My iPhone 4S

First of all, sorry for my ugly blogskin... I wanted to change it but then I got frustrated and didn't finish it. I will soon though! It'll be pretty, I promise!!

I talked about how I got my new black, iPhone 4S before, and all I can say is that I LOVE IT. I have a bunch of  fun and cute apps that my droid phone could never handle. And the battery life is very satisfactory. It's not the greatest, like the amazing old nokia phone that people joke around about, but I can last a few days without charging my phone if I control myself on using apps. My droid phone would last maybe about 8 hours when I don't even have any apps and call my mom for about 10 minutes...

Bunch of photo editing apps and cameras. My social networking stuff and tumblr. SmileCat is a Korean photo editing app. It's not THAT great, but some of the stickers are cute. My365 is an app where you post a picture a day and I talked about that before in a couple of posts back. Sushi maker is a completely useless app, but it's fun when you're REALLY bored. You make sushi and then "eat" it. You have to pay to get better sushi stuff... Like I said, completely useless. Swing Away is a really cute and fun game. You're a monkey that's swinging from rope to rope or vine to vine with a time limit and you're just trying to get the highest possible score and complete missions. It's really hard, but addicting. I got it for free, but apparently you have to pay for it now for 99 cents. The other two are emoticons and a magazine.

And these are more of my apps. I don't feel like talking about them because you just need to try them out haha. Well most of them.

I'm always on my phone playing games, taking pictures, or editing pictures. Because a phone like this exists for me, it's only necessary that I personalize it! (especially since EVERYONE is getting an iPhone these days)
So I got a sticker and my mom bought me a Kate Spade case, and I've posted pictures before, but I'll do it again :) I love this case because it's very sturdy!

Everyone says that the eyes look Asian. Nice, cuz those are pretty eyes.

The sides are black and it has a gold spade on it!

But of course I wanted more and went on ebay! Eventually I came across these two pretty cases and they FINALLY ARRIVED in my mail!

The first one is a "maroon" case that has the apple logo outlined with crystals. The ebay pictures made it look very matte and maroon, but in reality, it's very shiny and red. It's so shiny, it has that oily look to it and I can't get rid of it at all. That's the downfall of it, but other than that, it's pretty good. And the case is very thin and doesn't cover the front at all, which I really like. Oh, and it's made in Korea!

And the other case that I got is also made in Korea! Seriously, Koreans really know how to design cute and stylish things whether it's iPhone cases or clothing. Anyway, it's white with a stylish "사랑해" on the back. My favorite part about the case is that it has a little addition where you can add call phone charms on it! You know Asians and their cell phone charms lol. And the case is thinner than I thought, which is a good thing since I don't want to carry around a fat, bulky looking thing.The only bad thing about it is that it covers the front of the iPhone. I don't like that because I do have a cute sticker of a character on it, but it get's covered.

The box in which the case came in was super cute! But the best part of it was the little note I got from the seller! It's probably a girl, I mean who else can have awesome handwriting like that? And the note made me super happy, even though I have no idea who this person is that is probably just trying to make me want to buy more stuff from her in the future. I don't caaarreee. And she also added an iPhone button sticker to my order! It's taped on the box and it's a light green color with white polka dots. I would use it, but I feel like if I put it on, I'll want to take it off right away. I'll save it for later though!

Awesome note! And this actually CAME from Seoul, Korea. Therefore, my seller is probably very Korean, so the incorrect grammar is cute lol

The packaging is super cute! and you see the green iPhone button sticker taped on it lol

LOVE the 사랑해 calligraphy.

And this is the front with more hearts! And you can see where you can add the charms. I had this G Dragon one for a while so I just tried it out. My current one is a Korean drum thing hahaha

So yeah, you can't see my iPhone in any of these pictures because now I ONLY take pictures with my phone. Because it is the 4S, the camera quality IS good. Better than my shitty 10.1 megapixel digital camera! Oh, and if you're curious about Siri, it's alright. I never use it because I do everything manually anyway. BUT! I have to admit, sometimes it's fun asking it random questions like where my future husband is...... *deep, heavy sigh*

It's Adopt a Bird Month

January is adopt a rescued bird month! I didn't know about this until Jeero texted me today. This is actually a coincidence because I've been really thinking about getting a new bird buddy recently.

My first real pet (I say real because boring fish that my dad bought for me don't count) was when I was in fourth grade. And what was it? A light blue budgie! I wasn't one of those kids who begged their parents to get a puppy or ugly cat. I was always fascinated by birds. And it really showed when I was in first grade after my teacher saw my drawing of me in a forest full of birds. She then really encouraged me to keep on drawing birds and I clearly remember we had to cut out ONE drawing of anything so that we could hang them from the ceiling. I drew TWO birds and the kids thought my artistic abilities were amazing. (I shall brag now) And they were; I still wish I had them... 

I did a ton of research before buying my first pet because I was dying to just be able to have a pet other than fish in my old apartment. And that was because my mom HATED animals. Well, she still hates them, but not as much because of my birds, ho ho ho.

