I'm Naturally Rosy, That's All

So I had my French exam in the morning and then I had to lead a small group discussion in my epidemiology workshop later in the afternoon. Oh boy.

The room was cold so I kept my jacket on.

Except once I stood up to draw causal pathways and variables on the blackboard, I realized that I have nerves of yogurt. As in, with more than even three pairs of eyes trained on me, I start melting. Suddenly, suddenly!, I was overheated and I could literally feel the warmth radiating from my cheeks.

It's like I just downed a bottle of vodka - cue Asian glow! And the worst thing about blushing is that you know that you're turning beet red, but you can do absolutely nothing to stop it! Nothing!

(Unless someone does know a way. In that case, please share the wealth. Except I don't mean advice like "Dude, just pack ice in your pockets and whip it out." Not funny.)

Presentations, sighs. All that kept running through my head as I talked with my cheeks singeing the air was "GAH! DON'T LOOK AT MEEEE!"

Next up: Endless exams. Where's a Superhero when you need one? Gosh, I'd even take a sparkly vampire.



Edit: I was wondering for a while why the heck the Google Ads that appear on this blog keep showing ads for Lip Plumpers. Then I realized it's most likely because of my post on Chuck Bass' pout. I found that amusing.

Fanart - Rose-Rayne and Anonymous

So Rose-Rayne (deviantART profile linked) sent an awesome fanart of Will! Gah, one fanart gives me the giddiness of receiving like ... 76.5 character pics at once! Major whoa.

Thanks, dear Rose-Rayne!

William Carter by Rose-Rayne

Look it! He even has the kickass T-shirt he wore in Chapter 23. :)

Speaking of fanart, this reminded me of some pictures I received way back in the False Facades days and I thought these fanart deserved to be posted up as well:

Samantha Westlane - Anonymous

Vincent Grenford - Anonymous

Tristan Harland - Anonymous

Thanks for the lovely artwork, Rose-Rayne and Anonymous! You guys are amazing.

Busy, Busy!

I've been getting to bed at 3 in the morning this past week for papers and exams. It's quite sad when the fox in my Gmail theme gets to bed earlier than I do. Three little foxy ghosties pop up instead to play Go outside the house so at least, I get animated animal spirits to keep me company.

Beyond sad.

It's cold and I have a heat dish on that just started blaring. That can't be good.

I have to work with describing and calculating confounding variables in the association of alcohol consumption with lung cancer right now and my group members are hiding from me. Heads will roll tomorrow if they show up without any work done. No joke. Friends say I'm a dictator during group projects.

Short post today because I'm really stressed out. It's crunch time for papers and finals and board exams so I'm having a hard time getting writing done. I got three pages for the next chapter of TM. :(

On a happier note, I got fanart! :) And a few more pictures to post up later on.

Until then, got chivalry?



Edit: Oh, btw, speaking of chivalry, did anyone go see the Twilight movie? Someone sent a short clip of the theater experience and all I heard was these animalistic moans and shrieks. From the audience.

Gmail Themes

I adore Gmail. I literally have everything saved there, i.e. story chapters, short stories, term papers, photo backups, etc. If apocalypse ever hits and for some odd reason, I am the only person left alive with the most invincible beings on earth (i.e. the cockroaches), Gmail will be right up there on my list of things to mourn. For that matter, I simply just love Google the company itself. Is there anyone in this age who doesn't visit Google at least once per day?

And thus ends my fangirl -

Wait, no! Because now they've turned out Gmail Themes! Hark, what is this glory I behold!

I was mighty irritated last night though when I had to find out from my friend that Themes were being rolled out. I was absolutely clueless and couldn't seem to be able to find the tab that my friend insisted was under settings. I thought she was lying to me since friends tend to do that, especially when you're online where you can't witness their smirks and snickering, so I went to - what else? - Google it. Turns out there were pretty themes being added to our Gmail accounts to spice things up and I was just not one of the lucky ones who got that awesome tab option last night.

