Happy Halloween

I made vegan pumpkin cupcakes for the party tonight. Most of the people there are vegan so I wanted to make something everyone could enjoy. You can't even tell they're vegan. I made them whole wheat and put the full amount of sugar in so it'd have that cupcakey sweetness. I'm not big on cupcakes, but I know people love them. I would've been down taking half the sugar out and putting some rolled oats in and making them muffins. Mmm!




Here is my little pumpkin patch.




Happy Halloween everyone! And please be safe!

This kind of turns me on

Taylor Swift and Ellen

So ky00t.

The Dude in Arizona

He sends me pretty pictures :)


But they usually look like this.

GOOD HAIR

This docu was incredible. I didn't see the trailer beforehand so I had no idea what to expect, but it was absolutely amazing. Every single person of every sex, gender, and race should watch it.

Chris Rock somehow managed to get an interview with Maya Angelou and I quote her when she says, "Hair is a woman's glory." A-freaking-men. I had absolutely no idea that black women were getting their hair "relaxed" at such an early age and that working class women were spending at LEAST $1000/month on a weave. It's like paying for a second home.. that sits on top of your head.

The most interesting thing, to me, was when Chris Rock's daughter came home and asked her father why she didn't have "good hair" meaning white hair or asian hair--hair that flows and bounces and hair that you can run your fingers through. This whole process of painfully putting ammonium thioglycolate in your hair (to look like a white girls hair), or even spending $3500 for a nice weave (to look like a white girls hair) is mind-blowing.

It's interesting, this whole "looking like a white girl" issue. And I guess it is an issue. My "Learning Asia Through Post-colonialism" professor makes work addressing her youthful admiration of Western women. When she was little living in Korea she played with a beautiful paper doll with a Western woman's face and she'd dress her up in extravagant clothing. To her, at such a young age, THAT was beauty.

In the early 1990's, relaxer is developed which helps get the nappines out of black women's hair because straight and "relaxed" hair is more "beautiful". I'm sure well over 75% of black women get their hair did so they can have white hair.

In Korea, today, girls get their eyelids cut to have an eyelid and now, girls are getting the outside and inside corners of their eyes CUT so they can have wider eyes. Why? To look more Western.

It's weird because I have never wanted to do that. I grew up being the only asian girl in my whole school and was always seen as smart and beautiful. Always. I was never "the other" in a negative sense because my "otherness" was embraced. I think I grew up confident in this skin and have only recently realized what being in this skin means. I've ranted before about certain situations that I'm not going to get into right now, but my mentality is still the same. I don't want to look white or have this desire to be "Western", but perhaps that is due to the fact that I AM a Western girl and KNOW that I am. I love this skin and I love what this skin holds.

"Hair is a woman's glory." I, like many many girls, love my hair. I will admit, to all of you, that I have cried after getting a bad haircut, and have since learned that I will only let one person touch my hair. Getting my hair done is sometimes a factor in whether or not I'm going to fly home for a period of time, especially when I was carrying that giant mane. It's completely narcissistic, but it is what it is. Our hair is what holds our ego's. Yes, in the end it is just hair, and it is just decoration, but come on. Good hair is SO good.

Let's go home, yeah?

Conversation

The Dude: They have grapefruit and lime trees in the front yard and I tried to eat a whole lime but only got 3/4 of the way through it.
Me: Why would you eat a whole lime?
The Dude: Because it was growing on a tree!

Now do you know why I'm in love?

This is mostly for Jake

but you all are welcome to click this link. Jakey! Click it.

The Steelwells

Billy and his bandala are putting out their record on Thursday and are playing at the House of Blues in Anaheim to hit things off. Check them out here when you can and give the guys some support if you're in the area.

Side note: It's weird listening to Billy play xylophone and keys because I've known him since I was 12 and he has always shredded the gEEtar. After his brief bass fill-in for TPD, I've never seen him play his gEEtar seriously. But those were the olden days. And I also don't know him anymore. End.

n00dz

SUPERCULT
LATENIGHTFEELINGS
APNEATIC

Cickity click the links and sign up for n00dz.

This is the woman

that taught me how to feel.

I never thought I'd be in love like this

I'm a pretty supportive girlfriend. VERY supportive, sometimes to the point of pushing him to do something. Well, it's more of a strong suggestion. The Dude deserves everything coming his way, but it's tough on my part because locally, I get to move around with him.. but when he does the two+ week traveling with people I don't get to be there.

I mean, I enjoy the time apart in the sense that I am extremely productive in my work, but it doesn't mean I don't miss him to death. We spend every day together and it's weird when that's taken away for extended periods of time. And with the recent knowledge of our upcoming schedules, it's a couple weeks apart, a few weeks together, a couple weeks apart, a week together, a month apart.. you know? It's just frustrating. I'm soo stoked for him but I want to experience these things with him. I imagine us traveling together and seeing the world side-by-side, but I honestly don't think it's going to happen because he's going to be doing all of his traveling on his bike, without me. Maybe I have to accept that because that comes with dating someone like him, but it's not the way I want to live. I'm the type of person that wants to experience life with the one I love. I'm not a backseat girlfriend.

