It's Okay To Fall.

2012-12-30T12:14:00.002-08:00

Case: LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case- $89.99. $92.58 after tax and shipping, -$10 w/ coupon code @ NEWEGG
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-H55M-USB3- $109.99 @ AMAZON
Processor: Intel Core i7-870- $229.99. $251.26 after tax @ Micro Center
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) F3-10666CL9D-8GBSR- $60. $65 with shipping @ NEWEGG
HD: WD Black Caviar 1Tb 7200 RPM SATA- $79.95, $87.35 total with tax @ Central Computers
Power Supply: Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 550w- $60, $65 with tax @ FRY'S ELECTRONICS
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 670- $370 @ AMAZON
WIFI Card: $32

Total: $1073

Pumpkin Risotto with Chicken

2012-08-31T00:21:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:
-2 cups of pumpkin puree
-3 cups of cooked rice (I used purple/brown rice)
-Pinch of cayenne pepper
-1 chicken breast
-3 garlic cloves
-1 tbs of Maxwell House Instant Pumpkin Spice Latte
-1 tbs sweet basil flakes
-1 cup of water

Directions:
-Chop up the chicken breast into 1in cubes
-Chop up the garlic cloves into a fine dice
-Fry the garlic and chicken for 3 minutes
-Add the cooked rice into the pot
-Add the water
-Add the pumpkin puree
-Add the cayenne pepper, Spice Latte, basil flakes, and salt
-Cook until chicken is cooked through

YAY.

Update: Hackintosh Wireless Card

2011-10-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after realizing that I would essentially have to use a 50ft ethernet cable to get internet to my desktop compy, I decided- I NEED a wireless card. I didn't want to have a dongle because as it is, I'm pretty limited to both cash and USB ports therefore, I finally did THIS. Exactly did the instructions. The only thing I'd elaborate on a little more is that in that second picture under Install, to make sure to hook the two wires coming from the antennae into the top corners of the card. It looks like a small white circle with a gold circle and dot in outlining it.

Yeah, I totally didn't do it and then was wondering why it wasn't working.
It makes sense.

Anyways, so that came out to:
$9.99 for the wireless adapter (free shipping)
$16.99 for the BCM94322MC card ($5 shipping)
= $32. I paid more for the wireless adapter for shipping because I needed it ASAP.

So yeah, there you have it. (:

Condo in LA

2011-09-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

I finally finished moving in! It's so nice- no carpet, just tile floors. The tile floors get dirty so easily... but otherwise it's really clean. My room is getting messier just because I'm trying to get settled in some more and packing for school! I'm so nervous about starting at UCLA...

Rent is so expensive! But the condo is so lovely. (:

Hackintosh Build

2011-06-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

Sooo~~ with my MacBook overheating so often at 179ºF and more while running on max RPM, I've decided to build my own hackintosh. The specs rival a MacBook Pro, or whatever. I wanted one that was good and would be reliable for a long time, upgradeable, and good as a hackintosh.

Specs:

Case: LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case- $89.99. $92.58 after tax and shipping, -$10 w/ coupon code @ NEWEGG
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-H55M-USB3- $109.99 @ AMAZON
Processor: Intel Core i7-870- $229.99. $251.26 after tax @ Micro Center
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) F3-10666CL9D-8GBSR- $60. $65 with shipping @ NEWEGG
HD: WD Black Caviar 1Tb 7200 RPM SATA- $79.95, $87.35 total with tax @ Central Computers
Power Supply: ~~Enermax~~ EG565P-VE 535W (though it may be an EG 465. I didn't really check)- ~~$0, I salvaged this from my other computer~~ Had to return it because my family wants to use my other compy.
Power Supply: Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 550w- $60, $65 with tax @ FRY'S ELECTRONICS
Optical CD Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS- $20.99 @ AMAZON
Graphics Card: ~~nVidia quadro 380-~~ ~~$0, I got this from Boyfriend, though I may decide to switch it to my other graphics card from my other computer later on.~~ NOTE: It IS compatible!
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS 258MB- $0, from my other computer.

