New year, new me?

Okay, so I know the time for a new years resolution post has passed seeing as how its February and all, but who said that you can't set goals for yourself any other time of the year?

So like the other billions of people out there, one of my resolutions this year (and the year before, and the year before) is to get in shape! Every year, I tell myself that it's the year I'm going to make a change. Seeing as how I am attempting to make this commitment again this year, I obviously did not follow through with my plan. But this year, THIS year, is going to be different for the following reasons:

1. Prom is coming up, so you know.
2. In the Fall, I am going to go who knows where for college. So I want to feel the most confident I can possibly feel.
3. I am tired of not being able to wear certain things because I don't look good in it.

Now, I understand that I have a mild case of issues with commitment, so I am going to make it slightly easier on myself. In the past, I've tried to do the same workout everyday, but that just got boring. So my goal for every day I work out is to do some strength training and run 2 miles a day. As it gets easier, I'll amp up my workouts. Now, I know that this workout routine seems to very loose, but that's the point. I cannot stress how much I hate doing the same workout every day for a long extended period of time, so hopefully this way will work. I'll probably be changing up what I am doing every week or so.

Here are my plans:

Short term goal:
Run 2 miles a day or do an hour or so of pilates or yoga.

Long term goal:
Run 5 miles a day within an hour or so.

I think I am going to start blogging regularly about what I am doing in order to keep myself in check.


Jenny

the beginning of the end

Upon reaching an important milestone in my high school life, I have not yet written a post.. so I thought it would be very appropriate to have my first post about homecoming. 

Since we are seniors, there was a universal understanding that we needed to be as obnoxious as possible...

Korean Fest 2012& Del Seoul

So it's that time of year again... cramming summer homework ):

I tried Del Seoul the other day with Anita, Precilla, and Cindy! Del Seoul is basically a mash up of Korean and Mexican food, therefore Del Seoul.. haha get it? I was expecting it to be a restaurant but actually its like a Pompei; you order the food and take a number, then someone brings you your food. I thought it was soo good! Except the tortillas.. those weren't soft enough. But the Kimchi fries were heaven. Think of chili cheese fries, but with kimchi!

The Kalbi tacos!

trip to HOLLAND! ... Michigan ...

It's a long story. Basically, my dad wanted to go somewhere based on someone else's recommendation. We ended up going to Dutch village... in Holland, MI. Here are some photos from the day. I have to say it was kind of fun. Would I go back? No, but hey, it was a nice weekend trip. The best part was probably going to Michigan City for shopping on the way home!

and so it begins.

So it has been quite a few weeks since summer break has started (this is the fourth week if you count the week that no one shows up.. so technically this is the third week of break). I realized I have been neglecting my blog quite a bit, but I'm back with an update!

this is when cindy and I went thrifting for the first time! (it was a failll). also, it was before break.. 

latest addition to the family

 I just got my new camera lens this weekend! yay! It is a refurbished lens, but I also saved a good $200. According to Lina, Gary said it's even better for it to be a refurbished lens and its Gary, so it must be true right?

Now I just need a UV filter to protect this one and a new camera bag. The lens and body does not fit in my current camera bag, attached or detached. I also have my baby macro lens to carry around now! I am TOO excited when I get new toys. I hope I can save up for a 35 mm SLR this summer!

-Jinny

 

I swear, we're not tourists

I live in Chicago, so there's so much to see. So Ahsan and I made plans to go ride the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. I brought my camera along just because. After that day, I've become more motivated to take full advantage of all this city has to offer.

I'm learning how to love this city; it's going to be hard leaving it all behind for college.

Jinny

homework?

I had an assignment to make a "Top Ten" list. I really liked it, so here it goes:

Top Ten Ways to Lead a Happier Life

Living in today’s society is not the easiest task; being happy in today’s society is not much easier. With all that occurs in life, it is hard for people to grasp what it means to be happy. Some people spend all their life trying to become a billionaire, but in the end, are still unable to find happiness. This is a complied list of thoughts and mindsets that will help one lead a happier life.