They promised though that the feature would be rolled out slowly through the next few days. That still didn't stop me from wondering for hours if I had done something wrong. ("I love you, Gmail. Why do you not love me back? That so-called friend of mine doesn't even use you that often. I, on the other hand, check you religiously." *Whispers* "She doesn't deserve this.")

So within several minutes, friend's Gmail actually, for some miraculous reason, died on her and she couldn't even get the log in page up anymore so she ran and left nasty messages on my facebook (since no pretty Gmail for her!) about how I had probably sent too many whining, tearful chat messages to her and killed her account. I laughed.

Our friendship is loving in its own brutal way.

So themes will infiltrate and take over Gmails pretty soon over these next few days (while hyping it up even more and making the people who didn't get it yet feel like the losers who didn't get an invitation to the popular kids' party, I guess), but I believe it might be in order of how long your account has been around. This morning, lo and behold!, I received my pretty themes. Right now, my account's set on Tea House, which follows the time of your region and shuffles scenery around, with the sun setting into evening. (It's dusk now and a fox is sitting out in the backyard with some ducks, playing a flute, amongst peach trees.)

I also like the Ninja options - throwing stars to star your items!

Friend has hers set on Zoozimps (am I the only one who keeps typing Zoopimps instead?)

I'm easily pleased.

Like Aged Wine

So I stopped by the DMV the other day, but it was just closing so I couldn't get anything done and had to leave. But this security office guy there comes up to me and was like "How can I help you?" and seems all sympathetic, "Oh yeah, it's too late. Try coming by half an hour earlier next time."

So I'm just "Oh, okay. Thank you." But then he stopped me just as I was turning for the door and asked "How old are you?"

Bewildered, I said, "Twenty one?" (I don't know why I felt the urge to reply in a question - you ever hesitate over your answers even though it's a fact like that? - like maybe I was afraid he'd whip out handcuffs if I didn't say the right number and was preparing myself to babble on "NO WAIT, I MEAN TWENTYFIVESIXISH!")

"Oh." His face turned skeptical with this slight smirk. "Because you look twelve."

So I just stood there, all conflicted, like ... "ARE YOU FOR REAL! HOW CAN YOU BE SERIOUS - oh. Wait. Hmm. Thank you." Then I flounced away.

I didn't quite know how to react since my first instinct was to get all offended, but then I realized that I'm not getting any younger these days so with my nightly bouts with insomnia and lack of sleep, perhaps I should take it as a good sign that I don't seem as worn out and wrinkly as I thought? Maybe? Yeah?

Then again, I'm pretty sure being taken as a preteen at my age isn't exactly something to brag about either.

Baby-faced friend K was like "If you look twelve, then I look eight."

Other friends voiced in "Pfft! You so don't look twelve! It happens to Asians all the time! We just age really well!" Cue flipping of hair over shoulders.

Except, now that they say that I so don't look twelve, then I wonder how old do I really look then? Why can't I be twelve! I'm still young and youthful, aren't I?

Seriously. I'll forever be a Toys R' Us kid.

In other news, I hate papers and I hate finals and I hate miniboards that cover a year's worth of material, especially since I can't even rock an exam that covers a quarter of one semester.

And I despise deadlines.

When I grow up (and am no longer twelve), I shall be ... a Terminator.

Birthdays

There are a lot of birthdays these days. First it was my cousin's birthday and the next day was a friend's 21st. This past Thursday, I didn't get home til around 1 in the morning because of the friend's birthday bash. He wanted to go to a bar and then a club and things didn't get started until 10pm. I left early.

Since I chose to go straight from school instead of commuting back home, I had quite some time to kill. I found myself wandering a Barnes & Noble, perusing four floors of books. For such a bad economy and all the doom and gloom surrounding the publishing industry, it was nice to see the bookstore packed. People had a hard time finding seats, especially since you're not supposed to sit in the aisles, blocking the shelves. I flipped through one of Tess Gerritsen's newest books and wandered through the YA section with all the books from Stephenie Meyer, Lauren Myracle, Melissa Marr, Sarah Dessen, etc. etc. I believe the staff picks featured Lauren Myracle's Bliss, Meyer's Twilight series (naturally), Judy Blundell's What I Saw And How I Lied, and of course, Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games. I can't wait for the next book from Collins. The Hunger Games rocked my socks off.

