Smells Like Sushi

valentine's day kawaii

2012-02-28T16:13:00.001-05:00

I was pretty productive yesterday but when I got home, I realized that I had left all my kawaii with Alex in his car, which was at his work. Since I couldn't take a picture of all the kawaii he got me for Valentine's Day, I couldn't make a post of it ;_________;

But it did prevent me from double posting, which is something that I don't like to do. I like to give my (few) readers a chance to actually read one of my posts before posting another one. That, and I'm too lazy to make more than one post a day. Blog posts actually take a while to write, believe it or not. Just the searching for pictures, taking pictures, uploading them, etc. takes a long time.

Anyway, normally, when I'm expecting kawaii to arrive at my door, it's always on my mind. I always think to myself, "Is it going to arrive today? Is it going to be there when I get home? I hope it's already there when I get home."

Or if it didn't arrive, which is usually the case, I think, "Why isn't it here yet? What's taking it so long? UGH! Shipping is so slow, but I'm too cheap to pay for faster shipping. It'll arrive eventually right? RIGHT?! I hope it didn't get lost in the mail. I wonder if it's going to arrive tomorrow? I hope it arrives tomorrow."

What I normally look like when I'm waiting for my kawaii packages.

And it repeats until eventually, it arrives. When it does, I'm all like:

For some reason, even though Alex bought a whole bunch of kawaii for me for Valentine's Day, I wasn't thinking about it. Maybe because I was expecting them to arrive in a really long time (don't know why, they were both airmail shipping from Singapore, which usually takes a week) or maybe because I was really looking towards my SPRING BREAK!!!!!!

Except it's called, "Reading Week" for some reason and it's a bit too early for Spring now anyway. Instead of partying it up and being classy (flashing people and getting ugly drunk), I relaxed, caught up with friends, went shopping with my mom and spent a lot of time with Alex. It was a really nice break :)

Anyway, enough with my rambling, let's get to the good stuff. As I mentioned, all the kawaii-ness that Alex bought me for Valentine's Day had arrived and I squeed and made all those God awful noises that I promised would never come out of me ever again.

Packages of kawaii.

Kapibarasans, Nemunekos, and other kawaii, oh my!

Little ram keychain plush and White Tiger plush, both from Caltoy. The tiger's face is a little squashed but that just gives it character :)

White-san and Chicky pouchs from Kapibara-san collection. I love the little antenna!
These adorable pouches are UFO catcher prizes in Japan, believe it or not. I thought they were retail items but I guess it's entirely possible since Japan has way better toy catcher prizes than North America. Alex and I had a lot of fun watching youtube videos of people winning UFO prizes in Japan. My wallet is going to get really skinny in Japan...

Back view, I really like coloured chains too.

Vibrating Nemuneko plush!
Alex and I decided to make a race out of the cats to see which one would get their prize first. The first few times we did it, he had the black one and I had the other one. He won each time and then we decided to switch. Black cat won every time, even when Alex cheated with the orange and white one -_-. I guess the black one is the faster nomers.

Adorable stubby tails!

Christmas Tigger! It's a little late but he's still really cute so I naturally, had to get him.

Valentine's Day Kapibarasans, all standing in row.
And here are the Valentine's Day Kapibarasans that everyone has been waiting for since this post. It was really hard to get a good picture of them and most of the pictures are pretty awkward because they're standing on their feet, holding something but their heads are so big that they topple over.

Each holding some Valentine's goodies.

Top view.

As a surprise, Alex also got me a copy of Cynanide and Happiness, which is a collection of hilarious webcomics. I've had my eye on this book for a few years now but never got around to buying it. I mentioned to Alex a looooooong time ago that I had wanted to get it. I'm surprised that he remembered to be honest and it was sweet of him to get it for me.

Cover of Cyanide and Happiness.

Sample comics.
If you liked those comics, you can check out more of their comics here. But as a warning, some of their comics are a little too much.

kawaii bento lunch

2012-02-25T12:28:00.002-05:00

I asked my sister to make me a bento lunch to bring to work this week and she agreed! She spent a lot of time and effort making it and it came out looking amazing! It was healthy(-ish) too, perfect for my fat ass to lose some weight.

Look at that! Isn't it beautiful? The walrus is sooo cute and the little hot dog squidies! I had bought her some hot dog molds but I don't think you can see it very well in the picture.

Rice, cheese, hot dogs and lettuce. All looking so kawaii.

With one of my sister's bento boxes.

The hot dog molds I got my sister. Except I think the one I got her came with three...but I could be wrong.

When it was time for lunch, I didn't know where to start eating. It was so cute! I almost felt bad eating it, but I was really hungry so I devoured it.

Super kawaii bento lunch!

The squid hot dog was upside down and got a little tossed around on my commute to work. But it's still cute! My friend was jelly.

My complete kawaii lunch.

Although I generally don't like to do this, I might make another post today. It'll depend on how productive I am (since I have three things that has to be completed by Tuesday and I've been enjoying my week off from school, like a normal person). I have a meeting with one of my teams for a project (ugh) and I have to get my long-needed haircut afterwards. So keep your fingers crossed that I'm productive, because it's going to an uber kawaii post!

bye bye kawaii T_______T

2012-02-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

There comes a time in every kawaii collector's life, where a horrible and awful, realization dawns on you...the fact that you have too much kawaii.

Unfortunately, this realization has hit me. I think it's been clear that I have too many kawaii plushes for a while but I was in denial. My room is packed with these adorable, cuddly kawaii goodies and they're taking over. My study desk isn't used for studying but for stacking my kawaii plushes on top of each other since I have no more shelf space on my bookcase. I also have two more boxes of kawaii goodies from swaps (coincidentally, from the same person) sitting my floor.

My mentality before I realized I was practically drowning in kawaii.

With a heavy heart, I realize I must sell some of my kawaii collection. The money will go towards my Asia trip this summer (where I will probably buy lots of kawaii stuff) since I thought my parents would help out, but it turns out...they're not. I've already posted the pictures on flickr so in an attempt to sell some more, I'm posting it on my blog as well.

95% of them have the original tags and they're all in perfect condition (I keep them in a container). For those that don't have tags, I'll let you know when you contact me. Shipping is a little high because Canada Post has a monopoly in the mail carrier business (other than FedEx and UPS, but they're way more expensive than CP).

Thank you to those of you who have already supported me by buying some of my items! I hope it was an enjoyable experience for you and I can't wait for you to get your items!

Let the shopping begin! Buy some stuff! Support my Asia trip!

Plushies
Available:

Pink Condom Plush: $7
Doraemons: $9 each or $25 for all 3
Pink & White Maruneko: $15
Yellow & Green Bunny: $5
I love Rich pouch: $6

More plushes.
Available

Pink arpakasso with removable bow: $14
Fat Cat on Pillow: $6
Princess Dog Canimal: $8
Brown Reindeer Keychain Plush: $8
Marie keychain: $7
:3 Panda: $6
San-X Kutsushita Nyanko: $9

Rilakkuma Sterling Silver Pearl Necklace.

Brand new, never been worn.
Pendant Size: Approx. 21.0 x 13.0mm
Chain Length: Approx. 40.0-45.0cm
Material: Silver 925 with Rhodium Coating
Synthetic Shell Pearl

I had bought this on a whim but I never wore it, it's been siting in my jewelry box since it arrived :(. Someone adopt it and wear it with pride! Make your Rilakkuma friends jealous (I, unfortunately, don't have friends who like Rilakkuma...or kawaii things ;______;)!

Keychains.
Available

Everything except Strawberry HK Squishie and Arpakasso Head Plush

Plushes.
Available

Everything but Sabo Kappa plush (Cactus holding donut) and Racoon HK

Odds & Ends.
Available

Everything

Pouches, Folders, and Notebooks.
Available

Everything but Hello Kitty coin pouch

If interested if any of these items, please leave me a comment with your contact information so that I can get back to you! Thanks for looking!

bento dilemma

2012-02-16T16:49:00.000-05:00

I've never been a bento person, the reason is I'm too lazy to make my food look adorable and delicious. It's something that my sister is really into and as much as I adore the super kawaii items that she uses to make her bentos (omg, egg molds and sandwich cutters? Too cute!), I was frankly just too lazy to get into it since it takes so much work to make bento.

Imagine how much work it took to make this!

So cute (and delicious-looking)!

But now, everything changed.

I accidently discovered a shop that sold bento boxes (and tons of manga) and they were sooooooooooooooooooooooo cute! But with a price tag of $30+, excluding taxes (we're very lucky to have a 16% tax rate), I balked. I know, I know, for someone to spends a lot of many of kawaii, $40 shouldn't be too bad right? WRONG! I have a trip to Asia to save up for and I've been spending way too much money lately. Despite this, I was seriously contemplating on whether to get a bento box or not, especially a wooden one with two adorable rabbits on it. But as I mentioned, the price tag made me decide, in the end, not to get it.

It looked something like this, except burgandy and 1 tier.

So I've started looking around for bento boxes and I always knew that bento boxes were cute but I actually started thinking about buying one. I'm going to be working full time soon, meaning that I'll be bringing lunches to work every day (I always bring lunches to school too but they're always sandwiches, they don't have microwaves at school). When I work part time, I always bring lunch that needs to be heated, but in a simple ziplock container, and everyone knows that lunches in cute containers make everything better.

I found a few that I really liked but they're all around $30! Which isn't too bad, considering how much stuff you can put into them (I don't eat much, sadly. And I'm still fat, wtf!) and some of them include chopsticks and a bento bag too.

Anything Totoro is a must-have!

I can make a totoro bento in a totoro bento box (yeah right, I'm just going to dump my food in my adorable bento box)!

This too cute! It comes with a matching bento bag. I'm leaning towards this one if I do get one...

Another totoro bento, it's 2 tier.

THERE'S EVEN A KAPIBARA-SAN ONE!!!!!!!!!!! But it's not as nice as the other ones.

So what should I do??????? Save money and have lunch for the rest of my life in this:

Or one of these:

And if I do get a bento, which one should I get!? Gaaaaaaah, decisions!

happy valentine's day!

2012-02-14T21:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whether you're celebrating it with your significant other, friends, family or alone (and there's no shame in that!, I hope everyone had a romantic and awesome day! Mine was just like any other ordinary day, school and some shopping at Indigo Bookstores, but it was fun nonetheless! I ran into an old friend from high school, whom I haven't seen in over 5 years since it turns out that she works there now!

I tried to look for a Valentine's Day picture (given the limited time I have, homework calls) that featured some kawaii characters as my "official V-day picture" but the only one that I could find was the Rilakkuma one and I didn't want to use that one, because it would feel like I was just mooching off of Mary, since she posted it first. Instead, I stole it off the Sanrio website since I knew they would have one.

Mary's Valentine Greeting.

And guess what??

These adorable Valentine's Day Kapibara-san keychains are on their way to me! They're a Valentine's Day gift from Alex (despite his disapproval of my kawaii love, now that's TRUE love). They should arrive by next week, yay!

welcoming the new members of the arpakasso family

2012-02-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

Last week, a few new members of my large arpakasso family arrived in the mail. When we received the package, there was a message from Canada Post, saying that the package was damaged when they received it and that if there were many items missing, they would reimburse the difference.

Luckily, everything was there but I did debate on whether I should rip off Canada Post to get back at them for charging such ridiculous shipping fees but the devil in me was on vacation or something, so I decided not to.

Let's welcome the new members of my arpakasso family!

I had bought these off a flickr friend, who was selling them for a reasonable price, although still a little expensive for their size...but they're arpakassos who, by definition are expensive no matter the size or type. She said that she had too many of them (omg, seriously? How can you have too many arpakasso?) and wanted to sell them (great way to make money, selling arpakassos....). Since I am obviously obsessed with all things kawaii, I bought some. The medium white one is my sister's though.

Kissy kissy

Omg, we already have a baby!

Moral of the story is don't kiss, because you'll instantaneously get pregnant and give birth.

As evidenced by those pictures.

This is why the two scarf arpakassos are going to take things slow. The beige arpakasso I had received from a swap and it's sooo cute and soft! I personally like that one better than the white arpakasso with the pink scarf. I'm pretty sure it's because of its eyes...or lack thereof.

Scarf apakassos taking things slow. Not even holding ~~hands~~ hooves.

I'm now waiting in the mail for a smaller version of the beige earmuff arpakasso below. It's a lot cuter than what it looks like in the picture, although it was pretty expensive, about $15 shipped. But it was so cute, I couldn't resist!

These are the 40cm ones, mine's about 10 cm.

All I need now are the baby sailor arpakassos! They're so damn hard to find, why can't Japan just make arpakassos available everywhere? They'd make more money and who cares if everyone has one? The whole kawaii community would be over moon instead of constantly harassing sellers about when they're going to restock (if they ever do, which they don't because they're so IMPOSSIBLE to find).

Sailor Arpakasso, make my life complete by joining my arpakasso family!

rilakkuma limited edition happy picnic plushes

2012-02-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

Despite not being a huge Rilakkuma fan, I couldn't help but fawn over the newest collection of limited editon picnic plushes!

Are they not simply kawaii!? I immediately fell in love with Kiiroitori, the chick. So short and stubby! I love short and fat animals, especially birds, that's probably why I love sparrows so much.

How can you not love this pudgy bird?

I wasn't sure whether I should get Korilakkuma and Rilakkuma as well though. After a little bit of debate, I decided to get the whole set. I rationalized that I could always sell Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma if I didn't end up liking them, someone was bound to buy them, especially since they're such popular characters.

After sending a quick e-mail to my buyer in Japan, she told me the price for each and (I'm assuming) that she'd be able to get them. Oh boy, there goes my budget for the next month.

On the San-x website, the rilakkuma one was already sold out! They were released last weekened and not surprisingly, they were all gone.

Rilakkuma Limited Edition Happy Picnic Plush.