I would always go to the library and read those "How to Take Care of Budgies" or "All You Need To Know About Parakeets" books. And then I would go onto to Petsmart.com or petco.com and do all of these calculations of the total cost of all the necessary things I would get for my bird, compare the best food brands, and pick the best cage for it's price. I seriously knew everything there was to know about budgies/parakeets. I was seriously dedicated. Why aren't I dedicated to my schoolwork like I was to birds back then?...

Anyway, I was finally able to save up money and convince my mom to buy a bird! We went to the pet store that we used to always go in New Hampshire, which is closed now probably because it had REALLY exotic animals that I never thought you could have as pets... My mom and I picked the happiest looking budgie. And Buddy came home with me! Creative first pet name, right?

My first two birds

Since then, I've had a few other budgies too. I thought Buddy was getting lonely, so I bought another to keep him company. But it passed away pretty fast and I thought it was a little sick when I first bought him. Others came and went, but his longest friend, and my favorite, was Yolkie. Either way, I actually trained Buddy to come to my hand and come out of my cage and even fly to wherever Yolkie was. Well I didn't train him, he just really liked Yolkie and always wanted to be by her side. Buddy also liked to fall asleep on his back in my hand for some reason. I loved my birds so much that I always let them out of their cage and brought them with me to my grandma's house and even to my cousins house when they lived in New York. I even got my cousin to get a couple of budgies herself and I had trained them too. This was all when I was in elementary and middle school. I'm amazing at taming budgies muahhaha.

Really old picture of Buddy and Yolkie

One day Buddy died, which was really sad. So I just had Yolkie with me. But she also died and I don't even know when. One day I got back home late from college and went to my room to sleep right away. The  next morning, I thought it was a little weird because I didn't hear her chirp. I went over to the big cage and she wasn't there. I went to my mom right after and asked where my bird was and she just looked at me... Apparently my bird died a few days before I got home and my sisters buried her and didn't bother to tell me about it at all. And that just really pissed me off.

I have a lot of other bird stories. Like how I had to babysit two doves and I wanted to freakin' strangle them at night, attempt to tame my aunt's two cockatiels that pissed me off, and my orange-winged amazon parrot. But they're just funny memories.

My amazon looked just like this.

Now that I don't have a bird anymore, I've been really wanting to get another one. Ever since I've been using tumblr, I've been looking up birds and I just miss having something small with personality just sitting on my desk while I read or something. Birds are actually really fun to have around just because they're similar yet different than what dogs can do. 

And here are very few of my favorite pictures that is just calling me to buy a new bird.

SO CUTE! I don't think dogs can do that

It IS adopt a bird month... I do have a pretty nice cage just sitting there. And I do want to experience training a bird again. But in all honesty, I shouldn't get a bird now. No one in my family likes birds as much as I do and pretty much don't take care of my birds when I'm gone. And I'm going back to school in about 11 days. 

hmmm... When I get my own place, I'm getting a bird right away. 

But trust me guys, don't look over birds so easily. They're so freakin' colorful and cute, especially when they look like couples! Adopt a cute birdie after doing proper research hur hurrrr

I WANT A BUGDIE AGAIN AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Remembering Each Day

Ever since my angry/scare post about 2012, things have actually gotten better. In my monthly planner notebook, I try my best to write down the highlights of my day, everyday. It's actually one of my biggest goals - writing something good about each day of the year. And although it's only been about a week into the new year, reading my little notes made me happy.

Kinda random, but I bought this a few days before the new year when I went out on a mini date with Simmie and one of the things I wanted to do was buy something that I typically didn't buy. And I got this super cute coin bank! It's a freakin' pink bear! Made me happy :)

Basically, most of my week has been consisted of watching movies I've never seen before, like Ahjusshi and What Women Want. (By the way, What Women Want is probably my favorite Chinese movie because the characters work in a job that I DREAM of having. You should watch it to find out what that it haha. And it's a very modern and sweet movie.) I've also been watching bits of TV shows and documentaries. This is all due to Netflix. It's amazing. I'm discovering so many Chinese and Taiwanese movies that I've never heard of before and I actually LIKE them.

I was watching a movie before Jeero interrupted meh.

Shopping in Zara on the 4th.

And like I mentioned in my previous post, I got my nails done for the first time in my life! I really want to go again with my sisters and cousin as a girls outing thing one day and we could all chill and talk and then maybe go eat ice cream after or something. I can picture it perfectly!

My mom getting her gel nails removed lol

Also on Friday, my sisters and I slept over Simmie's house and we ate at Bertucchi's, which was really fun because we talked about future plans. The day after, we walked around her neighborhood and talked some more. I honestly can't remember exactly what we talked about, but I know that we were all happy about it.

After Bertucchi's, we all went to Anthropologie.