Misc:

Zip Ties 100 pack- $3.99 @ AMAZON

Snow Leopard- $0, borrowed Brother's disk

In total, it is about $696.18. A lot of the things I bought I got lucky- most of them were on sale. ~~I still need a video card, but I might initially use the onboard graphics with the Mobo or borrow my boyfriend's video card for a while... or take it from my other desktop's build.~~ I took it from my other desktop. ~~I also need an optical drive, but that's $20 or I can also take it from my other desktop as well.~~ I did take my old one from my other desktop, but it's pretty old and still uses Serial ATA cables. So bulky! So I bought the ASUS one (and it will be coming soon in the mail.)

Installation:
The main concern I had with the power supply was that the Mobo had an ATX and a 2x4 ATX 12V. Apparently 2x4 is rare or something? But luckily, my power supply had a (4+4)P 12v CPU connector.

I double checked that all the wires were in the right place and cleaned them up a little bit to make the inside pretty. Turned it on after some apprehension and it worked fine, went into BIOS pretty okay though I did run into a small problem. I couldn't use a USB keyboard, I had to use the PS/2 keyboard (luckily I have both). Enabled USB controllers later on, though my PS/2 mouse doesn't work still. ): I'll figure that out later.

For installation, I'll used iBoot using instructions from here. I won't be able to start until probably mid next week. ~~I'll update once I have everything done.~~
Here is your update:

Started iBoot. The instructions on the actual website, iboot.org sucked and the download didn't want to burn on my CD drive. I got the burnable copy on tonymacx86's blog, burned it... The only issue I had found out was that my keyboard worked, but my mouse didn't. Bummer! The mouse wasn't USB, so I had to borrow my sister's little itty bitty USB mouse. The keyboard is also USB. Both work, though the mouse I had to plug back in after reboot or else it wouldn't work.

Had to restart once- my computer, I think, froze at the initial language setting after iBoot so I had to hard restart. Followed the rest of Tony's instructions. I got stuck after Multibeast's installation-- restarting the computer only gave me the gray apple screen and then a "You need to restart" screen. Sad panda. ): Restarted a few times. I tried to then boot from iBoot- got a restart again. Tried to do boot order from HD primary and then disk drive secondary. Didn't work. Switched it back, restarted with iBoot in the disk drive but not running and it worked! (Wtf but anyways).

Installed some more stuff from Multibeast, installed updates EXCEPT 10.6.8. Restarted.... got the error message again to restart my computer. SAD PANDA. ): Verified and repaired Disk Permissions in Disk Utility. Didn't work.

THE FIX:
Basically, I have to insert iBoot, then choose my HD from there- iBoot would not work. Kept on getting lots of panics, so at this point I switched my graphics card to a known compatible one. Decided I did something wrong during installation so this is what I did:
1.) insert iBoot, restart.
2.) At bootup screen, I took out my iBoot CD and inserted the Mac OSX installer disk.
3.) Erased the partition that had all of the OSX on it.
4.) Reinstall Snow Leopard in the HD partition
5.) After booting, I used Multibeast + 10.6.8's update. With Multibeast, I used this website/guide to help me after I realized that the Kernel Panics were due to drivers not being there with my other graphics card (so... probably, my other graphics card would have worked. Sigh...).
VOILA! It was fixed. If I knew this beforehand, it would have saved me 3 hours of my life. Oh well.

I changed my graphics card to the other one that I wasn't using because my GeForce one is loud. I didn't have any problems whatsoever.

Sound: it initially didn't work in the top port of the case, but the fix was both Multibeast's audio drivers and toggling with the settings in System Preferences. Works! (:

Wireless Card: I'm planning on doing this later on as well, once I'm finished with my build for wireless connectivity, but that's about $75? If even, so at least if I can keep this build under $800, I'll be happy. Since I'm at home, I can easily use ethernet since the router is in my room.