I think what really makes them cute is their costumes, especially bear-shaped bun on their heads! Hopefully, my buyer will be able to find them for me and they won't cost an arm and a leg!

plushiepooloza

2012-02-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

For the past two weeks, many parcels of kawaii and happiness have been arriving at my door. But I've been kept busy and miserable by something so vile, so frustrating, and time consuming, that it can only be called a research paper. But I finished it last Tuesday so life is happy and good again. Until the next part is due anyway, in three weeks time.

Despite finishing my paper, I didn't even have time to enjoy my kawaii purchases because I signed up for a coaching seminar that will hopefully, help me pass my CMA exam in June. CMA stands for Certified Management Accountant and it's basically the designation I want to get after I get my Bachelor's in April. My coaching seminars are every Saturday, from 9:30 AM to 4:45 PM :(. On Sunday, I had a bridal shower to go to, even though I didn't want to go. But that's life.

Anyway, moving on to the point of this post. The pictures of my latest kawaii are in no particular order, I can't even remember in which order they arrived in.

First is my Nemuneko, also known as sleepy cat. I bought this adorable sleepy cat off a seller on ebay I had previously pruchased from. But he told me that if we made a sale outside of ebay, he'd be able to give me a much better price and he has the lowest price guaranteed policy. He does give me really good deals though, as a kawaii collector, I know the approximate price that sellers are selling them for and he really does give me awesome deals. Not to mention that he's a really nice guy and he knows English well (sorry to be mean, but it really does help a lot when you can communicate well over e-mails).

Nemuneko with mousey on its head.

Side view.

What cute little stub of a tail!

I also bought another Nemuneko plush that was sleeping in a snug mitten. I had bought this one off of a Japanese ebay seller that I've previously purchased from before.

Mitten Nemuneko is a lot smaller than the mouse one. To show you the difference in sizes, I took a picture with both of them. Mitten Nemuneko is a bit bigger than the palm of my hand, while Mouse Nemuneko, I can hug as a pillow, albeit an awkward pillow.

Next up is a weird looking cat/dragon plush. I bought this from my Japanese ebay seller as well. Apparently, it's made by the same company that makes Gloomy Bear. When I first saw it, I didn't know what to think of it. But I ended up getting it because it was so unusual and kawaii...in a really strange way, plus it cames with a little jingling bell.

Side view.

Even Obi likes Kittyzilla.

I went through a lot of trouble to get this San-x Coron Buta plush. I bought it off a seller on FB (yes, I know) and it was $15 shipped, but when she realized that I lived in Canada, she said she'd have to charge $11 for shipping (wtf, I know). So I had it shipped to a warehouse near the border. On two DIFFERENT days when my family decided to go to the Staes to buy groceries (yes, it's that much cheaper so that it's worth the gas), there was a snow/ice storm. Eventually, I finally brought him home.

The little piggy belongs to my sister and I just thought they would look so cute together.

Piggy love.

This next plush is not the conventional Japanese kawaii plush, but it's still kawaii. I couldn't resist this adorable TY zebra plush when I saw it at a Hallmark near my uni. I especially love how soft he is and I love the shade of green it has. He even matches my living room walls!

Zebra chilling in his new home.

This plush is my sister's. It's an emoticon expression seal, dressed in a Hello Kitty costume. Apparently, this character is really popular in Japan. I've started seeing some merchandise of it lately. It's called Mojimoji Azarashizu.

Side view.

I've also received two adorable keychain plushes as part of a swap. I swapped two of my unwanted keychain plushes for these two. They were a lot bigger than I expected and they're so soft too!

Swap plushies!

Finally, the last item that I'll be showing you also belongs to my sister. She bought this HUGE and super kawaii duck plush. It's incredibly soft and it's way cuter than it looked in the picture. Perfect for cuddling!

I've taken a picture to show you how big it actually is compared to my palm-sized mitten Nemuneko.

It's Godzilla-sized compared to my Nemuneko!

tagged post

2012-02-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Vermillion. To be honest, I'm excited that I was actually tagged at all!

Rules

Write 11 (random) things about yourself on your blog
Answer the questions the tagger set for you and create 11 new questions for the people you tag
Choose the next 11 people to tag and link them on the post
Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her
No tag backs
You must post these rules

11 Random Things About Me

I have a huge fear of sprouting potatoes.
I only started obsessively collecting kawaii since last February.
My sister and I still have the same bunk beds since we were little (but it's separated now).
I love cheese. So.freaking.much.
But if I only had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it'd have to be my mom's curry.
I love to read.
I have a tendency to carry a pharmaprix's worth of stuff in my bags. You should always be prepared!
I usually carry a kawaii plushie with me in my handbag.

Today is Chicky Cinnamoroll.
I'm a huge brand whore, from handbags to coffee (which I don't even drink that much).
I'm extremely indecisive. When it comes to deciding between buying two things, it usually takes me a really long time to decide. Or I just end up buying both.
I still play Pokemon.

Vermillion's Questions

1. What are your pet peeves?
Where to begin? One of my biggest pet peeves is people who take the elevator to go up 1 or 2 floors. Even 3 floors. You're so lazy! Another pet peeve is slow walking people or when they cut you off when you're walking -_-

2. Ever wished that you were taller or shorter?
I wish I were a little taller.

3. What are your favourite type of shoes to wear?
Flip flops all the way! If we didn't have winter here, I'd be wearing them all the time. I also like wearing boots though.

I loved these Havainas but they broke in a few months! I was so disappointed.

4. Do you listen to music on your phone or portable music device?
Funnily enough, I listen to music on my iPod touch, even though I have an iPhone. I think I just need to make my iPod touch useful.

5. Did you learn a musical instrument when you were younger?
I played the violin for a few years when I was in high school. I wish I had kept playing, I really miss it. I've always loved the sound of the violin, so beautiful and sad. Now, I'm so swamped with school, work, Alex, and kickboxing...Don't know if I'll ever start again.

6. Do you prefer online or instore shopping?
Overall, I prefer instore shopping but because I know I can find cheaper deals for the same items, I shop online. I do almost 99% of my kawaii shopping online as well as my books. Although it's much more fun and exciting when you make a purchase instore though since you immediately get the item.

7. What’s your fondest memory of your childhood?
I wouldn't say this is my fondest but it's the one that I remember with the most clarity. I must have been around 5 or 6 because I didn't share a room with my sister yet, and a movie called "The Rescuers" just came out on VHS. I really wanted it and kept telling my parents that I wanted the movie but they ignored me. I took a nap and when I woke up, there it was in front me!

8. Do you learn any languages?
I'm not currently learning any new languages but I speak Cantonese at home in addition to English and French.

9. What type of books do you like to read?
I mostly read fiction but I also like to read business books.

10. Do you like to collect anything? If so, how big is your collection and when did you start collecting?
I started collecting kawaii things, especially plushes, last February. My collection is huge, and I'm actually selling some because I don't have room to put them -_-. I also collect books and I have a pretty big library, I'm so proud of it. I've been collecting books for years now.

11. Do you prefer typing or writing (by hand) your notes?
I prefer typing up notes since it's much faster. But I like to write by hand more than typing.

Honestly, I'm too lazy to come up with 11 questions of my own and I don't know anyone to tag except for my sister. So I'll ask her if she wants to do it and if she does, I'll post the questions but if she doesn't....then that's all!

kapibara-san re-ments

2012-01-29T12:58:00.002-05:00

These adorable little keychains were released on October 24, 2011 and are priced at about 315 Yen each which equals approximately $4.07 CND. It isn't too bad of a price considering how big and durable it looks.

I found out about these at the beginning of January and was able to find them for sale at Play Asia. On the webpage, it said that each unit would be randomly selected and since I wanted the whole set (obviously), I sent an e-mail asking if I purchased 5, did it mean that I should automatically receive the complete set.

Less than a day later, I received a reply saying that to get the complete set, I would have to purchase 10 since that's how many units a new box came in. However, they only have 7 units left right now. Being me, I bought all 7 remaining units hoping that I'd get the whole set and not doubles or triples of a bunch of them. I was planning on selling any duplicates that I'd get.

For those of you who don't know who/what Kapibara-san is, I will tell you. IT'S ONLY THE MOST CUTEST SUPER DUPER KAWAII UBER CUTE LOVEABLE CHARACTER OF ALL TIME!!!!! Oops, sorry for that outburst, it happens when I talk about kawaii things, let alone one of my favourite kawaii characters.

Excuse the outburst....

Kapibara-san is...well, a capybara, the largest rodent in the world. They are native to South America which rules out the chance of me being able to go out and catch one as a pet. But the real-life capybaras don't share much of a resemblance to the Japanese Kapibara-san.

Kapibara-san in real life.

Still cute though! I'd ~~capture~~ ~~steal~~ adopt one.

The whole Kapibaran-san characters. I think this picture is from their Patchworks collection. I don't know why one of them is one fire.
The moment of truth arrived in the form of a tiny little box labeled "Play Asia" yesterday morning.Despite this being my most anticipated kawaii package to arrive, I took my sweet ass time opening the box. I was actually preparing my lunch until my sister asked to open it.

I HAD GOTTEN THE COMPLETE SET!!!!!

Sorry for using so many gifs but I had so much looking fun looking for them that I couldn't not use more than 1. I'd put more but that'd be a tad overkill.

The packaging is gorgeous! I especially love the clear display that lets you see what you're buying rather than the traditional re-ments where they're blind boxes. I also like the fact that it's not in a box but in a plastic bag (I can't believe I said that, I'm usually all for environmentally friendly packaging).

Traditional packaging for Re-ments like this Rilakkuma one. My sister has the complete set.

Packaging for Kapibara-san Re-ments.

Little informational booklet and piece of gum that comes with it.
The two doubles that I received were the ice cream and the swiss roll. As I had mentioned, I was going to sell them but then my mom ruined it all by saying that she wanted the ice cream one. I gave it to her and gave the swiss roll one to my sister to add to her re-ment collection.

Bowl of kawaii desserts!
Unfortunately, I depleted Play Asia's stock of Kapibara-san re-ments for those of you who want it. And my mom ruined my plan to sell the extras BUT J-List/JBox has them! You can actually buy the complete set too but there's only 3 sets left! There's the link in my Shopping section. Good luck kapibara-san lovers!

chinese new year!

2012-01-22T17:23:00.002-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Dragon Kapibara-san wishes you a Happy New Year!

Let's welcome the year of the dragon wish my wishes for your happiness, prosperity and good health!

As some of you know, tomorrow is Chinese New Year, or the Lunar New Year. It's going to be the year of the dragon, my year. Most people want their kids to be born in the year of the dragon because dragon children are supposed to be very lucky and successful. My mom told me that there are going to be a lot of Chinese babies being born this year.

In Chinese culture, the dragon is a symbol of power, strength, and good luck so it's not surprising that the Chinese emperor usually uses a dragon as symbol of his power.

In addition to being born under the year of the dragon, one can be born under different elemental dragons. According to Wikipedia, here are are the dates of each elemental dragon.

16 February 1904 – 3 February 1905: Wood Dragon
3 February 1916 – 22 January 1917: Fire Dragon
23 January 1928 – 9 February 1929: Earth Dragon
8 February 1940 – 26 January 1941: Metal Dragon
27 January 1952 – 13 February 1953: Water Dragon
13 February 1964 – 1 February 1965: Wood Dragon
31 January 1976 – 17 February 1977: Fire Dragon
17 February 1988 – 5 February 1989: Earth Dragon
5 February 2000 – 23 January 2001: Metal Dragon
23 January 2012 – 9 February 2013: Water Dragon
10 February 2024 – 28 January 2025: Wood Dragon

According this schedule, I'm an earth dragon...not sure what it means though. People born under the year of the dragon are said to have certain traits. These traits are:

Innovative
Enterprising
Flexible
Self-assured
Brave
Passionate
Conceited
Tactless
Scrutinizing
Unanticipated
Quick-tempered

It seems pretty accurate since I am flexible, very detail orientated and quick tempered. Not sure about the other things though but my sister tells me that I'm full of myself all the time so I guess there must be some truth to it.

Anticipating the upcoming New Year, my mom decided to decorate our house with lots of red. Red, everywhere! I came home late last Sunday and the first thing I noticed was that there was red everywhere! And the house being dark, that's saying something.

First thing I saw when I came home.

In the peanut jar in the living room.

We have these flowers every year around the New Year. I'm not sure what they're called though.

In our candy "jar."

On the kitchen table.

Hanging from the lights in the living room.

I was going to take a picture of my adorable dragon luvvies plush for the New Year, but it disappeared a few months ago. It was always on my bed but I knew that Obi loved to steal plushies from my bed and run away with them. I'm convinced that he stole it when I didn't see him and hid it somewhere. I still haven't been able to find it, I've checked online to see where I can buy another one but I guess it's a limited edition or something since everywhere I check, it's always over $20. I bought it for $7 at a Hallmark near the uni.

Sniff...my super cute and soft dragon plush disappeared on me :'(

So I had to make due with this TY beanie baby that I got 12 years ago from my Godfather. It's not nearly as cute but it'll do since it's the only dragon plushie that I have.

In other news, it's Obi's birthday today! He's 1 year old. Time flies by so fast, I can't believe it's almost been a year since we brought the little fuzz ball home (we brought him home in mid-March).

Happy Birthday Obi!

huge kawaii post pt. 2

2012-01-19T11:05:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I had a lot of kawaii items, and I do! But I decided to cut the post short because I had way too many items to post (and I was getting annoyed that it was taking me so long to publish my post).

So the continuation of my kawaii post starts with items that I received from Strapya World last week. I had ordered some dragon straps because I'm born the year of the dragon and I realized that I didn't have any dragon items, kawaii ones anyway.

With their free EMS shipping promo code back in November, the items arrived in a bit more than a week. Our post offices were closed during some of those days due to the holidays so I think they actually would've arrived even sooner.

Mini haul from Strapya World.

Tatsudoshi Dragon Netsuke Phone Strap

They had a few different variations of this keychain, I was a little torn between getting this one and the black dragon. I liked the look of the black HK dragon more but I didn't like the bell that was attached to it. Plus, I like the tear drop that came with this one more.

The Black HK Dragon strap.

