AhNa: July 2013

Sun.☮July 28☮2013 ღ Hey Check it out!

1:10 AMAlaina

Weds.☮July 24☮2013 ღ Green Tea filters the mind..

3:57 PMAlaina

What?!'s with the title lol..I really don't know? But I am sure green tea is super beneficial to thy body!

I honestly am serious when I say I don't remember the last time my face was pimple-less (-- like this break you get in-between a war, get it?), especially those big, red and painful ones. It's so weird that if you are like me who've had pimples for half of your life, you are forced to accept them as part of your life, or part of your face. It's easier for me to talk about my skin problems now than ever before, because come on! Life goes on even if your face is full of flaws- cruel, I know. I might go more in depth* on my journey of struggle with acne growing up in future posts (be sure to check back for gross acne pics :( ) But this is a happy post okay?

*well, not tooo in depth, If I were to go wayyy in depth, I think I can prob write a book about it, an autobiography of acne or some sort, dam sad and boring.

Since my face have not had any big zits lately, I thought I would document it with pictures

(PS: I've always dread taken closeup pictures, or even just pictures, exceptions: selfies or with crappy cameras).

right side of mah face, scars, blemishes :(

left side looks a bit better, lalalala

I believe that my relaxing life style this summer break definitely helped to better my skin. I will list my 'life style changes' (which are not at all dramatic) I've made in order of importance.

1. Sleep: although I am guilty of sleeping at the whee hours in the AMs, but I am now able to to get at least 7 hours of sleep everyday, 9 hours the max. Sleeping too much is just going to tire you early in the day. (Isn't it just IMPOSSIBLE to get enough hours of sleep when you are in college? Not sleeping for at least 7 hrs a day is just absolute torture to me.)

2. Water/Green Tea: especially in this weather where my face gets extremely oily and the body (at times) sweats like crazy. The first thing I do every morning once I wake up is to drink 1 FULL glass of water, and drink as much as you can throughout the day.

3. Healthier food: The food that I eat at home contains much less sodium, oil and sugar compare to what I eat on campus (there really was no choice, having salad for every meal is just impossible for me). I simply know what I am putting into my body with the food I eat at home, so eat healthy whenever you can.

4. A set schedule of face routine: all that there was to my skincare routine when I live on campus was cleanse & moisturize, like that's literally it. No exfoliation nor masks, very bad (time is the problem T_T). But now I cleanse everyday (2x a day), exfoliate every other day and put on some kind of mask (mostly clay mask, to control my overly productive face oil) once a week.

5. Take advantages of the fruits in season: I now have the time to make juices out of fresh fruits. Recently, I've been having cherry + blueberry + unsweetened soy milk smoothie, just put all in a blender and there ya go!. TOO good to describe, you gotta try! If I could have it everyday, I totally would.

(does it not sound like I am blaming college for everything? oh yeah...I would totally agree with you)

I don't want to bet, because I know I would lose. My face is probably going to go back to its near disastrous stage once school starts.... poor me. There are just times when I try to make an effort to make things better, but then I found myself being eau-so helpless in some situations----> life.

Oh~~~one more thing, I finished this Korean drama "Rooftop Prince" in 3 days...+nights, go figure.

---think positive---,

ღAlaina

college grateful life

Sat.☮July 20☮2013 ღ OVER reacted!?

11:44 AMAlaina

It's that time of the year again!! OMG! What time of the year? The time to buy textbooks!! -The life of a college student- O GOD! I mean, you might be thinking it's just BUYING textbooks, why is she making such a fuss about it, right?? but no! It's going to be such a huge process for me, because it means that I have to spend a couple of hundreds when I am already broke COUGH**!! On top of that, I will also need to do lots of calculations and do lots of research to find the best deals possible, why shouldn't this be a BIG deal!! I especially hate those courses that have tons of readings and you have to buy like 10 novels for that one class! come on right? Why can't it be just like buy one freaking huge novel and be done with -.- If you are someone like me who are willing to do all kind of research to avoid spending a few hundreds less, I will give you some saving tips :)

Find out all the books that you'll need for the up-coming semester from your school, I look up mine from my school's bookstore website.
Write down the titles, ISBN's and prices (used ones if possible) for each book, I usually do this on Excel, but tables work just fine on Words.
Go on comparison websites to compare textbook (new and used ones) prices. The two that I found the most helpful are cheapesttextbooks, and bookfinder.
Definitely consider selling back textbooks that are not related to your fields of study, e.g. common requirement courses/ electives, you can also compare textbook buyback prices using the the links above.
If even used books are out of your budget, consider renting your books.