And then all of this time apart makes me think about "what could happen". I'm confident in where we are in our relationship, but shit happens and I'm scared to death that something might. And you can imagine that to be whatever you want, but I imagine that one might fall out of love, or that one might not want to be with the other in these times apart. Especially in the last few years, I've realized that no matter how well you know someone or what you might perceive, anything is possible, as it is with life in general.

Sabbath

was playing at the grocery store today. So I have decided, if I ever open up a grocery store, I'm only going to play Sabbath.

The Dude in California

With Stew Johnson (Props) and Nuno Oliveira (Defgrip)


Spotted on the Ride site from the Range of Motion premier in Tustin.

Change of weather, change of closet

Now that the weather has officially changed, I brought all my fall/winter stuff forward and put the spring/summer stuff in the back. This closet is weird because it's really deep, so if I want anything from the back I have to do a The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe type thing and hurdle over/through everything. One day, I'll have a walk in closet so I don't have to pile up my bottoms and shirts on the floor.. Sometimes I can't believe I have this much clothes. Well, I can, but it still pisses me off. I took two boxes of clothes back to California to sell at the yard sale but I still have too much. But. A girl can never have too much :) Of anything.



Those three colors are it for me this winter.

iPhone photos from Saturday

Autumn trees have arrived. This is my favorite part about living out here. The leaves don't change in California.


Look closely..


Matteo got this TMNT VHS. Cowabunga Shredhead!


We went to Panera after and I thought all of these circles dotted across the table looked so pretty.

Moz collapses on stage during concert!

A performance by Morrissey had to be cancelled on Saturday night after the singer collapsed on stage after just one song



Read about it here. Oh nooo.

Would you like some sexual assault with your 40,000/semester education?

I definitely had no clue that someone climbed into a window in the freshman dorms and tried taking a girlies panties off.. on Wednesday. Beau and Amie got spotlights on Fox45. Their website is terribley ugly by the way. Click here to watch the video.

Midnight

The night is winding down and I sit in front of the television with a midnight snack of edemame. It's actually not a snack since I forgot to eat dinner but it seems wafish to call this dinner. I promise to make myself pancakes in the morrow. I just watched an episode of Nitro Circus but didn't really pay attention to what was going on. Now there's a new show about parkour that is Awesome. Oh MTV, how you put such nice money in the pockets of extreme sportz athletes! I'm decked out in Kink because I miss The Dude.

I love this neighborhood

Where did he get a megaphone? WHO gave him a megaphone? He was reciting passages from Isaiah and spreading the Good Word. That lady in front of him was agreeing with everything he said. "IF YOU DON'T LEARN, YOU'LL BURN"

Not a Good Look

That BEANIE!

FB convo with Matt:

Me: sorry I couldn't go to DD with you buddy. I feel like doodoo
-Matt: you sounded high
Me: I smoke reefer when Ben goes out of town
-Matt: i knew it. you either just got boned or were high or both
Me: cheater AND stoner. you got me.
-Matt: i called that one

What if this were TRUE?

Who is January Jones?

She is hot fire.

Good morning

After getting ready and steeping my morning cup o' joe for 10 minutes, I realized I left both of my coffee mugs at Gentei.. so I'm going to have to run over to Starfucks to get my too acidic cup o' joe. This is me right now, wearing an AWESOME gold sparkly shirt with gold hoopies. As my brother always says, "The bigger the O, the bigger the hoe."

My dearest Natalie

Sometimes, all I want is to be cuddled up in a bed with you. I don't even want to cuddle. I just want to be in a bed with you, talking, reading.. just something. I miss you too much. The world is not right if it keeps me from seeing you for a year.

I found this in Photobooth

The Dudey in my studio.


What a cute nerd yeah?

Baby brother

I just wanted to put the spotlight on my brother and his BABE girlfriend. She's super tall (my brother is almost 6') and Polish and pretty and looks better without make up. Oh and she's two years older than him. Yeah, he's 17. Didn't you hear? Girls being two years older in a relationship is SOO 200now.

Boom

Facebook has been blowing up lately. People from back in The Day are hollering and it's pretty sweet. Isn't that what MySpace used to be for? Or was that Friendster? Either way, I'm getting a hang of The Facebook. Those two Dudes with the last name Moon are the kids I talked about a year or so ago, about one getting shot and fleeing to Korea because they're involved in gangster gangster business or something. And I got in touch with my best friend growing up when I used to live in Texas. And I finally said "Okay" to some of the people that I don't know/only met once that have added me.

The internet is a strange place. It's kind of scary.

By the end of the year, I'm going to be a Facebook pro. I still don't know what a Poke is. Or how to play Mafia Wars or Farmville. I'm babbling because I'm at school in the computer lab working on some Graphic Design work but it's hurting my eyes and I'm confused and tralalala.