I think this dancing dragon is my favourite one. I find it really cute that it's dancing and although I'm not usually a fan of straps with bells, I find its chiming kind of cute and the ring isn't loud. I also like the material that is it's made out of.

This is a ceramic dragon with a Maneki Neko (or Welcoming/ Beckoning Cat) riding on it. I think it's meant to be super lucky, since the Maneki Neko is meant to bring the holder luck and the dragon is also meant to be lucky.

And last but not least, is a pair of rilakkuma and korilakkuma keychains. This is from their coffee and chocolate series, which I believe is their newest collection. I'm normally not a fan of Rilakkuma and friends but I found this one really cute, especially the chocolate kuma with the teal ribbon. I especially like the colour of the ribbon!

If you're interested in any of the items that I got, you can click on my Strapya World link on the right of my blog under "Shopping."

huge kawaii post

2012-01-10T22:01:00.002-05:00

After all that negativity about that shop, it's time for a happy post! And what better way to make things better than KAWAII THINGS! Woooooo!

I finally took pictures of my kawaii Christmas presents. Although I forgot to take one of my 3DS (>_<). I also forgot to take pictures of the awesome presents that my sister got me from her trip to Alberta. I guess I'll have to take those pictures the same time I show off my 3DS.

Christmas presents from my sister.

Let's start with my Christmas presents. My sister got me all these adorable plushes from Japan. I had asked my friend (and mostly buyer) from Japan to look for these plushes for me and she managed to find them all! She threw in the white frog, called Tsuginohi Kerori (Tomorrow Frog) as a Christmas gift for me. She's a really sweet person as this isn't the first time that she went off to look for things to fulfill my endless kawaii addiction. The story with Tsuginohi Kerori is that he is actually white but when he's sad, or sick, he turns green. Once he's happy or feeling better again, he resumes his normal white colour. Only San-x can think of characters like that.

Happy, normal Tsuginohi Kerori.

Sad or sick Tsuginohi Kerori.

The two bunnies dressed in costumes and the bear dressed...as a bear, are called usazukins. They basically dress up as adorable animals. That's all I know about them and I think they're uncommon. Not totally sure about that though. Either way, they're super cute!

Then there's grandfather Kapibara-san! I absolutely love the Kapibara-san series, they're too adorable and what's cuter than an old Kapibara? I find Granpa Kapi especially endearing and cute with his white eyebrows and little white mustache. For some reason, he reminds me of my grandfather, who sadly passed away a year ago. I don't know why it reminds me of him, since he neither had white hair nor a mustache.

Grandpa Kapi bringing Christmas presents to all the good kiddies....or just me!

Then, there's the gift from my sister's boyfriend. He bought me a set of limited edition sanrio plushies. These plushes were released for Sanrio's 50th anniversary. I totally love the packaging of it!

Set came with a My Meloday, Hello Kitty, Chococat and Keroppi plush. Too cute!

Next comes one of Alex's gifts, it was a really cute dinosaur pouch that I've had my eye on for a while. I was really surprised that he got it for him since I had mentioned that it would be perfect for my camera (hint hint nudge nudge) but he usually doesn't pick up on these things. What was even more surprising was that he copied and sent the link to himself so that he could remember where to buy it. As I previously mentioned, he usually fails to pick up these things or he just chooses to ignore my "This is so cute! (therefore I want it)" comments.

The "To Dial For Media Case in Dino Miss."

Cute suggestions for use on the back.

Has a cute little pouch on the back of it as well.

On the day that my sister came back from Alberta, one of the huge kawaii purchases that I bought before my New Year Resolutions came into effect arrived! I was surprised at how quick it came, it arrived two days after the seller shipped them and she lived in New York!

This adorable kitty onigri plush was too cute and unsual for me to pass up! I had never seen it before and although I'm not a big fan of cats, it's kawaii had worked it magic on me. It was bigger than I thought it'd be, which is always good (more value for your money!).

It has a shrimp tempura on its head.

Japanese characters on its butt. I don't know what it says though.

The next items are called usadangos. I previously made a post about them. I had been looking for them everywhere and they're really impossible to find so image my reaction when I found this shop that had them.

Obviously, I had to get the whole set.

I also purchased two furry Hannari Tofu plushes. They're smaller than the regular ones but they were too cute to resist. Alex had bought me two for Christmas a few years ago (another one of my surprises where he actually pays attention to the kawaii that I like).

Finally, there are the two Nemuneko figurines. I believe Nemuneko means "sleepy cat" in Japanese. From what I understand of the characters, they're basically lazy cats that sleep all the time, looking totally kawaii the whole time.

I actually had more stuff to post but I think this post is long enough. Don't want to reveal everything at once! Enjoy the kawaiiness kawaii lovers!

update about rilakkuma online shop

2012-01-08T15:55:00.002-05:00

After consulting my sister and Alex about what to do about the Rilakkuma Dragon Plushes, I filed a dispute after I updated my post, despite sending an e-mail that gave them 5 days to respond as a last chance to explain what happened with my order. My sister's logic was that I had already given them a last chance by asking on their facebook page and they responded by deleting and blocking me from their page. She said that they didn't deserve any more chances and Alex agreed. So I opened up a dispute, which was immediately rejected because the transaction had occurred over 45 days ago.

All that to say....no.

But I refuse to give up.

Bring it on, Paypal and Rilakkuma Online Shop!

After a day of obsessively researching on google about how to open a dispute with Paypal after 45 days, I decided to call Paypal's help line as most people have suggested. I called them and explained my situation, telling the operator that I had paid for a pre-order back in August. The items were supposed to have arrived in December and they did because of what they posted on their website. I also explained the whole facebook fiasco.

And guess what? The operator told me that they would open up my dispute! He said that because it was my first time opening a dispute, they'll do it "out of courtesy" but out of pity or whatever, I don't care! Rilakkuma Online Shop is going to see that this type of treatment towards their customers is unacceptable!

Yaaaay!!!!

Basically, the operator explained to me, Rilakkuma Online Shop has 10 days to respond by telling me that they either shipped out the goods or they are going to issue me a refund. If there's not response by the 11th day, Paypal will automatically refund me. And since those plushes are sold out everywhere, they'll be issuing me a refund regardless.

So far, there hasn't been a response from them yet and I honestly don't expect them to, they've been doing such a good job of keeping silent, I think they're just going to continue until the 10 days are up. I should have the result of the outcome by January 15h, 2012.

I asked my sister is she could comment on their facebook page so that I could get proof that they were deleting comments and she did.

My sister's comment on their FB page.

Not surprisingly, they deleted her comment as well. Wow, just wow. I didn't think businesses do that but I guess not everyone has common sense. They also prevented her from adding further comments onto their facebook page as well.

I also posted a warning on my flickr photostream and I received a lot of support and I received a lot of views, which is good. I got comments from people thanking me for warning them and that they were planning on buying from this shop but no longer. At least people know now and I'm thankful for the support that I've been receiving from my flickr friends and my family for this whole ordeal.

The warning I posted on my flickr.

I also learned that if Paypal couldn't do anything for me, I can call my credit card company, explain to them what happened and they'll do a charge back. This is useful to know for the future. I also forgot to mention that the Paypal operator told me that for pre-orders, I should always open a dispute within the 45 days even if the business is legitimate. He said that this way, if there was ever a problem, I could always get my money back and it would keep the company on its toes. If everything went smoothly, I could always cancel the dispute.

All that there's left to do now is to wait to get my refund back.

WARNING DO NOT SHOP HERE!

2012-01-04T20:10:00.001-05:00

I'm making a post about this, not only because I am extremely pissed, but I believe that NO BODY deserves to be cheated, least of all, by a "reputable" online shop.

Back in August, a flickr friend of mine posted a picture of some Dragon Rilakkuma-themed plushes and I thought that they were pretty cute, despite being Rilakkuma (not a fan), plus I was born in the Year of the Dragon and after some inquiry, I decided to go ahead and order from this site. And, like any good shopper, I asked my friend if they were reliable and she said that they were, based on their facebook page.

This online shop is called Rilakkuma Online Shop and it's based in Hong Kong. Here's it's website, which is in Chinese but Google Chrome translates it pretty well so you can navigate.

They specialize in obviously, Rilakkuma and they boast that they can get you just about any Rilakkuma item that you want for a reasonable price.

I ordered Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma.

I ordered and paid for these plush on August 30, 2011. The following pictures are proof with some text shaded out for privacy purposes.

First e-mail I sent to them, to order the items.

Their reply with how much I owe them

Paypal confirmation that bill was paid.

Paypal invoice details

Everything was paid for and all I had to go was wait for them to get the items in stock, which was around December. I don't remember if I read this on the site or what but I remember that it was supposed to arrive in December. December rolled around and I completely forgot about it because of school and work but when I did, I decided to e-mail my flickr friend to see if she got hers first.

My email to her at the bottom and her response to mine.

When she received them.

Not only did they fail to e-mail me about my plushes, Veronica has problems with them too, she ordered another plush from them and hasn't received it. However, I don't know how long ago that was or if the plush has already be shipped out to other people.

Turns out that Veronica has issues with them as well.

Like any other normal person with a problem with their items, I e-mailed the store.

Automatic confirmation e-mail. Notice how the date is the same.

After waiting a week and still receiving no response, and I know for a fact that they received it, since I received a confirmation e-mail saying that they got it, I decided to try another method. They have a facebook page so I liked their page and commented on a picture of the dragon plushies saying that I preordered and paid these in August and sent them an e-mail about a week ago and I haven't received any response from them. I might've mentioned that a friend of mine received hers 3 weeks ago but I can't remember. I asked them what was the status of my order. Nothing rude or threatening right?

And do you know what they did? THEY DELETED MY COMMENT! To add insult to injury, they disabled me from making any more comments on their facebook page!

Disabled comments on my normal FB page, you can see my last name near the top right.

I decided to see if they had really disabled my comments or they just disabled everyone's comments, even though it was pretty clear that other people were able to post comments on their pictures. I logged onto my other facebook account and sure enough, I was right, they had disabled my comments AND deleted my comment. In my other facebook, I can still post comments on their page.

My other facebook, which as you can see, is able to post comments.

This is really interesting, why would they go through all that trouble to delete my comment and to disable my commenting privilege? If they were concerned about their reputation (they better be after I publish this), then they should've dealt with it in a professional way. This remind you of anyone (Michelle Phan perhaps?). I've shopped a lot online and I've seen many stores that when they see a negative comment, they'll respond to it in a polite manner and try to reach an agreement with their customers. That's how you're supposed to do it after all, it's called professionalism (and damage control but let's not get technical). It's too bad I don't know how to write in Chinese on their wall so that other buyers will know.

To be on the safe side, I also checked their website and looked at the rules, terms and conditions. This is what googled translated for me.

Their terms and conditions for overseas buyers. Original here.

Notice how it says that there are no refunds unless the item is out of stock, well the item is out of stock now. You can check it out here. It wasn't when I preordered it, but they never sent me an e-mail about paying for shipping so technically, I should be entitled to a refund. It's not like I refused to pay for shipping, they never sent me a confirmation e-mail saying that my plushes have arrived.

Proof that both plushes are sold out now. This was taken today, January 4, 2012 @ 7:57 PM.

Here are their preorder rules. Original here.

Ironic how they say that the customer can "rest assured that waiting for notification," which I take it to mean that customers don't have to worry about not receiving a notification. I'm not sure how accurate the Google translate is but from the gist of what I'm reading, they're basically saying that they will contact the buyer once the item arrives and arrangements will be made to deliver the item to the buyer. And none of that happened for me, they didn't e-mail me telling me it had arrived. In fact, they're pretending that I don't exist.

So what we know so far about this Online Rilakkuma store is, they take your money, ignore your concerns, and try to silence you when you ask too many questions. Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot of the comment I posted on their FB yesterday since I never would've thought that they would stoop so low as to delete my comment, especially since they seem to be such a legitimate business! But since I know better now, I've been screen capping everything.

To give them one last chance (although they seriously don't deserve it), I wrote them another e-mail earlier today, telling them that I'm shocked and insulted that a business would react this way to such a normal inquiry and if they do not respond within 5 days, that I will open a dispute with paypal.

I doubt paypal will be able to do anything about it since it's been over 45 days since the transaction occurred but you never know.

I'm not expecting to get my $40 back since it's been such a long time since the transaction occurred but this is something I believe that people should know. Unfortunately, I'm not a popular or influential blogger so I doubt much will happen but I would appreciate it if people would spread the word about this place or even comment on their FB about what happened, see how many more comments they delete. More unfortunately-ness, they have a lot of likes on facebook so I doubt my input will make much of a difference, hopefully Paypal will just make them refund me and that's that.

But I doubt it.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T20:27:00.001-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! All the best for the new upcoming year!

I know my promised in my last post that I would upload pictures of my Christmas presents but...I never got around to taking pictures of them since the sun would've already set when I got home from work and the pictures look like crap with artificial light and I'm not pro enough to make them look good with artificial lights. And...I was also lazy. BUT, next post will have them! I won't say I promise because it didn't work so well last time I promised that.

With the New Year, comes New Year's Resolutions. I stopped making resolutions a few years back because I would make them because everyone else was, having no intention of sticking to them. But this year, I'm going to make some resolutions and stick to them (as hard and impossible as they might be).

My resolutions for 2012 are;

Stop spending so much money on kawaii goodies

Lose the 10 pounds that I gained over the summer and have been carrying around since

Get at least two more As before I graduate

Stop being such a hermit and hang out with friends more

Exercise more aka do some yoga

Despite my first resolution, I've just spent about $150 on kawaii goodies, including the Pusheen plush and the platypus (+ many others) BUT I ordered and paid for these BEFORE the New Year so technically, they don't count. Losing the 10 pounds shouldn't be that bad, if I can break the habit of thinking, "I'll start tomorrow, tonight's good is too good to not eat a lot" mentality. And I'm proud to say that I broke the cycle on the 1st! It was so hard, I had to practically force myself to stop eating but I felt so good afterwards. The hermit thing shouldn't be too hard...I usually just prefer to go home and relax right away or just go spend time with Alex but I feel like I've been putting my friends aside for him. I love him but I love my friends also, and I find I see Alex all the time and friends, not so much. That's got to change a bit. I mean, who am I going to bitch to when Alex is being an asshole? Certainly not Alex. Finally, the exercise thing, twice a week of kickboxing is amazing but I'd also like something to balance all the angry intensive-ness of it, like yoga. So I'm going to do yoga at least twice a week, which bumps up my work out days to 4.