Disadvantages of renting textbooks:

-the deadline to send back your books could be before your finals

-if lost, you got to pay it

- can't keep them to study for exams after college, like for graduate school

After all, maybe I should just try to stress-fully enjoy this moment, because it's 'technically' another online shopping experience of mine; who doesn't like online shopping? You must be kidding me! Plus, there won't be any more of these kinds of stressful moments once I am out of college, so let me learn to complain less.

Continuing on the topic of college.....College education is an investment that I can't afford to hire an investor to look over, well, let's pray to god that I, myself can make some good investment decisions. I definitely want to pay off my debt asap when I get out of college. I hope college is WORTH it. T_T but then, I am wondering why there are so many people who are working different jobs that are not related to their college degree..

left me wondering....

ღAlaina

fashion outfits video

Weds.☮July 17☮2013 ღ If you keep believing, it will come true.

12:01 AMAlaina

life thoughts

Mon.☮July 15☮2013 ღ Time, where are you going, wait for me.

11:04 PMAlaina

fashion OOTD outfits

Hype ME :P

5:50 PMAlaina

life thoughts

Fri.☮July 12☮2013 ღ You know when you know.. for sure.

5:37 PMAlaina

Let me spill out a little something about myself , I don't know where to begin..

I used to be this girl who was suppppper shy, I guess not like shy - shy, but I was not the girl who look like she was friendly nor approachable. I don't why that was but I was this 'cool' girl that one of my friends (or all, idk) would describe, but once they get to know me, they find me to be a bit cra-cra and too much, I guess most people are like that? To conclude, I am not the type of person to say the first 'hi' if someone approach me, if that make sense :).

Never did I know how much 'that change' could change me or how much that change would make me ME, the one I did not recognize before, that real me. I've always wanted to be..just me, but didn't know how and I was afraid. I guess the me before was just...not too me, so I was kinda lost, confused? dont be! so what was that change? I guess that change pretty much started after my trip back to China in '11. I can't exactly recall how it came to be, but I know it was then that I realize there's something deep inside me that I am passionate about, which I never, ever felt before. If it wasn't for this, maybe I would still be lost in that middle of the ocean ( which has long been my status)...struggling..

I've always been eau-so super self-conscious about my look..you know, insecurities. I mean, I have slowly moved on from that stage where I cared way too much of how others look at me, the way they think about me, maybe they don't notice even me at all, lol, I was just... -self conscious- that's about it. All those negative thoughts, I say, let them go. The one thing that allowed me to just be me is discovering what I love, what I am really interested in, and that is....style/ fashion. Dont get me wrong, I understand fashion is subjective and people tend to be very judgmental about it, but I don't mean the 'looks'. Anyway, I felt in love because knowing my style and knowing how I want to be presented totally changed me, because I no longer cared how people look at me so I can definitely dress to my liking, just the way I want. AND that, is also the reason that I moved out of my 'comfort zone' and started this blog and YouTube, basically just sharing with whoever. Yeah, people can judge, point out my flaws, all that physical things on the outside, but deep inside, I know I am still me.

Sharing Pics soon,

ღAlaina

grateful life thoughts

Weds.☮July 10☮2013 ღ What's your thought on....

6:43 PMAlaina

I've been having this thought on life (yeah, like definitely not sure what sparked that thought?) ... I was trying so hard to try to put life in the simplest form that I can, then the idea of balloon came to mind...? oh really? balloon? Can you make any connection between life and balloon as of now? hmmm, no? not yet? well maybe not even after I explain my thought . oh silly.

So here's how the story goes.
I had this Creative Poetry course last semester, well, not the worst course I've picked, it was actually quite relaxing for me as I only had it once a week (that lazy side of me). Through out the course, we had to read lots of poems and I must admit that many of them made not much sense to me nor the other people in my class. The thing is, poetry is ...very perceptive to your own experiences., it's very individualized to the readers themselves (in a way that you interpret it with what you've personally experienced) , just like style? get it? A poem can be like a very condensed piece of puzzle that has soo many clues in it that even the most experienced detective might have a hard time solving. I've read some poems that made complete nonsense to me, they were just weird, out of no where, metaphors that I thought "what the heck!" That's when I concluded that poets are virtually stylists because they can put the most random ideas together and make their poems (outfits) unique, and thus making them very subjective to each reader and everyone has their own take on poems/fashion. I applause you, poets.

Now have you gotten some idea of where my 'life like a balloon' idea sorta came from? yeah, blame it on my course.

But how is life like a balloon? Let me try not to complicate my thought...
I think most of us have played with balloons before, no? When you buy a pack of balloons, they are not inflated, just laying there..like a newborn?. But then, when you start to blow air into it, it slowly yet surely gets bigger and bigger, and in no time, it gets big enough to fly in the air.. care free...until this one day, when it gets too high or gets stuck or just pops .. then it's over. BAM! there ya go, my take on LIFE.

until next post,

ღAlaina