There was an event going on around 7pm with Paul Simon though so that definitely helped pulled in a larger crowd.

After that, I met up with a friend for Korean food and Pinkberry (the newest oh so pink Pomegranate flavor! With pomegranate toppings! Chockful of antioxidants! Except I really can't taste the difference between it and the original.). And visited Sephora for more perfume and make-up goodness - we're addicts.

Finally, FINALLY, we met up with a bunch of people for the birthday events. Birthday boy danced his butt off and got all scandalous and we just plied each other with drinks.

Exhaustion.



Is this not the saddest yet funniest thing ever? :(

Through Me Chapter 24

Through Me Chapter 24 is up! Things are slower in this chapter, but everything will pick up again next installment.

By the way, I wanted to wish my lovely cousin a very happy belated birthday! I got her some make-up stuff and she gives the new Clinique Lash Power Mascara Long Wearing Formula thumbs up. I read good reviews for it and since she wanted a waterproof, long staying mascara, I picked it up for her to try out. According to her, you need no eye make-up remover and it rinses off with warm water in the shower. Oooh.

But what happens if you tear up? Supposedly, it takes several splashing of warm water to get it off though so it sounds good to me. Unless I'm planning to bawl my eyes out, it seems like an awesome mascara. Easy to wear, easy to clean.

And this ends your commercial of the day. We return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Basshole Pouts & Voyeuristic Bubble Baths

I took my Biochem exam yesterday and it was horrific. I can't even think about it without feeling the need to curl up into a random corner of my room. The end.

Also, because of my furious cramming and essay writing, I am so behind on NaNoWriMo that my NaNoWriMo calendar widget so far is coded alarm red because that's supposed to be the color when I've done monstrously bad. That's sure to be alarming.

So I went on a night of braindead frenzy instead as I caught up with random TV shows. Watched Gossip Girl and marveled at the way Chuck Bass can do his "pursing of the lips in cynical thought" thing (a.k.a. the Basshole pout?), the number of times his soulful lips juts out is probably more than all the girls in the show combined. And these are high elite teenage girls who have to stress about, like, getting into Yale, hitting all the hot spots, hooking up with cute boys, trying to get family time in with Mommy and Stepfather #5, AND making sure they still look damn hot. Whoa, these brave souls with their lipgloss slicked lips must be true masters at holding back their angsty facial expressions.

That being said, Chuck Bass is my favorite Gossip Girl character. I have an unhealthy fondness of watching the sadistic relationship between Blair and Chuck - they just make things so much more interesting. (A side note, the couple's joint name is CHAIR? What? Bluck wasn't cool enough?)

Chair Reunion. Or Team Bluck. Featuring Chuck Bass' Blue Steel pout.

Next up was America's Next Top Model. What is going on with that show? One minute, the awkward, eccentric European Marjorie is wrangling her hands and going "I'm so insecure!" and the next, she's frolicking in the bathtub with two other girls, having a threesome bubble bath. Episode 11, she follows her go-sees debacles up with a second tearful bath while her best buddy sits along the side of the tub, sipping from a mug as she observes Marjorie bathing and bemoaning, "I wish I was more confident!"

I don't know about you, but the last time I took a bath with someone watching was when my mom still had to prop me up so I wouldn't drown.

Or who knows, maybe I'm just the odd one who doesn't rank friends watching you take a bath up there as a fun girl-bonding session. Hmmm.

Back to writing papers and working on the next chapter (How do you get out of awkward situations? Adel says: Run.) in between trying to claw my way back up to a NaNoWriMo friendly word count.

Through Me: Character Pics - Izzie

candypop117 (a.k.a. Isabella, Iz, Izzie, Bel, Bella, or Izzie :) sent some more pictures (this time with a Tristan!) over.

Says Izzie:
I was checking out your blog a few minutes ago and with all the pictures I just couldn't resist sending you my ideas...