If all goes well, my life for 2012 should be like this:

Except there should be an Asian person in the partying with friends picture...

Unfortunately, I've started school today. Yup, school's started, my break was over before it even started. I'd honestly rather have one extra week off and finish one week later. We finish classes and exams end of the April and we don't start until September, that's 4 months off. It's not enough time for you to get a full-time job, because who's going to hire you full-time for 4 months before you fly back to school and most summer jobs don't start until June, so you have 2 months of sheer boredom. Or you can travel like I'm going to do this summer but most people don't have enough money to travel for 4 months, like me.

Anyway, I was in class today (accounting information systems, that'll give you an idea of how class was) and this was the summary of it:

For 2.5 hours, good thing I only had one class.

A new year also means a new agenda! This year, I'm going to use one of my kapibarasan agendas that I purchased in July or August. I couldn't decide between the pink one and the brown one so I picked the first one I grabbed and I'll use the other one next year.

I grabbed the brown one!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-29T12:46:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

I know that I'm 4 days late but I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to write a proper blog post. But it's better late than never right?

I had a wonderful Christmas and an amazing (almost) week off. Christmas Eve was spent with my family for dim sum and the food was delicious. We haven't gone dim summing for about two months, boo hoo but I guess that was what made the food so yummy. Christmas Eve...ning and night was spent with Alex and his family since they do the presents opening at midnight. I couldn't stay up until midnight and fell asleep at around 11:30 PM (so close but I was dead tired). I was woken up at around 12:30 AM by this mom.

So sleepy...I wanted to go back to bed instead of opening presents, believe it or not.

Then, it was presents! I received a set of adorable cupcake mugs and a portable mini fireplace from his parents, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and a super cute camera pouch from Alex. Yay!

Christmas morning, we drove to my house to open presents with my family! I received the complete Sherlock Holmes stories and Ghost Trick from my brother, a bunch of kawaii plushies from my sister, lots and lots of clothes and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword from my parents, set of kawaii sanrio stuffed animals from Ben (sister's boyfriend) and.........A 3DS FROM ALEX!

Christmas couldn't have been more Christmasy. There were lights everywhere and even the weather cooperated. There was no snow at all...until the morning of December 23rd! There was literally no snow until I woke up to get ready for work, it had snowed overnight! And it was snowing fat fluffy snowflakes all day. It even snowed on Christmas Eve and it's been snowing almost every day since. Now, we have a shit ton of snow. And freezing cold weather. Today was -13 Celsius excluding the wind but that's not too bad, we've had worst, like -40 and stuff.

Lovely Christmas weather except not so picturesque since I live in the city.

I tried taking pictures of my Christmas gifts but the sun has set and all my pictures look really crappy with natural light. I'll try to take some this weekend since the sun has set whenever I get home from work. Meanwhile, enjoy these random Christmas pictures that I took during the holiday season.

Wrapping presents with Mom.

Pistachios!

Presents under the tree! There was a lot more but I don't think I took a picture of everything near the end.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

My macaron Nyankos are searching for presents with their names on time.

Of course, nothing would be totally kawaii without arpakassos! So I've decided to add a little bit of arpakasso-ness to my Christmas pictures!

Lemon Macaron Arpakasso with Frosty.

Party Arpakasso playing hide and seek in the Christmas tree.

Party Arpakasso with a pair of lovely Poinsettias

Treeson hoped that everyone had a Merry Christmas!

What did Santa bring you for Christmas?

christmas break begins!

2011-12-21T11:19:00.001-05:00

Gueeeeeesssssssss whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? MY FINALS ARE DONE!!! WOOOOO!!! CELEBRATION TIME, C'MON!!!!

♪┏(・o･)┛♪┗ ( ･o･) ┓♪┏ ( ) ┛♪┗ (･o･ ) ┓♪┏(･o･)┛♪

Feels great! So great that I'm going to neglect my work of sending out invoices and Christmas greetings to clients and update my blog. I'm that bad ass.

My last final went alright, it was accounting theory (wtf right?) and a very open ended exam. I tried to apply as much theory as possible to the questions but I don't know how my professor is going to mark it. He's not a hard marker but he's not an easy one either. Hopefully, I'll get at least an A- (80-84) as a final grade.

In other great news, I finished all my Christmas shopping! Although I just finished my finals, I also just finished my shopping too! I ordered most of my gifts online and had them delivered to me (free shipping except for my sister's) so everything's done!

Now that my holiday begins, I can read Game of Thrones as much as I like. It's about kings, knights, dragons, sex and war. It's obviously a lot better than the way I put it but for more information, go here. For those of you who haven't read it, I strongly suggest you do! It's actually called A Song of Ice and Fire but it's known as The Game of Thrones since that's the name of the first book.There's currently 5 books I'm currently on the 4th book and I can't put it down (like all the others)! They also made a HBO series out of it, which I've downloaded and am going to watch during the Christmas season! Game of Thrones marathon!

The current 5 books.

The Iron Throne that everyone is fighting for.

House Banner of the Starks.

House Lannister.

House Baratheon.

Banner of Targaryen.

Kawaii version of all the major house banners.

I didn't list all the major house banners since it would go on forever (there's a lot of characters in the story, most of them not major but some would play a major role in one book or they'll disappear for a while and then come back.) I love love love this series and while I was googling all these pictures to post, I was tempted to buy myself a poster of one of the family sigils. But it would be hard for me to choose because I honestly don't have a favourite house since I like them all! Yes, even the Lannisters (for those of you who have read/watched the series).

In other news, I was thinking of getting myself a little something for Christmas. Kind of as a reward for working so hard during the year (I never actually had a real break from school or work...for the past 4 years). I was always either working full time or in school full-time with one of the other thrown in there (ie. If I was working full time, I'd only take one class and or if I was in school full-time, I'd work part time).

I can only get something that's about $30 (shipping included). It's between these two items;

Pusheen plush.

Sorry the image is so small, this is the only pic that I can find.

Which one should I get? Tell me your opinion either in the comments or the tagboard!

contest plug

2011-12-17T21:01:00.001-05:00

Here's a contest that I'm entering in! It's right up my alley since it's all KAWAII GOODIES OMGWTFBBQIWANTTOWINTHISOSBAD!

Super kawaii goodies that you can win!

Enter here. But don't so that I can win...

forced finals mini-break

2011-12-17T20:47:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, studying for finals doesn't give much time for doing anything else! My life for the past week consisted of studying, eating, and sleeping. Wanting to kill myself was in there occasionally.

But that's 2 down and 1 more to go! And being the genius that I am, I forgot my textbook at school, even though I was at school LESS AND AN HOUR AGO! Now, I can't study for my final final and I am stressing out since I only have today (which won't be happening since I don't have my textbook) and tomorrow. It's on Monday morning, first thing. Aaaaah!

That's how I felt when I realized I forgot my book.

Luckily, Alex is going to pick it up on his way home from work (he works literally 5 mins away from school) and he didn't want to do it! He was all like, "Ugh grunt snort, no, I don't want to -sigh- FML, fine."Which is rude, especially since he PASSES BY SCHOOL AND MY HOUSE ON THE WAY BACK TO HIS HOUSE! Sheesh. Maybe I'm just demanding. Plus, he can sign up for kickboxing if he didn't already at school. I signed up yesterday! And this proves that I'm even dumber than before since I was at school yesterday and I didn't think to pick up my textbook. Oh God, I must've failed all my finals. If I can't even remember to pick up my textbook, then I definitely can't remember all that crap. But I honestly thought I had it at home.

I'm such a failure. I'm sorry!

So instead of studying, I'm making a blog post, yay! Oh, remember that post I made about Stumpy and all his whining and crying about how I messed up the project? Well, if you don't, then you can refresh your memory here. Anyway, we got our project back yesterday after the final and guess what mark we got? Take a guess.

A

which is between a 85 and a 89. Say whaaaaat?

I couldn't find a bigger picture and I was too lazy to make my own so this will do. Anyone else remember this show? It's amazing.

This might be better...

If only I had known before I got home, I would've been all, "IN YOUR FACE STUMPY! IF IT WASN'T FOR MY SUPER AWESOME EDITING OF YOUR SHIT ASS CRAP PART, WE WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN THIS SO YOU SHOULD'VE JUST KEPT YOUR USELESS TRAP SHUT!" but I only found out after I got home. But I still get bragging rights. And it's not because he had done a good job, he practically failed the first midterm and only got a 70 something on the second midterm while I got 85 and 93 respectively. I like to stroke my own ego, makes me feel smart.

You tell him Senor Chang

I also gave my friend her gift! Her reaction was this...

Except we weren't so far from each other.

I should get back to studying even though my textbook is at school. But at least I have my (shitty) notes and the teacher's (shitty) slides so I should get on that.

But it wouldn't be a post by me if I didn't have something kawaii in it. So here's the latest kawaii item that I want.

Soooo cute! It's called the Nemuneko Sleepy Cat or something. It's basically a cat that sleeps all the time! I don't like cats but I'll make an exception.

luxury condoms

2011-12-11T13:29:00.001-05:00

Instead of studying (again), I was scrolling through Oh No They Didn't!, a LJ community where members post news about gossip and pop culture, and I found a post about..

Louis Vuitton Condoms.

Yes, that's right. These babies (haha, see what I did there?) will be selling for $68 a condom. They're not officially made by LV but a lot of LV fans "are really looking forward to this product". Wtf, seriously?

Ladies, wouldn't that be super sexy?

First LV toilet paper and then came the trash bags. What's next, LV kleenx? Or do they have that already? I guess it goes to show that people will buy anything as long as LV has its logo on it. Don't get me wrong, I freggin' love LV, it's my favourite brand, but I wouldn't buy this crap. But then again, I don't have loads of money to throw away. Rich people don't like normal people. I wonder if the LV toilet paper is made of silk or something. It better scrub me clean too.

LV is with me all the time, even when I'm in the bathroom. We'll be together forever bbz.

Okay, the trash bag isn't what you think it is. I mean, it is a trash bag, but it's a trash bag, as in handbag. But it might as well be used for a bag to put your trash into it because it's ugly...and looks like a trash bag. This baby goes for $2000 for a garbage bag that has the words Louis Vuitton on it.

Called the "Raindrop Besace." Should've been called the Trashy.

In case one wasn't enough, they designed another one. I will admit that the leather for the strap looks beautiful though.

Read the original post about LV condoms here.

On a totally unrelated note. Check out my totally cute and awesome Hello Kitty toys from MacDonald's. Be jelly.

There's a knob at the back of the hula one and she twirls the hula around. The snowboard is a bobble head. Want more!

Big jelly.

kawaii wishlist

2011-12-07T10:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, instead of studying, I got distracted by, what else, kawaii things. It got to a point where I wanted so many things that I think I need a new house just to put them all in. I decided to make a "kawaii wishlist" and share it with everyone. They are not in particular order.

Omg Santa Hannari Tofu! Bring me lots of kawaii presents!

This is officially called the Hannari Tofu Christmas Plush Santa Yellow Yuzu. I'll just call it Santa Hannari Tofu. Hannari Tofus are plush of, you guessed it, tofus. Again, only Japan would think of something like this, to make an unpopular food into something that's super kawaii and fluffy. They come in a huge variety of colours and styles. I first learned about this little guy back in 2008 or 2009. I had my eye on one for a long time and when I finally decided to get one, Alex confessed that he bought two of them for me for Christmas (cue: AWWWWWWWWW!). They're yellow and green and I still have them.

My precious tofus + dumplings. Excuse the bad picture, this is before I knew what lighting was.

Next is Pusheen the fatass cat. It's basically an obese grey cat that does really cute things. Its creators made adorable gifs and comics of it. There's also many other types of Pusheen merchandise such as necklaces, t-shirts, rings, etc. You can view more of Pusheen here.

I'm not a cat person but I can't resist this!

The next following items, I thought I was done obsessing over. But apparently not since all I had to do was check to see if there were newer items in stock and the obsession burst from me again. Of course, I'm talking about ARPAKASSOS!!! I bought so many of these because of my obsession with them a few months ago and I thought that I had fulfilled it and it was time to move onto something else but no. These are the ones that made it on my list;

Because every girl needs to put her change in kawaii arpakassos. Love the plain white and brown ones.

Scottish Arpakassos! Just kidding, they just have the argyle pattern. I want the beige and the white ones.

Next up are the GIANT arpakassos. They're not that giant but they're pretty big, ranging between 30 cm to 45 cm in height.

These are 30 cm in height I believe. Definitely want the brown or the white with a flower on its head.

These would definitely be my first choice big arpakasso plushes but they're more expensive. They're also huge (40 cm in height). Any of them would be great!

The final two items are from San-X, the ingenius Japanese company that specializes in making kawaii characters. They made a relatively new line called Sentimental Circus. Not really sure what the story is behind it, but it's a circus and there's all these cute (and some of them creepy) creatures that perform for the circus.

This is Rio the lion. Isn't he cute? Want this plush but I can only find a 9" one that's $30 and I don't want one that big or that expensive.

This is Shappo, the ringmaster! I have no idea what he's supposed to be...a rabbit?

So there you have it, my kawaii wishlist (so far). Santa, bring me these kawaii items!

presents, presents!

2011-12-04T14:49:00.001-05:00

With all that hubub that happened with my other group, I forgot to mention that one of my dear friends (who was in that group too) BOUGHT ME A FREGGIN' CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!!!!!!!!!