1. Let go of materialistic thoughts - This concept is a lot easier to have a grasp on than most would think. Not only does this save you quite a few bucks, it gives you time to focus on what money cannot buy: family, friends, and time. Rather than spending your time and money on the next generation iPad, spend it on a nice evening out with your family. Remind yourself this the next time you are itching to replace your perfectly functioning TV with that new sixty-two inch flat screen.
2. Find an outlet - Whether you are a student, working, or even retired, everyone needs a break sometimes. This does not mean that you have to be interested in painting or something of that sort. An outlet can be a diary or even a daily walk in the park; it just needs to be an activity where you can just be worry free. However, remember that there is a difference between enjoying the latest movie and rotting in front of the TV.
3. Watch your diet and exercise - Being on a diet simply means to eat. The media has skewered the meaning of this word, so do not think that you need to live off of salads for the rest of your life. Frankly, that would not make most people happy anyway. Moreover, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly will help you live a happier life. In time, taking care of your body will give you more energy and a little more spring in your step. Contrary to what people choose to believe, eating fast food regularly can bring your mood down. So try to keep a healthy body; it is one of the few things all the money in the world cannot buy.
4. Don’t stress the small things - The small details don’t always matter, so don’t freak out if something did not play out EXACTLY as planed. This is not to say that small details never matter, just remember to look at the big picture from time to time. 
5. Ask yourself: Will this matter five years from now? - Really ask yourself this when you are stressed. Remember this the next time you decide to spend four hours complaining about what your co-worker did or did not do. Chances are, it will not matter to you in five years and you should not be wasting your time and energy on such negative thoughts.
6. Accept what you cannot change - As humans, not every situation in our life is within our power to change, so learn to accept it. If you can do something about it, do it. If you cannot do something about it, don’t worry; everything always has a way of working itself out in the end.
7. Surround yourself with positive people - Whether we like it or not, the people around us shape who we are. So if there are people who bring you down, find people who will encourage and support you. It is not easy to get rid of these people from your life, but if you were an apple, would you really want a rotten one next to you?
8. Look on the bright side - This is not to say that you should become an optimist, but you should. If you are constantly focusing on the negative, there is no time for you to enjoy all that life has to offer. Even if you are going through dark times, know that they end.
9. Do not beat yourself up - If you do something wrong, suffer the consequences, complain about it, learn from it, then forgive yourself. There is no use in punishing yourself forever. Time waits for no one, so move on.
10. Forget about other people - If you are only trying to do things for the sake of others, don’t. You have to realize that before you can help others, you have to help yourself. It’s okay to be a little selfish sometimes, just don’t over do it.

- Jinny

Just my luck.

So today, there was no school because it's the end of the third quarter. I made plans with Lanny to get our cartilage pierced at Modern Wave on Emerald and 26th. Worse.Idea.Ever. I mean, I got my second lobe done there and it wasn't that bad, but man.. the cartilage was a bad idea. First of all, when getting a cartilage piercing, you should not get it done with a piercing gun. Secondly, this place doesn't check to see if you're 18 so it's just shady (at least it's a salon and not someone running this piercing business in their basement). Despite all of this, I just wanted to get my cartilage done, so I just went (YOLO right?). Oh, so the third reason you should not get your cartilage done here is because he freaking missed. I mean, at least they redid the piercing for me, but still. I  am glad that I asked them to redo it for me 'cause the original placement was HORRIBLE. The first photo is the original placement. The second one is where I have it now. The lighting is all weird and stuff because Lanny just helped me take these using the camera on my phone. BUT, look how crappy the first one looks! It's at an awkward part of my ear. It's at the random little pointy part. I do not regret getting it done a second time at all. I am so glad I spoke up about it or I'd be stuck with that uglier one. Now, I freaking love that piercing! Getting it done at modern wave was not one of my brightest ideas, but what's done is done.