Keyboard: ~~I have a few crappy keyboards at home under my bed, so I'll use that for the time being (or, yeah, take it from my desktop at home).~~ Bought the Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard with Backlighting for $42 off of Craigslist and used DoubleCommand for Command to act as Option key and vice versa- basically, the Home/windows key becomes the option/alt key, and the alt key becomes the command key. Yays! (: I fking love this keyboard. You really can't use a Ps/2 keyboard with this mobo, it doesn't work well. USB is your best bet for both mouse and keyboard.

Screen brightness controls: So after a while, after sitting in the dark, I realized my eyes hurt. I put the brightness on my monitor all the way down- didn't help. Tried downloading sooo many other hackintosh-specific applications that would help- shades, etc. Didn't work! So I went on the App Store and downloaded the free app, Dimmer than Dim. So useful and it totally works.

I'm still having trouble with this computer and the whole sleeping issue. I tried using SleepEnabler.kext but ohmg I really didn't understand how to use it. Even after installing it (I think?), it didn't work. I'll try later though. I'm uber tired today. ):

Contacts!

2011-05-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

So I bought 3 sets of gray contact lenses. Luna and Vassen I bought were from www.koreabigeyes.com and the other one, Beaucon, I bought from www.honeycolor.com

Luna King Gray
(Vassen) Hyper Size Gray
Beaucon Vibrant Match Gray

Both were $24/ea and shipped pretty fast. They came in really cute bottles.

Luna King (L), Vassen (R)
With light

Luna King (L), Vassen (R)
With less light

If you click the pictures, you'll be able to see the difference more clearly. As you can tell, the Luna King is a circle lens, which makes the eyes look huge, and has a lot stronger gray in it.

Luna King Gray (L), Beaucon Vibrant Match (R)
Less light

Luna King Gray (L), Beaucon Vibrant Match (R)

Both Luna King
Less light

Both Luna King
With light

So many changes!!

2011-05-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

So as a second year at UCR, I decided to try my hand at transferring to a UC closer to home. I applied to UCD, UCBerkeley, and UCLA.

I figured I might as well, since my grades were pretty good- I applied with a 3.7 GPA with Honors, Chancellor's List and Deans List for some consecutive quarters, as well as multiple extra-curriculars. I was worried because I didn't have a math (UCR only required me to take either a math or a computer science class. I opted for CS.) and my units at the end of my second year were going to be a projected 130.5- 30.5 over the maximum transfer limit. Knowing this, I tried not to hold my breath.

The date for knowing if I was accepted or not loomed closer- the end of April. I was nervous- I couldn't search for housing for UCR for the next year if I wasn't staying. I refreshed the pages every so often until my boyfriend, whom I was IMing during class, told me that UCD's acceptance website is up. I checked and waited with anticipation- UCD was my first choice. I scanned the page- REJECTED!

A week later, I checked my other ones. My boyfriend again IMed me when UCLA came out. I was dejected and I felt like my chances were pretty slim, especially since UCD had rejected me. Whatever, I was a UC to UC transfer student, chances with that were already pretty slim. But again, I scanned the page and saw the words "CONGRATULATIONS!" I was in Geology class, but my heartbeat quickened and swelled- wtf, wait what? I reread it again and again. All I could think was "wtf."

UCBerkeley, of course rejected me. I hear that they switch off and it's rare for someone to get both UCB and UCLA.

I'm stressed now, I have many things to think about. Housing, scholarship (if I even get it), financial aid (if I get it), and friends/family/boyfriend.

Congrants to me!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lately, I've been trying to destress myself by perpetually doing my nails, looking at nail polish (blogs), and bikes, even though I have them. Oh well.

I'm going to dye my hair hopefully sometime this week to destress. Change is needed! (:

Mac Cosmetic's 4 Eyeshadow Palette

2011-04-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Excuse the mirror effect my webcam has. >>;;

So I bought this on 3/27/11 and got it today, at 4/5/11. Not too bad with shipping, though it is still a long time. My payment for some reason was being processed for a while (I compulsively check my orders).

I opened it and saw this.

