Summer Days

Summer days are coming to a close. The weather in Hawaii during the summer brings about a bunch of different moods. There are days where the sun in shining and the wind is blowing, and days when the sun is shining and... yeah, that's it. Although there isn't much to complain about, since other states have to deal with temperatures rising past the 100s. The weather that I hate most when it comes to a Hawaiian summer are days when the sun is shining, and it's raining. The humidity sky rockets, and whatever you choose to wear doesn't really matter because you're going to end up sticky by the end of the day. Yesterday, the weather fit the first description and it today followed suit. Summer's coming to a close, and school is about to start up again. I just saw the cost of the books I have to buy this semester, and my bank account almost/had a heart attack. (Oh, and the pictures above... I'll be using one of them for a picnic flyer that needs to be made soon)

Learning a New Language: Korean

At some point this summer, I suddenly became fascinated with a bunch of things Korean. Not all things, but most things. Of course, the k-dramas had some kind of (big) influence, why wouldn't it? But anyway, with that said, why not go even further and learn the dang language. Although people say it's one of the hardest languages to learn if your first language was English, I'm going to give it a try. With the help of talktomeinkorean, koreanclass101, and wikibooks, let's hope this learning experience will be fun and worth it. If I do this daily, as if taking an actual class, wikibooks tells me it can take up to one and a half years. But you know what? I'm up for it. To add on to this challenge of learning this language, I'm also looking at learning other languages as well, but will come in due time. To aid my learning, and my blogging, I'll try to post updates. So, follow me on my journey. :)

Toona

Most of the days I have work, my mom graciously makes sandwiches for my dad, my brother, and me. On other days, the filling is usually in the fridge in some tupperware. I don't know if it's just me, but mom's (or my mom) always have a way of making things taste 10x better than when you make it yourself. For example, a tuna sandwich. I use all of the same ingredients, yet my sandwiches still end up tasting kind of bland compared to my mom's. Well... I'll learn.

Bunny With No Name

It's been a week, and I'm not too sure why? I swear I was going to post this up last week, but I guess I'm still getting back into the groove of blogging... Here, we have my bunny, who apparently has no name. Well, I don't think we officially gave he/she (I don't even know its gender!) a name, so it's anonymity will remain. What's a name anyway? Haha. Do you recognize the filter? I'm sure everyone knows, but if you don't, check out dbox's tumblr for some awesome instagram filters that you can use for photoshop. Another update coming soon, i let's hope. :)

Addicted to: Desktop Mods

I'm always on my laptop when I'm home. The things I do on it and stuff I find just browsing the web can be endless. Sometime last year, I discovered something new, but just this past February, I took to it and started modifying my desktop. It's become an addiction and I'd love to do it every month, but I figured I need to enjoy things a lot more, so the current desktop will be there to stay for a bit. Click on the pictures above for a better view. You'll see the icons I've used as well. The applications I used are GeekTool and CandyBar. Using it is pretty simple for the most part, but searching for the things you want to use can be hard. I would've linked the to backgrounds and icons I've used, but I didn't save their sources. If I run into them, I'll be sure to update this post.

Boys over Flowers

(via)
It took me about 3-4 days to finish watching 25 1-hour episodes of this Korean drama, and I don't regret these past days that I spent just lying on my bed glued to my TV screen. I haven't watched and truly enjoyed a Korean drama in its entirety in a really long time, and now I feel as if I'm back to the obsession.

I know a lot of girls love Kim Bum (2nd from the left), but I personally LOOVVEE Lee MinHo (middle). I've been a bit of a crazed fan these last few days. The story line is really cute, and I'd rather you watch it yourself if you want to find out.

One thing is for certain though, whenever I'm done with a drama series, I enter into a funk, where I just want more! It sucks that most Korean dramas don't have second seasons, because I would seriously pay to watch more. All I can think about after finishing it off is what happens next?! It's a good thing Lee MinHo is starring in another drama that seems to be raking in really good viewership. I'll be sure to start watching that soon. I've already started watching a series where he pretends to be gay! Oh my. I wonder what he's like in real life... :P

Breeze

I wasn't your air. I was just a breeze that you mistook for air. A breeze...once it passes by, can't come back to the same place.

