Semi-Unrealistic Christmas List 2011

Ahh it’s my favorite time of year again. The magical, twinkly, romantic, freezing cold time of year they call the Christmas holiday season! Well technically it’s supposed to start in a week, but the stores have already been in Christmas mode for months.

Personally, I LOVE giving gifts. There’s something about planning out the perfect gift for your loved ones, sneaking around to get or make it without them finding out, anticipating their reaction and hoping they like it, and finally seeing the look of surprise and joy on their face when they open it. It just makes me so happy :) 

And if you appreciate my efforts, and want to do the same for me, I thought I’d help you out and make a little christmas list. You’re welcome. 

1. I still need an Instax 25 mini!! I know that if I wasn't a broke college kid, I would have bought one of these myself by now. (Actually despite that I still almost did once but was outbid...) 

2. The thing I want most from santa, and hope his budget can afford, a new camera lens! My 50mm 1.8 has served me well over the past year, but it's just too close sometimes. After researching lenses I found out that my real ideal lens is the 35mm 1.4 L lens....but thats like $1,200 or something! So I found a more affordable but still good alternative, the Canon 35mm f/2! 

3. Last February my mom finally upgraded our ghetto Sears brand TV to a brand new flatscreen, it's beautiful.  ( *_*)  But then I moved into my own apartment and had to take my old 99 dollar TV from Walmart...it's chunky, it's tiny screen-wise, and it has a weird purple splotch on the bottom of the screen. That's why I also want a new TV. 

4. I have a bad  back, a few years back I was even diagnosed with mild scoliosis. That's why you should feel sorry for me and get me one of those massage chair things.

5. A boring practical thing that I need is a new wallet. the one I have was originally a light tan plaid pattern, and is now stained blue from my jeans...I want a wallet that says "hey look at me I'm a classy grownup!" but at the same time isn't too boooorrrinngg. 

6. I can't believe I'm admitting this...but I'm really into Pretty Little Liars. I started watching it back in '10 to make fun of it...and now it's probably my favorite currently airing TV show...So just go ahead and buy me the DVD, and we'll pretend this whole thing never happened. 

7. I have a pair of headphones that I love from audio techinica, they're the best! But I don't like going out with huge over the head headphones, so I need an in ear pair for bus rides and such. I read that these ones have really good sound quality for their price. 

8. Once upon a time Davic wore John's clothes to school. I looked at one of the shirts and thought something along the lines of "Hey that shirt looks really good on him....and it would look really really good on me!" And ever since then I've been searching for a similar shirt and nowAE has one! (The blue option of this) 

9. I technically don't need one cause I never have time to play video games anymore, but I still want a 3DS. I mean there's a new cooking mama game out for it! How can I pass that up?

10. Anyone that's used prismacolor or copic markers knows they're both amazing. I don't think I need much more of a reason than that to want them.

11. Next to christmas, one of my other obsessions in life is Disney! Specifically, Disneyland! I haven't been since 2009, and I miss it! So if anyone wants to pay for an entire trip, and somehow line it up with my school's breaks without it being too much of a peak season, that would be greatly appreciated. 

12. I still have a lot of empty space on my walls and it needs to be filled with a big victorian-inspired picture frame. I can probably take care of the photo, but the frame itself has been difficult to find. I either need a white one, or one that's cheap enough that I can spraypaint it white without feeling guilty about it. 

Not white, but the right idea style-wise.

Other than that, I also need textbooks....but those are no fun. :(

Summer Days

And oh those summer nights~   Oh wait no, this isn't going to be that song...

But since summer is coming to an end, and it officially becomes Autumn next week, I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on my best memories from summer 2011. Possibly the very last "real" summer of my life. It might not have been my very best summer, but looking back a lot more happened than I originally thought.



I reconnected with old friends, people that I hadn't truly hung out with in a year. I saw my first big scale concert tour. I got to help take care of my god-son and watch him grow, at one point I was even seeing him every day which I've wanted for a long time.



I went out on spur-of-the moment adventures, which I didn't even realize I missed until I was dragged along this summer. I introduced my best friend to my family, which is something that has only happened about 2.5 times in my life. For the first time I had people read my blog other than my friends who I force to read it. (I even got a follower!!) And most recently I made brand new life long friends and got involved in a program that meant a lot more to anyone than I expected.