So, I was a little confused. I mean, what the heck are those little pivots in the eyeshadow holes for? I don't know for sure, but I think it's so that you can pull the tray out easier, or to pop out the eyeshadows already in the tray. I had a little trouble popping it out at first so I used a small flathead screwdriver to help with some leverage. After that first time, it's easy to pop out.

I think the most disappointing thing for me is that the tray is magnetic, but the actual container is not. So for my eyeshadows that are half-circle shaped or smaller or bigger and aren't magnetic, they won't fit. Sadness!

I just noticed another thing, looking at the tray-less box. Because of the mechanism for the tray to pop into, the bottom of the inside is not completely flat. If you see the picture of the palette by itself, you can see those two horizontal lines. The middle is raised by a little bit, which means that you can't completely try to stuff the palette with eyeshadows if you're going to try to work around it.

I went on amazon.com and bought a sheet magnet with an adhesive side. (Two sheets 6x9in for less $7!) Hopefully I can put that in and it'll be fine. What a hassle. Their other palette that I bought, their 3x5 (15) palette had a magnetic bottom. This does not. Hopefully the sheet magnet won't make my eyeshadows protrude outside the case, and it'll flatten out that weird protruding area so that there's more continuity among the surfaces and I can stuff it.

2011-03-07T00:22:00.000-08:00

Tarte: Flush Cheek Stain

So I had been curious with this product. I had never tried a cheek stain so on a whim, I bought one from this website. Appx $17, and so I figured, why the heck not since it retails for $30.

I basically just tapped it onto my cheek so I could build it on.

I did a small pikachu-sized dot on both my cheeks and rubbed it all around where I wanted it to be. (Actually, that was too much for me. I had to wipe off some after I blended it).

Blending blending!!

This was before I wiped some of it off on a towel so you can see how natural it is even though there's a lot on it. The pictures with the Tarte lip stain is the wiped-up, blended version.

It looks really really natural. You can barely tell in the photo, but honestly, it's really amazing. I could technically lather it on, but really... that wouldn't look very good. It just looks like I'm slightly blushing, did a short jog, or slapped myself a little bit.

At first I was scared that it wouldn't complement my skin color because all of the reviews I had found online and swatches were on caucasian-type skin. Not to mention, there wasn't a lot of pictures in general on it. Aside from looking natural, it gives me a really nice looking glow on my face.

Tarte: Lively LipSurgence Matte Lip Stain

I bought this product a while ago at Sephora, but it's one of my favorite products as well. Although it really dries out my lips if used by itself.

You can see how little product I use. It's just a small line on my bottom lip.

Also, please disregard the weird pose I did here.

So I blended it on my lips. This product is really really hard to move around without a gloss or some other type of lip balm since it really lives up to it's name of being matte. I used my Clinique superbalm lip treatment on top of it this time, but usually all I do is ChapStick right before I apply the lip stain.

Close up! Homg, my bottom lip looks huge. Contouring!

I like this product over a lot of others just because it looks like I'm wearing lipstick but without that weird lipstick texture and I don't have to worry about it sliding around/eating it. I just gotta be careful with whites though... You can compare my lip color with the top pictures of the cheek stain- I did this all in one sitting cos I'm that bored.

So I've been playing with fake eyelashes...

2011-01-18T01:33:00.000-08:00

Fake lashes!!

I've realized why a lot of girls look so cute so often and it's because of their lashes! I finally got around to messing around with them seriously.

I bought a Japanese ぎゃる (gyaru) magazine called "ageha" and decided I would do a test with my lashes and see if I can accomplish their sort of look.

This is what I based it off of- sorry if it is crooked, I don't know how to rotate. >.<

This is what I came up with...

Close-up

I realized that after I did this look, I didn't draw my eyeliner thick enough. I also didn't do a fake "extension" iris by waterlining the center of my waterline. I would have rimmed the rest of my waterline with white, but my urban decay white eyeliner isn't great for that, as is my depotted nyx jumbo eyeshadow... -sigh- and I've been looking for a good white eyeliner for a while now, too.

I think for now though, it's fine for a test run. (: Gyaru makeup is so interesting~~