Never will I ever test my luck on Friday the 13th.

Oh, and I still have to hide this from mother..but daddy likes it :D


-Jinny

overdue, but not quite!

So around Valentines day, my Kindle Fire came in the mail. Yay! It is an earlier birthday gift from padre<3. So I took the "unboxing" as an excuse to play around with my camera and a reason to blog!

the little boxy thing that says kindle contains the charger!

I am honestly a sucker for innovative/creative packaging and this really got me! I was not expecting this from Amazon. When going to open the box, there was a little tab thing that you had to pull in order to open it. Then there was a card that told one how to turn it on. After lifting up the kindle, there was a charger hiding under it. I have to say, this was a neat little package!

I have had it for several weeks now and I do like it. This is my first e-reader, so I can not compare it to anything. I have played with my cousin's Kindle touch and I have to say I like this a lot more. I am one of those people that prefer color on my screen! Sure, the e-ink may be better for my already dying eyes, but in the end, this type of screen satisfies my needs. There are settings in which you can change the background to brown with black words or black background with white words as opposed to a white background and black words. I did think that I would not like my e-reader too much because I like to physically hold the book. However, I do enjoy reading from it and it's nice to know that I can read almost any book with just a click (my wallet cannot say the same). I did want to give it a try so that I can be more environmentally friendly. I no longer have to waste paper or resources that transport books. It starts with the small changes in life right?

Anyways, overall I am really satisfied with the kindle fire. However, I find a lot of the other features pretty useless. I am not one that fully utilizes the apps because lets face it, I was able to do all of that on my phone already. Also, I suppose it is better to search the web on the Kindle, but not everywhere I go will have Wi-fi. Despite all of this, I think it was still a great buy. Purchasing books from the Kindle store is actually cheaper than buying a hard copy in most cases, so it will eventually even out.

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oh yeah, so I decided that this blog will also help me work on my photography skills.. so if the photos suck or you would have like to seen more in my photos (eg. maybe the charger for the kindle?), I'm sorry. You're going to have to bear with me!

Jenny

Drawing! One day at a time

So not too long ago, I wanted to make a part of my daily life again. I realized I am really rusty and I can't really figure out what to draw. That is, until I stumbled across something online and that's when I decided to draw something small everyday! I started by drawing a letter from the alphabet then something that started with that letter. In some cases, I turned the letter into something! Some days I would work on more than one letter because I just got really into it. I really liked the way it turned out and I have come to realize that I am really a total beginner at this whole drawing thing. It's whatever though, cause art is about enjoying what you do, not bragging about what you can do.

Jenny

time to make a change.

So the other day I told myself "okay!This time I'm really going to lose weight" Then I realized I said the exact same thing last year. I immediately felt like a failure. Now, I feel like I need to really be more proactive. I was testing out this under-eye gel for three weeks and somehow, that made me feel like I can commit. I mean I committed so much time to my skin care routine so why can't I commit to working out? There is no use in complaining so I will actually do something about it. I am going to begin recording my efforts in this blog. However, exercising is only the beginning. I am going to change my hair, skin, and body- the healthy way.

BODY/HEALTH
Let's face it. No matter how much I tell myself that being a twig is not the best approach, I would rather be a twig. I am tired of constantly trying to conceal my err. curves. Now, don't get me wrong- I am not trying to be a twig. I am just going to slim down until I feel comfortable with my own body. I do not need to be a size 00 in jeans to be happy, but I am unhappy with how my weight makes me look so much shorter! I have a medium sized frame but I only stand about five feet tall. Having extra baggage when that short is not too flattering. So this is what I am going to do about it: run/walk for 30 minutes a day, four days a week, for four weeks. Starting small is the key, because then I won't feel like giving up. After those four weeks are up, I will decide how I want to adjust or add to my workout. I know that just working out will not be enough so I am also going to try to eat healthier. Now this does not mean I swear off McDonalds and sugar, it just means I am going to eat smaller portions of unhealthy food. That also does not mean I will max out on healthy food- that will make one larger still- it just means I am going to make wiser choices and really try to monitor the amount of food and what foods I eat..which leads me to my next two points.