Oh and by the way, that "hide" option for peoples posty-thingies is The Best.

Endless Bummer

So I remember a conversation in one of my classes stating that an upcoming class was going to be cancelled. I didn't go to said class this past Thursday because, according to my planner, that was the aforementioned cancelled class. I just received an email from my teacher reminding the class that there will not be class this Thursday.. which means I missed the wrong class which means I skipped class which means that completely stinks.

I rely on my planner for EVERYTHING important. I'm so bummed I wrote down the wrong date.

Fact: The world is still like this

"Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers after being branded as witches in India's Jharkhand state.

Local police said the victims were Muslim widows who had been labelled as witches by a local cleric.

The incident occurred on Sunday in a remote village in Deoghar district.

Correspondents say the abuse of women who are branded as witches is common, but rare footage of the incident has caused outrage across India.

Police went to Pattharghatia village after being informed about the incident by a group of villagers."

Read the rest of it here. There's also some footage of the incident.


To lighten the situation, I will post this video:

Every time this commercial is on

I can only think of this:

The Goonies

is on ABC Family right now.



The Goonies. A hip, cliched childhood movie? Or fucking awesome no matter what? I went to look for an image to post and loved the reunion. Can you guess who is who?

Have you ever heard of "cream chipped beef"?

I have not.

Los Angeles through Defgrip

The guys at Defgrip put together a Los Angeles Photogallery from their recent outing in the city. It's interesting how partial I am to posting about anything related to California. And it's also interesting how HIP Tecate has become in the last few years. I can recall early memories of my dad and his friends drinking Tecate in front of a big screen TV with football on. Maybe the kids are catching up to what is really good. Anyways, check it out here.

Gentei Flea Market hang out

Oliver had his NES up for sale yesterday and the guys decided to plug that sucker in. Everyone came out pretty well yesterday. The Dude made a few on 4 pairs of shoes, Elan sold 5 pairs to one person, and Oliver.. Oliver did pretty well.

Come by today for the last day!

The most talkative

The most littlest dude.

The end of an era

With the death of Irving Penn earlier this month, LATimes.com has put up an article on the influence Irving Penn and Richard Avedon have had on fashion photography with a small slideshow of Penn's photos through the years. Above is the lovely and giggly Jasper Johns in 2006. There's a beautiful photo of Frederick Kiesler and Willem de Kooning from 1960--de Kooning who I would have loved to know.

The article does no justice to the man and his legacy, but it's worth reading if you have no idea who/what I'm talking about.

I know this is late, but: BBW wins Best Bike Shop

in The City Paper's Best of Baltimore 2009.

The dudes have only been running for 9 months so this is too awesome. Congratultions, again, Brent, Josh, and Tommy.


"It's not just because Baltimore Bicycle Works fills the bafflingly empty bike-shop hole in the Charles Village/Mount Vernon/Bolton Hill area or that it's worker-owned or that it carries such a snappy line of used and new bikes: We love BBW for its attitude. Getting help here feels like getting help from your way more knowledgeable biker friend--it doesn't matter a whit if you're trying to get your beater running for entry-level commuting, building up a new deep-v for your racing bike, or getting new rain tires for your fixie. A bike is a bike, and we're all in this together: BBW gets that." -CityPaper.com

baltimorebicycleworks.com

Hey Vegans!

Word on the street: Morning Star is adding milk and eggs to their crumbles! Just a heads up!

Whitneyyy <3

Whole wheat zucchini banana bread

I know you're thinking that's weird but I swear to you it's not. I had zucchini that I needed to use pronto and some bananas that were getting too brown so I thought I'd make a yummy, wintery loaf of bread.

I always make too much food

Friday is a weekend for me which means brunch! I made spinach and mushroom omelette's with Asiago cheese, roasted potatoes with thyme and whole wheat toast with apple butter for the Dude and I.

I MISS HOMMMMMMME

Walking to the gym in this weather

at 7:30 am, not cool.

Miranda Kerr for Kora

I'm only posting this because she is beyond sexy. Aannd she has an Australian accent which makes her evenn sexxierr.

SPICE GIRLS

The Musical.

Whole wheat dark chocolate chip muffins

Muffins, not cupcakes. I made these when the weather was still nice out with Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips. Ayum.

TMNT

The 90's film is on ABC Family right now! Ah!

Excited for winter, not excited for these

The littlest dude

Roasted butternut squash and couscous

Fall is here (kind of) so it's time for winter foods! When I slave over the stove for too long, I lose my appetite so this didn't taste fabulous to me last night but I had leftovers when I came home from class this afternoon and it was deeelicious.

Roasted butternur squash with chickpeas and carrots on top of couscous and a whole lot of cilantro. Get into it!

Linda Evangelista and Maurizio Cattelan for W Magazine

See the rest of the set here.