This is big news since I haven't received a Christmas present (or any kind of present) from ANY of my friends since...high school in grade 8 or something when we did a secret santa. But I used to get my friends Christmas presents and birthday gifts (because that's what friends do right?) but they never reciprocated so I just stopped.

Needless to say, I was so excited when she came into school and says, "I have something for you!" with a huge smile on her face and as she gave me the present. I was bouncing up and down in my seat like a kid.

She even gave me an adorable bag with a dog on it (she knows I love dogs). I had to restrain myself from tearing up everything like an animal. And guess what was underneath all that decorative tissue!

IT WAS THE FREGGIN' TOTORO POUCH THAT I HAD MY EYE ON FOREVER!!!!!!

All those emotions at the same time. It was a cornucopia of happiness.

Proof that wishes do come true!

I practically strangled her when I ran to hug her and thanked her profusely for the thoughtful and super kawaii gift. It all made sense why a few weeks ago she kept telling me NOT to buy the pouch when the website, Straypya World, was having a Christmas promotion. Sneaky.

I immediately started thinking about what present I was going to get her for Christmas and at first, I was thinking getting a 2NE1 CD but then I thought that people don't buy CDs anymore and especially since there were only 6 tracks or something on their newest "mini-CD" as they called then. Then I remembered that she told me that she's plays video games. She likes the Zelda series (seriously, who doesn't) but she also mentioned that she likes Professor Layton (seriously, who doesn't?). She told me that she had all 3 games but my brother told me that there's actually 4. I checked and sure enough, there was another one. I can't wait to give it to her, I hope she doesn't have it.

I was tempted to buy myself one too, but I need to save money so next time!

Oooo and more great news! I'm the winner of the Condom plushie contest!!! I've never won anything before so this is really exciting! A big thank you to Ashley for having the contest!

I'm going to pick the pink one!

more bad teammates

2011-12-01T16:01:00.001-05:00

Warning: You might actually learn some accounting from this post. Names have also been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Sorry to be doing this again, it seems like I've been cursed with bad team members this semester. I know that people don't like reading angry, whinny, bitchy posts but I have to let it all out.

Another project had to be handed in this semester with a team and this particular project is for my Not-For-Profit accounting class (I'm serious, that's the name of the class). Like most teams, we separated the work between members and all is good. My friend and I were responsible for editing and putting the project together and there was a lot of editing work to be done since our teammates didn't really elaborate on what they had written, and they had poor spelling and grammar. Our project was to analyze the financial statements of a charity.

Serious business, analyzing papers with numbers on them.

Two guys in our group were supposed to do an extremely easy analysis of one of the statements called the Statement of Cash Flows. This statement basically tells you where the cash is going and where the cash is coming from. It's honestly the easier financial statement to analyze. Here's a website that explains it very well but you might learn stuff.

But the analysis they did wasn't what I would call an analysis. All they did was take the numbers and put it into word form. For example, cash flows for cash and cash equivalents increased by xxx during the year. There was a decrease in xxx cash outflow in interest receivables during the year, etc etc. I don't know about you guys, but that's not an analysis to me. I didn't want to submit that to the professor so I e-mailed them and asked them to add more stuff. I waited around for a whole day and no response. I eventually got their phone numbers. One guy told me that he was working until midnight so he won't have time to add anything, fine. I called the other guy, let's call him Stumpy because he's short and wide, with a huge ass. I called Stumpy and asked him if he had received my e-mail and long story short, he refused to add anything to his part. He was extremely defensive about his part of the project but it wasn't as if I was really aggressive about it either. I just told him that I felt that he didn't elaborate on the CF analysis and he should explain what the implications mean. But he then cuts me off and says that there's nothing to add because there are no notes (small explanations in FS) or any additional information. This is where anyone who has been studying for accounting for 4 years would be able to do. But apparently, he doesn't know what to write because he's not being held by the hand to cross the street. He also said that he did the exact same thing on his midterm and that there were checkmarks everywhere and she said he did a good job. I could've easily countered his argument by saying that I elaborated on midterm and I got a 93 whereas he got a 78 or something. But I didn't, unfortunately.

My reaction to the CF analysis.

So I sucked it up and just redid his whole part. Stumpy was also whining about to do an oral tomorrow for our project because we get 3 bonus points. I honestly wasn't going to do it because I wouldn't have time to prepare for the oral since I was redoing his part. I called another team mate, let's call her Judy. Told her about what happened and how Stumpy wanted to do the oral, she said that she and Joe didn't care if the oral was done or not, and the oral is a go if he is wiling to do me and my friend Mary's parts (since we both have too much to do, and we honestly don't need those 3 bonus points, we're rocking the class). Called Stumpy and he made a whole bitch fest about how he didn't want to do anyone else's part. In the end, he agreed but told me to make it clear to Judy that she was doing the powerpoints. In short, she went ballistic.

I stayed up until 1:30 AM to work on their part and to put the finishing touches on the paper. I went straight to bed and when I woke up this morning, sent the final copy to everyone and asked Judy to print it out.

Throughout the course of the day, a pile of shit hit the fan. I got e-mails from Stumpy left and right, asking about why everything is wrong etc etc. I'll just copy and paste the e-mails.

Click on the pictures to read it, I'm sorry but the width is really long.

My response. I admit I was a little aggressive but he was complaining so much about everything and not doing anything, I couldn't sit idly by and be nice anymore.

This is where the shit really hit the fan.

I can't believe he said that. Not only is this rude but an unacceptable way to talk a team member.

I agree stoner guy.

So many ways for me to counter his arguments. Where to start? There's no need to repeat the mission statement part, already included in the my response to him. Not only that, he didn't give me his sources, just told me that it was on the foundation website so I spent a bit of time looking for it. He just told me that it was on the website but the website is huge, I had to look around for all the stuff that he said in the paper and find the right page. Not only that, he referenced a picture (he wrote attached to the appendix) that he found on the site. Of course, it'd be too courteous and use too much of his common sense to give me a link to that picture. Searched around the site, thankfully, I found it and put in the appendices.

It's a stupid explanation? If he had such a problem about the economic crisis for the decrease in cash and cash equivalents, why didn't he mention anything when I sent the project (minus his part) to the team last night? Why is he bitching about it now?

As for the governance part, I admit that I didn't ask him to do it. The point I was trying to make was that he was responsible for that part so if he had an issue with it, why didn't he fix it? It's his own part so he should fix it and stop complaining about it being all wrong.

Finally, about that "adding shit" to the project. I add that type of "shit" to all my exams and papers for all my classes, and I always get a high mark. So I guess teachers look for "shit" like that in a project. I wanted to tell him that that's what I did for my midterms and it seems that the professor likes the "shit" that I add to the papers and that's the difference between my A+ and his B+. But that would be adding fuel to the fire so I decided to be grown up about it (since one of us had to). Oh, and another thing, if we would spend more time editing our own parts? Well, I'm sorry, but we were busy editing your piece of shit that you call an analysis, since it evidently needed more time to fix up and ours. And believe me, Stumpy, your part was an editor's nightmare. The sentences did not make any sense, there were too many ideas in one sentence and no elaboration. Most of their paragraphs were two or three sentences. That's not a paragraph.

Oh about him being more accommodating, he's the only who wants to the oral so I believe that everyone else is accommodating him. And he wants more cooperation? There has been cooperation amongst the group except him. I didn't see him volunteering his services to do anything more for the project, I didn't see him asking anyone on feedback about his part or even asking how the project was coming along.

But instead of writing all that, I wrote this.

My final response to Stumpy.

Of course, the rest of the team knows about this since the e-mails were sent to everyone and 3 out of 4 side with me. I have no idea what the other guy thinks but it doesn't really matter.

Yeah, fuck you Stumpy.

If you've read all this, congratulations! I wouldn't have read this myself. For that I reward you with this!

Makes me laugh so hard everytime.

contest plug

2011-12-01T13:22:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, Sorry for not blogging in a while! This is just a contest plug to increase my chances of winning. You can win a cute (and inappropriate) condom plushie!

Enter here!

post stress celebration

2011-11-22T21:02:00.001-05:00

That awful project that I had to do is FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!.

I was going to go buy something to celebrate then I remembered that I'm poor now and Christmas is fast approaching :(. But Alex thoughtfully bought me some adorable panda and gingerbread cookies! They're so delicious. What would I do without him?

That's not what it really looks like but I didn't take a picture of the cookies so this will do for now.

There was a lot of intense last minute work. On Friday, everyone in my group (minus one girl who literally didn't do shit) met up at 7 PM and stayed until past 10 PM. We met again on Monday at 5:30 PM and I didn't leave until 10:30 PM, got home, had supper and worked on the project until 1:30 AM.

Tuesday morning, Murphy's Law kicked at full force. Everything was going wrong, our videos for the oral weren't working, we couldn't connect our laptop to the school's overhead system. Complete chaos. I was ready to slit my own wrists before a heart attack could catch me.

Yesterday wasn't a regular fuuuuuuuu, it was an uber FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!

But we managed to get everything working right before our oral. It went alright, I thought we did pretty well but the prof said that we didn't have enough information on our slides. Well...

To celebrate the completion of this project and being completely done with the course, I went to Alex's house and...slept.

I had a headache by the time I got back to his house and it's a really bad time for me to get sick so I took a 2 hour long nap, after inhaling some tynenol and slept like a baby. Or so he said. He said I looked like I was having a really peaceful sleep. And I damn well should have been, my project is over!

But I have to work on another project but I'm not too worried about that one. It's for my Not-for-profit accounting class, and everyone knows you just bs about that. I did for both my midterms and I got 84 and 93 on them.

Hurray for good BS!

More kawaii goodies came in the mail these past couple of days, it's not wonder I'm poor with all this kawaii purchasing. But I'm really stopping now because I have way to much. I'm actually trying to sell some of them. Will post links and such when I have to take pictures and put them online. There's already some stuff up on my flickr.

handmade plushes made with love and fancy fukuya

2011-11-16T21:02:00.001-05:00

You'll never guess what happened!!!! When I got home from school today, I went into the kitchen to say hi to my mom and I found this:

They're so adorable!

Mom said she took the design from some plush on display in a store that she sees every morning when she drops Dad off at work. I know which store she's talking about it's most probably an Uglydoll, although I have no idea which one. Not that I'm not a crazy fan of UglyDolls, some of them are cute. I have one and Dad got it for me when we went to Virginia this past summer.

Mom said that she knows how much my sister and I (especially me) like plushes so she decided to make us some. I was so touched. I thought they were cute in a funky way. They were so soft too! I couldn't decide between the one with blue eyes or the one with orange eyes, so I let our dog, Obi pick. I held both of them in front of him and after a bit of sniffing of both, he tried to bite Blue Eyes so I decided to take that one.

This one's mine :D

My sister's.

Today, another one of my packages came (I can't stop, it's like a drug). It was the one that I had ordered from an amazing ebay seller. I purchased 3 times from her and everytime, she ships the day I ordered and it always gets here in less than a week! From Japan to Canada in less than a week, that's amazing. She always gives a little gift each time too. Her shipping costs are reasonable as well. In case you couldn't tell, I'm totally in love with her, so much kawaii in her shop :) Check our her shop.

Please excuse the crappy photos, I took them in a a hurry.

I have no idea what's happening in this picture but it's so cute, it makes my eyes bleed rainbows.

I want everything!!

The plush I bought from her a rabbit/dog (seriously, that's what the company that made it calls it). It's made by Fancy Fukuya who specializes is making super cute kawaii plush that are available by crane game machines, just to piss all the kawaii lovers off. Either that or make it really hard to find, because if it wasn't, I'd already probably have a whole bunch of Fancy Fukuya stuff. But I don't. Instead of making it readily accessible, they have to make it incredibly frustrating, time consuming, and wallet emptying for you to get them.

Their most popular/famous character is the usadango, which is so cute I could barf rainbows and sunshine dust every time I look at it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find one because they sell out like fat kids going at a chocolate store, which makes me rage even more.

Here are some of their products that are so cute and impossible to find.

USADANGO, Y U SO CUTE!?

Then they have these little cute chipmunks, which I have a few of. I bought them off of Naomi, that ebay seller I was telling you about. She even threw in an extra one for me as a gift. This was my reaction when I found out how awesome it was to get an extra kawaii chipmunk.

Kawaii chipmunks playing kawaiingly

These are the two larger ones.

Little baby ones! The one that's standing on the leaf was a gift from Naomi.

And I think they came out with some new characters which will make my bank account deplete like there's no tomorrow. One of them is...a bunch of dancing animals or something (but still cute!) and some other miscellaneous characters that are equally as kawaii as the rest.

Hypnotic kawaii dance to make people buy their stuff

Aww.

Omg, cute crying puppies! My greatest weakness!

Damn you Fancy Fukuya!! Visit their website for more super enraging Japanese kawaiiness.

package goodies

2011-11-15T09:44:00.001-05:00

For some reason I've been been obsessed with buying Kinder Surprises for the past couple of days. Remember those? It all started a few weeks ago when I had time to kill before heading to work so I went into Pharmaprix, a huge drugstore chain. Walking around, I spotted Kinder Surprise and I thought to myself, why not? I haven't had one in a really long time and my parents didn't really buy them for us that often as kids. But as it usually happens with things in Quebec, there was no price tag and the price scanner was broken. I knew it was $1 something but I wanted to know exactly because I wanted to pay in change! I love paying with change because it doesn't feel like you're really paying with anything. Haha. Then I saw the 3 egg package and thought that maybe it's cheaper to buy that and get one for my brother and sister too. But there was no price! I was all like

But luckily, there was an employee scanning prices nearby so I asked him. The pack of 3 was on special for $2.99 instead of 3.99 so I bought that. When to work and opened mine and IT WAS THE SAME TOY THAT I GOT A FEW MONTHS AGO! I was so pissed! What are the odds, they clearly mass produced that one! It was an hourglass that had a picture on the top and bottom of the hourglass so when it was empty on the top, you could see the picture.

Proof that this is mass produced: I typed in "kinder surprise hourglass" and the first two pictures were of this.

This is personal. I was on a mission to find a super cool awesome toy that they keep advertising on those kinder surprise boxes.

