mind, doesn't she just look like my little sister again with the fringe?! She can be cute when she wants to be...

The only thing about Tumblr that really trumps Blogger over is that you can't 'heart' blog posts. I'll miss doing that, actually. It's kind of like the 'Like' button on Facebook.

“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.”

— Joseph Campbell

2012

Hey, I guess along with the new year comes with the new blog. So I thought it'd be a great, great time to post up my 2012 New Year's Resolution!

You'll see a lot of this ...

Some photos of me and the mates above. Yes. There will be a lot of stupid times to come ahead here. Beware.

Welcome to Blogger!

So, my mate Tammy had been bugging me about getting a Blogger for about a month now. She was almost at right timing, because I was just thinking about making a new blog as my previous blog on Tumblr didn't satisfy my self-expression enough.

I always wanted to make a good blog, actually. If you read my Tumblr, you'll know how much I can rattle on about one thing over and over and over again! This "rattling" even resulted in me running out of time in the HSC English exam to finish all my essays and creative writing! Yes, it's that bad (see, I'm rattling again). So, I'm just gonna put it all on dot-point, what you may expect from this blog:

• My personal life. Daily observations and rantings, all defined by my personal daily experiences by family, friends etc.
• Fashion stuff DUH. Favourite fashion things I see online, style icons, inspiration, lookbooks etc.
• Cooking experiences and recipes. I've started baking these holidays, and I want to see it through and share it with yous because I just love food!
• Beauty tips I randomly pick up from anywhere. Esh! I like sharing :)
• Inspirational things like quotes from various people, Bible verses, personal stories of 'stuff' and Bible devotionals I'd also like to share.
• Reviews on movies, books, music, TV shows, websites, other blogs, places like restaurants and parks etc, galleries and more!
• Anything funny, awesome, pretty or stationery-related that I pick up on anywhere!

Hopefully I didn't "rattle" on too much. But hopefully this blog will be a new journey for me (oh, so cheesy), and for me to share all the things I've always wanted to share as I learn new, exciting things everyday and share share share it with you homeboys! Peace! xx