Hi everyone! I was hoping to start the new year off with a new look for the blog, but I spent my entire winter break in Taiwan visiting my parents, and naturally with all the eating and shopping, there was little time left to do anything else But I do have a lot planned for this blog this coming year (with one of them being more consistent posting), and if any of you have ideas of what you’d like to see more (or less) of on this blog, feel free to let me know as well

As the first post of 2012, I naturally have to do a year in review of 2011. I think the word eventful does a pretty good job of summing up the year, and here are a few of the things that’s happened in 2011:

• My parents moved back to Taiwan and I’m now living on my own¹
• I got surgery to remove part of my Thyroid, and less than 2 weeks later, I got into a car accident.
• I started graduate school, which was a bit of an adjustment from college
• My boyfriend got me a Shelly, my first cat
• In November, we adopted another cat², who was naturally named Cooper. Bazinga!
• In December, Cooper suddenly went blind³ . Vets couldn’t figure out why but said he’s not gonna get his sight back

I know that just from reading that list you’d think that 2011 was a pretty poopy year for me. Honestly I thought so at first but many times the difficulties we face in life turn out to be blessings in disguise. Don’t believe me?

Cooper and Shelly, now living in peace. Oh and they both have 20/20 vision

Sometime during my time in Taiwan, my boyfriend told me that Cooper has somehow regained his eyesight. He called it a Christmas miracle, and I couldn’t have agreed more. Living this away from my parents for the first time was tough, but it has taught me to be more independent. This, coupled with taking care of my cats, also taught me to appreciate my parents’ love and hard work so much more. It’s not easy taking care of another living being!

As for 2012, I don’t know what God has in store for me. I know it will be another eventful year, with my graduation and entering the workforce and all, but I also know that it will be another year filled with His blessings So here’s a happy belated new year + lunar new year to everyone! May 2012 kick ass for us all!Error processing request

Something I try to do whenever I get the chance is to perform a random act of kindness for someone around me. It could be giving a dollar to the homeless person on the side of the road, complimenting a stranger on their outfit, or making a donation to the local charity. It’s a good feeling to be able to give¹ and know that you’ve made a positive difference in someone else’s life. For me, I truly feel more blessed when I give than when I receive

It's easier said than done. I know too many people who give with conditions and take ungratefully.

 I’m sure most of you have probably “work together” with your friends on homework assignments or whatnot. You copy each others answers, but everyone contributes. When someone fails to contribute, they ask nicely if they can copy your answers and then thanks you when they’re done. Well imagine if someone just comes up to you, demands you give them your answers, and doesn’t even say “please” or “thank you”. This person never pays attention in class, never has any idea what’s going on, never does their homework, and only shows up to demand answers.

Unfortunately, I know someone like that in grad school. He’s copied my homework, my in-class assignments, and even one of my exams! I didn’t mind at first² because we all compare answers with each other anyways. But then I started to see that he was always taking, but never giving, and on top of that, he was a total ass about it. How can you demand that someone email you their answers when you didn’t even do squat?? Not to mention, he’d always be shitting on how our courses were so pointless and that he could learn everything in a few hours. Arrogant, rude, and lazy pretty much sums him up. Seriously, it’s hard to feel blessed when you’re giving to people like that

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like being forced to do things against my will. So when someone demands something from me like it’s their fucking birthright, that’s just up-the-butt obnoxious. I also find it hard to give to those who pretend like they’re so pitiful when they’re really not. I once heard in the news that someone pretended to be homeless just to scam pity money from passing strangers, and at the end of the day, they were seen picked up in a fancy car! Or people begging for donations online because they’re “poor”. What is that? D< If you can afford 20 domain names, you’re not fucking poor, you’re just greedy.

Alright, I pretty much just wanted to rant about the moron from school, but seeing these sort of things happening around me continuously kind of inspired the topic of giving vs. taking. What do you all think? Love to hear your opinions in the comments below!

A while back when I first got my HTC Inspire, I shared with you all some of my favorite free apps for customizing your Android phone. But to be fair, that post was written shortly after I received my phone, so I haven’t really gotten the hang of everything yet (it helped that I did some research before hand though ). But after almost 5 months, here is a more in-depth post on customizing your droid, as well as an updated peak at my phone

from left to right: lockscreen - homescreen #1 - homescreen #2 - homescreen #3.