Bring it on Kinder Surprise

During my lunch break, I went with my colleague Sara to the Rockland Centre, a mall near work. I told her my mission about Kinder Surprise so we went to Pharmaprix (another one) and I bought a single Kinder this time and she bought some nasty coconut chocolate called Bounty. Ew.

Back at work, I ripped off the wrapper, cracked open the chocolate egg and guess what I found? AN AMAZING TOY! It was a monkey stamp and it was soooooo cute!

Both Monkey Stamp pics taken from here.

Anyway, remember those packages that I was talking about in my last post? Well, I received my swap from Yumi last week! It was a pretty exciting event, although a little disappointing after I thought about it.

Swap from Yumi

The reason I say that my swap with her was disappointing is because I spent about $135 on a dress that she wanted. I had waited since May for this package to arrive because she was apparently really busy (traveling and having fun). Although the items that she got me were really nice and amazing, I honestly don't think they add up to the $200 value that she wrote on the package. Plus, I think she usually just swaps away things that she doesn't want anymore since she has a huge collection on flickr. Not that I mind, as long as I like the items. But this time, I don't think those items are worth $200. On top of that, I had to pay custom duties and taxes of $30 when I got it. >:|

I received this swap about a month ago from another girl, her name is Ashley and it was freggin' amazing! She basically bought everything that I wanted!

Total kawaii awesomeness!!

And finally, because I managed to find time between that project and studying for the midterm, I took a picture of me and my sister's current arpakasso collection. Yaaaay! Those things are so damn cute and addicting, it's like drugs, except for the cute part, drugs make you ugly and nasty, so don't do them.

The cherry ones are my sister's, except for one of them, we traded a lace and a cherry, and the rest are mine.

We also have mini arpakassos! Blue Ribbon is my sister's and the other two are mine.

I have to go review my notes for my midterm today. I really need to do well on this, wish me luck!

shopping goodies

2011-11-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

It's been a good week so far. Yeserday, as Alex and I were getting into his car, he went to put his schoolbag in the trunk and threw a package at me. IT WAS THE ALPACAS!!!!

He had ordered some super duper kawaii alpacas for me and they finally arrived! I was practically bouncing in the car. Here are the contents.

Two of these; orange and green. Highlighter colours, as my sister said.

These were for my sister. He ordered for her and she paid him back.

But the cherry ones, my sister gave me one of the cherries and I gave her one of my lace ones, that was in one of my previous posts. I believe she gave me D.

Today, I met up with one of my cousin's friends who visited her in NYC (omg so jealous, I want to go to NYC) and she brought back the Longchamp Hobo bag for me. It's way cheaper to buy things in the States than in Canada and especially since I have someone who lives in the States now, I can buy as much as I want and just ship it to her place. She always has friends visiting so they can bring things back for me. Except I'm not making much money now so I need to control myself.

I love this, the main reason I bought it was so that I can have a practical and good sized bag to bring to Asia next year. But I'm going to wear it as an every day too.

There was also a package that came for me on Friday but my mom forgot to tell me until yesterday. I hope it's the swap package that was mailed out to me last Wednesday. I did a swap with a girl on flickr and I had sent her stuff back in May and for some reason, it took her forever to this done. Don't think I'll be swapping with her again. I had previously swapped with her and she sent an amazing package. Let's hope that this one will be the same.

As requested by Vermillion, here a two more pictures of my previous alpaca purchase. I'll definitely take more pictures once I have more time. Remember that stupid project that I talked about? Well, it's still taking over my life. Two more weeks until the deadline. And I have to study for a midterm for the same class.

Finally, join this contest so that I can have a better chance of winning. Except don't because that'll actually decrease my chances of winning.

And love and adore my dog, Obi. He orders you to, you can't disobey this cuteness.

a shitty way to be fired

2011-11-04T11:43:00.001-04:00

This morning, I had about 15 minutes to spare before heading on the metro to catch my bus to get to work. The reason, I don't get to work early, because the doors are not unlocked until 9 AM, on the dot. If I get to work before then, I just wait outside the building so I might as well arrive on time...or late. Alex and I went to Starbucks and I had ordered their Peppermint Moka. I'm not a coffee drinker but I will drink starbucks only because put so much crap into their coffee that it won't taste like coffee anymore. It was so yummy, minty and chocolately, absolute love. Also, they totally busted out their Christmas decorations already and it felt so festive. I went to Starbucks with a friend yesterday during a break and that's when I noticed that everything was all Christmasy. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Makes me happy just thinking about drinking this.

In other news, I've been trying very hard not to pay anymore cute things because I don't make nearly as much money as I used to. I used to work two jobs, one as a medical secretary and the other as a private tutor. Both jobs paid really well but I've lost both of them now. I lost the medical secretary one because the department got a new manager since the old one retired. She restructured the whole department and basically told me that they wouldn't be needing me anymore. But they called me back in August saying that they needed me to come in for a few weeks to replace someone. I was tempted to say no because "they didn't need me anymore," but I wanted some extra cash so I swallowed my pride and said yes.

The tutoring one, how it ended was infuriating. And still is. It's a bit of a long story but here it does. I had worked for that family for three years. Every day for the past three years, from Monday to Thursdays (sometimes Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays), I'd go and tutor one of my boss' two sons, or both. Now, his older son is extremely smart but lazy. He won't ever study unless he has a test coming up and he makes a lot of reckless mistakes when doing his math problems. Normally, I'd tutor his sons from 4 PM until 5:30 PM unless they needed me to stay longer to help with projects, exams or they just have too much homework (which is often the case). This past spring, I would finish my 9 to 5 job, then take about an hour of commute to his house and tutor him for about an hour before going to kickboxing on Mondays and Wednesdays. The other days of the week (usually including Fridays), I'd tutor him until 7:30 PM. So basically, I'd extend my work day to help his son prepare for his exams.

After his oldest son's exams, I e-mailed my boss to ask about his results. Apparently, they weren't too great and he had asked for my availabilities so that we could meet and discuss on ways to improve his son's results. This was during the middle of summer, and I replied with my availabilities. No response. In August, I sent him an e-mail asking about his son's progress with the summer math package that he had to do (my boss had told me about it in a previous e-mail). He told me that his son had been doing it regularly and he asked for my availabilities again to meet and discuss with him. Gave it to him again. No reply.

September rolled around, and he never called me to work (he usually does by the end of August). I thought it was because it was the first week of school (and both his sons are now in high school) so I didn't worry too much. By the third week, I was getting worried. But decided not to contact him until later. By the end of September, he e-mailed me telling him about his son's dismal results of the math re-test (he had to work on the package during the summer and take a test at the beginning of the year). He told me that his son has been working with another tutor (red flag) and that the tutor was sure that his son knew the material well. This is basically what I had told his dad (my boss) for the past three years. There was only so much work that I could do with his son. I gave his son exercise sheets that he had to do during the weekend, or work to do when I wasn't with him but he would never do them. I told his dad, his grandmother and even the housekeeper about this and asked them to remind him. His dad did tell him to do it but wasn't making any precautions to enforce it.

Anyway, his dad continued in his e-mail saying that he had asked his son to bring the exam home and that all three of us can go over it. Asked for availabilities again. Gave them, standard response, which was none. He also told me to tell my sister (who had been tutoring his younger son for the past few months so that I would dedicate all my time to his oldest son) that he "promise[s]" to get back to her and he hasn't forgotten her. He never e-mailed either of us back ever since.

I had basically given up hope by October but I decided to send him one last e-mail, asking him if he still needed our services. Not surprisingly, he never replied. Needless to say, I am uber pissed about this. Yes, it sucks that he most certainly hired another tutor but that's not what pisses me off the most. The worst, absolute shittiest thing that he did was not even bother telling me, in any shape or form, that he did not need me anymore. I spent 3 years of not only tutoring his sons, but also babysitting his daughter and her friends every Friday, by playing soccer with them, staying late when needed (sometimes to 8 PM), house sitting when no one was able to, taking care of his daughter and her friends during her parties, coming in on Fridays when needed, canceling my weekend plans when he asked me to tutor his son (the morning of, mind you), attending parent-teacher meetings with him. Don't tell me I was not a good employee to him. I did over and above my call of duty for him and his kids. I did all I could to help his kids improve their grades but I am not their full time tutor, I have a life of my own (although I limited it greatly when I was working for him) and I cannot be with them 24/7 to make that they do their extra work or when they write their tests. His kids were pretty much a priority while I was working for him, I never took days off to fucking study for my own midterms and exams until the past year for Christ's sake. I fucking deserve to be told that my services are no longer needed, instead of being cast aside as a dirty rag. I feel insulted that he didn't even bother to tell me but instead, lead on about all this bullshit about meeting him to discuss this and that.

I thought I knew my boss, especially since I had been working for him for 3 years, seeing him almost every day. He never struck me as the bullshit type, especially since he's the CEO and founder of many big companies. And I am surprised that he can act so unprofessionally and still be an important part of management. But people are always full of surprises.

What sucks even more, is that I didn't properly say good bye to the kids. You grow attach to them when you've been seeing them every day for 3 years and especially the oldest, who I believe sees me as a friend. He tells me about his day, his life, and his friends. If I had known that I wouldn't be seeing them anymore, I would've said a proper good bye. But you can't change the past, so with this post, I can finally let go of his insult and move on.

In other news, this is so damn adorable. It would be the perfect case for my camera!

Cute little dinosaur! Buy this for me! You can find more adorable cuteness here.

procrasinating post

2011-10-28T12:34:00.000-04:00

My midterms are over and there's only one thing preventing from feeling totally free, my stupid, long, tedious, and nearly impossible International Business project!!! I honestly hate this paper, and the fact that it's all I've been thinking about since my last midterm last Thursday, ANNOYS ME! Our project is to pick a company that basically open it in another country. Doesn't sound too hard, right? WRONG! We have to make the project as real as possible, or as my professor as countless times, "I want to read it and think, 'Oh yeah, let's do this tomorrow.' " Except, how the hell do we find information on how a country treats foreign investment? How are we supposed to find out what the tax rate for foreign companies is? This doesn't help that the majority of my teammates don't seem to be really into the project.On a brighter note, I was a contest winner for some adorable paper gnomes! I've never won anything in my life before! I haven't had any time to print them out and make them yet but this is what it's going to look like.

Image taken from Cutesypoo Toys.Adorable gnomies! Thank you Jocelyn!

And you should totally check her website because she makes super adorable handmade plushes, including the little gnomies themselves!

She even made a special Halloween gnome! Evil yet cute! They're available at her etsy

Image taken from Cutesypoo Toys
And in even brighter news, my arpakassos finally arrived! I was just complaining about it taking forever to my sister on Tuesday and within 15 minutes of me getting home, the doorbell ran! I practically ran to the door and signed the paper and got them! I took some pictures but will be taking more when I'm not so busy.

LOVE THEM AND BE JEALOUS! I've ordered more and I can't wait to get them!

I better get back to writing this awful paper. Happy Friday everyone! And here's a funny picture to make you smile (or not).

only thing better than muffins are free muffins

2011-10-14T12:41:00.000-04:00

I had a client consultation today at work so instead of heading straight to the office, stay for 10 minutes and then go back out again, I went straight to where I was supposed to meet my client. This unfortunately, resulted in me waiting for the bus in the rain for about half an hour. But at least I had my awesome umbrella. It's says, "Merde, il pleut" on the side. ISN'T THAT GENIUS!? It means, "Shit, it's raining" in French.

Mine's blue but not the same shade, it's more navy.

I love seeing people smile or laugh whenever they see my umbrella, at least it makes people smile even though it's crap outside. Not many umbrellas can do that. It's also super sturdy which is perfect since I've had more than my fair share of umbrellas turning inside out the moment a bit of wind comes creeping. Although this brelly was expensive, I see it more as an investment since I've had it for a few months now and it hasn't even threatened to turn inside out. Yay!Anyway, so after the consultation, I went back to the office and 'lo and behold, I spot a box of Tim Hortons muffins! Now, for those of you who don't live in Canada, Tim Hortons is like the (cheap) Starbucks of Canada. There's on a literally every corner. At my campus, there's at least 4 within a 5 minute walk from the business building, which is central of the campus. It's incredibly cheap and delicious. A large coffee is about...$2? I don't honestly know because I don't drink Tim Hortons coffee. What I do know is that a chocolate chip muffin is $1.25 tax in (and we have a 13.5% tax rate). IS THAT NOT CHEAP!? And a bagel with cream cheese is about the same price.So, this box of delicious muffins was opened and there it displayed all it's delicious carby goodness. There was one more chocolate chip left and I naturally nabbed it. I actually nabbed it for Alex and I'm going to try and nab another one. There was one that was covered in fruits and it looked so good. I think it's called fruit explosion or something.

Chocolately goodness beckons you

Fruity goodness beckons you also

I wonder if the fruit explosion muffin is still there. Hopefully, it is. But I feel like such a mooch since I'm going to be grabbing two muffins. I'll check after lunch and if it's still there, I consider free game because it's been there for so long. When I came back from my consultation, I was surprised that there were so many left since work had started about 2 and a half hours ago. I remember last time, there were Tim Hortons wraps left over from a conference the day before and they were all gone within half an hour. Someone even took mine! I had put it on top of my lunch container and someone took it! Vultures.

That's how I look like when people steal my dibsed free food. Except not as furry.

But I guess when it comes to free food, all's fair in food and war.On a totally unrelated note. Why is the font to my blog so close together? Does anyone know how to fix this??

halloween kawaii overload

2011-10-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

I trotted back home today after writing my International Business midterm (it went ok, could've been better. A lot of bullshitting on my part actually) and to my utter squeetastic delight, I found a HUGE package waiting for me.

I've been waiting for this package for 3 weeks and it's finally arrived!!! Here are the contents.

Three tiny usazukin keychain plushes.

Large usazukin plushes with an adorable baby pumpkin.

Display of all the usazukins that I purchased. They're my first usazukins!

