Archive for January 2009

I didn’t have to wait until Feb 3 to listen to the album! It’s available for streaming on VH1.com right NOW!!!!! I love it! I can’t wait until the album actually comes out! I’ve just pre-ordered it. I haven’t been this rightfully excited over an album release in a long time!

I believe Best Buy has the cheapest price. $9.99 PLUS you get a free download for “syndicate”. Yes, cheaper than Amazon and Walmart!

Hi everyone! I have a little secret that I’ve been hiding for a little while but I can’t keep it contained at the moment. I’m currently working on a new blog site for myself and will eventually abandon blogger. It’s a decent free service and all, but there are features that it lacks. I’ll be getting my own site up soon using the ever so popular Wordpress, which means I will be able to use expandable posts. I realize that I like to post a lot of pictures and it must make my blog lag on Blogger. There will also be threaded comments, so that means I (and others) can actually reply to your comments in an organized manner!

It’ll actually be maybe… 70% personal blog and 30% beauty blog. It’s mostly for me. Sorry, I know that sounds selfish. I’ve started realizing how much I like writing about things that really don’t matter

Something that I’ve never told anyone is that I started fiddling with web and graphic design in middle school. At the time, Wordpress did not exist. It was all about b2! Well, I had a good amount of fun for 2 years and got bored with it.

Anyway, this time around, I’m not going to be doing any of the designing or coding. I’m calling in the pros. I’ve commissioned an artist on Deviantart to make an illustration for me. I basically had a vision, explained it thoroughly to the artist, showed some examples, and it’s the artist’s job to turn my vision into a visual image. Well, the artist just sent me the sketch this morning and it looks AMAZING! I’m so happy so far and I can’t wait until she finishes the illustration.

After that, I have a designer who will design and code the overall Wordpress template. Her work is amazing as well. She has created some popular free wordpress templates.

Everything pretty much is made from scratch so there will be no premade templates, no stock vectors that you see everywhere on the internet. Everything will be unique and 100% me! (except I didn’t actually draw, design, or code anything :P)

Things should be completely done in 1-2 months. I’m so exited!

Considering there’s a flat rate fee for tuition, I figured I’d take full advantage of that and take as many units as I can handle. So, I decided to take an art class just for the hell of it. I thought it was going to be easy… lol. I feel like a fish out of water. This is a basic art class but everyone seems to already have experience. I didn’t even take art in high school. Everyone was required to take a class in the arts as a graduation requirement. While everyone chose art or ceramics, I wanted to be different and take… stained glass. I went home every other day with cuts. The class went through a box of band-aids a week! :[ I made some pretty cool stuff though! (edit: Now that I remember, I actually still have a raised scar, a little further down my right wrist, that was a result of a shard of glass cutting through my skin. That class is dangerous! So wasn’t worth it! >:[)

The instructor went around critiquing everyone’s work publicly and said that my drawings looked like sausages LOL. I couldn’t help but laugh but I guess I was the only one that found it funny. Either everyone is being polite or they are art majors that are taking things seriously. I’m mainly there for shits and giggles. Don’t get me wrong, I want to do well too! After all, this class does have an effect on my GPA.

Here’s the stuff I did this week! We were drawing “gestures”, objects in “motion” or something like that…
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MAC:

MAC Reflects Transparent Teal

This is my very first reflects glitter from MAC. They look amazing but I really wanted to use it on the eye, which I’m technically not supposed to. They are not approved for the eye area but I just caved in and accepted the fact that when I use these on my eyes and go blind, it’ll be my own fault. These glitters are finer than Urban Decay’s chunky glitters that I carelessly use all the time, so I’m going to take the risk with these glitters. I’m surprised at how well they stick onto my lids without any mixing medium. It lasted over 12 hours just sticking onto my eyeshadow, but again… you’re not supposed to do that.