After walking :)

To help me with my new goal of recording the good things of each day, I download this app on my new iPhone 4S, which I got on the 30th, and it's called My365. It's originally a Japanese app and what you do is post one picture a day and it just stores it all. You don't necessarily HAVE to post each and every day, and if you happen to forget to post one, you can always go back one whatever day you missed! The layout is pretty cute and clean looking. And has a similar feature as Twitter; it shows how many pictures or posts you have, how many people you are following, and how many people follow you. So yes, you can look at other user's pictures! But I can tell that a lot of people cheat and find pictures online to make their lives look super dazzling or something. I don't care about the followers thing, I want to keep true to my life and pictures because I want to be able to look back and be like, "I remember that day!", or "huh, I actually have a pretty good life. I better appreciate it more". Another fun part of this app is that you can take pictures through it and it have a good amount of photo filters - but honestly, they're the same as instagram, vintage camera, this Chinese app that I use and others. 

There are a few other apps like My365, but I'm too lazy to delete this app and start again. My365 is good enough for me!

My iPhone case. Kate Spade!

I also have this sticker on my iPhone.

Yeah, and I'm just loving my new iPhone. 

Each day has just been memorable in it's own way. And I want to keep up this momentum. Of course it's unrealistic to think that I won't have any bad or stressful days... And that's okay. In the end, all I want to have real proof, real evidence to show that I should appreciate what I have in my life. I want to create the mindset that I need to have a better day than the last. That way, it'll really make me live life to its fullest. And the only way to know that I have been living life to the fullest is by actually remembering the good and fun days that I've had. Am I wrong?

Short Nail Salon Visit

This is going to be really short because I have nothing better to do haha.

So this morning, or yesterday morning since it's 12:24 AM now..., my mom woke me up suddenly saying that we had to go to her friend's nail salon store. I asked why we had to go and apparently, this other women needed some extra hands to practice on for some professional thing and my mom and I both were going to provide that extra practice. And even though I only had about 5 hours of sleep, I was excited because I had never gotten my nails done before at a salon.

While we were driving, my mom and I were talking about nail salons in general. You know how stereotype about how all nail salon businesses are owned by Vietnamese families? Like how all laundromats are basically owned my Koreans? Anyway we were so curious as to how that nail salon thing happened. This is a fairly 'new' stereotype because it is only recent that many Vietnamese families have been immigrating into the U.S. compared to Chinese and Koreans. According to my mom's past memories, the nail salon businesses were all owned by Koreans before the Vietnamese. When she visited New York when she was younger, there were Korean people everywhere working in the nail salons. But now they're all pretty much gone and have moved on to laundromats. Our conclusion, the Vietnamese stereotype appeared as they bought those businesses. And Koreans must have sold their businesses and decided to move on to laundromats because they like clothes more than nails. Just a funny thought.

When we got there it was just my me, my mom, my mom's friend, and the other Korean lady who was practicing her skills. My mom's friend showed us a new color that she got and it was a pretty dark grey color. It was gel nail polish too. And of course because my mom have similar tastes, we got the same nail color.

I was embarrassed to get my nails done because I had my pinky fingernail in yellow, and ring fingernail also in yellow with the smiliey face like in the movie 아저씨/Ahjushsi/Man from Nowhere because I recently watched it for the first time and thought it was amazing, so I copied it, and my thumb nail had two different shades of green from trying on different nail polish in Sephora. And the my mom's friend, the owner, the 'more professional' one did my nails (hahaha I was special). But she commented on my nail shape and said that they were neither rounded nor square. I was embarrassed because she's the professional one and she made it sound like the way I cut my nails are really ugly or something.... I thought they were pretty. But then she shaped them rounded square and they actually looked really good.

Yeah, I had this....

I even told my sister that she could write on my other hand 아저씨. I seriously loved this damn movie. Everyone MUST watch it.

Then she put on the base coat, the gel polish, and top coat so freaking fast. I was amazed. Why do I suck at putting on nail polish on myself :(

Anyway, I'm really happy with my nails now. I think they look really good and I LOVE the color. And it's even better because mine were for FREE.

And my mom's friend also does eyebrows... I'm considering it. I mean, I like the shape of my eyebrows because it's like that Korean styled, flat and full shape. But she says that she can make it better and prettier and the reason why I don't want to change them is because I haven't tried out different styles that may be better suited for my face.... hmmm....

Short Christmas

My previous post was a depressing one and I want to MOVE ON!

I'll just briefly talk about my Christmas.

December 23, My family decided to go to New York for a Christmas mini vacation for two nights. We stayed in the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel, which was really nice by the way, especially since we got two rooms and I didn't have to sleep sideways on a bed or on a couch. We met up with my cousins at the restaurant that they work at. Then we met up with my mom's friend's family and I got to meet their two sons who were really nice. We went Chealsea's Market, then to some nice bridge walkway thing, ate at a noisy Chinese restaurant, went to Rockefeller's Center (Christmas tree was UGLY!), and that was basically it. I was sick during the whole time, but it was good. Anyway, pretty good Christmas.

Waldorf Astoria main entrance

We ate at the famous Carnegie Deli Restaurant. There's a big picture of Obama eating one of their deli sandwiches in the front of the store. Honestly, I thought the place was nasty since I don't really eat a ton of meat. And the waiters and waitresses were SHITTY. thatsjustmyopinion...

Family picture!

I should've been at that ice rink...