Halloween Kapibarasan set, all frolicking around the tiny pumpkin patch.

Adorable (but tiny, I expected it to be way bigger) Kapibarasan tote with two fruit kapibarasan keychain plushes.

Devil usazukin with devil HK, guarding dem kit kats.Be jealous. Baby pumpkins were not part of the my super duper kawaii package, they were gifts from Alex's mom.

In memorium: Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T20:21:00.000-04:00

I know I just posted earlier today but I feel that this is important. Not only because he was an amazing innovator and raised Apple from the ashes, but he helped me learn to use my first computer and he made me proud to be a Mac (cheesy, I know).

RIP Steve Jobs, knowing that you created something out of practically nothing and not only that, but rose it to the top.

I'M BACK!

2011-10-04T21:35:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since blogged and I kind of have an excuse for that....I started school. And my blog was apparently distributing viruses so I had to fix that conundrum and it turns out that one of my links, the kawaii exchange one, WAS THE CULPRIT! So I removed the link and it's all rainbows and sunshine now.

So school, yes, I started a new semester, the beginning of my last year! I'm graduate next year, can't wait/am apprehensive. I honestly don't know what to expect, am I a big girl after? Who knows.

Anyway, I want to vent my frustrations about something before moving on to my latest obsessions and woes.

I was in a rush to get to one of my classes last week and I was a tiny bit late. It wasn't because I missed the metro or anything like that, nope. It was because, I was waiting for the elevators to get onto the 5th floor, from the second basement floor, which means going up 7 floors, BUT THE ELEVATOR STOPPED AT EVERY SINGLE FLOOR. WHY YOU MAY ASK? BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE SO DAMN LAZY, THAT THEY'RE WILLING TO WAIT 10 MINUTES TO GO UP 1 OR 2 FLOORS!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRR! I hate it when people do that! Why!? Why!? Why!? I mean, if you didn't wait so damn long, you could've been wherever you had to go! Not only are you demonstrating to everyone in the elevator that you're a lazy ass, YOU'RE DELAYING EVERYONE! This is what I think everytime someone does that.

Haunter knows what it's like to be held up by lazy people.

Ok, I feel better now. So my latest obsession has been....ALPACA PLUSH! Not the real ones, because those are fug but alpacas from Japan, which are funnily enough, called Arpakasso. Hilarious.

Image taken from we heart it

Image taken from nuubu

Image taken from kiwilogy

Aren't they cute? Only Japan can turn this

Image taken from kilblann farm

into this

Image taken from here

So, now you know what I've been obsessing with. And I need to get back to preparing for my oral so that's all your getting today.

Remember, LOVE THE ARPAKASSOS NOT THE ALPACAS! Just kidding, love the alpacas too, they provide really soft and warm wool. And just because they're ugly doesn't mean they don't deserve love either!

Sephora Hello Kitty Apple Lip Balm Review

2011-09-01T12:24:00.000-04:00

During my trip to Virginia Beach, my family and I passed by Lynnhaven mall and out of boredom, I went into Sephora. Now, I'm not a makeup type of girl mainly because I'm too lazy to spend time to put all that on me and I don't think that I look horrendous without makeup so everyone's happy. I only use makeup on special occasions and even then, I find it a lot of work. The only makeup I put on often is lip gloss or chapstick.

So I walked into Sephora and was immediately attracted to their Toki Doki booth, because they had some cute brushes and they were incredibly soft but like I said, I don't use makeup and I already have one lying around somewhere. On the other side of the Toki Doki line, was the Hello Kitty products. It's there that I found the Lip Balm. Now, I occasionally check the Sephora website out of the sheer boredom while at work and I've read reviews about this little lip balm. Apparently, it's good. Attracted by it's cuteness and the fact that I would actually use more than once every 6 months, I forked over the $9 (and some odd cents) and bought it.

Image taken from Sephora

Price: For $9 and the fact that it's not a brand name cosmetics company, it's expensive. I'm used to paying $30 for lip gloss for Chanel and Dior so I'm no cheapo but considering the small amount that you receive, 0.22 oz, I think it's rather pricey.

Packaging: The packaging on this product is really adorable. The gloss is enclosed in an adorable little pot and to reach it, you twist the handle at the top. There's also a cute picture of Hello Kitty on the middle of the container, letting everyone know that it's a HK product. On Sephora's website, it describes it as "A lip balm in an adorable apple-shaped pot." But to me, the container doesn't look anything like an apple but cute nonetheless.

Use: I find that the texture of the balm very thick and a little too creamy. But I do like the fact that it does moisturize my lips and it gets rid of that annoying itch your lips get when it's dry. I also like that the colour isn't too bold so when you apply it to your lips, it doesn't look like that of a clown. It adds a soft hint of colour to your lips too!The balm lasts a long time, almost a whole day for me and it isn't too waxy or glossy. What I don't like is that you have to dip your fingers into the jar and because it lasts long, it also lasts long on your fingers so you have to wipe it off on a napkin.

Overall, I'd rate this product a 4/5. Despite what you get, I still think it's too expensive, if I got it for $5, then I'd definitely give it a 5. But it's a really nice product and the balm actually works and isn't too bold with the colour.

Check out more reviews here.

Virginia Beach is for lovers

2011-08-27T16:15:00.002-04:00

I'm back from vacation (#2)! We went to Virginia Beach, which is somewhere that we go almost every year, although the last time we went was two years ago. Last year, we went to Florida.

That's the view from our hotel, we spend 4 days there and our days consisted of going to the beach, eating, and shopping. On our second last day, we went crabbing.

We caught lots of crabs, the most in a really long time. Everytime we pulled one of our nets up, there'd be at least a crab in it. And we would pull up our nets once every few minutes.

We also caught other things.

After our days in Virginia Beach, we packed up and headed to Williamsburg so that we can go to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. Busch Gardens had a something called Illuminights which pretty means that they put lights everywhere so that the park would look really pretty after the sun went down.

The park is organized into different countries and it was voted as the world's most beautiful theme park.

In Germany, we bought a handmade German cuckoo clock. I don't think it's in this picture but it's so cute! We love it and the bird comes out every half hour. It cuckoos whatever the time is on the hour and once every half hour.

We took a break during the day and replenished ourselves in Germany. We ate in their huge and colourful dinning hall. It made me thing of Hogwarts because of how big and spacious it was and because of the long tables and benches.

At certain times during the day, staff members would come out in costume to dance and sing in German in the middle of the stage. It was cute but nothing special.

We sustained ourselves with desserts! The cupcake was almost the same price as the huge slice of Black Forest cake -_-

Now, while I was on vacation, I had acquired the following plushies!

I had my eye on the two rilakkumas for the longest time but didn't want to pay the same price for both of them for shipping so I waited until we went on vacation in the States. Korilakkuma is a birthday gift from my sister..back in April. The monkey, ugly doll and HK were gifts from my parents. My dad won the monkey for me at a crane game. The Japanese panda I bought at Busch Gardens because it's so DAMN CUTE! Look at those eyes!

Those little ones were in my mailbox when I got home from vacay. Now, I need to save up and stop spending money on kawaii things.

"Yer a wizard, Harry"

2011-08-10T14:49:00.001-04:00

3 days until my vacation to Virginia Beach! Yaaaay! I'm so excited. My family and I visit Virginia Beach pretty much every year (and if it's not Virginia, it's Florida) over the past 15 years. Nothing better than lying on the beach, getting a nice tan. Although I already have a pretty good one (for me anyway, since I never tan), I'm looking forever to keeping it and frolicking on the beach.

Since I will be the US, I decided to have a bunch of parcels shipped there, because shipping to Canada is so damn expensive. It's ridiculous. Anyway, one of the packages that I'll be shipping is........

-suspense music-

HARRY POTTER JOURNALS!!!!!!!

When I went to Universal Studios last year, I obviously went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was AMAZING! Like a HP fan~~boy~~girl's dream come true. The butterbeer was damn amazing and the ride in the Hogwarts castle was my favourite ride out of all the amusement parks that we went to.

I got distracted for and I'm going off in a tangent. So as I was saying, I visited those souvenir shops, cleverly named...I forgot, I saw the Hogwarts Crest Journal on display and I asked of the ~~guys~~ wizards who worked there and I asked him about it. He told me that it was sold out (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!) and they didn't know when they would receive another shipment. Dejected and depressed, I bought the plainer, reject version.

Image taken from Life with a misspelled name.

To which I am now pouring out my heart and soul into (sound familiar).

BUT! Opportunity presented itself in the form of a vacation so when I searched for it on the Universal Studios online store, not only did I buy the Hogwarts Crest Journal, but I also bought these two:

Image taken from Universal Studios Online Store.

Image taken from Universal Studios Online Store.

So now, I won't run out of Harry Potter journals to pour my deepest darkest secrets into. At least for a long time.

Oh and before, I forgot, of course, here's the sought-after Hogwarts journal.

Image taken from Universal Studios Online Store.

Aren't they beautiful?

I couldn't decid which one I wanted so I got all three. At least now, I have the whole collection and imagine how amazing it'll look on my library with the rest of my Harry Potter books.

Aaaaah, life is good.

But I still haven't seen HP part 2. Why won't anyone go watch it with me???

HK Contest

2011-08-03T20:01:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone!

Check out this contest that's giving out super kawaii HK items!

Enter HERE, except don't so that I can have a better chance of winning!

back to reality

2011-07-29T12:59:00.006-04:00

I've just come back from a relaxing and wonderfully, hot and sunny vacation. I went to Punta Cana with Alex and his family. It was my first time ever going to an all-inclusive and I love it. I love the sun, the beach, the pool, the free drinks. I love how you can sit by the pool/beach and just let yourself tan (not that I did much of that) and relief is a minute away. As it is with all vacations, I felt it was too short and I was not looking forward to coming back home and back to work. Especially since I'm sitting in a room that HAS air conditioning but my office partner is anal and doesn't want to turn the AC on because it's too noisy or something and she insists on opening the window instead. So instead of a nice cooling effect, I have a very sticky, damp and hot effect. If I were still on vacation, at least I could've had this by the beach or a pool in the Caribbean. But it's ok, I only have 2 and a half hours of this before I get to go home...via public transit which must be awful. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get an air conditioned bus, that was an amazing experience. I was so blown away by it.

Enough complaning, let's talk about my wonderful vacation. So, we arrived at around 7 PM and we were about an hour away from the resort. By the time we checked in, found our rooms and got settled in, it must've been about 9:30 PM? We wanted to find some food but we weren't familiar with the resort yet so we wondered around, found the pool, which was huge and great. We found the snack bar but they were closed and were preparing for the midnight snack or whatever it was. They said they would be ready in 8 minutues. Now, we didn't know this at the time, but apprently, in the Dominican Republic, they have no concept of time, so when they say 8 minutes, they mean, they'd like to be ready in 8 minutues but we'll most likely be ready in 2 hours. Which is what happened that time and every other time. So when the snack bar was open again, I was starving but to my disappointment, it was only hot dogs and burgers but I ate like a pig anyway.

I'M SO HOT! I'm sweating and my office partner isn't even here. I should just close the window and turn on the freggin' AC. I think I'll go do that. Her ears can kiss my sweaty ass. Yay, it's turned on!

Now, we spent most of our time on the beach and by the pool, which was awesome. I loved every second of it. But we also did an excursion together, which was snorkeling and we swam with sharks and stingrays. But where we went, it was an enclosed area and the sharks had no teeth and they took out the stingers out of the rays, the poor things. I've swam with wild stingrays that have still had their stingers and they're not aggressive animals, what happened to Steve Irwin was literally a one in a million accident. Anyway, we took some pictures with them and swam around the enclosure trying to touch them while they swam away from you. It was good fun. Then, the boys went on a Jeep safari excursion, while Alex's mom and I went to the spa. It was so quiet and relaxing without the guys. We got the aromatherapy package where they scrub you in exfoliante so that you're silky smooth when you wash it off and then they give you a massage with oils and all these different lotions, gels and creams. We left smelling, feeling and looking great. But unfortunately, we had to wash our hair so we washed some of it off while we were trying to wash only our hair.

Kawaii Obsession

2011-06-13T11:05:00.008-04:00

Okay, so I never ended up doing my experiment because of lack of time (prepping a high school kid for his finals is harder than you think!). This either means that the experiment will be delayed until I start again in September...or postponed. Most likely the latter because I highly doubt I'll remember about this in 2 months time.

I've been meaning to write about this for a while since it's been happening for a while. Don't worry, it's nothing serious, unless you count it draining the money in my bank serious, which is kind of is. But I'm a smart shopper so I always spend way less than what I make. But, I'VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH BUYING KAWAII THINGS!!! This started in February, when I discovered flickr (damn you flickr!) and I saw this girl who had a really nice photostream of cute plush. I browsed around and checked her friends' pictures and checked their friends' pictures and on and on it went. Now, not only did these girls' collections mind boggling, but most of them had a section where they would sell their unwanted plush. This started with wanting a Homekoro plush and that initiated everything. After a exhausting search, I found someone (on flickr, no less) who was willing to sell it for me (although at a pretty penny). But this girl, who not only had beautiful pics, had lots of cute things to sell! After seeing so many kawaii collectors post pictures of their collection, I thought to myself, "I can do that!" which is exactly what I did. So not only do I buy from a lot of people, I also post my pictures up.

It's actually gotten to the point where I bought so much, in a span of 4 months that I'm running out of room. So like every other collector, I've listed a selling set. Most of my other items aren't for sale, but I'm willing to part with them for a good price ;)

Check our my flickrhere.

Earl Grey Experiment

2011-05-31T11:39:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated but the list of usual excuses come up; exams and work. Although my exams finished on April 28th (day after my birthday, that's right, I had to study on my birthday!), work started the following Monday and so did my kickboxing classes. In addition to my full-time job (for the summer), I have a part-time job tutoring and the kid's exams were coming up so after my first job, I'd head to my second job and on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'd head off to kickboxing after and get home at around 10 PM. When I don't have kickboxing, I finish work at 8 PM and 7 PM on Fridays, arriving home between 8 PM to 9 PM.