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Liz: Hi dad, how are you? Are you busy?
Dad: No, go ahead.
Liz: Bla bla bla
Dad: Hey can I call you back? I need to buy something on ebay real quick. Call you back in 25 minutes.
Liz: … Why do you need to stop talking to me? Can’t you go on the computer and talk at the same time?
Dad: Nooo I’m not bidding on the computer, I’m doing it on the phone.
Liz: Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh Yeahhhhh, cause you have a blueberry.
Dad: BLACK berry! lol

lol

Yeah, I’m that unhip. Stereotypically, our roles should be reversed.

Just some polish swatches for you guys. I will retake a better photo of Ruby Pumps the next time I paint my nails with it.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Dior Black Sequins

He kept looking at me, so I snapped a picture.

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One of my goals for the new semester is to work on my physical appearance. Out of all the goals a person can set for themselves, that probably sounds so shallow, but I’ve really let my care for my appearance go down the shitter.

I remember how shocked my father was last year when I got off the airplane wearing cow pajamas. It was actually my father that pushed me into Rock and Republic denim. When your own Asian father tells you you need to work on your appearance, you must really look like a hobo.

Because I have a makeup themed Youtube channel, close minded people will automatically assume that I’m the type of person who relies on makeup, spends hours to get ready everyday, don’t have the courage to step outside without painting my face. All that could not be further from the truth. If I’m lucky, I’ll wear makeup 2 days out of the week. Repeating, if I’m lucky… Most days, I’m bare faced. When you’ve only gotten 3 hours of sleep, the last thing you want to do is paint over your droopy face. If I’m not going to dress up my face then what’s the point of dressing up my body either, so I gravitate to the sweats, hoodies, and sneakers.

Over time, I think my confidence has died as well. When I was in high school, I NEVER wore neutral makeup. I was off in my own little world and didn’t care what people thought of me. Just recently, I was organizing my clothes and found some articles of clothing that I would never have the balls of wearing today. There are people who I went to high school with who can testify that I walked around wearing stripper-esque clothing and dark black full blown smokey eyes, oblivious that it’s not “acceptable”.

As I started growing up and being exposed to the “real world”, I had to learn how to apply “proper” makeup… neutral looks. As I was wearing the neutral looks more and more, I strayed away from the bright and bold, losing the confidence to rock them. The neutral looks and plain clothing became safe. It’s gotten so bad that I think I’ve been typcasted into only doing neutral looks on my Youtube channel. “I didn’t know you wore color”… That’s depressing.

The science and engineering field of study is still dominated by men, and I think it’s natural for a lot of females to not want to stick out more than they already do with lipsticks and heels. I’ve become used to wanting to blend in with the crowd. The sad reality of it is that a lot of people will assume that if spent some effort on your appearance, that you must be some bimbo. Unfortunately, as people grow older, it’s sort of inevitable to care about how others perceive you.

I went from dressing up everyday to barely at all. When I make the effort to dress up, I get, “Are you going somewhere special today?” when it used to be “So… you were too lazy today that you didn’t bother to dress up?”. It’s quiet embarrassing. It’s like I’ve already let myself go, at a really young age!

My econ teacher brought up an interesting subject. Shoe shine businesses aren’t all that common because people just aren’t dressing up anymore. Remember the days when men wore nice suits and women fancy dresses wherever they went? Society today tends to demonize vanity but there’s nothing wrong with dressing ourselves up and looking nice. It’s still expected that we groom ourselves and wear deodorant, but that’s not necessary for survival now is it?

I admire people who have the confidence to set themselves away from the crowd and not care about what people have to say. Like Dita Von Teese who looks perfect everywhere she goes. Or… xppinkxx! Her outfits are always so fierce and I envy her courage to pull them off so well. Bold lips, bold eyes, latex leggings, who the hell cares right?