My very own Tristan (Doug Pickett) seemed to match everyone else's Tristan..which is pretty good in my opinion but there's this one picture of him that just hits home...well for me anyway:

Tristan Harland - Doug Pickett



Adeline Bradbury - Paula Taylor







"Her name's Paula Taylor (Thai-Australian). She's an actress and a model, and I personally think she's so cute! Most people may recognise her from the Amazing Race Asia." - Izzie

Thanks for the pictures, Izzie! Even though your Tristan is the same as a previous post, it's always nice to see more pictures of particularly appealing guys. :)

Through Me: Adel Pics - Jessica

I got quite a few pictures the other day for characters and here's the first post:

Apparently, Alex Prettyfer has a lot of love so there's one more fan on his side and Jessica didn't feel the need to search for another Tristan. However, she was inspired to go Adel-hunting, braving the perils of the internet search engine.

Says Jessica:

"I don't actually look up pictures very often, so I don't have much experiance with this kind of stuff. Oh my gawwwd, it's so scary. Half the sites on google lead to semi-pornographic images (which thankfully I didn't click). One that I thought was safe actually had a disclaimer that said "enter if you want to see explicit sexual images". I fairly ran away from that site. >_<

Oh, the things I do, as a loyal fan, to obsess over your story.
This is why you should update more riight? <33
Just kidding, I know you're busy.

Meh, I don't actually agree with the Adels that were posted up. They seem to, I dunno, classy. Adel seems like a really average-ish girl who shines on the inside more than the outside. I wouldn't think of her as a stunning beauty. But I guess that's just my interpretation.

That being said, I present to you my hour of google searching. Appreciate the hazardous websites that I braved to get these images. Oh my. D:

Oh, I do appreciate it. I really do. :) I know too well the kinds of weird images that pop up whenever I try to search for something. ("Why is there a lady reclining on a table in stockings and a red bra here? I thought I was looking for Chicken and Waffles ...")

Without further ado, here are the new pictures, courtesy of Jessica's fearless efforts:


Adeline Bradbury - China Chow (British actress) (That's one funky name, btw.)







"Last one is kind of weird, but it was on the page, so hahaha, I just included it. That's China Chow btw." - Jessica.


Adeline Bradbury - Celina Horan (Model)





"Celina Horan also makes an okay Adel, but she's too, uhh, angular and flawless for my liking, but the second picture with the tree really reminds me of something Adel would do. (:" - Jessica

Once again, thanks, Jessica, for taking the time to look up pictures!

Yes We Can

Congratulations to the President-Elect Barack Obama!

Last night, for a moment there, I was worried about the Bradley effect or if there might be another repeat of the Florida fiasco, but Obama and his team have persevered. Throughout this grueling campaign process, he'd maintained his calm composure and has shown class and grace in the face of relentless attacks on his character. I'm proud of our nation and while the near future probably won't be free of rough patches, I know I'm looking forward with hope. Last night was a testimony to our belief in the democratic system and I thought both contenders handled the election results with professionalism. Kudos to McCain for his long, hard-fought campaign battle and for his gracious concession speech. Congratulations to Obama for his triumphant victory and his powerful speech in Chicago. May Obama's new administration offers the change we want and need, as it continues to inspire thousands to make a difference everyday.

While I was coming home from school, this girl asked the man next to me if he knew where she could find a copy of The New York Times. Dressed in casual Columbia sweatpants, she'd apparently been shuffling all around in search of a copy of the elusive newspaper with its bold headline: OBAMA.

The man told her that he had looked for it himself and couldn't find a copy from three different news stands. It was sold out everywhere.

Across the nation, throughout the whole world, everyone knows that we are witnesses to a new page in history. Generations later, we will probably look back at this time and pull out these very same newspaper clippings to reminisce on this day, the day the United States chose change.

Election 2008

Duh. For those of you living in the United States, I hope you're exercising your patriotic right! Unless you just woke up from hibernation, I think we all know how important this election is, especially since the next President will have to pick up the slack left from the ..... that was the past eight years. Since it's late in the day, hopefully you've already voted. If not ... there's still time yet in certain states!