Cacti and Getting Older

On Monday, my grandma turned 66. Young she is. I also figured out that she's only 16 years older than my dad. They could be siblings! My grandma was one of the few people that would babysit me and my brother when we were young. She loves plants, and gardening - just like my parents. My grandparents also grow a lot of their own vegetables, and the vegetable dishes usually involve the food that they grow. It's something they brought from their childhood. I think when I get older, I'll be just the same... into gardening, that is...

I took pictures of cacti because it's one thing her garden is abundant of. When I think about it, the cactus is a pretty cool plant. It really stands on its own. Able to weather through storms because of its tough exterior and protect itself from anything trying to hurt it. I'll leave you with that.

Keychains and Clouds

I unexpectedly got my package from ModCloth on Thursday and I literally jumped out of my bed when the mail man came hollering for someone to get the package. I was following it via my USPS tracking number and that day I had just waken up and didn't have time to check. When I did, everything happened within a few hours - the package arriving in hawaii, getting processed, getting into the mail truck, and arriving on my doorstep. So glad it did. Isn't the box's interior just great? I love mail with great packaging.

So what did I get? Four keychains - two keycaps, a lightning bolt that flashes and makes noise, and a heart bottle opener. Why did I get these? I'm hoping the answer will come soon, but currently, I'm just waiting "patiently." I also got an elephant necklace (which I named elephante, for obvious reasons), and the cutest, most adorable plush cloud pillow (named nimbus). I don't usually name my inanimate objects, but I thought it worked out well. Now my other plush pillow has a friend. He will make his own debut soon. I'm really hoping to expand my plush collection. They're so cute, and great sleeping companions on lonely nights, haha!

Late Nights

I don't know if it's the fact that I wake up really late, or that there are so many random things to do at night, but I really need a fix to my sleep schedule. It's either uploading pictures, fixing up my brother's blog as of late, or I don't know what. Even when I have work the next day, my reticular formation (brain's sleep center) can't get the rhythm correct.

Boxed Water

Whoever came up with boxed water is a genius. It makes me wonder why we haven't done this from the start. The facts on the box sold me. I remember drinking from milk cartons in elementary school and it only crosses my mind now that water could have been in those boxes. They were put to good use in arts and crafts too! This idea needs to go more global and companies that manufacture bottles for anything need to reconsider their use of plastic. It will probably save the company a lot more money too because I'm sure recycled paper is a lot less expensive than whatever they use to make bottles.

The Aquarium

A few weeks ago, we took a trip to the Aquarium. It was fun, but short-lived. The place is small! I guess it's really been that long since I've been there. We decided we would go to Sea Life Park soon to make up for it. Afterward, we headed over to the lagoon, per request of my nephew. Love the ilikai or "rainbow" hotel. Just another summer day fun in sun.

H3 Portal

One of the things I love about going over to the east side of the island is going through the H3 tunnel. It's almost like a portal, because once you're on the other side of the mountain, it's as if you're flying and soaring down the highway enjoying a pretty epic view. You can see the cement beams that make up the foundation of this bridge you're on, and you don't know if you can trust it's structure with it being so high. But once you're on ground level, the east side is a quaint country, per se. I rarely make my way through this side of the mountain, but when I do, I always enjoy myself - after all, some of the best beaches are here.

Independence

It's kind of ironic how we in Hawaii celebrate Independence Day in a state that basically had their independence taken away. But with that random fact aside, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I spent the day with my family on the other side of the island at Bellow's Beach. What I like about this side of the island is that on a good day-if you're lucky-you can see a faint silhouette of Maui (first picture). Luckily enough, we are planning to spend our Labor Day weekend camping at Bellow's. Soft velvety sand, twister, horseshoes, barbecue, and a good time sums up the day. Bliss.