… easier said than done. We will try…

I found God on the corner of first and amistad where the west was all but one all alone smoking his last cigerette i said where you been he said ask anything where were you when everything was falling apart all my days spend my the telephone never rang when all i needed was a call never came to the corner of first and amistad lost and insecure you found me you found me lyingon the floor surrounded surrounded whyd you have to wait where were you where were you just a little late you found me you found me but in the end everyone ends up alone losing her the only one whose ever known who i am who im not who i wanna be no way to know how long she will be next to me lost and insecure you found me you found me lying on the floor surrounded surrounded whyd you have to wait where were you where were you just a little late you found me you found me early morning city breaks ive been calling for years and years and years and years and you never left me no messages never send me no letters you got some kind of nerve taking all i want lost and insecure you found you found me lying on the floor where were you where were you lost and insecure youfound me you found me lying on the floor surrounded surrounded whyd you have to wait where were you where were you just a little late you found me you found me whyd you have to wait to find me to find me

This video was released about a month ago and I didn’t watch it until today. WOW. WOW. WOW. I bought the song on iTunes when it was released and I listened to it over and over and over again. I imagined up a music video for the song and oddly enough, it’s sort of similar to what I had envisioned… kind of.

So first, I looked at the lyrics and here’s how I interpreted it:

1. “I found God – on the corner of First and Amistad… Smoking his last cigarette – I said, where’ve you been? – He said, ask anything.”
Aren’t people supposed to face God when they are dead?
2. “Where were you? – When everything was falling apart.”
Hopelessness, resentment, and anger
3. “Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me – Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded – Why’d you have to wait? – Where were you? Where were you? – Just a little late.”
Lying on the floor, Why’d you have to wait, a preventable death… a little late.

MY CONCLUSION: Suicide

So I established my personal interpretation of the theme for the song. I envisioned the music video according to the lyrics. I imagined someone walking up to a bus stop in NEW YORK CITY (the actual video looks like it’s set in NYC as well (edit: no! Not in NYC, the video was shot in Chicago!) to find “God” dressed in normal clothing, all alone, smoking a cigarette. Person yells, “Where were you when everything was falling apart“? Another scene appears where that same person “Lost and insecure“, in a damaged state of mind and desperately needing someone to be there. “All my days spent by the telephone, And all I needed was a call, It never came” The person spends all their time at the phone waiting for a specific person to call and help them but it never came. The actual meaning of the song I think was that the person kept calling, as in praying, to God but never got an answer. However, I envisioned the person relying on some other actual person.

“you found me – Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded – Why’d you have to wait? – Where were you? Where were you? – Just a little late.” So, the person attempts suicide. When the other person who was being relied on actually shows up, they realize that they are too late. The person was found on the floor “surrounded, surrounded” by EMTs. The scene with the EMTs is dramatic, trying to revive the person.

Cut back to the scene where the person is standing next to God at the bus stop. The bus finally arrives and pulls over, and everything and everyone turns white and dissipates.

Okay, so that was what I envisioned the music video to look like based on my impression of the song. I was surprised at the actual video and how some of the elements I imagined where also represented in the video. New York City (Chicago), EMTs, and suicide. It’s not 100% apparent that suicide was in the video, but being that the band members are on top of a building, a boy walking on the sidewalk stares up into the sky, and the EMTs give the victim some neck spinal support brace… thing, I’m going to guess that she jumped off a building.

Of course the video is so much more awesome than what I had imagined. It has this superhero-esque feel to it and the guys look AMAZING on top of a building, looking down, in their nice coats. You bet I’m going to start popping the collar of my coat!

Here’s my interpretation of the video, keeping in mind that The Fray is a Christian band as well. Things are rough for the woman, no one, aka God, answered her “calls”, she attempted suicide by jumping off a building, “early morning, city breaks” light shines through the city, everyone is floating, the victim opens her eyes, she’s not really dead and has a new beginning.

The song, the music video concept, the cinematography, all wonderfully done. I think this is the best music video I’ve seen in a long time, if not ever.