Through Me: Adel Pics - Sascha and Magz

More pictures, courtesy of Sascha! Apparently, her ideal Tristan has already been posted up, but she has a new face for Adel:

Adeline Bradbury - Kristin Kreuk





Thanks for sending in your thoughts, Sascha! I was super excited for more pictures. :) Again, for any readers who would like to send in images for characters, please feel free to do so.

Edit: Magz also agrees with Kristin Kreuk and has shown her support by throwing in another grungified picture for Adel. :)

Since I think they should go together, I decided to team up your pictures here rather than separating them into different posts. That, and the fact I'm kinda lazy at the mo'.

But behold!


Adel à la hides in the garden, falls from a tree, wrestles with Tristan in a bush, slaughters dust in the attic?

Thanks, Magz, for your input!

Fowl Play

Okay, I lied when I said I was gonna get started on my essay. Brain cells not functioning well right now.

I came across this really, really old piece of news last weekend about amazing celebrity mishaps and I think it's my weird funny bone trigger. I just couldn't stop laughing my head off whenever I thought about it even though it was probably quite scary and painful at the time.

Fabio went to Busch Gardens back in 1999 to do a promotional event for a new roller coaster, Apollo's Chariot. Locked into the middle seat of the front row, the ride set off and by the time the ride ended, they rolled back into the station with Fabio looking oh-so-serious with blood splattered across his nose and cheeks.

Apparently, as the ride passed over a pond on a descent, the serene geese floating upon the lake were spooked and ...

A bird hit him in the face.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! He had two lovely costumed ladies to his left and right and the stray goose does a kamikaze into his face!

It must be all that "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" pheromones.

Laughing Girl: Yah, I totally placed the hit on you, Fabio. Not butter, my BUTT!

Park officials said that no sign of the bird was found (cue creepy X-Files music?), but I think a park guest mentioned that a dead goose was found floating in the pond after the ride. Either Fabio killed the 20 lb goose with his wicked powerful nose or we can be optimistic and say that the bird is still out there, ready to snipe someone another day ...


By the way, I always knew roller coasters are one of the top dangers in the world. I never saw the joy in paying a lot of money to wait on super long lines to strap yourself in a reckless contraption that wreaks havoc on your hair and vomit reflex. No, sirree. Now add stray birds to the calculation.

(Roller coasters rank way up there on my fear list along with bloody horror movies, fatty meat, and insects, a.k.a. I'd rather get a shot than be dragged onto one. The end.)

Through Me Chapter 23

Through Me Chapter Twenty-Three is finally up! At nineteen pages, it's easily two times the size of a regular chapter. It nearly killed me.

The weather's been freezing these past few days. It went from glorious sunny warmth one day to getting a blast of what felt like ice needles in my face. Friend and I couldn't even see in the wind as we walked down the hill from campus and the rain didn't help much. However, it warmed up a bit yesterday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Baby cousins went as a pirate and a witch, haha. The older one is now 3 years old and he outgrew his costume from last year so all he had was his pirate hat.

I had a quiz and two exams this past week and I have more coming up next Monday and Friday. Also, the presentation for French? Yeah, some girl went up and did my assigned city, so I need to prepare a new presentation for a new city now.

Also, work sucks. I have to recheck soldering for individual electrode pins before they get sent out to be gamma irradiated which means I'd have to repack everything by next Friday. Cursed life!

But NaNoWriMo has started and I'm using it as an opportunity to crank out something I've been thinking about for a while. Since it'll be really rough and will contain ideas I'd need to recheck along the way, it's going to be one of my sideline private projects, I think.

BTW, Chapter 23 featured Will's T-shirt with the lovely saying: "If You Like My Guns, You'll Love My Rocket." This was actually based on a real shirt my friend wore to class. It was hilarious since he actually had the nerve to wear it for his Genetics presentation and everyone else were like "Psst, just keep staring at his shirt." I googled it and found the shirt sold online at cafepress. Humorous T-shirts galore there, apparently. :)

I need to write serious stuff now, as in epidemiology position essays on experimental vs. observational designs regarding a paper on Estrogen and Progestin Therapies. Joy, my checklist just gets longer and longer.