I'd say overall, even with some bumps in the road, this was quite the successful summer. :)
I'd like to thank everyone involved (what is this an award speech?) and I hope that everyone else's summer was as good, or even better than mine. And hopefully by next summer, I'll be writing about how spectacular my school year was. 

I has apartment. And there's pictures this time!

So last weekend I visited my apartment (that I'm paying for without living in yet...) for the second time. My mattress was SUPPOSED to be delivered but there were problems with finding the correct model, and long story short, I'll be getting a more expensive version for the same price instead.

And this time I brought my 18-55 lens! Less sharpness but hey, at least I was able to fit whole walls into frame. And it's not like I was trying for actual photography here anyway.

So without further adieu, here are some photos of my empty apartment. Try to contain your excitement.

Main room/bedroom/livingroom/hallwayishthing:

Kitchen:

Bathroom:

Coat Closet Mylinh's new house (modeled by my lovely mother):

I love it, probably because it's MINE. But the one thing I wish I could change about it is the doors. They're this strange orangey color...But I guess every apartment has SOMETHING.

As we were leaving I was walking down the steps with my arms full of bags and boxes, my mom tired and not feeling well, but my artistic side kicked in and I decided I had to try taking a long exposure night photo.

It's outside in the courtyard, which is taken care of and managed better than any other apartment I've lived in.

Now I just need to find furniture...

盆踊り2011

It seems like I was just at last year's bonodori festival, which my friends convinced me to go to for the first time in years. We ate, we laughed, they danced. Oh and of course there were the beautiful lanterns we put in the water only to have the wind blow them back towards us.

But this year's festival rolled around quicker than I expected, and of course I had to go because Davic and I decided to make it a tradition. This time we brought his little brother Alex, and I came equipped with camera in hand. :)

But before the festival, we decided to take a little walk around the Capitol.


Don't let this fool you, it took a few tries to get him to actually hug me...




According to Alex, these are for climbing.








The brothers used this place to run around and jump from ledge to ledge


While I stayed on the ground and squinted so beautifully.


Again with the beauty! How do I do it?







Davic took this shot, and I'm pretty sure he just randomly snapped it, but I love how it turned out.

I don't even know.


Superhero?




Our beautiful city. Oh wait ignore the gross water...


I had no idea these little tomatoes were growing up there on top of the hill.



And by then the festival had already started. Although there still wasn't much happening quite yet, so what did we do? Got food of course! I wanted yakitori, but they were somehow out already...even though the festival was just starting. So instead I settled for:


It was underwhelming...if only our humble little bondori had more than one food booth.




So after watching some taiko and martial arts, Alex was getting bored. Like he always does. He wanted something more "actiony" so he told us he was going to go run around in the parking lot. Like literally, he went and ran in circles.


THIS is what will happen if you create a video game addict from a young age.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed that there was no lantern ceremony this year! I mean, isn't that the whole main point of bonodori?? The lanterns to guide the spirits?? And I was so looking forward to taking some awesome night pictures of the lanterns in the water.

But as a replacement, they had a tree set up where for a dollar (which was to be donated to earthquake relief in Japan) you got a strip of paper on which you could write a wish or prayer. I wasn't that excited over it at the time, but I ended up getting some of my favorite photos EVER out of the deal. :) Take a look...







And towards the end, what could possibly be considered the highlight of the festival happened. The dancing.



Last year most of my friends danced while I and another friend laughed and took pictures. Fun enough for my low standards. And this year I had full intentions to take video footage of Davic Making a fool of himself. But instead something else happened. Something unusual.

I donno if it was the hostess' speech about how everyone is stupid either way, "so you might as well dance", or Davic's strange ability to get me to do things I normally wouldn't. Or maybe it was my resolution to care less about what people think, but whatever it was, I danced. And I liked it.

After dancing the night away and letting a 6-year-old use my $700 camera that I'm WAY overprotective of, bonodori 11 was over.


Bye until next year obon festival. <3
If you like my photos and want to see the entire set, make sure to check out my flickr