SKIN
Not only will my diet have an affect on my body weight, it will also change my skin! Drinking plenty of water and eating the right foods will help my skin. I will talk more about food later, I will first discuss my skin at the moment. I have extremely dry skin in the summer and winter. The skin on my body is very dry year round and the skin on my face is dry/oily. My t-zone gets oily while my cheeks are dry or normal (depending on the weather). My nose is a huge problem. It is always flaky with dead skin but gets oily. I also have large pores, which frankly just isn't flattering. Oh yeah, and I have stretch marks because I gained too much weight too fast in 2009 :(. So what am I going to do about it? Well... not cake on makeup, thats for sure. I am going to try to drink plenty of water again, to hydrate my skin. I am going to make sure I cleanse, tone, and moisturize my skin every night! In this process I will have the opportunity to test out many skin care products, because I have not yet found what will work best for me. This is a win-win situation because I love testing out new products. I think I will also review them on this blog. Also, my plan to exercise will definitely help bring about change. I don't sweat a lot or easily, so when I am working my butt off, I will be clearing out my pores. As for those stretch marks and cellulite.. well thats a toughy. I think I am going to try using a lotion for stretch marks more religiously. I think I will work on the cellulite later because it is not that visible right now. I know that eating more fruits and veggies over fatty and oily foods will definitely help a load. As for food.. I think I am going to make wiser choices and try to cut out a lot of sugar, processed foods, greasy, and salty foods. I don't think I will start wearing makeup on a daily basis anytime soon, but I really want to. I told myself to treat my skin better before this whole makeup phase begins. I hate that I love applying makeup. I just want to cake it on. The only problem is that I hate wearing it for more than two seconds.

HAIR
In 2005, 2008, and 2009 I got a perm. I always got my laters cut too short, so I permed my hair to prevent it from becoming a mane. worse.mistake.ever. Whatever though..we live and we learn. Okay, so I would get layers put into my hair, but they would always start way to high up. I always thought it was just how my hair was (I have a lot) so I thought a perm would do the trick. and it did! After my perm everything was great. Then I would get it cut and cry about it then get a perm again. I am just too smart for my own good right? So now I have learned how to control my hair a little better. I grew up and stopped letting those illegal asian ladies cut my hair. (They turned their home into a barber shop without proper licenses..not because they were illegal immigrants..I think LOL). I went to Hair Cuttery and had Saadia cut my hair. I love her to death. She fixed up fringe and stuff so that there was hair framing my face, she left a lot of length in my hair, and she started the layers much later in my hair. Now this was exactly what I asked for. I have a lot of hair so I have a lot of volume. That is why starting layers closer to the ends is better. Anyways, I finally figured out how I want my hair, but it was so damaged. Naturally, my hair is very hard and frankly, not too pretty. I was blessed with hair that I can wash and do whatever the crap I want with though. It is very low maintenance but still decent. Due to the damaging chemicals and me constantly blow drying it ( I wanted to make my hair lighter :x) my hair was pretty stiff and dry. After all that abuse, I have to heal my hair. Now the only way to get rid off all the bad hair, it needs to be cut off. The only way to really get a better head of hair is to grow healthy hair. Conditioning it and stuff might do something for normal hair, but seriously now- mine is beyond repair. Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the hair that was permed is seriously damaged (my hair grows really slow). So eating healthy (hair = protein) and treating it properly is what I will be doing. I am not going to apply heat, unless absolutely necessary... or special occasions. Also, I will be on the look out for the perfect shampoo/conditioner combo for my hair.. so yay!! more product testing and reviews! Oh yeah, one of the reasons I want to heal up my hair and stuff is so that I can ombre it and destroy it with chemicals and stuff again. Being a girl is just so fun..