You don’t have to root your phone to achieve this look

I thought rooting was the only way to go before, and while it certainly has its benefits, there are also risks¹. But the truth is, with a custom launcher, a pretty wallpaper, some nifty widgets, a set of sleek looking icons, and a sense of design, your phone can look like it’s running a custom rom

You don’t have to spend big $$$ either

Asides from 2 of my apps/widgets, everything else was free. Even the ones that were paid, they were only around $2 each? You just really have to look around and you’d be surprised at what you can find for free. Some places I like to frequent are the Android Market and xdaDevelopers forum. You can find all sorts of Android related information and goodies there c: Wallbase and Smashing Magazine’s monthly calendars are good places to find quality wallpapers for your screen. As for icons, try various design blogs or this post from xdaDevelopers

Check out other screens for inspiration

I love visiting MyColorscreen to see how others customize their droids. What’s great about this site is that they often list out exactly which widgets they used, as well as a link to their wallpaper. That’s how I found out about a lot of the widgets I use on my current screen. I also downloaded some really nice wallpapers from there

If you’re interested, you can find a full list of the widgets/apps I currently use to create the above look via my MyColorscreen². But here are a list of apps/widgets I recommend for anyone who’s interested in giving their Droid a new look:

• GO Launcher EX – Customize the overall look of your phone using different themes, or create a completely customized look with your own icons and wallpaper. Also allows for custom fonts!
• SwitchPro Widget ($0.99)- Adds a widget so you can turn on or off your wifi, bluetooth, etc right from your home screen. There are other free options out there, but I think this one looks the best
• WidgetLocker Lockscreen ($1.99) – Allows you to customize the look of your lockscreen. xdaDevelopers has a very nice collection of themes you can use with this app
• GO SMS Pro – Replaces the default text messaging app using different themes, or create your own theme from scratch.
• Minimalistic Text – Allows you to create text-based date/weather/time/etc. widgets.
• mClock – A time/date widget that allows for custom skins via XML.
• Executive Assistant – This is nice for those who want to use their phone as a personal planner. It syncs with your apps to lists out your daily agenda, to-do list, unread emails, new texts, etc. You can also use it to display your Twitter or RSS feed!
• Fancy Widgets – Really nice looking weather and clock widget that is also highly customizable.
• SiMi Clock Widget – Another clock/date/weather/battery/etc widget. Highly customizable.

You may notice that some of these are repeats from my previous post, which just means that 5 months later, I still think they’re awesome Some of the previously listed apps are also missing, which isn’t to say they suck, it’s just that after 5 months of usage, I don’t think they’re actually that great. Finally, to prove my point that xdaDeveloper is really a treasure chest of Droid goodness, here’s a comprehensive post on commonly used widgets

Happy customizing and and to everyone who’s celebrating Thanksgiving, an early happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots and shop lots!

I’m pretty sure many of you have seen this tag floating around (at least I have), and based on probability, I figured sooner or later I’d get tagged. Sometimes I ignore the tag because I think the game is dumb, but I find this one interesting and have genuinely enjoyed reading people’s responses. Either way, here are my responses to Krystal’s questions:

1. What is your favourite gadget?
My HTC Inspire. I feel naked when I don’t have it around. My Macbook Pro comes in a close second, but 95% of what I do on there, I can do on my phone.

2. Cookies or cakes?
Cake, especially ice cream cake. I like cookies too, but ice cream cake > cookies.

3. How did you get into blogging?
I got into it when all my other online friends (aka. domain/fan site affiliates) started blogging, all way back when everyone still used Blogger or Greymatter. Yeah, I know. Ancient stuff.

4. If you were given one million USD what would you do with it?
Donate some to charity, and save/invest the rest. I can’t think of any major purchases I’d need the money for right away.

5. Can you live without the internet for a whole month?
Um, no. Can anyone?

6. OSX or Windows? (operating system if you’re unsure what I mean)
OSX of course. No hesitation there

7. Which social group were you/are you in high school? (if there were social groups)
Well, I went to 2 different high schools. The first was an all girls HS in Taiwan, and you either had friends, or you didn’t. People were generally nice to each other and there were no obvious cliques. Thankfully, I belonged in the had-friends group. Now the second high school I transferred to was a different story. As a transfer student to a school where everyone pretty much knew everyone else since elementary school, I automatically fell into the “new kid” group. I made friends, but thank God I was only there for 2 years and it was off to college for me!