My schedule is still like this but tutoring is going to finish next week since his last exam is on Friday, which gives me more free time after my first job, even if I do have kickboxing after. I love kickboxing! It's amazing and it's so challenging. I love that our coach makes out really work out and that he's still a nice guy. I'm definitely going to sign up again during the fall and even in the winter. Plus, it toning up my flab is a nice bonus ;)

So the weather is finally nice. It's only been raining for the past month, with a random sunny day before reverting back to rain. This is the second day in a row where it's been nice and sunny! Just looking outside makes me happy, never mind feeling the sunshine on my skin.

OMG BLOGGER DIDN'T SAVE MY POST AND NOW I HAVE TO TYPE ALL THIS AGAIN!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!

As I was saying, before blogger MESSED EVERYTHING UP! I love drinking Earl Grey tea because it's the best tea around, obviously. But for some reason, whenever I drink it at work, or at home, it never tastes nearly as good as when I drink it at my boss' house (tutoring). It was at his house that I was introduced to my tea soul mate. Strangely enough, whenever I drink it at work, it tastes like crap, at home, it's alright but at tutoring, it's soooooooo delicious. I wonder why, I add milk and sugar to the tea whether I'm at work or tutoring (milk and honey at home)and the brand is the same (Twinnings). Does anyone know why this happens? I highly doubt that china tea cups and sugar cubes make all the difference. I'll do an experiment tonight at tutoring and I'll post the results some other time.

Deliciousness at every turn

2011-03-05T18:37:00.016-05:00

My March break is over, and the week went by so quickly. I think it's the first time in a long time that I've actually taken a real break. For the past two and a half years, I've either been in school or I've been working full-time, or both.

But today's post is going to be about the most amazing Japanese izakaya in Montreal (at least that I know of). Ok, to be honest, I didn't even know what an izakaya was until I googled it on Wikipedia just now. According to Wikipedia, it's a Japanese bar that also serves food. That strikes me as surprising since it looks much more like a restaurant to me. Sure, it serves saké and Sappuro but other than that, it's all about the food.

Anyway, I went with my boyfriend last Saturday because I had tried it one other time with a friend for lunch. It was so delicious! The first time I went, I had the curry and it blew my mind. Not only was the food wonderful, it was very cheap, $7. The staff is extremely attentive and polite. They seem to genuinely love their job and were willing to help you with anything.

When I went with my boyfriend last Saturday, we didn't have to wait in line, which was surprising. That place is always packed unless you're there before they open. Within 5 mins of it opening, the place is full. But the place itself is very small, it can maybe seat about 30 people. I had ordered chicken meatballs for starters and the 48-hour pork rice as a main course. The reason it's called 48-hour pork rice is because it's been marinated for 48 hours and it was worth it! The pork was soft and very flavourful. The rice was fluffy and the portions, generous.

The chicken meatballs

48-Hour Pork Rice

My boyfriend and I loved the restaurant so much, that we went back yesterday. We invited another friend to try it with us. Unfortunately, this time we weren't so lucky with the line-up. We waited for about half an hour before they were able to accommodate us. We ended up sitting at the bar in the exact same place as last time. I actually prefer sitting at the bar since you get to watch the chefs in action.

I ordered the Pork Cheeks with Baguettes as an appetizer and the Teriyaki Burger as the main course. The pork cheeks were good but they weren't amazing, as my boyfriend's starter was. The baguettes weren't actually baguettes but more like a pita. The pita was placed in the middle of the dish and what you do is you take a piece of the pita and put some of the pork, which is located around the dish and put some of the pork on it. It's basically a little sandwich. There was also some hot sauce and sweet sauce on the side. I preferred the sweet sauce than the hot sauce. I found that the hot sauce didn't complement the pork.

The Pork Cheeks

The main course, however, was fantastic. It was chicken meat instead of beef but it was so juicy. It was a pretty big portion, and I managed to finish it, even though I was pretty full afterwards. There was thin slices of lettuce in it and some very good sauce. I wasn't sure what it was, but it tasted a bit like mayonnaise. It might've been mixed with ketchup because it was a pink-ish hue. That burger was just fantastic. I can still taste it on my palette.

Teriyaki Burger

My boyfriend has the shrimp pancake as a starter and the pork neck. The shrimp pancake was really good. There was salad placed on top of it and it added a nice crisp to the whole flavour. The shrimp was very nice, not burnt or anything. But it was the pancake that made the whole dish. It was very creamy, surprisingly enough, and it was practically melted on your tongue the moment you put it in your mouth.

Shrimp Pancake

The pork neck was also very good. It was a bit tricky to eat since it was mostly bone but for whatever lack of meat there was on the pork, they up for it by giving you more pieces. It's pretty messy when you're eating this because you're basically using your hands. The waiter did give him extra napkins though. It was very tender and a bit sweet thanks to the sauce that they put on it. It wasn't burnt at all either.

Pork Neck

Even though I was stuffed, I had to order the Earl Grey ice cream. I know it sounds weird, because it's a type of tea. But waitress assured me that it was the best flavour and that I wouldn't regret it. I decided to be adventurous and go for it. Besides, I like Earl Grey so why not. Their ice cream is homemade and you can tell the difference. It wasn't as sweet as the ice cream you normally buy from the store. But it was creamy. There was Earl Grey powder sprinkled all on the surface of my ice cream and the waitress told me that it was real tea. It tasted great! I don't know how, but they made it work. It was a little expensive though, it was $4 and it was a small size but enough for me to really enjoy myself.

My boyfriend has the Saké ice cream, it's the exact same ice cream except they placed some saké under the bowl of ice cream in another bowl. You can pour as much saké as you can on your ice cream, so that gives you a bit of flexibility on how much you want. I tried it and it was good, but not as good as my Early Grey.

I'm going back next week for lunch with the same friend who introduced me to this fab restaurant. I'm definitely going to try something new even though I'm really tempted to get the Teriyaki burger again but honestly, everything they make there looks so good. And so far, I haven't been proven wrong.

Taste of Freedom

2011-02-18T14:31:00.003-05:00

After cramming and stressing for about three weeks, my midterms are finally done! Actually, my last one was on Wednesday so I've been done for a few days but really done because I still had classes until Thursday. But as of Thursday at 2:30 PM, I'M ON SPRING BREAK! But at my school, they call it, "Reading Week." I guess it is a bit early to call it spring break but whatever, it's a week of school.

I can't wait! I've been either in school or working since...a long time. 3 years? With the co-op program and school, I haven't really had a break since then. I'm going to enjoy every second of it. Except for the fact that I'm stuck at work. I normally don't mind going to work but I can't wait to get out of here. I keep thinking about what I'm going to do during my spring break, which I haven't decided yet.

I'm trying to write a Valentine's Day card for Alex. We're celebrating today because we've both been super busy with midterms so we haven't had time to do anything. It's really hard to write a good message in a card without repeating the same things over and over. This is our fifth Valentine's celebration so...yeah. I'm not very creative either so yeah, that's why this is really hard. It doesn't help that he surprised me with a bouquet of flowers, some chocolcates and a card on Valentine's Day when I opened the door, looking like I was dragged through a garbabge dump. Okay, I didn't look that bad, but I didn't look impressive either. So I feel pressured to write a really good card.

On another note, I've been obsessed with buying Kawaii plushies like Homekoro (even though it's almost impossible to find him. But I did manage it, after extensive effort) and Mamegoma. But I only like the fuzzy Mamegomas and the fluffy Rilakkumas. I normally don't like Rilakkuma at all, but for some reason, I like the fluffy ones. I like the white bear more tha Rilakkum himself, it's cuter.

I'd post some pics of the ones that I want but unfortunately, I don't have time for that because I have about half an hour left of work and I still have to write an excellent Valentine's Day card for Alex.

Layout up

2011-01-13T11:24:00.000-05:00

I finally put the layout up after 7 months!

foodie post

2010-05-27T11:14:00.002-04:00

there is nothing i enjoy more than delicious grub. i mean, no matter how bad your day was, how can you be upset after eating something that'll fire up your taste buds and melt your problems away. food honestly makes everything better, not that i'm an emotional eater, far from it. i actually can't bring myself to eat a pack of 4 extra chocolately and crispy pocky for fear of gaining weight (yeah, i'm neurotic that way. whos' heard of a foodie who's afraid to eat too much?).

back to my main point, which is; food is awesome. i find myself (mostly at work) surfing urbanspoon.com, checking out the most interesting restaurants i can find and then desperately trying to find someone who will a)be willing to spend money on overpriced food b)come with me and c)willing to travel the distance to eat with me. of course, i enjoy the company as well.

a is a big problem because i love fine dinning. the food, the decor and the service just makes you feel like you're royalty. which is what they're supposed to make you feel like, if they know anything about fine dinning. i honestly don't mind shelling out over $30 for a main dish let alone all the trimmings, complete with appetizers (foie gras anyone?) and plus dessert sometimes (99.99% of the time, i'm too full by dessert anyway). but most of my friends do mind, which sucks so i usually have to wait for some special occasion (like our anniversary, which is coming up!) to go with my boyfriend. but because this only happens once a year, it can be problematic since the foodaholic in me, can't WAIT once a year for this!

but i do have a friend who such a foodie like me and she won't mind shelling out over $50 for a good meal. but she's kind of broke so it doesn't happen very often. i sometimes wonder if i should bring my sister (who is broke) and then pay for her but then it wouldn't seem very fair to my brother, so i'd have to bring him along too so it'd be quite a bill.

but my foodie fix will be satisfied tomorrow, when i head over to La Cantine with my boyfriend tomorrow to celebrate his birthday. it's not a fancy restaurant but they serve wacky and delicious food there. i can't wait!

pokemon love

2010-05-12T12:39:00.005-04:00

my love and obsession for pokemon has been renewed and it's all this post. so immense is my love for this old school game, i went on ebay and actually checked out what plushies they had for sale (by pokemon center, obvs) AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH THREE OF THEM! i must have them! i previously bought a wooper one because it was kind of cute and then my dog bite off one of its arms....but it has character now.

i used to have a pikachu one (because which kid didn't), a snorlax, charizard, and...CLEFAIRY!!!! except i have clue where the hell why went. probably donated like all my other awesome stuff which i didn't mean to donate. i hate it when that happens. actually, it only happened once. i was so tired of having so much shit, that i just decided to screw looking through all the garbage bags of goodies (i litereally had like 10) and just gave it all away. and as a way to torment me, i'm suddently remembering all this shit that i DIDN'T want to donate. life is so cruel.

thank god, i still my squirtle, even though i don't like squirtle at all. an ugly pokemon is still a pokemon and since i love pokemon, i must tolerate squirtle.

i actually placed a bid on of the ebay plushies BUT i won't say which one, in case someone actually reads this and is a pokemon fan and happens to like the same plushie and OUTBIDS ME!

.....i think i'm going to go ferret my old pokemon games out and play them now.

<3 fire pokemon JUST LOVE THEM!

[EDIT] May 14th, 2010

I WON THE BID!!!!! WOOOOO! It's this one! except i didn't pay 30 bucks for it. i paid 10. =D

now available for rent

2010-05-11T12:22:00.003-04:00

so i've been thinking what kind of blog this could be, because i already keep a journal so there's no point writing the same twice. plus, i don't have the time. i actually would rather update my journal more often than this. journals are fun to reread a few months later, only to realize what an idiot you were.

but blogs are fun too since it's much quicker to update them. imagine if i could write as fast as i typed? my journal entries (not the accounting ones. haha, accounting joke!....T_T) would take about 15 mins instead of 2 hours, especially since i write such detailed accounts of my day and feelings. sometimes, i feel bad for whoever would be rude enough to read my journal, except not really if they were reading my journal without my permission.

anyway, gong gong's house is finally rentable. i guess we could've just rented it the way it was, but it was filthy and hadn't been cleaned in over 20 years. it looks much much nicer now, with a fresh coat of paint and new floors. although, i think we're stupid to be doing so much work on renting property, just a little. hopefully, we'll get good tenants.

someone called today and was asking about the property. they're only two people, some guy and his mom. so far so good...BUT they have a dog. a labrador. a big dog. not that i have anything against dogs, because i LOVE dogs, but pets are dirty and we don't have to have to work more than we have to when the tenant leaves. apparently, he's very well behaved (the dog, not the guy. although i hope he is too) etc etc etc. but we'll see. but i'm glad that people are calling, it's only been a day since i posted it up on kijiji so it's working!

i should also fix my layout. it's been looking like a work-in-progress for the past two weeks. i wish photobucket wasn't blogged on this computer, otherwise i'd spiff it up right now.

birthday party

2010-04-27T12:32:00.002-04:00

it's my birthday!!! happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

yay!

...that's about it. i just wanted to post that it's my birthday...

we're going to have rockaberry's pie today for my birfday! it's so delicious and it's truffle too! i can't wait to get home tonight, i'm going to pig out and then go to my aerobics class and work my class off. it's going to be great.

i've been getting birthday wishes from many of my co-workers which makes me happy because i didn't even think that any of them knew but since my dad has one of the biggest mouths in the department, it's not that surprising.

it's snowing outside. it's APRIL AND IT'S SNOWING! how weird but i don't mind because i get to wear my burberry boots. walking in the rain in style :)

on the boo side, my sister lost her cell phone :( it was such a nice one, not to mention my brother and i spent quite a bit of money on her swarovski cell phone charm. and they don't sell it anymore! it was a glittery sheep but obviously, my gliterry pig is cuter. i think i'm more upset about the sheep than her actual phone. the sheep!!! T_T

revival

2010-04-22T11:03:00.005-04:00

i live!

after who knows how long many years, i might be blogging again. maybe. i just can't think of anything to blog about so that's a problem because that contradicts the very nature of blogs.

in short, this might come back to life, it may not. who knows. it'll depend on my mood and blogging material.

stay tuned!

and please ignore the ugly state of my blog, i put the coding in but haven't uploaded the pictures because i'm at work....

shhhh...don't tell anyone!