Maybe I should take pictures/ find a picture that will let me compare how I look to the way I look in the future. I will try to check back with this post in a year. I am going to constantly post back on this blog to track what I am doing and because I enjoy blogging. I would use tumblr instead, but this just feels like a legit blog... and I am not tempted to reblog pretty pictures every two seconds.

until next time,
Jenny

Kids that aren't afraid to be different. #love

Today, I went to Lincoln Park Zoo during their Zoo lights event to volunteer. I set up a craft station with Anita and we basically made crafts with kids. We got there way to early, so we were pretty much the first ones there. We had to set up the station where we made light bulb pin things like the ones pictured in the right. It was really funny how the adults that came to work with us at our station made it seem like we were the ones in charge, though we were clearly younger than them by 15+ years.

One of the kids that were making the crafts was seriously not afraid to be different. The left one is suppose to be the normal looking light bulb thing. The one of the right is a copy of what the kid made. I couldn’t help but laugh. He seriously was really cute though!

I hate to have to submit the “normal” one to key club for the scrap book. That is why I decided to take a picture and blog about it. I really like to blog about my life now!

told you!

So the other day, my dad helped me hang up my guitar above my bookcase and this process caused it to leave some powdery stuff on top of the shelf. So i wiped it a little and got this really weird/cool outcome. It is currently still sitting on my shelf. Sorry it is such a bad photo! I just took a quick snap so that I could show what I meant on my previous post about being easily inspired.
Here it it:

It's all the dreams that never came true 'cause you were too damn scared to try.

I hope that doesn't happen to me. I am too terrified to follow my dreams though. Not only will I be unable to put dinner on the table, but I don't know what my parents are going to think of me. I know it's something that shouldn't hold me back and I should fight the stereotype, but it is honestly a part of who I am. I am done with that phase of rebellion. I refuse to do something just to make anyone angry, but I can't say the same about doing something to make someone happy. Here I am, again. I'm always caught up in doing what makes the people around me happy. I need to start doing things that makes me happy.

Inspired.

I love it when people I know write blogs. It just inspires me to write more. Everything inspires me though; inspiration is seriously everywhere. That or I'm easily manipulated, just depends on how you look at it. Recently I have been trying to enrich my life with more art. I am too lazy....I think it's because of the winter months. These photos were taken by me on my phone. I wish I had an iphone so that I could use instagram!

oops!

I completely forgot about this blog. I read my first post and laughed about how I said I would try to blog a lot. So much for that; but it made me realize how I have piles of half finished projects.
This is how I stumbled back to this page: I was winnowing through my iTunes list because I recently restarted my computer after all the apps kept crashing on me! ( I digress.) Then I decided that I really wanted to write the lyrics on my wall in different colored sharpies (I'm a teenage girl, no one can blame me). So, I googled some projects I could do since I'm not allowed to paint, let alone write on my wall. Some of the first links was a blog titled A Beautiful Mess. I LOVE what this person did. It was as if someone put everything I wanted in my future in this blog. So here I am now writing this post. I added this photo of my baby cousin Nicole because she's cute. Also, I wanted to add some more life to my page.
Expect more informational and what I think is artsy posts in the future.

Until next time,
Jenny

new start...kind of.

As of the last couple of years, I've been trying to get into a habit of writing about my day or what not, but it hasn't worked out so I turned to social networks online and they just didn't do it for me. Honestly, I wanted to start doing vlogs and stuff like that on youtube but I have this large fear of being judged if I chose to do so, so I tried my hand and doing it the old fashion way and writing again..but I just never really felt motivated to do so because of a new found love for photography. I just didn't want to have to print out photos to stick into my journal and have every entry turn I wanted to include photos into a mini art project. Now it brings me to this, a blog.