8. What is your dream job?
The sad thing is that to this day, I still don’t really know

9. How many children do you want? Boys or girls?
2. A boy and a girl Or 2 girls. But I want at least 1 girl.

10. What is your favourite fairy tale?
Beauty and the Beast. I feel like it’s the only fairy tale where the damsel wasn’t in distress and didn’t need to be rescued by a prince. Instead it was the prince that needed the girl to save him. And it also teaches a good moral lesson: don’t judge a book by its cover!

11. Do you prefer heavy rain or heavy snow?
Definitely heavy snow. One, because I love snow and have wonderful childhood memories associated with snow, and two, heavy snow = no classes. On the other hand, heavy rain = dumb drivers and wet shoes. Yuck. >_<

There Yes, there are rules with this tagging game, but seriously, screw the rules. It’s about time this tagging meme came to an end. But if you insist, feel free to answer the same questions Krystal asked me

I’ve become a fan of drugstore brands lately, and I have to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how great the quality some of these drugstore products are. Today I’m doing a review on the Wet n Wild products I recently purchased at CVS. They were having a 30% off sale, and that means most of these products were around $2 each after the discount¹.

Idol eyes creme shadow pencil in Pixie; Mega Last lip color in 903C and 901B

I’ve developed a newly-found love for lipsticks, so I grabbed these 2 colors since they were the only non-shimmer ones I could find. 903C is a warmer, rosy pink, while 901B is a cooler bubblegum pink with blue undertones. The formula is on the sheer side, but still buildable. Given the price, I’m not surprised that it’s also drier than most other lipsticks I’ve tried. Warning: will look like crap if your lips aren’t super moisturized. I usually apply lip balm before I apply lipstick anyways, so it looks fine, but if you don’t…yikes The packaging also makes me cringe: it looks cheap and the lid isn’t very tight. Make sure it doesn’t fall apart in your purse, or else you might be in for a not-so-pleasant surprise

The creme shadow pencil has a really creamy texture, and though it shows white on my camera, it’s actually more of a champagne color. Very nice for highlighting the inner corners of your eyes or for your bottom waterline I forgot the exact price, but I think it was around $1 after the sale? I will definitely be repurchasing when I run out.

Left: Color Icon eyeshadow trio is 380B - Walking on Eggshells. Right: browbone, eyelid, crease

If you follow a lot of Youtube beauty gurus, you might have heard of this palette, because that’s how I found out about it It’s around $2.50 after the sale, and worth every penny The shadow is very creamy and very pigmented, and though some people complain about the powder getting everywhere and the poor packaging, I haven’t had an issue with either problem yet. Granted the packaging isn’t the best, but for $2.50, I’m not complaining.

Left: Color Icon eyeshadow collection in 736 - Petal Pusher. Right: top row corresponds with the right column of the palette, bottom row with the left.

Another Wet n Wild palette that Youtube gurus talk about. This one was probably only $1 more than the trio, but you get 8 colors instead, which is really nice. However, the browbone shade on the left has very poor pigmentation for some reason. As you can see from the swatches, the color barely shows. Maybe I got a bad palette? Every other color has the same creamy texture and pigmentation level as the trio. My favorites are the colors on the right column; they’re absolutely gorgeous!

Left: Color Icon eyeshadow collection in 738 - Comfort Zone. Right: top row corresponds with the left column of the palette, bottom row with the right.

The left column of the palette is very similar to Walking on Eggshells, but the colors are slightly darker. I don’t usually wear green shadow, but this palette changed my mind. The colors are very flattering, especially the bottom right definer color. It’s a multi-dimensional color that looks like a dark blue-green in the palette, a taupe with a hint of purple in regular lighting, and blue-green again when you view it from a different angle!

So um, yes, I’m in love with these palettes My only complaint about them would be the crummy brushes they came with. They’re an absolute joke, so if you have your own brushes, definitely use those instead. Overall, I’m very satisfied with my Wet n Wild purchases², and I would repurchase most except for the lip sticks.

Disclaimer: Everything was bought with my own money and these opinions are 100% mine.